Tips and Tricks

[mrenfrow]

I am preparing some lunch time training events at my office. They include Sheet Sets/Fields, Tool Palettes, Tables and Tips and Tricks. The Tips and Tricks seem to be the hardest to prepare for. The reason is I don't know what people don't know! The following is a list I came with that include mostly commands I brought home from the instructors at AutoCAD University 2004. I would hope that some of you out there could just brainstorm some of your most favorite and obscure commands to add to my list.

ASSIST
Opens quick help in the info palette, which provides context-sensitive information

WHOHAS
Displays ownership information for opened drawing files

OPTIONS/DRAFTING/OBJECT SNAP OPTIONS/IGNORE HATCH OBJECTS
Setting for snapping to hatching

COPY VIEWPORT
Copy viewport frame from one drawing to another and maintain integrity of the view

TEXTTOFRONT
Brings text and dimensions in front of all other objects in the drawing

EDGEMODE
Controls how the trim and extend commands determine cutting and boundary edges

CTRL+0
Clean screen - clears the screen of all user interface items exceptthe menu bar and the status bar

PEDITACCEPT
Eliminates the prompt “do you want to turn it into one ?<y>” that occurs when you select a non polyline object

EXOFFSET
Current - this command allows you to offset objects to the current layer instead of the same layer as the original object
Multiple - this command allows you to offset multiple times without reselecting the object to offset

MTEXT
To save your changes and exit the multiline text editor click ok, left click in the drawing outside the editor or press ctrl+enter

EXPRESS/MODIFY/DELETE DUPLICATE OBJECTS
Deletes duplicate objects, lines, arcs and polylines

YE
You can use this macro to erase the objects on a selected layer

LAP
You can change the color and linetype of a layer without going into the layer manager

UTILITIES/OBJECT INSPECT
You can view text information associated with any object in a drawing

TRIM/EXTEND FENCE
Trim or extend multiple lines at once

[MHultgren]

One that I use quite a bit is the pline-line-length command when drawing road centerlines to make sure the tangents coming out of a curve are really tangent to the arc. Start the pline command, draw a line, then a for arc, pick the endpoint then type L for line and type L again for the length.

[BCrouse]

I am preparing some lunch time training events at my office. They include Sheet Sets/Fields, Tool Palettes, Tables and Tips and Tricks. The Tips and Tricks seem to be the hardest to prepare for. The reason is I don't know what people don't know! The following is a list I came with that include mostly commands I brought home from the instructors at AutoCAD University 2004. I would hope that some of you out there could just brainstorm some of your most favorite and obscure commands to add to my list.

ASSIST
Opens quick help in the info palette, which provides context-sensitive information

WHOHAS
Displays ownership information for opened drawing files

OPTIONS/DRAFTING/OBJECT SNAP OPTIONS/IGNORE HATCH OBJECTS
Setting for snapping to hatching

COPY VIEWPORT
Copy viewport frame from one drawing to another and maintain integrity of the view

TEXTTOFRONT
Brings text and dimensions in front of all other objects in the drawing

EDGEMODE
Controls how the trim and extend commands determine cutting and boundary edges

CTRL+0
Clean screen - clears the screen of all user interface items exceptthe menu bar and the status bar

PEDITACCEPT
Eliminates the prompt “do you want to turn it into one ?<y>” that occurs when you select a non polyline object

EXOFFSET
Current - this command allows you to offset objects to the current layer instead of the same layer as the original object
Multiple - this command allows you to offset multiple times without reselecting the object to offset

MTEXT
To save your changes and exit the multiline text editor click ok, left click in the drawing outside the editor or press ctrl+enter

EXPRESS/MODIFY/DELETE DUPLICATE OBJECTS
Deletes duplicate objects, lines, arcs and polylines

YE
You can use this macro to erase the objects on a selected layer

LAP
You can change the color and linetype of a layer without going into the layer manager

UTILITIES/OBJECT INSPECT
You can view text information associated with any object in a drawing

TRIM/EXTEND FENCE
Trim or extend multiple lines at once

Do you have the macros for these tip and tricks

[JASONM30395]

I've found that you should probably go over the basics every year or so just because if anyone doesn't know them they won't admit to it. It also helps to keep a database of what you've gone over and how long ago.

If you want to get downright technical turn on everybody's logfile and see what commands they do use so you can concentrate on the ones they aren't