Plot Presets   Select Multiple   Open Options   New GUI    Scroll Wheel Zoom   Menu Scrolling   256 Pens   Plot Black Last     Patterns Status    Work Angle   RI Status Menu   Menu Enhancements  Bug Fixes    9.3 FAQs

 ARRIS 9.3 introduces a new Plot Presets function which allows you to save preset parameters for a given plotter. The Plot Preset will capture all of your current ARRIS Plot Menu and Windows plot driver settings for a particular plot sequence. You can save these settings as a style or “preset” for faster access. Presets are saved and grouped by Plotter (or printer) name so that different setting combinations (i.e. paper size, pen map, window type, scale, etc.) can be saved to a single output device. Presets can be stored as “read only” in the Standards directory for multi-user access or “read/write” in the user’s Home directory for highly personalized presets.

"If you have ever found yourself making way too many button picks in order to plot something, you will love this new plot preset feature.”  

Gary Thill, Sigma Consulting   

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This newly designed menu combines both the drawing and project select menus into a single menu. You may now select multiple project pages, drawing, or sheets by holding the <Shift> or <Control> keys down and selecting another item. With one or more items selected you can now batch plot the drawings, export the drawings to PDF, export the drawings to eZ, and with the Expert Infocad DWF/DXF Translator installed, export the drawings to DWG. 

“I’ve been using this ‘one-stop-shop’ feature in beta testing for over a week now and I’m very impressed. Printing my current 12-sheet project to individual PDF files using the “Select All” option now only takes about three button clicks.” 

Gary Thill, Sigma Consutling

In addition, two other options have been added to this menu. The “Open Read Only” option which opens the selected Project Page read only, and the “Open in New Session” button which open the selected Project Page in a new session of ARRIS with Project Mode, Project Directory, etc. properly set. The existing ARRIS session does not change. 

3 new Windows toolbars have been added to make selection of ARRIS functions more universal. The Desktop Toolbar dupilcates most of the functions of the ARRIS Desktop menu. The View Control Toolbar duplicates the View Control Bar to the right of the ARRIS prompt line plus adds the Dynamic View functions for 3D viewing. These two toolbars open by default. The OpenGL Toolbar has also been enhanced to update the 3D OpenGL rendering functions available. For the traditional "ARRIS Classic" mode, the Windows Toolbars may also be turned off in the Preferences menu.

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Zoom In and Zoom Out using the mouse scroll wheel now centers the zoom on the cursor location instead of the center of the screen. Other zoom in and out functions called from the menu or mnemonically from the keyboard continue to center the zoom on the center of the screen. 

“In addition to being much more productive, this ergonomically improved behavior is better aligned with the behavior of other CAD applications which makes cross training even easier." 

Gary Thill - Sigma Consulting

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On menus with lists and slidebars, scrolling the list using the mouse scroll wheel has been enabled on the following menus: Project Select, Project Page Select, Define Penmap, Entity Select, and all menus in the ARRIS Developer. Other menus are to follow with each update of ARRIS. The next on the list are Wall, Door, Window, Stair and Repeated Item select menus.

256 Pens for Plotting

ARRIS now supports 256 logical pens for plotting instead of the previous 16. Each logical "pen" may be mapped as desired for plot line width and color (RGB value) in the updated Penmap Setup menu. In addition, plotting by color (using the ARRIS color flag on the entity instead of pen) has also been expanded to be able to plot using all 256 ARRIS colors instead of the previous 64.

The Plot Black Last function has been re-introduced as a user preference which is set in the penmap. When Plot Black Last is turned off (default), the plot is executed in standard layer order, regardless of the masking or RGB mapping of the entity pen. With Plot Black Last set to on in the penmap, all entities which are in a pen mapped to a plot RGB value other than solid black (masks or colors not RGB 0,0,0) are plotted first, in layer order and then all entities in pens mapped to solid black (RGB 0,0,0) are plotted in layer order over the top.

