Novedge Pulse™ of R.K. McSwain

Here is a trick that I find many people are not aware of. It is possible to copy geometry from one AutoCAD drawing to another without using traditional copy and paste methods.There are a couple of rules.Both drawings must be open in the editor You will not be able  [more...]

Seems too simple, right? Who doesn't know how to create a new drawing in AutoCAD? You click the NEW button in the Quick Access Toolbar (QAT), or choose NEW from the Application Menu, or type in NEW at the command line....right?Do you really know what each of those  [more...]

Choices ICONS TEXT I'm fairly receptive of new things in AutoCAD. Even if I do not adopt something new, I can generally find a reason for why things change. This one though, I still don't get. I can read the words much faster than I can figure out what the little icons  [more...]

So if you think this post look familiar, you are right. This originally ran back in 2009, but it was very popular and I wanted to update it and run it again so that it is at the top. I'm sure it will be new to a few people too.How many of these do you know? How many  [more...]

This tutorial serves two purposes. One is to create a new tool to convert Line or Arc entities to Polylines, and the other purpose is showing how to integrating this tool into a contextual tab.We're using AutoCAD 2013, and by default there are no contextual tabs for  [more...]

Shaan Hurley has always been my reference for AutoCAD history and has an excellent page on this. So the question came up the other day "What was the first version of AutoCAD for Windows". My memory told me it was Release 12, but I was not quite sure. A little searching  [more...]

Autodesk Gallery at Market One, in San Francisco. I arrived on Monday evening, a little late for the pre-event get together hosted by TechSoft 3D. However, the next morning we met next door at the Autodesk Gallery for a light breakfast and then quickly got started  [more...]

Here is a direct link to the AutoCAD 2013 trial page. If you would like to try AutoCAD LT 2013, see this link. Tags: AutoCAD 2013Freefree trial [more...]

As you have may have already heard (or predicted because it's late March), AutoCAD 2013 has been launched. Below is my annual overview of what's new in this version. I've done this for the past 4 versions including AutoCAD 2009, AutoCAD 2010, AutoCAD 2011, and AutoCAD  [more...]

Here are a couple of online events coming next week from Autodesk.1What - Special Autodesk webcast with presentations by Autodesk CEO Carl Bass, Senior Vice President Amar Hanspal, and more.When - Tuesday, March 27, 2012 at 9AM (PST), Noon (EST)Where - You can catch  [more...]

Shaan Hurley has documented the AutoCAD 2013 (I guess that will be the name!) system requirements on his Between the Lines blog. Notably missing is support for Microsoft Vista. Windows XP is still supported. It should also be noted that AutoCAD 2013 does introduce  [more...]

With regard to last week's post on modifying the PDF sheet display, I've taken another approach and come up with the following lisp code that will allow you to import some or all of the sheets of a multi-sheet PDF all at once. I realize that the built-in PDFATTACH  [more...]

When you attach a multi-page PDF file as a reference in AutoCAD, you can choose which sheet to display (see below). But what if you want to change that reference to a different sheet in the PDF file, later on? There is nothing in the Ribbon to do this, and "Page Number"  [more...]

Many moons ago in the AutoCAD world, when you received a command prompt instead of an expected dialog box, you could check the system variables FILEDIA and CMDDIA and make sure they were set to 1. Over the years, CMDDIA has all but been phased out in AutoCAD, although  [more...]

A Quick overview of Quick Profile in Civil 3D Below is a simple animation of creating a quick profile in Civil 3D. No, this is not a new feature, but there are new Civil 3D users every day - and if you have never seen or used this feature - this may help you out.Start  [more...]

One of the new features you have probably noticed in AutoCAD 2012 is the new command line capabilities. When you start typing something in, AutoCAD automatically starts searching to help you finish the thought. Did you know you can configure how this works?Run the  [more...]

