Hints for Programming Parts

This manual does not describe any drawing functions in detail. However, the following information will give you an overview of basic programming procedures.

Cursor

With the mouse you move the cursor over the screen. Depending on the actual position of the mouse and on the command which has been chosen, the cursor will appear in different shape, either as a white arrow, as an I-beam or as a purple crosshair, etc.

Cursor	Description
	White arrow The cursor is on the menu bars, the tool bars, or the other docking panels.
	I-Beam The cursor is on the Draw command window.
	Purple crosshair The cursor is on the drawing window, no special functions are active.
	Purple crosshair with object snap box The cursor is on the drawing window and has been activated by an object snap function.
	Drag The cursor is on the drawing window and has been activated by the drag function.
	Hand The cursor is on the drawing window and has been activated by the zoom dynamically function.

Mouse Buttons

The left mouse button is for clicking on icons, choosing drawing elements, for setting points in the drawing window, etc.

The right mouse button will bring up the context menu associated with the window or the objects being selected.

Object Selection Functions

The object selection functions allow you to choose objects by clicking the left mouse button on a drawing element or by clicking and dragging a selection window.

If you click and drag the selection window to the right, the window will be framed by solid lines and filled with blue; the object will be selected only if all its drawing elements fall within the window, as shown below.

Alternately, if you click and drag the selection window to the left, the window will be framed by dash lines and filled with green; the object will be selected if any part of its drawing elements fall within the window, as shown below.

The choice can either contain a single or several drawing elements. With the Shift key held, you can increase the selection by selecting more objects, or decrease the selection by selecting the objects which are already selected. Selected objects are displayed with dashed lines.

You can also select objects by the object selection functions other than drawing a selection window with the mouse.

Button	Label	Function
	Select All	Select all the objects.
	Invert Selection	Select the objects other than the objects which are already selected.
	Deselect	Deselect the objects which are already selected.
	Select unclosed curve	Select the objects which are not closed in geometry.
	Select similar curve	Select the objects which are similar with the selected object.
	Select all outer mold
	Select all inner mold
	Select all graphics smaller than	Select the objects which are smaller than a specified dimension.
	Select Layer	Select all the objects which belong to a specific layer.
	Lock Unexported	Lock down all the objects in the unexported layer.
	Select Curve Type	Select all the objects which belong to a specific geometry type, such as lines, circles, curves.

Object View Functions

The object view functions help you get more information from your drawing, i.e. if the contours are closed or not, the start points of the cutting path, the processing sequence, etc.

Icon	Label	Function
	Show Box for unclosed curve	To display surrounding boxes around unclosed contours.
	Show unclosed curve as red	To display unclosed contours in red.
	Index	To display processing sequence.
	Path Start	To display the start points of the cutting path.
	Show Path	To display the direction of the cutting path.
	Show Move Path	To display the traveling path.
	Center	Set the machine range to accommodate the drawing in the center.

Zoom Functions

Zoom functions will move, enlarge or minimize extracts from your drawing. Click on the button , or press down the arrow keys on the keyboard when the drawing window is active, to move the drawing around inside the drawing window. Scroll the mouse wheel when the drawing windows is active, or click on the button and select the corresponding function, to enlarge or minimize the extract.

Button	Label	Function	Hot Key
	Adapt to the window	Adapt a window of extract to the drawing window.
	Zoom All	Adapt all the drawing elements to the drawing window.	F3
	Machine range	Adapt the whole machining range to the drawing window.	F4
	Adapt to selection	Adapt the selected drawing element(s) to the drawing window.
	Zoom Dynamically	Enlarge or minimize the extract when pressing down the left mouse button and moving in the drawing window.

You can also select the zoom commands from the context menu in the drawing window.

Object Snap Functions

Use the object snap functions in order to choose geometry points precisely while drawing and constructing. For example: for catching endpoints within lines, centres of circles, tangent points of circles.

Object snaps can be enabled or disabled through the pulldown-menu File>User Setting>User Settings. In the pop-up dialog, open up the snap object page, you can change the settings for the object snap functions.

When the functions are active, the assisting lines and tool tips will be displayed around the snapped geometry points.

Drawing Settings

Select the menu User Settings in File>User Setting, or click on the button in the Basic Operation section in Home, you will see the drawing settings.

Here you can set which elements to display in the drawing window, set size of cursor, set background color of the drawing window, set color and font of the ruler, set highlighting of drawing elements, and others according to your preferences.