Novedge Pulse™ of R.K. McSwain

AutoCAD 2014 includes some new command line enhancements briefly covered in our launch time review titled AutoCAD 2014 in two minutes. Let's dive in and explore some of these new tools closer.AutoCorrect - On the surface this is not a bad idea. If I type in LIME (instead of LINE), the LINE command will run instead of it saying "Unknown Command: LIME". Not bad, I can see the usefulness to this. However, I do not understand the need for a new PGP file (AutoCorrectUserDb.pgp) to hold user defined misspellings. If you misspell a command so often that you need to tell AutoCAD "Hey, I'm going to misspell this, so here is what I really mean" - it's time to create a shortcut key, or use a graphical UI element. Moreover, even it you did want to create an alias (say you misspell ARC a lot by typing in ARV), you can already do this using the old standard "Acad.pgp" file. You can manage this file if needed by going to the Manage Tab of the Ribbon, on the Customization panel, and then look for an entry to edit the AutoCorrect List.AutoComplete - Anyone with a smartphone who sends texts, understands this feature. Start typing PD for example, and commands that start with or include the string PD are suggested for you (i.e. PDFAttach, PDFClip, etc.). Fortunately, you can configure these suggestions based on frequency of usage vs. alphabetical. I'm sure most people will want the former. This feature was in AutoCAD 2013, but for 2014 they added a built in option to perform mid-string searches. In other words, typing in LIN will not only bring up suggestions for LINE and LINETYPE, but also PLINE. You can actually do this in 2013 also, but you have to include your own wildcard characters (i.e.: type in *LIN*). Synonym Suggestions - This is a feature that allows you to define a string such as "Length", and have it execute an actual command such as "Dist". I suppose the idea behind this is that if you use a different CAD program with different phrases for things, you can continue to use those phrases by defining a synonym suggestion. However, I'm going to pick on this one even more. Why does this require a new and different PGP file (AcadSynonymsGlobalDB.pgp)? This is a "new" feature that isn't really new at all. You have been able to do this for over 20 years using the normal "acad.pgp" file. Interestingly, there are some synonym suggestions defined in the default file like "connectpolyline" (runs the PLINE command) and "constructionline" (runs the RAY command). I have to say that if you are typing in 15+ character command names, it's time to create a shortcut in the "acad.pgp" file anyway. Command Help - This is a nice feature. When you do get a full command name to show up, either by typing it out or letting AutoComplete work, there will be two icons on the right side. A help symbol and a globe symbol. Click the help symbol to launch AutoCAD help on that command or click the globe symbol to launch a Google search for that command. The Google search will open in a new window in your default browser.Content Search - This is another nice feature that allows you to type in the name of certain content such as a block, and when a match is found the appropriate command is launched. For example, say you type in "Window2" (which is a block in your drawing). Then when you press enter the Insert command is launched and the Window2 block is ready for insertion. The same thing works for Layers, dimstyles, hatches and other named items. These items can be configured using the dialog shown below, which itself can be launched from the wrench icon on the command line.Tags: AutoCAD 2014Command Lin [more...]

I am starting a list of known bugs in Civil 3D 2013 here. Some of these may be inherited through AutoCAD. Product Version Description Addressed? Civil 3D 2013 When you insert a point from the Survey database, it automatically zooms you to that point. But the zoom level is way too small (viewsize = 0.0002). There is no way to control this. No Civil 3D 2013 Drawing files listed in the Sheet Set manager on the Model Files tab, are listed in seemingly random order and there is no way to sort them. No Civil 3D 2013 With the system variable "Startup" set to 1, when you start Civil 3D and select a sheet set from the list of recent files, Civil 3D will continue to open, but the sheet set is not loaded in the SSM palette. No Civil 3D 2013 The recent files list in the application menu, and in the Startup dialog box (if enabled) always floats sheet set files (.dst) to the top (even old ones), forcing recent .dwg files off the list. No Civil 3D 2013 Under certain conditions, when switching from a layout to model space, the ucs in MS changes by itself. Fixed in 2013 SP1 Civil 3D 2013 If you click a column header to sort the parcel listing in the prospector, the list disappears. More info and a workaround here. No.         Tags: BugAutoCADCivil 3 [more...]

