Configuring drawings

You can configure your drawings in the following ways:

• Specify the views and the appearance of the views on the drawing (for example, orientation, font, and balloons). For further details, see Customising Electrode setup sheets.
• Specify the text and layout of the drawings by amending the template:

  Two setup sheets are generated when you run the Electrode wizard. These setup sheets are created from template drawings in the electrode_template model in the C:\Users\Public\Documents\Autodesk\Parts folder. The setup sheets are as follows:

  • Electrode Detail sheet — This shows a view of the individual electrode with the wireframe outline of the stock material. It gives the details for machining the electrode. The sheet is automatically regenerated if you change the properties of the electrode. The template drawing for the machining setup sheet is called electrode_detail_setup_sheet.
  • GA Sheet — This is a top-down view of the model, with the electrode and holders positioned in the burn position. This is the EDM setup sheet and is called electrode_ga_setup_sheet.

  You can modify these template drawings to your own requirements.

  During installation, the electrode_template model is put in:

  C:\Program Files\Autodesk\ PowerShapexxxxx\file\electrode

  where xxxxx is the version number of PowerShape and C is the disk on which PowerShape is installed.

  • When you create setup sheets for the first time, a copy of this model is automatically imported into the C:\Users\Public\Documents\Autodesk\Parts folder.
  • The default template drawings contain a single view and text containing special strings of the form %[string].
  • When you generate the setup sheets from the template drawings, the views are taken from the model and the special text strings are replaced with information relevant to the electrode.
  • Use the text substitution button (Text toolbar) to add an electrode substitution string to the drawing template using the Text Substitutions dialog.

    When a drawing is created, these strings are permanently replaced by the relevant information.

    A text file containing a complete list of substitution strings is included in the PowerShape installation. The file is called:

    electrode_substitutions.txt

    This file is located in:

    C:\Program Files\Autodesk\PowerShapexxxxx\file\electrode

    This text file is updated for each release of PowerShape. In addition, new substitution strings are described in the What's New document.

    The text substitution file is used by the summary spreadsheet (.csv), custom scripts, and drawing templates.

  Note: The default template for the electrode setup sheets is automatically updated when you update PowerShape. However, updating PowerShape will not overwrite a customized setup sheet.