ILEXSOFT Help

ILEXSOFT Help & Documentation Center

All the reference documentation for HighDesign

Start with the essential topics below or browse the navigation panel on the left.

Quick Start

Familiarize with the essential concepts about creating your first projects in HighDesign.

Quick Start

User Guide

Learn about using the design tools, annotate, present, and share your HighDesign projects. Select a chapter in the navigation panel on the left, or go to one of the most accessed topics.

Main Topics

Release Notes

See What’s New in the Latest HighDesign Release Notes

Additional Resources

Subsections of ILEXSOFT Help

Chapter 1

Quick Start Guide

The HighDesign Quick Start Guide is the place to go if you want to familiarize with the essential concepts about creating your projects in HighDesign. If you are a more experienced user, you can improve your skills and learn something new.

Topics in this section

Subsections of Quick Start Guide

Install Guide for HighDesign

HighDesign Trial Version

When you download HighDesign from the Ilexsoft website, the software launches as a time-limited trial version.

The limitations of the Trial version are:

  • Operative for 30 days of use;
  • Printed pages and exported images have a “HighDesign Trial” watermark;

HighDesign Trial lets you explore all the available features, including those of the Pro version such as walls, sheets, views, photogrammetry, etc.. At the end of the trial period, the application will no longer launch.

When you purchase a license, launch HighDesign and insert your Username and License Key into the License dialog. There is no need to download a separate package.

Install on Mac

The download version is a compressed Disk Image file (.dmg). Depending on your Internet preferences, the file could have already been expanded after the download.

1. Once the file has been expanded, you should see on your Desktop (or your default download location) the “HighDesign” dmg file. Double-click it to mount the drive.

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2. To install HighDesign, drag the icon to a folder on your local or network disk. There is no required location; however, if you have multiple users on your computer, put it in the main Applications folder to make it accessible to all of them. Note that you will be required to log in as an administrator to write to the Applications folder.

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Activate HighDesign

  1. Launch HighDesign Trial.
  2. Click the Activate button on the launch window. Alternatively, go to HighDesign > Activate License…
  3. Enter Username and activation key exactly as they appear in the HighDesign Activation email sent from Ilexsoft.

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To remove the license, go to HighDesign menu > About HighDesign and click on the License button: select the license in the table, click the Delete button and confirm.Edit

Uninstall on Mac

To uninstall HighDesign on a Mac, follow these steps:

  1. Quit HighDesign.
  2. In the Finder, go to Applications (or the folder where HighDesign was installed), locate the HighDesign icon and move it to the Bin.

Please note that this action will not delete the HighDesign Support folder. The HighDesign Support folder contains all the preferences and custom libraries, which you might want to keep for the next installation. If you want to completely remove the HighDesign Support folder, do the following:

  1. In the Finder, open the Go menu and press the Option (Alt) key.
  2. Choose Library and navigate to Application Support/ILEXSOFT. We advise to always make a backup copy of the HighDesign Support folder before continuing.
  3. Locate the folder you want to delete and move it to the bin.

Install on Windows

After downloading the file, follow these steps to install HighDesign:

  1. Log in to the computer with a user account that has administrator rights;
  2. Double-click the EXE install file. You can also context-click and select Run As an Administrator;
  3. Click Next in the Welcome dialog box;
  4. Click on the “I accept the terms of this license agreement” button in the End User License Agreement if you agree to the terms;
  5. Click the Next button to install HighDesign in the default location;
  6. Click the Install button if you’re satisfied with the settings;
  7. Click the Finish button when prompted;

Uninstall on Windows

To uninstall HighDesign, go to the Start menu (the windows logo) and follow the path below:

Select Settings > Apps > Apps & Features > HighDesign; Click the “Uninstall” button.

Key HighDesign concepts

HighDesign is a design and documentation tool for architects and design professionals who work in the architecture-engineering-construction (AEC) industry. With a modern, intuitive interface and powerful drafting and design functions, HighDesign uniquely combines traditional computer-aided-design (CAD) features with advanced parametric and information tools.

The wide range of drafting, design and documentation functions and the features of project organization allow the rapid production of concepts, drafts and designs.

In HighDesign, a project is a set of drawings, views, annotations, layouts, images and information that thoroughly represent your design. HighDesign assists you in the design work from the conceptual to the design and production phases.

Tools

Production tools

Available on the main toolbox, these tools let you create content for your project and are grouped by function. There are four main function groups:

  • SelectionThese tools let you accurately select the objects in your drawing.
  • Drawing toolsThis group includes tools for the insertion of lines, rectangles, arcs and other geometric shapes.
  • Documentation toolAll the tools you need to document your project: texts, leaders, annotations and tags, dimensions.
  • Design toolsThese tools let you insert parametric elements of a building: walls, columns and pillars, doors and windows.

Objects and Elements

Each item of the project has its hierarchy which allows to easily structure and organize the different parts of the drawings. Therefore we have generic and specific objects of the project.

The hierarchy of the items of the project classifies them as:

  • ObjectsAny item of the project. It can be a line, a text, a wall, an image a title block, etc.
  • Graphic Objects2D drafting objects and shapes such as lines, polygons, circles, curves.
  • ElementsGraphic objects with advanced settings (hatches, symbols, texts, annotations, dimensions).
  • Building Elements Parametric components of the building such as walls, columns, doors, windows.

Objects, Graphic Objects, Elements and Building Elements are organized in Classes, usually corresponding to the tool options used to draw them: Line, Arc, Wall, Door are different classes of objects.

Classes of objects can have sub-categories called Families: e.g. swinging door and sliding door are different families of the door class.

The objects of the project can have abstract definitions of their parameters: Basic Styles, Graphic Styles (for the elements of the project) and Building Element Types (for the building elements).

For more detailed information about objects in HighDesign, see the document Object Hierarchy in HighDesign.

Parameters

With the exclusion of the most basic objects, such as points, lines and polygons, most objects in HighDesign are parametric. Parameters define the size, shape, position and the other attributes about an element in the project. A parametric object is complex entity that changes according to its internal values as well as its relation to other objects.

This is one of the key features that sets apart HighDesign from traditional computer-aided systems: a wall in HighDesign is not a group of lines, but an element that represents a real-world element, much like BIM systems. Here are some examples:

Objects, Graphic Objects, Elements and Building Elements are organized in Classes, usually corresponding to the tool options used to draw them: Line, Arc, Wall, Door are different classes of objects.

Classes of objects can have sub-categories called Families: e.g. swinging door and sliding door are different families of the door class.

The objects of the project can have abstract definitions of their parameters: Basic Styles, Graphic Styles (for the elements of the project) and Building Element Types (for the building elements).

For more detailed information about objects in HighDesign, see the document Object Hierarchy in HighDesign.

Parameters

With the exclusion of the most basic objects, such as points, lines and polygons, most objects in HighDesign are parametric. Parameters define the size, shape, position and the other attributes about an element in the project. A parametric object is complex entity that changes according to its internal values as well as its relation to other objects.

This is one of the key features that sets apart HighDesign from traditional computer-aided systems: a wall in HighDesign is not a group of lines, but an element that represents a real-world element, much like BIM systems. Here are some examples:

  • A dimension line is one object made of the witness line, extension lines, markers and a label. Each item can be defined via parameters that change the final appearance of the dimension.
  • The graphical representation of a door comes from its parameters such as frame size, thickness, opening direction, etc. Its position and the other attributes also change according to the host wall where the door is inserted.
  • Doors and windows change their level of detail according to the drawing scale of their sheet.
  • A wall, in addition to being defined by its parameters, also reacts to its context: it can automatically connect to other walls if they are compatible by family, and, if moved, its doors and windows also move with it.

The HighDesign User Interface

Get to know the elements of the HighDesign user interface.

Home Window

The Home window opens by default when you launch HighDesign and presents the options to create or open projects, choose a template, and contains links to useful resources. It is organized in several sections that can be accessed through the sidebar on the left. From top to down:

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  • New: creates a new, empty project.
  • Open: opens the default Open File dialog to open a HighDesign (.DSN) file or AutoCAD drawing (.DXF, .DWG).
  • Recent projects: browse a list of recently-opened projects. Only .DSN projects are listed. Select a file and click the Open button or double-click to open it.
  • Templates (Pro): this section contains the built-in and user templates.
  • Examples: open an example to explore the features and the possibilities of HighDesign.
  • What’s New: shows a summary of the new features in the current version.
  • Recovered: this section lists any auto-saved files that may be detected when the application launches. If you need to open a recovered file, select it from the list and press the Open button. Important: note that auto-saved files are not retained after the application quits, so any recovered file that is not opened and saved when detected will be lost.You can access the Recovered section at any time during the session.
  • Settings: opens the Application Settings window.
  • Guided Tour: starts a tour of the user interface of the main Project window.
  • Quick Start Guide: opens the web page of the HighDesign Quick Start.

Project Window

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  • The Drawing Area in the middle of the project window displays the project views.
  • The toolbars provide essential functions, such as the drawing tools and methods, the input fields and commands, the edit functions, and the properties controls. Through these commands, arranged in logical areas, all the drawing functions are easily accessible.
  • The Sidebar provides functions that are mainly used to organize the project and manage project elements: the Project Browser and the Views panels, Object Info and Graphic Attributes, and the Project Styles panels.
  • The Menu bar on the top of the project window displays the menus listing almost all of the program functions, commands and features.

Toolbox

The icons in the toolbox can be arranged on one or two columns by clicking the resize icon on the bottom side of the toolbox.

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Using the buttons

Use the tools on the toolbox to draw lines, circles, shapes, insert texts, dimensions, pictures, etc. A tool can have multiple methods, each with its own sequence of steps and inputs required to construct a specific object.

For example the Arcs and Ovals tool includes the methods to create circular arcs by center and radius, by diameter, by two points and radius, by three points by tangents; ellipses by radii, by box and quarter of ellipse.

  • Click on any button to activate the tool.
  • Click the arrow to open the pop-up list of the tool methods.

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Some tool icons show three dots in the bottom-right corner: that means that the tool offers more advanced properties needed to construct the object. This is typically used for more complex objects like symbols, hatches, texts or dimensions.

  • Double-click the tool to open its Tool Settings window.

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In HighDesign Pro, you can also right-click a tool icon to open the Styles panel. This panel shows the available styles or types for the clicked tool.

  • Right-click (or ctrl-click) a tool icon to open the Styles panel and select a style.

Right-click a tool to select a style_

The Properties Bar

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The Properties bar is divided into two areas:

  • The first area shows the methods of the current tool, expanded to show all the icons on one row when there is enough space, or compressed to a single icon and drop-down menu.
  • Some methods require additional parameters, like the number of sides of a polygon or the leading side of a wall. The option control is visible after the method icons.

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  • The second area shows the most common properties: layer, pen color, fill, line type, start and end markers, pen size, and the settings button that opens the Tool Settings window for the current tool when available. If one or more objects are currently selected, changing a property modifies all the selected objects. If there is no selection, the Properties bar shows and modifies the current default properties that are applied to new objects.

Each button opens its own menu or panel, with options and commands specific for that property.

The Main Toolbar

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The Main Toolbar shows the most commonly used editing tools. It is divided into three groups: Affine Transformations, Line editing, Shape Modifications.Only some of the editing tools are shown in the editing bar. Other more specialized tools can be found on the Tools menu.

  • Click an icon to activate the tool. If the icon is disabled, you need to select one or more objects first. Click again to cancel.
  • By default, the step-by-step instructions to use the tool are visible on the status bar, at the bottom of the window.
  • Some tools, like Multiply or Rotate by Angle, open a floating panel that allows the definition of some parameters. These windows stay open while the tool is active and can be accessed at any time during the steps of the editing operation.

Input Bar, Option buttons and Status Bar

The lower part of the main window hosts the group of toolbars that allow you to control snaps and drawing constraints, set the current drawing scale and units, enter coordinates and values, and change the zoom factor and other view options.

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While you can control those options from other panels and menus elsewhere, these buttons are always available here for easy access and review.

The side of the main window contains the Sidebar where the utility panels are easily accessible and organized in groups. The sidebar fills the side of the drawing area and can be resized to show more content.

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The sidebar can be minimized to a vertical tab bar, so it does not take up screen space when the panes are not in use. Click a tab to open the panel as a pop-up window and click outside to close it.

You can also open and close panels from the Window > Panels menu.

The panels provide access to the most used features: navigating among the items of the project, activating and deactivating layers, storing and activating project views, view and edit the geometric and graphics properties of the selection.

Typically, a panel does not replicate the full features that are available for its function, so as to keep its use quick and straightforward. Those feature that provide more advanced options, like layers or styles, a button opens the feature manager where you can make further adjustments and customizations.

Basic Tasks

Create and Set Up a New Project

When you launch HighDesign, it automatically creates a blank project with settings based on the last project that was saved, or on the defaults if it is the first launch. You can then customize this project to your needs and set units, create sheets, layers, add palettes; alternatively, in HighDesign Pro you can open a template and start from there.

Use the Preferences window (HighDesign > Preferences on macOS, Edit > Options on Windows) to set the options that best suit your workflow and habits and are most likely to stay the same for each new project. In the Preferences window you can set the language, the file safety options to create and archive backup copies, the theme of the user interface, default drawing settings, etc.

Organize Your Project

When you start a new project, you typically want to prepare it for the kind of objects that it will represent: drawing scales, units, sheets, layers can be prepared in advance by using the Project Settings window (Project > Project Settings) and the Resource Manager window (Project > Resource Manager).

Essential Drawing Skills

To construct a new object, activate its icon from the toolbox, select the appropriate method and begin the construction on the main drawing area. By default, the step-by-step instructions appear on the Status bar.

To select an object:
  • With the Arrow tool:
  • click it once, or
  • hold Shift and click to add it to or remove it from the selection,
  • or define a rectangular or polygonal region to select the items enclosed.

When two or more objects are overlapped, activate the Arrow tool and right click on them. The contextual menu lists all the objects at the click location in reverse order.

To edit an object:
  • Use the Arrow tool to change the basic geometry of the object, i.e. its bounding box.
  • For more object-specific editing, for example adjusting the tangents of a curve or moving the origin of a hatch, activate its tool and click the handle or part of the object that you want to modify.
  • To edit the coordinates, size and other options of the object, use the Object Info panel.
To enter a coordinate:
To enter a length:
To enter a length:
  • While drawing, enter a numeric value. The keys pressed will be interpreted as a linear value for the current operation. If entered while drawing an item, the value will be used as the length of the item; if no drawing operation was active, the value will be interpreted as initial distance from a reference point defined by the next click.

Object Hierarchy in HighDesign

The items that make up a HighDesign project are organized in a hierarchical structure that streamlines the design process and makes it easier for the designer to manage the complexity of a typical design project.

Everything in HighDesign is an object. Objects can be graphical, i.e. lines, shapes, and any item that has spatial coordinates and a geometric representation; objects can also be non graphical, such as definitions or information associated to the object. For example, the client name and address, or the coordinates of the building area, and so on.

Every object belongs to a class which defines its intrinsic attributes and behaviors: Line, Rectangle, Symbol, Wall, etc. Between the class and the specific object instance inserted into a sheet, there can be several other levels of definition, as illustrated in the image below.

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Subsections of Get Started

Create a New Project

You can create a new HighDesign project in two ways, from the Home window or from the Menu Bar, and you can choose to create a model using default settings, or to create a model starting from a template (Pro).

To create a project using default settings

From the Home window, click New.

New project with default settings New project with default settings

Alternatively, you can create a new project using the menu bar: select File > New…

The new project is created with the current settings of units, paper size, and colors. You can then use the Project Settings window to adjust the project to your needs.

To create a project using a template (Pro)

In HighDesign Pro, you can create a new project starting from a predefined template. In the Home window, select Templates from the side bar and choose the desired template. The default templates include variants for the metric and imperial systems. The default templates are organized by discipline, architecture, structural, and mechanical/engineering (MEP) , and each template include layers and settings that are specialized for the target discipline.

The default templates usually include a sample drawing that showcases the settings of pens and colors. When you start a new drawing using a template, you can delete everything (Cmd-A or Ctrl-A and Delete) and start your own drawing.

The Templates panels also shows your custom templates after the default ones.

Introduction to HighDesign

About HighDesign

HighDesign is a design and documentation tool for architects and design professionals working in the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) industry. With a modern, intuitive interface and powerful drafting and design functions HighDesign combines computer-aided-design (CAD) features with advanced building-oriented tools. 

The wide range of drafting, design and documentation functions and the sophisticated features of project organization allow the rapid production of concepts, drafts and designs. 

A project in HighDesign is a complete presentation of drawings, views, details, information, images and layouts that will assist the user in the design workflow from the conceptual to the design and production phases.

Fundamentals

A project in HighDesign is a set of drawings, symbols, views, details and documentation elements such as annotations, tags, dimensions and non graphic information. It is very important that all these items are organized in categories with a defined hierarchy.

The objects of the project are logically grouped through Layers and organized as separate drawings contained in Project Sheets. Project Sheets have their own drawing scale and units.

Project Elements and Object Hierarchy

Each item of the project has its hierarchy which allows to easily structure and organize the different parts of the drawings. Therefore we have generic and specific objects of the project.

The hierarchy of the items of the project classifies them as:

  • Objects - any item of the project. It can be a line, a text, a wall, an image a title block, etc.
  • Graphic Objects - 2D drafting objects and shapes such as lines, polygons, circles, curves.
  • Elements - graphic objects with advanced settings (hatches, symbols, texts, annotations, dimensions).
  • Building Elements - parametric components of the building such as walls, columns, doors, windows.

Objects, Graphic Objects, Elements and Building Elements are organized in Classes, usually corresponding to the tool options used to draw them: Line, Arc, Wall, Door are different classes of objects.

Classes of objects can have sub-categories called Families: e.g. swinging door and sliding door are different families of the door class.

The objects of the project can have abstract definitions of their parameters: Basic Styles, Graphic Styles (for the elements of the project) and Building Element Types (for the building elements).

Compare Editions

HighDesign is available in three different licenses to best suit your needs: LT, Standard and a Pro version.

HighDesign LT is the light-weight, accessible CAD solution for everyone who needs the precision and power of a full CAD software, without the complexity of more design-oriented features and tools. HighDesign LT supports the DXF and DWG file format (Model data only).

HighDesign SE is a CAD program designed to provide the user all the most used drawing and editing tools. This version is intended for home and small office users who will benefit from its powerful functions, ease of use and tight integration with the operating system. HighDesign Standard supports the DXF and DWG file formats.

HighDesign Pro includes all the features of the Standard version, plus many others designed to increase personal productivity and satisfy the advanced needs of professional users such as architects and civil engineers. HighDesign Pro adds sets of design tools such as walls, columns, doors, windows geared for a professional, intensive use.

Installing

HighDesign Trial Version 

When you download HighDesign from the Ilexsoft website, the software launches as a time-limited trial version. 

The limitations in the Trial version are: 

  • Operative for 30 days of use; 
  • Printed pages and exported images have a “HighDesign Trial” watermark;

HighDesign Trial lets you explore all the available features, including those of the Pro version such as walls, sheets, views, photogrammetry, etc.. At the end of the trial period, the application will no longer launch. 

When you purchase a license, launch HighDesign and insert your Owner name and License Key into the License dialog. There is no need to download a separate package.

Install on Mac

The download version is a compressed Disk Image file (.dmg). Depending on your Internet preferences, the file could have already been expanded after the download. 

Once the file has been expanded, you should see on your Desktop (or your default download location) the “HighDesign” dmg file. Double-click it to mount the drive. 

To install HighDesign, drag the icon to a folder on your local or network disk. There is no required location; however, if you have multiple users on your computer, put it in the main Applications folder to make it accessible to all of them. Note that you will be required to log in as an administrator to write to the Applications folder. 

Activate HighDesign and Remove the License on Mac

  1. Launch HighDesign, click the Activate button on the first screen or go to HighDesign > License Information…
  2. Enter name and license key exactly as they appear in the HighDesign Activation email sent from Ilexsoft.

Upgrade keys must be registered for the same name used in the previous license.

To remove the license, go to HighDesign > About HighDesign and click on the License button: select the license in the table, click the Delete button and confirm.

Uninstall on Mac

  • Quit HighDesign.
  • Open a Finder window.
  • Delete the HighDesign folder from the main library:
  • On the left pane of the Finder window, click your user name.
  • Hold down the Option (Alt) button on your keyboard, click Go in the menubar, then select the Library option in the drop-down list.
  • Open the Application Support folder.
  • In the Application Support folder, find the Ilexsoft HighDesign folder, and then drag it to the trash.
  • Delete the HighDesign application:
  • On the left pane of the Finder window, click your user name.
  • Hold down the Option (Alt) button on your keyboard, click Go in the menubar, then select the Library option in the drop-down list.
  • In the Preferences folder, drag the following file to the trash: com.ilexsoft.HighDesign.plist

Install on Windows

After downloading the file, follow these steps to install HighDesign:

  1. Log in to the computer with a user account that has administrator rights;
  2. Double-click the EXE install file. You can also context-click and select Run As an Administrator;
  3. Click Next in the Welcome dialog box;
  4. Click on the “I accept the terms of this license agreement” button in the End User License Agreement if you agree to the terms;
  5. Click the Next button to install HighDesign in the default location;
  6. Click the Install button if you’re satisfied with the settings;
  7. Click the Finish button when prompted;
  8. Launch HighDesign.

Activate HighDesign and Remove the License on Windows

Launch HighDesign, go to Help > Activate License… and enter name and license key exactly as they appear in the HighDesign Activation email sent from Ilexsoft.

Upgrade keys must be registered for the same name used in the previous license.

To remove the license, go to Help > About HighDesign and click on the License button: select the license in the table, click the Delete button and confirm.

Uninstall on Windows

To uninstall HighDesign, go to the Start menu (the windows logo) and follow the path below:

Select Settings > Apps > Apps & Features > HighDesign; Click the “Uninstall” button.

Opening Files

To open files in HighDesign, click the Open button from the Home window or choose File â–¸ Open… from the menu bar. Use the system Open dialog to select the desired file.

The Open command can open both HighDesign project files and DXF/DWG drawings. On Windows, you can use the default “All available types” filter or restrict the visible files by selecting a type-specific filter.

IMPORTANT: HighDesign project files are not backwards compatible. When you create or modify a project using the current release of the software, you cannot open the project later using a previous release.

  • When you open a file that was created in a higher-level edition of HighDesign, for example a Pro document in HighDesign LT, a dialog informs you that the project was created in a different edition and that saving the changes will modify the project.

Saving Files

HighDesign provides several ways of saving a file:

  • Save
  • Save As
  • Save Special

Save

The Save command lets you save on disk the current project; if the project does not have a name, a standard save dialog is shown on the screen.

Save As

Performs the same function as Save, but forces the display of the standard Save dialog that allows you to define a location for the file and enter a file name.

Important: If the current project was already saved or if it was opened from an existing file, Save As creates a copy of the project file and replaces it as the current file. Any subsequent changes and save commands will update the file created by the Save As command.

Save Special

The Save Special menu includes the following commands:

  • **Selection as new document**Saves the currently selected objects as a new document. It is only enabled when there are selected items in the current project.
  • **Sheet as new document**Saves the currently active sheet as new document. Only available in HighDesign editions that include drawing sheets.
  • **Visible Sheets**Saves all visible drawing sheets as a new document that preserves the sheet structure of the current document. Only available in HighDesign editions that include drawing sheets.
  • **Previous HighDesign Project Version**Lets you save the current project in a format compatible with a previous version of HighDesign.
  • TemplateIn HighDesign editions that support Templates, this command stores a copy of the current document as a custom project template. Templates save every setting and drawing item of the project in the current state.

HINT: When you enter a file or template name in the Save As dialog, you can add a prefix enclosed by square brackets, such as [A01]. The prefix will be read as a badge over the project preview in the Home Window.

Subsections of User Interface

The Home Window

The Home window opens by default when you launch HighDesign and presents the options to create or open projects, choose a template, and contains links to useful resources. It is organized in several sections that can be accessed through the sidebar on the left. From top to down:

  • New: creates a new, empty project. New projects use the settings of the last active project as a base. Colors, units and basic project options are set automatically.
  • Open: opens the default Open File dialog to open a HighDesign (.DSN) file or AutoCAD drawing (.DXF, .DWG).
  • Recent projects: browse a list of recently-opened projects. Only .DSN projects are listed. Select a file and click the Open button or double-click to open it.
  • Templates (Pro): this section contains the built-in and user templates.
  • Examples: open an example to explore the features and the possibilities of HighDesign.
  • What’s New: shows a summary of the new features in the current version.
  • Recovered: this section lists any auto-saved files that may be detected when the application launches. If you need to open a recovered file, select it from the list and press the Open button. Important: note that auto-saved files are not retained after the application quits, so any recovered file that is not opened and saved when detected will be lost.You can access the Recovered section at any time during the session.
  • Settings: opens the Application Settings window.
  • Guided Tour: starts a tour of the user interface of the main Project window. A popover panel explains the functions of each area of the Project Window. Use the “Next” and “Back” buttons of the popover window or the arrows of the keyboard to browse through the different elements of the main window. 
  • Quick Start Guide: opens the web page of the HighDesign Quick Start.

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The Home window also allows to open .DSN project files, templates and .DXF/.DWG drawings by drag-and-drop: drop the file over the window to open it.

**TIP: **The Home window supports file name tags in the form of [text]. Any text between two square brackets appears as a badge on the top-left corner of the thumbnail.

The Project Window

The main functions of HighDesign are visible and ready to use in the Project Window and in the surrounding toolbars and Sidebar. 

The project window as it appears on a new document._

  • The Drawing Area in the middle of the project window displays the project views and the sheets used to draw and edit drafting objects and project elements.
  • The toolbars provide essential functions, such as the drawing tools, the drawing methods, the input fields and commands, the edit functions, and the properties controls. Through these commands, arranged in logical areas, all the drawing functions are easily accessible. 
  • The Sidebar provides functions that are mainly used to organize the project and manage project elements: the Project Browser and the Views panels, the Object Info and the Project Styles panels. 
  • The Menu bar on the top of the project window displays the menus listing almost all of the program functions, commands and features. 

Toolbox

  • Selection: select project elements by direct click or by selection area; modify  selected elements 
  • Sketch: create and modify 2D drawing elements. 
  • Documentation: insert and modify texts, dimensions, text notes, tags, and define detail areas (standard/pro) and add temporary measurements. 
  • Design: create and modify architectural elements like walls, openings, columns (Pro). 
  • View: change the position of the drawing in the canvas via the panning function, the level of zoom; by preferences these tools can also be grouped in a dock and displayed on one side of the drawing area. 

Main Toolbar

Placed on the top margin of the drawing area, the main toolbar bar lets you quickly access the most common functions used to modify the drawing with just one click on the icon. The buttons are contextually enabled when the conditions for the use of the tool are met, like number and type of selected items.

Note that this toolbar does not show all the available functions, but only the most commonly accessed. More functions and commands are available on the Drawing and Tools menus.

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Geometric Transformations:

Main Toolbar

Placed on the top margin of the drawing area, the main toolbar bar lets you quickly access the most common functions used to modify the drawing with just one click on the icon. The buttons are contextually enabled when the conditions for the use of the tool are met, like number and type of selected items.

Note that this toolbar does not show all the available functions, but only the most commonly accessed. More functions and commands are available on the Drawing and Tools menus.

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Geometric Transformations:
  • Move 
  • Duplicate 
  • Multiply / Distribute items along a line 
  • Multiply / Distribute items on a circular arc 
  • Rotate 
  • Angle of Rotation 
  • Mirror 
  • Mirror & Duplicate 
  • Stretch 
  • Scale drawing 
Object Editing: 
Composite Tools: 
Composite Tools: 
  • Fillet two lines with an arc 
  • Chamfer two lines with a straight segment 
  • Offset, to create concentric copies of the clicked objects at a given distance 
  • Extrude, to create a copy of the selected objects with projection lines 
  • Explode, to convert the selected items into their base components 
  • Convert to Poly-line 
  • Apply Hatch 
  • Calculate Area 
  • Find Center of Mass 
  • Fit Text box 

Methods Bar

The Methods Bar displays the construction methods and available options of the current tool, e.g. Line from one endpoint or from its midpoint, or arc by center, by diameter, by three points, etc. This bar is contextual and changes its contents according to the selected project tool and can include an additional input field to quickly insert a parameter value. 

Properties Bar

The Properties bar is located at the top of the main window, just above the horizontal ruler and below the Edit Bar. You can use it to quickly set the graphical properties of the drawing items and change those of the selected one. 

From left to right: Layer; Pen color; Fill color, gradient and transparency; Line-type; Start and end markers; Pen weight; Settings Window button (active when compatible items are selected); Copy and Paste Properties buttons.

Input Bar

Placed on the bottom of the drawing area the Input Bar provides all the controls to set the drawing constraints, geometric conditions and input of coordinates, lengths and angles.

From left to right: 

  • The menu to activate the snap options. 
  • The buttons to set the parallel, orthogonal and intersection constraints. 
  • The menu to change the drawing units and the drawing scale of the current sheet. 
  • Input fields: X, Y coordinates, length and angle. When drawing an item, the coordinates change from absolute to relative coordinates dX and dY. You can switch between absolute and relative coordinates by clicking the X and Y icons. 
  • The utility buttons and menus, to set the zoom level and the display mode of pen weights. 

NOTE: Depending on the available screen size, the appearance and contents of the Input bar can change. At smaller resolutions, the Snaps menu includes the constraint functions, and the zoom menu includes the Zoom to Fit, Zoom In, Zoom Out and Zoom Previous commands. The input fields are always visible. 

**Customize the Side Bar  **(Pro)

In HighDesign Pro the Side bar can be customized by using the commands on the Window menu:

  • Minimize Side Bar
  • Panels:
  • Show as Floating Windows;
  • Show in Side Bar;
  • Restore Defaults;
  • List of all available panels or floating windows.

Panes of the Side Bar and Utility panels

By default in HighDesign Pro the panes displayed in the Side Bar are Project Browser, Project Views, Object Info and Project Styles and Types. With other editions of HighDesign the configuration of the Side Bar is different. 

Project Browser (SE-Pro)

The Project Browser pane lists all the project sheets: drafting sheets, detail sheets and layouts.

Use this pane to manage and organize sheets and to browse the different components of the project. This pane is not available in HighDesign LT.

Project Views  (SE-Pro)

The Views pane shows a list of all the saved project views (available in HighDesign Pro only). 

Layers

The Layers pane shows the layers used in the project and provides the functions to manage them. 

Object Info

The Object Info pane allows to view and edit coordinates and geometric parameters of the selection. It also allows the setup of the current sheet and to add information. 

Graphic Attributes

This pane provides in one handy array the graphic features of project elements, including stroke and fill attributes: it also provides the Shadow section for a complete setup of the shadow property of elements.

Overview/Zoom

The Overview utility pane displays a real-time 2x magnification of the sector of the current pointer location on the drawing area; if the mouse pointer enters the thumbnail, an overview of the entire drawing is displayed and it is possible to centre the view of the project with a click. 

Snaps

This pane provides all the snap options and the main drawing constraints. 

Arrange

The Arrange panel displays the buttons for all the Arrange Order, Align and Distribute objects commands.

Project Styles and Types  (Pro)

In HighDesign Pro use this pane to view, browse and manage graphic styles and element types of the current project.

Photogrammetry Preview  (Pro)

This is a live preview of the projection of the current photogrammetry (Pro only).

Rulers 

Placed on the left and top of the main window, rulers help drawing and placing objects in a layout with accuracy. Rulers show the current position of the pointer and the bounds of the selected objects and are dynamically linked to the current measurement unit, drawing scale and zoom factor. 

Panes of the Side Bar and Utility panels

By default in HighDesign Pro the panes displayed in the Side Bar are Project Browser, Project Views, Object Info and Project Styles and Types. With other editions of HighDesign the configuration of the Side Bar is different. 

Project Browser (SE-Pro)

The Project Browser pane lists all the project sheets: drafting sheets, detail sheets and layouts.

Use this pane to manage and organize sheets and to browse the different components of the project. This pane is not available in HighDesign LT.

Project Views  (SE-Pro)

The Views pane shows a list of all the saved project views (available in HighDesign Pro only). 

Layers

The Layers pane shows the layers used in the project and provides the functions to manage them. 

Object Info

The Object Info pane allows to view and edit coordinates and geometric parameters of the selection. It also allows the setup of the current sheet and to add information. 

Graphic Attributes

This pane provides in one handy array the graphic features of project elements, including stroke and fill attributes: it also provides the Shadow section for a complete setup of the shadow property of elements.

Overview/Zoom

The Overview utility pane displays a real-time 2x magnification of the sector of the current pointer location on the drawing area; if the mouse pointer enters the thumbnail, an overview of the entire drawing is displayed and it is possible to centre the view of the project with a click. 

Snaps

This pane provides all the snap options and the main drawing constraints. 

Arrange

The Arrange panel displays the buttons for all the Arrange Order, Align and Distribute objects commands.

Project Styles and Types  (Pro)

In HighDesign Pro use this pane to view, browse and manage graphic styles and element types of the current project.

Photogrammetry Preview  (Pro)

This is a live preview of the projection of the current photogrammetry (Pro only).

Rulers 

Placed on the left and top of the main window, rulers help drawing and placing objects in a layout with accuracy. Rulers show the current position of the pointer and the bounds of the selected objects and are dynamically linked to the current measurement unit, drawing scale and zoom factor. 

  • The button located on the top-right hand corner between the two rulers lets you place the new origin: click it, move the orthogonal guides appearing on screen and click to set the new location. 
  • On the right end of the top horizontal ruler, a button opens a pop-up menu which lets you select a new measurement unit or open the “Units” pane of the Preferences window. 
  • You can add a horizontal or vertical guide by clicking on a ruler and dragging the pointer on the drawing area. 

The Object Info Panel

The Object Info panel provides easy access to coordinates and other geometric parameters, as well as textual information on selected objects. If no graphic object is selected, the Object Info panel provides all information relating to the current sheet.

This panel lets you read and edit the coordinates of any of the object’s control points: width, height, length, angle, etc.

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The Object Info panel is the main interface for configuring the current sheet, detail or layout: the various sections of the panel provide all the controls and fields needed to define name, scale, units, page size, graphic options and other information.

Info Object panel sections

The panel is organized into distinct sections that group together affine data and vary according to the item displayed:

Sheet :

When no object is selected, object information displays information on the current sheet.

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  • Header : sheet class
  • Sheet : name, options, scale and units
  • Paper size : visible for sheets that support one paper size.
  • Class-specific settings
Object of the project :

The header section of the panel displays the icon and class of the current element.

Header

The header section of the panel displays the icon and class of the current element.

  • When you select one or more objects in the drawing, Object Info immediately displays all the numerical properties of the last object selected. The icon and name of the current object are displayed in the top bar of the window, as are the back and forward arrows used to scroll through the objects in the selection. ;
  • Some objects, such as symbols, texts, dimensions or walls, have special parameters which are not displayed in the Object Info panel: when one of these objects is selected, its parameter window can be opened by clicking on the icon in the top bar of the Object Info panel, or by clicking on the Show parameters button in the ID section;

By default, Object Info modifies all selected objects of the same type. To modify only the current object, whose values are displayed on the panel, open the header context menu and choose “Apply only to current object”. This option remains selected until it is changed again.