Many Autodesk products including AutoCAD and verticals such as Civil 3D include a proprietary shortcut bar in file selection dialogs, known as the Places List. It's the leftmost panel shown here.Notice that the panel is light gray and the icon text is white, which makes the text difficult to read.Thanks to Jay_B in the Autodesk Forums, I was able to change this to text to black. If you have been wondering how to do this also, check out the post from Jay_B, second post in this thread. (instructions for Windows 7, but I suspect it is similar with Windows XP also).Here are screenshots of before and after on my machine.    Tags: AutoCADColorsPlaces Lis [more...]

 Today, March 29, is the 8th birthday of CAD Panacea. Inspired by Shaan Hurley, our first post was a simple tech tip back on March 29, 2005 on the old free Google blogspot system. Over the years we moved to our own domain, been through a few makeovers, and watched many other CAD blogs being born. Hopefully CAD Panacea has helped, informed, and provoked thought in many of you. Thanks to all of our readers over the years, especially those who leave feedback.Tags: Announcmen [more...]

Autodesk announced the new line of 2014 branded products this week. Since 2008, CAD Panacea has brought you a quick summary of the new AutoCAD features and here is the rundown for AutoCAD 2014.General The DWG file format remains the same (AutoCAD 2013) for AutoCAD 2014. As in previous versions, you can still save drawings down to versions as old as R14 DWG and R12 DXF. AutoCAD 2014 for Windows is supported on Windows XP, Windows 7, and Windows 8. No word on the availability of AutoCAD 2014 for Mac.User InterfaceJust when you thought the Command Line was at its maximum usefulness, more features are added. The command line now includes an AutoCorrect feature. If you type in LNIE, the LINE command will run instead of returning "unknown command". There is a new file (AutoCorrectUserDB.pgp) used to store user defined entries. The Command line tool AutoComplete now has the option to perform mid string searches. You can actually do this in 2013 by using wildcards (i.e. *LINE*), but now you can turn this on so you don't have to use wildcards. The Command line can now adapt to your personal command usage and tailor suggestions based on your habits. The Command line can now also perform synonym suggestions. For example, if you enter BUBBLE, a suggestion to use the MLEADER command will appear, or maybe you enter CURVE to get to the SPLINE command. There is a new file (AcadSynonymsGlobalDB.pgp) used to store these synonyms. The Command line includes a way to search the Internet for more information on a command. When the item pops up, click the globe icon to launch a Google search for the item. The two new PGP files mentioned earlier are accessible for editing from the Ribbon. If you type in the name of a existing BLOCK definition in the drawing, you can insert it directly, essentially running the INSERT command for the selected block. Lastly, there is a comprehensive dialog where you can control all these new Command line options. File Tabs has FINALLY been added to the core product. Users have been asking for this since AutoCAD went to MDI in 1999. They tried to pacify us with "Quick View Drawings" and "Quick View Layouts", but thankfully they finally listed to the users and added the FILE TABS! File Tabs let you switch drawings by clicking tabs. Most MDI applications use this same GUI element, so you should not have any problem figuring this out. Turn this on using a button on the View tab of the Ribbon. Tabs can be moved using the mouse to change their order, and hovering over a tab will show you a preview of the Model and Layout tabs. More layers are shown in the Layer drop down in the Ribbon. Layer name sorting of numerical characters is now down based on the numerical value. For example "1, 3, 30, 40, 5, 9" will sort as "1, 3, 5, 9, 30, 40" You can now perform a layer merge from inside the Layer Manager. Select a layer, right-click and choose Merge. Then select the target layer from a dialog. (Interestingly enough, they forgot to apply the new sorting mentioned above to this dialog.) Xref linetypes are now omitted from most linetype lists and Xref layers are omitted from the Properties dialog. You can now change the attachment type of multiple Xrefs from [Attach] to [Overlay] and vice-versa. You can now change the path type of multiple Xrefs among the choices of Absolute, Relative, and None.Object Creation and Modification Support for Geographic locations has been significantly enhanced. It includes the same Coordinate System Library as AutoCAD Map 3D. Now you can more accuratly set a location for your drawing to assist when importing geolocated data. You can set the location of your drawing using Autodesk Live Maps or by selecting a KML or KMZ file. Use of the Autodesk Live Maps requires you be logged into your Autodesk 360 account. You can sign up for free if you do not have one. .RCP and .RCS files (file formats created by the new Autodesk Recap application) are now supported when importing a point cloud. DIMCONTINUEMODE is a new system variable that affects creation of continued and baseline dimensions. If DIMCONTINUEMODE = 1, DIMCONTINUE and DIMBASELINE create dimensions using the style of the selected dimension. If If DIMCONTINUEMODE = 0, the new dimensions are created based on the current dimension style. Two ends of the same polyline can now be filleted together creating a closed polyline. Draw arcs in either direction using the CTRL key for control. The Text command remembers the last justification used until you change it.ConnectivityDesign Feed is a new service that allows you to enter text messages and attach images to be shared online with partners and clients using Autodesk 360. The messages you enter appear with their related drawings on the desktop, web, and across mobile devices.Other Several Autodesk Exchange apps are included by default. The Featured Apps tab provides direct access to Exchange where you can browse, download, and install other Exchange apps. More information on AutoCAD 2014 including many other articles on what's new, the Suites, and other Autodesk 2014 products can be found on Shaan Hurley's Between the Lines blog You can download your free trial today at http://www.autodesk.com/products/autodesk-autocad/free-trial Tags: AutoCADAutoCAD 201 [more...]

