Ask the Expert
Ask the Expert
Donnie Gladfelter (Richmond, VA) is a highly visible and respected thought leader in the CAD community. While perhaps best known for his The CAD Geek Blog (www.thecadgeek.com), which gets more than 10,000 visitors per month, he is also a columnist for AUGIWorld Magazine, author of the upcoming book AutoCAD 2011: No Experience Required, and a top-rated speaker at Autodesk University and other industry events. Committed to his personal mantra of empowering CAD professionals, Donnie is currently working as a consultant/trainer while pursuing full-time employment.
Previously he was the Design Systems Specialist (Assistant CAD Manager) at Timmons Group, a leading ENR 500 civil engineering firm headquartered in Richmond, VA who employed more than 350 professionals. During his tenure there he was responsible for the development of a collaborative BIM workflow using Civil 3D, and provided award-winning training to each of their CAD professionals. His approach to both BIM in civil engineering and training will be among the topics of discussion during his Autodesk University 2009 sessions this December; BIM Without Buildings: The Civil Side, and Human Management: A Non-Technical Approach to CAD Management.
To learn more about Donnie, or for job inquiries, please visit www.TheCADGeek.com.
Background
Introduction
CAD ManagementHi, Donnie I am M.Salman I am operating Auto-Cad since 8 years Dear I was captured by the indication of an old drawing who is the transmission line tower beam in one section I saw the s.o.p diagram did you what is the full form of s.o.p I was much confused about a weak. Could you solve these sot of problem. Thanks with regard M.Salman Jawaid.
M.Salman, I’m not sure I understand what your question is. While my background isn’t manufacturing, I am happy to share my AutoCAD knowledge with you. If you reply with the specific issues you’re having with the software, I’ll be happy to help you find a solution.
dear sir i'm suffering from a strange problem at autocad suddenly when i tried to open, save as, creatnew file it doesn'r respond but it shows a message asks to determine where will i save or open not like the old way can u tell me why ?? thanks in advance
Thanks for your question, it sounds like one of two system variables may have gotten switched on you. Check and make sure both your FILEDIA and CMDDIA system variables are set to 1. I’ve seen these get switched to 0 after a crash, or after some customizations fail to run correctly. Either way, with both set to 1, you should receive the normal dialog box, not the command line prompt you’re getting now.
how can i reach " FILEDIA and CMDDIA " please ???
System variables can be changed by typing their name at the command line. So in this case you would type FILEDIA [press the enter key], and then enter 1 [press the enter key]. Do the same thing for CMDDIA and you should be set!
using autocad 2002 whats the easiest way to convert to microstation as some customers are requiring of us.
Converting from DWG to DGN (Microstation) has become a pretty common need in recent years. AutoCAD 2008 introduced the DGNEXPORT command which will allow you to do this conversion without leaving AutoCAD. Unfortunately that command doesn’t exist in AutoCAD 2002.
That said I would consult with the party requesting the Microstation files, and see if they might accept DXF instead. DXF is meant to be an exchangeable format, thus your client should be able to open inside Microstation.
The other option would be to consult a third-party application. I personally haven’t used any third-party, but a quick Google search should turn up some conversion applications to try.
I HAVE INSTALLED AUTOCAD 2010 ON SEVERAL COMPUTERS IN A CLASS ROOM SETTING, BUT NOW I HAVE TO CHANGE MY SERIAL NUMBER FOR A PERPETUAL LICENSE. DO I HAVE TO UNINSTALL AND THEN REINSTALL TO DO THIS.
Matt, the officially supported answer is yes, you must reinstall the software. It’s not supported by Autodesk (so attempt at your own risk), but there is a registry key you can change to make an existing standalone installation into a network install.
The registry key you are looking for is:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Autodesk\AutoCAD\R18.0\ACAD-8000:409\AdLM
Changing the Type value from 2 (or 2a) to 19 will make your install a network installation.
Keep in mind this unofficial fix assumes your serial number and product key are the same. Also note each product has a different registry key. The above example is from a Civil 3D install, so depending on the product, your key may be slightly different.
When using a block from a tool pallette why do the insertion points change from template to template
Keith, it’s hard to give a definitive answer with the information provided. Something that may help provide some insight into what’s happening is taking a look at how blocks on tool palettes work. When you add a block to a tool palette, AutoCAD creates a link to the source drawing containing that block.
When you click on that tool in the future, AutoCAD will pull that block from its source drawing, and insert it into your current DWG. The key word here is INSERT, not link. The second time you click that same tool on the tool palette, AutoCAD uses the block definition in the current drawing, not the original source DWG.
