Autodesk AutoCAD AutoCAD Architecture - 2012 Instruction Manual

AutoCAD Architecture 2012

User's Guide

March 2011

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Contents

Chapter 1 New Features and Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

New Features in AutoCAD Architecture 2012 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

A Quick Start for Transitioning from AutoCAD to AutoCAD

Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Contacting Autodesk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Sales Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Technical Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Feedback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Workflow and User Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Chapter 2 AutoCAD Architecture Workflow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Start a New Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Create a Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Design Your Building . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Annotate Your Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Publish Your Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Work on an Existing Drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Add or Modify Architectural Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Add or Modify Annotation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Publish the Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

v

Chapter 3 The Workspace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Changes to the Workspace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

The Workspace Concept . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Workspace Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

The Ribbon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

The Application Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

The Quick Access Toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Context Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Tool Palettes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

Properties Palette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

Drawing Status Bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

Command Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Application Status Bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

Project Navigator Palette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Finding Information in AutoCAD Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

InfoCenter Toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

F1 Context Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

Tooltips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

Working with Objects in the Workspace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

Adding Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

Modifying Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

View and Navigation Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

Quick View Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

ViewCube . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

SteeringWheels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

ShowMotion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

Working with Tool Palettes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

Opening the Tool Palettes Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

Controlling the Appearance of the Tool Palettes Set . . . . . . . . 73

Specifying Different Tool Palettes for the Tool Palettes Set . . . . . 75

Creating a New Tool Palettes Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

Creating a New Tool Palettes Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

Creating a New Tool Palette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78

Defining the Appearance of Tool Palettes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

Adding Text and Separator Lines to Tool Palettes . . . . . . . . . 81

Working with Tool Palettes from a Central Location . . . . . . . . 82

Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

Creating an Object with a Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

Changing the Tool Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

Changing a Tool Icon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

Changing a Tool Icon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

Creating a Tool from an Object in the Drawing . . . . . . . . . . 92

Copying a Tool from a Tool Palette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93

Creating a Tool from the Style Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

Creating a Tool from AEC Content in DesignCenter . . . . . . . . 95

Using Command Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96

vi | Contents

Working with Tools from a Central Location . . . . . . . . . . . 101

Applying the Properties of a Tool to an Existing Object . . . . . 105

Re-Importing Styles for a Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106

Deleting a Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

The Properties Palette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

Opening the Properties Palette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108

Setting the Appearance of the Properties Palette . . . . . . . . . 108

The Design Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

The Display Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112

The Extended Data Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

Worksheets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114

Direct Editing with Grips and Dynamic Dimensions . . . . . . . . . . 115

Grip Tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117

Grip Color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118

Using the CTRL Key with Grips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

Trigger Grips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

Dynamic Dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120

Grip Constraints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

Temporary Grip Coordinate Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

Aligning the UCS to an Object Face . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124

Matching Object Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124

Styles and Support Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126

Integration of AutoCAD Architecture and AutoCAD . . . . . . . . . . 127

Chapter 4 Content Browser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129

Content Browser Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129

Exploring the Content Browser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131

Viewing a Tool Catalog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132

Using the Items in a Tool Catalog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135

Managing Your Catalog Library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136

Creating a New Tool Catalog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137

Creating a Tool Catalog from Content Drawings . . . . . . . . . 138

Adding Tools from Content Drawings to a Tool Catalog . . . . . 141

Adding an Existing Tool Catalog to Your Catalog Library . . . . 144

Creating a Catalog Install File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145

Publishing Tool Catalogs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146

Adding a Website to Your Catalog Library . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148

Editing Tool Catalog Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150

Creating Catalog Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152

Sorting Catalogs in the Library View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153

Filtering Catalogs in the Library View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153

Removing a Tool Catalog or Website Link . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154

Opening a Different Catalog Library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154

Renaming a Catalog Library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155

Searching for Items in a Tool Catalog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155

Performing a Search . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156

Contents | vii

Adding Content to a Tool Catalog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157

Defining Categories in a Tool Catalog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160

Adding a Tool Palette to a Tool Catalog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160

Adding a Tool Package to a Tool Catalog . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161

Adding Tools to a Tool Catalog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162

Copying and Moving Tool Palettes and Tool Packages . . . . . . 163

Copying and Moving Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164

Customizing a Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166

Deleting Tool Catalog Items . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167

Using Tool Catalog Items . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167

Linked and Unlinked Tool Catalog Items . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167

Using a Tool in the AutoCAD Architecture Workspace . . . . . . 168

Copying a Tool Palette to the AutoCAD Architecture

Workspace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170

Copying a Tool Package to the AutoCAD Architecture

Workspace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171

Refreshing Linked Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172

Refreshing Linked Tool Palettes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173

Specifying Refresh Options for Linked Tool Palettes . . . . . . . 173

Working with Multiple Content Browser Windows . . . . . . . . . . . 173

Opening a Tool Catalog in a New Content Browser

Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174

Opening Catalog Items in a New Content Browser

Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174

Dragging Catalog Items Between Content Browser

Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175

Starting the Content Browser from a Windows Command

Prompt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177

Chapter 5 Creating and Saving Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179

About Templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179

Creating a Drawing from a Template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180

Creating a Drawing Without a Template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181

Opening Legacy Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182

Saving a Drawing to a Previous Release File Format . . . . . . . . . . . 183

Setting Up a Drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183

Specifying the Drawing Units . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184

Creating Annotation Scales and Assigning them to Display

Configurations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187

Specifying a Layer Standard and a Layer Key Style . . . . . . . . 190

Specifying the Default Display Representations . . . . . . . . . . 193

Specifying the Units for HVAC Components . . . . . . . . . . . 195

Specifying AEC Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196

Changing the AEC Editor Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197

Changing the AEC Content Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201

Specifying AEC Object Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202

viii | Contents

Specifying the Display Resolution of Objects with Facets . . . . . 202

Changing the AEC Project Defaults . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204

Sharing Drawings with AutoCAD Users . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205

Comparing Methods of Sharing Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . 207

Generating Proxy Graphics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207

Exporting a Drawing to AutoCAD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208

Exporting a Drawing to a DXF File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211

Chapter 6 Interoperability with Other Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . 213

Importing and Exporting IFC Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213

General Information for Exporting Drawing Files to IFC . . . . . 214

How IFC Files Are Imported . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248

Importing Building Components from Autodesk Inventor . . . . . . . 255

Importing a Building Component into AutoCAD

Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257

Importing LandXML . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258

Schema Version . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259

Supported Data Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260

File Validation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263

Importing LandXML Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263

Selecting Layer Keys for LandXML Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267

Publishing Drawing Files to Autodesk MapGuide . . . . . . . . . . . 268

Prerequisites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268

Published Data Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268

Generating a MWX File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269

An Overview of the Published Data Structure . . . . . . . . . . . 270

An Overview of the Database Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271

Publishing Data to Autodesk MapGuide . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273

Exporting Property Set Data to an MDB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276

Publishing Drawings to DWF and DWFx . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276

Workflow for Publishing Drawings to DWF or DWFx . . . . . . 277

Publishing Drawings to PDF . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294

Publishing to PDF . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294

Exporting Property Set Data to a PDF File . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298

Publishing Property Set Data from External References . . . . . . 299

Publishing a PDF File with Automatic Property Set Data . . . . . 300

Publishing a PDF with All Property Set Data . . . . . . . . . . . 302

Chapter 7 Drawing Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303

Workflow for a Project Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303

Concepts of Drawing Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305

The Project Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312

Before You Begin: External References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314

Before You Begin: Working in a Network Environment . . . . . . . . . 316

Project Support Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316

Contents | ix

Specifying the Default Project Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318

Working with Design Teams Located Remotely . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321

Opening a Project From a Mapped Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321

The Project Browser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321

Opening the Project Browser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322

Using the Project Browser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322

Setting a Project Current . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327

Creating a New Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328

Working with Project Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333

Moving a Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 348

Renaming a Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349

Closing All Project Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 350

Electronically Transmitting a Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352

Deleting a Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357

Closing the Project Browser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357

Removing the Project Context . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 358

Opening a Project from Windows Explorer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359

The Project Navigator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 360

Opening the Project Navigator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 360

The Tabs of the Project Navigator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361

Using the Project Navigator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367

The Drawing Status Bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 376

Displaying the Project Tool Palette Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 376

Displaying the Project Content Browser Library . . . . . . . . . . . . 378

Levels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 379

Creating a New Level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 380

Copying a Level with Assigned Constructs . . . . . . . . . . . . 382

Changing the Properties of a Level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 384

Deleting a Level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 385

Changing Levels: Interactions with the Project . . . . . . . . . . 386

Divisions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 387

Creating a New Division . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 387

Changing a Division . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 388

Deleting a Division . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 389

Changing Divisions: Interactions with the Project . . . . . . . . 389

Categories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 390

Creating a Category in the Drawing Explorer . . . . . . . . . . . 393

Creating a Category from Windows Explorer . . . . . . . . . . 394

Specifying the Location of Top-Level Categories . . . . . . . . . 396

Changing the Subcategory of a Project File . . . . . . . . . . . . 397

Deleting a Category . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 399

Constructs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400

When To Start with Constructs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 402

The Role of Constructs in the Building Project . . . . . . . . . . 402

The Content of Constructs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 403

Creating a New Construct . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 404

x | Contents

Copying Constructs to Levels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 407

Converting a Drawing to a Construct . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 408

Opening and Closing a Construct . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 411

Dragging Objects into a Construct . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 412

Referencing Elements into Constructs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 413

Displaying External References of a Construct . . . . . . . . . . 417

Changing the Properties of a Construct . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 419

Electronically Transmitting a Construct . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 421

Deleting a Construct . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 422

Converting a Construct to an Element . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 423

Changing Constructs: Interactions with the Project . . . . . . . 425

Elements in the Building Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 426

When to Start with Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 428

Processing Elements in the Building Project . . . . . . . . . . . 429

Creating an Element . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 429

Converting a Drawing to an Element . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 431

Opening and Closing an Element . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 435

Dragging Objects into an Element . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 436

Changing the Properties of an Element . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 437

Electronically Transmitting an Element . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 438

Deleting an Element . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 439

Referencing an Element into Another Element . . . . . . . . . . 440

Displaying External References Attached to an Element . . . . . 442

Converting an Element to a Construct . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 443

Changing Elements: Interactions with the Project . . . . . . . . 445

Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 446

When to Start with Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 452

Workflow to Create View Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 453

Creating a New View Drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 453

Displaying External References of a View Drawing . . . . . . . . 458

Opening and Closing a View Drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 461

Creating a Model Space View Drawing from a Callout . . . . . . 462

Changing the Properties of a View Drawing . . . . . . . . . . . 463

Regenerating the View Drawings in a Project . . . . . . . . . . . 465

Placing a View Drawing onto a Sheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 465

Electronically Transmitting a View Drawing . . . . . . . . . . . 466

Deleting a View Drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 467

Creating a Model Space View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 468

Placing a Model Space View onto a Sheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . 471

Changing the Properties of a Model Space View . . . . . . . . . 473

Deleting Model Space Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 474

Synchronizing View Drawing Layers with Sheet View

Layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 475

Changing Views: Interactions with the Project . . . . . . . . . . 480

Sheets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 481

When to Start with Sheets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 483

Contents | xi

Creating a Sheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 484

Setting the Properties of the Project Sheet Set . . . . . . . . . . . 487

Creating a Sheet Subset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 490

Setting the Properties of a Sheet Subset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 491

Removing a Sheet Subset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 493

Importing Sheets into the Sheet Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 493

Importing the Current Layout as a Sheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . 494

Opening and Closing a Sheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 495

Changing the Properties of a Sheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 496

Removing a Sheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 496

Deleting a Sheet Drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 497

Creating a Sheet View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 497

Opening a Sheet View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 498

Numbering Sheet Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 498

Deleting a Sheet View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 499

Displaying External References of a Sheet Drawing . . . . . . . . 500

Inserting a Sheet List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 502

Changing the Sheet List Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 505

Updating the Sheet List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 505

Refreshing the Sheet Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 505

Creating a Sheet Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 506

Activating a Sheet Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 507

Removing a Sheet Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 507

Electronically Transmitting Sheets and Sheet Sets . . . . . . . . 508

Publishing Sheet Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 510

Changing Sheets: Interactions with the Project . . . . . . . . . . 511

Creating a Sheet Set Template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 511

Creating a Sheet Set Template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 512

Creating a Template from Existing Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . 519

Repath the Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 525

Refreshing the Project Navigator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 527

Object Display in External References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 528

Workflow for Annotating a Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 529

Generating Spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 530

Tagging in a Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 530

Property Set Data and Schedule Tables in Projects . . . . . . . . 532

Workflow for Creating Title Blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 541

Dimensioning a Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 547

Working with Cut Planes in a Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 548

Global Cut Planes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 550

Object-Specific Cut Planes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 559

Drawing Management Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 562

Command Line: Opening the Project Browser . . . . . . . . . . 562

Command Line: Opening the Project Navigator . . . . . . . . . 563

Command Line: Refreshing the Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 563

Command Line: Regenerating Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 563

xii | Contents

Command Line: Selecting a New Project Environment . . . . . . 564

Command Line: Closing the Project Navigator . . . . . . . . . . 564

Frequently Asked Questions about Drawing Management . . . . . . . 564

Appendix 1: Template Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 568

Levels and Divisions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 569

Project File Naming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 569

Constructs Included in the Commercial Template Project . . . . 572

The Element File Included in the Commercial Template

Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 575

Views Included in the Template Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 575

Sheets Included in the Template Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . 577

Project Standards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 578

Chapter 8 Renovation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 579

Overview of Renovation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 579

Renovation Plans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 579

Demolition Plans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 579

Revision Plans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 580

Renovation Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 581

Working in Renovation Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 581

Activating Renovation Mode for the First Time . . . . . . . . . . 582

Renovation Settings for Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 585

Working on Your Drawings with Renovation Mode Active . . . . 589

Customizing Renovation Design Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 592

Chapter 9 Project Standards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 599

Project Standards Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 599

Project Standards Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 601

AEC Standards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 602

AutoCAD Standards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 604

Standard Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 604

Synchronizing the Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 605

Process Overview: Using Standards in a Project . . . . . . . . . . 605

Using Project Standards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 606

Prerequisites for Working with Project Standards . . . . . . . . . 607

Setting up Standards in a Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 607

Creating a New Project with Predefined Standards . . . . . . . . 608

Configuring Project Standards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 609

Setting up Standard Tools in a Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 622

Creating a Tool Catalog for a Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 626

Adding a Project Catalog to a Content Browser Library . . . . . 631

Adding a Project Library and Tool Palette Group . . . . . . . . . 632

Displaying the Project Tool Palette Group . . . . . . . . . . . . 637

Building the Tool Palette Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 639

Contents | xiii

Copying the Project Tool Palettes to the Tool Palette File

Location . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 641

Adding the Project Profile to the Tool Palette File Location . . . 641

Adding Standards to a Project Drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 642

Project Tool Palette Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 643

Adding Standard Styles from Content Browser . . . . . . . . . . 644

Adding Standard Styles from Style Manager . . . . . . . . . . . 644

Adding Standard Display Settings from Display Manager . . . . 646

Synchronizing a Project with the Standards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 647

Synchronization Status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 652

Synchronizing a Project with AEC Standards . . . . . . . . . . . 654

Synchronization Exceptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 656

Synchronizing a Project Drawing with AEC Standards . . . . . . 657

Synchronizing Selected Styles and Display Settings with AEC

Standards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 659

Generating a Synchronization Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 665

Synchronizing a Project with AutoCAD Standards . . . . . . . . 666

Synchronizing a Project Drawing with AutoCAD Standards . . . 667

Auditing a Project or a Drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 668

Showing Display Overrides in Project Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . 670

Editing Project Drawings Outside the Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 671

Creating a New Project Standards Drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 671

Updating Project Standards Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 674

Process Overview: Updating AEC Standards in a Project . . . . . 675

Versioning Standards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 675

Change Types in Project Standards Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . 677

Updating Standard Objects in a Project Standards Drawing . . . 679
Updating Standard Objects in a Project Standards Drawing from

a Project Drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 682

Adding Standard Objects from a Project Drawing to a Project

Standards Drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 684

Editing the Version History of a Standard Object . . . . . . . . . 686

Versioning a Project Standards Drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 687

Purging the Version History from a Project Standards

Drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 688

Purging the Version Information from a Project Standards

Drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 689

Synchronizing Project Standards with Each Other . . . . . . . . 690

Editing Project Standards Drawings Outside the Project . . . . . . . . 691

Scripting Project Standards Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 692

Chapter 10 Drawing Compare . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 695

Overview of Drawing Compare . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 695

Starting a Drawing Compare Session . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 698

Reviewing the Results of a Drawing Compare Session . . . . . . . . . 704

Creating a Visual Filter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 710

xiv | Contents

Drawing Compare Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 711

Frequently Asked Questions about Drawing Compare . . . . . . . . . 711

Chapter 11 Layer Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 715

Layer Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 715

Managing Drawing Layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 720

Opening the Layer Properties Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 720

Making a Layer Current . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 721

Creating a Layer with a Layer Standard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 722

Creating a Nonstandard Layer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 723

Renaming a Layer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 724

Deleting a Layer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 724

Changing the Layer Standard of a Layer . . . . . . . . . . . . . 725

Defining the Properties of a Layer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 725

Overriding Layer Properties in Layout Viewports . . . . . . . . . 729

Identifying Viewport Layer Overrides . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 730

Removing Viewport Layer Overrides . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 731

Working with Layer Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 733

Types of Layer Filters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 735

Creating a Group Filter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 735

Creating a Property Filter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 736

Creating a Layer Standards Filter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 741

Adding Layers to Layer Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 742

Changing the Properties of a Layer Group . . . . . . . . . . . . 743

Renaming and Deleting Layer Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 744

