Steve Johnson, writer of BUG WATCH for Cadalyst magazine has a great article this month on how to improve the performance in AutoCAD 2009.
AutoCAD 2009 gave us several new features that often get in the way and Steve talks about handling them in a way you may have already figured out. He also goes into the 2 Service Packs that have been released from Autodesk.
Bug Watch
Showing posts with label workaround. Show all posts
Showing posts with label workaround. Show all posts
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Friday, January 16, 2009
Using the Action Recorder without the Ribbon
In AutoCAD 2009, we were given the Ribbon and the Action Recorder. The Action Recorder is great for recording repetitive actions and tasks. The Ribbon is great for accessing grouped commands and saving screen real estate. One of my readers asked me how to use the Action Recorder without using the Ribbon. Well, you can't. You can start recording, stop recording, and play back other Action Macros but you can not edit them. This is a big deal to me. If you have tried creating a macro to use, or for other people to use, they need to be edited.
When an Action Macro is created, every input is literal. That doesn't always apply when you need to reuse the macro. For example, an input point may not be at the exact same coordinates every time. Therefore you need to allow the user to choose the input time. You can't edit the action macros if you don't use the ribbon. I have come up with a workaround. Here it is:
Turn on the ribbon and minimize it. There are three options to display the Ribbon: Full Size (displays the ribbon and the tabs), tabs and panels (displays the tab names and panel names only), and tabs only.
Doing this will take up more screen space but it will give you access to the ribbon and the features that are only in the Ribbon. If you don't use the features in the ribbon enough to justify having it displayed that way, I understand. You can toggle the ribbon on/off by typing on the command line: RIBBON. That way you can create a macro with the Recorder and then edit it.
Its a pain I agree, but if you don't want to use the ribbon in your daily work, you will have to turn it on to use some of the latest features in AutoCAD.
When an Action Macro is created, every input is literal. That doesn't always apply when you need to reuse the macro. For example, an input point may not be at the exact same coordinates every time. Therefore you need to allow the user to choose the input time. You can't edit the action macros if you don't use the ribbon. I have come up with a workaround. Here it is:
Turn on the ribbon and minimize it. There are three options to display the Ribbon: Full Size (displays the ribbon and the tabs), tabs and panels (displays the tab names and panel names only), and tabs only.
Doing this will take up more screen space but it will give you access to the ribbon and the features that are only in the Ribbon. If you don't use the features in the ribbon enough to justify having it displayed that way, I understand. You can toggle the ribbon on/off by typing on the command line: RIBBON. That way you can create a macro with the Recorder and then edit it.
Its a pain I agree, but if you don't want to use the ribbon in your daily work, you will have to turn it on to use some of the latest features in AutoCAD.
Monday, July 21, 2008
Updating Your Fields
I wrote an article for AUGI Hotnews last month about Fields. It goes over the basic uses and implementations of fields. Nothing ground breaking, or earth shattering, unless you don't use fields but have repeating data in a drawing set.
One of the articles readers, a licensed engineered, has an issue with fields. When the object data changes, the field doesn't automatically display the new data!!! What?? I thought that's what fields do. Well, it does, it just doesn't change the text until you do a refresh or a regen all type of thing.
I told him that when I update object data that has a field linked to it, I type in RA (keyboard shortcut for REGEN ALL) and BAM!!! it's updated. I've never seen it as a detriment, but, the reader makes a great point. The filed should automatically change right away.
This is how fields work: They reference data. They have a connection to the data source but it is not a constant connection. It has to be told to read the source data in order to display it properly. When you do a REGEN ALL, that tells the filed to look at the source data and display the value. It does. It is something that we have to deal with.
Now, here is my question, which is actually our readers question that I could not answer for him. Is there a setting or method that can be used to have the filed automatically update when source data is changed without doing a regen? I don't think so, but i am wrong all of the time.
So CAD-a-Blog readers, how do you do it? What do you propose? Is this setting out there? Let me know, either by e-mail or post a comment here.
Thanks for the help.
One of the articles readers, a licensed engineered, has an issue with fields. When the object data changes, the field doesn't automatically display the new data!!! What?? I thought that's what fields do. Well, it does, it just doesn't change the text until you do a refresh or a regen all type of thing.
I told him that when I update object data that has a field linked to it, I type in RA (keyboard shortcut for REGEN ALL) and BAM!!! it's updated. I've never seen it as a detriment, but, the reader makes a great point. The filed should automatically change right away.
This is how fields work: They reference data. They have a connection to the data source but it is not a constant connection. It has to be told to read the source data in order to display it properly. When you do a REGEN ALL, that tells the filed to look at the source data and display the value. It does. It is something that we have to deal with.
Now, here is my question, which is actually our readers question that I could not answer for him. Is there a setting or method that can be used to have the filed automatically update when source data is changed without doing a regen? I don't think so, but i am wrong all of the time.
