In MacDraft 7 you will no longer need to have multiple palettes open and access various menus to edit the properties of your selected objects, such as size, position, attributes and more. The new properties panel is going to make it much faster and easier to edit and update the objects in your layouts, giving you one place to go to for all your editing needs. This new editing system, will save you precious time when working with the objects in your drawing. The Properties panel will display default options when nothing is selected and display the options only attributed to the current selection.
Now that MacDraft 7 is a single screen application, with no floating palettes, we had to come up with a way to display the properties for your selections without using too much screen space. We decided to do this with a more traditional method of creating a panel on the right, which you can use to edit all the options for your selections. This gives you a single place for editing, which will speed things up and make it easier for you to make the changes you need. The Properties panel can be accessed via the right hand panel.
All of the following options will display either when their respective objects are selected or when you need to set the defaults for them. Each block or section in the properties panel is dependent on the selection you make in your document. This gives you the speed and power you need to quickly edit your selections without having to go looking for the settings.
The Name section at the top of the Properties panel will only display when an object is selected. This field is linked to the object information that can be assigned to the different parts of the drawing. The Name field will also contain the name used when adding the respective item to a Library. In addition the text used in the Name field will affect and contribute to the Report results you may get and when using the smart Find and Replace options.
This section of the Properties panel is where you can choose the default colors, patterns and gradients you wish to use for your fills, strokes and parallel line fills. You can use the controls on the right of each attribute to change the opacity. This is a great feature, in that you can set the opacity of each attribute independently. When an object is selected only the corresponding attributes will display in the Properties panel, for example, if a shape is selected the fill and stroke attributes display; when a parallel line is selected all three of the attributes display; and when a line is selected the stoke attribute displays. This smart properties system, means you can quickly make the changes you need to.
When working with shapes and lines, you may wish to change the line thickness or line style. The Stroke and Line options section of the properties panel allows you to quickly choose how thick you want your lines to be and what style you wish to use. If you are using the professional version of MacDraft you’ll be able to edit the line styles to create your own unique style. So if you’re looking for a dashed line, or center line, then here is where you can choose it.
If you’re creating your own lead lines, drawing call-outs or simply styling the end of your lines, then the End Marks section is what you need. Here you can add various different end mark styles you want to the start and end of your lines independently. If you’re looking to add an arrow to one end and a circle to the other, then this section allows you to do it quickly. This End Marks section is not to be used with dimensions as they have their own options.
Dimensions are the corner stone of any CAD application and MacDraft has a smart dimension system that works with the units and scales set for your documents. The Dimension section of the Properties panel allows you to change all of the options for your selected dimensions. You can choose the start and end marks, decide if you want to use single, chained or baseline dimensions and for a more professional approach you can format your dimensions with various options for tolerances, text display, lead lines, dimension round off and more.
When a text object is selected in MacDraft the Text Options section will display in the Properties panel. Here you can choose the font, style, size, alignment, spacing and whether you want to highlight when text objects are clipped. This section gives you a much faster way of working with you text selections than ever before. Combining the powerful text system in MacDraft with the system fonts and options, editing your text elements has never been easier. When no objects are selected you can set the default text options in this section, so that every text element you draw in the document in the future takes on those settings.
MacDraft 7 gives you the ability to quickly choose how your borders and lines are drawn. Choose from the Square, Beveled or Round pen styles to define how the corners and end of your lines are drawn and choose the position of your borders when drawing your shapes.
One of the biggest advantages of the Properties panel is the ability to resize your options in one single place. The Resize Options included in the Properties panel are dependent on your selection and allows you to change size, position and particular points of your objects, all of which can be done absolute to the drawing or relative to the object itself. In addition the Resize Options are a smart system that only displays the options that attribute to the selection. For example standard objects have a width and height, arcs include a radius, start and end points and images have a host of dpi, pixel and physical size options.
In MacDraft Professional 7 you can use the Properties panel to edit the object info for your selections. Object Info is important when working with complex drawings that require information to be attached to each of the objects drawn. You’ll also find that you can edit the category names, using the Edit Field Names... button. In addition the information entered in the Object Info section will directly contribute to the Reports you create and the use of the smart Find and Replace feature for searching and replacing objects.
All of the options available in the Properties panel are dependent on the selection you have made in your document. Every object has its own unique settings, may it be for resizing, attributes or even the end marks. There are so many different types of objects included in MacDraft, and it was important that we gave you all of the settings and options you needed in one single place. A few examples can be seen in the images below.
SHAPES
TEXT
LINES
IMAGES
When nothing is selected in MacDraft the Properties panel will display the options that can be set as defaults for drawing your shapes. This can be handy when you know what options you want for all the objects and elements you are drawing, such as colors, line thickness, border position etc. Defaults will be stored with the document you are working on and are unique to the documents, meaning you can set defaults for different documents.
