Keeping Track of Drawing Components with DesignCenter

As you start to build a library of drawings, you'll find that you reuse many components. Most of the time, you'll probably be producing similar types of drawings with some variation, so you'll reuse drawing components such as layer settings, dimension styles, and layouts. Just keeping track of all the projects you've worked on can be a major task. It's especially frustrating when you remember setting up a past drawing in a way that you know would be useful in a current project but you can't remember that file's name or location.

The AutoCAD DesignCenter helps you keep track of the documents you use in your projects. You can think of DesignCenter as a kind of super Windows Explorer that is focused on AutoCAD files. DesignCenter lets you keep track of your favorite files and helps you locate files, blocks, and other drawing components. In addition, you can import blocks and other drawing components from one drawing to another by simply dragging. If you are diligent about setting the Insert Scale value in the Drawing Units dialog box and the Block Scale value in the Block Definition dialog box, you can use DesignCenter to import blocks and drawings of different unit formats into a drawing. The Insert Scale and Block Scale settings will ensure that inserted blocks and drawings will maintain their proper sizes. For example, you can import a 90cm door block from a metric drawing into a drawing that uses imperial units, and DesignCenter translates the 90cm door size to a 2'11.43" door.

Getting Familiar with DesignCenter

You can adjust the DesignCenter interface in a variety of ways, so it can vary from installation to installation. Try the following steps to get familiar with DesignCenter:

1. Open AutoCAD to a new file, and then click the DesignCenter tool on the Standard toolbar to open DesignCenter as a floating palette (see Figure 8.16).

   If your DesignCenter view doesn't look like this, with the DesignCenter window divided into two parts, click the Tree View Toggle tool in the DesignCenter toolbar. The Tree view opens on the left side of the DesignCenter window. Click the Home tool to display the contents of the \Sample\DesignCenter folder.

2. Click the Favorites tool in the DesignCenter toolbar.

   DesignCenter displays a listing of the Autodesk folder. What you are actually looking at is a view into the C:\Documents and Settings\ User Name\Favorites\Autodesk folder in which User Name is your login name. Unless you've already added items to the \Favorites\Autodesk folder, you'll see a blank view in the panel on the right. You can add shortcuts to this folder as you work with DesignCenter. You can also see a view showing the tree structure of the files you have open in AutoCAD.

3. Place your cursor on the lower-right corner of the DesignCenter window so that a double-headed diagonal arrow shows; then drag the corner out so you have an enlarged DesignCenter window that looks similar to Figure 8.17. By the way, the view on the right containing the DesignCenter folder is called the palette view, and the view on the left is called the tree view.

4. Place your cursor on the border between the tree view and the palette view until you see a double-headed cursor. Then click and drag the border to the right to enlarge the tree view until it covers about one-third of the window.

5. Finally, use the scroll bar at the bottom to adjust the tree view so you can easily read its contents.

Figure 8.16: DesignCenter opens as a floating palette.

Figure 8.17: The components of the DesignCenter palette

Like the tool palettes and the Properties palette, DesignCenter has an auto-hide feature. To use it, click the double-headed arrow icon near the bottom of the DesignCenter title bar. DesignCenter closes except for the title bar. You can then quickly open DesignCenter by placing the cursor on the title bar.

Once you have it set up like this, you can see the similarities between DesignCenter and Windows Explorer.

Navigating DesignCenter

You can navigate your computer or network using the tree view, just as you would navigate Windows Explorer. It has a few differences, however, as you'll see in the following exercise:

1. In the DesignCenter toolbar, click the Home tool. The view changes to display the contents of the DesignCenter folder under the \AutoCAD2007\Samples\ folder, as shown in Figure 8.18.

2. Instead of the usual listing of files, you'll see sample images of each file. These are called preview icons.

3. Click the Views tool in the DesignCenter toolbar, and then choose Details from the menu. The palette view changes to show a detailed list of the files in the DesignCenter folder.

4. Click the Views tool again, and then choose Large Icon to return to the previous view. The Views tool is similar to the Large Icon, Small Icon, List, and Detail options in Windows Explorer.

