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CAD Hints:
With AutoCAD constantly changing and adding new features, with existing features being altered or simply hidden away and with the shear volume of commands and options avaliable in AutoCAD, drafters must always be looking for ways to increase or maintain their level of productivity. In order to assist in this endeavor, I have included here some of the better tips, tricks, hidden features and just plain cool stuff that any decent drafter might be interested in knowing in an effort to help others build and maintain their proficiancy with AutoCAD. Check back here often for newly added helpful hints! Feel free to email me any comments, suggestions or your own personal tips for inclusion here and we'll be happy to add a link to your site in return! Tip # 1 When you can't remember or don't care to type in the full name of a command or system variable, you can start to type it in and then press TAB. Continue to press TAB to cycle through all the commands until you get to the command you are looking for. Tip # 2 Add into your ACAD.LSP file generic system variables that you like to have preset in all drawings before you begin to draw. For example, below is a snippet of some of the variables that we preset ACAD to use before we start to draft: (Command "osnaphatch" "1") ; turns back on the ability to use hatch lines with osnaps (Command "MIRRTEXT" "0") ; text will not mirror backwards when mirrored (Command "fillet" "r" "0") ; resets the fillet to a zero radius (Command "Units" "4" "256" "1" "8" "0" "N") ; sets the drawing up for architectural precision drafting (Command "Osnap" "End,Int,Qua,Cen,Nod,Ins,Mid") ; turns on these osnaps (Command "LWDISPLAY" "OFF") ; turns of showing a visual of lineweights on your screen - slows the computer down if on (Command "THICKNESS" "0") ; resets all new objects created to a thickness of 0 (2d) Tip #3 Never use a spline or ellipse if at all possible. Instead use arcs. Express tools allow you to convert a spline to a pline.. The Purge command has changed although you probably don't know it. In fact I've talked with resellers and Autodesk folks who didn't know the command has changed. If you use the dialog box version, you'll find that nothing is different, however if you type in -purge at the command prompt and read the sub command list, you'll notice an addition; the RegApps sub command. You can now delete out the unused embedded registered applications that are stored in the DWG file that can bloat the file size and cause database issues. However, when they programed the new addition, they forgot to include it in the "-PURGE" "ALL" command so it has to be done independently. When you are done with your purge, don't forget to AUDIT the drawing, use the exporttoautocad command to remove Architectural Desktop garbage and the RecoverAll command to audit the file and all the xrefs at once. Tip # 5 When using the Laytrans command, the command line version automatically deletes any layers that are not referenced by objects. However, the dialog box does not do this. In neither version of the command is there an option to changes these defaults.
Tips and tricks and whatnot including yet another email thing to sign up for. Lynn Allen Blog She's part of the marketing folks at Autodesk. She's a pretty face that gets the geek boys to sit still through a presentation (I've sat through numerous talks she's given and see that one first hand at work) Good info on new features, but taken always with a grain of salt - while interesting and good to know, not always useful in the real world. Between the Lines This will start out above your head but addresses often the issues I mentioned above about dealing with ACAD in the real world. CADzette (Moss Designs) AutoCAD, Inventor, SolidWorks and other CAD related items newsletter as well as tips and tricks from a real CAD user and not just an Autodesk lacky! CADTutor Various goodies for ACAD Heidi Hewett Blog Just general good info from Adesk. AutoCAD via Google Go to Google, select News, query AutoCAD and then on the left side click on News Alerts to have spoon fed each day various ACAD news articles AUGI AutoCAD Users Group International - become a member, read the articles, do the tutorials. CAD Digest The ACAD magazine. Also, quite a few free email news links there as well to sign up for. Ten Links Daily News on AutoCAD ACAD News & info
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