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AutoCAD Productivity

‘Sign Language’

by Michael Beall

From: AutoCAD Productivity Articles #136
Originally published: October 2014

Infer ConstraintsSelection CyclingFor the last few versions we have seen icons next to the cursor for Geometric Constraints (left) and Selection Cycling (right), as well as the little icon for a Locked layer and the Match Properties paintbrush.

Those icons are displayed when the related feature is enabled.

Cursor Badges

But AutoCAD 2015 now has included a ‘cursor badge’ for several editing commands, such as Rotate and Erase (see figures below), along with Measure and even the Window and Crossing selection direction badges.

Badge examples

Some of you, however, may prefer not to see the new badges beside the cursor. If so, set the variable CURSORBADGE to <1>, which will disable all badges.

See all the articles published in October 2014

Michael's Corner

Between 2003 and 2016, Michael Beall (and one or two guests) wrote almost 600 articles for CADTutor. The focus of these articles is AutoCAD productivity, and although some of them are now more than a few years old, most remain relevant to current versions of AutoCAD. The article above is just one example. Check out Michael's Corner for a full listing.

Tip of the Day

AutoCAD Expert

Are you an expert in AutoCAD? Well according to Autodesk you aren't, well not unless you tell the program otherwise. The EXPERT system variable (default 0) can be changed so that annoying "Are you sure?" commands will go away. Here is the list and what they do:

EXPERT = 0
Issues all prompts normally.
EXPERT = 1
Suppresses "About to regen, proceed?" and "Really want to turn the current layer off?"
EXPERT = 2
Suppresses the preceding prompts and "Block already defined. Redefine it?" (BLOCK) and "A drawing with this name already exists. Overwrite it?" (SAVE or WBLOCK).
EXPERT = 3
Suppresses the preceding prompts and those issued by the LINETYPE command if you try to load a linetype that's already loaded or create a new linetype in a file that already defines that linetype.
EXPERT = 4
Suppresses the preceding prompts and those issued by UCS Save and VPORTS Save if the name you supply already exists.
EXPERT = 5
Suppresses the prompt, "That name is already in Use, redefine it?" issued by the -DIMSTYLE Save option when you supply the name of an existing dimension style.

Today's tip is by Sean Nesbitt

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