Fill out and complete a survey on AU for Autodesk, and you will be entered into a drawing for a free pass to AU2013.  Survey closes Friday, April 12, 2013. Good luck!More details here. Tags: AUAutodesk UniversityFre [more...]

Have you ever come across a block that you could not explode? You might try and get this message: Command: explode Select objects: 1 found Select objects: 1 could not be exploded. Command: The ability to restrict blocks from being exploded was added many releases ago, but I still see a lot of users confused by this. Here is how to "fix it".What you need to do is redefine the block and allow it to be exploded. Run the BLOCK command and select the desired block from the list. Now check the box that says "Allow exploding", then click OK. If there are instances of this block inserted in the drawing, you may get the dialog shown here asking you to confirm your decision to redefine the block: If there are no instances of the block inserted in the drawing, then you may get this similar confirmation dialog: Either way, confirm that you want to redefine the block. Now you will be able to explode an insertion of this block definition.There is another (fairly rare) reason you might not be able to explode a block, and that is if it was inserted using MINSERT. If that is the case, the command line will tell you when you try to explode Command: EXPLODE Select objects: 1 found 1 was minserted. Select objects: None found. Command: In this case, you will have to erase the MINSERT and reinsert the block(s) and explode the blocks as needed, or Autodesk has an alternative method listed here on their KB. Tags: AutoCADBlockExplodeMinser [more...]

Have you ever wanted to run a script file on one or more drawings, without having to use the overhead of the entire AutoCAD application? Starting with AutoCAD 2013, you can. AutoCAD 2013 comes with a tiny application named AcCoreConsole.exe. (The AutoCAD Core Console). This is basically a stripped down version of the AutoCAD engine without the graphics screen. Talk about the ultimate "classic" interface!So you might be thinking "AutoCAD is a graphics program...what do I want with a command line only interface?" At its most basic level, you can feed the Core Console a single script file that can create and edit entities and save those edits to a DWG file. Take this a step further and combine the Core Console with ScriptPro from Autodesk and you'll probably be processing script files, on multiple drawings, faster than ever.   I created a small script file that creates a few entities, makes an edit and then saves this work to a DWG file, and it runs and completes in about 2.5 seconds. You can barely get the splash screen to go away in 2.5 seconds when using full blown AutoCAD. Kean Walmsley over at Through the Interface has a much more in depth post on this application, and the AutoCAD Tips blog has a post on doing some more complex things with this tool, including batch plotting a set of DWG files to PDF.What do you think about this?Are you already using it? If so, what kind of things are you doing with it?Tags: AutoCADAutoCAD 2013ScriptProScript file [more...]