So CAD-a-Blog readers, how do you do it? What do you propose? Is this setting out there? Let me know, either by e-mail or post a comment here.
Thanks for the help.
Thursday, May 29, 2008
What’s Wrong With AutoCAD 2009?
Autodesk has released a new file that lists several known (and admitted) issues with the software. It also has some workarounds in it. Here are some of the topics in the list:
- Installation Configuration
- Network Licensing
- Graphics Card Info
- CUI
- Vista Specific Issues
- 64-bit Specific Issues
- 3D Modeling and Animation
- Miscellaneous Items
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Workaround - AutoCAD 2009 - Find/Replace - no Zoom!
In a previous post, AutoCAD 2009 - Find and Replace, I spoke about the changes in AutoCAD 2009's Find and replace command. It now automatically zooms to the text you find, but when you quit the command you are returned to where you were when you started the command. That means you can no longer use the find command to find text!
One of CAD-a-Blog's great and highly intelligent readers came up with a work around. Use the find command and zoom to the text. Close the command. then execute a Zoom PREVIOUS!!! Fantastic! It works, I tried it. It also works in 2008.
Just start the find command, find your text, zoom to it (it does this automatically now). Then close the command. Then start the zoom command, then type in P for previous and there you go, at your text!
Great tip, great workaround! Keep them coming.
Happy CADing!
One of CAD-a-Blog's great and highly intelligent readers came up with a work around. Use the find command and zoom to the text. Close the command. then execute a Zoom PREVIOUS!!! Fantastic! It works, I tried it. It also works in 2008.
Just start the find command, find your text, zoom to it (it does this automatically now). Then close the command. Then start the zoom command, then type in P for previous and there you go, at your text!
Great tip, great workaround! Keep them coming.
Happy CADing!
Friday, May 9, 2008
Workaround – Drawing Arcs To Length
A CAD-a-Blog reader sent me this e-mail asking how to draw an arc to a particular length. Here is Saqib’s question:
“If we have a curve or arc, we know its length and radius. If we want to divide or mark some points on given length so what is way of it. One way to do this use "DIVIDE" command then enter how many parts you need. But what I want is that we don’t need exact parts like 10,20,23,50 etc. How can I divide arc into desire length like 12.33,44.77,20.83 like so on.”
These tow methods are how I do it. If anyone has a different method of doing this please e-mail me or comment to this post.
Method one:
Use the ARC, Center, Start, Length command. You can find it in the DRAW, ARC pulldown menu. Or start the ARC command, select the CENTER option (type in C at the prompt-then press enter), select the arc’s center point, then select your starting point, and finally type in the desired length. You have just drawn an arc of a known center point and radius to a specific length. Keep in mind that AutoCAD defaults the direction of an arc as going counter clockwise. That means that when you select your starting point that the arc will be drawn from that point and extend out in a clockwise manner. If I start at the top of the arc, then it will be drawn to the left of that point. If I start at the bottom of a circle, then my arc will start at the bottom and go to the right.
Method Two:
Use the lengthen command to change the length of an arc. Start the LENGTHEN command (type in LENGTHEN). Choose the TOTAL option (type in T). Now you have the choice to change the arc to a certain angle (or delta) or to a certain length. Type in the length desired and select the arc (you can select multiple arcs if you want to). Make sure that you know which end is your starting point. In this case, the starting point will be the first end point drawn.
I hope this helps. Happy CADDING.
“If we have a curve or arc, we know its length and radius. If we want to divide or mark some points on given length so what is way of it. One way to do this use "DIVIDE" command then enter how many parts you need. But what I want is that we don’t need exact parts like 10,20,23,50 etc. How can I divide arc into desire length like 12.33,44.77,20.83 like so on.”
These tow methods are how I do it. If anyone has a different method of doing this please e-mail me or comment to this post.
Method one:
Use the ARC, Center, Start, Length command. You can find it in the DRAW, ARC pulldown menu. Or start the ARC command, select the CENTER option (type in C at the prompt-then press enter), select the arc’s center point, then select your starting point, and finally type in the desired length. You have just drawn an arc of a known center point and radius to a specific length. Keep in mind that AutoCAD defaults the direction of an arc as going counter clockwise. That means that when you select your starting point that the arc will be drawn from that point and extend out in a clockwise manner. If I start at the top of the arc, then it will be drawn to the left of that point. If I start at the bottom of a circle, then my arc will start at the bottom and go to the right.
Method Two:
Use the lengthen command to change the length of an arc. Start the LENGTHEN command (type in LENGTHEN). Choose the TOTAL option (type in T). Now you have the choice to change the arc to a certain angle (or delta) or to a certain length. Type in the length desired and select the arc (you can select multiple arcs if you want to). Make sure that you know which end is your starting point. In this case, the starting point will be the first end point drawn.
I hope this helps. Happy CADDING.
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