Creating a Backing Sheet and its Content

To create and display a new BACK, proceed as follows:

1. Navigate to the appropriate SHLB level.

2. Select Create > Backing Sheet.

   It is recommended that you give the new BACK a name that will make its content obvious to users.

   The BACK is a drawing sheet on which you will position one or more NOTEs, each of which may comprise any combination of 2D primitives, text primitives (TEXP) and existing symbol instances (SYMB).

   Hint: You will find it easier to position and align individual NOTE components (that means, primitives, text and/or symbol instances) if you display a working grid with a fairly small spacing (say 10 mm) and set the snap function to on.

3. For each NOTE in turn, select Create > Note > Back.

4. Depending on the detailed design required, create one or more features of the Backing Sheet Note using the Create > 2D Primitives, Create > 2D Symbol and Create > Text options.

5. As you create each feature, use the cursor to position it and, for a primitive, to define its size.

   If the grid snap function prevents you setting the precise position or size that you want, either turn snapping off temporarily or modify the attributes of the primitive later.

Restricting the Usable Area of a Sheet

You can define the usable area of a sheet, so that the area in which a user can create views does not overlap any of the backing sheet annotation, by creating a special NOTE with the name backing_sheet_name/LIMITS. This NOTE should contain just a single RECT primitive that corresponds to the sheet area available to a user. When the user selects the option Create > View > Pre-defined Frame, Draft searches the sheet for this special note and, if found, the VIEW dimensions will be set automatically to fit into the RECT defining the available area.

During creation of any Views the limits are used to set the initial position and size of the View, as shown: