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Apex Sketch v6

1. At this point your sketch should look similar to the following 4 0565240 z Apex Sketch v6 Pro Sketch1 AX6 Home View Tools Help ig A E Ti Hin hp Ea E R a T cE D 100 Imp 1 101 Touch Drawing Method continued Now that you have the hang of drawing straight lines let s draw a few more by inputting following measurements and directions gt 27 feet to the right Anchor the line ENTER ES o y 28 5 feet down Anchor the line ENTER EN 0 10 feet to the left Anchor the line ENTER Note Depending on your resolution your cursor may have moved off of the drawing port causing the drawing port to Auto Pan to follow the drawing cursor We ll discuss this next After drawing the previous lines depending on your resolution your screen may look similar to the following 4356 5a45 z Apex Sketch v6 Pro Sketch1 AX6 Home View Tools i J Y 06 L 0 B ketch u 27 gt gt 4 Lol B T ei D 100 Imp 1 Auto Pan Functionality When we drew our sketch at this resolution and input the 28 5 foot line down the drawing port changed to display what you see in the illustration above Had you been drawing with pencil amp paper you d be faced with the decision to redraw your sketch flip to the back side or tape on an additional sheer of paper to continue Apex
2. Reference Terminology Usage The conventions used in this manual are relatively straightforward The manual is laid out in a progressive format where basic techniques are built upon in subsequent sections and or chapters Note This indicates a note Notes are intended to provide additional suggestions about a topic or procedure and also serve to alert you to precautionary information The following conventions are also used in this reference guide e All button names controls and other application specific items are presented in bold type e All keyboard specific input will be displayed in KEYCAP font For example ctrl Fa etc e Keys are sometimes used together If the manual directs you to press ALT along with the C key this is depicted as c Thus crei suer RJ means to hold down err and suet keys together and then press R This is what we refer to as Short Cut keys Note Throughout this manual we describe how to access functions features and menu items with a mouse keyboard active pen and finger where appropriate for more efficient use of the program Keyboard amp Mouse Mouse actions refer to a left click unless otherwise noted For example Click Ok implies Using the left mouse button click the Ok button on the given dialog Direction Keys is a collective name for the up arrow down arrow left arrow and right arrow Throughout this manual these keys are illustrated as
3. 100 Imperial 1 10 BZ O amp oT Angle Drawn amp Anchored E i Keyboard amp Mouse Drawing Method continued Let s continue with our sketch by completing the rest of the bay window Do this by inputting the following measurements and directions exter 11 feet to the left Anchor the line ENTER 5 feet left Don t press ENTER enter 5 feet up Anchor the line ENTER 10 feet left Anchor the line ENTER Note You re not required to enter Rise or Run in a specific order Just as the above angle was drawn by inputting 5 feet left and 5 feet down the same angle could have been made by inputting 5 feet up and 5 feet left Your screen should look similar to the following AIRGAS z Apex Sketch v6 Pro Sketch1 AXZ o a File Home View Tools Help a po pa e E e az EN Ax 0 Cut Copy Paste Seled Select Delete Undo Redo Rotae DrawColor Subjectinfo Area All v Sketch y Attributes q a 30 0 E E h z g 2 ES 3 y Bi y T O Ps Pa a gt f dE 10 0 gt nN es 7 Dx ta A ee OSA 100 Imperial 1 10 Bay Window Complete coon J aro us Keyboard amp Mouse Drawing Method continued Direct Angle Input Turn Small angles are fairly easy to measure and draw However there are times when you may encounter angled walls where obtaining the R
4. 4 lt and f respectively Navigation to menu items and an associated function is depicted in bold faced SMALL CAPS with a greater than symbol gt to indicate a hierarchal structure For example navigating to the Save function within the File menu is depicted as FILE gt SAVE Active Pen amp Touch Click functions with Pen or Finger are replaced with Tap For example Tap Ok implies Using your pen or finger to tap the Ok button on the given dialog Pinch or Expand implies a two finger pinching or spreading gesture on the surface of your mobile device to perform the described function System Requirements Generally speaking any Desktop Windows Tablet or Tablet PC capable of running Microsoft Windows 7 or higher as the primary operating system can effectively run Apex Sketch We highly recommend a screen resolution of 1366x768 or higher for optimized performance Note Apex Sketch v6 does not support Windows XP or lower Microsoft Windows 7 or higher is required to launch Apex Sketch v6 For the optimum performance we highly recommend Windows 8 or 8 1 Active Pen Required for Inking Apex Sketch v6 is designed to support multiple forms of input However if you wish to take advantage of the inking and hover functionality your device must support active digitizers aka Active Pen Please check with your mobile device manufacturer for more information regarding its
5. Font Settings Auto Save Apex Sketch will automatically save your files for emergencies such as loss of power system crash etc Use this setting to turn On Off and also how often Apex should save your sketch file Image Files When using Export to save your sketch files it will make them according to the size and Color depth you set here Higher Size setting and Color depth will create larger higher quality images Area Code Table This is where you can specify the location of the Area Code Table AXWDDA1 XML This is helpful when working in a server environment where everyone is accessing the same Area Definition Table Font Settings This tab allows you to set the default Font Size and Styles for Dimensions Text Labels and Auto Post Labels 44 45 Options amp Settings continued Drawing Settings General Area Line Properties Drawing Color Display MMB Apex Blue Intenor Line Properties Drawing Color MMB Apex Blue v Hardware Restore Defaults System Settings Area Line Properties Use this setting to specify the default Line Color and Thickness when creating lines Note For Area Line Properties this is a visual ONLY type of setting When the Area is defined the Line Style Properties set within the Area Definition will be applied The purpose of this setting is to allow users to specify a color and thick
6. Pan This function allow you to move your drawing canvas along with the sketch This is particularly an helpful when needing to view a specific section of your sketch while zoomed in or to simply move your sketch to create more drawing space Drawing Port The Drawing Port is the largest area of the UI and is the main work area for creating your sketches Throughout this reference guide we may call it the Drawing Canvas or Sketch Area but they are all referring to the same work area Ol I GASES Apex Sketch v6 Pro Sketch1 AXZ Home View Tools Help upnou sS3 e9 sjoqw s pol auyaa 20 RARO ZO EE Dl a Q 1 109 Imperial 1 10 Select 1 jof1 O amp QOE_K _ o Q__ gt e _ gt r _ ee ee eae ae Sketch Drawing Port 40 41 Options amp Settings Configuration amp Settings is accessed through Tools gt Options where you will find several configuration options that you can change to match your own preferences and or requirements The following is a general description of all the functions contained within the Settings Dialog Common Settings Dialog Properties Before diving into each Tab within the dialog we need to point out the common elements of this dialog Each of these controls are visible regardless of the active tab displayed General Display System Fonts Drawing Restore Defaults Hardwar
7. 4356345 gt Apex Sketch v6 Pro Sketch1 AX6 Home View Tools Y YJ 06 0 A ut Copy Paste Select Select Delete Undo Redo Rotae DrawColor Subjectinfo Area All x Sketch Attribute 30 ei Mp E L T ei D 100 Imp 1 Angle Drawn amp Anchored Turn Feature 107 Touch Drawing Method continued How do determine the angle of the wall without Rise amp Run There are several tools available on the market today to help you measure angles We recommend using the Mite R Gage as it s made of durable material Lexan and has extended arms that aid in the accuracy of your measurements Contact us 800 858 9958 if you re interested in learning more about this measuring device Alignment Mite R Gage There are several alignment tools that ensure your areas are attached and or squaring properly As with previous versions Apex Sketch v6 has various forms of alignment and snapping features at your disposal The following are the alignment functions of Apex Sketch when using in a Touch fashion Finger Movement 948 19 Oj 42 00 Note Becoming proficient with your alignment tools will save you a lot of time when creating your floor plan Auto Alignment While moving your cursor you may notice that it automatically snaps to endpoints of lines and when it comes in alignment with other points Jump Located in the center of the directional pad
8. Tools Menu The Tools Menu contains functions pertaining to program configuration and Bluetooth connectivity DISTO Connect Choosing this option will automatically begin polling for nearby DISTO laser meters Provided your DISTO is equipped with Bluetooth is on and Bluetooth is activated Apex Sketch v6 will automatically detect and connect with your DISTO amp Disconnect Will terminate the Bluetooth connection with your DISTO A Options Choosing Options will open the Configuration amp Settings dialog which allows you to tailor N Apex Sketch v6 around your own needs and preferences Help Menu The Help Menu contains those functions that allow you to view this reference material as well as other helpful options designed to assist you with Apex Sketch v6 If you are unable to find the answers to your questions from this menu please don t hesitate to call us at 800 858 9958 and we ll do our best to assist you with all of your sketching needs BA Reference Guide This is the option you choose to open the Apex Sketch v6 Reference Guide s E mail Apex This option helps to send a message to the Technical Support with any questions you may have Remove License Choose this option if you wish to unregister Apex Sketch v6 from your current device FX This is typically done when changing to new machines and or managing licenses between computers About Will provide you with helpful information when contact Apex Technical
9. version 6 Please wait while the Setup Wizard installs Apex Sketch v6 This may take several minutes Status Copying new files Installation Progress Status When the installation has finished copying the necessary components to your computer you will be notified and given the option to complete the installation Clicking Finish allows the installer to finalize the installation and perform the clean up of temporary files or processes still in memory Apex Sketch v6 has been installed to your computer wo O 2 7 gt IMPORTANT REMINDER If you are installing for the first time or the previous installation was not registered itis critical that you launch and register your product directly Stand Alone before attempting to access through integration Simply launch Apex Sketch TM v6 from your desktop and then register the application Click the Finish button to exit the Setup Wizard Er LLJ SZ WY x Lid a lt Important Note Before running Apex Sketch v6 in an integrated fashion you must first launch the program as stand alone to register your software Complete Finish Dialog Congratulations You ve Successfully Installed Apex Sketch v6 Apex Sketch v6 is ready to be launched for the first time which will lead you through the registration process Registration Process Apex Sketch v6 offers both online and manual activation of your licenses for each computer and or m
10. 12 Active Pen Drawing Method continued Changing a Dimension Hit Boundary In the same manner you would draw lines and annotate your sketch with pencil amp paper Apex allows you to draw lines and input dimensions Now that you ve drawn the first wall unless you are extremely accurate with your flicks most of the lines you draw will require you to edit the dimensions To do this properly you must first learn a critical element of drawing with an Active Pen in Apex Sketch Let s take a look at the 28 line we drew up close Dimension Hit Boundary The above illustration displays what we refer to as the Hit Boundary which appears when hovering over the dimension with an Active Pen In order to change this dimension it is essential that your pen touch down somewhere within the highlighted region for ink recognition to take place A good rule of thumb is to make sure the Hit Boundary is highlighted as above as you touch your pen down on the screen of your device Dimension Text Input Panel DTIP Provided you placed your pen down on the dimension the input panel will display as shown below x Vv This panel will appear once you have touched the dimension with your pen 2 e pe Note Had you not properly touched down within the Hit Boundary this panel would not have appeared x Tapping this button will clear any input you currently have written inked Tapping this button will accept the input you have curre
11. Do Choose Standard or Pro At the time of purchase you should have been notified of what edition of Apex Sketch v6 you have licenses for General speaking however Pro is typically reserved for our Jurisdictional users who require the ability to modify Area Codes to match their counties specific needs requirements Standard is what we often refer to as our Shrink Wrapped edition that requires little modification and largely used as is by the majority of our users If you need help determining which edition you should choose please contact your Apex Representative at 800 858 9958 for assistance Registration Process continued Online registration requires Email Address This is the email address you used or entered in when you created your online account By creating an online account you should have received a confirmation email with your account information along with additional instructions Password This is the password you ve chosen for your online account or that was assigned at the time your account was created Provided you ve input the correct login information and you have available licenses you will see the Registration was Successful message as shown to the right Click or Tap Continue and the program will launch Note If you received any errors you ll be provided with a description of the error that occurred along with options to help you through the registration process Try Again This
12. First Floor GLA2 Second Floor GLA3 Third Floor GLA4 Fourth Floor GBA Gross Building Areas BSMT Basement P P Porch Patio Etc GAR Garage Carport Etc LAND Land SITE Subject Site OTH Storage NCA Non Calculated Area UND Undefined Area Area Information Code GLA Factor 1 00 Name First Floor Desc Gross Living Area Area Calculations O Positive J Negative Line Wall Properties Style Solid Width 4 Color MW Apex Blue Height 8 You can also specify a wall height in this group Fill Properties Style None Color MN Custom Fill Properties If you wish to apply a fill pattern and color to your Se ee ae defined areas select those options C from this group When an area is defined this SmartLabel will be displayed Smart Area Definition This function Apply Cancel is reserved for Smart Labels which allows users to specify which Smart Label will be triggered when this Area Definition is applied Area Definitions Library Applying Factors Factors are sometimes necessary when wanting to apply a percentage above or below the base calculation of an Area For instance some areas such as unfinished basements are allotted a partial percentage If this were 50 you would change this factor to 5 which would be reflected in the calculation once applied Area Calculations Most Area Calculations are
13. Jump will move the cursor to the nearest endpoint It is recommended that you use this function for attached areas and or continuing with partial areas to ensure the lines are truly attached versus the appearance that they are Align Ctrl is a modifier key used to snap to alignment when used in conjunction with arrows When activating Ctrl and pressing an arrow the drawing cursor will travel to the next point of alignment in the specified direction Intersect Ctrl Shift and an arrow will move the cursor in the direction specified until it intersects with another line bypassing all other alignment points that may exist along the way sketches We recommend practicing with these tools until you get a good feel for how they work and the best situations you should use them 108 Touch Drawing Method continued Alignment Styles You can adjust the appearance of alignment in Apex Sketch through Tools gt Options gt Display Tab You can turn them on or off change the style from Dashed to Solid and also adjust the color if the default is not suitable for your preferences Let s make use of our first alignment function to bring the drawing cursor in alignment with the POB Point of Beginning As we covered earlier in this section the Ctrl modifier key is on by default for added convenience x When alignment is on the Ctrl modifier will appear as grey CTRL When alignment is on the Ctrl modifier will appear as orange Unde
14. P P Porch Patio Etc P P Patio P P Porch P P Wood Deck SITE Subject Ste OTH Storage NCA Non Calculated Area UND Undefined Area v Apply Auto Post Code Edit a name Na Calculations Dimensions Outside O Autosubtract overlapped areas 0 Oli OA amp Dx al gt A 100 Imperial 1 12 Apex Sketch v6 Pro o a Rh Define a GLA Gross Living Area A GLA1 First Floor GLA2 Second Floor GLA3 Third Floor GLA4 Fourth Floor GBA Gross Building Areas BSMT Basement P P Porch Patio Etc P P Patio P P Porch P P Wood Deck P P Balcony GAR Garage Carport Etc GAR Garage GAR Carport LAND Land SITE Subject Ste OTH Storage NCA Non Calculated Area UND Undefined Area v Apply DP Sp e amp S FV M Auto Post Edit Fi Name _ Autosubtract overlapped areas b Y Dimensions Outside Y Calculations Da Po La 4 100 Imperial 1 12 vetne ra amp This process hence the name allows you to build areas from existing lines and other areas without the worry of overlapping areas or level by level consideration Additive Area Definition is an intuitive approach to leveraging walls lines you ve already drawn and in some cases determining dimensions that would have been difficult to measure or discern otherwise 131 Additive Area Definition
15. Storage NCA Non Calculated Area UND Undefined Area Apply Auto Post Edit Code J Name Calculations Dimensions Outside Autosubtract overlapped areas Define Area Text Atrium Bath Bed Breakfast Carport Den Dining Room Entrance Family Foyer Garage Kitchen Laundry Living Room Master Patio Porch Suite Utilties Wood Deck Edit Text Labels Symbols Favorites Arrow North Arrow Arrow Pointer Sgl Auto Compact Auto Mid Sized Sedan Auto Pickup Truck Auto SUV Bath Bathtub Rect Bath Shower Corner Bath Shower Std Bath Toilet Com Bath Toilet Res Cased Opening Ceiling Fan 4 Blades Ceiling Fan 5 Blades Door Ext 90 Deg Door French Dbl 45 Deg Door French Dbl 90 Deg Door Garage Dbl Door Garage Sgl Door Int 45 Deg Door Int 90 Deg Door Sliding 6 FP Corner Kitchen Range Std Kitchen Refrigerator 36in Kitchen Sink Dbl Misc Eraser Misc Structural Issue A Symbols Expand All E GLA1 E First Floor 1125 15 Base Area 1125 15 Factor 1 00 Net Area 1125 15 Perimeter 193 89 E GLA2 amp Second Floor 494 22 Base Area 494 22 Factor 1 00 Net Area 494 22 Perimeter 121 94 P P Patio 161 11 Porch 156 00 Er GAR E Garage 273 00 Base Area 273
16. At this point your screen should look similar to the following 4356345 z Apex Sketch v6 Pro Sketch1 AXZ 064 0 6 opy Paste Select Select Delete Undo Redo Rotae DrawColor Subjectinfo Area All y Sketch y Attributes 30 0 yano 1 sojeo sjoqui Xg vo auyog gt Mt 7 4 Le a T ee IN q 100 Imperial 1 Angle Drawn amp Anchored Let s continue with our sketch by completing the rest of the bay window Do this by inputting the following measurements and directions an 11 feet to the left Anchor the line ENTER 5 feet left Don t press ENTER con 5 feet up Anchor the line ENTER 0 10 feet left Anchor the line ENTER Note You re not required to enter Rise or Run in a specific order Just as the above angle was drawn by inputting 5 feet left and 5 feet down the same angle could have been made by inputting 5 feet up and 5 feet left 105 Touch Drawing Method continued Your screen should look similar to the following 4 90R BAO gt Apex Sketch v6 Pro Sketch1 AX6 Home View Tools Help 36 i 506 OG Cut Copy Paste Select Select Delete Undo Redo Rotae DrawColor Subjectinfo Area All Sketch X A ttributes DEPARAN 100 Imp 1 Bay Window Complete Direct Angle Input Turn Small angles are fairly easy to measure and draw However there are times when y
17. and the Big Red Dot will appear as illustrated here As long as the Big Red Dot is displayed when you place your pen down to draw Apex Sketch will connect the next line you draw to the point from which you drew Note Even if your pen ts slightly off as long as the Big Red Dot was displayed it will connect the lines Once you pull your pen away the line will be rendered A CELLET and connected accordingly Other Indicators for Connected Lines There are a couple of visual indicators that also indicate lines are connected properly The angle indicator in this case 90 is displayed Had the 17 line not been connected to the 30 line above the angle would not have been displayed When a segment of a polyline series of connected segments is selected all lines attached to that segment will highlight in green as illustrated above Had the 17 line not been connected to the 30 line above the 30 line would not have changed colors and would have remained Navy 76 Active Pen Drawing Method continued Common Misconception 3 Edit Dimension Orientation Now that the second line of the area is drawn the automatic orientation of the dimension brings up another important concept to cover As you may have noticed with the line drawn in the previous example the dimension automatically rotated While using a tablet in the field the natural tendency is to rotate the tablet so you can proper
18. continued Apex Sketch v6 Pro GLA Gross Living Area GLA2 Second Floor GLA3 Third Floor GLA4 Fourth Floor GBA Gross Building Areas E BSMT Basement P P Porch Patio Etc P P Patio Click or tap the Area Definition in 4 LN this case GLA1 First Floor The OES definition will highlight as illustrated AIAN O Autosubtract overlapped areas SORORE Apex Sketch v6 Pro GBA Gross Buikling Areas BSMT Basement amp P P Porch Patio Etc P P Patio P P Porch P P Wood Deck Click or tap the Apply button to create the First Floor area oS SESS HESS D OTH Storage NCA Non Calculated Area UND Undefined Area Apply Auto Post Edit code Y Name Y Calculations A Dimensions Outside L Autosubtract overlapped areas 100 Imperial 1 12 If you re an existing user the concept of draw first define second may feel a little backwards at first Through repeated use you ll find defining areas in this fashion gets around the issue of having to know what you re drawing before you draw it This is especially true while drawing in the field where many times you simply don t know what you re drawing until much later in the process 132 Additive Area Definition continued GLA Gross Living Area GLA1 First Foor _ GLA2 Second Floor _ GLA3 Third Floor _ GLA4 Fourth Fo