Converting a Property Filter to a Group Filter . . . . . . . . . . 744

New Layer Notification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 745

Setting up the Notification for New Layers . . . . . . . . . . . . 745

Identifying New Layers in the Drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 747

Reconciling New Layers in the Drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 748

Working with Layer States . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 749

Creating a Saved Layer State . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 750

Editing a Saved Layer State . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 753

Restoring a Layer State . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 755

Deleting a Layer State . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 757

Importing Layer States to the Current Drawing . . . . . . . . . . 757

Exporting a Layer State from the Current Drawing . . . . . . . . 759

Working with Layer Keys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 759

Default Layer Keys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 761

Default Layer Key Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 766

Creating a Layer Key Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 766

Creating a Layer Key Style from an LY File . . . . . . . . . . . . 767

Editing Layer Key Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 768

Attaching Notes and Files to a Layer Key Style . . . . . . . . . . 770

Layer Key Overrides . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 771

Creating and Editing Layer Standards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 774

Contents | xv

Component Fields in Layer Standards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 775

Creating a Layer Standard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 783

Editing Component Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 784

Editing Descriptive Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 785

Editing Descriptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 786

Editing Description Specifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 787

Purging Layer Standards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 787

Importing Layer Standards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 788

Exporting Layer Standards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 789

Appendix: LISP Changes for Layer Snapshots and Layer States . . . . . 789

Chapter 12 Display System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 791

Introduction to the Display System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 791

Using the Properties Palette to Change Display Properties . . . . . . . 793

Display System Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 801

Display Representations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 803

Display Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 808

Display Configurations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 810

The Display Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 814

Opening the Display Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 816

Viewing Display Configurations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 816

Viewing Display Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 818

Viewing Display Representations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 820

Viewing an Object in a Display Representation . . . . . . . . . . 822

Viewing the Display Representation of an Object in a Display

Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 823

Accessing the Default Display Properties of an Object . . . . . . 824

Creating and Editing Display Configurations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 824

Process Overview: Creating a Display Configuration . . . . . . . 824

Tips for Working with Display Configurations, Sets, and

Representations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 825

Creating a Display Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 826

Creating a Display Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 827

Creating a Display Representation for an Object . . . . . . . . . 828

Editing a Display Representation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 829

Assigning a Display Representation to a Display Set . . . . . . . 831

Comparing Display Representations Between Display Sets . . . . 833

Assigning a Display Set to a View Direction . . . . . . . . . . . . 834

Assigning a Display Configuration to a Viewport . . . . . . . . . 835

Specifying a Display Set as a Default Display Set . . . . . . . . . 836

Specifying the Default Display Configuration . . . . . . . . . . 837

Specifying the Display Configurations Used in Xref

Overlays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 837

Changing the Display Configuration Used in Xref

Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 839

Displaying Objects by Classification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 840

xvi | Contents

Specifying Settings for Live Sections and Materials . . . . . . . . 841

Managing Display Configurations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 843

Renaming a Display Configuration or a Display Set . . . . . . . 843

Renaming a Display Representation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 843

Deleting a Display Configuration or a Display Set . . . . . . . . 844

Deleting a Display Representation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 845

Adding Notes and Reference Files to a Display Configuration

or a Display Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 845

Using Display Settings in Multiple Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . 846

Purging a Display Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 849

Purging a Display Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 850

Purging a Display Representation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 850

Working with Standard Display Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 851

Synchronizing Individual Display Settings with AEC

Standards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 853

Excluding Display Settings from Synchronization . . . . . . . . 854

Updating Standard Display Settings in a Project Standards

Drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 855

Updating Standard Display Settings in the Project Standards

Drawing from a Project Drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 858

Adding Standard Display Settings from a Project Drawing to a

Project Standards Drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 860

Editing the Version History of a Standard Display Setting . . . . 862

Purging the Version History from a Project Standards

Drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 863

Purging the Version Information from a Project Standards

Drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 863

Synchronizing Project Standards with Each Other . . . . . . . . 864

Troubleshooting the Display System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 865

Object Not Displayed in a Viewport . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 865

Viewport Not Updating Properly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 866

Objects Copied from Another Drawing Display Differently . . . 866
Verifying the Existence of Objects Not Displayed in a

Drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 866

Object Linetype Displayed Incorrectly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 867

Chapter 13 Style Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 869

What Are Styles? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 869

Style Manager Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 870

Sorting Styles in the Style Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 873

Creating a Style from the Style Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 874

Creating a Style from an Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 875

Creating a Tool from a Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 876

Renaming a Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 877

Copying Styles Between Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 877

Sending Styles to Other Users . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 879

Contents | xvii

Purging Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 880

Working with Drawings and Templates in the Style Manager . . . . . 881

Starting a New Drawing or Template in the Style Manager . . . . 882

Opening a Drawing or Template in the Style Manager . . . . . . 882

Dragging a Drawing into the Style Manager . . . . . . . . . . . 883

Closing Drawings and Templates in the Style Manager . . . . . . 883

Chapter 14 Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 885

Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 885

Objects That Support Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 887

Working with Material Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 890

Using the Material Tool to Add Materials to Objects . . . . . . . 891

Creating Custom Material Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 893

Material Components and Display Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 898

Linework Material Component . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 899

Plan Hatch Material Component . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 899

3D Body Material Component . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 900

Surface Hatch Material Component . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 900

2D Section/Elevation Linework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 901

Section Hatch Material Component . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 902

Sectioned Body and Sectioned Boundary . . . . . . . . . . . . . 902

Displaying Materials in a Drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 903

Working with Surface Hatches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 904

Surface Hatches on Curved Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 905

Surface Hatches on Multiple Faces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 906

Surface Hatches on Extrusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 907

Surface Hatches on Free Form Mass Elements . . . . . . . . . . . 909

Overriding the Surface Hatch on Individual Objects . . . . . . . . . . 909

Hiding a Surface Hatch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 910

Displaying a Hidden Surface Hatch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 912

Specifying the Rotation of a Surface Hatch . . . . . . . . . . . . 913

Specifying the Horizontal and Vertical Offset of a Surface

Hatch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 914

Editing Surface Hatch Overrides . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 916

Displaying a List of Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 916

Displaying a Material Query . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 917

Process Overview: Creating and Assigning Materials . . . . . . . . . . 917

Creating and Editing Material Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 919

Creating a Material Definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 919

Defining the Layer, Color and Linetype of a Material

Definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 920

Specifying the Plan and Section Hatch Patterns of a Material

Definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 921

Specifying the Surface Hatch Pattern of a Material

Definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 923

Assigning Render Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 925

xviii | Contents

Excluding a Material Definition from 2D Section

Shrinkwrap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 928

Controlling the Display of Hidden Lines by Material . . . . . . . 929

Merging Material Definitions in a 2D Section/Elevation . . . . . 931

Attaching Notes and Files to a Material Definition . . . . . . . . 932

Chapter 15 Content Creation Guidelines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 933

General Content Standards and Conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 933

Content Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 933

National CAD Standard Compliance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 935

Content Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 939

Template Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 940

Style Library Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 942

Template Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 943

Tool Catalogs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 946

Display Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 947

Style-Based Content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 949

Architectural Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 949

Documentation Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 973

Multi-Purpose Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 981

Symbol & Tool-Based Content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 993

AEC Content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 993

Palette-Based and Miscellaneous Annotation Tool Content . . . 997

Conceptual Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1001

Chapter 16 Creating Conceptual Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1003

Mass Elements and Mass Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1003

Using Massing Tools to Create Mass Elements . . . . . . . . . . 1005

Editing Mass Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1024

Mass Element Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1057

Using Massing Tools to Create Mass Groups . . . . . . . . . . . 1065

Using Materials for Mass Elements and Mass Groups . . . . . . 1082

Using the Model Explorer to Create Mass Models . . . . . . . . . . . 1087

Displaying the Model Explorer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1089

Defining the View in the Model Explorer . . . . . . . . . . . . 1090

Navigating the View in the Model Explorer . . . . . . . . . . . 1091

Navigating the View with the ViewCube . . . . . . . . . . . . 1091

Navigating the View with SteeringWheels . . . . . . . . . . . . 1092

Viewing Objects on a Nonvisible Layer . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1093

Maintaining Zoom Percentage and Position of an Object . . . . 1094

Using Toolbar Commands in the Model Explorer . . . . . . . . 1094

Creating Slice Floorplates from a Conceptual Model . . . . . . . . . 1101

Generating a Slice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1102

Contents | xix

Specifying the Slice Elevation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1104

Attaching Objects to a Slice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1104

Detaching Objects from a Slice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1104

Converting a Slice to a Polyline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1105

Changing the Location of a Slice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1105

Attaching Hyperlinks, Notes, or Files to a Slice . . . . . . . . . 1106

Chapter 17 Quick Slice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1109

Quick Slice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1109

Creating a Quick Slice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1109

Chapter 18 Object Viewer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1111

Object Viewer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1111

Defining the View in the Object Viewer . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1115

Navigating the View in the Object Viewer . . . . . . . . . . . . 1117

Navigating the View with the ViewCube . . . . . . . . . . . . 1118

Navigating the View with SteeringWheels . . . . . . . . . . . . 1119

Setting the View Direction of the Object Viewer to the Drawing

Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1120

Saving a Preview Image from the Object Viewer . . . . . . . . . 1121

Chapter 19 Napkin Sketch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1123

Napkin Sketch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1123

Creating a Napkin Sketch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1125

Editing a Napkin Sketch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1127

Designing with Architectural Objects . . . . . . . . . . 1129

Chapter 20 General Object Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1131

The General Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1131

Selecting Similar Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1131

The Object Viewer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1132

Isolating and Hiding Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1132

Editing Objects in Temporary Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1135

Adding Objects of the Same Type as the Selected Object . . . . 1138

Editing Object Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1138

Copying and Assigning an Object Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1139

Dimensioning an Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1139

Tagging an Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1140

Editing Object Components In Place . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1140

Editing Polyline-based Components in Place . . . . . . . . . . 1142

Editing Profile-based Object Components in Place . . . . . . . 1143

Editing in Place: Special Cases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1144

xx | Contents

Changing the Display of Object Components in Edit-in-Place

Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1146

AEC Object Constraints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1148

Chapter 21 Walls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1159

Workflow for Adding Walls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1161

Drawing Walls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1163

Creating Walls from Linework and 3D Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . 1173

Adding Doors and Windows to Walls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1177

Adding Unconstrained Doors and Windows . . . . . . . . . . . 1178

Adding Doors and Windows Relative to Walls . . . . . . . . . . 1179

Adding Doors and Windows relative to column grids . . . . . . 1182

Adding an Opening to a Wall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1187

Adding a Door/Window Assembly to a Wall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1187

Removing Windows, Openings, Doors, or Door/Window Assemblies

from a Wall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1188

Anchoring an Object to a Wall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1188

Detaching Objects from a Wall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1189

Editing Walls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1190

Using Grips to Edit Walls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1191

Changing the Shape of a Wall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1199

Changing the Wall Justification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1207

Offsetting New Walls from Existing Walls . . . . . . . . . . . . 1207

Repositioning a Wall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1209

Adjusting the Position of Wall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1210

Applying Tool Properties to an Existing Wall . . . . . . . . . . 1211

Changing the Style of a Wall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1212

Changing the Location of a Wall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1213

Merging Walls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1214

Removing Individual Merge Conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1214

Removing All Merged Walls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1215

Joining Walls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1215

Filleting Walls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1217

Chamfering Walls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1220

Reversing the Direction of a Wall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1222

Using AutoCAD Commands to Edit Walls . . . . . . . . . . . . 1223

Changing the Roof Line and the Floor Line of a Wall . . . . . . 1224

Specifying the Materials of Individual Walls . . . . . . . . . . . 1236

Changing the Display Properties of Individual Walls . . . . . . 1238

Attaching Notes and Files to a Wall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1246

Wall Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1247

Creating a Wall Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1250

Troubleshooting Walls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1254

Creating Special Conditions and Customized Wall Surfaces . . . . . . 1255

Working with Wall Sweeps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1256

Working with Wall Modifiers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1268

Contents | xxi

Working with Body Modifiers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1284

Working with Interference Conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1292

Wall Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1296

Creating a Wall Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1297

Adding Property Set Data to a Wall Style . . . . . . . . . . . . 1298

Specifying the Components of a Wall Style . . . . . . . . . . . 1299

Specifying the Materials of a Wall Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1313

Specifying the Display Properties of a Wall Style . . . . . . . . 1316

Adding Classifications to a Wall Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1322

Defining a Wall Style as Bounding for Associative Spaces . . . . 1322

Attaching Notes and Files to a Wall Style . . . . . . . . . . . . 1323

Workflow for Cleaning Up Wall Intersections . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1323

Working with Intelligent Cleanup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1324

Using Intelligent Cleanup for L Intersections . . . . . . . . . . 1325

Using Intelligent Cleanup for T Intersections . . . . . . . . . . 1328

Using Intelligent Cleanup for Multiple Wall Intersections . .

1330

Wall Justification Lines and Cleanup Circles . . . . . . . . . . 1333

Wall Cleanups and Priorities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1337

Guidelines for Successful Wall Cleanup . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1339

Assigning a Different Wall Cleanup Group Definition to Existing

Walls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1340

Specifying Cleanup for Individual Walls . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1340

Overriding the Wall Cleanup Circle Radius . . . . . . . . . . . 1341

Overriding Component Priorities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1342

Troubleshooting Wall Cleanups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1343

Cleanup Group Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1351

Using Edit in Place to Clean Up Wall Intersections . . . . . . . . . . 1354

Specifying a Component Cleanup Override . . . . . . . . . . . 1357

Hiding the Edge of a Wall Intersection Component . . . . . . . 1357

Showing the Edge of a Wall Intersection Component . . . . . . 1359

Filleting a Wall Intersection Component . . . . . . . . . . . . 1361

Chamfering a Wall Intersection Component . . . . . . . . . . 1362

Adding a Vertex to a Wall Intersection Component . . . . . . . 1363

Removing a Vertex from a Wall Intersection Component . . . . 1366

Subtracting a Profile from a Wall Intersection Component . . . 1367

Merging a Profile with a Wall Intersection Component . . . . . 1368

Trimming a Wall Intersection Component . . . . . . . . . . . 1370

Extending a Wall Intersection Component . . . . . . . . . . . 1372

Working with Wall Endcaps and Opening Endcaps . . . . . . . . . . 1373

Workflow for Creating Wall and Opening Endcaps . . . . . . . 1374

Using Edit in Place to Modify Wall Endcaps . . . . . . . . . . . 1375

Filleting a Wall Endcap Component . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1385

Chamfering a Wall Endcap Component . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1387

Showing the Edge of a Wall Endcap Component . . . . . . . . 1388

Hiding the Edge of a Wall Endcap Component . . . . . . . . . 1389

xxii | Contents

Trimming a Wall Endcap Component . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1390

Extending a Wall Endcap Component . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1391

Subtracting a Profile from a Wall Endcap Component . . . . . 1393

Merging a Profile with a Wall Endcap Component . . . . . . . 1395

Creating Wall Endcaps Using Calculate Automatically . . . . . 1396

Applying Wall Endcap Styles from the Style Manager . . . . . . 1401

Modifying the Geometry of a Wall Endcap Style . . . . . . . . 1403

Changing the Return Offset of a Wall Endcap Style . . . . . . . 1406

Attaching Notes and Files to a Wall Endcap Style . . . . . . . . 1407

Creating a Wall Opening Endcap Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1407

Applying a Wall Opening Endcap Style to a Wall Style . . . . . 1408

Overriding a Wall Opening Endcap Style on a Wall . . . . . . . 1409

Using Ortho Close and Close with Walls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1409

About Wall Lengths . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1410

About Curved Walls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1410

Specifying Offsets for Roof Line and Floor Line Vertices . . . . . . . . 1411

Specifying the Width and Edge Offset of a Wall Component . . . . . 1412

Chapter 22 Curtain Walls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1415

Curtain Walls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1415

Using Curtain Wall Tools To Create Curtain Walls . . . . . . . . . . 1419

Creating a Straight Curtain Wall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1420

Creating a Curtain Wall with User-Specified Settings . . . . . . 1421

Creating a Curved Curtain Wall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1423

Creating a Curtain Wall that References a Curve . . . . . . . . 1426

Converting a Layout Grid to a Curtain Wall . . . . . . . . . . 1427

Creating a Curtain Wall from an Elevation Sketch . . . . . . . 1429

Converting a Wall to a Curtain Wall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1431

Converting a 3D Face to a Curtain Wall . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1432

Creating a Curtain Wall Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1433

Curtain Wall Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1436

Process Overview: Creating a Curtain Wall Style . . . . . . . . 1437

Tips for Working Efficiently with Curtain Wall Styles . . . . . 1438

Creating Element Definitions for a Curtain Wall Style . . . . . 1439

Creating a Curtain Wall Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1440

Defining Divisions for Curtain Wall Grids . . . . . . . . . . . 1442

Defining Infills for Curtain Wall Cells . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1455

Defining Curtain Wall Frames . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1461

Defining Curtain Wall Mullions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1468

Assigning Definitions to Curtain Wall Elements . . . . . . . . 1475

Assigning a Division to a Curtain Wall Grid . . . . . . . . . . 1476

Assigning Infills to Curtain Wall Cells . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1477

Assigning Definitions to Curtain Wall Frames . . . . . . . . . 1489

Assigning Definitions to Curtain Wall Mullions . . . . . . . . 1493

Specifying the Materials of a Curtain Wall Style . . . . . . . . 1496

Specifying the Display of Curtain Walls . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1499

