Cloning drawings

Viewing sample images of drawing templates
You can create sample images of the drawing templates that you have in your template
library (model folder). You can later browse through the sample images easily through the
Clone Drawings dialog box, and quickly find the drawing template you are looking for. The
Clone Drawings dialog box is displayed when you are cloning through the Drawing List
using drawing templates in the template library.
To view preview images that you have created for drawing templates:
1. Open the Drawing List.
2. Open the Clone Drawing dialog box by clicking Clone in the Drawing List.
3. Select Other model and browse for the template library.
4. Click the Select template button to open the list of drawings that the selected model
has. On the list, there is a small icon in the Preview column if the drawing has a preview
image.
5. Double-click the drawing to open the sample image.
See also Cloning using drawing templates in template library on page 101
2.7 Cloning drawings
You should consider cloning drawings when:
•
There are several similar parts, assemblies, or cast units in the model.
•
You want to ease editing work when there are several similar parts that have different
position numbers. You may have separate drawings of these similar parts.
•
The drawings need a lot of manual editing
If cloning does not produce a satisfactory result, you need to modify the cloned drawing
manually. For example, you can create a drawing for one truss, modify the drawing, and then
clone it for similar trusses. Sometimes you need to modify the cloned drawings where the
trusses differ.
The cloned drawing may contain more or less parts than the original drawing. Part properties,
marks, associative notes and related text objects are cloned from a similar part in the original
drawing.
You can clone drawings using the cloning templates added in the Master Drawing Catalog
in the existing model and in other models, using a drawing in the Drawing List, and using
the cloning templates in the template library.
See also Creating drawings using cloning templates in Master Drawing Catalog on page 92
Cloning by using cloning templates located in other models on page 93
Creating drawings
91
Cloning drawings
Cloning from the Drawing List on page 94
View-specific dimension cloning on page 97
Cloning using drawing templates in template library on page 101
Cloned objects on page 98
Checking and modifying cloned drawings on page 98
Refreshing drawing associativity on page 99
Creating drawings on page 25
Creating drawings using cloning templates in Master Drawing Catalog
In the Master Drawing Catalog, you can create single-part, assembly and cast unit drawings
using cloning templates in the Master Drawing Catalog. You can add new cloning templates
from the Drawing List. Note that only the cloning templates located in the folder that is set
for the advanced option XS_CLONING_TEMPLATE_DIRECTORY are displayed in the
Master Drawing Catalog.
Limitations:
•
You cannot clone general arrangement drawings through the Master Drawing Catalog.
You can clone general arrangement drawings only by using the Clone command in the
Drawing List dialog box.
•
You cannot clone multidrawings.
•
The drawing properties of cloning templates cannot be modified through the Master
Drawing Catalog.
To create drawings using a cloning template:
1. In the model, click Drawings & Reports --> Create Drawings .
2. Double-click the cloning template that you want to use.
3. Go to the Drawing creation tab and specify how dimensions and marks are cloned.
You can select to ignore the dimensions and marks, clone them, or recreate them.
The Marks option controls revision marks and all marks for model objects.
Selecting Create in the Dimensions and Other marks box is useful if cloning
the dimensions or other marks does not produce satisfactory results. Using this
option does not create any new views.
4. On the same tab, select which object types you want to clone.
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Cloning drawings
5. If you want to create a drawing only for certain parts, select the parts from the model.
You can also use an appropriate selection filter and select the whole model. Activate only
the Select parts selection switch when you select objects, otherwise the selection may
take a long time.
6. Click Create drawings (Alt + C) or Create drawings for all parts (Alt + A).
7. Number the model if prompted to do so.
Tekla Structures creates the drawings and adds them in the Drawing List. In the Drawing
List, cloned drawings are marked with text Cloned in the Changes column.
8. Check the cloned drawing and modify it, if necessary.
If you have cloning templates that you have created using an older Tekla Structures
version and want to utilize the better associativity of a newer Tekla Structures version,
refresh the drawing associativity by using the Refresh Associativity command, which you
can add to the User menu in the Customize dialog box ( Tools --> Customize ).
See also Cloning drawings on page 91
Cloned objects on page 98
Checking and modifying cloned drawings on page 98
Refreshing drawing associativity on page 99
Cloning templates on page 54
Adding a cloning template on page 80
XS_CLONING_TEMPLATE_DIRECTORY
XS_INTELLIGENT_CLONING_ADD_DIMENSIONS
Cloning by using cloning templates located in other models
You can show cloning templates located in other models in the Master Drawing Catalog
and create drawings using them.
Limitations: You can use only cloning templates from other models, not other types of master
drawings, such as saved settings or rule sets.
