The Lazy Drafter

AutoCAD WS - More Relevant than the Screaming Trees?

2012-01-14T20:58:00.002-06:00

Secrets out... I heart AutoCAD.

I grew up with it. I have used it since the 1900's. I do worry sometimes because I also love long haired, flannel wearing grunge bands. What is going to keep AutoCAD more relevant than the Screaming Trees? Let's face it, not a lot has happened with "move", "copy", and "rotate" since they were introduced.

The gamer changer for me is AutoCAD WS. AutoCAD takes a monumental step into the future with WS. What is kind of spooky is that it is obvious now that we need it, yet I did not think of it first. A system to share and access work through and with the internet. It opens so many ridculous opportunities and solves so many issues. It honestly reminds me of the introduction of email, iPods, and text messaging. We will never be able to go back once we cross this threshold.

I am going to be blogging about my adventures using AutoCAD WS for the next couple of months. Focusing on what is possible, how to do it, and what might be next.

But first, what does WS stand for. My ultra secret contact at Autodesk (code name "A.S." you know who you are) informs me it "officially stands for nothing". If that were the case, I am pretty sure it would be called AutoCAD N. So what does is stand for? here are some guesses...

Wicked Sik
Want to Share
Well Shoot...
What's the Story?
Who's Sheet?
Window Salad

It's harder than you think OK. If you can do better, post up a comment for me.

By the way the Screaming Trees are still Awesome and Relevant!

AU 2011 Classes Now Available Online

2011-12-20T13:10:00.000-06:00

If you went in person or just virtually, you can now virtually relive the event or check out the classes you missed.

AU Virtual classes are available to all AU members.
AU 2011 Las Vegas attendees, Autodesk Subscriptioncustomers, and Autodesk employees with an Autodesk email address can access allclass recordings and class materials from AU 2011 Las Vegas.
AU members who did not attend AU 2011 Las Vegas can accessclass handouts, datasets, and other class documents, but not class recordings.
Class recordings and class materials from AU 2009 and 2010are available to all AU members

If you meet the requirements... go check it out.

AutoCAD WS is on Fire

2011-12-20T13:01:00.000-06:00

Gosh, I hope I am the first to use that pun.

Autodesk just announced that AutoCAD WS is now also available for Kindle Fire through theAmazon App Store, allowing users to take designs with them anywhere. Use the KindleFire to view drawings, edit them and share them with colleagues. Also, you look really cool and less fortunate geeks will be jealous.

Ask Santa for a Kindle Fire and then downloadthe app.

Final Thoughts on Autodesk University 2011

2011-12-02T21:52:00.001-06:00

I am already missing all my AU friends old and new. I am not missing the sound of slot machines. Especially the one that yells out "Wheel! Of! Fortune!" at the airport. Tom and Brian from Virginia agree.

Other ways to know you are in Las Vegas.... Well you see a giant ad like this one in the airport!

I have to admit that I am still a little curious about what a "grease gun" is.

All that being said, mark you calendars, the place and time is set for next year.

Last Day of AU

2011-12-01T18:17:00.001-06:00

Well, a lot of really cool things happened to me at Autodesk University this year.

I saw Lynn Allen. She turned and went the other way before I could say something stupid like "duh... I like AutoCAD too!" Thanks for that Lynn.

Santa Claus was looking at using Autodesk Inventor to crank up toy production. I am happy to report that only I am on the naughty list. My kids need only hold it together for a few more weeks in order to stay on the Nice list.

I ran into Kate Morrical author of LT Unlimited and said "Duh... I like AutoCAD LT too!" She was very nice and let me get a picture before enforcing that restraining order.

Lastly, a co-worker and I decided to go for broke and take the Revit Architecture Certification exams today.

I am proud to announce that we are both Revit Architecture 2012 Certified Professionals. Here is a picture of Andrea nailing it.

With all that, I have one more class, a nice meal, a short sleep and a plane ride home tomorrow.

Next year, you come too and will get that picture with Lynn Allen.

The Exhibit Hall

2011-12-01T18:03:00.001-06:00

On Wednesday I finally hit the Exhibit hall. As usual there was a ton of activity and lots to see. The annual beer bust was going on which tends to liven things up. I think I met everybody that works for IMAGINiT.

I met Martha Hollowell, who happens to write the book on everything for Ascent. I mean Architecture, MEP, Structural and CAD/BIM Management (AutoCAD and Revit based) books. Truly, an amazing woman.

Randy Swaim and Christal Vandecar were holding down the fort at the Eastcoast CAD booth. They showed me some awesome tools for converting Revit MEP files to AutoCAD MEP so they can be customized and sent to be manufactured.

My long time friend and one time boss, Lonnie Cumpton was burning the midnight oil over at the BIM9 booth.

Todd Saemisch at the Lighting Analysts booth, blew my mind with thier tool to do point by point lighting calculations directly in Revit using the same engine developed for AGI.

Oliver Turan was showing off Cad technology Centers' Revit Express Tools.

Steve Martin of CAD Works has a great story to tell with BIM Xchange 4.0.

On top of all that, (and there was very much more) they were giving out corn dogs and popcorn!

Best night of the event, hands down.

From the Press Lounge - Tuesday at AU

2011-11-30T11:13:00.001-06:00

This year at AU is a little different for me. Normally I am fretting about a class I am teaching the whole time, but this year I am fretting about blogging about the event as a member of the media.

I have to say it has its perks. Number one, I have access to Dr. Pepper and the internet in the Media Lounge.

So to wrap up Tuesday, I ended up meeting with more great friends and attending some great classes. Ask the Experts was an interesting class because it was not really a class.

A bunch of smarty-pants types, put themselves on the line and had a room of almost 200 try and stump them on anything we couldn't figure out. This is especially brave considering the room was full of smarty-pants.

Seeing the people I only get to see at AU brings back memories from AUs past. Below is a hat that I got in 2004 at the very first AU that I presented a class on how to make MV Parts in ABS. I was terrified.

Its good to see you again;

Tom Glidewell - Thanks for the drink ticket
Doug Bowers
Bill Zavadil
Beau Turner
Matt Mason

Welcome to AU 2011

2011-11-29T18:20:00.001-06:00

It's on! Really just the start, but I have already learned a ton and reconnected with friends that I only get to see at these events.

Melanie Perry is the coolest person to just talk to about geeky things and books.

Joe Eichenseer from IMAGINiT is simply the smartest person I know.

Bob Palioca from ideate has the most intersting ideas about data and the future.

Carl Bass had a great slide in the opening address.

I think this year is all about fireing us up on technology and the ideas that anything is possible for anybody. PCs are cheap, sensors are cheap, data is available... what we should do with it is up to us.

You got to love being empowered to go out and change the world!

Gearing Up for AU 2011

2011-11-22T21:40:00.001-06:00

It's a short week and I am settling all the details for my trip to Vegas. I have lots of appointments with vendors and Autodesk people, and I am looking forward to posting all about it. I hope to have some real interesting and insightful conversations and hopefully a scoop or two on what Autodesk is up to.

If there is something you would like to have me find out about while I am at the conference, please comment on this post and I will do my best to make it happen. If you are in Vegas next week, I'll be the geek with glasses. Stop me and say "Hi".

AUGIWorld Magazine November 2011 - Training

2011-11-15T15:17:00.001-06:00

AUGIWorld November 2011 Issue Released!

How do you take your training?

Do you prefer off-site,instructor-led, immersion-style training or would you rather lunch and learn?Do you like to be sequestered with your co-workers for half-day trainingsessions in the office or would you rather learn online at the time (and place)of your choosing? You want to read a book or watch a training video?

Training methods are as diverseas the trainees themselves and this issue of AUGIWorldbreaks down the various forms of training, offers some pro and con, anddiscusses sure-fire strategies that those in charge of training can employ formaximum effect.

Juan Soto offers advice ontraining AutoCAD Civil 3D in "IncreaseYour Chances for Training Success." In "CAD Management: 10 Ways toTrain," author Brian Andresen illustrates some familiar -and not so familiar - ways to bring training to the masses. And Walt Sparlingreminds us how critical it is to engage in ongoing training in his article"The Domino Effect."

How to Become the CAD"Go-To" Guy - Want to be the worker that seems to have theanswer for every single issue or problem in AutoCAD? Author Murray Clack showsyou how.

Wicked Problems inConstruction - The BUILT series continues as James Salmon highlights wickedproblems in the construction industry and, of course, offers some wickedsolution.

Jump Start BIM: A CADworksMEP BIM Integration Suite Product Review - ToddShackelford reviews this cloud-based solution, designed to help small andmedium-sized engineering firms and contractors migrate from CAD to BIM.

Navisworks: From Design toConstruction and Back - Michael Smith lays out a blueprint forindoctrinating both design and project teams in the use of BIM technologies.Here's how Navisworks can help.

Navigating the LibraryAssembly Minefield - Are you annoyed by frequent requests to savewhen using assemblies in a library? Well, author Scott Moyse was, and set outto fix it. Follow along.

Training the Technical MEPUser - Industry veteran David Butts provides a no-nonsense approach totraining technical users. Think how, what, and when.

Revit Structure, Under theHood - A comprehensive look at Autodesk Revit Structure from JeremiahBowles. Know that success with Revit Structure begins with a change in yourthinking.

The Learning Curve - Whetheryou want to hang with your fellow 3ds Max users in an online community or stepup and get Autodesk certification, Dario Passariello can tell you where tostart.

Understanding ParametricConstraints - Melinda Heavrin offers this step-by-step tutorial on parametricconstraints in AutoCAD Architecture.

Know Your Navisworks Files- In order to collaborate effectively, you have to know your files.Bill Campbell takes you inside Navisworks files and offers some timely tips fordata sharing.

The Five Stages of RevitUsers - Jason Grant takes you through the growing stages - and growingpains - of training in the Revit platform.

Revit Training: The RightStep Forward - Arm yourself with information to create effective training forothers and to get training for yourself.

Also in this issue...

Vote forthe 2011 AUGI Wish List Top Ten!

Dear Lazy Drafter #5 - Dreaming of Designing

2011-11-11T18:07:00.001-06:00

Just because you know something, doesn't mean it is common knowledge. Tell your supervisor in no uncertain terms of your aspirations and ask for his/her help.
Find a mentor. Having somebody that can not only teach you design skills but open doors for your will expedite your growth.
I keep saying this, but one more time... change yourself. You can't do the same old things and expect different results. You need to up your game by being more professional in dress and actions. Mix it up, and put yourself in the circles of people you want to work with. The relationships you make will propel you.
Invest in yourself. That may mean going back to school or getting training outside of work. Doing this increases your value to the company and yourself and shows a level of commitment that not everyone else has.
Do something. Demonstrate your skills by taking a crappy job nobody wants or fixing and internal problem, but do it with out being asked. Just tell them you see a problem and say you can fix it.
Say some good things. This might be hard for some, but find something good about everyone you know at work and tell them. This will greatly enhance the companies perception of you and will jump start your relationship building skills.

Long story short, there are times when you have to meet your company halfway, but if you really want success, go 90% of the way and make it easy for your company to pick up the other 10%.

Copy or Move to Same Place

2011-11-01T21:59:00.002-05:00

I sometimes do things, and looking back I don't know why. One thing I know I do is create copies of AutoCAD entities exactly on top of the original entities. This seems stupid, and I cannot think of a good reason why. I just know that while in full on drafting mode, I do it.

Knowing that I do this, I was happy to see a command line option I never noticed before in the Move and Copy commands.

Select objects:

Specify base point or [Displacement/mOde/Multiple] <Displacement>:

Specify second point or [Array] <use first point as displacement>:

By using this option, I can just place the copy smack on top of the original by hitting the enter key or space bar.

Dash Layout

2011-10-20T18:56:00.003-05:00

I am training a new employee and I was demonstrating a lisp routine that goes and finds a layout tab from a template file an inserts it into the current drawing. It helps make plotting standard, and gives us consistent layout tab naming.

