Lynn Allen's Blog

On Vacation...but here's a Quick Tip!

After the 14 hour flight to Sydney my son and I are delighted to be on the ground rather than those roomy airplane seats!  Our flight began late Sunday night complete with the celebratory glass of champagne and ended Tuesday morning with a cup of coffee.  We both managed to sleep through most of the flight (thank goodness!) which definitely helped the time fly.  If my son permits me some time on the computer I'll keep you up to date on our exciting adventures.

So enough about me...(there's nothing worse than hearing about someone's vacation while you're working hard behind a desk) here is a quick tip that will hopefully make your day a little bit easier.

Tired of flipping IMAGEFRAME ON and OFF?

In order to edit an Image in AutoCAD you need to have the frame on (IMAGEFRAME set to 1).  But when we plot we often prefer to have the frame turned off (IMAGEFRAME set to 0).  Now with AutoCAD 2006 there's a new option that displays the frame for editing purposes, but it promises not to plot.  Just set IMAGEFRAME to 2.

There's your quick tip (which should save you the tedium of flipping between two different IMAGEFRAME settings over and over).  We're off to find some kangaroos!

G'Day!

Making a new LAYUNISO Tool

For those of you die-hard LAYUNISO fans - I failed to mention that the LAYUNISO command still exists - it's just no longer conveniently located in a toolbar or the menu.  Since it still exists you can certainly key it in to access it - or assign it to a toolbar button or a palette for easy access.  The Macro code is easy.

^C^CLAYUNISO
(this code ensures you are at the command line and then executes the LAYUNISO command)

So let's create a new toolbar button (perhaps right next to LAYISO)  and add in the above macro information. 

1.  Right click on any toolbar button and select CUSTOMIZE.  This will execute the CUI dialog box (which takes a few seconds to load initially - so take this opportunity to go get some coffee!).

2.  You'll find the Express Tool Toolbars in the CUI under "Partial CUI Files" as listed in the figure below.

3.  You'll need to make a new command first in AutoCAD 2006 called LAYUNISO.  Select the New button in the Command List section and fill in the information as you see in the below figure.

4.  You'll also want to create an icon for your new cool tool...I used the LAYISO icon and simply drew a red line through it (that's about the extent of my creativity!).  Be sure to save this under an alternate name or you'll replace your existing LAYISO icon accidentally!

5.  After applying your changes you can easily drag this command to the proper place on the Express Tools Layers Toolbar.

   

Below is the finished toolbar picture.

This process is easier in AutoCAD 2005 and earlier, I'm guessing you can all figure that process out without my help!  (let me know if I'm wrong here).

Phew!  I hope this makes a few of you happy...I'm off on vacation for a week so you might not hear much from me!

What happened to LAYUNISO?

Many of us are fans of the LAYISO command...this fabulous Express Tool makes it easy to isolate one or more layers (turning off all the other layers) by selecting an object on the layer(s) you wish to isolate.  The counter command to LAYISO is the LAYUNISO command which undoes the effects of LAYISO (still with me?).  We were preprogrammed to hit the LAYISO tool, perform the appropriate editing function, and then hit the LAYUNISO tool to bring all the layers back. 

But where did LAYUNISO tool go?  It used to be on the Express Tools Layer menu but now it has vanished!  What are we to do?

The answer is simple...use the Layer Previous tool on the Layers toolbar - you'll get the exact same effect.  Layer Previous' goal in life is to undo whatever you did the last time you were in the Layer dialog box. Below you'll see the icon that will do the job just as well as LAYUNISO did.

   

If it makes you feel better you can add the Layer Previous tool to your Express Tools Layers Toolbar and it will be just like old times - but it's really just as easy to get to fit rom the Layers Toolbar. I've received many, many emails of fellow users in search of the lost LAYUNISO treasure - but no fear - Layer Previous is here!  Yesterday at AUGI CAD Camp in Salt Lake City, my good friend Gary asked the exact same question...(so this one's for you Gary!).

Hope everyone is having a great week - I'm off to Minneapolis to fine-tune my Autodesk Inventor skills! 

Keeping the Attribute Text on Exploded Blocks

We've all exploded a block with attributes only to see our precious text disappear and be replaced with the original assigned attribute tag.  Yikes!  Wouldn't it be nice if you could explode a block with attributes and keep the text?  Enter the fabulous BURST command.

This Express Tool makes it easy to keep the inputted text string.  Just say "no" to the standard EXPLODE command, and say "yes" to BURST!

Command: BURST
Select objects: (Select the blocks with attributes you wish to explode)

The end result?  The attribute values will be converted to text strings...and you'll have a smile on your face! 

Enjoy...

Another Movie Review

The weekend is just about over - and I managed to take in another scary movie - The Skeleton Key.  As mentioned before - I am a huge fan of great, intense, scary movies and I was so looking forward to this one since it had some good actors in it...so here's my rating:

The Skeleton Key - B-
Although the cast was good, and the story line was fairly interesting - there just wasn't enough of the "jump-factor" going on to equate it to a truly good scary movie.  Sadly, I predicted the twist at the end which led me to be further disenchanted with the movie.  Kate Hudson was believable, as was Gena Rowlands, John Hurt, (who mostly just grunted) and Peter Sarsgaard.  It was just a little too thin for me...And I was most entertained at how terribly, terribly long it took the police to arrive at the scene.  It was dark when she called...light when they showed up...I realize that the house was a little out in the boonies - but earlier Kate Hudson's character mentioned it was less than an hour away from New Orleans!