Let’s say you have a block named SIGN added to a tool palette. If you open a drawing that already has a block named SIGN, and then click on the tool palette to insert a SIGN. AutoCAD will insert the block named SIGN saved in the current drawing, not the block SIGN from the external DWG linked to your tool palette.
Consequently, if the two block definitions are different, then the insertion point may seem to change on you. The best way to verify you’re using the block from the tool palette is to right-click on the tool palette tool, and select Redefine. This will redefine the block in the current DWG using the block definition attached to the tool palette.
Despite the lengthy explanation, I hope that helps you out!
with numerous drawings open i can take a part from the tool palette and "wave" it over the said drawings and the insertion point changes. This seems to happen with template files and not dwg files. how do i make it so all my blocks work the same with all my templates from my tool palette?
Keith, I’m having a hard time visualizing what’s happening here. Would it be possible for you to e-mail me a sample drawing donnie.gladfelter@thecadgeek.com (maybe one correct drawing, and one incorrect drawing)? Not sure if it’s the case here or not, but with Dynamic Blocks it’s possible for a block to have multiple insertion points. One way to determine if a block is dynamic is by looking at it’s icon on the tool palette. If it has a lightning bolt on it, then it’s a dynamic block.
Does Autocad Civil 3D have a library of water/seser structures that I am overlooking? If not, who is a resource you would suggest for purchasing these structures?
Mary, Civil 3D does ship with a number of generic, pre-defined, pipes & structures. Using the default NCS imperial template, not all of these are enabled. You can modify the Parts List (Toolspace > Settings > Pipe Network > Parts List) and choose additional pipes/structures.
Oftentimes the generic structures that ship with the product will do, although in places like Virginia (where I live) the DOT has an extensive catalog of structures. If that describes your DOT, you’ll need to create your own structures using Part Builder (Home > Create Design > Part Builder). There are some tutorials out there that show how to use Part Builder, but know it’s a rather advanced feature. If you try Part Builder and find that it’s simply too advanced, I’d recommend consulting your reseller. They should have the resources on staff to help you out.
with numerous drawings open i can take a part from the tool palette and "wave" it over the said drawings and the insertion point changes. This seems to happen with template files and not dwg files. how do i make it so all my blocks work the same with all my templates from my tool palette?
Keith - thanks for sending me your drawings to take a look at. After looking at the drawings, I think I may have found a solution for you. Rather than typing it out, I recorded a quick video which can be viewed at: http://screencast.com/t/HFoU3OCDPRvi
mr. donnie, i'd be so grateful for any input y could offer on the following inquiry & all my sorriness in advance for however annoying it is. i'm a mac kinda girl. but boot camp & parallels just isn't cutting it. ordered a windows operating system but had to cancel it after finding out the 1 g graphics wasn't autodesk authorized. been told the nvidia quadro is & that i should be able to find a list of autodesk A-OK graphics cards somewhere but haven't been able to. point being, any links, references, or info on what systems & components i need to run autocad, 3ds max, revit, inventor, ect.... i'd be super duper grateful. (the only systems i found are dell precision & hp elite workstation... which seem to be mediocre laptops double in price vrs their mainstream equivalents with a quadro card) thank you, xoxo
Not sure if this completely answers your question, but as you seem to know, Autodesk products are very graphically intensive, and thus require a strong video card. While purchasing a machine with an approved video card is always a good idea, however I know plenty of people running CAD on mac’s, and other “non-standard” machines. The key here is to steer clear of the budget laptops/desktops out there, and purchase a machine with both the processing and graphical power required by the high-end Autodesk products.
As for specific models, I have had extremely good luck with HP machines in the past. In recent years my previous firm has used the HP Compaq 8240, 8440, 8510, and most recently the EliteBook 8530. It’s true, you pay a little more for a business class machine, but in my experience they are built much better than their consumer counterparts. If you want to get a solid, but not as pricey machine as the business class machines, I’d recommend taking the specs from the business class machines and matching them to a consumer model. Some of the key things I would look at is the L2 cache and FSB of the processor, and the graphics card.
Just thought of this after writing everything above… I know you said you had tried the parallels on the mac, but you may want to check out Shaan Hurley’s blog. He actually runs a Mac, and has a few posts on the topic on his blog. http://autodesk.blogs.com/between_the_lines/2009/09/autocad-supported-on-parallels.html
Good Morning, Every school year we receive the new version of autocad. This year we received 2010. I am (and my students) are having the following problem. When we open autocad 2010 we get the "click here if you no longer want to see this"; and we do click that. Also, we set profiles, set to autocad classic window. When we save for the day and shut down and then come back the next day, nothing is saved. So we have to reset any window formatting, toolbars, etc... This is a pain since we are limited to time and other students use the same computer. I also have the same problem on my computer.
