Wiley AutoCAD: Professional Tips and Techniques
Contents
1. Here you can choose exactly how you want the right button to behave 34 Chapter 1 Arranging the AutoCAD User Interface Should the right button repeat the last command bring up the shortcut menu or act like Enter If you ponder it your answer probably depends on whether objects are selected and a command is in progress Amazingly all these possibilities are customizable but you ll find in practice that locking in the mouse behavior in this fashion can be a bit too constraining What if you change your mind on occasion and want the shortcut menu to appear rather than repeating the last command Perhaps the best of all possible worlds with deference to Voltaire is to turn on time sen sitive right click Check the box at the top of the dialog and your act of right clicking will be timed This isn t a test If you click quickly say if the click lasts less than 250 millisec onds that will mean Enter or repeat the last command if you re at the command prompt If you take longer to complete the right click then the shortcut menu will appear Give it a try you may like leaving your options open until the moment of right clicking If you re not into video games and or you just can t stomach being timed all of the time then disable time sensitive right click and breathe easier2. How is it possible to misplace dockable windows This can happen when you ve been using dual monitors in extended desktop mode You experience the loss when you re away from your second monitor say with a notebook computer on the road AutoCAD remem bers the position of your floating window but isn t smart enough to know that you can t Inputting with the Keyboard and Mouse 27 see it because it s off the screen You may also lose your dockable windows when you change the resolution of the screen which once happened to Lynn in front of about 150 people in Denmark If neither one of these situations applies to you dockable windows have also been reported to disappear for no good reason at all DI Customize User Interface Customize Transfer Workspace Contents Customize Wierksomone h e r a M ACAD 2 6p Dockable windows 08 workspaces pe Command Line dF 3D Modeling yg SheatSet Manager i i lt 7 Cite My Workspace cuert fH Dachboard Ts Tool Palette mE Menus BU Lights in Medel tH LeE Shortout Menus i Extemal References aa Keyboad Shortouts iie Sun Properbes cif Double Chek Actions i Materiale os Mouse Buttons 3 Visual Styles Manager LISP Files og Advanced Setlings Didog B Legacy AG Markup Set Manager a E Partial CUI Fies ib Info Palette Properties Command List a eden I Command ot Use Traneperenicy Trareparency Amour Gize Do not change
3. Speohes the location of a docked element n the workspace or whether the curent setings should be mantained when the workspace is opened JA Lean mre show Customization C e ee B Inputting with the Keyboard and Mouse Long gone are the days when tablets were popular input devices in the AutoCAD commu nity Although they had some advantages they made portability impractical Today the keyboard and mouse are the only input devices you ll need to get the most out of AutoCAD The tips in this section some new and some old will help you work more efficiently with AutoCAD Input Optimizations a The first big optimization is to enter commands using dynamic input on screen rather than on the command line Old habits are hard to break but please give dynamic input a chance To get the most from dynamic input turn dynamic prompts on in the Drafting Settings dia log box Use the Down Arrow key when you want to see options 28 Chapter 1 Arranging the AutoCAD User Interface Autocomplete is another nifty feature that should be popular among the lazy forget ful and or dyslexic which should include just about everyone This tool comes in handy when you can t remember how to spell a specific system variable or command Autocomplete works both in dynamic input prompts and on the command line To use this practically invisible feature key in a few letters of a command or system variable you kind of remember and then press the Tab
4. Arranging the AutoCAD User Interface UI THE USER INTERFACE is an acronym that is thrown around a lot Just for a moment don t think of it as just those two letters The UI is what comes between you the user and it the essentially incomprehen sible computer The UI lets you interact with the inner workings of the machine ideally in an intuitive fashion Unlike an automobile with a manual transmission whose stick shift and clutch are parts of its perma nent Ul your computer s UI is highly customizable You don t like a stick shift Click here and you have an automatic The AutoCAD UI is important Many people gloss over it thinking the real meat is in using tools and getting the job done That may be so but if you re ever going to enjoy the dining experience you need to pay atten tion to how you access and work with the tools This chapter s techniques are organized into the following topics Tweaking Windows Finding Help Using Workspaces Organizing the Interface Inputting with the Keyboard and Mouse 2 Chapter 1 Arranging the AutoCAD User Interface B Tweaking Windows Although using Windows out of the box works you ll get more out of your operating system and AutoCAD if you make a few alterations This section offers you tips and tricks for tweaking the ubiquitous Windows These aren t exactly AutoCAD tips proper but knowing a few things about maintaining the health of your operating syst
