I wanted to make more topics, each for every question but then I realized that would clog up the forum We (my company) is in early stages of starting using stardraw, it is going slowly, but somehow it is going, and every time i have spare time or more time, I am learning about stardraw and its possibilities. So now I have some problems and that you can help me with i suppose.

1) I went though other topics and found question from question from a member Zuk123, http://forums.stardraw.com/Topic9040.aspx , who has the same problem as me. So i want to make a rack view, you only have red rectangle, and i want to use dwg, but can not do it. Tried everything but nothing works, every-time, dwg that i import in stardraw is to small,or even to big. It is in mm in autocad, i put 1 unit,1 mm in stadraw, and that doesn't work,to small,can't scale,if I put 1 unit-1inch, then its to big, still cant scale. You mentioned in that topic, that its not your goal for us to make products, and that is ok for products that are not in your base, i request product,you make it,although a lot of time can pass before that product is inserted and my project will be over by then maybe, so i would have to draw something. And cause it is a lot easier to draw in autocad, that it is in stardraw, i use autocad,and then i have troubles with importing that in my UDP. But there are a LOT of products with only red rectangles instead of the whole drawing. So what happens then,should we request products that are already in base,to make pictorial and rack diagram? You already put that product,but only block diagram, which is easiest to draw. You don't need more than 10-15 min to make block diagram, i guess,just check the inputs and outputs. I'll give you an example of products that have block diagram but not rack, these are just a few i found today.

Manufacturer: Cloud, products: DCM-1, CXV-425, CXV-225, CX-263, CX-261... And list goes on.. So there are products in base,but not rack views,wasn't looking for pictorial, I am still in the rack view part . Maybe the guys that were making these products were in a hurry, so they only made block diagrams

2) Is there a way for me to make changes in drawings, so that they are permanent? For example, i don't want to change grid spacing every-time. I want to make it 1mm, and that is it, for block schematic. Or to make my unit in rack schematic be mm and not inches? I guess you put the grid spacing by default to be 2.5mm so the input and output connections would be on grid lines?

3) Will there be a scale option?

4) Will there be custom reports like there were in AV2007,and any info of time when will it be possible to try that out? This is very important feature for us.

5) What does width of a line in edit UDP mean,when i put that to 0.5mm, that doesn't translate to 0.5mm when printing. If i want for my line to be 0.5mm on drawing when i print it, how can i achieve that? Is measuring in mm in the drawing in stardraw is in any way connected with the measuring on paper later on print. Or maybe better question, to which size of a paper are those measuring in the drawings? Is it A4, A3? I hope i am clear here,cause i think i confused myself

I realize that your base of products is user request based, but I also expected that for the products that are already in base have all drawings.
I had some more question,but during writing all this, I forgot what i wanted to ask, but it will come to me

If you need any further explanation for my questions,please ask, so i can elaborate better.

Thank you

Hi Uros,

I hope to answer the rest of your questions;

1) Using DWGs to create your own symbols: when you import a DWG, SD7 asks you to set the value of a Unit. In AutoCAD a Unit (of measurement) can be anything e.g. 1 inch, 1 millimeter, 1 foot, 1 meter, 4 inches, 5km etc and what the Unit is is not stored within the DWG - this is why it has to be entered manually.

Note that the Unit definition has nothing to do with the destination drawing, and only applies to the Unit setting of the original DWG.

If the DWG comes in too small (or too large), assuming it is drawn to 1:1 scale, the Unit setting must be wrong. You can check this by taking a known measurement, e.g. the width of a rackmount product (19"), and use the Dimension tool in SD7 to draw a dimension against that known length. If, for example, you set the Unit = 1 inch and the Dimension you've drawn shows 1.583" when you know it should be 19", the import is 1/12th the size it should be. You can then re-import using 1 Unit = 1 Feet and the import will be the correct size.

It might be useful if we could see the DWG that is causing you problems - please email it to techsupport @ stardraw . com and we will be happy to analyze it.