Contents | xxiii

Defining a Curtain Wall Style as Bounding for Associative Spaces

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1505

Attaching Notes and Files to a Curtain Wall Style . . . . . . . 1506

Using Overrides in Curtain Walls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1507

Overriding Curtain Wall Infills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1508

Overriding Curtain Wall Frames and Mullions . . . . . . . . . 1518

Overriding Curtain Wall Divisions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1529

Removing Curtain Wall Overrides . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1535

Modifying Element Definitions for Curtain Wall Styles . . . . . . . . 1535

Editing Curtain Walls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1537

Using Grips to Edit Curtain Walls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1538

Selecting a Different Curtain Wall Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1547

Applying the Properties of an Existing Curtain Wall . . . . . . 1548

Changing the Dimensions of a Curtain Wall . . . . . . . . . . 1548

Changing the Curtain Wall Location Properties . . . . . . . . 1549

Adding an Interference Condition to a Curtain Wall . . . . . . 1550

Removing an Interference Condition from a Curtain Wall . . . 1551

Mitering Curtain Walls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1551

Specifying a Miter Angle for a Curtain Wall Adjacent to Another

Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1552

Specifying the Cut Plane Display of a Curtain Wall . . . . . . . 1553

Specifying the Display of Other Characteristics of a Curtain

Wall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1554

Attaching Hyperlinks, Notes, or Files to a Curtain Wall . . . . 1556

Changing the Roof Line and the Floor Line of a Curtain Wall . . . . 1557

Offsetting or Projecting the Roof Line of a Curtain Wall . . . . 1557

Offsetting or Projecting the Floor Line of a Curtain Wall . . . . 1559

Editing the Roof Line or the Floor Line of a Curtain Wall . . . . 1560

Changing the Roof Line and the Floor Line . . . . . . . . . . . 1562

Adding a Gable to the Roof Line of a Curtain Wall . . . . . . . 1564

Adding a Step to the Roof Line or Floor Line of a Curtain

Wall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1566

Changing Vertices in the Roof Line or Floor Line of a Curtain

Wall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1567

Specifying Gable Settings for a Roof Line . . . . . . . . . . . . 1569

Specifying Step Settings for a Roof Line or Floor Line . . . . . 1570

Specifying Vertex Settings for a Roof Line or Floor Line . . . . 1571

Editing Objects Anchored in Curtain Walls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1573

Changing the Orientation of an Object Anchored in a Curtain

Wall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1573

Changing the Alignment of an Object Anchored in a Curtain

Wall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1573

Changing the Offset of an Object Anchored in a Curtain

Wall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1574

Swapping Two Objects Anchored in a Curtain Wall . . . . . . 1574

Releasing an Object Anchored in a Curtain Wall . . . . . . . . 1574

xxiv | Contents

Curtain Wall Units . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1575

Creating Curtain Wall Units . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1577

Creating a Curtain Wall Unit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1577

Converting a Layout Grid to a Curtain Wall Unit . . . . . . . . 1578

Creating a Curtain Wall Unit with a Custom Grid . . . . . . . 1580

Curtain Wall Unit Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1582

Creating Element Definitions for a Curtain Wall Unit Style . .

1582

Creating a Curtain Wall Unit Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1583

Defining Divisions for Curtain Wall Unit Grids . . . . . . . . . 1585

Defining Infills for Curtain Wall Unit Cells . . . . . . . . . . . 1594

Defining Curtain Wall Unit Frames . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1599

Defining Curtain Wall Unit Mullions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1606

Assigning a Division to a Curtain Wall Unit Grid . . . . . . . . 1613

Assigning Infills to Curtain Wall Unit Cells . . . . . . . . . . . 1614

Assigning Definitions to Curtain Wall Unit Frames . . . . . . . 1623

Assigning Definitions to the Mullions of a Curtain Wall Unit . .

1627

Specifying the Materials of a Curtain Wall Unit Style . . . . . . 1630

Specifying the Display of Curtain Wall Units . . . . . . . . . . 1633

Defining a Curtain Wall Unit Style as Bounding for Associative

Spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1640

Attaching Notes and Files to a Curtain Wall Unit Style . . . . . 1640

Using Overrides in Curtain Wall Units . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1641

Overriding Curtain Wall Unit Infills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1642

Overriding Curtain Wall Unit Frames and Mullions . . . . . . 1652

Overriding Curtain Wall Unit Divisions . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1664

Removing Curtain Wall Unit Overrides . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1670

Editing Curtain Wall Units . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1670

Using Grips to Edit Curtain Wall Units . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1671

Selecting a Different Curtain Wall Unit Style . . . . . . . . . . 1675

Matching the Properties of an Existing Curtain Wall Unit . .

1676

Changing the Dimensions of a Curtain Wall Unit . . . . . . . 1677

Specifying a Miter Angle for a Curtain Wall Unit Adjacent to

Another Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1677

Changing the Location of a Freestanding Curtain Wall Unit . .

1678

Modifying the Position of Anchored Curtain Wall Units . . . . 1679

Specifying the Cut Plane Display of a Curtain Wall Unit . . . . 1680

Specifying the Display of Other Characteristics of a Curtain

Wall Unit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1682

Attaching Hyperlinks, Notes, or Files to a Curtain Wall

Unit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1684

Facet Deviation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1685

Contents | xxv

Chapter 23 Door and Window Assemblies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1687

Door and Window Assemblies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1687

Using Door and Window Assembly Tools to Create Door and

Window Assemblies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1691

Creating a Door and Window Assembly Tool . . . . . . . . . . 1700

Door and Window Assembly Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1703

Using Overrides in Door and Window Assemblies . . . . . . . . 1779

Modifying Element Definitions for Door and Window Assembly

Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1808

Editing Door and Window Assemblies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1809

Editing Objects Anchored in Door and Window

Assemblies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1824

Chapter 24 AEC Polygons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1827

AEC Polygons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1827

Using AEC Polygon Tools to Create AEC Polygons . . . . . . . . . . 1830

Creating an AEC Polygon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1830

Creating an AEC Polygon with User-Specified Settings . . . . . . . . 1831

Creating an AEC Polygon from a Polyline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1832

Creating an AEC Polygon from a Profile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1833

Creating an AEC Polygon Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1833

Editing AEC Polygons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1835

Using Grips to Edit AEC Polygons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1836

Changing the AEC Polygon Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1845

Centering AEC Polygons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1845

Subtracting AEC Polygons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1845

Merging AEC Polygons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1846

Arraying AEC Polygons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1847

Repositioning AEC Polygons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1848

Evenly Spacing AEC Polygons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1848

Trimming AEC Polygons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1849

Dividing AEC Polygons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1849

Cropping AEC Polygons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1850

Adding a Vertex to an AEC Polygon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1851

Removing a Vertex from an AEC Polygon . . . . . . . . . . . . 1852

Converting an AEC Polygon to a Polyline . . . . . . . . . . . . 1852

Converting an AEC Polygon to a Profile . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1853

Changing the Rotation of an AEC Polygon . . . . . . . . . . . 1853

Changing the Elevation of an AEC Polygon . . . . . . . . . . . 1854

Changing the Location of an AEC Polygon . . . . . . . . . . . 1854

Specifying Fill Properties for the True Color Display

Representation of an AEC Polygon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1855

Attaching Hyperlinks, Notes, or Files to an AEC Polygon . . . . 1857

AEC Polygon Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1858

Creating an AEC Polygon Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1858

xxvi | Contents

Changing the Width and Justification of the AEC Polygon

Edges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1860

Masking Underlying Objects with AEC Polygons . . . . . . . . 1861

Specifying the Display Properties of an AEC Polygon Style . . . 1861
Setting the Colors of the True Color Display

Representation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1866

Attaching Notes and Files to an AEC Polygon Style . . . . . . . 1867

Adding Classifications to an AEC Polygon Style . . . . . . . . . 1868

Chapter 25 Doors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1871

Doors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1871

Creating a Door . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1873

Creating a Door in a Door and Window Assembly . . . . . . . . . . 1875

Converting Objects to a Door . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1875

Door Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1876

Editing Doors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1883

Using Grips to Edit Doors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1883

Moving a Door Along a Wall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1885

Moving a Door Within a Wall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1886

Using Anchors to Change Doors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1887

Moving a Door to a Different Wall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1892

Releasing a Door from a Wall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1892

Changing the Location of a Freestanding Door . . . . . . . . . 1893

Center a Door Using Modify Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1894

Create a Door Array Using Modify Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1894

Repositioning a Door with Modify Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . 1894

Spacing Doors Evenly with Modify Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . 1895

Display Properties of Doors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1895

Attaching Hyperlinks, Notes, and Files to a Door . . . . . . . . 1899

Door Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1899

Creating a Door Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1900

Specifying the Dimensions of a Door Style . . . . . . . . . . . 1902

Specifying the Design Rules of a Door Style . . . . . . . . . . . 1903

Specifying the Standard Sizes of a Door Style . . . . . . . . . . 1904

Creating a Custom Door Shape . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1905

Replacing the Door Shape in a Door Style . . . . . . . . . . . . 1906

Editing the Geometry of a Door Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1907

About Door Display Components and Materials . . . . . . . . 1910

Specifying the Display Properties of a Door Style . . . . . . . . 1914

Defining a Door Style as Bounding for Associative Spaces . . . . 1923

Attaching Notes and Files to a Door Style . . . . . . . . . . . . 1923

Creating Muntins in a Door Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1924

Chapter 26 Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1955

Overview of Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1955

Contents | xxvii

Overview of Corner Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1958

Measuring a Corner Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1960

Overview of Corner Window Frames . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1961

Using Window Tools to Create Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1962

Creating a Regular Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1964

Creating a Corner Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1964

Creating a Window with User-Specified Settings . . . . . . . . . . . 1965

Creating a Regular Window in a Door and Window Assembly . . . . 1970

Creating a Regular Window from Doors, Door/Window Assemblies

and Openings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1970

Creating a Window Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1971

Editing Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1974

Using Grips to Edit Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1975

Changing the Window Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1977

Change the Window Width and Height . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1978

Changing the Window Swing Angle or Opening Percent . . . . 1979

Changing the Vertical Alignment of a Window . . . . . . . . . 1980

Moving a Window Along a Wall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1981

Moving a Window Within a Wall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1984

Using Location Grips to Relocate a Corner Window . . . . . . 1985

Using Anchors to Change the Horizontal Position of a

Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1986

Using Anchors to Change the Vertical Position of a

Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1987

Using Anchors to Change the Position of a Window Within a

Wall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1989

Changing the Orientation of a Window to a Wall . . . . . . . . 1990

Moving a Window to a Different Wall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1991

Releasing a Window from a Wall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1991

Center a Window Using Modify Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1991

Create a Window Array Using Modify Tools . . . . . . . . . . . 1991

Repositioning a Window with Modify Tools . . . . . . . . . . . 1992

Spacing Windows Evenly with Modify Tools . . . . . . . . . . 1992

Changing the Opening Endcap Assigned to a Window . . . . . 1993

Changing the Location of a Freestanding Regular Window . . . 1993

Changing the Cut Plane Setting for a Window . . . . . . . . . 1994

Specifying the Display of Muntins Blocks for a Window . . . . 1995

Specifying the Display of Sills for a Window . . . . . . . . . . 1996

Reversing the Handing for a Window in an Elevation View . . . 1998

Specifying the Display of Frames for a Window . . . . . . . . . 1998

Specifying the Display of Custom Block Components of a

Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1999

Attaching Hyperlinks, Notes, and Files to a Window . . . . . . 2002

Edit the Width of a Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2002

Window Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2003

Creating a Window Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2004

xxviii | Contents

Specifying the Dimensions of a Window Style . . . . . . . . . . 2006

Specifying the Standard Sizes of a Window Style . . . . . . . . 2007

Creating a Custom Window Shape . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2008

Specifying the Design Rules of a Window Style . . . . . . . . . 2010

Replacing the Window Shape in a Window Style . . . . . . . . 2011

Editing the Geometry of a Window Style . . . . . . . . . . . . 2011

About Window Display Components and Materials . . . . . . . 2014

Assigning Materials to a Window Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2016

Adding Classifications to a Window Style . . . . . . . . . . . . 2017

Specifying the Display Properties of a Window Style . . . . . . 2017

Defining a Window Style as Bounding for Associative

Spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2026

Attaching Notes and Files to a Window Style . . . . . . . . . . 2027

Creating Muntins in a Window Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2028

Changing the Automatic Properties of a Corner Window . . . . 2054

Chapter 27 Openings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2059

Openings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2059

Using Opening Tools to Create Openings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2060

Creating an Opening . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2061

Creating an Opening with User-Specified Settings . . . . . . . . . . . 2062

Creating an Opening from Doors, Door/Window Assemblies and

Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2065

Creating and Editing Custom Openings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2065

Creating a Profile for a Custom Opening . . . . . . . . . . . . 2065

Creating an Opening with a Custom Shape . . . . . . . . . . . 2066

Editing the Geometry of a Custom Opening . . . . . . . . . . 2069

Creating an Opening Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2072

Editing Openings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2074

Using Grips to Edit Openings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2074

Changing the Shape and Dimensions of an Opening . . . . . . 2076

Flipping an Opening along the X or Y Axis . . . . . . . . . . . 2076

Changing Endcap Style for an Opening . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2077

Applying Tool Properties to an Existing Opening . . . . . . . . 2077

Repositioning an Opening . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2078

Using Anchors to Change the Position and Orientation of an

Opening . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2081

Center an Opening Using Modify Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2087

Create an Opening Array Using Modify Tools . . . . . . . . . . 2087

Repositioning an Opening with Modify Tools . . . . . . . . . . 2088

Spacing Openings Evenly with Modify Tools . . . . . . . . . . 2088

Changing the Cut Plane Setting for an Opening . . . . . . . . 2089

Specifying the Display of Sills for an Opening . . . . . . . . . . 2089

Specifying the Display of Custom Block Components of an

Opening . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2091

Specifying the Display of Fill Type for an Opening . . . . . . . 2092

Contents | xxix

Attaching Hyperlinks, Notes, and Files to an Opening . . . . . 2094

Changing the Display Properties of Openings . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2094

Specifying the Display Properties of an Opening . . . . . . . . 2095

Specifying the Hatching of an Opening . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2096

Using Custom Blocks to Create Opening Components . . . . . 2098

Adding Components to an Opening . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2098

Turning Off Custom Components in an Opening . . . . . . . . 2099

Removing Custom Components from an Opening . . . . . . . 2100

Chapter 28 Stairs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2101

Stairs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2101

Solution Tips for Stairs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2102

Specifying AEC Options for Stairs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2106

Using Stair Tools to Create Stairs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2107

Creating a Stair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2108

Creating a Straight Stair with User-Specified Settings . . . . . . . . . 2108

Creating a Multi-Landing Stair with User-Specified Settings . . . . . 2113

Creating an L-Shaped Stair with 45-Degree Tread . . . . . . . . . . . 2120

Creating a U-Shaped Stair with User-Specified Settings . . . . . . . . 2123

Creating a Spiral Stair with User-Specified Settings . . . . . . . . . . 2130

Creating a Custom Stair from Linework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2137

Creating a Custom Stair from Tread Profiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2141

Modifying Custom Stairs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2145

Creating a Ramp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2150

Creating a Stair Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2152

Editing Stairs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2154

Using Grips to Edit Stairs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2154

Changing the Width of a Flight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2177

Changing the Shape of a Flight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2180

Changing the Shape of a Landing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2182

Changing the Side of a Stair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2184

Changing the Height of a Stair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2192

Changing the Justification of a Stair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2194

Changing the Style of a Stair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2194

Changing the Horizontal Direction of a Spiral or U-Shaped

Stair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2194

Changing the Constraints of a Spiral Stair . . . . . . . . . . . . 2195

Changing the Outside Edge of a Spiral Stair . . . . . . . . . . . 2196

Changing the Dimensions of a Stair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2199

Changing the Floor Settings of a Stair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2202

Adjusting Stair Length Automatically . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2203

Changing the Length Limits of a Flight . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2205

Anchoring a Stair to a Landing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2207

Releasing Anchored Stairs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2209

Editing Winders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2209

Working with Stair Body Modifiers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2226

xxx | Contents

Stair Interference Conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2235

Changing the Alignment of a U-Shaped Stair . . . . . . . . . . 2249

Changing the Components of a Flight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2250

Changing the Components of a Landing . . . . . . . . . . . . 2251

About the Dimensions of Landing Components . . . . . . . . 2253

Changing the Extension of a Landing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2254

Specifying Stair Component Display by Cut Plane

Elevation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2255

Changing the Display of an Overlapping Stair . . . . . . . . . 2261

Applying Tool Properties to an Existing Stair . . . . . . . . . . 2263

Changing the Location of a Stair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2263

Specifying the Materials of a Stair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2264

Changing the Display Properties of Individual Stairs . . . . . . 2265

Attaching Hyperlinks, Notes, or Files to a Stair . . . . . . . . . 2273

Stair Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2274

Managing Stair Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2275

Creating a Stair Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2276

Specifying the Design Rules of a Stair Style . . . . . . . . . . . 2277

Specifying the Stringers of a Stair Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2279

Specifying Mitered Corners for Center Stringers . . . . . . . . . 2281

Specifying the Components of a Stair Style . . . . . . . . . . . 2283

Specifying the Landing Extension of a Stair Style . . . . . . . . 2285

Assigning Materials to Components in a Stair Style . . . . . . . 2287

Specifying the Display Properties of a Stair Style . . . . . . . . 2289

Specifying the Riser Numbering Display of a Stair Style . . . . . 2295

Specifying Classifications for a Stair Style . . . . . . . . . . . . 2296

Adding Notes and Files to a Stair Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2297

