Working with Multiple Windows

Default UI Menu: Window

Ribbon UI Menu:

TurboCAD uses a multiple document interface (MDI). This means that the TurboCAD application window can contain multiple windows, each of which contains a TurboCAD drawing. Whenever you open a drawing or start a new drawing, the drawing will appear in its own window within the TurboCAD application window. You can also use multiple windows to display varying views of the same drawing. One advantage of the multiple document interface is that it allows you to intuitively move and copy objects from one drawing to another. The window commands can be accessed from Window menu or from the Window toolbar, opened by right-clicking on any toolbar and selecting Window.

Creating and Displaying Windows

These commands apply to all open windows, whether or not they belong to one drawing or multiple drawings.

New Window

Default UI Menu: Window/New Window

Ribbon UI Menu:

Opens another window for the currently active drawing. The contents of this window are identical to those of the active window, but are displayed in Zoom All (zoomed so that all objects are visible in the window). If the current window is maximized, the new window will also be maximized.

Cascade

Default UI Menu: Window/Cascade

Ribbon UI Menu:

Resizes and arranges all windows so they overlap, with their title bars showing.

Tile

Default UI Menu: Window/Tile

Ribbon UI Menu:

Resizes and arranges all windows so that they are all visible, do not overlap, and are laid out to fill the screen area.

Arrange Icons

Default UI Menu: Window/Arrange Icons

Ribbon UI Menu:

When you minimize a drawing window, Windows shrinks it to an icon. Use Arrange Icons to line up these minimized drawing windows along the bottom of the TurboCAD window. (The command does not affect windows that have not been minimized.)

Close All

Default UI Menu: Window/Close All

Ribbon UI Menu:

Closes all open windows. You will receive a warning if any file has unsaved changes.

Hide Caption

Default UI Menu: Window/Hide Caption

Ribbon UI Menu:

Removes the title bars from open windows.

Auto Resize

Default UI Menu: Window/Auto Resize

Ribbon UI Menu:

Preserves the relative proportion of windows when the TurboCAD window is resized.

Auto Align

Default UI Menu: Window/Auto Align

Ribbon UI Menu:

You can resize a group of windows if the following is valid for every window: one side of the window lies on a line common to the entire group. This is the line of alignment. The aligned windows can be on the same side of the line of alignment or occupy both sides of it. When placed on opposite sides, the aligned windows may touch each other or not. Occupying the same side of the line of alignment, windows may overlap each other or be separated by space. In all these cases, whenever you catch the side of a window "belonging" to the line of alignment and then drag the window to change its size in the direction perpendicular to the line of alignment, all the windows "belonging" to the same line of alignment will change their size accordingly.

Moving and Copying Between Different Files

There are two basic methods for copying and moving objects between drawings: copy and paste (or cut and paste), and OLE drag and drop.

Cut and Paste

You can use the Windows clipboard to transfer objects between drawings.

1. Select the objects in the source document that you want to copy or move.
2. Select Edit / Copy (Ctrl+C), or Edit / Cut (Ctrl+X). This places a copy of the objects on the Windows clipboard. Copy leaves the source objects in place, while Cut removes them.
3. Activate the target document by clicking in its window or on its title bar, or by choosing it from the Window menu.
4. Select Edit / Paste (Ctrl+V). The objects will be pasted from the Windows clipboard into the target document. The pasted objects will appear at the center of the target document window.

Drag and Drop

OLE drag and drop provides a simple and intuitive way to copy objects between drawings. You can drag objects from one drawing window into another, and you can drag objects stored in block and symbol libraries from their palette into another drawing.

1. Select the objects that you want to drag into another drawing.
2. Place the cursor over the reference point of the selection, and it becomes a double arrow.
3. Drag the selected objects into the window of the target document. An outline of the selection will follow the mouse cursor as you drag. Release the mouse button to place the objects.

Warning: The behavior of snap modes is slightly unusual when you are moving an object using OLE drag and drop. It is therefore not a recommended method for moving objects that require precise placement.

To drag blocks and symbols, simply drag them from their palette into the target drawing window.

Multiple Windows of the Same File

When working on a large and complicated drawing, it is often useful to have simultaneous close-up views of more than one part of the drawing. Not only can you have multiple windows open on the same drawing, you can also start an operation in one window and finish in another. For example: You may need to draw a line connecting two widely separated objects. Open a second window and tile the windows (Window / Tile). Adjust the zoom value in each window to get a close-up of each item. Then start the line in the first window, and finish it by clicking at the correct location in the second window.

Window Layout Templates

Default UI Menu: Window/Apply Layout Template, View/Open Multi View Layout, View/Save Multi View Layout

Ribbon UI Menu:

Enables you to customize the layout of multiple windows of the same drawing.

Several predefined layouts can be selected from the bottom of the window. If you previously saved a template (using Save Layout Template), you can browse to select the layout template file. The Hide Caption, Auto Resize, and Auto Align options can be used to customize some of the window layout properties. These options are also available on the Window menu. You can also start a new session with the last window layout from the last session. Check Last Window Layout in the General page of the Program Setup (Options / General). See General Setup Saving a Layout to a Template Saves the current layout as a template you can use for other files. The files are saved with the .twl extension. Applying a Layout Template* Applies the last template used.