Create drawings from models (Creo Elements/Direct Annotation) > Creo Elements/Direct Annotation tools > Structure, drawing and template browsers
  
Structure, drawing and template browsers
There are three browsers in Creo Elements/Direct Annotation:
Structure Browser, the standard Creo Elements/Direct Modeling browser, shows information about assemblies and parts, view sets and views.
Drawing Browser, unique to Creo Elements/Direct Annotation, shows information about sheets, views, frames, and sketches.
Template Browser, contains registered symbols, sketches, and texts.
All browsers work in the same way. To open the browsers,
1. Click View and then, in the Window group, click Toolbars
2. Click Structure Browser, Drawing Browser, or Template Browser.
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Press the F12 key to show or hide the Browser bar, and select a browser from the tabs at the top.
The Drawing Browser
The Drawing Browser uses the following structure:
Drawing
The unique top level of the current Creo Elements/Direct Annotation drawing.
Sheets
Anchored to the drawing. The first entity belonging to a sheet is its frame type.
Views
All types, listed alphabetically under their owning sheets.
Additionally,
Sketches are shown attached to their owners.
Section lines and detail, partial and cutaway borders are shown attached to their parent views in the browser tree. The views themselves appear in the main view list.
The icons in the browser are color-coded to indicate certain properties of the drawing elements:
The active sheet's icon is displayed in green.
The name of the view is displayed in:
Dark blue if the view is updated and its associated model is loaded in Creo Elements/Direct Modeling.
Cyan if the view is not updated and its associated model is loaded in Creo Elements/Direct Modeling.
Red if the view cannot be updated because its associated model is not loaded in Creo Elements/Direct Modeling.
The names of the sheets and drawings inherit the colors of the views and sheets.
Note that you can change the active sheet in the Drawing Browser by clicking the icon of the sheet to be made active. In addition, you can zoom the Creo Elements/Direct Annotation Viewport to any object on the current sheet simply by clicking on its icon in the Drawing Browser.
Views updated in EconoFast or graphics modes show the appropriate icon next to the view icon. Normally-updated views do not display either icon.
The Structure Browser, in comparison, structures elements from the root by assemblies, parts, view sets, views and their owning parts or assemblies. Note that view set and view information is stored with the Creo Elements/Direct Modeling model as part of the association with Creo Elements/Direct Annotation. Therefore, you can see this drawing information in the Structure Browser even when the drawing is not loaded in Creo Elements/Direct Annotation or has been deleted.
In an operation requiring the name of a sheet, view, frame, or sketch, you can select it from the Drawing Browser by double-clicking the name.
The Show option on the context menu enables you to choose what to display in the browser tree. Frames, Sketches, Picture, and OLE can be switched on and off.
Two other Creo Elements/Direct Annotation-specific commands are found in the Options panel/menu. The Long Names switch toggles between showing and hiding the full path names of views. (This is only relevant when the 3D model is loaded in Creo Elements/Direct Modeling.) When Scales is switched on, the scales of individual views and the default scale factors of sheets are included in the browser information.
All other features of the Drawing Browser, such as the drag-and-drop facility, are used the same way as in the Structure Browser. For more information on working with browsers, see Using the Structure Browser.
The Template Browser
The Template Browser uses the following structure:
Category
The symbol category (GD & T, Surface, Welding, and user-defined).
Symbol
Shows the thumbnail and name of available registered symbols, texts, and sketches.
To create a registered symbol, text or sketch, double-click it in the Template Browser, or select the symbol, right-click and select Apply Selection from the context menu.