Symbol Creation in CDS

Information on how to use symbols in your CDS job are shown in tutorial 2A. It would be worthwhile to review this tutorial at this time. Some of the information below is repeated from tutorial 2A.

Any drawing that is stored in a Windows Enhanced Metafile Format (EMF) can be used as a symbol within CDS. Windows Metafiles (*.wmf) can also be stored. The Enhanced Metafile Format is preferred as it contains the size of the symbol internal to the Metafile while the standard windows metafile is of an indeterminate size.

How to create a symbol

I have found the program supplied on the disk; reasonably successful in creating an enhanced metafile. On the CD supplied you should find the folder Metafile Companion. Running the file mc111.exe will install a trial version of the software that you can use 30 times. You then have the option of purchasing this from there website at $29US. A later version is available on there web site at http://www.companionsoftware.com I will run through the creation of a symbol which consists of a box filled in with a cross.

The first thing to do is to install the trial version of metafile companion. Run the program mc111.exe from the Metafile Companion directory on the CD supplied. If you are trialling the CDS software or don't have the CD log onto the website mentioned above and install a trial of the software.

Run the metafile editor. Once program comes up go "File - New" to create an empty page. The first thing is to set the size of the drawing. Select "Edit -Properties" from the menu. The standard size of a symbol is taken at 5mm; as we had to choose something. Under the page properties select the size to be specified in centimeters and choose a size of  0.5 by 0.5  Select the rectangle tool from the left most tool bar and draw in a rectangle just in from the border of the box. Now select the line command from the tool bar and draw in two lines that join the respective edges of the box. You should have a screen similar to that below.

The metafile symbol has been done and now we need to save it. Select "File - Save As" and save it to the "c:\Program Files\Foresight Software\CDS\Variable"  directory as "box.emf". 

Registering the symbol with CDS

The CDS program needs to be aware that this symbol is now available. Under the Entry menu select "Symbols - Symbol Library" option and click on the add symbol button. Select the symbol we have just defined box.emf and the symbol is now available; together with the existing ones.

Converting an Autocad Drawing to a symbol usable by CDS

Display the drawing that you want created as a symbol in Autocad. Select all the elements in the drawing. Then under the File menu select Export and export as a Windows meta file (*.wmf) There is no option in Autocad to export as an enhanced metafile; so we need to go this way.

Bring up the Metafile Companion and read in the wmf file. On the screen you will see a snap shot of what was on the screen in Autocad. We also have the background with it. Under CDS the default is white; so change the background color to white if it is different. Also normally we dont want the background as part of the symbol. Under the view menu we can change the background type from Opaque to Transparent.

Next step is to drag in the corners so that the outline is a tight fit around the picture. For good measure you can go to VIEW and TRIM picture. Reset the outline and hit the delete key. This will delete the outline. We don't normally wan't an outline around our symbol.

We now need to scale the symbol to the size we want it put out. Under the Edit key select Properties. make sure you are showing the size in centimetres. Set the sides proportionally to be 0.5 centimetres. Remember you can set any size here. The metafile has been done. Under File select Save As and save as an enhanced metafile.

Register the file with CDS as discussed above.

Coming Soon

One of the things on my list is to allow "DWG" symbols to be preloaded as block definitions into the "acadoptions.dwg" file that is in the variable directory. It would work something like this. If you have all your symbol definitions defined as dwg files; you would then add all them in to the Acadoptions.dwg file. When you then export a drawing file the program will be smart enough to know that the symbol is already predefined; and not rewrite the symbol definition to Autocad. back in CDS you would still need some EMF files to be used for symbols here; but they could be simpler representations of what you are actually exporting to your finished drawings in Autocad. Keep referring to the members update page for when this will become available.