Autodesk presented a webinar this morning to review the new version of AutoCAD WS 1.4 that is now available for download. If you are not aware of it, AutoCAD WS is a free web and mobile application for viewing and editing DWG files stored in the cloud. The "cloud"  [more...]

Last month, I wrote an article for the CADSPEED blog describing a great program where Autodesk and Lenovo teamed up to outfit a deserving small business with new hardware, software, and training - at no cost. Yes, you read that right. FREE software, hardware, software,  [more...]

This tip came to me while working with Cogo points in Civil 3D, but it could apply to many things. A while back I had a tip about setting PICKADD to 0. Now generally, this system variable set being to 0 would annoy most people since it only allows you to select one  [more...]

Do you ever use the transparent 'CAL command? It is probably one of those commands that you know, but use so infrequently that you forget about it. So why bother? How can it help? Here are some examples. Oh yeah, I'm not talking about the QuickCalc that runs in a palette  [more...]

Annotative objects have been part of AutoCAD now since the 2008 release, but if you use them infrequently you may have some questions on how certain things work.One question that I see frequently is related to the ability for annotative objects to have different locations  [more...]

If you work on a particular project frequently, you can save a step by creating a desktop (or start menu) shortcut for launching AutoCAD, and have it automatically open the desired Sheet Set.Here is how to do it.Copy the shortcut that you normally use Open the properties  [more...]

As you may know, AU2011 was last week in Las Vegas. Attendance was expected to be around 8,000 people from as many as 80 countries. There were almost 1,000 classes, labs, un-conference discussions, virtual learning sessions and keynote presentations offered in the  [more...]

Keep track of what's going on at AU2011 by following the Twitter feed. More to come later.AU2011read more [more...]

Well, probably....if you are in the U.S. and unless you have to work on Friday or the weekend. I had planned on another informative AU2011 post today, but I'm finishing up work because I do have ZERO work days in between today and the week following AU.So because time  [more...]

This will be my seventh year to attend AU. Here is a look back at my past years using select photos. All images except the last three, are courtesy of Shaan Hurley. If you are attending AU2011, there is a Flickr group set up where you can share your photos.Ok, let's  [more...]

AU2011 is one week away. If AU2011 will be your first time at Autodesk University, here are some great tips and advise from the Kung Fu Drafter and Shaan Hurley.Beginners Guide to AU - Part 1Beginners Guide to AU - Part 2AU Survival TipsIf you are not attending in  [more...]

If you are editing TEXT (not MTEXT), and the system variable TEXTED is set to 0 or 2, then you will be using the In-Place text editor. Although you can type in %%U to add underlining, there is no obvious way to remove it. I would guess most people would not even try  [more...]

Submit your 3D CAD design and win a trip to San Francisco for two, plus $1000 in cash! WikiCAD and Novedge have teamed up to create this contest, and the judging is based on Facebook "likes" and Google "+1"'s. What could be easier? For all of the details, check out  [more...]

Here is a great informational video about Autodesk University 2011.read more [more...]

I have a couple of posts on the various MDI drawing tabs add-ons for AutoCAD, the first was in 2007 (updated in 2010), and another from this year regarding the compatibility of the Autodesk version with AutoCAD 2012. I have been using the version from www.caelink.com  [more...]

Here is a quick tip regarding layouts. Use Designcenter (command:ADC) to easily copy complete layouts from one drawing to another. By complete layout, I mean the layout, any geometry in the layout and the page setup.You might even create several differently sized  [more...]

It's getting close to that time of year again. Yes, I'm talking about Autodesk University 2011. The first classes are about 4-1/2 weeks away, so there is still plenty of time to register. As the image on the left indicates, I'm fortunate enough to be attending myself  [more...]

The new BLEND command in AutoCAD 2012 creates a tangent spline in between two entities. This can save you a lot of time compared to manually working the Spline command. You can pick lines, arcs, open splines/polylines, or elliptical arcs. After you pick the first entity,  [more...]