Project: HiCAD Basics

Start Centre

When you first start HiCAD , the Start Centre is displayed, which is designed to make it easier for you to get started with your construction.

• Create new drawing
• Options
• Load existing drawing
• Switch Start Centre display off

The HiCAD Start Centre

Please note:

• If you click www.isdgroup.de, HiCAD attempts to display the ISD homepage in the browser.
• When you click the HiCAD image, you will obtain information about the version number, the name of the current drawing and the utilised data store. This is the same as calling the HiCAD function in the Help menu.
• When you call the Start Centre again, the values that you set last are displayed as the default values.
• The settings which you have selected in the Start Centre for the Create new drawing start action are even used in HiCAD if you call the New drawing (without DB) function.

Create new drawing 

If you want to create a new drawing by activating the relevant option field, choose here whether you want an individual part or an assembly drawing to be created.

• Part drawing
  In a part drawing, you divide your drawing into main parts and sub-parts. To define the part structure, you use dummy parts which symbolise the assembly. You then assign the assembly-relevant main parts and sub-parts to them. Instead of dummy parts, you can also use the special component type Assembly. 
• Assembly drawing
  You can define 3-D drawings directly when creating the assembly drawing and - if you are working in parallel with HELiOS - enter them into the database. This provides significantly more efficiency, particularly for referencing, itemisation and bills of materials (BOM) creation. 

Options

• Enter drawing into Database
  If you are working with HEliOS, you can define here whether you want the new drawing to be entered in the database. If this box is activated, HiCAD asks you, once you exit the Start Centre, to enter the document attributes. If not, you will be asked to enter the name of the drawing file.

Activate - if desired - the project to which you want the drawing to be assigned.

• Scale
  You can predefine the scale of the drawing here.
• Start mode
  Here, choose the Start mode which you want to be activated once you exit the Start Centre, e.g. 2-D if you want to start the drawing in 2-D or 3-D extruded solid if you want to start the 3-D drawing by creating an extruded solid.

• Create processing plane (only 3-D)
  Here, you can define which of the standard processing planes you want to be created. To do this, activate the desired checkbox.
• View projection and View representation (only 3-D)
  If you want to work in 3-D, you can predefine the model view and the display of the view here.

Load existing drawing

If you have chosen Load existing drawing as the Start mode, you can define here whether you want the drawing to be loaded via the database, Explorer or an interface. As with a new creation, you can also activate the project directly.

Switch Start Centre display off

If you activate the Switch Start Centre display off checkbox and click OK to exit the Start Centre, the current settings will apply as the default settings for whenever you start HiCAD again and create new drawings. The Start Centre is then no longer displayed. To re-activate the Start Centre and to change the settings, click the Settings icon at the upper right of the window, then select Activate Start Centre.The changes to the settings will take effect when you next start HiCAD.

If you click OK to exit the Start Centre, the current settings are used as the default setting. If, on the other hand, you exit the Start Centre by pressing the ESC key or the icon, the settings are ignored.

Managing HiCAD at Start-Up • Manage Drawings • Part Drawing or Assembly Drawing