Event Hire Software - Software Solutions for the Event Hire Industry - Event CAD Tutorial 2D/3D Layout and Presentation T S Solutions Limited
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Event CAD 2D/3D Layout and Presentation The Event CAD Tutorial will guide you through the basics of the Event CAD program. From designing a 2D layout to viewing a 3D layout and printing your drawing. Any queries? Look to page 21 for Frequent Issues and Helpful How Tos Flexible and easy to use From 2D to 3D at the touch of a button Print a 2D layout and a 3D colour visual Email your drawings to your Customers Event CAD - Impress your Customers with their own personal layout If you have any questions, or require any further information, please don t hesitate to contact us. T S Solutions Limited 3
Once you have installed Event CAD V12 from our website, double click on the new shortcut on your desktop. You will first be asked to set your default units Press OK Set image quality to LOW Set gutter control to OFF Set default units to MM Double click on the 2nd number in the list for Screen Format Double click on the 1st number on the list for Printer Format Press Save Event CAD will now automatically restart and you will see the following screen. 4
This tutorial will give you some basic steps to enable you to create a marquee, add some tables and chairs, add a dance floor and stage, put some doors and windows in and then print your drawing. To start you need to select your marquee size by clicking on to the left of the screen. The available frames are grouped into leg heights and bay sizes. To move the ribbon along, and see more options, place the cursor on the ribbon and hold the left mouse button down then drag sideways. Once you have chosen your frame size, select it using a single click to see the available options. 5
The drop downs for the first bay and last bay enable you to select a bell shaped end or open end if required. In the drop down under the first Bay Size select the total length of your required marquee (this is shown in mm). In the drop down under the second Bay Size (if shown) select any odd size bays that are needed. Once you have selected your size you will see the bays needed to make up your marquee displayed on the right. You can move the smaller bay to where you want it to be displayed by highlighting it and using the Up / Down arrows at the top. When you are happy with your selection press the icon. 6
You are now back on the 2D layout screen and you can drop the marquee on to the screen by left clicking anywhere. TSS You do not have to worry about the position of the tent at this point, you can move it around once you have dropped it. The best practice is to centre the frame on the green cross on screen which will make moving around in 3D easier. To make the marquee easier to view you can zoom in /out of the screen by holding the right mouse button down and moving the cursor up / down the screen. 7
Next you can add some Tables and Chairs by clicking on then Select the position of the first table on screen (this can be altered after so don t worry about getting it spot on the first time) You will then see a blue cross on screen marking the position. Select the type/colour/number of tables and chairs required. Click on the first square with a? to select the table style and the second to choose a chair style. If you select a covered table, then you can select the colour for the cloth as well. The default colour of the table is automatically shown but you can alter it by clicking on next to the table icon. If needed, you can alter this at a later time if you forget or change your mind. The other criteria that can be set here is the distance from the table centre to the back of the chair (The default distance is set so usually there is no need to alter this). 8
Next select the chair style / colour required. As with the table, click on the box with the? then select the style of chair required. You can also select the seat pad/cover colour in the same way as you did previously with the table colour. There is a default number of chairs set to each table, if you want to alter it you can do so by changing the number in this box. Once you have selected the table and chairs, you will see an image of it on screen. Click anywhere on the drawing to reposition the centre of it if you need to. Next select the number of rows and columns required using the + and buttons. The top set changes the horizontal quantity and the bottom set changes the vertical quantity. You will see the tables appear on screen as you increase the numbers. 9
You can change the layout style here by clicking on and selecting from any of the available options. As you select one, the layout on screen will alter to reflect your choice. The distance between the table centres is set as a default but can be altered if required by using the following section. If you re happy with your selections and the layout on screen, press confirm the selection. to The group of tables is now shown on the layout in red and can still be moved around as a group until you click on to deselect them. You will now have a layout that looks something like this depending on your choices. 10
