Who Has My Drawing Open?

It hasn't to me for years but it did yesterday. I tried to open a drawing but it was locked by another user, and I had no idea who it was.

I fell back on an AutoCAD command I haven't used for years and it still works great.

Type "whohas" on the command line, and browse to the file in question.

Click the Open button in the Select Drawing to Query dialog and Wa-Shaw!

It was Spellerberg all along! SPELLERBERG!!!!!!!

How to Make More Money

• Take the AUGI Salary Survey 

• Wait for the results, typically released September or October.

• Compare your salary with Melanie's data.

• Use data and math to negotiate a better deal.

• Your SO is all gonna be like "You are so awesome!" and stuff.

My Favorite Place for Favorites

I am sure you are aware of the Favorites function in Autodesk products allowing you to quickly navigate to jobs by picking them off a "short" list.

 Buried in the tools drop down, is the "Add to Favorites" function.

This I hope you know already. You may not know that you can right click on the taskbar, select Toolbars, then pick New toolbar...

Browse to your Favorites folder to add it to the taskbar. Now you can access your favorites for more than just CAD.

Date Field that Updates

 I am working on a file, and I want a date stamp on it, not a plot stamp. Plot stamps do a great job of displaying when a drawing was last plotted. For this project I want to see the date stamp update like a normal field. On Open, Save, Plot, eTransmit, and Regen for sure.

Turns out that Date fields do not update the way all other fields do.

To side step the issue, I used a bit of Diesel code "$(editime,0,MON DD","YYYY -H:MMam/pm)"

The difference is that when I Regen, the Diesel field updates. Thanks ancient CAD technology!

Input Search Options

I like it when when AutoCAD suggests possible commands when I type on the command line, but lately I have been frustrated by the new AutoComplete function. When I type F for fillet, AutoComplete starts a guessin' and throws in FN a short cut for Flag Note. Not quite the same thing, frowny face.

If you would like more control over the AutoComplete function and how AutoCAD tries to predict your behavior, right click in the command line and select Input Settings or the handy-Dandy Input Search Options.

Then just turn off AutoComplete to fix my particular problem. 

But look around in this dialog. The level of control is quite impressive, and sure to satisfy about every users needs.

Why I like File Tabs

If you have upgraded to AutoCAD 2014, there is no missing the file tabs across the top of your drawing window. I will be honest, I didn't really see a reason for file tabs, but much like beer, what might have tasted bad at first, can become a part of your life that you just can't seem to live without after you get used to it.

Here is why the File tabs are cool.

No More Around the Horn
No more Ctrl+Tab to get to the open drawing I want. Just click on the drawing you want to look at and go.

Save All
Right click on a file tab and select Save All. It saves all you open drawings with one click.

Order up! 

Just drag the file tabs to what ever location you prefer them.

Closing Time!

Right click on a tab to get 3 options for closing drawings. You have to like Close All and Close all except This Tab.

Location and Path
I wrote a command a long time ago to open Windows explorer to the current drawings location. Now I can ditch that in favor of right clicking on the tab for it. I can also copy the file path to paste into emails and whatever.

If you still don't like the file tabs, type "FileTabClose" on the command line and they will disappear. If you have guilt about making them go away, just type "FileTab" to bring them back.

Display Driver Missing or Corrupted and Hardware Acceleration

I had quite an issue on a machine that I had installed AutoCAD 2014 on multiple times, but every time I tried to fire it up I would get this "Display driver file is missing or corrupted" error. Then AutoCAD would crash.

I copy pasted drivers and files from a working machine but nothing. Then I thought, "I have been having issues with hardware acceleration".

I added this switch "/nohardware" to the start up icon, and wa-shaw! no worries.

I am looking into which drivers, video cards, and yadda, yadda, but at least now we can fire up this machine and draft things.

Back to business people.

Oh Snap!