Good question Phil. Based on the description you provided I’d guess that you have not told AutoCAD to save changes to the workspace. You can do that one of two ways. I prefer configuring my workspace the way I like it, and then clicking on the workspace button on the status bar, and select “Save Current As”. I prefer this method because if I accidentally move something, I can simply restore my workspace, or restart AutoCAD and everything is back to the way I like it.
AutoCAD does have an “automatic mode” of sorts, and it will save any changes made to the workspace when they are made. The way to configure that is to click on the workspace button from the task bar, select “Workspace Settings”, then select “Automatically save workspace changes”.
I notice you said you’re using the AutoCAD Classic workspace. I’d encourage you to have another look at the ribbon in 2010. Personally I wasn’t a big fan of the ribbon in 2009, but the improvements (especially the contextual ribbons) in 2010 have changed my opinion of the ribbon. True there’s a learning curve for those of us who have used AutoCAD for some time now, but once you learn where things are, I think it’s a worthwhile change. Something that may help you if you choose to have another look at the ribbon is the search function on the application menu. I’ve god a blog that talks about it here: http://www.thecadgeek.com/blog/2009/09/26/easily-find-ribbon-commands/
How do i set up the scale of my drawing? and Drawing Scale Factor
Edward, drawing scales are probably one of the most debated topics in the world of AutoCAD. Modern AutoCAD practices of course subscribe to the concept of drawing objects at real world units. That is to say if a wall is 6’ long, we draw it 6’ long in AutoCAD. With that said, I’d say the more important setting is a drawings UNITS. Provided a drawings units is properly defined, AutoCAD does a rather good job taking care of the math for you.
The other variable to pay attention to is the INSUNITS. I’ll direct you to the AutoCAD help file to see which each of its many values mean. Your trade (discipline) will dictate what you set this to.
With those fundamental elements in place, the discussion moves to what your firm deems most appropriate to fit its needs. The big debate revolves around what to set the 3 LTSCALE variables to. Personally I like letting AutoCAD do as much work as possible, and thus I prefer setting LTSCALE PSLTSCALE and MSLTSCALE to 1. With that configuration your annotation scale (seen on the AutoCAD status bar) is what dictates the scale (how dashed) of your lines.
From there you can create a viewport in paperspace (layout tab), and the viewport scale will dictate the scale of your lines. The other configuration I’ve seen is LTSCALE set to the drawing scale, and PSLTSCALE and LTSCALE set to 0. While it seems like it should be a simple topic, it’s truly one of the biggest topics out there. Each configuration has its pro’s and con’s, hence my statement about finding the right configuration for your firm, and sticking with it. I’d encourage you to check out the discussion boards here on Autodesk, and also the AUGI forums (www.AUGI.com). This topic has been discussed immensely in both places.
Hi, thanks for answering my question so quickley. Does that mean I will never see the "New features" window any more and we will be able to save profiles. I even try to turn off saving a backup file, but that doesn't work.
Provided you check/uncheck the checkbox to suppress the new features workshop, it should not display the next time you launch the software. A couple things to keep in mind though. The New Features Workshop thing is done on a user-by-user basis, and so just because User A says they don’t want to see the New Features Workshop again doesn’t mean User B won’t have the New Features Workshop display when they open AutoCAD.
Likewise, I know programs like deepfreeze are common in educational computer labs. Since those types of programs essentially reset a machine to its default state, the New Features Workshop may re-appear after a program like deepfreeze does its magic.
Hey Donnie, I work in an elec. eng. consultants- they work with architectural plans that continually update ( small or large changes ) often - is there a command etc. that could compare old and new drawings to see what has been updated/changed in the old drawings....
Taylor, this is one of my favorite tips and tricks! So the way I have found to do this isn’t with AutoCAD, but Autodesk Design Review. Design Review installs with AutoCAD (so you should already have it installed on your machine), if not it’s also a free download from http://autodesk.com/designreview. If you haven’t used Design Review before, it really is quite impressive. You can mark-up drawings electronically, and import those markups into CAD. I won’t digress too much, other than to say Design Review is a pretty powerful collaboration tool.
In addition to all the cool markup features in Design Review, it also has a compare feature. To use it you need to have 2 DWF’s (one of the old DWG and another of the new DWG). Inside AutoCAD you could PLOT/PUBLISH a DWF, or get AutoCAD to automatically create your DWF from the OPTIONS command > Plot and Publish > Auto publish.