19. definition have been applied Note Had the First Floor not been defined prior to drawing the Second Floor lines as illustrated in the previous step the First Floor would have been much smaller thus produce undesired results To give you a visual illustration of the areas in an unstacked fashion the Second Floor was moved to the right allowing you to see each area in its entirety gt amp y ip 5 S a J f i y DIRA MA OL B i f i ADRIANA ZO A GLA2 Second Floor Defined Patio 518 5 sf Patio 518 5 sf 27 0 726 8 sf 100 Imperial 1 12 4 81 Imperial 1 12 Areas Separated Yano soe sjoquids 1x1 auyaa 128 Additive Area Definition Apex Sketch v6 introduces a new approach to Area Definition that offers much more flexibility than ever before Additive Area Definition is an alternative to the Drag amp Drop method that allows you to build areas by piecing or adding them together As you continue to use this form of Area Definition you may find this to be the preferred method as you do not have to conform to the same rules when using Drag amp Drop A Qk AAS gt Apex Sketch v6 Pro co g fics Sed hae ale Let s start with the same sketch we used for Drag amp Drop Area upnog 518 sjoqw s xa auyag Definition but this time we will use he all of the lines that make up the 2 entire property includi
20. K Smoote Apex Software makes no warranties either expressed or implied as to the complete accuracy of this manual and reserves the right to revise same and to make changes to the contents hereof at any time without notice Apex License Agreement Apex Software hereby grants the purchaser of this software a personal non transferable and non exclusive right and license to use the program under the terms stated in this agreement Title ownership and or rights in and to the program and the related documentation remain with Apex Software Installation and use of this program is limited to the original purchaser in accordance with the terms of sale You and your employees and agents are required to protect the confidentiality of the program You may not transfer distribute or otherwise make the program or documentation available to any third party by any time sharing or otherwise without the prior written consent of Apex Software You may not alter or modify the program You may not copy or reproduce the program or documentation for any purpose except with the written permission of Apex Software You acknowledge that you are receiving only a LIMITED LICENSE TO USE the program and related documentation and that Apex Software retains all rights to the program and documentation This license remains effective until terminated You may terminate this license at any time by returning to Apex Software at your expense the program and related documentation to
21. N A E E E E E E E E E E T 117 Or TE A A cs DISTO D810 Device SQtU Do cccccccccccccssseseseecetscstsssesesesesssasasasisususissesevasasasisusissesesavasasisisssssisessacacssssssseieeseeaeasens 119 Coniquing Apex sketen vo Tor DITOUSE nica 120 OI AP ronca anita eee ean eee eaten E A 120 BM eA A nee aya ear eeen eco eae ecco 120 Chapter 4 Area Definition iii 122 Area Definition ooo cece ccc ces ces eeseesecsessessessesscscssstsssssssssssesssesssissussessessessssissssessessessesississnssessesiestesiseissessesestseiseeseess 123 What happens if the Ines Areas COn CONS aria iia 123 Drag amp Drop Area DeFinition 2 0 ce eeesteseeseeseeseesessessesssessestssississeesessessesississessessesiesisetssessesseetseteeseeee 124 Multi Level Area Delito using Drag Ce DOD sisas ada arcaica pana 127 o NA A AR AAE 129 Modifying Customizing Area Definitions oonooicicincicnioiocinincinnnnnocnocnocnocnnnonnorno roo rno corno ronca 134 Moditying Customizing Area Definitions Area Definitions Panel Continued oo cece 135 PION MNO OM r E cache teenth tad ocho alten aps chet ae sch asion ion cani ane nese tates 185 Area ES SSA 135 SNOSTECUL KEYS amp INK GOSTULES ci ai 136 CITI 137 PUCCIO el nor UCI E FIC TONIC sardina pisetasa 187 OTO EI 137 Additional Ink Gestures ccc cccccccesseseeseeseeseesessessesecsecseensstssusseeseeseesssussnssesseeseesesiesissessessesieeisstesessessesseetseisensies 138 Chapter 1 Getting Started amp Installation
22. O Arc Angle O Rise amp Run Chord Arc Length O Radius Most corners like this one are just rounded corners If that s the case we can easily change the Arc Angle to 90 by hovering over its dimension as shown here Place the pen down and change the Arc Angle to 90 Active Pen Drawing Method continued 17 0 Tap the Accept check button or pull your pen away and the curve will adjust to reflect your changes That s all there is to it Your Screen should look similar to the following Second Area with Curve Drawn Note The previous example is just one of several ways you could construct curves in Apex Sketch v6 You re not restricted to having to create Reference Points For instance if you know the Rise amp Run of the Chord simply edit those dimensions to match your measurements and the chord s length and bearing will be established Where s Auto Trace Apex Sketch v6 no longer requires that you trace common walls back to the POB bringing you once step closer to a Pencil and Paper style of drawing As you may have noticed in the previous area we drew we did not draw additional lines to close the shape We enhanced Area Detection algorithms that allow us to draw only the lines we need to complete areas Say Goodbye to Auto Trace 94 Active Pen Drawing Method continued Let s continue and draw the last area of our sketch by performing the following While
23. Panel e E ESE cba E dna ange adage catatonia 28 PCC e SIAC eee titan 29 Hd a is sa D Taa erent eae etme eae ee ae ee e eee a ee eee eee 29 A Alc mere ee ere eee eenre a ameter re nen Te npn PR Te ve Te onre eT ern Te ene avn ene Tere rrer rer ee 30 ESA AA A A E Cmte omeer arn tyr te nares 31 o AAA A A E AA 32 E as e E ST ECEEN OPE Tine IVRCET CIM TEM PROC TOT CE nIE A 33 ARO ee cera cel A A O O PO etm rN o en reer ener 34 Bluetooth Connection and Ink Disabled INdiCators 2 ccc ees tes ees eesecteetesteseeseesesesesiesissessestestesteentees 35 Sketch Page Indicator oe ccc ccc ccs ees essessesseseeseessesessesscsecsesssssssnsssesesseesssussssesseeseessessssseeseeseessesstsseeseeseeseeteeneeees 35 OO ORSAI O 35 lso dalla Up Display UD AAA E EAE AN E EGAR AAE AAEE 36 ZO SCA CORTOS ass af PAC Gays Celene O A ER ere net ar on Ee SOG we ene ao 38 Canvas VOW LOO A RONEN NER ON OERON a ENS REN OES ROOMS RE 38 Boran OM sot cosn sans sce osrns psn tac de suo E Sods sonata nuascuds eau cna uaa cate sean paso meee 39 Bro A e A o e E EE 39 eaten os AO PRO AQ Bsc 11 le lio y aerererrmreremr ters ber errerpercer er reer We tere rarer feet verre E eer roger ee er ee rte er 40 A e e ee a 4 COMMON Senasa 90 PIO DC CNC S e a NT E NTT NOIN 41 SS a9 O a E E E A S 42 DEDY MN Cle scence IA 43 oO A o PE O EEEE EAE EE EE 43 SA A 44 O coins 44 DE a E AAAA E 45 Chapter 3 Apex Sketch v Drawing Methods 46 Apex Sketch v6 Drawing Methods 0 0
24. Porch P P Wood Deck P P Balcony GAR Garage Carport Etc GAR Garage GAR Carport LAND Land SITE Subject Ste OTH Storage NCA Non Calculated Area UND Undefined Area v 36 5 Note The Area Preview in the lower right indicates how the area will appear when the definition is applied GLA1 First Floor 28 5 Apply a Edit A o t Code Y Name 11 0 Y Calculations Y Dimensions Outside 20 RARO MAY Autosubtract overlapped areas o La Q ROm OO Imperial 1 12 Define rs G amp Drag Area Definition Into Shape Keep in mind that your Area Library may not match or look the same as the illustration above If the category is collapsed sub areas not displayed simply click the to the left of the Main Area Category and the sub areas H H will be displayed Conversely if too many Area Definitions are in view you may click the to collapse the Category Note Main Category Types cannot be used to define areas When attempting to drag a main area type onto the drawing canvas the label will not appear thus the area will not be defined and or calculated Drag amp Drop Area Definition continued Release the mouse button or pull your pen away from the screen and the Area Definition will be applied P P Porch Patio Etc PP Patio In this example the auto post options located in the lower portion of the define area panel have the Name Calculati
25. Select This function allows you to specify what type of entity to select Once chosen all of the entities with the exception of Select Area of that type will be highlighted within the drawing port for the active page Select Area Allows the selection of a single area contained on the active sketch page This f is helpful with sketches that contain many areas making it difficult to locate the area in question A list of areas will be displayed to choose from Select All Areas This allows you to select all drawn defined areas contained on the active Ke sketch page This is helpful when making global changed to line styles color and or fill patterns T Select All Text Label Allows you to select all Text Labels within your sketch This is helpful when making global font changes and or mass deletion Select All Dimensions Allows you to select all dimensions contained within the active sketch page Much like Select All Text this is helpful when making global changes to all of the dimension s font style as well as mass deletion Select All Symbols Allows you to select all symbols contained within the active sketch page E When needing to remove symbols from the sketch this is the quickest approach to selecting them all for deletion Select All Free Form Lines This operation will highlight all free form non calculation lines p contained within the active sketch page This is helpful when removing them from the sketch and or gl
26. Support Having this information handy when speaking with an Apex Representative is very helpful 24 Quick Access Toolbar The Quick Access Toolbar QAT gives you the flexibility to mix and match your frequently used commands making them readily available by adding them to this toolbar QAT Defaults If you do not change anything in the QAT the default commands are as shown below You may change the QAT to contain virtually any command available in Apex Sketch v6 a El a EQ a Mo 4 O Quick Access Toolbar Defaults 1 Window Controls 5 Print Preview 2 Open File 6 Undo 3 Save As 7 Redo 4 Printer Setup 8 QAT Controls Note You can learn more about each command in their respective sections under The Ribbon Menu Accessing the QAT To begin customizing what commands appear in the QAT click or tap the drop down arrow provided on Ww the right side of the toolbar Sef Er pu Customize Quick Access Toolbar Customize Quick Access Toolbar Place Quick Access Toolbar below the Ribbon After clicking the drop down arrow you will be provided with a list of options pertaining to the QAT and Ribbon Menu Minimize the Ribbon This option will allow you to choose the commands that appear on the QAT You can learn more about this in the paragraphs that follow describing Customizing the QAT Customize Quick Access Toolbar Choosing this option will place the QAT below the Ribb
27. a E ee ee eee ee eee eee re ee ee oe ee ere 10 ai o 6 Jesss a Ser ter tere err ae ter Sener denIwEE Ser Mer a Se rn Sener sen wer aeF er 10 Mouse Scroll Wheel Required for Extended Drawing Functionality o cnoconconocinnonencononenonneronnnoss 10 Te Pacal UODO arara aa rene T E TEET E EAE AET eee eer eene ere eer renee 10 Installing Apex Sketch PP PR PP RRE OP E ME OU AEAEE mee a epee ado 11 Registration Process 0 0 ec eeeecscessesestesesesnesesesesesnenesesneaesesucasssueassnsueassusseaesusassnsucasssusacsususeesueneeeseaseesusisensneaesneneaeeneneeeees 14 S SOI O ares aria osito totor ista 14 Manual ROI O iio aiii aeih 16 Chapter 2 Apex Sketch v6 User Interface 18 Ss e Un O O cactacanec E 19 TS RODOM Dans 20 A e E PES PEPE rere Spt eer AIE arene E apt eet Ser eer Severe Ser ner ert ere eet eer artes 20 A PP A 21 A S scorns carecen ecb eeaner ences cane acotecsn ane otasaees anion eapeouscncanenee eemrenentreeeeacceaciaiees 23 A EEE EE PO EE O OE Er EEEE E A 24 Help MN EIDO ON 24 QUIER ACCESS TOOD A a e A E AN EE EE E E E EG E EE A 25 AE Seca eases II IA A 25 Accessing ia 25 E et Ct ee emer ner a eee nen mene E een een etn erences 26 e peat nae ede caida An 27 AE SIE IIE Ng ea E ae ee cate A AE E I E I I ENE E TAE E ote 21 Disco ana e UN E a E A 21 Window Controls o oo ccecccc ees eeseesesteseesessesseseesesssesssssuessssssusssssssussessssussesissussessssussesiseessestesessesissessesiseessesiesesseetesesseeeen 28
28. adjust to reflect the change Now let s change the length of the line Hover over the dimension as shown here Place your pen down and change the dimension to 17 Tap the Accept check button or pull your pen away and the line will adjust to reflect your change 88 Active Pen Drawing Method continued Let s complete our first area by performing the following Hover over the Red Alignment point to the left of the 17 line as illustrated to the right This point is in alignment with the POB Point of Beginning 30 0 Tap the Alignment Point and the line will be drawn 0 o o 00 a Xi eee A AAA 30 0 Hover over the POB Point of Beginning as shown here i 20 0 Tap the POB and the line will be drawn The area is no longer highlighted designating that is has been completed 36 5 4 0 89 Active Pen Drawing Method continued Importance of Using Alignment Points Using alignment is important when squaring your areas Although you could have input 4 0 to the left using alignment here especially off of an angle as illustrated this ensures that your sketch aligns perfectly mathematically It s likely that the 4 0 dimension is rounded in accordance with your decimal precision and NOT actually 4 00 mathematically In this case the same will also be true with the closing dimension Don t worry though Apex Sketch uses the a
29. alignment and other end points In the absence of a keyboard to press J Jump Apex Sketch v6 is set to automatically snap to these points so you can reliably draw off of other endpoints and areas We need to draw attached areas to the first area we ve completed The following exercises will show you how this is done as well as introduce you to drawing curves While in Draw Mode hover over the endpoint where the 30 and 20 lines connect As you move near the point you may notice it snap to alignment and display as before the Big Red Dot ensuring any line you draw will be connected to these lines Place your pen down and draw a line to the right Change the dimension to 17 Once you ve accepted the changes the first line in your new area should appear as illustrated to the right 91 Active Pen Drawing Method continued Drawing Curves with an Active Pen As mentioned in the previous section measuring curves tend to present the biggest challenge in the field However if you can measure it you can draw it By now you ve likely noticed that drawing in Apex Sketch v6 with a pen is driven by visual cues For example when drawing an angle to the left in the direction you are drawing is done by drawing it just as you see it When it comes to curves the approach is no different But before we do this we need to cover the topic of reference points Although you could just draw a curve
30. directly off of the last line we ve drawn the recommended method for drawing curves involves the use of reference points from which we ll establish the chord of the curve In the illustration to the left highlights points that could have been referenced recommended to establish the chord of the curve In this example we know that the curve begins 17 to the right of the 20 line A and 10 up from the 27 line B With this in mind the 17 and 10 line should be drawn before drawing the curve itself While in Draw Mode hover over the endpoint where the 27 and 28 5 lines connect Draw a line up as illustrated to the right and apply what you ve learned to this point by changing the dimension to 10 Once you ve changed the dimension you ve successfully established your reference points for the curve we need to add de Active Pen Drawing Method continued We re ready add the curve to complete this area Let s do this by performing the following Hover over the endpoint of the 17 line Once you have the Big Red Dot draw a big curve as illustrated to the right until you reach the endpoint of the 10 line Note You may draw a shallow curve if you wish This was done for this example to illustrate an obvious curve When the curve is rendered you will be presented with all the elements that you can edit based on the available data you re able to gather on site O Arc Height O Chord Length
31. everything you need to gather to draw them accurately Before we begin the curve it s important to understand all the components that make up the curve with regard to Apex Rise Chord Bearing 20 0 yo Run Chord Bearing Elements of a Curve 112 Touch Drawing Method continued Degree of Curvature Arc Angle Also known as Degree of Curvature takes into account how much of the circle in degrees does this arc measure to You won t need to draw circles to discern the curvature You measure other key elements Arc Length Chord Length Arc Height to achieve that Chord Length Chord Length is the straight measurement between the endpoints of the curve The Chord length is essential in determining the Arc Angle when using the Curve Solver as without it you won t have enough data to build the curve accurately Arc Length This is the most common element of the curve that you d measure in the field since most of your perimeter measurements are taken from the outside of the property You ll find that the majority of the time the curves you encounter are simply rounded corners 90 that are fairly easy to measure However there may be times when the Arc Length is extremely difficult to obtain and you must rely on other measurements to help you construct the curve properly Arc Height Arc Height is the distance from the center of the Chord to the Apex of the Arc This measurement is crucial in determining the Arc Angle
32. handwriting still remains in your display Apex Sketch may be waiting for the Pen Away even to occur Rendered Line and Dimension Once you get the hang of drawing lines using your Active Pen you ll find that you can draw rather quickly using this technique and that it s not all that different from pencil and paper Once you lift your pen away the line and dimension will be displayed to look similar to the following Line and Dimension Rendered After Pen Away Active Pen Drawing Method continued Inking yet no Lines There may be times when you ink in a line and it doesn t appear Beyond of the obvious check to ensure you re in a draw mode the most common reason for lines not rendering may be how you re drawing them Sometimes when we drawing lines we might inadvertently add a tail typically when attempting to count square or be overly precise A Aea E Re axoes 4 of Inking Tail Example When this occurs Apex Sketch may confuse this with a gesture and or not recognize what you re attempting to do To avoid this we recommend the following technique when drawing lines Line Drawing Technique Although this illustration above is a bit exaggerated this technique will greatly enhance your ability to draw lines in Apex With a little practice you ll learn that drawing lines is essentially a flick in the direction you wish to go which naturally causes the Pen Away events we covered earlier
33. if you have the Chord Length but are unable to measure the Arc Length Methods for Drawing Curves To draw curves through the touch panel in Apex Sketch v6 you can choose from the curve tools available Pressing the Curve Left button will bow the curve to the left in relation to drawing direction Each press without any modifiers C will increment the degree of curvature by 15 Pressing the Curve Right button will bow the curve to the right i 4 in relation to drawing direction Each press without any modifiers will increment the degree of curvature by 15 Note Modifiers are Ctrl and Shift which affect the granularity of each press i e 15 5 1 You ll learn more about these modifiers next Touch Drawing Method continued Curve Modifiers Shift amp Ctrl When performing any of the functions to create a curve toggling the amp and keys can aid you in the accuracy based on what elements you are able to measure based on Degree of Curvature or Arc Height Key Press Function D Degree A Bow Curve 19 Or t A Bow Curve 10 5HIF Or xo HE CTRL y SHIFT 1 of pcs Bow Curve 1 The curve for our sketch is a rounded corner 90 whose first point is already establish at the end of the 17 line A in the illustration below We ve also measured our second point to be 10 feet up from the end point of the 27 line B 17 0 Using Reference Points Note Many users find using referenc
34. key LA pa Q Y 100 Imperial 1 12 Select a Jus s Access Define Area Panel 124 125 Drag amp Drop Area Definition continued ja Apex Sketch v6 Pro o a Home View Tools Help Define so GLA Gross Living Area A The Define Area panel will open 4 CLAS Fe Foor The sketch will adjust to GAAS Third Foor accommodate the panel GLA4 Fourth Foor GBA Gross Building Areas BSMT Basement P P Porch Patio Etc P P Patio P P Porch P P Wood Deck P P Balcony GAR Garage Carport Etc GAR Garage GAR Carport LAND Land SITE Subject Ste OTH Storage NCA Non Calculated Area UND Undefined Area v Note When clicking the Define Area Tab the sketch will not adjust until you lock the tab open by clicking or tapping the Y button When used in an unlocked fashion the panel will auto close when the definition is gt Z dragged out of the panel i Bome C Outside Apply D P Ge BR RY 4 eN Auto Post Edit 1 Code Name O Autosubtract overlapped areas 2 2 4a a e 100 imperia 1 2 ORRORE Define Area Panel Open r A GR BA gt Apex Sketch v6 Pro o a Home View Tools Help Define 2 GLA Gross Living Area A y Locate the Area Definition you wish use in your library and drag it into the area you wish to apply it to P P Porch Patio Etc P P Patio P P
35. left make sure ES is active Anchor the line ENTER NIT Press ENTER to pick the pen up Your screen should look similar to the following AIRGAS Apex Sketch v6 Pro Sketch1 AX6 O S Cut Copy Paste Select Select Delete Undo Redo Rotae DrawColor Subjectinfo Area All x Sketch X Attribu 30 e Mp E Le B T ei D 100 Imp 1 All Areas Drawn Not Defined Now that you ve completed drawing your sketch with Keyboard amp Mouse all you need to do now is define the areas you ve just drawn You can skip ahead to Chapter 4 Area Definition to learn more about this topic 116 117 LJ DISTO Drawing Remember when you wished that you could just think your sketches right onto your clipboard Well this isn t that either but we come pretty close We ll show you how to use your DISTO to transmit your measurements to your Windows Tablet device Whether you prefer to edit lines as you go or actually control distance and direction from your DISTO laser meter you ll learn why so many people have shelved their tape measures Pairing your DISTO Before you can begin transmitting information to Apex Sketch v6 it is essential that you pair your DISTO with your mobile device The following will guide you through an example of pairing a DISTO laser meter with Windows 8 8 1 which should be very similar regardless of your DISTO model or operating system Turn on your DISTO Pre
