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Unlock the Power of Customization with DraftSight: An Insightful Guide
Unlock the Power of Customization with DraftSight: An Insightful Guide
Efficiency in design workflows is paramount for professionals and hobbyists alike. To achieve this, DraftSight, a feature-rich 2D and 3D CAD solution for architects, engineers and construction service providers, as well as professional CAD users, designers, educators, and hobbyists, offers powerful customization features. Understanding how to leverage these can enable you to automate work tasks and make your DraftSight workflows faster and more efficient.Automation without Programming: Scripting - Mass Import
Even if you don't have programming knowledge, you can still automate tasks in DraftSight. One way is through scripting, specifically mass import scripting. A script file in DraftSight is essentially a text file that you rename and save as an SCR file. This type of file allows you to quickly insert multiple points in DraftSight. You can even use Microsoft Excel as a staging ground for manipulating the data and inserting a label and point on a specific layer.
Using Visual Basic with Microsoft Excel for Block Management
Block definitions and instances in DraftSight come with a wealth of information. With Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) in Excel, you can import all block definitions and instances from DraftSight and modify the attributes in Excel itself. You can even use some simple code to zoom right into the block you're working on in DraftSight. If you have constraints for a part, you can create tribal knowledge in Excel to control sales parameters. Then, with some Visual Basic code, you can link these user-defined cells back to DraftSight for quick modifications.
Text Management with LISP
LISP is another powerful tool for customization in DraftSight. It can be particularly useful for text management, especially when importing PDF files into different platforms. LISP allows you to import and export data, and clean up your text. For instance, if you want to bring a PDF into your drawing, LISP enables you to explode the block and convert the text into editable objects. An added function, Merge Text, can even combine individual words into a sentence, thus creating an editable text object easily.
Connecting 3D to 2D with Visual Basic
For those working with 3D design and needing to communicate with 2D design files, Visual Basic is an essential tool. Visual Basic used with Dassault Systèmes' SOLIDWORKS can connect layout locations from 3D to 2D, thereby facilitating collaboration between these two design dimensions.