For multiple selections, use the Previous and Next buttons on the right to activate the current object.

Point

The Point section displays the X, Y and Z coordinates of the current point. The current point is highlighted in the drawing, and you can use the “Previous” and “Next” buttons to scroll through the object’s handles. To modify a value, click on the field, insert the new value and press the Return key on the keyboard.

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  • Depending on the type of object and the active point, the action resulting from editing the coordinates of the active point may be a stretch or a translation. For example, if you edit point 2 of a line, it is stretched; if you edit point 3 of a circle (its center), the action is a translation. ;
  • When a rectangle or polygon is selected, this section indicates the type of transformation compatible with the current active point. With poly-lines, it is possible to modify the convexity of the segment described by the active point.

Geometry

The Geometry section displays values describing the object’s size and orientation, such as width, height, radius, length, angle and so on. Fields such as width and height can be connected to constrain the object’s proportions.

This section also displays read-only values calculated on the basis of the current coordinates and size, such as perimeter and area.

Some objects, such as dimensions and measurement paths, only display their value in a read-only field, as their size depends on other objects. Walls add controls that allow you to quickly modify the construction.

ID

This section is specific to project elements with advanced properties (accessible via the Settings window) and shows the textual information associated with the object, such as name, description and identifier, which are used, for example, by annotation elements or title blocks.

This section also includes the button to open the parameters window for the selected object.

Subsections of Project Settings

Appearance

This pane lets you customize your HighDesign work environment. Use it to define background and selection colors, the style of construction points and lines.

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The background color can be set as light, dark or custom. This setting only affects drafting and detail sheets. Layouts always use white as background color.

You can define the color of the selection handles and highlights, and choose to turn highlighting off on selected objects.

The next section includes controls for construction points and lines. These settings are global and change the appearance of all construction objects in the project.

Project Units

Use the Units panel to set the project units and specify the formatting rules. To access the Project Units panel, choose the menu item File > Project Settings > Units or Project > Project Settings > Project Units.

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The panel is organized in sections that let you specify the units for lengths, angles, area and volume, and includes options to select the decimal separator and suppress the zero digits.

The settings in this panel act as default settings for all items and tools of the software. Some objects, like Dimensions, also allow custom settings for units in addition to the default, project-wide settings.

Length

Defines the units that show linear measures. Use the Units menu to select the desired measurement unit and the Precision menu to specify the rounding. Changing the precision does not affect that actual value stored in the project, but only changes the way that value is displayed in the software.

  • Decimal units can have a precision in the range from 0 (no decimal digits) to 8 decimal digits.
  • Fractional units can be set to a precision from 1/2 to 1/64

Angles

Angles can be expressed in a number of standards:

  • Decimal degrees (0.0000°)
  • Degrees and minutes (0° 0')
  • Degrees, minutes and seconds (0° 0’ 0’')
  • Radians (0-2 Pi)
  • Centesimal (0-400 gradians)

Angle precision ranges from 0 (no decimals) to four decimal digits (0.0001).

Angles can also be expressed as Normal, Bearings and Azimuth relative to the North.

The Angles section also includes a control to specify the project north.

Area

Areas can be displayed in international or imperial square units, or square points. Their precision ranges from 0 to 8 decimal units.

Volume

Similarly to area units, volume units are available in both international and imperial cubic units, with precision ranging from none (0) to four decimal digits.

Display Options

You can set the decimal separator character as comma (",") or dot ("."). While this setting affects displayed units, you can enter units either way as you are more accustomed to and the software will accept and parse your input.

You can also decide to trim leading, or initial, and final, or leading, zeros from numbers. For example, when leading zeroes are suppressed, 0.25 is displayed as .25 and when trailing zeroes are suppressed 1.25000 becomes 1.25.

Fractional units can also be displayed with or without 0 feet and 0 inches.

Paper Formats

The Paper Formats panel lets you select the default paper size of the entire project from a list of standard sizes (ISO, ANSI/ASME, US ARCH, and more) and activate the options for Page orientation and margins. The page standard and size defined in this window is the default for all new layouts. 

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Default Paper Size

To set the dafault paper size:

  1. Choose the reference standard from the list of common paper size standards: ISO, North American, ANSI/ASME, and custom sizes.
  2. Once you select the standard, the Paper Size view shows the paper sizes from that standard. Click a size to select it and choose the orientation by clicking the Portrait or Landscape icons.
  3. The Width and Height fields show the dimensions of the selected size. The fields are not editable for default sizes, but can be used to define a custom paper size.
  4. Use the Show Margins switch to display or hide the margins of the paper.

Custom Paper Sizes

You can define custom paper sizes with the Custom Paper Sizes dialog window.

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You can access this window from the Standard menu to create and manage custom paper sizes. A custom paper size can have user-defined size and margins, or it can inherit the actual values from an installed printer. Click the “Define by Printer” button to open the system printer dialog to select a printer and a paper size. 

Saved presets can be renamed, edited and duplicated and deleted at any time. They are also available in the Paper Size windows of sheets and layouts.

Global Settings

Use this section to define the margins of the paper. These settings apply to all sheets regardless of the current paper size.

Select Current Printer to inherit the margins from the current printer, or Custom Margins to enter them using the input fields.

Project Grid

You can use this pane to customize the project grid and set its options. The project grid is a graphical aid that displays a grid with major and minor divisions on all drawing sheets. The size of the grid is at 1:1 scale and is displayed at the scale of the current sheet. For example, a 30x30 cm grid will appear larger when switching from a 1:20 sheet to a 1:10 sheet.

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To define the grid:

  1. Define its real-world size using the Width and Height fields.
  2. Define the number of subdivisions from a minimum of 1 to a maximum of 12. A subdivision value of 1 means that no subgrid will be displayed.
  3. Define its color. The Automatic color is calculated as a dimmed contrast color to the current background defined in the Appearance panel.
  4. With the Display Order controls you ca choose whether to display the grid behind the drawing or in front of it.

By default, the project grid is hidden on printouts. Activate the Grid is printable checkbox to make the grid visible on printouts.

The project grid can be used with the Snap to Grid option. You can also choose to make this type of snap exclusive so that all other snaps are disabled when Snap to grid is turned on.

Project Information

Use this panel to enter all the information about the current project, such as your organization name, project name and code, client, site, etc.

The Project Information panel is only available in HighDesign Pro.

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These information will be used throughout the project by variables, schedules, and title blocks.

The data can be exported and imported as a Comma-Separated-Value (CSV) or XML file.

Subsections of Essential Skills

Coordinates, Distances, and Angles 

The Input fields are grouped together in the middle of the Input Bar: use these fields to enter the values of constrained coordinates, length and angle of the object you are drawing. The X, Y and L fields also support additions of partial values. 

When you click on one field or use the keyboard shortcut, a visual aid shows up to point the current constraint out. 

In all input fields, values can be entered either as numbers, such as “100”, or as a sum of numbers, such as “100+20+60”. 

X and Y Coordinates 

Coordinates in HighDesign are either absolute or relative. Absolute coordinates are calculated from the global origin point of the drawing, and relative coordinates are calculated from the previous point of the object. 

The insertion point of an object, that is its start point, is always set and viewed in absolute coordinates, with the X and Y values calculated from the origin of the current sheet. The next point is relative by default, but you can change it from relative to absolute by clicking the X or Y icon on the input field. 

For example, in a line with points at (20, 20) and (100, 100), the end point is (100, 100) in absolute coordinates and (80, 80) in relative coordinates. 

To set the absolute insertion point:  

  1. Click on the corresponding input field or press the “X” or “Y” keys on the keyboard; 
  2. Enter the desired X or Y distance from the Origin;
  3. Press Return to confirm. 

Coordinates input Coordinates input

**To set the relative end point: ** 

  1. Click on the coordinates fields or press the “X” or “Y” keys on the keyboard; 
  2. Enter the desired dx or dy distance from the start point;
  3. Press Return to confirm.

Relative coordinates Relative coordinates

You can change from relative to absolute coordinates and vice-versa by clicking the X or Y icon on the input field or using the corresponding key shortcuts. 

Constrained Length  

You can constrain a segment, line or radius to a fixed length after you have set the start point. In HighDesign, there are two methods for constraining a length that can be used interchangeably. 

A. Define direction, set length. 

  1. After the insertion point is set, move the pointer at the desired angle of the next point; 
  2. Enter the desired length, either as a total length or as a sum of partial values; 
  3. Press Return to confirm; 

B. Define length, set direction. 

  1. Click on the Length field or push the “L” key on the keyboard; 
  2. Enter the desired length; 
  3. Press Return to confirm; 
  4. Move the pointer to set the angle of the vector.

Input calculations Input calculations

Constrained Angle 

To constrain the pointer movement to a fixed angle: 

  1. Click on the “A” field (Angle) or push the “A” key on the keyboard; 
  2. Enter the desired angle value (in degrees); 
  3. Press Return to confirm; 
  4. Move the pointer to set the desired length. 

Relative Angle 

It is possible to constrain the pointer to a relative angle to a reference direction: 

  1. Click on the “A” field or push the “A” key on the keyboard; 
  2. Enter the desired angle value (do not push the “Enter” key); 
  3. Click on the reference direction (line, poly-line segment or wall); 
  4. Move the pointer to set the destination length. 

Constrained Distance  

To set the distance of the insertion/start point of an object from a datum point, type the value, push Enter and click on the datum point; the distance is now displayed as a radius from the datum point: click to set the insertion/start point of the object.

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Activate drawing constraints by using the TAB key

Drawing constraints for X and Y coordinates, Length and Angle can also be activated by pressing the Tab key on the keyboard. When you first push that key it activates the X constraint; then, in order, Y, L, A. Activating the Y constraint stores any values inserted into the X field, so to make it easier to set the coordinates of a point.

Geometric Constraints

The Drawing Constraint functions allow you to quickly draw items with some conditions, such as parallelism, defined angle or intersections. The Input Fields on the Input Bar allow you to enter the coordinates of drawing points and the geometric dimensions of the objects, like length and angle.

Constrained Directions

Linear or polygonal graphic objects such as lines and Poly-lines, rotated rectangles, hatches, arcs and ellipses by radius and diameter, dimensions and walls, can be drawn aligned with one of the Cartesian Axes or rotated by steps of 15 degrees: to do this, just press the Shift key while moving the pointer.

Constrained Parallel, Right-Angle and Aligned/Tangent

These three buttons on the Input Bar provide the Right-Angle and Parallel constraints and the Intersected condition.

Constrain Parallel (P) and Right-Angle (R)

These conditions can be activated anytime with any tool or editing function and will affect the direction of the current movement.

To activate the Right-Angle or Parallel condition:

  • After the first click of the current operation you are performing, click the button corresponding to the desired condition or press its keyboard equivalent (P or R);
  • Click the reference object, e.g. the line you want to draw perpendicular or parallel to (the mouse-cursor changes to a pointing hand when on a valid object);
  • To cancel a condition, press the Esc key on the keyboard.

Constrain Aligned/Tangent

This condition constrains the pointer to intersect a reference line or circle, extending the line you are drawing to the intersection point, even outside the segment bounds, or constraining the direction to the tangent. 

To activate this condition, click the button in the Input Bar or press its keyboard equivalent. If the condition is activated before the start point is defined, it constrains the start point to be aligned to the line or tangent to the circle. If activated after the first click, it constrains the end point. 

The same result can be achieved by pressing the Command key + click on the datum line while drawing the line, polygon, wall or hatch/fill. 

The Constrain Tangent option can be activated to construct a line tangent to an arc or circle, either from the starting point or to the end point. 

To construct a line tangent to an arc or circle from the start point: 

  1. Activate the Constrain Tangent option.
  2. Click on the reference arc or circle. As you move the pointer, the start point of the segment will keep the tangent condition that is closest to the clicked point.

To construct a line tangent to an arc or circle on the end point: 

  1. Click to define the start point of the line. 
  2. Activate the Constrain Tangent option. 
  3. Click on the reference arc or circle. 

The drawing constraints and the snap options can also be displayed as grouped in a floating window you can move to a convenient position on the screen. To show this option, select “Snaps” on the Window menu. 

Alignments

When the pointer snaps to one endpoint of an object, that location is stored as current origin of the temporary guides; the guides are displayed when the cursor is on the X-axis or Y-axis of that datum point. 

The pointer also snaps to the intersection of the guides: the intersection is highlighted with one point and both the guides visible.

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Furthermore, when you place the pointer over a segment, this function stores the angle of that segment displaying the corresponding parallel and orthogonal guides: when tracing the line, just place the pointer over one datum point of that segment (endpoints or midpoint) to display the alignment. 

To temporarily disable the Snap to alignments, hold the “cmd” key (Mac) or “ctrl” (Windows).

Snaps

Snapping is a function that allows the precise positioning of objects and insertion points by having some points of the canvas or parts of objects attract the cursor. It behaves like a magnetic property that adjusts the cursor position when it is within a certain range. HighDesign provides automatic snap to grid nodes, object body, vertex, intersection, right-angle / tangent and alignments.Snaps can be toggled on and off through the Snaps menu on the bottom-left hand side of the main window in the Input Bar. Snap options can also be displayed as a handy floating window available via the Window menu.

Snap Types 

The Snap function is always highlighted by a different shape of the pointer and marked by a handle on the screen that correspond to the current snap condition. Depending on the current preferences, the type of snap can also be highlighted by an on-screen label and a sound.

The available snap options correspond to the following snap types:

  • Snap to grid: the pointer snaps to grid intersections and its sub-divisions; 
  • Snap to endpoint or vertex; 
  • Snap to object: the pointer recognises a minimum distance from an object body; 
  • Snap to intersection: all intersections are interpreted as endpoints; 
  • Snap to right-angle: the pointer changes when the current segment intersects another one with a right angle; 
  • Snap to tangent: the pointer changes when the current line is tangent to a circle / arc; 
  • Snap to alignments: the pointer snaps to two temporary guides; 
  • Snap to Sub-Objects: allows to snap to the objects inside the instances of symbols inserted into the project and inside the Viewports inserted in Layouts. 

Select Objects

The Arrow tool lets you select drawing objects by clicking directly on them or by defining a selection area. To select an object, click on it with the arrow tool. Snap to Objects must be active so that the arrow tool can “see” the object you are clicking. 

Methods

Rectangular selection

Click on a blank part of the screen and move the pointer to define a rectangle: objects with control points within the rectangle will be selected. If you move top-to-down, the selection will include all partially or fully enclosed objects (inclusive selection); if you move down-to-top, the selection will include only fully enclosed objects (exclusive selection). You can invert the selection mode at any time by holding down the Alt (Option) key.

Inclusive and exclusive selection modes_

Polygonal selection

Use this method to select objects by defining a polygonal region. Click to add a vertex to the selection region, double-click to end

Adding and removing objects

Hold down the Shift key while clicking to add items to the selection or remove already selected items. Click on a blank part of the screen to deselect all. If the option “Arrow tool clicks extend selection” is active in Preferences, clicking an unselected object will automatically add it to the selection.

Selecting overlapping objects

When two or more items overlap it can be difficult to select the right object. To get a smart selection, activate the Arrow tool, hold the Control key and click or right-click on the intersection to open a contextual menu with a list of all the objects at that location, from top to bottom.

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Editing objects

The Arrow tool can also be used as an all-purpose editing tool: most of the tool-specific editing actions, such as resizing a line or editing a text, can also be performed with the Arrow tool.

  • Clicking a selected object on its outline, but not on a vertex, will activate the Move function.
  • Clicking a vertex of an object resizes the object.
  • Hovering the cursor on a vertex of a selected hatch, polyline or spline opens the menu with the options to edit the vertex.
  • Hold down the Command key to move any object, selected or unselected, by any of its vertices or by its outline.

Zoom and Pan

These viewing tools, by default grouped in a handy dock on the border of the drawing area, are essential to handle drawings. The first time you launch HighDesign Panning, Zoom and Zoom to fit are docked as semi-transparent buttons on the top right corner of the drawing area: by right-clicking on the dock you can open a menu with the options to change the position of the dock.

Also, in the Zoom and Scrolling section of the Workspace pane of HighDesign Preferences you can open the “View controls” menu to change the position of the dock or to display the controls in the main toolbar.

Zoom

The Zoom tool allows you to enlarge or reduce the current view of the drawing by zooming in or out. 

Click on the start point, then move the pointer and click again the define the rectangular area that will be zoomed. Hold down the Option key to zoom out. 

The zoom factor is inversely proportional to the size of the zoom rectangle, that is, the smaller the rectangle is, the higher will be the factor. 

Double-click the tool icon to set the view factor back to 100% (actual view). 

Other zoom commands are grouped under the View menu, including “Zoom to Fit”, “Zoom In” and “Zoom Out”. 

Dynamic zoom is enabled by pressing “cmd and +” or “cmd and -” buttons on the keyboard or, with a multi-button mouse, by rotating the wheel: rotate the wheel forward to zoom in and backward to zoom out. Trackpad gestures are also supported by the dynamic zoom. 

Zoom to Fit

This viewing utility control is also available as a button in the dock of the viewing tools: by clicking this button the zoom factor and the center of the view are adjusted to fit the extents of the drawing area. This way you get a panoramic view of the whole visible drawing.

When one or more objects are selected this control centers the view of the selection only.

Pan

Use this tool to drag the drawing area and quickly move the current view. To use the Panning Tool click and drag the mouse pointer.Double-click the tool icon to set the view to the center of the drawing. 

The panning tool can also be temporarily activated with any tool by pressing the space bar on the keyboard: if you already started a task, for instance drawing a line, the use of the panning tool will not interfere with the current function. 

With a multi-button mouse it is possible to pan the drawing by clicking the middle / wheel button and dragging the pointer. 

Subsections of Organize the Project

Detailing

Details (Pro)

Detail Sheets are specialized drafting sheets used to add detailed views of the project. This class of sheets allows a better organization of the project by separating the drawing sheets, where the project is, from the other drawings that complement the main design. Details are typically “extracted” from a larger design and include additional elements and information, usually at a larger scale.

There are two methods for creating a detail sheet: by detail area and as an independent detail.

To create a detail sheet by a detail area:

  1. Go to the drafting sheet where the desired drawing is and create a detail area on the part of the drawing from which the detail is going to be generated.
  2. Select the detail area, click the drop-down triangle next to the area’s title and choose New Detail by Selected Area.

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The new detail sheet by default shows the drawing contained in the source area. This is called “underlay” and it can be toggled on and off and displayed at the desired opacity. The underlay serves as a reference for further drawing and automatically updates whenever the original drawing is changed. The objects that are visible on the underlay can be snapped, but cannot be selected.

To create a new detail sheet as an independent detail:

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The new detail sheet by default shows the drawing contained in the source area. This is called “underlay” and it can be toggled on and off and displayed at the desired opacity. The underlay serves as a reference for further drawing and automatically updates whenever the original drawing is changed. The objects that are visible on the underlay can be snapped, but cannot be selected.

To create a new detail sheet as an independent detail:

  1. On the Project Browser, click the plus (+) icon on the Details group heading or choose Project > New Independent Detail…
  2. Define the sheet’s properties in the pop-up dialog.
  3. Independent details are not linked to a detail area and show no underlay.

Detail sheets support a sub-set of the drawing tools: you can use sketching and documentation tools, but design tools as Walls or Windows are not available.

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In linked details, the underlay can be exploded and turned into a group for editing and further transformations: to explode the underlay use the menu item Project > Explode Underlay.

The Object Info panel provides the main information and the options of the current Detail. Details do not have the Paper Size option. To add a detail to a layout, create a viewport on the layout and choose the detail as source sheet for that viewport.

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Once a detail area is linked to a detail sheet, it becomes a Callout. Callouts have an additional marker that contains information about the detail:

  • the upper half shows the identification number of the linked detail sheet.
  • the lower half shows the layout identification number where that detail has been placed as a viewport.

When the detail area is selected, you can click either of the labels in the callout mark to go directly to the linked sheet.

Further information about detail areas is available on the chapter Annotate the Project.

Drafting Sheets

A HighDesign project is made of different sheets, each with its own page size, drawing scale and units, depending on the part of the project it represents. HighDesign provides an intuitive way of managing projects by introducing the concept of “Drafting Sheets.”

A drafting sheet is a space where you can freely draw at any scale and units, without particular constraints. You can use a drafting sheet to lay out a sketch of the project, insert a DWG/DXF drawing or a picture, create a structural grid, draw a component of the product, a symbol, or a full detailed drawing.

Each sheet in a project can have its own drawing scale. Measures and dimensions must be entered in their natural, real-world scale and are automatically adjusted to the current scale. Annotative objects, like texts, annotations and dimensions are entered at their 1:1 scale.

  • A drafting Sheet in HighDesign has special attributes such as visibility, write-protection, etc., that make it a convenient way of organizing a project: you can, for instance, put a different drawing on each sheet or use a sheet for the main drawing and draw sections on additional sheets. 
  • A HighDesign project, either for architecture, engineering or design, is thus made up of several drawings contained in a single document. 
  • The ability to show or hide sheets, transparency and write protection allows you to compose a complex project even in a single layout. 

These are some of the properties and advantages that sheets provide: 

  • Independent drawing scale and optional paper size of the current sheet; 
  • Independent drawing units;
  • Write protection and display mode (visible, hidden and dimmed);
  • You can search and select items on a single sheet or on all sheets; 
  • Visible sheets can be merged into one; 
  • You can create and delete any number of sheets;
  • The print functions only prints the visible sheets;
  • A sheet can be saved as a new document;
  • Sheets can be reordered and renamed; two or more sheets can share the same name; 

Drafting Sheets are managed through the Project Browser Panel of the Sidebar and via the Project menu, which provide all the commands to create, rename, delete and reorder sheets, move and duplicate items across sheets, show and hide, etc. 

Drafting Sheet Properties

Drafting sheets have adjustable properties that control their behaviour and look and can be modified both via the Project Browser panel and the Object Info “Drafting Sheet” panel. The Object Info panel shows all the sheet properties while the Project Browser only shows the most commonly accessed properties, such as visibility, name, scale, etc.You can also open the “Drafting Sheet” info panel by double-clicking the sheet’s icon on the Project Browser.

New sheets automatically inherit the default page size and units set in the Project Settings window.

  • Name: you can enter any sheet name without particular restrictions.
  • Visibility: a drafting sheet can be visible or hidden. Hidden sheets are not computed in the general drawing bounds and do not intercept the snap options. Click the icon to change the visibility.
  • Write protection: this option locks the sheet. Objects on a locked sheet cannot be selected and modified.
  • Drawing Scale:
  • To change a drawing scale, enter the scale ratio (e.g. “1:200”) or click the popup arrow to open the menu of predefined scale. When using imperial units, it is possible to switch the scale representation between ratio and verbal (e.g. 1" = 1’) by clicking the icon on the Drawing Scale popup menu.
  • It is also possible to enter a scale value below 1.0, such as 2:1.
  • The scale of a sheet can also be changed via the Sheet Scale dialog, available from the Scale popup menu or from the menu item Drawing > Sheet Scale. This dialog provides the ability to define the origin point for the scaling operation and options to apply the scale to the current sheet only, to the visible sheets or all drafting sheets.

The Project Browser

The Project Browser  (SE/Pro) 

The Project Browser shows a logical hierarchy for all the Drafting Sheets of the project and also lists Details and Layouts which are special sheets used to present the project. By using this panel you can quickly create, rename and delete sheets, change their visibility, protection, optional size and scale attributes.

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To create a new sheet, click the New Sheet button (+) and modify its name. By default, new sheets are created with the current drawing scale and units. You can change the units and scale of a sheet by double-clicking it on this window. 

To arrange a sheet, drag it to the new position: the table order corresponds to the actual display order, where the topmost visible sheet is the first item of the list. 

You can control how the sheets are displayed on screen by clicking the Opacity button. There are three states: all sheets equally visible, the current sheet displayed normally and the others dimmed, or only the current sheet visible. 

Utility Buttons 

The Project Browser panel provides several buttons on the footer of the window to quickly access functions and set options.

  • New sheet: adds a new sheet at the top of the list; new sheets have a default progressive name which can be changed by double-click.
  • Delete selected sheet: all objects of the current sheet can be moved to another one or deleted. 
  • Action menu. The action menu lists the commands to manage sheets as in the Project menu, apart from those specific to the selected objects of the drawing, and the commands to change the visibility status of all sheets in relation to the current one.
  • Display modes: All Visible, Dim Others, or Hide Others. These button group is only visible when a Drawing sheet is currently selected.

Trace References

A trace reference is a view of another sheet that is displayed under the current sheet’s contents and that can be used to trace parts of that drawing onto the current sheet, or to mark points and references to draw a new component, a floor plan, an elevation or a cross section view.

Trace references can only be activated on drafting sheets and cannot be exported to PDF. They can be printed and exported as image.

To activate a trace reference use any of the following methods:

  • From the menu bar, choose View > Trace Reference > Activate Reference;
  • If the on-screen View buttons are visible, click the Trace Reference button and push the switch;
  • Click the switch on the Trace Reference section of the Object Info panel. The same switch can be used to show or hide temporarily the tracing reference of the sheet.

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Next, choose a source sheet from the Sheet menu. Only the eligible sheets are listed.

When you select a sheet, its content is displayed on the current sheet at its original location. The current sheet now acts as the host sheet. The size of the referenced drawing is automatically adjusted to match the scale of the host sheet. Once inserted, you can change the opacity, enable or disable the snap to the referenced drawing, move, rotate or crop the reference as needed.

  • The Trace Reference panel provides the Opacity slider to change the opacity of the referenced drawing to any value between 0 (completely transparent) to 100 (completely opaque).
  • Use the Angle slider to rotate the drawing. The center of the rotation is always the center of the drawing.
  • The trace reference can also be displayed using any of the built-in colour effects: choose the desired effect from the Filters menu. Trace references and viewports include special filters that can automatically hide all texts and annotations in the referenced drawing.

Scaling a Trace Reference

By default, a trace reference is displayed at the same drawing scale as the host sheet. By using the Scale Factor options it is also possible to change the size of the displayed drawing by a custom factor. You can do that in two ways:

A. Enter a percent value in the Scale Factor field.

The reference is scaled around its center by the specified amount. Although you can enter any valid number larger than 0, it is useful to remember that images in the drawing cannot be resized above 32765 pixels per side. If you need to enlarge a picture by a very large percent value, it is important to review the scale of the source sheet where it was inserted and change it to a more fitting value.

B. Trace an element in the drawing and enter its real size.

The Set to Scale command allows you to resize the reference by tracing a line on the referenced drawing and entering its real length. The drawing will be resized so that the traced line matches the specified length.Activate this method by pushing the “Set to Scale” button, then:

  1. Specify the first point of the line.
  2. Specify the second point of the line.
  3. Enter its real length and push the Confirm button or press Return.

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Scaling a trace reference through the Scale Factor commands only applies to the trace reference and does not affect any drawing object added to the host sheet.

Moving a Trace Reference

You can move the trace reference anywhere on the sheet. To begin the operation, select the trace reference by clicking its border and move the pointer inside the drawing. The cursor changes to indicate that it is possible to move the drawing: click anywhere to begin the Move operation.

You can place the drawing wherever it is more convenient to you. Click again to end the Move command. If you later need to restore the drawing to its default position, use the command Reset to Default Position from the View > Trace Reference menu.

Cropping a Trace Reference

When it is not necessary to view the entire drawing contained in the referenced sheet, it is possible to crop, or clip, the visible drawing to a smaller rectangle.

To crop a trace reference, select it by clicking its border and click any of the handles that appear at the corners and on the sides of the box. You can then resize the crop area as needed. When cropped, a trace reference only displays what is inside the crop area. To adjust the crop area so that it shows a smaller region or a different part of the drawing, select the reference and use the crop handles. When the cursor is near the borders of a selected reference that has been cropped, a gray overlay shows the full extents of the source sheet.

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Moving, rotating and resizing a trace reference does not modify the source sheet and only the displayed view is transformed. You can undo and redo any transformation operation at any time.

Using Layers

Layers

A layer is a concept used in CAD and design programs to conveniently group elements in a logical way. As its name implies, this concept derives from the use of overlaid semitransparent papers in manual drafting. As in manual drafting, layers are used in HighDesign to organize a complex drawing into different component parts, but, differently from real layers, each CAD layer has its own properties. 

Decomposing a drawing into its components is one of the most important operations in computer design. Any object, even the most complex, can only be analyzed by separating its elements in logical groups, applying criteria that depend on the object nature and on the designer goal. 

Any element of a drawing in HighDesign belongs to a layer: there is no restriction on what types of objects you can assign to a layer. You are free to group different elements together in the most convenient way to you or according to the drawing standard you are following. 

HighDesign layers have the following properties:  

  • Name. Layers are identified by their name;  
  • Visibility. A layer can be visible or invisible. Items belonging to a visible layer are redrawn to screen, are printable and selectable; invisible layers are not printed. 
  • Lock. Layers can be locked to make their items not selectable.
  • Color. Layers can have a default 32 bit color. If the byLayer option is on (you can change it by opening the “Colors” pop-up menu in the Properties bar and selecting “byLayer”), any new item gets the color of its layer.
  • Opacity. Controls the overall opacity at which the objects on that layer are displayed.
  • Drawing tool binding. You can create a binding between a drawing tool and a layer so that, every time you activate that tool, the layer is set automatically. To enable this option, click the corresponding check box. The Tool column on the main table will become active. Click the icon on a row to select a tool or method to associate with that layer.

Quick Layer Management 

The layers of the project are listed on the Layers menu of the Properties Bar: select the desired layer by a click to update the current default or to change the layer of the selection. 

The name of the current layer or of the layer of the selection is shown on the menu.

  • The Layers menu displays the main functions to manage layers: you can switch to other layers, show or hide layers, lock some layers and access the Layers Manager to create and arrange new layers. 
  • The commands on the upper section of the menu allow to create new layers, open the Layers pane of the Resource Manager window and switch layer masking on and off. 
  • You can mask the layers of a project so that only the current layer is visible and editable. Masking is a switch on/off command, and as long as the mask is active, changing the current layer will automatically hide the other layers. Once masking is switched off, the other layers return to the original visibility they had before the command.
  • Layers are document based and are only available to the project you created them for.
  • In addition to the pop-up menu, you can manage project layers with the Layers panel, available under the Window menu, or with the Resource Manager. 

Subsections of Drawing

Chapter 1

Arcs, Circles and Ellipses

Subsections of Arcs, Circles and Ellipses

About Arcs, Circles and Ellipses

Use this tool to draw circles, arcs, ellipses and arcs of ellipse. All the methods for circular arcs can be used to draw full circles by clicking the switch that appears on the screen next to the first point of the arc, or by holding down the Alt key. 

The construction can be both graphical, via clicks on the drawing, or numerical via the keyboard input. 

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Topics in this Section

  • Arcs and Circles
  • Ellipses

Arcs and Circles

Use the Arcs, Circles and Ellipses tool to create circles and circular arcs. The tool includes methods to create arcs and circles by a number of conditions and points.

Each method provides an on-screen button to let you choose to create an arc or a circle.

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 Arc/Circle by Center and Radius

To draw an arc or circle click to set the center (or set it with by coordinates), then select the arc or circle option on the on screen floating button.

To draw an arc, set the radius by pressing the L key, set the start angle by pressing the A key and set the end angle by pressing A again. To draw an arc graphically, move the pointer and click again to set the start angle; with the next click you define the end angle of the arc. 

To draw a full circle, set the length of the radius by pressing the L key on the keyboard and the start angle / end angle by pressing the A key. Press Return to confirm.

Arc/Circle by Diameter

Click to set the first vertex of the diameter, move the pointer and click again to set the second vertex. You can define the diameter by pressing the L key, and the angle by pressing the A key. 

Arc/Circle by Start Point, End Point, Radius

Click to set the start point and end point of the arc and click to set the radius. The two points and the radius can also be defined via numeric input using the X, Y and Dx, Dy coordinates and L value. Hold the “alt” key to switch the direction of the arc.

Arc/Circle by Three Points 

Click to set the points that define the arc. The three points can also be defined via numeric input using the X, Y coordinates or L and A values.

Arc/Circle by Tangent

Click on the endpoint of a line or on the endpoint of an arc to set the first point of the arc drawn by the tangent to that object at that datum endpoint. 

Ellipses

Ellipse by Bounding Box

Set the start point, move and define the end point of the diagonal. The ellipse is inscribed in the rectangle defined by its diagonal. 

Ellipse by Center and Radii

Click to set the center of the ellipse, move and click to define its first radius; move again and click to set its second radius. The center can also be defined by using the X, Y coordinates and the radii can be defined by pressing the L key during their construction. 

Quarter of Ellipse

This method allows you to draw quarters of ellipse by clicking on its two vertices.

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.

Chapter 1

Curves

Subsections of Curves

About Curves

The Curves tool allows you to draw, single and multiple BĂ©zier curves, Freehand lines, Spline curves and clouds.

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Topics in this Section

  • BĂ©zier paths
  • Splines
  • Freehand Curves
  • Revision Clouds

BĂ©zier Curves

This method can be used to draw multiple, connected Bézier paths, parametric curves defined by two vertices and two tangent lines: 

  • Click to set the first vertex, move the pointer and click to set the next vertex; double click to end the chain of Bezier curves.
  • To draw a curve during construction, click and drag to define its profile.

The resulting path now can now be edited to smooth the vertices and turn the straight segments into the desired curves: this way the first tangent of the next curve is always defined by the previous one. Bézier curves have the Fill property: select the desired color on the “Fill color” menu of the Properties bar.

Edit a BĂ©zier curve

  • Hover the cursor over one vertex of the selected curve toshow the pop-up menu with the options to add or delete vertices and smooth or sharpen the path by creating connected curves or straight segments.
  • By clicking on one of the four control points of a selected curve, you can change its position and visually adjust the profile. With multiple BĂ©zier curves, by editing a definition point the connected tangents are constrained to keep the same angle: move the control points of the tangents to change the angle and adjust the shape of the curve. 
  • Hold down the Alt key while moving the control points of the tangents to edit asymmetrically; Alt key + Cmd key to disconnect the tangents.

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The nodes of a bézier path can also be modified through the Object Info panel: select the node and change its coordinates and node type. The node types are:

  • Straight: the node has no tangents and the curve is rendered as a straight line.
  • Symmetric: the tangents extend by the same length and angle on both sides of the node.
  • Asymmetric: the tangents are aligned at the same angle, but different length.
  • Disconnected: the tangents are totally independent and each control point has its own angle and length.

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Clouds

Use this method to draw revision clouds and mark areas of the drawing that require special attention or further development.

The Revision Cloud method creates a composite shape made of arcs.

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Freehand Lines

The Freehand method lets you create spline curves by following the movement of the cursor. The algorithm transforms the movement of the cursor on screen to smooth curves.

The freehand method has two properties: smoothing factor, that defines the complexity of the curve, and the drawing option. You can adjust the smoothing factor of new paths through the Freehand settings window: 1 means that the path will preserve its original shape, but might have many vertices; 6 is the maximum smoothing and the path will be considerably simplified.

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On the same panel, you can also choose to draw freehand paths with a click-drag method instead of the standard click-click: this option is specially useful when used with a pen tablet, because it allows a more natural way of drawing.

