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The Tutorials section provides over 100 original tutorials for AutoCAD, 3ds Max and other design applications such as Photoshop and Bryce. Michael’s Corner is a monthly article that brings you the best up-to-date AutoCAD tips and tricks. The Forums are a lively bulletin board where AutoCAD users can ask questions and get answers. The Download area provides free AutoCAD blocks, free AutoLISP routines and free digital images.

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The AutoCAD Workbench, Final Edition

Fourteen year's worth of Michael's Corner has been completely updated for AutoCAD 2018 and is now available in the form of the AutoCAD Workbench, Final Edition. The book is available in spiral-bound paper or as a PDF. To find out more or to order a copy, visit Michael's CAD Trainer Guy site.

Michael’s Corner - October/November 2016

One-derful!!!

This month's Corner marks the end of an era. I've been running the CADTutor website for 20 years and for the last 14 of those I've been ably assisted in that endeavour by Michael Beall who has consistently provided content of the highest quality. Michael has written almost 600 articles for CADTutor in close to 150 monthly columns. If Autodesk are listening, they should probably give him a medal for services to AutoCAD. I'm constantly surprised and delighted by how generous people are when sharing information, wisdom and experience on the Web and Michael is a prime example of how Tim Berners-Lee hoped people would share their knowledge. Thank you Michael for all you've done for the CADTutor community.

So, for Michael's final corner we have articles on modifying the action of the F1 key, no less than 3 Power Tool articles, including tips on zooming with your mouse, background hatch colours and text frames for Mtext. As always, these articles are designed to help you work smarter, not harder. I hope you find them useful.

CADTutor itself is staying put and we have a few new things planned for 2017, so stay tuned. And don't forget that all of Michael's Corners are still available at CADTutor for your future reference.

Video Tutorials

We've added a new Video Tutorials section to CADTutor! Some of our users have asked for video tutorials in addition to the text-based tutorials already on the site. Check them out and let us know what you think. Also, for those of you who prefer to watch your online video at YouTube, why not visit the CADTutor YouTube channel?

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Tip of the Day

2D Drawings from your 3D Models

Over the years, there have been various methods of creating 2D drawings from 3D models in AutoCAD. In the early days, we used export to DXB, a file format that is no longer supported. Then came the FLATTEN command. Now, there's a new command that's better than previous methods.

The FLATSHOT command creates a 2D block object of any view that includes 3D solid objects. There are a number of options including show/hide obscured lines and independent control over the colour and linetype of foreground and obscured lines. Flatshot works by projecting the lines of your current view, not UCS, onto a plane. This is a little more versatile than Flatten and doesn't seem to skew the dimension of the object, which Flatten is notorious for. It also has the advantage of leaving the original object as is. The only downside is that it seems to have problems with perspective views. Parallel projection views work perfectly.

Today's tip is by CromCruithne

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