To use cloning templates from other models:
1. In the Master Drawing Catalog, click
Drawings dialog box.
to open the Models Containing Master
2. Click Add model and browse to the desired model.
3. Click OK.
4. Select the cloning template from the Master Drawing Catalog and create a drawing
using the selected template.
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Cloning drawings
When you have similar parts in several projects, you can maintain a set of cloning models
and then take the cloning templates in the cloning models in use when necessary.
See also Master Drawing Catalog on page 51
Creating drawings using cloning templates in Master Drawing Catalog on page 92
Cloning from the Drawing List
In addition to cloning drawings using cloning templates in Master Drawing Catalog, you can
clone single-part, cast unit, assembly and general arrangement drawings from the Drawing
List.
•
When you clone drawings of assemblies or cast units, they must have the
same type of main part as the assembly or cast unit from which the original
drawing was created. For example, the upper chords of the original and the
cloned truss could be main parts.
•
Section and detail views are not cloned in general arrangement drawings, and
only one view is cloned.
Before cloning, finalize, save, and close the drawing you want to use as a cloning template.
To clone a drawing from the Drawing List:
1. In the model, select what to include in the drawing:
•
If you are cloning a single-part drawings, cast unit drawing or assembly drawing,
select parts, assemblies or cast units.
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Cloning drawings
•
If you are cloning a general arrangement drawing, select a model view. To do this,
click the desired model view so that the view gets a red frame around it.
2. Click Drawings & Reports > Drawing List.
3. In the Drawing List, select the drawing that you want to use as a cloning template.
4. Click Clone.
5. In the Clone Drawing dialog box, select the drawing object types you want to clone into
the new drawing, and the actions for each object type.
•
For Dimensions and Other marks (all marks for model objects), select whether you
want to Clone them, recreate them automatically when you clone a drawing (Create)
or Ignore them in cloning.
Selecting Create in the Dimensions and Other marks box is useful if cloning the
dimensions or other marks does not produce satisfactory results. Using this option
does not create any new views.
•
For other objects, select to Clone or Ignore them.
6. Click Clone selected.
Tekla Structures clones the drawing. In the Drawing List, cloned drawings are marked with
text Cloned in the Changes column.
See also Cloning drawings on page 91
Example: Cloning a general arrangement drawing on page 96
Creating drawings using cloning templates in Master Drawing Catalog on page 92
Creating drawings
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Cloning drawings
Example: Cloning a general arrangement drawing
In this example, we first created a general arrangement drawing of the first floor of a
building, then edited the drawing and the cloned the general arrangement drawing of the
second floor.
The first floor and second floor have some differences:
We edited the general arrangement drawing of the first floor slightly.
We selected the model view that represents the second floor and then cloned the drawing
using the general arrangement drawing of the first floor as a template.
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Cloning drawings
In the cloned drawing:
•
The drawing view plane has been moved to match the model view PLAN 2nd Floor plane.
•
If there are parts in matching places, the marks have been cloned to the new location
and the content has been updated.
•
Dimensions are cloned.
•
All model object marks and notes are cloned.
See also Cloning from the Drawing List on page 94
View-specific dimension cloning
The dimension cloning options in the Clone Drawing dialog box affect all views, whereas
with Dimension creation method in this view in the View Properties dialog box you can set
the dimension creation method for the selected view only. With this feature you can create
automatic dimensions in the front view and clone the dimensions in section and end view,
for example.
To clone dimensions in the selected view:
1. Double-click the drawing view frame to open the View Properties dialog box.
2. Select Dimension creation method in this view --> Clone on the Attributes 2 tab.
3. Click Modify.
4. Save and close the drawing.
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Cloning drawings
5. Open the Drawing List, select the drawing and click Clone.
6. In the Clone Drawing dialog box, select the objects to be cloned and the dimension
cloning option (Ignore, Clone, Create).
•
If you select Dimension > Ignore, the dimensions will be cloned only for those views
that have Dimension creation method in this view set to Clone.
•
If you select Dimension > Clone, the dimensions will be cloned for all views.
•
If you select Dimension > Create, the dimensions will be created for all views except
for those that have Dimension creation method in this view set to Do not create.
7. Click Clone selected.
See also Cloning drawings on page 91
Cloned objects
The following objects can be cloned:
•
Dimensions
•
Marks for welds added in the drawing
•
Marks for welds added in the model
•
Level marks
•
Revision marks
•
Annotation objects
•
All user-defined attributes of a drawing
•
Texts
•
Symbols
•
Graphical drawing objects (shapes)
•
Text files
•
DWG/DXF files
•
Hyperlinks
•
Manually created section and detail views
•
When you clone an assembly drawing that includes single-part drawings, Tekla
Structures includes the single-part drawings in the cloned assembly drawing by default.