Next to add is the Dance floor by clicking on then. Set the size of the dance floor using the X, Y and Z dimensions (the illustration helps you see which is which). You can use either metric or imperial measurements but you must stipulate which (if nothing is shown then it assumes mm, if using imperial then use 15 and for inches). If you tick then the material applied to the dance floor will be repeated every metre, if you leave it un-ticked then the material selected will be stretched over the entire surface. This makes a difference when selecting materials like black and white dance floors. You can give a name to any boxes that you use to make it easier to turn items on and off in the drawing. In this case select DANCE FLOOR from the drop down menu (if needed you can free type a new name in here). Next click on the drawing to place the Dance floor, it will be highlighted in blue when you drop it and you can just move it into the correct position by holding the left mouse button down and moving the mouse. Click off the Dance floor to de-select it. 11
You can add a Stage using exactly the same method as the dance floor except that you can name it STAGE instead. TSS The next thing to do is to set the materials for the Dance floor/stage and add some doors and windows in. To do this you need to be in the 3D view which you can access by: - double clicking on the layout - pressing the 3 on your keyboard - clicking on the icon at the bottom: Your initial view will be outside of the tent at ground level. As you are facing the side that needs the doors and windows you can do this to start with. The best practice when changing materials on objects is to only show those objects to make it easier to select them. Click and select the section to view by double clicking on it, in this case WALLS, all others section will go red and be hidden on the drawing. 12
If you are only selecting one item, then just make sure then click on it or press S on your keyboard). is green (if not To select multiple items, make sure is selected as well. To add windows, click on the walls that you are going to change to windows. Select then and to display available material groups. Select TENT WINDOWS from the options and the choices will be displayed for you. If you do not see all of the options, move the bar along by holding the left mouse button down and dragging sideways. Select Georgian windows from the list and click on them. 13
The walls will now have been changed to windows. Change the door, click back on the material select button DOORS 2.3x3. and choose Click on to de-select it then click on the wall you want to change to a door. When it is selected, click on the door type shown on the material ribbon. You should now have a drawing like the one below. The next step is to change the lining behind these walls to be drapes. Go back to and select WALL LINING by double clicking on it. Select the walls that need changing as you did previously and then select the material section of LININGS and choose Curtains-White. When you have changed these go back to and click on at the top to turn on all the normal items in the 3d view. 14
To apply a material to the dance floor and stage, follow a similar procedure to you have just done for the windows/doors. Use the Show button to view only the dance floor, then select it and choose FLOORING from the material selection. Select the Black White material by clicking on it. Do the same for the stage by only showing the STAGE and then applying the material to it. When you have finished go back to and click on at the top to turn on all the normal items in the 3D view. Now click on at the bottom of the screen and move the cursor up or down the screen holding either mouse button to rotate the image and show you the internal layout you have created. You can add objects or alter any of the materials or colours using the same principles you have just used above. The final 3D layout should look something like the one below. 15
To finish the 2D layout and show the doors and windows in 2D, double click on the screen to return to 2D. Select then and then click on from the available options. Click on the 2D Double door and move your mouse onto the layout and click again to drop it. Click on the door edge and hold the mouse down to move it into the correct position. Repeat the process for the windows using the 2D 3m Window. Finally, add any required text to the drawing in 2D to help identify areas. Go to and select to see the following toolbar. Select from one of the pre-defined text labels on the right or type your own text in the box to the top left. To make the text a certain colour, click on BEFORE selecting the text. 16
Once you have entered/selected your text, click on the layout to add it and move it into position. Alter the size using the + and buttons at the bottom. TSS Now that the drawing is complete you can print the image/images to review your drawing. NB- the full print and save options are available once you have purchased the product. To print a single view on the template, skip this next section about saving to the gallery. To print multiple views on one template then you need to save the different views to an internal gallery. To do this get select the required view on screen, select then and You will see your image on screen and to save it press the button. Close that screen to go back to the original drawing. You can save as many different screen shots in either 2D or 3D as you want to put onto your print template. When you are on the final view select again, then select 17
