Format of the DCADWIN.LIN file

Once you have selected an editor, open your DCADWIN.LIN file and look at the line definitions. You should see something like this:

>ElecLine
4.0
0 40
0 -7
-71.56 -3.953
90 7.5
0 3.5
-90 -3.75
-180 3.5
-90 -3.75
0 3.5
71.56 -3.953
0 -7
0 40

This is the default definition for the ElecLine line type that ships with DataCAD. Each line type is composed of three main parts. The first part is the name of the line. The second part is the default line spacing. The last part is the actual definition of the line.

Let's start with the name of the line. This should be easy to spot since it's in plain English. In our example above the name of the line is:

>ElecLine

This line does two things. The obvious thing is to name the line you are defining. The name can be up to 8 characters and will appear on the menu keys whenever a user is asked to select a line. You can use any valid character for line names. Valid characters are a-z, A-Z, 0-9, hyphen, underscore, #, etc. Try to pick a name that will help you remember what the line is.

The second and not so obvious thing this first line does is tell DataCAD whether this line is to be scaled to fit or left exactly as defined. Prior to DataCAD version 6.0, all lines were drawn exactly as they were defined. This can leave awkward straight segments or "tails" at the end of some lines. When DataCAD is told not to scale the line to fit it draws exactly what you have defined for the line as determined by the spacing set at the time the line is drawn. This will work well for items that are meant to be drawn to an exact size but not so well for others.

Here is an example. Let's say you want to draw some parking spaces and rather than draw them all manually you decide to create a line type to draw the lines of the parking spaces. You want these parking spaces are to be exactly 9'-0" wide. When drawing this line in DataCAD, everything works great as long as the lines you draw are all divisible by 9'-0". If you have the line defined to adjust as needed and you draw a line that is not exactly divisible by 9'-0" then the program will adjust all the parking spaces to fit the length between the two points you select when drawing the line. This is not the behavior you want. You need to have all the parking spaces 9'-0" wide not some at 9'-4" some at 8'-10".

This is where the scaling setting comes into play. The name is preceded by a special character. In our example the character is '>'; the only other available prefix character is '*' . Each of these characters are codes to tell DataCAD whether to adjust the spacing or not:

The '>' character tells DataCAD to adjust the spacing. The '*' tells DataCAD to draw the line at the exact spacing defined in the line file.

Prior to DataCAD version 6.0, the only setting was no adjustment '*'. If you've used a version of DataCAD older than version 6.0, then you may remember those little "tails" created at the end of a line when it didn't fit just right.

So when do you use the adjust setting? Normally all lines can work just fine with the adjust setting on. You only need to turn off the adjusting for line types that must be drawn to an exact size and spacing. If you aren't sure, try your line with adjusting on and see how it works.

Continue with Part III