Well, I've been a little slim on tips and tricks here lately, but, I've been understandably busy. I'm going to be offline for about a week, so expect silence here. I did want to highlight a couple of things so you aren't totally without technical content... Read any good books lately? Ever notice the 'chapter' setup on the Autocad Community Forums?Pick a topic and skim through to brush up on certain features such as:Frequently Asked Questions, General, 3d, Fields, Plotting, Sheet Set Manager, General 2006, Dynamic Blocks, Tables and CUI Menus.Salary...
Monday, 26 December 2005
Wednesday, 21 December 2005
I don't remember where I first heard this, but, it stuck in the back of my mind til I needed it...I am working with my properties palette open, and I have my SSM up as well... I like to keep them both on the left side of the screen... I don't need to see all of my properties, just a couple, but, I'd like my SSM up without squishing both of them by docking them on the same side. So, with my properties docked and my SSM floating, I grab the bar on the SSM and drag to the left... with the CTRL key held down, which prevents the palette from docking......
Tuesday, 20 December 2005
Friday, 9 December 2005
I took Donnia Tabor-Hanson's AUGI Tips and Tricks class at AU and it was fabulous!Jen Leamy (aka augi CADKitty and ATP Recruiter) suggested a tip about qselect, and I asked if I could say something about it, hopped up on stage and mentioned one of my favorite uses for qselect...I have some pretty big floor plans, and sometimes I am asked for measurements or other information of a specific room, and rather than zoom in close enough to read the numbers and pan around until I find it... I use a combination of qselect and zoom to object...Let's assume...
Continuing from previous posts, (part 3 of 3)From the help files... 2006 system variables beginning with the letters 'O' through 'W':OSNAPZControls whether object snaps are automatically projected onto a plane parallel to the XY plane of the current UCS at the current elevation.0Osnap uses the Z-value of the specified point1Osnap substitutes the Z-value of the specified point with the elevation (ELEV) set for the current UCSPREVIEWEFFECTSpecifies the visual effect used for previewing selection of objects.0Dashed lines (the default display for selected...
Thursday, 8 December 2005
Continuing from yesterday's posts,From the help files... 2006 system variables beginning with the letters 'D' through 'L':DRSTATEDetermines whether the Drawing Recovery window is active or not.0The Drawing Recovery window is not active1The Drawing Recovery window is activeDTEXTEDSpecifies the user interface for editing single-line text.0Displays the In-Place Text Editor1Displays the Edit Text dialog boxDYNDIGRIPControls which dynamic dimensions are displayed during grip stretch editing. The DYNDIVIS system variable must be set to 2, which displays...
Wednesday, 7 December 2005
From the help files... 2006 system variables beginning with the letters 'B' and 'C':BACTIONCOLORSets the text color of actions in the Block Editor. Valid values include BYLAYER, BYBLOCK, and an integer from 1 to 255.Valid values for True Colors are a string of integers each from 1 to 255 separated by commas and preceded by RGB. The True Color setting is entered as follows:RGB:000,000,000BDEPENDENCYHIGHLIGHTControls whether or not dependent objects are dependency highlighted when a parameter, action, or grip is selected in the Block Editor.0Specifies...
~sings~ These are a few of my favorite things!Well, not really, but, when you're in a jamb, that odd little system variable can mean the difference between bald patches and a full head of hair. I always appreciate the detailed list on Hyperpics, and that's where I pulled out all of these variables that are new in AutoCAD 2006. Stay tuned as I add the explanations from the Help files for them.BACTIONCOLORBDEPENDENCYHIGHLIGHTBGRIPOBJCOLORBGRIPOBJSIZEBLOCKEDITLOCKBLOCKEDITORBPARAMETERCOLORBPARAMETERFONTBPARAMETERSIZEBTMARKDISPLAYBVMODECALCINPUTCE...
Tuesday, 6 December 2005
I put together goodie-bags for the ladies from CWC and a couple others, and my favorite part was the magnets (all original, I might point out), that I created for them, ala' Jeff Foxworthy, hope you enjoy:You Might be a CAD Diva…A Woman’s Touch:If you love redecorating your house… and always do three alternate layouts before moving anything.If you have the cutest little purse for going out, but, you’re torn between taking your compact or your ipaq.If your jewelry box is chock-full of necklaces, earrings and drill bits.If you debate with your girlfriends...
Tuesday, 29 November 2005
Where has the time gone?!?!?!Been busy all day. Was up till 3am (shhhh, don't tell my boss!), but, I was one of the few up that late who made it to class on time... if at all. It was good, at least the first half.The first half was going over the way MAPguide is used for FM, but, the 2nd half was a little over my head, so I went to 'work' in the AUGI booth. I tried hard to look clueless, but, kept being asked for help anyway. Lots of new members which was great. Reminds me of AU2001 at the beer bash when I first became an AUGI member, now, 5 AU's...
