CAD Grid

The Grid tool places a grid of Lines and Points at predefined intervals inside a given area, usually with coordinate annotation around the edges. 

Grids can be generated from both within a CAD and Model view, as well as from within a Drawing window where the grid will be rendered inside the bounds of a selected viewport. The grid settings can also be accessed from any Settings menu which controls the appearance of the real-time grid generated in a Model. You can enable this with the Layer Override (Alt+F9) control. From either of these entry points, selecting Grid Commit or Grid Settings will invoke the following dialog.

Any number of grids can be plotted at the same time, a possible example could be if a large grid is required at 250m intervals, and another at only 50m, possibly in a different colour and or linestyle. This interface easily allows that. Once any changes have been made and tested, they can be Saved by the button provided. They can also be loaded (via the Load button) if the current project grid settings differ from the master defaults on disk.

• Intervals
  • Add: Displays an input box allowing the new interval to be named and added to the list.
  • Remove: Conversely, this button will delete a selected interval. The Normal interval is protected, however, as there must always be at least one grid interval to plot. Especially when the real-time time grid is enabled in a model view.
    
    
• Prefixes
  • X/E: Defines whether the X-Axis values are prefixed with an E or an X.
  • Y/N: Defines whether the Y-Axis values are prefixed with an N or a Y.
    
    
• Properties
  • Layer: Controls the CAD layer the current interval is plotted on.  If the layer does not exist, it can be added to the drawing first via the button with three dots after the drop-down selection.
  • Pen: Specifies the colour to use when plotting the selected interval.
  • Line Style: This sets the particular linestyle for the currently selected interval. This only applies if the Line Type below is set to solid.
  • Line Type: Defines the type of grid to plot. The three options are displayed below:
    
    

    Solid

    Dashed

    Flicks

  • Line Length: Defines the length in mm on the final plot of the Dashed and Flicklines when they are selected as the current line type for the selected section.
  • Text Style: Controls the style of text to be used for the selected grid interval.
  • Text Offset: Defines the distance of the annotation from the grid line in mm on the final plot.
  • Interval: Sets the distance in real-world space between the lines of the current grid interval.
  • Plot No Text: Disables all text from being plotted.
  • Plot No Lines: Disables all linework from being plotted.
  • Eastings from left: This option changes the orientation of the Eastings prefix labels.