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The ARRIS Patterns Status menu has been enhanced to include an "=1" button for the RI Scale and "=0" button for the RI Rotation parameters. These buttons allow you to quickly reset default values for these parameters, and are consistent with functions found on the Repeated Item Status menu.

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The Work Angle command has been enhanced to include a feature for adding to (or subtracting from) the current work angle.

The "add" option has been added to the first prompt of the :mn_wangle command. The following prompt is for the angle (in degrees) to add to the current work angle. A negative angle in the second prompt subtracts from the current work angle. The resulting angle is set and work angle is turned on.

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Repeated Item Library Manager

The Repeated Item Library Manager has been enhanced for Menu graphics, scroll wheel functions, and for multiple selection using the <Ctrl> and <Shift> keys. The multiple selection functions are consistent with the new Project Page / Database Drawing/Sheet menu. A new button has also been added which opens a list of all Repeated Items in the current RI library in the default text editor where the list may be saved to a file or printed.

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Continued Menu Enhancements

Begun in ARRIS 9.2, several more menus have been enhanced in ARRIS 9.3.

• Title boxes and Button text in upper case to give the menus a cleaner and more consistent look.  

•  New and updated Menu Help, which is a result of the improved Menu Help system implemented in ARRIS 9.1.

• User defined right-clicks have been enabled on many more menu buttons, particularly in the Application menus and Application Sub-menus.

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The Menu Help function has been enhanced to provide for a "Return" function. On selected menus, primarily ARRIS pop-up menus where the calling menu must be cleared to display the Help menu, the calling menu is redisplayed when the Help menu is dismissed. Note that this function is enabled on a menu by menu basis so more menus with this capability will be updated with subsequent releases of ARRIS.

v     Fixed a problem in the $riarc utility where archive repeated item libraries were not being created properly.

v     Fixed a bug where viewports cut from drawings in engineering scales were being scaled to 0 and thus not visible when placed.

v     Fixed a bug where layer add within a viewport was limiting the new layer to temporary permissions only only.

v     Fixed a problem where the trim/extend function was not finding intersections properly.

v     The Dimension Create menu sample thumbnail is now properly updated when the dimension Witness Line Type and Dimension Text Slant parameters are changed 

v     Fixed a bug in ARRIS++ where the pen and color were not updating properly when a Pattern is selected.

v     The ARRIS++ Pattern Status menu now correctly updates when a pattern is selected from either the Pattern Select menu or the Pattern Create menu.

v     Fixed a bug in the RI Special Placement commands where the RI scale was not being set properly for placing the RI by 2 Point scaling.

v     Area Text Placement in the Query Area menu now correctly uses the current text parameters.

v     Perimeter Text Placement in the Query Perimeter menu now correctly uses the current text parameters.

v     In the Help menu the proper Left and Right Click commands for the menu box selected for help are consistently shown.

v     Fixed a bug in the "Caps" setting on the ARRIS++ menus.

v     Fixed a bug in the ARRIS++ Plug-In which disabled the use of the Windows Browse menu when browsing for files.  

v     Fixed a bug where Entity Select Match Parameters was not setting the correct door or window RI when a Door or Window is selected (both standard and ARRIS++ menus).

v     The Chamfer, Offset, and Fillet commands have been updated so that the distance/radius settings are set in the database units as expected. Math functions are now accepted when preceded by the Equals sign (=).

v     Fixed a problem in the Chamfer command where a previous setting of 0 was being reset when the command was started. A default value of 0 is now allowed.

v     Layer names will now support the "$" character, which is used in some .dwg translations. Note: It is highly recommended that this be used for translations only.

v     The "Mirror X", "Mirror Y", and "Mirror XY" selections on the Copy/Edit Scale Choice menu are now more intuitive, setting the scale flags explicitly for a 1x Copy/Edit with mirror about the specified axis.

v     Fixed a bug where menu icons in the Site and Details menus in the ARRIS++ Plug-In were not displayed properly.