Monday, 28 November 2005
Hello from the AUGI booth!!! And the playpen... you can test-drive all autodesk software here.The AUGI daug was hilarious... I've got a minute-long video of him scaring Yoshi, the AUGI president.Oh, the exhibit hall is closing in 10 minutes, the beer bash is almost over, sending the AUGI daug off to fetch one more round.We handed over the wishlists today for Autocad and Inventor.Saturday was great fun, met up with some friends from AUGI and an email list I belong to. Finally met Shaan Hurley in person, hopefully a DECENT picture of me will make...
Top Engineering Terms and Expressions(What engineers say versus what they mean)1. A number of different approaches are being tried.(We are still guessing at this point.)2. Close project coordination.(We sat down and had coffee together.)3. An extensive report is being prepared on a fresh approach.(We just hired three punk kids out of school.)4. Major technological breakthrough!(It works OK, but looks very hi-tech!)5. Customer satisfaction is believed assured.(We are so far behind schedule, that the customer will take anything.)6. Preliminary operational...
Friday, 25 November 2005
I made the following summary of features for my LUG newsletter after R2005 came out (having just added the information for 2006). Enjoy!Obviously, I cannot include when every command was added or significantly improved,but, I have selected the ones that I found most interesting. (A more complete, yet unofficial list of feature changes is posted on the Autodesk website.)Version 1.0 (Release 1) Dec-82Initial release of AutoCAD, demonstrated at COMDEXVersion 1.2 (Release 2) Apr-83Dimensioning added as an extra-cost optionVersion 1.3 (Release 3) Aug-83Layer-to-layer...
Tuesday, 22 November 2005
Alright, it's almost that time again. Orlando here I come! There are some great classes for FM this year, and it looks like there will be an after-hours mixer for Facilities Management CADdies... that's rolling out the red carpet for sure. I will be there the whole time, so come up and say 'hi'! Unless you're a salesperson/representing a service company, then, only say 'hi' if you have a gift to give me. Even if you are not an AUGI member, stop by the AUGI annual meeting monday night, and the AUGI beer bash afterwards. There is a lot of good stuff...
Friday, 18 November 2005
This is a subject I tend to think about, and since I just saw a good article in CADalyst (Growing Our Profession) about how to get future generations interested in Engineering, I thought I would make this my topic of the day. Assuming China is graduating so many more engineers because they need the infrastructure build-up more than we do wouldn't cover it all. Every source talking about this topic mentions the bad math and science scores in this country, St. Louis is no exception. I started reading an article about how the gap in achievements between...
Tuesday, 15 November 2005
MTJIGSTRINGFrom Help: Sets the content of the sample text displayed at the cursor location when the MTEXT command is started. The text string is displayed in the current text size and font. You can enter any string of up to ten letters or numbers or enter . (period) to display no sample text.PEDITACCEPTFrom Help: (although my nagging memory says I've already posted this, sorry if I'm repeating myself)Suppresses display of the Object Selected Is Not a Polyline prompt in PEDIT. The prompt is followed by “Do you want it to turn into one?” Entering...
Wednesday, 9 November 2005
[Edit: if you're looking for -> Lord of the Rings pickup lines] I just got this email from one of my fellow lug members... These are hilarious, thanks Allan S! (I realize this is an email forward, but, if anyone knows an originator, I'd like to give credit where it's due?)Geek Pick-up Lines 11. Tell me of this thing you humans call *dramatic pause* love. 10. If you turn me down now, I will become more drunk than you can possibly imagine. 9. They don't call me Bones because I'm a doctor. 8. Your name is Leslie? Look, I can spell your name...
Monday, 7 November 2005
What’s the best thing since sliced bread (aka autocad release 14)?I’ve been following some interesting discussions on the Autodesk CAD Manager’s Newsgroup… what features do these users value? Which irritate them? Which missed the mark, but, could be a slam-dunk with some more work?Best Features Since R14:http://discussion.autodesk.com/thread.jspa?threadID=436751Worst Features Since R14:http://discussion.autodesk.com/thread.jspa?threadID=437107Forget sliced bread, this came out half-baked…Half-baked features Since R14:http://discussion.autodesk.com/thread.jspa?threadID=437308Hey,...
Friday, 4 November 2005
Well, it snuck up on me, but, it's FALL now! Wow. Just took my 2 1/2 year old out trick or treating for the first time (at the mall). I almost passed on it again this year, as I figure he's too young to know what he'd be missing, and I don't really give him candy very often anyway. But! after he thanked me for taking him to the park and zoo, etc, I just had to. I bought him a pirate costume and away we went! He was just wide-eyed with wonder no matter what he was handed; a tootsie roll, a coupon, stickers, shampoo samples... lol. Nothing has ever...
