Quote Originally Posted by blothian View Post
I wouldn't say having an AutoCAD equivalent of a MS Fence is something I need (though it would be nice!) but I'm sure you will appreciate that a fair part of my learning of AutoCAD will be based on knowledge of MS as many of the tools will perform in the same way but at the same time I'm here to learn how to understand how to go about the same task in AutoCAD. I'm familiar with the standard implied windowing and other examples you stated though lisp routines are still a grey area to me at this early stage.



All elements are available to be stretched whenever the boundary passes over an elements endpoints however to prevent this you can either:
  • Isolate the elements you only want to stretch using a displayset
  • Lock individual elements in the affected area that you dont want stretched
  • Lock layers (less likely due to the other alternatives being being simpler)


The MS fence is a transient aid for complex element manipulation and unlike a normal MS or AutoCAD selection boundary (be it window/crossing/AutoCAD Fence etc...) it remains on-screen even after any view operations and can be moved, modified or saved for future use prior to starting any fence-aided operation(fence stretch/Fence move/fence copy etc..). The fence boundary has a number of selection modes which affect how any future commands act upon elements that the fence either contains and/or overlaps. If you want to understand it a bit more you can check out here and here.

From what I have seen so far, I don't think AutoCAD has got an equivalent though it would be good if it does.
You'll find there are so many different ways to do anything in AutoCAD it's hard to answer a question unless it's very specific. Enter SELECT at the command line and hit F1. From the posts you referenced WPolygon, CPolygon, and Remove would be the way to do the same in AutoCAD. From what I can tell Lock in MS is the same as Remove in AutoCAD. Does MS have an equivalent to Locked Layers in AutoCAD? I can see where it can be confusing to switch products when one term means different things in each software.