Isogen Lesson

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Module Three Isogen® - Implementation Implementation and Customization

In this lesson you will learn how to: • • • • • • •

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Set up an Isogen Main Directory Set up Isogen Project Folders Select example Borders for your isometrics Test and run Isogen for the first time on your system Set up your own border, or a client’s border Automate text updating in your own title block Adjust the drawing settings o Dimension settings o North Arrow orientation o Changing the North Arrow symbol o Continuation notes o User fonts o Part number enclosures o Rolled offset representation o Force drawing into one isometric Include Detail sketches Illustrate Restraints (supports, hangers, etc.) Modify the Bill of Materials Show Welding information Include Valve Operators, Dummy Legs, Field Welds

Note: There are many HELP Files that ship with CADWorx Plant Pro’s Isogen. Look in the CADWorx Plant 2008\Isogen folder. You’ll see several sub folders folders . In these sub folders will be a collection of .pdf help files. You can use these as needed for further detailed information.

Written by Anthony W. Horn © 2011 CAD Training Technologies, LLC Houston, TX USA

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You will cover many aspects of working with the Isogen module in CADWorx

Many HELP Files are available

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Setting up an Isogen Main Directory Folder on your system •

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Click the Start button (lower left of your screen). Click Programs Click CADWorx Plant 2009 Isogen Click Project Manager Click Project Manager

Starting Isogen’s Project Manager

This starts the Isogen Project Manager Program. You should see the following dialog box.

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Setting the main folder for all of your Isogen projects and isometric drawings. 6.

Click the Create New Isometric Directory button (the first button on the left, gray in color).


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Project Manager controls all the Isogen settings

Now you’ll set the main folder for all of your Isogen project drawings

You can set the main folder on the local drive, or on the network

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Setting up an Isogen Main Directory Folder on your system •

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Click the Start button (lower left of your screen). Click Programs Click CADWorx Plant 2009 Isogen Click Project Manager Click Project Manager

Starting Isogen’s Project Manager

This starts the Isogen Project Manager Program. You should see the following dialog box.

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Setting the main folder for all of your Isogen projects and isometric drawings. 6.

Click the Create New Isometric Directory button (the first button on the left, gray in color).


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Project Manager controls all the Isogen settings

Now you’ll set the main folder for all of your Isogen project drawings

You can set the main folder on the local drive, or on the network

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7. 8.

Click next to the C: (in the name box), and Type: Isogen_Projects (filling out the dialog box as shown.) •

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Specifying the main Isometric Directory for all of your Isogen Projects and drawings

You can create the main directory on a local drive or on a network drive

Note: If you want to create your folder on a network , click the Network button, and browse where you want your folder created. Then type Isogen_Projects (as shown in the previous step). Your folder will then be created at a network location.

9. 10. 11.

Click the OK button. Click Yes (when asked in the next dialog box). You will see the system create the Isometric Directory (this is the main level directory).

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Under the main directory (called the Isometric Directory), you can create multiple project directories

Creating a Project Directory

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Click the Create New Project tool button (the second button over, yellow in color).


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These Project Directories are your various projects, or jobs. They can contain client borders or settings specific to each particular project

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13.

Fill out the New Project dialog box as shown. Name it Project_1

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This is where you select the Borders you want to use, and tell the system to output the isos as DWG files (recommended)

Highlight Metric_Inch_A1, A2, and A3 (as shown). Set the Output Format to AutoCAD DWG. 14.

Click the OK button after filling out the dialog box as shown.

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The system will create sub-folders for each of the drawing borders you selected, as shown next.


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If you’re working on a network, and you want to “deploy” the setup to various workstations, you would go through the previous steps as shown, and then follow the steps shown next.

To deploy the project information to the various workstations, you would go to each workstation and start Project Manager, then a.

Click the Create New Isometric Directory button (as shown previously).

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Click the Network Button on the first dialog Select the Isometric (main level) directory by browsing across the network to it. Select the Isometric Directory you’ve created (as shown previously), and the Project Directory’s information will be shown. If you have multiple projects, that information will all come across.

c.

