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Michael’s Corner

Michael BeallMichael'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…

October - One-derful!!!

It's a God-thing.

I had no idea that 14 years ago I would be given the opportunity to make an impact on the professional lives of so many. Only God knew what was ahead, and hopefully, the contributions I have made through Michael's Corner have equipped many of you to be more productive and a bit more savvy using AutoCAD. And apart from all the AutoCAD bashing that is going on, I'm sure it has a long life ahead.

So, in an effort to keep the AutoCAD fires burning, here's what I have for my final installment…

…A reminder on how to customize your hot keys
…Three Power Tools — one for Zoom, one for editing, and one for Layers
…Two Odd Spots — one for Layers and one for Hatching
…Buried text treasure
…And how to Search 14 years of the Archives

As for what's ahead for me, I will continue to present a variety of AutoCAD sessions — Fundamentals, Intermediate, Customizing, Updates, and 2D & 3D. I will also keep training CAP Designer, 20-20 Worksheet, Visual Impression (those three from 20-20 Technologies, Inc.), and some Revit Fundamentals. Next year I'm looking forward to being very involved in training CET (from Configura, Inc.) when Herman Miller joins the growing number of manufacturers embracing this software that is being touted as the ‘Future of Space Planning’. Personally, I'm looking forward to spending a bit more time with Donna, my lovely bride of 30 years. When this posts, we'll probably be within days of going on our 30th Anniversary vacation to the Tanque Verde Ranch in Tucson; Ee-Hah! We had such a good time when we went for our 20th, we figured we'd do it again!

Ah, and I'm hoping to have The AutoCAD Workbench, Final Edition out before snow flies.

And with that, Mike drop! …so to speak.

The LORD bless you and keep you;
The LORD make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
The LORD lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace. Numbers 6:24-26

This month's articles

Change F1 to ESC
Smoother Zoom
Stretch with Extension
Lock Layers with a Crossing Window
Layer Columns & Hatch Background Color
Text Frame on Mtext

From the Vault

Originally published May 2010

Selecting Objects in AutoCAD 2011

AutoCAD 2011 introduced several new selection and visibility features that can be found in third party applications, and are now a welcome addition to the shortcut menu. Each of these features are very intuitive and easy to use.

Note: Each of these features must be invoked prior to the launching of any command for which the selection is intended.

Select Similar

Select Similar

You will probably use this every day. Very similar to the Quick Select procedure (covered in March 2003), this process lets you pick a ‘guinea pig’ object, then use Select Similar to pick all the others.

  1. With no command current, click on the object for which you want to select all the other similar objects.

  2. Right-click, then click Select Similar.

Isolate Objects

When you Isolate Objects, layers are not turned Off or Frozen. This is, essentially, a brand-new visibility feature. Also notice, in this exercise, although there may be other seating objects in this drawing created on the same layer(s), only the selected chair type was isolated. This has amazing possibilities!

Isolate Objects

How to Isolate, then Un-Isolate, Objects

  1. Open a drawing containing objects that are similar, such as doors, furniture objects, text objects, etc.

  2. Click on one object for which there are others in the drawing.

  3. Right-click, then click Select Similar to highlight all identical objects in your drawing.

  4. To hide all objects other than the similar objects, right-click, then click Isolate, then Isolate Objects.

    Isolate Objects
  5. There are two ways to end the isolation of the other objects:

    1. Select one object, then right-click, then click Isolate, then End Object Isolation.

      End Object Isolation
    2. At the command line, type UNISOLATE, then press [Enter].

Hide Objects

The opposite of Isolate Objects is Hide Objects. After running the Select Similar routine - or whatever method you want to use to select objects to hide - right-click, then click Isolate, then Hide Objects.

Hide Objects

Isolation and Hide Commands

FYI, here are the commands that relate to the selection features in this section: SELECTSIMILAR, ISOLATEOBJECTS, UNISOLATEOBJECTS/UNISOLATE, and HIDEOBJECTS.

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