Stair Winder Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2298

Creating a Stair Winder Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2298

Specifying the Stair Winder Style Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . 2299

Adding Notes and Files to a Stair Winder Style . . . . . . . . . 2300

Stair Tower Generator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2301

Creating a Stair Tower . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2301

Modifying a Stair Tower . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2304

Chapter 29 Railings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2305

Railings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2305

Using Railing Tools to Create Railings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2307

Creating a Railing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2308

Creating an Attached Railing with User-Specified Settings . . . . . . 2308

Creating a Freestanding Railing with User-Specified Settings . . . . . 2312

Creating a Railing from a Polyline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2316

Creating a Railing Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2316

Editing Railings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2318

Using Grips to Edit Railings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2318

Adding a Post to a Railing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2319

Contents | xxxi

Removing a Post from a Railing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2320

Redistributing Posts on a Railing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2321

Hiding Posts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2321

Showing Hidden Posts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2321

Reversing the Direction of the Railing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2322

Anchoring an Existing Railing to a Stair . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2322

Anchoring an Existing Railing to an Object . . . . . . . . . . . 2323

Releasing an Anchored Railing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2325

Center a Railing Using Modify Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2325

Create a Railing Array Using Modify Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . 2325

Repositioning a Railing with Modify Tools . . . . . . . . . . . 2326

Spacing Railings Evenly with Modify Tools . . . . . . . . . . . 2326

Specifying the Display of Custom Block Components of a

Railing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2327

Specifying Cleanup Settings for a Railing . . . . . . . . . . . . 2331

Adding a Custom Profile to a Railing Component . . . . . . . . 2332

Editing a Custom Profile of a Railing Component . . . . . . . . 2333

Specifying the Display of a Custom Profile Component of a

Railing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2337

Changing the Style of a Railing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2341

Changing the Upper Rails . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2341

Changing the Bottom Rails . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2343

Changing the Posts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2344

Changing the Railing Extensions at Floor Levels . . . . . . . . 2345

Changing the Railing Extensions at Landings . . . . . . . . . . 2346

Changing the Anchor Properties of a Railing . . . . . . . . . . 2347

Specifying Perpendicular Railing Orientation . . . . . . . . . . 2348

Changing the Location of a Railing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2350

Applying Tool Properties to an Existing Railing . . . . . . . . . 2352

Attaching Hyperlinks, Notes, and Files to a Railing . . . . . . . 2352

Railing Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2353

Creating a Railing Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2355

Specifying the Upper Rails of a Railing Style . . . . . . . . . . . 2356

Specifying the Bottom Rails of a Railing Style . . . . . . . . . . 2358

Specifying Posts of a Railing Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2359

Specifying the Components of a Railing Style . . . . . . . . . . 2361

Creating a Profile for a Custom Railing Component . . . . . . 2363

Specifying the Railing Extensions of a Railing Style . . . . . . . 2363

Specifying the Materials of a Railing Style . . . . . . . . . . . . 2365

Specifying the Display Components of a Railing Style . . . . . 2368

Specifying Classifications for a Railing Style . . . . . . . . . . . 2369

Attaching Notes and Files to a Railing Style . . . . . . . . . . . 2369

Adding Custom Railing Blocks and Profiles to a Railing Style . . . . . 2370

Adding a Custom Block to a Railing Style . . . . . . . . . . . . 2370

Adding a Custom Profile to a Railing Style . . . . . . . . . . . . 2375

xxxii | Contents

Turning Off a Custom Block or Custom Profile in a Railing

Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2380

Removing a Custom Block from a Railing Style . . . . . . . . . 2380

Chapter 30 Roofs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2383

Roofs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2383

Using Roof Tools to Create Roofs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2384

Creating a Slope Roof . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2385

Creating a Gable Roof . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2386

Creating Dormers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2388

Creating a Slope Roof with User-Specified Settings . . . . . . . . . . 2388

Creating a Gable Roof with User-Specified Settings . . . . . . . . . . 2389

Creating a Roof from Walls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2390

Creating a Roof from Polylines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2391

Creating a Roof Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2392

Editing Roofs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2394

Using Grips to Edit Roofs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2395

Applying Tool Properties to an Existing Roof . . . . . . . . . . 2395

Changing the Dimensions of a Roof . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2396

Changing the Edges and Faces of a Roof . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2397

Converting a Roof to Roof Slabs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2398

Specifying the Material of a Roof . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2399

Specifying the Display Properties of a Roof . . . . . . . . . . . 2400

Specifying the Hatching of a Roof . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2401

Changing the Location of a Roof . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2402

Attaching Hyperlinks, Notes, or Files to a Roof . . . . . . . . . 2403

Chapter 31 Slabs and Roof Slabs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2405

Overview of Slabs and Roof Slabs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2405

Using Tools to Create Slabs and Roof Slabs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2410

Creating a Slab or a Roof Slab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2410

Creating a Slab/Roof Slab with User-Specified Settings . . . . . . . . 2412

Creating a Slab or Roof Slab from Walls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2415

Creating a Roof Slab from a Roof . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2418

Creating a Slab or Roof Slab from a Polyline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2419

Creating a Slab from a Space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2422

Creating a Slab or Roof Slab Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2423

Editing Slabs and Roof Slabs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2426

Using Grips to Edit Slabs/Roof Slabs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2427

Applying Tool Properties to an Existing Slab/Roof Slab . . . . . 2446

Changing the Properties of Slabs or Roof Slabs . . . . . . . . . 2446

Using Slab and Roof Slab Contextual Tools . . . . . . . . . . . 2452

Creating a Clipped Gable Roof . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2484

Creating a Dormer in a Roof Slab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2485

Slab and Roof Slab Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2486

Contents | xxxiii

Creating a Slab or Roof Slab Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2487

Specifying the Components of a Slab or Roof Slab Style . . . . 2489

Specifying the Materials of a Slab or Roof Slab Style . . . . . . . 2496

Specifying the Display Properties of a Slab or Roof Slab

Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2499

Adding Classifications to a Slab or Roof Slab Style . . . . . . . 2504

Defining a Slab/Roof Slab Style as Bounding for Associative

Spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2504

Attaching Notes and Files to a Slab or Roof Slab Style . . . . . . 2505

Slab and Roof Slab Edge Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2506

Creating a Slab or Roof Slab Edge Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2508

Specifying the Overhang, Edge Cut, and Angle of a Slab/Roof

Slab Edge Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2510

Creating Profiles for the Fascia and Soffit . . . . . . . . . . . . 2511

Controlling Profile Edges and Extrusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2513

Specifying a Fascia and a Soffit for a Slab/Roof Slab Edge

Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2514

Editing the Geometry of Fascia and Soffits . . . . . . . . . . . 2516

Assigning Materials to a Slab/Roof Slab Edge Style . . . . . . . 2520

Turning on Materials for a Slab/Roof Slab Edge Style . . . . . . 2521

Attaching Notes and Files to a Slab/Roof Slab Edge Style . . . . 2522

Chapter 32 Structural Members . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2525

Structural Members . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2525

Workflow to Create Styles for Structural Members . . . . . . . . . . 2530

Creating Structural Member Styles in the Structural Member

Catalog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2531

Opening the Structural Member Catalog . . . . . . . . . . . . 2533

Creating a Style from a Shape in the Structural Member

Catalog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2533

Locating a Shape in the Structural Member Catalog from a

Structural Member in a Drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2535

Opening a Catalog File in the Structural Member Catalog . . . 2535

Creating a Structural Member Style with the Structural Member Style

Wizard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2536

Creating Columns with User-Defined Profiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2538

Creating Structural Member Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2539

Creating a Beam Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2539

Creating a Brace Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2544

Creating a Column Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2549

Using Structural Member Tools to Create Structural Members . . . . 2553

Creating a Beam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2554

Creating Beams with User-Specified Settings . . . . . . . . . . 2556

Creating a Brace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2565

Creating a Brace with User-Specified Settings . . . . . . . . . . 2566

Creating a Freestanding Column . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2571

xxxiv | Contents

Creating a Freestanding Column with User-Specified

Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2572

Creating Columns with User-Defined Profiles . . . . . . . . . . 2576

Creating Grid-Anchored Columns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2577

Creating Grid-Anchored Columns with User-Specified

Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2579

Creating a Structural Member from Linework . . . . . . . . . . 2584

Editing Structural Members . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2585

Using Grips To Edit Structural Members . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2586

Changing the Structural Member Length . . . . . . . . . . . . 2592

Changing the Structural Member Start and End Offsets . . . . . 2593

Changing the Structural Member Start Point and Endpoint . . 2595

Changing the Structural Member Roll . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2596

Changing the Radius of a Curved Structural Member . . . . . . 2597

About Curved Structural Members . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2598

Changing the Structural Member Justification . . . . . . . . . 2599

Changing the Structural Member Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2601

Trimming Structural Members . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2602

Changing the Style of a Structural Member . . . . . . . . . . . 2610

Applying Tool Properties to a Structural Member . . . . . . . . 2610

Specifying the Cut Plane Display of a Structural Member . . . . 2610

Specifying the Display of Custom Block Components of a

Structural Member . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2612

Specifying the Offsets for a Structural Member in Plan Low

Detail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2614

Attaching Hyperlinks, Notes, and Files to a Structural

Member . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2615

Working with Structural Member Body Modifiers . . . . . . . . . . . 2615

Adding a Body Modifier to a Structural Member . . . . . . . . 2616

Subtracting a Body Modifier from a Structural Member . . . . . 2617

Replacing a Structural Member with a Body Modifier . . . . . . 2619

Editing the Geometry of a Body Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . 2620

Managing Body Modifiers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2623

Restoring a Body Modifier to a Mass Element . . . . . . . . . . 2624

Working with Structural Member Interference Conditions . . . . . . 2624

Creating Structural Member Interference Conditions . . . . . . 2625

Removing Structural Member Interference Conditions . . . . . 2627

Editing Structural Member Interference Conditions . . . . . . . 2627

Structural Member Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2628

Creating a Structural Member Style in the Style Manager . . . . 2629

Specifying the Materials of a Structural Member Style . . . . . . 2630

Specifying the Display Properties of a Structural Member

Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2633

Specifying Classifications for a Structural Member Style . . . . 2643

Defining a Structural Member Style as Bounding for Associative

Spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2644

Contents | xxxv

Attaching Notes and Files to a Structural Member Style . . . . . 2644

Creating Custom Structural Members . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2645

Understanding the Design Rules of a Structural Member . . . . 2648

Changing the Shape in the Style of a Structural Member . . . . 2651

Adding a Shape to a Structural Member . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2652

Process Overview: Creating a Single-Component Structural

Member (Tapered Column) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2653

Process Overview: Creating a Multi-Component Structural

Member (Composite Column) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2656

Process Overview: Creating a Multi-Component Structural

Member Using Multiple Segments (Rigid Frame) . . . . . . . 2659

Creating Custom Shapes for Structural Members . . . . . . . . 2666

Design Utilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2671

Chapter 33 Anchors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2673

Anchors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2673

Working with Object Anchors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2674

Adding Object Anchors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2675

Releasing Object Anchors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2676

Working with Curve Anchors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2677

Adding Curve Anchors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2677

Changing the Position of Objects Anchored to Curves . . . . . 2678

Anchoring Objects to New Curves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2682

Working with Leader Anchors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2683

Adding Leader Anchors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2683

Changing the Position of Objects Anchored to Layout Nodes

with Leader Anchors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2684

Grip-Editing Leaders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2685

Extending Leaders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2686

Copying Objects to All Layout Nodes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2686

Working with Node Anchors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2687

Adding Node Anchors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2687

Changing the Position of Objects Anchored to Layout Nodes

with Node Anchors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2688

Anchoring Objects to Different Nodes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2689

Copying Objects to All Layout Nodes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2690

Working with Cell Anchors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2691

Adding Cell Anchors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2692

Changing the Position and Size of Objects Anchored to Layout

Cells . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2693

Anchoring Objects to a Different Cell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2694

Copying Objects to All Layout Cells . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2695

Working with Volume Anchors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2695

Adding Volume Anchors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2695

xxxvi | Contents

Changing the Position and Size of Objects Anchored to

Volumes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2696

Anchoring Objects to a Different Volume . . . . . . . . . . . . 2698

Copying Objects to All Layout Volumes . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2698

Releasing and Positioning Anchored Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2699

Releasing Anchored Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2699

Positioning Anchored Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2699

Creating an Anchor Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2700

Chapter 34 Layout Curves and Grids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2703

Layout Curves and Grids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2703

Using Layout Curves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2704

Creating a Layout Curve Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2705

Adding Layout Curves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2706

Adding Nodes to Layout Curves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2709

Removing Nodes from Layout Curves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2710

Changing the Offsets of Layout Curves . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2711

Changing the Node Spacing of a Layout Curve . . . . . . . . . 2712

Changing the Node Positions on a Layout Curve . . . . . . . . 2713

Changing the Spacing Mode of Layout Curves . . . . . . . . . 2714

Switching Layout Curves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2715

Changing the Display Properties of Layout Curves . . . . . . . 2716

Changing the Node Radius for a Layout Curve . . . . . . . . . 2717

Attaching Hyperlinks, Notes, or Files to a Layout Curve . . . . 2718

Using Layout Grids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2719

Creating a Layout Grid Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2719

Adding Radial Layout Grids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2720

Changing Radial Layout Grids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2722

Adding Rectangular Layout Grids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2723

Changing Rectangular Layout Grids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2724

Creating a Layout Grid with User-Specified Settings . . . . . . . 2725

Creating a Custom Layout Grid from Linework . . . . . . . . . 2727

Adding Lines to Layout Grids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2728

Removing Grid Lines from Layout Grids . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2729

Changing the Spacing Mode of Layout Grids . . . . . . . . . . 2730

Changing the Display Properties of Layout Grids . . . . . . . . 2731

Changing the Node Radius for a Layout Grid . . . . . . . . . . 2732

Creating and Removing Boundaries for Layout Grids . . . . . . 2733

Creating Holes in Layout Grids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2734

Removing Holes from Layout Grids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2734

Changing the Location of Layout Grids . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2734

Attaching Hyperlinks, Notes, or Files to a Layout Grid . . . . . 2735

Using Layout Volumes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2736

Creating a Layout Volume Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2736

Adding Layout Volumes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2738

Changing Layout Volumes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2740

Contents | xxxvii

Adding Grid Lines to Layout Volumes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2740

Removing Grid Lines from Layout Volumes . . . . . . . . . . . 2741

Changing the Spacing Mode of Layout Volumes . . . . . . . . 2742

Changing the Display Properties of Layout Volumes . . . . . . 2744

Changing the Node Radius for a Layout Volume . . . . . . . . 2744

Changing the Location of Layout Volumes . . . . . . . . . . . 2745

Attaching Hyperlinks, Notes, or Files to a Layout Volume . . . 2746

Chapter 35 Grids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2749

Grids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2749

Using Column Grid Tools to Create Column Grids . . . . . . . . . . 2750

Creating Rectangular and Radial Column Grids . . . . . . . . . 2751

Editing Column Grids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2758

Creating a Custom Column Grid from Linework . . . . . . . . . . . 2768

Labeling Custom Column Grids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2768

Creating Enhanced Custom Column Grids Using the Column Grid

Dialog Box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2772

Creating a Rectangular Grid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2774

Creating a Radial Grid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2777

Creating an Enhanced Column Grid from an Existing Enhanced

Column Grid or Regular Grid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2779

Editing the List of Preconfigured Bay Sizes . . . . . . . . . . . . 2780

Creating an Enhanced Grid with Different Sized Grid Bays . . . 2781
Creating an Enhanced Grid with Varying Grid Lines for each

side . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2783

Defining the Display of Grid Numbering when Inserting the

Grid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2787

Defining the Numbering and Lettering Scheme for Grid

Bubbles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2789

Defining the Numbering Scheme for Secondary Grid Lines . . . 2790

Editing Enhanced Custom Column Grids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2791

Editing Enhanced Custom Column Grids with Column Grid

Dialog Box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2792

Editing Enhanced Custom Column Grids Manually . . . . . . 2793

Editing General Column Grid Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2800

Attaching Clipping Profiles to Column Grids . . . . . . . . . . 2800

Attaching Hyperlinks, Notes, or Files to a Column Grid . . . . 2802

Changing the Location of Column Grids . . . . . . . . . . . . 2803

Changing the Display of Column Grids . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2804

Changing the Node Radius for a Column Grid . . . . . . . . . 2805

Using Ceiling Grid Tools to Create Ceiling Grids . . . . . . . . . . . 2806

Creating a Ceiling Grid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2807

Creating a Ceiling Grid with User-Specified Settings . . . . . . 2807

Creating a Ceiling Grid from a Layout Grid . . . . . . . . . . . 2809

Creating a Custom Ceiling Grid from Linework . . . . . . . . . 2809

Creating a Ceiling Grid Dynamically . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2810

xxxviii | Contents

Creating a Ceiling Grid with a Clipping Boundary . . . . . . . 2811

Creating a Ceiling Grid Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2812

Editing Ceiling Grids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2813

Chapter 36 Detail Drafting Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2829

Construction Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2829

Creating Construction Lines From Existing

Objects/Linework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2829

Creating Construction Lines Independently . . . . . . . . . . . 2832

Hatch Productivity Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2832

Repositioning a Hatch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2833

Generating a Hatch Boundary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2833

Redefining a Hatch Boundary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2834

AEC Modify Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2838

Trimming Linework or Profile-Based Objects . . . . . . . . . . 2839

Trimming Linework or Profile-Based Objects to an Edge . . . . 2840

Extending Linework to an Edge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2841