v     Parametric Repeated Items with strings now no longer give an error when the string is longer than 64 characters. The Repeated Item name + the associated string may be up to 64 characters. Anything longer is truncated without generating an error.

v     The Manual Dimension User Defaults now display in the prompt Choice Menu reflecting the current "Caps" setting. What you see in the Choice Menu is what is placed in the drawing.

v     The Offset command now accepts math functions (+-*/) in the input of the offset value if the string is preceded by an equal sign (=). Offset also now accepts negative offset values which will add the offset on the opposite side of the line selected.

v     The Chamfer command now accepts math functions (+-*/) in the input of the chamfer value if the string is preceded by an equal sign (=).

v     The Fillet command now accepts math functions (+-*/) in the input of the fillet radius value if the string is preceded by an equals sign (=). The prompts in general have also been cleaned up.

v     The Wall Type Selection button on the WALL Status menu now brings up the Wall Select menu for selection of the Wall Type - Similar to the way the Door/Window Status menu works. A Right-Click selection will prompt for the Wall Type number allowing manual input.

v     Fixed a bug in the Perimeter command for Point Boundary Input.

v     The Repeated Item Status Menu has been changed slightly for consistency. All Parameter Clear buttons are to the right of the parameter display.

v     The ARRIS++ Visible Point Symbol selection menu now displays the symbols properly.

v     The Segment Line/Arc command has been cleaned up for prompt consistency.

v     The ARRIS++ Query menu has been updated to call the new Query Area and Query Perimeter commands.

v     Fixed a problem setting Pens in the 3D Construction Setup menu.

v     A Project Directory Set button has been added to the Project Select menu which sets the Project and Working Directory immediately to the selected project. This makes "Save As" processes easier.

v     The XY Forcing is no longer cleared for RI single placement. The current user XY Forcing setting is used.

v     Fixed a problem with the placement of Viewports.

v     Fixed a bug where the "Orient View" on the VIEW menu could not be changed.

v     Fixed the default right click on the Save button on the DESKTOP menu to be ":save;='y'".

v     Fixed a bug in the ARRIS++ RI select menu where the RI is not properly set when selected.

v     Fixed a bug where the Copy Database was being improperly displayed in the "Scale" box of the COPY menu.

v     Fixed a bug in the ARRIS++ Repeated Item STATUS menu where the RI Offsets were not displaying properly.

v     Viewport Borders now display properly in ARRIS++ when the Scroll Bars are used.

v     The Ambient Light button has been added to the LIGHTS application sub-menu in ARRIS++.

v     Fixed a bug where the Cursor Rotation setting does not update properly in the TEXT Status menu.

v     Fixed a bug where the Edit Rotation setting does not properly display choices when selected.

v     Fixed a bug in the Offset Lines / Curves Chase function where an extra line segment was being added to the end of a Chase of lines 

v     Fixed a bug in the Chamfer command where the 2nd chamfer value was not being set properly.

v     Fixed a bug in Winports where the display shifted in multiple screen windows.

v     Fixed a bug in ARRIS Developer where compiler errors were not being reported properly to the menu in the Sigmac Compile function.

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Do I need new authorization codes to run ARRIS 9.3?  

A:  Yes, you need new authorization codes.  If you are current on subscription, you will automatically receive your codes by email within the next couple of days.   If you are not on subscription, you can upgrade to subscription for $695 per seat. 

What version of the translator do I need to run with ARRIS 9.3? 

A:  Translator versions 7.5, 7.6 and 7.7 will run with ARRIS 9.3. However the Translator 7.7 works with AutoCAD 2008 dwgs.

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Plot Presets   Select Multiple   Open Options   New GUI    Scroll Wheel Zoom   Menu Scrolling   256 Pens   Plot Black Last     Patterns Status    Work Angle   RI Status Menu   Menu Enhancements  Bug Fixes    9.3 FAQs