Where do AutoCAD Dimensions Belong? Paper Space or Model Space?

There are some topics that will always be debated; Paper or Plastic, Mac or PC, Football or Soccer, Standard Time or Daylight Savings Time, Dimension in AutoCAD’s Model Space or Paper Space?

The problem with this question is the same as with the other questions that I mentioned, the answer depends on what you are doing.  That answer sucks to be honest, but it’s the truth.  Many times it really won’t matter.  Other times having dimensions in model space is the worst thing to do!  Or the worst will be having a million dimensions in paper space across several tabs that have to be updated when one model space dimension would have updated everything.

When is dimensioning in Model Space ok?  When that dimension (and this goes for text too) needs to be shown everywhere (or nearly everywhere) or when there will only be one paper space tab in the file.

When is dimensioning in Paper Space ok?  When you have multiple paper space tabs in your file and your dimensions do not carry over from sheet to sheet.

Quick View Layouts-With Tabs

A reader recently asked me how to get the layout tabs back in AutoCAD 2009. He had been using the Quick View Layout (or QVL for short) but wanted to use the tabs again. In some cases tabs are quicker and easier to use. I agree. The QVL are great when you want a preview of the layout. Well, here's how:

Open up OPTIONS. To do that, type on the command line OPTIONS. (caps don't matter by the way.) Go to the DISPLAY tab, then to the bottom left of the screen to the LAYOUT ELEMENTS area. Make sure to Check the box that says DISPLAY LAYOUT AND MODEL TABS. That will turn them on.

You can use either method of moving through the tabs i your drawings. Even if the tabs are on, you can still use QVL. If you don't like either of these methods, you can toggle through your tabs by pressing CTRL+PAGE UP (or PAGE DOWN). CTRL+Page Up takes you towards the first tab, while CTRL+Page Down take you toward the last tab.

AutoCAD 2009 - Fit and Finish

Fit and Finish items are small enhancements and additions to the AutoCAD 2009 that help to complete the package. These little details are not enough to demand an upgrade, but they sweeten the pot! Collectively they help to make the upgrade to AutoCAD 2009 well worth it. Lets take a look at these new features:

M-Text now has automatic spell checking! Well duh!! Why hasn’t this been in there from the beginning? Everything else has it? I would often forget to go back and spell check a drawing, now I don’t have to, Mtext will do it for me. Yes, I get lazy.

ETransmit is a great way to get your drawings to somebody else. ETransmit allows you to send everything your client, vendor, best friend (whomever) needs to open and read your AutoCAD files. In AutoCAD 2009 eTransmit, you now have the option to save or not to save a drawing before you pack it all up, AND you can purge too.

Dynamic Xclip updates. This is one of my other favorite enhancements in AutoCAD 2009. It used to be that in order to update an xclip you had to generate the polygon, edit the polygon, then update the clip which involved several steps. Now, generate the polygon and grip edit it!! Xclip is instantly updated. This one is real nice.

Export Layouts to model space. At first I scratched my head, and said “huh?” You can import a layout into another layout, but now you can export a layout tab into the model of a different file.

Geographic Locations. Now you can set the geographical location in a file. The command geographiclocation sets the longitude, latitude, and north direction in a file. You can import this information from a .KML or .KMZ file, from your current Google Earth location (very nice), or enter the location values yourself. Here is the dialog box in case you enter the information yourself.

Find and Replace. I failed to mention earlier that the Find and replace will also now look for text in blocks and in an xref. Now that’s handy.


The Fit and Finish enhancements are a part of what makes upgrading to AutoCAD 2009 a good idea.

Happy CADDING


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AutoCAD 2009 – Quick View Drawings

Here is another CAD-a-Blog edition of AutoCAD 2009 Tips & Tricks.

This time I want to look at the new Quick View Drawings feature. It is virtually identical to the Quick View Layouts feature we talked about before. The main difference is that instead of displaying images of the files layout tabs, it displays images of the drawings you currently have open. BUT (there’s always a but), when you hover your cursor over one of the drawings images, that drawings layout tabs will be displayed as if you just activated the Quick View Layout feature! You get a two for one deal here.

All of the options for the Quick View Layout feature are here and similar features for the Quick View Drawing feature are there two. You can save or close a file, open a file, or create a new file. The QVD (Quick View Drawing) feature is started the same way the Quick View Layout feature is. Click the icon for it on the status bar. Very easy, very quick. The QVD images can be pinned and closed by clicking on the icon for it in the QVD Control Panel (that’s the row of icons just below the drawing images), just like the QVL.

That’s it in a nutshell.

Happy CADDING J

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AutoCAD 2009 – Quick View Layouts

How do you know what is in the layout tab of a file? You don’t until you open that tab. Not anymore!! With AutoCAD 2009 we now have Quick View Layouts. I mentioned this in my review of the status bar (as well as other things, go check it out for a quick review).

The Quick View Layouts do more than display an image of the layout tabs of a file. If you select one, the drawing will open to that tab. Nice! You can see the tab and make a selection based on what is in there, not what you remember. This is an especially nice feature when you work with other people’s drawings.

What else can we do with this new feature? Plot, publish, create a new layout, and everything else that we could do before. The Quick View Layouts really replace the layout tabs, though you can still turn them on if you want to. If you want to plot or publish a tab, click either icon that appears in the Quick View Layout image, they are at the top and on either side. You can print a layout without opening it!

If you right click a quick view image, you get all of the old fashioned options to choose from. You can also PIN the QVL images so that they stay up on your screen. I’ll post again about the PIN option that is all over AutoCAD 2009. You can PIN just about anything these days!

One little odd thing about the QVL, is that it cannot display a preview image of model space?? There is a placeholder image. I don’t know why, sorry. Also, until a preview image is created, there will be a placeholder image for the tabs. Just save the file or activate the tab to create the image.

You can start the QVL by clicking the icon on the status bar, or (for the keyboard junkies like me) type in QVLAYOUT. I think that it might be easier to click the icon!

Happy CADDING : )

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