Lynn Allen's Blog

Happy Halloween (and a Scary Birthday)

Happy Halloween everyone!  Although I'm a big fan of the holiday it also adds another year to my age (which I definitely don't appreciate).  A great big thank you to everyone who sent me ecards and emails - how do you all remember my birthday when I can barely remember it myself?  I think it's about time to start counting backwards...

Since it was Halloween AND my birthday I felt justified in bringing Tiffany to work to show off her Snow White costume.  So for your viewing pleasure - The Tiff as Snow White (are you scared?). 

It's a little tricky seeing her on the white rug...

Now on to a Halloween Hip tip on bringing DWF Files into your AutoCAD Drawings:

For years we preached about DWF files, always emphasizing the many advantages of using them over PDF files - you heard "DWF this" and "DWF that" from Autodesk - but there was no way to bring DWF files into AutoCAD!  What's up with that?  Finally AutoCAD 2007 brings this ability to the table (about time - huh?).

Bringing a DWF file into AutoCAD is much like bringing in an XREF.  Use the DWFATTACH command (Insert menu) and select the DWF file you want to bring in.  The below figure demonstrates bringing in a DWF file called "Models" that has two different sheets to choose from.

You might opt to change the Path type from the default of Full path if you plan on sending this drawing to anyone else.  Full path would mean they would need to have the exact same directory structure on their hard drive to find the DWF file (and let's see - what are the odds of that?).  I suggest Relative path if it's just going inner-office or even safer would be No path (the DWF would just need to be in the same directory as the drawing file or on the search path).  Then it's simply a matter of inserting the DWF much like you would a block. 

So there you have it on bringing in those DWF files!  For more info on all things DWF be sure to visit Scott Sheppard's blog Beyond the Paper.

Enjoy the rest of Halloween night - BOO!!!

If it's Thursday it must be Stockholm...

Well I've certainly seen my share of airplanes lately...one nice thing about flying in Europe is that they almost always feed you a meal...including wine or beer if you'd like.  It's not like the US where the airlines now charge for food (and of course drinks).  And although the meals are not exactly gourmet - they aren't half bad (I certainly eat them).  And all the airports have the free luggage carts - with wheels that work - so very nice...but enough about airports...

So I received a few emails from you out there fussing at me for suggesting the use of BURST to explode the block and maintain the attribute text when REFEDIT is a much better route to take (and you don't have to explode the block to make the changes)... Well RIGHT you are all - I failed to mention that the user who emailed me had a very old version of AutoCAD - back before the awesome REFEDIT command existed.

So here's my HIP Tip of the day!

If you need to make some changes to a block - don't explode it!!! (or else suffer the wrath of those who sent me the mean emails).  Use REFEDIT and everyone will live happily ever after.

Thanks for keeping me in line everyone (somebody has to).

Tomorrow is yet another looooooooooooooooooooooonnnnnnnnng flight!  I hope the movies are good...

If it's Wednesday it must be London!

Today I'm presenting at another Autodesk User Conference in Europe - this one in London.  We have nearly 800 attendees signed up (wow!) so it should definitely be a room full of energy.  Our CEO Carl Bass will be delivering the keynote so I'm definitely looking forward to that.  Carl is a techie just like the rest of us and always has great insight to share (that and he's a downright nice guy).  All of you who will be attending AU will also get to hear him on the mainstage.  I will be doing some presentations for the manufacturing track at this conference - should be good fun.

Of course - it's in the middle of the night for me and I'm blogging because I can't sleep (jetlag!)...so I may need some toothpicks to keep my eyes open tomorrow!  Thank heavens for makeup!

An AutoCAD Hip Tip on Exploding Blocks with Attributes:

I received an email from an AutoCAD user who was working on a drawing he received from someone else and half of the drawing was a block.  He needs to make some edits so he explodes it - right?  Within that block are many, many attributes and as we know - if we explode a block with attributes the text returns to the original attribute tag (which is definitely not what we want in this case). 

So what is the answer - the fabulous Express Tool BURST.  This great tool will explode your block but convert your attribute values to text (and save the day!).  It's super easy to use - use it just as you would the explode command.

So I'm off to try and get a little shut eye before I have to wake up (which is very soon I'm afraid)...have a fabulous Wednesday!

