Investigating HD for use in producing architectural construction drawings. How does one get different drawings with different scales onto the same sheet for printing? Think an exterior elevation at 1/8" = 1' scale plus an eave detail at 1" = 1' scale. I can do it with viewports on Autocad and Vectorworks, but I can't find anything in the HD documentation about how to do this within HD.
Thanks in advance; I'm sure I'll have more questions as I go along, but this seems like a good place to start.
New user question: Different scales on same sheet?
Different scales in HD Pro our handled by using its "Sheets" function. Its very straight forward. Each Sheet can have its own scale. And each sheet can overalp one another, or be moved in a specific location.
This is how I use Sheets:
I have a plan drawing that has a specific column that needs a large scale detail for notes and tight dimensions. I duplicate the part of the drawing that needs to be enlarged to a new Sheet with larger scale. Its different from Viewports in the fact that each sheet does not refer back to one set of drawing objects -- it contains unique objects that have to be edited on their own. In other words, change a line on the 1/8" scale plan will not automatically update the 1" detail of that same line.
Print Areas are how you can define unique areas for printing, other than the Sheet boundaries. Sheets are tied to your page size settings (user defined). With the View display box, you can select which layers to view. In the Print preview, you can then select which View to print, thus sorting your layers automatically.
For acad pros, you will need to give yourself some time to adjust... but its worth it!
Alex
This is how I use Sheets:
I have a plan drawing that has a specific column that needs a large scale detail for notes and tight dimensions. I duplicate the part of the drawing that needs to be enlarged to a new Sheet with larger scale. Its different from Viewports in the fact that each sheet does not refer back to one set of drawing objects -- it contains unique objects that have to be edited on their own. In other words, change a line on the 1/8" scale plan will not automatically update the 1" detail of that same line.
Print Areas are how you can define unique areas for printing, other than the Sheet boundaries. Sheets are tied to your page size settings (user defined). With the View display box, you can select which layers to view. In the Print preview, you can then select which View to print, thus sorting your layers automatically.
For acad pros, you will need to give yourself some time to adjust... but its worth it!
Alex
fat guy in a little coat
Ybalx -
So what you're saying is that I can put, say, my elevation at 1/8" in the lower left corner of sheet A, then put the eave detail at 1" in the upper right corner of sheet B and via some sort of transparency they will both print on the same sheet? This seems awful backwards.
I've never read any documentation for CAD software (Autocad, Vectorworks, SoftPlan, HD, among others) that did what I thought was an acceptable job of explaining sheets. It doesn't seem complicated until somebody tries to explain it. Sheets are what gets printed. Period. A set of construction drawings that I hand to the framer is made up of 3 or 4 sheets - not layers, viewports, print areas or anything else.
The HD user guide mentions (but does not explain) invisible sheets and write-protected sheets. What good is an invisible sheet? Seems that all sheets that aren't the currently-selected one should be invisible, unless we're talking about some use of the word "invisible" that I'm not familiar with. When I select, say, the floorplan to view or edit, I don't want to have to tell the software that all the other sheets shouldn't be visible.
Anyhow, as I said, I'm new to HD and still fiddling around with it. But I like to set up all the structure for my drawings (layers, sheets, etc.) before I start drawing, and I need to get the multiple-scales-on-a-sheet thing worked out before I can go any farther.
So what you're saying is that I can put, say, my elevation at 1/8" in the lower left corner of sheet A, then put the eave detail at 1" in the upper right corner of sheet B and via some sort of transparency they will both print on the same sheet? This seems awful backwards.
I've never read any documentation for CAD software (Autocad, Vectorworks, SoftPlan, HD, among others) that did what I thought was an acceptable job of explaining sheets. It doesn't seem complicated until somebody tries to explain it. Sheets are what gets printed. Period. A set of construction drawings that I hand to the framer is made up of 3 or 4 sheets - not layers, viewports, print areas or anything else.
The HD user guide mentions (but does not explain) invisible sheets and write-protected sheets. What good is an invisible sheet? Seems that all sheets that aren't the currently-selected one should be invisible, unless we're talking about some use of the word "invisible" that I'm not familiar with. When I select, say, the floorplan to view or edit, I don't want to have to tell the software that all the other sheets shouldn't be visible.
Anyhow, as I said, I'm new to HD and still fiddling around with it. But I like to set up all the structure for my drawings (layers, sheets, etc.) before I start drawing, and I need to get the multiple-scales-on-a-sheet thing worked out before I can go any farther.