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This is where you select the Borders you want to use, and tell the system to output the isos as DWG files (recommended)

If you’re doing a network installation, you can “deploy” the project information to the various workstations

Click the folder named Metric_Inch_A2. You’ll see the following dialog box appear.


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18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25.

Click the Apply button (this sets the “Metric_Inch_A2” border as the default). Click OK (for Settings Saved). Minimize the Project Manager dialog box, and Start CADWorx Plant Professional. Start a new drawing (use a template). Set the Main Size to 6”. Set the Spec to 150. Create a simple drawing with the lengths as shown.

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This dialog box is where you access various settings for the Metric_Inch_A2 border

Notice the tabs along the top. The Drawing Control and External Data tab will be useful later

Clicking the “Apply” button sets the “Metric_Inch_A2” border as the default border

Creating a simple CADWorx drawing for testing

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Testing and Running Isogen

26. 27. 28. 29.

Click Plant Click Accessory Click Isogen Click Isogen Out

The system will bring up the following dialog box, showing your Isometric Directory, the Project Directory, and the Border it will use for the Iso. This screen may vary, depending upon your system setup.

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Sending a drawing out to Isogen for testing

On this dialog box you’ll click OK for the test, but you can also select different borders here, and also different projects (if available)

30. Click OK.


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31. 32. 33. 34.

Press (to select components). Window the objects in the drawing, and Press . The system will show the following dialog box.

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Sending a drawing out to Isogen for testing

Note: If you got an error message, or a “disconnect” message, you probably did not draw the pipes and elbows touching each other. See the first video lesson in the Piping Module on how to connect components correctly.

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Click the Open Plot Files button to view the Isogen iso created by the system.

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Viewing the generated Isogen isometric

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Testing on an A3 Sized Border

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Close the Iso (click the X in the upper right corner of the drawing) and say “No”, to not save the iso. Click Plant Click Accessory Click Isogen Out Click the down arrow to choose a Style, and select the A3 Border.

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Click OK Press (to select components). Window the components in the drawing and press . Click Open Plot Files to view the generated isometric, drawn on the A3 sized border. Follow the video to add components to the line and run it on different borders.


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Sending a drawing out to an A3 sized border for testing

Viewing the generated A3 sized isometric

In a later section you’ll see how to bring in your own border, or a client’s border

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Restarting the Project Manager program

Clicking on the Drawing Control tab

After viewing, close the drawing. Options that change the drawings appearance You can look at the options for any size border. In this next example you’ll view the settings in an A2 border. All borders (Imperial, Metric, and Mixed Metric) have the same switches that can be set to make an isometric look the way you want.

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Reopen Project Manager. If it is available at the bottom of your screen, click on it to bring it up for viewing. If it has been closed, click Start, Programs, CADWorx Plant 2009 Isogen, Project Manager, Project Manager. Click on the Metric_Inch_A2 style (your screen may show a list or projects different than the illustration, depending upon your system setup). Click on the tab labeled Drawing Control.


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This example uses an A2 border. You can set the switches to change Isogen settings on any of the borders available

This will open up the drawing options that you can change to make the isometric look the way you want

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Click on the Options File and Click Edit. This will bring up the Options Editor for the Drawing Options. •

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The margins at the top right area of the dialog box can be changed to modify the position of the plotted iso on the page. This can be useful later when you see how to bring in your own border.

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Notice the figure at the lower right corner of the dialog box. •

This will take you to the next page of settings. Each tab can have multiple pages of settings. 50. 51.

Restarting the Project Manager program

Clicking on the Drawing Control tab

This will open up the drawing options that you can change to make the isometric look the way you want

You can see there is more than one page for each of the tabs On page 2 there are switches to change the appearance of rolled offsets on the isometrics

You can change any or all of the following settings. This next section is to show you some of the many options that can be set in Isogen to change the appearance of a drawing.


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Click on the Dimensioning tab at the top of the screen. 52.