Now you can use Design Center to transfer a layout from one open drawing to another, but this lisp takes care of business without opening any other drawing. The secret is the use of a little known command "-layout". this command opens quite a few options for manipulating layouts. One of them is to insert from template. Then just supply the layout name required and Wa-Shaw! instant layout tab.

Combine that with a call to switch the current tab to the new tab, change to model space and zoom as needed, return to paper space, and then return the current tab to model space by setting "ctab" to "model". When complete the user will say "Gosh, that is the best thing since mobile apps!"

Dear Lazy Drafter #4 - Revenge by Hasselhoff

2011-10-02T21:42:00.005-05:00

Dear Lazy Drafter,

Long story short, I have a classmate who crossed boundaries and lacks common decency. I've written a nice macro that I would like to share but don't know how to incorporate it into ACAD yet. The best thing I've heard people talk about redefining commands. Was thinking the "Plot" command would be perfect it's just the matter of HOW to do it. Most all of this is above my skill level right now. Any assistance would be appreciated.

Before you freak out, I've put in a few safety features where their previous work wont be touched. It HIDES previous work. Marks an UNDO
point. Creates a new layer, inserts a nice photo of David Hasselhoff with puppies. Locks that layer. Zoom Extents. and a random Hoff fanclub site opens in the browser.

^C^C^CUNDO;M;LOGFILEONE;(SETQ CL (GETVAR "CLAYER"));HIDEOBJECTS;ALL;;-LA;M;PLAYNICE;;-ATTACH;http://celebrityroast.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/david-hasselhoff.jpg;;32;0;LAYLCK;LAST;RIBBONCLOSE;ZOOM;E;-LA;S;!CL;;BROWSER;http://www.facebook.com/;BROWSER;http://www.davidhasselhoffonline.com/originalfanclub.html

Signed

Revenge by Hasselhoff

__________________________________________________________

Dear Revenge by Hasselhoff,

You are a genius. it doesn't matter if your classmate is up for an international humanitarian award, giving someone the "Hasselhoff" is too good to pass up. Here's how to do it. Instead of redefining a command like plot, just incorporate you macro into a lisp. (For more on Lisp see my post on Basic Lisp). This lisp can be placed into your classmate's startup suite. From there, use the aliasedit command to associate the lisp with a quick key-in like "L" which will normally start the line command.

If your target never uses any key-ins, you can use the Custom User Interface (CUI command) to change any thing on the ribbon to Revenge by Hasselhoff.

acaddoc.lsp and Who Gets What

2011-09-23T12:54:00.003-05:00

When your firm different disciplines that all require different lisps to be loaded. Using the acaddoc.lsp to load only the lisps individual users require and nothing more can increase everyone's speed. To do this, I combined a group of lisps in to a FAS file and then load them only for the users that need them by name with an if statement. While we are at it, you can also add some lines to update fields, lock layers, and add a Mode Macro. Click on the image below to see an example.

The first portion of is the statup lisp.

cmdecho=0 turns the command line reporting off, so what we are doing here is kind of a secret.
Use command to perform anything that could be typed on the command line in AutoCAD.
Setvar can be used to set any AutoCAD variable.
cmdecho=1 turns the command line back on.

The next portion is any standard lisps that all users will need. they are loaded no matter what. Princ is used to report on the command line that the All-Users FAS file has been loaded.

The last portions are used to load mechanical and electrical lisps based off the users login name. This is the login they use to login to their PC every day. The extra princ brings up a blank command line to start a drafting session.

AutoCAD's Lucky 13

2011-09-14T22:31:00.002-05:00

I was looking at my Blog layout and noticed that the image at the top which includes a perverted version of the AutoCAD interface showed version 2011 at the top. That did not seem right, so I used Microsoft Paint to change the 2011 to 2012.

That got me thinking about next April. That is traditionally when the new version of AutoCAD will come out. The question that came to mind is "Will there be another 13?" The original version 13 is legendary now regardless of its merits. It's up there with New Coke, Sony Betamax, the Edsel, and smokeless cigarettes. OK, I have dated myself in more ways than I originally thought possible.

The question remains. Will Autodesk temp fate and release a whole slew of 2013 products? Will only old people make the connection. I don't know. Its not like they can skip 13 like a high rise hotel, but if they were to change the naming convention, where would they go? 2012i? Ouch! I retract that. Better just use Roman numerals like the Super Bowl.

Ladies and gentlemen, introducing AutoCAD XIII.

Some how that feels better. No doubt there is a team of professionals already working on this most important issue. If you have a better name for the new release, I would love to hear it. Comment on this post to save the day for everyone.

Dear Lazy Drafter #3 - Unconscious Incompetance

2011-09-03T22:18:00.001-05:00

I often get asked for CAD advice and I might have an idea about what to do. Then again, I often have stupid ideas too. Oh well, if you are seeking CAD advice, and don't care who you get it from, drop me a line at lazydrafter@gmail.com. I'll do my best not to make you feel worse.
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Dear Lazy Drafter,

I am a Lead Drafter for a team of 8 drafters. I just hired a kid out of a 2 year technical school. During the interview, he spoke well and had good confidence. I look for this because the drafters here need to work interdependently. Now that he has been on the job for 7 weeks, it has become clear that he is not that confident with the software. He takes longer than he needs to. He really cares about doing good work but, he can't seem to do it very quick. the hard part for me is that he thinks speed is not the issue, and he just needs overtime to make deadlines. I have showed him tricks like using key-ins and leveraging his selection sets, but I don't think any of it is sticking. How do you tell someone, they need to improve, when they think they are great? He really believes it!

The Emperor's New CAD Man
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Dear Emperor,

According to a wise old man named Abraham Maslow, there are four stages to learning..

Unconscious Incompetence - You don't know what you don't know.
Conscious Incompetence - You know you don't know something.
Conscious Competence - You know how to do something.
Unconscious Competence - You do something so well, it doesn't take conscious thought.

I think your new drafter is at stage 1. That would make your next step, finding a way to let them know that the expectation is higher than they thought. If there is no problem perceived, the behavior will never change. I do have more patience for someone who is unaware they are a problem than someone who is perfectly aware they are. I hope you will find that once your drafter accepts that speed is a real issue, that he will progress into stage 2 where he should begin dealing with the speed problem. Before long he should be at stage 3 by focusing on the speed issue. You may not even notice when stage 4 happens and he is executing commands without thought. Think of how often you hit the enter key or the space bar. Do you think about it each time, or does hand just do it out of habit?

Being aware that everyone is at a different stage of learning with just about everything they do, helps me deal with their behaviors better. It's also cool to think that I learned something in college that I still apply in my daily life.

Dear Lazy Drafter #2 - Do That Thing

2011-08-21T18:48:00.000-05:00

I often get asked for CAD advice and what better way to share the wisdom of my advanced years than to throw out my shingle as the Dear Abbie of the CAD World. Then again, I often have stupid ideas too. Oh well, only one way to find out. If you are seeking CAD advice, and don't care who you get it from, drop me a line at lazydrafter@gmail.com. I'll do my best not to make you feel worse.
=====================================================================

Dear Lazy Drafter,
I don't want to sound full of myself, but this place would fall to pieces without me, but I don't get treated like it. I do my production work and help everybody that has a mouse in the place. I do everything from write LISP to download pictures off my boss' phone. There are IT things I do, I order paper for the plotter, and kick it when required. I am freaking Super CAD-Man. I fly around the office saving everyone that gets in trouble, and just like Superman, nobody is cutting me a check for it. I feel like I have a lot more responsibilities than a lot of the loafers around here, but I hardly make more than the moron I sit next to. What do I have to do to get some respect and the extra cash I deserve?

Super CAD-Man
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Dear Super CAD-Man,

You would be awesome if you were not so full of yourself.

The fact that your office is doing jobs in this economy, tells me that other people in your office are working hard too. So, my first piece of advice is to forget about what other people make for doing their job. It may seem unfair that there are supermodels making way more than you, but that argument is not going to make your boss respect you more or pay you more.If you want respect, you must earn it. Calling people "loafers" and "morons" will not get you respected. Try this; think of someone you respect and ask yourself why you respect them. Now do that thing they do.

On the money side, I have found money to be quite an additive thing. The more people make, the more they need. I have never seen a PC that someone said was too fast, or a person with too much money. It is probably hard to hear, but work hard and the money will come. If you need to accelerate things, have an honest conversation with your boss. I would not start with "I'm freaking Super CAD-Man". Just tell your boss the way you feel and ask "What can I do to provide more value to the firm?" The do that thing.

I have found that if you want to move up, the best way is to go ahead and move up. What I mean is, don't get hung up on "I want a promotion." Think about what you would do for your job if you got that promotion, and do that. Keep thinking of things you would do if you could, and try to do as many of them as you can. I think that going above and beyond in your job, will result in the desired effects of respect and money.

I don't know everything. Maybe you are in a dead-end job. If you think so too, start thinking of the job you deserve and.... well, do that.

AutoCAD for MAC and AutoCAD WS Updates

2011-08-16T13:34:00.003-05:00

Well, it's been a very exciting day, and the fun isn't over yet. I have just received word of some updates to today's new about AutoCAD for MAC.

The date for AutoCADWS for Mac availability has changed by one day – it will be availablefor download from the Mac App Store on Thursday, August 18^,2011. AutoCAD for Mac 2012 will still be available on the 19^th, andAutoCAD LT for Mac is available now.

If you want to be notifiedof when AutoCAD LT for Mac is available in your country, tyou can fill outthis form: www.autodesk.com/ltformac-notifyme

And finally, in addition to our big “Mac” news announcedtoday, we are excited to also to know a new release of AutoCAD WS (version1.3) is being released! This version synchronizes the updates across all our platforms—mobile andweb—so you’ll see the same features no matter how you connect. AutoCAD WS forMac app offers the same simple set of viewing, editing and markup tools as themobile app, with the addition of the ability to download files and plot to PDFor DWF.

New for AutoCAD WS Mobile 1.3

Units Typing – Numeric Entry: Draw and edit byentering exact units andmeasurements

File Management: Rename, duplicate, and deletefiles from your mobile device

Area measurement: Calculates the area andperimeter of the area you select.

Layer management: Toggle layers on/off or togglelayer visibility.

AutoCAD WS is also compatible with iOS 3.1 andhigher so that you can run the AutoCAD WS

mobile app from an original iPhone2G.

New in AutoCAD WS Web

Command line

Hatch editor

Multi selection (200 items)

What is DE8.16N?

2011-08-15T15:05:00.004-05:00

What is DE8.16N? Well since today is DE8.15N, I have a good feeling we will find out tomorrow via live Facecast at 10am PT. Go to www.facebook.com/AutoCAD or, watch it here on the LazyDrafter by clicking here.

Well now we know that today Autodesk Debuts AutoCAD for Mac 2012 Products Built for Mac OS X Lion.
See the official press release.

Dear Lazy Drafter #1 - Dueling Drafters

2011-07-31T21:11:00.003-05:00

I had an epiphany the other day. I often get asked for CAD advice and what better way to share the wisdom of my advanced years than to throw out my shingle as the Dear Abbie of the CAD World. Then again, I often have stupid ideas too. Oh well, only one way to find out. Below is the first installment of Dear Lazy Drafter. I’ll do my best to give good advice and let’s see if this works or blows up in my face. Either way, it should make interesting reading. If you are seeking CAD advice, and don't care who you get it from, drop me a line at lazydrafter@gmail.com. I'll do my best not to make you feel worse.

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Dear Lazy Drafter,

I am a CAD Manager, and I have 2 highly capable drafters that just can't seem to get along. Every chance they get they stab each other in the back, or report minor drafting standards violations on each other. In our office the drafters are supposed to work together on projects, but when I have a job that I need these two to work together on, no one will do it because we know it will end in a bad way. Apart they are the two best drafters I have, together they are a disaster that kills moral and slows down important projects. Can you help me?