36. ll discuss this next 53 Ey Keyboard amp Mouse Drawing Method continued After drawing the previous lines depending on your resolution your screen may look similar to the following 4 90R B45 5 Apex Sketch v6 Pro Sketch1 AXZ o Home View Tools Help ES A oi Y ENE a xoeG amp Dd amp Cut Copy Paste Select Select Delete Undo Redo Rotate DrawColor Subjectinfo Area All ketch Attributes I be 27 0 Ono sajeo stoqui g pa Jauyeq CP pegang WD 9 i Ea l E Al A U 100 Imperial 1 10 fra O amp Auto Pan Functionality When we drew our sketch at this resolution and input the 28 5 foot line down the drawing port changed to display what you see in the illustration above Had you been drawing with pencil amp paper you d be faced with the decision to redraw your sketch flip to the back side or tape on an additional sheer of paper to continue Apex Sketch is designed to reduce this frustration by providing a canvas that grows to accommodate anything you draw Auto Pan Apex Sketch v6 will automatically pan the drawing port whenever you draw outside of its boundaries This is done to always keep your drawing cursor in view This is helpful when drawing large properties where viewing the entire sketch at once would make it too small to see its dimensions Center Sketch and Center amp Fit If you wish to bring your sket
37. option allows you to try again as you may have input the wrong information Manage Account Manage Account will launch the Apex Web Services Registration where you can view your license history purchase additional licenses and manage existing licenses Help Choose this option if you wish to send Apex an email requesting assistance This will prompt you for contact information and a brief description of the problem you re experiencing An Apex representative will contact you as soon as possible Registration Successful A license from your account has been consumed for this computer You will receive an email shortly informing you of the activity on your account Continue to launch the program Thank you for choosing Apex Email and Password Required An e mail address and password are required to register the product Retry registering the application Launch Apex Web Services to purchase Manage Account additional licenses or deactivate and reactivate an existing license Help Send an email to an Apex representative requesting assistance If you continue to experience problems you may also contact Technical Support at 888 308 2722 Monday through Friday 8 30 AM to 5 30 PM CST Registration Process continued Manual Registration This process requires assistance from an Apex Representative When choosing this option you will see the following dialog B Apex Sketch requires activation in order to la
38. plans and hand drawings or drawing on site the process is the same We ll cover Area Definition in Chapter 4 Drawing Modes Before you can begin drawing you must first be in a drawing mode When you launch Apex Sketch v6 this is the default mode the program is set to so you can begin drawing immediately To activate a drawing mode simply tap on Draw Exterior or Draw Interior located in the toolbar on the left side of the user interface Draw Area Exterior This Drawing mode allows you to draw lines typically exterior which will be E used for calculation purposes Simply put if you want need to calculate the shapes you draw this is the tool you should use _ Draw Interior This Drawing mode allows you to draw lines typically interior which will be used for ip illustration non calculation purposes This line style is generally used to depict interior floor plans fence lines property lots streets etc Now that you have a Drawing Mode selected your cursor will change to a Crosshair which will change in appearance depending upon its state Cursor States Part of our improvement to provide a Draw First paradigm is the added ability to draw wherever you wish whenever you wish This freestyle approach however requires some visual cues that indicate whether the pen is Up or Down Pen Up The basic rule of thumb about Pen Up is when it is in the state lines will not be drawn This allows you to move your cursor wh
39. positive and default to this setting However there may be times where certain area types are always negative and should be defined as such In these special circumstances you would set the calculation to negative For areas that are occasionally negative for calculation purposes stairwells atriums etc you can make it negative using the context menu provided in Select Mode Appendix Shortcut Keys amp Ink Gestures 136 5 Keyboard Shortcuts F 7 7 T D o F12 eE REE RE e E E ly Save Sketch Open Sketch Area Definition Draw Interior Mode View Calcs Save As Auto Close Center Sketch Curve Degree Mode Draw Exterior Mode Horizontal Orientation Draw Interior Mode Jump to Point Rotate Left Parallel Pointer DOBBBE m INS ALT El maA ca Additional Short Cut Key Functionality A few of the above listed keys have several functions depending on the mode you are in Rotate Right Symbol Library Text Library Vertical Orientation Grow TenKey Shrink TenKey Delete Selected Line Insert Line Center amp Fit Rotate Selected 5 Swap POB Undo Redo Select All Cut crr c f CTRL v Copy Paste Move Draw Up Move Draw Down Move Draw Left Move Draw Right Align Up Align Down Align Left Align Rig
40. rain an ran an aan aan aa aaa 70 A A EEEE del Nono om o AAA E E E E A AAE YA A A O O te CHANN a DM iS OWN ALEDO S 13 Ie MSO aie tse a PPP AEA ATA To a Ble or NY PEAN a O 74 Fle A ICS le Ue tartans ance ca aca Sa aca td ca esa cacptatcatm aca Saad case aca at en 74 Common MISC OMG SO on VV FIC mallas 74 a GEINE aaa wore Nae ne nt RT UA TRI Re TOURS OTRO ate rn ner eR er ener Tren ee CNY IN 72 O O A A E 76 Other Indicators for Connected LINES oo eee ceccscssessssssesseseseesssescesssesensseeseseseessseseenssescensseesensseeseseseeseseseensseeceneseees 76 Common VMisconcepuon 3 Ele Dimensiones Ly Centering your iia 79 O Ene A aa tout Natu E E 82 Is E 84 iE aR aE ou ale E AE mem ante A ne tee ene en ee 8 Morancos ME AIN E ROMS AAA 90 Drawing Attached multiple Areas oo ccccccscscsessssscsssessscsesessssssesessssscsussssssssssssisscsteusseseststssessssstsesssesneueees 90 E NR A e E o np phan ante sane ane ee 9 Drawno Cunos Nitir Mmacive Peace ad 92 A SN E E r hd ate ela ieee cea te aa eld EAE AANE EA 94 Touch Drawing Method ss icziicscinisisasdassiasainaadstetensdatelaantatedeenszandacnladsdassd sbalaaadatinasdabidaaniiadeentsandaandaintnsndstatsasdannlnaptansdeta 97 ETS OA O Ula I Rem emma amen mee amen cent nent A ny re nner te IT Define Area OC CSS AA aut cde eee eutectic cubation akanan 98 E ao APA o O 98 A O One Cnt 98 PES me ee o pete T enn terete er tae ts 99 Finger DIRALA IO whe DR T ines olmenerenmee ar onare E O
41. select a category of Symbols trom which to choose Breaking the symbols up into categories makes the 200 Symbols far easier to manager The Favorites category open by default Knowing this you may add to or remove symbols from this library to display only those you typically use Symbol Library Once a category is chosen the list below will populate with the symbols contained within that directory Symbol Preview As symbols are selected as shown by the highlight to the left a preview of the symbol is displayed at the bottom of the panel making it easier and quicker to verify the symbol you want to use Scroll Bar The presence of a scroll bar indicates there are more Symbols in this category than can be listen in this panel Use the scroll bar to view more symbols in the displayed category eye Area Calculations Panel This panel allows you to view the calculations of all defined areas drawn in your floor plan This is presented in a tree format which can be expanded or collapsed to expose only those elements and or areas you wish to review You can learn more about this panel through examples we illustrate in Chapter 4 Area Definition What follows is a brief description of the elements that make up the Area Calculations Panel Expand All Clicking Expand All will open all additional Calcs q UO UO _ amp Second Floor 494 22 P P Expand All gt GLAL El First Floor 1125 15 Base Area 1125 15 Facto
42. the Cancel button Active QAT Commands This displays the list of Q commands that are available displayed from the QAT OK amp Cancel Clicking OK will accept any modifications made Cancel will discard any changes and close the window 26 Title Bar The Title Bar displays the program edition along with the name of the active sketch file loaded in Apex Sketch vo This information varies based on the edition of the program and or how the program was launched Program Edition Depending on your industry you will see one of the following Program Names displayed in the title bar This information can be helpful when speaking with an Apex Technical Support representative when determining which version of the software you currently have installed Apex Sketch v6 Standard This is the most commonly installed version of Apex and provides what we often refer to as Shrink Wrapped functionality This contains many of the same features as the Pro edition but provides limited customization Apex Sketch v6 Pro This edition of Apex Sketch is commonly used in industries that require a high level of customization based on their region or location as well as their varying client base For instance the Pro edition allows users to tailor the Area Definitions library to match their jurisdictional naming conventions or requirements through integration with their property record management system s Apex Sketch v6 Metric Commonly refe
43. this component At first glance the menus look no different than any other Windows application However once you access one of the menus you ll quickly notice the difference The ribbon bar has a lot more to offer than traditional pull down menus All the functions are placed in a horizontal fashion giving access to your tools with minimal intrusion of your work space Note To hide the Ribbon Menu at any time you may double click or double tap the menu tab This places the Ribbon in an alternative mode that will quto hide after you have selected a menu item File Menu The File Menu consists of system type operations that pertain to the actual Sketch Files themselves This is also where you will find other pertinent functions such Import Export and Print gt 4 Di DE New crrJ NJ Choose this option when you want to begin a new sketch file This action will immediately open an empty sketch file If you haven t saved your current sketch file you will be prompted to save your work before continuing Open F3 Use Open if you wish to open an existing sketch file Doing so will launch the File open dialog and display the Open Files directory Save F2 When you re ready to save your work choose this option If you haven t previously saved your sketch the File Save dialog will open and display the Save File directory where you will be prompted to give your sketch a name Save As If you d like
44. will provide you with additional installation options pertaining to the Shortcuts you will use to access the application If you do not wish to create the shortcuts to your desktop or taskbar uncheck the options you wish to remove Click or Tap Next to continue Once you see the dialog illustrated to the right you have completed everything necessary to begin the installation of Apex Sketch v6 This dialog gives you one last opportunity to change any selections before installing the program files to your computer or mobile device If you re satisfied with your selections Click or Tap Install to continue After launching the install process from the previous dialog the installer will display a status bar marking the progress during the installation Apex Sketch v6 Shortcuts Da apexskeTcH MA version 6 Setup can create shortcuts to Apex Sketch v6 on your Desktop and in the Quick Launch bar Would you like Setup to create the shortcuts v es I would like to create the Apex Sketch v6 shortcut on the Desktop Y Yes I would like to create the Apex Sketch v6 shortcut in the Quick Launch bar Shortcut Options Ready to Install The Setup Wizard is ready to begin the installation Da apexskeTCH MA version 6 Click Install to begin the installation If you want to review or change any of your installation settings dick Back Click Cancel to exit the wizard Ready to Install Confirmation Dialog Anapexoceror
45. wish to lock tack the panel to an open state click or tap the tack located in the upper right of the panel Untacked This symbol designates that the panel is untacked unlocked which will cause the panel to automatically close after an action is performed Tacked This symbol designates that the panel is tacked locked which will keep the panel open until m another mode is selected and or is closed by clicking or tapping it once again Tacking any of the panels open will adjust the drawing canvas accordingly along with the sketch The Area Definition Panel This panel is used to apply an Area Definition to a closed shape in order to calculate its area and apply any associated area properties i e Line Styles Color and Fill Patterns This panel supports drag and drop by which you can drag Area Definitions into the shape of your choice drop it and the Calculations will be done instantly You can learn more about this panel through examples we illustrate in Chapter 4 Area Definition What follows is a brief description of the elements that make up the Area Definition Panel Expanded Main Area Category The Main Area Type is the leftmost label in the list tree When expanded a GLA Gross Living Area GLAL First Floor O minus will be displayed to the left of the label To SLA2 Second Floor collapse a category click or tap the which will remove GLA3 Third Floor the sub areas from displa
46. with the highlighted point s There are several alignment tools that ensure your areas are attached and or squaring properly As with previous versions Apex Sketch v6 has various forms of alignment and snapping features at your disposal The following are the alignment functions of Apex Sketch when using Keyboard amp Mouse Auto Alignment While moving your mouse you will notice the drawing cursor automatically snaps to endpoints of lines and when it comes in alignment with other points Mouse Movement Jump Will jump to the nearest endpoint It is recommended that you use this function for attached areas and or continuing with partial areas to ensure the lines are truly attached versus the appearance that they are Align Ctrl is a modifier key used to snap to alignment when used in conjunction with arrow keys When ctr pressing Ctrl and an arrow key your drawing cursor will travel to the next point of alignment in the specified direction Intersect Ctrl Shift and an arrow key allow you to travel in the direction specified until the drawing cra srt cursor intersects with another line bypassing all other alignment points that may exist along the way Note Becoming proficient with your alignment tools will save you a lot of time when creating your floor plan sketches We recommend practicing with these tools until you get a good feel for how they work and the best situations you should use them Ali
47. 00 Factor 1 00 Net Area 273 00 Perimeter 68 00 Area Calculations Collapse All Defined Areas 5 Total Gross Living Area 1619 38 Total Gross Building Area 0 00 Touch RA tf if SHIFT DE x A 5 OD Da BBE ol Je CE eos US Touch Panel 2 8 29 Accessing the Panels There are couple of ways you can access the panels The most common method is performed automatically whenever a mode is selected from the Modes Toolbar located to the left of the interface Secondarily the panels may be accessed by clicking or tapping the corresponding Tab located to the right of the interface The following illustrates these methods T v or or sjoqui s x uy d 5385 L 9no 1 Define Area Mode This opens the Area Definition Library Panel Text Label Mode This opens the Text Library Symbols Mode This opens the Symbol Library View Calculations This opens the Calculations Panel see note below Touch Mode This opens the Touch Panel Note The Calculations Panel is not a Mode thus does not have a button within the Modes Toolbar However it can be opened through the View Calcs button located on the View Menu Locking Tacking Panels Open By default the panels are designed to open when clicking or tapping or hovering over them and then automatically close once an action has been performed If you
48. Apex Sketch v6 Apex Software San Antonio Texas IO TT 800 858 9958 am 5 30pm CST Www apexwin com Reference Guide E This reference guide is your resource to everything Apex Sketch v6 has to offer including exercises that will have yOu drawing Das simple to complex drawings in a matter of minutes With each successive upgrade to the software We Make eveya effort to keep the drawing techniques and methods Consistent from one version to the next For existing users many portions of what you ll read in this guide will be very familiar It you re new to Apex we recommend that you spend some time going through the exercises as they will be your fastest hands on Way ton drawing sketches Apex Sketch Copyright 1987 2015 Starcap Marketing LLC dba Apex Software All Rights Reserved No part of this manual may be reproduced reduced translated or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical including but not limited to photo copying recording or transferring by any information retrieval system without the prior written permission of Apex Software Application Concept and Design Randall H Garrett Robert K Smoote Engineering Programming Andrew Prochaska John H Clements Product Management Robert K Smoote Project Management lain G Nicholson Testing QA Jonathan D Colon lain G Nicholson Brian V Marino Steven L Kemp Apex Art Manual Design Implementation Robert
49. E O AN 99 DraWino with Distance DIS cun Witla OUCH PAINE aaas 99 DN OUT Wea ee Ie Oe E E acta ecru erence E E E OE ane 99 o IA 198 HALA Iii ds AO les y CO OPEP O oo o 103 A O O 104 O 0 Beene enene re RntER E REE 104 Drawing Bay VVINGOW INFO Uco KISS Ce RUIN unos 104 CEKAO o O O EM UU O 105 ISA AO A A ere Tent et rrr teen ner ere rete te err ener ore ere eran 106 How do determine the angle of the wall without Rise amp RUN cccocoiciccociococoninonnnnnnnnnranoncnranoonorannonarannnnano 108 A etiam een eae eee caesar ia Aten 108 POA E Mei asa hc E AAA ones ues EAEE EE AE 109 Importance of Using Alignment TOO S ooococococccnoninnnacoconecennononenncnenennonenennrnonecnnnonornrnenncnrnennrnrnonnnnrno carnero rar nrnnrnnss 110 Completa a SCI AU Oria TIQ N Drawing Attached Areas cccccccescssesscssestesscesessesececsscssesecesnssenscecssestessccansuenecssnsesseseceanssenscesnssatececesnsnessceanstatencenees 111 PANO O E hapemapstapemanstapenanstenctenstntte 112 Degree of Curvature Arc Angle cccccccccccccscssssssssesssssesssssssassussssssssssassisussssisissssssasssesssnsisesansisssatssesssteseeeseseaeeess 113 PP PESO OO E N 113 A i EEE EEEE EEEE NEE E EEE 113 ALC mO a occ cccccccccscsessssessssstssesessssvesesesssvssessssssasssessasavsssssasasassssssssavsssssssasasessssisavsusssisscssessisscssuessscscsteusesscaneneseeen 113 Methoas TOM Drawing CUIVES saco Ts Curve Modifiers Shift Se Ct arnes 114 PRILET D E S aaa 117 o E TN
50. Moving forward the hover for the Big Red Dot and Hit Boundary will be assumed 78 19 Active Pen Drawing Method continued Hover over the open end of the 20 line The Big Red Dot should appear Once it does place your pen down and draw ink a line to the right Remember you don t need to worry about the length The line will render as shown here Hover over the dimension to display the Hit Boundary Place your pen down to display the input panel While your pen is still down change the dimension to 27 as illustrated Centering your Sketch You ve already learned that you can press C or suiet cf to Center or Center Fit your sketch from a keyboard perspective However while mobile using a keyboard and or mouse isn t always feasible and certainly counterproductive Located in the lower left portion of the interface are the Canvas Tools discussed in Chapter 2 These tools are designed to assist mobile users with maintaining the view of the sketch Active Pen Drawing Method continued Center This function will which will center the sketch in the Drawing Port This is convenient while drawing as it allows you to quickly adjust your sketch whenever you draw off of the drawing port keeping it in view Center Fit Although the Center function is valuable sometimes centering your sketch isn t enough JA as your sketch may be too large or too small in its current size T
51. O models such as the D510 and E7500i the only usable setting is Edit in Place as these models do not the directional drawing of Apex Sketch s Interactive mode configuration settings by selection Options trom the Tools menu DISTO Discovery General 9 Automatic Display J Manual Hardware oaa Rounding None System Drawing Mode Interactive Edit In Place Fonts Interactive Drawing Restore Defaults Hardware DISTO Settings Edit in Place Edit in place allows you to draw single or multiple lines and transmit your measurements to the active selected line Interactive Interactive mode allows Apex Sketch to receive both measurement and direction allowing you to draw your sketches almost exclusively from your DISTO device Although you may choose this selection for any DISTO it will not function properly with the D510 or E7500i because they do not pass directional information The D810 is limited to Up Down Left Right bearings as it does not support pass diagonal direction as previous models do i e D8 A6 Plus Note You ll learn more about Edit in Place and Interactive drawing later in this chapter Connecting to your DISTO from Apex Sketch v6 It is not necessary for you to establish connection with your DISTO outside of Apex Sketch rather that you only pair the device as described at the beginning of this section Once you have paired your DISTO and made any necessary conf
52. Preview As you select Area Definitions the Area Preview will update illustrating the Area Attributes that will be applied Edit Button This button accesses the Area Definitions Configuration which allows you to modify existing Area Definitions or create new Area Definitions You can learn more about this in Chapter 4 which covers Defining Areas Text Label Panel The Text Label Panel provides you with access to your most frequently used labels allowing you to quickly annotate your floor plan sketches A default set of labels is provided which can be edited to match your requirements and or preferences You can learn more about this panel through examples we illustrate in Chapter 5 Sketch Annotation What follows is a brief description of the elements that make up the Text Library Panel Text Input Panel The input panel provided is primarily used when the Text Label you wish to use does not exist O in the list This is helpful for placing Text Labels that are Bath rarely used Otherwise we recommend adding the Text Bed Label to the list for convenience Breakfast Text Label List This list displays the labels that are currently contained in your library This list is always Dining Room irnos displayed in alphabetical order Family ae Edit This is used when editing the list of labels in your Kitchen library You can learn more about this in Chapter 5 Sketch eae Annotation wing Room Master ard Rolodex Control Th
53. RE IOC AA E EEE 61 C mpleing Areas o CO Eson tan sca trea vata tna tater asa aara goaa E E OEEO 62 AC I Sameer et et are ent pe EP fee a a SPT ave Mew are wee St Wet Pee vel eee Met ae Wer are eee 62 N ARS ES O A A 62 PESO lo LO o AAA O II ere eer er ene eee nene erry er ers 63 E rst aca ch ca a a a dated aden ade ade ade aden sade EE AEE O 64 Dedres Or Uy Sy FC PIS alot 65 POS E A Lope ete O artery AUNT A tt ere eee ree a 65 A CI a O 65 FT tee E ncn aap ou ooo sta cece testa ce ante caeae 65 BEC Fee sO Oley atl o A CHEGA Eurasia 65 Cure AOI SSIES CY eri ii da detail belie lab ie labia dated aida da nbd 66 Keyboard amp Mouse Drawing Method CONTINUE oo cccccecsescenesesesestesesesestesesesesneusseseststesesesesteuesesesneueees 6 Key ooard lt Viouse Drawing Method CONTINUE c cniunkniundeunhuniiiouitionminnniunmicnneier 68 Active Pen Drawing Method un cccccccccceccccessesessesseseesessesesessssssesnsssissussnssssssesisenssesissnssesuseessesisenssesissessseteseeseeeen 69 Active VS Passive PON ceccccccccsssesesesesesesesesesesesesesesesesesesesesesesesesesssesesesesesesesesssesesesesesssesesesesesessseeenensnensnseeneneneeeneen 69 ESOO tit 69 Be EA ON E o A A AT TA T 69 A A o nesta ese oes sagem easiest stae eee sae cesaes aeaeaee neem taeeeeeetn de 69 RO a a AN O au E Or TIC POOR ONO NTC PRON AIS NT TIC WLIO te arte AGE 70 PT AIG ces Te WIC EN ING aa A E EEE EE AAE EEE sag ic EE EE E 70 COMO Wis Merce ouon EURO SUE