Dividing Linework and Profile-Based Objects . . . . . . . . . . 2842

Subtracting from Linework and Profile-Based Objects . . . . . . 2844

Obscuring Regions of Linework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2845

Merging Linework or Profile-Based Objects . . . . . . . . . . . 2846

Cropping Linework or Profile-Based Objects . . . . . . . . . . . 2847

Shrinkwrapping Linework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2849

Creating Arrays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2850

Repositioning from a Reference Point . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2851

Evenly Spacing Linework or Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2851

Centering Linework or Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2852

Chapter 37 Profiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2853

What are Profiles? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2853

Creating Profiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2855

Defining the Direction of Profile Edges and Extrusion . . . . . . . . 2856

Adding a Profile to an Object Component . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2859

Editing a Profile In Place . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2860

Converting Profiles to Polylines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2864

Chapter 38 Mask Blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2867

Mask Blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2867

Creating Mask Block Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2868

Creating a Mask Block Definition from a Polyline . . . . . . . . 2868

Creating a Mask Block Definition from an Existing Mask Block

Definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2869

Importing Mask Block Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2870

Exporting Mask Block Definitions to a New Drawing . . . . . . 2871

Contents | xxxix

Exporting Mask Block Definitions to an Existing Drawing . . . 2871

Editing a Mask Block Definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2872

Adding Classifications to a Mask Block Definition . . . . . . . 2874

Purging Mask Block Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2875

Using Mask Block Tools to Create Mask Blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . 2875

Adding a Mask Block . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2876

Adding a Mask Block with User-Specified Settings . . . . . . . . 2877

Creating a Mask Block from Polylines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2878

Creating a Mask Block Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2878

Attaching Mask Blocks to Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2881

Detaching Mask Blocks from Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2882

Editing Mask Blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2882

Using Grips to Move Mask Blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2883

Changing the Location of a Mask Block . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2883

Editing the Profile of a Mask Block . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2884

Applying Tool Properties to an Existing Mask Block

Reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2887

Changing Display Properties of Mask Blocks . . . . . . . . . . 2887

Attaching Hyperlinks, Notes, and Files to a Mask Block . . . . . 2888

Chapter 39 Multi-View Blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2891

Multi-View Blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2891

Creating Multi-View Block Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2892

Process Overview: Creating Multi-View Block Definitions . . . 2893

Creating View Blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2893

Creating a New Multi-View Block Definition . . . . . . . . . . 2895

Connecting View Blocks to View Directions . . . . . . . . . . . 2896

Defining a Multi-View Block Definition as Bounding for

Associative Spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2898

Attaching Notes and Files to a Multi-View Block

Definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2898

Adding Classifications to a Multi-View Block Definition . . . . 2899

Adding a Multi-View Block Definition to DesignCenter . . . . . 2900

Creating a Multi-View Block Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2902

Adding Multi-View Blocks to a Drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2905

Inserting a Multi-View Block . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2905

Modifying Multi-View Blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2907

Changing the Rotation of a Multi-View Block . . . . . . . . . . 2907

Changing the Associated Multi-View Block Definition . . . . . 2907

Changing the Scale Factor of a Multi-View Block . . . . . . . . 2908

Changing the Offset of a Multi-View Block Using Grips . . . . 2908

Changing the Location of a Multi-View Block Using Grips . . . 2909
Attaching Hyperlinks, Notes, or Files to a Multi-View

Block . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2911

Editing the Location and Rotation of Attributes in a Multi-View

Block . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2912

xl | Contents

Updating Multi-View Block Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2913

Documentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2915

Chapter 40 Spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2917

Space Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2917

Workflows for Spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2920

Workflow for Generating Associative Spaces . . . . . . . . . . . 2920

Workflow for Manually Defining Net, Usable, and Gross

Areas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2920

Workflow for Determining Net, Usable, and Gross Areas With

a Calculation Standard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2921

Workflow for Creating a Space Evaluation Report . . . . . . . . 2922

Adjusting Space Calculations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2923

Working with List Definitions - Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . 2923

Working with Zones - Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2924

Working with Calculation Modifiers - Overview . . . . . . . . . 2926

Working with Calculation Cut Planes - Overview . . . . . . . . 2927

Moving Forward to AutoCAD Architecture 2012 from Autodesk

Architectural Desktop 2006 and Earlier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2928

Auto-Converting Legacy Areas to Spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2931

Space Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2933

Using Space Tools to Create Spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2939

Generating Associative Spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2940

Boundary Objects for Associative Spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2941

Generating an Associative Space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2953

Generating Associative Spaces from Xrefs and Blocks . . . . . . 2957

Defining a Maximum Gap Size for Associative Spaces . . . . . . 2962

Updating Associative Spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2963

Activating and Deactivating Automatic Updates . . . . . . . . 2964

Manually Updating Associative Spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2966

Merging Associative Spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2967

Dividing an Associative Space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2969

Deducting Spaces from an Associative Space . . . . . . . . . . 2971

Making a Space Associative or Non-Associative . . . . . . . . . 2972

Troubleshooting Associative Spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2974

Creating Non-Associative Spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2983

Drawing a Non-Associative 2D or Extruded 3D Space . . . . . 2983

Converting Objects, Profiles, and Polylines to Non-Associative

Spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2987

Creating a Space Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2991

Editing General Space Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2996

Renaming a Space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2997

Changing the Style of a Space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2997

Changing the Location of a Space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2997

Contents | xli

Specifying the Decomposition Type for a Space . . . . . . . . . 2998

Specifying the Decomposition Text Properties for a Space . . . 3000

Specifying the Cut Plane Display of a Space . . . . . . . . . . . 3002

Attaching Hyperlinks, Notes, or Files to a Space . . . . . . . . . 3003

Working with Space Boundaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3004

Working with Manual Boundaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3005

Working with Style-Based Boundaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3006

Working with Boundaries Based on an Area Calculation

Standard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3006

Defining the Boundary Offset Type of a Space . . . . . . . . . . 3008

Specifying an Area Calculation Standard for a Drawing . . . . . 3010

Classifying a Space According to an Area Calculation

Standard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3011

Changing the Area Calculation Standard for Existing

Spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3012

Working with Drawings with Different Area Calculation

Standards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3013

User-Defined Area Calculation Standards . . . . . . . . . . . . 3014

Editing Space Boundaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3014

Changing the Type of a Space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3026

Changing the Space Height . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3029

Changing the Height of Extruded 3D Spaces . . . . . . . . . . 3029

Changing the Height of 3D Freeform Spaces . . . . . . . . . . 3031

Changing the Height of Space Surfaces (Extruded 3D

Spaces) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3033

Boolean Operations for Extruded 3D Spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3034

Creating Interference Conditions for Spaces . . . . . . . . . . . 3035

Removing Interference Conditions from Spaces . . . . . . . . . 3036

Merging Extruded 3D Spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3036

Dividing Extruded 3D Spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3040

Creating Holes in Extruded 3D Spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3041

Creating Spaces from the Intersection of Other Spaces . . . . . 3042

Trimming an Extruded 3D Space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3047

Removing Voids from Spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3049

Reversing Space Rings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3049

Reversing All Rings in a Space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3050

Boolean Operations for 3D Freeform Spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3050

Trimming 3D Freeform Spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3050

Splitting Surfaces of 3D Freeform Spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3052

Joining Surfaces of 3D Freeform Spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3053

Merging 3D Freeform Spaces with AEC Objects . . . . . . . . . 3054

Subtracting AEC Objects from 3D Freeform Spaces . . . . . . . 3055

Intersecting 3D Freeform Spaces with AEC Objects . . . . . . . 3056

Grip-Editing the Surfaces of 3D Freeform Spaces . . . . . . . . 3057

Editing Space Surface Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3061

Opening the Space/Zone Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3062

xlii | Contents

Editing Surface Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3064

Editing Ceiling and Floor Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3065

Working with Surface Openings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3067

Setting Up Adjacency Relations between Space Surfaces . . . . 3091

Displaying Adjacency Relations between Space Surfaces . . . . 3092

Space Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3093

Creating a Space Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3094

Specifying Target Dimensions for the Space . . . . . . . . . . . 3095

Specifying Space Boundary Offsets in a Space Style . . . . . . . 3096

Attaching a List Definition to a Space Style . . . . . . . . . . . 3097

Specifying Classifications for a Space Style . . . . . . . . . . . 3098

Specifying the Materials of a Space Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3098

Specifying the Display Properties of a Space Style . . . . . . . . 3101

Specifying the Hatching for Components of a Space Style . . . 3104

Setting the Object Cut Plane of a Space Style . . . . . . . . . . 3106

Attaching Notes and Files to a Space Style . . . . . . . . . . . . 3107

Converting Area Styles to Space Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3108

List Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3109

Creating a List Definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3111

Specifying the Application for a List Definition . . . . . . . . . 3111

Editing a List Definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3112

Attaching Notes and Files to a List Definition . . . . . . . . . . 3112

Zones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3113

Using Zone Tools to Create Zones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3115

Zone Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3116

Creating a Zone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3119

Creating Zones with User-Specified Settings . . . . . . . . . . . 3119

Creating Zone Structures from a Zone Template . . . . . . . . . 3121

Creating a Zone Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3123

Converting Area Groups to Zones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3125

Zones and Spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3126

Attaching Spaces and Zones to Zones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3127

Detaching Spaces and Zones from Zones . . . . . . . . . . . . 3128

Selecting Spaces and Zones Attached to a Zone . . . . . . . . . 3128

Editing Zones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3129

Renaming a Zone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3129

Changing the Zone Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3129

Changing the Zone Boundary Offset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3130

Changing the Content Rules of a Zone . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3131

Changing the Calculation Type of a Zone . . . . . . . . . . . . 3131

Changing Calculation Modifiers for a Zone . . . . . . . . . . . 3132

Ordering Zone Structures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3133

Creating Polylines from Zones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3134

Specifying Additional Display Properties for a Zone . . . . . . . 3136

Attaching Hyperlinks, Notes, or Files to a Zone . . . . . . . . . 3138

Zone Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3138

Contents | xliii

Creating a Zone Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3139

Attaching a List Definition to a Zone Style . . . . . . . . . . . 3140

Restricting the Content of a Zone Based on the Zone Style . . . 3141

Specifying Classifications for a Zone Style . . . . . . . . . . . . 3142

Specifying the Display Properties of a Zone Style . . . . . . . . 3142

Attaching Notes or Files to a Zone Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3148

Converting Area Group Styles to Zone Styles . . . . . . . . . . 3148

Zone Templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3150

Creating a Zone Template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3151

Building the Structure of a Zone Template . . . . . . . . . . . . 3152

Attaching Notes and Files to a Zone Template . . . . . . . . . . 3155

Converting Area Group Templates to Zone Templates . . . . . 3156

Working with Space Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3157

Schedule Properties of Spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3158

Calculation Modifiers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3163

Setting Calculation Cut Planes for 3D Freeform Spaces . . . . . 3169

Generating Output Data and Exporting Space Data . . . . . . . 3170

Space Decomposition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3171

Space Evaluation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3177

Using Spaces for Load Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3189

Conversion of Space Boundaries to Walls and Spaces . . . . . . . . . 3197

Appendix 1: Command Changes for Spaces and Areas . . . . . . . . 3198

Area Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3198

Area Group Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3199

Space Boundary Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3200

Appendix 2: Predefined Area Calculation Standards . . . . . . . . . . 3201

Calculating Spaces Based on the Basic Area Calculation

Standard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3202

Calculating Spaces Based on the DIN 277 Standard . . . . . . . 3203

Calculating Spaces Based on the SIS Standard . . . . . . . . . . 3207

Calculating Spaces Based on the BOMA Standard . . . . . . . . 3212

Appendix 3: Implementing an Area Calculation Standard Plug-in

with the AutoCAD Architecture .NET API . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3217

Implementing an Area Calculation Standard . . . . . . . . . . 3218

Implementing Offset Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3226

Chapter 41 Sections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3251

Sections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3251

Workflow to Create a 2D or 3D Section or a Live Section View . . . . 3257

Drawing and Editing Section Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3258

Drawing a Section Line and Marks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3260

Changing the Height of a Section Using Grips . . . . . . . . . 3262

Changing the Lower Extension of a Section Using Grips . . . . 3263

Changing the Length of a Section Using Grips . . . . . . . . . 3264

Changing the Angle Dimensions of a Section . . . . . . . . . . 3266

Creating Graphic Subdivisions for 2D and 3D Sections . . . . . 3267

xliv | Contents

Changing a Subdivision Using Grips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3268

Changing Section Mark Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3268

Changing the Location of a Section Line . . . . . . . . . . . . 3269

Modifying a Section Line Using Grips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3270

Attaching Hyperlinks, Notes, and Files to a Section Line . . . . 3271

Creating a 2D or 3D Section . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3271

Creating a Horizontal 2D Section . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3273

Creating and Editing a Live Section View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3275

Creating a Live Section View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3276

Updating a Live Section View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3277

Displaying the Sectioned Body in a Live Section View . . . . . 3277

Removing a Live Section View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3279

Editing a 2D or 3D Section . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3279

Using Grips to Edit Linework in a 2D Section . . . . . . . . . . 3280

Changing the Display of Graphic Subdivisions in a 2D

Section . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3281

Changing the Display of Graphic Subdivisions in a 3D

Section . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3283

Reversing a 2D or 3D Section . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3284

Changing the Style of a 2D Section . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3285

Creating a Material Boundary in a 2D Section . . . . . . . . . . 3285

Editing a Material Boundary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3286

Editing and Merging Linework in a 2D Section . . . . . . . . . 3291

Changing the Location of a 2D or 3D Section . . . . . . . . . . 3293

Attaching Hyperlinks, Notes, and Files to a 2D or 3D

Section . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3294

Updating a 2D or 3D Section . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3295

Globally Updating 2D Sections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3297

Supported Project Drawing Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3298

Globally Updating 2D Sections and Elevations in a Project or

a Folder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3299

Updating Legacy Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3300

2D Section Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3301

Creating a 2D Section Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3303

Adding a Display Component to a 2D Section Style . . . . . . . 3304

Removing a Display Component from a 2D Section Style . . . . 3305

About 2D and 3D Section Display Components and

Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3306

Use Subdivision Properties and Materials in 2D Section

Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3313

Use the 3D Body Component of a Material for the 2D Section

Linework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3313

Adding a Design Rule to a 2D Section Style . . . . . . . . . . . 3314

Changing a Design Rule in a 2D Section Style . . . . . . . . . . 3316

Removing a Design Rule from a 2D Section Style . . . . . . . . 3316

Adding Classifications to a 2D Section Style . . . . . . . . . . . 3317

Contents | xlv

Changing the Layer, Color, and Linetype of a 2D Section

Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3317

Attaching Notes and Files to a 2D Section Style . . . . . . . . . 3318

Chapter 42 Elevations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3321

Working With Elevations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3321

Workflow to Create a 2D or 3D Elevation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3327

Drawing and Editing Elevation Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3328

Drawing an Elevation Line and Mark . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3331

Changing the Height of an Elevation Using Grips . . . . . . . . 3333

Changing the Lower Extension of an Elevation Using

Grips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3334

Changing the Length of an Elevation Using Grips . . . . . . . 3335

Changing the Angle Dimensions of an Elevation . . . . . . . . 3336

Creating Graphic Subdivisions for 2D and 3D Elevations . . . . 3337

Changing Elevation Mark Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3339

Changing the Location of an Elevation Line . . . . . . . . . . 3339

Modifying an Elevation Line Using Grips . . . . . . . . . . . . 3340

Attaching Hyperlinks, Notes and Files to an Elevation Line . . . 3341

Creating a 2D or 3D Elevation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3342

Creating a Horizontal 2D Elevation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3344

Editing a 2D or 3D Elevation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3346

Using Grips to Edit Linework in a 2D Elevation . . . . . . . . 3346

Changing the Display of Graphic Subdivisions in a 2D

Elevation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3348

Changing the Display of Graphic Subdivisions in a 3D

Elevation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3349

Reversing a 2D or 3D Elevation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3350

Changing the Style of a 2D Elevation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3351

Adding and Removing Custom Components for an

Elevation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3351

Specifying the Display of Surface Hatching for an Elevation

Subdivision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3353

Specifying the Display of 2D Linework for an Elevation . . . . 3355

Creating a Material Boundary in a 2D Elevation . . . . . . . . . 3356

Editing a Material Boundary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3357

Editing and Merging Linework in a 2D Elevation . . . . . . . . 3361

Changing the Location of a 2D or 3D Elevation . . . . . . . . . 3363

Attaching Hyperlinks, Notes, and Files to a 2D or 3D

Elevation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3364

Updating a 2D or 3D Elevation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3364

Globally Updating 2D Elevations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3366

Supported Project Drawing Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3367

Globally Updating 2D Sections and Elevations in a Project or

a Folder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3368

Updating Legacy Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3369

xlvi | Contents

2D Elevation Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3369

Creating a 2D Elevation Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3371

Adding a Display Component to a 2D Elevation Style . . . . . 3373

Removing a Display Component from a 2D Elevation

Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3373

About 2D and 3D Elevation Display Components and

Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3374

Use Subdivision Properties and Materials in 2D Elevation

Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3378

Use the 3D Body Component of a Material for the 2D Elevation

Linework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3379

Adding a Design Rule to a 2D Elevation Style . . . . . . . . . . 3379

Changing a Design Rule in a 2D Elevation Style . . . . . . . . . 3381

Removing a Design Rule from a 2D Elevation Style . . . . . . . 3382

Adding Classifications to a 2D Elevation Style . . . . . . . . . . 3382

Changing the Layer, Color, and Linetype of a 2D Elevation

Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3383

Attaching Notes and Files to a 2D Elevation Style . . . . . . . . 3384

Chapter 43 Hidden Line Projection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3385

