Using templates to create print drawings

Use templates for regular identical printing jobs

You can create a print drawing by placing the individual drawings in the project directly into the print drawing. But if you need to regularly create print drawings that present the same types of drawings and information, it is much preferable to use print templates. Templates let you use the same drawing sizes, layouts, and types of extracted data. Print templates are especially helpful for creating, among other documents:

• Regular reports of projects with complex design and featured data.
• Assembly instructions.
• Job cards.

What are templates and how they work

Print templates are special files in which pre-sized frames serve as placeholders for the actual drawings in projects. You can design a template with placeholders for 1ups, layouts, counterplates, 3D models, bridges drawings, and other drawings. When you apply the template to create a print drawing, EngView maps the actual drawings in the project to the respective placeholder in the template: a 1up goes into a 1up placeholder, a 3D model drawing goes into a 3D model placeholder, and so on. Additionally, a template can feature:

• Formulas for extracting project data
• Text. There are two types of text: static, which does not change when you apply the template to a print page, and editable text, which you can alter.
• Statistics about the rules used in a drawing. When the template is applied to create a print page, EngView extracts the data about the rules — most often their lengths and widths — and lists them in a table whose design you have predefined in the template.
• Checklists, which you can use to follow the progress of tasks.

The print drawing that results contains the drawings in their predefined places and scaling.

NOTE: You can create really simple templates — for example ones that feature a single frame. But you can create complex templates that inlude a greater number of features, including text, data-extracting formulas, legends, and checklists. You can choose whether to insert these features into the template or add them separately into each individual print drawing you create.

EngView templates

An EngView installation comes with a set of ready-to-use templates that you can use in your work or modify to make them serve your particular purposes. These templates are stored in the C:\EngViewWork7\Settings\DESIGN FRAMES C:\ProgramData\EngView\Package Designer\SharedSettings\DESIGN FRAMES directory. Apart from these templates, you can create your own ones. Use the links below to learn how to create templates and edit existing ones.