54. Sketch is designed to reduce this frustration by providing a canvas that accommodates anything you draw 102 103 Touch Drawing Method continued Auto Pan Apex Sketch v6 will automatically pan the drawing port whenever you draw outside of its boundaries This is done to always keep your drawing cursor in view This is helpful when drawing large properties where viewing the entire sketch at once would make it too small to see its dimensions Center Sketch and Center amp Fit IF you wish to bring your sketch into view press and your drawing port will adjust and display your sketch centered within its boundaries However there may be times when centering where the sketch is still too large for the drawing port Pressing will Center amp Fit the sketch on the canvas Note You can use the Center command at any time keeping your sketch centered within the drawing port We ll center our sketch now by pressing J and if you re following along your screen should look similar to the following 4956845 z Apex Sketch v6 Pro Sketch1 AX6 Home View Tools Help 7 8j9 Hag oj je Keja a KOCI 3 OMS K 100 Imp 1 pal a ofi E Eo gt Mt 7 i y B T ei D Sketch Centered Touch Drawing Method continued Helpful Hint During the course of drawing areas you may notice the poly attached lines you are currently working with is highlighting in fuchs
55. ant concept as when there are breaks your shape may not define properly Had the poly in the example above had breaks gaps you might see a relocation of the POB or the poly itself would not be green throughout Note When the entire shape is not pink it s not always a sign of a problem For instance when drawing an enclosed shape that is attached to another area ONLY the lines necessary to close the shape may be pink This will become clearer as we continue with this example E Keyboard amp Mouse Drawing Method continued Drawing a Bay Window Introduction to Rise Run Apex Sketch v6 allows you to draw angles using Rise amp Run measurements In our example the Rise Run measurement is 5 feet by 5 feet 5 x5 You can easily construct this in Apex by drawing the following DON T PRESS ENTER YET Pressing enter will accept your changes Stacking Dimensions Rise amp Run is an example of Stacking Dimensions by which you manipulate a lines length and orientation by inputting multiple measurements and distances to create angled walls and adjusted lengths At this point your screen should look similar to the following Apex Sketch v6 Pro Sketch1 AXZ T E SEGS A O A Cut Copy Paste Select Sala ct Delete Undo Redo Rotate Demi Colos Subject In A Area All Sketch tributes h z m A 2 pea E gt S e E E Lo a 1 y IN gt i n A
56. assive Pen When using an Active Pen you can hover over the screen and see a cursor appear and move Passive Pens will only work when physically touching the screen This is what most people refer to as touch or capacitive A common problem with capacitive screens occurs when attempting to write and resting your palm on the screen itself resulting in focus issues Newer devices that support both active and capacitive functionality are much better at preventing this and Apex Sketch v6 takes full advantage of touch and ink Ink vs Touch The primary difference between these two modes is the paradigm in which you interact with Apex Sketch v6 Active Pen Drawing utilizes inking features of the tablet along with character recognition where Touch Drawing Method provides a touch panel where you can tap in distance amp direction as well as access other common drawing functions with a touch of your finger We ll revisit Touch in the next section For now we ll focus on ink Drawing Modes As with Keyboard amp Mouse you must first be in a drawing mode before you can begin drawing When you launch Apex Sketch v6 this is the default mode the program is set to so you can being drawing immediately To activate a drawing mode simply tap on Draw Exterior or Draw Interior located in the toolbar on the left side of the user interface ___ Draw Exterior This Drawing mode allows you to draw lines typically exterior which will be used for E calculation pu
57. asure the Arc Length Degree of Curvature D or Arc Height Apex Sketch allows you to draw your curves by setting the mode you are drawing in When you press once when bowing the curve it will allow you to adjust the Degree of Curvature default Pressing once will change the mode to Arc Height allowing you to modify your curve by the Arc Height measurement To draw curves in Apex Sketch v6 with Keyboard amp Mouse you can choose from the following methods Action Key Press Function D Degree H Height Mouse Wheel Forward Bow Curve Left gt 1 unit Mouse Wheel Backward Bow Curve Right 15 1 unit Ten Key Bow Curve Left ia 1 unit Ten Key Bow Curve Right 15 1 unit Context Edit Edit Curve Elements N A N A Cn Keyboard amp Mouse Drawing Method continued Curve Modifiers Shift amp Ctrl When performing any of the functions to create a curve using the suet and crr keys can aid you in the accuracy based on what elements you are able to measure based on Degree of Curvature or Arc Height Key Press Function D Degree H Height shirt Mouse Wheel Bow Curve 10 1 unit sur or Bow Curve 10 unit CTRL SHIFT Mouse Wheel Bow Curve 1 N A cr SHIFT or Bow Curve 1 1 unit The curve for our sketch is a rounded corner 90 whose first point is already establish at the end of the 17 line A in the illustration below We ve also measured our second point to be 10 feet up from the
58. bay window The illustration to the left highlights the elements you would need to edit Deflection Angle Red and Interior Angle Blue allow you to specify the angle the wall turns in relation to the direction you are drawing Deflection is the most common angle measured and or moditied Elements of an Angle The first area we are drawing contains a Bay Window The Rise amp Run measurements for this example are 5 x 5 Let s draw this now by performing the following Picking up where we left off with the angled line selected hover over the Rise dimension as illustrated to the right gt Place your pen down and write ink the Rise dimension of 5 Keep in mina this is no different than editing any other dimension to this point 83 Active Pen Drawing Method continued Tap the Accept check button or pull your pen away and the change will take effect Note Rise amp Run will dictate the actual length of the wall If your Rise amp Run measurements inputs are accurate the wall s length and orientation will be as well Now hover over the Run dimension as illustrated to the right Place your pen down and write ink the Run dimension of 5 just as you did with the Rise dimension Tap the Accept check button or pull your pen away and the change will take effect You angled wall is now complete Active Pen Drawing Method continued Let s continue
59. ceccccccccce es tesneseesesseesesesteseesessesissssnssessesseeiesissessessesiesiesissessesesteeieeieees 47 Keyboard amp MOUSE Drawing Method isso iii ii 48 Biel glee ico loas IPR pr ey O set ave In O A aye nT see err er Tave art err error 48 DINO MOI rro ptes 48 A e O cee ene cee cea sane erate eee 48 Drawing with Mouse amp KeybOalO cc ccccccscesesesestesesesesssesesssssssessssasessssassssussssssassisisicansusssseetsesesssesteusseseseeueees 49 Mouse IY GING Nte 49 PTS SPP 49 Drawing with Distance amp Direction with Keyboard ccc csesceesesescstesessseeessssssstsusseseststesesesestseseseseeeeees 49 Drawing Techniques Keypoard ONIY eseasrensaoap anar nicsen iieiaeie 49 q E A S EA E 49 Architectural IN QUt i e ccccccccccssssesescssesssessssesssasassvessssssssesesesasavsssssusisusesesasassssssssusisesicasasessssisesssesecscscscsesuseeseeceteen 50 Drowing our GS 08 A tbc 51 PEE E E 54 Center KS TC and Cener amp Pil AAA 54 e e E E EE E E EE E eee 55 ELE Oats sci den tn a AAAA AAAA AAAA AAAA AAAA AAT 55 Downa a Ba VITO LOCC CIO I Ott RU nss EE 56 Sao o eteee et tree re eee tre ter oo A 56 Dee ONS WUC T e E ahaha teint 58 How do determine the angle of the wall without Rise amp RUN cocococcccococacannoncononennonennnornonennrnenonnoneninnnnoss 59 e a a o ON 60 Alignment Styles cccccccsetcacccesssecseenteacanesscccneserensesansuesetesesncnseshecsaresscesesnsrensaussnsecetesesacseshssaredesesecaereedouasnsedecesvanenensses 60 ies peon FIO
60. ch into view press and your drawing port will adjust and display your sketch centered within its boundaries However there may be times when centering the sketch is too large for the drawing port Pressing will Center amp Fit the sketch on the canvas Note You can use the Center command at any time keeping your sketch centered within the drawing port 54 Cn Keyboard amp Mouse Drawing Method continued 4 We ll center our sketch now by pressing and if you re following along your screen should look similar to the following 9 Apex Sketch v6 Pro Sketch1 AXZ 4 90R B90 Home View Tools Help BR 2 x006 4 OL Cut Copy Paste Select Select Delete Undo Redo Rotae DrawColor Subjectinfo Area All x Sketch X Attributes h H 2 2 zz h ES 7 El GS g 5 T gt Q bal SS Va a gt lo o0 dE N cry w E o A D E AH Ee A 8 100 Imperial 1 10 1 ofi Se Sketch Centered Helpful Hint During the course of drawing areas you may notice the poly attached lines you are currently working with is highlighting in fuchsia pink You may also notice the POB Point of Beginning is also designated by a pink circle endpoint This is done by design to give you visual cues of the active shape you are constructing Pink is Good When the entire polyline you are working on is green it indicates that you have no breaks in your shape This is an import
61. ctual geometry to derive its calculations not the rounded displayed dimensions giving you extremely accurate results If you would like to see a more precise dimensions displayed we recommend changing the decimal precision decimal places under Tools gt Options gt General Tab Your screen should look similar to the following Congratulations You ve drawn your first area in Apex Sketch v6 using an Active Pen It hasn t been defined or calculated just yet but you ll do that in the next chapter Area Definition Drawing Attached multiple Areas For the purpose of learning how to draw with an Active Pen the first area was created without any consideration of attached areas When drawing multiple areas you do not need to complete the current area to begin drawing a new one as you would with previous versions Apex Sketch v6 was built from the ground up to match your workflow especially while in the field You re now Tree to draw any lines and areas in any order you wish which was the main impetus behind our change to the Define Area process Simply draw shapes as you encounter them and define them later After you ve learned the following topics we recommend that you practice by redrawing the same sketch in a manner that suits your specific workflow and preferences 90 Active Pen Drawing Method continued Auto Jump Snap When you hover around your sketch with your pen you may notice your drawing cursor snapping to points of
62. dow Clicking this option will minimize Apex Sketch v6 from view To reopen the Window click its program icon from the task bar Maximize Window This option will maximize the Window size to the size of your monitor Although it may not always be feasible to do so we recommend this Window setting as it provide the most amount of drawing space El Restore Window When maximized this option is available allowing you to shrink the Window to its previous smaller size Close Window This is essentially the same as File gt Exit which will attempt to close Apex Sketch vo If Panel System your sketch file has not been saved you will be prompted to do so The Panel System in Apex Sketch v6 is designed to provide quick and easy access to libraries that allow you to define areas annotate you re your sketches and view calculations Included in the panel system is a special touch panel that allows mobile users to draw floor plans in the field using only their finger to create verify measurements while on site Define GLA Gross Living Area GLA1 First Floor __ GLA2 Second Floor GLA3 Third Floor GLA4 Fourth Floor i GBA Gross Building Areas BSMT Basement BSMT Finished BSMT BSMT Unfinished BSMT P P Porch Patio Etc P P Patio P P Porch P P Wood Deck P P Balcony amp GAR Garage Carport Etc GAR Garage GAR Carport LAND Land SITE Subject Site OTH
63. e ad Input Options LI Gestures Enabled 7 Touch Screen Unit of Measure gt Imperial Decimal Precision 2 1 0 0 1 Dimension Format 18 5 Z Auto Placement Notifications C Don t Show Minimize Confirmation OK Common Dialog Elements Category Tab Choose the category of Settings you would like to display from those provided Restore Defaults This option allows you to reset ALL categories to their original settings These settings are the installation defaults for Apex Sketch v6 OK Button Pressing OK will apply the changes made and close the dialog Keep in mind some changes will require a program restart to take effect i e Unit of Measure Cancel Button The Cancel button will abort any changes made in Settings and close the dialog Note Before resetting the defaults make sure you have saved any changes to your existing sketch If you have any concerns about doing this give us a call 800 858 9958 and we will guide you through the process Options amp Settings continued General Settings General Display Hardware System Fonts Drawing O jes O Input Options LI Gestures Enabled Y Touch Screen Unit of Measure B Imperial J Metric Decimal Precision J 1 0 J 0 01 0 1 0 001 Dimension Format Ortho 4 Auto Placement eh Notifications C Don t Show Minimize Confirma
64. e Input Displayed in HUD e GeoReference Points 24 5 24 5 30 L 90 30 line at 90 Left Zoom amp Scale Controls Zoom amp Scale may seem redundant on the surface but each function are separate and different in their own regard To make things more clear Zoom should be considered a View property and Scale be considered a Size property Zoom Slider Located at the bottom left of the interface the Zoom Slider is used to increase or decrease your view in the drawing port Zooming in will make the sketch larger giving you a close up view how much you can see in the Drawing Port Zooming out will make the sketch smaller allowing you a more global view of your sketch the further you continue 100 O Zoom Out Button Pressing this button will Zoom Out make smaller in increments of 10 O Zoom Slider Control Dragging this control will increase step in 10 increments 10 1000 Zoom In Button Pressing this button will Zoom In make larger in increments of 10 O Zoom Percent This displays the current Zoom percentage Note Zooming in or out can also be accomplished by rolling your mouse forward Zoom In and backward Zoom Out In order to do this you must be in Select Mode or you drawing cursor must be in an Up State not drawing Zoom amp Scale Controls continued Scale Control As we ve mentioned Scale does not affect your Zoom level but it does have an impact on the Size of the
65. e points to be handy by making note of where the curve begins and ends This helps you place the Chord easily and from there apply essential measurements of Arc Height Arc Angle or Arc Length 114 115 Touch Drawing Method continued To draw this curve in Apex do the following EN 0 y 10 feet down Don t press ENTER gt Align Right make sure is active Don t press ENTER Ca fs fs le Cure Right 6 times Until Degree of Curvature is 90 Your screen should look similar to the following A YAA z Apex Sketch v6 Pro Sketch1 AX6 Cut Copy Paste Select Select Delete Undo Redo Rotae DrawColor Subjectinfo Area All Sketch gt Attribu 30 Mp E ke T ei D 100 Imp 1 1 of 1 3 amp Curve Drawn ENTER Press ENTER to anchor the curve Note The curve could have also been positioned after changing the degree or arc height as well Using what you ve already learned you could have bowed the curve with Curve Right button placed it near the end point of the 17 line B and pressed K to jump to the point then 0 18 o position the curve Touch Drawing Method continued Let s continue with our sketch by completing this area as well as add the final area of our sketch E oy Foy ENTER 10 feet down Anchor the line ENTER A gt ANI 25 5 feet right Anchor the line ENTER 8 a y 28 5 feet down Anchor the line ENTER Ko ENTER 25 5 feet
66. eak and writing small to reduce clutter is one of them When it comes to inking there are times writing small even legibly can actually cause problems with character recognition than writing in a size and or fashion that s comfortable to you Because Apex Sketch will automatically resize the dimensions it renders to the default s specified in settings you re free to write recommended as large as you like Just remember it s critical that you always place your pen down in the hit boundary to do this successfully Ly x EY ih a C 50 gt Az le Writing Small is not Necessary Writing Larger is Recommended Although it s ok to write small out of habit it can As we mentioned earlier the input panel boundary sometimes feel awkward or make the program feel is simply a hint to imply where you should write a bit difficult to use Additionally writing too small As you can see in the example above you can write can also impact ink recognition outside of the boundary as well With Apex Sketch you don t need to worry about the constraints paper and pencil impose 15 Active Pen Drawing Method continued Draw the First Line Now that you have the basics for drawing single lines down let s draw the first line of our sketch and edit it to be 30 long Be sure you re in Draw Exterior mode To begin sketching simply Ink a horizontal line as illustrated here Apex Sketch v6 is waiting for a Pen A
67. ed when defining Areas Because the 15 and 25 line 20 line illustrate a gap which would prevent Apex Sketch from detecting this shape area as a valid Area overlap a new point vertex will be created where they intersect and the dimensions will change accordingly Note In the case of overlapped lines the lines are essentially cut at the intersection during the Define Area process The leftover portions of each segment would still remain and may need to be removed deleted from the sketch if you no longer need them Drag amp Drop Area Definition Just as the name implies to define a closed shape all you need to do is drag the area definition into a closed shape and the area definition will be instantly applied and calculated The following example is a step by step approach to defining areas in Apex Sketch v6 using Drag amp Drop A Qk aas Apex Sketch v6 Pro o 2 Home View Tools Help 13 A i bs A EF a E We ll assume the areas to the right ze have already been drawn and you 9 wish to apply area definitions from the Define Area Panel I ei O O z mn Dx Po La Q SU MMMM gt 100 Imperial 1 12 seea f1 jus G amp Draw Areas 4 9R BAO Apex Sketch v6 Pro o 8 Zg Click or tap the Define Area Tool or the Define Area Tab as shown to the right upnou 59 29 stoqui s ixan ou a Note You can also access the Define Area Panel with the shortcut
68. end point of the 27 line B Using Reference Points Note Many users find using reference points to be handy by making note of where the curve begins and ends This helps you place the Chord easily and from there apply essential measurements of Arc Height Arc Angle or Arc Length 66 6 En 2 Keyboard amp Mouse Drawing Method continued To draw this curve in Apex do the following 10 feet down Don t press ENTER cra Align Right Don t press ENTER Ten Key 6 times Until Degree of Curvature is 90 Your screen should look similar to the following AIDE aso gt Home View Tools Help B D a a XH FP Ss amp amp i MF y Nip Cut Copy Paste od Select Delete Undo Redo Apex Sketch v6 Pro Sketch1 AXZ o E Rotae DrawColor Subjectinfo Area Sketch y Attributes 30 0 17 0 yond so e9 sjoquiAs peo auyag 36 5 10 0 N PN 100 Imperial 1 10 Curve Drawn Press enr to anchor the curve Note The curve could have also been positioned after changing the degree or arc height as well Additionally using what you ve already learned you could have bowed the curve with your mouse placed it near the end point of the 17 line B and pressed to jump to the point then 1 0 1 to position your curve properly Cn Keyboard amp Mouse Drawing Method continued 4 Let s continue with our
69. enths Drawing with Distance amp Direction with Keyboard Distance and direction is probably the most popular way users draw in Apex products today and is arguably quicker than most of the other methods To do this simply enter a distance on the number pad ten key or the number row and then specify a direction with your arrow keys The cursor will travel the distance input and your line will be drawn Note All of the above descriptions assume your cursor is in a Pen Down green cursor state Otherwise the cursor will move as described but no line will be drawn Drawing Techniques Keyboard Only Using the keyboard Apex Sketch v6 allows you to draw your lines in a couple of ways to match your data or preferred method of measuring Engineering Input Engineering input the most commonly used method refers to a decimal unit of measure i e 25 5 When inputting a distance type in the decimal measurement and then press one of the direction keys For example to draw a line that was measured to be 25 5 feet to the right you would input Aa Note Although you could draw with your mouse sketching in this fashion is much more efficient and precise than using your mouse With practice Engineering Input will become second nature e Keyboard amp Mouse Drawing Method continued Architectural Input This drawing technique will be most helpful for those that work off plans amp specs that are created with feet a
70. erever you wish This is heloful when encountering difficult areas of your property and need to come back or tackle this problem from a different angle It s also useful when needing to draw other areas as you come to them whereas in previous versions you had to complete the current area prior to doing so Pen Down Pressing or tapping the sketchpad while in Pen Up state will cause the cursor to highlight fill in green indicating that any cursor movement from this point will draw a line The same is true regardless of the Drawing Mode Area or Interior To pick the pen up again all you need to do with no line drawn is press or tap the sketchpad once again Note Pen Up and Pen Down can be performed only while in a Drawing Mode Continuing to press will pick the Pen Up or place the Pen Down with no line drawn in the same fashion as Free Form lines in previous Versions 98 J9 Touch Drawing Method continued Drawing with Touch Apex Sketch v6 allows you to draw in several fashions including your finger and the touch panel which you can mix and match their uses based on your own style of drawing The following is a brief description of each of the drawing inputs you can use to create your floor plans Finger Drawing Apex Sketch allows you to draw with your finger by simply placing your finger on the sketch pad and move the cursor in the direction you wish to draw a line Drawing with Directional Pad You can draw with your direct