Desperate CAD-dergarden Manager
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Dear Desperate CAD-dergarden Manager,

Sounds like like a personal problem to me, my people all love each other.

Alright, I'm kidding. Where ever people get together they will have agreements and disagreements, every manager deals with this same problem you are having. The bad news is you can't make anyone like anyone else, but the good news is there are things you can try. Maybe all of these will help, but probably not all at once, so pick and choose what you think will be most effective.

Sit them next to each other. It sounds crazy, but they will have a much more difficult time bad mouthing each other when they are constantly in ear shot. Being close together will also give them opportunities to discover when they do agree.
In concert with #1, ask the two of them to help you with something that none of the other drafters are qualified to do. Not regular work, but a special project that they will find challenging, force them to find common ground, and free up more of your time.
Don't ignore the issue. Meet with them together and get it out in the open. Allow them limited time to air their thoughts in the most constructive way possible, then explain how their behavior is affecting moral and projects.
In no uncertain terms, tell them that it can not continue. Let them know they are skilled, valuable employees, but their feud is a cancer and sooner or latter, measures will have to be taken to deal with it.
Check in often, individually, after taking any steps and make course corrections to best deal with the evolving situation.

Chances are, good respectable people can get along with a little encouragement. If on the other hand they show that they can not, your firm is better off without either one.

ACET-Autoload Error

2011-07-05T08:00:00.001-05:00

It has been going on for years, and it happened to me again. I got this error after upgrading to 2012 when I used the Burst command.

ACET Autoload not found, blah, blah, blah.

Well, Burst is an Express Tools command, so number one make sure Express Tools is loaded. Seeing it in the ribbon is a good indication. If it is not loaded, go to Programs and Features in the Control Panel, and select the current version of AutoCAD, then select the Uninstall/Change button.

From there change the install to include Express Tools. See the image below.

If all of this doesn't solve your problem, chances are, you are just missing a path in Options. Under the Files tab make sure a path like the one highlighted below is present.

AutoCAD Bible 2012

2011-07-04T08:33:00.001-05:00

Ellen Finkelstein writes a little book called the AutoCAD Bible and AutoCAD LT 2012 Bible.

She also has a AutoCAD Tips Blog, writes on using Power Point effectively, gives presentation training and consulting along with speaking. When she is not doing anything else she chairs Over-Achievers Anonymous when most people giving into sleep.

All that aside, my favorite resource for everything AutoCAD has been and continues to be the AutoCAD Bible. When I say that, I think that the facts back me up. Case in point....

A few years ago I had the pleasure of meeting with Ellen, Lynn Allen and other Bloggers at an AutoCAD launch event. When we all introduced ourselves, Ellen said "My name is Ellen Finkelstein and I write the AutoCAD Bible." Lynn introduced herself this way. "Hi, my name is Lynn Allen. I have written 5 books on AutoCAD, and if you stacked them all up, they wouldn't be as thick as Ellen's!"

Go to Amazon right now and buy a copy for yourself, and one for a friend.

Heidi Hewett Hosts Facecast About Parametrics

2011-07-01T07:51:00.000-05:00

Just another heads up about the next AutoCAD Facecast. The team hopes to get to a point where we have at least one per week!

Heidi Hewett Hosts Facecast About Parametrics

Wednesday, July 6 · 10:00am - 11:00am (Pacific)

The Facecast Tab http://autode.sk/kX9khB

AutoCAD Technical Marketing Manager, Heidi Hewett will review parametrics and take questions for our fans.

If you're unable to make it, the recorded version will be posted on Facebook shortly after.

A Lazy Drafter Business School

2011-06-23T20:45:00.000-05:00

Yeah, I'm Lazy and I am also cheap. Like a lot of people, I believe the more education you have, the better off you are. I was doing some research on MBA programs, and found that Wikiversity to be quite helpful.

I posted on MIT giving away online courseware back in 2006, but upon revisiting their site I found some great business courses that are sure to benefit a Lazy Drafter or CAD Manager looking to up their game. Check out MIT Sloan Business School courses here. Self learning over the internet can be hard. It takes discipline and a sustained effort. But, I guess if you found this post, maybe you have what it takes to succeed online.

Apps for AutoCAD

2011-06-13T07:46:00.002-05:00

This morning Autodesk released a new tab in the Autodesk Exchange dilalog (in AutoCAD Vanilla only) specifically for apps. This is a link to a virtual apps store not unlike those seen in itunes. The current apps developed have been created by some trusted partners with Autodesk, but are now currently open to anyone with a notion to do so. Some are quite simple and some are more than complicated. Costs range from free to at least one more than $5000 dollars.

This seemingly small addition to the AutoCAD interface not only adds a virtually unlimited amount of resources to the common CAD user, but it also fundamentally changes the way users will look at problems and solutions in AutoCAD and potentially in all other Autodesk software. What ever works in AutoCAD, can certainly be replicated in other software.

The way it is set up, any CAD smarty-pants can set up an app of their own and either give it away on the exchange or earn cash by charging for it. (I just had a vision of a million AutoCAD users seeing dollar sign across the globe, thinking about some lisp or VBA they wrote and use every day.) Add to that all the small companies that already develop plug-ins for AutoCAD, and the larger companies that have companion software. The Apps tab will allow them all to compete in the same market place and it also provides the familiar PayPal interface to handle the financial side.

Not only should every developer of simple lisps to companion products be excited, but mostly Joe AutoCAD user. We just may find a free solution to a long standing problem when we open AutoCAD this morning. For more on this check out the official press release from Autodesk.

Autodesk Live Facecast Tomorrow Morning at 9am PST - Going Mobile

2011-05-25T20:35:00.002-05:00

Watch it right here on The Lazy Drafter at the top of my page or try the link below.

Watch http://www.livestream.com/?utm_source=lsplayer&utm_medium=embed&utm_campaign=footerlinks" title="live streaming video">live streaming video from http://www.livestream.com/autocad?utm_source=lsplayer&utm_medium=embed&utm_campaign=footerlinks" title="Watch autocad at livestream.com">autocad at livestream.com

Know Everything About AutoCAD

2011-05-19T16:56:00.000-05:00

Mastering AutoCAD can take years. When trying to learn everything there is to know about AutoCAD, it is not hard to miss the ever increasing number of developments, add-ins, and third party packages that can take your designs to the next level. It’s no place for the technology challenged, but it is also an opportunity for the technology savvy with their eye on the latest developments. This article will explore how to stay on top of the latest developments in the CAD World.

Knowing What You Don’t Know
How does one stay informed on the latest and greatest developments in the CAD world? The internet is a great place to start but there are so many great sites and so much data out there, it can be hard to sift thought it all to actually find relevant information. Here are some suggestions.

Take a half hour every work day just to research. It is so easy to be in fire fighting mode all the time. There never seems to be a shortage of things going wrong. If it means coming in early or staying a little late, turn off your phone and email, set a timer and explore the internet for something new.
Join AUGI and follow the AutoCAD Forums. Ask questions or just mine the valuable information, tips and tricks, and the official AutoCAD Wish list found there.
Whenever you find a blog or website that has good information, follow it. Some will send email alerts when there are new posts, most have RSS feeds.
Use a RSS reader to bring your data together. I use Google Reader, but there are others. A good reader will allow you one stop shopping for the blogs and websites you visit most.
Follow the authors and rock stars of the AutoCAD world. Do they tweet? If they do, I bet the information is timely.
Use Google Alerts to receive an email when ever there is something of interest posted on the internet. Create alerts for things like; #D AutoCAD, AutoCAD Add-in, Lynn Allen, anything or one at all that interests you. These alerts can be sent to your email or straight to Google Reader.
Add the Autodesk Press Room to your RSS reader or receive emails. Go to http://pressreleases.autodesk.com/ to find out what Autodesk is up to the second they release it.
Autodesk Labs is constantly thinking of the unbelievable. Check out there web page at http://labs.autodesk.com.
Talk to other people. Other people think differently than you, which means they solve problems in a way you may not have thought of. It also means they may know something that you do not. These people are in your office, and they are outside of your office. Go to the user group meetings (start one if you have to). These people are facing the same issues as you, looking for the same types of information as you, and they have these meeting just to share the solutions you need. The point is go out there and meet people.
Get training. Your reseller likely offers great training and is in touch with the latest trends. CAD Camp is rolling out this month. Autodesk University has the greatest collection of AutoCAD geeks in the world.
You Tube. Can’t beat it for just in time training. Autodesk has its own channel http://www.youtube.com/user/Autodesk, and users all over the globe are posting incredibly helpful videos of just about everything.

Draw Order by Layer - Autodesk Labs Plugin of the Month

2011-05-12T13:13:00.000-05:00

If you are not trying to stay ahead of technology, you are already behind. One way to keep an eye on developments at Autodesk is to follow Autodesk Labs webpage. There is so much going on there it's scary. One of my favorite parts is the Plugin of the Month. Back in January they put this out.

"DrawOrder by Layer for AutoCAD
This plugin can be used to reorder AutoCAD objects by their layer. This is done by selecting the layer to reposition in the list, and pressing the move up or move down button to change its relative order."

It works with version 2007 and up, which makes it even cooler. Visit the Catalog page to download archived plugins, and happy hunting.

Register your 2012 and Get a New LIC file

2011-04-19T15:20:00.000-05:00

So you got your new 2012 software, and you are ready to dig in. First things first, you need to register your software by going to Autodesk's Registration Site. If you have trouble with that site, you can fill out a Licensing Registration and Activation form.

For more information on licensing check out Autodesk's Help page.

The AU2011 Call for Papers is Open

2011-03-29T21:24:00.003-05:00

AU 2011 Call for Proposals is Open!

The 19th annual Autodesk University is coming up at the end of November, and if you’d like to teach a course, now is the time to submit your ideas.

This is your opportunity to distinguish yourself and share your expertise as an industry leader with like-minded professionals.

Submit Your Proposal Now

Proposal Deadline: May 6, 2011

For AU 2011, Autodesk is looking for proposals that address:

•	Design leadership and advanced technology trends
•	Workflow and process across multidiscipline project teams
•	Techniques and processes that help BIM and CAD Managers improve efficiency
•	Practical application of products for beginning and intermediate users
•	Advanced product features
•	New capabilities and features in the latest Autodesk products and design suites

To get information on speaker benefits and deadlines, please visit the Call for Proposals website (http://autodesk.com/aucfp).

Status Bar El-Gone-O

2011-03-03T08:19:00.000-06:00

The Status Bar occupies the bottom 1/4" of your AutoCAD screen. I has tools to control object snaps, grids, object tracking, workspaces, and a ton of other things. If it ever disappears it can be brought back by typing "statusbar" on the command line and changing it back to "1".

Rotating Block Attributes Lisp

2011-02-18T12:40:00.000-06:00

Here's a LISP routine I use all the time when I have a attributed block that has to be rotated. What happens is that the attribute rotates with it. To rotate the attribute back without rotating the block I use this LISP. I wish i could remember where I got, so I could credit the writer. Where ever you are... Thanks for the great LISP.

New AUGIWorld - Own the AutoCAD Interface

2011-01-18T12:46:00.000-06:00

In the new issue of AUGIWorld (The one blessed with David Harrington's face) I have a pretty lame article on making the AutoCAD interface unrecognizable. Why, because I can, and maybe you will learn something you didn't know before. It happens to me most everyday. Check out page 33 and 34.

While you are checking it out, make sure to look at all of the really valid and usable articles as well.

New Year's Goals

2011-01-04T12:20:00.000-06:00

With the new year it's a good time to think about eating right and exercising more often.

It is also a good time to look at your professional goals. I am thinking a little about the CAD calendar.

AU is over, but there is a lot of online material that if I want to get through it, I should get on it quick.

New version's of Autodesk products traditionally come out in the first quarter of the year. This means if I have any left over to do's on the old version, it needs to be cleaned up quick too.

