Basic Drafting Skills

The basic process of drawing any object in HighDesign consists of selecting the desired tool, choosing a drawing method from those available in the tool and clicking on the drawing area to start the construction of the object. If there are selected objects, the first click deselects everything.

New objects are created using the current default graphic attributes and properties: layer, stroke and fill, line-type, etc. If the object being created is an element, that is, an object that is more complex than a basic shape such as hatches or texts, you can set the specific defaults via its Settings window. Double-click the tool icon on the toolbox to open the Settings window for that class of objects.

Attributes and properties can also be changed at any time after the object has been created: select the object and change the desired properties.

Drawing Techniques

The default drawing procedure adopted in HighDesign is “Click-Move-Click,” i.e. to draw a line you click to set the start point, move the pointer to the desired location and click again to set its end point. Click-drag is also supported. You can change the drawing method in Preferences ▸ Drawing. 

To cancel an operation you can hit the “Esc” button on the keyboard, or press the right mouse button. 

Multi-segment objects, such as polylines, hatches, paths, follow the same general method: click to define the vertices, double-click or press the Esc key to end.

The general drafting procedures described above are also valid for Drafting, Documentation and Design tools.