71. erial 1 10 Draw Area ot Positioning Cursor Prior to Using Jump yono y sajeo stoqui g p auaa Press and your cursor will jump to the end point as shown to the right This ensures the cursor is precisely where you need it to be for attachment 4 SO Press enter to put the pen down and establish a point of beginning The cursor will change to green indicating you re ready to draw Cn Keyboard amp Mouse Drawing Method continued exter 17 feet to the right Anchor the line ENTER Your screen should look similar to the following En a Apex Sketch v6 Pro Sketch1 AXZ Home View Tools Help a PTA b gt N 36 ES a2 XO0O0G XX O A Cut Copy Paste Select Select Delete Undo Redo Rotae DrawColor SubjectInfo Area All Sketch Attributes 30 0 yano 1 sajeo sjoqui Ag vo auyog gt Mp Z re T i V 10 0 N aN a 100 Imperial 1 First Line of Attached Area Drawing Curves Curves are another encounter that can turn a beautiful day into a nightmare On one hand they re not always easy to measure and on the other you need to draw it on your computer Don t worry Apex makes drawing curves a breeze and in this example we ll cover everything you need to gather to draw them accurately Before we begin the curve it s important to understand all the components t
72. etup Wizard The first dialog displayed during the installation process welcomes you to Apex Sketch v6 and prompts you to click or tap Next to continue version 6 The Setup Wizard will install Apex Sketch v6 on your computer Click Next to continue or Cancel to exit the Setup Wizard Note At any point during the installation process you may click Back to return to the previous dialog or Cancel to abort the installation process da APEXSKETCH Welcome Dialog End User License Agreement Please read the following license agreement carefully 2 A APEXS KETC H A version 6 The following dialog presents you with the Apex EULA ai cis Installing this program indicates your acceptance to the End User License Agreement which details various terms and conditions set forth below If you do not agree 7 E E with those terms or you do not understand their implication guidelines restrictions and policies that you must 3 you should promptly call your authorized dealer and or i return the package and your purchase price will be accept in order to continue with the installation seno process Upon accepting the terms the Next button iaa will activate O I accept the terms in the License Agreement e do not accept the terms in the License Agreement lt Back EULA End User License Agreement 11 Installing Apex Sketch v6 continued Once you ve selected the type of installation the following dialog
73. gether with all copies and merged portions in any form This license will also terminate immediately upon conditions set forth elsewhere in the Agreement or if you fail to comply with any term or condition contained herein Limited Warranty Apex Software makes no representation or warranties either expressed or implied by or with respect to the program and related documentation including but not limited to implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for any particular purpose s In no event will Apex Software be liable for any damages whether direct or indirect special consequential or incidental arising from the use of this program Trademarks Throughout this manual reference is made to a number of trademarks Microsoft Windows Windows 98 Windows 2000 Windows XP Windows Vista Windows 7 Windows RT and Windows 8 are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corp HP is a registered trademark of Hewlett Packard Apex Apex ll Apex IV Apex Medina MobileSketch and Nexus are trademarks of Randall H Garrett dba Apex Software All other brand names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies owners Table of Contents Welcome to Apex Sketch vo A E iS AS dale Lime PEO ON 1 KSEE 6 col E EEE Po A a 1 T a E E TE E Ei o AA E 1 Chapter 1 Getting Started amp Installation 8 Reterence Terminology U sag Sic a E tc O AOA io dara ann fae 9 Fe IC athe te anced dicte 9 A Ren TO E E E E crrerete er err g SERS
74. gnment Styles You can adjust the appearance of alignment in Apex Sketch through Tools gt Options gt Display Tab You can turn them on or off change the style from Dashed to Solid and also adjust the color if the default is not suitable for your preferences 61 Cn Keyboard amp Mouse Drawing Method continued 4 Let s make use of our first alignment function to bring the drawing cursor in alignment with the POB Point of Beginning Perform the following ctr Align left Press enter to anchor the line Your sketch should look similar to the following 49356540 z Apex Sketch v6 Pro Sketch1 AXZ Home ERE hRGExOCGE A OS Cut Copy Paste Select Select Delete Undo Redo Rotae DrawColor Subjectinfo Area All Sketch X Attributes cl 30 0 yono s91e3 sioqu Xg pe 1 aujeg 10 0 N i Wa A n S G 100 Imperial 1 10 Bz G amp a Alignment Importance of Using Alignment Tools Using alignment is important when squaring your areas Although you could have input 4 0 to the left using alignment here especially off of an angle as illustrated this ensures that your sketch aligns perfectly mathematically It s likely that the 4 0 dimension is rounded in accordance with your decimal precision and NOT actually 4 00 mathematically In this case the same will also be true with the closing dimension Don t worry though Apex Sketch uses the actua
75. hat make up the curve with regard to Apex 20 0 Rise Chord Bearing 20 0 Run Chord Bearing Elements of a Curve 65 coon J an 4f Keyboard Mouse Drawing Method continued Degree of Curvature Arc Angle Also know as Degree of Curvature takes into account how much of the circle in degrees does this arc measure to You won t need to draw circles to discern the curvature You measure other key elements Arc Length Chord Length Arc Height to achieve that Chord Length Chord Length is the straight measurement between the endpoints of the curve The Chord length is essential in determining the Arc Angle when using the Curve Solver as without it you won t have enough data to build the curve accurately Arc Length This is the most common element of the curve that you d measure in the field since most of your perimeter measurements are taken from the outside of the property You ll find that the majority of the time the curves you encounter are simply rounded corners 90 that are fairly easy to measure However there may be times when the Arc Length is extremely difficult to obtain and you must rely on other measurements to help you construct the curve properly Arc Height Arc Height is the distance from the center of the Chord to the Apex of the Arc This measurement is crucial in determining the Arc Angle if you have the Chord Length but are unable to me
76. his function will Center and Fit the sketch by its extents in the drawing port bringing the entire sketch into view To continue with our example we need to Center the sketch To perform this function tap the Center button as highlighted below Center Sketch Function Before After pressing Center your sketch will adjust bringing all the lines you have drawn to this point into view Center Sketch Function After 80 Active Pen Drawing Method continued Let s continue with our sketch by performing the following 28 5 Draw a line to the left as illustrated here Once the lime renders change the dimension if necessary to be 10 in length Accept the changes by tapping the Accept check button or pull your pen away i 10 0 Draw an angled line down and to the left in the same manner as the previous lines you ve drawn All lines drawn at an angle will automatically render to 45 deflection 135 interior We ll adjust this line s length in a moment but first a little more about angled lines 81 Active Pen Drawing Method continued Angled Lines with the Active Pen Drawing angled lines with an Active Pen in Apex Sketch is a simple intuitive approach that allows you to edit every element of your wall based on the measurements available to you in the field Rise amp Run is the most common way you would measure and draw short angled walls such as a
77. ht Snap to Line Up Snap to Line Down Snap to Line Left Snap to Line Right Rotate Selected 1 H may be used for Horizontal Dimension and Text Label orientation Furthermore while bowing a curve pressing H will also set the curve to Arc Height when increasing for decreasing this measurement Modifier Keys Other than what s listed above the and keys also serve as modifiers when used in conjunction with other functions such as the mouse wheel and or the or keys You can learn more about these modifiers in their respective chapters Additional Ink Gestures Any of the following ink gestures may be performed while in Drawing Mode in Apex Sketch v6 OR Change Line Direction Undo Redo Delete Selected Align to Next Point Note The lower case a and upper case A must be inked over a dimension of a line to take place All of the other gestures illustrated may be performed anywhere on the screen provided you are in Draw Mode Additionally Change Line Direction and Delete Selected require that you have a single line selected Finally you can also ink in and mathematical functions over the dimension to add or subtract specified measurements Le 4 5 will subtract 4 5 feet from your dimension provided it was greater than 4 5 in length originally
78. i allows you to tailor Apex Sketch v6 around your own needs and preferences 1 Exit This button will close Apex Sketch v6 prompting you to save your sketch file if you haven t already done so If Apex Sketch was launched via integration you will be returned to the calling application Note You may have noticed the MRU Most Recently Used contained within the file menu although it won t be apparent until you have created edited a few sketches The MRU lists the most recent sketch files you were working with giving you the added convenience of quickly locating and opening them should you need to Home Menu The Home Menu is the main menu you will use for most of the operations used within Apex Sketch vo x Cut cra X The Cut function removes the selected item from view and stores it in the Windows Clipboard gt Copy ctrJ C The Copy function works much the same as Cut with the exception that it does not remove the selected item from view i Paste creL vf Paste will place the object stored in the Windows Clipboard onto the drawing E port Paste can be used multiple times as well as a new location i e new page a Select All crri A As the name implies choosing this function will select all items contained within ki the active sketch page This function is typically used for global changes i e font or line styles copy paste and or deletion Home Menu continued S X Y Y d
79. ia pink You may also notice the POB Point of Beginning is also designated by a pink circle endpoint This is done by design to give you visual cues of the active shape you are constructing Pink is Good When the entire polyline you are working on is green it indicates that you have no breaks in your shape This is an important concept as when there are breaks your shape may not define properly Had the poly in the example above had breaks gaps you might see a relocation of the POB or the poly itself would not be green throughout Note When the entire shape is not pink it s not always a sign of a problem For instance when drawing an enclosed shape that is attached to another area ONLY the lines necessary to close the shape may be pink This will become clearer as we continue with this example Drawing a Bay Window Introduction to Rise Run Apex Sketch v6 allows you to draw angles using Rise amp Run measurements In our example the Rise amp Run measurement is 5 feet by 5 feet 5 x5 You can easily construct this in Apex by drawing the following 519 DON T PRESS ENTER YET 5 ENTER Pressing ENTER will accept your changes 104 Touch Drawing Method continued Stacking Dimensions Rise amp Run is an example of Stacking Dimensions by which you manipulate a lines length and orientation by inputting multiple measurements and distances to create angled walls and adjusted lengths
80. iguration changes you re ready to connect and transmit your measurements to Apex Sketch Make sure the DISTO s Bluetooth is turned on Access the Tools menu and select Connect If the sound settings for your DISTO are turned on you may hear and audible beep indicating you have established connection 5 4 356 BH z Home View Tools Help Connect Disconnect Options You can change these 120 121 Chapter 4 Area Definition 122 123 Area Definition The Define Area panel supports both Drag amp Drop Area Definition and Additive Area Definition which both have their advantages The following descriptions will give you a better understanding of each method which you can learn more about in the tutorials provided in this reference guide What happens if the lines in Areas don t connect Apex Sketch is designed to detect shapes In order to do this properly lines must be connected or overlapping for Areas to be detected created and calculated In a case where lines are not connected Apex Sketch will not detect the shape thus cannot define or calculate the Area You can learn more about shapes that pass or fail in Chapter 4 Area Definition Fail Pass Pass The shape above does not have This shape is properly connected at This is an exception to the rule that connected lines The highlighted all points and would be recognized all lines must be connected intersection between the 10 and and detect
81. in Draw Mode hover over the endpoint where the 10 and 28 5 lines connect lower right As you move near the point you may notice it snap to alignment and display as before the Big Red Dot ensuring any line you draw will be connected to these lines Apply what you know to this point and draw a 25 5 line to the right In a dot to dot fashion tap on the Alignment Point as illustrated here to automatically draw a 28 5 line up Tap the alignment point to the left the intersection of the 27 and 28 5 lines to complete the last area of your sketch 95 Active Pen Drawing Method continued IF you ve been following along congratulations You ve completed your first sketch using the Active Pen method Your screen should look similar to the following Now that you ve completed drawing your sketch with the Active Pen all you need to do now is define the areas you ve just drawn You can skip ahead to Chapter 4 Area Definition to learn more about this topic 96 Touch Drawing Method This section is designed for those users who have Windows Touch Tablets or Active Pen users who prefer the Touch Method of drawing We ll take you through the same sketch we ve drawn in the previous sections but this time from a touch only point of view If you ve used any of our MobileSketch products on Pocket PCs iPad or Android then this will likely feel familiar to you Accessing the T
82. ing Bluetooth on your DISTO and or Windows may vary slightly Please reference your DISTO user manual for specific instructions regarding device pairing 118 119 La DISTO Drawing continued Your DISTO Model Legacy Bluetooth models of the Leica DISTO i e DISTO Plus A6 D8 connect and operate with Apex Sketch v6 with little or no setup If you ve purchased a newer model i e D510 E7500i D810 there may be some additional configuration items you must perform in Apex Sketch and or the DISTO device The following chart is a general overview of the devices that may require additional configuration setup Plus D330i D510 E7500 D810 Touch Device Setup et ee ee ee Apex Setup Edit in Place Edit in Place DISTO D810 Device Setup Currently the only supported DISTO that requires additional setup is the D810 Touch You can reference the following to configure the D810 to function properly in Apex Sketch v6 Turn on your D810 and press the Tap the Bluetooth symbol as Select the top spread sheet FUNC button shown above setting gt i TAB e Enter Tap the Bluetooth setting as shown _Be sure none and 0 0 are selected Press the FUNC and you re set to above use the D810 with Apex Sketch v6 La DISTO Drawing continued Configuring Apex Sketch v6 for DISTO use Typically the only setting you need to choose within Apex Sketch is the mode you wish to use with your DISTO However with certain DIST
83. ional pad by pressing the direction you wish to draw With each tap of an arrow key your drawing cursor will move 1 unit in the specified direction Activating the Shift toggle will draw in tenths Note By default the Ctrl toggle is active on for added convenience to align with other points To draw in 1 unit increments Ctrl must be turned off Otherwise pressing the arrows in the directional pad will either not move the cursor or pop it into alignment with another endpoint in the direction pressed Drawing with Distance amp Direction with Touch Panel Distance and direction is probably the most popular way users draw in Apex products today and is arguably quicker than most of the other methods To do this simply enter a distance on the number pad and then specify a direction with your directional pad The cursor will travel the distance input and the line will be drawn Note All of the above descriptions assume the cursor is in a Pen Down green cursor state Otherwise the cursor will move as described but no line will be drawn Drawing Your First Shape We ll add more functions and capabilities as we move through the rest of this chapter For now we ll focus on the steps necessary to draw your first line and shape As discussed there are several ways to draw with touch but we ll focus on the method most commonly used distance and direction E Make sure you are in Draw Exterior Mode by tapping it on the toolba
84. ird Floor GLA4 Fourth Floor GBA Gross Building Areas BSMT Basement P P Porch Patio Etc P P Patio P P Porch P P Wood Deck P P Balcony GAR Garage Carport Etc GAR Garage GAR Carport LAND Land SITE Subject Ste OTH Storage NCA Non Calculated Area UND Undefined Area v Apply Auto Post Edit Code Y Name Calculations Y Dimensions Outside _ Autosubtract overlapped areas came 010 amp You may discover that defining areas in this fashion is actually quicker than the define area process in previous versions Although it takes some getting used to Additive Area Definition determines line lengths and creates new walls based on the boundaries of the shapes it detects ultimately saving you time you would have spent drawing each wall line manually 130 Additive Area Definition continued Next click or tap the lower area as shown here Note You don t need to press to select multiple areas as you might traditionally do for the selection of other object in Apex Sketch Simply click all the areas you wish to include in the area you would like to define The selected areas will be combined highlighting the boundaries that make up what will become the First Floor Calculations are also displayed giving you visual feedback before completing the process Apex Sketch v6 Pro op 32 GLA1 First Floor GBA Gross Building Areas BSMT Basement
85. is Page 2 of 4 pages choosing this function will effectively insert a new page immediately after Page 2 and advance the display to the new page Delete Page Will remove the active page from the sketch file All remaining pages will be renumbered accordingly Themes Allows you to choose trom three separate themes base on personal preference However we have observed that some themes due to coloration and contrast are more visible than others in different lighting conditions i e outdoor vs indoor z Blue Theme Will change the interface to display the blue theme Black Theme Will change the interface to display the black theme hd Silver Theme Will change the interface to display the silver theme View Menu continued Window This allows you to specify a Window size Although this is not used often it can be helpful LA when needing to create a specific size window to sketch in when managing multiple applications at once ef Apply This function allows you to apply a current setting to legacy sketch files This is very helpful in y keeping all of your sketches uniform and consistent Precision and Suffix This will apply the current suffix settings and precision decimal places to all dimensions contained in the sketch Area Code Table Settings This allows you to select all drawn defined areas contained on the active sketch page This is helpful when making global changed to line styles color and or Till patterns
86. is set of buttons is most helpful when orch cae O managing large lists of text labels allowing you to display Utilities only those labels that match the filter as designated on Wood Deck each button Edit Text Library Panel Symbol Library Panel The Symbol Library in Apex Sketch v6 has undergone a complete revamp to make them easier to use and place as well as render better for more professional results The Symbols contained in the library are all precisely drawn which will scale to any sketch you create As you might imagine they can also be resized and edited to your liking You can learn more about this panel through examples we illustrate in Chapter 5 Sketch Annotation What follows is a brief description of the elements that make up the Symbol Library Panel 1 avortes Arrow North Arrow Arrow Pointer 5g Auto Compact ms Auto Mid Sized Sedan Auto Pickup Truck Auto SUV Bath Bathtub Rect Bath Shower Corner Bath Shower Std Bath Toilet Com Bath Toilet Res Cased Opening Celing Fan 4 Blades Ceiling Fan 5 Blades Door Ext 90 Deg Door French Dbl 45 Deg Door French Dbl 90 Deg Door Garage Dbl Door Garage Sgl Door Int 45 Deg Door Int 90 Deg Door Sliding 6 FP Corner Kitchen Range Std Kitchen Refrigerator 36in Kitchen Sink Dbl Misc Eraser Misc Structural Issue Symbol Library Panel Symbol Category This drop down allows you to
87. ise amp Run measurements can be quite a challenge The wall we would like to draw measures 17 in length and angles to the right at 45 Elements of an Angle The Turn feature allows you to draw angles by inputting the length of the wall the direction it turns in relation to the last wall and the deflection angle To draw this line in Apex Sketch you would input the following commands 17 feet Don t press ENTER Turns to the Right Don t press ENTER 45 angle Look at your HUD at the bottom of your UI As you entered input the above commands this 17 line at 45 Right information is updated to reflect your input Press enter to accept the input and draw the wall Press once again to anchor the wall Note When using the turn feature the HUD will default to 90 immediately after specifying a direction Right or Left To change this to something other than 90 simply input the angle and it will overwrite the default This ts done by design to allow you to quickly accept the 90 angle most common without having to input it UI CO Ey Keyboard amp Mouse Drawing Method continued Your screen should look similar to the following gt 419356540 z Apex Sketch v6 Pro Sketch1 AXZ Home ione Help BB E 212x006 2 0 6 Cut Copy Paste Select Select Delete Undo Redo Rotae DrawColor Subjectinfo Area All y Sketch a Attributes 30 0 yono Soje sjoqui g pee fa