I also need to review any stats I have been collecting and set goals for 2011. I track a lot of plotter information. Downtime, cost per plot, paper costs, maintenance cost. I use this information to know if things are costing more or less year to year. If you have never tracked information, I encourage you to do so. The first step to making a good plan for growth is have a solid idea of where you really stand. The following year you can use the collected data to make reasonable goals. Most importantly, you can quantify your success with more than. "Things are better... because it feels better".

Another valuable stat is Drafting time per sheet. Depending on your accounting, you might be able to quantify the CAD used on the job and divide it by the number of sheets produced. If you know the billing rate on the job, it then becomes easy to calculate the cost per sheet. Would it be helpful to know if the cost or time per sheet was increasing or decreasing? I think so.

This is also a good time to honestly evaluate your own skills and make a real plan for how to fill in the gaps.

Budgeting your time is exactly like budgeting your money and it is just as valuable. If you go through the year reacting to the things that happen, you will have a much more difficult time progressing in your career as opposed to a person that set goals based off reliable information, and executes a plan to achieve them.

Lastly give some honest thought to succession planning. If you want to move up out of your current position, having someone to succeed you will remove a barrier to promotion. While you are thinking about yourself, also pause to predict the succession of those above you. Those are opportunities for you if you recognize them.

Happy New Year, now get to work!

Interpret Fatal Error Unhanded Access Codes

2010-12-09T14:15:00.000-06:00

If I had something to help me interpret fatal error unhanded access codes, I could work on world peace in my free time. Alas, I must spend hours trying to figure out where they come from and what they are trying to tell me with zero help from the alpha-numeric generated.

I would be happier with "AutoCAD quit and it doesn't know why."

Network License Manager Errors

2010-12-07T18:40:00.001-06:00

I had issues today with the network license manager. It is always pressure situation when

people can not use Autodesk products. The CAD staff has nothing to do at all. I found the codes below some time ago and they have been invaluable to solving network licensing issues from

the incredible short error number you get. I hope they can help you in your time if need.

-1 Cannot find license file.

-2 Invalid license file syntax.

-3 No license server system for this feature.

-4 Licensed number of users already reached.

-5 No such feature exists.

-6 No TCP/IP port number in license file and FLEXnet Licensing service does not exist.

-7 No socket connection to license server manager service.

-8 Invalid (inconsistent) license key or signature. This usually happens when a license file has been altered.

-9 Invalid host. The hostid of this system does not match the hostid specified in the license file.

-10 Feature has expired.

-11 Invalid date format in license file.

-12 Invalid returned data from license server system.

-13 No SERVER lines in license file.

-14 Cannot find SERVER host name in network database. The lookup for the host name on the SERVER line in the license file failed. This often happens when NIS or DNS or the hosts file is incorrect. Workaround: Use IP address (e.g., 123.456.789.123) instead of host name.

-15 Cannot connect to license server system. The server (lmgrd) has not been started yet, or the wrong port@host or license file is being used, or the TCP/IP port or host name in the license file has been changed.

-16 Cannot read data from license server system.

-17 Cannot write data to license server system.

-18 License server system does not support this feature.

-19 Error in select system call.

-21 License file does not support this version.

-22 Feature checkin failure detected at license server system.

-23 License server system temporarily busy (new server connecting).

-24 Users are queued for this feature.

-25 License server system does not support this version of this feature.

-26 Request for more licenses than this feature supports.

-29 Cannot find ethernet device.

-30 Cannot read license file.

-31 Feature start date is in the future.

-32 No such attribute.

-33 Bad encryption handshake with vendor daemon.

-34 Clock difference too large between client and license server system.

-35 In the queue for this feature.

-36 Feature database corrupted in vendor daemon.

-37 Duplicate selection mismatch for this feature. Obsolete with v8.0+ vendor daemon.

-38 User/host on EXCLUDE list for feature.

-39 User/host not on INCLUDE list for feature.

-40 Cannot allocate dynamic memory.

-41 Feature was never checked out.

-42 Invalid parameter.

-47 Clock setting check not available in vendor daemon.

-52 Vendor daemon did not respond within timeout interval.

-53 Checkout request rejected by vendor-defined checkout filter.

-54 No FEATURESET line in license file.

-55 Incorrect FEATURESET line in license file.

-56 Cannot compute FEATURESET data from license file.

-57 socket() call failed. *OS Error

-59 Message checksum failure.

-60 License server system message checksum failure.

-61 Cannot read license file data from license server system.

-62 Network software (TCP/IP) not available.

-63 You are not a license administrator.

-64 lmremove request before the minimum lmremove interval.

-67 No licenses available to borrow.

-68 License BORROW support not enabled.

-69 FLOAT_OK can't run standalone on license server system.

-71 Invalid TZ environment variable.

-73 Local checkout filter rejected request.

-74 Attempt to read beyond end of license file path.

-75 SYS$SETIMR call failed (VMS). *OS Error.

-76 Internal FLEXnet Licensing error-please report to Macrovision Corporation (Acresso).

-77 Bad version number must be floating-point number with no letters.

-82 Invalid PACKAGE line in license file.

-83 FLEXnet Licensing version of client newer than server.

-84 USER_BASED license has no specified users - see license server system log.

-85 License server system doesn't support this request.

-87 Checkout exceeds MAX specified in options file.

-88 System clock has been set back.

-89 This platform not authorized by license.

-90 Future license file format or misspelling in license file. The file was issued for a later version of FLEXnet Licensing than this program understands.

-91 Encryption seeds are non-unique.

-92 Feature removed during lmreread, or wrong SERVER line hostid.

-93 This feature is available in a different license pool. This is a warning condition. The server

spooled one or more INCREMENT lines into a single pool, and the request was made on an

INCREMENT line that has been pooled.

-94 Attempt to generate license with incompatible attributes.

-95 Network connect to THIS_HOST failed. Change this_host on the SERVER line in the license file to the actual host name.

-96 License server machine is down or not responding. See the system administrator about starting the server, or make sure that you're referring to the right host see LM_LICENSE_FILE

environment variable).

-97 The desired vendor daemon is down. Check the lmgrd log file, or 2) Try lmreread.

-98 This FEATURE line can't be converted to decimal format.

-99 The decimal format license is typed incorrectly.

-100 Cannot remove a linger license.

-101 All licenses are reserved for others. The system administrator has reserved all the licenses for others. Reservations are made in the options file. The server must be restarted for options

file changes to take effect.

-102 A FLEXid borrow error occurred.

-103 Terminal Server remote client not allowed.

-104 Cannot borrow that long.

-106 License server system out of network connections. The vendor daemon can't handle any

more users.

-110 Cannot read dongle: check dongle or driver. Either the dongle is unattached, or the necessary software driver for this dongle type is not installed.

-112 Missing dongle driver. In order to read the FLEXid hostid, the correct driver must be installed. These drivers are available from your software vendor.

-114 SIGN= keyword required, but missing from license certificate. You need to obtain a SIGN= version of this license from your vendor.

-115 Error in Public Key package.

-116 TRL not supported for this platform.

-117 BORROW failed.

-118 BORROW period expired.

-119 lmdown and lmreread must be run on license server machine.

-120 Cannot lmdown the server when licenses are borrowed.

-121 FLOAT_OK requires exactly one FLEXid hostid.

-122 Unable to delete local borrow info.

-123 Returning a borrowed license early is not supported. Contact the vendor for further details.

-124 Error returning borrowed license.

-125 A PACKAGE component must be specified.

-126 Composite hostid not initialized.

-127 A item needed for the composite hostid is missing or invalid.

-128 Error, borrowed license doesn't match any known server license.

-135 Error enabling the event log.

-136 Event logging is disabled.

-137 Error writing to the event log.

-139 Communications timeout.

-140 Bad message command.

-141 Error writing to socket. Peer has closed socket.

-142 Error, cannot generate version specific license tied to a single hostid, which is composite.

-143 Version-specific signatures are not supported for uncounted licenses.

-144 License template contains redudant signature specifiers.

-145 Bad V71_LK signature.

-146 Bad V71_SIGN signature.

-147 Bad V80_LK signature.

-148 Bad V80_SIGN signature.

-149 Bad V81_LK signature.

-150 Bad V81_SIGN signature.

-151 Bad V81_SIGN2 signature.

-152 Bad V84_LK signature.

-153 Bad V84_SIGN signature.

-154 Bad V84_SIGN2 signature.

-155 License key required but missing from the license certificate. The application requires a

license key in the license certificate. You need to obtain a license key version of this certificate

from your vendor.

-500 Invalid server port number.

-501 Invalid value in license where an integer was expected.

-502 Invalid value supplied for count.

-503 Invalid hostid supplied in license.

-504 Invalid hostid type supplied.

-505 Bad feature line syntax.

-506 Internal FLEXnet Licensing error.

-507 Bad date format in license file.

-508 Bad SERVER line.

-509 Bad license string.

-510 Server's feature doesn't authenticate on client side.

-511 No license checked out.

-512 License already checked out.

-513 Error list returned.

-514 No certicom module available.

-515 Wrong or incomplete certicom module.

-516 SIGN or SIGN2 required in license certificate.

-517 Feature object has no licensesources.

-518 An Identical license is already checked out on this license source.

-519 This license has an asynchronously-queued checkout pending.

-521 Library for native hostid couldn't be loaded.

-522 Already connected to another vendor daemon.

-523 No such user, host, or display.

-524 Shutdown of license server system failed.

-525 Shutdown failed - already connected to license server system.

-526 Invalid license source string.

-527 Log file switch error.

No Hatch Dialog

2010-12-05T16:53:00.000-06:00

In my last post I was talking about using system variables for evil. In this post use a system variable for good. Problem; every tome the hatch or boundary hatch command is issued, instead of the hatch dialog, there are only a command line options.

When all else fails, the likely culprit is the system variable HPDLG.

HPGLG controls the display of the Hatch and Gradient and Hatch Edit dialog boxes.

Set it to 0 and Hatch and Gradient dialog boxes are not displayed for HATCH/GRADIENT commands unless Settings is entered at the command prompt.

Set it to 1 and Hatch and Gradient dialog box are displayed for HATCH/GRADIENT commands but not for existing hatch object selection.

Set it to 2 and Hatch and Gradient dialog box are not displayed when the ribbon is active (RIBBONSTATE = 1). When the ribbon is inactive (RIBBONSTATE = 0), the Hatch and Gradient dialog box is displayed.

AutoCAD Bad Boys and Girls

2010-11-30T15:07:00.000-06:00

When I think back to my first experiences with AutoCAD, I realize that PCs themselves were new and not a lot of people felt comfortable with computers. I did some of my best learning figuring out how to mess with new people. Below are examples of me being a jerk. I'm not proud of my actions (well, maybe a little) but, I learned a lot about digging into software and working things out. If the pay off was a little laugh, well maybe that is just enough motivation for the mischievous AutoCAD users.

Example One: (nuisance)
Change the blipmode to 1. Blipmode leaves a tiny "X" everywhere the user clicks for no good reason. Well I think the reason was in the old days we wanted feedback to where we just clicked.

Example Two: (annoying)
Set zoomfactor to 5. This slows your scroll wheel down to about old-lady.

Example Three: (irritating)
Type in vtoptions and set the Transition speed all the way to slow. This will make a zoom all take about all of a guys lunch break.

Example Four: (offensive)
Change mbuttonpan to 1. this will bring up object snaps instead of letting you pan with the mouse.

Example Five: (painful)
Change pickadd to zero. This makes it so you can only pick one element at a time.

Example Six: (jerk)
Change highlight to zero. This turns off the highlighting of selected objects.

Example Seven: (extreme jerk)

Use aliasedit to change common keyins like E for the line command.

AutoCAD Performance Monitor from Autodesk Labs

2010-11-06T11:20:00.000-05:00

Autodesk Labs is one of the coolest things that ever happened. I highly recommend digging around on their site. As far as I can tell they have a bunch of out of the box thinkers, trying to make crazy ideas work like drawing with a Wii remote rather than the traditional interface.

