Protect areas in a drawing

Tekla Structures
2022
Tekla Structures

Protect areas in a drawing

You can define protected areas in drawings to prevent text, marks or dimensions from being placed in that area. When Tekla Structures places text, marks, dimensions or other annotation objects in a drawing, it first checks the protection settings.

The drawing view properties contain pre-defined protection settings, which you may change. In GA drawings, you may also define protection settings on the drawing level.

For example, In GA drawings you often want to have different protection settings in plan views and section or detail views. In plan views, you may want to show marks inside the member, for example, a slab. In section and detail views all marks need to be outside the member.

Below is an example of the protection properties dialog with explanations of the selections.

(1) With a selection like this, text and marks may overlap with part corners and edges, but not with part content.

(2) With a selection like this, dimension values may not overlap with other dimension arrowheads, lines or values.

The objects at the top of the dialog box define the areas to be protected, see descriptions below:

Column

Description

Part corners

Part edges

Part content

Text, mark or weld mark

Dimension arrowhead

Dimension line

Dimension value

Cutting line

Section mark

Weld arrow

Weld mark content

The objects on the left in the dialog box define which objects, or object elements, Tekla Structures cannot place in the protected areas. See the descriptions below:

Row

Description

Text, mark or weld mark

Dimension arrowhead

Dimension line

Dimension value

You can check which areas are protected by using the Show protection command. You can enter this command in the Quick Launch box. This command shows the protected areas with colors.

Define automatic protection settings in single-part, assembly and cast unit drawings

  1. On the Drawings & reports tab, click Drawing properties and select the drawing type.
  2. Load drawing properties that are as close to the ones you need as possible.
  3. Click View creation in the options tree, and define the drawing views you want to create.
  4. In the View creation, select a view row, and click View properties
  5. Click Protection in the options tree.

    The settings are same for all drawing types.

  6. Select check boxes to indicate the areas that you want to protect from text, marks, weld marks, associative notes, dimension arrowheads, dimension lines or dimension values.
    • For example, to prevent text, marks, dimensions or other annotation objects from being placed over the inside area of parts, select the third check box on the first row. The first row defines the placement of annotation objects, and the icon above the third check box indicates the inside area of parts. With this setting, Tekla Structures may place annotation objects on the corners and edges of parts.

    • If you clear the first two columns of check boxes, Tekla Structures does not protect part corners and edges. This increases drawing speed and decreases the memory requirements. You can still protect these areas by using the third column of check boxes for part protection.

  7. Click Save to save the view properties.
  8. Click Close to return to drawing properties.
  9. Click Save to save the drawing properties, then click OK and create the drawing.

Define automatic protection settings for GA drawings

In GA drawings, automatic protection settings can only be defined on drawing level.

  1. On the Drawings & reports tab, click Drawing properties and select the drawing type. This time, select GA drawing.
  2. Load drawing properties that are as close to the ones you need as possible.
  3. Click Protection.
  4. Select check boxes to indicate the areas that you want to protect from text, marks, weld marks, associative notes, dimension arrowheads, dimension lines or dimension values.
    • For example, to prevent text, marks, dimensions or other annotation objects from being placed over the inside area of parts, select the third check box on the first row. The first row defines the placement of annotation objects, and the icon above the third check box indicates the inside area of parts. With this setting, Tekla Structures may place annotation objects on the corners and edges of parts.

    • If you clear the first two columns of check boxes, Tekla Structures does not protect part corners and edges. This increases drawing speed and decreases the memory requirements. You can still protect these areas by using the third column of check boxes for part protection.

  5. Click Save as and save the protection settings with a unique name, and OK to return to drawing properties.
  6. Click Save to save the drawing properties, then click OK and create the drawing.

Modify protection settings in an existing drawing on view level

You can modify the protection settings on view level in all drawing types.

  1. When the drawing is open, click the view frame of the view where you want to have different protection settings.
  2. Click Protection in the options tree.

    The settings are same for all drawing types.

  3. Adjust the settings as necessary and click Modify.
In GA drawings, you can also adjust the drawing level protection settings. To do so, double-click the drawing background, click Protection, adjust the settings and click Modify.
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