CAD tips: File extension SV$, what is SV$? How to open SV$ file?

Issue:

After using ZWCAD for a while, you find there are some file with SV$ as extension in your folder. What is this file? How to open it?

Solution:

The SV$ file is automatically saved DWG file. If you start the automatic save option, your drawing is saved at specified time intervals. By default, system assigned the name filename.sv$ for temporarily saved files, filename here refers to current drawing name.

The temporary files are removed automatically when a drawing closes normally. However, these files are not deleted if there is a program failure or power failure. You can recover the drawing by reverting to a previous version of your drawing from the automatically saved file. In order to do that, you have to rename the file using a .dwg extension. You can find SV$ file from “C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Local Settings\Temp”

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You may like more threads about “autosave” and “SV$” on CAD forum: 

1. autocadautosave settings? how to setup autocad auto save?

2. whereis autocad autosave location? Where to find my auto save drawings?

3. howto turn off auto save in autocad? I need to disable autosave

4. howto recover autocad autosave file?

5. sv$to dwg, how to change sv$ to dwg, what is SV$ file?

6. transform.SV$ file into .dwg file

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ZWCAD hot tips: the shortcut keys to switch viewport in layout.

Issue: 

there are some viewports in layout space, we double click within the viewport to activate the viewport, if we want to choose other we double click other viewport. But there is a shortcut key to save the double key with mouse.

Solution: 

press CTRL+R to cycle through the existing layout viewports.

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You may like more threads about “viewport” or "shortcuts"on CAD forum: 

add or import the keyboard shortcuts

Howto turn off layer in viewport in CAD?

Howto freeze in current viewport? Freeze particular layer in different viewport

Dimensioning3D solids in layout viewports.

Renderin viewport

How to add custom hatch in CAD?

Issue:

You want to add your customized hatch pattern in ZWCAD+.

Solution:

You can use you customized hatch pattern by these steps:

Step 1: copy hatch pattern file to ZWCAD+ installation folder, for example: C:\Program Files\ZWCAD+ 2012

Step 2: run HATCH command in ZWCAD+, open Hatch Pattern Palette dialog box and go to Custom tag, there you can find the customized hatch pattern you just add.

Note: you can also add the path where the pattern is saved in your computer to the Hatch Pattern File Search Path, in this way you don’t need to copy the pattern into ZWCAD+.

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You may like more threads about “hatch pattern” on CAD forum: 

• Addadditional hatch patterns
• Howto add custom hatch to CAD?
• Helpwith a hatch pattern
• Sendinghatch to back
• CustomWetlands Hatch
• changehatch borders using hatch grips

How to get free 3D orbit viewing quickly in CAD?

Issue:

The 3D Orbit is convenient to control the interactive viewing of objects in 3D. But running it may be a bit inconvenient, you need to run command RTROT or select it from toolbar. Is that any short cut key to run it?

Solution:

The short cut key to run 3D Orbit is Ctrl+Shift+the left mouse click.

As a bonus tips, there are more short cut keys for 3D viewing:

·         Ctrl+Left mouse button: Realtime 3D Zooming

·         Ctrl+Right mouse button: Realtime 3D Paning

·         Ctrl+Shift+Right mouse button: 3D orbit around Z-axis

You may like more threads about “3D” on CAD forum:

• Set up your views for 3D design
• how to print a 3d view
• Dimensioning 3D solids in layout viewports.

ZWCAD hot tips: how to use image as render material?

Issue:

There are a lot of materials in ZWCAD+ render Material dialog box, but sometimes you may want to use an image as material.

Solution:

Run command MATERIALS to open the material editing dialog box, press NEW button to create new material, select ‘Image’ in the Pattern Type drop-down list, then you can Browse to import image as material.

You may like more threads about “render” on CAD forum:

• Render in viewport
• Rendering Smoothness

ZWCAD tips: how to convert Mtext to Text?

Issue:

Sometime you may want to convert Mtext to Text.

