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#75007 by BEMArchitect
Thu Oct 11, 2018 3:57 pm
All these great responses are prompting me to keep asking....thanks in advance.

1. Can you set the snap angle in the GRIDS menu to default to 8 instead of 4? If so, how?

2. I'm still using my old template/symbol function from DC10, but the divisions in grid layout, which pops up on the left side of the screen, are so darn small that I can't see my symbols clearly. I've tried decreasing the number of x/y divisions but it does very little to help. Also, I tried unlocking "toolbars" and stretching it, but that doesn't work. It seems that that particular "menu" that displays my symbols is a set width. How can I make it wider so the divisions within it are wider and more legible? See attached screenshot.
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#75008 by Roger D
Thu Oct 11, 2018 4:18 pm
1. You should have your own personal default drawing with all your personal settings to start all new drawings with. In that file, set the grid to 8.

2. Not sure on Templates. I still use my old standards. A long time ago, I left them in the basic C:\Datacad folder and never updated them with each update. That way paths etc always work and don't need updating. I'll use Templates to add symbols to a drawing, but then use the Symbol Browser set to show only the Drawing Symbols, to place additional occurances of symbols already in the drawing.
#75009 by joshhuggins
Thu Oct 11, 2018 4:51 pm
BEMArchitect wrote:thanks in advance.
You're welcome! :D

BEMArchitect wrote:1. Can you set the snap angle in the GRIDS menu to default to 8 instead of 4? If so, how?
Each layer remembers it's own grid setting. So the best way to handle this is to open your default drawings and set all of your layers to have their Snap angles set to 8. (Utility Menu, S1 Snap Angle, F0 Snap Angle, and set to 8) There is a macro called Gird Lock that used to let you set all the values in the Snap Angle menu and then apply them to all the layers at once but it doesn't seem to do this anymore :( so it has to be done for each individual layer now. When you create a new layer Datacad uses the values of the active layer and applies them to new layers you create. Once your default drawings are setup with all your values, you should be all set if you just leave it set to 8 as all new layers will use that going forward.

BEMArchitect wrote:2. I'm still using my old template/symbol function from DC10, but the divisions in grid layout, which pops up on the left side of the screen, are so darn small that I can't see my symbols clearly. I've tried decreasing the number of x/y divisions but it does very little to help. Also, I tried unlocking "toolbars" and stretching it, but that doesn't work. It seems that that particular "menu" that displays my symbols is a set width. How can I make it wider so the divisions within it are wider and more legible? See attached screenshot.
So what you have there on the screen is the Symbol Browser which allows you to display legacy Template files and load symbols from them but that is about it. The controls in the symbol browser are used when using the Folder and Drawing options when you click on the Folder icon. If you want to change aspects of template files like the divisions layout you will need to either load the template file into the old Template viewer via the Utility Menu, F4 Templates or manually edit the template file with a text editor.

I don't have time to go into the process of moving your workflow from templates to symbol browser right now but I would guess we have covered it at some point here on the forum if you want to search for it to get some ideas about it. When you are ready to tackle that post a new forum topic on it and we will give it a go! Long story short, it takes a bit of cleanup of your symbol file and folder naming structure, but once you do it it's much less work keeping your symbols organized and not loosing symbols due to pathing issues in template files.
Last edited by joshhuggins on Fri Oct 12, 2018 10:37 am, edited 1 time in total.
#75010 by Ted B
Fri Oct 12, 2018 3:42 am
Every few year or so I bite the bullet to create new template drawing files for my common sheet sizes and project types. Nice, clean files from "new" with the layers, fonts, symbol defaults, etc... rather than continually recycling old template files to reduce the "layer creep" and the odd formattings, grids and settings. Revisiting the pen-table settings is also useful.
#75014 by Neil Blanchard
Fri Oct 12, 2018 7:14 am
I encourage you to use the Symbol Browser in Folder mode. And to really use it well, it almost requires a second monitor - you can undock it, and make it larger and wider so you can see the symbols.

You can snap to the symbol to use a custom insertion point.

The only thing you need to do sometimes is to add a prefix to the symbol names to get them to appear in the order you want. So, for folders that you need this, make a Copy of the whole folder, and then edit the symbol names adding 01-, 02-, 03-, etc. so they appear in the order you want. You can do this by clicking on the Save Symbol on the Options menu in the SB, and then right-clicking on a symbol and add the prefix. Cancel out of saving a new symbol - this is just an easier way to get to the symbol folder.

The Symbol Browser uses the structure of the folders to organize your symbols - rather than the templates - that have the added complication of all those pathnames. The pathnames are the single biggest headache in the way DataCAD used to do things. The Symbol Browser lets you leave pathnames and makes it MUCH easier to use symbols.

Arrange the folders in a CSI format.

Use long descriptive "English" names.

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