Prague is definitely a beautiful city and I enjoyed a weekend of touring with my coworkers. The bug I picked up still lingers on but I've now decided to just ignore it (and then perhaps it will go away?). Last night we flew to England and tomorrow is the AUGI CAD Camp in Guildford. I'm staying in a hotel called the Angel Posting Hotel which is apparently haunted! Supposedly the wood was brought in from the timbers of old ships and consequently old sea-faring ghosts have been seen in the mirrors...(the only scary thing I've seen in the mirror so far has been me in the morning!). No ghosts have been seen so far...knock on wood...well - not the haunted wood.
AutoCAD Hip Tip on Dividing an Object:
AutoCAD veterans know the power of the old DIVIDE and MEASURE commands...those who are new to the program (and by "new" I mean within the last 5 years or so) might not have been exposed to these two very powerful commands. You won't find these two commands easily anymore because they are buried underneath the Draw menu under Point (which I believe are terribly misplaced). Today we'll focus on DIVIDE.
If you've ever wanted to quickly divide an object into a specific number of equal sections then the DIVIDE command is for you. The DIVIDE command uses Points as markers so you'll need to change the Points to something you can see. Points, by default, appear as one pixel dots on the screen (you won't be able to see those)...you'll need to change the points to something easy to see such as an "X". To do this - set the system variable PDMODE to 3.
Note: See all the different settings for displaying points by keying in DDPTYPE
Now you are ready to use the DIVIDE command. Select the object you wish to divide (such as a polyline) and simply indicate the number of segments you wish to divide it into. Voila! You'll find that the object now has points at even increments based on the input you provided.
Command: PDMODE
Enter new value for PDMODE <0>: 3
Command: DIVIDE
Select object to divide:
Enter the number of segments or [Block]: 10
Note: The DIVIDE command doesn't physically divide the object - it just places markers. If you wish to physically divide the object you'll need to BREAK the object. You can use the NODE object snap to easily snap to the points.
You might also notice the Block option in the DIVIDE command. Instead of using points as markers, you can choose to use a block. You can get very clever with this option. Simply create a block of an object that you want to place evenly along an object and the Divide command will do the rest. You can even indicate that you'd like to block to align with the object or remain at a 0 degree rotation.
Get creative! Think of some very clever ways to use the DIVIDE command to make your job easier...
Wish me luck tonight with the ghost! I'll keep my eyes on those mirrors! Here are a few shots from last weekend in Paris...
The Eiffel Tower (of course) and the front of the Louvre...(for you DaVinci Code fans)
The Arche de Triomphe (my hotel was a few blocks away from here)
and finally Notre Dame...on a hot 90+ degree day in Paris! Bon Jour!