Cookie Cutter Trim

This was mentioned in passing back in 2005 but i though i would re-iterate. I believe by AutoCAD 2005(?) the cookie cutter trim command has been taken out of the express menu and is now command line only. To access the command, type in EXTRIM in the command line. I've had about three people come to me looking for this command over the last month so i thought i would remind everyone where this useful tool is.
For those who have never used the cookie cutter trim (EXTRIM) before, its a great tool to trim out a small part of a large complex drawing or for trimming a hole in a complex drawing. Just make a polyline, rectangle or circle of the area you want to trim around/ in. type EXTRIM and click outside the rectangle to trim everything outside, or click inside the rectangle to trim everything inside. On large complex drawings this is most useful when used in conjunction with a copy with base point. So for instance, your make a rectangle, trim all outside, leaving unconnected lines and such outside the rectangle and then use the copy with base point to copy out the objects left inside the rectangle, make a new drawing and paste to base point. done! sounds like a long process but it takes only a few seconds. Hope this helps,

:Cheers:

Just a note, this will only trim objects that are crossing the selected boundary. Any entities not crossing the boundary will not be affected.

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Originally Posted by Opie

Just a note, this will only trim objects that are crossing the selected boundary. Any entities not crossing the boundary will not be affected.

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Right! so if you copy with base point the objects in the rectangle you can paste it into a clean drawing and get away from selecting and deleting all the bits and pieces outside the box! Thanks for helping clarify!

:Cheers:

Andy,

This is a great tip. I take it that it is not avalible in the lite version?

Thank you,
Roland

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Originally Posted by kb3cxe

Andy,

This is a great tip. I take it that it is not avalible in the lite version?

Thank you,
Roland

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Up to and including 2006LT - no.
2007LT - I don't know but I doubt it.

think thats the trouble with diet CAD you lose so many of the nice features you're used to

Great little command which suprisngly few people seem to be aware of.

Beware of lines of which only slightly extend beyond the cutting line by a very small amount. They will likely not be trimmed using this command. Also I have found that any dashed lines that cross the cutting objects will not be trimmed if the gap in the dash intersects the two lines. I always quickly change my ltscale prior to using extrim to avoid this issue.

Hope this gives a heads up :)

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Originally Posted by kb3cxe

This is a great tip. I take it that it is not avalible in the lite version?

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Hi

ExTrim is an Express Tools command, therefore not available in AutoCAD LT ( unless you have a Third Party application that enables such things as LISP, VBA etc ).

As far as I know ( which means nothing ), the Express Tools - Layer commands and ChSpace command were the only Express Tools commands ported from Express Tools into the core product of AutoCAD 2007 and AutoCAD LT 2007.

Have a good one, Mike

It's amazing how so many "problems" never go away. I just had a user ask me where the cookie cutter trim command went. But let me explain, we are currently upgrading from AutoCAD 2004 to AutoCAD 2008, so, some of this is understood. But I still find it interesting. thanks for the post as I couldn't remember the exact command (extrim) as I typically don't use it. I love AUGI.