There does not seem to be an option for changing text portions of dates (such as the name of the month) to UPPERCASE (or lowercase) using the Field command dialog box. All of the examples shown are in First capital.However, if you explore other fields where there are options to change the case, you can see that setting a field to UPPERCASE simply adds some code to the end of the field like this: "%tc1".  Back to the date fields shown in the first dialog above. Note that you are not limited to only the example date formats shown, but you can enter your own date format (center, top of dialog). So click on the example that most closely matches what you want, and then paste in the suffix code "%tc1". This should alter the Field expression shown at the bottom of the dialog and change the string to UPPERCASE.If you are automating this, note that you can use the full string %% to get the same effect. Of course, you can vary the date strings part to fit your needs.Tags: AutoCADFieldsTips and TricksUPPERCASElowercas [more...]

A common problem I see in Civil 3D on is hard to read text in the Text Component Editor, as shown here.This can be caused by a feature in Windows called ClearText. Here is how to change that setting in Windows 7.Note that in some cases, turning OFF ClearText will result in problems with text in other applications, so please test it both ways to determine the best setting for you. Go to the Control Panel, open the Display applet. On the left side, pick Adjust ClearType text. On the next screen follow these instructions. When you finish, go back to Civil 3D and the text in the Text Component Editor should look better, like this....After you have tried both settings, which way did you end up using?Tags: WindowsdisplayCivil 3DText Edito [more...]

Have you even run into a problem in AutoCAD (or a vertical such as Civil 3D), that you can't figure out such as a drawing behaving strange, commands not acting right, commands not working, or maybe even the whole application just won't launch? One of the first things I would suggest is to have someone new log onto your machine and launch AutoCAD under their Windows profile, essentially creating a new "AutoCAD Windows Profile". If the problem goes away when you do this, then it is probably some error or corruption in your own "AutoCAD Windows Profile".In most cases, it will take more time to track down and fix the problem than it will to just start fresh with a new "AutoCAD Windows Profile". How can you wipe this out, without wiping out your entire Windows profile? Click here and follow this excellent step-by-step process. When you are done and launch AutoCAD, your "AutoCAD Windows Profile" will be reconstructed from scratch, just like the first time you ever launched it.Note that this is different than running a repair (initiated from Control Panel>Programs). A repair fixes program files, while reconstructing your "AutoCAD Windows Profile" affects your user files. Find more detail on this process at the link above.Tags: AutoCADrepairProfileWindowsFixCivil 3DAutoCAD L [more...]

Brian M. Curran of www.draftingservices.com has posted his annual Top CAD Blogs, this time for 2012. It is no surprise that the top spot belongs to Shaan Hurley for his Between the Lines blog, which features new content almost daily. Shann’s access to Autodesk employees and news means you’ll find quality content there, not just fluff.  Between the Lines was largely the inspiration for the creation of Cad Panacea back in 2005. Check out Brian’s list and see where your favorite CAD blogs sits.2012 was a slow year for Cad Panacea, but we are aiming higher in 2013. Look for more frequent posts of quality content. Thanks for your support and Happy New Year!Tags: Brian M. CurranBlog [more...]

The LENGTHEN command has been around for over 18 years, it was introduced with Release 13 in November of 1994. Yet, I still see many instances where it is ignored and some other method is used in its place. So what can you do with the LENGTHEN command? Let's look at the 4 options, or ways it can work.DElta - Use this option to extend or trim a Line or Arc when you want to add or subtract a certain amount. Let's say you have a line of unknown length but you want it to be 10 units longer. Use the DElta option and provide a value of 10, and the entity will be extended by this amount. Provide a value of -10, and the entity will be shortened (or trimmed) by this amount. You do not need to know anything about the original length and you do not have to draw (and later erase) any construction lines.Percent - Use this option to extend or trim a Line or Arc by a certain percentage. Again, let's say you have a Line of unknown length and you want to double its length. Use the Percent option and provide a value of 200. If you want to trim the line in half, enter a value of 50. Using a value of 100 will do nothing since you are telling the command to make the line 100% of its current length... get it?Total - Use this option when you want to make a line or arc a certain length, period. Take any line or arc, it doesn't matter if the Line or Arc you pick is 0.0001 unit long or 999999 units long, enter a value of 100 and the entity will be extended or shortened to be exactly 100 units long. This is an easy one to figure out.DYnamic - Use this option when you don't know the original length and don't care what the resulting length will be. It allows you to graphically set the length using the cursor. To do it, pick near the end of a Line or Arc and simply drag the cursor to lengthen or shorten the entity.  There is a short video at the bottom of this post illustrating the DYnamic option.All of the LENGTHEN options work off of the endpoint closest to where you pick. These are also easy commands to put in a menu macro or a shortcut lisp function. For example LD could be your shortcut for LENGTHEN DYnamic. Are you just starting out or are you an old AutoCAD veteran? Are you using the LENGTHEN command or other tools to do these things? Leave a comment and let us know. Thanks. Tags: AutoCADTips and Trick [more...]

