Minor Annoyances: Auto-complete commands, right-click menu, and OSnap/DynamicInput toggling

[tcoppens84SWP]

Was wondering if anyone else has run into these issues and if they've found a solution:

1. About 50% of the time, the auto-complete command feature works as intended. Usually I can, for example, type AEW then quickly hit Enter before auto-complete pops up, and it will pick up that I meant AEWIRE and execute the command. The other 50% of the time, I will start to type the command, and nothing will auto-complete. The letters just sit in the CMD line with nothing happening, no matter how long I wait. If I press Enter, the CMD line returns the "Unknown command" error (it misbehaves for all kinds of other commands as well, ACAD and ACADE). There is no rhyme or reason to when it will behave or malfunction. 

2. Also about 50% of the time, when I select a component and right click, it will bring up the radial shortcut menu, I'll make a selection as normal, but then it will immediately display the regular AutoCAD right-click menu as if I had right-clicked in empty space. I will hit Esc or click out of the right-click menu and it will go to whatever command I chose initially from the ACADE radial menu. Then when I exit out of whatever command window it was, my cursor behaves as though I was in the middle of dragging a selection box. I can't seem to pin down the circumstances that cause it to do this. It's not a huge hindrance, but it just slows me down and interrupts me. 

3. Lastly, and this is the most intrusive, my Object Snap and Dynamic Input settings will randomly turn on and off. I ALWAYS want Dynamic Input turned on because of personal preference. As for the OSnaps, sometimes the entire feature gets turned off, and sometimes an arbitrary number of snaps types get toggled on or off. Like I will end up with OSnaps turned on, but only the "Nearest Point" snap will be activated, which I never use. Or I will turn on OSnaps just for it to be turned off a few minutes later. It honestly feels like someone is messing with me!

The combination of these three things is driving me crazy. We just got brand-new PC's at work with 16GB of RAM, i9 processors, and high-end graphics cards, so I don't think it could be a performance issue. What's going on here??

[jseefdrumr]

Well, I can't really speak to the first two issues as I've never experienced them personally.

As for the third one, pay attention and see if perhaps you're seeing OSNAPS change after you use ESC to cancel a command. Some commands trigger certain snaps as they run, and they're supposed to revert your snap settings back to what they were at the end of the command. Sometimes canceling with the ESC key can prevent the snaps from being reset.

[dougmcalexander]

I only use the command line for setting global variables, or to bring up the CUI editor, S for stretch (rarely) and things of that sort. During actual design, I stick to the context-driven (right-click) menu, or I preselect the command/utility from the ribbon menu.  I use the ribbon much of the time because many of the commands, when chosen via the ribbon, can act on multiple drawing elements simultaneously.  Since I rarely use the command line, I haven't seen an issue like you describe. 

I can say that years ago, while I was teaching a class at an Autodesk ATC with brand new, super-fast PCs, I ran into an issue that I believed was related to the speed of the processor.  I reported the situation to Autodesk.  It was a repeatable error.  They thought I was crazy, but they later confirmed that the processor was processing so fast that the software wasn't always ready.  I seem to recall that they had to add a wait-state for certain command sequences to force the processor to wait for input.

The markup (context-driven) menu requires that your mouse cursor is touching some portion of the object you wish to edit.  If you hover over the object, but don't let the mouse cursor touch a portion of it, the AutoCAD Electrical engine will not take control.  Be sure that the object illuminates, to indicate that your cursor is touching a portion of it.

As far as OSNAPS go, it is best to leave them off during schematic development.  OSNAPS can cause issues.  For example, you try to place a transformer in the middle of a ladder rung, but it snaps to the end of the wire.  I use SNAP-to-grid religiously, but not OSNAP.  On the rare occasion that I need an OSNAP I bring up the snap options with Shift+right-click, which is done after you have selected a command and are choosing the from and to points. 

Note: AutoCAD Electrical will automatically enable the Nearest OSNAP during the AEWIRE command sequence, and it will disable it again, once the wire insertion is completed.  The software controls that autonomously.