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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.

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Tip of the Day

Using Imprint to sub-divide faces

The Imprint command (ModifySolid EditingImprint Edges) gives the first impression of nothing more than adding graffiti to solids. Upon closer investigation, however, we find that it actually modifies the face on which it is placed, effectively sub-dividing it. Sub-divided faces can then be extruded using the Extrude faces command (ModifySolid EditingExtrude faces).

Procedure

1. Create a box.
2. Draw a line on one of the faces.
3. Imprint that line on the solid.
4. Use Extrude faces to extrude the sub-divided face.

To generate this modified part with Boolean operations would not be difficult but, as we all know, speed and accuracy are the name of the game. The procedure describe above can be auto-executed with the command macro:

^C^C_line;\\;_solidedit;b;i;\last;y;;;f;E;\;\\;;

The UI could benefit from some advanced programming, but if one pays attention to the Command Prompts, it's not so bad.

Note: This tip relates to versions of AutoCAD before 2007. Although the technique works with 2007 and above, the same operation can be achieved more easily using the Presspull tool.

Today's tip is by SEANT

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