Title block customization


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Andrew Wallace
Andrew Wallace
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So thank you very much for indicating where to find those fields, I guess I should have opened my eyes a bit more when reading through everything. However I have come across something that I am not sure is me doing something wrong or a bug.

I have customized my title block, and in the drawing for that I have a couple different layers, the main "Title & Borders" layer and the "Title Block Drawing Area" layer that came as defaults. I have created three other layers as well "Title Block Wiring Notes," "Title Block ETC Notes" and "Title Block Cover Page." In the ANSI Template I can turn these layers on and off through the View\Layers button with no problems. However, when I add this title block to an existing drawing using the Drawing\Title Block feature, it gets added with all the graphics and words from all the layers, but I cannot find these layers under the View\Layers dialog box to turn off the layers I don't want on specific pages. According to the online help, any layers that I created should be transferred to the drawing, but they are not.

If need be i can email the template file and a regular project.
Rob Robinson
Rob Robinson
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Hi Wolf,

The behavior you describe is actually 'by design'.  All objects in the title block template, except the Title Block Drawing Area, are merged on to the Title & Borders layer.  This is so that if you choose to change the title block, it is programmatically safe: SD7.1 deletes the current Title & Borders layer and the Title Block Drawing Area layer and replaces them with new layers from the newly selected template.

If arbitrary layers were included in the Title Block it could cause issues if/when you replace that Title Block.

I think you could probably achieve what you want by creating a UDP or Symbol to represent the information you want and then insert these using the Product Browser or Symbol Browser as appropriate.  This would create and persist whatever new layers you need.

[Edit] One other, possibly better solution would be to create copies of the template as new drawings in the title block template file, to give, for example, D-Size with Wiring Notes, D-Size with ETC Notes, D-Size Cover Page.

I hope this is helpful.



Kind regards,
Rob Robinson
Stardraw.com
Edited 9 Years Ago by Rob Robinson
RLa
RLa
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Have recently used S7.1 to import .dwg drawings and it worked well.
Just thought it will be more flexible if it can do imports from PDF as well.
Rob Robinson
Rob Robinson
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Hi Reeve,

PDF Import takes this thread in a different direction, and it's a big topic.

PDF is an 'intermediate' format - whatever application originally generated the data in a PDF file did so in a different native format and that application will support a format that can be imported.  So if someone sends a PDF that has been generated by, for example, AutoCAD, we recommend that you request the original DWG file.  This skips the 'middleman' and means you can import the original, unconverted objects.

If the author is unwilling to supply the original file format there are many tools available to convert from PDF to DWG/DXF; Aide CAD is just one example. 
You may meet with different levels of success depending on the conversion tool that you use and the contents of the particular PDF file; because it's an intermediary file format it is impossible to know how much of the original (e.g. DWG) data has been lost or changed in the conversion to PDF.

However the PDF was generated, the author of the original data is always able to provide a format that is better for use in other applications, especially where editing is required, and the first and best approach is to get the original, unmodified data.


Kind regards,
Rob Robinson
Stardraw.com
Andrew Wallace
Andrew Wallace
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Thank you Rob. That is very helpful; I thought I was losing my mind. I like the idea of creating different Title Blocks for the different pages, except that If I need to make a change to the Title Block iteslf I need to make it across multiple templates. However, I don't think that will happen very often so that is the way I am going to proceed. 

Thanks for the quick response to this.

-Wolf
Andrew Wallace
Andrew Wallace
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Hi there Rob. I think I'm missing a step. I have  customized an existing title block to meet my needs. Per the suggestion above I copied that title block to a new drawing. I've tried Pictoral and Schematic. The drawing looks right but even after saving it with a different name, when I try to insert it into another files drawing it does not come through. Is there something in the copying process that changes the drawing from the original template to just a drawing and not a "Title Block" template? I can only get the original template provided by you folks that I have modified to behave correctly.
Rob Robinson
Rob Robinson
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Hi Wolf,

Have you included the rectangle that's on the layer Title Block Drawing Area?  This is critical for title block functionality.

Kind regards,
Rob Robinson
Stardraw.com
Andrew Wallace
Andrew Wallace
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I had included that in there. I went back to your original suggestion about creating UDP and Symbol for the cover page and notes. an after figuring out t afew things, seem sto be workig just fine. Still not sure why the copied templates would not bewhave properly. Perhaps after I finish this project for my client I will re-investigate that.

Rob Robinson
Rob Robinson
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Hi Wolf,

Take a look in the Help file - the topic Title Block Customization has comprehensive instructions on the steps to follow and the things to look out for.

Kind regards,
Rob Robinson
Stardraw.com
simplyworks.at
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Actually I tried to import as dwg which is just a title block, opened in different applications,
ans dwg viewer shows the empty title block
but when importing, the file is empty, 
it asks for layers, dxf conversion,...but doesn't come up with the title blocks from that document.
in older versions the title block was just somewhere beside the drawing, 
using WYSIWYG, Capture, SketchUp,...StarDraw

so how do i get these title blocks into my StarDraw file,

thx

andi512
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a.gruber@simplyworks.at www.simplyworks.at
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