05_WinCan VX_Draw_EN
WinCan-Draw
Version: 1.5
Date: 08.12.2025
Introduction
The module WinCan Draw is launched from a WinCanVX project and opens a drawing interface to create a sketch, that shows either all sections or just the highlighted section inside the current project. Such a sketch is usually based on an existing plot or a satellite image of the survey spot and allows the user to draw the situation/pipeline course very close to reality.
Launch the module via the tab command Extended Modules > WinCan Draw and select one of the corresponding sub-commands:
Select the sub-command Project Drawing to have a project drawing created, which allows you to draw the location of all sections inside the current project.
Select the sub-command Section/Node Drawing to have a section drawing created, which allows you to draw the location of a selected section inside the current project.
Unlike Map the module WinCan Draw is unable to recognize coordinate data.
Create and edit drawings
Clicking on the sub-command WinCan Draw – Project (in case of a project sketch) first opens a panel, that provides basic drawing presets:
Click on the button OK to confirm all the presets and to open the WinCan Draw interface:
Tab General
Nachfolgend sind sämtliche Funktionen der einzelnen Bearbeitungswerkzeuge innerhalb des Registers Allgemein beschrieben:
| Highlight, move and edit drawing objects. Keep the CTRL-key pressed to highlight a group of drawing objects. |
|---|---|
| Draw a simple or an arrow line on the drawing sheet. Keep the SHIFT-key pressed while drawing to get a perfect vertical or horizontal line. |
| Measure a distance between 2 objects and show it on the drawing sheet: the value is based on the calibration factor you entered in the preset panel. |
| Draw an ellipse or a circle (with pressed SHIFT-key) on the drawing sheet. |
| Draw a rectangle or a square (with pressed SHIFT-key) on the drawing sheet. |
| Draw a freehand line or a freehand surface on the drawing sheet. |
| Draw a polygon surface, based on straight lines. Simply double-click to finish drawing. |
| Draw a polyline, based on a series of straight lines which are automatically stitched together after a mouse-click. Simply double-click to finish drawing. |
| Draw a freehand polygon, based on straight and curved lines. Simply double-click to finish drawing. |
| Add text to the current drawing to describe the meaning of the drawing objects. |
| Pick the desired colour from any existing object on your drawing sheet and transfer that colour to a new object. |
| Browse for a picture on your local hard drive and add it to the current drawing. Any file formats are supported. |
| Set a background image for the current drawing. Any file formats are supported (i.e. JPG, PNG, GIF, BMP, PDF etc.). This important command allows the user to import an existing plot provided by the end customer into a blank drawing. Setting the position of drawing objects for manholes and sections thus can be done much more quickly. |
| Select a background from an external map provider like Google Maps or Open Street Map. Type the name of town and street into the corresponding fields and WinCan Draw zooms to this area on the globe. |
| Hide or unhide the background image. |
| Delete the background image in order to browse for another one. |
| Create one single object from a group of highlighted drawing objects or restore the individual objects using the command Ungroup. |
| Lay a highlighted drawing object over (bring to front) or beneath (send to back) another one.
The commands One Level Up/Down are laying the highlighted object stepwise over or beneath another one among a group of drawing objects. |
| Lay a gridline structure over the drawing sheet or remove it, so drawing objects can be docked the to the gridlines and meshes accordingly. |
| Highlight all drawing objects or remove the object markers for all objects. |
| Delete individually highlighted drawing objects or delete all objects on the drawing sheet regardless whether they are highlighted or not. |
| The command group Font provides list boxes to select the appropriate text font and size which are going to be applied in the text boxes on the drawing sheet. |
Tab View
The tab View contains commands to control the view of the drawing sheet on the screen. The commands to zoom-in and zoom-out the drawing can also be launched via keyboard shortcuts:
Zoom-in: [Strg] + [+] or [Ctrl] + [+]
Zoom-out: [Strg] + [-] or [Ctrl] + [-]
Use the command Reset zoom, if you want to zoom back to the original zoom size. The button is enabled as soon as you zoom-in or zoom-out the drawing.