Splines

A spline is a smooth curve that passes through a series of points. Splines in HighDesign are third-degree (cubic) polynomial segments, known as nonuniform rational B-Splines (NURBS).

Splines have a wide range of uses due to the simplicity of their construction, ease of editing and adaptability to mimic complex shapes.

Construct a Spline

To construct a spline, click to specify the start point, move the pointer and click to specify the next point. Double-click to end the curve or return to the start point to close the shape.

Press the X (cancel) button or the Esc key to cancel the last point.

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Editing a Spline

You can modify the profile of a spline by stretching a point, or by adding and removing vertices.

  • Hover the cursor over one vertex of the selected curve to show the pop-up menu with the options to add or delete points;
  • Move the given points of the selected curve with the Arrow tool or with the pointer and the Spline or Freehand tool method active. 

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Chapter 1

Groups

Subsections of Groups

About Groups

HighDesign provides the ability of grouping different objects together as a single item. Most editing operations and transformations can only be applied to selected items, either to individual objects or to a group of objects at once. 

Groups are a convenient way of organizing items by binding heterogeneous items in one “collection” which behaves as one object. Once a number of drawing objects are grouped together you can select them simply by clicking any of the group members. By default, the grouped objects retain their attributes, such as color, line type, weight, etc. Changing the attributes of a group applies the changes to all its members. 

Edit Groups

Grouped objects can be edited all together like a single drawing object by stretching the handles of the bounding box of the group with the Arrow tool. A group can be moved, rotated, mirrored or scaled like any other object.

  • A group can be resized and moved with the Arrow tool. Properties applied to a group are applied to all the group members.
  • To select individual members of a group, hold down the command key and click the object. The object will be selected and available to to be modified or deleted. This method is more suitable for quick editing operations. 
  • You can also modify the members of a group through the Edit Group command.

The Edit Group workspace

You can activate the Edit Group workspace by selecting a group and clicking the Edit icon on the top-left handle point or by choosing** Project â–¸ Edit Group…** This workspace opens a panel with specific commands that let you manage sub-groups, show or hide the context, add objects to the group or remove objects from it.

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If the group includes sub-groups, you can use the Sub-Groups menu to activate any sub-group or return to the main group. To edit a sub-group, click the Edit icon above its top-left corner. Click “Done” to end the edit.

By default, the edited group is displayed within its context, that is, the surrounding objects of the drawing it is inserted into. You can adjust the level of opacity of the context or disable it altogether.

To add an existing object to the group, push the Add Object button in the Actions section and click any object in the context. In likewise manner, push the Remove Object and click on any object of the group to remove it from the group. The removed object will be moved to the sheet where its original group resides.

You can also draw any class of object using the tools that are available on the Toolbox. Any object created in this way will be added to the current group.

Push Done to confirm the changes and return to the normal workspace, or push Cancel to dismiss all the changes made in the Edit Group workspace.

Group Commands

All commands connected with groups area available in the Project menu. The functions to manage groups are Group, Ungroup, Automatic Grouping, Ungroup All, Edit Group. 

  • “Group” creates a new group with all the currently selected items; 
  • “Ungroup” breaks the selected groups;
  • “Add to Group” includes selected objects in the currently selected group; 
  • “Automatic Grouping” is an option that automatically creates groups with items of a shape, i.e. rectangles, regular polygons, poly-lines, walls, etc.; 
  • “Ungroup All” breaks all groups, including those not selected.
  • “Edit Group” opens a workspace where you can modify the selected group by editing, adding or removing members by using the normal drawing tools. 
Chapter 1

Hatches and Fills

Subsections of Hatches and Fills

About Hatches and Fills

Use the Hatch tool to fill existing objects or regions with vector hatch patterns, solid color fills, gradients, or textures. You can also use a combination of different filling modes, such as hatch and solid color.

You can select a predefined hatch pattern or create your own (SE/Pro): HighDesign comes with a wide range of built-in hatches that can be easily extended with your own hatches.

Hatches and fills are elements that include various parameters that can be set and modified in the Hatch tool settings panel.

Topics in this Section

  • Hatch Tool Settings
  • Create Polygonal Hatches
  • Apply Hatches at Click
  • Open Islands Inside a Hatch
  • Eding a Hatch

Create Polygonal Hatches

To draw a polygonal hatch

  1. Click to specify the start point.
  2. Move the cursor and click to specify the next vertices.
  3. Double-click or click the start point to end the operation close the region.

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You can click the X (Cancel) button next to each new vertex or press Esc to cancel the last vertex in the sequence.

You can press the Return key to confirm a vertex, or double-press Return to close the shape.

Editing a Hatch

Hatch and fill regions can be edited by adding and removing vertices, stretching a vertex, or by fitting a segment to an arc. Most operations can be performed by clicking a vertex or a side of the shape, or by opening the Edit popup menu.

To Open the Edit Menu

With the hatch selected, move the pointer over a vertex and wait half a second until the Edit menu opens next to the vertex.

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Add and Remove Vertices

To add a vertex to a selected hatch

  • Click on the border on any segment. The cursor changes to show that you are about to add a point.
  • Alternatively, open the Edit popup menu over a vertex and choose Add Vertex.

To remove a vertex

  • Open the Edit popup menu and choose Delete Vertex.

Fit Arc at Click

Hatch regions support only straight segments, but can be applied to arcs with a specific command available on the tool popup menu. To apply a hatch to an arc, do the following:

  1. Create the hatch by clicking the vertices of the outline. While defining the hatch boundary, do not follow the profile of the arc with the hatch points. Instead, add the chord of the arc between its start and end points.
  2. Select the hatch you just created, move the pointer over one of the points at the start or end point of the arc and hover for half a second. The options popup menu opens.
  3. Select Fit Arc at Click and click on the arc.

Hatch at Click

Use this method to apply the current hatch to shapes defined by lines, poly-lines, polygons, arcs, curves and other graphic objects: click inside the shape to fill it automatically with a Hatch object. The shape must be made of objects of any of the supported classes and connected at their end points.

Object classes supported by the Hatch at Click method:

  • Lines
  • Poly-lines
  • Rectangles and regular polygons
  • Arcs, Circles, Ellipses
  • Bezier paths and splines
  • Walls

With the exclusion of walls, the other objects can be combined together to form the base shape. For example, you can apply the hatch to a shape made of lines and arcs, or lines and a spline. Move the pointer over the shape to see the preview of the boundary of the hatch that is going to be created.

If you want to ignore the automatic boundary defined by walls and use another shape instead, hold the Alt key down. This will force the tool to ignore the region defined by the walls and look for any other region enclosing the click point.

The new hatch or fill is created with current default properties defined in the Hatch Settings panel. As with other objects, you can select it at any time and change its properties.

The hatch is automatically inserted behind the boundary shape, so that its Z position is immediately below the lowest object of the boundary. Hold the Shift key down to insert it on top of the shape.

Hatch Tool Settings

Specify the various parameters of new and existing hatch regions by using the Hatch tool settings window. Select Edit â–¸ Settings Window â–¸ Hatch Pattern or double-click the corresponding icon on the Toolbox to open the Hatches & Fill Settings window.

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Borders and Fill

Use the Border and Fill switches to enable or disable the display of the region’s border and color fill. To set or change the fill color, use the Fill button on the Properties bar or Graphic Attributes panel.

Hatch and Texture

Use the Hatch/Texture switch to enable or disable the display of a hatch pattern or texture fill. Hatch patterns and textures include the following options:

  • Draw at scale. Enable this option to have the vector hatch displayed at the current sheet scale. This option is not available for textures.
  • Color. Use the Color button to specify the pen color of the hatch pattern.
  • Scale Factor: change the scaling factor of the hatch pattern. This value is not connected to the drawing scale factor and ranges from a minimum of 1% to a maximum of 1600%.
  • Rotation: change the orientation of the hatch by defining a rotation angle.

Select the hatch type or texture from the list.

The last cell of the Hatches table is a special button: click it to add hatch types to the current project. This option opens the “Hatch patterns” pane of the Resource Manager window. 

Opening Islands Inside a Hatch

Hatch and fill regions can have multiple islands, or holes, inside the region. You can open a island with the polygonal or circular island methods, or with the Hatch at Click method.

Polygonal Island

Select this method to create polygonal openings in existing hatches by drawing the shapes of the islands within the selection. To do this, just activate the Hatches & Fills tool, select the method and click on the vertices of the polygonal opening you wish to create within the hatch. This method can be used on either selected and unselected hatches. The nearest hatch is detected automatically as you move the cursor over the project.

Circular Island

This method allows you to open circular islands defined by center and radius. Click to set the center and click again to set the radius: it is also possible to set the value of the radius numerically.

To edit the island, select the hatch and locate the pointer over one vertex of the opening till the tool menu shows up giving you the options to remove the island, to delete one vertex or to add another one.

Opening islands with the Hatch at Click method

The Hatch at Click method can be used to open islands (holes) inside a hatch: select the hatch and click on one or more shapes inside its boundary. Only the edited hatch object must be selected.

Chapter 1

Images

Subsections of Images

About Images

Images in HighDesign are external references, that is objects that are inserted into the drawing and keep a reference to the original file so that they can be reloaded if needed. Images are treated like objects that you can insert, move and manipulate together with the other drawing objects.

Images can be inserted via the Insert Image command, available on the File or Project ▸ Insert menus. The supported file types are TIFF, JPG, PNG, GIF, WebP, TGA and PDF. Alpha levels present in TIFF, PNG and WebP files are preserved. Once inserted into the project, the image is treated as a vector object with coordinates, width, height and angle parameters.

Topics in this Section

  • Image Tool Settings
  • Insert an Image
  • Editing Images

Editing Images

Images can be edited graphically or by their parameters.

To edit an image graphically:
  • Select the image, then
  • Click the center handle to move the image
  • Click one of the corner handles to resize the image.
  • Click one of the middle handles on the sides to resize the image in that direction.

As you resize an image, its horizontal and vertical resolution values change to reflect the new pixel/display size ratio.

To restore the original image size and resolution, open the Image tool settings window and push the Restore Original Values button.

To edit an image by its parameters:
  • Select the image, then
  • Open the image tool settings panel and change width, height and resolution.
  • Alternatively, use the Object Info panel to resize and rotate the picture.

Image Tool Settings

Use the Image settings window to select new images to insert, and set the default size, resolution, transparency and storage format of image objects.

The Image tool settings window contains a preview of the image and several sections that show the current values and parameters.

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Preview and Image Info

This area allows you to choose an image to insert or replace, and shows a preview of the image at the current transparency.

When no image is currently selected, the Preview area shows an Open Image button. Press that button to open a pop-up dialog from which you can select one of the images already inserted in the project, a recently-opened image, or choose an image file from your computer.

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When an image object is selected in the drawing, you can replace the image by pressing the Replace Image button that appears when you move the pointer over the preview. Replaced images preserve size, resolution and transparency of the previous image.

Press the Info button to view details and information about the image and its original file. The information include the location of the image file, its file size and modification date, and its bitmap size in pixels.

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Size and Resolution

Use the width, height and resolution fields to resize the image. To constrain a proportional resizing, press the constrain proportions button, and open the units pop-up menu to select the preferred units.

Images can be displayed at their print resolution or at screen resolution. Use the Display at screen resolution switch to change this parameter. The visible size of the image is larger at lower resolutions.

To restore the original dimensions of the selected image after it has been resized, push the Restore Original Values button.

Transparency

Images can be displayed at variable transparency, ranging from 0% (fully visible) to 100% (fully transparent). This setting does not modify the image and can be adjusted at any time.

Storage Format

Images are handled like other vector objects and saved in the project file. The internal format can either be PNG, which preserves the full quality of the image, or JPEG, which compresses the image and saves file size considerably, but reduces the quality. JPG is very good for photographic images, but not for images that contain line drawings, such as city maps or scanned drawings. 

Insert an Image

HighDesign lets you easily add pictures to your project from several graphic formats (TIFF, JPEG, PNG, GIF, BMP, TGA, WebP, PDF). Images inserted into the project keep their resolution and are displayed at the real print size: it is possible to handle them as any other vector entity. PNG, TIFF and WebP images are imported with their alpha channel if present. 

You can insert a picture in your project in several ways:

  • File â–¸ Insert Image…
  • Project â–¸ Insert â–¸ Image…
  • Double click the Image tool icon to open the Settings pane, push the Open Image button and the Open button on the pop-up panel.
  • Drag and drop an image file from the computer onto the drawing area.
  • Drag and drop a picture from another application, such as a web browser or a photo archiving software.
  • Paste a picture from the system clipboard.

Images are inserted by their lower-left corner.

PDF documents can be inserted as high-resolution images. When you choose a PDF document with the Insert Image command, you are presented with a dialog where in you can select the page to import, if more than one, and set the resolution at which the image object will be created. 

Chapter 1

Lines

Subsections of Lines

About Lines

The Line tool lets you draw simple 2D lines of any length and angle. The tool includes four methods and allows editing of selected lines.

Topics in this Section

  • Line by start point
  • Line by center
  • Segmented lines
  • Double lines from one side or axis
  • Editing a line

Double Lines

Creates two parallel segments of the same length at the specified offset from each other. Activate the field next to the method icons to enter a value.

Double lines can be traced from the axis or from one side.

The standard method of drawing a line of given length is to set the first point, push the L key (or the corresponding shortcut), enter the value and push the Return key. The same procedure applies to Angle (A), X, Y. More methods are described in the Basic Tasks chapter.

Editing a Line

Line objects can be edited in the same way with the Arrow tool or the Line tool.

To stretch a line:

  1. Select the line.
  2. Click one of its end points.
  3. Move the pointer. Hold down the Shift key to keep the original angle.
  4. Click to end the operation.

To move a line:

Line by Center

To create a line from its center:

  • Click to specify the center or middle point of the line.
  • Move the pointer in the desired direction and by the desired distance. Note that as you move the pointer, you actually define one half of the line so when entering a length value you define the length of half line.
  • Click again to specify the end point.

Line by Start Point

This method lets you create a line from a start point to and end point.

To draw a line:

  • Click to specify the start point.
  • Move the pointer in the desired direction and by the desired distance.
  • Click to specify the end point.

Length and angle constraints are available during the construction of lines.

Segmented Lines

Creates a series of segmented lines connected on their end point. Note that this method creates a series of independent lines. To create a composite object made of multiple segments, use the Polyline tool.

To create segmented lines:

  1. Click to set the first vertex.
  2. Move the pointer.
  3. Click to set the next vertex.
  4. To end the series, double-click on the last vertex.
Chapter 1

Polygons

Subsections of Polygons

About Polygons

Use this tool to draw closed polygonal shapes, like rectangles, squares and regular polygons of any number of sides.

Polygons include two object classes, Rectangle and Polygon, that have specific editing rules.

Topics in this Section

  • Rectangles
  • Regular Polygons

Rectangles

The Polygons tool provides three methods to create rectangles: rectangle by vertex, rotated rectangle by vertex, and rectangle by center.

Rectangle by Vertex

To draw a rectangle, click to set the first vertex, move the pointer and click again to set opposite vertex. You can add diagonals to a rectangle by pressing the Option key on the second click. To draw a square, use the rectangle tool and hold the Shift key to constrain the diagonal direction. 

To set the size of the rectangle, click to set the starting vertex, then push the “W” key to set the width and “H” to set the height. Positive values go rightwards and upwards. To edit the rectangle with either the Arrow tool or the Drawing tool active, click on vertices to resize, on midpoints of sides to stretch, and click on sides or center point to move.

Rotated Rectangle

Click to place the first vertex, move the pointer and click again to set the base angle; then move the pointer and click a third time to set the height of the shape. To set the dimensions, click the first vertex, push the “A” key to set the angle, the “W” key for the width and the “H” key for the height.

Rectangle by Center

Click to set the center of the rectangle; move and click to define the orientation and the first axis; move and click again to define the perpendicular axis.

Editing a Rectangle

You can modify a rectangle by stretching one of its four vertices, the mid-points of the sides, or move it by the center.

  • Select the rectangle. Depending on the handle point you click, you can stretch, resize or move the object.
  • Vertex: resize the rectangle by one of its vertices or corners. You can enter the new dimensions by pressing the W and H keys as you resize the shape.
  • Middle points: stretch the rectangle and modify its width or height by clicking the middle point of one of the sides.
  • Center: move the rectangle to a new location.

Regular Polygons

The Polygons tool includes three methods to create regular polygons of a variable number of sides: polygon by external radius, polygon by internal radius, and polygon by side.

To define the number of sides, use the input field on the Properties bar.

Regular Polygon by External Radius

This method allows you to draw regular polygons with any number of sides starting from three. To set the desired number of sides, use the offset field in the Methods bar next to the tool methods and insert the value. 

To draw a Regular Polygon by the external radius, click to set the center of the shape (all these regular polygons are inscribed in a circle), move the pointer and click again to set the radius of the circle circumscribed and the vertex of the polygon.

Regular Polygon by Internal Radius

This method lets you draw the polygon by setting the center and the radius of the circle inscribed in the polygon.

Regular Polygon by Side

Creates a polygon defined by the side. To create the polygon, draw the first side, exactly like a line of the desired length and angle, and click again to place the shape at the desired location.

Chapter 1

Polylines

Subsections of Polylines

About Polylines

The Poly-line tool creates a polygonal shape made of a connected series of straight and curved segments. Curved segments are arcs drawn by center or by tangent. 

The polyline object offers some advantages over individual elements, such as the ability to modify a point without having to rebuild the sequence, or grab a segment by its mid-point to stretch the shape. Also, since a polyline is one object, its perimeter and area are always available and up-to date.

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Topics in this Section

  • Create Polylines
  • Modifying a Polyline

Create a Polyline

To draw a poly-line, click to set the first vertex, move the pointer and click to set the next vertex. Double-click to end the sequence.

When you construct a polyline, an action icon follows the start point of each segment. Click it or hover on it to open the options menu and choose the type of the next segment, delete the last segment or end the shape. To close the poly-line, select the corresponding option or place the last vertex on the first one.

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Continue an Existing Polyline

To extend an existing open polyline, so as to add new vertices at one end, you can use the Continue option.

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To continue an open polyline:

  1. With the existing polyline unselected, click on one of its endpoints. The pop-up options menu button appears next to the clicked vertex.
  2. Open the options menu and choose Continue object.

Modifying a Polyline

A polyline can be edited in several ways: activate the Polyline tool and select the object (if it is not already selected); then:

  • click a vertex to stretch it
  • click a mid point to move the entire segment
  • click on a segment to add a vertex
  • place a vertex over another vertex to delete it
  • hover the cursor on a vertex to open the Edit menu and add or delete the vertex.

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The Object info panel provides more editing options:

  • Change the type of the current vertex. Use the left/right arrows on the Point header to select the current vertex, then choose one of the following types:
  • Straight segment
  • Convex arc
  • Concave arc

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Chapter 1

Reference Objects

Subsections of Reference Objects

About Reference Objects

The Reference Objects tool can be used to mark reference elements and auxiliary objects in the drawing. It has three methods:

  • point, to create reference points in the drawing.
  • construction line, to add infinite lines for alignments and margins.
  • origin, to set the origin of the coordinate system in the current drawing. 

By default, reference objects are not displayed on printed outputs and PDF documents.

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Topics in this Section

  • Points
  • Construction Lines
  • Origin Point

Construction Lines

Construction lines (also referred to as guides) are infinite lines that serve as references in the drawing for positioning and alignment.

Construction lines can be created with two methods:

Construction line from rulers

When the rulers are visible in the main drawing area (View â–¸ Show Rulers), click and drag on the horizontal or vertical ruler to place an aligned guide. You can snap to drawing objects while dragging to place the guide at the desired location. This method works with any drawing tool.

Construction line by point

With this method you can create a guide oriented at an arbitrary angle.

  1. Activate the Alignment Objects tool > Guides method.
  2. Click to set the center and define the direction with the pointer. You can enter a definite angle by pressing the A key on the keyboard or clicking an existing linear object to draw a parallel construction line. To set the distance of the construction line from the reference linear object, press the L key on the keyboard, enter the value and click on the desired location.

You can create a guide parallel to an existing guide, like a duplicate: with the Guides method, click on an unselected guides in the drawing and move. Use the keyboard to enter a constrained distance.

Editing a Construction Line

Guides can be moved just like any other object: select the line, click anywhere on it and move the pointer. To constrain the translation by a definite distance, enter the desired length directly and press Return or Enter.

Drawing Origin

This tool changes the origin of cartesian axes and rulers. The coordinates of the drawing and dimensions are updated automatically. You can also change the Origin by using the button on the intersection of the rulers. In HighDesign SE and Pro each sheet has its own Origin.

Points

Points are simple reference points on the plane that are used to mark positions and help align objects in the drawing. Points can be added by using the Alignment Objects tool and are created by some editing tools to mark locations.

To place a point, activate the Reference Objects tool > Point method and click anywhere on the drawing area.

To move a point, select it, click its handle and move the pointer.

Chapter 1

Symbols

Subsections of Symbols

About Symbols

The Symbols Tool is a drawing tool which allows you to put in your project entire drawings or portions of drawings already created and stored in a library with just one click. Using Symbols is a convenient way for reproducing many times the same group of elements with independent rotation, mirroring and scale factors. 

Symbols can store attributes, which are information displayed at the desired location of the current view.

To edit or set the Symbol Tool properties, select Edit â–¸ Settings Window â–¸ Symbol or double-click the Symbol Tool icon in the Drawing Tools bar.

Topics in this Section

  • Symbol Tool Settings
  • Choose and Insert a Symbol
  • Create and Edit Symbols

Choose and Insert a Symbol

Use the Symbol tool settings window to select the symbol to insert.

  • The table lists the currently selected library folder: this folder may contain many sub folders and can be organized at your choice. Browse through this table to select the symbol file. 
  • Once a symbol has been selected, a lists all of its views shows up if available: select a view from the list to activate it; double-click its name to change it and click on the pencil icon to edit the symbol/ view (for custom symbols only).

Insert a Symbol into the drawing 

  • Open the Symbol Library dialog by choosing Edit â–¸ Settings Window â–¸ Symbol or by double- clicking the Symbol icon in the Drawing toolbar; 
  • Select a symbol in the Folders table and choose one of the available views; 
  • Set its size and optional parameters; 
  • Review or change the default attributes if available;
  • Click one of the defined insertion points, the center or one of the vertices or midpoints of the thumbnail to select the current insertion point; 
  • Either drag the preview to the drawing or click on the desired point of the drawing. 

To create a new symbol, to add a view to a symbol or to edit an existing symbol, are also available the specific commands on the Project menu.

Create and Edit Symbols

The “New Symbol” and the “Edit Symbol” functions, also available through the Project menu, when activated switch to a different workspace with a limited set of tools: in this environment you can draw, modify and save symbols and symbol views. 

You can either create a new symbol from scratch or create a new symbol from the selection: in this case you can also activate this function through the Radial Menu for a quicker workflow. This way the selected objects are now visible in the “Edit Symbol” environment whereas all the other elements of the drawing are hidden. 

Create a new symbol: 

  1. Select “New Symbol” on the Project menu; 
  2. The Environment turns to the “Edit Symbol” context with a limited set of tools and the “New Symbol” dialog opens; this dialog is divided into four sections:
  • Symbol Name;
  • View;
  • Attributes;
  • Insertion Points;
  1. Draw the symbol;
  2. Type the symbol name; 
  3. Select the destination folder through the folder button; 
  4. Use the “+” button to add a new view; 
  5. Type the view name; 
  6. Set the attributes;
  7. Insert the attributes in the drawing of the symbol view;
  8. Place the Insertion Points on the desired locations of the symbol view;
  9. Press the “Save” button on the dialog. 

Attributes of the Symbol

Attributes are information added to the current view of the symbol: these information are defined by an ID, a Prompt, showing on screen, and a Default value which will be displayed in the project.

The Attributes section of the New Symbol dialog shows: 

  • The menu of the existing attributes of the view (visible when editing a symbol and its attributes);
  • The Add button to create a new attribute;
  • The button to remove the selected attributes,
  • The “Edit attribute” button to modify the currently selected attribute.

Since attributes are a sub-class of text, they can get text properties such as font, font size, alignment, style and rotation angle: the “Define Attribute” window displays all these information and options.

To insert the attribute, just click on the desired location of the symbol view.

Edit a Symbol

To edit a symbol you can click on the Edit button of the selected symbol on the Settings window, or select the symbol on the drawing and either choose “Edit Symbol” on the Project menu or use the Radial Menu. 

The “Edit Symbol” workspace opens and you can modify the symbol, add views to the symbol by pushing the “+” button of the dialog or delete views through the “-” button, change the attributes of the view.

By pushing the “Save” button, the environment turns back to “Drawing”. Changes made to a symbol are immediately visible in all the symbol duplicates of the drawing. 

Symbol Tool Settings

Use the symbol tool settings window to select the symbol to insert, specify its insertion point, dimensions and display options, and enter any associated attributes.

The Symbol settings dialog has two panes: Symbol and Attributes. The Symbol pane provides you with many options to choose a new symbol and set its graphic properties.

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Selecting a Symbol

Use the library browser to select a symbol either for insertion or to replace a selected instance.

You can select a symbol to insert by any of the three available libraries. Push the library selector buttons to view the items contained in the default HighDesign library, in your User library, or among the symbols already used in the project.

You have two display options to select a symbol: grid view and list view. Use the selector buttons on the right of the symbol browser header to change the view.

**Select a Symbol in Grid View **

In grid view, you can view the previews of the symbols in the current folder. Double-click a folder to enter it and use the pop-up menu above the symbol browser to go back to a previous folder.

Some symbols may have more than one view. To select a view, open the popup menu next to the symbol name and select one of the available views.

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Select a Symbol in List View

The list view is very similar to the list view of a desktop operating system: click the disclosure triangle or double click a folder to open it, and select the items in the list. Similarly, open the disclosure triangle of a symbol to list its views.

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Set Instance Parameters

When you select a symbol, its preview is visible on the top side of the panel along with its default dimensions, angle and options.

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To select an insertion point
  1. Move the pointer over the preview, the insertion points appear around the bounding box of the symbol.
  2. Click a point.
  3. Any custom insertion point will also be visible and selectable in addition to the nine default locations.
To specify width, height and angle

Enter the desired sizes in the width and height fields. To constrain a proportional resize, click the “chain” symbol between the two fields.

To change the units or to restore the dimensions to their original values, open the popup menu in the Height field and select the desired command.

To lock a symbol instance dimensions and prevent it from being resized by scale changes or editing commands, push the Lock button. When a symbol instance is size-locked, it will keep the entered size until unlocked or resized via the Width and Height fields.

Use the angle field and slider to change the symbol’s orientation, or push the Vertical and Horizontal Mirror buttons to flip the instance around its internal vertical or horizontal axes.

Scaling and Color Options

You can have a symbol be displayed at the correct size at any drawing scale. This is particularly useful for example with architectural symbols, furniture, or trees. To enable this feature, push the Draw at Scale button.

To force the symbol to draw its fills with the same color as the background, or use its original stroke colors, push the Colors button to open the pop-up window.

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Command Buttons

Use the command buttons placed below the symbol browser to create a new folder in the User library, create a new symbol by the selected objects in the drawing area, duplicate a symbol, or delete a symbol.

These commands are only enabled when the conditions are met for each command.

Symbol Attributes

The Attributes pane displays the editable, non-visible attributes of the current view. Use this pane to set the values of the attributes of the symbol or symbol view you are inserting in the project or to change the values of the current selection.

If the symbol contains no editable attributes, the list on this panel is empty.

This panel only lists attributes that are not visible in the drawing.

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Subsections of Architectural Design

Chapter 1

Columns

Subsections of Columns

About Columns

Columns are vertical elements of the building with a structural function. They vary in shape and size, and share some of the properties of walls.

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Topics in this section
  • Column Tool Settings
  • Place a column
  • Editing columns

Column Tool Settings

Double click the Column tool icon on the Toolbox to open its Settings panel.

The panel is organized into three sections to define the column’s family, dimensions, and graphic attributes.

Column tool settings\n Column tool settings\n _

Family

A column’s family is defined by its shape. Click the desired shape choosing from Square, Rectangular and Circular.

Dimensions

You can define base width, base height and height of the column. The base width field is always enabled and in the case of a circular column it defines the diameter of the column.

The base height field is only enabled when the current family is Rectangular column.

The Height field is used for the total height of the column from the base level.

Graphic Attributes

The Graphic Attributes section is divided into two sub-sections: Borders and Fill.

Borders

You can define the line type and the pen weight of the border line of the column in plan view.

Fill

You can add a fill to the column and define:

  • A solid fill color
  • A vector hatch or pattern and set its color and scale factor.

The fill can use either one of the two fill modes or a combination of the two.

Editing Columns

Move a Column

  1. Select the column and click its center point.
  2. Move to the desired location and click to confirm.

Resize

To resize a column, you can use the Column Tool Settings panel, or the Object Info panel.

Editing with the Column Tool Settings panel:

  • Select the column and open the Column Tool Settings panel.
  • Change the family if you want to reshape the column, or enter the new base width and base height values.

Editing with Object Info:

  • Select the column
  • Enter the new values for base width, base height and column height.

Place a Column

Before placing a column, choose its type or set is shape, size and graphic attributes in the Column Settings panel.

Columns are always inserted by their central point, so that they align correctly to the structural grid.

  • Round columns are inserted with a single click.
  • Square and rectangular columns (pillars) require two clicks:
  • click to define the center or insertion point;
  • move the pointer and click a second time to define the angle of the column. Use the Angle input (A) to enter the desired value.

Alignments

When you insert the second column, it automatically aligns with the first column so that you can create the structural grid by placing the columns with just one click.

Square columns also inherit the same orientation as the first column. To change the orientation, hold down the Alt key when you insert the column.

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To place a column at a fixed distance:

  1. If not already active, press the Column tool button on the toolbox to activate it.
  2. As you move the pointer, dimension lines show the distance from the nearest column.
  3. Enter a distance and press Return or Enter.

The next columns will align to that orientation and snap to the predefined distance.

Chapter 1

Doors

Subsections of Doors

About Doors

Doors are, like Windows, architectural elements that belong to the Openings class and in their most basic function are used to open holes in walls. Openings are hosted elements in that they can only be placed in a wall that acts as the host element.

Like any other architectural element, doors have geometric, graphic and information parameters that you can edit through the settings window and the Object Info panel.

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Topics in this Section

  • Door Tool Settings
  • Insert a Door
  • Editing a Door

Door Tool Settings

To open the tool settings of doors, select Edit ▸ Settings Window ▸ Door… or double-click the tool icon. You can load an existing Door Type if available or customize the door by selecting its family and setting all the parameters and options. Current settings can be saved as new types by pressing the Add icon.

The Door tool settings window includes two panels: Geometry and Options.

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Door Geometry

Use this panel to configure the parameters that define the shape and size of the door, such as width, height, reveal type, etc. The panel is provides the following options:

  • Family. Open the drop-down menu to select the door family from the list. The available families include:
  • empty opening
  • simple door, a symbolic representation of a door
  • swinging doors
  • bypass sliding doors
  • surface sliding doors
  • pocket doors
  • folding doors

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Door Options

Use this panel to specify the dimensions of the frame, opening directions, the optional sill and various display options.

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Door Options

Use this panel to specify the dimensions of the frame, opening directions, the optional sill and various display options.

  • Frame Dimensions. Depending of the current reveal, you can specify the dimensions of the various components of the door frame.
  • Opening Direction, outward or inward.
  • Panel type. Select Glass to add a glass to the internal panel of the door.
  • Show Sill. Activate the switch to enable the controls and define external and internal offsets and widths of the sill.
  • Show Casing. Depending on the desired level of detail, you can choose to display the outside and inside casing component and specify its dimensions.
  • Display Options:
  • Select Open on opposite side to flip the opening direction.
  • Show an axis line on the middle of the opening.
  • Define the angle at which swinging door are displayed, ranging from 0° (closed door) to 90° (fully open).
  • Wall Projection. Choose whether to display one, two or no projection lines of the host wall.

Editing a Door

You can resize, move and flip a door directly by clicking one of its control points. All editing operations are available when the door is selected, but the flip operations are only available when the door is the only selected object.

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Resize a Door

To resize a door, click one of its handles at the start or end sides and move the pointer. Pop-up dimensions show the current size. You can enter a new size value or click to end the editing operation.

Move a Door

Click its middle handle to move the door within its wall.

Flip a Door

Click the double arrows to flip the opening direction, outside or inside, and the swing side, left or right.

Edit a Door with the Object Info Panel

You can also use the Object Info panel to resize the door.

The Geometry section displays the Rough Width and Nominal Width fields to change the size of the selected door.

The ID section shows the Name, Tag and Description fields to edit or add information to the selected door: use the Settings button to open the Door Settings window for specific editing options.

Insert a Door

To insert a door in the project follow the steps below: 

  1. In the Settings window load the Type if available or select the family of the opening; 
  2. Alternatively, define custom door settings; 
  3. In the Project window set the position of the opening by clicking on the wall; 
  4. Click the internal / external area of the wall to choose the opening direction;
  5. For single doors (swinging, sliding, pocket or folding doors) click on the wall to position the door, then click in the desired quarter of the region described by the cartesian axes to set its opening or swinging side. As you move the cursor over a wall, temporary dimensions show the relative distances of the door from the surrounding vertices or joints of the wall. As for windows, to set and constrain the value of either dimension, so that the opening is exactly at that distance from a reference point, enter the value on the keyboard and move the pointer, so as to choose which dimension on either side of the wall the value applies to. Click to confirm and insert the opening.
Chapter 1

Walls

Subsections of Walls

About Walls

The Wall tool allows the creation of walls which are parametric objects, automatically connected on their vertices and borders. To set the attributes, double-click the Wall Tool icon or select Edit â–¸ Settings Window â–¸ Wall… to open the Wall Settings dialog.

Walls are host elements, in that certain elements like doors and windows can only be inserted in a wall.

Walls are classified into two families: Standard-case Wall, made of one, uniform component, and Composite Wall, made of different internal components. 

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Topics in this Section

  • Wall tool settings
  • Standard-case Walls
  • Composite Walls
  • Construct and Edit Walls
  • Utilities for Walls

Compound Walls

Compound walls consist of multiple layered components, each with its own properties. Compound walls can only be rectangular in shape, with constant thickness from start to end. The total thickness is calculated as the sum of all the internal components.

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  • Compound walls can have any number of internal components, and you can add, remove, reorder and edit the components at any time through the Components window. 
  • By default, basic walls and compound walls do not join automatically, because they are different elements that would not be joined in a real situation. Also, they are made of different materials which would not match. However, if a particular situation requires it, you can choose to activate the Allow Joints options and attempt to join two walls of different type. 
  • Compound walls can use one pen weight for both borders and internal divisions, or you can assign a pen weight for the outer borders, and one for the internal components.

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Compound Wall Settings Window  

  • Type pop-up window and New Type icon. This window lists all the available Types, of both basic and compound families. It is advisable to enter descriptive names when saving a new wall type. 
  • Wall Family. 
  • Components section: 
  • Edit Components button to access the Components window; use this button set the components of a new wall or edit an existing wall.
  • Total computed thickness; the sum of thickness of the internal components determines the total thickness of the wall.
  • Internal pen weight of components. The pen weight can be Same As Borders to set the same pen weight as that used for the borders of the wall, or one of the available pen weights. 
  • Leading Side: see Basic Wall Properties Window for the description. 
  • Wall Joints options: see Basic Wall Properties Window for the description. 
  • Border line type and pen weight. Internal components can only have a continuous line division. 

