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Drawing (Theme Properties dialog box)

This property controls the way you render CAD drawing themes in ArcView. It allows you to set the CAD drawing layer visibility and drawing to view coordinate transformations.

The CAD drawing theme properties dialog box is only available for themes that are based on CAD drawings.

Layers   Lists the names of all valid layers in the source drawing file. By default, ArcView selects only those layers that are turned 'ON' in the source drawing file. Only the selected layers in the theme properties are drawn in the view. You may change the current layer selection to make the theme features turn ON or OFF in the view. Select the 'Default layers' button to return the layer selection to its original state.

Note   It is some times useful to represent only a subset of entities from the selected layers. For example, you might have multiple entity types on a layer such as a Polyline, Line and Circle entities, but you want to create a theme that excludes all Circle entities. In this case, you may define a feature selection to exclude Circle entities and store the query as part of your theme definition. Note that the query definition becomes invalid when you turn those layers OFF in your theme properties dialog box. See Defining a feature selection for a theme.

Transformation   Lets you transform your local CAD drawing coordinates into real-world coordinates. Use transformations to ensure that your drawing data appears where it should be in geographic space. You can register the theme's transformation using the 'world File' option. See CAD drawing coordinate transformations.

Enable Blocks   The Enable Blocks checkbox provides a way for you to include or not to include AutoCAD blocks in a theme. Enable Blocks option is not available for themes created from Microstation design files.

If Enable Blocks is checked, ArcView explodes AutoCAD blocks and renders valid block entities as theme features. All block entities will be treated as one feature with one row of attributes associated with that feature.

If Enable Blocks is not checked, the block geometry is ignored and ArcView treats a block as a point feature (the block's insertion point becomes the x,y location).

All Layers   Click on this button to draw all drawing layers in a theme, including the layers that are turned 'OFF' or 'Frozen' in the drawing source.

Default Layers   Click on this button to reset the layer selection to its default state. This will select only the layers that are visible in the source file.

See also

Setting a CAD drawing theme's properties


AutoCAD Blocks

In AutoCAD, a block is a set of entities grouped together into a compound object. A block is treated as a single object (just like a point entity) with an insertion point. For most users, the internal structure of a block is irrelevant. A block stores its definition in one place and uses multiple instances of the block as inserts in AutoCAD drawing.

AutoCAD users use blocks for two purposes, to represent a variety of symbols such as fire hydrants, man holes, valves, and to attach user attributes to graphic entities. For example, a fire hydrant symbol (a block) may store such attributes as size, rate of flow, and location-id. You may add unique attribute values for every instance of a block in a drawing.

Why use AutoCAD blocks in ArcView themes?

CAD drawings are mostly used to produce maps and occasionally to query block attributes associated with a symbol. In a typical GIS application, these attributes are stored as a row in a table associated with a corresponding feature. Once you establish this link, you may query features based on attribute values and you may perform advanced GIS operations on these features.

AutoCAD users invest considerable amount of time in creating maps and associating a variety of attributes to these map features. It is very important to easily transfer these attributes to be used in a GIS system.

Creating meaningful themes with relevant attributes associated with theme features is a very important task. The lack of pre-defined standards in AutoCAD for defining block attributes makes it often confusing and tedious to bring relevant information into a GIS system.

For example, in a typical AM/FM application, a line represents a pipe and a block symbol (with attributes) at the end point of the line represents a valve. In this scenario, when you define a line theme representing a water network, the valves and their associated attributes may have no meaning to the line features (water pipe) in a theme. In such cases, you typically check the 'Enable Blocks' option OFF.  See CAD Drawing theme properties.

In a similar AM/FM application, on the other hand, some users insert a block on top of a water pipe to store pipe attributes such as diameter, rate-of-flow, and flow-direction. In this scenario, you may want to move block attributes to water pipe features in a line theme. In this example, you may achieve the correct results by defining a line theme containing all water pipes and a point theme containing all blocks (inserts) that are placed next to water pipes. You may then perform a spatial join to move point feature attributes to its nearest line feature.

It is also a general practice in most desktop GIS applications to export GIS features into DXF interchange files to be read into other applications. Typically these applications write a DXF file with every map feature as a block to attach associated feature attributes. In such cases, it is equally important to bring the associated block geometry into a theme along with block attributes. You may use these files in ArcView by checking the 'Enable Blocks' option to bring block geometry as regular theme features.

