Draw a Drawing

Drawing Tools

A drawing can be fully drawn by using the 2D drawing tools, or a model drawing can be completed by adding line elements.

When the 2D Constraint Manager is enabled, start creating the drawing by adding the necessary line elements. The drawing tools create geometric constraints automatically. We recommend drawing the lines in approximately the correct proportions. The exact length of a line or the radius of a circle, for example, has no significance in sketching a drawing. The exact size, direction and positioning of the elements in relation to each other can be determined using constraints.

The following element types are available for drawing:

Polyline

Circle/Arc

Ellipse

Curve

When drawing lines, the following functions can be used to edit the lines, for example:

Selecting Line Properties

After selecting the line function, before selecting line points, you can select line properties, which are color, layer, line width, scale and line type. You can select properties on the ribbon tab or by selecting the Properties function.

You can edit the line properties after drawing a line. Select a line and the Properties function.

Editing Lines in a Drawing

The following functions can be used to edit the line elements in a drawing:

  • Copy, cut, paste, delete
  • Undo, redo
  • Stretching and moving a line from a handle
  • Adding or deleting a line point

When an element has a geometric constraint, it cannot be modified by its handles. Lines can be edited by editing geometric constraints.

Adding Constraints to a Drawing

Geometric constraints are defined for the line elements in a drawing in order to enable the editing of the drawing using dimension constraints. The available constraints for the drawing elements include dimensions and geometric constraints like parallel, tangential, concentric, etc. The constraints can be used to control the size, direction and position of the elements in relation to each other. This requires that the 2D Constraint Manager is enabled.