Detailing Drawings

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The DDraw (Detailing Drawings) command is designed for maximum automation of the design of drawings for each part. First of all, the program will be useful for those who design furniture, exhibition stands, interiors and promotional items from flat sheets. The program combines the call of many AVC commands at once. The program saves the engineer from many routine operations and greatly speeds up the work. You just need to draw a 3d model of furniture from the details of solids (solid bodies). The program will do the rest:

• Finds the same parts, no matter how they are located.

• The program can pull out all parts (solids) from assembly blocks.

• It will find an empty space in the model space and invoke the Lay program to lay out the parts with the main plane flat in the XY plane.

• Will write, if necessary, a heading for each part with a description of the material and quantity.

• Insert sheets (layouts) from the template and target all viewports to the laid out parts. How many viewports are on the sheet in the template - so many details will be placed on the sheet.

• Rename sheets according to a template with substitutions. You can list part names in the sheet tab title.

• Selects the optimal scale for the views. You can set the same scale for all views on the same sheet.

• Clips viewports to fit the details.

• Calls up the NC Preparation program for recognizing machining technologies and preparing contours. The contours of milling, drilling, sawing are recognized. But you can not make contours, but leave solids.

• Calls the Dimensions to Detailing program for each part.

• You can configure up to 9 styles of command settings and quickly switch between them right from the command line.

• You can configure all options in the dialog box and in the AutoCAD Preferences window.

The program uses all the features of the LAY command: numbering parts, setting headers, multiplying quantities, sorting parts, etc.

Also available are all the options for optimizing contours, rounding or selecting corners, as in the Outer Contour (OSL) program. The capabilities of the CNC preparation program are used to create the contours of the exits of the cutter for the part, select the entry point of the cutter, and so on.

The program can interact with the A>V>C> Properties Palette, the part name and other solid properties can be used in the part header, sheet name.

Program restrictions

• It is required to prepare a template drawing in advance with a sample sheet, on which there must be one or more viewports.

• The program does not work with ModelDoc views (_viewbase). But you can add such views and sections after running the DDraw command.

• The program works only with 3D-solid , does not work with networks, surfaces.

• The program makes only one view per part. If the "Both Sides" checkbox is set in the LAY program settings, then the DDraw command uses separate viewports for the front and back views. And these viewports will not be aligned with each other.

• The program is slow because it does a great job with every detail and adds thousands of objects to the drawing. Try to minimize the number of parts per command call. AutoCAD does not always show progress and may appear to be stuck. But try to wait 3-5 minutes - there is a chance that the process will complete successfully.

• If at some stage a failure occurs, then all previously created objects will be saved in the drawing. You will have to manually remove laid details from the model and the underformed sheets.

• Dimensions and MLeaders that will be made by the Dimensions to Detailing command can be placed ugly and overlap each other. You will have to correct the drawings manually, move the dimensions.

• It is not yet possible to automatically update all views of all parts with changes in the design. It is required to delete sheets or viewports and call the DDraw command again for all changed parts.

• In the current version, filling in the sheet title block attributes has not yet been implemented.

• In the current version, the filling of tables on the sheet (drilling table or list of materials) is not implemented.

Read about downloading and installing the program here.

To run the plugin, you will have to register account and top up your account balance or receiving bonuses.

Then you can activate one of the licenses:

• • Annual license - 20 EUR.

  • Unlimited license - 100 EUR. Free updates for 1 year.

  • The trial period is 20 days.

The DDraw command is also included in the set A>V>C> Pro.

Create a 3d model of the product. Use only 3D-solids. All parts must have a basic flat surface (front, facade). You can layer details with material names or assign materials as for rendering. For arranging fasteners, it is convenient to use the Fixture program. For cutting dadoes use the Dado Joint program. For drilling mounting holes use the DRILL program.

Open your dwt or dwg template and create a new layout. Place a title block and one or more viewports on the sheet (_Viewport command). Leave free space between the viewports to place dimensions and MLeaders. It does not matter what is currently visible in this viewport and how the view is expanded. The program will reconfigure each viewport to one laid out part, make a view from the top (and only from above). But the visual style will be preserved, so it's important to customize it the way you want. The displayed layers and other viewport settings will also be saved.

Save and close the template.

Set the Detail command in the AVCOptions settings palette. Be sure to select the template file and then the layout with the viewports from the template you just set up.

Call the DDraw command. The program will ask you to select the desired solid parts. You can choose details in advance. You can accidentally select texts and 2d objects, the program will not swear, but simply ignore them. In the settings you can set the layers, the details from which will be ignored.

In the select prompt, you will see the options:

LAYstyle - quickly switch all  LAY style by style number.

CNCstyle - quickly switch all NC Preparation style by style number.

DIMDETstyle - quickly switch all annotation settings of the Dimensions to Detailing command by style number.

DDRAWstyle - quickly switch all Detailing Drawings command settings by style number. The settings of the LAY and NCP commands will remain the same.

TUNE - open a dialog with all settings.

After selecting objects, the program will do everything itself. You will see how sheets are added to the drawing and viewports are configured. Do not rush to pull the mouse - the Dimensions to Detailing program works for a long time.

The command can be terminated with the Esc key.

Setting

You can invoke the settings dialog by selecting the TUNE option. Or use the  A>V>C> Options Palette.

The work of the Detailing Drawings program is affected by the settings of the LAY, NC-Preparation, Dimensions for Detailing and Common Options of the A>V>C> commands and the own settings of Detailing.

For your convenience, you can use ready-made presets, which I call Detailing Style. You can create up to 9 styles. You can switch the current style in the header of the settings window. Or you can call the DDRAWstyle option directly while the command is running and select the style by its number. All options have a tooltip.

First, it is worth setting up the LAY command and setting the NC Preparation commands. The LAY and NC Preparation styles work independently of the Detailing style. For each Lay group, the Detailing program starts a new sheet. Therefore, there may be empty viewports.

• Style Name - The name for this Detail Drawing style. Not used in the program. Only for convenience of choice.

• Drawing template - A dwg or dwt drawing file to copy sheets from. You can leave it empty - then the template from the General Settings or the template for the _QNew command will be used.

• Layout template - The name of the sheet to be copied from the drawing template. The sheet must have viewports (at least 1).

• Name of the new sheet - Rename inserted sheets (tabs).  You can use drawing, view, part properties here. If the name matches other sheets, the program will add a number to the end of the name. You can leave an empty line - the program will use the name of the sheet from the template drawing.

• Same scale - Same scale for all views on one sheet. The parameter makes sense only if there are several viewports on the sheet.

• Standard scale - Use only standard scales. The list of standard scales cannot be edited.

• Contouring for CNC - Make flat contours suitable for CNC machining. Use the CNC-Prepare style to customize the outline and name the layers.

• Create dimentions - Create all annotations as configured in DimDet command style.

• Fill in the tables - If there are tables in the sheet template and their title matches one of the styles of the data extraction commands, then the program will try to fill the tables with data from all viewports.

• Fill in block attributes - If there are blocks with variable attributes in the sheet template, then the program will take the default values of these attributes and try to perform all substitutions. You can use drawing, sheet, view and all parts substitutions.