Operating System

Can I Run AutoCAD 2000 in Windows XP   For clear guidance of what has "Officially" been tested see the Autodesk web site at   http://www.autodesk.com/us/xp_compatibility.htm

   

Absolute Begineers

I'm looking for suggestions for a good AutoCAD book & Tutorials Make sure that you remember to use the online help, this is a digital version of the manual.   The learning assistance CD-Rom that came with your legal copy of AutoCAD is a good place to start.   Check out the link section of my web site. There are some great free tutorial resources on the web.   Check out my download section including “How to Draw”   Best Value for money book available has to be:-   Introduction to AutoCAD 2000 Author J.T.Roberts Published by Payne-Gallway Publishers Ltd. ISBN 1-903112-23-0 Price £6.95   This book takes you by the hand and shows you how to create a drawing of an L shaped fictitious building, starting with a blank electronic sheet and ending with a 3D building. In 126 pages ( including, contents, introduction and index )   As much as I hate giving Autodesk any more or my money, it has to be said that the Autodesk Official Training Knowledge Works Courseware is well worth the money.

 

Model Space V Paper (Layout) Space, The Great Debate

Should I use Model Space and Paper Space ?   This is a subject of great debate, which then usually involves X-Refs and X-Clips. Paper Space is a hard concept for some people to get to grips with. Below are some links to Articles on the subject that are very well written. At the end of the day the best method of working is the one you find the easiest to understand and work with.   I worked in Model Space only because the CAD Packages I had been using did not have Paper Space.   In AutoCAD 2000 and later this is now called Layout Space and this better describes it's function. Having made the transition from Model Space to Paper Space for plotting and laying out drawings, would I go back?;. I doubt it, Paper Space has too much to offer   Tutorials and Guides by Lynn Allen AutoCAD 2000: A Paper Space Odyssey - by Lynn Allen, CADENCE March 2000 Lost in Paper Space - Again - (Part 1) Lynn Allen revisits once of the most popular AutoCAD subjects, CADENCE, June 2001 Lost in Paper Space - Again (part 2) - - Lynn Allen explains the use of viewports for AutoCAD users, CADENCE, Aug 2001 Setting Scale Factors in Paper Space - (part 3) of Lynn Allen's series on AutoCAD's Paper Space, CADENCE, Sep 2001 Perfect Paper Space, Part 1 - tips on using the paper space (layouts) functionality in AutoCAD 2005, Lynn Allen, Cadalyst, April 10, 2004 Perfect Paper Space, Part 2 - AutoCAD tutorial explores paper space viewports, which help with design documentation and plotting, Lynn Allen, Cadalyst, May 17, 2004 Paper Space Dimensioning: The Final Chapter! - dimensioning in AutoCAD paper space, Lynn Allen, CADENCE, Oct 2001 Marvelous MVSETUP - using AutoCAD's Make View Setup helps shorten model space and layout setup procedures, Lynn Allen, CADENCE, June 2002 Other Authors Basic AutoCAD - Paperspace & Layout View - explains how to work with paperspace and layout views and how to print from these views to scale, Autocad Central, August 6, 2003 Paper Space Tutorial - explores AutoCAD's Paper Space features, Paul A. Turvill, Tee Square Graphics, August 2002 Paper Space and Model Space - one of many tutorials from myCADsite.com If you find anymore tutorials or articles on the web please let me know.

 

Printing & Plotting Questions

Does anyone know or can recommend software that can be used to write PDF files in AutoCAD ?   There are several good ones, ranging from "free" to Adobe Acrobat for about $200. We finally settled on Acrobat because of its versatility and the ability to do multiple page documents, add bookmarks and links, security and other features. The PDF Distiller that's included behaves in AutoCAD just like any other "system printer" and can produce PDF's that are pretty much indistinguishable from "real" plot   Try this freeware: 'OttoPDF', available at: http://www.myndkryme.com/products/ottopdf.html Sorry I haven't tried it so I can't really say how well it works.   Goto http://www.ctrlp.com and register. CtrlP are an online print house. Once you have registered and logged in, you can go to their files download area and download 5D PDF Creator for free. It installs as a printer driver and instead of printing to paper. it creates PDF files and is a superb piece of software. Hope this helps.