Happy weekend!

Getting AutoCAD 2006 DTEXT to behave!

This has been a great week of travel visiting my old stomping grounds in Southern California.  First we had a great AUGI CAD Camp in Fullerton with about 250 attendees, followed up by an equally outstanding event in San Diego.  The crowds have been ultra friendly and filled with so many great ideas...I love Southern California!  Tomorrow I go to Disney Imagineering in Glendale, CA for another AutoCAD 2006 presentation.  I love finding any excuse to hook up with my good friend Shane Bartley who organized the entire Disney event...(big hug for you Shane!).

So here's my tip on DTEXT:

Hopefully you all know that you can move the cursor to as many locations as you want while in the DTEXT (now the TEXT) command.  This makes it super easy to knock out many text strings within the same command. Simply move the cursor and click to select a new starting point.  I recently was alerted by a reader that this is no longer the case with AutoCAD 2006 - once you pick in the drawing to start a new text string at a new location it terminates the command!  Oh - the pain of it all!!!

Enter the awesome system variable DTEXTED.  If you set DTEXTED to 1 - you can put DTEXT back to its ever powerful self.  The consequences of doing so, however, mean you won't be able to use the cool new in-place editor that was added into AutoCAD 2006.  So you win some...you lose some.  Personally, I'd rather have the old DTEXT functionality.

So there you have it!  I'm off to dinner...

Quick Tip - Converting Text to MTEXT

I'm on my way to the "OC" (Orange County) for the first CAD Camp I've participated in in quite some time.  I grew up in beautiful Southern California so it will be nice to return to my old stomping grounds.  I'll be doing a presentation on AutoCAD 2006 as well as good old AutoLISP - one of my favorite topics!  Now on with the tip:

It's not uncommon to come across drawing files that use single line text (derived from either the TEXT or DTEXT commands) throughout the drawing, even for paragraphs.  Typically this occurs when the drawing file is quite old (before the MTEXT days) or when it was drawn by someone who was not a fan of the MTEXT command.  If you need to add or remove some words from this text, it often requires erasing the entire paragraph and starting over...enter the awesome Express Tool TXT2MTXT.

Located under the Express Tools menu=>Text=>Convert Text to Mtext this command makes it easy to convert your old single line text to the much improved MTEXT object.  Editing paragraph text inside of the MTEXT dialog is simple...it's just a matter of converting it!  TXT2MTXT simpy asks you to select the single line text objects and then it converts it for you!  Super simple!

I'm off to catch my flight!  I hope this tip comes in handy for you!

Quick Tip on Starting New Drawings

If you hit the "New Drawing" icon on the standard toolbar you are actually executing the QNEW command (for Quick New).  The nice thing about the QNEW command is that it doesn't require you to select a template file if you've set a default one in the Options dialog.  That allows you to jump right into the process of drawing without that pesky extra step.  The trick, of course, is making sure you've set the default Template file.  Here are the steps for doing so:

Execute the Options command and go to the Files Tab.  Scroll down to Template Settings, and expand the option to reveal "Default Template file name for QNEW" as seen in the figure below.  Use the browse button to select the template file you use most frequently and then Apply the changes.  Now you'll find that QNEW starts up new drawings at lightening speed!

 

If you need to use a different template file on occasion, simply use the standard NEW command in the File menu.

So there's a tip to start your week with!

Dealing with Overridden Dimensions in AutoCAD

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Someone sends you a drawing file with many dimensions on it.  You naively believe that the dimension values reflect the actual size of the drawing.  After spending some time in the drawing you realize that this is definitely not the case - the text values have in fact been overridden!  It's clear that when the CAD operator saw the actual dimension value they realized it was wrong and (insert shudder here) they overrode the value.  The shame of it all!  Let's face it, there's no way to tell this travesty has occurred by looking at the drawing...so where do you turn?

Enter another one of my favorite Express Tools - DIMREASSOC!  Located in the Express Tool menu under Dimension=>Reset Dim Text Value this Express Tool will find those pesky overridden text values for you and reset them to their actual value.  (Then you can go have a friendly "chat" with the offender!).  Here's how it works.

Command:  DIMREASSOC
Select dimension objects with non-associative text. (select any/all of the dimensions in the drawing and AutoCAD will highlight the offenders)
Select objects: Specify opposite corner: 16 found
Select objects:
16 objects modified.

Note:  If you are a member of the Offending Party of Dimension Overriders (OPDO)- do not forward this tip to any of your coworkers!

: )

An AutoCAD Champion Will be Missed

Yesterday I received the incredibly sad news that Alan Dunn, the inventor of the CadCARD Slidechart, past Atlanta User Group President and Autodesk University speaker passed away.  At the very young age of 49, Alan died after a battle with Kidney Cancer.  It's always very difficult when one of our own passes and he will definitely be missed.

Alan was an expert at AutoCAD, and a big proponent of educating our youth on Autodesk products. As founder of the WorkingClass Network, he served as an advisor to high school drafting teachers and administrators in promoting industry involvement in preparing students for careers in design professions.  He believed students should get real-world not just text book experience.

His volunteer activities reached far outside the AutoCAD world and ranged anywhere from Volunteer Firefighter to the PTA.  I remember his passion as an educator the most - I believe he truly made a difference in the world.

Our hearts go out to his family during this difficult time.  Alan, we will miss you.