Figure 8.18: View of the Home location in DesignCenter

If you select a file from the palette view, you'll see a preview of the selected file in the Preview panel of DesignCenter. You can adjust the vertical size of the Preview panel by dragging its top or bottom border.

You can also open and close the Preview panel by clicking the Preview tool in the Design-Center toolbar. The preview can be helpful if you prefer viewing files and drawing components as a list in the main part of the palette view.

Below the Preview panel is the Description panel. This panel displays any text information included with the drawing or drawing element selected in the palette view. To add a description to a drawing, choose File è Drawing Properties; to add a description to a block, use the Block Definition dialog box.

You can open and close the Description panel by clicking the Description tool in the DesignCenter toolbar. Since the Basic Electronics.dwg file doesn't have a description attached, the Description panel shows the message "No description found."

Both the Preview and Description panels can offer help in identifying files. Once you find a file, you can drag it into a folder in the tree view to organize your files into separate folders.

You can also add files to the Favorites folder on your PC by right-clicking and then choosing Add to Favorites. The file itself won't be moved to the Favorites folder; instead, a shortcut to the file is created in the Favorites folder. If you want to organize your Favorites folder, open a window to the Favorites folder by right-clicking a file in the palette view and choosing Organize Favorites. A window to the Favorites folder opens.

Viewing a .dwg File's Contents

You can go beyond just looking at file listings. You can look inside files to view their components. To do this, double-click a file in the palette view. The palette view changes to display a list of the file's contents. From here, you can import any of the drawing components from the DesignCenter palette into an open drawing in AutoCAD. In the tree view, the filename is highlighted.

You'll also see Blocks as an option in the palette view. Double-click the Blocks listing, and the palette view changes to list the blocks in the drawing.

If the block layers are turned off in the drawing you are viewing, you will not see the block previews.

Opening and Inserting Files with DesignCenter

With DesignCenter, you can locate files more easily because you can view thumbnail preview icons. But often that isn't enough. For example, you might want to locate a particular file that contains the name of a manufacturer in an attribute. Once you've found the file, you can load it into AutoCAD by right-clicking the filename in the palette view and then choosing Open in Application Window.

To insert a file into another drawing as a block, drag the file from the DesignCenter palette view into an open drawing window. You are then prompted for insertion point, scale, and rotation angle. If you prefer to use the Insert dialog box, right-click the filename in the palette view, and choose Insert as Block to open the Insert dialog box, which presents the full set of Insert options, as described earlier in this chapter.

Finally, you can attach a drawing as an xref by right-clicking a file in the palette view and choosing Attach as Xref. The External Reference dialog box opens, offering the insertion point, scale, and rotation options similar to the Insert dialog box.

Finding and Extracting the Contents of a Drawing

Aside from the convenience of being able to see thumbnail views of your drawing, DesignCenter might not seem like much of an improvement over Windows Explorer.

But DesignCenter goes beyond Windows Explorer in many ways. One of the main features of DesignCenter is that it lets you locate and extract components of a drawing.

For example, say you want to find a specific block in a drawing. You remember the name of the block, but you don't remember the drawing you put it in. You can search the contents of drawings using DesignCenter's Search dialog box.

In the DesignCenter toolbar, click the Search tool to open the Search dialog box, which looks similar to the Windows Search dialog box but contains a few extra options. For example, you can use the Look For drop-down list to select the drawing component you want to find. Choose Blocks if you are looking for a block, or choose Layers or Linetypes to search for those items (see Figure 8.19).

Figure 8.19: Options in the Look For drop-down list of the Search dialog box

Search Options

You can use other options in the Search dialog box to narrow your search parameters. You already know that you can specify a particular type of drawing component. You can also specify a location. Table 8.6 describes the search options.

Table 8.6: The Options in the Search Dialog Box
Open table as spreadsheet

OPTION	PURPOSE
In	Lets you select the drive you want to search.
Look For Options	Lets you select the type of item for which to search. See Figure 8.17 for a list of the options.
Browse	Lets you locate a specific folder to search.
Search Subfolders	Lets you determine whether Search searches subfolders in the drive and folder you specify.
Search Now	Starts the search process.
Stop	Cancels the current search.
New Search	Clears all the settings for the current search so you can start a new search.
Help	Opens the AutoCAD help system to the Search Dialog Box topic.

