This article dives into the process of creating and customizing multiliter styles in a drafting software, demonstrating how to modify dimensions, copy and create a multiliter at a scale of 48, and adjust the text box to fit geometry. It also discusses the importance of checking and updating layer states properly and offers tips on how to manage layers efficiently.
Key Insights
- The article guides through the process of modifying and copying a multiliter style, specifically creating a multiliter at a scale of 48 for consistency with dimensions in the program.
- Managing layer states is crucial in the drafting process. The article highlights the importance of regularly checking and updating layer states, as well as the potential issues that can arise from not doing so, such as unsaved layer states or incorrect layer displays.
- The text offers tips for handling layers and geometry in the drafting software, including adjusting text boxes to fit geometry and managing 'no plot' layers for different plan model views to avoid confusion.
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Let's begin by looking at the Multileader styles. I'll go to Annotate, and here we can see the Leaders panel, and if I hit this arrow, I can see the Multileader Style Manager.
We only have one leader in the drawing that we are going to use—the VDCI Multileader—but if I modify this style, we can see that the dimensions are set at paper space scale. You can see the content as well: all very small dimensions. If I go to Leader Structure, we can see that it does have a scale, and this scale is set to one.
In this case, I'll hit Cancel. We need to copy this and create a Multileader at a scale of 48, just like we have done for our dimensions. So I'll have VDCI M-Leader selected, and I'll hit New, and I'll name this VDCI M-Leader-48.
We're starting with VDCI M-Leader. I'll hit Continue, and now I'll go to Leader Structure and change this to 48. I'll hit OK.
With VDCI M-Leader-48 complete, I can close this and make sure that it's my active Multileader style. Now quickly, before we draw the Multileader, let's change our active layer to A-ROOF-DIMS. Okay, here is the Multileader button on the Annotation panel on the Home tab, and we can click Leader here and simply click anywhere in this spline to represent clicking on the shingles.
I'll put one point here, and instead of clicking a third Multileader point, I'll hit ENTER to say that I'm done, and now I can type COMPOSITION SHINGLES. Now I'm not going to hit ENTER to break this up. Instead, I'm going to drag these arrows out past the word “COMPOSITION” to create a width for this text box.
We can close the Text Editor, and in this case, I can see my COMPOSITION SHINGLES text went over my geometry. With annotations, it's always a balancing act, so I'd like to move these back. I'll click on this, click on this grip—which is the end of the Multileader line—and I'll drag this up into this space here and click. Zoom Extents, Control + S to save. Now, before we create our A401 sheet file, let's make sure that our Layer States have been appropriately updated, and in this case, I have a feeling that we missed something.
Let's take a look. I can see that I'm still on A-ROOF-DIMS, and before I switch to a new Layer State, I can see that I'm currently in an unsaved Layer State. Let's check our layer dropdown to make sure that we're still showing the A-ROOF layers.
In this case, the A-ROOF layers are showing A-NOPLOT and Layer 0. If we make Layer 0 our current layer, we can see we're still in an unsaved Layer State. So what happened? Well, we updated one of our layers.
We changed the A-ROOF-OUTLINE layer to be a hidden linetype instead of continuous. Believe it or not, this will change how our Layer State works. I'll show you how this works.
If I go to the Floor Plan Layer State, and then I go back to the Roof Plan Layer State, we can see that our linetype for the A-ROOF-OUTLINE layer has gone back to continuous. Now, of course, we know we could change this by going to Layer Properties, finding A-ROOF-OUTLINE, and simply selecting the Hidden linetype once again. There we go.
But now, once again, we are in an unsaved Layer State. So here, I want to go to Manage Layer States, select Roof Plan, and hit Update. “Do you want to override Roof Plan with the drawing’s current Layer State?” Yes, that’s exactly what we want to do.
Now, the Roof Plan has been updated to match the model. Now I can hit Close, and let's take a look at our Floor Plan Layer State and see if anything has been broken there. I'll go to Floor Plan.
Now, one thing seems very weird. We see the No Plot spline line for our shingles. Well, this is on the No Plot layer.
We shouldn't see it when it prints, but it is going to be on our A-NOPLOT layer. This might be a little confusing. So you might find it important to make a different No Plot layer for your different Plan Model views.
For instance, we could have had an A-ROOF-NOPLOT and an S-FNDN-NOPLOT. Let's go back to our A-ROOF Plan Layer State. And in this case, we do not need this outline any longer.
One option is to keep the spline on the No Plot layer. Another option is to simply delete it. Now, this will, in some cases, break the hatch so that we can't change it in the future.
But this hatch doesn't really need to be changed anymore. We can delete that No Plot spline because we are done editing our hatch. Now that we are on the Roof Plan Layer State and everything seems good to go, we can Control + S to save.
And in the next video, we will create our A401 sheet file. I'll see you there.
