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-
- 5.12.2 DRAW SYMBOL
-
-
- The DRAW SYMBOL command is used to draw one or more instances of a symbol
- previously created using the DEFINE SYMBOL command.
-
- Unless the EXPLODE modifier is used, a symbol will consist of a single
- entity whose graphical appearence is identical to the entities used to
- define the symbol. If any cpoints, tnodes or other symbols were included in
- the original symbol definition, these will be created as separate entities.
- Any separate entities that belong to the symbol will be related or linked
- to the main symbol instance in a child member list.
-
-
- COMMAND FORMAT
-
- #DRAW SYMBOL modifiers :Loc x1 x2 ... xn
-
- The named symbol is drawn at each location entered via IDENTS. The origin
- of each symbol is displayed as a small circle with a vertical and horizontal
- line passing through the circle centre. ( See fig. 5.99 ).
-
-
- MODIFIERS
-
- NAME The name of the symbol to be drawn. This may have a maximum
- of 80 characters and should not include the ".sym" suffix
- that is added by DEFINE SYMBOL.
-
- If a symbol directory has been selected using the command
- SELECT SYMBOL, then only the last level of the symbol name
- need be entered.
-
- NODIR This modifier is used the override the current symbol
- directory selected using the command DEFINE SYMBOL. If this
- modifier is used, the symbol name should include the full
- directory path.
-
- LABEL This modifier is used to enter a text-string to substitute
- any occurances of the sub-string "#LABEL" within any text
- entities related to tnodes that are part of the symbol.
- ( See documentation for the command DEFINE SYMBOL ).
-
- PARAMETERS The PARAMETERS modifier is used to enter a family of
- modifiers which may be used to specify any symbol parameters.
-
- .SCALE Requires a real value defining the symbol scale. The default
- scale is 1.0 if this modifier is omitted. ( See fig. 5.100 ).
-
- .ANGLE Requires a real value defining the symbol alignment angle in
- degrees. The symbol is drawn in its default alignment if
- this modifier is omitted.
-
- .ALIGN The ALIGN modifier can be used to derive the angle for a
- symbol from a segment of an existing line, string, polygon or
- xhatch polygon entity. The command format differs slightly if
- the ALIGN modifier is used:
-
- #DRAW SYMBOL NAME name PARAMETERS ALIGN :
- Ent x1 :Loc x2 x3 ... xn [:Ent ... ]
-
- The required line or string or polygon segment is selected
- with 'x1'. Each location entered after this defines a
- point on the identified entity to be used as the origin
- for a symbol. The angle for the symbol is obtained from the
- slope of the line, string or poltgon segment nearest to the
- entered location. ( See fig. 5.101 and 5.102 ).
-
- ALIGN excludes use of the ANGLE modifier.
-
- .MIRRORX If the MIRRORX modifier is entered, the symbol will be
- mirrored about its origin in the x-axis.
-
- .MIRRORY If the MIRRORY modifier is entered, the symbol will be
- mirrored about its origin in the y-axis. Only one of MIRRORX
- or MIRRORY can be used.
-
- .UNITSCONVERT This modifier is used to toggle between units or no units
- conversion. If units conversion is on ( the default ), then
- a symbol defined in a units type that is different to the
- units type of the viewport it is about to be drawn in will
- be scaled accordingly: ie., a symbol defined as one inch
- square will appear as 25.4 millimetres square in a viewport
- using millimetre units.
-
- If units conversion is off, the no scaling is carried out.
-
-
- The following three modifiers can be used to inhibit certain
- transformations being applied to text entities and tnode
- parameters. Their default state is ON, in which case text
- will be scaled, mirrored or rotated if the appropriate
- modifiers are used.
-
- .TEXTROTATE Can be used to inhibit rotation of text. The origin of the
- text will be rotated but the text angle will remain
- unchanged.
-
- .TEXTSCALE Can be used to inhibit scaling of text. The origin of the
- text will be scaled but the text height and width will remain
- unchanged.
-
- .TEXTMIRROR Can be used to inhibit mirroring of text. The origin of the
- text will be mirrored but the text itself will not. ( See
- fig. 5.103 ).
-
- .ABSLAYER The ABSLAYER modifier is used to specify that the symbol
- should be drawn on the same layers as the entities originally
- used to define the symbol. The symbol instance - the small
- circle and cross used to show the symbol origin - is always
- drawn on the active layer.
-
- If the modifier is omitted, then the symbol is drawn at a
- relative layer: i.e., if the current active layer is 30 and
- the original entities used to define the symbol where on layer
- 10, then the resulting symbol will appear on layer 40.
-
- .RELDEPTH The RELDEPTH modifier is used to specify that the symbol
- should be drawn using a relative depth. The default is to use
- the same depths as the original entities used to define the
- symbol.
-
- EXPLODE Specifies that the symbol should be exploded into all of its
- component parts. If this modifier is used, individual
- entities are created as opposed to a single graphics entity.
- This means that each entity that makes up the symbol can be
- edited or referenced in the normal way.
-
- A symbol instance is still created to act as a parent entity
- to all of the other entities that make up the symbol.
- The symbol can then be treated as one group of entities by
- referencing the symbol instance.
-
- An exploded symbol cannot be modified using the CHANGE SYMBOL
- command.
-
- .UNLINK If the UNLINK modifier is used in conjunction with EXPLODE,
- a symbol instance will not be created. The entities that
- make up the symbol will not be related in any way and cannot
- be referenced as a group.
-
- ATTRIBUTE Used to enter one or more attributes associated with this
- entity. For a full description of the ATTRIBUTE option, see
- the documentation for the command ADD ATTRIBUTE.
-
-
-