It's a Dog Day at Work...(and an AutoCAD Hip Tip)

It's back in the office for me and today I brought my puppy to work as well.  One great thing about working for Autodesk is that you can bring your dog to work (love that!).  I rarely do (I worry too much about bugging my neighbors) but since the little girl went to the groomer yesterday I thought today was her best chance to make a good impression.  My cube neighbors were ever so patient with her occasional barks (thank you so much Joseph, June and Carrie) and my boss receives an award for his ability to ignore her during our meeting today.  Needless to say I don't think I have the where-with-all to do this everyday (too stressful) but I believe a good time was had by all (or my coworkers were just being polite and went home and complained about me over dinner).  Below is a picture of the fine cardboard wall we built to keep Tiffany in our work area (a real dog would have knocked it down in seconds but to her it was insurmountable).

And here is a picture of Tiffany helping June work on Autodesk University. June was gracious enough to watch Tiffany while I ran downstairs and grabbed some food (no dogs allowed in the cafe - not even dogs with bows in their hair).

On to the real reason you guys read my blog - another AutoCAD Hip Tip!

AutoCAD Hip Tip to get more out of your Tool Palettes:

Many of us use our tool palettes all the time.  We've customized the heck out of them, put our most frequently used commands on them, our block libraries, hatch patterns, etc.  But, if you have too many tools on a palette you'll find yourself scrolling up and down to find the proper tool - and I am much too impatient for that!  I am like SO not into the scrolling (insert California accent here) - that just requires too much time on my part - I want all those tools right there where I can grab them - sound good?

If you know your tools well enough you won't need the text that goes along with them.  So do yourself a favor and turn that pesky text off and you'll find you have more cool tools at your finger tips.

Here's how you do it.  Right click on the Tool Palette and select View Options from the shortcut menu.

This will display the below dialog box.

Select Icon only and you'll end up with something like this - Before (left)  After (right)

                     

Quick and easy access to all your cool tools with no tedious scrolling!  Hoorah!

Have a great Thursday!

Back from Belgium...

What a great conference in Antwerp, Belgium!  Rumor has it Antwerp made the news while I was there with a 20 million dollar diamond that was to be cut (603 Karats)...I just didn't have enough money in my bank account to cover it!  (can you imagine?)...I think you'd really have to work out to sport a diamond that big...

While at the conference I ran into two Inventor Gurus (who I had met at the conference the year before)...they were kind enough to bring me some Belgium chocolate!  Imagine that!!!  Needless to say I was delighted (so very, very, thoughtful of them).  Below is a picture of Jürgen Galba on the left and Stefaan Boel on the right.  They brought me three (count them - three!) different chocolate bars because they weren't sure which kind I would like (all of them maybe?).  I am a very lucky girl indeed. 

And a special thanks to Bart for taking the picture...they all created a cool website for Inventor Wizards filled with great Tips and Tricks and other great info.  Of course it helps if you speak Dutch (which sadly I don't).

On to a Hip Tip on Workspaces:

A couple of weeks ago I talked about Workspaces.  AutoCAD also has a nice customization tool created explicitly for Workspaces.  Simply pick the Workspace Settings tool (located right next to the drop down list) on the Workspaces toolbar. (how many times can I say "Workspace" in one paragraph?)

This will bring up the following dialog box.

Here you can control the order your saved Workspaces appear in the drop down list (put the most frequently used ones at the top).  You can easily insert separator lines to space out the workspaces (in case you are a bad shot!) and you can tell AutoCAD whether or not you want to automatically save any changes you make to the UI to the current workspace (not my personal preference as you can see above). 

So take a few minutes (because that is all it will take) to organize your Workspaces for maximum productivity!

And for you American Football fans...there are only two teams left who are 5-0...the Colts (my team) and Chicago...tonight we'll see if Chicago can maintain their record! 

An AutoCAD Hip Tip from Antwerp

It's been a busy time in Belgium getting ready for the next User Conference but I managed to enjoy some fabulous Belgium chocolate along the way!  My goodness...a chocolate lover's paradise.  Not that wimpy chocolate we enjoy in the U.S.A.- but the really good stuff!  Do you think that after I retire I can come here and just eat ice-cream with chocolate sauce all day long?   Would it be terribly gauche of me to order ice-cream for breakfast tomorrow? 