Move the image by clicking and holding the left mouse button on it and moving. To make the image larger or smaller click and hold the right mouse button on the image then either move up or down the screen to get the desired size. To insert another image from the gallery, click on from the top left of the print layout screen. You will then see the current image and any others that you saved. Insert one of these by double clicking on it, and then resize and position as shown before. Don t worry if the image appears blurred as it will print out correctly. 18
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Movement Moving around in the 3D is a little different to the 2D. Holding the LEFT mouse button and moving your mouse forwards and backwards will zoom in / out or you can use the wheel in the centre of your mouse. Holding the RIGHT mouse button and moving your mouse forwards and backwards will move you physically up / down. Holding the LEFT mouse and moving the mouse left / right will rotate the drawing around a centre of rotation based upon your current view point. Holding the RIGHT mouse and moving the mouse left / right will rotate the drawing around the centre of the green cross from the 2D image, a much narrower centre of rotation usually. Help There is a built in help file that you can utilise by clicking on bottom right. from the There are also video help files that can be accessed by clicking on from the bottom right that will show you how to use some of the other aspects of the program. 20
Keyboard Shortcut Keys Here are a few useful keyboard shortcuts Key Function 2 2D view 3 3D view Z Home E Eye Level S Toggle Select C Copy A Show Hidden H Hide/Unhide D Toggle Lock F Select All R Redo Selection G Select in Tent Space Clear Selection V Toggle Ladder Page Up / Page Down Zoom In / Out (in 2D) B Break Links L Linked Objects 21
Frequent Issues and Helpful How Tos Retrieving deleted objects If you wish to take an item off your drawing, don t use to delete it as once you do it is impossible to get that item back unless you use the button which may not be practical if you have done a lot of work since deleting the object and you may have to start again! Instead, select the item and click on visible. to hide the item so it is no longer To then add it back into your drawing, click on all of the items that have been hidden. (at the bottom) to see You can then re-add the item by selecting it, then clicking on (bottom right corner) and your item will be visible on your drawing again once you click on the button (at the bottom). 22
Red Square issue If you have not done this already after downloading the software, you will need to change the default units of your EventCAD. To do this, go into from the top left corner and select Settings. Then set the following fields: - Image Quality to LOW - Gutter Control to OFF - Default Units to MM - Double Click on the Second number in the list below Screen Format * - Double Click on the First number in the list below Printer Format * Select Save and restart Event CAD to apply the changes. *These are the settings that we would recommend if you re using a separate Nvidea graphics card. If you re using a Radeon graphics card, then these settings may not be applicable. 23
Networking the program If you have 2 machines which currently have separate Event CAD folders, you can have a central folder and access the other user s drawings: - You can move the folder to somewhere central like a server for example - You can keep one of the folders local and have the other machine link to that or vice versa Once you have decided where to place the ECData folder, you will need to link it to the program. To do this, go into from the top left corner and select Settings. At the bottom of that window is a field called Server/Data Path. It is in this field that you need to input the path. Please find below some examples: If your data is stored locally: If your data is stored elsewhere on the network, make sure to input the IP address:path as shown below: 24
Change the template heading Go into select then to go to the template settings page. The wording at the top of your template can easily be changed by amending the first line of text shown below starting TX Replace "Event CAD Demo" with "Your Company Name" but make sure to leave the speech marks and only change the text. To increase or decrease the margins, change the numbers in the sequence (TX,40,13) which represent the starting positions from the left and top margin respectively. Click on Refresh to see the result on screen and press the Save button when you are happy with how your template looks. 25
Change the template logo Go into select then to go to the template settings page. Click on the + button of the logo section in the top right corner and browse to the image you wish to use (Please note that the image name can t contain any spaces). To insert the logo which has now been added, insert a line of text below the top line: LG,13,13,30,30,"Logo Name" LG denotes LOGO, the figures can be altered to suit the position and size of the logo on your template: - The first 13 represents how far in from the edge the upper left corner of the logo will be - The second 13 represents how far down from the edge the upper left corner of the logo will be - The first 30 represents how far in from the edge the bottom right corner of the logo will be - The second 30 represents how far down from the edge the bottom right corner of the logo will be Click on Refresh to see the logo on screen and press the Save button when you are ready to store the changes. 26