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| From Apex to TOTAL Sketch: Throwing the Switch |
You may have recently purchased a new computer with Windows 7 and noticed that the Apex 2.0 or Apex 3.0 that you bought through
a la mode back in 2005 (or earlier) doesn’t run on it; there have been multiple new versions of Windows in the last 5 years, and Apex 2.0 and 3.0 are simply incompatible with the new technology . You can, of course, purchase the newer version of Apex from the Apex company (and a support contract with them), but our full-featured sketcher, TOTAL Sketch, is free — whether you own WinTOTAL or not.
It's easy to switch to using TOTAL Sketch. Here's how:
That's it! Now, when you start a new sketch, you'll be using TOTAL Sketch instead of your previous sketcher.
The following is a series of items that highlight similarities between the older versions of Apex that you’ve been comfortable using all these years, and TOTAL Sketch — as well as where the products differ and even some things that are available only in TOTAL Sketch — like resizing your dimension labels all at once! We hope this helps to make your transition to TOTAL Sketch swifter and more user-friendly than you might find if you were to dive in from scratch.
In Apex, you were probably used to defining your area before you drew it.
In TOTAL Sketch when you close your area, you’re prompted to define it — and TOTAL Sketch will even take an educated guess for you!
In Apex, you would draw a line by typing the length, the direction arrow, followed by ENTER twice. In TOTAL Sketch, it’s the same steps, but you only hit Enter once.
In Apex, to draw a bay window using rise and run of 3 and 4 respectively, you would type 3, direction arrow, 4, direction arrow, ENTER, ENTER. Again, in TOTAL Sketch, it’s the exact same keystrokes, but you only need to hit ENTER once.
To use pop points in Apex to “square off” a wall, you clicked on the pop points, or held CTRL and use your arrow keys to pop over. It’s exactly the same in TOTAL Sketch.
Many keyboard shortcuts are the same between Apex and TOTAL Sketch. Rescale and center your sketch with C, jump to a corner with J, rotate things with R, see your area calculations with F6, and many, many more. See our list of TOTAL Sketch Hotkeys here.
In Apex, the keystrokes to draw a large angled wall are exactly the same as TOTAL Sketch: length of wall, L or R, and the measured Angle.
To close an open area in TOTAL Sketch, it’s the same as Apex. You either draw the final wall manually, use your pop points to jump to the point of origin, or hit A to auto-close.
When “cutting out” a garage in TOTAL Sketch, you don’t have to re-draw the shared walls like you did in Apex. You just draw what’s missing, and TOTAL Sketch will figure out what you’re doing.
In TOTAL Sketch, change any line to an arc as you draw by using the scroll wheel of your mouse to change the arc height before you anchor it with the Enter key. After you’ve anchored a line, use Modify mode and click on the dot in the center of any line to change it to a curve.
In TOTAL Sketch, cloning an area isn’t as complicated as it was in Apex. You simply copy and paste. In Modify mode, you right-click on an area and choose Copy selected. Then right-click and Paste where you’d like the copied area to go. Click on the name of the area to change it. Bonus: Want a custom area type? TOTAL Sketch allows you to create your own area names!
To resize a symbols in TOTAL Sketch: in Modify mode, click into a symbol to select it, then click and drag a black button on the outside of the image to resize or reshape it.
Draw Interior walls mode in TOTAL Sketch works just like exterior wall, but without the dimension labels. Use length of wall and arrow, pop points, or just use your mouse. Use Enter to start and stop drawing in this mode.
By default, TOTAL Sketch automatically resizes your dimension labels to fit nicely onto the sketch. You can disable this feature under Preferences (F5), or you can change it just for the sketch you’re currently working in. In the toolbar, click EDIT, Select All Dimension Labels. Then, make your font changes using the pull-downs at the top.
To shade an area in Apex, you would hit the F key for each area. In TOTAL Sketch, you can make it such that every time you draw a 2-car attached garage, it shades the same way each time, automatically. To set this up, hit F4, then click Edit Area Properties and make your shading choices that you want to happen automatically.
Is there something that we're missing for which you'd like to see a video? Email us at training@alamode.com with your suggestions.