 

AutoCAD Environment Questions

Is it possible to lock toolbars in position in AutoCAD?   Yes, www.manusoft.com have a free ARX file for R14 that will lock toolbars down, allowing you to move them while holding down the CTRL key. So the only way to move them is intentionally That's one of the features provided by the shareware QuikPik utility for R2000 found at http://www.manusoft.com/Software/QuikPik/Index.stm      Can I get the layer name display box to show the entire name for layers with extra long names?   For AutoCAD 20000 That's one of the features provided by shareware utility called QuikPik available from Manusoft. Check the web site http://www.manusoft.com/Software/QuikPik/Index.stm     For some bizarre reason my dialogue boxes have decided they no longer wish to appear whenever I want to choose open/save/new, etc from the file menu. Most of the other dialogue boxes do open except these i.e. in the format/modify , menus. Instead, I just get the information in the command box at the bottom. Any suggestions?   Try setting the variable FILEDIA to 1.

I don't know how I've managed it but I've lost the command line! After I lost it, insteas of hitting the undo arrow, I panicked and started hitting everything that keep still long enough.   You cannot turn off or minimize the AutoCAD command line window. However, other objects can get in front of the command line window and obscure it. Another problem that can occur when the command line window is floating is that it gets moved off screen. For example, you position the floating command line window to give more room to the AutoCAD graphic window. As a result, the command line window might be positioned off screen   Solution   There are three methods for resolving this problem, and each is a little more complex than the last. Work through the methods in sequence. That is, try method 1, if that does not work try method 2, and finally, use method 3.   Method #1   Look for the AutoCAD command line window behind other objects.   Move floating toolbars and verify that the command line window is not hidden behind them. Drag the Windows taskbar to a new position and verify that the command line window is not hidden behind it. Method #2   Change the display settings for your system.   Increase the display resolution to the maximum value. You might need to reduce the color depth to get the maximum resolution. Reposition the command line window. The command line window should be visible in the enlarged screen area. Restore the original display settings. Method #3   Edit the Windows Registry. Use this method only after you have tried methods 1 and 2.   Warning!   Problems caused by improperly editing the Windows registry could render your computer operating system unusable. Microsoft has provided a wealth of critical information you need to know about the registry in the Microsoft Knowledge Base at http://support.microsoft.com/support.   Use the Microsoft® Registry Editor only at your own risk and only after backing up the registry as well as the system.dat and user.dat files as outlined in ARTICLE-ID: Q132332 "How to Back Up the Registry" in the Microsoft Knowledge Base. Additional information about the registry is also contained in the Help topics in the Microsoft Registry Editor.   Ensure AutoCAD software is not running. Start the Registry Editor and locate the key for the software you are using: AutoCAD®. HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Autodesk\AutoCAD\R15.0\ACAD-X:X\FixedProfile\Command Line Windows AutoCAD LT®. HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Autodesk\AutoCAD LT\RX\ACAD-X:X\FixedProfile\Command Line Windows Where X is a variable numeric value.   Enter value data of 2 (hex) for the value name DockWindow.Style. Exit the Registry Editor. The next time you start the software, the command line window will be docked in the application window.

 

AutoCAD LT and LISP

Can I Run Lisp Routines in LT?   You can add LISP to LT2000 with drcauto's add-on program called LT Toolkit 2000 Check it out at http://www.drcauto.com

 

Blocks and Symbols

Is there a way to get Blocks out of the drawing and onto the hard disk as Wblocks?   Head over to http://www.dotsoft.com on the main page you'll find WBLOCKM.LSP.It will ask you for a path and slam them all out to that location.

 

Graphics

I insert an image into a drawing and it puts a border around it, is there a way to have it plot without the boarder around the image?   Turn IMAGEFRAME to OFF.

 