For more details on organizing theme features, see CAD Drawing layers.

Notes

 Since a block may contain multiple entity types (areas, lines, points, text), when you toggle the 'Enable Blocks' option on, ArcView brings only valid entities into a theme based on the theme type. For example, when you create a polygon theme, only qualified entities in a block that represent areas are brought into the polygon theme. All other block entities are ignored.

 ArcView treats all valid block entities as one feature. For example, a block representing the Hawaiian islands is treated as one region with one row of attributes in the associated feature table.

 ArcView creates a field for every 'attdef' entity in a block. The attdef's name becomes the field name. ArcView automatically determines the field type (Character, Numeric, etc.) based on the block attribute values.

 Only blocks that are found on the selected layers are used in the theme. Altering the layer selection may alter the attribute fields in the theme table.


CAD Drawings

You can use Computer Aided Design (CAD) drawing files to create themes in ArcView. The CAD drawing themes behave just like any other type of feature theme in ArcView. You may use all theme manipulation functions including thematic mapping and spatial queries on CAD drawing themes. You cannot, however, edit or modify a CAD drawing theme's features or its associated attribute table. In order to edit, you must first convert the drawing theme to a shapefile.

The CAD drawing support in ArcView is implemented as an extension. You must load the extension before you can add CAD drawings to your view.

To load the CAD reader extension

1	Start ArcView.

2	From the File menu choose Extensions.

3	In the Extensions dialog, click the check box next to the CAD Reader.

4	Press OK to load the extension.

Supported CAD drawing file formats

ArcView supports MicroStation design (.dgn) files and two kinds of AutoCAD drawing files, .dwg files (Windows only) and .dxf files (Drawing Interchange files). See Adding a CAD drawing theme to a view.

MicroStation design files

MicroStation stores its drawing database in a design file format with the .dgn extension. ArcView reads these files directly to create CAD drawing themes. ArcView supports both 2D and 3D design files generated by Microstation up to Release 5.5.

AutoCAD drawing files (ArcView for Windows only)

AutoCAD stores its drawing database in a proprietary drawing file format with the .dwg extension. ArcView reads these files directly to create CAD drawing themes. The .DWG file support is not available on UNIX platforms. ArcView supports drawing files generated by AutoCAD up to Release 14.

DXF files

In addition to .dwg files, AutoCAD supports DXF (Drawing Interchange file) format, an industry standard interchange file format used to transfer data between CAD and GIS applications. ArcView lets you create CAD drawing themes from .dxf files.

ArcView supports ASCII and Binary, and Partial (entities section only) DXF files. A DXF ASCII file is a specially formatted text file that can be viewed and modified with any text editor. The file is generally organized into different sections such as a Header section, Table section, Blocks section, and Entities section. Each of these sections stores appropriate information that can be used to read DXF files into other applications. For additional information on the DXF file format, consult the appropriate sections of the AutoCAD documentation.

See also

Working with CAD drawings in ArcView


CAD Drawings and ArcView feature classes

CAD Drawings typically store a variety of entity types on layers. For example, a single layer may contain graphics representing area features such as buildings, linear features such as roads, and point features such as trees and telephone poles. CAD packages generally do not restrict the way you store these entities on layers.

ArcView themes, on the other hand, draw only one class of feature in a theme. For example, a polygon theme will draw only area features and so on. Each CAD drawing entity is brought into an ArcView theme as one of the four feature classes.

Theme type	AutoCAD entities	Microstation elements
Line theme	Line, Arc, Circle, Polyline, Solid, Trace, 3DFace	Line, Line String, Complex Shape, Complex Chain, Ellipses, Arc
Point theme	Point, Shape, Insert (Block’s insertion point)	Point, Cell (Cell’s insertion point) Note: No shared cell support
Polygon theme	Circle, Solid, 3Dface, Closed Polylines, and Open polylines with start and end points snapped together	Ellipses, Shapes, Complex Shapes, Complex Chains with start and end points snapped together
Annotation theme	Text	Text

A drawing or a layer that does not have any of the above entity types is treated as an empty drawing or an empty layer by ArcView. Please note that the drawing or a layer may not truly be empty because it may contain some entities that aren’t supported by ArcView, such as an AutoCAD’s Dimension entity.

See also

Adding a CAD Drawing theme to a view


CAD Drawing Annotation in ArcView

You can bring CAD drawing text into ArcView using an annotation theme. See Adding a CAD drawing theme to a view.

