Sometimes you need to edit more than one path. For example, to apply the same colours and report settings to all paths. The Drawing Explorer allows you to edit all paths in all drawings.
- Select Drawing Explorer from the Vehicle Tracking drop down menu or click the Drawing Explorer button on the Vehicle Tracking toolbar. The Drawing Explorer dialog is displayed.
- At the top of the window are the New Drawing Settings. Expand this to display New Path Report Settings and New Path Settings. These are the default swept path settings for new drawings; i.e. the values stored in the settings files. The New Path Report Settings are used when you create a new report and the New Path Settings are used when you create a new path.
Underneath the New Drawing Settings are listed all the drawings that are currently open. Each one expands to display New Path Report Settings, New Path Settings and a list of Autodesk Vehicle Tracking entities. The New Path Report Settings and New Path Settings are the defaults used when you create a new report or path in the current drawing.
- To edit an entity, currently either a Path or a Parking Row, highlight it and click Edit. The properties dialog appropriate to the entity type is displayed.
- Each Path expands to display the Construction Lines and a list of Reports used by that path. This is the same list that you see when you edit a single path by clicking Properties, Reports. To change a report or construction line element, highlight it and click Edit.
- To edit a report or construction line element, highlight it and click Edit exactly as you do when you edit a single path using Properties.
- To add a copy of a report, highlight it and click Duplicate. You can then use Edit to modify it.
- To rename a report, highlight the report and click Rename.
- To add a new report based upon the new report settings for that drawing, highlight the report and click New.
- To remove a report from the list, highlight it report and click Delete.
- To apply the properties of a report element, a set of reports or a path to another like element, highlight the element you want to copy and click Select. Now go to the destination report element and click Replace. You can apply the properties to as many elements as you wish by highlighting them and clicking Replace or click Replace All to apply the properties to all the elements.
If the destination element is more senior in the hierarchy (a drawing contains paths and paths contain reports) then the properties of all child elements in the destination of the same type as the source element is replaced with the source. This is best illustrated by a few examples:
- Example 1: If you select a report and replace a different report, the properties of the replaced report are simply changed to match the selected report, i.e. the sub-reports that are selected, the colours, etc.
- Example 2: If you select a report and replace a path, all reports in the replaced path are removed and replaced by the selected report.
- Example 3: If you select a report and replace a drawing, all the reports associated with all the paths in the drawing (including the New Path Settings and the New Report Settings) are removed and replaced by the selected report.
- Example 4: If you select a path and replace a drawing, all the properties of all the paths in the drawing (including the New Path Settings) are replaced by those of the selected path.
- If you want to add a report to another path, highlight the report you want to copy and click Select. Now highlight the destination path and click Insert. Note the Insert button is disabled when the destination path cannot except the data. A copy of the selected report is inserted. As with Replace, you can continue to click Insert to add the report to other paths or drawings.
As you will have realised by now, the extra power of the Drawing Explorer comes from the ability to replace or add reports to any or all paths within a drawing. In fact this ability extends beyond the current drawing and you can also replace reports or properties in any of the drawings listed in the explorer.
Most of the changes only appear after you close the Drawing Explorer. If you want to see the effect of a change without closing the explorer, click Redraw. However, you should note that every redraw adds data to the drawing to allow Undo to work so don’t get carried away using Redraw for every little change or your drawing may become bloated.