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[alanjt]

Cheers Alan I already have that set-up, was just posting the long hand command for those who didn't already know.

 

Good deal. Just making sure.

[erratic]

Or use TAB to go to the next button which happens to be the enter button.

 

OR.... simply "click" anywhere that is outside of the MTEXT dialogue box to end the command

[alanjt]

OR.... simply "click" anywhere that is outside of the MTEXT dialogue box to end the command

or Control+Enter.

[erratic]

on the topic of using the @ or # symbol for displacement when moving, copying, etc - just drag your cursor in the direction that you want to go and enter the distance value - its mostly useful if you have ortho set or polar turned on as it will move at whatever angle you are dragging your cursor... try it out - I find it very handy as I used to go with the old "move" "@12,0" now its just "move" [slide cursor] and enter your distance... very handy, hope you all find it as useful as I have.

[erratic]

here's another little tid bit... for those of you who actually take the time to manage the visability of your viewports with a layer - regarding plotting - just place them on layer defpoints (it doesn't plot remember) pretty simple - it doesn't really make sense to have a specific layer for viewports that you have to toggle the visibility for when you want it on to size it and off for plotting... no?

[alanjt]

here's another little tid bit... for those of you who actually take the time to manage the visability of your viewports with a layer - regarding plotting - just place them on layer defpoints (it doesn't plot remember) pretty simple - it doesn't really make sense to have a specific layer for viewports that you have to toggle the visibility for when you want it on to size it and off for plotting... no?

http://www.cadapult-software.com/article_info.php/articles_id/28

[erratic]

http://www.cadapult-software.com/article_info.php/articles_id/28

 

well I must say that that just isn't true... I've been freezing layer defpoints and doing regens for years and have never experienced a crash related to what that article speaks of... not to mention - the whole point of what I was referring to was to have a layer that you did not have to toggle (or create) - just leave it on... why bother turning something off/ freeze it when its not going to plot anyway??? simply a wasted step... and yes I realize how to make a non-plot layer, but eliminating steps and reducing the number of keystrokes per day to accomplish your usual tasks should always be your goal for improving your CAD skills... IMHO

[MikeScott]

3d Rendering Tip (works in AutoCAD version 2004, maybe earlier)

 

Hate not knowing how your materials (especially tiled materials) are going to display on a rendering, and not knowing if you remembered to attach materials to all the objects, BEFORE waiting for a 2-hour render?

 

If you want to view your materials applied onto your 3d shapes in REAL TIME, and you have at least a decent video card by today's standards, you can turn them on with the shade command. Go to "View" --> "shade" and select either "Flat shaded" or "Gouraud shaded" (with or without edges) from the menu.

 

If at that point you don't see your materials on your surfaces, you either haven't attached them yet, or you're still using software rendering, which is the default.

 

To fix that, you need to go to

"Tools" --> "Options"

Then Select the "System" tab from the tabs across the top.

 

In the upper left, you'll see an entry for "Current 3d Graphics Display" Choose the "Properties" button right next to it.

 

On the righthand side, you want to put a check into the following boxes:

"Render Options"

"Enable Lights"

"Enable Materials"

"Enable Textures"

 

In the Acceleration section, choose "Hardware" and the driver should be wopengl8.hdi

 

I would also check

"Use geometry acceleration (single precision)"

 

 

No more checking every surface with SETUV to see how the renderer is going to apply your materials relative to the World UCS.

 

No more starting the rendering as you leave work, only to come-in the next day to find that the render you need to send-out that morning doesn't have everything textured.

 

Discovering this has saved me literally hours of render time. Any modifying you do to the material maps will take affect as soon as you close the materials box.

[alanjt]

well I must say that that just isn't true... I've been freezing layer defpoints and doing regens for years and have never experienced a crash related to what that article speaks of... not to mention - the whole point of what I was referring to was to have a layer that you did not have to toggle (or create) - just leave it on... why bother turning something off/ freeze it when its not going to plot anyway??? simply a wasted step... and yes I realize how to make a non-plot layer, but eliminating steps and reducing the number of keystrokes per day to accomplish your usual tasks should always be your goal for improving your CAD skills... IMHO

I understand what you were trying to convey. I used to put my viewports on the Defpoints layer until I read something about avoiding it in newer versions, as it would/could cause problems. It's no real difference, I have our template setup with the layer and it is non-plottable. Hell, I even wrote a reactor for us to automatically place created viewports on our 0-VIEWPORT layer, just to avoid having to worrying with setting a different layer before/after creating them. If you haven't had any problems then that's great. We made the switch just as a precaution. It wasn't any big change-over, so it was a simple task of a change.