Hidden Line Projection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3385

Creating a Hidden Line Projection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3385

Chapter 44 AEC Dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3387

AEC Dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3387

Dimension Options and Uses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3389

Associative Dimensions from Selecting Objects . . . . . . . . . 3389

Associative Dimensions from Picked Points . . . . . . . . . . . 3390

Non-Associative Dimensions from Picked Points . . . . . . . . 3391

AutoCAD Dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3391

Process Overview: Creating AEC Dimensions . . . . . . . . . . 3392

Associative Dimensions from Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3393

Dimension Points for Walls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3393

Dimension Points for Wall Openings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3396

Dimension Points for Grids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3396

Dimension Points for Other Object Types . . . . . . . . . . . . 3397

AutoCAD Dimension Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3398

Associative Dimensions in External References . . . . . . . . . 3401

Associative Dimensions From Picked Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3402

Specifying AEC Dimension Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3403

Creating AEC Dimensions Using AEC Dimension Tools . . . . . . . . 3406

Creating an AEC Dimension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3407

Creating an AEC Dimension with User-Specified Settings . . . . . . 3408

Use Cases for AEC Dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3411

Converting an AutoCAD Dimension to an AEC Dimension . . . . . 3418

Contents | xlvii

Copying Properties of AEC Dimensions to AutoCAD Dimensions . . 3420

Creating an AEC Dimension Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3421

Editing AEC Dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3422

Adding Points to an AEC Dimension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3423

Detaching Dimension Points from an AEC Dimension . . . . . 3428

Restoring Object Points Set in the AEC Dimension Style . . . . 3430

Removing Non-Style Defined Dimension Points . . . . . . . . 3432

Reversing the Direction of an AEC Wall Dimension . . . . . . . 3433

Flip Text Position for AEC Dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3435

Overriding Associative Wall Component Dimension

Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3436

Repositioning Dimension Texts, Extension Lines, and

Dimension Chains . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3440

Resetting Repositioned Dimension Texts, Extension Lines and

Dimension Chains . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3441

Overriding Dimension Values and Hiding Dimension

Segments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3443

Changing the AEC Dimension Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3447

Specifying Object Dimension Points for an AEC

Dimension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3447

Specifying the AutoCAD Style and Other Properties for an AEC

Dimension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3449

Attaching Hyperlinks, Notes, and Files to an AEC

Dimension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3452

AEC Dimension Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3453

AEC Dimension Styles and AutoCAD Dimension Styles . . . . . 3453

The AEC Dimension Style Wizard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3454

Creating AutoCAD Dimension Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3454

Creating an AEC Dimension Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3455

Changing the Number of Chains in an AEC Dimension

Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3456

Changing the AEC Dimension Display Components . . . . . . 3457

Defining Dimensioned Objects in the AEC Dimension

Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3458

Specifying Object Dimension Points in AEC Dimension

Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3460

Selecting the AutoCAD Dimension Styles and Other Properties

of AEC Dimension Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3462

Changing Style Properties with the AEC Dimension Style

Wizard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3464

Attaching Notes and Files to an AEC Dimension Style . . . . . 3467

Q and A for Working with AEC Dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3468

Changing Color, Text Size and Arrowheads . . . . . . . . . . . 3468

Updating AEC Dimensions On Demand . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3468

Changing the Text Height of Superscripted Numbers . . . . . . 3469

Fixing the Error Symbol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3469

xlviii | Contents

Finding More Dimension Points than Expected . . . . . . . . . 3470

Chapter 45 Elevation Labels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3471

Elevation Labels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3471

Using Elevation Label Tools to Create Elevation Labels . . . . . . . . 3472

Creating an Elevation Label . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3473

Creating Elevation Labels with User-Specified Settings . . . . . 3473

Creating an Elevation Label Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3475

Modifying Elevation Labels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3476

Changing the Elevation of an Elevation Label . . . . . . . . . . 3477

Changing the Coordinate System of an Elevation Label . . . . 3477

Changing the Associated Multi-View Block Definition . . . . . 3477

Changing the Scale Factor of an Elevation Label . . . . . . . . 3478

Changing the Offset of an Elevation Label . . . . . . . . . . . 3478

Display the View Blocks and Attributes of an Elevation

Label . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3479

Attaching Hyperlinks, Notes, or Files to an Elevation Label . . . 3480

Creating User-Defined Elevation Labels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3481

Creating a Graphic Symbol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3481

Adding Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3482

Creating a Block . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3483

Creating a Multi-View Block . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3483

Adding the Elevation Label to the AutoCAD DesignCenter . . . 3484

Chapter 46 Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3487

Fields Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3487

Inserting Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3489

Inserting Fields in a Drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3489

Inserting Fields in Property Set Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . 3491

Inserting Field Placeholders in Object Properties . . . . . . . . 3494

Adding Fields to Object Style Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3496

Inserting Fields in AutoCAD Text Elements . . . . . . . . . . . 3497

Editing Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3501

Editing the Field Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3504

Updating Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3504

Converting Fields to Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3505

AutoCAD Architecture Field Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3505

Project Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3505

Selecting a Project Field . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3506

Sheet Set Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3507

Selecting a Sheet Set Field . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3510

Keynote Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3512

Selecting a Keynote Field . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3513

Database Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3514

Selecting a Database Field . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3516

Contents | xlix

Creating a Data Link to an ODBC Source . . . . . . . . . . . . 3519

Chapter 47 Detail Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3527

Understanding Detail Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3527

Inserting Detail Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3528

Stamp Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3529

Linear Array Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3531

Backfill Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3532

Bookends Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3533

Countable Linear Array Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3534

Surface Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3536

Dynamically Sized Surface Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3537

Bolt Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3538

Editing Detail Components in a Drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3539

Using Detail Component Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3542

Adding Detail Component Tools to a Tool Palette . . . . . . . . 3542

Modifying Detail Component Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3545

Applying Detail Component Properties to Linework . . . . . . 3548

Applying Detail Component Properties to Linework from a

Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3548

Applying Detail Component Properties to Linework from the

Detail Component Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3549

Using the Detail Component Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3549

Locating a Detail Component . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3550

Creating and Modifying Detail Component Databases . . . . . 3553

Configuring Detail Component Database Availability . . . . . . . . . 3583

Adding a Detail Component Database to Available

Databases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3583

Removing a Detail Component Database from Available

Databases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3585

Setting Detail Component Database Permissions in a Multi-User

Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3585

Merging Old and New Detail Component Databases . . . . . . . . . 3586

Chapter 48 Annotation and Keynoting Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3587

The Basic Annotation Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3587

Creating a Text-Only Annotation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3600

Creating Text with Single Leader Annotation . . . . . . . . . . 3600

Adding and Removing Leader Lines from Leaders . . . . . . . . 3602

Creating a Break Mark . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3604

Creating a Block-Based Annotation with a Leader . . . . . . . . 3605

Editing a Text-Based Annotation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3606

Editing a Masking Break Mark . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3607

Editing a Block-Based Annotation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3607

Keynoting Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3608

l | Contents

Configuring the Annotation Tool for Keynoting . . . . . . . . 3609

Using Keynote Insertion Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3613

Using Keynote Legends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3617

Viewing and Editing Keynotes in a Drawing . . . . . . . . . . . 3626

Specifying Keynotes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3631

Working with Keynote Databases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3634

North Arrow and Datum Point Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3653

Inserting a North Arrow or Datum Point in the Drawing . . . . 3655

Fire Rating Line Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3655

Inserting a Fire Rating Line in the Drawing . . . . . . . . . . . 3657

Match Line Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3658

Inserting a Match Line in the Drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3660

Revision Cloud Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3660

Inserting a Revision Cloud in the Drawing . . . . . . . . . . . 3663

Bar Scale Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3664

Inserting a Bar Scale in the Drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3666

Column Grid Bubble Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3666

Inserting a Column Grid Bubble in the Drawing . . . . . . . . 3668

Editing Annotation Symbols in the Drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3669

Editing Block-Based Annotation Symbols . . . . . . . . . . . . 3669

Editing Polyline-Based Annotation Symbols . . . . . . . . . . . 3672

Annotation Scaling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3675

Annotation Tools with Annotative Properties . . . . . . . . . . 3675

Specifying Annotation Scale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3678

Annotation Scales and Viewports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3678

Updating Legacy Annotative Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3680

Derivation of Annotative Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3684

Chapter 49 Callouts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3687

Working with Callouts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3687

Callout Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3690

Workflow for Annotating Drawings with Callouts . . . . . . . 3693

The Properties of a Callout Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3694

Setting the Properties of a Callout Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3701

Placing Title Marks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3702

Placing a Title Mark . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3702

Placing Detail Callouts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3703

Creating a Detail in the Current View Drawing . . . . . . . . . 3703

Creating a Detail in an Existing Drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . 3706

Creating a Detail in a New Drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3708

Placing Section Callouts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3709

Creating a Section in the Current Drawing . . . . . . . . . . . 3710

Creating a Section in an Existing Drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . 3712

Creating a Section in a New Drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3715

Placing Elevation Callouts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3717

Placing a Single Elevation Callout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3717

Contents | li

Placing a Four-Way Interior Elevation Callout . . . . . . . . . . 3719

Placing a Four-Way Exterior Elevation Callout . . . . . . . . . 3722

Placing a Callout Without a Model Space View . . . . . . . . . . . . 3723

Referencing a Callout to an Existing View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3725

Opening a Model Space View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3726

Deleting a Model Space View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3727

Resolving Fields in Callout Symbols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3727

Working with Callouts Outside a Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3728

Placing a Callout in a Non-Project Drawing File . . . . . . . . . 3729

Opening Model Space Views in a Non-Project Drawing File . . 3730

Deleting Model Space Views in a Non-Project Drawing File . . . 3731

Creating New Callout Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3732

Using Fields in Callout Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3732

Creating a Callout Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3733

Chapter 50 Schedules and Display Themes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3739

Schedules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3739

Schedule Table Terminology in AutoCAD Architecture . . . . . 3740

Workflow to Annotate Drawings with Tags and Schedules . . . 3742

Property Sets and Property Set Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3743

Basic Schedules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3747

Adding Schedules Using Schedule Table Tools . . . . . . . . . . 3747

Creating a Schedule Table Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3748

Adding Objects to a Schedule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3751

Removing Objects from a Schedule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3751

Reselecting Objects for a Schedule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3752

Turning Off the Out-of-Date Marker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3752

Updating a Schedule Manually . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3753

Locating and Viewing Scheduled Objects in a Drawing . . . . . 3753

Schedule Tags . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3754

Adding Tags Using Schedule Tag Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3756

Creating a Schedule Tag . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3757

Creating a Schedule Tag Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3760

Anchoring an Existing Schedule Tag to an Object . . . . . . . . 3763

Releasing an Anchored Schedule Tag . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3764

Viewing the Connection Between Tags and Objects . . . . . . . 3764

Renumbering Property Set Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3765

Managing Schedule Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3766

Workflow to Customize Schedule Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3767

Working with Schedule Table Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3769

Exporting a Schedule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3791

Exporting Schedule Data for Selected Objects . . . . . . . . . . 3792

Specifying the Display Properties of a Schedule . . . . . . . . . 3793

Changing General Schedule Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3794

Changing the Selection Criteria for a Schedule . . . . . . . . . 3795

Changing the Location of a Schedule Using Grips . . . . . . . 3796

lii | Contents

Changing External Source Properties of a Schedule . . . . . . . 3796

Adding Table Breaks to a Schedule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3797

Adding Documentation Information to a Schedule . . . . . . . 3799

Editing Table Cell Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3799

Adding Property Set Data to All Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3801

Property Data Formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3802

Expanding the Scope of Scheduled Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3810

Property Set Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3810

Attaching Property Set Data to Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3811

Entering Manual Properties and Fields for Objects . . . . . . . 3812

Editing or Updating Fields in Manual Properties . . . . . . . . 3813

Converting Fields in Manual Properties to Text . . . . . . . . . 3813

Removing Property Set Data from an Object . . . . . . . . . . 3814

Attaching Property Set Data to Styles and Definitions . . . . . . 3814

Entering Manual Properties and Fields for Styles and

Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3815

Editing Style-Based Property Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3816

Editing Style-Based Property Sets Attached to Objects in External

References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3818

Removing Property Set Data from a Style or Definition . . . . . 3820

Browsing Property Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3821

Property Set Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3823

Understanding Automatic Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3826

Understanding Formulas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3830

Creating a Property Set Definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3841

Attaching Notes or Reference Files to a Property Set

Definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3842

Specifying How the Property Set Definition is Applied . . . . . 3843

Adding a Manual Property Definition to a Property Set

Definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3845

Adding a Field to a Property Set Definition . . . . . . . . . . . 3847

Adding an Automatic Property Definition to a Property Set

Definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3849

Adding a Location Property Definition to a Property Set

Definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3851

Adding a Classification Property Definition to a Property Set

Definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3852

Adding a Material Property Definition to a Property Set

Definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3855

Adding a Project Property Definition to a Property Set

Definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3857

Adding an Anchor Property Definition to a Property Set

Definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3858

Adding a Graphic Property Definition to a Property Set

Definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3860

Sequencing Property Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3862

Contents | liii

Hiding Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3862

Editing a Property Set Definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3863

Removing All Property Sets from Objects and Styles . . . . . . 3867

Merging Property Set Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3867

List Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3868

Creating a List Definition for a Manual Property

Definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3869

Editing List Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3871

Changing the List Item for an Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3871

Attaching Notes or Reference Files to a List Definition . . . . . 3872

Classification Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3872

Process Overview: Including Classification Data in

Schedules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3874

A Classification Use Case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3874

Creating a Classification Definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3877

Specifying the Object Types for a Classification Definition . . . 3878

Adding Classifications to a Classification Definition . . . . . . 3879

Attaching Property Set Definitions to a Classification

Definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3881

Editing a Classification Definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3882

Changing the Classification of an Object . . . . . . . . . . . . 3884

Attaching Notes and Files to a Classification . . . . . . . . . . 3884

Display Themes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3885

Process Overview: Creating Display Themes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3885

Creating and Editing Display Themes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3886

Creating a Display Theme Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3888

Adding a Display Theme to a Drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3890

Disabling Display Themes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3892

Activating Display Themes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3892

Display Theme Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3893

Creating a Display Theme Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3894

Troubleshooting Schedule Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3898

Question Marks in Cells . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3898

Object not Listed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3898

Which Property Sets to Attach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3899

Changing Data in the Schedule Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3899

Object Numbers Out of Order . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3900

Locating an Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3900

Selecting an Empty Cell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3900

INVALID in a Table Cell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3900

Troubleshooting Schedule Table Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3901

Add Column Button Unavailable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3901

Property Sets Unavailable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3901

Quantity Column not Totalling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3901

Matrix Column Displaying Data Instead of a Matrix

Symbol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3901

liv | Contents

Troubleshooting Classification Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3902

Empty Classification Tab in Style Properties . . . . . . . . . . . 3902

Long Title for a Classification Property . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3902

Classifications Property to a Property Set Definition . . . . . . 3903

Including Classifications in a Schedule Table . . . . . . . . . . 3903

Objects Not Included in the Schedule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3903

Classifications Selected but Object Not Included . . . . . . . . 3903

Troubleshooting Schedule Tags . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3904

Difference Between Schedule Tags and Project Schedule

Tags . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3904

Troubleshooting Units . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3904

Values on the Extended Data Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3904

Chapter 51 AEC Content and DesignCenter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3907

Overview of AEC Content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3907

Predefined AEC Content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3908

AEC Content in the Content Browser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3909

AEC Content in DesignCenter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3909

Adding AEC Content to Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3912

Adding Content from the Content Browser . . . . . . . . . . . 3912

Adding Content from DesignCenter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3913

Adding Fixture Layouts from DesignCenter . . . . . . . . . . . 3914

Moving Content Between DesignCenter and the Content

Browser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3915

Creating a Tool from AEC Content in DesignCenter . . . . . . 3915

Creating Custom AEC Content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3917

Using the AEC Content Wizard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3917

Editing AEC Content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3930

Modifying DesignCenter Content with the AEC Content

Wizard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3930

Modifying Fixture Layouts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3930

Turning Off the Dimension Scale Override . . . . . . . . . . . 3931

Other Utilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3933

Chapter 52 Cameras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3935

Adjusting the Camera Position . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3935

Chapter 53 Converting Objects to 3D Solids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3937

Converting Objects to 3D Solids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3937

Converting Objects to 3D Solid Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3937

Chapter 54 Visual Audit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3939

Contents | lv

Working with Visual Audit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3939

Performing a Visual Audit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3940

Chapter 55 Reference AEC Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3941

Creating an AEC Entity Reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3941

Adding a Reference to an Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3941

Attaching an Object to an Existing Entity Reference . . . . . . 3942

Attaching Hyperlinks, Notes, and Files to an Entity

Reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3943

Changing the Location of an Entity Reference . . . . . . . . . 3943

Chapter 56 Customizing and Adding New Content for Detail

Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3945

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3945

A Walkthrough of the Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3947

Component Databases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3949

Recipe Specifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3954

Jigs and JigEnts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3979

Common Jigs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3981

Recipe Logging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3987

Blocks and Block Libraries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3995

Using Optimal Geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3995

Naming Blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3997

Base Points for Blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3997

Collecting Similar Blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3997

Block Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3998

Layer Keys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3999

Removing Unnecessary Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3999

Chapter 57 Migrating Detail Component and Keynote Databases . . . . 4001

Migrating Your Database Modifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4001

Running the Detail Component/Keynote Database Migration

Utility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4004

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4007

lvi | Contents

New Features and Introduction

Welcome to AutoCAD Architecture 2012! Built on the new AutoCAD® 2012 platform, this
release is targeted in improving AutoCAD Architecture’s performance in terms of speed and
introducing a new feature: corner window. Column Grid and IFC features have also been
enhanced with new and improved workflow.