Wall Components Window

Use this window to set and edit the components of a compound wall. 

The table lists the components of the wall from the exterior side to the interior, with a progressive index number. The selected component is highlighted in the preview, which shows the current wall at the scale set in the lower left corner. You can check how the wall is rendered at the different drawing scales by using the drawing scale menu. 

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The total thickness of the wall is computed on the sum of the single components and shown at the bottom of the Thickness column. 

You can add, remove and reorder the components, and rename a component by double- clicking its name. Use the + button to add a new component and the - button to remove the selected component in the table. Adding a new component opens immediately the properties editor. To edit a component, click the Edit icon on the right.

The properties of a wall component are: 
  • Function: each component has its own function which can define its behavior and appearance. The available functions are: Exterior and Interior Finish, Thermal Film, two kinds of Thermal Insulation, Air Layer, Substrate, Structural, Membrane. There can only be one exterior and one interior finish. The (batting) Thermal insulation component is always rendered with the Insulation line type. 
  • Thickness, in the current drawing units; 
  • Fill color, hatch, hatch color and hatch scale. 

Click the Cancel âś– or OK âś” buttons to cancel or confirm the changes to a component and return to the list of components. The + button confirms the current component and creates a new one.

Construct and Edit Walls

Construct and Edit Walls

To draw a wall, click to set its start point, move the cursor and click again to set its endpoint: walls are connected like poly-lines. Walls have their construction side and the “Exterior side” property, marked with a blue line, to consider when inserting openings: to change the leading side while drawing, click on the Option menu close to the last vertex. Press the Alt key to invert the exterior side while moving the cursor.

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A compound wall can be inserted by its structural component: choose between exterior, interior sides and middle line to easily align your walls to the structural grid.

To edit a wall, select it and move, stretch, shorten it with the Arrow tool or change its parameters numerically via the Object Info panel. 

Edit a Wall with the Object Info Panel

The Point section of the Object Info panel enables the changes of the coordinates of the three control points of the selected wall: use the arrows to select the active point and the fields to enter the new coordinates.

The Geometry section displays the following options:

  • Length and Width fields to change its geometry;
  • Leading side buttons to change the construction axis of the wall (this option can shift the selected wall accordingly);
  • Invert Sides to invert Interior/Exterior side of the wall (this can invert the opening direction of windows and doors inserted in the selected wall).

The ID section shows the wall Name, Tag and Description fields to add information to the selected wall and provides the Settings button to open the Wall Settings window.

The Tools menu and the contextual menu provide two commands specific for walls: Convert to Wall and Rebuild Wall.

Standard-Case Walls

Standard-case walls have one uniform component and its representation can be a solid color fill, a hatch, or a combination of the two. The geometry can be rectangular, with a constant thickness from start to end point, or polygonal, with variable thickness from start to end.

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Basic walls automatically join to other basic walls, regardless of thickness and fill, unless the joints are disabled in the Settings window. 

Standard-Case Wall Settings Window  

  • Type pop-up window and New Type icon. 
  • Family, Basic or Compound 
  • Geometry and Thickness, in the current unit: selecting the option of variable thickness enables the end thickness field. 
  • Leading side and Exterior side: select the construction side of the wall. You can also access this option by clicking the pop-up menu icon during the construction the wall. The option to invert the interior and exterior faces of the wall allows to switch the sides of the wall. The exterior side is highlighted in blue when drawing and selecting walls. Wall Joints options. Deselect an option to disable the automatic connection of new walls or to unlink an existing wall. 
  • Border attributes: Line type and pen weight. 
  • Fill attributes: solid color, hatch type and color, hatch scale.

Utilities for Walls

Convert to Wall

Convert To Wall applies to lines, polygons, arcs and curves. This function converts those objects into walls with the current settings: select the items to convert and then choose Tools ▸ Walls ▸ Convert To Wall on the Tools menu. This command is also available as a button in the Edit Tool Bar. 

Rebuild Wall 

Use this command to regenerate the geometry, side intersections and nodes of one or more walls. This is especially useful in situations in which a node needs to fixed.

The Rebuild Wall tool can either be applied to selected walls, or to multiple walls in one run by clicking on them. 

To use it on the selection: 

  1. Select the walls you want to rebuild; 
  2. Choose Tools ▸ Rebuild Wall or open the radial menu and choose Rebuild Wall fromthe Tools submenu. 

To apply it to multiple walls: 

  1. Choose Tools ▸ Rebuild Wall or open the radial menu and choose Rebuild Wall from the Tools submenu. 
  2. Click once on each wall to rebuild 
  3. Click on a void part or on another object to end. 

Wall Tool Settings

Walls are parametric elements of the building that can have several different properties such as sizes, options, functions and compositions that define a wall type. Use the Wall tool settings window to define the parameters of the wall type.

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Wall Family

You can select to create a standard-case (basic) wall or a composite wall.

Standard-case Walls

When you select standard-case walls, you can select its geometry as regular or irregular. Regular walls are defined by one thickness value and their shape in plan view is rectangular.

Irregular walls are defined by start and end thickness values.

Basic walls automatically join to other basic walls, regardless of thickness and fill, unless the joints are disabled in the Settings window. 

Composite Walls

Composite walls consist of multiple layered components, each with its own properties. Composite walls can only be rectangular in shape, with constant thickness from start to end. The total thickness is calculated as the sum of all the internal components.

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When you select the Composite Wall family in the Settings panel, the family-specific section shows a button to edit the internal components, the value of the total thickness calculated as the sum of the internal components, and the pen wight menu to define the pen to be used for the lines that separate the internal components.

  • Composite walls can have any number of internal components, and you can add, remove, reorder and edit the components at any time through the Wall Components window. 
  • By default, basic walls and compound walls do not join automatically, because they are different elements that would not be joined in a real situation. Also, they are made of different materials which would not match. However, if a particular situation requires it, you can choose to activate the Allow Joints options and attempt to join two walls of different type. 

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Editing Composite Wall Components

Press the Edit button on the Wall tool settings window to open the Wall Components panel. This panel allows you to define, reorder and edit the internal components of the current wall type.

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The table lists the components of the wall from the exterior side to the interior, with a progressive index number. The selected component is highlighted in the preview, which shows the current wall at the scale. You can check how the wall is rendered at the different drawing scales by using the drawing scale menu on the preview area.

The total thickness of the wall is computed on the sum of the single components and shown at the bottom of the Thickness column. 

You can add, remove and reorder the components, and rename a component by double-clicking its name. Use the + button to add a new component and the - button to remove the selected component in the table. Adding a new component opens immediately the properties editor. To edit a component, click the Edit icon on the right.

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Use Component panel to enter the component name, function, thickness and the hatch to be used in horizontal and vertical sections.

Click the Cancel âś– or OK âś” buttons to cancel or confirm the changes to a component and return to the list of components. You can also push the + button to confirm the current component and create a new one directly without going back to the components list.

Chapter 1

Windows

Subsections of Windows

About Windows

Windows are architectural elements that belong to the Openings class and in their most basic function are used to open holes in walls. Openings are hosted elements in that they can only be placed in a wall, that acts as the host element.

Like any other architectural element, windows have geometric, graphic and information parameters that you can edit through the settings window and the Object Info panel.

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Topics in this Section

  • Window tool settings
  • Insert a Window
  • Editing a Window

Editing a Window

You can resize, move and flip a window directly by clicking one of its control points. All editing operations are available when the window is selected, but the flip operations are only available when the window is the only selected object.

Resize a Window

To resize a window, click one of its handles at the start or end sides and move the pointer. Pop-up dimensions show the current size. You can enter a new size value or click to end the editing operation.

Move a Window

Click its middle handle to move the window within its wall.

Flip a Window

Click the double arrows to flip the opening direction, outside or inside.

Editing a Window with the Object Info Panel

The Geometry section displays the Rough Width and Nominal Width fields to change the size of the selected window.

The ID section shows the Name, Tag and Description fields to edit or add information to the selected window: use the Settings button to open the Window Settings dialog.

The Opening Direction of a window can be changed through the Settings window: select the window, open the Options pane of Settings and select Opening Direction > “Open Inside” or “Open Outside”.

Insert a Window

To insert a window in a wall, activate the Window tool in the Toolbox and do the following: 

  1. In the Settings window load the Type if available or select the family of the opening; 
  2. Enter the desired window settings; 
  3. In the Project window set the position of the opening by clicking on the wall; 
  4. Click the internal / external area of the wall to choose the opening direction.  

As you move the cursor over a wall, temporary dimensions show the relative distances of the opening from the surrounding vertices or joints of the wall.

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To set and constrain the value of either dimension, so that the opening is exactly at that distance from a reference point, enter the value on the keyboard and move the pointer, so as to choose which dimension on either side of the wall the value applies to. Click to confirm and insert the opening.

NOTE Windows are always inserted relative to the external surface of the wall, which is marked in blue when selected.

Window Tool Settings

To open the tool settings of windows, select Edit ▸ Settings Window ▸ Window… or double-click the tool icon. You can load an existing Window Type if available or customize the window by selecting its family and setting all the parameters and options. Current settings can be saved as new types by pressing the Add icon.

The Window tool settings window includes two panels: Geometry and Options.

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Window Geometry

Use this panel to configure the parameters that define the shape and size of the window, such as width, height, reveal type, etc. The panel is provides the following options:

  • Family. Open the drop-down menu to select the window family from the list. The available families include:
  • empty opening
  • generic and simple windows, symbolic representations of a window
  • casement windows
  • single/double -hung windows
  • sliding windows

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Window Options

Use this panel to specify the dimensions of the frame, opening directions, the optional sill and various display options.

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Window Options

Use this panel to specify the dimensions of the frame, opening directions, the optional sill and various display options.

  • Frame Dimensions. Depending of the current reveal, you can specify the dimensions of the various components of the door frame.
  • Opening Direction, outward or inward.
  • Show Sill. Activate the switch to enable the controls and define external and internal offsets and widths of the sill.
  • Show Casing. Depending on the desired level of detail, you can choose to display the outside and inside casing component and specify its dimensions.
  • Partitions: specify the number of internal partitions of the window.

Subsections of Object Properties

Chapter 1

Geometric Properties

Chapter 1

Graphic Properties

Subsections of Graphic Properties

About Graphic Properties

Most of the attributes common to all object types can be set and changed in the Properties Bar and in the Graphic Atributes panel. Properties that are shared among most object types are: layer, pen color, fill color, pen line types, start and end markers, pen weight, shadow. 

To set the properties for new items, make sure no object is selected and then use the controls on the bar or in the panel. To edit the properties of an object, select it and then change the corresponding values.

Graphic properties specific of some objects, such as extension lines of dimensions or hatches and fill color of walls, are managed through their Settings window.

Arrowheads and Markers

Object vertices, such as lines, poly-lines, ovals, etc., can have arrows and other markers. 

To set or edit the current object marker, use the two marker pop-up menus: the left one controls the start point of an object (Start arrow), and the right one controls end points (End arrow). 

A slider on the bottom of the menu allows you to set the size of the arrowhead.

Copy and Paste Graphic Properties

With this command all the properties of the selected item are copied and stored for later use. This function applies to layer, color, line-type, weight and arrowheads. Copied properties can then be applied to other items of the drawing. 

This tool can also be used via a keyboard equivalent: Option-click an item to activate it. 

When you have copied the properties from an object, you can apply them to other objects. When the pointer is over an item the cursor changes to a paint bucket: click to apply the properties to that item. Click in a void region to quit the Paste Properties tool. 

This tool can also be used via a keyboard equivalent: Command-Option-click (Mac) or Ctrl-Alt-Click (Windows). 

Fill Color

The Fill Colour pop-up menu controls the options for filling a shape with a colour or a gradient. The button is active only for objects that have the fill property, like poly-lines, polygons, fills, arcs, circles and ellipses curves and walls.

The fill property of shapes and elements can use one of the following methods:

  • Indexed colour
  • Custom colour
  • Gradient

Use the navigation icons on the top hand side of the panel to access the sections, in order, for palettes, the custom colour selector and the gradient editor.

Indexed Colour

The Palettes tab works in the same way as the Stroke Colour panel: choose a colour from any of the active palettes to use it as fill colour. Any associated pen weights are ignored.

The Palettes tab on the Fill popup also includes an Opacity slider that controls the overall opacity of the fill.

Custom Colour

In addition to indexed colours, you can also define a custom colour. The Colour pane includes the following items:

  • No colour button: press this button to remove the fill.
  • Colour value selector: the rectangular area at the centre of the panel shows the current colour in varying degrees of saturation and intensity. In the HSV colour model, this selector controls the S (saturation) and V (value or brightness) values.
  • Colour hue bar: the multi-coloured bar below the value selector allows to select the desired shade of colour.
  • Opacity bar: controls the transparency of the colour in a range from 0 (completely transparent) to 100 (completely opaque).
  • System picker button: the multi-coloured circle at the left allows you to define colour using the system colour picker.
  • Value fields: these fields show the numeric representation of the colour in hexadecimal format (HEX), in the current colour model (HSV, RGB, CMY), and the opacity value. Click one of the HSV/RGB/CMY labels to switch the current colour model.

The Opacity slider at the bottom hand side of the panel controls the overall opacity of the fill and is independent from the colour opacity.

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Gradients

The gradient button on the Fill menu opens the Gradient Editor. A gradient is a fill that varies its color from a start color to an end color, with variable opacity. Available gradient types are Linear (or axial) and Radial, and can be activated through the buttons on the top left hand corner of the window. The Invert Colors button, inverts the order of the colors in the gradient slider.

The Angle slider and field control the angle between the start and end points of the  gradient.

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The Color slider controls the “color stops”, that is the colors and their locations along the axis. Select a color to use the color picker and adjust its values and opacity; click on the slider to add a color; drag a color along the slider to change its location; click the “x” button to remove the selected color of the gradient.

  • Changes are visible in real time. 
  • The geometry of a gradient, that is position of the handles (end points) and radius of the circle (for radial gradients), can be edited by selecting an object with a gradient and adjusting the handles on screen.
  • The Presets section at the bottom provides default gradients and the option to save the current settings as a preset that can be reused in the project.
  • Click the “No Color” button to cancel the fill/gradient attribute.

Linear Gradient

A linear gradient is an interpolation of color that varies along a line between two defined points. When you select an object with a linear gradient, a line with two endpoints marks the linear gradient. You can edit each point and adjust the gradient as needed. 

Radial Gradient 

A radial gradient is a fill consisting of a progressive transition between two or more colors that radiate from an origin. Once created, the gradient has its origin, corresponding to the start color, in the center of the filled object and its end color in the nearest border or side of the object, describing the radius of the gradient. 

To edit the gradient move and adjust the circle visible when the filled object is selected: move the start point or center of the gradient, marked with a square handle, to move the gradient and move the end point to adjust the radius.

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NOTE Due to the underlying graphics engine, gradient colors with varying opacity cannot be printed or saved as PDF. On print or PDF, such gradients are rendered with an opacity value of 100%. Anyway, it is possible to change the global opacity of the fill through the Opacity control of the Graphic Attributes panel: this way the global opacity of gradients can be exported as PDF. Also, for output consider image formats such as TIFF, PNG or JPEG. 

Line-type

Use the Line-type pop-up menu to set the current line type or edit selected items (when applicable). This pop-up menu lists all currently loaded line-types, each with its own index number. 

Apart from the Continuous line type, all other lines have the Line Scale Factor, expressed in percentage, to proportionally modify the size of dash and space and the extent of special lines.

The Line-type menu also provides the option to open the Line-type Manager pane of the Resource Manager window to manage existing line-types or to create new ones. 

Pen Weight

Use this pop-up menu to set and edit the current pen weight from a list of 22 different values, expressed in millimeters. 

To change an item’s weight, select it and choose the new weight from the menu. 

  • Because of the resolution of the screen (72 dpi), pen weights cannot be displayed on screen exactly as they look on printouts; when the Actual (print size) Pen Weights mode is on, HighDesign displays the different pens on screen with an approximation to their real print size. When the Bitmap mode is active, pen weights are displayed with a simple progressive pixel size. 
  • To change the way pen weights are displayed on screen, open the HighDesign Preferences window, select the Drawing pane and choose one of the three options available for pen weights or click the button on the lower right hand side of the main window. 
  • In printouts with low quality paper, pen weights may be a bit different from those chosen on the menu. The optimal print resolution is 600 dpi on high quality paper. 

Shadow

The graphic elements of the project can have shadows, managed through the Shadow section of the Graphic Attributes panel. Shadows are applied to the single elements by clicking the switch of the section.

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The options include:

  • Color pop-up menu and opacity control.
  • Angle control, to set the direction of the shadow.
  • Offset of the shadow (you can choose “By Project”, using the project scale and units or “Pixels”, using real scale graphic units).
  • Blur to soften the edge of the shadow by changing its range.

Stroke Color

The Stroke Color property controls the color of lines and borders. You can change it using the Stroke color button on the Properties bar or the Graphic Properties panel.

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Pen color can be selected as:

  • By layer: the object uses the color defined by its layer.
  • Contrast: a variable color that always contrasts with the background of the page. On printouts it is always black as the background of the paper is assumed to be white.
  • None: makes the outline of the object invisible.
  • Indexed color: you can select any color from any active palette. Recently used colors are listed in the Recent items section. This section is always relative to the current project and is empty in new documents.

The Resource Manager icon on the top opens the Colors & Pens Manager panel: use that panel to add new palettes or associate pens and colors. 

The Graphic Attributes Panel

The Graphic Attributes panel supplies the graphic features of project elements, including stroke and fill attributes: it also provides the Shadow settings section. Information about Layers are not listed in this panel.

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The panel includes three sections, Stroke, Fill and Shadow.

The Stroke section contains Pen color and Line-type menus, Start arrow and End arrow options, and the Pen weights menu. Open the More Options popup menu to access the options for line caps and join mode.

The Fill section displays the Fill color pop-up menu and the Opacity control to change the opacity. The opacity slider only changes the global opacity of the fill and does not affect the selected color. A value of 100% means fully opaque and 0% means fully transparent.

The Shadow section provides the options to customize this graphic attribute of objects. Clicking the switch button enables the shadow attribute and its options.

Subsections of Styles and Types

About Styles and Types

A style is a named, predefined set of information, properties and behaviours that can be applied to multiple graphic objects or architectural elements in a project. Styles can be used for classification and organisation purposes. Think of styles as templates that describe certain properties that are common to all the instance objects that have the same style. The specifications defined by a style are applied to all the occurrences of that class in the project and modifying a style will also modify all the objects in the project that use that style. In brief:

  • Style = a template of properties and attributes.
  • Instance object = an individual item in the project that can have a style and use the set of properties defined in it.

In relation to styles, an instance object can have:

  • No style: this is a custom item and is unique in the project.
  • Style: the properties of this object are governed by its style. Changing the style will also update all the objects that use it.
  • Modified style: the object uses a style, but one of its properties is different from that defined in the style. Objects with a modified style can be reverted to match their style.

Styles can be created directly in the project, for example using an existing object as prototype, or can be added to the project from a library. When a style is added to the project from a library, it is actually copied into the project so that any modifications to its properties are only applied to that particular project and do not affect other projects.

Though you can create a project without using styles and add only unstyled elements, it is nonetheless a recommended practice to reduce the number of custom elements to the minimum in order to increase the efficiency and scalability of the project.

Styles in HighDesign can be of two classes:

  • Graphic Styles, that are applied to 2D drafting objects and define their graphic attributes.
  • Building Element Types, applied to architectural elements. Types always include properties and information specific to the class of architectural elements they were created for.

Building Element Types

Architectural elements like walls, columns, doors and windows can have predefined sets of information, graphic properties and specific element settings: these templates that apply to new elements or to selected elements are called Building Element Types.

A building element type also stores information such as name, tag and description, optional graphic properties which can be loaded from an existing basic style and the settings (geometry and options) of the current element.

Create a New Building Element Type

The New Type window displays more options in the Identity section with the fields to enter Type Name, Tag and Description.

Also, the Graphic Properties section is optional and can be activated by clicking the switch near the section title. When this section is active it is possible to load an existing basic style through the Graphic Style menu and extract its graphic properties.

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The panes of the New Type window display the settings sections specific of the current class of architectural elements: wall, column, door or window.

New types are added to the list of the Building Element Types section of the Project Styles panel of the current project and can also be saved in the User Library folder.

Create a New Graphic Style

The New Style and New Type windows display one or more panes arranged in different sections. The first pane shows the Identity section, which holds the information specific to the selected class of objects, and the Graphic Properties section to set the general properties that are also available in the Properties Bar.

The additional panes of the window can change, depending on the selected class, and present the settings sections specific to the current class of objects.

The New Style window can be a single pane window if the selected class of objects does not have its Settings window: in this case the new graphic style is a Basic Style which stores just name and general graphic properties (layer, stroke color, fill color, line type, markers, pen weight, shadow); these properties are optional and it is possible for example to create a graphic style only with name, layer and stroke color. A Basic Style is a general style and can apply to all graphic objects.

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If the selected class of objects includes specific tool settings the New Style window is organized in panes corresponding to the sections of the Settings window of the tool: this graphic style is a **Specific Style **and stores general graphic properties and all the settings and options belonging to the current class.

In the Identity section of the New Style window it is possible to enter the style name and select the location of the new style: 

  • This project only: selecting this option the new style is saved only in the current project, not on disk;
  • User library: this option saves the style as a file in the User Library folder on disk and in the current project as well.

Once created the new style is added to the list of the Graphic Styles section of the Project Styles panel of the current project. Select it to draw new objects with that style (these objects are called occurrences of the selected style). If the style is a Specific Style, the corresponding tool and method activate. For example, activating a Dimension style will automatically switch the current tool to Dimensions.

To apply a style to one or more objects, select the objects and click the style name on the Project Styles panel. 

Edit a Style or Type

Only Project or User Library styles can be modified. As for all other resources, styles and types in the HighDesign library cannot be modified, but only duplicated in the User library or project.

To change the settings of a style, such as its name, graphic properties or specific element settings, select it on the Project Styles panel and choose “Edit Style” or “Edit Type” from the drop-down menu and open the Edit Style or Edit Type window.

This window differs from the New Style/Type window in some details: it is not possible to select the location of the style and all fields and options show the settings of the selected style.

All changes made to a style automatically update all occurrences of that style in the project. If an occurrence of a style is modified, when selected it is marked as modified in the Project Styles panel. It is not possible to update or create a Style or Type by selection.

Graphic Styles

A graphic style can store the current settings of layer, pen and fill colour, arrow-heads, line-type, pen-weight and shadow. A graphic style can also include the settings specific to a class of elements, such as, for example, text font and size, or hatch pattern. When you create or edit the style, you decide which attributes should be included and thus applied to the objects.

Graphic Styles are classified as:

  • Basic styles. These are generic styles and can be applied to simple drafting objects, including construction objects, lines, poly-lines, rectangles and polygons, arcs, circles and ellipses and curves: existing basic styles can also be loaded by building element types as predefined graphic properties. Properties that are not supported in a class of objects are ignored (e.g. the fill color property is ignored by lines).
  • Element-specific styles, that apply only to specific drafting objects with their own tool settings; these styles are connected to the objects they are created for: when you select a specific style, the corresponding tool and method activate. Specific styles also include all the settings specific to their tool: for example, if you create a text style, it stores the current settings of the Text tool, such as font, size, alignment, etc.

Managing Project Styles and Types

Revert a Style 

When an instance object has been modified by changing one of its graphic properties or settings, you can revert it to its original style by choosing “Revert to Original Style” from the drop-down menu of the Project Styles panel.

Find all uses of a Style or Type

In the Project Styles panel open the drop-down menu of the style or type and choose “Select All Uses of [style/type name]”. All the instances of that style on the current sheet are selected.

Remove a Style or Type from the Project 

Select the style or type on the Project Styles panel and click the “Remove from Project” button (–), or choose “Delete Style/Type” from the drop-down menu. 

If there are any occurrences of that style in the project, a dialog lets you choose the “No Style” option or a new compatible style to replace the one you are removing. The objects whose style is replaced are updated to match the new style. 

The Project Styles Panel

Project styles can be quickly created and managed through the Project Styles panel: you can browse and manage the graphic styles and element types of the project, create new ones and remove styles from the project.

This panel marks selected objects or the current tool without a style as “No Style” on the top and lists all available Graphic Styles and Building Element Types of the project below: the current style is highlighted in this list.

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The main commands of the panel are grouped as buttons in the bottom of the panel:

  • To create a new style push the “Add” button;
  • To remove the current style from the project push the “Minus” button;
  • To open the Styles and Types pane of the Resource Manager, push the corresponding button. The Add icon on the right of the Graphic Style section title opens the New Graphic Style window, whereas the Add icon on the right of the Building Element Type section title opens the New Building Element Type window.

It is also possible to open a drop down menu by clicking the triangle on the right of the name of a style to get some options of the current style.

The options of the drop down menu are:

  • Duplicate Style/Type
  • Edit Style/Type…
  • Revert to Original Style/Type
  • Select All Uses of “current style/type”
  • Remove from Project

Subsections of Editing Objects

Chapter 1

Advanced Editing Tools

Subsections of Advanced Editing Tools

2D Extrude

This graphic function simulates the extrusion along a direction of selected objects by creating projection lines from the vertices to a duplicate of the base object.

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Applies to
  • line
  • rectangle
  • polygon
  • polyline
  • hatch
  • arc, circle, ellipse
  • curves
Steps

About Advanced Editing Tools

This set of tools include commands that perform more advanced modifications to objects, like removing and adding objects, or altering the original object in a significant way.

Topics in this Section

  • Fillet and Chamfer Objects
  • Offset
  • Convert into Polyline
  • 2D Extrude
  • Explode
  • Apply Hatch
  • Calculate Area
  • Find Center of Mass
  • Fit Text Box
  • Simplify Curve

Apply Hatch

This command applies a hatch or fill to the region described by the selected items. Supported boundary items are: 

  • Lines connected by their vertices (“segmented lines”); 
  • Poly-lines;
  • Polygons;
  • Freehand lines; 
  • BĂ©zier curves; 
  • Splines;
  • Arcs;
  • Circles;
  • Ellipses 

To use this tool, select the boundary items, then choose Tools ▸ Apply Hatch: a new fill/ hatch is created with the current settings of the “Hatches and Fills” tool. 

Calculate Area

This function calculates the area of a region enclosed by the selected items. Supported boundaries are: 

  • Lines connected by their vertices (“segmented lines”); 
  • Poly-lines;
  • Polygons; 
  • Freehand lines;
  • BĂ©zier curves;
  • Splines;
  • Circles, arcs, ellipses. 

To use this command, select the boundary items, then choose Tools ▸ Calculate Area: a new text label displaying the area of the region in the current units is created in the center of the selection. 

Convert into Polyline

This command converts the selected linear or polygonal objects into a polyline.

Applies to:
  • Lines in sequence
  • Rectangle
  • Polygon
Steps
  1. Select the objects to convert
  2. Activate the command

Explode

The Explode command breaks a composite object into its smaller, component objects.

Most of the drawing objects, such as polygons, poly-lines, freehand lines, BĂ©zier curves, arcs and circles, ellipses, hatched polygons, symbols, walls, windows and columns, can be converted to simpler items by the Explode command.

Applies to:
  • Selected objects
Steps
  1. Select the object.
  2. Activate the command.

The original object is replaced by its component objects. The objects that are created as a result of the explode command retain the layer and the graphical attributes of the original object.

Fillet and Chamfer Objects

These commands connect two segments (lines, poly-lines or sides of a rectangle and regular polygon) with a tangent arc of a given radius, or with an angled line.

Fillet (down) and Chamfer (up) applied to line segments._

These tools can be used via numeric input or graphically

Numeric
  1. Select two non parallel segments;
  2. Choose Tools ▸ Fillet or Tools ▸ Chamfer or click on the corresponding icon of the tool bar; 
  3. A text field shows up near the tool icon: insert the value of the radius or the length of the chord and push Enter. 
Graphical 

The Fillet/Chamfer command can be applied with two graphical methods:

  1. If you are using method (a), select the two items and activate the Fillet/Chamfer command. If you use method (b), activate the command and click on two items.
  2. A circle appears between the two items. Click on the handle at the center of the circle and move the pointer to define the radius of the fillet arc or chamfer segment.- 3. While you are defining the radius, enter a value on the keyboard to set its length.
  3. Click again to confirm.

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Find Center of Mass

The Center of Mass, sometimes called centroid, barycenter or balance point, is a unique point located at the average position of all the parts of the system, weighted according to their masses. For simple rigid objects with uniform density, the center of mass is located at the centroid. The center of mass is useful because it is the point where any uniform force on the object acts without producing angular acceleration.

The center of mass makes it easy to solve mechanics problems where we have to describe the motion of oddly-shaped objects and complicated systems

The function “Find Center of Mass” calculates the position of the center of mass of the selected polygons, closed poly-lines or hatches. To calculate the center of mass of curved regions like circles or béziers, you can explode them and then apply this command to the selected lines. 

Applies to:
  • selected objects
Steps
  1. select the object
  2. activate the command

Fit Text Box

When you change font or style to the paragraph or even when you import texts from other applications, the text box can be larger or smaller than its actual content: this command adjusts the size of the selected text boxes.

The Fit Text Box calculates the minimum bounding rectangle of the selected text at its current size, with its font and styles. The box of a text block does not automatically adjust as you edit the text properties.

Offset

This tool creates concentric duplicates of linear objects (lines, polygons, rectangles, poly-lines, curves, arcs, circles and ellipses) at a given distance. 

To activate the command,

  1. Select the objects and go to Tools â–¸ Offset:
  2. Enter the distance in the text field that appears next to the tool icon.
  3. Click on the handle and move the pointer to choose the side you want to place the duplicate on. 

Click on the other objects if you want to apply the command with the current settings to other items. Press ESC to exit the command. 

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Simplify Curve

Use this tool to reduce the complexity of the selected spline curves by adjusting the angle of the segments defined by the vertices and by selecting a smoothing factor which ranges from Low, through Medium, to High. A real time preview will show the resulting curve. Access this function via  Tools ▸ Simplify Spline…

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Chapter 1

Affine Transformations

Subsections of Affine Transformations

About Affine Transformations

Affine transformations are geometric transformations that modify the objects so that their lines and internal parallelisms are preserved. These transformations are functions that alter the position, scale and rotation of the objects in a way that the result object is affine to the original object.

Topics in this Section

  • Move and Duplicate Objects
  • Linear Multiply/Distribute
  • Polar Multiply/Distribute
  • Rotate Objects
  • Rotate by Angle
  • Mirror Objects
  • Stretch Objects
  • Resize Objects

Linear Multiply/Distribute

This function creates a number of copies of the selected items. The method can be Increment, where the distance between start and end point define the distance between each copy, or Distribute, where the distance defines the maximum width of the copies. With this option, the distance between the copies is calculated on the number of copies.

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Applies to
  • selected objects
Steps
  1. Set number of copies and method, Increment or Distribute; 
  2. define the start point, origin of the translation; 
  3. define the end point.
Available Constraints

The Multiply/Distribute dialog can be used entirely with the keyboard: the Up and Down arrow keys control the number of copies; Command + Up/Down arrow controls the option buttons.

  • Length (L + value; value); 
  • Angle (A + value)

Mirror Objects

This command includes the Mirror and Mirror a Copy commands. Mirroring transforms objects by flipping the selection around an arbitrary axis.

The Mirror command modifies the selected object. The Mirror a Copy command creates a reflected copy of the original object.

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Applies to:
  • selected objects 
Steps:
  1. define the start point, origin of the axis; 
  2. define the end point, angle of the axis. 
Constraints:
  • Angle (A + value)

Move and Duplicate Objects

Move 

Use this function to move (translate) selected items. Choose Drawing ▸ Move, then click to set a start point, move the pointer and click again to set direction and offset of the translation. 

Applies to
  • selected objects 
Steps
  1. define the start point, origin of the translation; 
  2. define the end point. 
Available Constraints
  • Length (L + value; value) 
  • Angle (A + value) 

By holding down the Alt key, the Move tool turns to Duplicate. The Move command can be activated in other ways too: 

  • With the Selection tool, or during the editing of an object, by clicking the center point if available; 
  • With the Arrow keys, or Shift + Arrow key if set in Preferences â–¸ Workspace, to move the selected objects by one linear unit; holding down the Alt key the offset is multiplied by 10. 
  • Holding down the Cmd key, you can click on an object and begin a Move command with one operation. 

Duplicate

This function creates a copy of the selected items with a defined offset. Its operation is very similar to the Move command.

The Duplicate function can also be activated by the Arrow tool by pressing the Option key while moving selected items.

Hold down the Command key to make multiple copies of the same selection in one session. 

Applies to
  • selected objects 
Steps
  1. define the start point, origin of the translation; 
  2. define the end point. 
Available Constraints
  • Length (L + value; value) 
  • Angle (A + value)

Polar Multiply/Distribute

Use this tool to create multiple copies of selected objects along a circular arc. The menu item Drawing â–¸ Polar Multiply opens the input dialog used to enter the number of copies and select between increment and distribute.

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Applies to:
  • selected objects 
Steps
  1. Set number of copies and method, Increment or Distribute; 
  2. define the center of the rotation;
  3. define the start point of the arc 
  4. define the end point of the arc. 
Available Constraints
  • Angle (A + value)

The Polar Multiply/Distribute dialog can be used via the keyboard: the Up and Down arrow keys control the number of copies; Command + Up/Down arrow controls the option buttons. 

Resize Objects

Use the Resize Drawing tool to change the size of the drawing by a per cent value or by numeric values of width and height. The dimension can be made independent or proportional by clicking the lock icon. The values can be entered in percentage or in any of the supported linear units.

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Applies to:
  • current drawing
  • selected objects
Steps:
Constraints:
Constraints:
  • scaling can be proportional on both axes. Click the lock proportions icon to control this option.

Rotate by Angle

Use this tool to rotate the selected objects in real time. The center of the rotation can be absolute, which is the midpoint of the bounding box of the selection, or the center of the object, which rotates each object around its own center.

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Applies to:
  • selected objects 
Steps:
  1. In the Rotate By Angle window, set the angle by using the slider or entering the value into the input field; 
  2. Choose between global center of the selection and individual object center. 

Rotate Objects

This function lets you rotate selected items around a central point and by an angle you define graphically.

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Applies to:
  • selected objects 
Steps:
  1. define the first point, center point of the rotation; 
  2. define the start point; 
  3. define the end point and angle. 
Available Constraints:
  • Angle (A + value)

You can also enter a rotation angle value by pressing the “A” key on the keyboard between steps 2 and 3. 

Stretch Objects

Use this command to pull and resize the objects within the selection rectangle: items which are entirely within the selection rectangle will be moved whereas all other objects will be resized. Arcs, circles, ellipses, text blocks, doors/windows and symbols will be rigidly dragged with no deformation. 