5. Transparency The best thing about anchoring is that you can anchor multiple dockable windows on each side of the screen without sacrificing any more pixels Hover the mouse over any labeled anchored dock and the associated palettes expand filling all the available space Anchoring is the most efficient way to work with dockable windows Try anchoring as many palettes on the edges of the screen as your display resolution allows You ll have instant access to most of the UI without having to hunt for palettes in the menu or worse yet try to remember shortcut keys If you want to decrease the amount of time it takes to unhide palettes check out the cool program at http jtbworld blogspot com 2006 02 autocad palette auto hide speed html DW Aut Drawing 2 dw M Fie Edt vew Insert Format Tools Draw Dimension Modify Window Help Express a a x Us wanpas jE 7 gt aooron E ABAABEOG ABIOTISE HS A e ae w F ah O Laan lunsevedcurentiow Y Sanet i COMMAND LINE DASHBOARD A Ea PROPERTIES a i SHEET SET MANAGER 17 4932 37 4000 0 0000 Organizing the Interface 25 Setup the Dashboard Tool Palette Connection The Dashboard is definitely an interesting new feature in AutoCAD 2007 Did you know that there is a mysterious connection between the Dashboard and the Tool Palettes The Dashboard is filled with control panels ahem didn t Au
6. Doing so adds the third up dimension to the cross hairs it appears in blue There is a method to the madness of color coding Anyone who knows computers knows that monitors use RGB color space Painters often get confused because they learned that yellow is a primary color and it is at Z z least for the subtractive color you see with reflected y light as in paint on a canvas Computer monitors x shine light in your eyes so they use additive color which is an entirely different animal But we digress 32 Chapter 1 Arranging the AutoCAD User Interface Options _ T TE E Curent drawing Craving dwg e ID Objects Viewal Style while craabing 3D objects _ Labe arer m standard crosshairs By viewport i CI Show labels for dynamic UCS Deletion corbol while creating 3D objects ias labels Shee are Use Y Delete profile cuves W Use M E z U igclines on surfaces and meshes Use custom labels 6 A x a M isolines on eurlaces and meshes E fe C Display in 20 model space s E Display in 3D parallel projection Display in 30 perspective projection 3D Navigation 1 C Reverse mouse wheel zoom i Walk and Fly settings m Dynamis baeas TE Show 2 field for pointer input The mnemonic or way to remember it is RGB XYZ red represents the X axis green for Y and blue for Z The UCS icon is fatter and has co
7. In turn these affect how AutoCAD appears because after all AutoCAD runs on Windows The first drop down list allows you to toggle between the classic look of Windows 2000 and the updated look of XP We d go with XP but only on the provision that you choose the silver color scheme rather than the default blues or olive green yuck The advantage of this color scheme lies in its neutrality it s not likely to influence your perception of color as much as the other options The Font Size drop down lets you boost size to Large or Extra Large which is useful if you re doing client demonstrations with an LCD projec tor and you want text to be readable in a presen tation Because I Lynn spend most of my time doing presentations I use the extra large font so the audience can easily read the words I also change the text color to black on yellow because that is the easiest color combination to see think of construction signs If you want to get into the nitty gritty then click the Advanced button In the resulting dialog box you can control individual interface com ponents One pet peeve I have is with the extra large title bar in the XP style Why must it take up so much room Whoever designed the default XP style clearly wasn t using AutoCAD because they don t value screen real estate as much we typically do Select Active Title Bar from the Item drop down and change Size to 21 Doing so brings the title bar d
8. out to disk you get to sit and wait Although virtual memory is a poor substitute for physical real RAM it s better than nothing certainly better than crashing and we all use it from time to time If this is news to you then you re letting Windows manage the swap file automatically You can get better virtual memory performance by setting the swap file two to three times the size of your physical memory RAM 1 Choose Start menu gt Settings gt Control Panel gt System Click the Advanced tab were making an expert out of you already 2 Click the Settings button in the Performance area which controls virtual memory among other things Performance Options Ax Visual EFfec Advanced D ita Execution Prevention Processor scheduling By defauk the computer is set bo use a greater share of processor time bo run your programs Adjust for best performance of Programs Background services fou must be logged on as an Administrator to make most of these changes r Perfomance Visual effects processor scheduling memon usage and virtual memory Settings Memory usage r Use Frohes By defaut the computer is set bo use a greater share of memory to run your programs Adjust for best performance oF Programs System cache Desktop setings related to your logon Startup and Recovery Virtual memory A paging File is an area on the hard disk bhat Windows uses as iF