There is a bug in Civil 3D 2013 that occurs when you try to sort the parcels in the Prospector. Normally, you can click on a column header and sort the table by that column, but if you do this with Parcels, the entire list goes away. Closing and restarting Civil 3D does not help, and neither does rebooting the entire machine. Here is a before and after screen shot. Notice the little sort arrow in the Name header does not appear in the Before shot, but it does appear after clicking on the Name header in the After shot.When this first happened, I searched around and found some discussion forum posts and a blog post regarding the same problem, but  I wasn't about to run a repair or reinstall unless it became absolutely necessary. I figured there had to be a simple fix. I did a little digging around and found out how to cure this bug. After you get it fixed, DO NOT CLICK on the sorting column headers again! Ok, follow these steps. Close Civil 3D, if it is open. Start>Run>REGEDIT Navigate your way to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Autodesk\AutoCAD\R19.0\ACAD-Bxxx:xxx\Profiles\>\Dialogs\AxUiMgrItem Then look in the right pane for a AeccMgrParcel:List:AeccMgrPltProspector:Prospector Click on it, press F2 to enter rename mode, give it a new name (it doesn't matter what you name it, just change it!) Close REGEDIT Start Civil 3D, and try again. If all goes well, Civil 3D will recreate the key we renamed with the correct values when it starts up and your parcels will be listed once more.Do not try to sort again!Tags: Civil 3DParcelsSortBugRegedi [more...]

This is a quick tutorial on adding and using User Defined Properties for Civil 3D cogo points, and we will create a new expression for use in our point label style. I’m starting with the stock template provided with Civil 3D 2013. Create a single point whose point style is Storm Sewer Manhole, and whose point label style is “Point#-Elevation-Description” Set the point (rim) elevation to 50.00. Now suppose you are given one of more measure down distances for locating the pipe flowline(s) at this manhole. Take a look at the point properties, there is no field for measure down, or pipe elevation, etc., so we need to define one. On the Settings tab in the Toolspace, find Point, then User Defined Property Classifications. Right click on Unclassified and choose New. Fill out the dialog like this.After you press OK, click on your cogo point and look in the properties palette. There is now an “Unclassified” category with a single property named “pipe1”, whose value is 0.00. Change the value to 9.5, which is the measure down distance.Ok, we can easily do the math and figure out that the pipe flowline is 40.5, but what if you have dozens of these to process? Let's define a single expression, and let Civil 3D do this math for us. On the Settings tab, under the label styles, find Expressions. Right click and choose New. Fill out the dialog as shown here.Note that you don’t have to type out the actual expression, use the buttons in the dialog to find and load the strings needed. Click OK. Staying in the same location, in Label Styles, right-click on “Point#-Elevation-Description”, and choose Edit (in reality, you would probably create a new label style here, but let's keep it simple). On the Layout tab, add a new text string label, and set the following properties for it: Name: pipe1 Anchor Component: Point Description Attachment: Top Left Y Offset: -0.17Now edit the contents of this new text label. Erase the default string, and add in the property named “pipe1-md” (which is the expression we created above). Prefix this with the string "Pipe 1 = " as shown below. Now after you exit all of the dialog boxes and get back to the drawing, your original point should look like this.In this quick tutorial, we created a new user defined property and a new expression to modify this property. This is just a simple example, and there are many possibilities for use of these two items, in many places in Civil 3D.  What can you do with these features?Tags: Civil 3DTips and TricksCogo point [more...]