Today I was checking out the AutoCAD performance Monitor widget.

It provides a color-coded status bar indicating the virtual memory used by AutoCAD based products. It works on Windows 7 and Windows Vista for both 32-bit and 64-bit systems but really means the most on a 32-bit system because a 64-bit system tends to use only the physical memory.

There is a link to a white paper if you follow the link I provided above.

Close the Block Editor

2010-10-26T09:10:00.000-05:00

How lazy can I get? I jacked up my CUI and lost the Block editor contextual tab in the ribbon and rather than fix the problem, I just brought back the classic palettes and used the "bclose" command to close the editor when finished.

I am getting old, time to go fix that right.

CTB vs STB

2010-10-14T21:26:00.001-05:00

Just Curious. I haven't heard much lately on this battle and neither side seems to have won. Which side are you on and why? Add a comment or vote on the poll that you will find to the right.

It's On!

Adding Custom Sheet Sizes (Forms) in Windows 7

2010-09-27T09:10:00.000-05:00

If the standard sheet sizes associated with the printers you have installed aren't exactly what you want, you can actually create your own. In the past this could be done by going to Printers and Faxes and selecting Sever Properties from the File menu. From there you create custom forms that the printers will recognize as sheet sizes.

To do this in Windows 7, go to the

Control Panel and select
Administrative Tools and then
Print Management click
Print Servers find your PCs name and click on it, then click
Forms
Go to the Action menu and select Manage Forms

From there you cab add custom sheets sizes and even denote them with your firm's name.

1 Xref - Linked Twice for Separate Layer Control

2010-09-05T10:45:00.001-05:00

I xreference architectural base drawings and draw the MEP on top for a living. On small jobs I may have room to put the lighting and power on a single sheet. If I xreference the architectural base drawing and copy it, I can not have the ceiling grid on in one and off on the other Xref. This is because they have the same layer name.

To get around this, I xreference the base drawing and change its name in the Xref Manager by typing (in this case) the word Power in the Reference Name field.

Then I Xreference the base drawing again and rename this second version to Lighting. The effect is the one base drawing has been referenced twice but with different names resulting in separate layer names.

This gives me separate layer control of each.

Your case may not be lighting and power, that's okay, because it will work for what ever you need.

Customer Service and the CAD Manager

2010-08-30T20:38:00.001-05:00

Sometimes I feel like a super hero at my job. I get to fly in and save the day when ever there is CAD trouble, and it feels pretty darn good. Other times, I feel like the overworked super hero in this comic I read where Joe Citizen yells for help, and the super hero responds with "Take a number.".

I can have people stacked three deep most of the day, all with problems that only I can solve. The stress from the constant stream of emergencies sometimes made me a grumpy super hero. Like any good super hero, I have found that gadgets can go a long way to helping ease that stress. Here are some gadgets that may help you out.

CAD Man demands that you take a number.
Use a issue tracking software like Spiceworks to sort out 5 alarm fires from kittens stuck in trees. This will also help with the constant calls for help that you may get as you walk around the office. Organizing all the calls for help will ensure that the big fires get handled first and the things that can wait get handled too. It will also help you track trends. Those reoccurring items can be linked to an intern Blog site, where you can document changes in procedures and fixes to common problems. This means, you may only have to email a link to the solution of a common problem instead of making a personal appearance. Blogs are super easy to make and can be made confidential to your office or shared with the world. I use a lot of screen shots in my Blogs. I used to just use the print screen function and Windows Paint but I later convinced my boss to front a small amount of cash and buy a screen capture software called Snagit. It is the best for making professional looking screen captures. I have also made a series of CAD training videos for use in my offices for when people forget how to do a task that is standard, but doesn't happen everyday. For that I use Camtasia. It costs, but it's worth it and handling repeated questions and stream lining training.

There is probably a gadget for any issue you might be having as a CAD manager. The secret is to realize it and find something that can help. it's the old work smarter not harder thing. Often the little helper you need can be acquired for free, you just have to look around.

I hope to write a long article next on using the tools that come with AutoCAD for tracking licenses and pushing updates if I have an interest out there.

Your Best Asset is not your CAD Skills

2010-08-05T22:21:00.000-05:00

Times are tough.

It seems like I get a lot more response when I put out the "now Hiring" sign, but I still have a hard time finding the right person even with more resumes. Really great people are still hard to find. There are plenty of folks out there that can do the job, but what I really want is somebody that is perfect. Think about it this way on your next interview. When you dine out, how often to you get a waiter or waitress that is over the top the best you have ever had? Chances are they all kind of seem the same. Yeah you get a bad one from time to time that you remember, but the really great one is a rare find. Now relate that back to the job of drafting. If you can impress me with your commitment, speed, attention to detail, great attitude and passion for the job, I will pretty much create a position to to get you on the team.

I hired a drafter a while back that had no experience because when she described her job at Jimmy John's, she told me she was the best employee they had. She couldn't stop talking about how fast she made sandwiches and the ways she developed to increase her speed while maintaining quality. turns out the same passion she showed in that job translated directly in to her drafting career.

One more thing to think about. Who is the best drafter in your department or office? Is it you? If it is not, then why? Is that person some how more gifted than you? I doubt it, they are just trying harder. Whether you want to be a great waiter, drafter or what ever, you may want to start by trying harder than anyone else ever did.

Word Docs in AutoCAD

2010-07-14T16:09:00.000-05:00

No doubt AutoCAD have made great leaps forward in the last 10 years to accommodate all the formating that can come from a Word document inserted into an Mtext dialog. Here is a trick if things still seem to not quite be right with indentions, bullets and numbering.

Before your copy the the text from the Word document, check to make sure the option to automatically hyphenate the document has been turned off. Auto-hyphenation is just one of the options the Mtext dialog is just not ready for yet.

Add-A-Plotter Wizard... el Gone-0

2010-06-25T14:11:00.000-05:00

I was transitioning some machines to 64 bit Windows 7 and my old PC3 file wasn't working. I was thinking it was time to create a new PC3 with all the changes to the operating system, but when I went to add a plotter I could not find the Add-A-Plotter Wizard.

With a little digging I found this... addplwiz.exe. It was hiding deep in C:\program files\autocad land. Do a quick search on your PC to find yours if you ever end up loosing it like me.

By the way, I was right, the new PC3 file works like a charm.

KIP Request and PDFs

2010-06-08T08:20:00.000-05:00

If you tend to be cheap like me, you may not have purchased full blown Adobe licenses for your AutoCAD users. With the DWG to PDF PC3 file included in the latest versions of AutoCAD or free PDF creators like CUTE PDF creating PDFs is easy. Getting what you want quickly can sometimes be a pain.

I like individual PDF files for each sheet and I use CUTE PDF. The problem I used to have was hanging around naming each PDF file in a Publish operation. The solution is to push a group of files into a single PDF file and use KIP Request to break a multi-page PDF into individual PDFs. This way I only have to be present to name the one file. KIP Request is a free download and works for this purpose whether you use a KIP plotter or not.

Simply select the multi-page PDF in KIP request, right click on it and selet the "Convert Tagged to - Adobe PDF" option.

Make sure to specify a different folder for the individual PDFs than its current location. KIP will just add a number to the end of the file name for each sheet produced. If the combined file is named M.pdf, KIP Request would produce M1. pdf, M2.pdf, M3.pdf and so on.

It's pretty darn slick, and its free.

Ellen Finkelstein Rocks

2010-05-19T21:43:00.000-05:00

If you do not know Ellen Finkelstein, she has among other things been writing the undeniably best AutoCAD resource book of all time The AutoCAD Bible. Please check out her insightful tips and tricks at Ellen's website. I am betting you can even pre-order the 2011 version of the AutoCAD Bible.

Amen sister.

Generate Boundary

2010-04-16T08:39:00.000-05:00

Every once in a while you have the hatch but not the boundary and it turns out you need just the opposite. Good news! Right click on the hatch and select the "Generate Boundary" option.

Very nice.

AutoCAD Error - a valid license could not be found

2010-04-13T08:55:00.001-05:00

Everything was going fine, then one day, one user can not open AutoCAD. She gets the a valid license could not be found error. The weird thing(s) are that there are plenty of licenses and she can open Revit which using the same license. then I find this thread that tracked the problem down to a corrupt CascadeInfo.cas file in C:\ProgramData\Autodesk\AdLM with help of Process Monitor.

After deleteing it and starting AutoCAD the file was recreated and everything works fine now.

Thank you discussion groups!

Update: Here is a link to the Autodesk fix. It is more detailed.

Scale Reference

2010-04-12T21:17:00.000-05:00

If you did not know about this command you are really missing out. If you are in the scale command and have picked objects to scale and a base point, you can specify by reference by typing an R. I do this all the time when I don't know at what scale something drawn, but I do know a specific portion like a door is 3 feet. I click off the width of the door and type 36 to scale the entire drawing down to the nat's booty.

I just talked about about it. Check out Autodesks super tip on Scale reference.

Lynn Allen's AutoCAD 2011 Tips and Tricks

2010-04-10T19:17:00.000-05:00

Nobody does it better. Check out Lynn Allen's Blog for how to download her AutoCAD 2011 Tips and Tricks.

Favorite AutoCAD 2011 Features - Missing SHX and Font Files

2010-04-01T08:16:00.000-05:00

Having the option to ignore missing SHX files (shape or font files) when opening a drawing is about the coolest thing that ever happened. Normally when you get this error there is nothing you can do anyway, so being able to just ignore this warning forever is a blessing.

FONTALT can be used to control the dialog if you want it back for some reason after you click the "Always perform my current choice" box.

AutoCAD 2011 Download

2010-03-26T07:07:00.000-05:00

I went to download AutoCAD 2011 this morning, and was greeted by the following image.

Drag.

Scaletext - Command of the Day

2010-03-24T15:11:00.001-05:00

Directly from the Help file

A drawing may contain hundreds of text objects that need to be scaled, and it would be tedious to scale them individually. Use SCALETEXT to change the scale of one or more text objects such as text, multiline text, and attributes. You can specify a relative scale factor or an absolute text height, or you can scale selected text to match the height of existing text. Each text object is scaled using the same scale factor, and it maintains its current location.

Pretty sweet.

Multi-Sheet vs. Single Sheet Publishing

2010-03-23T08:02:00.000-05:00

Recently we noticed that using the PDF override published a multi-sheet file instead of a series of single sheet files, even though the publish options were set to Single Sheet files. No matter how we tried to create single sheets files, AutoCAD seemed to just do the opposite.

It turns out there was a system variable working against us, PUBLISHCOLLATE.

PUBLISHCOLLATE is set to one out of the box. Under this setting a published sheet set is processed as a single job. A multi-sheet file is created. If the sheet set is published, it is never interleaved with other plot jobs.

Set PUBLISHCOLLATE to zero and a published sheet set is processed one sheet at a time. Separate files are created for each sheet. If the sheet set is published, the sheets might be interleaved with other plot jobs.

License Management

2010-03-15T20:48:00.003-05:00

Licence management is one of the most complex and one most not complex things. If you get everything set up right, it can run itself. Until you do, everything is hard.I have been running 4 offices from a single license manager server for years with no trouble, but lately, I'm getting nervous. It's time to switch to a redundant system. The Autodesk folks tell how to make both ways happen, but there is no real discussion on switching from one method to another. Now I'm really nervous. People hate it when they cannot open AutoCAD and Revit. Tomorrow I am beginning to lay out a plan for the switch. If I pull this off I will show the steps and pitfalls.

Picking how you will control your licenses is just part of the picture. Other things to consider are;

Number of licenses

Are you over licensed or under licensed. If you don't have enough, you'll know because you will keep running out and you will get feedback. If you have too many, you may never know. A rule of thumb is carry 80% of a full load. That is 8 licenses will probably carry 10 users. Everybody has to find their own sweet spot. Having information like how much licenses are being used, by who and when can help quite a bit. Programs like the JTB Flex Report can assist you in knowing what you don't know.

