Tips & Tools Weekly (Vol. 12, No. 5)
4 Feb, 2007Harry Names Another Winner! Get a T-Shirt, Win $100 Cadalyst Daily Update
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. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Resources Graphic Systems Launches SolidNotes Tech Blog |
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . This Week's Software Tips Send us your tip, code 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, and each month Cadalyst editors will randomly select one published tip and send $100 to its author. Please submit only code and other tips that are your original work, or provide the original source so we can include proper credit. By submitting code to Cadalyst, you grant Cadalyst the right to print and distribute your code in print, digitally and by other means. Cadalyst and individual authors retain all rights to the code; published code is not to be used for commercial purposes. Wblock vs. Purge Essay "I tell my apprentices to remember that when they use Wblock, invisible items are also copied -- items that they really may prefer not to have added to their newly created blocks. Specifically, when you Wblock an object (or a group of objects, text, dims and the like) you are also Wblocking out your current active layer, your current text style and your current Dim style. Your intent may have been to Wblock out objects on Layer 1, as well as Text entities in Text Style ABC on Layer 2, plus a dimension string on Layer 3 (in Dim style 1eq50f that contains dimension text in text style DEF). However, because your active layer, at the time of Wblocking, was Layer 9, our active text style was UVW and your active Dim style was 1-8eq1f that contained text style XYZ, you have added an extra layer, an extra Dim style and two extra text styles to your supposedly pristine wblock. "I emphasize to my users that a wblock is really a mini drawing. If you want it as clean as possible so that it’s useful for years and on hundreds of projects, then you must be very careful and precise when creating it. Typically you should separately load (and purge, etc.) this file. "You should also remember that a wblock, despite your selection of a base insertion point in the wblock’s creation, also retains the parent's drawing origin. This is why an insertion of a wblock as an unexploded block in the new drawing might not center on display. The on-screen drawing is centered, it’s just that there's now a block built with an old drawing parent's origin point, which is way out there in left field! Auto-Numbering with Mtext NOTES FROM CADALYST TIP PATROL: As usual, we ran this tip past two Tip Patrol members for review. One told us, "Wow, this is a really nice trick. Works just as described, and it will come in handy." Patroller No. 2 agrees that this is a workable tip, but has his own take on the topic. He suggests using features already present in the AutoCAD Mtext text editor. "For example, in AutoCAD LT 2006, you can turn the numbering option on and off, and it renumbers lines that were not initially numbered and remove the numbers on those that were." Another concern is that this tip necessitates that users be conversant with changing their default Mtext editor (and back again later) via the Tools / Options / etc., he notes. "This is not a bad thing, per se, as long as users remember to switch back when they are done." Autodesk Map Partial Delete NOTES FROM CADALYST TIP PATROL: This tip works just fine, Patrollers report -- even in AutoCAD (but not LT). Follow-Up: Get Gatte Follow-Up: Continue Arcs
Follow-Up: Spell Check and Solid Solprof Kevin also notes that he has difficulty with the Flatten command that was mentioned in the January 29 edition in regards to January 22 edition's discussion of Solprof. He states, "The Flatten command is no longer available in AutoCAD 2007, and I don't recommend using it. Simply draw a 10 x 10 x 10 cube and flatten it (using AutoCAD 2004) and it will no longer be 10 x 10 in 2D. The Overkill command is not foolproof, either. I have had geometry change from using it." MicroStation Tip -- Permanent File History Answer: You can use key-ins newfile design_file or RD=design_file. Both key-ins open the design_file. Then write a simple macro that writes out one or more text files that do a newfile to the files you want to open and then assign function keys or menu items to those text files. You can also hardcode these commands into menu or function keys. Find this and many other MicroStation Tips on Axiom's MicroStationTips.com Web site. 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. |
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Deals & Freebies UGS Releases Solid Edge 2D Drafting in 10 Languages ZwCAD Offers 30-Day Trial of 2D/3D Software |
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Opportunities & Honors Autodesk Launches Student Inventor Contest CAD Society Accepting Nominations for 2007 Awards EEE Names Recipient of 2007 Donald O. Pederson Award Oce Receives Platinum Award in Readers' Choice Survey UGS Honored with Two Awards Slater Associates Receives 2006 MD ASLA Merit Award |
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Week's New CAD and Related Products Hardware: EIS Supra General Software: Bluebeam PDF Revu v5 Visualization: Conduit for Google Earth Pro v4 AEC: Real Architect 2007 AEC: SmartPlant Enterprise 2007 AEC: ProjectWise Navigator AEC: VersaCAD/Parking Structure AEC/GIS: Leica TruView MCAD: Trace Pro v4 MCAD: Seemage v4 CAE: STAR-CAD Gateways V4.1 |
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