Drafting on the background of scanned drawings may be one of the most natural applications for SuperEdit . As the background documents can be properly mapped into the world coordinates system, it is possible to work using normal dimensions and standard symbol libraries.
Vector drawings in DWG, DXF or HPGL formats are displayed in the background, similarly as raster drawings, either as single drawings or as subdocuments of a composite document. Only drawings stored in Tessel Vector Drawing (TVD) format can be marked as foreground ones by selecting only one of them, and may be manipulated and edited.
Click the Open button on the Main toolbar, for File Type choose Tessel Composite Doc (TCD), and open the townmap.tcd document in the DOC subdirectory. Then, right-click the townmap.tcd node and choose CDM Add Subdocument option. Choose the parcels.dwg drawing in the DOC subdirectory. The DWG drawing shows two hatched polygons and a text informing that its background map is a composite document townmap.tcd .
Then, choose the CDM Add New Vector option for the townmap.tcd node. A new empty vector drawing named vector.tvd is added as a subdocument. SuperEdit selects automatically the new vector drawing placing it in the foreground , which is marked by the pencil symbol placed across the icon representing the new vector node.
Notice that the Vector toolbar becomes enabled. Double-click the vector.tvd node to deselect it. You can notice the pencil symbol disappears and the Vector toolbar becomes disabled. This is because the new vector drawing after deselecting is moved to the background . Double-click the vector.tvd node to select it back and moving the vector.tvd to foreground again, thus enabling drafting in this drawing. Having several TVD vector drawings in the composite document, you may activate chosen one for editing by selecting it and thus moving it to the foreground . However, you have to select exactly one vector drawing to declare it as a foreground one; this is to avoid unnecessary conflicts about which drawing is active when more than one are selected in the same time.
Let us define texts and polygons that similar to those in the DWG background drawing. We will try to do it exercising some basic methods to interact with SuperEdit drafting interface.
Click the Text button on the Vector toolbar and in the Content box on the Text Properties dialog write down the first line text from DWG drawing. Choose Style tab on the dialog and select the COURIER style in the style name combo-box; it will give the best match to the AutoCAD’s style used in the DWG drawing. Click the OK button and drag the cursor to the place of the background DWG text. First click defines the lower left corner of the text frame; next determine the text’s height. After defining the text, it is ready for correcting, if necessary. Dragging the red grip placed in its left lower corner moves the text frame. Using the right upper grip, you may match the size of the text frame to the background DWG text size. Repeat the action with the second line text.
Zoom the area with the background polygon. Then click the Polygon button on the Vector toolbar and define a polygon that matches the original one (left mouse clicks enters subsequent vertices, the OTM End polygon option ends drawing a polygon). After defining the polygon, it is ready for correcting. Simply drag the red grips to corrected positions, if necessary. If you move the cursor over one of the polygon’s edges, you can see its shape changes to a star. It means that you may add vertex starting from this place. Simply press the left mouse button and drag new vertex to desired position. If you want to delete some vertex, move the cursor over that vertex until it changes its shape to an arrow and choose OTM Delete vertex option in the menu that appears after clicking the right mouse button.
Since the new polygon is selected , the options displayed in the pop-up menu that appears after right-click anywhere into the Drawing window area ( Drawing Window menu – DWM ) are concerned with the entity selected . Examine DWM options like DWM Transform , DWM Copy , DWM Delete etc., some of them with various sub-options. The DWM Properties... option displays the Polygon Properties dialog; you may examine and change numerical coordinates of the polygon’s vertices in the appropriate boxes on the Polygon tab. You may call DWM by right clicking anywhere on the Drawing window; these clicks do not change the selection.
Now perform left click somewhere outside the polygon; its red grips disappear and it becomes deselected . Examine DWM options now, concerned with the whole foreground vector drawing only. The DWM Properties... option displays now the Drawing properties dialog; you may examine vector drawing extents and change vector drawing units on the General tab (make sure that the drawing units are meter ).
Now perform left click inside the polygon or near its edge; it becomes selected again. Choose DWM Properties... option to display the Polygon Properties dialog, and select the Tools tab. Enter Line Thickness : 0.8, Pattern Name : FORWARD DIAGONAL, Pattern Distance : 2.5 and then OK button. Repeat the action with the second polygon.
Click the Image properties button on the Main toolbar in order to see Composite Document dialog. At this time, you should see a vector.tvd reference to the TVD drawing added to the list of subdocuments. The S and F flags denoting that it is selected and foreground should precede its pathname. Click the Save As... button on the dialog and save the TVD drawing as parcels.tvd . Close the Composite Document dialog. The same action could be performed in the TCD Contents window by choosing the CDM Save As... option for the unsaved vector.tvd node.
In the TCD Contents window, choose the CDM Disable option for the parcels.dwg node.You should see the picture as below.
Choose the CDM Enable option to see it again. Use the File - Save As... option and save the modified composite document as estate.tcd .
Close the SuperEdit session and start the program again. Click the Open button on the Main toolbar and open the newly created estate.tcd .
Note that parcels.tvd is automatically selected and opened for foreground editing by SuperEdit . The background is provided by the remaining subdocuments of estate.tcd , i.e. parcels.dwg and townmap4.tif, ..., townmap1.tif .