0103 - Express Tour for Trinity
If you are already familiar with ARES Commander, or even with another CAD program such as AutoCAD, you will easily understand the workflows of ARES Kudo and ARES Touch.
However, before getting into the specific tools used to work in the cloud, we are going to do a quick review of all three platforms — that is, ARES Commander, ARES Kudo, and ARES Touch.
The idea is to facilitate comparison between platforms. To do this, we are going to perform simple tasks in ARES Commander, which we will then replicate in ARES Kudo and ARES Touch. This will allow us to establish a common language, and to better understand the small differences between them.
The first object used in a CAD program is the line, or its more complex variant, the polyline.
For this reason, we will start in ARES Commander by showing the Line command, and reviewing the various methods to execute this command.
In ARES Kudo, we will also show the different ways in which we can execute the Line command, while we identify the first differences between ARES Commander and ARES Kudo. As we can see, the idea is the same, except in ARES Kudo the graphical interface is more minimalist.
Next will be ARES Touch, where we will also show the Line command. The main difference is that it is an environment adapted to the use of the fingers, to execute commands, create drawings, and edit them.
Topic notes
ARES Commander — A familiar graphical interface
Let's take a quick look at some basic, everyday commands and compare the different solutions.
Where do we find the Line command in ARES Commander? It’s located in the Home tab, along with some other easily recognizable commands.
0103.01 - Location of the Line command in the ribbon.
But the truth is that we can also write it on the command line as “LINE,” or just the alias “L.”
While we are typing the command name, ARES Commander offers us a list of commands that include the letters that we are writing. This is an easy way to access many other commands.
0103.02 - ARES Commander showing commands starting with L.
We can see that this command list is also displayed directly on the cursor, helping us to keep our focus on our work.
0103.03 - Keyboard inputs directly on the pointer.
In ARES Commander, we can change the background color of the model space using the Modelbackgroundcolor command.
We can just type “white” and press Enter. This change affects how we will see the model space in all open drawings in ARES Commander.
0103.04 - Modelbackgroundcolor command in ARES Commander.
Note: You can also use basic colors from the 255-color palette that’s traditional for CAD. You are probably familiar with these numbers and the colors they represent if you are an experienced CAD user. For example, you could type “5” to choose blue, or “1” to choose red, or “2” for yellow. But to switch between black and white, you must use their respective names. You can even write other color names, like “yellow,” “blue,” “red,” etc. You can even write a color in RGB format, for example, “134,153,229” — try it!
In ARES Kudo, we also have a toolbar that offers us different tools through icons.
0103.05 - Graphical Interface of ARES Kudo.
Here we will also find the Line command.
0103.06 - Line command icon in ARES Kudo.
This floating tool palette also offers a hamburger menu that allows us to access more commands, which are arranged in a logical way. Take, for example, the path to find the Line command.
0103.07 - Line command in the main menu.
The truth is that here we also have a “command line” that works the same as in ARES Commander, only with a more minimalist appearance. When you start typing the command, more options appear.
0103.08 - Line command in the floating command line.
Once the Line command has been executed, we can determine points in the drawing area, either with a mouse click, or by typing the coordinates — just like we would in any other CAD program.
0103.09 - Line command in action.
ARES Touch
Once the wall that delimits the elevator has been created, we can open it in Touch to draw a hatch and add dimensions.
ARES Touch contains a side menu that allows access to the most important tools, organized in a logical way. For example, the Line command will be found within the Draw category.
The following image shows us ARES Touch on a tablet, and indicates the sequence of icons to select in order to execute the Line command.
0103.10 - Commands in ARES Touch.
Obviously, on a tablet — or even on a phone — we don't have all the space that we would on a PC, so condensing the most important tools into a single bar has been a great challenge. Also, there is an additional complication: it has to be easy to navigate with a finger. And the Graebert team has achieved that.
But the truth is that there is another way to execute any command. The triangular Play icon that you can see at the top allows you to access any command, as if it were a command line; just start typing and ARES Touch will show all the available options.
0103.11 - ARES Touch on a tablet and a smartphone.
Take a look at the following image of ARES Touch running on a phone.
0103.12 - All commands in ARES Touch.
We suggest you pause the course, and take a look at ARES Commander, ARES Kudo, and ARES Touch to try to locate the basic commands to create entities (such as Polyline, Rectangle, Circle, etc.) in each one. This will help you become familiar with the different graphical interfaces.
You already know that in ARES Commander you will find them in the ribbon, in addition to typing them directly in the command line.
If you are a “vintage” user, you may be interested in the old drop-down menus that, as you know in ARES Commander, you can display simply by choosing the Classic workspace.
0103.13 - Workspaces in ARES Commander.
The Classic workspace organizes the graphical environment with drop-down menus and traditional toolbars.
If you look closely at the list of drop-down menus, you can see that the order in which they appear is exactly the same as how the tools are grouped in the ARES Touch ribbon.
0103.14 - The Classic workspace in ARES Commander.
Now let's turn to the ARES Touch ribbon, where you will see the same commands appear, in the same order.
Now let's turn to the ARES Touch ribbon, where you will see the same commands appear, in the same order.
0103.15 - Similar tools in ARES Commander vs. ARES Touch.
What happens if we compare it with ARES Kudo? Well, from the hamburger menu we can see that the order of groups and subgroups is the same.
Thus, we have demonstrated that even though they are different platforms, the user interfaces are very similar.
0103.16 - The “hamburger” menu in ARES Kudo.
It's time to test everything you've learned in this topic.
You just have to choose the correct option. At the top of the QUIZ you will see the number of questions you have to answer.