DRAWING TEMPLATES (STARTUP DRAWING)

It is suggested that you spend a bit of time and set up your drawing templates to save you time in the future. A template drawing will ensure that you start each drawing with your standard styles and settings. When you make a new drawing on a template, the template drawing will not be affected as the drawing that opens is treated as a new drawing and not an existing drawing. The loaded template drawing does not share the template drawings name and so will not overwrite the template drawing unless you deliberately select to overwrite it.

Open New Template by going to File › New from Template, AllyCAD will prompt to open the Template, If you would like to edit and existing template, then browse to where template is saved, click open. Edit it as explained below then save it.

To open a blank template going to File › New from Template, AllyCAD will prompt to open the Template, click Cancel blank Template is now open.

Drawing Settings

Select Settings > Drawing Setting and the Drawing Settings dialog box will be displayed.

You can now select the paper size from the drop down list as well as set the scale and coordinate system for your template.

You can specify the coordinate order and hemisphere for a survey drawing by clicking on the Surveyor Settings button and the Surveyor Settings dialog is displayed.

You can also set the Angular format for your drawing template by clicking on the Angular format button.

Make the required changes and click OK to continue

You can now set these settings as your default setting by checking the Set as default option (By checking this option, AllyCAD will open with these settings each time it opens) and then click OK to continue. Additional changes may still be made to the template, i.e. the View Settings, text Styles, Dimension Styles.

View Settings

Select Settings > View Setting and the View Settings dialog box will be displayed.

This allows you to set your Pen palette, background colours, point styles, grid settings, visibility and magnification.

System Settings

Select Settings › System Settings and the System Settings dialog box will be displayed.

Once again you can set everything up as you require.

Text Styles

Select Settings › Text Styles and the Text Styles dialog box will be displayed.

Add the text styles that you use by clicking on the Add button and create the styles you require.

Give the new text style a name, and click OK to continue.

The new text style may be customised as required.

Dimension Styles

Select Settings › Dimension Styles and the Dimension Styles dialog box will be displayed.

Add the dimension styles that you use by clicking on the Add button and create the styles you require. You can use the text styles that you have created.

Give the new text style a name, and click OK to continue.

The new dimension style may be customised as required.

Line Styles

Select Settings › Line Styles and the Line Styles dialog box will be displayed

You can Load line styles from a line style definition file or Import line styles that you have used in another drawing. Set the current line style to the one you would like as your default line style.

Multiline Styles

Select Settings › Multiline Styles and the Multiline Styles dialog box will be displayed.

Add the multiline styles that you use by clicking on the Add button

Give the new multiline style a name, and click OK to continue.

The new multiline style may be customised as required.

Layer Settings

Select Settings › Layer Settings and the Layer Settings dialog box will be displayed.

Click on Add and create the layers that you use often.

Saving the Template

Select File › Save and save the Template under

Users\\My Documents\Knowledge Base Software for Windows Vista or 7

or

Documents and Settings\\My Documents\Knowledge Base Software for Windows XP

If you are saving a template that will be used on a network of an organisation do the following:

Select File › Save and save the Template under

Public\My Documents\Knowledge Base Software for Windows Vista/7.

or

Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\Knowledge Base Software for Windows XP

1. Create a folder on a network drive that is accessible to all users. Users must have Read permissions on this folder.
2. Copy the relevant file(s) from the general folder as indicated above to the shared folder.
3. Copy the program SetSharedFolder.exe from Program Files\Knowledge Base Software\AllyCAD 2011 to the shared folder.
4. Browse to and run, from each computer on which AllyCAD 2011 is installed, in Administrator mode or with Administrator permissions, the program SetSharedFolder.exe from the shared folder. If more than one user can use this particular computer then browse to the shared folder using UNC format paths (i.e. \\Server\Share\Folder) rather than using mapped drive letters as each user can have different drive mappings. The program will automatically pick up the path it is run from and offer to make that the shared folder path. Click the OK button to accept the setting. Administrator level permissions are required as the program changes a registry key to which non-Administrative users do not have write access.
5. This setting can be reversed by carrying out step 4 again. If the program detects that the shared folder has already been set, it will offer to remove the relevant setting from the registry.

Selecting the Template

After saving the new template, close AllyCAD.

When the user now opens the program an additional dialog will appear. (there is an option to disable the dialog, then the last selected template will be loaded automatically)

A dialog will appear allowing the user to select the required template, note the different colours indicate where the templates are stored. Select the template to load and click OK to continue.