Caddude Conversations - AutoCAD & AutoCAD electrical tips and tricks! Paste it as a block!

Get the most out of your AutoCAD work with CommandPreview. This feature gives you a preview of your editing commands, allowing you to make adjustments before committing to the action and streamlining your workflow.

  I was inspired by @shelby_l_smith and her recent post about the CHSPACE command, found here: https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/autodesk-community-tips-autocad/little-bits-change-space/tac-p/11701994#M92, and wanted to highlight another one of my favorite time-saving commands.   NCOPY, or Copy Nested Objects, is found under the Express Tools > Blocks menu section or by entering "NCOPY" at the command line.   NCOPY magically pulls objects through an xref, block, or DGN underlay. You don't have to open the xref or explode the block to make select linework active in your drawing. You also don't modify the source drawing or block. An example I often use is the NCOPY command to bring a property line or utility from a received TOPO file into our site file. We may have scaled the TOPO from Ground to Grid and then need to maintain that scale in the design drawings that we produce and show that linework, even when the TOPO is unloaded.   Another example is when I am constructing an existing surface from Points and feature lines. I copy the most obvious linework from a TOPO file but will always need to bring in other lines as the surface is refined quickly. I can NCOPY the lines directly from the TOPO xref, as I am working on the surface, without switching back and forth between drawings.   There are more things that NCOPY can do, and you can read about them in the official help article here: https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/autocad/learn-explore/caas/CloudHelp/cloudhelp/2020/ENU/AutoCAD-Core/files/GUID-12FCCFDF-9B3B-48D0-AC46-DF1D3519B0E5-htm.html    NCOPY is a core command, along with CHSPACE, that I teach and highlight as often as possible. It is one of those magic commands that elevates our CAD game and impresses your friends. 😉   I'd love to hear more examples of how everyone uses NCOPY in their discipline in the comments!   Thanks❣️

Change Space   Have you ever been working hard on a project, deep into concentration, then realized you were adding your labels in paper space versus the model space of your viewport?

Did you know that you can annotate and dimension your design in an active layout viewport in your drawing?

Back in the old days, we normally create a closed polygon followed by extrude command to create solid from the shape we created. Now Autocad has this PressPull command. Let us see what it can do. Sample 1. We have a group of polylines. We don't need to create a closed polygon and or create a boundary out of it to make it as a solid object. Just go to PressPull toolbar and select the inner part of the drawn lines. What if we have obstructing lines in the center, just do the same procedure but for this one press first SHIFT on the keyboard and add those enclosed area you want to extrude. Then with UNION command, you can combine those objects if you want to.   Sample 2 Group of line having an inner shape. If the area is not bounded or obscured with any other lines, just use presspull right away. But if the area is bounded by a crossing line, just press SHIFT then select those bounded area you want. Sample 3 How about a shape with another shape inside (A) and with another shape on the side (B, C) Sample 4 Here is another example, a complex shapes, (Masarabia Pattern) Sample 5 A solid shape. If you wan to substract another shape, just draw on its surface, be sure sure DUCS is active (F6 on keyboard) Sample 6 A floor plan. You wish to add some door. 

Want to know the layer of an object in an xref? Use XLIST. What if the xref name + layer name is longer than the dialog can display? Use -XLIST. What if you need to copy the information to the clipboard? Use -XLIST.

If you are using the Area option for the Measure tool, did you know that with an extra right-click, there's an Object option?

Did you know that you can drag and drop your ribbon panels into the drawing area?

We normally attached images in our  Autocad drawing in either of the following ways 1).drag and drop from folder to viewport  2). copy paste - copy image form folder to viewport 3). by external referencing. To some cases, we shared the file and forgot to include the images, what will happen then, when you open the drawing, the image is gone. Here's the tips 1. open first your image in any of your 2d image editor, in a normal case MS Paint 2. Press CTRL A then hit VTRL C 3. Go to your drawing, on your active viewport, press CTRL V to paste the image 4. Rescale if necessary 5. Save your file If you share your drawing even the image file is not included, the image attached to drawing can be seen and don't have issue at all  

Development resources I've used over the years

All you need to know about automating the process of checking the drawings.

MASSPROP helps you get data like Mass, centroid, Area, etc.

 

When it comes to Alternate Units, 0.03937 is the obscure number used to display Imperial units on a Metric drawing with units set to Millimeters. 

Did you know that you can quickly change an Attribute Value in a block by holding down the Ctrl key while double-clicking on the Text Attribute?

Use the Express Tools TORIENT command to simultaneously rotate multiple text objects to an angle defined by picking two points in a drawing.

Have you ever opened a Civil 3D drawing and there were warnings all over your drawing like the below screen shot?     Some of you may have realized that they size relative to the screen. So, if you zoom in and do a REGEN, they resize to your zoom level like shown below...     What exactly are these warning symbols?   These are warnings that show when the content of a label was changed. It does not plot and is only for informational purposes. The problem is, labels change constantly. So, that means you are ALWAYS going to see these symbols.   How do you turn these labels off for good?   Very easy. Navigate to your OPTIONS. Click on the AEC Editor tab (the very last tab). Uncheck Drafting under Solution Tips.     That's it! No more pesky warning symbols. I hope this helps!

You can find a French version at the end   When you want to share a tool palette you have created with other AutoCAD users, you can look for files with the "atc" extension in this location: C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Autodesk\AutoCADXXXX\R2X\en\Support\ToolPalette You then copy these files to a folder on a common server. Also remember to copy the folder named "Images"   To prevent end users from modifying the tool palettes, you can make the "atc" files read-only.     On each workstation where you want the shared tool palettes to appear, you can specify in the AutoCAD options under the category named "Tool palette file location" the path where the files with the "atc" extension are located     When you want to update your tool palettes, you can copy the modified "atc" files to the folder containing the palette files overwriting the previous files, this will update the tool palettes on other workstations where the share path has been declared in the AutoCAD options. A restart of the software is required to update the contents of the palettes. Don't forget to check that the files are read-only if you want the palettes to remain locked. French version / version française   Partage et mise à jour automatique de palettes d’outils sur AutoCAD.   Lorsque vous souhaitez partager une palette d’outils que vous avez créée avec d’autres utilisateurs d’AutoCAD, vous pouvez aller chercher les fichiers avec l’extension « atc » à cet emplacement : C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Autodesk\AutoCADXXXX\R2X\en\Support\ToolPalette\Palette Vous copiez ensuite ces fichiers dans un dossier sur un serveur commun. Pensez également à copier le dossier nommé « Images »   Pour empêcher les utilisateurs finaux de modifier les palettes d’outils, vous pouvez mettre les fichiers « atc » en lecture seule.     Sur chaque poste où vous voulez voir apparaître les palettes d’outils partagées, vous pouvez indiquer dans les options d’AutoCAD sous la catégorie nommée « Emplacement des fichiers de palettes d’outils » le chemin où se trouvent les fichiers avec l’extension « atc »   Lorsque vous souhaiterez mettre à jour vos palettes d’outils, vous pourrez copier les fichiers « atc » modifiés dans le dossier contenant les fichiers de palettes en écrasant les fichiers précédents, cela mettra à jour les palettes d’outils sur les autres postes ou le chemin de partage a été déclaré dans les options d’AutoCAD. Un redémarrage du logiciel est nécessaire pour actualiser le contenu des palettes. N’oubliez pas de vérifier que les fichiers sont en lecture seule si vous souhaitez que les palettes restent verrouillées.