88. l geometry to derive its calculations not the rounded displayed dimensions giving you extremely accurate results If you would like to see a more precise dimensions displayed we recommend changing the decimal precision decimal places under Tools gt Options gt General Tab Ey Keyboard amp Mouse Drawing Method continued Completing Areas with Auto Close Auto Close is an important feature that allows you to close the areas you draw However due to the new drawing engine of Apex Sketch you may find that you don t use it as much as you used to Let s close the area we ve been working on by pressing A a A IGQE GAS z Apex Sketch v6 Pro Sketch1 AXZ Home View Tools Help an in P Y N X a A a a G amp Q 3 Cut Copy Paste Seled Select Delete Undo Redo Rotae DrawColor Subjectinfo Area All ketch Attributes 30 0 yano s923 sioqui ss pea ewa 36 5 28 5 FEROE AS 10 0 N a D C jus O ES a LA A Oo ND 100 Imperial 1 10 Draw Area Auto Close Congratulations You ve drawn your first area in Apex Sketch v6 It hasn t been defined or calculated just yet but you ll do that in the next chapter Area Definition For now let s continue to create the lines in our sketch that make up the other areas of the property Note When you auto close an area the color changes from green to the default line color The pen changes from green to gray indicating that i
89. learn more about this tool in Chapter 3 Drawing Methods Sketch Geo Referencing This tool does not open a dialog but does launch the Geo Referencing e process by which you will choose locations in your sketch to reference data from your GIS System You can learn more about this tool in Chapter 6 Data Collection Drawing Tools For obvious reasons this set of tools are the most used and important for the construction of your property sketches floor plans The following is a brief description of each of these tools ___ Draw Exterior This Drawing mode allows you to draw lines typically exterior which will be used for E calculation purposes Simply put if you want need to calculate the shapes you draw this is the tool you should use You can learn more about this tool in Chapter 3 Drawing Methods Draw Interior This Drawing mode allows you to draw lines typically interior which will be used for Ee illustration non calculation purposes This line style is generally used to depict interior floor plans Ea fence lines property lots streets etc You can learn more about this tool in Chapter 5 Sketch Annotation Insert Vertex A Vertex in drawing terms is a point in the sketch This drawing mode allows you to y oreak divide lines and shapes using the same drawing methods for creating any line You can learn more about this tool in Chapter 3 Drawing Methods Quick Shape Tool Apex Sketch currently suppo
90. ling application provided Apex Sketch was launched via integration View Menu The view menu contains those functions that primarily have to do with what you see and how you see them in your drawing port There are also a couple of functions that allow you to physically change the appearance of your user interface Mini Map Provides you with an alternative view of your sketch within a separate window This tool is helpful when needing to work in a close up detailed view of your sketch while maintaining a view of the overall View Calcs Will open a panel on the right side of the Apex Sketch interface providing a summary breakdown of individual area calculations while totaling Gross Living and Building Areas below Calculations include Area Base Area Factor Net Area and Perimeter for each defined area Previous Page This option will change views to display the previous page in your sketch file If no previous page exists you will be prompted to insert a sketch page Next Page This option will change views to display the next page in your sketch file If no page exists you will be prompted to add a sketch page First Page This option will change views to display the first page in your sketch file Last Page This option will change views to display the last page in your sketch file Add Page This function will add a page to your sketch file immediately after the active page For example If your active page
91. lor ME Gray Points Visible Style Dash Enabled Background L White Major Grid 2 Silver Minor Grid C Custom Minimum Dimension Properties O Enabled Font Size Restore Defaults Display Settings Hardware Settings General Display Hardware System Fonts Drawing b DISTO Discovery 9 Automatic J Manual Configuration Rounding Drawing Mode Interactive Restore Defaults 43 Hardware Settings Alignment Indicators These settings allow you to control the visual elements of alignment This is also where you can turn alignment indicators On Off Grid Like the Grid On Off button on your interface you can enable the Grid through settings as well This group also allows you to change the visual elements of the Grid and now it will appear when enabled Minimum Dimension Properties You may have notices that when zooming in or out the dimensions of your sketch also scale and at certain levels difficult to read This setting provides you with control to lock the minimum dimension size when zooming out When this is enabled the dimensions will not shrink past the specified font size ensuring you can always read your dimensions DISTO Discovery Allows you to automatically poll for Bluetooth DISTO devices or manually specify a COM port to communicate with the DISTO We recommend the automatic discovery as it s the easiest way to con
92. ly edit the dimension in much the same manner as drawing with pencil and paper Writing Vertically will not be Recognized When editing dimensions in Apex Sketch you shouldn t change the orientation or write in the same direction as the dimension itself as illustrated above Doing so will likely result in failure to recognize your writing or in advertently draw additional lines Always Write Horizontal to Tablet Orientation Always write or change dimensions in a horizontal fashion as illustrated above This ensures Microsoft ink recognition Remember you don t need to write small Change the dimension to 20 as illustrated above Your screen should look similar to the following 20 Line and Dimension Rendered Active Pen Drawing Method continued Now that we ve covered most of the essentials let s draw a few more lines in our first Area Hover over the open end of the 20 line The Big Red Dot should appear Once it does ink a line to the right Remember you don t need to worry about the length yer The line will render as shown here Hover over the dimension to display the Hit Boundary Place your pen down to display the input panel While your pen is still down change the dimension to 27 as illustrated Tap the accept check or pull your pen away from the screen The dimension will update to reflect the new dimension Note The example above shows each state of the line as you would draw it
93. moved and additional lines have been drawn as indicated to complete what will be defined as the second floor Note To move any selected object in Apex Sketch v6 you must be in Select Mode This function is located at the top of the left toolbar cursor icon As you will learn in the tutorial section Apex Sketch v6 does not require you to draw or trace lines back to the POB Point of Beginning to complete areas Only those lines necessary to complete the shape should be drawn In this example only two lines were required As we did for all the previous areas simply Drag amp Drop the Second Floor Area Definition into the close shape Apex Sketch v6 Pro Patio 518 5 sf 27 0 36 5 Garage 726 8 sf Home View Tools Help Patio R 518 5 st 27 0 Drag Area Definition into Shape GLA Gross Living Area _ GLA1 First Foor GLA2 Second Floor GLA3 Third Floor GLA4 Fourth Foor GBA Gross Building Areas amp BSMT Basement P P Porch Patio Etc P P Patio _ P P Porch OTH Storage NCA Non Calculated Area UND Undefined Area Z Fi E Q Autosubtract overlapped areas Draw area 1 Jor s SITE Subject Ste OTH Storage NCA Non Calculated Area UND Undefined Area v Apply Multi Level Area Definition using Drag amp Drop continued The Second Floor has been defined and the line style properties for this
94. mp inches Architectural Input allows you input your measurements just as you see them rather than converting each dimension to decimal equivalents ultimately reducing the potential for error When using this input method rather than using the as your separator you would use the TAB key to denote feet amp inches For example to draw a line that was measured to be 25 8 to the right you would input an a Note Apex Sketch automatically converted the feet amp inches to the decimal equivalent default If you wish to maintain a feet amp inches display for dimensions you will need to change the settings through Tools gt Options gt General Tab gt Dimension Format You can also input fractions of inches in a similar fashion To draw a line equivalent to 25 8 1 2 to the right twenty five feet 8 and one half inches the input is a As described in the previous chapter the HUD Heads Up Display located at the bottom of the Apex Sketch interface is tracking your input and displaying your data entered for easy quick verification After you input your data the following is what the HUD looks likes 25 8 amp 1 2 Note It s not necessary to choose a particular input mode since Apex determines the proper mode based on your method of input What is important to remember is how to how to input the measurements in a given mode Le which keystrokes to use 51 Ey Keyboard amp Mouse Drawing Method con
95. n while in Pen Up state will cause the cursor to highlight fill in green indicating that any cursor movement from this point will draw a line The same is true regardless of the Drawing Mode Exterior or Interior To pick the pen up again all you need to do with no line drawn is press or click your mouse button once again Note Pen Up and Pen Down can be performed only while in a Drawing Mode Continuing to press will pick the Pen Up or place the Pen Down with no line drawn in the same fashion as Free Form lines in previous versions 49 coor ooo eee Keyboard amp Mouse Drawing Method continued Drawing with Mouse amp Keyboard Apex Sketch v6 draw in several fashions with the mouse and keyboard allowing you to mix and match their uses based on your own style of drawing The following is a brief description of each of the drawing inputs you can use to create your floor plans Mouse Drawing Apex Sketch allows you to draw with the mouse by simply clicking the mouse button left button and move your mouse in the direction you wish to draw Drawing with Arrow Keys You can draw with your arrow keys by pressing the direction you wish to draw With each press of an arrow key your drawing cursor will move 1 unit in the specified direction If you hold down an arrow key the cursor will travel in the specified direction until you release the arrow key Holding while pressing an arrow key will also draw in t
96. nect with your DISTO device Note This is NOT where you connect with your DISTO rather where you setup how you will establish connection You connect with your DISTO through Tools gt Connect Configuration Allows you to handle the data received from your DISTO Rounding can be set to the nearest half hundredth tenth and whole unit There are two Drawing Modes as well Interactive allows you to specify distance and direction if your DISTO has directional keys and Edit in Place recommended which allows you to specify the dimension of the active line Options amp Settings continued System Settings General Hardware System Fonts Drawing _ Auto Save J Enabled Interval minutes 5 Image Files Size 800 x 600 Color Depth _ 8 Bit 0 24 Bit Area Code Table Path AXWDDA1 XML Restore Defaults Font Settings General Display Hardware Fonts Drawing System Settings Dimension Properties Font Size Arial v 15 75 Style Bold Italic Underline Text Label Properties Font Size Arial v 115 75 Style Ortho L Bold Italic Black LJ Underline Auto Post Properties Font Size Arial 15 75 Style Bold L italic L Underline Restore Defaults
97. nel The Touch Panel is specifically designed for those who have Touch Only Windows tablets or users who simply prefer the touch method of drawing over pen inking You can learn more about this panel through examples we illustrate in Chapter 3 Drawing Methods What follows is a brief description of the elements that make up the Touch Panel Distance Display As you input information from the O number pad 8 the information is displayed in this field This field also displays Turn information q za Angle Left amp Right Used in the Turn function for drawing angles these buttons allow you to specify the direction ofthe angle You can learn more about the Turn feature in Chapter 3 Drawing Methods Curve Left amp Right Allows you to create a curve from the active line Each tap will grow or shrink the curve depending on the direction of the curve You can learn more about the Curves in Chapter 3 Drawing Methods Shift amp Control These are modifier buttons that assist you with drawing and or alignment functions You can learn more about Shift amp Control in Chapter 3 Drawing Methods Delete amp Insert Delete and Insert allow you to delete lines to correct mistakes and insert those you previously deleted You can learn more about Insert amp Delete in Chapter 7 Editing Functionality ENTER ENTER Button ENTER is used to accept and anchor the O line once you are sati
98. ness that might be more suitable for their viewing needs preferences Interior Line Properties This setting allows you to specify the default Line Color and Thickness for Interior Lines Unlike Area Line Properties these colors will not be affected by area definition and will retain the properties you choose for this setting Chapter 3 Apex Sketch v6 Drawing Methods 47 Apex Sketch v6 Drawing Methods As with any program in order to use it properly you need to first learn the basics This chapter will introduce you to drawing in Apex Sketch which currently supports 5 different methods of input including Keyboard Mouse Active Pen Touch and DISTO In this chapter we ll draw a basic sketch covering lines angles and curves For your convenience we will break this chapter into sections to cover each drawing method separately Look for these symbols at the top of each page going forward which designate the drawing method being covered for that section AA Corer BESSY Keyboard amp Mouse Active Pen Touch DISTO Apex Sketch v6 is designed to be a One Size Fits All program that supports Windows based platforms addressing both Desktop and Mobile needs requirements You no longer need to maintain two separate licenses and programs to accomplish your tasks in your office or in the field In fact if you re running Apex Sketch v6 on a PC that doubles as your desktop and mobile device Apex is ready when you are with
99. ng the Y Second Floor D Note With Additive Area Definition A you do not need to worry with drawing level by level Simply draw 18 all of the lines you need to create areas from a La oa Imperial 1 12 Select jar G s Draw Areas Ak 256324340 z Apex Sketch v6 Pro Click or tap the Define Area Tool or the Define Area Tab as shown to the right lt 0 E no 59 29 sjoquids yxa autaa Note You can also access the Define Area Panel with the shortcut key a La Q Orr tt Imperial 1 12 Select Ol jas 6 amp Access Define Area Panel 129 Additive Area Definition continued Click or tap within the area as illustrated to the right If you selected the wrong area you can simply click in an open space outside of the areas to unselect any detected areas Apex Sketch will detect the area s boundaries using existing lines You may notice that this is not the entire First Floor which should include the area just below We ll add the area in the following steps gt y dh 5 S i i Tools Help OPH ae e wore A Apex Sketch v6 Pro 100 Imperial 1 12 unos s919 stoqui s ixan auyoa AGRE BAS Home View Tools Help ADAMO RAN DL Apex Sketch v6 Pro 100 Imperial 1 12 amp GLA Gross Living Area A GLA1 First Floor GLA2 Second Floor GLA3 Th
100. nsert and add new pages Apex Sketch allows unlimited number of pages per sketch file Whether it s splitting multi story buildings or managing your scale by separating structures across multiple pages this extended functionality provides you with the flexibility you need when laying out your floor plans and property sketches ONE On Sketch Page Indicator 1 Previous Insert Page 5 Next Add Page 2 Active Page 6 Total Pages Adding amp Inserting Pages Whenever you wish to add or insert a page to your sketch file you can do so through View gt Add However while navigating when you ve come to the first or last page in the sketch continuing to navigate left will prompt you to insert a page and navigating right on the last page will prompt you to add a page Insert Page Dialog Add Page Dialog 35 Mode Heads Up Display HUD The HUD in Apex Sketch v6 gives you visual feedback pertaining to the mode you re currently in as well as additional information corresponding to distances input and other features such as Turn when creating angles The following illustrates what the HUD will display in conjunction to the mode or input Mode Input Displayed in HUD bs Select any Fence S Lasso a Pan E Draw Area E Draw Interior y Draw Area A Rectangle Define T Select en Select Draw Area MODE Heads Up Display continued Mod
101. nting inadvertent or intentional modification of the Area Definitions library Where integration is involved this is also necessary at times to preserve Area Definitions to ensure proper integration and data exchange Change Password Cancel immediately Password Entry Dialog GLA1 First Floor amp GLA Gross Living Area GLA1 First Floor GLA2 Second Floor GLA3 Third Floor GLA4 Fourth Floor GBA Gross Building Areas i BSMT Basement P P Porch Patio Etc LAND Land SITE Subject Site OTH Storage NCA Non Calculated Area UND Undefined Area GAR Garage Carport Etc Area Information Code GLA1 Factor 1 00 Name First Floor Desc Gross Living Area Area Calculations O Positive J Negative Line Wall Properties Style Solid Width 4 Color MW Apex Blue Height 8 Fill Properties Style None Color MN Custom Smart Area Definition When an area is defined this SmartLabel will be displayed Apply Cancel Area Definitions Library Note When Adding an Area Definition the new Area Definition will make a copy of the selected Area Definition and place it just below as a Sub Area Thus to add a new definition to a particular category you will need to select the Main Category Header Otherwise you will also need to use the Up and or Down buttons to move the new Area Definition to the appropriate catego
102. ntly inked in on the panel This area is actually meant more as a hint that you re supposed to write something You soon learn that you can write beyond these boundaries if you wish to do so Active Pen Drawing Method continued Inout Panel vs Pen Away In order to use the input panel properly it is important that you do not pull your pen away from the device This panel was added as an additional method to assist you with hints but also provide the means to quickly clear and or your changes by tapping on the corresponding button If you ve become accustom to Pen Away events you do not need to worry about tapping clear or accept as when you are finished making your edit simply pull your pen away from the screen as discussed earlier in this chapter and the dimension will adjust accordingly As you follow along in this example feel free to use whichever method is most comfortable with you Accepting the changes when making edits for each step in the example s will be assumed Practice Makes Perfect It is recommended that you practice drawing single lines and changing dimensions for a bit Once you get the hang of it you ll find changing dimensions to be a very simple process Note As you practice you will notice the results may vary depending on whether you hit the dimension ranging from additional lines drawn to nothing appearing to happen Common Misconception 2 Writing Small Old habits are hard to br
103. obally changing their line style properties Delete Selected Clicking or tapping Delete Selected will remove the selected item from the sketch This function can be performed on single or multi selected items Undo Will undo the last action performed This is helpful when making a mistake and you d like to return to the previous state Redo This action will Redo the last Undo For example if you draw a line and you perform an Undo the line will be removed Using Redo will redraw the line once again Rotate Sketch Although you can rotate individually selected items Rotate Sketch allows you rotate the entire contents of the active page Draw Color When you need to distinguish your current drawing color from other drawn lines using this function allows you to specify a color you wish to draw Draw Color is temporary Once the area is defined all lines will change to match the area properties contained within the area definition Subject Information This function will display the Subject Information pertaining to the current sketch file This information is typically transferred from the calling application and can also be manually edited if when Apex Sketch is used in a stand alone fashion 23 Home Menu continued fic Area Attributes Allows you to create amp edit attribute data collection data for each area drawn within your sketch This information is saved with each sketch file and may be gathered parsed by the cal
104. obile device you wish to use it on Chances are you ve already purchased Apex and already have an online account with licenses ready for activation If not contact Apex at 800 858 9958 for further assistance with licensing your product When you launch Apex Sketch v6 for the first time you will see the following dialog This copy of Apex Sketch is not registered Apex Sketch requires activation in order to launch and or integrate properly with other applications Please choose the appropriate registration method below Online Registration If you ve received an email from our online store or an Apex representative please enter the appropriate information in the fields below choose a product edition and select Submit Ema Address OOO Password e Standard Pro Manual Registration Alternately you may register this product manually by contacting an Apex representative Select Manual Registration below when you re ready to proceed Manual Registration This dialog is informing you that the version of Apex you are attempting to run is not registered and offering two different options from which you may register your program Online Registration or Manual Registration Online Registration This is the fastest and easiest way to register your Apex product Online registration is available 24 7 which means you can register your product whenever you re ready to with no fear of any down time because our offices are closed
105. on Menu Although this option is available we recommend leaving this setting as is Above the Ribbon Menu Place Quick Access Toolbar below the Ribbon ao Accessing the QAT continued Minimize the Ribbon Customizing the QAT Choose commands from Fle H Save E Save As J Import 3 Email Print i Print Preview 15 Print Options ae m rm l a rm t Add gt gt Remove gs Redo Last Undo Operation To hide the Ribbon Menu at any time you may select this option or double click or double tap the menu tab This places the Ribbon in an alternative mode that will auto hide after you have selected a menu item Y Open a Sketch File Ez Save Sketch File E5 Print Sketch EH Print Preview Undo Last Operation Quick Access Toolbar Configuration Dialog File Category Choose the category that O contains the function or command you wish to add to the QAT Command List This window lists the O commands available for the selected category Click to highlight a command QAT Location Checking this option will O place the QAT below the Ribbon Menu We recommend leaving this unchecked Add Button Once a command is a highlighted clicking this button will make it available displayed on the QAT Remove Button Clicking this button will remove the selected command function Active QAT Commands from the QAT Close Button This will close the window O performing the same function as