What a week at Autodesk University 2012 in Las Vegas. More than 7,000 AU attendees were present for the event, now in its 20th year. Many of those 7,000 gathered Tuesday morning for the main stage, keynote session featuring the following speakers. Jeff Kowalski, Chief Technology Officer, Autodesk: @jeff_kowalski Dezsö Molnár, co-founder of Molnari, Inc., developer of the Gyrocycle. Christine Furstoss, Technical Director for Manufacturing and Materials Technologies at GE. Schuyler St. Leger, young designer, speaker, and maker: @DocProfSky Carl Bass, President and Chief Executive Officer, Autodesk: @carlbass Lynn Allen, Technical Evangelist, Autodesk: @lynn_allen Jeff started things off informing the audience that we would be discussing "practical tools that can improve the way that you work not sometime in the future, but right now today". Jeff also talked about how simulation tools have progressed to a point where they are no longer "nice to have, but a must have". Meaning that "today's simulation tools are replacing 'I don't know', with 'Let's find out!'". Jeff said that "Today's breakthroughs are almost always yesterday's crazy ideas" and brought up the phenomenom of "connectivity schizophrenia", or the disconnect we often experience in the workplace when important information sharing is delayed or never occurs. Cloud enabled tools help to solve "connectivity schizophrenia" by providing "a single point of connection, a central coordination place for everything that we need to know and do to complete our projects".Dezsö's inspiration for his Gyrocycle started with a daytime traffic jam in Los Angeles and a late night escape from it. The mass exodus from the Houston/Galveston area prior to hurricane Rita in 2005 furthered this inspiration. Seven people died as a result of this storm, but roughly 100 died as a direct result of the massive evacuation. Rather than look at this problem from an increased infrastructure point of view, Dezsö wondered how to lessen the footprint of the vehicle and get it off the ground. Seven months after drawing up a design, a working version of his Gyrocycle was flying. He is now using design software to further refine his ideas for continued improvement.Christine spoke about the overcapacity in many industries, and the need to innovate differently, the "Third Industrial Revolution". With digital manufacturing, "you're building not only the part, but you are building the properties".Schuyler is a 12 year old who loves to make things. He has access to computing tools at the age of 12 that most of us never dreamed of at that age, and has never known a world without the Internet. A fast broadband connection and the desire to learn can go a long way in today's world. Nobody told Schuyler that he was not supposed to be able to program microcontrollers until the second year of electrical engineering courses, so he learned on his own. The combination of inexpensive software and hardware means fewer limitations for inventors. Schuyler's generation armed with powerful computers, the Internet and personal fabrication tools have shrunk the design+build process in today's world.Carl Bass took the stage next and echos what many engineers and designers ask often.. "Wouldn't it be cool if...?". He explained how Autodesk Sketchbook allows you to digitally sketch a design almost anywhere on almost any device, and how Autodesk 123D Catch builds a 3D model out of multiple 2D photographs. A new product named FormIt allows you to visualize buildings and surroundings so you can quickly try many options and see how they relate to the requirements. Autodesk Infrastructure Modeler allows you to experience the complete design of a long road for example, before any earth is actually moved. Bass announced cloud based Autodesk Fusion 360 as "the worlds only complete 3D CAD solution that lets you work the way you want to.". Bass says you can use Fusion 360 as much or as little as you want to and only pay for the time you use it. Virtually unlimited computing power used for Fusion 360 also opens up new possibilities for faster and better cloud based rendering also.Last but not least, Lynn Allen closed out the general session by getting the attendees ready to kick off the week discussing the 800+ classes available along with free product certification testing available during the conference.Other than the mentions of FormIt and Autodesk Fusion 360, there were no groundbreaking, "what did I just hear?", type of announcements. More from the Carl Bass Q&A coming in part II.Tags: Autodesk UniversityAU201 [more...]