Today I got asked why every time a user pressed F3 the Osnap settings dialog appeared instead of the Osnaps toggling on and off. Clicking the osnap icon at the bottom of the drawing window produced the same result. The answer was revealed when I looked at the settings dialog.

No snaps were selected, so AutoCAD figured if you want to toggle on the snaps, you might want it to mean something by selecting a snap. Selecting any snap, returned the toggling tools back to normal.

I am naming this phenomena the Dan Maneuver, in honor of Dan's perplexing question. 

AutoCAD, when did you get smarter than us?

Who do you trust?

After installing AutoCAD 2014, you may have an issue with some routines that worked fine in the past. In my case it came down a lisp that gets called from outside of my normal environment. You may already know that the addition of Trusted Locations, is an effort to increase the security of AutoCAD. It limits the use of lisps, executables, and the such to only the ones found in trusted locations specified in Options on the Files Tab. The "Trustedpaths" system variable can be used to command line the trusted locations.

Now that we have the ability, I had to track down the location of these files so I can add them to the list of Trusted Locations. After a bit, I got tired of looking because.... I'm Lazy duh. So instead I hopped over to the System tab. there you will find an "Executable File Settings" button. Click that, and choose the top selection, which just like it says, will load from all locations without displaying a warning. You can accomplish the same thing with the "Secureload" system variable, setting it to 0,1, or 2. those number equate top to bottom of the choices in the dialog.

There is also a "trusteddomains" system variable out there to add trusted sited to download from.

Limiting Layers

Layers are awesome. 

They are the key to everything visibility in AutoCAD. 

Because of that, people generally feel that for maximum control, you need maximum layers. Compound that with the fact that a drawing rarely stands alone. In fact most drawings have other drawings with maximum layers in them being referenced in. The result... (infinity)x(infinity) layers.

Well, not infinity, but in the example below, the user needs to navigate 233.

By selecting "Xref" in the left panel, then checking the "Invert filter" box, the user only has to navigate the 98 layers that are actually in the drawing being used. That helps!

Properties, Properties, Properties

If you are old enough to remember when AutoCAD didn't have a Properties, window, pallet, dialog, or anything... when a properties anything pops up on your screen you more than likely go full on grumpy geezer.

Well, here are the most common ways a properties something injects itself into your workflow grandpa. 

First if you see this....

Try setting your Rollovertips = 0

If you see this....

That is Quick Properties. Click the button circled in red in the image to turn it off.

If you see this one...

Selection Cycling is turned on. Turn it off by clicking the circled icon in the image above.

tSpaceInvaders

Every once in a while I come across a crazy command or in this a case a command with a crazy name. So back in the 1980 there was a great video game called Space Invaders. Oddly enough there is an AutoCAD command (Express Tools) called tspaceinvaders.

The command will ask you to select objects then show you every where a text object has an object on top of it invading its space. it will allow you to step through each instance and fix them along the way. It a classic game and a classic problem.

Who knew there was also a command to handle it.

CUI Tricks

You might not need this tricks everyday, but when you do.... boo ya!

Grey out a command....

 

 

Explode a block on insert....

 

Insert a Block Over and Over Again...

 Invoke a command but surpress the dialog...

Revit Window Tile for AutoCAD

When you have been drafting a while, your hands just start to take care of business out of habit without  any real thought. Its a reflex. The hard part of drafting by reflex is when you have to switch from one software to the other on a daily basis. In my case it's AutoCAD for a bit, then Revit, some more AutoCAD, more Revit. I find myself doing things in AutoCAD that only work in Revit.

I use WT in Revit to tile the Revit windows. I find I want to do that in AutoCAD now. So I wrote a little lisp to make it do the same thing.

Making things the same in both programs, let's me draft by reflex, which is super productive/

Super Script and Sub Script with Mtext

Creating special characters in AutoCAD can make you feel like you are in a secret club that knows all the codes like %%D for diameter and %%P for plus or minus. 

The Mtext dialog has some real strange symbols hiding under the @ button like Monument line and Not equal. Squared and cubed are included but what if you get into a situation like 1st where you want super script the letters st?

