Drawing Tools Overview

The options in the Tools menu allow you to add a variety of drawing objects to the Plan View, to customize the view for screen captures, measure distances and angles etc. The Drawing Tools include the following options:

Dimensioning Tools

Text Box

Soil Properties Table

Axes

Line

Arrow

Rectangle

Circle

Polyline

Polygon

Pencil

Measure

Picture from File

Contour Label

All objects added to a view with the Tools menu options, are referred to as Drawing Tools in the Settle3D documentation.

Adding Drawing Tools

• The Drawing Tools can only be added to the Plan View; they cannot be added to the 3D View or any other view type in Settle3D.

• If the Drawing Tools options are disabled (i.e. greyed out) and you wish to add a drawing tool, then you must first click in the Plan View in order to enable the Drawing Tool options.

Editing Drawing Tools

After adding Drawing Tools to a view, they can be easily edited (i.e. formatted, moved, re-sized, deleted) or copied. To edit drawing tools, you can use the editing options in the Tools menu, or use a variety of shortcuts:

• If you left click on a drawing tool, you can re-size or move the tool by clicking and dragging with the mouse

• If you right click on a drawing tool, the popup menu will display applicable editing options

• If you double click on a drawing tool, this is a shortcut to the Format Tool dialog

Saving Drawing Tools

Drawing Tools are automatically saved with the Settle3D file (i.e. when you select the Save or Save As options in the File menu), and will automatically re-appear when you open the file.

Undo / Redo

The Undo / Redo options apply to Drawing Tools as well as modeling changes. Therefore you can easily undo / redo changes to the Drawing Tools, without having to use the edit options.

Toolbar Buttons

The toolbar buttons for the Drawing Tools can be turned on or off with the Show Tools toolbar checkbox in the Preferences dialog in the File menu. For example, if you do not use the Drawing Tools very often and you need more screen space, you can hide the toolbar buttons. However, if you change this setting, it will only take effect when you re-start the program, it does not affect the current instance of the Settle3D application.