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What's your favourite ACAD prank?

70 REPLIES 70
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Message 1 of 71
troma
3624 Views, 70 Replies

What's your favourite ACAD prank?

Do you like to mess with your coworkers' minds?  What do you do?  Set MBUTTONPAN to 0?  I'll tell you my favourite later.  What's yours?


Mark Green

Working on Civil 3D in Canada

70 REPLIES 70
Message 21 of 71

There was DOS based Acad in High School?

Dang, why did I use that drafting machine?!

 

Smiley Very Happy

Message 22 of 71

Sowing your age? Smiley LOL I remember doing that in DOS based AutoCAD, probably R10±, where I'm working now! In High School drafting was pens, triangle and Leroy sets. Computer programming class was FORTRAN on Hollerith [key-punch] cards.



Allen Jessup
Engineering Specialist / CAD Manager

Message 23 of 71
troma
in reply to: Charles_Shade

You had a machine?  It was tee-squares & set-squares for us.  And that's not showing my age, since I'd hazard a guess that it's still the same in my old school.  My first CAD was on the job, work experience.  I believe it was 2000.


Mark Green

Working on Civil 3D in Canada

Message 24 of 71
AllenJessup
in reply to: troma

I don't know about High School. But our local community college still offers a class in Softdesk 8!



Allen Jessup
Engineering Specialist / CAD Manager

Message 25 of 71

The community college I went to phased out all paper drafting the year before I started there (1999?).

 

I sort of disagree with that. I think the time I spent laying out paper drawings in high school helped me understand scale and layout. I come across people even now who don't understand fully how to scale a drawing. Unreal.

 

lol... we actually had one instructor who made us spend the first half of the semester drawing by hand. We had to move the computers to the backs of the tiny desks and draw on 11x17 sheets. I think that was a mechanical class. A lot of the guys who'd been doing okay with CAD just fell down flat during those tasks, so, I'm sure they benefited greatly.

 

Don't get me wrong, I stopped paper drafting in high school as soon as I could. Complaining that the drafting machines were right-handed and it was discrimination, and it would be far more ergonomic if I was at a PC instead of trying to work around those ill-fitted machine. Smiley Tongue I was a bit of a teacher's pest, lol. He gave in.

 

Not only did I get to CAD more than just about anyone else, I also took a design course with the same guy and myself and another girl were allowed to use the only machine with 3ds Max on it. Hooboy was THAT A learning curve after using R10 and R12, lol. That was also the first class I ever did html in. That was really a great course, well-rounded.



Melanie Stone
Facilities Data Management
IWMS / CAFM / CMMS / AutoCAD / Archibus / Tririga / Planon / MRI Manhattan CenterStone / Revit / data normalization, data mapping, reporting and process documentation
mistressofthedorkness.blogspot.com/
Message 26 of 71
Light_Guy
in reply to: troma

First CAD I saw was R10 and that was in College in 1990. High school was purely hand drafting, NO machines, just triangles and t-squares. College was only the 1 class - CAD Drafting 152 I think it was. All the other classes were paper with the occasional option to use CAD.
I agree 100% Wanderer! You need that hand drafing to get a firm understanding of the basics of drafting. Scale, line weights, etc. Too bad the schools don't realize it though. Most of the kids that come in here now need a LOT of teaching!!!

Paul Hamor
"Always good ships!"
Message 27 of 71
cbenner
in reply to: troma

This one goes back to ACAD 10.  I was working with a contractor who was not very computer savvy.  He thought he was a manly man, so he was making fun of the fact that the shirt I was wearing had a pink stripe running through it.  Real men don't wear pink you see.  So after he left that night, I messed with his computer a bit.  In those days, we were using a batch file that had our PC's boot up right into Acad.  So I went into his Acad setup and changed all of the screen colors to bright pink.  Next morning when he turned on his computer all he got was a bright pink screen.  He freaked out, thought he had broken it somehow.  I let him suffer a little while before I fixed the colors for him.  Smiley Very Happy

Message 28 of 71
Charles_Shade
in reply to: troma

That machine was the only one in the classroom and I was the "chosen" one to use it. Did a drawing totally in ink with it. nerve racking as I recall.

Still have my first mechanical pencil, K&E compass set, T-square etc...

The treasures of days gone by.

 

R10 as well.

 

Message 29 of 71
doni49
in reply to: troma

I haven't done this since I was in school.  But it's my favorite.