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Applies to:
  • selected objects
Steps:
  1. Define the rectangular area that encloses the points to move. The points are highlighted.
  2. Specify the start point, that is the origin of the translation.
  3. Move the pointer in the desired direction.
  4. Click or use the keyboard shortcuts to specify the end point. 
Constraints:
  • Length (L + value; value) 
  • Angle (A + value)
Chapter 1

Basic Editing

Subsections of Basic Editing

Align Objects

This command moves the selected objects sorting them by their position and the chosen rule. Alignments by a direction use the first object in that direction among the selected objects as alignment margin. For example, Align to Left Margin uses the left-most point of all selected objects as left alignment margin.  

The alignment rules are: 

  • Left margin;
  • Center in column: aligns the objects vertically; 
  • Top margin;
  • Center in row: aligns the objects horizontally; 
  • Bottom margin.  

Arrange Objects

Objects can be arranged on the drawing area both by their Z-axis, to control their stacking order, distributed on the plane so that they are spaced evenly and aligned by their selection bounds.

Objects can be arranged on the drawing area both by their Z-axis, to control their stacking order, distributed on the plane so that they are spaced evenly and aligned by their selection bounds.

The Arrange Panel

The Arrange panel displays the buttons for all the Arrange Order, Align and Distribute objects commands. Those commands modify the position of the selected objects according to specific rules shown as menu options.

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Copy as Image

The Copy As Image menu items let you copy the selected objects as image into the system clipboard, for use in other graphics software. The objects are copied as images in one of the following formats and resolutions: 

  • PNG at 72 DPI
  • PNG at 300 DPI
  • PNG at 300 DPI with alpha channel 
  • JPEG at 72 DPI
  • GIF 

The objects are copied at the current zoom factor, and the higher the resolution, the more memory is required to create the image. Since projects in HighDesign are made of vector elements that can be zoomed in almost indefinitely, it is possible to run into low-memory situations when copying a large project as image. Reduce the zoom or copy one area at the time to work around possible hardware limitations. 

Cut, Copy, Paste and Delete 

These are standard functions you find in all programs and provide some simple yet useful actions: 

  • Cut means that selected items will be deleted from the drawing and put in memory for later use; 
  • Copy means copying the selected items to memory, without removing them from the project; 
  • Paste lets you insert items stored in memory; 
  • Delete is used to erase selected items from a project. 

Objects copied from HighDesign are not stored in the system’s clipboard, but rather use an internal copy and paste method, so that the system clipboard is available for images and texts. 

The Paste command opens a dialog with options that allow to choose the source from which to paste the objects, whether the system clipboard or the HighDesign clipboard. Other options include the location of the pasted object and the destination layer. 

Distribute Objects

Every object has a bounding box that defines the maximum extents of its dimensions. The Distribute command allows you to position the selected objects according to the space between the bounding rectangles. The first and last objects in the selected direction define the margins. 

The options are: 

  • Left Margin
  • Center in Row
  • Right Margin
  • Horizontal Spacing:
  • Top Margin
  • Center in Column
  • Bottom Margin
  • Vertical Spacing

Undo and Redo

Most operations in HighDesign can be undone (and redone) up to 300 steps back, thus giving you the maximum freedom in experimenting. 

“Undo” and “Redo” apply to the following actions: 

  • Creation of new items (e.g. new Line, new bĂ©zier, etc.)
  • Deletion of one or more selected items
  • Modification of selected items (e.g. extend, modify, trim, drag, etc.)
  • Complex operations (e.g. fillet, chamfer, paste, etc.) 

In particular situations, it may be useful to suspend the action logging system used by the Undo/Redo commands. The Suspend Undo allows to temporarily put the Undo engine to pause. 

Chapter 1

Linear Modifications

Subsections of Linear Modifications

About Linear and Boolean Modifications

This set of commands mostly applies to linear objects with the exception of boolean operations that apply to polygonal shapes.

Topics in this section

  • Mark Intersections
  • Join
  • Extend
  • Split
  • Trim
  • Divide into Parts
  • Break
  • Boolean Operations

Boolean Operations

Boolean operations combine two polygons using one of the following intersection formulas:

  • Union: combines the two polygons together to form a new polygon. The internal intersections are ignored and only the maximum external profile is used to define the new shape.
  • Subtract: uses the second polygon as a “clipping” shape to remove the intersecting area from the first polygon.
  • Intersection: creates a new shape by the intersection of the two polygons and discards the outer perimeter.
  • Exclusion: the opposite of Intersection, it shows only the areas of the two polygons that do not overlap.

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▶︎ Boolean operations must be applied to linear polygons: rectangles, regular polygons, hatches, polylines with straight segments.

▶︎ The order of selection matters: the first object selected acts as the base shape and the second object as the clipping shape. The polygon resulted from the boolean operation inherits the properties of the base object.

Break

Use this tool to define a segment that will be subtracted from a selected object. The command applies to lines, polylines, arcs and circles, and walls.

Select Drawing â–¸ Break, click on a line to set the first point of the segment and click again to set the endpoint.

Applies to:
  • Selected object
Steps
  • Select the object and activate the command.
  • Click on the object to define the first break point.
  • Click to define the second break point.

Divide into Parts

This command is used to divide the selected line into the number of equal segments you specify in the Divide Into dialog. This dialog lets you also choose whether divide the line with alignment points or actually create segments.

The command applies to lines, polylines, rectangles, polygons, arcs and circles.

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Applies to:
  • Selected objects
Steps
  • Select the object
  • Activate the command
  • Enter the desired number of parts and select the division mode. Push OK.

The Divide Into dialog can be used via the keyboard: the Up and Down arrow keys control the number of divisions; Command + Up/Down arrow controls the option buttons. 

Extend

This function extends the selected lines (either by lengthening or shortening) to their intersection point with another object. Supported types are: 

Construction line, Line, Polygon, Rectangle, Spline, Bézier curve, Arc / circle, Wall. 

Applies to:
  • Selected lines or walls
Steps
  • Select an object
  • Activate the command
  • Click on the destination object

Join

This command connects two linear objects so that they either intersect on one point or form a new object. Lines and walls, being individual objects, intersect; polylines, paths and splines are joined together to form a new object.

The Join command applies to:

  • Two lines
  • Two walls
  • A line and a polyline
  • Two polylines
  • Two bezier paths
  • Two splines

This command does not apply to two different classes of curves, or a spline and a polyline, or two parallel objects.

Applies to:
  • **Applies to: **selected objects 
  • Steps: direct command
Steps:

or

or

  • Select an object
  • Apply the command
  • Click on the destination object

This second method allows you to join objects in sequence.

Mark Intersections

This function finds all possible intersection points between two selected items. The points are marked by simple alignment points created on the current layer and with the default pen color.

This command applies to lines, polylines, rectangles, regular polygons, hatches, curves, and walls.

Applies to:
  • selected objects 
Steps:
  • Select two objects. The objects do not need to intersect each other.
  • Apply the command.

Split

This function splits linear objects into segments using another object as “cutter”. The Split command applies to lines, poly-lines, rectangles, arcs, circles, freehands and bezier curves.

Rectangles and polygons are transformed into polylines after the split.

Applies to:
  • Selected oobjects
Steps
  • Select the object to split
  • Activate the command
  • Click on the “cutter” object

Trim

The Trim function is a multipurpose function designed to delete linear or curved segments or parts. It applies to single segments without intersections with other objects as well as to segments intersected by other objects. 

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Segments without intersections 

Activate the tool and click on the segment to delete: if the trimmed segment belonged to a rectangle or polygon, the remaining segments are turned into poly-lines. 

Segments intersecting other objects 

Activate Trim and click on the segment or part of segment to delete: use this tool to clear a drawing and cut segments, arcs and curves between intersections or extending off an edge with just a click.

To apply it: 

  1. Choose Drawing ▸ Trim or click on the corresponding icon of the Edit Tool Bar; 
  2. A visual aid highlights the segments under the pointer (1); 
  3. Click the parts of the objects you want to trim; 
  4. All segments and portions of arcs between intersections or extending off the edge will be deleted (2); 
  5. Click an empty region to quit this command or press the Esc key. 

You can also activate the Trim command by holding down the Backspace or Canc keys on the keyboard and clicking the object, or by clicking with the eraser tip of a graphic pen. No selection is required to use this function. 

When activated with a selection, the selected objects acts as “cutters” and control the intersections. All intersections that do not belong to a selected object are ignored.

Applies to:
  • objects at click
Steps
  • click on the destination objects
Chapter 1

Select Objects

Subsections of Select Objects

Searching Objects

To search items within a project select **Edit â–¸ Find… **to open the “Find” window.The Find dialog lets you search items within the current sheet setting criteria to reduce the scope of the function. 

The upper section of the Search window shows the buttons corresponding to the graphic objects you want to find within the currently selected sheet. These objects are arranged in three groups: Drafting objects, Documentation objects and Architectural elements.

The optional search criteria offer the menus and fields needed to filter the search.

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Search Criteria

  • Object Class: push the button corresponding to the object class you want to find; 
  • Sheet: select the sheet, drafting sheet, detail or layout (SE& Pro); 
  • Style/Type: search items with a style or type (Pro);
  • Layer: search items within the selected layer;
  • Pen Color: stroke color of the objects to find;
  • Line-type: line type of the items to find; 
  • Pen Weight: pen weight of the items to find; 
  • Text: search for all occurrences of the text in the drawing; 
  • Tag: enter the known tag to search elements with that tag (Pro);
  • Name: enter the name of architectural elements (Pro); 
  • Description: enter the description to search matching architectural items (Pro).

The option “Zoom to selection” focuses the view on the objects that match the criteria.

The command Find All selects all the objects that match the criteria.

The command Find selects the objects one by one.

Selection Commands

The Edit menu includes commands to quickly select items with some conditions. Apart from the “Select All Sheets” command, all selection functions apply to the current sheet. The selection commands follow the state of layers, and items on hidden or locked layers are not selected. 

  • Select All Sheets selects all elements on all drafting sheets (SE & Pro);
  • Select All command selects all the elements on the current sheet; 
  • Select Current Layer to select all the objects with the current layer; 
  • Select All <object class>… selects all the elements on the current sheet of the sameclass as the currently selected drawing tool; 
  • Invert Selection selects all the elements and deselects those that were already selected; 
  • Deselect deselects all the currently selected items. 
  • Restore Last Selection: restores the last used selection even after having beendeactivated. 

Selection Tool

The Selection (Arrow) tool lets you select drawing objects by clicking directly on them or by defining a selection area. To select an object, click on it with the arrow tool. Snap to Objects must be active so that the arrow tool can “see” the object you are clicking. 

Rectangular selection

Click on a blank part of the screen and move the pointer to define a rectangle: objects with control points within the rectangle will be selected. If you move top-to-down, the selection will include all partially or fully enclosed objects (inclusive selection); if you move down-to-top, the selection will include only fully enclosed objects (exclusive selection). You can invert the selection mode at any time by holding down the Alt (Option) key.

Inclusive and exclusive selection modes_

Polygonal selection

Use this method to select objects by defining a polygonal region. Click to add a vertex to the selection region, double-click to end

Adding and removing objects

Hold down the Shift key while clicking to add items to the selection or remove already selected items. Click on a blank part of the screen to deselect all. If the option “Arrow tool clicks extend selection” is active in Preferences, clicking an unselected object will automatically add it to the selection.

Selecting overlapping objects

When two or more items overlap it can be difficult to select the right object. To get a smart selection, activate the Arrow tool, hold the Control key and click or right-click on the intersection to open a contextual menu with a list of all the objects at that location, from top to bottom.

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Editing objects

The Arrow tool can also be used as an all-purpose editing tool: most of the tool-specific editing actions, such as resizing a line or editing a text, can also be performed with the Arrow tool.

  • Clicking a selected object on its outline, but not on a vertex, will activate the Move function.
  • Clicking a vertex of an object resizes the object.
  • Hovering the cursor on a vertex of a selected hatch, polyline or spline opens the menu with the options to edit the vertex.
  • Hold down the Command key to move any object, selected or unselected, by any of its vertices or by its outline.

Subsections of Document and Present the Project

Chapter 1

Annotations and Tags

Subsections of Annotations and Tags

About Annotations and Tags

Use annotations and tags to add text notes that contain information about your project elements. The displayed information can be a custom text, such as material, manufacturing notes, revision comments, or can be derived from the object, such as type, wall width, door height, etc.

The Annotations tool includes two methods that create slightly different annotation objects:

  • Annotation, used to add text notes with a leader line.
  • Tags, used to mark building element and display instance ID or type ID.

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Topics in this section
  • Annotation tool settings
  • Annotations
  • Tags

Annotation Tool Settings

Use the annotation tool settings window to set and edit the parameters of annotation and tag objects. The settings window includes sections to adjust the font style and horizontal alignment, the associative mode, leader line style and frame style.

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Annotation Font Style

Use this section to set the font face, size and style of the text label. You can use the system font panel to select the properties and you can apply a predefined text style selected from those available in the resource libraries.

Associative

Annotations can be associative: enable this option to link the annotation to a reference object.

Leader style

Text annotations can have various leader line styles:

  • None: the text note has no line attached.
  • Straight line
  • Spline
  • Arc

Use the Label rotation field to control the rotation angle of the label. When you change the label rotation value, only the text label rotates.

Frame

The annotation label can be displayed with a frame around the text. You can chose one of the following shapes:

  • None
  • Rectangle
  • Oval
  • Triangle
  • Diamond
  • Hexagon
  • Circle

The size of the frame can be automatically calculated on the text, or defined manually.

You can also define a frame padding value, that is the distance between the frame and the text, and a frame color.

Tag Settings

Tag settings allow more control on the label contents, orientation and frame style.

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Label contents

Press the Contents button top open a pop-up dialog and choose the properties to display in the tag.

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Tag Label Rotation

Tag labels can be displayed vertical, aligned to the leader line, or with a custom angle.

Tag Frame Style

The frame of tags can be set automatically by the class of object the tag is attached to, or custom. The shapes used by automatic tags are those defined by the international standards:

  • Wall: diamond
  • Column: circle
  • Window: hexagon
  • Door: oval
  • other: no frame

Annotations

Use this tool to add text notes with leader lines and arrowheads and tags. The text can be multiline and rotated, but only have one style of font, size and color.

Methods

Leaders can be linear, circular, curved, or invisible. The construction process is similar for all types of leader: the first click defines the start arrow of the annotation and the second click sets the endpoint and the angle; the movement of the pointer and the next click define the landing. Enter the text in the input field. 

  • A text annotation can have multiple leader lines. Use the corresponding methods to add or remove a leader line from a text note. 

Add Leader

Leaders can be added starting from the annotation going to the arrow point, or in the reverse direction, from the arrow point to the annotation. To add a leader:

  • Activate the Add Leader method, click the unselected annotation and define the arrow point. The new leader is constructed from the node point. 

Alternatively:

  • Activate the Add Leader method, define the arrow point anywhere on the drawing and click the annotation. 

Remove Leader

To remove a leader from an annotation, activate the Remove Leader method and click the leader line to remove.It is possible to remove all the leaders of an annotation, leaving only the text note.

  • In HighDesign SE/Pro, annotations can be associative so that their position is determined by the parent element. Moving the parent element also moves the associated annotations. 
  • When used on a project element, the annotation prompts basic information about that element. Supported object classes are hatches, symbols, walls, columns, doors and windows. For example, annotations added to symbols by default prompt a caption with the names of the symbol and the current view. 

Tags

Tags (Pro) is a method of Annotations. Tags are special annotations that automatically display selected information associated with certain classes of elements: 

  • Hatches
  • Symbols
  • Images
  • Architectural elements (Walls, Columns, Windows, Doors).

The Contents menu of the Settings window lists all the information that can be displayed in the tag label: select the options you wish to display.

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The information can be computed or extracted from those added to the corresponding class of elements in the Object Info panel or in the Style/Type Settings window. Only the available information are displayed in the tag label.

Chapter 1

Dimensions

Subsections of Dimensions

About Dimensions

Use the Dimensions Tool to insert linear, multiple linear, radial, angular, ordinate and elevation dimensions. To set the dimension properties, either double-click the Dimensions tool in the Drawing Tools bar or choose Edit â–¸ Settings Window â–¸ Dimension to open the Dimension Settings dialog.

You can create a variety of dimensions for many different object classes. There are five dimension types:

  • Linear, single and multiple, measure the linear distance between two points.
  • Radial, that measure radius and diameter of arcs and circles.
  • Angular measure the angle between to segments.
  • Ordinate dimensions measure progressive distances or heights from a start point.
  • Elevation dimensions mark a point at a given elevation.
Topics in this section

Angular Dimensions

Angular dimensions measure the internal angle of an arc or the angle between two linear segments.

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To create an angular dimension

  1. Select the Angular dimension tool. Make sure the Associative option is selected if you want the dimension to automatically adjust to the measured object.

If you are measuring an arc:

If you are measuring an arc:

Dimension Tool Settings

Use this panel to set and edit the parameters of dimension objects. The Dimension tool settings window is includes two panels, Text and Graphics.

Dimension Text Settings

This panel contains all the settings that control the text label that displays the dimension value. You can set the font style, choose the measurement units, add a prefix and enter a custom text, and specify any tolerances.

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Text Font and Units
  • Text font: use the menus and buttons to choose the desired font face, text size (at 1:1), and apply a character style. In HighDesign Pro you can also choose a text Style from one of the resource libraries.
  • Units: you can have the dimension value expressed in the current sheet’s units, or specify a custom unit and precision. You can also choose to show or hide the unit symbol.
Label Text

Use this section to enable the associative dimension and to enter a prefix and a custom text.

  • Associative dimensions are associated to the object they measure and adjust to its geometric changes so that the dimension is up to date all the time.
  • Prefix: enable the option and enter a text to be displayed before the dimension value.
  • Custom text: enable this option to replace the dimension value with a text.
Tolerances

A dimension label can show tolerance values that define a range within which the measurement is considered valid. This is commonly used when dimensioning parts and components that require particular precision so that the manufacturing machines can be calibrated.

You can choose to enable only the upper tolerance, the lower tolerance, or both. Enter exactly the text that you want to be displayed, for example “+ 0.01” or “- 0.02”.

Tolerances can be displayed with a smaller font size than the dimension label. Use the popup menu to select a value relative to the current font size. For example, if the label font size is 16 points, a value of 75% means that the tolerances will be displayed at 12 points, a value of 50% means 8 points.

Dimension Graphics

Use this panel to define the arrow shape and size, the type of extension lines, gaps, and more.

Arrows

Open the pop-up menu to select an arrow or marker type.

The available types for linear, radial and angular dimensions are:

  • None
  • 15° arrows in the open, outline, filled and filled with extension variations
  • 22° arrows
  • 30° arrows
  • 45° arrows
  • architectural tick markers
  • outline and filled circle
  • outline and filled square
  • outline and filled diamond
  • half arrows

The marker types for elevation dimensions are:

Use the text field to specify the arrow or marker size in the current units at 1:1.

Label

Select the position of the text label relative to the dimension line. Choose above, middle or below the line. Positions above and below the dimension line also allow to specify a gap between the line and the text.

A fourth label position locks the label in the most readable position and orientation, that is above and to the left of the dimension line.

Labels can optionally have a border around the text to improve their visibility.

You can select a label orientation from the available options:

Use the text field to specify the arrow or marker size in the current units at 1:1.

Label

Select the position of the text label relative to the dimension line. Choose above, middle or below the line. Positions above and below the dimension line also allow to specify a gap between the line and the text.

A fourth label position locks the label in the most readable position and orientation, that is above and to the left of the dimension line.

Labels can optionally have a border around the text to improve their visibility.

You can select a label orientation from the available options:

  • Aligned, readable. A label will have the same angle as the dimension line and will always be readable, even when the dimension line has been rotated or flipped.
  • Aligned: the label follows the angle of the dimension line.
  • Horizontal: the label is always displayed horizontal even in aligned dimension lines.

Another option let you flip the text relative to the direction of the source points. 

Elevation Dimensions

This method can be used to add elevation dimensions to your project. 

To create elevation dimensions, set the “zero” datum, that is the Absolute Origin, and click on the points you need to measure. All dimensions will display values relative to the origin; if you move the origin, all other dimensions will change their values accordingly. 

Linear Dimensions

This method is used to insert linear dimensions between two points. The dimension line can have a generic angle or can be axis-aligned and display the dx or dy distance with absolute values.

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Linear dimensions can be independent or associative (SE/Pro). Independent dimensions are defined by the two source points. Modifying the measured object does not affect the geometry and value of the dimension. Associative dimensions are linked to their source element and update their geometry and value automatically as the source object is moved or modified. Dimension and object can reside on different layers.

Create a non-associative dimension
  • Click on the source points and move the pointer to place the dimension line.
  • If you move vertically or horizontally (following the guide lines that appear on screen) you create a vertical or horizontal dimension; otherwise, the dimension will be object-aligned.
Create an associative dimension
  1. Activate the Associative option, either in the Settings window or by clicking the Associative Dimensions button on the Properties toolbar, next to the Dimension methods. 
  2. Click the source object. Associative dimensions must be defined by clicking between two vertex points since they require only the definition of the source object. 
  3. Define the height of the witness line, i.e. its distance from the source object.

Associative dimensions are marked with squares on the source points. These squares are only visible on screen and are not printed nor exported.

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Associate a Dimension

An independent dimension can be changed into an associative dimension, and vice-versa. To change the associative behavior of a dimension, select it and press the Associative switch on the Dimension Settings.

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When an independent dimension becomes associative, it lacks the link to an actual source object. Also, deleting or otherwise removing the source object can cause the relative dimension to lose its link. When an associative dimension does not have its source object, or is not able to find it, the square marks are no longer visible and a yellow “caution” triangle appears near the mid point of the witness line. An unlinked dimension can be re-associated to its source object or a new element in two ways: 

  1. Using the command Tools ▸ Associate Dimensions/Annotations. Either select the dimension to link and begin the command, or begin the command and the click on the dimensions. With this method, it is possible to associate more dimensions in one run of the command. When you click on the dimension, a line is drawn from the mid point of the dimension to the cursor. Click on the new source object or element to link the dimension. 
  2. Using the caution triangle. Select the dimension and click the yellow triangle of an unlinked dimension to begin the Associate Dimension command. The procedure is then the same as described above.

Multiple Linear Dimensions

This method allows you to create horizontal or vertical aligned dimensions (dx or dy distances) of two or more progressive points. Once the first segment is defined, all following dimensions will keep the first alignment and height.

Multiple linear dimensions can be of two types: continued and baseline.

Continued dimensions

Continued dimensions measure points in a linear progression. Each dimension measures the section from the previous point to the next.

Create continued dimensions
  1. Activate the Multiple Linear Dimensions tool.
  2. On the Properties bar, make sure the current mode is set to Continued.
  3. Click to specify the start point.
  4. Specify the end point. Start and end points do not need to be aligned.
  5. Define the first dimension line, either aligned to the source points, horizontal, or vertical. The first dimension line defines alignment and height of the successive dimensions.
  6. Click to specify the next end point. Each new dimension uses the end point of the previous dimension as start point.
  7. Double click or cancel to end the operation.

Baseline dimensions

Baseline dimensions measure progressive distances from a base point. Each dimension line is placed at an increasing offset from the source points and measures the total distance of the end point from the global start point.

Create baseline dimensions
  1. Activate the Multiple Linear Dimensions tool.
  2. On the Properties bar, select the mode to Baseline.
  3. Click to specify the base point and define the first dimension line.
  4. Click to specify the next end points. Each new dimension is placed at an offset from the measured objects that is a multiple of the height of the first dimension.
  5. Double click or cancel to end the operation.

Ordinate Dimensions

With this method you can calculate the perpendicular distance from an origin point. The origin is identified with the Absolute Origin of axes. Distances along the x- and y-axes to objects to measure are specified using extension lines, with the distances indicated numerically at their ends with text labels.

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Set the Origin and click on the points to measure: move the pointer parallel to the X axis to get the Y distance and parallel to the Y to get the X distance. If you change the origin, Ordinate dimensions will be updated automatically. 

Radial Dimensions

Radial dimensions measure the radius, diameter, internal angle and length of arcs and circles.

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To create a radial dimension

  1. Select the Radial dimension tool. If you want the dimension to be associated to the measured arc or circle so that it is always updated, make sure the Associative option is set.
  2. Click on a circle or arc
  3. Move the pointer inside or outside the arc or circle to define the position of the dimension
  4. As you click, a pop-up dialog lets you choose the type of information that you want the radial dimension to display. The available options are:- 5. Prefix: enter any text that you want to display before the values6. Radius of the circle7. Diameter of the circle8. Angle of the arc9. Length of the arc or circumference of the circle

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To edit a radial dimension

Select the radial dimension, then

  • Click its start point on the circle to move it along the circle
  • Click the end point to adjust its orientation
  • Click the label to open the pop-up dialog and edit the displayed information

By default, associated radial dimensions show center marks or lines on measured arcs. To hide the center lines, uncheck the Show center marks on the Dimensions settings window when the radial dimension object is selected.

Chapter 1

Layouts

Subsections of Layouts

About Layouts

Layouts (Pro) are sheets that are used to present and publish drawings arranged in boxes called “viewports”, with optional, additional information contained in title blocks and text notes. Layouts are not intended to host their own drawings, although you can use some of the drawing tools, but rather as containers of drawings extracted from the other sheets.

Use layout sheets to display and arrange scaled views of your project on a standard-size sheet. Layouts can show a pre-made title block with global information about your firm, the current project, and sheet-specific information.

These sheets are intended for publishing and output purposes, therefore layouts have some characteristics that are unique: 

  • Layouts are opaque sheets
  • The scale of the layout is always 1:1 real scale
  • Layouts have a paper size, defined as default by the Paper Format settings of the project
  • You can choose to show the current print margins;Layouts always have a sheet ID
  • You can add a Title Block by choosing from the existing ones or you can create a new one
  • There are the options to show the frame border and the centering marks
  • You can set the nominal scale of the views
  • You can enter text information to the current layout to be shown on the title block
  • You can create one or more viewports to show and arrange selected views of the project at the desired scale
  • The available set of drawing tools is limited to sketching and documentation tools

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Topics in this section
  • Layout settings
  • Title Blocks
  • Create and Edit a Title Block
  • Viewports
  • Viewport settings
  • Inserting a viewport

Create and Edit a Title Block

Creating a new Title Block 

You can create a new Title Block through the Title Block menu on the Object Info panel of the current Layout or through the menu Project â–¸ Title Block. Title blocks are designed in a specific workspace that provides the graphic tools required to draw the title block and a panel to set the title block name and manage the text attributes.

  1. On a layout sheet, choose Project â–¸ Title Block â–¸ New Title Block.
  2. The first dialog asks you to choose a reference paper size for the new title block. Although a smaller title block can be used on larger paper sizes, it is best to select the ideal paper size this title block is intended for.

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Attributes are text values with dynamic content. The pre-defined attributes can be selected through the menu on the Title Block panel. These attributes are separate as: 

  • Layout attributes which correspond to the information entered in the Layout Settings and Info sections of the Object Info panel of the current Layout;
  • Project attributes corresponding to the information entered in the Project Information panel of the Project Settings window.

Attributes of the title block can also be custom attributes and once you click the Add button, the Define Attribute window opens displaying the options and input fields.

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Inserting a Title Block Attribute

To insert an attribute on the title block, click on the desired location. Attributes are special text objects and can be moved or aligned. You can modify the text properties through the Text settings panel (double-click the Text tool on the toolbox to open it). To change its Attribute properties, press the Edit Attribute button of the Title Block panel.

The Save button creates a new Title Block on the User Library which is immediately available for use in the current layout and in new projects.

A Title Block can be inserted even in a layout of different size from the one it was created for, depending on its bounds. When you select a title block it is automatically inserted at its default position on the layout as a preset: anyway, you can move it to any other position as a drawing object.

Inserting a Viewport

You can insert the viewport on the layout as an object of predefined size or you can draw the viewport as a rectangle by its diagonal, depending on the selected size option.

To insert a new viewport

  1. You can insert a new viewport in two ways:

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The center of a new viewport corresponds to the center of the selected source drawing: if you wish to display a specific area of the drawing, select the viewport, click inside and move the source drawing within the viewport till the desired area matches the center of the rectangle.

A viewport can be moved within the layout as a drawing object with its properties: frame and background can have their color and line style.

Viewports created as rectangles can be resized by their selection handles, either vertices or midpoints, or through the Object Info fields of Viewport Geometry. Viewports created by the extents of the source drawing cannot be resized.

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The information displayed in the title mark of the viewport can be quickly set and edited through the ID section of the Object Info panel which provides the Id and Name fields and the button to open the Viewport settings dialog.

For a quick access to the source sheet of the selected viewport, click the link icon on the upper left corner of the viewport.

Layout Settings

Use the Project Browser panel to create, activate, rename and reorder your project Layouts.

To set the parameters of the current layout sheet, use the Object Info panel. The Layout info panel shows all the options, settings and information of the current layout and is divided into four sections:

  • Sheet, which displays name and generic sheet information like scale and units;
  • Paper Size, to change the size of the current Layout only;
  • Layout Settings, to set sheet ID, title block and nominal View Scale;
  • Layout Info, to set the issue date and enter text information.

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Sheet options

Use this section to enter the layout name and disable snaps.

The sheet scale is always 1:1 and cannot be modified.

You can set linear, angular and area units.

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Paper options

Expand this section to change the paper size and margins.

As for drafting sheets, you can select the paper standard, size, and orientation, and choose to show or hide the print margins.

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Layout Settings

Use the Layout Settings section to define the sheet ID, add or remove a title block, and define various settings about views and grids.

  • Sheet ID: this is the identification code of the sheet. It follows a schema made of “Discipline” - “Optional Sub-Discipline” - Number. Disciplines are identified by a letter, such as “A” for architecture, “C” for civil", etc. HighDesign includes a default list of the most common disciplines.
  • Title Block: use this menu to manage the sheet’s title block. You can choose any title block that is available in the resource libraries, even if it was not designed for the current paper size. You can read more on title blocks on the Title Blocks page.
  • Frame Border: display or hide the frame border of the layout.
  • Centering marks: show or hide marks drawn on the frame border that help with the positioning of the drawings.
  • View scale: this is an information about the nominal scale of the drawings contained in the layout and can be displayed in the title block. It does not affect the scale of the layout sheet.
  • Show Grid and Grid partitions: show or hide a non-printable grid that helps with the positioning of the drawings on the page.

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Layout Info

Use this section to add and edit information about this layout that can be displayed on the title block. You can enter:

  • Issue date of this layout
  • Designed by: the name of the person who designed this layout
  • Checked by: the name of the person who checked this layout for errors
  • Approved by: the name of the person responsible for approving the layout.

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Title Blocks

A title block is an element of a layout that contains information about the design firm, the client and site location, the project and the sheet. It usually has a border and is organized in sections with different types of data and is usually found on the bottom or lower right-hand corner of any layout sheet.

A title block is a sub-class of the Symbol and inherits all the properties of symbols. The information displayed on a title block can be entered as attributes that are defined when the title block is designed. In addition to attributes, title blocks can contain text labels and blocks with custom or automatic content.

Insert a Title Block in a Layout

When the current sheet is a layout, you can insert a title block using the Title Block pop-up menu, which can be accessed in two ways:

  • On the Object Info panel, go to the Layout Settings section and open the Title Block menu.
  • Using the floating buttons on the layout sheet, press the Title Block button.

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The title block menu includes the following options:

  • New title block button.
  • Edit title block.
  • Duplicate.
  • Remove title block.
  • List of the title blocks available in the libraries and used in the project.

To insert a title block into the current layout, choose a title block from the libraries. The title block is inserted at its default location on the layout.

Since title blocks are usually created for a specific paper size, make sure the selected title block fits the paper. Depending on the disposition of its elements, you can resize the title block as you need.

Remove a title block

If you want to completely remove a title block from the current layout, press the Remove Layout button on the Title Blocks menu.

Create, edit and duplicate a title block

Use the buttons on the Title Block menu to create a new title block, edit or duplicate the current title block.

Edit the Attribute Fields

A title block may contain three types of elements:

  • Graphics and static texts. These are the usually the borders, separators and section and field titles. These elements can be modified in shape and graphic properties by editing the title block.
  • Sheet and project attributes. These attributes extract their value directly from the information set in the Sheet Info, Layout Settings and Layout Information sections in the Object Info panel, or from the Project Information panel of the Project Settings window.
  • Editable attributes. These fields show custom information entered by the user.

To enter the values in editable attributes, select the Arrow tool, double click the attribute field in the title block, and enter the value in the popup window.

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Viewport Settings

Open the Viewport settings panel by pressing the Settings button on the Properties bar or on the Object Info panel.

The Viewport settings window contains two panels with Drawing and Title Mark options.

Drawing

The Drawing panel provides the options of viewport window and selected view:

  • Source drawing: select the sheet from where the drawing is taken. You can select drafting sheets, detail areas or details of the project.
  • Area: select “entire drawing” to use the entire contents of the sheet as source, or select any detail areas on the sheet to restrict the source area.
  • Scale of the view, which can be different from the original scale of the selected sheet.
  • Angle of the view. Rotate the view by using the angular slider or by entering the value in the field.
  • Size of the Viewport: automatic means that the viewport box will fit the extents of the source drawing. Automatic-sized viewports cannot be resized. Choose custom to manually resize the viewport box;
  • Filter applied to the view (by project, by layer, black and white, grayscale, etc.). The filters menu also allows you to hide in the viewport texts and annotations that are on the source sheet.
  • Color Overlay: you can add a color fill with adjustable opacity that is displayed over the drawing.

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Title Mark

On the Title Mark pane you can set the position of the title mark within the viewport, the name of the view, the option to show scale and other graphic options.

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The available options are:

  • Show/Hide Title Mark;
  • Position of Title Mark within the viewport on the upper or bottom edge;
  • Title of the Viewport;
  • Font options - font menu, button to open the Fonts window, button to select existing styles, font size and units menu, default text styles;
  • Show/Hide Scale of the view;
  • Show/Hide Extension Lines of the Title Mark;
  • Extension Line options.

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Viewports

Viewports are elements that display scaled views of the project. Think of them as windows that show a portion or the entire view of a drafting or detail sheet, and provide basic information about the views. When you use layouts and viewports, the drafting sheets and the other design sheets contain your project, whereas layouts and viewports show a clean view of the project suitable for presentation and revision.

  • It is also possible to use only the drafting sheets to present your project, since drafting sheets can have their own drawing scale and paper size. This workflow offers of the advantage of directness because what you see on the drafting sheet is exactly what you will see on the printed sheet, but it lacks the flexibility and scalability of layouts and viewports.

Viewports exist only on layout sheet. On each layout you can place one or more viewports that reference different drafting sheets, parts of the same sheet or event the same view at different scales. The view displayed in a viewport can use a custom rotation angle, a filter that changes the way borders and fills are represented and a transparent color overlay.

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To create a new Viewport use the button on the top-left corner of the Layout canvas or select the menu command Project ‣ Create Viewport. Viewports exist within Layouts only.

The Viewport tool lets you create a viewport directly by a detail area too: select the source sheet and then choose a detail area. Position and size of the viewport will be taken from the source area and updated live if the detail area is modified.

Alternatively, viewports can be created directly from a detail area. On a drafting sheet, select or create a detail area around the part of the drawing that you want to show in the viewport. Click the pop-up arrow near the detail area name, go to New Viewport by Selected Area and choose the layout on which to create the viewport.

