Lynn Allen's Blog

An AutoCAD Holiday Hip Tip on Cleaning Up Your Drawing Files

The holidays are certainly getting closer as I can tell companies are winding down little by little.  At Autodesk we only have one week left before we take a two week break (I can hardly wait!).  Of course I have all of these grandiose plans as to what I will accomplish during those two weeks - I am sure when it is all said and done I'll find only a few items actually checked off of the list! 

A couple of weeks ago Cadalyst Magazine released one of my video tips on the PURGE command.  Here you'll find some good nuggets of information on why you should keep your AutoCAD drawings clean and exactly how to go about doing it!  You can even see my kitchen peeking through in the background of my picture in picture (it's not a very big kitchen - sadly). 

AutoCAD 2010 added a nice option to the PURGE dialog for cleaning up the excess garbage in your drawing files.  I'm referring to empty text objects and zero length geometry (translated - garbage!)/  If you find yourself working with drawing files from other programs (such as Microstation) or lots of external references then you will love this new addition!

There is also a top secret option that exists in the PURGE command that is only accessible from the command line version of the command.  That means you need to put a dash in front of PURGE to get to it (-PURGE).

That option is Regapps (for Registered Applications).  Cleaning these space eating mongrels out of your drawing can reduce the file size by half (depending on what you have going on!).  You won't miss these apps - and AutoCAD will just load them again if it needs them!

Enter type of unused objects to purge:
[Blocks/Dimstyles/LAyers/LTypes/MAterials/MUltileaderstyles/Plotstyles/SHapes/te
xtSTyles/Mlinestyles/Tablestyles/Visualstyles/Regapps/Zero-length
geometry/Empty text objects/All]:

Take a look at the video - and then start purging your drawing files!  Keep them nice and clean and they'll run better and faster (and who doesn't want that?)

For entertainment purposes - I'm throwing in a picture of my dog dressed in her Santa outfit...just trying to spread a little cheer!  Happy Holidays to you all!

(doesn't it drive you crazy when people dress up their dogs?) 
 

Two Autodesk Certification Geniuses

Autodesk University China and Autodesk University Las Vegas are officially over (for this year anyway!).  And I do believe - I am officially exhausted!  With so much going on I have once again pushed my poor blog to the bottom of my priority list and focused on those more demanding tasks at hand.

While at AU China I had the privilege of meeting an amazing young lady - Sunny Liu - who passed 7 Certification Exams in two days!  Absolutely amazing!  Below is a picture of Sunny, myself and Richard Lane (of Autodesk).

While at Autodesk University in Las Vegas - I threw the gauntlet down during the General Session and said that anyone who could match Sunny's record would receive a free pass to AU 2010.  Well one individual did exactly that - in fact he one upped her record for a total of 8 Certifications!  Below is a picture of Zoltán Ferenczy who will be joining us next year free of charge!

Both of these individuals are truly amazing.  There were over 1600 Certification Exams taken during Autodesk University.  My good friend Barbara Bowen was running the Certification Lab and there were so many people taking exams I never saw her once during my entire time at AU.  I'm sure Barbara was grateful to finally see the light of day!

I truly enjoyed meeting so many great users at AU and appreciate all the people who came up to me and introduced themselves.  Though I was pretty exhausted after it was all over - it was worth every second of it!

I met a very nice attendee all the way from Poland who has attended all the AUs since Florida.  He kindly sent me some pictures he took so I thought I'd leave off with one of me saying my official AU Good bye at the final party.  Thank you Bohdan Lisowski for sending me the pictures!

  

I hope to see all of you readers at next year's Autodesk University - start saving your pennies now!