However you create the DWF files, the compare feature inside Design Review will show anything added to the drawing in green, and anything deleted from the drawing in red. I’ve got a blog post on the topic which shows you how to use the feature here: http://www.thecadgeek.com/blog/2007/06/07/design-review%E2%80%99s-digital-light-table/
Hello Donnie. Could you please cast some light on my problem and/or possible solution. I am using LT2009. I tend to alter empty attributes globally by selecting blocks and changing the value in the properties box. the problem is that quite often (50%) that the attributes move around the drawing, usually on top of other attributes (not always the same one) that have also been altered in the same edit. this is slowing me down considerably as it can be quite an effort to find the corresponding attribute and then move it back to where it should be. any help would be very welcome Thanks Rob
Rob, if I had to guess I’d say the lock position property for your attribute was disabled. To check/fix it, use the BEDIT command (or select and right-click on an existing block, selecting Block Editor) to open and modify the block & attribute definition. Select on the attribute, and open the Properties palette. Under the Misc heading, there’s a property named lock position. Set that to “Yes”. That will lock the position of the attribute within the block definition, meaning if the block moves, so does the attribute.
Hello Donnie, Is there a Autocad System Variable that I can set/change which would allow me to have MTEXT always use "Background Mask" (Use Background Mask)(Border offset Factor:) 1.25 and "Fill Color" (Use drawing Background color). Or is there something that I place in a lisp file that can be run at startup that set these factors. Mitch
I am not aware of a system variable to control this, but Lee Ambrosius at hyperpics.com does have a LISP that may help you. The name of the LISP routine is MtextMask, and can be downloaded from his site at the following URL: http://hyperpics.com/customization/autolisp/autolisp_downloads.asp
Thank you for the dreview compare tool - it really helps - i have a few questions - is there anyway to change the colors from red and green to more muted - and what are the advantages to using D review as opposed to cad ? thanks so much
Taylor - I don’t believe there’s a way to adjust how muted the red and green are. The advantage of using Design Review over CAD is that Design Review actually illustrates where the changes in a drawing are located. In CAD we can certainly xref the 2 drawings together, but CAD isn’t going to highlight where the changes were made.
In plotting to a DWF file, I am getting "phantom" or "ghost" circles in the file and plots. When I plot to a device, there are no extra cirlcles. All layers are on and there is nothing to erase. The circles appear to be in model space, yet they are not there in the drawing. This only happens on a few particular drawings. Any ideas as to what would cause this, or how to fix it? Thanks for any help you can provide.
Joe - plotting issues like this can be some of the toughest to solve. I have however run into a few cases where mysterious objects plot and/or parts of the drawing do not plot at all. More often than not I’ve found it to be an issue with one of the drawings that make up the plotted sheet.
The easiest way I know to scan drawings for errors is to use the RECOVERALL command. It will scan both the drawing you select, and any drawings referenced into it. It generally does a good job fixing any errors it finds; however do pay attention to the report that displays after it finishes scanning your drawing. I’ve run into some cases where it finds an error, but cannot fix it, and that report helps me find which drawing the error is in.
In addition to the RECOVERALL/AUDIT, I’d also purge any unnecessary objects, also paying attention to the objects AutoCAD cannot purge. Just one of many ways to find clues to what’s causing your plotting issue.
I have an educational download of Autocad 2010. In previous versions I was able to access DC online but now I have to use the Cad Manager Control Utility to change from the default setting of "off" to access the DC online tab. How can I get the utility since I do not have an installation disc with it on. My students and I will be very appreciative if you can help. Thanks. Ron Heiman
Ron, I believe the CAD Manager Control Utility is an app that’s included on the installation media for AutoCAD (and its related products). Rather than hunting down the installation for that, you can enable DC Online by changing a single registry key. The key you’re looking for is: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Autodesk\AutoCAD\R18.0\ACAD-8000:409\CadManagerControl\DesignCenter]
Note: Depending on the AutoCAD product (ACA, C3D, vanilla ACAD, etc) the ACAD-8000:409 part of the string may be slightly different for you.
There you will find a value named “EnableDesignCenter”. When DC Online is disabled its value will be 0, to enable it, change its value to 1.
It probably goes without saying, but be sure to close AutoCAD before making this change. After you’ve made the change you should be able to restart AutoCAD, and have access to DC Online. Something else worth mentioning is Autodesk Seek. It’s very much like DC Online, and just another resource to find free content. Like DC Online, you can access Autodesk Seek from Design Center.
how can i reach " FILEDIA and CMDDIA " please ???
FILEDIA and CMDDIA are each system variables, and can be accessed by typing them at the command line.
