Entering the Interactive Drafting Workbench

This first task shows you how to enter the Drafting workbench and start a new drawing.
1. Select File > New (or click New ).
The New dialog box is displayed, allowing you to choose the type of the document you need.

2. Select Drawing in the List of Types field and click OK.

 
OR

1. Select Start > Mechanical Design from the menu bar.

2. Select the Drafting workbench.

 
OR

1. Select Tools > Customize (Start Menu tab) and define the Favorites (Drafting) and Accelerator (F12) options as shown below and click Close.

2. Press the F12 key or select Start > Drafting from the menu bar.

Whichever method you used for entering the Drafting workbench you used, the New Drawing dialog box is displayed, allowing you choosing the type of Standard, Sheet Style, Orientation you need. The sheet style defines among other things the sheet format, scale and orientation.

3. Select the ISO standard and click the Landscape option.
  If you activate the Hide when starting workbench option, the next time you enter the Drafting workbench via Start > Drafting or by pressing the F12 key, the New Drawing dialog box will not appear any more and the last selected standard, sheet style and orientation will be used by default to create the drawing. You will always be able to reactivate this dialog box by unselecting the Hide when starting workbench option available via Tools > Options > Mechanical Design > Drafting > General tab, or to access it by selecting File > New Drawing from the menu bar.

4. Click OK.

  • You can add an unlimited number of customized standards using Standard files that you will create and/or, if needed, modify. Once created, this standard will appear in the New Drawing dialog box. For more details on standards, see the Standards Administration section. Note that any user-defined standard is based on one of the four international standards (ANSI, ISO,ASME or JIS) as far as basic parameters are concerned.
  • You can add an unlimited number of customized sheet styles using Standard files, see Sheet Styles.
  The Drafting workbench is loaded and an empty drawing sheet opens. The drawing specification tree is displayed to the left of the sheet.
 
Pressing the F3 key lets you show or hide the specification tree as desired.
Make sure you customized the units accordingly. For this:

  1. Select the  Tools > Options command to display the Options dialog box.

  2. Click General > Parameters and Measure in the list of objects to the left of the Options dialog box.

  3. Select the Units tab and set Length to Inch and then click OK.
To visualize better your drawing, tile the windows horizontally from the menu bar.
The commands for creating and editing features are available in the workbench toolbar. Now to fully discover the Interactive Drafting workbench, let's perform the following tasks.