 

Our school had one large CAD classroom with about 30 computers set up in it in 4 rows.  Two rows faced the opposing walls and the other two rows each faced each other.   The instructor had a whiteboard at the front of the room meaning anyone at their desk/computer turned to their left or right to see the board.  Ok now that you can picture the layout, for the two rows that faced each other:

 

I took the mouse from one computer and switched it with the mouse that belonged to the user facing you.  Then I took his mouse switched it with your neighbor.  The neighbor's mouse went to the person facing him and that person's mouse went to you.  This went on all down the two rows of computers.

 

I did similar with the keyboards--but with from/to different users.

 

Of course, I showed up to class quite early for that one. 

 

You should have seen the chaos!  🙂



Don Ireland
Engineering Design Technician




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Message 30 of 71
doni49
in reply to: troma

Here's another one from way back in my school days.  🙂

 

After earning my CAD degree, I stuck around for a second degree in computer mgmt.  I had really begun to understand the intracacies of how our network was setup.

 

The administrator had created a batch file called CM.bat which brought up the "CAD Menu".  And he also had a batch file called win.bat which configured a few things before starting Win 3.x.

 

Well one day I was in the computer lab working on my project.  A cad student who had still been in there left and when I was ready to leave 30 min later, he hadn't returned.  We were all told to never leave without logging off.  I decided to give him a reminder of the importance of logging off.  🙂

 

I marked ALL of his files and directories as hidden.  Then I created two batch files in his home folder (and marked both as hidden as well):  cm.bat and win.bat.  Both of them flashed a message to the screen ("You forgot to logout on xx/xx/xx") and a pause.  After the pause the appropriate batch file would run (cm.bat or win.bat as created by the network admin).

 

The next time he logged in, he saw my message and then couldn't find his files.  Boy was he relieved when the administrator tried to restore them from backup tape for him and found that they were already there (but hidden).  Bet he never forgot to logoff again.  🙂 

 

That was also the last time I did that.  The network admin was also my comp mgmt instructor and I'm sure he knew it was me.



Don Ireland
Engineering Design Technician




If a reply solves your issue, please remember to click on "Accept as Solution". This will help other users looking to solve a similar issue. Thank you.


Please do not send a PM asking for assistance. That's what the forums are for. This allows everyone to benefit from the question asked and the answers given.

Message 31 of 71
AllenJessup
in reply to: doni49

C:\DOS     C:\DOS\RUN    RUN\DOS\RUN



Allen Jessup
Engineering Specialist / CAD Manager

Message 32 of 71
CADiva
in reply to: troma

I took technical drawing in HS 'cause you couldn't take architectural drawing until you had.  It was a "go at your own pace" class, so I zipped right through the basics and beyond.  My classmates didn't care so much for that, but I was disinclined to care ... actually I met a few nice folks in that class I would never have known otherwise.

 

Anyway, the technical drawing was by hand and so was the first level of architectural drawing.  But for architectural drawings, we could use the parallel bar. 🙂  Since I was so quick, I got to use the computer for Arch Drawing II - R10 with a carpy-a$$ pen plotter (what do you expect for a high school class with hand-me down equipment?).

 

Oh, and we had one of those old diazo machines ... when I started work here 2 years later, they must've been surprised I knew how to make blueprints.

 

And random trivia - my HS instructor was a cousin of Goose Gossage. (I had no idea who Goose Gossage was in HS!)

Message 33 of 71
doni49
in reply to: CADiva

I took technical drawing in HS 'cause you couldn't take architectural drawing until you had.

 

Similar situation for me too.  In Jr High, I learned that I liked wood shop.  When it was time for 9th grade, I signed up for wood shop.  I found out on the first day of class that the first semester is spend doing board drafting with pencils, triangles and T-Squares etc.  I actually ended up liking that at least as much as the woodworking itself.

 

So after HS, I wanted to go to the local technical college to study drafting.  I was there for a whole semester when my drafting instructor announced that they had recently purchased a bunch of computers and something called "AutoCAD".  I decided to try it out just to see what it was like.  And the rest is history.



Don Ireland
Engineering Design Technician




If a reply solves your issue, please remember to click on "Accept as Solution". This will help other users looking to solve a similar issue. Thank you.


Please do not send a PM asking for assistance. That's what the forums are for. This allows everyone to benefit from the question asked and the answers given.

Message 34 of 71
troma
in reply to: doni49

This would work even better if they were all wireless!  I actually tried that here in the office once, but I think they were too far away from eachother, and the guys knew how to just hit the button and reconnect to their own machine.


Mark Green

Working on Civil 3D in Canada

Message 35 of 71
AllenJessup
in reply to: CADiva


@CADiva wrote:

a carpy-a$$ pen plotter (what do you expect for a high school class with hand-me down equipment?).