What License You Need

Rather than owning some AutoCAD and some Revit, The AutoCAD Revit Suite will give you more flexibility and cost you less. Work with your reseller for the best price.

The Best value

If there are competing resellers looking to provide your firm with licenses carefully consider everything, not just price. The best value will often be the reseller that has your back when things go wrong, and they will. Watch out for the sell and run. I reputable reseller will want to not only sell you licenses but to save you money. That makes you a customer for life. Shop around but be smart.

Who gets what?

Your license manager can set controls like time outs for people who open Autodesk products in the morning and never use them, freeing licenses for those who do need them. It can reserve licenses for drafting techs leaving engineers and architects fighting over the remaining licenses. There are other options too that help ensure you are not over licensing your firm.

Readers

There are bound to be users who need nothing more that to view and plot files. Autodesk True View will do just that for free. If you use Revit products install the 30 day trial and let it elapse. It becomes a viewer for Revit files, but it will not plot.

Billable Time

2010-02-28T15:18:00.003-06:00

I don't seem to be on fire here with the CAD managers Survival Guide, but I have have something here that applies to all CAD Managers, billable time.

When I am speaking with other people in my position, billable time always seems to come up. Different firms have different expectations as to how much time a CAD Manager should be using for management of the CAD system and how much time they should spend working on projects the firm can bill for. The heart of the matter seems to be that firms are recognizing the value of having a CAD manager, they just don't want to pay for one. So if you agree to be the CAD manager but you must be billable 60%, 70%, or 80% of the time, how much management can you really do, and what difference does it make? There are many who CAD manage on their own time. Writing code or reviewing drawings and doing customization off the clock. This just feeds the perception that that CAD management must not be a full time job.

Every year, I get evaluated like a lot of you do. This is my time to justify my complete lack of billable time. I review the goals I set at the beginning of the year and do my best to quantify the financial impact of my actions. Example, I started purchasing 15" plotter paper because we plot so much half size. We waste less paper now saving the firm money. Since I can tell much much we plotted and spent the year before, calculating the savings was easy. I write a lisp that reduces an 8 click procedure to a 1 click procedure. I calculate how long 7 clicks takes times how often we do it in a day times the number of drafters and Figure in their average pay. 7 clicks can add up.

The point is I know how much money I want to make. I just need to make the company more. I just don't bill to a client. The company is my client. If I save more than I cost, the idea of billable time goes away. This is not easy. It's like being a sales person who works for commission. You better be aware of how much you cost and how much you are saving the firm at all times, and it gets harder every year.

But it sure can beat working on billable jobs if you love it.

The CAD managers Survial Guide - Step 1

2010-01-26T21:52:00.004-06:00

What are a CAD managers main responsibilities?

Here is what I have so far. Please tell me what I am missing.

Maintenance of the CAD System (make sure it works)
License management (make sure you have what you need)
Plotter king (interface CAD to plotter and maintain the plotter(s))
Standards Management (otherwise known as CAD Police)
Management Liaison (Go-between with the big wigs)
Programmer (Lisp, .Net, Macro-man)
Quality Assurance
Education (Teacher - spread the knowledge)
Research and Development (Student - must stay on the cutting edge)
People Manager (Motivator - Discipline giver)
Budget maker

CAD Manager Survival Guide

2010-01-02T22:52:00.002-06:00

I think we need one, I got got nothing else going on. My New Years resolution is to get cracking on organizing it. Maybe I will be able to find the things I need too.

Good luck to us all, and happy 2010.

Command Line Options - Undo

2009-12-23T12:27:00.004-06:00

There are some classic things thing AutoCAD has pretty much always done, but they tend to get lost in time. They are usually linked to forgotten or never used command line options. Once a command is entered there are options to most of them that you can control at the command line. I'll post more in the future, but for now one of my favorite, most versatile, and under used command options goes to the UNDO command.

Auto: Groups the actions of a command, making them all reversible by a single undo.

All: Turns on the full UNDO command.

None: Turns off the U and UNDO commands and discards any UNDO command information saved earlier in the editing session.

One: Limits UNDO to a single operation.

Combine: Controls whether multiple, consecutive zoom and pan commands are combined as a single operation for undo and redo operations. Pan and zoom commands that are started from the menu are not combined, and always remain separate actions.

Layer: Controls whether the layer dialog operations are combined as a single undo operation.

Begin/End: This option groups actions together driven by the user. I use this in lisp.

Mark/Back: Mark places a book mark in the undo log. At a later time you can chose to undo back to the last Mark you placed in the log. If there are no marks, undo back will take you back to when you first opened the drawing. You will get an alert telling you so. I like this for the times I wished I nevere open a drawing in the first place.

How to Open the Recovery Manager

2009-12-21T11:58:00.002-06:00

Not to tell a mean story but one of my users gets cold in the summer. She was running a space heater at her desk with quite a few drawings open. When the space heater tripped the over current device it caused much sadness. The real sadness came after. She used the Recovery Manager to get some of the many open files back in shape but accidental closed it before she was finished.

Today's lesson is how to open the Recovery Manager when you need it back.

Type drawingrecovery on the commandline and hit enter.

Yeah, I know, the problem was a lot longer than the solution.

Error of the Week

2009-12-17T14:50:00.003-06:00

You might have to click on the image above to read it, so I'll summarize. One or more objects can not be save to the specified format, so no savie.

I don't know. I ran an audit and purged it. It saves now. I am curious about the craziest error messages you have ever received. Comment back if you have a favorite.

How Fast is Fast?

2009-12-13T19:05:00.003-06:00

The new year is around the corner. Here is a tip to kick the year off right. I am often told by users that their PC is slow. It is a perception they have anyway and a lot of the time the squeaky wheel gets an upgrade. In times like this where you can't throw money around, it pays to be able to make informed decisions on buying and upgrading PCs.

To help me, I have everyone run a speed test quarterly. The test is simple and comes in three parts;

Open AutoCAD and tell me how long it takes to get to cross hairs from double clicking the launch icon.
Open a medium sized file I placed on the network and tell me how long it took.
Open a large file I placed on the network and tell me how long it took.

After the initial test I found that those that complained the most had the fastest PCs. After the tests I was able to tell users where they ranked. If they ranked high, they felt way better about their speed. If they ranked low, I was able to proactively let them know when they could expect an upgrade.

There is an element of trust involved in having users submit times themselves. Another problem I have is getting results at all. This can be circumvented by running the test yourself off hours. In fact that might help keep it more fair by the removing varying network traffic from the equation. I have also seen lisps out there to gather data like open times, although I have not run any.

How ever you do it, knowing the facts vs. someone's perception is a much better place to be in.

AU 2009

2009-11-23T19:43:00.001-06:00

The posting has been pretty thin lately, but it's because I have been focusing on my class for this year Implementing Revit MEP A to Z. I hope to meet people in Las Vegas that read my blog and also meet people that write the blogs I love. Happy Thanksgiving to all. See you in Vegas!

AutoCAD Text Messaging

2009-10-09T08:13:00.005-05:00

Sometimes you forget how cool a tool is until someone else sees you use it and they remind you it kicks butt. I had that experience this week when I added the preceding alert dialog box to a users AutoCAD screen after fixing a problem for them when they were not at their desk.

The really cool thing is you can add these dialogs simply by typing them in on the command line. In the screen shot below you can see that you start with (alert "then put your message in quotes and close with a" ). To get a new line in the dialog just use a backslash followed by the letter n.

These boxes can also be called in lisp routines and macros forcing users to click OK before proceeding. I like to use this when they are about to do something that cannot be undone, something that will take a long time, or something that has great potential to jack a drawing up. Pretty much anytime you want the user to verify they know what they are getting into. Otherwise, they are awesome for messing with people. You can send messages like;

Stardock Fences Organize Desktop Icons

2009-08-27T07:23:00.004-05:00

For Windows users your desktop can be like your house. Some people keep it ridiculously clean, some people are hoarders and most of us are somewhere in between. As a support person I see a lot of desktops and sometimes I cringe as I look for an AutoCAD or Revit Icon over two monitor full of icons for who knows what.

A friend of mine, Todd Behning recently turned me on to Stardock Fences. This program can group your desktop icon together in logical groups that you can create. It has another interesting feature that hides selected groups when you double click on your desktop. It's a total geek thing, but I am loving the fences.

New Purge Options

2009-08-12T14:15:00.002-05:00

I wrote a lisp to clean up drawings that includes a -purge with an A option. I used this because the -purge command has had the ability to purge registry apps for a while now.

Today I ran that lisp and an exploded hatch disappeared each time I ran it. I couldn't figure out why until I noticed some extra goodies in the -purge command.

Command: -purge

Enter type of unused objects to purge

[Blocks/Dimstyles/LAyers/LTypes/MAterials/MUltileaderstyles/Plotstyles/SHapes/textSTyles/Mlinestyles/Tablestyles/Visualstyles/Regapps/Zero-length geometry/Empty text objects/All]:

My exploded hatch was full of zero length lines. Wouldn't you know it. I have to say I like the empty text object purge a lot. Bravo Autodesk.... bravo.

Recession Proof Your Job

2009-08-04T21:03:00.003-05:00

I know people who have recently been laid off. Good people. I bet all of you know people who have got the bad news. Perhaps some of you have lost your jobs. It Sucks. I have been one of those people myself. Losing my job changed my life... for the better. I'm different now. I made some changes that I wrote about in my very first post. Ten Common Sense Secrets for the Lazy Drafter.

I really believe what is written there. If your boss can't do business without, your job should be as safe as his. The hard part is sustaining your efforts. Everyone is working extra hard right now and not complaining about a thing. You need to keep this up over time. It's like a diet. The weight will come right back when you start eating again.

How do you protect yourself from an economy that is taking out talented people everyday? You take your lives to the next level. You will be recognized when you do and rewarded.

Layer Properties - Mode vs. Modeless

2009-08-03T15:57:00.005-05:00

I have noticed a significant speed reduction in AutoCAD 2010 products when the Layer Properties palette is open vs. when it is closed. At first I told my users to turn if off when not in use. Yeah, I can't even I remember every time. The solution (or work around) for now is replacing the the layer command with Classiclayer. Classiclayer brings up old reliable; the Layer Properties Manager dialog box. There is no way to leave it open, it's a dialog not a palette.

If you really lock things down, you can redfine the layer command. For me it works just as well to change the macro in the CUI and change the PGP for LA if you have that kind of control.

Adios InfoCenter

2009-07-28T07:40:00.003-05:00

I have been asked how to turn off the InfoCenter. It's cool. You can do some neat things with it, but some of my people just don't want to look at it. If you are one of those people, and you are confident enough (and have the rights to) to tap into your registry, here's what you do.

Click the Start button and select Run
Type Regedit in the Run dialog
Browse to the infocenter under HKEY_CRRENT_USER\SOFTWARE.....
(your path will vary slightly) and double click on the infocenteron variable.
Change it to 0 as shown below.

Good luck and stuff.

DWT Format and Drawing Versions

2009-06-30T14:21:00.003-05:00

It may come as an awful surprise, to find that the DWT format is independent of the DWG format mid-upgrade. This means if you save your template files as a 2010 DWT, older versions won't get it. You may have your options set to save as 2004, but that will not affect DWTs they will remain 2010.

If you find yourself in this situation, the best way I know to set things back (if you have mixed versions being used) is to open the template in 2010 and export it to AutoCAD. Pick the oldest version you need, but I go back to 2004 because it predates most AEC problems you might encounter otherwise. If you don't, you might get the error below when opened or used in older versions.

The Export to AutoCAD command creates a DWG file. You can now rename this file to a DWT in Windows Explorer or use the Save as function to create the new (old) DWT file you need.

I'm not sure any of that made sense.

Layer Search

2009-06-29T07:35:00.002-05:00

Do you ever find yourself in the situation where you are searching for a layer to control?