Annotation Characteristics

Annotation features have many characteristics which are defined in your CAD drawing, such as size, rotation angle, text string. These characteristics are stored as part of the feature. ArcView honors these characteristics.

CAD drawings usually maintain text size in map units. ArcView preserves the text size and you cannot change the text size in ArcView. However, You can control the text font and color using the Legend Editor.

Attribute tables

The annotation theme's table maintains text entity properties such as color, layer, and style. It also stores the annotation text string itself in the TEXT field. See CAD Drawing theme table.

Annotation visibility

CAD drawings store text on multiple layers. ArcView maintains these layers and you can manipulate layer selection to control annotation feature visibility on those layers. See CAD Drawing theme properties.

Note    Checking 'Enable Blocks' option in the theme properties dialog box displays text that is part of the AutoCAD block.


CAD Drawing Coordinate Transformations

To apply a coordinate transformation to a theme based on a CAD drawing

1	Click on the theme’s name in the View’s Table of Contents to make it active

2	Click the Theme Properties button [image].

3	In the dialog that appears, choose Drawing from the list of categories

4	Click on the World File radio button and then click the Browse button

5	In the dialog that appears, navigate to the directory that contains the world file that you want to add, select it, and press OK. The name of the world file you choose appears in the Transformation section of the theme’s drawing properties

6	Press OK

ArcView will immediately redraw the theme using the new coordinates.

Why use coordinate transformations?

When you use CAD drawing files, there’s no guarantee that the features will be in the same coordinate system as the data in other themes you might be displaying on your map. Some CAD drawings may be digitized in actual ground coordinates and some may be digitized in page units such as inches. In such cases, you can apply a coordinate transformation to your CAD drawing themes to ensure that they register with your themes.

ArcView supports either a one-point or two-point transformations. A one-point transformation simply shifts the CAD drawing theme to a new location in geographic space. A two-point transformation uses a transformation matrix that applies a coordinate offset, scale, and rotation uniformly to all coordinates read from the drawing source. The coordinate transformations are applied using the world file.

What is a world file?

The world file is a text file (with the extension .WLD) containing one or two pairs of X,Y coordinates. The first pair of X,Y coordinates is the actual X,Y location of any known control point in your drawing file. The second pair of X,Y coordinates is a new location in geographic space where you would want the CAD drawing control point to be in ArcView.

World file format

The world file format is shown below:

<X,Y location in CAD drawing> <space> <X,Y location in geographic space>

Notes

 The world file must have the .WLD extension and cannot have more than two lines in the above format.

 ArcView automatically applies the world file when it finds a valid file name with the same prefix as the drawing file name in the same sub-directory. For example, suppose you’ve stored sample.dwg and sample.wld files in the same sub-directory. When you add themes from sample.dwg, ArcView automatically uses the sample.wld file for coordinate transformations.

Examples

 One point transformation

Consider the following pairs of coordinates in your world file:

25.0,60.0 25000.0,60000.0

When you apply the above world file, it will shift the CAD drawing location (25.0,60.0) to a new location (25000.0,60000.0) in the view.

 Two point transformation

Consider a case where you have two known control points in your CAD drawing and you know the new location for one of these two control points. You want to apply a transformation such that your CAD drawing theme will:

1	Shift all features to the new known location

2	Uniformly apply a scale factor of 100 to all features in the theme

3	Rotate all theme features 90 degrees

You can use the following formula to calculate the new X,Y location for the second control point:

x’ =  Ax + By + C

y’ = -Bx + Ay + D

Where

x’ = calculated x value for the second control point

y’ = calculated y value for the second control point

x  = x coordinate of the second CAD control point

y  = y coordinate of the second CAD control point

A  = s * cos(@)

B  = s * sin(@)

C  = x coordinate of the known new location

     (translation in x direction)

D  = y coordinate of the known new location

     (translation in y direction)

and

s  = scale change (scale factor such as 1, 1.5 etc.)

@  = rotation angle

In the above example, suppose your first control point in your CAD drawing is (0,0) and the second control point is (12.0,9.0). The known new location for the first control point is (1200.0,1300.0). The scale factor is 100 and the drawing rotation angle is 90 degrees.