Solution:

There are two ways to convert Mtext to Text:

1.     Express> Text> convert Mtext to Text.

2.     Use EXPLODE command to convert Mtext to Text.

Another article talk about MTEXT here

Questions about "MTEXT" in CAD Forum

1. Text to Mtext and back

2. MText plotting - text color

3. Lisp routine to convert objects into Text or Mtext

4. Is it possible to change the width factor with MTEXT

How to Draw a Cone with Round Top and Square Bottom in 2D CAD?

Many CAD users may be very familiar with the object—cone with round top and square bottom. Here I would like to explain to some of CAD beginners what this is and how to draw it. First of all, this special cone is often used as a transition part to join together square and circle pipeline. Next I will use ZWCAD and ZW3D to draw this object.

A:ZWCAD

      1. Draw the following graph and adopt the isometric view to finish the rest of operation.

2.  Lift the circle inside the square for certain height in the direction of Z axis

  3. Use the command Loft and the following graph will be gernerated.

  4. Solid edit the graph and then color it

Execute the command of Solidedit and choose the 3d oject. When there’s reminder that the 3 surfaces are found, hit on the ENTER button and type in “a”, choose the outside surface you would like to keep as noted below.

With the above steps, we have finished the drawing of a cone with round top and square bottom in ZWCAD.

B: ZW3D is very cost-effective CAD/CAM software. In ZW3D, we can use the same steps as above (sketch—loft—solidedit). But it is somewhat difficult to unfold this model through above drawing steps as generally speaking sheet metal will always be unfolded for measurement. When outside contour only has one surface we can use Unfold Surface in Curved Surface to achieve it, while when there are 8 surfaces in the outside contour, regardless of the thickness, we will not be able to find the way to unfold the object.

Users can choose either ZWCAD or ZW3D to draw this object. The two CAD software will both meet your needs.

Related Questions:

1. SolidEdit in LISP

2. solidedit -won't work ?? 

3. Loft (ing) shapes with 3ds max 9 

4. Can't loft: selected entities not valid

5. What’s the difference between ZWCAD and ZW3D? 

How to Create Custom Linetype for CAD?

One of the commonly encountered problems is that the linetypes provided by CAD software can’t satisfy various demands in CAD Design. In order to make the design work easier, I will talk about how to create custom linetype in ZWCAD in today’sCAD topic,

To create the custom linetype, let’s start with the rules in customization.

In the ZWCAD, we can find a zwcad.lin file in C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Roaming\ZWSoft\ZWCAD\2012\en-US\Support . Open the file by Notepad, and the linetypes provided by CAD have been listed.

 *BORDER,Border __ __ . __ __ . __ __ . __ __ . __ __ .
A, 12.700, -6.350, 12.700, -6.350, 0, -6.350

The linetype definition is composed of two parts. The first part is name and description for the particular line. Start the definition with “*”, then we could name the line. Leave a simple description after the comma. Specify the codes of lines in the second part. “A “ stands for alignment. The first parameter value should be equal to or more than “0”. The second parameter value should be less than “0”. Positive value means drawing a straight line with certain length. “0” means draw a point. Negative value means space. The punctuation after codes should be input with half-width.

Let’s take the center line as an example. The source code for which is A,1.250,-0.25,0.25,-0.25，According to the definition rules stated above, it means drawing a line with length of 1.25, ‘-0.25’ means a space with length of 0.25, ‘0.25’ means a line with length of 0.25.

If you are still not so clear about how to customize the linetype, you could draw the line first. Here is an example for double dot dash line. Let’s see how it’s defined.

Open the file zwcad.lin in ZWCAD installation path. And enter the name of this linetype as “double dots”. The source code for the line should be

 *DOUBLE_DOT,double_dot  ______..______..______

A,1.0,-0.1,0,-0.1,0,-0.1

Save the file after we add the source code.

With the same method, we could customize the linetype in design.

Related Questions

1.       Why the curved line break into straight line segments?

2.      Create Linetype with texts

3.       Linetype and linetype scale

4.      How to get the dot linetype spaced?

5.      Linetypes for dot drawings

ZWCAD Hot tutorial: Scaling Objects with Different X and Y Scale Factors in CAD Software

Sometimes in 2D drafting, we need to apply different X and Y scale factors to change the size or shape of existing objects. For example scale it only on X axis without scaling on Y axis. But it seems impossible for ZWCAD to do this with the Scale command. In ZWCAD users are not allowed to specify different scale factors on different axis at the same time. So it is difficult for us to change window “a” to a narrower window “b” just by scaling as shown in Figure 1.