106. ons and Dimensions checked which is reflected in the newly defined area 9 Mt F F Y e T dE D D veine 1 Jor A E GLA Gross Living Area GLA1 First Floor GLA2 Second Floor GLA3 Third Floor GLA4 Fourth Floor P P Porch Patio Etc P P Patio P P Porch Continuing to define the other two f PIP Wood Deck areas in the sketch using the same s Drag amp Drop method will result in a sketch that looks similar to this 7268s illustration 100 Imperial 1 12 All Areas Defined Note If you drag a definition into an area that has already been defined it will redefine the area as the selected area definition If your intention is to create a new area you must use Clone Area and or Copy amp Paste and then define the area by dragging the desired definition into it 126 Multi Level Area Definition using Drag amp Drop When using the Drag Drop method defining multi level areas requires that you define areas in a level by level fashion In our example we drew and defined all of the Level 1 areas To add say a second floor area it is important that the first floor or any other areas it may overlap be defined prior to drawing the second floor lines The following continues with the addition of the Second Floor area to our example For the purpose of this example the First Floor label along with its Calculation have been
107. or GBA Gross Building Areas BSMT Basement P P Porch Patio Etc P P Patio P P Porch P P Wood Deck _ P P Balcony The First Floor area definition will be applied and labeled accordingly Note Don t worry about the label placement They can be moved at any time using the Select Tool TIT ELELE 100 Imperial 1 a2 j i i Repeat these previous steps to define the remaining areas including the second floor Once you are finished the sketch should look similar to the illustration to the right y GBA Gross Buiding Areas BSMT Basement Patio 518 5 sf 27 0 Note Redundant dimensions have been removed to reduce the clutter in this example You can do this using the Select Tool and Delete function Garage 726 8 sf AQP Ra RT OL Jaor e sa f1 ors R You can learn more about the actual drawing methods for creating the lines that make up the areas in the Drawing Methods Chapter of this reference guide If you require further assistance with the drawing process for Apex Sketch v6 give us a call 800 858 9958 133 Modifying Customizing Area Definitions When you click or tap the Edit button within the Area Definitions panel you may be prompted for a password Pro Edition which by default is the word password all lower case This allows companies to secure and maintain uniform standard across the company by preve
108. ou may encounter angled walls where obtaining the Rise amp Run measurements can be quite a challenge The wall we would like to draw measures 17 in length and angles to the right at 45 Elements of an Angle Note Turn refers to the swing of the wall in relation to the overall direction you are drawing Imagine walking along the path of the previous walls drawn Which way would you need to turn to maintain the same path for the angled wall 106 Touch Drawing Method continued As was mentioned on the previous page the wall we would like to draw is 17 feet long and turns to the right at 45 To draw this line in Apex Sketch you would input the following commands 7 iR Turns to the Right Don t press ENTER uN 45 angle Look at the input display at the top of the touch panel As you entered the above commands this updates to reflect your input 17 feet Don t press ENTER 17 line at 45 Right NUIT Press ENTER to accept the input and draw the wall J I Press ENTER once again to anchor the wall Note When using the turn feature the input display will default to 90 immediately after specifying a direction Right or Left To change this to something other than 90 simply input the angle and it will overwrite the default This is done by design to allow you to quickly accept the 90 angle most common without having to input it Your screen should look similar to the following
109. ou to show or hide the grid in the drawing port Although the grid is an excellent tool for viewing alignment you might find because of the drawing and alignment tools available in Apex Sketch the grid to be unnecessary UO 00 LO UOJ Library Tools The Library Tools allow you access to the Libraries available in Apex Sketch The majority of these tools will open the library through the panel system on the right i e Text and Symbol Library where others i e Smart Labels open dialogs you ll interact with The following is a brief description of each of the Library Tools Area Definition Library This tool will open the Area Definition Panel from which you use to detect shapes and apply area attributes along with their calculation You can learn more about this tool in Chapter 4 Area Definition _ Text Library Pressing this button will open the Text Library Panel allowing you to annotate your T sketches with say room labels and or other notes You can learn more about this tool in Chapter 5 Sketch Annotation Symbol Library This function will open the Symbol Library Panel where you can choose from over Em 200 individually drawn and scaled symbols to add to your property sketches for additional detail You can learn more about this tool in Chapter 5 Sketch Annotation IN Touch This will open the Touch Panel which is designed for mobile users who wish to draw in the field with their Windows Tablet You can
110. ouch Panel In order to draw using the Touch Panel you must first enable touch from Tools gt Options gt System Tab Hardware System Drawing To enable the Touch Panel simply check the Touch Input Options Touch Screen Screen option as illustrated to the left Press the OK Gestures Enabled Ink Confirmation Unit of Measure Ink Recognition 0 1 button to accept your changes Note Enabling the touch panel will require you to o Imperial Decimal Precision restart the application O 1 0 Oo Dimension Options 8 5 lt Auto Placement Geo Reference Notifications Strip Trailing Zeroes C Don t Show Minimize Confirmation Restore Defaults Enabling the Touch Panel Once you ve restarted Apex Sketch the Touch option will be available on the left toolbar as illustrated below 493652 x Ea R Apex Sketch v6 Pro Sketch1 AX6 CG 0 Cut Copy Paste Select Select Delete Undo Redo Rotae DrawColor Subjectinfo Area All X Sketch Attributes y Mp Pal Le B T ei D x f y 100 Imp 1 Draw Area 1 of 1 Touch Panel Enabled Ar Le Touch Drawing Method continued Define Area Process Just as we ve covered in previous sections you no longer need to define the area before drawing Whether you re drawing from a set of
111. out having to change modes What might be different for you however is the way you draw in the field versus your office The transition is simple as are the techniques by which you will create your floor plan sketches This chapter will guide you step by step through each process mentioned above NOTE As you progress through this chapter areas highlighted in this fashion are designated action sections prompting you to perform the specified commands should you choose to follow along in Apex Sketch y Keyboard amp Mouse Drawing Method Keyboard and mouse are typically used in conjunction with one another and although there are several ways to accomplish the same task we ll focus on the most common uses in this section Before we get started however there are a couple of important topics we need to cover Define Area Process Although much of the drawing process will be familiar to existing users we ve added additional flexibility that may take some getting used to For instance you no longer need to define the area before drawing the shape Whether you re drawing from a set of plans and hand drawings or drawing on site the process is the same We ll cover Area Definition in Chapter 4 Drawing Modes Before you can begin drawing you must first be in a drawing mode When you launch Apex Sketch v6 this is the default mode the program is set to so you can begin drawing immediately To activate a drawing mode simply click on Draw Exte
112. pter will introduce you to the different components of the Apex User Interface and guide you through some Basic Navigation As you become more familiar with the layout and design of Apex you ll find that everything you need is a key press or a mouse click away The Apex Sketch User Interface UI offers a familiar look for existing users with a bevy of new features and functionality If you re new to Apex don t let all the buttons and icons worry you You ll soon learn the basics of drawing and see how easy Apex is to use But before you jump to the tutorials take a little time to get to know the components that make up the Apex Sketch v6 UI ASS aDSo gt Home View Tools Help 36 ES Cut Copy Paste Select Select Delete Undo Redo Rotae DrawColor Subjectinfo Area Location All Sketch a Attributes Details Apex Sketch v6 Pro 5323 JBD Lane AXZ a 19 2 12 7 TELLER T 58 b o E 133 Imperial 1 35 Apex Sketch v6 User Interface 1 Ribbon Menu 8 Mode Heads Up Display HUD 2 Quick Access Toolbar QAT 9 Zoom amp Scale Controls 3 Title Bar 10 Canvas View Tools 4 Window Controls 11 Library Tools 5 Panel System 12 Drawing Tools 6 Bluetooth amp Ink Disabled Indicators 13 Selection amp Pan Tools 7 Sketch Page Indicator 14 Drawing Port A booo The Ribbon Bar The new Ribbon Bar in Apex Sketch v6 is simple to use but you need to be aware of a few things in order to get the maximum benefit from
113. r 1 00 Net Area 1125 15 Perimeter 193 89 Base Area 494 22 Factor 1 00 Net Area 494 22 Perimeter 121 94 Patio 161 11 Porch 156 00 Er Garage 273 00 Base Area 273 00 Factor 1 00 Net Area 273 00 7 Perimeter 68 00 Collapse All Defined Areas Total Gross Living Area Total Gross Building Area Area Calculations Panel gt 1619 38 0 00 Area Calculations on the current page and display them in this panel Expanded Area Calcs First Floor as illustrated to the left is an example of an expanded calculation tree Base Area Factor Net Area and Perimeter are displayed along with the overall calculation Collapsed Area Calcs Both of the P P Porch Patio as illustrated to the left areas are examples of collapsed calculation tree In this state only the adjusted calculation will be displayed Collapse All Clicking Collapse All will close all additional Area Calculations on the current page and display only the adjusted calculations for each area in this panel Calculation Summary Calculation Summary lists the number of defined areas contained on the current page along with the combined calculations for any Living and or Building areas In this illustration both First and Second floors are included in this total Additionally since no defined Buildings typically reserved for commercial purposes exist the Summary lists this value as zero Touch Pa
114. r to the left Press WAS or click your left mouse button to place the Pen Down Touch Drawing Method continued Your screen should look similar to the following 4 90R BAO gt Apex Sketch v6 Pro Sketch1 AX6 Home View Tools e O G Cut Copy Paste Select Select Delete Undo Redo Rotae DrawColor Subjectinfo Area All v Sketch X Attribute ITELE ER 100 Imp 1 Draw Area Pen Down Note Unlike when drawing with pencil amp paper you don t need to worry with where to being In Apex Sketch simply choose a place to begin and begin drawing You ll learn more how to manage your sketch later in this chapter The first line in our sketch is 30 feet to the right To draw this input the following Note Pressing anchored the line which will also automatically anchor the dimension by default If you wish to manually place dimensions you may do so through Tools gt Options gt General Tab gt Auto Placement 100 Touch Drawing Method continued If you re accustom to pressing twice to anchor the line and dimension in previous versions doing so will pick the pen up when you may not have intended to If this happens press again to put the pen down again Let s continue with the next line which is 20 feet down 30 0 20 0 21019
115. raw Interior simple draw a line as you would with pencil and paper directly within the drawing port displayed on your Tablet PC Inked Line Common Misperception 1 Counting Squares Many users find it difficult to break age old habits and when it comes to drawing on graph paper is the perfect example The grid you see default is purely to help you with your transition and aid you with visual alignment However you no longer need to count squares when drawing your floor plans We ve coined a new term with Apex Sketch called guess turing where you simply flick a line in a given direction and then specify its length by writing directly over the rendered dimension We want to improve how quickly you create floor plans in the field Removing the need to count squares is only the beginning 70 Active Pen Drawing Method continued Pen Away Events To aid in the speed of drawing Apex Sketch does not rely on timers that require you to pause and wait as a trigger for the application to render lines Instead Apex takes advantage of pen away events that allow you to control when the application should perform this function A Pen Away even requires that you lift your pen away from the screen approximately 3 to 6 inches When doing so Apex will then render the line and dimension 3 to 6 Inches Pen Down Pen Away Note Ifyou notice that nothing is changing when drawing lines or changing dimensions Le ink lines or
116. rior or Draw Interior located in the toolbar on the left side of the user interface ___ Draw Exterior This Drawing mode allows you to draw lines typically exterior which will be used for E calculation purposes Simply put if you want need to calculate the shapes you draw this is the tool you should use i Draw Interior This Drawing mode allows you to draw lines typically interior which will be used for H illustration non calculation purposes This line style is generally used to depict interior floor plans fence lines property lots streets etc Now that you have a Drawing Mode selected your cursor will change to a Crosshair which will change in appearance depending upon its state Cursor States Part of our improvement to provide a Draw First paradigm is the added ability to draw wherever you wish whenever you wish This freestyle approach however requires some visual cues that indicate whether the pen is Up or Down Pen Up The basic rule of thumb about Pen Up is when it is in the state lines will not be drawn This allows you to move your cursor wherever you wish This is helpful when encountering difficult areas p of your property and need to come back or tackle this problem from a different angle It s also useful when needing to draw other areas as you come to them whereas in previous versions you had to complete the current area prior to doing so Pen Down Pressing or clicking the mouse left butto
117. rposes Simply put if you want need to calculate the shapes you draw this is the tool you should use Draw Interior This Drawing mode allows you to draw lines typically interior which will be used for us illustration non calculation purposes This line style is generally used to depict interior floor plans fence lines property lots streets etc Now that you have a Drawing Mode selected as you hover over the drawing port you will notice your cursor change to a crosshair indicating you are in a drawing state Unlike Keyboard amp Mouse however there is no Pen Up or Pen Down as your pen touching the screen or not literally determines the drawing behavior Area Definition As mentioned with Keyboard amp Mouse Area Definition takes place after drawing This is more helpful in the field as there are many times when it s difficult to know what you re actually measuring drawing until you ve traversed more of or are inside the property Active Pen Drawing Method continued Choosing a Starting Point Although you may need to decide the best location to begin measuring your property the unique drawing nature of Apex Sketch allows you to begin drawing practically anywhere within the drawing port You can use the Center or Center amp Fit buttons to keep your sketch in view at all times Note See Canvas View Tools Page 36 to learn more about Center and Center amp Scale Drawing a Line with Ink Once you re in Draw Exterior or D
118. rred to as our International Edition Apex Sketch v6 Metric is reserved for those customers who require the Metric Unit of Measure for both sketch creation and Area Calculations Directory Path and File Name When launched in stand alone mode aka non integrated mode the entire directory path will be displayed in the title bar If this is a new sketch you will see Sketch AXZ where the will be a number that corresponds to the sketch created during the current session For example Without closing Apex Sketch if you create a new sketch and the current sketch was Sketch1 AXZ the new sketch file name used would be Sketch2 AXZ Note Sketch AXZ is intended to be a temporary filename and would typically designate a sketch file that has not been saved When exiting or creating a new file Apex Sketch v6 will prompt you to save your sketch file and give it a more appropriate name When launched in integrated mode the path and filename is usually controlled by the calling application The filename you would see here typically matches the record name or parcel number referenced when Apex Sketch v6 was launched Window Controls The Window Controls in Apex Sketch v6 are no different than most Windows Applications Depending on how the program was launched Stand Alone vs Integrated these controls may not always be available When available the following is a description of how each button functions Minimize Win
119. rstanding this make sure your alignment modifier is on and perform the following Align Left ENTER Press ENTER to anchor the line Your sketch should look similar to the following 436 BHO Apex Sketch v6 Pro Sketch1 AX6 Home View Tools Help i fl E S x ax9eG 2 0 a Cut Copy Paste Select Select Delete Undo Redo Rotae DrawColor Subjectinfo Area All v Sketch X Attribute 30 Mp 7 E Ie B T ei D 100 Imp 1 Alignment 109 Touch Drawing Method continued Importance of Using Alignment Tools Using alignment is important when squaring your areas Although you could have input 4 0 to the left using alignment here especially off of an angle as illustrated this ensures that your sketch aligns perfectly mathematically It s likely that the 4 0 dimension is rounded in accordance with your decimal precision and NOT actually 4 00 mathematically In this case the same will also be true with the closing dimension Don t worry though Apex Sketch uses the actual geometry to derive its calculations not the rounded displayed dimensions giving you extremely accurate results If you would like to see a more precise dimensions displayed we recommend changing the decimal precision decimal places under Tools gt Options gt General Tab Completing Areas with Auto Close Auto Close is an important feature that allows you to close the areas you draw Howe
120. rts rectangles through the Quick Shape tool This PO unique method of drawing allows you to quickly drag out a rectangle and specify its length and width dimensions versus draw each side of the shape individually You can learn more about this tool in Chapter 3 Drawing Methods Selection amp Pan Tools These tools allow you to select items in your floor plan sketch or pan around your sketch bringing a specific section of your property into view The selection tools also allow you to access the new Properties Tab which will appear once an object has been selected giving you a quick way to edit specific elements pertaining to that object which we call Context Editing The following is a brief description of each of these tools Selection Tool This is generally used for selecting individual or multiple items for the purpose of A editing them in some fashion With the mouse you must press and hold emr for multiple item selection where with a pen or finger selecting multiple items is inherent a Fence Tool This tool allows you to drag a fence rectangular around objects in your sketch Once 4 you release your mouse button or lift your pen finger all objects fully contained in the fence will become selected Lasso Tool Like Fence the Lasso Tool allows you to select multiple items but with far more precision o Simply draw around the items you wish to select and anything fully contained within the lasso will become selected
121. ry To access the Define Area Library for modification purposes you must first enter the password password by default Once entered correctly the Area Definitions Library will open Area Code Name Displays the Code and Area name of the selected Area Definition Area Definitions This area displays the existing Area Definitions contained in your library Changes you make here will also be displayed in the Area Definitions panel Add amp Delete Add will create a new Area Definition below the selected definition in the list see note below Up amp Down This will move the selected Area Definition up or down the list This also allows you to move Sub Areas from one category to another Apply amp Cancel Apply will save the changes you ve made and return you to the main screen of the application Cancel will abort any changes and close the dialog 134 135 Modifying Customizing Area Definitions Area Definitions Panel Continued Area Information This is where you can change the Area Code Name and Description along with the factor see Applying Factors below Area Calculation This allows you to configure the default calculation properties for the Area Definition see Area Calculations below Line Wall Properties You can choose from several Line Styles Colors and Thicknesses that will be applied once the area is defined GLA1 First Floor GLA Gross Living Area GLA1
122. sfied with its dimension and or orientation Touch Panel Direction Pad The Direction Pad is typically used in conjunction with the number pad for distance and direction drawing However when no value is input pressing an arrow button will move the cursor a single unit in the given direction The center button in the Direction Pad is Jump which will move the cursor to the nearest endpoint of a line Number Pad This pad is used to enter measurements O typically followed by a direction specified on the direction pad As you tap the number pad the Distance Display 1 will show the value Bluetooth Connection and Ink Disabled Indicators Bluetooth amp Inking disabled Indicators provide the user with feedback regarding their current state The ON state for either indicator is designated by a color glyph where the OFF state is designated by a dithered glyph Bluetooth Indicator Apex Sketch v6 supports Bluetooth connection with DISTO Laser or Es Meters Leica GeoSystems If a connection is established the indicator will change from dithered to color as shown y Ink Disabled Indicator When Touch is enabled through Option Inking active pen is Se 68 disabled as a convenience to the user When this occurs the glyph will change from dithered to color as show to the left Sketch Page Indicator The Sketch Page Indicator offers more than visual feedback of the page you re working with It s also how you navigate i