Hatch Patterns

Where Can I find more Hatch Patterns   You will find Hatch Patterns available at the following web sites.   http://www.caddepot.com http://www.cadalog.com http://www.cadsupport.co.uk/cshatch.htm http://www.hatchpatterns.com   to mention just a few, or you can purchase my AutoCAD Utilities Collection CD Rom which already has them on. If you want to see whats available out there I've catalogued them and produced an Adobe e-book for each collection see my download page.      How easy is is to create your own hatch pattern ?   For more complicated hatches you could try bbyhatch.lsp but it does make large files.   Take a look at www.upfrontezine.com they have a tutorial system called Tailoring AutoCAD by Ralph Grabowski which I found useful for many things including customised hatching. I didn't find it so much as hard as fiddly.   You can also look at the AutoCAD help file, here is an extract:-   Defining a hatch pattern requires knowledge, practice, patience, and a text editor. You can add a pattern to the acad.pat library file or store it in a file by itself, in which case the file name must be the same as the pattern name. For instance, a pattern named PIT would reside in the pit.pat file.   Regardless of where the definition is stored, the pattern has the same format. It has a header line that looks like this:   *pattern-name [, description]   It also has one or more line descriptors of the following form:   angle, x-origin, y-origin, delta-x, delta-y [, dash-1, dash-2, ...]   For example, a pattern called L45 that hatches with 45-degree lines separated by a spacing of 0.5 is defined as follows:   *L45,45 degree lines   45, 0,0, 0,0.5   This simple pattern specifies that a line is to be drawn at an angle of 45 degrees, that the first line of the family of hatch lines is to pass through the (0,0) drawing origin, and that the spacing between hatch lines of the family is to be 0.5 drawing units. L45 is the name of the pattern, and the description field is the optional description of the pattern displayed by the ? option of the HATCH command. (If you omit the description, do not include a comma after the pattern name.)   Each line in a pattern definition file can contain up to 80 characters. AutoCAD ignores blank lines and text to the right of a semicolon.   A tip when defining your own hatch pattern is to define one line pattern at a time and when that is right add the next There is also a tutorial called Customize AutoCAD crosshatch patterns by Bill Fane to be found in the Learning Curve section of CADALYST http://www.cadalyst.co,/solutions/lc/01001c/01001c.htm     We have several computers in the office which all use 2000LTi. However the hatch scale is different in the same drawing on different computers. I assume there is a system variable that determines this, as the hatch is always 25.4 times bigger or smaller on one computer or the other. I assume its something to do with the inches/millimetres conversion. But what?   This is probably because the MEASUREMENT setting is different. When MEASUREMENT=3D1, ACADISO.LIN is used for linetype definitions and ACADISO.PAT for hatch patterns.When MEASUREMENT=3D0, ACAD.LIN and ACAD.PAT are used.The ISO files are metricated and this is why you get the difference in scale factors. Make sure they are all configured for metric defaults or imperial defaults.   The effect is to select between Acad.lin and .pat or Acadiso.lin and.pat. The .lin files define linetypes and .pat files define hatch patterns. The Acad files are intended for imperial units, the Acadiso files for metric units.

 

LineTypes

How do I Get a line type out of a drawing and adding it to the acad.lin file?  I have several line types I created in a drawing file years ago in some older version of Autocad, and now I want to pull them out and put them in my acad.lin file for use elsewhere. Anyone know how this is done?   Head over to Paul Turvill's web site at  http://www.turvill.com/t2/Free_Stuff/Index.htm and download TO-LIN.LSP and/or NEW-LIN.LSP

 

Raster 2 Vector Converters

Can anyone tell me where I can find Raster to Vector Converters ?   Check out my AutoCAD Links Page, there are a number of freeware and low -cost converters listed there.     Can anyone tell me where I can get Raster to Vector Conversions Done?   Check out my AutoCAD Links Page, for freeware and low cost programs that will allow you to do this yourself, however if you really want quotes for someone else to do this or have a large quantity then try:-   http://www.raster2vector.com http://www.salescircular.com/cts/ http://www.3rdwaveworks.com/ http://www.dartmap.com/cad_faq.htm http://www.cadfs.com/drawconv.htm

   

Rendering

Where can I find materials like Chrome steel, black rubber, etc. to download and install in AutoCAD material Library?   Head over to  http://perso.club-internet.fr/lemog...extures01.htm

 

Text

When I plot the Arial font is coming out as an outlined font instead of the solid filled font on the screen. Is there some toggle somewhere to make it come out as it apears on the screen?   Textfill =1 (on)

 

Viewports

How can you rotate the drawing in a view port but not rotate the actual drawing it self   1) mvsetup 2) align 3) rotate 4) click in viewport to be rotated 5) specify rotation in degrees     I have recently upgraded from R14 to 2002 and find that when switching from paper space and model space in a viewport, it does a zoom extents as well!   Set UCSFOLLOW to 0 in each viewport.

 

Lists of Files

How do I get a list of files from a folder.   1) get the command prompt up start / programs /command prompt (this is windows nt it might be somewhere else on different operating systems)   2) use the "cd xxxxxx" command "where xxxxx is the directory you want to go to" to get to the directory where your drawings are residing   type dir/w at any point to get the current directory listing   3) Type "dir>list.txt" this will create a text file in your directory with names of all files in that directory   4) close command prompt window   5) open the file in word and edit to your delight   6) if you type "dir/s>list.txt" all the file attributes are added to text file

 

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