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Chapter 1

Schedules

Subsections of Schedules

About Schedules

A schedule is a list that displays information about the elements in a project, extracted in real time and organized according to the specified parameters. For example, a schedule can list all the doors in a project organized by type and show their quantities, or list the walls on a specific layer along with their total length, surface and volume.

A wall schedule in HighDesign A wall schedule in HighDesign

Schedules in HighDesign are interactive: each row in the table corresponds to an actual object in the project. Changes to that object are reflected in the schedule, and, where the parameter allows it, you can actually edit the listed item on the schedule and see the changes applied to the object in real time.

You can control the information shown in the schedule via its Settings panel, where you choose to list specific sheets or the entire project, define which category to list, apply filters, select the fields and define grouping and sorting rules.

Schedules can be formatted mostly like a table. You can change title, headers and data formatting, colors, sizes, and apply a predefined style.

Topics in this section

  • Create a schedule
  • Applying filters
  • Sorting and Grouping
  • Show totals, sums, averages, and count
  • The Schedule sheet
  • The Schedule table
  • Formatting a schedule
  • Export the schedule

Apply Filters

On the Filter panel of the Schedule Settings dialog, you can define rules that limit the number of listed items in a schedule.

To open the Filter panel, click the Filter button at the bottom of the Category list in the Schedule Settings dialog.

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You can define up to 8 filters, and all the criteria must be satisfied for the data to display.

A filter is structured as a sentence: the subject must meet a certain condition according to the logical rule specified. The subject is one of the available parameters of the current category, the condition is a number or text that you enter or a value selected from a list, and the rule defines a comparison between the subject and the condition, such as “begins with” or “is greater than”.

To define a filter, do the following:

To add a new rule, click the plus (+) button.

To remove a rule, click the minus (-) button. You can remove rules at any position.

To confirm the filters, click Done.

Create a Schedule

How to create a schedule in a project:

  1. Choose Project ‣ Schedules ‣ New ScheduleAlternatively, click the + button on the Schedules section of the Project Browser.

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In the Schedule Settings dialog, you can enter a name and define the schema by selecting the category of items that will be listed in the rows of the table, and the fields to show in the columns.

To define the rows, do the following:

To define the columns, do the following:

Click OK to create the schedule.

Editing Schedule Elements

Schedules in HighDesign are interactive, in that each row of the table maintains a link to an actual element of the model so that values and calculations are always up to date. This connection works both ways: as you work on the model, the values on the schedule are updated, and you can also edit values directly on the schedule and see the changes in the model in real time. For example, you can change layer, type or length on the schedule and instantly see the modifications in the project.

Selecting an Element

Click the row index to select the linked element on the schedule. A preview box on the right of the table shows the element in its context.

Double click the row index to go to the element’s sheet.

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Editing an Element

Editable fields in a row are marked with a solid border. Depending on the type of data, you can enter a value, such as a length or height, or choose an item from a list.

Values are entered in the units defined by the schedule sheet. You can change linear and angular units through the Object Info panel or the units popup on the Input bar of the main window.

Any change to an element’s values are applied immediately to the element.

Export a Schedule

Schedules can be exported as Microsoft Excel workbooks (.xlsx) or Comma-Separated-Values (.csv).

To export a schedule, do any of the following:

  • Click the pop-up button on title row and choose Export.
  • Push the Export floating button on the sheet.

Both file formats are widely supported by various desktop software and mobile or web apps. The conversion to the Excel format attempts to retain as much formatting settings as possible, and further formatting options can be defined in Excel or another software used to open the schedule.

The CSV format is a data-only format that retains no formatting, but is widely supported and easily readable and editable with any text editor.

Copy as CSV

When you select the entire schedule, choose Edit ‣ Copy to copy all the data as CSV text.

Formatting a Schedule

You can specify various options to format the schedule, including colors, fonts and sizes by using the Schedule Table Settings panel.

To open the Schedule Table Settings panel:

  • Click the settings icon at the top-left corner of the sheet, between the horizontal and vertical headers.
  • Alternatively, open the pop-up menu on the schedule title row and choose Table Settings.

Set a Style

As for other tool settings panels, you can click the title to open the Style chooser and change the style of the entire schedule. The styles are those available to the Table tool as there is no need to have a schedule-specific style. There are several predefined styles in the HighDesign library, and you can create and extend your own library of table styles.

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Not all parameters are available to schedules. The following fields and buttons are disabled:

  • Rows and columns
  • Title, always active
  • Headers: the header row is always active. The header column can be enabled.

All other parameters can be modified. Text style parameters always affect to the entire table.

Show totals, sums, and count

Schedules can display sums, totals and calculations. In the Sort panel, you can define what sums and calculations to display in the schedule by using the last column, marked by the Sum symbol.

Click the cell in the last column to define what calculation should be displayed. When you add a sum or total, a footer row is added at the bottom of each group or of the table if no grouping was defined.

Textual and object fields only allow the Count calculation, that is, the number of items. Numeric fields also allow sum, minimum and maximum, and average. These values are calculated in real time and are always up to date.

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Sorting and Grouping

Use the Sort panel to reorder the columns of the table, to define how the data should be grouped, and to specify what calculation to display in the footer row.

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Reordering Fields

To reorder the fields, drag a row and move it up or down as desired. The letters refer to the columns as it is customary in all spreadsheet applications: the first column is A, the second B, and so on.

Primary Grouping

You can organize the data in the schedule in groups defined by a field. For example, in a Wall schedule you can group the listed walls by Type so that all the walls of the same type will be listed together. If you used four wall types in your project, the schedule will display four groups.

To select which field defines the primary grouping, click its cell in the second column. The check-mark indicates the current primary grouping field.

Only one primary grouping field can be selected.

Sorting

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The items in the group can be further organized by selecting a sorting criterion.

You can sort the items from first to last, last to first, or leave them unsorted. In this latter case, the items are listed in the order in which they are in the project.

The Schedule Sheet

Once you create a new schedule, it is placed on a new schedule sheet that is listed on the Project Browser in the Schedules group. The schedule sheet and table provide various options for the quick formatting and editing of the schedule.

On the schedule sheet, you can modify the table structure to resize columns, rows and specify various formatting options for a schedule, such as colors, fonts and sizes.

The schedule sheet also includes two floating buttons to open the Schedule Settings window and to export the schedule as CSV or Excel.

Table Structure

The schedule sheet always shows the horizontal and vertical table headers on the top and left sides of the sheet. These special headers show the structure of the table and the identifiers of the columns (A, B, C…) and rows (1, 2, 3…). Use these headers to select a row or column or to resize them.

Select a Row or Column

Click on the heading to select the entire row or column.

Select All the Table

Choose Edit â–¸ Select All to select all the data of the table.

Resize a Row or Column

  • Move the pointer over the separator to the right of the column or below the row. The cursor changes to show that a resize action is available.
  • Click to initiate the resize action.
  • Move to enlarge or reduce the item. Rows and columns can only be resized within certain ranges, from a minimum to a maximum size.

The Schedule Table

The schedule table is the table that displays the actual data of the schedule. This is a special table that provides options that are specific to schedules.

Title Row

A schedule table always shows the title row, it cannot be omitted. Double-click the title row to change the schedule name.

On the right end of the title row, a pop-up button provides access to the Schedule Options menu. Move the pointer over the title row to reveal it and click the button to open the menu. The available options are:

  • Settings
  • Filters
  • Sort
  • Export

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The horizontal header displays the fields in their order and is always visible. The field that controls the primary grouping is marked with a check-mark.

At any time you can click a field to open the Grouping, Sorting and Totals menu. Use this menu to:

  • Change the sorting options and define a different primary grouping field.
  • Change the sorting order.
  • Enable or disable a footer field with totals and calculations.
  • Remove the row from the schedule.

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Chapter 1

Tables

Subsections of Tables

About Tables

Tables contain information and data about the design in rows and columns, and complement the model and the drawings as a documentation functionality. You can insert data directly or import a worksheet from a spreadsheet software, format the data customizing colors, fonts and sizes, and add formulas that perform calculations of sets of cells.

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Topics in this Section

  • Table Tool Settings
  • Create a Table
  • Import a Worksheet
  • Formatting a Table
  • Add Functions to a Table

Add Functions to a Table

Table cells can also display text that is the result of a function. To add a function, select a cell and press the Function button on the Table toolbar.

HighDesign includes the following functions:

  • Sum
  • Product
  • Average
  • Maximum
  • Minimum

After pressing the Function menu, the toolbar expands to show the Function field and controls. Use the pop-up menu to select a function.

To define the cells that provide the data for the function, click on them or enter their coordinates in the field. Press the checkmark button to confirm the selection.

To edit a function, select it and click the Edit or Pencil button on the toolbar.

To remove a function, select it and click the Delete button on the toolbar.

Create a Table

To create a table:

  1. Activate the Table tool.
  2. Click to specify the insertion point.
  3. Move the pointer and click again to define width and height of the table.

The table is created with the default number of rows and columns as set in the Table Settings panel. The width of columns and the height of rows are calculated from the table width and height.

To select a cell, select the table object, then:

  • Click on a cell to select it
  • Shift-click on a second cell to select all the cells from the first selected to the second selected.
  • Cmd-Click (Mac) or Ctrl-Click (Win) to select a cell without deselecting the others.
  • Press the up, right, bottom and left arrow keys on the keyboard to move the selection to the nearest cell in that direction.
  • Press the Tab key or Shift-Tab to move the selection to the next or previous cell. When the cell text was edited, the Tab key also confirms the input.
  • Press the Return key to edit the selected cell.
  • Press the Esc key to cancel the current input, or deselect the cells.

To enter data in the table:

  1. Select the table.
  2. Click on a cell to select it and enter the text.
  3. Press Enter to confirm the text, or Tab to move the focus to the next cell.

You can also double-click a cell to open the input area directly.

Format Table Cells

When you select one or more cells in a table, the Table Formatting toolbar opens on the top side of the drawing area.

Use this toolbar to

  • Set the font, size and style of the selected cells. These settings override the default parameters of the table.
  • Set the cell background and text colors.
  • Change the horizontal and vertical alignment of the text inside the cell.
  • Clear all formatting of the selected cells and revert them to the table defaults.
  • Edit the table to insert and remove rows and columns, fit row heights and merge or split the selected cells.
  • Insert and modify functions and formulas.

Edit the Table Cells

Click the Edit button on the Table toolbar to open the Edit menu. This menu provides the following functions:

  • Insert Row Above/Below: adds an empty row above the first selected cell or below the last selected cell.
  • Insert Column Left/Right: adds an empty column to the left of the first selected cell or to the right of the last selected cell.
  • Delete Row/Column: removes the row or column of the selected cells.
  • Fit Row Height: resizes the row to fit the largest text in all columns.
  • Merge Cells: when the table contains two or more selected cell, this command merges the cells from the first to the last cell. The selected cells don’t have to be contiguous. Note that the Merge command only displays the content of the first cell and hides any data that might be in the other cells.
  • Split Cells: apply this command to a merged cell to restore the original rows and columns. This command also restores the original data of the other cells.

Import a Worksheet

You can import data from another software using the XLSX (Excel worksheet) and .CSV (Comma-Separated-Values).

Insert a Worksheet

  1. To import data from a worksheet, choose Project ‣ Insert ‣ Table.
  2. The data will be converted to a HighDesign table. Click on the drawing area to insert it.

The Excel (.xlsx) file format retains formatting and sizes, while CSV is a data-only format. In the latter case, HighDesign creates a table using the current default parameters for row height, column width and text style. Once inserted, the table can be edited and formatted as needed.

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The inserted table keeps a link to the original file whenever possible. That means that you can update the contents of the table in HighDesign at any time when the original file is being edited in another software.

To update the data in a table, select it and press the Reload From File button.

Reloading the data updates the content of the table and adds rows and columns as required by the data, but does not change the current formatting style of the table.

Table Tool Settings

Use the Table tool settings panel to specify the default parameters for new tables or modify a selected table.

The panel includes sections to let you define the number of rows and columns, title and headers, font and text sizes, and row and column sizes.

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Define Rows and Columns

Use the Rows and Columns fields to define the number of rows and columns in a table. Please note that reducing the number of rows or columns will also discard any content in those cells.

As you increase the number of rows or columns, the table adds the item to the bottom or right and copies its size from the previous row or column in the table.

Title, Headers, Alternating Rows

Activate the Title switch to add a title to the table. The actual title and its formatting can be edited directly on the table like any other cell.

A table can have both a horizontal header for the columns and a vertical header for the rows. When the headers are enabled, the first row after the title and the first column will be displayed as headers.

Use the buttons in this section to specify background and text colors for the headers.

You can also choose to display the data rows with a custom, alternating background color. Activate the Alternating row option to enable this feature. The first row background color is that defined as table background color in the Properties bar or Graphic Attributes panel.

Text Style

Use this section to specify the default font, size, color and style of the entire table, with the exclusion of the title row.

The Alignments buttons let you specify the default horizontal and vertical alignments of the text inside the cell.

You can also change the horizontal direction of the table, left-to-right or right-to-left according to your regional settings.

Use the margins field to change the internal margin of the cell, which is the distance from the cell border to the text.

Row, Column and Border Options

Use this section of the panel to customize the default row height and column width, and change the colors of the horizontal and vertical separators. To hide the separator lines, set the No Color option on the Color pop-up window.

Tables can have a border whose color is defined through the Properties bar or Graphic Attributes panel. To hide the border of a table, set its color to “No Color”.

Table borders can be rounded: use the Corner Radius field to specify a rounding value.

Chapter 1

Texts

Subsections of Texts

About Texts and Labels

Use the Text tool to add styled text blocks and labels to your project. With the text tool you can create multi-line text blocks with different internal font styles and colors, use alignments, and apply border shapes to create a variety of notes, labels, title block paragraphs.

The Text tool includes two methods, text block and text label. Both methods create a text object.

Text objects can be created on drafting sheets, details and layouts. The text can be inserted directly in HighDesign or pasted from another application.

Text objects are treated like any other drawing item, but their internal drawing scale is always 1:1, so that the font size does not change with the sheet scale.

Topics in this section
  • Text tool settings
  • Insert Text Blocks
  • Place Text Labels
  • Editing Text Blocks

Editing Text Blocks

Text blocks are rectangular objects that can be moved, resized and rotated. To edit a text block, select the object, then:

  • Click the center to move it.
  • Click one of the corners to resize the box, and hold the Shift key to resize it proportionally.
  • Click on the middle point of one of the sides to resize the box in that direction.
Resizing and the Fit Box Modes

A text block can be freely resized in all directions only when its fit-box mode is set to “fixed-size box”. In this mode, the text block keeps the width and height that you define.

When the fit-box mode is set to “fit height”, you can only resize it horizontally, that is in the direction of the lines of text, so as to enlarge the available line width.

When the fit-box mode is set to “fit-contents”, the text block cannot be resized because its size is calculated on the current text.

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Insert Text Blocks

Use the Text Block method to insert multi-line text paragraphs with text styles.

Click to set the base point, drag the pointer to set the width and height of the text field, exactly as drawing a rectangle, and insert the text in the input box; this box also supports the “Cut, Copy, Paste and Select All” commands.  

When you define the block, a toolbar opens to let you define character styles.

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  • To apply a style to a character or one or more words, select them in the text input area and choose the desired option on the toolbar.
  • Box fit style and horizontal alignments apply to the entire block
  • Use the Special Characters menu to insert special characters into the text
  • To confirm the text and end the insertion, click outside the text box field, or push the OK button on the Text Style toolbar, or push the Enter key on an extended keyboard.

Place Text Labels

Use this method to place text labels on the drawing without having to define a box or character styles. When you create a text label, the text style toolbar is not available.

After entering the text, you can define a rotation angle for the text.

Steps
  1. Click to define the insertion point of the text, that is the bottom left corner of the label.
  2. Enter the text.- 3. Press Return to add a new line of text and create a multi-line label, or 4. Click outside or press the Enter key to end the text insertion.
  3. Define the angle by moving the pointer. Click to complete the insertion.

To add the label directly without defining the rotation, hold the Command key (Mac) or Control key (Windows) and click outside or press the Enter key.

Text Tool Settings

Use the Text settings window to set and edit the parameters of the text object. This panel includes five sections: font style and alignments, spacings, writing direction, border and box behavior.

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Font Style and Alignments

Use this section to define the default font properties and horizontal and vertical alignments of the text inside the block. You can select the following properties:

  • Font face, selectable from the list of font families installed in your system. You can also access the Font Panel to select a different typeface (only supported for the entire text object).
  • Text size, in any supported measurement unit; open the pop-down menu to select a different unit. 
  • Text style (bold, italic and underline) of the entire block.
  • Alignment (left, centered, right; top, middle, bottom), in both multiline texts and single line labels.

Some values such as font style and size can be overridden by character styles.

Spacings

Use these fields to specify character and line spacing.

  • Character spacing is the distance in points between each character. You can enter positive values, to create extended text styles, or negative value to create a condensed text style.
  • Line spacing is the distance between lines of text. The default value is 1.0, which means that each line is rendered exactly under the previous line with no offset. Positive values increase the distance and negative values reduce it.
Writing Direction

You can specify if the text lines are entered and rendered from left to right, or right to left.

Border

Text blocks can optionally display a border around the text. The available shapes are:

  • None. The text block shows no border.
  • Rectangle
  • Oval, or “pill” shape
  • Diamond
  • Hexagon
  • Circle

You can also specify a border color and a padding, that is the distance of the text from the border.

Auto-fit box

Auto-fit box options: fixed size, flexible height, fit-text. When flexible height is active, the height of the box adjusts to the number of lines of text.

NOTE To set the color of the entire text box, use the colors menu on the Properties Bar. 

Subsections of Customize HighDesign

Chapter 1

App Settings

Subsections of App Settings

About Application Settings

The Application Settings window allows to set the global options and settings of the HighDesign application, and personal preferences of the user. 

This dialog is used to set the application preferences to customize the work environment, interface theme and usage options. 

  • On macOS, you can open this dialog by choosing the “Settings…” item of the “HighDesign” menu. 
  • On Windows, it is available at Edit â–¸ Settings.

The App Settings window provides three panes: General, Workspace, and Drawing. The Professional Edition adds two additional panes, Shortcuts for setting and editing the keyboard shortcuts, and Templates to save and organize custom project templates.

When you want to reset all the preferences to the default values, launch HighDesign while holding down the Command (cmd) and Shift keys on the keyboard.

Topics in this section
  • General settings
  • Workspace settings
  • Drawing settings
  • Keyboard shortcuts (SE/Pro)
  • Templates (Pro)

Drawing Settings

This pane lets you change the options for drawing mode and drawing tools.

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  • Drawing mode, which lets you set the way items are drawn on screen. “Click-Drag” is the classic Mac method of click, hold and release; “Click-Click” is the standard CAD method of click, release, move, click. 
  • Snap tolerance range, in pixels; 
  • Show/Hide on-screen help tips on snap status; 
  • Show/Hide on-screen info about angle and length of the current vector; 
  • Choose the default pen weight display mode from “Hairline” (constant weight), “Bitmap Weight” and “Print Weight”; 
  • End Caps option - butt, round or square; 
  • Line Join option - mitre, round or bevel;
  • Disable zooming of pen weights when zooming in;
  • Show/Hide the axes of the current coordinate system;
  • Mask the area outside the current page on drafting sheets that display a paper format; 

General Settings

This is the first pane you see when you open HighDesign Preferences: it consists of four sections displaying the options about general use, file safety, undoable actions and support folder.

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The sections of the General pane are: 

General
  • Choose the user’s language.
  • Set the option to open the most recent document when the application starts up.
  • Choose to show the Home window when HighDesign is launched.
  • Choose to check for new updates at application launch. Automatic checking only occurs at application launch and no more than once in 12 hours. If there is no Internet connection available or there are no new updates, the function is dismissed with no message. 
File Safety
Undo
Undo
  • Change the maximum number of undoable actions, up to 300 actions; 
  • Activate the automatic undo reset with each save action (excluding the automatic save). 
Support Folder
  • The location of the Support folder that contains custom resources like symbols, hatches, styles, etc. Not available in HighDesign for the Mac App Store. 

Keyboard Shortcuts Settings

Use this panel (SE/Pro) to assign key commands and customize the keyboard shortcuts. It is possible to change shortcuts for almost all commands of HighDesign menus: File; Edit; Drawing; Tools; Organize; Window; Drawing Tools. 

To change a shortcut, select one or more check-boxes corresponding to Shift, Option and Control keys, double-click the field on the right and push the new key. 

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Use the Restore Defaults button to reset all the keyboard shortcuts to the default settings.

Templates Settings

Use this panel (Pro) to set the default template for new documents, and add and organize your custom templates.

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The following actions are available on this panel:

  • Create a new template: using the + button, the current document is saved as a new template and added to the User library.
  • Delete a custom template: select a custom template and press the Bin icon. The deleted template file will be moved to the system Trash. Only custom templates can be removed.
  • Set a template as default: the default template is loaded automatically each time a new document is created. To define a template as default, move the pointer over its thumbnail and click the Star icon on the top-right corner.

Workspace Settings

This pane lets you customize your HighDesign work environment.

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This panel includes the following options:  

  • Switch the interface theme between dark, light and by system.
  • Activate the full size crosshair cursor.
  • Play sounds during drawing sessions.
  • Choose not to display help messages.
  • Use a classic contextual menu instead of the radial menu.
  • Set the zoom speed when using the scroll wheel and invert the scroll wheel direction.
  • Enable auto-scrolling on the main window. When this option is on, the drawing scrolls automatically when, during a construction or editing operation, the cursor is inside the main canvas near the margins of the main drawing area.
  • Use the arrow keys to scroll the page and Shift-Arrow for nudging objects.
  • Specify the amount of scrolled space used by the Nudge command.
  • Refresh view during scrolling: when this option is not selected the speed of panning and scrolling can improve with large and complex projects.
  • Set the position of the View controls: choose to show the controls in the main toolbar or grouped in a dock on the margins of the drawing area.
  • Update default settings for a tool when editing a selected object. E.g. editing the text font of a selected dimension will set the new font as default for all new dimensions. 
  • Set the default behavior of clicks with the Arrow tool. When this option is active, clicking an object selects it and deselects any previously selected object; when inactive, clicking an object adds it to the current selection.
Chapter 1

Shared Resources

Subsections of Shared Resources

About Shared Resources

A project resource is a loadable item that can be used in the project as is or in a modified version. Layer sets, line types, hatches, styles are all project resources. HighDesign includes standard libraries of resources and, in the SE and Pro editions, offers the ability to create new resources and store them in custom libraries.

A resource item is similar to a template: when you load a resource into the current project, HighDesign makes a copy of that resource that can be modified locally in that specific project without affecting the other resources loaded in other projects.

Editing the original resource file is also possible for custom resources, and a project can be updated to use a new version of a resource by reloading it. Default items that are located in the HighDesign library cannot be edited, but they can be duplicated and edited as custom items.

Libraries

In HighDesign, resources like line types, hatch types, and symbols can be stored in three libraries:

  • the HighDesign Library is internal and cannot be edited
  • the User Library extends the internal library with all the custom resources created by you
  • the Project Library includes the items loaded in the project and can include any imported resources that are available in the current project only.

HighDesign LT does not support custom libraries: new resources are automatically created inside the current project.

The Resource Manager

The Resource Manager window allows you to load line types, hatches, styles and other resources into your project. In HighDesign SE and Pro, the Resource Manager also allows you to organize your libraries of re-usable resources and create new items. Select Project â–¸ Resource Manager to open it.

Use this window to organize the resources, load items into the project, create and duplicate resources.

Topics in this section
  • Layers manager
  • Line-types manager
  • Hatch patterns manager
  • Colors and Pens manager
  • Styles and Types manager

Colors Manager

Drawing items in HighDesign by default have an indexed color from a Standard palette of 256 colors. The Colors pane on the left lists the default palette and provides the options to activate or create new palettes and add them as resources to the project.

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Click the Switch buttons to add other default palettes (Grays, AutoCAD® ACI, ISO/DIN) to the project. The buttons on the bottom of the palette list are:

  • Add Palette, to create a new custom palette; use the “+” and “-” buttons to add or remove colors to set through the color picker. Click the green check mark to confirm; new palettes are automatically saved in the User Library.
  • Duplicate the selected palette.
  • Delete the selected custom palette.
  • Import external palettes through the .xml and .ase file formats.
  • Export a palette as a resource available for external use. Use the controls and the info displayed on the right side of the panel to check the values of  the chosen colors or to set the new colors of the custom palette through the color slider and picker. Analytically set the color values via the HEX or RGB fields. The opacity slider and field control the Opacity value of the color. Use the Name field to set the color name.

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Use the controls and the info displayed on the right side of the panel to check the values of the chosen colors or to set the new colors of the custom palette through the color slider and picker. Analytically set the color values via the HEX or RGB fields. The opacity slider and field control the Opacity value of the color. Use the Name field to set the color name.

Binding Colors to Pen Weights

Bind a color to a pen weight, so that choosing a pen color in the project automatically sets the associated pen weight.

  • Activate the “Bind colors to pen weight” option, click a color and choose a pen weight from the pop-up menu; the selected pen number appears on the color box. To remove a pen from a color, press the Option key on the keyboard and click the color box or choose “None” from the pop-up menu. 
  • The color-pen binding works in one direction only: selecting a color also selects its pen weight, but selecting a pen weight does not change the current color. This allows you to change the pen weight of an object at any time without affecting its pen color. Color-pen bindings are saved in the current document.

Hatch Patterns and Textures

This panel lists the hatch patterns of the project and it is used to create, edit and organize vector hatch patterns and bitmap textures. The functions provided by this pane work mostly in the same way as those on the Line Types pane.

HighDesign provides three families of fills:

  • Linear hatches, made of parallel lines, continuous or with a specific dash pattern, with variable offsets and angle. A set of line type, angle, and offsets is a skin. A linear hatch can have up to eight overlaid skins. 
  • Tiled patterns. A pattern is a vector drawing that is tiled (repeated) along rows and columns. Each tile contains the drawing that is clipped inside the hatched region.
  • Textures: an image tiled inside the hatched region.

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View a hatch type

Select an item in the Project library to see its preview and inspect its values. Depending on the selected item’s location, it can be edited or deleted if it is a custom item, or duplicated.

Use the icon buttons above the Project list to filter the listed items by family.

The list order of project hatch types can be rearranged by dragging a hatch type to its new position.

Load a resource from a library

Press the Load button or click the + button to the left of the Project list to reveal the libraries. Select the item to load and push the plus button or drag the item to the Project list. The item is loaded into the project and immediately available for use.

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Duplicating a hatch type

You can duplicate any hatch type. To duplicate, select a hatch type and either push the Duplicate button on the bottom side of the window or the pop-up duplicate button on the selected selected hatch type’s cell when available.

The duplicated hatch type is automatically opened for editing so you can modify its name and content directly.

Create a new hatch type

Press the New Hatch Type button and choose the desired family from the pop-up menu. Depending on the family, the interface changes and shows the relevant fields and tools.

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New Linear Hatch

A linear hatch is defined by a line repeated multiple times according to several parameters like spacing, angle, offset, etc. A set of parameters is called a “skin”. A linear hatch in HighDesign can have up 8 skin definitions that are rendered in sequence.

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A skin has the following parameters:

  • Angle: in degrees, defines the orientation on the plane of the vector.
  • Spacing: the distance between two lines, in the current units.
  • Origin Dx, Dy: these values control the offset of the current skin from the origin of the hatch. All the spacings are calculated from the origin point of the hatch, which allows you to align the pattern to your design. By entering an X and Y offset the entire skin is moved off from the origin by those values. This is particularly relevant when the hatch is made of multiple skins.
  • Line-type: can be continuous, custom dashed or one of the project line types.
  • Custom dashed line types can have up to three dash-gap pairs. The values are expressed in the current unit.
  • Custom dashed lines can have an alternate offset: the origin of every second line will be moved by the alternate offset value. For example, this is useful to create masonry patterns where the vertical lines are dashed lines with an alternate offset.

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New Tiled Pattern

When you select New Tiled Pattern from the new hatch menu, the workspace switches from “Project” to “Edit Pattern”. This workspace allows you to design the typic tile of the hatch pattern using a sub-set of the drafting tools and to define its size. The Edit Pattern panel provides a preview of what the tile will look like when rendered as a pattern and allows you to define the tile’s width and height.

In this workspace the drawing scale is set as 1:1. The available drawing tools are Selection Arrow, Construction Objects, Lines, Segmented Lines, Rectangles and Regular Polygons. The drawing area is set by the size of the tile.

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You can also Copy/Paste drawings from the main window of HighDesign: in this case it is advisable to set the size of the tile before pasting the pattern since tile, drawing area and pattern must have the same size. 

In the drawing area you can draw and edit the pattern exactly as in the main window. When the pointer is close to the middle of the tile, the median axes become visible to provide a visual aid to mirror or rotate objects. Other alignment points are available on the borders of the tile to make it easier to design the tile and avoid gaps.

The preview window provides the fields to set the size of the tile and the zoom slider: once the drawing is complete, just push the “OK” button in the preview window and the focus turns back to the Hatch Manager.

New Texture** **

Another family of hatch is the texture, which tiles and repeats an image inside the boundary area. To create a new texture, click the Add (+) button, select New Texture and choose the image in any of the supported file types.

A texture only supports 90° rotations, and can be scaled via the Hatch Properties panel. The origin of the texture can changed just as in linear hatches and patterns, by moving the center point when the hatch object is selected in the drawing.

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Edit a hatch type

Custom and project hatch types can be edited by pushing the Edit button on the selected item’s cell. It is possible to change any of the parameter values and the name, but not its location.

Delete a hatch type 

  • Select a custom type; note that only custom hatch types can be deleted; 
  • Push the “Delete” button. 

Layer Manager

Use the Layers panel to create, delete and organize the layers of your project.

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The options available in the Layers pane are:

A. Default tool B. Layer name C. Number of objects on each layer D. Visibility E. Lock **F. **Color G. Layer opacity

The buttons on the lower side of the window serve the following functions:

  • new layer
  • delete layer
  • action menu with selection options
  • Import and export layer set
  • Bind Layers to drawing tools.

Binding Layers to Drawing Tools 

Layers can be associated to certain drawing tools with the “Bind layers to drawing tools” checkbox. When this option is active, each drawing tool is linked to a layer: when you select a tool, its layer automatically becomes active, thus simplifying the process of organizing a project. 

For instance, in an architectural project freehand lines might only be used to design the landscape: linking the “Freehand” tool to a “Terrain” layer is a convenient way of keeping the project organized without having to change layer each time you change tool. 

The first column of the Layers table shows the drawing tool connected with the layer if the Bind Layers to Drawing Tools option is selected. Click to choose the tool or method to bind. 

Line types Manager

This panel lists the line types of the project. By default a new project comes with only few line types available, continuous and various dashed lines. Use the Line-types Manager to add more lines to the project, create new types, edit custom lines, and organize the resources.

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The options in this pane include: 

  • Loading a saved line-type into the project or removing a type from the project 
  • Creating a new line type 
  • Duplicating and editing line types 
  • Deleting a line type from the project
  • Reordering the project line-types

The main table lists all the line types that are currently loaded in the project. A loaded item is available for use in the project and does not necessarily mean that it is actually used by some object.

Viewing a resource

Select an item in the Project library to see its preview and inspect its values. Depending on the selected item’s location, it can be edited or deleted if it is a custom item, or duplicated.

You can search for a specific line type by entering its name in the search field.

The list order of project line types can be rearranged by dragging a line type to its new position. 

Loading a resource from a library

Press the Load button or click the + button to the left of the Project list to reveal the libraries. Select the item to load and push the plus button or drag the item to the Project list. The item is loaded into the project and immediately available for use.

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Duplicating a line type

You can duplicate any line type. To duplicate, select a line type and either push the Duplicate button on the bottom side of the window or the pop-up duplicate button on the selected selected line type’s cell when available.

The duplicated line type is automatically opened for editing so you can modify its name and values directly.

Create a new line type

  1. Click the “New line” button.
  2. Select a base type from the Line type pop-up menu.

There are two main families of line types:

Dashed lines

Dashed lines are defined by a repeated pattern of dashes and gaps. The values of the pattern can be defined in any of the base linear units: millimeters, inches and pixels/points.

A dash pattern can have up to six dash-gap pairs. A value of 0.0 means that the item will be rendered as a dot.

Special lines

Special lines can be made of different shapes and patterns and are defined by frequency and intensity values. Frequency controls the extent or the distance between the repetitions; intensity controls the size of the item.

Special lines can be created from pre-defined types like insulation, zigzag, vertical dash, etc.

When the line type is defined, push the Save button to save it. The line type will be saved as a loadable resource file if the chosen location is the user library, or as an internal resource if saved in the current project.

Edit a line type

Custom and project line types can be edited by pushing the Edit button on the selected item’s cell. It is possible to change any of the parameter values and the name, but not its location.

Delete a line type

Only custom and project line types can be deleted. Select the line type and push the Delete button. Objects that use that type will be reverted to Continuous line.

Styles and Types Manager

The Styles & Types manager pane lets you add pre-defined styles and types to your project, create new items and manage the libraries. The underlying method of operation is the same as the other resource panels, the main difference being that styles and types are organized by class in sub-folders. For more information on styles and building types, see the chapter Styles and Types.

Select a folder to view its items on the preview table, or select All to view all the styles and types loaded in the current project. You can also search a particular style by entering its name in the search field.

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Loading a resource from a library

Press the Load button or click the + button to the left of the Project list to reveal the libraries. Select the item to load on the preview table and push the pop-up Add button on the item’s cell. The item is loaded into the project and immediately available for use.

Duplicating a style/type

You can duplicate any style or type. To duplicate, select the item on the preview table and press the Duplicate button, visible below the table. The item is duplicated and opened for further editing.

Create a new style/type

Press the New Style/Type button to create a new item. The right half of the window shows the panes where you can define the style. The number of tabs is variable and depends on the family of the style, but all styles have at least the Style Settings tab where you can define the common attributes such as class, name, tag, description and the graphic options that the style controls.

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Edit a style/type

Custom and project styles and types can be edited by pushing the Edit button on the selected item’s cell. It is possible to change any of the parameter values and the name, but not its location.

Delete a style/type 

  • Select a custom type; note that only items in the project and user libraries can be deleted; 
  • Push the “Delete” button. 

Subsections of Collaborate and Share

Drawing Presentation Tool

This is a 2D rendering tool that creates high-quality images of your project with varying effects of background, pen and fill colors, border and margins, watermark and adjustable size and resolution. 

This tool not only applies anti-aliasing to object edges, but it also allows customizable print size and image resolution and provides background options, frames and color effects to make high impact presentations of your projects. The result is an image that can be exported into any of the supported graphic file formats. To set all options, select Tools ▸ Render to open the image settings dialog. 

Set Image Options  

Use this dialog to set the visual effects and options to create an illustration. 

  1. Image effects: click to show the graphic options. 
  2. Border: option to display a border, color and thickness of the margin. 
  3. Watermark: options to add a digital signature or watermark to the image. 
  4. Image size: options to set the image resolution and size. 
  5. Preview of the resulting image. 
  6. Buttons to save the current settings as a new theme or to delete the selected theme. 
  7. List of loaded themes. 