Tuesday, 25 October 2005
Civil Rights Pioneer Rosa Parks Passes away at age 92.At a celebration in her honor, she once said: "I am leaving this legacy to all of you ... to bring peace, justice, equality, love and a fulfillment of what our lives should be. Without vision, the people will perish, and without courage and inspiration, dreams will die — the dream of freedom and peac...
Friday, 21 October 2005
Working on cleaning up some floor plans. Most areas have room names and room numbers, but, different areas have different-sized text. I use a qselect to pick all of the text, then, modify the height in the properties dialog... the only problem is, that now the text is overlapping since each piece of text only had so much space between them. Hmm, what to do? Ah! txt2mtxt!!! I just select my two or three pieces of text, and viola'! I now I have an mtext object containing two lines of characters with a respectable space between them.This is an express...
Thursday, 20 October 2005
From Shaan Hurley's blog (imho, one of the best places to get acad news)New and Free DWG TrueView™ - view DWG filesDWG TrueView™ is now available for free from Autodesk. http://www.autodesk.com/dwgtrueviewSpread the word! You can view DWG files 100% just like AutoCAD can for free."Share AutoCAD® drawings easily and accurately among engineers and architects with DWG TrueView™. View and plot DWG and DXF™ files, and then publish them as DWF™ files for quick and easy review and markup in Autodesk® DWF™ Composer. And you’ll always get full drawing fidelity...
Thursday, 13 October 2005
Well, I'd seen this come up on a few newgroups/forums, and I thought about doing a write-up, and of course, someone else is smarter and quicker than me... but, I won't hold it against him. RK Mcswain, on his blog, CAD Panacea reveals the mystery behind the workings of autosave. http://rkmcswain.blogspot.com/2005/07/autosave-mystery.htmlAnd, as for my question the other day, about wacky blocks; between my readings on the autodesk knowledgebase, the help files and explanations from those more experienced/informed than myself (Mark H., Eric W., Richard...
Monday, 10 October 2005
First an answer, then a question... Thumbnail images for blocks are not displayed in AutoCAD® DesignCenterPublished date: 2003-03-06 ID: TS34512 Applies to: AutoCAD® 2002AutoCAD LT® 2002AutoCAD LT® 2000iAutoCAD LT® 2000IssueThumbnail images for blocks do not display in AutoCAD DesignCenter for drawings created in previous versions of AutoCAD or AutoCAD LT® software.SolutionBlocks created in older versions of AutoCAD or AutoCAD LT do not store a preview or thumbnail of the block in the drawing. Instead, you must use the BLOCKICON command to save...
Friday, 7 October 2005
Monday, 3 October 2005
CAD Salary Survey - Designers, Drafters, Engineers, Architects & Educators!The AUGI Annual Salary Survey is now running! The results will be published in the Jan/Feb 2006 issue of AUGIWorld magazine.You do have to be a member to take the AUGI salary survey, but, it is a free membership and they don't sell your information to other parties. Don't forget to set your preferences in the My AUGI control panel, which determines whether you get hotnews and other AUGI updates via email. The results of past Salary Surveys (among others) can be found...
Friday, 30 September 2005
From the MAP General Discussion Forum: MAP 3D 2006 Service PackIn a continuing effort to provide high-quality products, Autodesk has released Autodesk Map 3D 2006 Service Pack 1, which includes fixes or addresses issues for Autodesk Map 3D 2006.http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/dl/item?siteID=123112&id=5967985&linkID=2786655The following is a list of features affected by this service pack:Connecting to ArcSDE External Databases Display...
Tuesday, 27 September 2005
Adobe Acrobat Reader (verified on versions 6, 7, 8 & 9) tips for printing a portion of a pdf page.Typically, if I only wanted to print a portion of a page, I would use the 'Snapshot' tool to capture an image of the desired area and paste it into another program for printing (such as photo editor or a word processor). But! did you know that you can use the 'Snapshot' tool (under Tools > Select and Zoom) to capture part of the page then, when...
Friday, 23 September 2005
Alright, after 10 years of using Autocad, I KNOW I don't know everything, but, man, sometimes you're just surprised with something and go 'how could I NOT know about that yet?!?!'Well, big news, it happened to me (yet again). I wanted to rename an existing block, and used the help file (always the first course of action), but no joy searching for block & rename. So, I posted a statement/question on one of the discussion groups that I belong...
Thursday, 15 September 2005
BURST is used to Explode blocks with attributes. But, unlike explode, it will convert attribute values to their text equivalent (rather than to the attribute's prompt). Also, this command does not explode plines into lines or mtext to text.In the right-click menu in MAP 3D 2006, when you have an object selected you can choose to 'select similar' objects to save you a lot of time picking by hand. This isn't ideal for every situation but has saved...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
