Drawings Toolbar

2D Drawings Toolbar

Toolbar Option	Description
Add	Allows you to add a new drawing. For more information, see Add Drawings. When you add a new drawing, the Add/Edit Library dialog opens, where you can define its properties. For more information, see Add/Edit Library Dialog.
Edit	Allows you to edit the properties of the current drawing. From this dialog you can also Add and Edit connections to the drawing. When you edit a drawing, the Add/Edit Library dialog opens, where you can view or define its properties. For more information, see Add/Edit Library Dialog.
Delete	Deletes or unlinks the drawing from the asset. Delete deletes the library item from NEXUS. Unlink removes the link to the asset, but keeps the library item.
Launch	Opens the drawing on the local machine using the default viewer.
Drawing Type	You can select which library types appear here. To control what appears on this list, go to Library, edit the library types in question, and tick or untick Show As Drawings.
Include Parents	If you tick Include Parents, drawings on this asset’s parents will be shown in the thumbnail list for you to select.
Copy to Clipboard	Copies the drawing to your clipboard at the current scale and offset shown. The drawing thumbnail and layers will also be included.
Information	Toggles a panel at the bottom of the Drawings tab showing EXIF data for the drawing. Information is shown only for drawings with EXIF data.
Thumbnails	Toggles a panel at the right side of the Drawings tab showing thumbnails for all the images associated with the selected asset. You can customise the layout of this panel using the Customise button in its toolbar.

Layers Menu

Toolbar Option	Description
Layers ‣ Extract Layers	On a PDF drawing with comments/annotations, the Extract Layers tool will be enabled. Click this to extract and create layers for each annotation on the drawing. If the annotation matches an existing asset name in the asset hierarchy, the layers will be automatically linked to their corresponding assets.
Layers ‣ Edit Layers	Click this to add, edit or delete layers on drawings. A ‘layer’ is a region, or a button, or a caption, drawn on the drawing. When you click this menu option, the Add/Edit Layer dialog opens, where you can maintain its properties. For more information, see Add/Edit Layer Dialog. For information about creating and editing layers, see Create Layers and Edit Layers.
Layers ‣ Save	Saves the changes (add/edit/deletions) that you’ve done to layers on this drawing and exits Edit Layers mode. This option is only available if you’ve made changes.
Layers ‣ Cancel	Cancels the changes (add/edit/deletions) that you’ve done to layers on this drawing.
Layers ‣ Layer properties	Shows the properties of the currently selected layers. Different types of layer have different properties. Pick a different item from the Layer Type drop-down to change this layer to another type. You can set a Colour, which will be shown in the shape’s border, and shown translucent in the shape’s area. Opacity sets how translucent — 0 is completely transparent; 100 is completely opaque.
Layers ‣ Delete Layer	Deletes the layer off the drawing.
Layers ‣ Create Layer	If you’re partway through creating, for example, a Polygon layer (see below), you can right-click and choose Create Layer (or press Enter) to complete the shape. This will take you to the Layer Properties dialog for your new layer.
Layers ‣ Cancel Point	If you don’t like the point you’ve just left-clicked to create, you can right-click it and choose Cancel Point (or press Shift-Ctrl-P).
Layers ‣ Cancel Layer	If you don’t like the layer you’re partway through creating, you can right-click it and choose Cancel Layer (or press Escape).
Layers ‣ Copy	Select a layer using the Selection Tool (see below), then right-click and choose Copy (or press Ctrl-C). This will copy the region to NEXUS IC’s internal clipboard.
Layers ‣ Paste	Paste the layer you copied above by right-clicking and choosing Paste (or Ctrl-V). NEXUS will paste the layer in, offset a little from the original. Then click inside the layer with the left mouse button and drag the layer to its desired location.
Layers ‣ Select All	Selects all the layers on the drawing. Tip Using ‘Select All’ is useful way to reposition or delete multiple layers. You can also select multiple layers by holding down the Ctrl key and clicking each layer.
Layers ‣ Clear Selection	Unselects all the layers. This is useful, for example, if you want to unselect the selected layer so you can see the colours of all layers at once. (The selected layer is shown in pale blue; Clear Selection means no layer is so shown.)