Hi how could i download DWGVIEWRCtrl , here Iam using vs2005 and autocad2006. can u help me pls
Not sure if this answers your question, but True View is a free download, and can be found by visiting http://autodesk.com/trueview. Likewise you can also download a number of development resources from the Autodesk Developers Center found at: http://autodesk.com/developer.
I use the font “kabana book” in my company logo. After upgrading to 2010LT form 2007LT the font does not print correctly. I have used AutoCAD for many years and all my knowledge is not leading me to solve this problem. What do you think may help resolve this issue? Thank You, David
Sounds like you’ve invested some time into this issue. I may be repeating what you have already tried, but I’d start by seeing if the font has been installed on your computer (Start > Control Panel> Fonts). Restart CAD; see if the font is loaded.
The other thing I’d try is copying the font into your font support path (Options > Files Tab > Support File Search Path). The default path is generally something like “C:\program files\autocad 2010\fonts”. Likewise the path can also be a network path. Although you can have both a network and local font directory, I’d highly encourage you to stay away from putting the font in both directories (just one or the other).
To that end, I’d also take a look at your support file paths. See if you possibly have multiple copies of the font in different support directories. AutoCAD should only load one, but I’ve seen it get confused on things like this in the past. Likewise, if you do find a copy of the TTF in one of your directories, double-click it to open it, and verify Windows can actually open the font file (and that it’s not corrupt).
hi donnie you're really doing great in answering my que. here's new one sometime poly line are shown like 2 lines " as in multiline " without width how can i solve that ? thanks
Maged, as you may know there is an AutoCAD MLINE object. In my experience, it tends to be one of those objects few users seem to actually use, but I have come across them on occasion. If you need to get a MLINE into a more standard primitive object, you can use the EXPLODE command, and it will convert the MLINE into 2 LINE’s.
I’ve also seen the multiline thing happen on polylines. 9 times out of 10 the polyline was displaying as 2 lines for one of two reasons. First, if your view is even the slightest bit skewed, your polylines may display as 2 lines (rather than filled). To fix that I’ll use the PLAN command, and restore the World UCS, or use the VIEW command, and restore the TOP view. Both pretty much do the same thing.
The other possible issue with polylines displaying as 2 lines has to do with your SHADEMODE. More often than not, when doing 2D construction documents, you’ll want that set to 2D Wireframe.
Donnie, I have several viewports on the same sheet. The rectangular ones seem to be working fine,. When I try to do a polygonal viewport to show the enlarged plan the text in my column bubbles are missing. What could cause this??? Thanks with regards Chad Bohannon
Chad, are you by chance using annotative text and/or blocks? I’ve had a number of users come to me with issues similar to what you describe. In those cases the issue had to do with the name of the annotative scale assigned to the objects. The somewhat confusing part about the annotative feature within AutoCAD is the fact you can have two annotative scales with the same numerical values, but different names.
Assuming you’re running into the same issue, there’s a couple ways to approach the issue. The best option would e to check the annotation scale of your viewport, and make sure it matches with the annotation scale of your working viewports. If not, go ahead and make them match (keep in mind viewport scale and annotation scale are two separate properties for a viewport).
If annotative scaling isn’t the culprit, some other things I’d check are the layer properties for the viewport. Changing properties by viewport (aside from freeze/thaw) is a relatively new feature. If after clicking into a viewport you launch the Layer command you see any layers with a light blue background; those layers have had one or more properties overridden for that viewport. I’ve seen this happen a lot when a block wasn’t defined on layer 0, and thus displays on one layer, but is inserted on another.
Finally, I’ve come to appreciate the RECOVERALL command for quirky issues like this one may be. The RECOVERALL command not only scans the selected drawing for errors, but also any drawing(s) referenced into it for errors. Thus I’ve found it to be a good point of reference as I begin troubleshooting issues like this.
Can I convert a dwg. to an rvt. with out losing information? I work with AutoCAD MEP '09 some clients are asking for drawings in revit.
Anthony, interoperability between the various BIM products is a pretty hot topic these days. If the goal in matching the architectural Revit model with your MEP model is simply to detect and resolve problems throughout the design process, than Navisworks may be the tool for you. Navis can read nearly any CAD document you can imagine, and analyze your design regardless of the platform(s) it was developed in.
That said I know Navisworks may not always be an option. Being on the civil side, I know the process of getting data from Civil 3D into Revit is still considered an advanced skill. Not having a great deal of experience with AutoCAD MEP I can’t give you an exact answer of how to get your data from AutoCAD MEP to Revit. Instead, I’d encourage you to have a look at a few resources I think may be helpful for you.
