Organising a drawing

A well-organised drawing is quick to change and easy for someone else to read. Musa CAD gives you the same tools drafters have always used: layers to sort objects, blocks for parts you draw again and again, and references to other drawings.

Layers

A layer is like a sheet of tracing paper. Put each kind of object on its own layer, such as outlines, centre lines, hatching, dimensions and notes. Then you can show, hide, lock or recolour a whole kind at once.

Every drawing has layer 0, which cannot be deleted or renamed. New objects go on the current layer, shown on the ribbon’s Layers panel. Pick another layer there to make it current.

Open the Layer Properties Manager with LA. Each layer has:

Setting	What it does
On / Off	An off layer is hidden and not plotted.
Freeze / Thaw	A frozen layer is hidden and left out entirely, which keeps big drawings fast.
Lock / Unlock	Objects on a locked layer show, but cannot be changed.
Color, Linetype, Lineweight	What objects on the layer look like when they are set to ByLayer.
Transparency	How see-through the layer’s objects are, from 0 to 90 percent.
Plot	Whether the layer prints. Turn it off for construction lines and notes to yourself.
Description	A note about what the layer is for.

In the ribbon’s layer list, you can click a layer’s bulb, sun or padlock to turn it off, freeze it or lock it without opening the manager.

The layer tools work by picking objects instead of typing layer names: LAYISO shows only the layers of what you pick, LAYOFF turns off the layer of what you pick, and so on. LAYERP undoes the last layer change.

Command	Type	What it does
LAYER	LA	Open the Layer Properties Manager.
-LAYER	-LA	Layers at the command line: make, set, add, rename, and switch them on, off, frozen, locked.
LAYISO	LAYISO	Turn off every layer but those of the selected objects.
LAYUNISO	LAYUNISO	Turn back on the layers the last LAYISO turned off.
LAYOFF	LAYOFF	Turn off the layer of each object picked.
LAYON	LAYON	Turn on every layer.
LAYFRZ	LAYFRZ	Freeze the layer of each object picked.
LAYTHW	LAYTHW	Thaw every layer.
LAYLCK	LAYLCK	Lock the layer of the object picked.
LAYULK	LAYULK	Unlock the layer of the object picked.
LAYMCUR	LAYMCUR	Make the layer of the object picked the current layer.
LAYCUR	LAYCUR	Move the selected objects to the current layer.
LAYMCH	LAYMCH	Put objects on the layer of another object, or a layer named.
LAYMRG	-LAYMRG	Merge layers: their objects moved to a target layer.
LAYDEL	-LAYDEL	Delete the objects on layers.
LAYWALK	LAYWALK	Show only the layers chosen in a list, one or several at a time.
LAYERP	LAYERP	Put the layer settings back as they were before the last change.
LAYERSTATE	LAS	Save, restore, rename and delete named layer states.

Colour, linetype and lineweight

Each object has a colour, a linetype and a lineweight. Leave them as ByLayer and they follow the layer, which is the easiest drawing to change later. Set them on an object only when it must differ from its layer.

• Linetypes: Continuous, Dashed, Center and Hidden are always there. Load more from a .lin file in the Linetype Manager. How long the dashes are is set by the linetype scale (LTSCALE), and by each object’s own scale (CELTSCALE for new objects).
• Lineweights are line thicknesses, in millimetres. They plot when the Plot window’s Plot object lineweights is ticked. The LWT button on the status bar shows them on screen too.

Command	Type	What it does
COLOR	COL, COLOUR	The colour new objects take: the Select Color window.
LINETYPE	LT, LTYPE	The Linetype Manager: the linetypes, the current one, the linetype scales, and Load... from a .lin file.
LTSCALE	LTS	Set the global linetype scale factor.
LWEIGHT	LW, LINEWEIGHT	The lineweight new objects take, and whether lineweights show: Lineweight Settings.

Blocks

A block is a named group of objects you can place many times, such as a bolt, a door or a title block. Each placement is a block reference. Change the block’s definition and every reference changes with it.