Are there any other ways to scale X an Y axis separately? Here is one way--we combine scaling with block insertion. Make the objects into block, and then insert with uniform scale factors, after which we explode the block to get the original objects back. The detailed steps are as follows:

1.    Select the objects which you want to scale, and then turn the objects into a block with the Block command.

2.    With the Insert command, insert the block made in step 1, into your drawing.

3.    In the Insert Block dialog box, change the X and Y scale factors, as required. Remember to uncheck the “Uniform Scale” option before inputting the scale factors.

4.    Put the block at the purpose location of your drawing.

5.    Run Explode command to make the block into original objects.

One exception is polyline with arc segments. After exploding a uniform scaled block that is made up with polyline, you will find the arcs become elliptical arcs. Even so, converting objects into block is a good way to scale object in different directions. But in practical term, it is a roundabout way to achieve. Is it possible to make it work by a simple command? Luckily I found a lisp program from some website to save steps for this task. Users may refer to:　Scaleaxis．　

With all above, users will surely find scaling in different directions independently in ZWCAD has never been so easier!


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Similar threads on ZWCAD forum:

Block -XScaleFactor,YScaleFactor (VBA)

Polygon View Point - How to Scale?

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ZWCAD Hot tutorial: Walking Through Layers with LAYWALK

Have you ever needed to check whether objects are on the correct layers of your drawings? Is everything on the right layer? Have you repeatedly toggled layers on and off to show and hide them for temporary viewing?

All of these actions (and others) can be accomplished with a simple but useful command in ZWCAD 2011, LAYWALK – short for “layer walk”. Let’s take a look at how it helps you manage layers in your drawings.

Tutorial 1: Showing and Hiding Layers

When you first open the Layer Walk dialog box with the LayWalk command, all of the drawing’s layer names are listed. All those not turned off are down selected (are highlighted) automatically, so you can see the layer visibility settings as they were in the drawing before you started this command.

Now, whenever you select a layer name from the list, the corresponding layer is displayed in drawing area, and other layers are turned off instantly. (You don’t need to exit the dialog box to see the changes.) This allows you to view dynamically only the objects assigned to this layer.

You can hold down the Ctrl key to select more than one layer for viewing at a time; also, you can hold down the Shift key to select a contiguous group of layer names. A simpler way to select multiple, contiguous layer names is to click on one layer, and then drag down the list with your mouse.

The dialog box works in reverse, too: when you choose one or more entities in drawing by Pick button, the dialog box highlights the layer names of those entities. In this way, it functions like the Layer Isolate command.

Tutorial #2: Filtering Layer Names

At the top of the Layer Walk dialog box, there is a text entry box, in which you can input expressions to filter the names of layers. This shortens the list of layer names displayed, and is very useful in complex drawings with many layers. The filter function supports wildcard characters, such as * (all characters) and ? (any single character). For example, if you want to list and view all layer names starting with the letters “gr”, then follow these steps: (1) enter gr*” in the text entry box, and then (2) tick the “Filter” option. Notice that the dialog box lists only those layer names that begin with “gr.”

Tutorial #3: Using the Right-click Menu

You can right-click on the list of layer names at any time to display context menu with additional functions for selecting, viewing, and summarizing the layers.

For example, the Hold Selection option keeps your current selection always turned on as a reference; based on it, you can select other layers. The on-hold layer is prefixed with the “*” character; you can select it, release it, or release all.

Another useful option is Inspect, which provides a detailed summary of the currently selected layers; see the figure below.

Tutorial #4: Using Other Controls in LayerWalk

You may notice the Purge button at the bottom of the dialog box. It allows you to purge empty layers from drawings, those layers that have no entities. This button is disabled until you select one or more empty layers.

The Restore on Exit option means that the layer state will be restored after you end this command -- regardless of what you’ve done while in the dialog box. When this option is turned off, keeps the layer state when you exit the dialog box, which can be very useful.

 

By the way, this command works both in model space and in layout tabs.