2) Making permanent changes to default document settings: No, you cannot change the defaults for new drawings based on supplied templates. These defaults have been defined to give the best possible experience when working in the set environments and to change them would cause you problems later. For example, the default grid setting in Rack Layouts is 1" wide and 1.75" (1RU) high. If you change this, symbols will not sit in racks properly.

You can change the document defaults in any drawing using the Properties grid, for example you can set the Drawing Unit to Millimetres to display dimensions etc in mm, but this applies only to the current drawing and not to any new drawings based on the stock template.

3) Yes, our roadmap includes resize functionality.

4) You can export and use all data from your project in any way you want - from the Products view choose File | Export and choose Excel Files (*.xls) in the Save as Type dropdown. You can them customize this data any way you want using Excel (similar to AV2007, but more flexible).

5) Line width: the drawing you create is done in 'world-space', and all measurements are defined in this 'world-space'. So in the world space, the line of a line might be 1m, and its width might be 0.5mm. When you print, 'world-space' co-ordinates are translated to 'device-space' (i.e. the paper in the printer) so in the same way that the length of the line will be translated to fit on the page, e.g. it might be 200mm when measured on the page, so the width of the line will be 'scaled' in the same way. You can only set 'world-space' measurements in SD7.

I hope this is helpful.

Kind regards,
Rob Robinson
Stardraw.com

Hi Rob, thanks for the answers. I think you maybe misunderstood me in some questions, ill try to explain.

Regarding reports. This is my process and process of my company. We have our own base, with all the products we use, with prices,descriptions and such. Every product has his own item number. So what we would like to do, is export all products that are in stardraw, but only quantity and item number. Then in our base, we will match item numbers and in that way can make specification with desired descriptions and such. Why should we waste time with populating stardraw base with all informations about products when we already have that in our base.

Export from products list, gives me whole lot of unnecessary details,and doesn't give me what I need. Would be perfect if i could export excel file similar like cost summary. So one column would be quantity, one item number, one manufacturer, doesn't matter what more, i would like to make my own report. Maybe just with quantity and item number. Then when we import that in our base, everything else would be populated,and i would have my specification ready.

So to make it shorter, i want to make report in excel with just 2 columns, or maybe if find later that we need more, we can make more, which I can later import somewhere else.

Regarding line weights and printing. Maybe I am missing something, but how can I choose how big my drawing is going to be. Cause as I saw now, it is always scaled to the size of papir and format in which I am printing. For example, i have just a couple of products, i make block schematic, and I don't want those products to be like half of A4 paper,because he scaled it that way, I want them to be in size i want to make them, just so everything can be readable. Not 2 block with the size of a mobile phone if only two are in drawing, just two blocks with sizes that can be readable with no difficulties.

So dimensions in stardraw are some dimensions in their own world, and are always resized depending on device and size of paper I am printing. Is there a way to for me to know, or how can i do that if there is, to make different line weights of lines, and for that to be always the same when printing. For example, in autocad, if i make one line wheigt 0.5mm, and second one 0.2mm,when i print those blocks,nevermind the size of paper, it is always 0.5mm and 0.2mm. True, i made those setting in printing section in autocad, but i didnt find that in stardraw. Stardraw printing tool is like office word.All i have from options, is print, either is portrait, landscape and stuff like that.

Again sorry for long post, and i hope you understood my problems.

I will send you my rack drawing of cloud i have troubles fitting in.

Thank you.

Hi Uros,

Reporting - currently reports are not customizable, but you can do exactly want you want using the Excel export process. In Excel you'd just delete the columns you don't want and use Excel's Subtotal function to generate quantities.

Printing - yes, printing in SD7 is simpler than ACAD. If you want to control the size of symbols as they print (within or independent of a Title Block) you can include a non-printing object like a white rectangle to define what is, in effect, the page outline; SD7 will then include this rectangle in its calculation of fit-to-page scaling.

Unfortunately there is no easy way to define the printed width of a line - to my knowledge, no user has ever asked us for this capability before.

Kind regards,
Rob Robinson
Stardraw.com