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 January 2007

The Increment Lock

The Array command is a quick way to create a matrix of the selected items. One method of using the Array command was covered in February 2005. But sometimes you want to use an incremental spacing, but you don't want an object at each location. I am indebted to the users at Southwest Airlines for this novel feature, too.

This exercise illustrates how to use grips to array the selected items. I want a row of three pairs of chairs, one chair apart. (By the way, grips are also covered in December 2003 and March 2005.)

Suggested approach:

1. Turn off Osnap and Otrack as these will display their tool tips and may be confusing the point of the exercise.
2. Select the item(s) to copy, then click in one of the grips to make it a hot grip.

3. Press [Enter] to cycle the auto-edit mode to the Move option, then enter C for the Copy option.
4. With Ortho on, move the direction for the copy and enter the desired distance. I enter 22 in this exercise.
5. If you have the current version of AutoCAD, hold down Ctrl, and as you move your cursor in the direction of the copy, AutoCAD "locks" into that spacing! Click to place as necessary. If you have an earlier version of AutoCAD or LT prior to the introduction of Temporary Override Keys, you can hold down the Shift key to lock in the increment.

NOTE: The increment lock operates in both the X and Y axis!

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