SubscribeWell the Carol Bartz news continues to swirl around Autodesk and I must admit I really enjoyed a posting by Roopinder Tara (of CAD Insider and Tenlinks fame) on the topic. He definitely has a few good points regarding Yahoo (and what was up with the bikini girl on American Idol anyway?). Perhaps I am missing the point...
Let's get back to the AutoCAD world and peruse another Hip Tip!
An AutoCAD Hip Tip on Editing Dimension Values:
Let's say you have a dimensioned object that is 10 mm long (or inches for those of you living in the Imperial world). You find out this object needs to be 12 mm long. So what process do you go through to make that change? Do you create construction lines? In the perfect world, when you are finished, both the object and the dimension value will be correct.
How many of you have come across the powerful world of tracking? TK (for tracking) is an option that allows you to track off of a specific point (and usually eliminates the need to draw construction lines). Tracking lets you create temporary points to work off of while drawing.
If you choose to use tracking, the process will go something like this:
1) Highlight the dimension (it needs to be associative) and the line.
2) Make a hot grip on the end point of the right extension line
3) Enter TK (enter) and then select the lower left corner as seen above. AutoCAD will automatically turn the Ortho mode ON.
4) You are now in direct distance mode. Move your cursor to the right and key in the number 12. Magic will occur and you will now have a dimension that is 12 mm or 1' depending on your current units.
The command line prompts look like this:
Command: ** STRETCH **
Specify stretch point or [Base point/Copy/Undo/eXit]: TK
First tracking point:
Next point (Press ENTER to end tracking): 12
Next point (Press ENTER to end tracking):(enter)
So give Tracking a try...you wouldn't believe how many different uses you can find for it!