Using the above formula, you can calculate the new X,Y coordinates for the second control point as shown below:

x = 12

y = 9

A = 100 * cos (90) = 0

B = 100 * sin (90) = 100

C = 1200

D = 1300

x’ = 0 + 900 + 1200   = 2100

y’ = -1200 + 0 + 1300 = 100

Therefore, the world file for this example will have values as shown below:

0,0 1200.0,1300.0

12.0,9.0 2100.0,100.0


CAD Drawing Layers

Most CAD packages support a layering scheme. You may think of layers as transparent overlays. You may turn layers ON or OFF to display (or to plot) only desired portions of the drawing. Although it is not required, CAD users typically organize different types of information on different layers. For example, one layer might contain parcels, another layer might contain streams, a third layer might contain streets, a fourth layer might contain well locations.

ArcView organizes data in themes. Every theme contains a logical collection of features that belong to a single feature class. You must decide how each logical collection of features will be portrayed in a theme. For example, you may have to create multiple themes from a single drawing source; one theme representing each logical collection of features such as points, lines, polygons, and annotation.

Within the logical collection of features in a theme, you may also have to organize features thematically by what they represent. For example, you may create two line themes to store streams and road features. Although streams and roads are both linear features, it makes sense to bring them into two separate themes because the attributes associated with a stream might include a name, stream class, and the rate of flow, while attributes for roads might include a name, surface type, and number of lanes. Because their associated attributes differ significantly, you should add two line themes and select a subset of layers in each theme to store their respective features. You may add any number of themes from a single CAD data source.

Tip   To create multiple themes, use the Copy Themes and Paste options in the Edit menu. To turn layers in each theme ON and OFF, use Theme Properties.


CAD Drawing theme table

Each CAD Drawing theme in a view has an associated table storing entity properties such as the entity's color, linetype, elevation, thickness, etc. Additionally, ArcView adds the following fields depending on the information in the CAD drawing:

1	AutoCAD block attributes - ArcView adds a new field for every attribute tag within the block. The attribute tag name is used as the field name.

2	Microstation tags - ArcView adds a new field for every unique tag that is associated with MicroStation elements. The attribute tag name is used as the field name.

3	Microstation database linkages - ArcView supports all MicroStation standard database linkages. For every linkage, ArcView adds two fields. One field to store the Mslink value and the other field (by default, this field is hidden. Use table properties to make it visible) to store the catalog information that is associated with the database linkage. In addition to the standard databse linkages, ArcView supports FRAMME linkages.

To open a theme’s table, click on the theme to make it active, then click the Open Theme Table button [image] or from the Theme menu choose Table.

The CAD Drawing theme tables contain the following standard fields:

Shape    An ArcView specific field whose value is an object that is the shape of the corresponding feature.

Entity    CAD drawing’s entity/element name such as Polyline, Line String, Circle, Insert, etc.

Handle    AutoCAD's unique entity handle (values are available only when the source drawing is saved with entity handles turned "ON").

Layer    CAD drawing layer/level name

Level     Microstation design file’s Level number

Elevation    CAD entity's elevation value

Thickness    CAD entity's thickness value

Color    CAD entity's color number (always uses entity's color irrespective of layer color settings)

Linetype    CAD entity's linetype name

Width    CAD entity’s line width.

Style    CAD entity's  text style name

Text    Store the text string itself in annotation theme’s table (for AutoCAD inserts and Microstation Cells, this field stores the block or cell’s name).

Notes

 A CAD drawing theme table is read-only. You cannot edit or add new fields to the theme table.

 By default, ArcView displays only Shape, Entity, Layer, Level, Elevation, Thickness, and Color fields. All other standard fields are hidden. You may turn the field visibility on or hide visible fields using Table Properties.

 You may Join or Link additional tables to your theme table.

Tip   You may edit the source table that is joined to the feature table and use Refresh to reflect the source table edits in the feature table.


Adding a CAD drawing theme to a view

Before you use CAD drawings in ArcView you must first load the CAD Reader extension.

To add a CAD drawing to a view

1	Click the Add Theme button [image].

2	In the Data Source Types box, choose Feature Data Source.

3	Navigate to the directory that contains Supported CAD drawings you want to add. Double-click on the directory name to list the files it contains. If the drawing files are not shown in the dialog, it's possible you have forgotten to load the CAD Reader extension.

4	Click the name of the drawing file to select the default (line) feature class, or click on the folder to display a list of available feature classes and choose the one you want to use. The default feature class is the first one listed.

5	Click OK to add the theme to the view.

Tip    To add several CAD drawings to a view at once, hold down SHIFT and click on them in the list of files.