 One of the events at AU2012 was a special luncheon on Wed., Nov 28. to announce the creation of the Expert Elite group, a select group of individual community members who have been recognized for their extraordinary contributions, helping customers by sharing knowledge, providing community leadership, and exemplifying an engaging style of collaboration that drives a healthy and valuable Autodesk customer community.I was honored to be included among this groups initial members, composed of approximately sixty worldwide members. If you participate in the Autodesk forums, you may have noticed the term "Expert Elite" in use on some of the user titles. We have been empowered to better share our knowledge, while supporting our peers and the Autodesk Community in general.I want to thank Autodesk for this recognition and I hope that I have helped some of you along the way. Special thanks to Jillian Bejtlich, Community Manager, Autodesk Discussion Groups, for all her work on this effort also! Tags: Discussion GroupsExpertAutodeskAutoCADCivil 3 [more...]

Due to the almost constant spamming here for the past several hours, we have removed the ability to post comments here at CAD Panacea. We hope to restore this ability soon. Thanks for your support!Tags: Comment [more...]

AutoCAD Civil 3D 2013 Service Pack 1 is now available for download! This Service Pack includes all previous hotfixes for AutoCAD Civil 3D 2013. It also includes the fixes included in AutoCAD 2013 Service Pack 1.1 and AutoCAD Map 3D 2013 Service Pack 1. Thank you Autodesk! I have not installed it yet, but I'm looking forward to this fix -> "In drawings with a custom UCS, switching from the model tab to the layout tab will no longer reset model tab to isometric."How do I know this has been fixed without installing the SP? It's in the readme file, which is a good idea to read anyway in case there are install notes or other things to be aware of. Hopefully there won't be a recall of this SP or anything like that. There is also an issue regarding the toolspace and parcels, which did NOT get fixed. If you suffer from this bug, I have posted the temporary fix/workaround in message 9 in that discussion group thread. I have now installed the SP and confirmed it by running the ABOUT command.  Tags: Civil 3DCivil 3D 2013Service Pac [more...]

Stay tuned for some reviews of what's happening this week at AU early next week. Meanwhile, since I'm running light with the hardware here, you can check out the latest real-time activities by checking out the cadpanacea twitter feed. Tags: Autodesk UniversityAU201 [more...]

Let's see. Been up since 3:30am, Southwest Airlines managed to delay my flight by 100 minutes, but thanks to allowing plenty of time, I made it and we're getting ready to get started here at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas for AU 2012. Tags: Autodesk University AU201 [more...]

It's been a busy summer and fall 2012, you may have noticed fewer posts here than normal. Things are going to pick up starting Monday, the first day of AU2012. We'll be in Las Vegas blogging and tweeting, live from the Mandalay Bay Hotel and CasinoHere is some recent AU2012 news from Shaan Hurley over at Between the Lines.If you are attending AU and this is your first time, try to make the Freshman Orientation, Monday, November 26, 5:00 p.m.–6:00 p.m. Freshman or not, the AU survival tips are always good to read, and practice.See you next week! Tags: AUAutodeskAutodesk Universit [more...]

Autodesk has published a knowledge base article describing the products which are currently supported on Windows 8.The article is pretty short, essentially two sentences. But those two sentences are very interesting.Autodesk intends to support many of our key products on Windows 8 and will add additional products to the list of products supported on Windows 8 as updates and future versions are released.Product Support will provide its best effort to assist customers who have issues with products that are not currently supported. So, it looks like more products will be supported, going even back to 2010 versions, and they will provide some support for products that are not "officially supported". The full KB article is here. Tags: Windows 8Autodes [more...]