Click on the down arrow the lists the choices for dimensioning gaskets (under area with the 9 shown – this is “switch 9”.) See the figure below.

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53. 54. 55. 56. 56.

Set it to have the Gaskets Included in Component Dimensions. Click on the area in the lower right of the dialog box to go to page 2. Notice on this page you can tell the system you want to turn off dimensions across small branches. On page three you can instruct the system to add overall dimensions. Click on the Iso Style tab.


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Changing how the dimensions across gaskets are shown

On page 2 you can suppress the dimensions across small branches

On page 3 you can turn on overall dimensions

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There are several switches you could set here to change how your isometrics look.

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This area lets you change the way Part Numbers look, which way the North Arrow points, and how a Spec Break will look

On this dialog box you could change how the • • •

Part Numbers look Which direction the North Arrow points How a Spec Break will look

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Click on the next page symbol at the lower right corner of the dialog box.

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Notice on this second page you can change how the rolled offsets will be shown (a box, with or without hatching, etc.).

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Click on the tab labeled Iso Content.


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On page 2 you can change how a Rolled Offset looks

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60. 61.

The first page has options for changing how the coordinates on the isometrics are labeled. Click on the area at the bottom to go to page 2.

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62. 63. 64.

Page 2 has switches to turn on and modify how the system can label spool pieces in the isometric. There’s also a switch to modify how the instruments are depicted. There’s a switch to turn on Valve Tags. Isogen will also label the text that is put into the TAG field on a Nozzle drawn in the Equipment Module. Also it will label any text put in the TAG field on any Long Weld Neck Flange that is set as “Existing” in a model.

65. 66.

This area lets you enable Spool callouts You can modify how the Instruments are shown You can turn on Valve Tab labeling

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Isogen will label text in the TAG field on Nozzles or “existing” Long Weld Neck Flanges

Page 3 has a switch to have Insulation and Tracing appear on the isometric. There is also a switch to turn on Flow Direction Arrows over check valves on this page.


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67. 68. 69. 70.

Click on the Material List tab (at the top of the dialog box). In the lower left section of Page 1 is a place to set up the User Fonts. This is disabled by default. To set it – Click File (at the very top of the screen) and Click Exit. Save any changes, if you want to keep them. This returns you back to the main screen for Project Manager.

71. 72. 73. 74. 75.

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Enabling User Fonts

Click the tab named External Data. Click in the blank space next to Font Information File and Click the Browse button. Click on the file named FONTSTD.FIF. Click the button labeled Open.

This will enable the User Fonts. You will need to set them in TWO places (description follows – also see video as needed). 76. 77. 78.

Click the tab labeled Drawing Control. Click (to highlight) in the space next to Options File. Click the Edit button.


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79. 80. 81.

Click on the Iso Style tab (at the top). In the top left area is a place to turn on and select the User Fonts. Click in the check box, and select Ariel Unicode for the font.

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82. 83.

Click on the Material List tab (at the top). At the bottom of this page is a section to turn on User Fonts. Click on the check box, and select Ariel Unicode.

Setting User Fonts for dimensions and labels

Setting User Fonts for the Bill of Materials

On this page is also a section to set up the Material List type. You will use the standard Type 2 Material List at this time. When you get to the section on the Material List later in this lesson, the different types will be discussed. 84. 85.

Page 2 (on the Material List tab) has a place in the upper left area of the page to turn on/off the cut piece list. In the upper right section is an area to set cutting allowances for Field Welds. If you wanted to (you don’t have to do so now) you could have the iso include a Field Weld symbol by placing a Weld Gap component in the piping model. Once placed, you could double click the Weld Gap component to Component Edit it, and set its type to MISCL.

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Suppressing the cutting list

Adding a cutting allowance for Field Fit Welds

This will produce a Field Fit Weld in the generated isometric.


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The Welding tab has settings for how Welds are displayed on the iso. See the section on Welding Information in a later part of this lesson. 86. 87. 88.

