Well I definitely enjoyed the Academy Awards last night (as I always do). I am a huge Ellen DeGeneres fan and was delighted to see her enjoy this great opportunity to emcee (although I wasn't too crazy about her outfits). My top favorites won - so I'm good. Loser me hasn't seen any of the top movies - I must do better next year!
Inserting an Excel File as an AutoCAD Table Entity
I had a couple of emails about the ability to Paste Link an Excel spreadsheet into AutoCAD 2008 - I definitely didn't make this clear so let me try again. You have been able to do this previously with OLE - the advantage with the new method is that it will insert as an AutoCAD entity - a Table. This table is updateable in AutoCAD and if you do make changes to the table - you can force changes to the Excel file as well...which is really nice! You can also make changes to the Excel file and have it update the AutoCAD table...so this is a really nice tool.
Working with DGN Files in AutoCAD 2008
Now you can attach Bentley’s MicroStation V8 DGN files to your AutoCAD drawings or export DWG files to V8 DGN format (File menu> Export). You can bring them in as externally referenced underlays with DGNATTACH (Insert menu>DGN Underlay. You can also clip the DGN from the shortcut menu (or use DGNCLIP) and use Properties to adjust contrast, fade and monochrome (or DGNADJUST).
Import V8 DGN data with DGNIMPORT (File menu>Import). When importing, a settings dialog will prompt for information regarding external DGN references, text nodes and units to help you get the best results.
External References
A new option in the XCLIP command enables you to clip the inverse of a selected boundary (remove the inside rather than the outside). There have been many requests for this capability so enjoy the possibilities!
So there are a couple more cool features we can all look forward to in AutoCAD 2008...and to finish off I want to share with you an absolutely adorable picture that was sent to me by Jack Androvich. I opened this up in my Inventor class last week and everyone busted up laughing...
Tell me this isn't hysterical! A birthday party for dogs...Thank you SO much Jack!!!