How to create customized Drawing Frames

For any reason of your own, you might want to create customized Drawing Frames. For example, you might need to add a zone identification mark system to the marginal area (these zones are numbered horizontally and lettered vertically), or just to change the positioning point of the Title Block. The think3 application enables you create your own customized frames as described further on in this document.

Drawing Frames are .e2 files. The standard Drawing Frames delivered with the basic application installation are stored in the drawing files located in the "files\drwFrames" subfolder of your installation. Customized Drawing Frames are stored in the drwFrames subfolder of your user folder.

To create a customized Drawing Frame, proceed as follows.

1 Start the think3 application and get ready to create your Drawing Frame. You are enable to:
  • Start a new drawing in order to start from scratch
  • Open one of the application default Drawing Frames in order to start from a sample
  • Open an existing customized Drawing Frame if you need to make a small change to it or if you need to create a new Drawing Frame similar to an existing one
2 Draw or edit the geometry of the Drawing Frame. Make sure that the lower left corner of the bounding box is in the Work Plane Origin.
3 Save the Drawing Frame with the Save as Drawing Frame command. When you do, pay attention to the following:
  • The Drawing Frame description is the information displayed by the think3 application when you actually insert the Drawing Frame and it will help you select the one you need. Keep it short and clear. Avoid indicating size and orientation which are already used by the program to filter the Drawing Frames names.
  • When you select the Title Block anchor point, snap to one of the four corners of the Drawing Frame. Although you are enabled to snap any point in the frame, the results may be unpredictable.
  • The program inserts a point at the Title Block anchor point. It will automatically remove this point when you actually insert the Title Block.
The program will display the new Drawing Frame description in the relevant drop-down list of the Drawing Frame and Title Block command, provided that you have selected the corresponding size and orientation.
4 In order to verify your work, start a new drawing and use the Drawing Frame and Title Block command to insert the new Drawing Frame.
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