Topic Title

You now have the ability to assign view dependency to layers inside symbols. A symbol may contain layers which display information only in the 2D (plan) view, layers which display information only in 3D (elevation, isometric, perspective and axonometric) views, or layers which display information in both. Using this feature requires that the 2D and 3D elements inside your symbols be drawn on unique layers.

To assign 2D and/or 3D view dependency to layers inside symbols:

1. Save a symbol which contains all of the information which will display in both 2D views and in 3D views.
2. Right click on the symbol in the Symbol Browser and choose Edit Symbol to launch the Symbol Editor. You may alternatively [Ctrl]+[Right-click on the symbol in the drawing and pick Edit Symbol from the Symbol Tools menu, or double click on the symbol if Symbol Editor is checked on the Misc tab of Program Preferences.
3. Open the Symbol Layer Manager and highlight the layers which you want to assign to 2D (plan) view projection only. Toggle the Show in 2D button on and toggle the Show in 3D button off.
4. Now highlight the layers that you want to assign to 3D views (elevation, isometric, perspective, axonometric). Toggle the Show in 2D button off and toggle the Show in 3D button on.
5. If there are layers in the symbol that you want to display in both 2D and 3D views, toggle both buttons on.
6. When you have finished assign view dependency to your layers, close the Symbol Layer Manager by clicking Close.
7. Close the Symbol Editor by clicking the [x] in the upper left corner, and choose Yes to save the changes.

Just like in DataCAD 12, the changes you make to the symbol in the Symbol Editor apply only to the definition of the symbol in the current drawing. The original symbol on the hard drive, and the definition of the symbol in other drawings, is not affected.

You may use a new feature of DataCAD X3 to save the updated symbol out to the hard drive. [Ctrl]+[Right-click] on the symbol in the drawing and pick Save As to save out a copy. You may overwrite the existing one if you wish.

DataCAD X3 includes a collection of over 1,000 2D/3D symbols, located in the Symbols\sub-folder of the program installation folder.