ZWCAD Hot tutorial: How to Delete Stubborn Layers

In your daily design work, you may encounter the same issue I do: sometimes there are too many layers in my drawings, many of which have little or nothing on them. I can't, however, seem to delete them, even with the Purge command. When there are so many layers, I find that they make my design work more inconvenient.

This issue annoyed me long enough that I figured out some methods of how to get rid of them. I can’t wait to share them with you.

We usually use Purge command to remove the unused named items from the current drawing, such as the blocks, layers, linetypes, text styles, and dimension styles that are not being used.

Sometimes, however, layers are nested in blocks, and in this case Purge seems to not work. Some users have suggested that the Delete Layer command is available, found in ZWCAD under the Layer sub-menu of the Express Tools. Yes, it works. But it is not the best way, because it will also delete layers that contain objects.

Your drawing could definitely incur some damage if you aren't paying attention!

Here are some other methods that I want to share with you:

Method 1: Copy'n Paste

a.            Turn off the useless layers.

b.            Select all objects.

c.             Copy them (Ctrl+C or CopyClip command), and then paste them (Ctrl+V or PasteClip) to a new drawing.

Method 2: WBlock

a.            Select the objects you want to remain.

b.            Use the WBlock command to write these objects to a new drawing file.

Method 3:  LayTrans

a.            Use the LayTrans command to translate the layers you want to delete to another drawing file or new drawing file.

These are my quick tips on how to delete stubborn layers. If you have a better method, or tips on other aspects of making CAD operations more efficient, please share them with us on the ZWCAD forum. Let’s move ahead, together!

ZWCAD Hot Tip: The Many Ways to Count Blocks in Drawings

Sometimes we need to count the number of blocks that exist in our drawings. It turns out that there are several approaches to doing this in ZWCAD. Let me share them with you.

Approach 1:  BCOUNT

Here is how to use the BCOUNT command to count all or just a selected group of blocks in drawings:

1.     Enter the BCOUNT command.

2.     Select the objects you want to count, and then press Enter.

3.       Notice that the name of each block and the number of its occurrences appear on the command line. To see all of the details, press F2 to get to the Text window, a big version of the command prompt area. It looks something like this:

As a bonus, this method also reports the number of each kind of block in the selection set.

Approach 2:  BLOCKSUM

The BLOCKSUM command does not count the total number of blocks; rather, it is used to count how many blocks are on a specific layer, and how many have the same name.

The BLOCKSUM command can be accessed from ZWCAD Express menu: Express > Tools > Number of Blocks.

Follow these steps to use the BLOCKSUM command:

1.     Enter the BLOCKSUM command, or select it from the Express menu.

2.     Notice that it prompts you, ‘Layer/selection Set/<All>’. There are two choices, Layer, or select a specific number of objects:

                - Layer option counts the number of blocks on the same layer as the selected block.

 - selection Set option counts the number of blocks that have the same name as the selected block.

3.     When you input L to choose the layer option, it prompts you, ‘Select an object on the layer or <exit>:’. Select a block, and then press Enter.  

Notice that the command line it reports, ‘[Number of] blocks on layer [layer name]’.

Approach 3:  Attribute Extraction

The BCOUNT and BLOCKSUM commands are specifically meant for counting blocks. There is also an indirect way to count them, through attribute extraction. The AttExt command extracts all kinds of data from blocks, such as attribute values and X,Y coordinates -- and it also extracts the number of blocks. The result is similar to that of BlockSum, in that it lists the names of blocks and the number of occurrences. See the figure below.

Approach 4:  QSELECT

ZWCAD's quick select feature is yet another indirect way to count blocks. Here is how to use the QSELECT command for this task:

1.     Enter the QSELECT command.

2.     In the dialog box that appears, set the following options:

Object type=Block Reference
Color=Bylayer  (We assume that all of the block’s colors are ByLayer.)

3.     Press the OK button. Notice that all the selected blocks are highlighted. The command line prompts us that there are X item(s) selected, so we know how many blocks are in this drawing.

In addition to these ways of counting blocks in drawings, we could use LISP programs, but I think above four methods are enough for block counting. I'm glad to have shared them with you.