3. How does PowerClic Works

PowerClic basic concept is to convert your drawing to a menu.

It's a kind of contextual drawing

With PowerClic, you will then only have to « power-click » on an entity to access the commands that generated it!

It is a bit confusing at the beginning, but you will soon get use to it and then, cannot work without it.

For instance (without POWER-CLICK) when working in the layer HYDROCARBURE and needing to add a valve in the STEAM network, you first have to change the layer, then look for the block‘s name related to the valve and then use the insert command. Boring!

With POWERCLIC, you just need to « PowerClic » on a valve of the STEAM network and it will automatically change the layer and activate the insert command with the right valve block. Of-course, one can reach the same result by using the commands copy, rotate and scale.... tedious!

And if there is no valve in the STEAM network, but there is one in the COMPRESSED_AIR network? You just need to type CTRL + « power-click » on this one and select the STEAM network in the choose layer button PowerClic contextual action dialog box. 
Everything is done for you... !

This will also work for any AUTOCAD 2D entity, and for every characteristic kept in the AUTOCAD database.

-> How to access it?

- By “ Power clicking” on an entity.

- By typing PWR at the AUTOCAD prompt and by selecting a source entity.

- From the button :

- Using contextual menu on a selected entity

Conventions:

- "click" = to activate the button 1 (left) of the arrow.

- "Power-click" = to activate the button 3 (middle) of the arrow.

- "validate" = to activate the button 2 (right) of the arrow.

- "anywhere" = place the cursor over an empty place in the drawing.

- "on an entity" = place the cursor over a drawing‘s entity.

- «source entity» = basic entity used for the PowerClic command.

 

The command you obtain will depend based on the preferences you choose for each entity.

By default, and in order to accelerate the commands, some questions will not be asked to you. For instance, when you « PowerClic » on a block, PowerClic will only prompt to specify the scale factor in X and Y : PowerClic will indicate itself the values of the source object to AUTOCAD and will only ask you for the insertion point and the rotation angle.

If this set-up is not convenient to you, you can modify it through the preference menu.

->See chap. 3.31

Other PowerClic important feature is contextual action.

It allows you, using a dialog box, to customize your contextual drawing command, or select or modify, entities that are similar. It's a powerful select/filter/modify shortcut.

You can even apply a plug-in. command to your selection

->See chap. 3.30