Mind that all three zooming commands just enlarge or reduce the view on the screen and do not resize the drawing when printing.
The commands Portrait and Landscape on the other hand change the page orientation of the drawing.
Use the buttons New or Delete to manage the number of drawing sheets. Complex drawings or large-sized background plots can be split into several drawing sheets.
Tab Styles
This tab contains tools to format the outline, filling colour or filling pattern of a selected drawing object.
The tab Styles is sub-divided into three command groups:
The part Styles provides tools to set the colour, type and thickness of the line or outlines of the highlighted drawing element and the text fields.
The part Fill allows the user to set the filling colour and the filling pattern of drawing elements like circles, rectangles, polygons etc.
The part Arrowheads contains all settings for style,colour and size of the arrows. The user can also save these settings for further use under Properties > Preset
There are three types of arrows that WinCan Draw provides:
Basic Commands
Hitting the arrow icon located left to the tab Home opens the list of basic commands like creating a new (1) or loading an existing drawing (2). After finishing the drawing you may save the project using either the default or a customized name (3).
Click on Delete (4) if you don’t use the current drawing anymore and want to replace it with a new one.
The command Save as Image (5) exports the current drawing sheet into a new image file that you can save in the formats JPG or PNG.
Clicking on Exit (6) is going to quit WinCan Draw and automatically gets you back to the WinCanVX project.
Quick Access Toolbar
The quick access toolbar contains frequently used command buttons like saving drawings and undoing or redoing commands, that have previously been applied:
This toolbar can be extended with additional commands, that are meant to be frequently used in the future. The example below shows how the Selection command may be copied into the quick access toolbar:
Browse for the command inside the corresponding tab and simply right-click on the button. Select the context menu command Add to Quick Access Toolbar and the symbol is copied there directly. The result looks as follows:
You may also move the quick access toolbar from the title bar to the area between the ribbon bar and the drawing interface (1). The user therefor has to right-click on the menu bar and select the command Show Quick Access Toolbar below the Ribbon from the context menu.
Customize symbols
You can easily add existing pictures (e.g. manhole covers, flow arrows etc.) and add them as icons to the symbol bar of WinCan Draw. Hit the command Image (1), browse for the desired picture file in the Windows dialogue that follows (2) and save them with a specific name (4):
The illustration below shows the steps needed to create a customized manhole symbol:
The default symbol bar at the left of the window can thus be extended with additional icons which are available from now in the current as well as in a future project.
New icons are always put at the end of the symbol bar (5); use the corresponding context menu command to rename an icon or to remove it:
Drawing sheet with map from local hard drive
The example below shows how you can draw manholes and pipeline courses in WinCanDraw using an existing plot as a reference.
You may scan an existing paper plot and save it as a JPG or PNG file. Some end customers also provide building/site plans directly as PDF files. Hitting the button Change Background (1) opens a Windows dialogue that allows the user to browse for the corresponding map file:
The command group Tools (2) provides some classic drawing tools like Line, Ellipse, Rectangle to quickly draw the position of the inspected objects in relation to the background and add a specific description per object hitting the text box icon.
You can select any drawing object (geometric shape, text box etc.) using the pointer icon (3), copy and paste them via the context menu commands and easily move them at the desired position on the plot keeping the left mouse key pressed.
Drawing sheet with map from an online service
This example shows how you can draw manholes and pipeline courses in WinCanDraw in case a background map file is missing.
Hitting the command Home > Map background automatically connects to Google Maps or Open Street Map and allows the user to zoom to the desired location on the globe: type the name of town and street (1) and push the button Go:
Adjust the zoomed map area if necessary an finally click on Set background (2). This is going to copy the desired map sector to the drawing sheet. Switch to the Map provider Google Maps if the background should show more details (i.e. Satellite or Hybrid (3)).
Printing drawing sheets
The manholes and pipe sections that have been surveyed in the current WinCanVX project can thus be drawn at the expected spot according to the correct scale given by the plot. The project drawing is finally printed after the project participants page as an integrated part of the survey report:
The print preview below illustrates how this looks like: