Michael’s Corner

Michael's Corner is a monthly publication written by Michael E. Beall, Autodesk Authorized Author and peripatetic AutoCAD trainer. Michael travels all over the USA, bringing his fantastic experience and great understanding of AutoCAD to his clients. Michael's Corner brings together many of the tips, tricks and methods developed during these training sessions for the benefit of all users.

Michael's Corner provides something for every AutoCAD user. Every month, a number of articles cover a wide range of topics, suitable for users at all levels, including "The Basics" for those just starting out. Essentially, the aim of Michael's Corner is to help all AutoCAD users work smarter and faster.

This month…

From the Vault

Originally published April 2008

Custom Button #6: Double-Line [Dline]

This month we'll put the Dline routine on a button with a pre-assigned Width for creating a wall, justification (Dragline option) and Layer. For more on this wonderful little tool, take a look at August 2003 (where you can also download Dline.lsp) and the Odd Spot in September 2005.

Instructions to Add Properties to a Button for Creating a Dline

1. Open the Tool Palette window, then you will need a blank button to work with (see Odd Spot, April 2007).
2. Right-click on the blank button, then click Properties to open the Tool Properties dialog box.
3. Edit the Command String to read as shown below. In the example, I have the width set to 6″ as a sample wall width, but you can put whatever value you want in there as shown in my example below for ductwork.

^C^CDLINE;W;6;D;R

Text Character Reference

;	Presses Enter; it's easier to discern a semi-colon than a space when pressing Enter in a macro.
W	The Width option of the command.
D	The Dragline option which enables you to specify the Justification of the wall.
R	Right justified based upon the direction of "travel" as you're picking each point of the Dline.

4. Under the General section, change the Layer property to the desired layer, then set the Color and Linetype properties to ByLayer. While you're in the Tool Properties dialog box, you may want to change the Name of the button and perhaps add an image.

Tip: Using Dline for Mechanical Ductwork…

When creating ductwork using Dline, I would set the Dragline to Center, but remember that you can change the width of the double-line while the command is still active. This is great if you want to transition, say, from a 14″ duct to a 10″ duct. The result, however, is a notch rather than the proper look of a transition or reducer section of ductwork, as shown in the first illustration, below.

To resolve this - and to create the proper length for the transition - after completing the Dline command, use the Stretch command to stretch the transition "notch" to the appropriate length. (See May 2006, Basics for coverage on using Stretch.) After stretching the transition, use the Line command to add the lines between sections as shown in the dimensioned illustration. [My thanks to Tim at KLM Mechanical for his industry expertise, www.klm-mechanical.com.]

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