123. sketch which does appear larger or smaller depending on the scale you specify While on screen Scale isn t much different than Zoom However when it comes to output i e printing the use for scale becomes more evident r Imperial 1 10 Unit of Measure This display indicates which unit of measure is being applied to your sketch In Imperial the ratio is 1inch to feet In Metric this is 1 meter to meters O Scale Input Field Input the number of units feet or meters you wish to rescale your sketch Note Keep in mina the larger the number you input the smaller the sketch will appear in your drawing port Conversely the smaller the number the larger your sketch will appear Canvas View Tools Like the Zoom amp Scale Controls these tools also allow you to change what you see on your screen The following is a description of each of these tools Center c This function will which will center the sketch in the Drawing Port This is convenient pad while drawing as it allows you to quickly adjust your sketch whenever you draw off of the drawing port keeping it in view Center amp Fit suirt CJ Although the Center function is valuable sometimes centering your sketch ad isn t enough as your sketch may be too large or too small in its current size This function will Center and Fit the sketch by its extents in the drawing port bringing the entire sketch into view e Grid On Off 6 This allows y
124. sketch by completing this area as well as add the final area of our sketch enter 10 feet down Anchor the line ENTER enter 25 5 feet right Anchor the line ENTER enter 28 5 feet down Anchor the line ENTER enter 25 5 feet left Anchor the line ENTER Press to pick the pen up Your screen should look similar to the following 4 90R sas z Apex Sketch v6 Pro Sketch1 AXZ El Home View Tools Help e Facial a 9 BRE xoO0o06 01 Cut Copy Paste Select Select Delete Undo Redo Rotae DrawColor Subjectinfo Area All X Sketch X Attributes A 30 0 2 k RI E a e T O Ps E Pa Pg f dE D gt rary w z E Y A E A es Q KG 100 Imperial 1 10 1 fof1 G Se All Areas Drawn Not Defined Now that you ve completed drawing your sketch with Keyboard amp Mouse all you need to do now is define the areas you ve just drawn You can skip ahead to Chapter 4 Area Definition to learn more about this topic 68 69 Active Pen Drawing Method Drawing with an Active Pen in Apex Sketch v6 is about as close to drawing with pencil and paper you can get In fact when you learn how to draw your lines directly on your Windows Tablet you might even say it s better than pencil and paper We d agree The following section is designed to take you through the same sketch you drew with Keyboard amp Mouse but from an inking perspective Active vs P
125. ss and hold the Bluetooth button until the icon appears in the DISTO display Note Depending on the DISTO settings you may hear an audible beep when Bluetooth is turned on and or connected with your Tablet PC Once Bluetooth is on enabled you re ready to pair the device with your tablet PC Within Windows 8 8 1 navigate to Settings which is located at the bottom of your charms menu The Settings menu will appear Select Change PC Settings located at the bottom of the panel as you see here La DISTO Drawing continued From the PC and Devices menu select the Bluetooth menu option which will allow you to Manage Bluetooth Devices Note If Bluetooth is off be sure to turn it on with the switch provided in this panel Your Tablet PC will begin to poll for nearby Bluetooth and indicate those that are Ready to pair Your DISTO device should appear on this list Select your DISTO device and then press the Pair button Enter the passcode for your device You may be prompted to input the passcode for the DISTO CH device The passcode for DISTO is typically 0000 four zeros Once you ve input the passcode and it is accepted you will see a progress bar as it attempts to pair your Tablet PC with the DISTO Once the process is complete the status for the DISTO will change to Paired if successful Note Although the steps above are similar for pairing most any Bluetooth device the steps for activat
126. support of the Active Pen Mouse Scroll Wheel Required for Extended Drawing Functionality Although it is not required Apex Sketch v6 is designed to take full advantage of the scroll wheel on your mouse for certain functions available when equipped Note Apex Sketch does not require Active Pen or a Mouse Scroll Wheel to effectively draw sketches These are only required if you wish to take advantage of the additional functionality built in to the program designed specifically for these peripherals Technical Support In the event you encounter difficulty with your program or installation we re only a phone call away You can reach our Technical Support staff for assistance Phone 800 858 9958 FAX Monday Friday 8 30am 5 30pm CST Business Hours 210 699 1150 Email tech apexwin com Installing Apex Sketch v6 Whether you ve downloaded Apex Sketch v6 from our website www apexwin com or received the application on CD the installation is essentially the same The following will take you through a series of steps to ensure Apex Sketch v6 has been properly installed to your computer or mobile device To launch the installation program locate it in the directory it was downloaded to or access it from the CD you received trom Apex Software Once you have launched the installation program dialogs will appear to help guide you through the process of installing Apex Sketch v6 to your computer Welcome to the Apex Sketch v6 S
127. t is in Pen Up allowing you to move your cursor to another location Saving your Sketches You can save your work at any time including open areas by choosing File gt Save and giving your sketch file a name For the first time Apex Sketch will default to the My Sketches directory in your documents folder Subsequent saves will default to the last directory you saved opened sketches Export your Sketches You can also export your sketches in a variety of formats including XML BMP GIF JPG PNG TIF and AX5 which is the previous version of Apex Note Apex Sketch v5 can open Apex Sketch v6 files 62 Ey Keyboard amp Mouse Drawing Method continued 4 Drawing Attached Areas In previous versions you would define any attached areas first and then establish a point of beginning As we did with the first area we drew we will skip the define area process and simply draw more lines that make up additional areas For this example we ll pick up where we left off on our previous sketch To do this we will use one of our alignment functions we call Jump Place your cursor near the point as illustrated in the following screenshot ATRASE Apex Sketch v6 Pro Sketch1 AXZ Home Mew a Help Xaa axe L e A Cut Copy Paste Select Select Delete Undo Redo Rotae DrawColor Subjectinfo Area All Sketch A ttributes 30 0 36 5 CF S MENTA 10 0 PN 3 par ar o ye A 31 100 Imp
128. tinued Drawing Your First Shape We ll add more functions and capabilities as we move through the rest of this chapter For now we ll focus on the steps necessary to draw your first line and shape As discussed there are several ways to draw with the mouse and keyboard but we ll focus on the method most commonly used distance and direction E Make sure you are in Draw Exterior Mode by clicking it on the toolbar to the left Press or click your left mouse button to place the Pen Down Your screen should look similar to the following 4 90RB8590C Apex Sketch v6 Pro Sketch1 AXZ Home S ao E Help Sie a 06 4 0 5 Cut Paste Select Sates Delete Undo Redo Rotate Dee Cols Subject Info Area All ketch Attributes PS sD amp Wy IM O uono s319 stoqui s vea 1 auyog 8 Vd Ol lors J ES H O A BOOM A 100 Imperial 1 10 Draw Area Pen Down Note Unlike when drawing with pencil amp paper you don t need to worry with where to being In Apex Sketch simply choose a place to begin and begin drawing You ll learn more how to manage your sketch later in this chapter EE Keyboard amp Mouse Drawing Method continued The first line in our sketch is 30 feet to the right To draw this input the following AAA 30 0 Note Pressing enter anchored the line which will also automatically anchor the dimension by default If you wish to man
129. tion Restore Defaults General Settings Inout Options Designed with the mobile user in mind these settings allow you to turn on Gestures and Touch Screen Gestures require an active pen and include functions such as Undo Redo Line Direction etc Touch Screen provides access to the Touch Panel and is general reserved for Touch devices although may also be used with a pen Unit of Measure This allows you to change between Imperial Feet and Inches and Metric Meters Units of Measure Decimal Precision This setting allows you to specify how many decimal places you would like to display for dimensions and posted area calculations Most common for users in the US is 1 decimal but will support up to 4 Dimension Format Allows you to choose how your dimensions will display for each line between Engineering Decimal and Architectural Feet Inches Ortho Ortho pertains to the snap angle when drawing with a mouse By default this is set to 5 Degrees and can be set as high as 45 or Off not recommended altogether Notifications When Geo Referencing your sketches you are normally prompted that Apex Sketch v6 will minimize once you ve selected the second location This option enables you to turn this notification Off On 42 Options amp Settings continued Display Settings General Display Hardware System Fonts Drawing y Grid Alignment Indicators Lines Visible Co
130. to save your sketch file with a different name or save it in different file format such as v5 x for use with Apex v5 x choose this option Import Allows you to import a file which will take on all the subject information properties as well as the file name of the current sketch you are working on Export File crr F12 Export File allows you to save your sketch file with a different name or save it in a different file format such as v5 x for compatibility with version Apex v5 x You may export your sketch files in a variety of image formats E mail Apex This option helps to send a message to the Technical Support with any questions you may have Print Print will send your sketch file to the printer of your choice There are several options to choose from Print Setup Page Layout and Print PDF File Menu continued Print Preview This option allows you to preview how your sketch will look when printed before actually sending it to your printer Li a Print Options Choosing this option will open the Printer Setup dialog where you can choose your dl printer along with other settings pertaining to the printed output of your sketch files P Page Layout Page Layout provides several options when running Apex Sketch v6 You may choose froma variety of page sizes and styles to match your own preferences and or requirements A Options Choosing Options from the file menu will open the Configuration amp Settings dialog which S
131. ually place dimensions you may do so through Tools gt Options gt General Tab gt Auto Placement Keep in mind pressing exter again at this point will pick the pen up because nothing else has been drawn If you re accustom to pressing enter twice to anchor the line and dimension in previous versions doing so will pick the pen up when you may not have intended to Let s continue with the next line which is 20 feet down SO 30 0 S 52 Ey Keyboard amp Mouse Drawing Method continued 4 At this point your sketch should look similar to the following 4 90R B45 Apex Sketch v6 Pro Sketch1 AXZ Home View Tools Help ES A oi Y BA a xS 4 O A Cut Copy Paste Select Select Delete Undo Redo Rotae DrawColor Subjectinfo Area All Sketch Attributes Hono sajeo stoqui g pa auyed 20 0 FP Sp SoS Wi MP DL gt L E A 100 Imperial 1 10 fra O amp x a 7 Second Line Drawn amp Anchored Now that you have the hang of drawing straight lines let s draw a few more by inputting following measurements and directions enter 27 feet to the right Anchor the line ENTER enter 28 5 feet down Anchor the line ENTER enter 10 feet to the left Anchor the line ENTER Note Depending on your resolution your cursor may have moved off of the drawing port causing the drawing port to Auto Pan to follow the drawing cursor We
132. unch and or integrate properly with other applications Contact an Apex representative at the appropriate number below to begin the manual registration process United States 888 308 2722 M 8 30am 5 30pm CST Australia New Zealand 1300 880 313 M 9 00am 6 00pm AEST Step 1 Provide the serial number described below to your Apex representative Serial Number WW070E 050862 556674 554T5K 33 Step 2 Input the unlock code provided by your Apex representative below Call Apex Software at 888 308 2722 or 800 858 9958 M F between 8 30am amp 5 30pm CST to speak with an Apex representative Step 1 When prompted provide the Serial Number to an Apex Representative Step 2 Input the Unlock Code as provided by an Apex representative As you input information the input cursor will automatically advance between the dashes you see After you have input the registration code click Submit and you will be presented with similar results as illustrated for Online Registration Note Be sure to launch Apex while your Apex Representative is online so they can troubleshoot any errors that happen to occur Chapter 2 Apex Sketch User Interface Apex Sketch User Interface The Apex User Interface is built for soeed and ease of use Everything you see and use has been designed with your workflow in mind The graphical work area of Apex is a collection of components that group tools based on their functionality and usability This cha
133. usa 00 N N J E Wa A 100 Imperial 1 1 Bz O Angle Drawn Anchored Turn Feature o En Note The Turn Feature also accounts for angles drawn off of angled walls making it uniquely tailored to the way you measure and create floor plans No additional math necessary to adjust for existing angles is necessary Simply input the measurements as you ve gathered them and let Apex Sketch do the rest How do determine the angle of the wall without Rise amp Run There are several tools available on the market today to help you measure angles We recommend using the Mite R Gage as it s made of durable material Lexan and has extended arms that aid in the accuracy of your measurements Contact us 800 858 9958 if you re interested in gt learning more about this measuring device Mite R Gage 59 L onr OA po L Keyboard amp Mouse Drawing Method continued Alignment While drawing you may have notices dots and dashed lines when moving your cursor with your mouse or keyboard entry These are alignment indicators that give you instant feedback when coming in alignment with other points and lines in your sketch The dots designate endpoints your cursor location is in alignment with and the dashed lines draw back to those points making it clear the cursor is vertically and or horizontally aligned
134. ver due to the new drawing engine of Apex Sketch you may find that you don t use it as much as you used to Let s close the area we ve been working on by pressing A as illustrated below Ak 356 BAO gt Apex Sketch v6 Pro Sketch1 AX6 Home View Tools Help 3653 axe 4 O S Copy Paste Select Select Delete Undo Redo Rotae DrawColor Subjectinfo Area All X Sketch gt Attribute 30 EL IJ A Z iD 2 Mp 7 4 re a T ee D 100 Imp 1 Auto Close Congratulations You ve drawn your first area in Apex Sketch v6 using touch It hasn t been defined or calculated just yet but you ll do that in the next chapter Area Definition For now let s continue to create the lines in our sketch that make up the other areas of the property Note When you auto close an area the color changes from pink to the default line color The pen changes from green to grey indicating Pen Up allowing you to move your cursor to another location 110 111 Touch Drawing Method continued Drawing Attached Areas In previous versions you would define any attached areas first and then establish a point of beginning As we did with the first area we drew we will skip the define area process and simply draw more lines that make up additional areas For this example we ll pick up where we left off on our previous sketch To do this we will use one of our alignment functions we call Jump Place
135. ver the Blue Alignment Point as illustrated to the right The Reference Line will appear indicating which point line it is aligned with Tap the Blur Alignment Point and Apex Sketch will automatically draw a new wall which mirrors the opposite side of the Bay Window The Bay Windows is now complete Continuing with the first Area draw a new line to the left as illustrated here Change its dimension to 10 si Active Pen Drawing Method continued To prepare for our next topic perform the following From the open end of the 10 foot line draw an angled line up and to the left as illustrated here Hover over the Rise dimension as highlighted to the right Place your pen down and change the dimension to 12 Tap the Accept check button or pull your pen away and the line will adjust to reflect your change 86 Active Pen Drawing Method continued Direct Angle Input If you ve used Apex product for some time you know Rise amp Run input is a great way to determine the orientation angle and length of the walls you measure However as was mentioned in the previous section Keyboard amp Mouse gathering Rise amp Run measurements for long walls can be difficult even in the most ideal situations If you have a tool such as a Mite R Gage Apex Sketch allows you to input the angles you measure as well Note If you
136. way event Pull your pen away from the screen and the line will render Hover over the dimension to display the Hit Boundary Place your pen down anywhere within the highlighted area Change the 33 0 dimension to 30 by writing over the input panel as shown here Tap on accept or pull your pen away from the screen 30 0 and the line will adjust as you see here Note The input panel in the above example may be disabled under Tools gt Options gt General Tab This is advised only if you find the input panel distracting or wish to work solely with pen away events Otherwise we recommend leaving the input panel enabled for the added convenience it offers Active Pen Drawing Method continued The Big Red Dot Now we re ready to draw the next line in our area but before doing so we need to cover another important topic Because of the new drawing paradigm offered in Apex Sketch v6 that allows you to draw where you want when you want along with the new area detection algorithms we needed to provide the means to ensure areas are truly closed To do this we introduced the Big Red Dot that not only shows alignment but also indicates that the next line you draw will be connected to the point you re hovering over Let s continue our sketch by performing the following to illustrate how this works In order to draw a connected attached line move your pen over hover the endpoint you wish to draw trom
137. with drawing the bay window by performing the following Tap the Accept check button or pull your pen away and the change will take effect Note Rise amp Run will dictate the actual length of the wall If your Rise amp Run measurements inputs are accurate the wall s length and orientation will be as well Now hover over the Run dimension as illustrated to the right Alignment Points Dots As you draw lines you ve undoubtedly noticed several to many dots appear in your drawing You may have also noticed that these appear when you have a line selected as illustrated below in Draw Mode These dots are actually alignment indicators designed to speed up the drawing process by allowing you to draw in a dot to dot fashion wherever possible Tapping on any of these dots will automatically draw a line from the selected line to the specified alignment point Red Alignment Points indicate Vertical and O Horizontal alignment with other points in your sketch Blue Alignment Points are primarily intended for completing Bay Windows but can be used to complete other more complex shapes such as Gazebos Hovering over any of the alignment points will display reference lines making it easy to see which points lines the specified alignment point is aligned with 84 85 Active Pen Drawing Method continued Understanding how these alignment points function will come in handy Let continue with our example Hover o
138. would like to learn more about tools i e Mite R Gage that help you determine angles without Rise amp Run see page 56 The Turn feature is very helpful with Keyboard amp Mouse which requires you to gather the Length of the wall the direction it turns and the degree of change deflection angle based on the direction you are drawing Although much of this information is still necessary when drawing in the field Active Pen input allows you to directly write ink over the angle measurements to reflect what you ve measured In our example the next wall we need to draw is a 45 angle Because we automatically default to 45 there would little change for you to do accept change the length of the line if necessary Hence the previous steps were to prepare us for Direct Angle Input The next wall is 17 long at a 45 angle Let s continue with the first Area by editing the appropriate elements of the line to match our measurements To change the angle of a line hover over the deflection angle red as shown to the right Note You can also change the Interior Angle blue if you ve gathered that data instead Deflection is more common and is typically reserved for angles ranging from Po SiO 16 8 Place your pen down and change ink the angle to 45 lt O as illustrated here Active Pen Drawing Method continued Tap the Accept check button or pull your pen away from the screen and the line will
139. y GLA4 Fourth Floor GBA Gross Building Areas BSMT Basement _ BSMT Finished BSMT BSMT Unfinished BSMT P P Porch Patio Etc Define q IH H Sub Areas These are the Area Definitions that belong to the Main Area Type and are typically organized in such a manner as they share similar attributes P P Patio l P P Porch Collapsed Main Area Category When a Main Area P P Wood Deck Category is collapsed a plus will be displayed which P P Balcony also indicates that Sub Areas exist To expand a category GAR Garage Carport Etc a a GAR Garage click or tap the which will display the associated Sub GAR Carport Areas SITE Subject Site OTH Storage NCA Non Calculated Area UND Undefined Area O Apply Auto Post O LCI Code Fa Name calculations Main Area Type This is similar to the Main Area Categories but does not have any Sub Area associated 11 I H H as is indicated by the absence of a or Apply Button This is used to apply an Area Definition to a selected shape Auto Post Options These controls allow you to specify what should appear once the Area is defined Dimensions Outside Q Autosubtract overlapped areas Define Area Panel Auto Subtract Overlapped Areas Used with Quick Shapes this function will automatically subtract the quick shape calculations from underlying areas Area
140. your cursor near the point as illustrated in the following screenshot 4 065540 z Apex Sketch v6 Pro Sketch1 AX6 b N 30 wa a gt 9 2 e Y a n 3 DEOP DIO HRN OL 100 Imp 1 Positioning Cursor Prior to Using Jump 30 0 Press J and your cursor will jump to the end point as shown to the right This ensures the cursor is precisely 2 where you need it to be for attachment 30 0 Press to put the pen down and establish a point of beginning The cursor will change to green indicating you re ready to draw Touch Drawing Method continued a gt ENTER 17 feet to the right Anchor the line ENTER Your screen should look similar to the following AGE BHO Apex Sketch v6 Pro Sketch1 AX6 Home View Tools Help Cut Copy Paste Select Select Delete Undo Redo Rotae DrawColor Subjectinfo Area All m Sketch gt Attributes 30 Pa Mp 4 r3 T ei D 100 Imp 1 First Line of Attached Area Drawing Curves Curves are another encounter that can turn a beautiful day into a nightmare On one hand they re not always easy to measure and on the other you need to draw it on your computer Don t worry Apex makes drawing curves a breeze and in this example we ll cover

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