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Overlay of two files

Posted: Fri Apr 04, 2014 1:07 pm
by toben
Is it possible to overlay two files without copying elements in QCad?
I have one file A with an existing drawing and want to create a second file B with additions to it. So is it possible that:

1. overlay file A and B.
2. elements from file A are visible, readonly and snappable.
3. new elements are written to file B
3. file A is vectory or raster


Regards

Tobias

Re: Overlay of two files

Posted: Fri Apr 04, 2014 2:19 pm
by Clive
Hello toben and welcome

No you cannot have two drawings open together as one drawing. Why do you not want to copy drawing A and paste it into drawing B?

This would be the only way to do this, just copy drawing A onto a dedicated temporary 'separate' layer, turn on and off as needed. Keep drawing A as the original and drawing B can be adjusted as required, when finished keep or delete the temporary layer!

Re: Overlay of two files

Posted: Mon Apr 07, 2014 7:32 am
by toben
The organisational overhead (copy to layer, delete to layer) I think is problematic. You always have to be aware of this temporary data, names of the layer(s), etc. And now let it be not one "referenced" file, let it be ten.

I know this is not the standard CAD usage workflow. I try to evaluate QCAD to do some GIS specific tasks. I very like the mature construction possibilities of QCAD compared to e.g. QGIS. So If I want to create a development plan I need a cadastre file (or more) and e.g. an aerial view. So the local plan would be constructed using points and lines from the cadastre, snap there, and use some overview information from the aerial view.

IMHO the workflow you suggested may work for smaller datasets or maybe one file. But is complicated to teach it to not so advanced users.