In Advance Steel we can configure drawing styles to display a hole using a symbol instead of its real shape from the model. The symbol used can be configured using a series of dwg files storing its shape made from AutoCAD lines, which are then assigned to a specific hole diameter or a series of identical holes of a given type.
The size of the elements in the symbol representation (dwg storing the symbol which are to be exactly correlated with the hole diameters in the drawing) must be exactly 10 units in size and be centered in the drawing WCS origin.
To configure a hole symbol, we need to access the database called: AstorBase.mdb - table: Symbols.
Click the Open database (MDB) button and load AstorBase.mdb located in:
C:\ProgramData\Graitec\AdvanceSteel\2010\Steel\Data (Windows Vista / 7)
C:\Document and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Graitec\AdvanceSteel\2010\Steel\Data (Window XP)
KEY: use any number that is unique in this table.
NAME : This contains a string created with the following format which configures a specific hole symbol.
The format is the following:
hole_[DIAMETER]_[HOLE_TYPE]_[VIEWDIRECTION]_[VISIBILITYSTATUS]
[DIAMETER] -> the hole diameter. It can have any value or it can be "Any".
[HOLE_TYPE] -> the hole type. It can be one of the current available hole types or "Any".
Available values :
- Hole
- Slotted
- CounterSunk
- Blind
- Thread
- SunkBoltD
- PunchMark.
[VIEWDIRECTION] -> the direction of the view (the geometric restriction of the hole). It can have the following values:
- To -> the holes are seen from Top (the z-axis of the hole is the same as the z direction of the view).
- Bo -> the holes are seen from Bottom (the z-axis of the holes is in the opposite direction of the z direction of the view).
- ToBo -> the holes are seen from Top or Bottom.
The search for a corresponding symbol is done using the following priorities regarding the view direction, To, Bo and ToBo:
- If a corresponding symbol was not found in the first case (no symbol is configured for the specific view direction top or bottom), the search will continue for a symbol with the [VIEWDIRECTION] ToBo.
[VISIBILITYSTATUS] -> The hole visibility status in the drawing.
- H -> the hole is hidden.
- VH -> the hole is visible and/or hidden.
The search for a corresponding symbol is done using the following priorities:
- If a corresponding symbol is not found in the first case, the search will continue for a symbol with the VH (Any) visibility status.
Example :
hole_Any_Slotted_ToBo_VH - all diameters for slotted holes, with a top / bottom view direction and VisibleHidden visibility status.
hole_26_Any_Fr_H - any type of hole with the diameter = 26, viewed from a front view and with the Hidden visibility status.
Drawing name association.
As mention above, the size of the elements in the symbol representation must be exactly 10 units in size and be centered in the drawing WCS origin. In order to use this symbol dwg file, we need to store it in the following folder:
C:\ProgramData\Graitec\AdvanceSteel\2010\Shared\Support\Symbols (Windows Vista / 7)
C:\Documents and Setting\All Users\Application Data\Graitec\AdvanceSteel\2010\Shared\Support\Symbols (Windows XP)
We have two hole symbol cases which are configured in a different way:
To, Bo or ToBo symbols. The symbol is created by one part (dwg file). The file name is stored in the DwgName1 column corresponding to the respective hole name configuration, in the form: filename.dwg. The other columns: Scale1, Translation1 and Rotation1 remain with a value = 0.
Fr symbol. This symbol is defined with the following rules:
- The top part that corresponds to the "exit" of the z-axis of the hole.
- The bottom part that corresponds to the opposite side of the z-axis of the hole.
2) The middle part of the symbol is "scaled" in order to have the correct height (which is based on its length, the actual "system" representation of the hole).
3) The columns used for these three parts are the following:
- Middle part: DwgName2
- Bottom part: DwgName3
In addition, the component parts of the hole symbol are identified by their "Scale" value:
- For the middle part -> -2
- For the bottom part -> -3
If the scale is not specified, the drawing will not be used for symbol creation.
Below is an example of what each symbol part represents on a created drawing:
Example with the completed lines of the two examples of hole symbol names presented above:
