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Create your own template in MacDraft 7

Templates are excellent for anyone who wants to use a particular style of page/sheet for many different drawings. For example, you can create a template with a frame that shows you company information, the job title, scale, page number, what ever you want and have this page open automatically whenever you launch MacDraft. Another amazing thing about templates is that any work you do will not save over the template file, it will create a new document meaning that your template will be ready to use for your next drawing too!

What We Will Learn
In this tutorial we will be learning how to create our own template files using the following skills:

Step 1 - Page Setup
Decide on the page size you want to use. For this tutorial we will use A3 with a Landscape orientation.

Step 2 - Basic Drawing Tools
With the page at the correct size lets create a frame around the outside of the document and align it correctly. There are 2 different methods to use the rectangle tool, you can either double click to type in the exact dimensions you want OR you can draw the shape manually and resize it. We will discuss both below.

Step 3 - Alignment

Step 4 - Using Smart Snap to create title blocks
Smart Snap can be found in the Toolbar at the top of the MacDraft window. Turn this option on (you’ll know its on as the icon will be green).

MacDraft Icon

Smart Snap allows us to draw shapes such as lines and rectangles and literally snap them together. This makes it very easy for us to create our title blocks and a degree of personality to our template.

Step 5 - Adding text
Text allows you to convey what each of the blocks represent. This could be anything from your company information, to project details, to simply the page number. The Text tool is found with the Drafting Tools in the left panel.

MacDraft Icon

Step 6 - Adding a logo
Give your template that professional edge by adding your company logo to it. There are a couple of ways to do this. The easiest way is to have the image (JPEG or PNG) on your desktop and simply drag it into the document. You can also go to File > Import Image then select your image.

Step 7 - Saving your template
Templates are saved within MacDraft’s folder structure so that they appear in the My Templates section when you choose a new document. To save a new template simply go File > Save as Template... then choose a name and hit OK.

MacDraft Icon

Step 8 - Using your template
The best thing about templates is that you can use them as blank sheets, make edits, draw new sheets and when you save them it creates a new document so the template is never saved over. This means that when you load the template again it will be blank and ready to use.

Advanced step (MacDraft Pro users only) - Load your template by default
If you are running MacDraft Pro you can have MacDraft always launch with your custom template open. This is a very powerful feature for those who will be needing to constantly be using the same template sheet.

Summary
So with this tutorial you should now be familiar with creating, saving and using your own custom document templates. Experiment with the skills you have learnt and create your own more complex and imaginative templates.

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