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Opening and saving drawings

Commands: OPEN, SAVE, SAVEAS, SAVEALL, SAVEFILEFOLDER 

The way BricsCAD opens and saves drawings is controlled through a series of system variables and user preferences.

In the table below the SYSTEM VARIABLES are fully capitalized.

Name

Title

Description

ShowFullPathInTitle

Display full path in title

Controls wether the full path of a drawing displays in the title bar, or the file name only.

DrawingPath

Drawings path

Specifies an additional folder in the file dialog for the Open and SaveAs commands.

On the Windows platform: the fifth folder in the Open File dialog's Places bar.

PlacesBarFolder1 - 4

First, Second, Third and Fourth folder

Sets the folders 1 through 4 in the Places bar of the non-standard Open File dialog (Windows platform only). Values between 0 and 5 are accepted: 0=Desktop, 1=My Computer, 2= My Documents, 3= Favorites, 4=Network, 5=My Recent Documents.

Tip: Place shortcuts to your favorite drawing folders on your desktop or in your Favorites folder.

THUMBSIZE

Thumbnail preview image size

Range is 0 - 8; Default = 1

0 (64 x 64)

1 (128 x 128)

2 (256 x 256)

3 (512 x 512)

4 (1024 x 1024)

5 (1440 x 1440)

6 (1600 x 1600)

7 (1920 x 1920)

8 (2560 x 2560)

INDEXCTL

Index Control

Determines whether layer and/or spatial indexes are created and saved.

The layer index lists all entities in the drawing and what layer they are on. The spatial index stores the location of all the entities in 3D space. The indexes are used to load Xrefs if demand loading is enabled. If a layer index exists, entities on layers which are Off or Frozen are not loaded. If a spatial index exists, entities in clipped Xrefs which are outside the clipping boundary are not loaded. The demand loading of Xrefs is controlled through the XLOADCTL system variable).

Creating indexes slows down the saving of a drawing, but increases the speed of Xrefs. Therefore create indexes only for drawings that will be used as an external reference.

0 = No indexes

1 = Layer index only

2 = Spatial index only

3 = Layer index and spatial index.

XLOADCTL

Xref load control

Controls demand loading of entities in external references.

If demand loading is turned on you will experience a performance increase:

  • When clipping external references which are saved with a spatial index (INDEXCTL = 2 or 3), entities in the external reference within the clipped area are loaded only. If the clipping area is modified, more or less entities are loaded from the reference drawing.

  • When freezing layers in external references which are saved with a layer index (INDEXCTL = 1 or 3), entities in the external reference on thawed layers are loaded only. If xref-dependent layers are thawed more entities are loaded.

0: Demand loading is OFF - The entire external reference is loaded.

1: Demand loading is ON - Referenced drawings are kept open and locked. Other users can open such drawings only as read-only.

2: Demand loading is ON - Temporary copies of referenced drawings are kept open and locked. Other users can open and modify the referenced drawings.

ISAVEBAK

Incremental save backup

Controls the creation of a backup file (BAK). Improves the speed of incremental saves if switched off, especially for large drawings.

Please notice that in some cases (i.e. a power failure during a save), it might be possible drawing data are lost.

ISAVEPERCENT

Save percent

This system variable controls how often BricsCAD performs a full save. A full save reorganizes all the data in the drawing database and creates a compact file. A partial save stores all changes a the end of the drawing data base. A full save takes longer to be executed than a partial save. If ISAVEPERCENT = 0, each save is a full save. The higher the value of ISAVEPERCENT, the longer the time between two full saves.

NFILELIST

Recent File List

Specifies the number of files shown in the Recent Files flyout of the File menu. Values between 0 and 20 are accepted. Default =10.

PROXYGRAPHICS

Proxy graphics

Determines whether images of proxy entities(1) are saved in the drawing. If switched off, a bounding box displays instead.

PROXYNOTICE

Proxy notice

Displays a notice when you open a drawing containing proxy entities(1) created by an application that is not present.

PROXYSHOW

Proxy show

Controls how proxy entities(1) display in a drawing.

0 = Not displayed

1 = Graphic images

2 = Bounding box.

PROXYWEBSEARCH

Proxy web search

Determines whether BricsCAD checks for object enablers:

0 = Never

1 = If a live Internet connection is present.

SaveFormat

Save format

Sets the default dwg version to save a drawing.

SAVEFILEPATH

Save file path

Specifies the path and folder where automatic saves and temporary files are stored.

The SaveFileFolder command opens the SAVEFILEPATH location in the system file browser.

SAVETIME

Save time interval

Sets the interval in minutes for automatic saves. If set to zero, automatic saves are turned off. Automatic saves are created with a .SV$ extension in the folder defined by the SAVEFILEPATH system variable.

WorspaceSecurity

Enable macros

Defines whether macros are enabled when loading a VBA-project.

AutosaveChecksOnlyFirstbitDBMOD

Ignore all but first bit of DBMOD(2) for autosave

If this user preference is switched on, no autosave file will be created for files that are viewed only.

CloseChecksOnlyFirstBitDBMOD

Ignore all but first bit of DBMOD(2) for close

If this user preference is switched on, you can view a file, then close it without getting a request to save the file.

(1) Proxy entities are custom entities which are created by an add-on application. If the add-on is currently not loaded or not installed, such entities cannot be displayed properly.

(2) DBMOD: Stores the status of the drawing modification as a bit-code as the sum of the following values: 1 = Object database modified, 4 = Database variable modified, 8 = Window modified, 16 = View modified, 32 = Field modified.

 

Using the Drag-and-Drop option menu

  1. Select a file in a Windows Explorer dialog, then hold down the right mouse button and drag the file onto the drawing area of the BricsCAD application window.
    A context menu displays

    When a drawing file is selected:

    When another file type is selected:

  2. Do one of the following:
    • Choose Default by File Extension to
      • open a drawing file (*.DWG, *.DXF or *.DWT)
      • attach a PDF
      • attach a raster image file
      • insert a file as an OLE object (e.g. an Excel spreadsheet)
    • Choose Insert Here to:
      • insert a drawing file (*.DWG, *.DXF or *.DWT) as a block in the current drawing.
      • attach a PDF
      • attach a raster image file
      • insert the file as an OLE object
    • Choose Open to open a drawing file (*.DWG, *.DXF or *.DWT).
    • Choose Create Xref to attach a drawing file (*.DWG, *.DXF or *.DWT) as an external reference to the current drawing.
    • Choose Create Hyperlink Here to create an hyperlink to the selected file.

NOTE

When multiple files are selected, the files are processed one after the other.

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