Ares Commander 2016 offers new tools to improve our productivity

Some of them are grouped in the new “XtraTools” tab.In previous videos, we have seen how “Curved Text” and “Hatch Pattern” work. The “XtraTools” section offers nine more commands. You will gradually discover more XtraTools commands in the future versions of ARES Commander.

The “Break Line” command allows you to draw a line containing a symbol, in this example, a break-out line. But it could be another file in DWG format, for example, to indicate a specific type of cable or a symbol containing the word “gas” to indicate a gas pipe or any other use we wish to assign or any other use we wish to assign.

We simply load a DWG file and the symbol will be integrated into the line we’re going to draw.

From this area, we will be able to control the size of the symbol. After clicking OK, indicate the two points on the line and press ENTER.

Here we have a “simple” text written in 2 separate lines. By double-clicking on one of them we can edit the content more directly.

In turn, thanks to the new “Convert Simple Notes” command, We can select these texts and after pressing ENTER, quickly convert them into multiple lines. Now it contains grips to edit its format. And when we double click on the text, the “Edit Note” box appears a very powerful text editor.

CONVERT SIMPLE NOTES

Thanks to CONVERT SIMPLE NOTES, we can convert and edit one or more lines of plain text as a multiline text. Doing so the text will become editable with this advanced text editor, that was first introduced in the previous version of Ares Commander.Feel free to watch our video of this function; learn more about all its features.

Feel free to watch our video of this function; learn more about all its features.

The new command “ReplaceBlock” can help you to replace any block in your drawing. Select first the block you want to replace and define in this second box the block that will be substituted in all the drawing.

Then click “APPLY” and check in the drawing that it has been replaced everywhere.

A block in the drawing can also be replaced by an external reference. Here is the drawing that we will use.

Now, we use the new “ReplaceBlockByReference” command, and just like before, select the first block of the drawing that we will replace and in the table below, we search and select the folder containing the new block.

Press “APPLY”.

Like this, a block is replaced by an external reference. Among the other commands for blocks, we can also use “ImportBlockAttributes”. With RedefineBlockAttribute we can redefine the shape of a block while keeping its original attributes.

Now, let’s have a look at “GetBlockInfo”.

We select one of the blocks that we have in this drawing. For example this palm tree… and press ENTER.

Ares Commander asks us if we want to count all the same elements in the drawing, we reply yes, simply by writing “Y”. Press ENTER.

A dialog box tells us that there are 133 palm trees blocks. We can convert this information into a table within this drawing, or export it as a file for use in other programs.

“GetBlockInfo” Command

Let’s see another example. After selecting the “GetBlockInfo” command.We select 3 different trees in the drawing. These 3 tree types are blocks. Press ENTER.

Answer “YES” to Ares Commander’s question. We get the amount of the 3 types of trees in this drawing. We turn this into a table and insert it into the drawing.

This is a table entity that we can easily edit with the table editing tools introduced in a previous video. We can edit the font, size, etc.

Do not forget that we can export this information to a file for use in programs such as Excel.We can also get information differently.

Launch again the command but this time, we will select all the drawing, press ENTER and answer “YES” to ARES Commander’s question: We get a complete list of all the blocks used in this drawing.

As we saw earlier in this video, we can easily replace any of the blocks.

We will replace the palm trees of the drawing by a block containing only a circle with a text.

We, therefore, use the ReplaceBlock command.Indicate the block that should be replaced, and the new block.

Click APPLY.As you can see, all the palm trees have been replaced at an amazing speed, regardless of the file size.

“MakeLineStyle” Command

Let me also introduce to you the “MakeLineStyle” command that allows us to create custom line types.

Here we have two lines of a text and a point.

In the dialog box, you can define the filename and path of the LineStyle. We can also assign a name and a description to remind us of the “look” of the line.

Press OK. Beginning and end of the section that will be repeated along the line is defined by 2 points.

After pressing ENTER, we choose the elements that compose it. Press ENTER again, the style has been created and loaded.

We can select this line, and assign the new LineStyle to it. Like this, we create custom line types and enrich our projects with more information.

Finally, Ares Commander 2016 offers the possibility to use a Lisp Explorer, which is essential for programmers working in that language.

If you want to know more about ARES Commander’s XtraTools, visit the HELP offered by the software.

To learn more about ARES Commander, visit our Youtube Channel: GraebertTV