1

New Features in AutoCAD Architecture 2012

The following sections list the new and improved features in AutoCAD
Architecture 2012.

■ Overview of Corner Window on page 1958

■ General Information for Exporting Drawing Files to IFC on page 214

■ Grids on page 2749

A Quick Start for Transitioning from AutoCAD to AutoCAD Architecture

If you have previously accomplished your architectural tasks with AutoCAD
and want to transition to AutoCAD Architecture, you will find that using tools
specifically designed for architects provides additional productivity and benefits
over the AutoCAD drafting methods you used before.

The help system is designed to simplify the transition from AutoCAD to
AutoCAD Architecture. These help components will assist new users with

1

previous AutoCAD experience to easily segue into working with AutoCAD
Architecture:

■ User Interface Overview An interactive method for exploring the AutoCAD

Architecture user interface.
Available from the Help drop-down menu.

■ Where is My Command? A tool that lists commands by their previous

menu location in AutoCAD Architecture and displays their current location
on the ribbon.
Available from the Help drop-down menu.

■ User Interface Tour A short, introductory video about the AutoCAD

Architecture user interface.
Available from http://www.autodesk.com/autocadarchitecture-uivideo.

The Autodesk Exchange(online) for AutoCAD Architecture provides centralized
access to some of these components and displays when you open the
application.

This overview of tasks and how to accomplish them in AutoCAD Architecture
can help you get an easy start. For additional information about the task, open
the Help topic or watch one of the Getting Started Videos in Autodesk
Exchange(online) for AutoCAD Architecture.

NOTE The software locations for tools, palettes, and catalogs listed below are the
default locations for a standard US install. Customized installations, as well as
localized versions may vary in the tools they supply and the structure of the tool
palettes.

2 | Chapter 1 New Features and Introduction

How do I…

Work with
Conceptual
Massing?

with AutoCAD
tools

Architecture
tools

Ribbon Locationwith AutoCAD

More Informa­tion

Studies?

Create a Space
Layout and
Colored Plans?

Create Space
Plans?

SolidsDesign Massing

Hatch

Mass Elements
and Mass
Groups

SpacesPolyline and

Home tab ➤ Build

panel ➤ Box drop­down

Home tab ➤ Build

panel ➤ Space drop­down

■ Online Help:

Mass Elements
and Mass
Groups on

page 1003

■ Online Help:

Space Types on

page 2917

A Quick Start for Transitioning from AutoCAD to AutoCAD Architecture | 3

How do I…

with AutoCAD
tools

Architecture
tools

Ribbon Locationwith AutoCAD

More Informa­tion

Create Color Fill
Plans?

Create Floor
Plans?

Draw Walls?

Draw Doors?

Draw Windows?

Hatching and
Polylines

Multilines

ic Blocks

ic Blocks

Display Themes
and Spaces

WallsLinework or

DoorsBlocks or Dynam-

WindowsBlocks or Dynam-

View tab ➤ Appear-

ance panel ➤ ➤
Themes drop-down

Home tab ➤ Build

panel ➤ Wall drop-

down ➤ Wall

Home tab ➤ Build

panel ➤ Door drop-

down ➤ Door

Home tab ➤ Build

panel ➤ Window

drop-down

■ Online Help:

Process Over­view: Creating
Display
Themes on

page 3885

■ Online Help:

Walls on page

1159

■ Online Help:

Doors on page

1871

■ Online Help:

Windows on

page 1955

StairsLineworkDraw Stairs?

RailingsLineworkDraw Railings?

4 | Chapter 1 New Features and Introduction

Home tab ➤ Build

panel ➤ Stair drop-

down ➤ Stair

Home tab ➤ Build

panel ➤ Stair drop-

down ➤ Railing

■ Online Help:

Stairs on page

2101

■ Online Help:

Railings on

page 2305

How do I…

with AutoCAD
tools

Architecture
tools

Ribbon Locationwith AutoCAD

More Informa­tion

Walls?

Add Furniture
and Fixtures?

Place Furniture,
Fixtures, and
Equipment?

Create Annota­tion and
Scheduling?

Drawings?

Blocks or Dynam­ic Blocks

Curtain WallsLineworkDraw Curtain

Multi-View
Blocks

AEC DimensionsDimensionsDimension

Home tab ➤ Build

panel ➤ Wall drop-

down ➤ Curtain Wall

Insert tab ➤ Block

panel ➤ Multi-View

Block

Annotate tab ➤ Di-

mensions panel ➤
AEC Dimension drop­down

■ Online Help:

Curtain Walls

on page 1415

■ Online Help:

Multi-View
Blocks on page

2891

■ Online Help:

AEC Dimen­sions on page

3387

A Quick Start for Transitioning from AutoCAD to AutoCAD Architecture | 5

How do I…

with AutoCAD
tools

Architecture
tools

Ribbon Locationwith AutoCAD

More Informa­tion

Tags?

ules from
Designs?

Properties for
Scheduling
Data?

Tag ToolsBlocksAdd Schedule

SchedulesTablesExtract Sched-

AttributesModify Block

Property Set
Definitions

Annotate tab ➤
Scheduling panel

Annotate tab ➤
Scheduling panel

Schedule Table tab ➤

General panel ➤ Edit

Style drop-down ➤
Property Set Defini-

■ Online Help:

Adding Tags
Using Schedule
Tag Tools on

page 3756

■ Online Help:

Managing
Schedule
Tables on page

3766

■ Online Help:

Property Set
Definitions on

page 3823

XclipCreate Enlarged

Plans?

Callouts and Pro­ject Navigator

6 | Chapter 1 New Features and Introduction

tions

Annotate tab ➤ Cal-

louts panel ➤ ➤
Detail Boundary drop­down

■ Online Help:

Working with
Callouts on

page 3687

How do I…

with AutoCAD
tools

Architecture
tools

Ribbon Locationwith AutoCAD

More Informa­tion

Sections?

tions?

Mark up draw­ing revisions?

command

SectionsLineworkExtract Building

ElevationsLineworkExtract Eleva-

Revision CloudsREVCLOUD

Annotate tab ➤ Cal-

louts panel ➤ Section
drop-down

Annotate tab ➤ Cal-

louts panel ➤ Eleva­tion drop-down

Home tab ➤ Annota-

tion panel ➤ Revision

drop-down ➤ Revi­sion

■ Online Help:

Placing Section
Callouts on

page 3709

■ Online Help:

Placing Eleva­tion Callouts

on page 3717

■ Online Help:

AEC Content in
the Content
Browser on

page 3909

Add Details
and Keynotes?

A Quick Start for Transitioning from AutoCAD to AutoCAD Architecture | 7

How do I…

with AutoCAD
tools

Architecture
tools

Ribbon Locationwith AutoCAD

More Informa­tion

tails?

Work in a Pro­ject?

tion Graphics?

LineworkCreate Details?

Detail Compon­ents

KeynotingLeadersAnnotate De-

Visual StylesVisual StylesCreate Presenta-

Home tab ➤ Details

panel ➤ Detail Com-

ponents

Home tab ➤ Annota-

tion panel ➤ Keynote
drop-down

Floating View panel

➤ Visual Styles

■ Online Help:

Detail Compon­ents on page

3527

■ Online Help:

Keynoting
Tools on page

3608

■ Online Help:
“Use a Visual
Style to Display
Your Model” in
the AutoCAD
Help

Find and Man­age Content?

plorer and
DesignCenter

Content BrowserWindows® Ex-

8 | Chapter 1 New Features and Introduction

Home tab ➤ Build

panel ➤ Tools drop-

down ➤ Content

Browser

■ Online Help:

Content
Browser Over­view on page

129

How do I…

with AutoCAD
tools

Architecture
tools

Ribbon Locationwith AutoCAD

More Informa­tion

Manage Layers?

Manage Project
Drawings?

Layer Properties
Manager

Sheet Set Man­ager

Layer Manager,
Layer Key Styles,
Layer Standards

Project Navigat­or

Contacting Autodesk

Autodesk, Inc.

Home tab ➤ Layers

panel ➤ Layer Proper-

ties

Quick Access Toolbar

➤

■ Online Help:

Managing
Drawing Layers

on page 720

■ Online Help:

Working with
Layer Keys on

page 759

■ Online Help:

Creating and
Editing Layer
Standards on

page 774

■ Online Help: A
Short Overview
of Drawing
Management

111 McInnis Parkway

San Rafael, CA 94903 USA

Phone: [phone]

Website: http://www.autodesk.com

Sales Information

To purchase additional Autodesk software, contact your local reseller. For the
name of the authorized reseller nearest you, call 1-800-964-6432 or access the
Resellers and Training Centers website, http://www.autodesk.com/resellers/.

Contacting Autodesk | 9

Technical Support

If you have technical questions about the products, you should contact your
local reseller or check the frequently asked questions (Technical Solutions &
FAQS) section and Discussion Groups on the website for AutoCAD Architecture
at http://www.autodesk.com/support. News groups are another good source of
information. You can look through the questions that have already been
posted, or you can post your own questions.

Feedback

Please let us know what you think! Whether you have a suggestion for product
enhancement, a compliment, or a complaint, or if you think you have found
a bug, we would like to know about it.

To make comments and find additional information, visit our website at

http://www.autodesk.com/contact.

10 | Chapter 1 New Features and Introduction

Workflow and User Interface

11

12

AutoCAD Architecture Workflow

Workflows in AutoCAD Architecture differ depending on whether you are starting a new
building project or doing additional work on existing drawings. The following topics address
these scenarios separately, mapping typical architectural workflows to instructions for
performing the related tasks in AutoCAD Architecture.

2

Start a New Project

The following topics map typical architectural workflows to instructions for
using AutoCAD Architecture to carry out an architectural project from start to
finish.

If you are completing drawings that exist outside of an AutoCAD Architecture
structured project, see Work on an Existing Drawing on page 16.

Create a Project

Identify the floor elevations and
any wings of the building

Open the Project Browser on page 322, and create
the project from scratch on page 331, from a

-----Set up the project

template on page 328, or from an existing project

on page 330.

Define vertical levels on page 380 and any

-----

horizontal divisions on page 387 for the building
project.

13

Design Your Building

Define the project properties on page 333 and add

-----Enter the project information

detailed information on page 337.

Decide on which portion of the
building plan to work

Associate the plan to a location
and an elevation

Add walls, doors, and windows to
the drawing

Add other design objects to the
drawing

Create a construct on page 404 in which to add

----­architectural objects.

Assign the construct to one of the previously

-----

identified levels on page 380 and divisions on page
387 (if applicable).

Use wall tools to add the exterior and interior

walls on page 1163, door tools to add the different

-----

doors on page 1873, and window tools to add the

different windows on page 1964 required in the
drawing.

Add other architectural objects to the construct,

-----

such as openings on page 2062 and stairs on page
2137 and spaces on page 2987.

14 | Chapter 2 AutoCAD Architecture Workflow

Annotate Your Design

Create a view on page 453 drawing from the

-----Annotate the design

constructs, and insert information, such as

dimensions on page 3389.

-----Tag objects

Add tags on page 3754 to objects in the drawings.

-----Add schedules

Add schedule tables on page 3747 to the drawings.

Use callout tools to add a title mark on page 3702

-----Add a title mark

to the sheet.

Publish Your Drawings

Create on page 484 a sheet.
Sheets on page 481 are the final output of a

-----Make a sheet

building design. As you revisit planning stages,
any changes you make to constructs, elements,
and views are reflected in sheets.

-----Place the drawing on the sheet

Add a view on page 465 to the sheet.

Annotate Your Design | 15

Create a title block on page 541 for the sheet, and

-----Add a title block
add fields on page 542 to the title block.

Plot or publish drawings on page 276, create an
electronic on page 352 file set to transmit or

-----Publish drawings
archive the project, or etransmit on page 508 the

sheets or sheet sets.

Work on an Existing Drawing

This topic follows a typical workflow for completing drawings that were started
independent of an AutoCAD Architecture structured project. An AutoCAD
Architecture structured project automates the processes relating to building
design and documentation.

If you wish to work within an AutoCAD Architecture structured project, see

Start a New Project on page 13.

Add or Modify Architectural Objects

Add walls, doors, and windows to
the drawing

Add other building objects to the
drawing

Use wall tools to add the exterior and interior

walls on page 1163, door tools to add the doors on

----­page 1873, and window tools to add the windows

on page 1964 required in the drawing.

Add other objects to the construct, such as

-----

openings on page 2062, stairs on page 2137, and
spaces on page 2987.

16 | Chapter 2 AutoCAD Architecture Workflow

Customize how an opening in the
wall displays in the drawing

-----

Add an endcap on page 1373 to the drawing.

Edit the objects, such as walls on page 1190, doors

-----Modify the drawing

on page 1883, and windows on page 1974 as needed.

Clean up any wall intersections
that do not display correctly

Add or Modify Annotation

Annotate the drawing with
dimensions

Edit the wall in place to correctly connect on page

-----

1354 the walls.

Add dimensions on page 3387 to plan drawings, or

-----

edit on page 3422 existing dimensions.

Use callout tools to add a title mark on page 3702

-----Add callouts

to the drawing.

Use tag tools to add tags on page 3754 to objects

-----Tag objects

in the drawing.

Add or Modify Annotation | 17

Publish the Drawings

Use schedule tools on page 3747 to create schedule

-----Add schedules
tables.

Create a new drawing file with borders and fields
on page 3489 as needed, save the drawing, and

-----Create a title block for the drawing

then drag the drawing onto a tool palette on
page 92. Text inserted in fields updates if it
changes during the life cycle of the drawing.

Select the title block tool to insert on page 545 the

-----Add the title block to the drawing

title block you created, or select an architectural
title block template on page 179.

-----Publish drawings

Plot or publish on page 276 drawings.

18 | Chapter 2 AutoCAD Architecture Workflow

The Workspace

3

The AutoCAD Architecture workspace is a highly customizable graphical user interface designed
to accommodate the various workflows and work styles of architectural professionals. The
topics in this section provide an overview of the available workspace components and describe
how to access and configure them to meet your needs. For detailed instructions on using
workspace components to create and edit architectural objects, refer to the relevant
object-specific topics in Help (Walls, Doors, Windows, and so on).

Changes to the Workspace

The workspace has been redesigned to make it easier and faster for you to find
and use the tools and commands you need for the task at hand. This new user
interface is described in detail in the following sections, but here are the
highlights:

The Ribbon

Similarly to Microsoft Office, AutoCAD Architecture 2012 now uses the ribbon
as the central access point for commands. The ribbon contains a number of
tabs on which commands are grouped according to conceptual task types or
selected objects.

The ribbon replaces the menu bar and the toolbars as the primary command
access point.

19

The Application Menu

The application menu contains basic commands pertaining to the drawing
as a whole, such as Open, Save, Print, and Export. Like the menu browser it

replaces, the application menu is accessed by clicking in the upper-left
corner of the workspace.

Workspaces

AutoCAD Architecture is equipped with one single default workspace
(Architecture). The menus and commands associated with the previously
provided workspaces (Design, Document, Detailing, and Visualization) can
now be accessed from the tabs of the ribbon.

NOTE The tool palette groups associated with the previous default workspaces
are still available from the context menu of the tool palettes set.

20 | Chapter 3 The Workspace

Drawing Status Bar Menu

The drawing status bar menu has been removed from AutoCAD Architecture

2012. Commands formerly found there can now be accessed from the
application menu.

Commands on the old menu

Help Access

With the removal of the menu bars, the commands to access Help features
have been moved into the InfoCenter at the top right of the application
window. Here, you can find the online resources of InfoCenter and the Help
menu, which lets you access Help, Tutorials, and other interactive resources.

Toolbars

Toolbars have been removed from AutoCAD Architecture. Commands formerly
found on toolbars can now be accessed from the ribbon.

Autodesk Seek

You can use Autodesk Seek to find product design information. Many content
providers, both corporate partners and individual contributors, publish to
Autodesk Seek. Content includes 3D models, 2D drawings, specifications,
brochures, and other descriptions of products or components.

Changes to the Workspace | 21

Import design content into AutoCAD Architecture

You can also share your own content with others using Autodesk Seek. Upload
drawings or blocks to Autodesk Seek to give your partners and customers ready
access to your content.

For more information, see “Use Autodesk Seek to Add and Share Drawings”
in the AutoCAD Help.

The Workspace Concept

In AutoCAD Architecture, a workspace is the basic user interface that includes
those controls, commands, and palettes you need for your architectural process.
When you first start AutoCAD Architecture, the default Architecture workspace
is displayed.

You can reconfigure the workspace according to your preferences as you work.
You can move or hide various components as needed, display additional
ribbon controls, or add new tools and tool palettes. If desired, you can save
your customizations as a new workspace that you can access for later drawing
sessions. You can also switch from one workspace to another at any time. For
more information, see “Create Task-Based Workspaces” in the AutoCAD Help.

22 | Chapter 3 The Workspace

Default configuration of the Architecture workspace

Workspace Components

The workspace consists of a drawing window with ribbon, tool palettes, and
other controls that you use to set up an architectural project, create your
design, and generate construction documents.