Once all the settings are done, if you wish to save the current settings as a new theme for future use, just push the “+” button close to the themes menu to see it listed on the menu with the desired name. Click “Ok” to confirm and open a new window displaying the resulting image or “Cancel” to dismiss this dialog.

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Image Effects 

The options to apply graphic effects to the image include: 

  • Background:
  • By Project: sets the background to the same color as used in the main project window; 
  • Plain Color: use the button to select the color; 
  • Horizontal Gradient: select left and right colors of the gradient; 
  • Vertical Gradient: select upper and lower colors of the gradient; 
  • Image, tiled: draws an image as background; pictures smaller than the destination image are tiled; select the image from disk; 
  • Image, resized: draws an image as background scaling it to fit the destination image. Images are scaled non-proportionally; select the image from disk.

Watermark 

The Watermark feature of the “Render” tool allows you to add a text watermark to the image: the text style options include Font, size, text style (bold, italic, underline) and color. Through a menu it is possible to set the position of the watermark within the image. 

Image Size options 

In this pane are grouped all the options to set the desired format, size and resolution of the resulting image. 

Watermark 

The Watermark feature of the “Render” tool allows you to add a text watermark to the image: the text style options include Font, size, text style (bold, italic, underline) and color. Through a menu it is possible to set the position of the watermark within the image. 

Image Size options 

In this pane are grouped all the options to set the desired format, size and resolution of the resulting image. 

  • Preset: choose the size that best fits your needs from the many standard formats in the menu; 
  • Pixel Size: use the fields to enter your custom image size in pixels: click the icon to lock the desired ratio; 
  • Resolution: set a resolution of 72 dpi for Web publishing or presentations, whereas 300 dpi or higher resolutions are best for print output; 
  • Print Size: you can set width and height of the printout, using the menu on the right to set the units. 

Export Images 

The resulting image is displayed on a new window which provides some buttons, including the zoom buttons: press the “Save” button to export the image as a TIFF, PNG or JPEG file or the “Copy” button to copy the image to the clipboard. 

You can also drag and drop the image on the main project window to insert it in the current sheet. 

Chapter 1

Printing

Subsections of Printing

About Printing in HighDesign

The print function produces high quality prints on any page format supported by your printer or by the current print driver in your system.

The basic concept behind printing in HighDesign is “what you see is what you get”, meaning that not only the printed page will look as much as possible as the drawing on screen, but also that no scaling, hiding or other operations are required in order to print the drawing. If the project includes sheets at different scales, they will be printed with the same relative proportions. 

All print operations are performed by selecting one of the print items in the File menu. 

  • Page Setup: opens the standard page setup dialog of your Operating System. Use this dialog to select the printer and set page size and orientation. 
  • Print: opens a dialog to set HighDesign specific print settings and get information about actual drawing extents and number of pages that will be printed. 

Some items of the project are not printable: Detail Area frames and Selection handles. These are objects that are only meaningful on the screen.

Construction objects such as datum points, grid, and construction lines can be printed if the “Print Construction Objects” checkbox in the Print dialog is active. 

Print Detail Areas

The Area menu of the Print window allows the printing of the whole drawing or just the selection of specific parts of the project, selected items or Detail Areas.

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The Detail Areas of the project are listed and are available for printing: just select the one you wish to print. The preview will show the updated page layout with the current Detail Area in place of the whole drawing.

Push the Print button to print the selected Detail Area with the current settings and Print Setup.

The Print Preview Window

This window contains the Project View pop-up menu, to choose the view you want to be printed with its corresponding set of visible sheets and layers (Pro-only feature), the Layout pop-up menu, used to set the position of the printed drawing relative to the pages, and the Printable Area pop-up menu, providing a list of possible print options. Available options are: 

  • Whole drawing: prints all items on visible sheets and layers; 
  • Selected items: only prints currently selected items; 
  • Detail Areas: from a list of available Detail Areas, this options only prints the region of drawing included within the bounds of the selected area. 

The Print button opens your printer’s Print Settings dialog. This dialog may include different panes for each printer manufacturer.

  • Print. Use this menu to select the current view, a saved project View to automatically show and hide sheets and layers accordingly, or a Layout.
  • Area. Options of this menu are: Whole Drawing, to print all the visible objects in the drawing; Selected Items, to print only the objects currently selected; any available detail areas created with the Detail Area tool.  
  • Actual extents of the drawing being printed and number of pages required to print the drawing (rows x columns).
  • The alignment menu lists the options to position the drawing within the page.
  • The preview of the printed page. 
  • Resolution menu. Set the print resolution from 180 to 1200 dpi (600 dpi is the default). This value only sets the maximum resolution, but the actual resolution at which the drawing is printed depends on the current printer.
  • Scale field to set custom reduction/enlargement factors. The checkbox Fit To One Page calculates the best scaling factor to print the entire drawing on one page.
  • **Filter **menu. Lists the options to print by project color settings and to print all colors as monochromatic through the colors menu. Sub-options are the ability to exclude fill colors and to disable the color interpolation of stroke lines. This last option allows to print the drawing with a fixed color regardless of the brightness of the original color in the drawing.
  • Options:
  • Print pen-weights option: uncheck to print everything as thin lines. 
  • Scale Pen-weights. When “Fit to one page” is set, the Scale pen weights option allows you to choose whether the pen weights should be scaled to match the new zoom factor of the printout. 
  • Print margins: if checked, small marks are printed at the corners of the available printable area on each page. 
  • Print construction objects: if selected, construction points and lines of the selected view will be printed.
  • Print trace references (Pro): when enabled, trace references are included in the overall bounds of the drawing and printed.

Publish to PDF

With this function available on the File menu it is possible to create single page or multiple pages vector PDF documents which can be edited with other applications and printed with large format printers and plotters. 

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The options available in the Publish to PDF window are:

  • Check the Include Construction objects option if you want the PDF to include points and construction lines.
  • Document pages: “Single Page” creates a one-page PDF document; “Multiple Pages” creates as many pages as the visible sheets. 
  • Include copyright info: this option adds information about the project from the Info pane of the Project Settings window. 
  • Publish menu brings the following options:
  • Current View to export the project as it is currently visible on screen; 
  • Custom to select the desired sheets to export; 
  • All Layouts to create a multiple page PDF document with all the layouts of the project;
  • List of the available Project Views to export the selected one.
  • List of all Sheets, Details and Layouts of the current project: select the sheets to include in the PDF document for custom publishing.
  • Page Size menu. Available options are:
  • Fit Drawing Extents: page sizes are calculated on the extents of the drawings. 
  • Available Sheet Size: this sub-menu lists the sheet sizes of project if already set; all sheets get the size from the selected one. 
  • ISO, ANSI, US ARCH standard sizes sub-menu.
  • Orientation of the selected page.
  • Option to scale the drawing to fit the selected page. 
  • Option to apply graphic filters to the PDF.
Chapter 1

Working with DXF:DWG Drawings

Subsections of Working with DXF:DWG Drawings

Export a DXF/DWG Drawing

The Export as DWG/DXF dialog provides the following options:  

  • Format version via a pop-up menu. Also available in HighDesign Standard; 
  • List of sheets of the HighDesign project and ability to select Drafting Sheets, Details and Layouts to export; 
  • Option to export all selected sheets as a single DWG/DXF document; 
  • Option to export each selected sheet as a separate document (all documents are collected in one folder). 

Import a DXF/DWG Drawing

Select File ▸ Import ▸ Single DXF/DWG file. Before opening a DXF/DWG file a dialog lets you set the basic import settings: 

  • Drawing units to be used to convert DXF/DWG elements; most DXF/DWG versions do not include a measurement unit;
  • Destination scale of the drawing;
  • When the “Use file drawings units” option is active, HighDesign tries to set the drawing units as found in the file. If no drawing unit is found this option has no effect;
  • Options to set the background color to black or to add a prefix to layers;

HighDesign SE and Pro import DWG/DXF documents with both Layouts and Model data: when opening the document, the drawing, or Model, is located on the sheet named “Model”. In HighDesign SE, layout sheets are imported as drafting sheets with a defined paper format; in HighDesign Pro, the Layout objects are imported into layout sheets.

HighDesign LT only imports the Model space. Layouts are ignored.

Insert a DWG/DXF drawing (SE & Pro)

In HighDesign SE and Pro, use the Project â–¸ Insert â–¸ DWG/DXF drawing menu item to insert a DWG/DXF drawing into the current project without creating a new document. This command will add a new drafting sheet with the Model space from the specified drawing.

Extend the default Symbol Library 

It is possible to extend your Symbols library by creating new custom symbols or by adding external libraries: the “Add Symbol Library” command on the File menu lets you select a folder of HighDesign symbols and copy them to the desired folder in the User Library folder. 

Import and Extract Blocks

Use the “Import DWG/DXF Blocks” tool to convert a folder of DXF/DWG blocks or drawings to HighDesign-native symbols. Converting a symbol library is a two-step process, all performed in a single window. 

Choose File â–¸ Import â–¸ Import DWG/DXF Blocks…; the following window opens:  

  1. Conversion options - convert blocks/drawings within one folder or blocks within one DWG/DXF file. Push the Choose button 
  2. When the import process is complete, you can use the table to review and edit the imported symbols. 
  3. Preview of the symbol.
  4. Click the Convert button to save the HighDesign symbols into your current Library folder. 

The list of symbols can be reordered by dragging the rows. 

The first step consists of selecting the folder on your disk and importing all the readable drawings contained in it. Supported formats are all DXF versions from R10 to 2020 and all DWG versions from R9 to 2020. 

Push the Import button to choose the folder. If the selected folder contains readable files, the standard DXF/DWG Import dialog opens allowing you to set the scale and drawing unit options. 

With the second step you can set the options and complete the conversion to HighDesign symbols. The table displays name, scale, width, height and the preview of each symbol, letting you modify the attributes of the symbol before it is saved.

Chapter 1

Working with Images

Subsections of Working with Images

Edit Images

HighDesign lets you insert images into a project and treat them as any other vector object. The Edit Image tool (Tools menu) lets you edit and crop the image, enhance and adjust the values of brightness, contrast and saturation.

It often happens to have the need to adjust the brightness, contrast, levels of color of an image to be used for a photogrammetric projection or as a background for a drawing: HighDesign provides an integrated image editing module to quickly apply many image enhancements.

To edit an image, select it and choose Tools â–¸ Adjust Image: a window opens with all the controls to edit the selected image.

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The Adjust Image dialog shows the preview of the image on the top. The controls are grouped as transformation buttons, advanced filters buttons and the sliders for brightness, contrast and saturation. The available options are: 

  • Transform:
  • Mirror Horizontal, mirrors the image horizontally on its Y axis; 
  • Mirror Vertical, mirrors the image vertically on its X axis; 
  • Crop, trims the borders of the image leaving the selected area only;

To apply a filter, push the corresponding button or move the slider. Sharpen and blur filters can be applied multiple times. Any filter you apply, which you can preview in the thumbnail, is stored in a temporary image until you push the “Apply” button, which applies all filters in queue to the main image, while the “Cancel” button clears the filter queue. 

The “Revert Image” button, on the lower left hand corner of the window, clears all applied filters from the image. 

Insert an Image

HighDesign lets you easily add pictures to your project from several graphic formats (TIFF, JPEG, PNG, GIF, PDF). Images inserted into the project keep their resolution and are displayed at the real print size: it is also possible to handle them as any other vector entity. PNG and TIFF images are imported with their alpha channel if present. 

To insert a picture in your project, select File â–¸ Insert Image… or Project â–¸ Insert â–¸ Image, choose the image and place it at the desired position with a click. Alternatively, you can drag an image from another application, such as a web browser, drag a file directly onto the drawing canvas, or use the Paste command to paste an image from the clipboard. 

PDF documents can be inserted as high-resolution images. When you choose a PDF document with the Insert Image command, you are presented with a dialog where in you can select the page to import, if more than one, and set the resolution at which the image object will be created. 

If you use the Pro version of HighDesign, you can also enhance the image by adjusting brightness, contrast, saturation, size, sharpness, smoothing factor, etc. To set size on screen, print size, resolution and transparency of images, use the Image Settings window on the Edit menu. 

Subsections of 2D Photogrammetry

About 2D Photogrammetry

HighDesign Pro provides a powerful, single-image photogrammetry tool to obtain the actual projection of the architectonic elements captured in a picture: this function can be used for surveys of architectural façades and any planar surface and it only needs a normal camera and two measures. No specific equipment nor knowledge is required.

Photogrammetry in HighDesign offers two tool methods: 

  • Image Correction: transforms the original image by rectifying the perspective deformation 
  • Perspective Tracing: creates a corrected projection by tracing the elements in the image after the internal geometry of the image has been set up. All projections are vector-based. 

The following are some requirements and suggestions to obtain the best results: 

  • The image must include at least two horizontal and two vertical items (e.g. a door, a window, wall bricks) and, if available but not strictly required, two items with the third dimension. These requirements are the only really needed to use the photogrammetry tool in HighDesign. 
  • If possible, avoid too angled views because the projection could be deformed on the edges of the image; 
  • For the same reason as above, avoid fisheye lenses (<28 mm); 
  • The image should include at least one horizontal and one vertical dimension; however, if you do not have those dimension, you can set up the projection with any dimension and later resize the resulting drawing. 

As a rule of thumb, make sure the image includes some reference items and it has not been clipped or deformed. When the third direction (depth) is not available, the internal geometry of the view relies on the diagonals of the picture’s rectangle, hence the importance of preserving the original shape of the picture. 

Draw and View Projected Items

The workspace of the Photogrammetry tool provides a limited set of drawing tools and three Sheets are listed in the Sidebar: “Sheet 1”, the sheet created by default when you launch HighDesign; “Photogrammetry”, which stores the image and all the setup data and this is the sheet you use to trace all the objects to project; “Projection”, which is displayed as a floating window when you are on sheet “Photogrammetry”. Also, this workspace has the following characteristics: 

  • Directions are constrained to vanishing points; holding down the Shift key while drawing or tracing lines, the directions are constrained to the closer vanishing point, vertical or horizontal.
  • The Projection window displays the result of all projections, that is, all the items drawn within the Photogrammetry environment are projected in real time at the drawing scale previously set. 

The “Projection” sheet, as all drafting sheets, can be used to draw, edit, save and export the projection like a separate drawing.

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Photogrammetry Utilities

The Tools menu includes some commands that are specific to the Photogrammetry workspace and allow you to manage some important functions: 

  • Photogrammetry: used to start a new photogrammetric projection or to resume the current one.
  • Reset Photogrammetry: clears all settings (geometry and known dimensions) and brings the photogrammetry process back to the setup step; the setup window opens again and all projected items are removed. Please pay attention when using this command as it’s not undoable. 
  • Exit Photogrammetry: hides the picture from the project and pauses the Photogrammetry environment switching the workspace to Project. Items drawn to the current sheet are not deleted; select “Photogrammetry” to resume the photogrammetry. 

Start a New Photogrammetry

The setup process is very simple and it does not require any specific knowledge. 

To start a photogrammetry, select Tools ▸ Photogrammetry. HighDesign switches to the Photogrammetry workspace, with the Photogrammetry setup window, a gray background and a limited set of drawing tools: 

  • Arrow;
  • Construction objects;
  • Lines;
  • Poly-lines with straight segments;
  • Hatches;
  • Curves;
  • Viewing tools (Panning, Zoom and Measure). 

STEP 1: select the image

Push the “Choose…” button and select the image file to open. Supported file types are: TIFF, PNG, JPEG. 

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Press the “Next” button: the image is now displayed on screen and the Photogrammetry setup window changes. 

STEP 2: define the internal geometry 

Once the image is open, select the geometric type of the object in the picture. There are two possible options, based on the visible geometry and camera angle:

  • All three directions X, Y and Z are visible in the image: there are at least two horizontal lines, two vertical and two for the depth; 
  • Two directions X, Y are visible. The image shows at least two horizontal lines and two vertical, but no depth line is visible; this type includes pictures taken with the lens parallel to the surface and scans of plans.

When you choose the geometry type, a grid is added to the image on the drawing area. Adjust the grid to match the shape of the object in the picture.

Click the handles of the grid on its vertices and move them until they match the horizontal and vertical cue lines that are visible in the picture. Windows, side walls, sills, jambs of doors and windows and frames are all useful elements.

If the geometry shows two sides of the object, a second grid serves for the reconstruction of the third direction. Drag the two blue depth lines by their endpoints to match the depth cue lines on the picture. You can adjust the grid and the depth lines keeping in mind that usually lines far from the center of the picture have a deformation depending on the quality and focal length of the used lens.

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  • The focal length value is optional. 

Push “Next” button to go to the next step of setup.

STEP 3: define the known measures 

Two lines, one green vertical and one red horizontal, are displayed over the picture. These lines, drawn in the perspectival view corresponding with the internal geometry of the picture, will be utilized to enter the two known measures.

  • Drag the vertical line over the known dimension, in this case the jamb of the arched door, and stretch/shorten it by the endpoints till it matches the known object: enter the known vertical measure in the corresponding field of the setup floating window and select the drawing units.
  • Drag the horizontal line over the known object, the sill of the door, adjust it till it matches the known dimension and enter the actual measure in the corresponding field and set the drawing scale of the projection.

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STEP 4: choose projection mode 

The setup is now complete and it is possible to choose the mode of projection between image deformation and vector projection. By choosing the image deformation the image will be stretched to correct the perspective deformation and match the given proportions: the resulting image then could have to be resized to fit the known measures. 

The second option, “Trace and Project”, consists in tracing all the objects of the image you wish to survey to get the projection at the desired drawing scale.

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Subsections of Troubleshooting

Migrate Settings and Resources

This is a three step procedure that allows you to move custom settings and resources, such as layers, line types, hatches, color palettes and symbols from the previous release of HighDesign or from a custom location when you install a new release of the software or when you change the computer.

With this function custom settings and resources are immediately available for use in the new current location (user, computer or new version of Highdesign).

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The steps of the procedure are:

  • 1 - selection of the source folder (previous release of HighDesign or other location);
  • 2 - selection of the destination folder (current release of HighDesign or other location);
  • 3 - copy mode, which lists the options to skip the duplicates, to keep both duplicate items or to replace duplicate items.

The Start button applies the migration of settings and resources.

Purge Unused

A project, especially when opened from a different edition of HighDesign or when imported from a different file format, can include unnecessary resources and items, like unused line-types, hatches, symbols. 

To remove unused items from the project, choose Help â–¸ Purge.

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In the dialog window, check the kind of items and resources that you want to purge and click OK. Default resources that are loaded automatically with each new project will not be deleted, even if unused in the current project. 

This command cannot be undone.

Repair Document

Documents can occasionally contain damaged or invalid objects when they are imported from other formats, or when crashes or power failures occur while saving a project. 

This command checks the document for damaged items, such as unreferenced hatches, incomplete vertices or zero-length segments, and deletes them. It also rebuilds the internal identification handles of each object and checks the bounds of the windows. 

To repair the document, choose Help ▸ Repair Document. This command cannot be undone. 

Restore Defaults

The Restore Defaults function reverts the HighDesign setup to the pre-defined settings as it is in a brand new downloaded release.

The available options are:

  • All, which applies to all customizable settings;
  • Application Settings (all the HighDesign preferences will be restored);
  • Print Setup;
  • Shortcuts.

Subsections of Knowledge

Chapter 1

How To

Subsections of How To

How to Convert a DWG drawing to PDF Without AutoCAD

DWG® is one of the most widely used CAD data file formats one the Web. PDF if the most used file format used to exchange and present documents in a consistent way.

Discover how to open a DWG file and convert it to PDF quickly and without using AutoCAD.

Convert a DWG to PDF without AutoCAD Convert a DWG to PDF without AutoCAD _

Quick Guide to Convert a DWG drawing to PDF

Import the DWG drawing
  1. In HighDesign, choose File > Open… and select the DWG file.
  2. On the Import dialog, select the drawing units from metric, imperial and points. As a rule of thumb, choose inches if you know that the drawing was produced in North America, otherwise choose millimeters.
  3. Leave the drawing scale set to 1:1 since most DWG drawings are produced at model scale.
  4. Optionally, set the background color to dark if you know the drawing was made with that setting. Click OK.
Publish to PDF (HighDesign Pro)
  1. Once the DWG is open in HighDesign, choose File > Export > Publish to PDF.
  2. On the Sheets table, select the Model sheet and optionally any layout that you want to include.
  3. Leave the page size set to By Sheet if you want to export the drawing at its original scale. However, DWG drawings tend to be very large so it may be advisable to choose a standard page size and check the “Scale drawing to fit page” option.
  4. Optionally choose a color filter, for example black and white or monochromatic.
  5. Click OK and save the PDF file.

What is a DWG file?

DWG® (from drawing) is the CAD data file format native of Autodesk AutoCAD. It is a proprietary binary format, meaning that its internal structure is not publicly available for developers to write converters. In fact, it was not developed as an exchange file format since the DXF file format exists for that very purpose.

Despite being a closed format, thanks to the availability of third-party converters DWG files are supported by most major CAD and BIM programs, including HighDesign. Browsing around the web it is very common to find templates, drawings and block libraries in DWG format.

Compared to other vector formats, DWG has the advantage of having a small size and of being extensively supported.

What is a PDF file?

PDF (Portable Document Format) is a flexible file format created by Adobe in 1992. It is extremely versatile as it can hold text, images, annotations, forms and vector drawings, and can be used to exchange and present documents in a consistent way regardless of the software, device or platform.

Because of its portability and quality, PDF is the de-facto standard file format for sharing most kind of documents and for printing.

Given its high-quality graphics, PDF is one of the most common files that architects and design professionals have to handle in their professional life.

Chapter 1

Tips and Tricks

Subsections of Updates & Support

Activation Issues in HighDesign R7.1

We have verified an issue in HighDesign R7.1.1 (2023.1.1-2184) that prevents the activation of valid activation keys and may occasionally revert the software to a Trial. That is an unexpected behavior and does not in any way mean that the software licence was transformed into a subscription. HighDesign uses permanent licences with one year of updates included.

We apologize for any inconvenience. If you have been affected, please download the update listed below which solves the issue.

HighDesign R7.1.2, SE and Pro

HighDesign R7.1.2, LT

Subsections of Release Notes

HighDesign R8.2 Release Notes

Version: 2024.2
Status: beta testing

New features, changes & improvements

  1. New Zone tool with automatic numbering, data label, color presets, and schedule support.
  2. Added Spanish and Portuguese translations.
  3. New, faster Help & Documentation website.
  4. New Help window with integrated access to the Help & Documentation website
  5. Fixed internal error in the creation of a new style
  6. Fixed internal error in the creation of the preview of images.
  7. DXF/DWG Export: adjusted resolution of text size.
  8. DXF/DWG Export: table cells with multi-line content are now exported correctly.
  9. DXF/DWG Export: added popup notification after a successful export.
  10. Walls: improved connections between basic and composite walls.
  11. Walls: added new Join option to disable connections to walls on different layers.
  12. Doors and windows are now better integrated into their host wall.
  13. PDF Export: improved support for texts and labels on Windows.
  14. PDF Export: on Windows, fixed situation that caused viewports to be ignored.
  15. PDF Export: on Windows, fixed rendering of gradients.
  16. Layouts sheets: the frame border is now always rendered as a continuous line.
  17. Fills menu: the global “Opacity” slider is now named “Fill Opacity” to better differentiate it from color opacity.
  18. Title Block panel: the OK button is now always enabled.
  19. Fixed bug that caused the Viewport tool to stick after editing a viewport.
  20. The Project Browser now shows the scrollbar after loading a project.
  21. Font menus are now of the correct width on Windows.
  22. Fixed the width of Window and Door family menus on high-resolution displays.
  23. Windows: fixed bug that caused long menus to not show the scrollbar on high-resolution displays.
  24. Groups: improved support for grouped walls and openings.
  25. Fixed Undo/Redo Group command applied to groups with walls.
  26. Fixed Undo/Redo Ungroup.
  27. Tables: the number of rows did not update correctly.
  28. Fixed occasional internal error caused by the project previews in the Home window.

HighDesign R8.1 Release Notes

Status: Beta testing

New features, changes & improvements

  1. Fixed crash caused by object info input fields on macOS
  2. Reordering items in the Project Browser panel now works correctly when moving an item downwards.
  3. Colors Manager: the color name field now correctly accepts the changes.
  4. Windows: the print resolution is now correct.
  5. Windows: improved user interface of several windows and panels.
  6. Windows: reordering panels of the sidebar is now smoother.
  7. Windows: improved the appearance of Edit tool panels so that the panel is more visible.
  8. Windows: Publish to PDF no longer creates unusually large files.
  9. Windows: Publish to PDF no longer crashes when arcs have certain angles.
  10. Windows: exported PDFs no longer show a border around filled regions.
  11. Windows: exported PDF now set the correct pen weights.
  12. Windows: exported PDF drawings now correctly set the transparencies.
  13. Windows: paths in exported PDF now retain their original profile.
  14. Windows: switching between open documents or opening a new document now restores the correct floating panels.
  15. Windows: rotated labels and texts are now printed correctly.
  16. Windows: some arcs in exported PDF drawings and elliptical arcs are now rendered correctly.
  17. Tables: copy and paste data from and onto cells now preserves the table structure.
  18. Tables: improved formatting for CSV exports.
  19. Tables: the toolbar no longer interferes with the popup menus.
  20. Tables: improved the Font menu.
  21. Popup menus: improved appearance and performance.
  22. Walls: changing height in Object Info now correctly updates the parameter field on the settings window.
  23. Openings: the sill height field in Object Info now correctly updates the value.
  24. Improved the Edit Pattern workspace.
  25. Tape Measure paths now reset when a new measure is created.
  26. The Tape Measure icon no longer stays highlighted after using the tool.
  27. Improved editing of tape measure objects.
  28. New viewports now show the user-defined title.
  29. Switching back to the Project workspace after using another workspace, for example the Edit Symbol or the Edit Pattern workspace, now restores the previously active layer.
  30. Snaps: when the exclusive snap to grid option is active, objects can now be snapped on click even when Snap to Objects is disabled.
  31. Polyline: improved the Arc by Center method.
  32. Polyline: improved the Arc by Tangent method.
  33. Offset: improved handling of polylines with concave arcs.
  34. Photogrammetry: improved the setup with clearer steps, modernised interface and added the ability to adjust the source image.
  35. Adjust Image: improved interface and added new Barrel Distort filter.
  36. Added a new Adjust Image button to the Object Info panel.
  37. Improved Crop Image command.
  38. Snap to objects now correctly ignores objects on locked layers.
  39. Pasting objects at the center of the current view now aligns the objects to the current grid when Snap to Grid is active.
  40. Editing text in a text block no longer locks the Arrow tool.
  41. The project now stores the default text units used by the text, dimension and annotation tools.
  42. Dimensions: added a new opaque label background option.
  43. Fixed situation in which some menu items could stay disabled and not localised after activation.
  44. Fixed custom menu shortcuts that would sometimes not be applied correctly.

HighDesign R8 Release Notes

Version: 2024.1 Status: released

New features, changes & improvements

  1. Overall speed and refresh optimizations for up to 2x performance improvements.
  2. New Table tool (SE/Pro) with support for title, headers, merged rows, functions, cell and table formatting, Excel and CSV data link.
  3. Schedules (Pro): a new project item that extracts information from the project and displays the data in table form. Schedules are live as each row is linked to the element and changes on the schedule are reflected on the element and vice-versa. Data can be defined by property filters, grouped, sorted, and displayed with totals and counts.
  4. Symbols: added new visual symbol browser.
  5. Symbol settings panel, library: a single click now selects the library item, a double-click applies the item to the selection.
  6. Symbol settings panel, library: added “Apply” menu item to the current item’s pop-up menu.
  7. Symbols now retain the original layers used the symbol was created. This allows to hide symbol elements by switching on and off their layer.
  8. Symbols: the resources used during the creation of the symbol, such as line-types, hatches and layers, are now added to the project when the symbol is first inserted.
  9. Symbols: improved support for sub-symbols contained inside the main symbol.
  10. Symbols: added new “Select All Instances” command on the pop-up menu of the Symbol Settings window.
  11. Symbols: project symbols can now be deleted when the last instance has been removed from the project.
  12. Documentation: completely revised and expanded.
  13. Redesigned the layout of tool settings panels to be narrower and use less screen space.
  14. Updated most tool and command icons for better clarity.
  15. Reorganized the Project menu and moved the Group commands to the Drawing menu.
  16. Project Units Settings: added volume units.
  17. Walls and columns: added Height parameter.
  18. Walls and columns: added fields for base area, side surface and volume in Object Info.
  19. Doors and Windows: added parameters for sill height and opening height.
  20. Doors and Windows: new on-screen controls to flip the opening direction and side.
  21. Columns can now be selected with a click inside.
  22. Hidden wall openings, for example windows placed on a hidden layer, are now rendered as rough openings.
  23. Added pop-up notifications for confirmation of operations like Export Image, publish to PDF and similar.
  24. Improved support for full screen.
  25. Improved UI on Windows.
  26. HighDesign is now a one-package application for all three editions. There is no longer a separate download for HighDesign LT.
  27. Groups now retain the original layers of the member objects so that switching off a layer hides the elements as expected, even when inside a group.
  28. The main toolbox can now be scrolled when the layout is set to one column and the visible buttons do not fit the available height.
  29. Multiple linear dimensions now offer new Baseline mode in addition to Continued.
  30. DXF/DWG: improved support for hatches with spline boundaries.
  31. DXF/DWG: added support for Table entities.
  32. Print: removed checkbox for generic printer output on macOS as no longer necessary.
  33. Improved export of images with transparent background.
  34. Texts can now be edited directly with a click over the object.
  35. Project Browser: added new contextual menu.
  36. Project Browser now remembers the state of each group.
  37. General Settings: removed the option to not include symbols in the documents as it is now on by default and required.
  38. Publish to PDF no longer automatically opens the exported file and shows instead the notification that allows to reveal the file in the Finder/File Explorer.
  39. HighDesign LT: the Print options now include the ability to print construction objects and grids.
  40. Autoscrolling now behaves more consistently, is easier to activate, supports the accelerator key (Alt) and shows a visual feedback when active.
  41. Edit Group workspace: increased margin between the group items and the dashed group bounding box.
  42. Arcs: added mid-point handle for easier snapping and resizing.
  43. Find Objects panel: improved layout and added support for Cmd/Ctrl- W command to close the window.
  44. The Tool Settings window can now be moved to a different location on screen.
  45. Miscellaneous speed improvements on data loading and user interface items.
  46. Viewport: when selected, a new on-screen button allows quick access to the viewport’s settings panels.

Bug Fixes

HighDesign R7.1.1 Release Notes

Version: 2023.1.1.2184Status: Released

Fixes and Improvements

  • Arc tool: double-clicking could occasionally create incomplete circle objects.
  • Filled arcs and ellipses did not render correctly.
  • Fixed theme support on some windows and panels.
  • Mac App Store: fixed internal error in the Print command.
  • Canvas grid: major divisions are now visible at any zoom factor.
  • Canvas grid: improved refresh speed and reduced the appearance of the spinning wheel on macOS.
  • Project Window: zooming with the mouse wheel now works correctly when the window is not frontmost.
  • Windows: chequered markers were not rendered correctly.
  • The Report Internal Error window, that opens when automatic reports are disabled, did not work correctly.
  • Mac App Store: implemented error reporting.
  • Mac App Store: fixed internal error using the new Export Image window.
  • Rewritten the Delete Duplicates command.
  • Improved speed and responsiveness while using splines and hatches.
  • Simplify Spline now supports hatches and is renamed as Simplify Shape.
  • Saving a symbol through the Project > New Symbol from Selection did not work correctly.
  • Symbol settings panel: a new drop-down menu opens in place of the Edit icon.
  • Project Views panel: improved readability of the view name.
  • Help menu: added commands to restore the default settings for application, print setup and keyboard shortcuts.
  • Added safety checks to prevent occasional freezes opening damaged drawings.
  • Double-clicking a document in the Finder / File Explorer no longer opens an additional document with the default template when the Home window is disabled.
  • Mac: restored the ability to open PDF images from the Insert Image command.

HighDesign R7.1 Release Notes

Version: 2023.1.2172Status: Released

New Features and Improvements

  • Added a new Home Window as the central hub for creating and opening documents, browsing recent documents and templates. Project files now include a thumbnail for easier browsing.
  • Boolean operations for polygons: overlapped polygonal shapes (hatches, polylines, rectangles and regular polygons) can now be intersected with Union, Subtraction, Intersection and Exclusion operations.
  • New Share panel provides access to the settings to export the current drawing as an image file. The new panel includes a live preview of the exported file and controls for proportional and custom sizing, multiple units, background fill, drawing filters and the file format-specific options.
  • Added support for new image file formats: TGA, WebP and HDR.
  • Faster document loading.
  • Importing large DWG/DXF files is 3x faster.
  • DWG/DXF: a new window shows the progress of the import process and allows the user to cancel the operation.
  • DWG/DXF: added support for Wipeout entities.
  • Application Settings: new settings for the Nudge command allow to define the unit and amount of the offset.
  • Images are now displayed at 50% transparency during Move and Duplicate commands so that they do not cover the drawing objects underneath.
  • The Insert Image command now shows a thumbnail of the image being inserted.
  • Project views now store the sheet display mode (fully transparent, dimmed, opaque).
  • New “What’s New in HighDesign” window.
  • New floating buttons in Layout sheets to insert a new viewport and access the title block menu.
  • Improved editing of title block attributes.
  • Changed the Arc/Circle labels on the Object Info panel to show more descriptive texts.
  • The input field on the Multiply, Resize and Rotate panels now accepts the input automatically without requiring the user to press Enter.
  • Added standard North American paper sizes to the page size chooser.
  • Improved the visual feedback of the Rotate command.
  • Improved the refresh speed on Windows.
  • Fillet and Chamfer are now easier to use and more consistent.
  • Improved Snap to Alignments: the alignment points are now more visible and distinct from snap point markers. The middle point between two alignment points is now more visible and the snap point is acquired with more accuracy.
  • Snapping is now more accurate and consistent. Improved the UI of pre-selection points for vertices and mid-points.
  • Improved creation and editing of symbol attributes.
  • LT: added option to print the selected objects only.
  • Project Window: added icons on the titlebar for quick access to Application settings, Project Settings and Resource Manager.
  • Layers panel: added new Duplicate Layer item in the contextual menu.
  • Styles panel: double-clicking a style now applies the style to all selected objects.
  • Selection: improved the refresh speed and the alignment of the focus indicator on segments.
  • Project Settings > Information: improved responsiveness for data input and added support for the Tab key to navigate through the table rows.
  • App Settings > Templates: redesigned the panel.
  • The Resource Manager window now opens at the last used position in the current session.