When you add a CAD drawing theme, the following default properties are used:

 ArcView automatically adds a default legend in the view's Table of Contents. The default legend classifies features so the color of every theme feature matches the color of its corresponding entity in the source file.

 Only the CAD drawing layers that are visible in the drawing file are selected in the theme. The hidden and frozen layers will be turned off in the default layer list. To manipulate the layer visibility, select the theme in the Table of Contents and click the Theme Properties button [image] and select Drawing category.

Notes

 When you create a theme, ArcView does not immediately draw it on the view. This enables you to first edit the theme's legend, or change the drawing order if there are several themes. To draw a theme you add, click on the check box next to the theme's name in the view's Table of Contents.

 The drawing file will always show the folder icon in the list of drawings even when the drawing contains only one feature class. For example, clicking on the folder icon on a drawing file that has no text entities will still list an annotation feature class. If you were to add a theme to your map based on this annotation class, the theme will be empty (contains no features).

See also

CAD Drawings and ArcView feature classes


Editing a CAD drawing theme's legend

When ArcView adds a CAD drawing theme, it creates a default legend which matches the colors used in the source drawing file. This lets you display the theme so that it looks almost the same as if you had displayed the drawing in your original CAD application.

To modify the theme’s legend

1	Click on the theme in the Table of Contents to make it active.

2	Click the Legend Editor button [image].

By editing a drawing theme's legend you can change the patterns and colors of the symbol(s) that ArcView uses to draw the theme in your view. For example, You can use a single symbol to display all the features in the drawing theme, or assign different symbols to different features by classifying the features according to a specified field’s values.

You may select the 'Default' button in the Legend Editor to reset the symbols to its original state.


Indexing a CAD Drawing theme table

An ArcView index is a form of cross-reference to data that speeds access to data by ordering the values in a field.

You can build  two types of indexes, Spatial Indexes and Attribute Indexes. Spatial indexes speed up the display of CAD drawing themes in a view; attribute indexes provide faster access to the records in a CAD drawing theme table.

Except for the following differences, indexing a CAD drawing theme is similar to indexing any other type of theme in ArcView. See Indexing a table.

 Attribute indexes

Unlike other ArcView themes, a CAD drawing theme's attribute indexes are always temporary. They are persistent only during the current ArcView session. They are deleted when you close the ArcView session.

 Spatial indexes

If you create an index on a theme's Shape field, you will create a spatial index. A spatial index will improve ArcView's performance of such operations as Identif,all drawing operations, spatial joins, and theme-on-theme selections. A spatial index is automatically created, if one doesn't already exist, when a spatial join or a theme-on-theme selection is performed. If you have write access to the source data directory, the index will be persistent and remain after your ArcView session is complete. If you do not have write access to the source data directory, the index will be removed.

The spatial index is stored in multiple files that have the name of the CAD drawing source file as a prefix and the following suffixes based on the theme feature class:

Line theme:	.abn and .abx

Point theme:	.xbn and .xbx

Polygon theme:     	.pbn and .pbx

Annotation theme:	.tbn and .tbx

They are stored in the same directory as the source data for the theme.

Note    The spatial index files may conflict with each other when you have two separate data sources with the same file name (for example, parcels.dwg and parcels.dxf) in a single directory. We strongly recommend that you maintain unique file name prefixes for data sources that are in the same directory.


Keeping CAD drawing themes up-to-date

Suppose you have added a CAD drawing file to your map and the people in your organization who maintain that file are constantly updating the drawing. Whenever you open the ArcView project that contains your map, ArcView will re-read the CAD drawing , thus ensuring that your CAD map is up-to-date. If the CAD drawing is modified after you have opened your project, you will need to refresh the theme representing the drawing if you want your map to reflect the most recent changes to the drawing.

To refresh a theme based on a CAD drawing

1	Click the name of the theme you wish to refresh in the view’s Table of Contents to make it active.

2	Click the Open Theme table button [image] to open the theme’s attribute table.

3	Choose Refresh from the Table menu. ArcView refreshes the theme’s attribute table and redraws the theme on the view.

Notes

 If the underlying drawing file contains new layers, ArcView reads these layers but do not make them visible. Use Theme Properties to make the new layers visible.

 If the underlying drawing file contains entities with new colors (that aren’t part of the default theme legend), select Default button in the Legend Editor to update the theme’s legend.

 Refreshing one theme will automatically update all the themes in your view that are generated from the same CAD drawing file.


