Lynn Allen's Blog

Quick Tip - Cycle through your Layouts

Did you know you can use Ctrl+Page Up and Ctrol+Page Down to cycle through your layout tabs?  Great for you keyboard junkies!

And...Happy New Year!  I know of one resolution I need to set - get my Cadalyst columns written on time...(my editor would pass out)

Quick Tip - Exit MTEXT fast!

A quick and easy method for exiting the MTEXT command (while saving the contents) is simply picking anywhere outside of the MTEXT box.  This is much faster than hitting the OK button.

Get Ready for a New Year!

So what are your New Years resolutions?  Lose weight, take a class, learn a new product (finally make the move to 3D?), exercise, spend more time with family, get more sleep?  Or how about a resolution to fulfill your resolutions this year?   Every year I resolve to get my columns written on time...every year I still hand them in late.  Last year I resolved to learn another new Autodesk product and was fortunate enough to squeek in the Civil 3D class before the end of the year.  So here's a glimpse at a few of my New Year's resolutions:

1)  Exercise more frequently (of course)
2)  Travel less (an unfulfilled resolution for the past 3 years)
3)  Learn Autodesk Revit (find out for myself what everyone is raving about!)
4)  Be more organized (especially with my finances)
5)  Do more charity work (preferably with animal organizations)

Of course - to be truly effective I need to create more measurable goals such as "Exercise 3 times a week", as opposed to just "Exercise more"...I still have a few days to work on the details.

Now for the bad news - I had to put my sweet, loving, 16 year old Black Lab to sleep.  Couldn't write about it earlier because it made me cry.  Jake came with the house that I bought, I am still stunned that the family left behind such a wonderful, intelligent, animal.  He's been a loyal companion and he outlived every health obstacle that stood in his way determined not to leave us...until now.  He always insisted on laying right in the middle of the kitchen while I cooked - I find myself still stepping over him today...Jake will be missed dearly.  I've included a picture of him from years ago with bandaged feet from one of his mishaps (on the kitchen floor of course).  For those of you who have a pet - please give them an extra pet from me today.

--------------------------------------------------

Happy Holidays!

I hope you are all having a wonderful holiday season.  Autodesk is out for their annual week of rest so I'm trying to catch up on all those things that were put on the backburner due to my crazy travel schedule.  I'd also like to catch up on some of the movies that are possible Oscar contenders (I usually only see movies on those tiny airplane screens!).  It's raining like crazy in Northern California and we are all trying to stay dry.  I know many of you are surrounded by lots and lots of snow right about now (brrrrr).  There's just nothing better than a nice fire when it's snowing.

Movies so far:  Closer
Technical Evangelist rating out of 10:  7
Technial Evangelist comments:  Great acting, definitely made me feel as though my life wasn't so bad...  : )  Rough language (not for the faint of heart).  Natalie Portman deserves an Academy Award nomination

Darkness (ok - so I knew this wasn't an Oscar candidate - but I just LOVE scary movies)
Rating:  5 out of 10
Comments:  Good acting, weak plot, wasn't really all that scary and there were too many pieces missing in the plot (which I always find frustrating - don't you?).  Found myself asking all kind of questions about things that just didn't add up.

I know many of you are in the office this week (please don't fault me for being on vacation!) so I'll throw in a few Quick Tips even though I'm on vacation - fair?

I received many emails from you with happy holiday greetings - every single one made me smile and it's appreciated.  I suppose it's about time to start thinking about our New Year Resolutions..oh my!

Quick Tip - Layer Previous

The cool Layer Previous button on the Layers Toolbar undoes the previous layer settings only. Essentially an “undo” command that only affects your layers.

Quick Tip - Viewports

Double-clicking on a viewport in AutoCAD 2005 maximizes the viewport and allows you to pan, zoom, etc without accidentally changing the scale factor. Hitting the Minimize Viewport button on the status bar magically puts everything back while maintaining any edits.

Quick Tip - Zoom Extents

Double-clicking on the mouse scroll-wheel does a Zoom Extents

Quick Tip - Control + 0

Control + 0 (zero) quickly clears your screen of all toolbars and the palettes. Toggle Control+0 again to bring them back.

Civil 3D is beyond cool!

Spent a few days last week training on Civil 3D, the latest and greatest Civil software by Autodesk. Loved the way it automatically divided up parcels, created profiles and section views and generated roadways (so much easier and more powerful than Land Desktop). And Civil 3D is associative so should you decide to change your alignment, everything automatically updates. My instructor, Brian Kling, had the patience of Job dealing with me (I’m not always the easiest student to deal with)…but he stuck it out and I’m really looking forward to digging deeper (for you “dirt” guys out there) into the program. I’ll be out on the Civil Express Tour in January and February – see my speaking engagement schedule for more info.

This week I’m wrapping everything up before the annual Autodesk week of rest (so you many not hear from me much over the holiday break). I’m working with Matt Murphy on the CAD Camp agendas (coming soon to a neighborhood near you I hope). For more information be sure to go www.augi.com. In February AUGI CAD Camp plans on going to Detroit and Houston with two other cities undecided. So if you live near either one of those cities – promise me you’ll come out and see us!

Quick Tip - Control+A

Did you know that Control+A will highlight all the objects in your drawing?