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Entity Locator

Entity Locator

Entity Locator

Menu:

Tools Entity Locator

Shortcut Keys: 

Ctrl + L

 

The Entity Locator command will allow you to find entities on the design screen.  The command is extremely useful when importing files from other drawing formats.  There are often entities on a design that are many units away from the base drawing and are difficult to locate.  The command will provide a list of each group of entities and allow you to zoom in on their locations.

To locate entities on the design screen:

  1. Click on a group of entities in the list.  The software will zoom to the center point location of the group of entities.

  2. Depending on the location and size of the entities, you may need to temporarily hide the paper and turn off the background to make the entities visible on the design screen.  You may also need to zoom in further on an area or make sure all layers are visible in the Layer Manager.

 

If the selected group of entities are not needed to complete the design, you can quickly erase or delete the entities from the design screen.

To delete a group of entities on the design screen:

  1. Click on a group of entities in the list.

  2. Click on the Delete Selected Group button.  All entities within the selected group will be removed from the design screen.  You cannot Undo this action.

 

In most cases the main group of drawing entities will not be positioned on the drawing page.  You will need to reposition the paper behind the group of entities.

To reposition the paper behind a group of entities:

  1. Click on the main group of entities to zoom in on the location.

  2. Click on the Move Paper to New Point button.  The paper will appear on the mouse cursor.  Move the paper to a new location behind the group of entities and click one time with the left mouse button to reposition the paper.

  3. If necessary, make use of the Drawing Page Setup command to change the paper size or scale so the entities will fit on the drawing page.  The Drawing Page Setup command may be open at the same time as the Entity Locator command.

  4. Close the Entity Locator by right mouse clicking on the X in the top right corner of the dialog box.

 

Note:

  • If a group of entities does not appear on the design screen when the software zooms in on their location, make sure the layers are visible in the Layer Manager.

  • When entities are deleted from the design screen using the Delete Selected Groups button, the entities cannot be returned to the screen using the Undo command.  Deleting the entities is a permanent action.

 

 

 

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