At the top of the dialog box, click File and click Save. Then click File and click Exit. Click the Apply button to save your settings. Lesson Five in the Isogen videos discusses the Project File Structure.

Bringing in your Company border or a Client border

You can have Isogen use your own specific border, or a client’s border. You can also have Isogen fill out text entries within the border’s title block, or elsewhere on the drawing.

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Using your own Border

A couple of important things you must do: a. You must point to the border’s location using the Project Manager. It’s in the area labeled Drawing Frame.

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Specifying your Border

The border drawing you use must be saved as a 2004 dwg

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b. The border you use must be saved as an AutoCAD 2004 drawing. Isogen will not work if you use a border that is an AutoCAD 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, or 2009 drawing. Using your own Border, or a Client’s Border

89. 90. 91. 92.

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Start regular AutoCAD. Open the drawing (in your “Examples” folder) named Client_A3_Border_0. Do a File, Save As. At the bottom of the Save As dialog box, set the Files of Type area to be an AutoCAD 2004.

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93. 94.

Opening the border and saving it as an AutoCAD 2004 version

Specifying your Border

The border drawing you use must be saved as a 2004 dwg

Testing the border

Click Save and Click Yes when prompted to replace it. Close AutoCAD.


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Assigning the new border to the Isogen Project

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In the Project Manager, Click in the area called Drawing Frame.

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Click Browse.

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Browse to your Examples folder and select the Client_A3_Border_0 drawing.

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Click Apply.

Setting up the new border

This instructs the system to use your border now, instead of the default border. 99.

In CADWorx Plant Pro draw a simple drawing that consists of some pipe, flanges, valve, and elbow (see the following figure).


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Creating a small test model

100. Test the border by running a simple iso using it as the drawing frame.

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Generating an iso on the new border

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Developing the Border – Filling out the Title Block Area

Isogen does not use normal attributes to fill out the title block area like a regular AutoCAD drawing. Isogen uses “Positioned Text” for this function. In Project Manager – 101. Click in the Positioned Text area.

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Positioned Text – used to place text in a drawing

Opening the Positioned Text file

102. Click the Edit button.


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This opens up the Positioned Text file that you can adjust to map the locations of pieces of text onto your border.

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Looking at the contents of the Iso_A3 sheet’s positioned text file

103. Close Notepad now, don’t save any changes. Note: Open the Positioned Text help file (a pdf file). It is found at C:\CADWorx Plant 2008\Isogen\Isogen_Utils\POS_Help.pdf

You should print out this file, since it is only six pages and has some useful information in it.

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Opening the Positioned Text help file

You can see from the file we opened in the previous figure that there is an item named -6. It has an X position, a Y position, a Character Width, and a Character Height. The numbers for position and height are in hundredths of a millimeter. Since Isogen was originally developed in Great Britain the values are in metric. The Positioned Text file can actually have more columns than shown above. This can be useful, because you can specify the text’s justification and rotation angle as well. Here’s an expanded version of one of the lines with the item labeled -6.


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You can Justify the text (Left, Center, Right) and you can Rotate the text as needed.

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A Justification (column 11) of 0 is Left, 1 is Center, 2 is Right. The Rotation (column 12) can be set as needed (usually 0 or 90). If you look at the following figures, you can see that the item labeled -6 is what Isogen uses to place the drawing title (it uses the pipeline name).

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The Positioned Text help file has the following information in it.

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Some of the fields that can be brought into your title block and drawing

This area allows you to create User Fields that can be mapped into your drawing. You can create as many as 100 fields

You will use this information to map some values into your title block.


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Note:

What they are calling a “User Defined Attribute Block” in the figure above is not something that comes from AutoCAD. This is Alias’ own naming, and it is used differently than attributes and blocks are used in AutoCAD.

104. In Project Manger – 105. Click the Project Name (above the Metric_Inch_A1 – this example is showing an Ansi_B sized border. All units work the same here.)

