Acad 2005 - Tips

[Ricky]

I have few tips to share with the forum members, please share tips that you have so that others can be benefited:

Tip 1.
when in a command you and type 'cal to go into the calulator to do real math ie. drawing a line that is 15.4/5 long

Tip 2.
In MTEXT (2005+) if you right click near the bottom of the list that appears is a selection called symbol for inserting special, common, characters. ie Centerline, Angle, Delta, Ohm, Diameter, Degree

Thanks

[Ricky]

Tip 3.
If the Mtext in the Mtext editor (2005+) is too small, or too large, hold the ctrl buttom and scroll the mouse wheel to change it's size. This only changes the displayed size in the editor window, and does not affect the object size. nor does the editor window retain the size of text you like to read, unless you changes the system variable MTEXTFIXED (0 = open sized and places beased on the mtext selected; 1 = fixed editor size and location)

Tip 4.
You cannot select entiries on Defpoints layer if layer 0 (zero) is frozen or turned off. You can still see the entites on defpoints, but you can't do anything to them. I look forward to seeing some tips from others.

Tip 5.
This is helpful if you use hatches. All hatches are inserted with their base point at 0,0. Even though you can't see it. Sometimes this can result in less than useful or incorrect (as in brick hatches in building elevations) hatches. You can move the "insertion" point by typing "snapbase" and then selecting a new point, like a hatch boundary point. Then insert your hatch.

[Ricky]

Tip 6.
Use of fraction (stacked text):
Example: In the mtext editor, Type in "xyz/mno" highlight it then click on button with "a/b" on text formatting toolbar you get stacked text.

Tip 7.
Fractions in mtext 1/2 gives you a vertically stacked fraction 1#2 gives you a horizontally stacked fraction 1^2 gives you a vertically stacked fraction with out the line. the text infront of the ^ becoms superscript, and the text after the ^ becomes subscript All of the above require you to click on the "a/b" button on the formatting bar, of have autostack turned on.

Tip 8.
when editing mtext if you press "ctrl+enter" keys it will exit the editor. A little faster then always having to click the OK button.
Zooming the drawing while in the mtext editor only works in 2006. Does the centerpoint of you zoom not change when you move the mouse around? This is fun.
I have shared few tips in this thread I hope there are plenty of experts over there to share some of their tips.

[Agostino]

Tip 9.
To xref a dwg into a base dwg at a different elevation simply change the elevation in the base dwg (ELEVATION command), change to plan view, and then xref your dwg. Your xref will appear at the new elevation. Using the external reference feature will lead to much smaller individual file sizes when dealing with 3D drawings, and the individual dwgs are much easier to edit.

[Alban]

10.
Do you work with several toolbars open just so you'll have one or two buttons available from each toolbar? You can easily create your own toolbar with the buttons you use most. Choose View > Toolbars to open the Customize dialog box. Click New on the Toolbars tab and name the toolbar. There's now a small empty toolbar on your screen. Open the toolbars that contain the buttons you want. Hold down the Ctrl key (to copy rather than move the buttons), drag the buttons you want onto the new toolbar, and close the Customize dialog box.

[Alban]

11.
Do you want to to import coordinates from an Excel spreadsheet with lines drawn between the points. Follow the following steps to acheive what you want to:
1) Export the Excel spreadsheet that contains your coordinates to a comma-delimited file.
2) Edit the file with a text editor, such as Notepad, and save the file with a .txt file extension.
3) Type line on the first line and delete all double quotes (").
4) Press the SPACEBAR once to insert a space at the end of the last coordinate and press ENTER once to insert one carriage return.
5) Save the file with a .scr file extension.
6) Start AutoCAD.,
7) To run the script file, type script on the command line and select the file you just created.
Script file example:
line
0,0
5,5
20,20 <space><enter>
<blank line>

[Ricky]

12.
To make it easier to manage multiple drawings, use the new TASKBAR command. At the command prompt, type TASKBAR and change the setting to 1. Now, when you open multiple drawings, each one will show up with its own button on the Windows taskbar at the bottom of your screen, just like documents in Microsoft Word and Excel. Clicking on the drawing’s taskbar button is the quickest way to switch between drawings. It also allows you to use the Alt+Tab key combination to switch between drawings open in AutoCAD 2005.

If you’re using Microsoft Windows XP, here’s another tip to make the TASKBAR even more useful. With Windows XP, documents in the taskbar automatically stack when they reach a certain limit. When the documents stack, they become more difficult to find and it takes two clicks to switch between documents instead of just one. To avoid the stacking, right click on an empty area of the taskbar and select Properties. In the Taskbar and Start Menu Properties dialog, uncheck the line that says, “Group similar taskbar buttons.”

[Ricky]

13.
ACAD 2005 has a new Snap. Snap Between Two Points. To access this Snap, you must have your on screen Snap short cut turned on. It does not appear in your OSnap Settings.

[Ricky]

14.
Do you want to convert a drawing that utilizes color-dependent plot style tables (CTB) to use named plot style tables (STB), then just use the CONVERTCTB and CONVERTPSTYLES commands.

[Ricky]

15.
Do you want to create a flyout that contains custom commands. Then follow these steps:

Step 1: Create a toolbar that contains custom commands you want

a) Right-click on a space between buttons on a toolbar, and then click Customize.
b) In the Customize dialog box, Toolbar tab, click New.
c) Enter a name for the toolbar, for example, CustomTools.
d) Choose the Menu Group under which you want to save the toolbar.
e) Click OK. A new toolbar is created.
f) In the Customize dialog box, Commands tab, and select All Commands.
g) Drag the commands you want to the toolbar.

Step 2: Create a flyout from the toolbar

a) In the Customize dialog box, Commands tab, select User Defined.
b) Select the User Defined Flyout and drag it into the drawing area. A new flyout is now created.
c) Right-click on the new flyout, and then click Properties.
d) Click OK to close the AutoCAD warning that displays.
e) In the Customize dialog box, select the CustomTools toolbar (the toolbar you created in Step 1 above).
f) Click Apply and Close.

The flyout is created with the commands you selected.