As I mentioned previously - Autodesk shuts down between Christmas and New Year and consequently everyone is on vacation...hence you might have noticed the blogs a little bit quieter than usual. For myself - I'm excited about a new year of blogging and sharing some AutoCAD and Inventor Tips and Tricks with you! I trust you all had an enjoyable holiday and have no doubt started the year off with some fabulous resolutions. For myself - I resolve to turn in my expense reports in a timely fashion (my manager would rejoice if this actually happens!). My checking account would also rejoice!
For New Year's Eve we threw a dinner party for some of our Novato friends with a 7 course dinner (and I attempted to play chef!). We started the shindig at 8:00pm and finished our last course just a few minutes before midnight - wow! We even had a homemade balloon drop. All in all I figure we cooked for about 7 hours - and spent 5 hours the next day cleaning up!
Here is a close-up of the table (we even had menus!)...Being into all things CAD I'm not especially artistic so I was very proud of myself.
And here is the wonderful clan that joined us:
if you look close you'll see Tiffany in the lower left corner trying to convince me she belongs at the table.
After the balloon drop we thought it was a good idea to pop all of the balloons (how old are we?). The next day I laughed hysterically when I picked up my shoes...
Ok...let's get down to business...how about a good AutoCAD Hip Tip to bring in the new year?
A New Year's Hip tip on Converting Text Height between Model Space and Paper Space:
We've all been there...we have our viewports all squared away and we want to add some model space text that matches up with some text in paper space. We know the height for the text in paper space is 3/8" - but how in the world are we going to figure out the height we would use in that model space viewport to match (especially if you aren't using a specific scale factor for your viewports). SPACETRANS to the rescue!
SPACETRANS (a transparent command) is used to calculate equivalent lengths between model space units and paper space units. Since its transparent we actually use the SPACETRANS command while in other commands - or anywhere we need it to some computation for us. Though not restricted to text - it's one of the first logical places you might think to use it. SPACETRANS is great because it does the math for us (and who doesn't love that?). Below is an example of using it to figure out the correct text height for some text we intend on placing in model space (we'll use SPACETRANS transparently).
Command: TEXT
Specify start point of text or [Justify/Style]: pick in the model space viewport where you want to place your text
Specify height <0.375>: 'spacetrans
>>Specify paper space distance <1.000>: 3/8
Resuming TEXT command
Specify height <0.375>: 1.173
So as you can see - AutoCAD took the value of 3/8 - calculated the scale factor in the viewport and figured out the height needed to yield the same results in Model Space.
This is just one example of the way you can use SPACETRANS. This very powerful command can come i handy for many different scenarios.
Note: The SPACETRANS command is not available from the Model tab or in a perspective view.
I leave you with one Christmas picture of Tiffany with her Christmas stocking...Happy New Year to each and every one of you - lets make this the best year yet!!!
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