Changes

Bug Fixes

  • HD-12 Exception in DXFOutlet.Export
  • HD-32 The Offset command does not work with Bezier paths
  • HD-40 Exception IOException
  • HD-52 Exception OutOfMemoryException
  • HD-67 Point highlight is scaled with the zoom factor
  • HD-105 Exception NilObjectException
  • HD-108 Exception NilObjectException
  • HD-111 Exception OutOfBoundsException in sheets
  • HD-146 Object Info: some panels could scroll above the panel header
  • HD-147 The live preview of the Mirror command does not always show the objects
  • HD-150 Images are opaque while being moved
  • HD-152 Exception in viewports,
  • HD-153 Exception in annotations.
  • HD-154 Exception in annotations.
  • HD-155 Exception in texts.
  • HD-156 Exception in detail areas.
  • HD-157 Annotations with curve and arc leader lines show their label centred on the end point
  • HD-158 DXF/DWG: hatch boundaries with arc segments are not converted correctly
  • HD-159 DWG/DXF: dimension text size is incorrect in some instances
  • HD-160 DWG/DXF: arc coordinates are not converted correctly under certain circumstances
  • HD-161 DWG/DXF: importing is slow with large files
  • HD-164 DWG/DXF: layouts are not imported correctly
  • HD-165 DWG/DXF: Chinese characters are not converted correctly in some files
  • HD-168 Exception in LXToolPropertiesPane
  • HD-171 Exception in Layers panel.
  • HD-176 Exception in Print Manager
  • HD-177 Exception in Main Window
  • HD-178 Editing an object over a trace reference does not work correctly.
  • HD-182 The Trace Reference panel in Object Info does not show the Filter menu
  • HD-185 Symbol shadows are rendered with transparency if the symbol contains transparent fills
  • HD-188 Styles: the object shadow settings need a switch to define the shadow as On/Off
  • HD-191 Zoom out with mouse wheel goes from 300% to 100%
  • HD-196 Shadow offset and blur sizes should be expressed in points, not pixels
  • Annotations with no leader line could not be inserted properly.
  • Fixed situations in which the graphic settings of a drawing, like shadows or line dash patterns, were not reset correctly.
  • The size of viewports that fit the contained drawing is now correct for rotated drawings.
  • On Windows, the Control-V shortcut overlapped New Project view.
  • Trace references: snap to the trace reference border is now enabled only with the Arrow tool.
  • Changing the layer of multiple selected objects did not work correctly when the destination layer was hidden.
  • Fixed angular units when the current angle units are set to surveyor’s units, i.e. with Azimuth or Bearings.
  • Compound walls did not show the hatches of the internal components with their intended colour.
  • Improved the behaviour of the popup-menu with tool-specific options (ex. the options menu of the Polyline tool).
  • Bezier paths did not properly support the Stretch command.
  • Viewports rotated to 270° could show incorrect drawing elements.
  • Improved the Offset command applied to polylines.
  • Resizing a group now shows the correct preview.
  • Fixed “Jiggle” special lines.
  • Fixed the maximum height of the selection menu on Object Info panel.
  • Object Info: the counter of selected items and the arrows used to navigate through the selection did not work correctly.
  • Mac: fixed an offset of texts and images when printing with the generic printer driver.
  • Fixed an offset of texts in viewports.
  • Zooming in and out with the scroll wheel did not retain the correct snap point.
  • Fixed circular and oval text shapes.
  • Fixed scaling of groups that contain scale-dependent symbols.
  • Removed cause of disappearing symbol items.
  • Hidden symbol attributes were computed in the bounds of the symbol.
  • Pressing Esc to cancel a bezier path now works consistently.
  • The Zoom to Fit command could fail when the zoomed sheet was empty.
  • Closing the Project Settings window while editing a Project Info value now saves the data being entered.
  • Made sure only symbols are listed in the Symbols table.
  • Full circles in symbols did not use the user-defined fill color.
  • Closed a memory leak generated by opening and closing documents.
  • Angular dimensions did not work when Snap to Objects was turned off.
  • Fixed a situation where certain lines could not be selected.
  • Zooming with the scroll wheel on symbols when the Snap to sub-items was active no longer changes the center of view erratically.
  • Project Window: fixed resizing of the sidebar.
  • Project Window: fixed the scrollbars.
  • Resource Manager > Colors: fixed the editing of colour HSV and CMY values.
  • Color palettes: fixed synchronization between library and project palettes.
  • Fractional units are now consistent in the display of leading zero’s.
  • Project Settings > Units: improved the sample texts for zero-suppression options.
  • Improved support for theme switching.
  • Improved support for changes to language.
  • Windows: fixed shortcuts that use the Alt button.
  • macOS: reordered the Window menu.
  • Sidebar: when collapsed, all tabs are rendered with the same background color.
  • The Toolbox on the Project window did not correctly handle smaller displays.
  • The default template setting did not work correctly after installing an update.
  • The timer in Project Information that tracks the time spent on the project did not start at 0 when opening a template.

HighDesign R7 Release Notes

Version: 2022.2.2086 Status: Released

New features, changes & improvements

  • Supports macOS 13 Ventura.
  • New Tracing Reference displays another sheet with adjustable opacity, angle, position, scale, clipping and rendering effect. Tracing references are used to place a view of another drawing on a sheet with different coordinates, scale and rotation without altering the original drawing.
  • Saved projects now open with the last active view and zoom.
  • Bezier Path:
  • New Node Type property to change a node’s geometry and tangents. Nodes can be straight (i.e. no control points) or have mirrored, asymmetric or disconnected control points.
  • improved construction and editing.
  • improved redraw speed and accuracy.

Changes

Changes

  • Project Views are now available on HighDesign SE.
  • HD-94 Changing stroke or fill colour of a selected symbol should work regardless of its “Colours by symbol” setting.
  • HD-122 Improved handling of insufficient privileges when trying to open a project.
  • HD-94 Changing stroke or fill colour of a selected symbol should work regardless of its “Colours by symbol” setting

Bug Fixes

  1. HD-136 Snap to viewports does not work correctly in all situations.
  2. HD-135 The Snaps panel and the Snaps menu are not synchronized
  3. HD-134 Viewports are slow when moved
  4. HD-133 Images could show the gradient control points when selected
  5. HD-132 Input fields do not show the correct cursor when the stepper control is visible
  6. HD-131 Occasional crashes when closing windows with popup menu
  7. HD-129 Stretch: the preview is not displayed correctly
  8. HD-128 Pattern Hatches show artefacts when the region includes islands.
  9. HD-127 Hatches: snap to islands does not work consistently
  10. HD-126 The Arrange panel does not enable the buttons when not visible
  11. HD-125 The contextual menu of poly-line and path nodes does not open consistently
  12. HD-124 Panning with the middle mouse button does not update the parameters of the current view
  13. HD-123 Linear Multiply tool does not show the correct preview
  14. HD-121 Text boxes are not resized correctly when edited by one side
  15. HD-120 Selected text boxes do not show the Move cursor when the pointer is over the centre
  16. HD-119 Editing a text box with a frame does not show the correct preview
  17. HD-118 Windows: on normal resolution displays, hairlines are not visible when antialiasing is off
  18. HD-117 Linear hatches are not scaled correctly
  19. HD-116 Fill opacity is not set consistently in exported pdf
  20. HD-115 DXF: doors were not exported to dxf/dwg
  21. HD-114 Text tool: selecting a font from the menu of the Text Style toolbar did not apply the font to new text
  22. HD-113 Object Info Paper Size panel did not show the custom paper size after it was selected
  23. HD-112 Object Info Sheet properties did not refresh correctly when collapsed
  24. HD-111 Exception OutOfBoundsException in LXSheetManager
  25. HD-110 Changing drawing scale from Object Info does not scale sheet correctly
  26. HD-109 Viewports: rotated images are not displayed correctly
  27. HD-108 Exception NilObjectException in LXUtilsLib
  28. HD-107 View position occasionally jumps to an incorrect location when zooming in and out with the scroll wheel
  29. HD-106 Undo/Redo Move does not update sheet bounds
  30. HD-105 Exception NilObjectException in LXLinearHatch
  31. HD-104 Duplicating a construction line resulted in corrupted equation of the original line
  32. HD-103 New Style by Selection does not work
  33. HD-102 Exception NilObjectException in LXProjectBrowser
  34. HD-101 Select All shows selected guides regardless of the Hide Construction Line option
  35. HD-100 Exception NilObjectException in ImageInspector
  36. HD-99 Exception NilObjectException in LXoRadialDimension
  37. HD-98 Exception OutOfBoundsException in LXDetailSheet
  38. HD-93 Images exported at 72 DPI do not apply antialiasing
  39. HD-92 Increment arrows in value fields are not always accessible
  40. HD-91 Edit Group workspace: editing commands open their option panel on top of the Edit Group palette
  41. HD-90 Edit Group workspace: deleting an object does not update the edited group
  42. HD-85 Crash deleting a line in Edit Group workspace
  43. HD-84 Text tool: Pressing the space bar when editing a text activates another tool and cancels the text input box.
  44. HD-83 DWG/DXF: imported dimension text size is 0 in some files
  45. HD-82 DWG: Annotations open out of scale
  46. HD-81 Exception NilObjectException in PSProjectInfoPane
  47. HD-80 Exception NilObjectException in LXDocument
  48. HD-79 Exception NilObjectException in Texture
  49. HD-78 The Symbol Properties window does not locate the selected symbol correctly.
  50. HD-77 Internal error in text rendering
  51. HD-76 Rectangle: scaling does not work consistently.
  52. HD-75 Groups: resizing by one handle can occasionally flip the member objects.
  53. HD-74 Object Info: the Sheet info pane does not hide its content when collapsed in the Sidebar
  54. HD-73 Styles Manager: error prevents the Delete Style button from correctly opening the Replace Style dialogue.
  55. HD-72 DWG/DXF: error reading the Header of a file.
  56. HD-71 Minor internal error occurs when quitting the app.
  57. HD-70 Offset: after exiting the command, the select/deselect functions do not work properly.
  58. HD-69 Cursor does not change to arrow when entering a floating panel
  59. HD-68 Files created with previous versions: symbols are no longer linked to files in library
  60. HD-67 Point highlight is scaled with the zoom factor
  61. HD-66 Constrain Tangent does not work on arcs
  62. HD-64 The function of the intersection is incorrect
  63. HD-61 Ticket #963430 - DropDown menu with 2 screens
  64. HD-60 Ticket #633371 - Object selection on 2nd screen
  65. HD-57 Hatches do not redraw when they are inside a group and in a special workspace
  66. HD-55 Window > Panels > Restore Defaults opens duplicate panels
  67. HD-54 When working on a 2nd screen drop down menus from the tool bar always open on the main screen. Also see photo attached.
  68. HD-52 Exception OutOfMemoryException in LXVectorObject.Read_2017
  69. HD-51 Exception NilObjectException in LXGraphics.PlotText
  70. HD-50 “Graphic Attributes” panel name overflows the available space when the sidebar is collapsed.
  71. HD-46 Exception NilObjectException in LXoRectangle.Rendering
  72. HD-45 Exception OutOfBoundsException in LXoWindow.DrawSliding
  73. HD-44 Exception NilObjectException in App.setMenuIcons
  74. HD-43 Exception NilObjectException in LXoText.UpdateGeometry
  75. HD-42 Exception NilObjectException in LXoLine.Intersecting
  76. HD-41 Exception OutOfBoundsException in LXEditMethods.MoveObjectsToLayer
  77. HD-40 Exception IOException in LXStandardsManager
  78. HD-39 Exception NilObjectException in LXoLine
  79. HD-38 Exception NilObjectException in RMLayersPane
  80. HD-37 The Constrain Aligned button does not return to a normal state after cancelling the command
  81. HD-36 The Snap panel opens with an incorrect height when the sidebar is collapsed
  82. HD-33 Resizing a window by its handles does not always update the host wall
  83. HD-32 The Offset command does not work with Bezier paths
  84. HD-31 Exception NilObjectException in Boundary
  85. HD-27 Exception OutOfBoundsException in LXoBSpline
  86. HD-22 Exception UnsupportedFormatException in LXUtilities.getRelativeFolderitem
  87. HD-21 Exception NilObjectException in LXVectorObject.LinkObject
  88. HD-20 Exception IllegalCastException in LXToolSymbols.OverlayAction
  89. HD-19 Exception NilObjectException in LXoHatch.Rendering
  90. HD-18 Exception OutOfBoundsException in LXoGroup.DrawSelected
  91. HD-17 Exception OutOfBoundsException in LXoViewport.RebuildBuffer
  92. HD-16 Exception NilObjectException in LXoHatch.PrepareHatching
  93. HD-15 Exception NilObjectException in RMLinesPane.EnableActionButtons
  94. HD-14 Exception NilObjectException in LXoArc.SettingBounds
  95. HD-13 Exception NilObjectException in LXmBezierPath.EditMoveGx
  96. HD-12 Exception NilObjectException in DXFOutlet.Export
  97. HD-11 Exception NilObjectException in LXmHatch.Edit_StretchVertexMoveGx
  98. HD-10 Exception IllegalCastException in LXStylesManager.AutoCreateTypes
  99. HD-9 Exception NilObjectException in FileExchange.DXFAvailable
  100. HD-8 Exception IllegalCastException in LXoHatch.Rendering
  101. HD-7 Exception NilObjectException in LXStylesManager.Apply
  102. HD-6 Exception NilObjectException in LXUtilities.CenterChildWindow
  103. HD-5 Exception in EditSymbolPalette
  104. HD-4 Exception in App
  105. HD-3 Exception in LXoXRefElement
  106. HD-2 Exception in LXoViewport
  107. HD-1 Exception in LXoText

Change

HighDesign R6.5 Release Notes

Status: Released

New features, changes & improvements

[icon name=“desktop” prefix=“fas”] APPLICATION

HighDesign R6.0.2 Release Notes

Changes and Improvements

  1. Speed optimizations: HighDesign 6.0.2 is ~8.5% faster than version 6.0.1.
  2. Annotations with Spline leader style now calculate automatically the best profile for the leader. As a result, it is no longer possible to define the tangents of a spline leader.

Bug Fixes

HighDesign R6.0.1 Release Notes

Bug Fixes

  1. The clipping of some objects in underlays was not accurate.
  2. Items that have been ungrouped could not be deleted.
  3. Dashed construction lines no longer scale with the current zoom.
  4. Corrected situation that could freeze the app when moving large groups with sub-groups.
  5. Layer names are now always regarded as case-sensitive.
  6. Printing a drawing when the sheet display mode is set to “Hide Others” (isolate) now works correctly.
  7. Removing a layer and changing the layer of the objects now works on all types of sheet.
  8. DXF/DWG out: improved formatting of exported multi-line texts.
  9. DXF/DWG out: the coordinates of single leader lines were incorrect under certain circumstances.
  10. DXF/DWG out: fixed the view settings when the exported drawing contains one horizontal or vertical line.
  11. DXF/DWG out: single-vertex polylines are no longer exported.
  12. Improved the appearance of the focus highlight area that is drawn when the pointer is over the Object Info or Project Browser panes.
  13. Layers pane and Layers manager panel: attempting to rename or add a layer with the same, case-sensitive name as another layer now shows an alert.
  14. Changing the UI theme in the Preferences window now works correctly.
  15. Objects near the window border no longer disappear from view when zooming in.
  16. The view of new drafting sheets now shows the origin of the axes in the lower-left corner.
  17. Clicking outside the text field on Project Browser, Layers pane and other panes now accept the changes instead of reverting to the previous text.
  18. Improved the appearance of disabled buttons in dark theme.
  19. Made sure that entered or modified resource names are treated in the correct text encoding.
  20. The File > Close command now closes the Welcome window when it is in front of other windows.
  21. Fixed clipping of dimension labels when printed in a detail area.
  22. Replaced the sounds for “Done” and “Project View” actions.
  23. Updated the background color of popup menus on macOS.
  24. Fixed output of negative values expressed in fractional inches.
  25. The Units pane in Project Settings did not show the correct fractional precision.
  26. Fixed several glitches in the Project Views pane.
  27. DXF/DWG: improved the export of multi-line texts and fixed the text encoding of the exported text values.
  28. Windows: fixed a number visual issues in the Resource Manager.

HighDesign R6 Release Notes

GENERAL

DRAFTING

DESIGN

PROJECT DOCUMENTATION

Bug Fixes

  1. Duplicating a layout no longer reverts the new layout’s paper size to project defaults.
  2. Fixed regression bug that prevented images with alpha channel (PNG, Tiff) to load properly.
  3. Images with resolution lower than 72 DPI now render correctly.
  4. Creating a new drafting sheet when the current sheet is a layout did not update the screen.
  5. Undo/Redo commands applied to the Delete Sheet command did not work correctly.
  6. Extend command now is more accurate at picking the intersection points closer to the click.
  7. Search by pen-weight now works correctly in saved projects.
  8. Lines returned by the Explode command applied to rectangles did not keep their parent rectangle’s graphic properties.
  9. Objects returned by the Trim command applied to polylines did not keep their parent polyline’s graphic properties.
  10. Dimension tick marks were not visible in viewports.
  11. Edit commands did not properly update the values on Object Info.
  12. Fixed editing of radial dimensions by the end point.
  13. Fixed commands Rotate, Rotate by Angle, Mirror and Mirror a Copy applied to images.
  14. The keyboard shortcuts for Pan and Zoom did not work when the icons where placed on the main toolbar.
  15. Fixed Viewport styles.
  16. Fixed Duplicate and Multiply commands when applied to elements with advanced settings.
  17. Transfer To Sheet and Duplicate to Sheet commands did not properly rebuild the sheet bounds.
  18. DWG/DXF Import: fixed the height of multi-line text boxes; fixed parsing of indented list items.
  19. Changing the visibility or lock status of a layer via pop-up alerts did not update the Layers panel.
  20. Editing the contents of a selected text object inside a group is now possible again.
  21. Images: added safety checks to make sure the image is loaded correctly in saved documents.
  22. The Paste Attributes command did not apply the correct attributes to composite elements like hatches.
  23. The Convert Blocks command did not work correctly with DWG files whose file name contained non-ASCII characters.
  24. PDF: texts could occasionally be clipped and wrapped to an incorrect width.
  25. Ordinate dimensions now honour the label orientation setting.
  26. Transfer to New Sheet did not create the destination sheet.
  27. Object Info could occasionally show the “lock proportions” button when it was not needed.
  28. Tool Settings Window: fixed width of the style popup so that it does not overlap with buttons.
  29. Angular dimensions now honour label orientation settings and support custom label positions.
  30. The command Project > Layers > Mask Other Layers did not work correctly.
  31. [Mac] The Welcome window no longer opens on closing a document regardless of the preference set in the General tab.
  32. Importing a DWG/DXF after exporting now sets the correct measurement units.
  33. The Styles panel now updates correctly after selecting a style from the Styles popup.
  34. When switching from a modified style to any other item in the list, the Styles panel now restores the correct colors.
  35. The Project Browser now highlights the bounds of a sheet only when the Drawing Sheet display mode is not set to Hide Others.
  36. Undo Duplicate, when applied to walls, did not remove all the walls involved in the operation.
  37. Redo New Object did not connect walls and openings correctly.
  38. New doors and windows no longer take the host wall’s pen colour and size.
  39. Walls: fixed bug that caused the wall to modify the global default stroke settings.
  40. Walls: multi-wall nodes where two walls were parallel did not build correct joints.
  41. Duplicated groups that contain walls now preserve the correct connections between the walls.
  42. Duplicate works correctly when applied to walls.
  43. Corrected the Duplicate command applied to doors and windows.
  44. Linear Multiply did not work when applied to doors and windows.
  45. Fixed Move and Duplicate commands applied to groups containing walls and openings.
  46. Corrected a visual error that occurred randomly in the selection of windows.
  47. Closed some memory leaks.
  48. Activating the Y/H input field by pushing tab was not handled as “Height”.
  49. Texts in rotated viewports now render correctly.
  50. Viewport Settings Panel: when the viewport’s base units are imperial, the scale menu did not open correctly and did not handle the scale notation mode button.
  51. Rotated text label: fixed the auto-sizing of the input box.
  52. Restored the command Fit Text Box to Contents.
  53. Optimized and improved the behavior of popup menus.
  54. Restored the ability to insert images by Paste, image drop and image file drop.
  55. Better handling of errors generated by attempts to open a document without the required privileges.
  56. Improved import of DWG/DXF Multileader entities.
  57. Improved conversion of DWG/DXF layouts.
  58. Fixed an error that would cause the Save command to fail silently when the file and the application support folder were on a NAS volume.
  59. Updating a symbol now correctly updates its instances in the project.
  60. Object Info: the Detail info panel no longer opens with the incorrect height.
  61. Fixed appearance of pop-up windows (styles browser, pop-up panels, etc.).
  62. Graphics: improved the appearance of objects when the high-resolution rendering is active.
  63. Photogrammetry: fixed Select All command; improved rendering of perspective grids and measure lines.
  64. Drawing Presentation: updated the default sizes for Instagram.
  65. Fixed situation that could cause loss of the project data.
  66. DWG/DXF: improved conversion of TABLE entities.
  67. DWG/DXF: improved parsing of styled texts.
  68. Printing isolated sheets did not work correctly.
  69. Door frames are now printed with their correct thickness.
  70. The Publish to PDF dialog now reports the layout numbers.
  71. Project symbols with no associated file in the library can now be edited.
  72. Fixed intersection points of rotated ellipses.
  73. Fixed symbol styles.
  74. Previews of graphic styles did not display correctly.
  75. DWG/DXF: improved export of VIEWPORT entities and paper space objects.
  76. Fixed visualization problem that could prevent vertical construction lines from displaying at certain zoom factors.
  77. Fixed vertical alignment of multi-line labels in annotative tools.
  78. Dimension styles were incorrectly marked as modified after reopening a file.
  79. Editing tools can now be deactivated by clicking their icon in the Editing toolbar.
  80. Windows: fixed user interface of the Print Preview window.
  81. Print Preview: changing the printer or the page setup now correctly updates the calculated scale factor when the “Fit to on page” option is active.
  82. Windows: addressed minor printing inconsistencies.
  83. Windows: fixed viewports in PDF.
  84. Windows: fixed rotated labels in PDF.
  85. Publish to PDF: when the page size is set as “By Sheet”, the size of the pdf page is calculated on the paper size of the sheet if available, rather than calculating it on the contents.
  86. Improved bound calculations of linear dimensions to include the entire label box.
  87. Viewports: fixed the scale of represented hatches.
  88. Windows PDF: fixed the size of text labels in viewports.
  89. Fixed behaviour of Edit commands like Cut, Copy, Paste, etc. when an input field is currently active.
  90. The Duplicate to Sheet command did not update group members correctly.
  91. Fixed Duplicate Sheet when the sheet includes groups with walls and openings.
  92. Hatches from exploded mirrored symbols were not placed at the correct coordinates.
  93. Fixed Detail Area / Callout styles
  94. Misc. fixes in Drawing Presentation window and image creation.
  95. Photogrammetry: the Extend and Join commands now update the projection.
  96. Photogrammetry: Select All objects by class now works properly.
  97. The Resize Drawing by Measure did not apply to all the objects on the sheet.
  98. Images of the current drawing created for export or drawing presentation now use the highest quality antialiasing.
  99. Viewports: fixed clipping of objects when the view is rotated.
  100. Fixed Explode command applied to mirrored symbols that include arcs and curves.
  101. Doors & Windows: it is now possible to insert an opening exactly on the start or end point of a wall.
  102. Drawing Presentation now checks the size of the image before starting the rendering.
  103. Opening a tool settings window in a document no longer activates another open document with the same panel active.
  104. Improved snapping to wall end points.
  105. Fixed the joints of walls when the “Allow start joint” option is disabled.
  106. Zooming with the mouse wheel now always includes 100% in either direction.
  107. Printing a detail area no longer leaves traces of objects in the paper margins area.
  108. DXF/DWG: groups with multiple levels of sub-groups are now exported correctly.
  109. The Polygonal Selection method of the Selection tool did not show the selected items after the double click.

HighDesign R5.3 Release Notes

New Features, Changes & Improvements

  1. Dimensions: added new label position Top/Left so that the label is always placed above and to the left of the line (as per ISO 129).
  2. Text: added box-sizing options: fixed size, fit height, fit content. When flexible height is active, the height of the box adjusts to the number of lines of text. This allows easier and quicker editing of text boxes. The auto-fit option has been merged into this new feature.
  3. Text Style toolbar: added pop-up menu for the insertion of special characters.
  4. Grid: added snap to grid subdivisions.
  5. Symbols: added the ability to define custom insertion points.
  6. Object Info now remembers the collapsed state of each panel.
  7. Object Info: improved layout properties and info panels.
  8. Detail sheet: viewports created from details now show the underlay on the layout.
  9. Viewports: added Snap Inside option to allow snapping to the elements contained in the viewport.
  10. Project Window: added the Insert Image icon to the main toolbar, in the Drafting group.
  11. Images: internally redesigned the way images are handled. Image objects now contain a reference to the actual image that is stored as a project resource, thus making it possible to resize and rotate the image object without loss of quality, and making all modifications completely reversible at any time.
  12. Image Inspector: removed the “Print Size” fields; added an Information button that shows information about the original image; added a “Restore Original Values” button that returns tha image object to the original dimensions and resolution.
  13. Images can now display the border if set from the general stroke colour menu.
  14. Revised the mechanism for handling auto-saved files recovered from disk. When recovery files are detected, the Welcome window includes an “Autosaved” tab with a list of the files. The files continue to be available for recovery for the duration of the current session, leaving time to the user to decide when to review them.
  15. Welcome Window: the Quit button now requires two clicks to actually exit the application. This was implemented as a safety measure.
  16. DXF/DWG now includes IMAGE entity support (import only).
  17. The Point Coordinates panel in Object Info now provides transformation options for symbols and images: when editing a vertex coordinates, you can decide whether to stretch or move the object by that vertex.
  18. The “cross” cursors are now larger on Mac.
  19. The Bezier Path tool now supports click-drag to define the tangents of the current point.
  20. Points of a Bezier paths can now be edited through a pop-up menu, which includes Add, Delete and Make Sharp/Smooth.
  21. Improved the construction and editing of spline curves.
  22. Improved accuracy of snap to grid nodes.

Fixes

  • Snap to intersections no longer interferes with object snap when snapping objects placed above hatches or filled regions.
  • When deleting a sheet, the option to move its content to another sheet did not work.
  • Dimensions: label angle “Aligned, readable” is now set correctly.
  • Doors: the Axis line option was not saved.
  • Doors: swing angles, axis line and other construction items are drawn with hairline.
  • Text: right-to-left fonts now are aligned properly.
  • Text: the text direction setting is now correctly applied to selected text objects.
  • Text: the input box now resizes correctly and the text no longer scrolls upwards out of view.
  • Resizing the window now correctly updates the heights of sidebar panels.
  • Entering in full screen mode correctly updates the heights of sidebar panels.
  • Viewports: resizing a viewport no longer shifts the contained drawing.
  • Object info now updates the Name property of the current sheet after this has been edited.
  • Fixed German and French localizations of the Window and Door option panels.
  • Print preview now correctly adjusts to the user-defined print scale.
  • Changing scale to a detail sheet no longer shifts the drawn content apart from the underlay.
  • Crop Image: improved the visibility of the crop rectangle.
  • Photogrammetry: fixed minor glitche in the Setup panel.
  • Fixed situation where input fields could retain focus when disabled, leading to random crashes.
  • Copy and Paste of groups containing walls and openings now works correctly.
  • Fixed command Paste of groups containing symbols.
  • Fixed the rendering of the insulation layer in compound walls on retina displays.
  • Fixed the Explode Underlay command for detail sheets.
  • DXF/DWG import erroneously discarted some blocks.
  • The Layout Information panel in Object Info could stop allowing edits in certain conditions.
  • The Calendar popup in the Layot Object Info panel now uses the system theme colours.
  • The Open File dialog used to load images now lists an “All Supported Types” element so that all compatible image types can be seen in directory listings (Windows only).
  • The scroll wheel did not work properly on popup menus.
  • Fixed the alignment of icons and headings when the drawing tool bar is arranged on two columns.
  • Windows: under some conditions, DWG conversion would not start properly.
  • The Copy Attributes command now sets the proper tool method.
  • Splines: improved snap precision on the curve profile; restored the Cancel Last Point widget (the “X” icon“) and the popup menu to add or delete a control point.
  • Shortcuts panel: it is now possible to remove a keyboard shortcut from a menu item by setting an empty key.
  • Publish to PDF: drafting sheets are now exported in reverse order to match the page ordering of PDF documents.
  • The guided tour on Windows no longer hides the main window interface.

HighDesign 2016 Release Notes

New Features

  • 64-bit: HighDesign is now built as a 64-bit application. This brings up to 10x speed improvements on drawing regeneration, refresh, file load and save.
  • Associative Dimensions: linear dimensions can now be linked to objects and automatically adjust their geometry and measurement value to their associated object.
  • [Pro] Compound Walls: new type to create walls made of more than one layer. Each internal component can have its own name, role, thickness, fill and hatch.
  • Edit Group command allows to modify the member items of a group in a separate workspace.
  • Direct selection for group members: hold down the Cmd key to quickly select and modify members of a group without ungrouping
  • [Pro] Sheets now have a new “Hide Others” display option to automatically isolate the current sheet
  • The View menu is now a top-level menu on the menu bar, and adds commands to control the pen weights, layer and sheet display options.
  • New Drawing display modes: By Project, By Layer, Wireframe or Wireframe monochromatic.
  • Measure Area tool.
  • Linear units: added kilometers, yards, miles and points.
  • Snap labels show the current snap status and point type.
  • Quick object info shows basic, on-screen information about the current object under the cursor.
  • Vector Info show angle and length of the current segment.
  • New preference option to increase the size of on-screen info texts.
  • Option to disable pen weight zooming.
  • Option to mask the area outside the current page.
  • New Arc/Circle widget to switch shape during the construction of arcs and circles.
  • Export As PNG now supports the alpha channel.
  • GIF import and export.
  • PDF import as high-DPI image with ability to choose the page to import.
  • Image files can be dragged directly onto the drawing area and open immediately for quick insertion.
  • [Pro] Save visible sheets command in the File menu.
  • New Copy as Image command copies an image of the selected project in the clipboard. Available formats are JPG, PNG @72 DPI, PNG @300 DPI, PNG @300 DPI with alpha channel and GIF.
  • New Distribute command to arrange the selected objects by their centers, top or bottom bounds, or spacing.
  • The Text Style toolbar now provides Cancel and Confirm buttons.
  • Preferences: added the ability to send automatic, anonymous feedback reports to Ilexsoft.
  • Object Info: Arcs can now be edited by diameter and internal angle. Doors and windows show both structural and frame widths.
  • Text font in Text and in Dimension inspectors can now be set also via the OS X Font Panel. This option allows to access more typefaces for the selected font family.
  • Added preference to enable/disable live view refresh during scrolling and panning.#### Changes and Miscellaneous ImprovementsThe following issues have been resolved in this release:DWG/DXF: improved export and import.Redesigned the Window Inspector and added option to to disable door casing.Added all engineering and architectural drawing scales.Doors and windows can now be moved and duplicates onto different walls.Improved Copy and Paste.Improved numeric input of arcs and circles.Pen weight modes have been renamed to “bitmap”, “low resolution” and “high resolution”.Improved high-resolution pen weights for better on-screen rendering.Miscellaneous fixes.## 2016.0.1## 2016.0.1- Printing: added option to disable color interpolation when printing as monochromatic.
  • Associative dimensions can now be applied to grouped objects.
  • Resolved Issues
  • The following issues have been resolved in this release:
  • Fixed error generated by text editing.
  • Print preview is now correct when printing on custom paper sizes.
  • Fixed occasional crash when opening 1.8.7 projects.
  • New documents now set the default units correctly.
  • Updated for OS X 10.11.4
  • Miscellaneous bug fixes.## 2016.0.2PDF: improved output of batt insulation lines, texts; fixed minor issues.Improved text editing.Improved compatibility with old HighDesign 1.x files.Default units for new projects are now set correctly.Texts in groups are now scaled correctly.Improved support for US units.Damaged texts are now handled correctly.Miscellaneous stability improvements and bug fixes in Offset, Dimensions, Walls, Groups, Arcs, Hatches, File I/O, DXF/DWG.

HighDesign 2015 Release Notes

2015.0

New Features, Changes and Improvements

  • Redesigned interface of the main window and many accessory windows.
  • Sidebar.
  • Radial menu.
  • Layers panel.
  • Input bar.
  • Themes.
  • Support for full screen.
  • Full support for Retina displays.
  • Multiple documents.
  • Support for multiple displays.
  • Compatibility with DXF/DWG® 2015.
  • Quick Info about type and layer of object.
  • Automatic perpendicular, parallel and intersection alignments.
  • Smarter selection via contextual menu and Object Info.
  • Tool properties Inspector window.
  • Polyline tool with linear and circular segments.
  • Regular Polygons.
  • Arc by Tangent.
  • Spline tool.
  • Smart Annotation tool.
  • Styled text paragraphs.
  • Vertical text alignment.
  • Ordinate dimensions.
  • Enhanced elevation dimensions.
  • Enhanced symbols.
  • High-resolution images can now be displayed at screen or print resolution.
  • Enhanced scrolling and panning and support for gestures.
  • New options for linear hatches.
  • Pattern hatches.
  • Ability to open holes inside a hatch.
  • Gradient fills with multiple colours and varying opacity.
  • Ability to apply the fill to all closed shapes such as circles, polygons, rectangles.
  • Templates (Pro).
  • Application Preferences and Project Properties.
  • Enhanced walls with interior/exterior side, variable widths, optional joints (Pro).
  • Enhanced windows with scale-adaptive details.
  • Redesigned Trim tool.
  • Redesigned Fillet & Chamfer.
  • Grid with subdivisions.
  • Customisable UI colours.
  • Repeat Last Action command.
  • Sheets have their own unit and origin (Pro).
  • Welcome window.
  • Guided Tour.
  • Repair Document command.
  • Drawing Manager now lets you add resources to the project.
  • Render (Pro).
  • Enhanced and easier Photogrammetry setup process (Pro).
  • Option to correct perspective of the Photogrammetry image (Pro).
  • Enhanced Adjust Image tool (Pro).
  • New Insulation line type.
  • Line type scale factor.
  • More pen weights.
  • Direct Select & Move.

HighDesign 2015.1

New Features, Changes and Improvements

Resolved Issues

Resolved Issues

  • Temporary items are cleaned when the app closes
  • PRO: Custom presets did not load correctly
  • PRO: Styles that include presets did not load correctly
  • Double-clicking a text with the Arrow tool now allows to close the box by clicking outside.
  • PRO: Improved conversion of walls, doors and windows from older documents.
  • Improved synchronisation of colours in older documents.
  • Improved DXF/DWG conversion.
  • Horizontal orientation applied to new dimension labels.
  • PDF: improved export of vertical labels.
  • PRO: Improved transfer and duplicate objects to sheet.
  • Improved parsing of fractional feet and inches input.
  • Welcome Window: Fixed special characters in Recent file names
  • Layer Manager: fixed synchronisation between selected layer and Delete button
  • Layers: improved safety when loading duplicate layers.
  • Grouped symbols did not load correctly.
  • The Snaps panel now opens in new sessions if it was previously used, regardless of the sidebar status.
  • Improved the option “Snap to Grid disables other snaps”.
  • Default text units for text and dimension objects are now properly stored in the preferences.
  • Hatch tool: Fit To Arc editing now works correctly.
  • Rectangles, Groups can now resized proportionally.
  • Texts, Annotations: fixed scale operations.
  • Miscellaneous fixes

HighDesign 2015.2

New Features, Changes and Improvements