Microsoft Visio 2010 : Importing Graphics (part 6) - Importing AutoCAD Drawings - Manipulating an Imported AutoCAD Drawing and Adding Furniture

3/4/2014 1:21:08 AM

Manipulating an Imported AutoCAD Drawing and Adding Furniture

1.	CAD files often use layers to organize their elements. With CAD objects, you can toggle visibility and change the line color and weight for layers. Try this by bringing up the CAD Drawing Properties dialog again. This time, click the Layer tab.
2.	Turn off the layer for furniture by clicking the Visible column next to layer 12 (Layer 12 is the furniture layer, determined by trial-and-error.) Click Apply to test your changes without leaving the dialog. The chairs and tables disappear from the CAD object.
3.	Try turning off the computer equipment layer. This is cleverly named 7.
4.	You can crop CAD objects so that only a certain region is visible by using the Crop tool, but you can’t crop the CAD object when it is locked. Return to the CAD Drawing Properties dialog, as you did in the last exercise and unlock its size and position.
5.	To crop the CAD object, you need the Crop tool. But it only appears on the Picture Tools contextual tab when an imported image is selected, so you can’t get to it. Luckily, there’s a keyboard shortcut for the Crop tool. Press Shift+Ctrl+2, and your mouse cursor changes to the Crop tool.
6.	Drag a selection handle of the CAD object so that only part of it shows, as illustrated in Figure 7. Figure 7. Cropping an imported AutoCAD object.
7.	Relock the size and position of the CAD object.
8.	Because you started with the Office Layout template, you have several stencils at your disposal. Drop some plant shapes from the Office Accessories stencil or add your own conference tables and sofas from the Office Furniture stencil. Notice that the shapes drop at a reasonable size compared to other details of the floor plan. This is further verification that you have set the drawing scale correctly.
9.	Save the drawing as a CAD file using File, Save As.
10.	In the Save dialog, set the file type filter to AutoCAD Drawing (.dwg;.dxf), browse to a target directory, enter a name for the file, and then click Save. You have just modified the original AutoCAD file and appended Visio shapes to it. You can now send it to AutoCAD users, and they will be able to open it and work with it. You can try re-importing it to see how it looks, or if you know someone with AutoCAD on their PC, try sending them the file.

If you have a library of symbols that were created for AutoCAD, you might wonder if you can convert it into a Visio stencil. Well, there is an add-on that does just this! Go to the View tab, click the Add-ons button, and navigate to Visio Extras, Convert CAD Library.

Visio 2010 even comes with a sample CAD library to test. You can try converting the valves in symbols in the following file:

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office14\Visio Content\1033\BLOCKS.DWG