Autodesk hosted a webcast on August 26, 2009 titled Hybrid Design & Documentation with Autodesk MEP Engineering Solutions. You can access the recording by viewing the webcast archive found here: http://resources.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/AutoCAD-MEP/tutorials.htm. Likewise, if you’re an AU Online member, you can view the recording for a class titled Using gbXML within AutoCAD® MEP and Revit® MEP here: http://au.autodesk.com/?nd=class&session_id=3184.
Wish I could give you a concise answer, but hopefully those resources get you pointed in the right direction.
My coputer runs extremely slow when I solproff from 3D to 2D. Takes about 5 minutes for an 80mb file. Dell Precision T-7500. SPECS: INTER(R) XEON (R) CPU W5590@3.33GHz, NVidia Quadro FX 5500,QUAD CORE, 6GB RAM. Please help. I just upgraded to this $9,000 system and nothing has changed in my rendering capability and speed of calculations.
Dougan, it certainly seems like you have the computing power to do whatever heavy lifting is necessary here. Just as a matter of housekeeping, I’d make sure I had gotten rid of any excess junk in the DWG. Some of the usual suspects include running the PURGE command, using the -PURGE command to purge any excess RegApps, checking if your drawing has become plagued with annotation scales, etc.
From a system perspective, I’d certainly run the 3DCONFIG command and make sure everything was tuned correctly. First, use the “Check for Updates” button to see if Autodesk has published a newer hardware database. After doing that, and potentially updating your system, try doing a Manual Tune. You can certainly tweak things yourself, although I have had good luck simply clicking the “Reset to Recommended Values” button.
Outside AutoCAD, do check your PC’s manufacturer’s website to see if any driver updates have been posted recently. Naturally download and install the updated drivers if any are available. Finally, if none of the above suggestions work, have a closer look at your DWG to see if perhaps a referenced file may be the culprit - that sort of thing.
Have Autocadd 2010. Every thing seemed to work fine until I upgraded to Win 7, now the Ribbon tab panel is blank. How can I recover this ribbon? do I need to reload AutoCadd?
Ken, it sounds like your CUI file may have gotten messed up in the transition to Windows 7. Thankfully fixing this isn’t too difficult. Essentially you can Reset the CUI from the CUI command itself. I’ve got the entire process documented in a recent blog post of mine: http://www.thecadgeek.com/blog/2009/08/21/reset-cui-verses-restore-cui-whats-the-difference/
How do i create irregular-shaped view ports on AutoCad LT?
Unfortunately I’m pretty sure this is one of the subtle differences between AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT. While I don’t have a copy of LT to test on, you would find the option to create an irregular-shaped (or polygonal) viewport in AutoCAD 2010 by: View Tab > Viewports Palette > Create Polygonal/Create from Object, and then proceed to define your viewport.
hello Donnie, I have a new poweful PC which operates on Vista 64bits, I also have a Autocad 2010 @ 32 bits....the PC seems not to except the Autocad 32...is there a enabler to download or some kind of key in order to download acad 2010 program ? what to do...
When doing a standalone installation I believe the installer automatically picks up which OS (32 bit or 64 bit) you’re using. Deployments are however a different story. Long story short you need to install 64 bit AutoCAD on your 64 bit OS.
The good news however is the fact Autodesk includes both the 32 and 64 bit versions of their software on your installation media. Installing a standalone version should be pretty easy, network may require a little more work (as you’ll need to build a 64 bit deployment). Hope that helps!
How do you customize the plan and profile styles to use my company's border and grid format?
Mark - I’m not completely sure if you’re asking about the Plan Production feature inside Civil 3D, or if you’re looking to Civil 3D profile styles. While the two do overlap some, they are topics of their own. To modify the way profile grids display you’ll want to launch the Civil 3D Toolspace, switch to the “Settings” tab. To adjust your profile grid, you’ll want to modify your “Profile View > Profile View Styles” style.
From there you’ll have control over things such as the vertical scale for your profile, its vertical exaggeration, display settings for your grid, etc. Since profile styles can get rather deep, I’d suggest copying & modifying an existing style that most closely matches your company standards.
Is there a way to use the same label style for plan & profile for structures, and have the profile label rotated 90 degrees vertical and the plan stay horizontal 0 degree? Alternatively, do I need to have two separate label styles one for plan and one for profile? Thanks Sherry
While it’s technically possible to use the same label in both plan and profile, I’ve rarely been able to. In most cases the way I needed to see a label in plan view was simply too different from the way I needed to see it in profile view, hence the need for two separate labels. The only way I could see your scenario working was if you were able to do something with dragged states. Even still, this looks like one of those cases where your only real option is going to be configuring separate styles for both plan and profile.