Sha-yeah.

It can be like finding a needle in a stack of needle shaped hay. Give this a shot next time. Tucked away in the upper right-hand corner of the Layer Properties palette is the layer search tool.

You can use a combination of characters and wild-cards (the asterisk represents any group of characters and the question mark represents any single character) to find just about any layer quick and easy. Say you are looking for a specific wall layer. type *wall* in the search box and hit your enter key, now the only layers listed have the word wall in them. Nice.

Publishing Changes in AutoCAD 2010

2009-06-24T10:29:00.002-05:00

In older versions of AutoCAD when adding sheets to be published you could specify to only import the layout tabs and leave model space out of it directly in the publish dialog (see image below).

To do the same in AutoCAD 2010 you must first select the sheets button (see image below).

Then see the "Include" drop down menu to only add layouts (yet another image below).

Object Snap - Quick Tip

2009-06-18T08:23:00.001-05:00

In AutoCAD 2010 you can quickly add or remove a running object snap by right clicking on the object snap icon at the bottom of your drawing area and picking the snap to add or remove.

Hidden Gem - Multiple

2009-06-15T08:44:00.001-05:00

Here's one that maybe you don't use everyday, but you should. Some commands work better in rapid succession. I place receptacles in building 30 at a time. In the old days I would select the duplex tool from my palette, place a receptacle, select the tool again and place another one, and so on and so on. These days I invoke a little known beauty call Multiple.

Multiple is a command that will repeat any other command until the user escapes out of it. You type in Multiple on the command line and AutoCAD asks which command you would like to repeat. I have a lisp to insert a receptacle at the proper rotation, scale and layer. I combine this with the multiple command in a macro to machine gun in as many receptacles as I want.

Just in case you were wondering, if you invoke multiple and ask it to multiple multiple times, the universal does not explode. AutoCAD will not allow you to invoke a multiple in a multiple.

Yeah... I tried it.

AutoCAD 2010 That Old Time Interface

2009-06-12T12:21:00.004-05:00

You may know or even be an experienced AutoCAD user who thinks... "Back in the old days we didn't use the new fangled icons on everything. What's wrong with just writing snap or grid?". Kids today don't even know how to read.

If you are feeling nostalgic for the old drafting setting across the bottom of your screen, right click on a new fangled icon and de-select "Use Icons".

Check it out. Now you can show your age proudly and confuse youngsters at the same time. Take that whipper-snappers.

A Quickie on Quick Properties

2009-06-10T12:29:00.000-05:00

If you are using AutoCAD or AutoCAD MEP 2010, there is no doubt that you have noticed the Quick Properties palette floating around. If you like it or don't like it, it's good to know you have options.

Maybe the easiest ways to access your options is to click just below the X at the upper right-hand corner of the Quick properties palette to expose a pop up menu of options for;

Close Closes the current Quick Properties palette

Disable Turns the Quick Properties palette option off

Settings Opens the Setting dialog (See Image 2 below)

Location Mode

Cursor Palette appears at the current cursor location

Static Palette appears only at the last specified location

Auto Collapse Allows palette to expand and contract in size

Customise... Opens the CUI (see image 3 below)

Image 1

Image 2

Image 3

-attedit

2009-06-09T20:37:00.006-05:00

There is an old command that really rocks for block with attributes. I use it every day in a lisp and rarely think about it. I use an attributed block for a receptacle. The attribute looks great as long as the wall is horizontal. If the wall is verticle, well so will the attribute.

Unless of course I used this little gem, -attedit. See the command line of what it does below.

It allows users to select the attribute inside a block and change it's postion, height, angle, style, layer or color and all from the command line. This is nice because you can write it into a lisp to automatically change the angle of blocks instered at 90 degrees back to zero.

Here is a code sample for you.

(defun c:AA0 ()

(command "-attedit" "" "" "" "" PAUSE "" "A" "0" "")

(princ)

)

It shouldn't be a big jump to change any of the other options in the attedit command by lisp like color and style now. Go ahead and give it a try, you have tons of free time and think this is fun anyway, right?

Fading Away in 2010

2009-05-27T09:33:00.003-05:00

If you used fading for locked layers in previous version of AutoCAD you may run into and issue when you first start using 2010. Your Xrefences may not be responding to changes to the laylockfadectl system variable. This may be because 2010 has introduced an Xreference display option that will fade Xreferences.

Here is the break down from the help file.

Xref Display

Specifies the fading intensity value of externally referenced drawings. (XDWGFADECTL system variable)

This option only affects the display on the screen. It does not affect plotting or plot preview. The XDWGFADECTL system variable defines the fade percentage of the DWG xrefs. The valid range is an integer between -90 and 90. The fading value is limited to 90 percent to avoid confusion with layers that are turned off or frozen.

0 Locked layers are not faded

>0 When the value is positive, controls the percent of fading up to 90 percent

<0 When the value is negative, locked layers are not faded, but the value is saved for switching to that value by changing the sign

When XDWGFADECTL is set to a negative value, the Xref Fading feature is not turned on, but the setting is stored.

In-place Edit and Annotative Representations
Specifies the fading intensity value for objects during in-place reference editing. Objects that are not being edited are displayed at a lesser intensity. (XFADECTL system variable)

With in-place reference editing, you can edit a block reference or external reference from within the current drawing. The valid range is 0 through 90 percent. The default setting is 50 percent.

Laylockfadectl
Controls the amount of fading for objects on locked layers.

Fades the objects on locked layers to contrast them with objects on unlocked layers and reduces the visual complexity of a drawing. Objects on locked layers are still visible for reference and for object snapping.

Hope this helps.

AutoCAD 2010 - The Fun Begins

2009-05-19T21:19:00.006-05:00

I have evaluated the 2010 version of AutoCAD and implemented it and right away. Which might just be the fun part for CAD Managers everywhere. If you are getting ready to push a new version out, here is my check list.

Get a new Licence file from Autodesk.
Authorize your new software. It should prompt you after the install.
You'll probably need new print or plot drivers. I have KIP plotters and found the drivers I needed here by scrolling down to where it says KIP AutoCAD on the link above.
If you skipped 2009 (As I did), the ribbon needs to be seriously reviewed. Any custom content you have should also find a home in the ribbon. I'm looking at it as a chance to put everything into a work flow and organize it as it should have been all along. I image this is what Autodesk was think when they implemented the ribbon.
Updated workspaces, profiles and deployments for all.
Centralization of new CUIs. I am a control freak, and like to keep these files on a read only drive.
Check all the resources. There is the new features workshop, Cool things cards in with your disc and you can have manuals mailed to your office for awesome late night reading. Click here for the online version.
Lots of testing. I usually set everything up to work out the big bugs, and then release the new version to a select group to catch the things I didn't think of before pushing it out to everyone.
Training for users. This also means selling the dream., and making them want it. Chances are there are a few folks that won't want to do it. Be sure to demonstrate the cool feature that will make their life better. I like constraints and PDF enhancements.
Document any additions to your standards and revise anything that needs to be changed.

Good luck to all.

Export Linetypes

2009-04-28T07:16:00.003-05:00

Cadalyst sent me a tips and tricks email with the promise of a link to a lisp file written by Douglas Lerner to export linetypes from a drawing to a LIN file. But, there seems to be a bit of a broken link. I searched their site and came up with a lisp written in 1995 by Greg Oliver. Find it here, or copy paste from below.

; TIP1076.LSP: LLTYPES.LSP Extract Linetypes (c)1995, Greg Oliver

(defun dxf (CODE ELIST)
(cdr (assoc CODE ELIST))
)

(defun C:LLTYPES (/ LT WISH LTL LTS LTSM NDLI N LTN LTDES LTDEF DL STR LTFW LTFR FLAG)
(setq LT (tblnext "LTYPE" T)) ;first ltype
(initget 1 "Yes No") ;Establish keywords, no null
(setq WISH (getkword "\nWrite Linetype definitions to a file (Y/N) ? "))
(if (= WISH "Yes")
(progn
(setq LTFW (open "ltypes.lin" "a")) ;linetype file (for writing)
)
)
(while LT
(setq N 0
LTN (dxf 2 LT) ;ltype name
LTDES (dxf 3 LT) ;ltype description
NDLI (dxf 73 LT) ;number of dashed items
)
(if (> NDLI 0)
(progn
(setq ltl (member (assoc 49 lt) lt) ;list of "49" groups - dashed items
LTS (strcat "*" ltn ",") ;linetype string - eg. "*DASHED,"
LTSM (strcat "`*" ltn "`,*") ;string used in "wcmatch" - special chars. escaped
LTDEF (strcat "A") ;linetype definition + alignment code
DL 0
)
(while (setq DL (cdr (nth N LTL)))
(setq LTDEF (strcat LTDEF "," (rtos DL))
N (1+ N)
)
)
(if (= WISH "Yes")
(progn
(setq FLAG "write")
(setq LTFR (open "ltypes.lin" "r")) ;linetype file (for reading)
(while (/= (setq STR (read-line LTFR)) nil)
(if (wcmatch STR LTSM) ;check if linetype is already defined in file
(progn
(princ (strcat "\nLinetype " ltn " is already defined in ltypes.lin"))
(setq FLAG "nowrite")
)
)
)
(close LTFR)
(if (= FLAG "write") ;write linetype information to a file ?
(progn
(princ (strcat "\nWriting " ltn " definition to ltypes.lin"))
(princ (strcat LTS LTDES "\n") LTFW) ;linetype name & description
(princ (strcat LTDEF "\n") LTFW) ;definition
)
)
)
(progn
(princ (strcat LTS LTDES "\n"))
(princ (strcat LTDEF "\n"))
)
)
)
)
(setq LT (tblnext "LTYPE"))
)
(if LTFW (close LTFW)) ;if linetype file was opened, close it.
(princ)
)
(c:lltypes); end lltypes.lsp

__________________

Guillermo Melantoni's Blog - What a Mesh

2009-04-21T21:15:00.009-05:00

What took me so long to read Guillermo Melantoni's Blog What a Mesh?

I just posted on entering AutoCAD Exchange's Benign Design 3D contest. What better way to tip the scales in your favor than to reap the rich 3D knowledge of Guillermo Melantoni?

Another interesting fact about Guillermo, He plays spoons for a metal band that only does heavy covers of country songs. Wait, I made that up. He plays bass. Here is a cool picture of him rockin' out from his blog.Not to be out done here is a picture of me today, rocking out almost as hard.

And here is a picture of me inventing rocking out before the Internet, and color photos.

Benign Design Contest

2009-04-10T10:48:00.003-05:00

Check out this video with contest details. This is just plain funny. Bravo Autodesk.

If you have any 3D skills at all, enter this contest. One prize is a trip to San Francisco. I have been to Autodesk's offices there and it is well worth your time if you win. I bet they throw in a hat or some other swag, and the people there are very, very good-awesome-ie.

Yeah, I said good-awesome-ie.

Embedding Image Files

2009-04-03T08:39:00.004-05:00

I have a government client that demands that all X-References are bound. They recently expanded this to include attached image files. I just told them you can't bind an attached image file, when a smart-pants engineer in my office suggested that we just paste images in these files as OLE objects. They go static when they loose their reference but remain in the CAD file with nothing showing in the X-Reference manager to bug picky clients.

To paste as an OLE object, copy your image to the Windows clipboard then select "Paste Special" and select the OLE option.

Sweet.

True View 2010 is out.

2009-03-31T09:04:00.002-05:00

Again, I am so slow, but if you are slower than me...

True View 2010 is available for download.

Go and get it.

AutoCAD Exchange

2009-03-30T12:57:00.003-05:00

I am getting slow in my old age. I should have posted sooner about AutoCAD Exchange, but my dog ate my Blackberry. I have added a widget to my side bar showing some mighty cool links to Autodesk's AutoCAD Exchange site. I'm liking the site for everything AutoCAD. If you are geeky enough to be reading my ramblings, then leaping out to AutoCAD Exchange is definitely worth your time.

