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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 July 2012

3D Rotate with the Rotate Gizmo

A customer contacted me about a 3D furniture block they had that was laying on its back when they opened the drawing, and wondered how to rotate it in 3D. My thought was to use the 3D Gizmo for Rotate to flip that thing back onto its feet.

The move gizmo

Prerequisite: Visual Style set to Shades of Gray. It's easier to see the rotation and the 3D Gizmos if you don't have so many other colors competing for your attention.

How to Rotate a 3D Object in 3D

Rotate gizmo in action

  1. On the View tab, set the Visual Style to Shades of Gray.

  2. Click on the object to rotate, and the Move gizmo will be displayed with the arrows for the 3 axes as seen in the first figure.

  3. For the Rotation gizmo, right-click on one of the axes, then click Rotate to display the Rotate gizmo (three "hoolahoops" around the geometric centroid of the selected object).

  4. Click on the circle that addresses your rotation requirements — the red one for this exercise. It turns yellow and you see a red line defining the axis of rotation.

  5. Turn on Ortho or Polar if needed, then rotate your object to its final position. As you rotate the object, the arc of rotation is shaded if you're able to see it. It's yellow in this final illustration.

GeometryIf you then need to reposition the object to 0,0,0, you can always use Properties (Ctrl +1), then under Geometry, set the Position values as needed.

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