Layer Tools

Toolbar Option	Description
Selection Tool	Click this, and when you click on a layer in the drawing, you’ll be selecting it. Ctrl-click to select additional layers. You can click inside a layer and drag to move layers. Click-dragging a point will move just that point.
Rectangle	Click this, then click-drag to create a rectangular region on the drawing. Once complete, you can drag the four corners of the rectangle separately so that it’s not a rectangle anymore.
Polygon	Click this to start drawing a polygon region. Each click in the drawing will add a point to your polygon. Press Enter or right-click and choose Create Layer to complete the polygon.
Ellipse	Click this, then click-drag to create an ellipse region on the drawing. Once complete, this is turned into a 50-sided polygon.
Line Region	This tool is useful for putting regions on P&IDs etc., where you have a thin, possibly branching line and you want to put a narrow region over it. Click the Line Region button, then left-click on an end of the line you want to trace, left-click at the next point that it turns a corner, etc. As with Rectangle, when you complete (by pressing Enter or right-clicking and choosing Complete Layer), the layer is a region and you can adjust all its corners independently.
Caption	Click this, then click in the drawing at the top left of where you would like your caption to appear. In the Layer Properties dialog, type some Caption text. Optionally choose a Caption Colour and a Caption Angle. Blank or 0 gives ordinary horizontal text.
Button	Click this, then click in the drawing at the top left of where you would like your caption to appear. In the Layer Properties dialog, type some Caption text. If you type no text, you will get a very small button, because the button sizes to fit the text.

View Menu

Toolbar Option	Description
View ‣ Fit Width	Changes the pan and zoom on the drawing so that it fits within the width available on the Drawings tab.
View ‣ Fit Height	Changes the pan and zoom on the drawing so that it fits within the height available in the Drawings tab.
View ‣ Default Size	Sets zoom to 100%. This may or may not fit in your Drawings tab, depending on how big the drawing is.
View ‣ Zoom In	Zoom In.
View ‣ Zoom Out	Zoom Out.
View ‣ Zoom Selection	Click this, then in the drawing click and drag a rectangle. NEXUS IC will then zoom to the area you’ve selected.
View ‣ Increase Caption Size	Increases the size of all captions on the drawing: on captions, buttons, and regions.
View ‣ Decrease Caption Size	Decreases similarly.
View ‣ Caption ‣ …	If you select Default, captions will display the text you have set in Layer Properties. If you select Asset Information or Event, NEXUS IC will display a picker. You pick a field, and NEXUS IC will use values from that field to fill captions. This only works for layers that have an asset set in Layer Properties.

Layer Colour Menu

Toolbar Option	Description
Layer Colour ‣ Default	Shows layers on drawings in the colours that you have selected in the Properties of each layer.
Layer Colour ‣ Traffic Lighting	Shows layers on drawings in the colours specified by the currently selected Traffic Light.
Layer Colour ‣ Transparent	Shows layers on drawings as just an outline, in the colours that you have selected in the Properties of each layer.
Layer Colour ‣ Unknown Asset	Shows layers that have an asset in the Known Asset Colour, and layers that don’t have an asset assigned in the Missing Asset Colour. You can configure these in Database ‣ Properties.

3D Drawings Toolbar

3D drawings get different items on their toolbar. Add, Edit, Delete and Colour are as described above.

Toolbar Option	Description
Rotate	When selected, dragging on the 3D drawing will change the “camera” angle. When unselected, dragging on the drawing will pan.
Wireframe / Hidden Lines / Smooth Shading / Flat Shading	Select between the options to control rendering of the drawing. Some options prioritize speed, while others focus on aesthetics. For some drawings, Wireframe may not show anything.
Information	Toggles a panel at the bottom of the Drawings tab showing information for the selected region of the drawing.
Coordinates	Toggles the display of coordinates at the bottom right of the drawing, showing the mouse location.

View Menu

For 3D drawings, the View menu option contains extra items:

Toolbar Option	Description
View ‣ Rotate	Same as the Rotate button.
View ‣ View Direction	Select one of 10 viewing directions. You can get to any of these viewing directions via the Rotate button, but this is faster.
View ‣ Viewports	For a 3D drawing, available viewports will be displayed on this menu.
View ‣ 3D Styles	Same as the Wireframe / Hidden Lines / Smooth Shading / Flat Shading buttons.
View ‣ Hint ‣ …	Similar to View ‣ Caption ‣ …, but information will be displayed as a mouse-over hint on the region you’re currently on, rather than as captions.
View ‣ Show ‣ …	Information and Coordinates are the same as their respective buttons. Grid may or may not show a grid, depending on the drawing. Axis will show/hide the axis orientation arrows at the bottom left of the Drawings tab. North Arrow may or may not show an arrow illustrating the North direction, depending on the drawing.

See also

• Manage Drawings

• Add/Edit Library Dialog

• Add/Edit Layer Dialog