Add Elements to a Drawing Canvas
Laura Berwick avatar
Written by Laura Berwick
Updated this week

This article covers the following topics:

  • Add to Parts to the Canvas from Menus

  • Drag and Drop Parts onto the Canvas

  • Drag and Drop a Stencil onto the Canvas

  • Stamp Stencils

  • Drag and Drop a Term onto the Canvas

  • Copy and Paste or Paste with New Number

  • Quick Connect Two Stencils with a Connector Line

  • Add a Connector Line from the Stencils Panel

  • Now What?

Add Parts to the Canvas from Menus

  1. Open the Drawing Tool and expand the Parts Panel in the left-hand sidebar.


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  2. If desired, filter the parts list for Unplaced Parts or Unplaced Referenced parts to identify parts that may need to be added to a figure canvas.


  3. Select one or more parts from the Parts Panel.

  4. Select Add to Canvas from either the single part menu to the right of a selected part, or the multi-part menu at the top of the parts panel.


    Note that a part from any figure list in the Parts Panel can be used both in that figure and any other figure, any number of times.

  5. Your parts will be placed at the top of the canvas using the default, part number with lead line stencil. This can be changed as desired using the Default stencil for parts control at the top of the Parts Panel.


Drag and Drop Parts onto the Canvas

  1. Open the Drawing Tool and expand the Parts Panel in the left-hand sidebar.


  2. If desired, filter the parts list for Unplaced Parts or Unplaced Referenced parts to identify parts that may need to be added to a figure canvas.


  3. Select one or more parts from the Parts Panel.

  4. Click the move icon to the left of the selected part(s).


  5. Drag your selected part(s) onto the drawing canvas for the desired figure.



    Note that a part from any figure list in the Parts Panel can be used both in that figure and any other figure, any number of times.

  6. Your parts will be populated using the default, part number with lead line stencil. This can be changed as desired using the Default stencil for parts control at the top of the Parts Panel.


Drag and Drop a Stencil onto the Canvas

  1. Open the Drawing Tool and expand the Stencils Panel in the left-hand sidebar.

  2. Click and drag the desired stencil from the Stencils Panel onto the drawing canvas.


  3. Drop the stencil at your desired location.

  4. Your new stencil will have a new part number and a listing in the Parts panel under the figure list for the figure you placed it on.

Stamp Stencils

Learn more here about quickly populating your canvas with identical stencils.

Drag and Drop a Term onto the Canvas

  1. Open the Drawing Tool and expand the Terms Panel in the left-hand sidebar.

  2. Click and drag the desired term onto the canvas to place the term as a number stencil with a leadline

    OR

    Shift+click and drag the desired term onto the canvas to place the term as a rectangle stencil.


  3. Drop the term at the desired location to place the stencil and create a part having that term as its part name.


Copy and Paste or Paste with New Number

Note that Ctrl+V (Cmd-V) and Ctrl+Shift+B (Cmd+Shift+B) actions now produce the opposite results from their previous functions.

  1. Select one or more stencils on the drawing canvas.

  2. Copy the stencil(s) using Ctrl+C (Cmd-C for Macs) or the Copy option under the Edit menu.

  3. Paste identical stencil(s) with identical part data using Ctrl+V (Cmd-V for Macs) or the Paste option under the Edit menu.

    OR

    Paste the stencil(s) with new part data using Ctrl+Shift+B (Cmd-Shift-B for Macs) or the Paste with New Number option under the Drawing menu.

  4. Stencil(s) will be placed on the canvas with either identical or new part data as described above, and identical appearance attributes.

Quick Connect Two Stencils with a Connector Line

  1. Click to select a stencil on the canvas.

  2. Click the blue arrow to the right of the stencil, and drag a connector line out from the stencil.


  3. Drop the connector line end point onto the stencil you wish to connect.



    Note that two orange anchor points will appear when the connector line is properly connected to both stencils.


    Connector lines are intended to be visual connectors between stencils and do not behave as stencils on their own. It is recommended that you anchor both ends of a connector line as a best practice. If a visible shape is not desired, a small stencil with an invisible border can be created to allow anchoring at both connector line ends.

Add a Connector Line from the Stencils Panel

  1. Click and drag a connector line from the Connectors palette in the left-hand Stencils panel onto the drawing canvas.


  2. Click the blue connector start and end points in turn and drag and drop them onto the stencils you wish to connect, as described above.

Now What?

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