 


I remember when we got our first pin plotter at my first job. It was a wonder. The beginning of the end of hand drafting. But we didn't have CAD. We had a DOS based Surveying program that would interface with the plotter. You would create a batch file that would tell it to draw a line, bearing and distance between 2 points. 3 points described a curve. We would create a TXT file with notes and put the insertion point and size in the batch file. The first map was a wetlands delineation survey. When the boss met with the DEC. They were so impressed with the map that they just accepted it.

This does lead to a prank. Because the plotter used pens. You could use a 00 pen. The Town asked for a 1" = 300' scale plot of a subdivision plat. We knew it was because they wanted to be able to trace it on to their hand drawn tax maps. But we put out the whole map at the 300 scale, complete with notes, legend, bulk table, etc. It was completely readable with a magnifying glass. My boss even included on of the cheap flat plastic magnifiers with the plat plotted on Mylar.



Allen Jessup
Engineering Specialist / CAD Manager

Message 36 of 71
troma
in reply to: doni49

Reminds me of when I was working in the computer room in college and a bunch of guys in my class were standing round the computer right next to me.  Clearly there was something tittilatingly nefarious going on.  So I used the NET SEND feature in XP to send a message to them.  (I had to check my own NET NAME first, but I knew which way the numbers went in the room.)  I said something like "Please leave this website immediately and report to the office of Jane Smith" (she being our 'dear leader').  Well, I've never seen a computer room clear out so quickly.  I wonder what any of them said if they did report to the office, but I doubt they did.  At least I got to work in peace!


Mark Green

Working on Civil 3D in Canada

Message 37 of 71
troma
in reply to: CADiva


@CADiva wrote:

 

 (I had no idea who Goose Gossage was in HS!)


I still have no idea!  (OK, I just Googled him, so I have some idea.)


Mark Green

Working on Civil 3D in Canada

Message 38 of 71

R10 was my first CAD, too. But, I remember my Grandpa showing me an older version back when I was a kid.

 

http://www.augi.com/library/poll-what-was-your-first-version-of-autocad (may have to log in to see this)

 

The question was asked, what was your first release of AutoCAD? and the highest number (13.3%) was for release 10!

 

"It looks like 54% of our AutoCAD users began somewhere between Release 9 and Release 14."



Melanie Stone
Facilities Data Management
IWMS / CAFM / CMMS / AutoCAD / Archibus / Tririga / Planon / MRI Manhattan CenterStone / Revit / data normalization, data mapping, reporting and process documentation
mistressofthedorkness.blogspot.com/
Message 39 of 71

Well you can count me in that number too.  I started on R10 in 1991.



Don Ireland
Engineering Design Technician




If a reply solves your issue, please remember to click on "Accept as Solution". This will help other users looking to solve a similar issue. Thank you.


Please do not send a PM asking for assistance. That's what the forums are for. This allows everyone to benefit from the question asked and the answers given.

Message 40 of 71


@doni49 wrote:

Here's another one from way back in my school days.  🙂

 

That was also the last time I did that.  The network admin was also my comp mgmt instructor and I'm sure he knew it was me.


~sheepish~ Okay, that reminds me.

 

The sample AutoCAD files were stored on the network at my community college. We all would connect and then download a copy to our machines to work from.

 

I noticed that there were no write restrictions. I opened up the plan of the school's campus, zoomed into a random office, and, on the desk was a telephone, in the caller ID screen, I typed "Jacobs is a jerk." and saved the file.

 

 

 

(back story: That was the name of the head of the drafting program. He'd known me since high school, when I'd placed repeated in every drafting competition in the area, some of which he was an an admin over. He let me test out of Intro to Drafting, since I'd had 3 1/2 years of it in high school, but, he refused to let me test out of Intro to CAD, because I'd never used R14 (the school was using R2000 at the time, my last release used was r13 for windows). He let a kid who'd been homeshcooled test out of both during the same session.

I spent the first 10 minutes of each class doing the night's work while the teacher lectured, then I spent the rest of the class (first explaining to the teacher how I'd done each task differently than he'd expected me to do) helping other students.

I think I did the final in about 20 minutes... mirror and array were helpful. Bless that instructor, he was always curious about whatever I was experimenting with.

So, yeah, as someone who paid cash for their school classes all by themselves while working at barely above minimum wage, the hundreds of dollars I wasted on a class I could have easily tested out of it was something that still rankles with me 14 years later. LOL.)

 



Melanie Stone
Facilities Data Management
IWMS / CAFM / CMMS / AutoCAD / Archibus / Tririga / Planon / MRI Manhattan CenterStone / Revit / data normalization, data mapping, reporting and process documentation
mistressofthedorkness.blogspot.com/

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