Symbols

Symbols – such as title blocks and north arrows – are added to a drawing’s template under the Symbols tab of the PlantDrafter Template Editor.

PlantDrafter Template Editor showing the Symbols tab.

Adding symbols to a drawing template is very straightforward.

Enter the name of the desired symbol into the Name column.
Enter X and Y placement values in the X and Y columns.
Enter scale information into the X Scale and Y Scale columns.
Enter the desired rotation of the symbol in the Rotation column.
If the symbol is one of PlantDrafter’s special types, select that from the Special column’s drop down list.
- A symbol that includes text nodes is considered to be a title symbol type and the values printed in the symbol are listed under the Title Text tab of the dialog.
- A scale symbol assumes a scale bar of either 2 inches or 62.5 millimeters. A scale symbol also has a list of attributes: 0, the scale value of half the length of the bar, and the scale value of the full length of the bar.

Tip: For users of the full scale functionality, Bentley Systems recommends using a symbol border rather than including a border in the sheet file.

The Symbols section of the Template Editor acts as a table and, therefore, has some extra functionality. A right mouse click in the table area opens a pop up menu that allows you to Copy selected values, Paste data into selected fields, Duplicate the current row, insert a new row (Insert Row), Find a value in the table, and Delete the current row.

Drawing Title Text

As noted above, a title box can be added to a PlantDrafter drawing as a symbol. The attribute values – or text field contents – of the title box are defined in the Title Text tab of the PlantDrafter Template Editor.

PlantDrafter Template Editor showing the Title Text tab.

Important: Note that the text nodes are order dependent. Because of that, the drawing, template, and symbol files provided by Bentley Systems are designed to work together.

Like the Symbols section of the Template Editor, the Title Text section acts as a table and has the extra functionality found with a right mouse click. In addition to Copy, Paste, Duplicate, Insert Row, Find, and Delete, there is the Special Data. The Special Data option allows you to insert the values defined for Project Name, Customer Name, Project Location, and Job Name.