With regard to Civil 3D Cogo Points, you probably know that the point labels include a "Dragged State", the properties of which take over when you drag the point label away from the point location.   But did you know that you can also move the individual point label components (such as the point number, elevation, and description)? This isn't new, Almas Suljevic wrote an article on this last year for the Being Civil blog. But I want to pass on a little trick regarding this feature.  Start with the stock template that comes with Civil 3D 2013. Create a point and set the label style to "Point#-Elevation-Description". Now select the point and hover the cursor over the square grip. You should get a popup menu with two choices. Move label, Rotate label, and Toggle sub item grips.Choose the last item and then notice that you get a new grip point for each available sub item of the label.After you do this, you can grab each individual point label component and move it around as shown below. (There is one catch to this: If you move a label component and other label components are anchored to it, the others will move also)Now change the label style to "Elevation Only", select the point, and hover over the square grip. Do you get the same three choices? You will probably only get two choices this time, Move Label and Rotate Label.This presents a problem if you want to move the elevation label just slightly. Any movement of the label will trigger the Dragged State which will cause a leader (or part of a leader if you are really close) to appear. What if you don't want this leader? You could edit this label style to make the leader non-visible, but then you will not get the leader at all, even if you drag the elevation label to a more distant location.Here is one option. Edit the label style and add a new text component. It doesn't matter what it is named, or what it contains because you are also going to set its Visible property to False as shown here.Once you do this, you will get the third option "Toggle sub item grips", when you hover over the main grip. You will still get a leader if you drag the entire label off, but you can now turn on the sub-item grips to make subtle adjustments to the location of the elevation label without a portion of a leader getting in the way.If you want to put all of the label components back into their original place, hover over the main square grip again and choose Reset Label.Tags: Civil 3DCogo pointsGripsTips and Trick [more...]

Even though we are in the era of the Ribbon, you may still want to use certain toolbars. Here are 3 ways to access toolbars If you have ANY docked toolbar visible, right click in an empty toolbar area (but not on a visible toolbar), and from there you can choose a toolbar from the menu that appears. Each loaded menugroup will be listed If you do not have any docked toolbars but your Ribbon is enabled, go to the View tab on the Ribbon and find the User Interface panel, then the Toolbars dropdown. Choose the toolbar you want here. Lastly, you can use the command line method, using the -TOOLBAR command (note the leading hyphen). When you use -TOOLBAR, you must know the exact toolbar name you want to make visible, but this command has many options. You can dock the toolbar or make it floating. If you make it floating, you can specify the exact location using screen coordinates. If you accept the defaults location (0,0) the toolbar will appear in the upper left corner of your primary monitor. If you want to specify a different location, be aware that the values increase as you move left and down. So if you specify a location of 300,500, the toolbar will be placed 300 pixels to the left and 500 pixels below the upper left corner of your primary monitor. Of course the power of the -TOOLBAR command is that you can script this using a menu macro or lisp routine to place multiple toolbars exactly where you want to. If you watch the prompts on the -TOOLBAR command, you'll see that you can hide toolbars also, so it's possible to setup some shortcuts to show and hide various toolbars - which should be quicker than switching workspaces.Tags: AutoCADToolbar [more...]

Choices Docked Floating Off Where is your AutoCAD Command Line?  Did the new command line in AutoCAD 2013 make you change [more...]

Service Pack 1 for AutoCAD 2013 and AutoCAD LT 2013, was pulled from distribution quickly after its release. It it now available for download again, rebranded as Service Pack 1.1.  As always, be sure to download the correct version for your system (32-bit or 64-bit) and read the readme fileAutoCAD 2013 Service Pack 1.1  AutoCAD LT 2013 Service Pack 1.1    Tags: AutoCADAutoCAD 2013Service PackAutoCAD L [more...]

Although Autodesk Revit is not a tool I use, I did want to pass on some news that hit the Revit world recently. Autodesk Revit LT was announced this week. This is a simplified application designed to help small AEC firms transition to a BIM workflow with a cost-effective tool built on the Revit platform.Below is some basic information from Autodesk. Please visit the home page for Revit LT for more details.Key features of Autodesk Revit LT include: Simplified user interface and integrated learning resources that helps shorten learning time More accurate, coordinated designs and documentation, for small BIM projects that do not require advance collaboration or analysis tool Rendering in the cloud – Autodesk Revit LT provides integrated access to Autodesk 360 rendering for customers with an active subscription to Revit LT. Available as a standalone version and as part of the new AutoCAD Revit LT Suite 2013, which includes both Autodesk Revit LT 2013 and AutoCAD LT 2013.Autodesk Revit LT 2013 is scheduled to be available within the month in North America and in select countries worldwide. The product is available as a standalone version and as part of the new AutoCAD Revit LT Suite 2013, which includes both Autodesk Revit LT 2013 and AutoCAD LT 2013.Tags: RevitAutodes [more...]