Tips & Tools Weekly (Vol. 11, No. 25)
16 Jul, 2006What's New at Cadalyst.com Get the Code! for July To submit code and other CAD tips, e-mail harry@cadalyst.com. All authors whose tips are published in the monthly Hot Tip Harry column receive a Cadalyst t-shirt, and the top tip each month earns a $100 prize! Cadalyst Daily Update
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CAD Printer Services to AEC, GIS Users AutoCAD Technical
Podcast |
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . This Week's Software Tips Introducing Cadalyst's
New Tip Patrol Send us your tip or shortcut for your favorite CAD software. If we publish it, we'll send you a "Cadalyst: CAD the Way You Want It" t-shirt. Follow Up: More on
Osnaps Follow Up: Pick a
Percentage (defun Halfway (/ Pnt) (mapcar '(lambda (Numbr1 Numbr2) (* 0.5 (+ Numbr1 Numbr2))) (setq Pnt (getpoint "\nPick 1st Reference Point: ")) (getpoint Pnt "\nPick 2nd Reference Point: "))) Of course, I'd hate to type Halfway everytime, so I've put the line: id_Halfway [&Halfway](Halfway) just after the line ID_From [&From]_from in the "***POP0 / **SNAP" menu. This lets me invoke Halfway quickly by right-clicking on the mouse, followed by pressing the letter H on the keyboard or selecting Between on the popup. I've never needed any proportion other than exactly halfway, hence I thought my version, which requires less user input, might be useful to other readers like me. Using the lambda function makes it more compact. Follow Up: Arc-to-Circle
Change-Up Two Leader Line Tips ADD More Leaders (2002, 2004, 2005) Step 2: Hold down the SHIFT+CTRL keys and select a new arrow destination in the drawing. You can continue to add additional leader arrows as needed while holding down the SHIFT+CTRL keys. ADD More Leaders (2006) Step 1: Select the Dimension Leader and select the grip at the arrow end of the line. Step 2: Position your cursor at the new arrow destination in the drawing. Step 3: Press and hold the CTRL key when you click the new destination location. NOTES FROM CADALYST TIP PATROL: This is a good undocumented tip. To keep the cursor location from jumping around erratically when you add multiple leaders, it's better to hit Cancel once after creating the first leader, leaving grips in place. Then re-select the grip at the arrow end and with CTRL key pressed, select an additional leader location. Then repeat the process for each additional leader required. Run the Circuit NOTES FROM CADALYST TIP PATROL: Watch for adverse results when exploding any new dynamic blocks. Remember that it's best not to explode blocks unless it's absolutely nesessary. A Circle is A Circle CADALYST TIP PATROL NOTE: This would run better embedded in an AutoLISP routine that subsequently deleted the circle. Otherwise you end up with two entities, a circle and a polyline, on top of one another. Fix Your 3Dorbit Problems 1) If the grid is on, 3Dorbit displays it as a busy mesh of lines. 2) If the UCS is other than World, the orbit option works unpredictably. The following routine fixes these issues and shortens the command down to just typing 3. (defun c:3 ( / oldgrid ) ;; shortcut for 3DORBIT that turns off the annoying grid display ;; and fixes the unpredictability with UCS's other than WCS (setq oldgrid (getvar "gridmode")) (setvar "gridmode" 0) (command "ucs" "w") (command "3dorbit") (setvar "gridmode" oldgrid) (command "ucs" "p") ) NOTES FROM CADALYST TIP PATROL: We tidied the code a bit. Fix Bad Habits "The Bugwatch article regarding the use of '%%u' in dtext entities in AutoCAD 2006 reminded me of this routine. Although my NullText routine searches only for "", null entries, in both text and mtext entities, I'm sure that "%%u" could be added to the search list. "Finally, if the routine finds and erases offending entities, it tells you, "All Null Text + MText Erased from current space." If it doesn't find a result, it does nothing." CADALYST TIP PATROL NOTE: This is a useful routine for cleaning up drawings created in older versions of AutoCAD, but 2007 seems to have eliminated the occurrence of null text in drawings. We think it now ignores null or %%U inputs. This Week's SolidWorks
Tips Image Transparency: Shows how images in sketches can have transparency applied. Fillet Options: Explains the different fillet options. Tips & Tools Weekly software tips for AutoCAD are reviewed by Cadalyst staff and the Cadalyst Tip Patrol before publication. Use tips at your own discretion, please, and watch later editions of this newsletter for updates and corrections. Many thanks to our volunteer Cadalyst Tip Patrol members: Don Boyer, Mitchell Hirschklau, R.K. McSwain, Don Reichle, Kevin Sawyer, Ivanhoe Tejeda, Billy Wooten and Ben Young. |
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FilePorter Web-Based File Transfer General Software:
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2006 GB GIS: Leica Virtual
Explorer 3.1 MCAD: AliasStudio
Personal Learning Edition MCAD: Airframe Design
Environment MCAD: solidThinking
7.0 MCAD: Carline Add-On
for IronCAD v9.0 CAE: ABAQUS for CATIA
V5 Version 2.3 CAE: GRANTA MI 1.2 CAE: MD Patran CAM: BobCAD-CAM v2 |
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Solutions Premiere Agile Leadership
Summit FME Asia Regional
User Conference Autodesk Inventor
v11 Workshops Southern California
CAD Summit DELMIA 2006 Worldwide
User Conferences |
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