Drawing objects have properties like color, line type, layer, font, etc. You might think of these as the characterstics or attributes of an object.
When you create a drawing object, either by drawing it manually or by letting a traverse create it, that object inherits a set of properties. These are the initial or default properties. Once created, you can modify the properties as needed.
The Drawing View Format Bar lets you set the default properties that will be inherited by any objects you manually add to the drawing. It doesn't list all the available properties, but it does include the ones you are likely to change the most often.
Editing the properties of any object is easy. Just right click the object and choose Properties. TPC displays the properties dialog for that object. Change the properties you want and choose OK. TPC redraws the object with the changes.
Sometimes you want to change the properties of multiple objects. Let's say that you want to change the font size of some text you have added to a drawing. You can use the Set Object Properties command and select the objects you want to change. TPC displays the Set Properties dialog where you can select the font size you want for the selected objects. It's pretty fast and simple to get your drawing looking just the way you want.
When you tag a traverse in the Traverse Manager, TPC includes it in the drawing. All the drawing objects created by that traverse inherit their properties from the traverse settings. Traverse settings provide a very fast and efficient way to produce a drawing. They're part of TPC's Quick View Technology.
Think of the traverse settings as the starting point for your drawing object properties. Once a traverse has created a drawing object, you can change any of its properties to fine tune the drawing.
TPC marks the properties you change as Modified. They are controlled by the properties of that object. Properties that are NOT modified continue to be controled by the traverse settings. This helps maintain consistency within the drawing.
TPC provides an easy way to undo your property changes with the Reset Modified Attributes command. This command works only with traverse objects and sets any modified properties (attributes) back to their traverse settings.
Some text objects, like line and lot labels, are based on survey data. If the survey data changes, the label updates automatically. However, if you modify the text yourself, TPC holds your changes and does NOT continue to update the text to match the survey data. It is therefore possible for a modified line label to report the wrong survey data.
The solution is to modify the text of survey objects only when absolutely necessary. For example, if you want to add record data to a line label, consider adding a survey space text object so the original line label is not modified.
Drawing Object Properties
Set Object Properties command
Set Object Properties of selected objects
Smart Drawing Objects
Working with Drawing Objects
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