If you are really over the top about this site and wanted to know what I look like, there is an actual picture of me on AutoCAD Exchange right now, and they put me next to Lynn Allen. It's almost like being in a picture together with her, except for not really. Sign up to today, maybe you can get your picture wedged in between us.

Instant Override

2009-03-26T16:06:00.004-05:00

When using publish in AutoCAD based products any page setup can be used as an override from the default page setup in the layout tab. This is great because these page setups can be stored in a template file and used as needed.

Every once in a while you may find you need an override that has not been defined. To make one on the spot open the first drawing in your set and make the appropriate changes to the plot dialog and save the setup.

Save the drawing and invoke Publish. Make sure the drawing you changed is at the top of your list of drawings to publish. Select all the drawing layouts and use the down arrow by the what to publish to select the override you just made. Publish will apply it to all of the drawing in the queue.

Hatch Pattern Too Dense

2009-03-16T09:45:00.001-05:00

When opening a clients drawing I kept getting this error "Hatch Pattern Too Dense". After doing a little research I came across MaxHatch. This controls the number of elements hatch can create. The default value is 10000. To find out where you sit currently type the following on your command line. Be careful this command is case sensitive.

(getenv "MaxHatch")

To increase that number to its maximum copy and paste this on your command line.

(setenv "MaxHatch" "100000000")

Dealing with Different AutoCAD Drawing Versions

2009-03-09T10:31:00.005-05:00

Dealing with AutoCAD drawing versions can be a pain when you are sharing drawings. Many times members of the team are at different ends of CAD knowledge and resources. With 2010 getting ready to ship I thought I would share some tools I use to one find out what I'm dealing with and two convert file formats to make sharing a pleasure.

AVE has a nice Explorer that tells you what version drawings are and it's free. Down load it here. This is really helpful to use right before you send drawings out to ensure the drawing version is capable for the partner you are sending them too. I end up using it after the fact when they ask what version I sent.

Now that we know what we have, nothing beat True View for version conversions. True View

s number one use is as a DWG viewer. This allows non-technical or technically dangerous people the opportunity to open view and plot DWGs with messing the files up or taking valuable AutoCAD licences from the design team.

Equally cool, is the ability to batch convert from any AutoCAD DWG version to another (within reason).

Click the button indicated with the number 1 in the image below to launch the DWG Convert dialog.
Click the Icon indicated with a 2 to add drawings to be converted. You can grab a whole group at a time.
Select a set up. In place replaces files and folder creates a new folder the the new versions.
Create your own setup. This process is very straight forward, just dig in and you will do fine.

Hopes this helps someone who didn't know about either of these utilities. Good luck.

What's the future of AutoCAD

2009-02-09T20:42:00.004-06:00

At the AutoCAD 2010 Backstage Pass event I had the chance to learn about where the future of AutoCAD might lie. That being said, please read the same disclosure I read before you start counting on anything.

Some future trends are already starting to show with the addition of the ability to print to 3D printers in AutoCAD 2010. This feature builds on the ability to easily create and manipulate 3D objects by putting them in your hands in a short amount of time. One of the 3D prints I held in my own hands was a fully functioning mechanical gripping device with moving gears. The potential here to not only model in AutoCAD but to affordable print a 3D piece, test it and refine it before sending it to be manufactured is huge. Now take a leap forward to using a series of pictures or video to capture actual components or building data and bring that directly into a model.

Check out this Youtube video on Video Trace.

Some of you may have already seen the 8 foot touch screen shown below modeled by R.K. McSwain. This is pretty fun because you can put your hands right into your design to manipulate not only your perspective but also to refine your design.

John Schmier from Autodesk labs shows below how the Autodesk labs team modified this system to use a Wii remote for navigation. Finally my gaming will pay off. Just so you know, they did the same thing with a Play Station remote.

Other neat things I saw or heard about maybe for the future were;

Improving deployments for CAD Managers
Easing customization for users
Use of piont clouds
Improving portability back and forth with Autodesk verticals
Adding analysis tools
Always improving performance
Data Linking
Mesh to solid and solid to mesh
Parametric constraints in blocks (more on that later)

In the end the thing that stuck with me was the idea that AutoCAD is being designed to be an easy tool begin design with. It is getting easier to transfer those designs to other Autodesk software to refine them and also to transfer that refined data back to AutoCAD to share designs with others. I think we are going there, and I am looking forward to a whole line of Autodesk software coming together and sharing many common functions to facilitate interoperability and portability of data. AutoCAD is not going to fade away any time soon, just the opposite, Autodesk is leveraging a powerful tool to do even more.

OK I Lied

2009-02-06T15:58:00.003-06:00

Last week I got an email from Shaan Hurley asking if I would like to come out to San Francisco for the official AutoCAD 2010 product launch. I have to say thanks one one time to the fine folks at Autodesk for inviting me out to see this event in person. I have been Beta testing 2010 and well, during the actual product launch I made up my mind to resurrect the Lazy Drafter. There is just too much cool stuff to say an I am very excited about the direction Autodesk is taking with AutoCAD. More on that later, but first here are some behind the scenes photos of the event.

Heidi Hewett (Technical Marketing Manager), Eric Stover (Product Line Manager) and Guilermo Melantoni (AutoCAD Product Manager) Minutes before they went live.

Here's the production crew

So what goodies might you expect from me in the coming weeks?

PDF Enhancements
Making the ribbon work for you
What's the future of AutoCAD
The cool little things in AutoCAD you may have missed.

Besides seeing all the backstage stuff meeting everybody was a real pleasure. Be sure to check out their Blogs as well, mostly because they type faster than me.

Melanie Perry, Mistress of the Dorkness
Mark Douglas, In the Dynamic Interface

Ellen Finkelstein
Robin Capper, RobiNZ CAD Blog

Brian Benton, CAD-a-Blog
Donnie Gladfelter, The CAD Geek
Randall McSwain, CAD Panacea
Steve Johnson, blog nauseam
David Cohn, CADman-Do

Lastly Thanks Again Shaan Hurley Between the Lines

The Laziest Drafter

2008-11-15T10:10:00.000-06:00

I started this Blog in 2005 I think. The focus was on helping the everyday drafter progress in the business. The software for this Blog has always been AutoCAD. I have to admit something to myself now, I don't really use AutoCAD anymore. I didn't even upgrade to 2009 and the betas are out on the next version. I have been thinking about just dropping this Blog, especially since Mike Cooley and Josh Jones started www.lazydrafter.com . I think they are awesome, and they are doing what I should be.

While The Lazy Drafter has been my AutoCAD and CAD Management Blog, I also Started CAD Shack at the same time cover MEP specific topics mainly in ABS at the time. Now CAD Shack is solely focused on Revit MEP and BIM Management. That is where my passion is right now.

So in the spirit of laziness. I am pretty much letting this Blog sit until I think the information on it is no longer valid. There is tons of helpful information in here and I invite you all to check around, but you will find the cutting edge stuff on www.lazydrafter.com .

I, the Laziest Drafter will simply let others carry on.

If you are thinking or planning on moving to a Revit platform please check out CAD Shack . It's only getting better. Otherwise, thanks for all the hits, and comments.

Plotting and Paper

2008-07-22T19:58:00.000-05:00

I spend a lot of time thinking about how to make the design process smoother. Most of the time that means customizing AutoCAD, but sometimes it's good to look outside of CAD for shortcuts.

If there was ever fertile ground for this it would be plotting and paper. A good first step is to determine how much you spend on plotting. This means tracking lease payments, maintenance costs, paper and toner, even peoples time. The longer you track this information the more accurate your information becomes and you can spot trends in seasons or workloads. Spotting trends allows you the opportunity to act proactively not reactively.

Here is a simple thing that saved me time and money. My main paper size is 30x42. We print quite a bit of half size drawings for the engineers 15x21. Paper manufacturers have started making a 15" roll not too long ago. Once I added a 15" roll to my plotter, my team no longer had to spend time trimming every half size print that they would send and we send some large sets.

What did I save besides time? Well, paper. We just tossed the excess before, now we use it all. That feels good.

There's more you can do, but for now, maybe you should just go hug a tree.

The Lazy Drafter vs. Lazy Drafter

2008-07-17T20:48:00.000-05:00

Sometimes I'm so lazy I just Google lazydrafter to find my Blog. This week when I did it I noticed there was a new web page out there that was not me.

http://www.lazydrafter.com/

These guys Mike Cooley and Josh Jones totally stole my idea! But their site is pretty sexy and informative. Where I go on and on about laziness, they are lazier still. They get right to the point with quick product ideas and tools.

Bravo, you idea stealing jerks :)

Bravo.

Thomas Jefferson

2008-07-07T21:19:00.001-05:00

Thomas Jefferson has been called the Father of American Architecture.

If you can't read the caption, it says "President Jefferson had more important things to do than spend time on tedious title block updates."

This was in an advertisement for a company that makes 3rd party solutions for Bentley products, but I found it so funny, I had to pass it on.

Lag Time in 2009

2008-06-30T16:37:00.000-05:00

A friend of mine noticed a serious lag time between commands for only one of his users. After a lot of experimentation and dead ends he discovered that the user in question was using his command line as an un-docked palette. When he docked, the lag time disappeared.

Thanks to Jason Reis.

Invert Visible Layers

2008-06-10T16:23:00.000-05:00

I thought I might share a lisp that has come in handy on occasion.
This one inverts visible and non-visible layers. That is if you can see it now it turns it off, If it’s off or frozen now, it turns it on and thaws it. Some times it’s nice to see what you are not seeing I guess. A break down on the how and why is below if you are into that kind of thing.

(defun c:Invert-Layers ()
(setq oldexpert (getvar "expert"))
(setvar "expert" 5)
(setq L 1)
(while (setq X (tblnext "layer" L))
(setq L nil)
(setq B (assoc 62 X))
(setq F (assoc 70 X))
(setq FF (logand 1 (cdr F)))
; Make Off layers Visible
(if (< (cdr B) 0)
(progn
(setq LNA (cdr (assoc 2 X)))
(command "-layer" "T" LNA "ON" LNA "")))
;Make Thawed or On Layers Invisible
(if (> (cdr B) 0)
(progn
(setq LNB (cdr (assoc 2 X)))
(command "-layer" "OFF" LNB ""))
; Make Frozen layers Visible
(if (= 1 FF)
(progn
(setq LNC (cdr (assoc 2 X)))
(command "-layer" "T" LNC "ON" LNC "")))
)
(setvar "expert" oldexpert)
(princ)
)

The Break Down____________________________________

(defun c:Invert-Layers ()
Define the function and make it callable from the command line.

(setq oldexpert (getvar "expert"))
(setvar "expert" 5)
I had problems with AutoCAD warnings, changing the Expert setting suppresses them for the duration of the lisp.

(setq L 1)
Start a counter

(while (setq X (tblnext "layer" L))
Search the layer table

(setq L nil)
Ends the counter

(setq B (assoc 62 X))
Extract the color of the layer

(setq F (assoc 70 X))
(setq FF (logand 1 (cdr F)))
Extract the frozen/thawed indicator for the layer

(if (< (cdr B) 0)
(progn
(setq LNA (cdr (assoc 2 X)))
(command "-layer" "T" LNA "ON" LNA "")))
Layers that are off have negative layer colors. This bit finds layer colors less than zero and turns them on.

(if (> (cdr B) 0)
(progn
(setq LNB (cdr (assoc 2 X)))
(command "-layer" "OFF" LNB ""))
This bit finds layer colors greater than zero and turns them off.

(if (= 1 FF)
(progn
(setq LNC (cdr (assoc 2 X)))
(command "-layer" "T" LNC "ON" LNC "")))
This bit finds frozen layers, thaws them and turns them on.

)
(setvar "expert" oldexpert)
Returns the old expert setting

(princ)
)
Exits quietly. That is, it would print “nil” to the command line.