In the following sections, each component of the workspace is described in
detail. Components can be turned off and on for different workspaces,
depending on your requirements.

For an interactive guide to the user interface, click the Help button in the
InfoCenter on the top right of the application window, and click User Interface
Overview.

Workspace Components | 23

The Ribbon

The ribbon is the central location for accessing commands in AutoCAD
Architecture. The ribbon is organized into tabs that reflect common tasks in
the drawing process. There are 2 types of tabs:

■ Static tabs are available regardless of which objects are selected in the

■ Contextual tabs display depending on the object selected in the drawing

drawing area. The commands on these tabs were previously located on the
menus and toolbars.

Static Home tab

area. When you select a door, a contextual tab for doors is displayed. The
commands on the contextual tabs reflect the commands on the context
menu of an object.

Contextual tab for door objects

24 | Chapter 3 The Workspace

Displaying the Ribbon

To display the ribbon if it is not displayed in your workspace, or has been
closed, enter ribbon on the command line.

You can use the button at the right of the tab names to modify the
appearance of the ribbon as follows:

■ To display only the panel titles of the ribbon tabs, click (Minimize to

Panel Titles) at the top right of the ribbon.

■ To display only the tab names as titles, click again (Minimize to Tabs).

■ To redisplay the full ribbon, click a third time (Show Full Ribbon).

Using the Ribbon

To start a command from the ribbon

1 If the ribbon is not displayed by default, enter ribbon on the command

line.

2 Click the desired tab.

3 Move the cursor over the commands on the tab as needed to view tooltips

describing the commands.

4 Click a command.

The Ribbon | 25

Some ribbon commands are grouped under a drop-down menu. You can
access them by clicking the arrow next to the command.

Some panels have an expansion arrow to indicate that the panel can
be expanded. The expanded part typically contains commands that are
less frequently used.

26 | Chapter 3 The Workspace

5 The expanded panel is displayed when you click the arrow . To pin

the expanded part of the panel onscreen, click .

To tear off a panel from a static ribbon tab

6 If you want a panel from a static tab to remain in your workspace when

you switch to another tab, you can tear the panel off its tab and use it as
a floating palette. To do so, move the cursor over the title bar of the panel,
and then drag the panel off the ribbon and into the drawing area.

To return a floating panel to the ribbon

7 Move the cursor over the floating panel, and click Return Panels to

Ribbon.

To hide and display tabs and panels

8 To hide tabs and panels or display a particular tab or panel, right-click

anywhere on the ribbon and click Tabs or Panels (Show Tabs or Show
Panels if you right-click on an empty area of the ribbon), and click the
tab or panel name to deselect or select it.

A check mark displays beside the tab or panel name if it is selected.

The Ribbon | 27

Locating Commands in the Workspace

The ribbon is intuitive and task-related, and the transition from menus and
toolbars to the new user interface will in most cases be quick and easy.
However, it is a new design, and the following tips might help you make a
more seamless transition.

Where is My Command? Tool

The Where is My Command? tool is a help file that lists commands by their
previous menu location and displays their current location on the ribbon.

28 | Chapter 3 The Workspace

You can access the Where is My Command? tool from the Help menu ➤ Where
is My Command, or from the landing page of the online Help.

Searching the Home Tab

The Home tab contains the most frequently used commands within the
software. Basic object and drawing tools can be found here, as well as frequently
used utilities like modification tools, layers and basic annotation. Use the
Home tab as your starting point in a new drawing.

Finding Commands with the Application Menu

The application menu has a Search mode, where you can enter a command
name or part of it, and see a list of locations in the user interface where the
command can be accessed. For more information, see Using the Application

Menu to Locate Commands on page 37.

The Ribbon | 29

Searching by Context

Commands that refer to a selected object can be found on the contextual tab
of that object.

Door contextual tab

The command layout of the contextual tab of an object is in most cases based
on the structure of commands on the context menu of the object.

Door context menu

For example, on the context menu of a door you can find the Add Selected
command. On the contextual Door tab, you can find the Add Selected
command on the General panel.

Finding More Information about the Ribbon

Use the following resources to find out more about the ribbon.

Click Help menu ➤ Learning Resources, and choose from these items:

■ User Interface Overview (interactive)

30 | Chapter 3 The Workspace

■ Tutorials

To access the Where is My Command? tool, click Help menu ➤ Where is My
Command?

The Static Ribbon Tabs

The workspace comprises a set of static tabs that are optimized for architectural
tasks. The default Architecture workspace for the US version of AutoCAD
Architecture 2012 includes the following static tabs on the ribbon:

The Home Tab

The Home tab contains the most frequently used commands within the
software. Basic object and drawing tools can be found here, as well as frequently
used utilities like modification tools, layers, and basic annotation.

■ Build. Contains the basic commands for adding the most commonly used

objects, like walls, doors, and mass elements, as well as commands for
opening the Tool palettes on page 70, The Properties Palette on page 107,
and the Content Browser on page 129.

■ Draw. Contains common linework tools, like lines, polylines, and

rectangles, as well as hatch and boundary tools and AEC Polygons on page

1827.

■ Modify. Contains commands for manipulating objects and linework in a

drawing. In addition to standard commands like Move, Rotate, Erase,
Offset, Mirror, Scale, Array, Explode, Join, there is also a command for

converting AEC objects to mass elements on page 1040 and converting mass
elements to 3D Solids on page 1039.

■ Layers. Contains commands that you need to work with layers. You can

open the Layer Manager on page 720 and the Layer States Manager on page
749 from here.

■ Annotation. Contains basic commands for inserting text, leaders, and

dimensions. For a larger selection of annotation commands, see the

Annotate tab on page 33.

The Ribbon | 31

■ Inquiry. Contains commands for measuring distance and areas, and the

AutoCAD list command. Furthermore, you can find commands for

evaluating architectural spaces on page 3177.

■ Section and Elevation. Contains commands for generating sections on

page 3251 and elevations on page 3321 of your plan or model. To create sections
and elevations with Callouts on page 3687, see the Callouts panel on the

Annotate tab on page 33.

■ Details. Accesses Detail Component Manager on page 3549 from which you

can insert detail components directly into drawings or onto tool palettes.

Floating View Panel

The floating View panel offers access to the commands for views, visual styles,
and the Zoom and Pan tools. This panel is not docked to the ribbon by default,
and you can access it independently of the current ribbon tab. You can dock
the floating View panel to the Home tab, if desired.

The Insert Tab

The Insert tab lets you work with references, multi-view blocks, blocks,
attributes, and content from external sources like Content Browser and
Autodesk Seek.

■ Reference. Contains commands for working with external references (xrefs),

DWF/DWFx files, DGN underlays, and raster images.

■ Block. Contains commands for inserting and editing blocks and multi-view

blocks on page 2905.

■ Attributes. Contains commands for creating and editing attributes.

■ Import. Contains commands for importing WMF, ACIS, 3D Studio Max,

DGN, and LandXML files.

32 | Chapter 3 The Workspace

■ Content. Contains commands for inserting content from Content Browser

on page 129, from DesignCenter, or from Autodesk Inventor into your
drawing.

■ Seek. Lets you search online for prefabricated design content. For more

information about Seek, see “Use Autodesk Seek to Share Drawings” in the
AutoCAD Help.

The Annotate Tab

The Annotate tab contains commands that help you to mark up your drawing
files.

■ Tools. Accesses the Document tool palettes set.

■ Text. Contains all commands for text and text styles and accesses the Fields

editor.

■ Dimensions. Contains commands for inserting and editing both AEC on

page 3387 and AutoCAD dimensions.

■ Scheduling. Contains commands for inserting schedule tables on page 3747

for basic objects, creating and inserting schedule tags on page 3754, and
running a space evaluation on page 3177. Additionally, you can create

schedule table styles on page 3769, and renumber property set data on page

3765.

■ Callouts. Contains commands for placing title marks on page 3702, sections

on page 3709, elevations on page 3717, and detail views on page 3703.

■ Keynoting. Contains commands for adding sheet and reference keynotes

on page 3608, keynote legends on page 3617, opening the keynote editor on
page 3631, and selecting a keynote database on page 3634.

■ Markup. Accesses commands for marking up a drawing for review. You

can add revision clouds on page 3660, mask blocks on page 2867, wipeouts,
open the Markup Set Manager, and load a markup DWF.

■ Annotation Scaling. Commands here let you add the current scale to

objects, display and edit the scale list, and add and delete scales for
annotative objects.

The Ribbon | 33

The Render Tab

The Render tab contains all commands you need to work with rendering,
materials, lights, cameras, and animations.

■ Render. Contains commands for rendering a model or a region of it,

defining render settings, generating a render output file, and opening the
Advanced Render settings palette.

■ Materials. Here, you can open the Materials palette, activate and deactivate

materials and textures, and set the material mapping.

■ Sun and Location. Here you can set parameters for natural sunlight.

■ Lights. Contains commands for setting spotlights and shadows, selecting

international lighting units, and enabling photometric lighting.

■ Camera. Contains commands for creating and adjusting camera views.

■ Animations. Contains commands for creating a WMV animation, as well

as a model walk-through and fly-through.

The View Tab

The View tab is the central location for defining and changing views and
navigating the drawing.

NOTE The View tab contains a number of commands also found on the application
status bar.

■ Navigate. Contains the ViewCube on page 67 and SteeringWheels on page

68, as well as the Pan, Zoom, and Orbit commands.

■ Appearance. Here, you can select predefined views, create new views, open

View Manager, select a visual style, open the Visual Styles Manager, and
define Walk and Fly settings. You can access predefined display themes

34 | Chapter 3 The Workspace

on page 3885. You can also adjust clip planes and access the Regenerate
commands.

■ Coordinates. Contains commands relevant to the World Coordinate System

(WCS) or User Coordinate System (UCS).

■ Viewports. Here you can switch between different viewport configurations,

create new viewports, and clip and join viewports.

■ Face Effects. Contains commands for defining object settings, including

shading, color, face lighting, and x-ray.

■ Edge Effects. Contains command for defining edge settings, including

facet edges, isolines, edge overhang, jitter, and silhouette. You can also
define the color of obscured edges and edge intersections here.

■ Windows. Contains most of the commands that were on the Window

menu in previous versions. Here you can switch between open drawings,
arrange open windows onscreen, lock the workspace windows, display and
hide the drawing window status bar on page 44, turn items on the drawing
window status bar on an off, and display the text window.

The Manage Tab

On the Manage tab, you can find features for advanced users and CAD
managers.

■ Action Recorder. Contains commands for recording and playing action

macros.

■ CAD Standards. Contains commands for configuring AutoCAD standards,

check your drawing for standards violations, and start Layer Translator.

■ Project Standards. Contains commands associated with project standards

on page 599 for an AEC project. You can configure project standards,
synchronize the project with its standards, synchronize standards with
each other, and audit projects and drawings.

■ Style and Display. Accesses the Style Manager on page 870, the Display

Manager on page 791, the AEC Dimension Style Wizard on page 3454, the

The Ribbon | 35

structural member catalog on page 2531, and the structural member wizard

on page 2536. You can also define and insert profiles on page 2853.

■ Applications. Contains commands for loading extra applications, like ARX,

LSP, or VB applications, and running user-defined scripts and VBA macros.
Also accesses the VBA Manager and the Visual Basic and Visual Lisp editors
here.

■ Customization. Accesses the User Interface Editor (CUI) and the Tool

palettes on page 70.

The Application Menu

The application menu contains commands that are relevant for the drawing
as a whole.

The application menu contains commands for the following file operations:

■ Create new drawings and projects

■ Open drawing files, project files, DGN files, and IFC files

36 | Chapter 3 The Workspace

■ Save drawings to the current file format, to AutoCAD 2007 file format, as

DWT file, or as DWS file

■ Export files to DGN, DWF, PDF, IFC, gBXML, and DuctXML formats, and

previous versions of AutoCAD

■ Plot drawings

■ Publish drawings to Map Guide, DWF, PDF, Seek, and eTransmit

■ Access drawing setup and drawing utilities

■ Access the program options

■ Close drawings and projects

■ Exit AutoCAD Architecture

Accessing the Application Menu

To access the application menu, click at the upper-left corner of the
workspace.

The application menu remains open as long as the cursor is located inside the
application menu window. To close the application menu, either activate a
menu command, or click outside of the application menu window.

Using the Application Menu to Locate Commands

In the application menu, you can search for a command and then select it
from the list of matches. Search results are retrieved from the following
locations:

■ Application menu

■ Static ribbon tabs

■ Any contextual tab currently on display

■ Quick Access toolbar

The Application Menu | 37

You can enter the following strings to search for:

■ Display name of the command in application menu, ribbon or Quick

Access toolbar. For example, you can enter “Style Manager” or “Plot
Preview.”

■ Part of the display name: If you are not sure what the exact name is you

can enter a part of the name, for example “Style” or “Save.” This will
retrieve all commands that contain that string.

■ Actual command name: You can enter the name of a command as it would

be typed on the command line, for example “aecstylemanager” or “dist.”
This will retrieve all locations where this command can be found.

IMPORTANT When searching for AutoCAD Architecture commands, you must
add the Aec prefix (for example, aecwalladd instead of walladd) to the
command.

In addition to instances of the search string, the results include the contents
of the associated tooltip and any search tags you have defined in the Customize
User Interface editor (CUI). For information about search tags, see “Assign
Search Tags” in the AutoCAD Help.

1 At the upper-left corner of the workspace, click to open

the application menu.

2 In the text entry box at the top of the menu, enter the desired

search term.

A list of matches replaces the regular application menu display.

38 | Chapter 3 The Workspace

3 To select one of the found commands, click it.

4 To return to the regular application menu display, click at the

right side of the text entry box.

Displaying Recently Opened Documents in the Application Menu

The application menu lets you display a list of recently opened documents
according to preferences you specify.

1 Click to open the application menu.

2 At the top of the menu, click Recent Documents .

3 At the top of the menu, under Recent Documents, specify how

you want documents grouped:

■ By access date

The Application Menu | 39

■ By Size

■ By Type (DWG, APJ, and DGN)

■ By Ordered List (alphabetical order)

4 At the top right of the list of documents, click to specify

whether to display file type icons or preview images next to the
document names.

5 If you want to keep a document in the list, regardless of its

last-saved date, click its pushpin to change the image from

to . The document will remain in the list until you unpin it.

Displaying Currently Open Documents in the Application Menu

The application menu lets you display currently open documents.

1 Click to open the application menu.

2 At the top of the menu, click Open documents .

3 At the top right of the list of documents, click to specify

whether to display file type icons or preview images next to the
document names.

Changing the Number of Recent Files and Actions in the Application Menu

Use this procedure to change the default number (9) of recent documents
displayed in the application menu:

40 | Chapter 3 The Workspace

1 Click to open the application menu.

2 At the bottom of the application menu, click Options.

3 On the Open and Save tab of the Options dialog, under

Application Menu, change the value for Number of recently-used
files.

4 Click OK.

The Quick Access Toolbar

The Quick Access toolbar is a customizable toolbar located at the top of the
application window, just to the right of the application menu button.

By default, this toolbar contains a set of frequently used commands for the
application. You can add and remove commands as needed.

To add a command from the ribbon

1 On the ribbon, locate the command you want to add.

2 Right-click the command, and click Add to Quick Access Toolbar.

NOTE Not all commands can be added to the Quick Access Toolbar.

If a command is ineligible, the Add to Quick Access Toolbar command
is not visible in the context menu.

To add other commands to the Quick Access Toolbar

3 On the Quick Access Toolbar, click the down arrow at the right

end of the toolbar, and select More Commands.

4 In the Customize User Interface Editor, select the command you

want to add and drag it onto the Quick Access toolbar.

To remove a command from the Quick Access toolbar

➤ Select the command on the Quick Access Toolbar, right-click, and

click Remove from Quick Access Toolbar.

The Quick Access Toolbar | 41

Context Menus

When you right-click in the drawing area, the content of the context menu
depends on the currently selected object(s). For example, if one or more door
objects are selected, a door-specific context menu is displayed as shown.

Door context menu

Most commands that can be found on the context menu of an object exist in
the contextual ribbon tab of the object, too.

If more than one type of object is selected, the context menu includes only
those commands that can be applied to all the selected objects. Likewise, the
ribbon displays a Multiple Objects contextual tab that contains only the
applicable commands. If no objects are selected, the general context menu is
displayed as shown below. This menu contains non-object-specific commands.

42 | Chapter 3 The Workspace

General drawing context menu

Tool Palettes

Tool palettes provide the main method for accessing tools to create objects in
your model. You can have tools for standard objects as well as for objects with
specific styles and properties. Tool palettes are organized by tool palette groups
in a tool palettes set. You can create your own tool palettes, or you can copy
existing tool palettes from the Content Browser.

Design tool palette with tools for standard design objects

For more information, see Working with Tool Palettes on page 70.

Tool Palettes | 43

Properties Palette

The Properties palette provides a central location to view and modify both
the physical and graphical properties of an object. The object can be one you
are about to draw, or one that is already selected in the drawing area. Using
the Extended Data tab of the Properties palette, you can also attach other
kinds of information to an object, such as classifications, notes, reference
documents, hyperlinks, and property set data. You typically keep the Properties
palette open during an AutoCAD Architecture session.

Properties Palette for a standard wall object

For more information, see The Properties Palette on page 107.

Drawing Status Bar

Located at the bottom of the drawing area, the drawing status bar displays
status information about the current drawing and provides access to commands
that can be applied to the drawing.

44 | Chapter 3 The Workspace