d e p a r t m e n t   o f   a r c h i t e c t u r e ,   u n i v e r s i t y   o f   o r e g o n

Re-using & Sharing Information

April 22, 1997

Objectives: - To understand how software facilitates different uses of the same information through structures such as

Nested blocks, or blocks inside of blocks, allow top-down buildup of complexity. (See Seebohm's Cad and the Baroque)
WBLOCK writes objects to a new drawing file, allowing the creation of a shared symbol library.
Any file can be inserted as a block
Any subset of a drawing can be saved out as a separate file.

Each block can have text or numerical data attributes which can be used for database take-offs.

Draw over other people's drawings by attaching them as external reference (XREF) files.

XREF files are freshly appended to your drawing as a non-explodable unit each time you open the drawing.
Attached XREF's may be nested hierarchically, (in r. 13, overlayed XREFs may not be nested).
Reloading updates the drawing by accessing the disk for the latest version.

Advantages of Paperspace layouts: Different views of one file through layer and scale settings.
Page layout can be done independently of the information layout. Text Annotation is fixed to the frame.
Set system variables to change modes: TILEMODE = 0 allows switching between PSPACE and MSPACE commands.
To customize layer display, use CUR_VP Freeze/Thaw
To set the scale accurately, use same unit for paper and model. When in TILEMODE=0 and MSPACE, activate the view and use ZOOM ***XP to set the relative scale. Plot in paperspace at scale = 1:1

Either use Paperspace (TILEMODE ON > PSPACE) for plotting layout or Divide the screen into multiple windows with VPORTS