[Ryder76]

Found this little peach....

MTJIGSTRING

Use to customize the MTEXT sample string

(defaults to ABC). Set it to your favorite

Sports Team, pet, etc.

 

There is a ten letter & space limit, but fun nonetheless. Found it that by trying to make mine show "Random Crap" and all I got was "Random Cra"

[alanjt]

If you right-click on your AutoCAD icon and select properties, you can add "/nologo" to the end of the Target portion and the Autodesk splash screen will no longer display. It's not much, but it's a slight increase in start-up time.

 

[alanjt]

Express Tool FLATTEN will convert a Spline to an LWPolyline.

 

[Had to do this today and couldn't remember if anyone every stated that here.]

[alanjt]

Never noticed this before, but if you have DimAssoc variable set to 2 (associative), it applies to Leaders, QLeaders and MLeaders. You can move your object around and the leader(s) will remain intact.

 

DimAssoc:

Controls the associativity of dimension objects and whether dimensions are exploded.

 

0 Creates exploded dimensions. There is no association between the various elements of the dimension. The lines, arcs, arrowheads, and text of a dimension are drawn as separate objects.

1 Creates non-associative dimension objects. The elements of the dimension are formed into a single object. If one of the definition points of the dimension moves, the dimension is updated.

2 Creates associative dimension objects. The elements of the dimension are formed into a single object, and one or more definition points of the dimension are coupled with association points on geometric objects. If the association point on the geometric object moves, the dimension location, orientation, and value are updated.

 

DIMASSOC is not stored in a dimension style.

 

Drawings saved in a format previous to AutoCAD 2002 retain the setting of the DIMASSOC system variable. When the drawing is reopened in AutoCAD 2002 or later, the dimension associativity setting is restored. If a legacy drawing is opened in AutoCAD 2002, the DIMASSOC system variable takes on the value of the legacy drawing's DIMASO system variable.

 

[alanjt]

If you set the Edgemode variable to 1 (on), you can extend/trim and object with another object that does not intersect with the path of selected object to extend/trim.

[alanjt]

I'm sure this one has been posted. I may have even posted it myself, but I thought about it and felt it was worth redundancy...

 

If you set the PEditAccept variable to 1, when you run PEdit, it will NOT prompt you to convert selected lines to polylines before continuing - a nice little step saver.

[alanjt]

For 2005 and below (older) users:

 

This came up in a thread last week and I had this saved from pre '05 (M2P/MTP - Midpoint Between 2 Points OSnap) days.

 

If you create a Toolbar button and place the following text within, you can emulate the Midpoint Between 2 Points OSnap.

 

_non;'cal (cur + cur)/2;

 

Also, for those of you that have more of an affinity towards typing, you can use something like this (just prefix the call with an apostrophe to run transparently):

(defun c:M2P (/) (cal "(cur + cur)/2"))

eg.

Command: l LINE Specify first point: 'm2p
>> Enter a point:
>> Enter a point:
(2.06091e+006 534651.0 0.0)

[DNK]

If you use Image Tile Menus,

 

 

By default the menu the pops up is relatively small:

 

 

You can see that the displayed names in the left pane are clipped.

 

 

This menu can be increased in size by adjusting two .dcl files.

These files are located in this path: C:\Documents and Settings\\Application Data\Autodesk\AutoCAD 2008\R17.1\enu\Support

 

The first is the acad.dcl. Open this file in notepad and change the following items...

 

 

and

 

 

 

Next open the base.dcl with notepad and change the following item...

 

 

 

Doing this will increase the size of the Image Tile Menu...

 

 

 

Back up your .dcl files first. Obviously, you can play with these values to achieve you desired results. This also works for AutoCAD LT.

 

Hat tip to Warren Trost, who posted this tip in 2008 buried in a thread about library viewers in the Autodesk Discussion group.

[alanjt]

If you type +Layer at the commandline, it will display available Layer Filters and give option to set current.

[Lee Mac]

If you type +Layer at the commandline, it will display available Layer Filters and give option to set current.

 

:lol:

[alanjt]

:lol:

 

It was too interesting not to rob from the post @ theswamp and put here.:wink: