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this is the second in a series of two videos looking at how leica captivate handles the importing and use of data from dxf files. leica captivate actually has two methods for this. a basic import everything in one go approach, which is what the first of these two dxf videos covered and then a more sophisticated attach method which is what this video will focus on. as with the first video we should start by ensuring that a suitable data file exists. for this, we will use the exact same house plot.dxf file that we used in the first dxf video. again, exactly as before we must make sure that this file is saved into the data folder of one of our memory devices. the next step is where things change between the basic importing method and the more sophisticated attaching method. so instead of importing the entire file as one, we will attach it to a job instead.

we can do this in the new job process or pick a job from the job carousel, and then tap on it to access the job menu. from this menu we enter into view and edit the job properties. here we go to the cad files tab and select add, allowing us to see a list of all the dxf and shape files that exist on any of the memory devices or in any of the jobs inside leica captivate. as long as we put a supported file in the data folder of any memory device we know it will appear on this list. as before, the file that we are interested in is the house plot one. we will select that and then press store to attach it to the job, and then store once again to confirm our changes to the job properties.

it might be interesting to know that when we attach a cad file to the job we are not actually importing all of the data straight into the jobs database, instead we are converting this data into an almost halfway format which makes it very easy to handle, it gives us a lot of power and it makes it very easy to do the final import stage at any point. to see how this looks we can enter into the 3d viewer where we can see that our dxf file has now been converted and attached to our job. as we zoom in and pan around we can clearly see that all the points and lines are available as before, but also we can see additional information such as the text. but its more than just that. everything we see here has the right colour,

the right line style and remains on the correct layer, giving us the power to manipulate and use this data exactly as we require. for example, if we go into configuration and then layer management we are presented with a list of all the layers from the dxf file. also on this layer management screen we are able to access our cad import settings. we do this by pressing function and then settings. as we saw in the first video this settings screen allows us to configure prefixes for any data that is imported, we can create points at the vertices or key points of lines and polylines and can modify data by removing or adding in heights, then we can even choose to ignore the dxf extents.

once we are happy with these settings, we can press ok to return to the cad layers screen and then store to return back to the 3d viewer. as this dxf file is attached we can use it to take a look at some of the layer management and some of the importing features that make this approach more sophisticated than the basic import everything approach that we saw in the first video. let's begin by tapping and holding on one of the elements from the dxf file. doing this means that leica captivate presents us with a context specific menu, allowing us to carry out common functions on the dxf and the element selected such as importing the selected element, finding out more information about the elements,

managing the cad files layers or depending on the element that is selected, using it within an app. for example, for the line selected we get options to use it in roads. for now, let's select to view more information about our selected entity. here we can see detailed information about the entity such as its type, its layer, the source cad file and also coordinates of key points. additionally, we have the option of importing it from this screen as well. however, for now we will press ok and return to our 3d viewer. as we can see the element has been deselected, so to use it again we just tap and hold on it once more and the context menu will again be based on that selection.

this time we shall select the option manage layers which takes us to the same cad layers screen that we were in previously. however this time the layer of our selected entity is already highlighted in the list for us. this is incredibly useful when we have a large number of layers or layer names are hard to interpret. as in both of those cases it would be hard to find and select the layer that any particular entity is on. in addition to simply listing the layers we also have a state for each layer which can be controlled by using the state or the all function keys to either toggle the state of just one layer or every layer. let us now see how these behave by looking at the foundation layer and the notes layer. initially both of these layers have the state selectable.

however, as we tap the all button we can see that the state of both of these layers and all other layers change. first from selectable to hidden and then to visible. whereas if you press state, then only the state of our highlighted layer changes. so right now we have the layers configured such that only one of the layers is selectable but all of them are visible. we can see what this means by pressing store to return to the 3d viewer. now, whenever we try and tap on a dxf entity that is on the selectable layer, it becomes selected. but no matter how hard we try we cannot select entities that are on a different layer. this functionality can really save us a lot of time and make our life easier when we are trying to select elements from one layer but we would still like all of the layers

of what could be a complicated drawing to be visible so that we better can understand the site. in fact we can even combine this functionality with standard behaviour from within leica captivate such as the selection window within the 3d viewer. we can access this from the toolbar on the right and drag a selection box over an area such that everything that is inside that area and on our selectable layer becomes selected. this combination of features provides us with a really quick and easy process to select a lot of data from our dxf file which we then can use inside an app or as we will do here, import. this incredibly useful feature of being able to control the layers of our attached drawing added to the additional supported elements plus the handling of text

and the support of line styles and colours means that attaching a dxf file really does give us more benefits. this is why the attach method is the recommended approach. thanks to these two videos we have now looked at and understand both options.

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