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Click Project Defaults. This brings up the Project Defaults dialog box. 106. Click on the tab labeled Specification. The Specifications area of the Project Defaults


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Opening the Project defaults dialog box

The project defaults is where you can put text that can be mapped into the title block area, or anywhere in the drawing

In the Specifications area are some fields you can fill out and have them get placed into your isometrics automatically

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Any values in these fields (Piping-Spec, Insulation-Spec, etc.) can be mapped into the drawing or title block. For instance the Piping-Spec would be brought in using the code of -11. You would add a line to the ANSI_B.pos file (shown in a previous figure) starting with an -11 entry. Then you would add its X and Y position, and its height. You could do the same for the other specs, like InsulationSpec, Tracing-Spec, etc. Next you’ll map in some examples to see how this works. 107. Click the Miscellaneous tab.

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The Miscellaneous tab has additional fields you can store text information in, and then have it mapped into your title block area, or anywhere on the drawing.

108. In the Revision field - Type: A. 109. In the Project Identifier field – Type: COADE 001-A25. 110. In the Batch/Area field – Type: 3400.


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111. Click on the Attributes tab. 112. Fill out the values as shown. These are User Definable fields. You can create as many as 100 fields to use for text that can be mapped into your title block. The dialog box shows 10 fields, but if you click the Append button (shown in the previous figure) you can keep adding new ones. •

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The Attributes tab gives you User Defined fields you can fill out as needed and have them mapped into your title block or elsewhere on your drawing

Setting up values to be mapped into the title block

You can create as many as 100 text fields to map into your title block or drawing

113. Click OK when done.


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Now that the text fields (Alias calls the “attributes”) have been defined, you’ll figure out where to place them in your drawing’s title block. The first thing you need to do is come up with the coordinate positions for these pieces of text.

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114. Open the :\\Examples\Client_A3_Border_0 drawing.

115. Zoom All. 116. Turn on the Layer named Points. 117. Zoom in around the Title Block area.

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Opening the border and looking at the title block area

Scaling up the border into metric for an easy way to locate points for text placement

118. Set OSNAP to have Node turned on. Type: ID 119. Click on the node at Point 1.

120. Using an OSNAP Node, you’ll get a value of 18864, 3250.


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Repeat for the other points, and make a list. Point Number

Location

Pt 1 Pt 2 Pt 3 Pt 4 Pt 5 Pt 6 Pt 7 Pt 8 Pt 9 Pt 10 Pt 11 Pt 12 Pt 13

X = 18864 X = 18864 X = 31375 X = 31375 X = 31375 X = 28017 X = 28017 X = 35463 X = 39211 X = 39211 X = 39211 X = 39211 X = 39211

Y = 3250 Y = 1867 Y = 4409 Y = 3667 Y = 2451 Y = 1875 Y = 1465 Y = 1478 Y = 3972 Y = 3337 Y = 2702 Y = 2067 Y = 1432

121. Save the drawing and close it. Now you’ll edit the Position Text file to set up the mapping

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Getting the location of the point where a text label will be placed (mapped to)

Locating various point locations to place text

In Project Manager, 122. Click on the Imperial_Inch_Ansi_B (or the border you’re working with). 123. Click in the area for Positioned Text.


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124. Click Edit, to open the positioned text file in notepad.

Modify the file as shown.

One comment : In this example above you mapped in a fixed date from one of the fields you set up (it’s listed as the –602 line of information). You could have used a system date if you wanted to. It would be done by using a –14 (instead of a –602 like you used). Also on the drawing options, System tab, switch 6 lets you set a date format as needed (see videos). 125. Save the file under the name. 126. Client_Border_B_at_0.pos, or Client_A3_Border_0, depending upon the border you’re working with (make sure you don’t save it as a .txt file. You’ll have to set the file type All Files).


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The completed Positioned Text file

You’ll need to save it as a .pos file (not a .txt type file)

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127. Close Notepad In Project Manager, 128. Click in the area for the Positioned Text file.

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129. 130. 131. 132.