MicroStation Cells

In MicroStation, a cell is a set of elements grouped together into a compound object. A cell is treated as a single object (just like a point element) with an insertion point. A cell stores its definition in one place and uses multiple instances of the cell in the design file.

ArcView does not support Shared cells.

Notes

 ArcView uses layer 0 as the cell’s insertion level. If a cell contain elements from several levels, you can turn individual layers on or off using theme properties. Turn layer 0 off to make the entire cell invisible.

 A cell may contain multiple element types (areas, lines, points, text). ArcView brings only valid elements into a theme based on the theme type. For example, when you create a polygon theme, only qualified entities in a cell that represent areas are brought into the polygon theme. All other cell elements are ignored.

 ArcView treats all valid cell elements as one feature. For example, a cell representing the Hawaiian islands is treated as one region with one row of attributes in the associated feature table.


Setting a CAD drawing theme's properties

A CAD drawing theme's drawing property lets you control exactly how your theme is drawn in ArcView. You can choose which layers in the theme you want to draw, and apply coordinate transformations so that drawings from different coordinate systems will register accurately with your other themes.

To set a CAD drawing theme's properties

1	Click on the CAD drawing theme in the view's Table of Contents to make it active.

2	Click the Theme Properites button [image].

3	In the Theme Properties dialog box, choose 'Drawing' from the list of categories.

4	Alter the default layer selection if you wish to turn layers ON or OFF. Hold down the SHIFT key to select multiple layers in the list box.

5	Select 'All Layers' to select all layers in the list.

6	Select 'Default Layers' if you wish to reset the layers to their default state (selects only the visible layers in your CAD drawing).

7	Toggle Enable Blocks to specify whether or not  to use AutoCAD blocks in the theme (this option is not available for themes based on Microstation design files).

8	If you wish to apply coordinate transformations to the theme, click on the 'World file' option and select the Browse... button. This will present you with the file browser. Navigate to the directory that contains the world file you want to add. Double-click on the file or select the desired file and press OK. ArcView will put the world file name in the edit box. The transformation is an optional property to register CAD drawing coordinates in geographic space. Select 'None' if you do not wish to apply transformations to your theme.

9	Click the OK button. ArcView will immediately update the theme features reflecting the new changes.

See also

CAD drawing theme properties


Working with CAD Drawings in ArcView

CAD drawings are just another type of feature data source in ArcView. Except for a small set of unique features specific to CAD drawings, CAD drawing themes work like any other theme in ArcView. See CAD drawings for supported CAD drawing files.

To work with CAD drawings in ArcView you must first load the CAD Reader extension.

The following sections show you how to add CAD drawing themes to ArcView and highlight the specific features unique to CAD drawing themes.

 Open or create a project

Choose Open Project or New Project from the File menu to either open an existing project or create a new one.

 Load the extension

In the project window, choose Extensions from the File menu. Check the CAD Reader extension and press OK.

 Create a new, empty view in your project

On the Project window select the Views button and press New. An empty view will appear in your project. ArcView names new views in numerical order: View1, View2, View3, and so forth.

 Set the view's properties

The View Properties dialog box lets you change the view's name, store comments about the view, specify the coordinate and measurement units the view will use, specify the map projection that will be used, among others. See Setting view properties.

 Adding CAD drawings to views as themes

When you create a theme in a view you specify the data source you want the theme to represent. You can create any number of themes in a view. See Adding a CAD drawing theme to a view.

 Set CAD drawing theme properties

Each CAD drawing theme has properties you can set. These include the drawing layer selection, whether or not to include AutoCAD block entities, and setting coordinate transformations. See Setting a CAD drawing theme's properties.

You can set other ArcView specific theme properties too. These include the theme's name, labeling features, at which scales the theme will be drawn, etc. See Setting a theme's properties.

 Choose the order in which the themes are drawn on the view

You can drag themes up and down in the view's Table of Contents to control the order in which they are drawn. The theme at the top of the Table of Contents is drawn on top of those below it. See Changing the order themes are drawn in.

 Specify which colors and symbols themes will be drawn with

You control how to symbolize a theme's features by double-clicking on its legend in the Table of Contents to display the Legend Editor. See Editing a CAD drawing theme's legend.

 Save your work

In ArcView you save the work you do with any project component by saving the project. Choose Save Project from the File menu or click the Save Project button in the View button bar. See Saving your work.