On to an AutoCAD Speedy Hip Tip on Changing Styles:

We often need to jump from one text style to another...or dimension style or occasionally even table styles.  By far the fastest means of doing so is by using the Styles toolbar.  This makes it super easy to switch from one style to another from the drop down lists.  I'd like to think that most of you have the Styles toolbar displayed on the screen at all times - it's definitely one of my UI staples.

This method is much faster than using the DIMSTYLE, STYLE or TABLESTYLE commands...so go for it!

My daughter Ashley was able to join me for the weekend in Amsterdam - so of course a visit to the Heinekin Brewery was in order (she's over 21)...below you'll see a snap of her.

And we visited a very unique shop where the chairs were disks sitting on marbles (we had a good time rolling back and forth on them)...and they had a bench made of a log...quite unique shop!

Sadly she flew home as I flew to Brussels...Enjoy your week everyone!

A Hip Tip from Belgium

Spending the weekend in the Netherlands was great.  Since the event was actually in The Hague I was able to visit the MauritHuis museum where Vermeer's painting of "The Girl with the Pearl Earring" is located.  I was sooooooooo excited to see that face to face!  I also visited the Escher museum (which most of us can appreciate since we've had the nify Escher hatch pattern in AutoCAD for so long).  Even the M.C. Escher website is Escher cool...what an amazing artist!  The museum even had a wicked cool virtual reality exhibit where you found yourself inside of his artwork trying to go up and down stairs, etc.  Both museums were fantastic (and the Hague is a great place to visit). 

Last week we had over 400 attendees at the Autodesk Netherlands user event.  I delivered the keynote, a session on Inventor and an AutoCAD Tips and Tricks session (I was very busy that day - making sure I'm earning my keep!).  Everyone was fabulous, the users were very enthusiastic about the events of the day.  We ended the day with a nice cocktail hour (why don't our U.S. events end like that?).  I believe a good time was had by all.  Now I've moved on to Belgium for another big event on Wednesday.

I had someone send me an email who had questions relating to Viewport scale factors so here are a couple of Hip Tips on Viewport Scale Factors:

First of all - make sure the Viewports toolbar is on your screen whenever you're in paper space for super fast access. 

Simply right click on any toolbar and select "Viewports" to display this toolbar.  To assign a scale factor to a viewport simply select the edge of the viewport while in paperspace and select the desired scale factor from the dropdown list.

What if your preferred scale factor isn't listed?  Use the new SCALELISTEDIT command to customize the list to your needs.  If you aren't using metrics - delete them!  If you aren't using Imperial - delete them!  You can always reset it back if you need to.

You can also use the Properties Palette if you prefer.  Select the viewport, right click and select Properties from the shortcut menu.  You'll find the option to edit the scalefactor here as well.

And I'll leave you with a picture of the beautiful flower market in Amsterdam.  Tulips are out of season (what is Holland without Tulips?). 

I'm off to listen to the Colts game...(can't watch it here in Brussels)...go Colts!

Off to the Netherlands!

Oh the neglect the blog has encountered...bad blogger!  If I quit my job I would have more time to blog...but wait...part of my job is to blog!  It's been a busy, busy week (including a trip to Oklahoma) and now I'm off to the Netherlands.  The trip will begin with a trip to the Hague where I'll present the keynote at an Autodesk User Conference.  And then back to Amsterdam...the following week I repeat my performance in Belgium (unless I get the hook!). 

Dog Drama:  The puppy thought it would be a good idea to eat one of those silica gel packs that says "do not eat!" on the outside.  Since she is so tiny (4 lbs) we had to rush her to the vet to induce vomiting (sorry for the graphic storyline)...followed up with fluids under the skin since those packs are intended to dry things out (like little dog tummies).  What a scare!

On to the Hip Tip on too many Layer Filters:

I get emails weekly complaining about exceptionally slow drawings...one of the possible reason for a slow drawing is too many layer filters.  Now I'm not saying you are the guilty party here (of course not!).  More than likely you imported an XREF from some other sinner who went crazy with the layer filters.  How do you find out if this is the problem?  Use the top secret FILTERS command.  I say it's top secret because it isn't even in the AutoCAD Help file (what's up with that?).  Use the FILTERS command to quickly dispense of those pesky layer filters that can really bog down your system.

Now don't confuse the FILTERS command with the FILTER command - those are two very different commands...(although the FILTER command is pretty cool too).

I'm off to catch my flight!  Hope everyone had a great weekend...(hide those silica gel packs from the pets please - apparently they are quite tasty!).