See also Cloning drawings on page 91
Checking and modifying cloned drawings
Always check the cloned drawing to make sure that the drawing contents meet your needs.
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Cloning drawings
You should go through the cloned drawings and check that everything is correct. Below is a
checklist for this purpose.
Object
Marks
See also
Check and modify
•
In general, mark contents are correct in cloned drawings, but
sometimes you may need to modify the location of the marks.
•
Tekla Structures clones only marks that can be mapped to the
original drawing. To create marks to a cloned drawing also for
parts that could not be mapped to the template drawing, set the
advanced option
XS_CREATE_MISSING_MARKS_IN_INTELLIGENT_CLON
ING to TRUE through Tools > Options > Advanced Options>
Marking: General.
Views
•
Ensure that the view sizes and view orientation are correct, and
that the views are placed correctly in the cloned drawing. The size
of the views is updated according to the parts included in the
views.
Dimensions
•
If the cloned drawing contains less parts than the original
drawing, the dimensions to the missing parts are automatically
removed.
•
If the cloned drawing contains more parts than the original
drawing, Tekla Structures dimensions the additional parts using
automatic dimensioning, if you have set the advanced option
XS_INTELLIGENT_CLONING_ADD_DIMENSIONS to TRUE.
Because Tekla Structures uses automatic dimensioning for creating
dimensions for new parts, you may have to check and correct the
created dimensions.
•
Add missing dimensions and remove the incorrect ones.
Cloning drawings on page 91
Cloned objects on page 98
Refreshing drawing associativity
Often improvements in cloning and associativity require that the associative rules have to be
recreated. This can be done by using the Refresh Associativity command. When you use this
command, you do not need to recreate the drawing.
For example, this command is very useful if you have a cloning template you have created
using an older Tekla Structures version and want to utilize the better associativity of a newer
Tekla Structures version.
Creating drawings
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Cloning drawings
Refresh Associativity is available in the Customize dialog box, and you may want to add it
in one of the toolbars or in the User menu.
To add the command in the User menu and refresh the associativity:
1. Click Tools --> Customize... .
2. Enter a part of the command name in the Filter box, for example, refr.
The command is displayed in the list of commands.
3. Open the Menu tab.
4. Double-click the Refresh Associativity command to add it in the User menu.
5. If you have not added the User menu on the menu bar before, restart Tekla Structures to
activate the menu. The menu name is always User.
6. Open a cloning template the associativity of which you want to refresh from the
Drawing List.
7. Click User --> Refresh Associativity .
8. Save the cloning template.
See also Drawing associativity on page 20
Cloning drawings on page 91
Copying a drawing to a new sheet
You can copy a drawing to a new sheet. This is useful, for example, if you want to have the
same layout and views as in the original drawing, but highlight something else on the new
drawing sheet.
To copy a drawing to a new sheet:
1. In the Drawing List, select the drawing that you want to use as the original for copying.
2. Right-click and select Create Drawings --> Copy to new sheet .
Tekla Structures copies the original drawing to a new sheet and gives the copied drawing
a new sheet number.
3. Open the new drawing sheet, make the necessary changes and save it.
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Cloning drawings
If you use the Recreate (Shift+R) command for the copied drawing, Tekla Structures asks
if you want to copy the drawing again from the original drawing. If you answer yes, the
previously copied drawing sheet will be replaced by a new copy of the previously selected
original drawing.
See also Creating multiple drawing sheets of the same part on page 74
Cloning using drawing templates in template library
This is a more manual way of cloning drawings: you can create drawings using drawing
templates located in the template library. The template library is a model folder that contains
the drawings you want to use as drawing templates. You can select a drawing in the current
model folder or in another model folder.
To clone using a drawing template:
1. Create a drawing you want to use as a drawing template.
2. Save the model.
3. In the model, select the objects to be included in the new drawing.
4. To open the Clone Drawing dialog box, click Clone in the drawing list dialog box.
5. Use the Objects and actions in cloning options to define the drawing objects to be
cloned and the actions for each cloned object.
6. Select the current model or click Other model.
You can use Browse to browse to another model folder containing the drawing templates
that you want.
7. Click Select template.
8. In the Drawing Templates dialog box, select a drawing template indicated by an icon on
the left.
9. Leave the list open and clone the drawing by clicking Clone selected.
Tekla Structures clones the drawing. In the Drawing List, cloned drawings are marked with
text Cloned in the Changes column.
You can specify that a certain model folder is always used as a template library
using the advanced option XS_DRAWING_TEMPLATES_LIBRARY.
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Cloning drawings
See also XS_DRAWING_TEMPLATES_LIBRARY
Cloning drawings on page 91
Creating drawings
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Cloning drawings