Without seeing the exact style, it’s hard to say for sure, but something you may want to look at are child styles. You can’t create them from the settings tab in Toolspace. Instead you have to go to the Add Labels command, navigate to the style you want to create a child style, and then use the down arrow that displays next to the selected style. Again, not sure if that will help in this case, but it may be worth a look.
Hi, Donnie. I was referring to creating construction plans (aka plan and profile sheets) Can I customize them to have my company's border and grid format by creating styles to mimic our border and grid?
The Plan Production feature inside Civil 3D will automatically create plan, profile, or plan & profile sheets. As indicated by your question, the software ships with some samples, but for the feature to be useful you need it to use your companies’ standard title block and that type of thing. While getting the feature set up in your firm will take some planning, you will be able to use your existing templates as a base.
With your template in place you can create View Frame Groups, matchlines, and sheets for your design. This process is nicely documented in the Civil 3D help file (http://docs.autodesk.com/CIVIL/2010/ENU/AutoCAD%20Civil%202010%20User%20Documentation/files/WS1a9193826455f5ff9ec21110e9cb98b89-6c0f.htm)
Plan Production uses your normal profile view style, so there’s no need to configure an additional view style, just use the one you have. Civil 3D will prompt you to select a profile view style when creating view frames with the wizard.
Sheet Set question here. We work on long term contracts so our revision process has a copy of a set of drawings in a working folder, a copy in an issued folder and copies in an archived folder. We keep a copy of every revision level. When we are ready to issue a revision the files in the issued folder are moved to archive and the working directory files are copied into the issued directory. It must be an unusual method because I haven't read anything about it or been able to get it to work. How can I get this system to work with sheet sets.
Tim, the important thing is that you have a standard. I have yet to see a file management standard (especially for archiving) that someone couldn’t find a con in. So if it works for you and your firm, use it!
As for adapting your archiving standard to Sheet Set Manager... If you right click on the Sheet Set Name (top node in SSM), you’ll have the option to Archive your Sheet Set. I believe it defaults to placing everything into a single ZIP file, but you can modify how the archive is created by clicking the [Modify Archive Setup] button on the Archive a Sheet Set. Once you get that configured the way you like it, press [Ok] and let AutoCAD do the heavy lifting.
historical version r13c4 and used not frequently. I've tried open an old dwg today and got a fatal error message: -network lock error, -no network license server on network, -network device is not functioning or is improperly installed. I had no problem before upgrading from win98 to winXP. Could you help please? thank you.
It’s certainly been a while since I’ve done anything with R13, thus I can’t say I’m too familiar with that error. If I’m not mistaken, I believe Autodesk still used hardware locks back then. Likewise since I’m not sure how Autodesk handles activation since it has been retired for some time now.
Since Windows XP came into the mix well after AutoCAD R13 was released, I can’t say I have any experience making the two work together. Likewise being the first true Windows release of AutoCAD, R13 was notorious for its many gremlins. Again, I wish I had a better answer for you, but I’m afraid I’m just not sure if R13 on Windows XP is even possible.
Donnie - BIM is a hot buzzword for converstation these days. The architects have, with all understanding, been able to capitalize on BIM as a object or noun. The process of BIM as a worflow is very understandable. I am all in support of doing something once and getting many possible benefits out of it. In your role of Design Systems Specialist, can you briefly discuss how you supported, or encouraged your collegues to preserve or recover design intelligence when updating older drawings? To put it simply, how would you recommend bringing forward older drawing? Matthew Anderson
As a strong Civil 3D user yourself, you know the process of migrating data from say Land Desktop to Civil 3D is not as seamless as everyone would probably like it to be. Sure you can get surfaces, alignments, profiles, etc from LDT to C3D pretty easily, but things like your LDT Templates, design control associated with them, etc are lost in translation.
Due to this gap the choice to migrate a project to C3D was rather weighty. There were a couple cases where we felt this transition was a worthwhile investment, but they were few and far between. It’s far from glamorous, but we would essentially choose to use the Import LDT Data command or LandXML to get everything we could from LDT into C3D. From there some amount of rebuilding had to be done; build assemblies to match our old LDT templates, build corridors w/ any transitioning, that sort of thing.
Now once we had a Civil 3D project (again generally born from the ground up as a C3D not LDT project) we would begin mapping out how the project would be structured to promote a BIM workflow. In building that collaborative workflow we made heavy use of Data Shortcuts. Admittedly the Data Shortcut structure for some of our larger projects got rather complex. For this reason I would take an active role in the project as a CAD/BIM Coordinator. Something I used to help document & communicate the project structure and where things were located (files & Data Shortcuts) was Mindjet MindManager. The mind map illustrated both where the files & DREF’s were located, and how they were related.
