|
Hyperlinks. Hmmmm. I have to think a minute or two on this one.
The mechanics and options for these powerful properties are endless.
Click on any entity in your drawing and open the properties box. No
matter what type of object that you highlight there will be a listing for
adding a hyperlink. Yes, even dimensions can have a hyperlink associated to
them. The most obvious use for hyperlinks would be to associate a web
page link but, let's investigate the insert hyperlink dialogue box to learn
about some other more useful working uses for hyperlinks.
Type in Hyperlink at the command line and select an object. If you
have never been in this dialogue box before you'll be pretty overwhelmed
with the scope and depth of options unfolded before you.
This tip will focus on using saved views and paperspace tabs from within the
current drawing. You can also utilize the same principals within other
drawings on your hard drive or network.
The three options in the vertical "Link To:" area is where we start.
The "View of this drawing" button should be highlighted. You can pick
a Layout tab or a saved view within your drawing that the hyperlink will
take you to when activated. Add some text to describe the hyperlink in
the "text to display" area and pick the OK button. Now, anytime your
cursor is moved over the object a hyperlink symbol will show. If you
hover over the object long enough, the text comment will appear. Sort
of a virtual Post-it note. To activate the hyperlink that pops up, highlight the
object and right click. Expand
the Hyperlink cascade section and pick on the link. Shazam!
You're now looking at the new area in your drawing.
Elevation or section marker blocks with attributes would be the
perfect candidates as objects with hyperlinks that would transport the
current view to the respective layout tab or detail view within your drawing
that corresponds to the original object. Large projects with an index page
could use hyperlinks attached to the text listings of pages to open the correct page
and detail view listed. A small piece of text that might say "Back to
Index" could hyperlink back to the main index page.
The usefulness of this concept depends on the complexity of
your project. Like Xrefs, this complexity will only pay off if you use
the hyperlinked areas frequently or require the usefulness of the hyperlinks. The objective here would be to make
life a little easier for working on complex drawing sets, not to add
complexity for the sake of complexity. The coolest
aspect is that your drawing is now a hyperlinked, dynamic, system of
interrelated views and pages just like a web page.
Lastly a foot note on some system settings for hyperlinks. Open the
Options dialogue box and highlight the User Preferences tab. Ensure that the
two hyperlink options are checked with check marks in the Hyperlink section
in order to see the hyperlinks and tooltips within your drawing.
|