Additional Hidden Options

When you select Drawings from the Look For drop-down list, the Search dialog box displays additional tabs.

The Drawings tab contains two options:

• Search for the Word(s) Lets you specify the text to search for in the Drawing Properties fields.

• In the Field(s) Lets you specify the field of the Drawing Properties dialog box to search through, including filename, title, subject, author, and keywords. You'll see these fields when you choose File è Drawing Properties and click the Summary tab.

The Date Modified tab lets you limit search criteria based on dates.

The Advanced tab contains three options to further limit your search to specific types of drawing data or to a range of dates:

• Containing Lets you select from a list of data to search for, including block name, block and drawing description, attribute tag, and attribute value.

• Containing Text Lets you specify the text to search for in the types of data you select from the Containing option.

• Size Is Lets you restrict the search to files greater than or less than the size you specify.

AUTOMATICALLY SCALING DRAWINGS AND BLOCKS AT INSERTION

When you first set up a drawing, you can specify the type of units in the Units dialog box using the Insertion Scale drop-down list. DesignCenter uses this information to correctly scale a block or drawing drawn in metric to a drawing that is drawn in the imperial format, and vice versa. The same option is offered in the Block Definition dialog box.

Exchanging Data between Open Files

DesignCenter usually lists files in tree view, but if multiple files are open in AutoCAD, you can set up DesignCenter to display the drawing components of your open files instead. You can change the tree view to show only the drawing files that are currently open, allowing you to exchange drawing components between open files.

To change the tree view, click the Open Drawings tab. The tree view to the left shows only drawings that are currently open. Click the plus sign (+) next to the filename to explore the drawing components of the file. Once you've located a drawing component, you can drag the component from the palette view to the open drawing window. If you prefer to use the Insert dialog box for blocks, right-click the block name in the palette view, and choose Insert Block to open the Insert dialog box, in which you can set the insertion point, scale, and rotation options.

Just as with drawings, you can see a preview and descriptive text for blocks below the palette view. The preview gives you a chance to see what the block looks like when you use DesignCenter to browse through your drawing files.

You can also add the text description at the time you create the block. Before saving the block, enter a description in the Description input box of the Block Definition dialog box. If you're updating older drawing files to be used with DesignCenter, you can add text descriptions to blocks using the Make Block tool in the 2D Draw control panel. Click the Make Block tool, and then, in the Block Definition dialog box, select the name of a block from the Name drop-down list. Enter the description you want for this block in the Description input box, and click OK.

Loading Specific Files into DesignCenter

You've seen how you can locate files using the tree view and the palette view. If you already know the name and location of the file you want to work with, you can use a file dialog box to open files in DesignCenter. Instead of choosing File è Open, click the Load tool in the left end of the DesignCenter toolbar to open the Load dialog box. This is a standard file dialog box that lets you search for files on your computer or network. If you want to open a file in DesignCenter that you've recently opened, you can use the History tab just above the tree view.

Downloading Symbols from DesignCenter Online

In addition to using DesignCenter to locate files and blocks on your computer or network, you can download symbols directly from Autodesk's DesignCenter Online website. This option offers thousands of ready-to-use symbols for a variety of disciplines.

With a connection to the Internet and DesignCenter open, click the DC Online tab that appears above the tree view. The DesignCenter Online symbol categories appear in the tree view, and the palette view shows the same categories in a text view, as shown in Figure 8.20.

Figure 8.20: DesignCenter with the Online tab selected

Since DesignCenter Online is a website, AutoCAD uses the i-drop feature to bring the symbols into your drawing. The i-drop feature is an Autodesk web tool that lets you drag symbols from the website into an open drawing. The list of symbols in DesignCenter Online is extensive. Many of the symbols are samples from third-party vendors that offer expanded symbol libraries.