DISCUS Software Tips

If you use virtual white out (CTRL and W) to find a characteristic, don’t forget to restore the white out (CTRL and W) to show the entire print before exporting to a PDF.

Resize the snap rectangle if you ballooned too much or too little. Rather than deleting or undoing that action, select the corner of the snap rectangle and reduce the rectangle if you ballooned too much [...]

Change individual balloon colors, shape and/or size by selecting the characteristics and then right-click any selected characteristic on the drawing panel and right click to change Balloon Properties and those selected balloons will be modified [...]

If a new revision changes the tolerance, simply enter the new tolerance in Settings and Default Tolerance. Then select all and right-click any CN in the Bill of Characteristics and select apply new tolerance.

Use the Configure columns function to remove or add items in the Bill of Characteristics, such as Production Equipment etc., that you may not use or need.  You can do this on any tab including [...]

Would you like to see the balloon drop immediately on your drawing as you balloon? Under Drawing, click Drawing Snap Requirement Image Options and then deselect to hide balloons when ballooning.

Want to keep an image in your output, like a weld call out, but not other images? Click BoC and Exclude Images. Then select that weld characteristic and open the Characteristic Properties, uncheck the exclude [...]

Want to create your own template? Contact [email protected] for a list of tokens for uploading your data from DISCUS into your template.

Click https://www.discussoftware.com/online-training/ to access all the training sessions, Beginner to Advanced classes, January thru March. Prizes and Training Certificates awarded to participants. Don’t miss out.

Under Settings click to set up Default Balloon Properties and select shape and the size of the balloons. Click OK and this is the default for this and future drawings.

Under File and Export Report using Excel, click Manage Templates and import the template to use. At this point, you can make this excel, your default template.

Do you have a lot of parts to add to the parts list or specs to the spec list?  Use a CSV (Comma Separated Values) file for Parts List and Spec lists. Contact [email protected] to [...]

If you have prints that are faint and very hard to see, use the contrast option.  To increase the contrast of a faint print, go to the menu item View, then click the Contrast function [...]

Need to reduce the color transparency of the Square Rectangles?  Go to the menu item Drawing and Snap Rectangle Image to reduce the transparency so the item ballooned is clearly visible beneath the color shading.

It is easy to remove extraneous columns in the BoC (Bill of Characteristics). Click in the BoC, the fourth icon on the left, Configure Columns, and remove from view any columns you don’t want to [...]

Show your ballooning process while capturing balloons. Click Drawing and Snap Requirement Image Options. Uncheck the Hide Balloons while Capturing Image Options.

Exclude all images globally by clicking BoC and check the Exclude Images. When you export none of the images will display in your Excel output.

Use the Extract Text to capture Part Accountability Name, Parts List from a BoM and specs, plus more!

Upload an image from the drawing. This is ideal for weld callouts! Open the Characteristic Properties and de-select to exclude the image on any given characteristic.

Glean specs from the notes. Balloon the notes and open the item in the Bill of Characteristics. Highlight the spec and right-click and select Add to Specs. This data will populate Form 2 for you. [...]