This whole topic of BIM in the civil world is certainly much larger than I can cram into this series. If you’re going to AU this year, among the classes I’m presenting is titled BIM Without Buildings: The Civil Side. It’s actually going to be a panel class, and so we’re expecting to have a strong cross section of Civil/BIM users on the panel. Of course if you can’t fit the class into your AU schedule, you can always catch the recording afterwards on AU Online.
For Circuit Builder is there a way to list multiple UI_VAL values in one row under the UI_SEL column? For example, if my UI_VAL column has 7 different options. I would like to place one row with one API call that will always run, but only on options 1,3,5 and 7. Then I wouldn't have to enter the same command 4 times, but only once.
Marcus - I can’t say I have ever used AutoCAD Electrical, so I’m not 100% sure how to help you avoid having to enter things multiple times. Nonetheless, I did come across a blog post that looks like it may be of help (http://mfgcommunity.autodesk.com/blogs/blog/view/7/Enhancing_Circuit_Builder_with_2/). While I have never personally contacted that blog author, I can say the Autodesk bloggers I have contacted have been very good at getting back to me on things like this just in case that post doesn’t do what you need it it.
Hi Donnie, I am having this small issue with the automatic callout tools in ACA. I am basically using the Interior Elevation Mark B2, to create interior elevations, the tool will automatically create a view dwg, "unfold" the wall elevations into 2d sections, create views of each elevation, and add the title mark, with a number and scale. the title mark is using fields to automatically update the title mark. Everything is working fine, until i change the annotative scale... Basically, so long as i keep the viewport and scale at 3/8" = 1'-0" I am OK, however changing the Annotative scale to anything other then 3/8" creates the issue where the line in the title Mark does not meet the circle. (i can provide you with screen shots if i am not being clear enough) I have attempted to fix this, but the line in the Title Mark is an automatically generated "unnamed" autocad block, you know the ones you cannot rename, or edit? Also the automatic tool causes all of the text in the title Mark to be of the same style, even if i change it to the styles i want with in the block itself located at "C:\ProgramData\Autodesk\MEP 2010\enu\Styles\Imperialcallouts.dwg" Upon the tools insertion of the title mark, it resets all of the text styles to the current text style of the drawing. Does this make sense?
Thanks for your question. While I have done some work in ACA, I am by no means an expert with it. Nonetheless, I was able to call a friend, who in turn called one of his friends (Bill Glennie). He replied with the following:
“There is a setting in the tool properties to use either the target drawing style for text of as defined in the block. It is set to target drawing by default, so changing that should get the desired results. “
I do hope that helps. If not I’d encourage you to have a look at the Autodesk discussion forums (http://discussion.autodesk.com), or the AUGI forums (www.augi.com).
Donnie - We know your favorite command is RECOVERALL. What is your least favorite command? Most used command? and something you wish worked differently? Matt
As I’m sure you’ve seen in my interview with Lynn Allen, my favorite command is RECOVERALL. After all something is to be said for commands that make life easier, and simply work!
As for the other end of the spectrum with my least favorite; it’s hard to say although QUICKCUI does come to mind. Not that I think it’s necessarily all that bad of a command, but I’ve just never found it quicker to type QUICKCUI than CUI.
My most used command is without question OPEN & SAVE. Oh you mean commands to create things inside AutoCAD? With the recent 2010 release, I’ve really taken to the parametric features, and find myself using them a lot. When setting up sheets, I’m absolutely addicted to the CHSPACE and ALIGN commands, as I generally draw a rectangle overtop my scaled viewport, use the CHSPACE command to get an accurate outline of my viewport in model space, and I then copy that rectangle to establish my sheet layout. With the locations of my sheets established, I use the ALIGN command to match the model space rectangle with by layout tab viewport.
One command I always thought had a lot of potential was the MLINE command. I hardly use it because its functionality seems so limited. I’d love to see the MLINE command become a mashup of the PLINE and MEASURE/DIVIDE commands. Essentially having the versatility of PLINE’s, but also having the ability to place “blocks” which are dynamically linked to the line itself. I could see using something like this for ditches; illustrate their true width while also illustrating the flow direction.
Something else I wish worked a little different are multi-leaders. Specifically I wish they were more integrated with “normal” dimensions and dimension styles.
I know you didn’t ask, but the commands I find most comical. You have to go back a few years to find it, but the ENDTODAY command always made me laugh. No matter how many times I typed that command in during the course of the day, 5:00 never came any sooner. Of course OOPS and BATTMAN are classics in the realm of comical commands.
Benefits:
