Properties Panel

The Properties

button (Advanced -> Window -> Properties) shows or hides the panel Properties which is usually located in the left part of the screen - on the left of the drawing area. In the classical menu the command is available from the tab View. The hotkey is F4.

It is a dockable, resizable window that contains a list of entities' properties and allows changing them. Double click on the panel's title bar displays the Properties panel in a separate window that you can position anywhere you like on your desktop. The Properties panel is available in Editor and Redline modes.

Properties panel allows making necessary default properties. These properties will be applied to every new entity by default. Default properties are grouped into two categories:

shows the current contents of the Properties panel - i.e what exactly properties are currently shown in this panel. Thus the drop-down menu will contain the name of the selected entity (if any entity or entities are selected) or if no entity is selected the panel will show Default Values which means the properties that are attributed to any new elements of the drawing:

- none of entities are selected. Properties panel shows currently default values applied to new entities.

- a Polyline is selected.

- 3 Polylines are selected.

- 2 different entities are selected.

You can set the default properties as you need. They will be applied to every entity you create as default values. Default properties are grouped into two categories:

Defines entities' color. By default the value is By layer. In ABViewer the color model RGB is used.

•	By layer - selected entities assume the color assigned to the layer the entities were created on;

•	By block - selected entities assume the color of the block which these entities belong to.

•	A set of the main colors. Gives access to the 7 main colors of the palette. When another color is used its number in the color palette is added to the beginning of the list.

•	Select color - calls Select Color dialog box.

Layers drop down list allows selecting the current layer. For HPGL/2 files this list views available pens. When it is necessary to create a new layer (pen), use menu item Viewer Tab ->CAD Image -> Layers.

Linetype list gives access to a set of linetypes for the currently loaded files. The selection of the value from the drop down list sets the current linetype which will be applied to all the objects that will be created. If one or several entities are selected on the drawing the new linetype will be applied only to them.

The used linetypes are stored in the drawing file. Adding a new customer linetype isn't provided. When editing a drawing that was created not in ABViewer only the list of contained there linetypes is available.

Changing linetype scale for the selected entities. This parameter is used when viewing line with non CONTINUOS linetype. It defines multiplayer which is used to count a distance between dashes in the line. The linetype scale can be the same for all the objects or set for each entity separately.

Changing line weight for the selected entities. Line weight must be equal to the standard values. When entering an arbitrary value it is changed to the nearest standard value. You can turn the function of showing the lines according to their lineweight on or off. Each lineweight value corresponds to a number of pixels on the screen. The number of these pixels isn't changed while scaling in the program window. The scale of lineweighht display on the screen is set in the Visualization tab of the Options window.

Defining font for a new text. ABViewer views a list of SHX fonts sorted by name in order of ANSI coding.

Defining symbols' height. Height is set in drawing units. Symbols of multiline text may have different height. The text height can be an integer number or a decimal fraction. A separator is a comma.

Defining the view of a point entity. You can't enter the value from the keyboard. To change the view of the point press [...]. A corresponding window will open.

Sets the dimension style that will be used by default when adding dimensions and leaders to a drawing. For every element the style can be set separately. To create and edit dimension styles use the command Dimension Styles.

Defines dimension arrows' view. The left arrow and the right one may have different arrow views.

Closed filled -	Closed blank -	Closed arrow -
Dot -	Archtick -	Oblique -
Opened -	Origin -	Origin2 -
Open90 -	Open30 -	Dot small -
Dot blank -	Small -	Box blank -
Box filled -	Datum blank -	Datum filled -
Integral -	None -

Defines dimensions' text color. By default the value is By layer. In ABViewer the color model RGB is used.

•	By layer - dimension's text assumes the color assigned to the layer on which dimension(s) was created;

•	By block - dimension's text assumes a color of the block which this dimension(s) belongs to.

•	Select color - calls Select Color dialog box.

Defines a placement of dimension's text on vertical axis relatively to dimension line.

•	Center - a placement of dimension's text in the center between extension lines.

•	Above - a placement of dimension's text over dimension line. A distance between dimension line and base line of the lowest text border is equal to a current value of Offset from dim line parameter.

•	Outside - a placement of dimension's text near the extension line on the side which is the most distant from the first definition point.

•	JIS - a placement of dimension's text accordingly to the JIS (Japanese Industrial Standards).

Defines scale parameter which is used for linear dimensions. It is not recommended to change value by default - 1.

Note: all changes are applied for the current file only. It is necessary to use File -> Save menu item and to save current file as DXF file format.