1. Draw the part once.
2. Type B for BLOCK, give it a name and a base point, and select the objects.
3. Place it with I for INSERT, at any scale and rotation.

A block can hold lines, circles, arcs, polylines, text, multiline text, attribute definitions and other blocks. If you select other kinds of objects when making a block, Musa CAD leaves them in place and says how many.

To change a block, open it in the Block Editor with BE, or edit it in place with REFEDIT. WBLOCK writes a block, or a whole drawing, to its own .musa file for use in other drawings.

Command	Type	What it does
BLOCK	B, -BLOCK	Make the selection a block definition (replaced by an insert).
INSERT	I, -INSERT	Insert a block by name with scale and rotation.
BEDIT	BE	Open the Block Editor on a block: its objects to edit, the rest of the drawing hidden.
REFEDIT	REFEDIT	Edit a block definition in place: its members become a working set until REFCLOSE.
WBLOCK	W	Write a block, or the whole drawing, to a .musa file.
BASE	BASE	Set the drawing's insertion base point: where it sits when inserted into another drawing.
BLOCKREPLACE	BLOCKREPLACE	Replace every reference of one block by another.
EXPLODE	X	Break compound objects into their components.
BURST	BURST	Explode blocks, keeping their attribute values as text.
NCOPY	NCOPY	Copy objects out of a block reference, leaving the reference as it is.
XLIST	XLIST	List an object nested in a block reference or xref: what it is, the block, its layer, colour and linetype.

Attributes

Attributes are fill-in fields inside a block, such as a part number or a drawing title. Define them with ATTDEF before you make the block. Each time you insert the block, Musa CAD asks for the values. Change them later with ATTEDIT or EATTEDIT. DATAEXTRACTION can count blocks and list their attribute values in a table or a CSV file.

Command	Type	What it does
ATTDEF	ATT, -ATTDEF	Define a block attribute: modes, tag, prompt, default value and text placement.
ATTEDIT	-ATTEDIT	Change an attribute value on a block reference (one tag, or all).
EATTEDIT	EATTEDIT	Enhanced Attribute Editor: pick a block reference and edit its attribute values in a dialog.
BATTMAN	BATTMAN	Block Attribute Manager: edit, reorder, remove a block's attribute definitions and sync its references.
ATTSYNC	ATTSYNC	Give a block's references its attributes as they are now; the values they have are kept.
ATTDISP	ATTDISP	Attribute visibility: Normal (each attribute's own mode), ON or OFF for all.

External references

An external reference (xref) shows another drawing inside yours, without copying it. When the other drawing changes, yours shows the change the next time it opens, or when you reload it. Use xrefs for a site plan under several building drawings, or a shared title block.

Type XR for XREF, choose Attach, and pick a .musa or .dxf file. Keep referenced files together with the drawing, so the references still work when you move the project.

Command	Type	What it does
XREF	XR, -XREF	External references: attach a drawing as a block that follows its file; detach, reload, ?.
IMAGEATTACH	IAT, -IMAGEATTACH	Attach a raster image (PNG, JPEG, BMP, ...): file, embed or reference, insertion point, scale, rotation.

Groups

A group is a named set of objects that are selected together when you click any one of them. Unlike a block, the objects stay ordinary objects in the drawing. Press Ctrl+H to switch group selection off and on.

Command	Type	What it does
GROUP	G	Make the selected objects a named group.
UNGROUP	UNGROUP	Dissolve a group.
GROUPEDIT	GROUPEDIT	Add objects to a group, remove objects from it, or rename it.

Clean up

Command	Type	What it does
PURGE	PU	Remove unused layers from the drawing.
RENAME	REN	Change the name of a block, dimension style, layer, text style, table style or view.
OVERKILL	-OVERKILL	Delete duplicate objects and combine overlapping collinear lines.
AUDIT	AUDIT	Check the drawing for bad references and structure; optionally fix them.

PURGE removes layers, blocks, styles and other items nothing uses. AUDIT checks the drawing for broken references and can fix them.

Next

• Lay out sheets and print in Layouts, viewports and plotting.