Click Browse and select the file you just saved. Click the Apply button. Click OK Test the border by running a simple example through it.

Using the new Positioned Text file you just modified

Testing and viewing the results

So you can see that Isogen allows you to fill out your title block as needed. If you wanted to use a border that had the title block running up the side of the drawing, you would use the same procedure. The only thing you’d need to do differently is have a 90 for the rotation angle in the positioned text file.


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For example , the following line would map a text string into the title block area, but rotate it at 90 degrees instead of leaving it a 0 degrees. -601 31375

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Video Seven illustrates how to have the system set up your layer colors to match the standard Isogen borders.

Lesson Seven Video One Video Two Video Three

The Lesson Seven videos cover how to use and modify the different Bill of Materials Styles available with CADWorx and Isogen.

Lesson Eight Video One Video Two These videos discuss Line Numbering and how to run the Isogen Batch command. Also the graphic symbols for a floor or deck penetration, flow arrows, etc. are covered and you will see how they can be sent from the model to Isogen automatically.


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Lesson Nine Video One Video Two Video Three

In this lesson you will how to place restraints (hangers, base supports, anchors, etc.) in the model and have them come into Isogen. You’ll also see how to get Detail Sketches of a Base Support to be drawn in the isometric. Finally, this section illustrates how to get a Reference Dimension and Note to appear in an Isometric.


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Additional information (no videos associated with this section) Welding Information

It is possible to have Isogen display Welding information on an isometric. It can list and number the welds in the drawing. The easiest way to see how this happens is to use one of the samples that are shipped in CADWorx (available in Imperial versions only at this time). 133. In Project Manger, Click on Project 1 •

Setting the system for welding information on isometrics

Click on the New Style button.


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134. Fill out the New Style information as shown.

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Use the Welding videos to see how to bring welding data into your own user border

135. Click OK 136. Click Apply (Apply makes this the default border). 137. Test your results. You should have an isometric generated with welding information on it.


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Alternative Text

Isogen has a text file similar to Positioned Text that is called Alternative Text. This file is used for labeling various notes that appear on the drawing. For instance, you can change the way Isogen labels the continuation notes when it breaks a drawing between multiple sheets. Currently it says CONT. ON DRG 2 •

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You can change some of the labeling that Isogen puts on an isometric drawing

This is handled through a feature called Alternative Text

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Let’s say you wanted to change the DRG over to DWG. In Project Manager, 138. Click in the area for Alternative Text.

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139. Click Edit. 140. Click on the Group pull down menu (at the top of the screen). 141. Click on the Title Block group.

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Opening the Alternative Text file

Looking at the Title Block Group in the Alternative Text file

This shows all the text in this particular group that Isogen uses for labeling.


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Change DRG to DWG.

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Changing the way Isogen labels “CONT ON DWG” instead of “CONT ON DRG”

Look over the other Groups in the Alternative Text file. This file contains many labels that are open for you to change as needed. •

142. Close the file (Click File, Save, and Exit) and click the Apply button. 143. You can test this by drawing a router line in CADWorx with multiple changes of direction, then running Plant, Accessory, Auto Route, Buttweld LR.

It’s worth taking a look at the other groups in this file

144. When you run Isogen the system will break it into multiple isometrics. You will then see that it changed the continuation notes to CONT. ON DWG .


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Viewing the change to the way Isogen labels the drawing continuation note

The Data Definition File

The Project Manager also has an are where you can modify the Data Definition File (similar to the Positioned Text file). This file contains settings that affect the appearance of how Isogen draws some of its components – for instance rounded elbows or square elbows. This file also contains information on what thickness of lines it will use, and how big it will scale some of the fittings. Also, there is a section in this file for defining layers,


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Setting up Square Elbows

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Telling the System to Draw Square Elbows

In Project Manager, 145. Click in the area for the Drawing Definition.

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Opening the Drawing Definition File

146. Click Edit. 147. Change the word for ELBOW from ROUND to SQUARE.

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Noting the area where Square Elbows are defined

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Isogen Lesson

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