Sorry its so complex. I have found that most of the complexity is trying to get out of acad habits, good or bad. Sheets are a blend of layers and paper space.
Your sheet A and B scenario is correct, if you want mutliple scaled drawings on one Plot.
You could also keep the sheets separate (not overlaying one another). You outline each sheet's printer margin with a uniquely named Print Area box and that's how you could have one HD file with multuple page plots within the file.
Sheets in HD are very similar to layers. When I first started using HD I in fact used Sheets as layers because the Sheets diaog window is always available as a floating panel (I have a long running wish list for floating layers control window). I ended up having 20+ sheets, any of which can be resorted, resized, moved, turned off and on, locked, etc. Your can select a setting where the active sheet is visible and all others are slightly dimmed. The stacking of sheets, if they're over one another does in fact place objects on over one another.
After several years I have now migrated back to more strict use of sheets as individual drawing sheets with titleblocks, etc. that refer to unique plots.
Making a Sheet invisible is merely turning it off.
I've sent you a simple file with multiple sheets and objects for you to see as an example.
Your sheet A and B scenario is correct, if you want mutliple scaled drawings on one Plot.
You could also keep the sheets separate (not overlaying one another). You outline each sheet's printer margin with a uniquely named Print Area box and that's how you could have one HD file with multuple page plots within the file.
Sheets in HD are very similar to layers. When I first started using HD I in fact used Sheets as layers because the Sheets diaog window is always available as a floating panel (I have a long running wish list for floating layers control window). I ended up having 20+ sheets, any of which can be resorted, resized, moved, turned off and on, locked, etc. Your can select a setting where the active sheet is visible and all others are slightly dimmed. The stacking of sheets, if they're over one another does in fact place objects on over one another.
After several years I have now migrated back to more strict use of sheets as individual drawing sheets with titleblocks, etc. that refer to unique plots.
Making a Sheet invisible is merely turning it off.
I've sent you a simple file with multiple sheets and objects for you to see as an example.
fat guy in a little coat
i think now with the latest (1.7) you can also use saved views. they are exact snap shots of your sheets and layer settings. I think saved views can almost be used as if in paperspace where you decide what layers to be switched on and off etc, except you can also have sheets set visible or not.
to summarize the mess i just said, saved views can be named as the actual documents you want to produce such as A01, A02 etc... all you have to do is print the saved views.
to summarize the mess i just said, saved views can be named as the actual documents you want to produce such as A01, A02 etc... all you have to do is print the saved views.
Okay, the saved view thing sounds like it might be a workable solution. The re-ordering of sheets doesn't sound very practical; seems I'd have to re-order the sheets for each different page I print for a document set. That can't possibly be right.
I was able today to get different-scaled drawings on the same page, by putting each one on a separate sheet; but I still think this is going to cause a ton of headeaches when the drawing (sheet) set gets to more and more pages.
On another, more positive note, I'm really enjoying the application. The interface is outstanding, and many of the tools seem like standard CAD-app tools, but then they add something extra that just shows how much thought went into designing them. The offset tool, for example, as used in the Getting Started Tutorial; the fact that it automatically filleted the corners when the eave line was offset. Very clever and useful and saved me a ton of steps.
I really think with a little tweaking of the apparent single-sheet, single-scale focus we can have a true Autocad replacement for Mac.
I was able today to get different-scaled drawings on the same page, by putting each one on a separate sheet; but I still think this is going to cause a ton of headeaches when the drawing (sheet) set gets to more and more pages.
On another, more positive note, I'm really enjoying the application. The interface is outstanding, and many of the tools seem like standard CAD-app tools, but then they add something extra that just shows how much thought went into designing them. The offset tool, for example, as used in the Getting Started Tutorial; the fact that it automatically filleted the corners when the eave line was offset. Very clever and useful and saved me a ton of steps.
I really think with a little tweaking of the apparent single-sheet, single-scale focus we can have a true Autocad replacement for Mac.
another thing i might recommend (which is what i am doing at the moment) is to do files the old old autocad way, or like how some offices still do it.
because HD is still pretty slow when you have too much drawings on a page, i would almost recommend saving each drawing or a few related drawings on seperate files. like
A01-A03
A04
A05-A06
A07
A08
because HD is still pretty slow when you have too much drawings on a page, i would almost recommend saving each drawing or a few related drawings on seperate files. like
A01-A03
A04
A05-A06
A07
A08