There is a little trick with the stacking function that can really be useful.

In the Mtext dialog add the ^ symbol found above the number 6 on your keyboard ahead of text that you want to be a sub script. Select the text and the ^ then click the stack button and boom, there you go.

Do the same for a super script but in this case put the ^ after the required text.

Convert Exploded Attributes to Text

It doesn't happen often that I need this LISP, but when I have, it has been a life saver. 

In today's situation, we are linking a CAD file into a Revit project and the text would not come through. Looking at the CAD file we received, the text is all attributes that have been exploded.

This little gem saved the day. One other thing we end up doing is changing the font for the text in AutoCAD to Zurich LT BT. It looks like Simplex, but plots way better out of Revit.

I don't remember where this lisp came from and it isn't documented, but thank you so much stranger.


;;;
;;; Convert Attribute definitions to text
;;;

(defun c:A2T (/ eset1 blkcnt en enlist vl space)
  (setq eset1  (ssget (list (cons 0 "ATTDEF")))
blkcnt 0
  )

  (if eset1
    (while (<= blkcnt (- (sslength eset1) 1))
      (setq en   (ssname eset1 blkcnt)
   enlist (entget en)
   space  (cdr (assoc 67 enlist))
      )
      (setq vl (list
(cons 0 "TEXT")
(cons 100 "AcDbEntity")
(cons 100 "AcDbText")
(assoc 7 enlist)
(assoc 8 enlist)
(assoc 10 enlist)
(assoc 40 enlist)
(cond ((assoc 62 enlist))
      ((cons 62 256))
)
(cons 1 (cdr (assoc 2 enlist)))
(if (= space nil)
  (cons 67 0)
  (cons 67 space)
)
      )
      )
      (entdel en)
      (entmake vl)
      (setq blkcnt (1+ blkcnt))
    )
  )
)

Qontext is now part of Autodesk

Autodesk just announced that it acquired the Qontext Social Collaboration Platform. You can plan on seeing it used to expand the social capabilities of its products and of Autodesk's cloud-based service, Autodesk 360 and enable new social functionalities. 

Add to this the recently announced new features in AutoCAD WS; 

• 8M+ downloads 
• A real-time activity feed 
• Comment organization within a design 
• The ability to add and tag new stakeholders in a conversation 
• Photos pinning to specific locations within drawings

It is becoming clear that the way we communicate is evolving, probably quicker than some traditional design firms may be prepared for. For some reason that made me think of the old typing exercise....

The quick red fox jumped over the lazy brown dog.

Spell Checky Thingy

Two things;

1) When writing out the title to this article I noticed that "Thingy" is some how a word, and "Checky" is not.

B) When you are typing, that's a good time to notice that words are misspelled. AutoCAD has been providing this feedback for a while in the form of a red squiggly line under misspelled words.

Some how, this function can get turned off, and no matter how appropriate soooo Aweesome! is, it would be nice to know that it is not proper English.

Right click in the text editor and select "Editor Settings" to put a check mark by "Check Spelling". Or turn it off and be the free spirit you deserve to be.

Keep Your Profile in the Cloud

I'm not going to say this any better than Brian Benton did on the CADalyst site, so go over there and check out this slick way to store your customization in the cloud.

Acaddoc.lsp Instead of Scripts

I had a situation today where the base point in a whole mess of drawings were all wrong causing an X-reference nightmare. You can create a script file and use something like script pro to run a series of commands on a batch of drawings. As an alternative I added a specific set of commands to acaddoc.lsp specific to the user who was doing the work. the result was that every drawing she opened afterwards would move the base point to the proper location before the command line even showed up. She open the 60+ drawing from Windows Explorer, then used the "Closeall" command to shut the whole thing down. Took just a few minutes, and I had time for extra donuts.


It's something to consider anytime you have something to do over and over again in a lot of drawings. Don't forget to turn off the command string when you are done though!