9. Obviously you can use the Windows taskbar at the bottom of the screen to switch between tasks which means making a running program active in geekspeak Most true multitaskers already know about the Alt Tab key combination Holding down the Alt key while pressing the Tab key displays an icon menu in the center of the screen that you can step through by pressing Tab repeatedly to select a specific task But did you know that Altt Shift Tab steps backward through this list of tasks This factoid should please those who like to keep as many apples in the air as possible AutoCAD also has multitasking hotkeys that allow switching between open drawings which are AutoCAD s version of tasks Holding down the Ctrl key while pressing Tab cycles to the next open drawing although no icon menu appears Keep holding that Ctrl key down and tapping Tab and you ll continue cycling through open drawings If you go too far press Finding Helo 15 Ctrl Shift Tab to cycle backward through the list of open drawings The Shift key is used to reverse the cycling direction in all multitasking key combinations If you re comfortable switching tasks with Alt Tab but don t think you ll be able to remember Ctrl Tab then the TASKBAR system variable is for you Set TASKBAR to 1 and all open drawings will immediately appear as separate buttons a k a tasks at the bottom of the screen If you tend to run AutoCAD without any other programs at the same time having
10. Subscription Center Profile technical problem Autodesk User Group International AUGI has many interesting resources ae igre a o ke a ee ee E gt Support Knowledge Base SN aa o a www augi com You can also sign up onne ay ine Heveloper Lenter for this organization free of charge and Developer Hel Autodesk User Group International we all love free In addition point your browser to http discussion autodesk com to access the Auto CAD discussion groups that are available on the Web and via the news protocol Did you know the Thunderbird e mail client has built in newsreader support You can read news and blogs anything with syndication while you peruse your e mail This is a great way to keep up to date with the latest issues Plus the AutoCAD blogosphere has exploded in the last few months What s up in blogistan you say Quite a lot Check it out Web log Title Host http Lynn Allen s Blog Lynn Allen blogs autodesk com lynn Between the Lines Shaan Hurley autodesk blogs com between_the_lines The AutoCAD Insider Heidi Hewett heidihewett blogs com Beyond the Ul Lee Ambrosius hyperpics blogs com beyond_the_ul Beside the Cursor Richard Binning integr 8 com besidethecursor Will Render for Food Beau Turner rndr4food blogspot com Beth s CAD Blog Beth Powell bethscadblog blogspot com In the Dynamic Interface Mark Douglas mdouglas blogs com in_the_dynamic_interface The M
11. dh amp aa Of m idwoVvuUIS ig 3 J d roolps palsthe group ne Blocks SE mE d eE Ad t Snk os sO Nate tooo Z dee bral ne a O ele gt SQ he ey sam unsaved Current view Y unsaved Curent view Y Saale aT E eT ii Opan esm ne Tool palette group ta ae j E iar _ Pol a e gt Realistic dih 1 e 0000 Eee a e control pane w Visual Style cortrel panel lsson 68777 Light control panel e Materials control pare Tel at a a ai 2 Render control panel DASHBOARD Show more controls Help 26 Chapter 1 Arranging the AutoCAD User Interface You can customize which tool palette group is connected with each control panel Acti vate a particular control panel and then right click its icon From the shortcut menu choose which tool palette group you want to associate with the active control panel Now you have the ultimate in customizable interconnected UI convenience Lock Down the UI By now you ve probably spent numerous hours researching the UI only to realize you haven t gotten any productive work done Remember that research is an investment in your future productivity Tell that to your boss When youre finally satisfied with all aspects of your highly customized interface or you need to get back to work it s time to lock down the UI You lock it down so that some nefarious individual most likely yourself doesn t acci dentally mess up all the organizing that s be
12. it were RAM Total paging File size for all drives 1524 MB Syetem startup system baluwe and debugging information Settings 6 Chapter 1 Arranging the AutoCAD User Interface 3 Inthe Performance Options dialog box click Virtual Memory SO the Advanced tab Click the Change button in the Virtual Memory area O Drive Volume Label Paging File Size MB 1504 7 tof cd 4 Click the Custom Size radio button and set Paging Fie size for elected drive Initial Size at twice the size of your RAM For wi a example if you have 1 GB of RAM set Initial Custom size Size at 2048 RAM is in powers of 2 MB AAIE A Maximum size MB 3048 y 5 Set Maximum Size at three times your RAM OSyster escaned se ena Ono panna and then click Set Click OK in each of the ____ _______ Z Total paging file size For all drives open dialog boxes and you re done Minimum alowed 2 MB Recommended 1522 MB 6 After a restart you should see an improvement Der a P in your AutoCAD performance Clean Out Temporary Crud When I Scott went to college umpteen years ago I remember discovering what were labeled temporary buildings on the campus map they looked surprisingly identical to Army barracks I learned that these buildings had been there for some 50 years They were ram shackle rusting Quonset hut type structures that didn t fit into the architectural context I h
13. that launches AutoCAD see Prepare for AutoCAD Launch earlier in this chapter Organizing the Interface AutoCAD 2007 includes several new features that ought to drastically change the way your user interface looks Working without a command line in favor of dynamic input is a huge step Cleaning up the UI and anchoring dockable windows provides for a streamlined inter face the likes of which we ve never seen before in AutoCAD Hide the Command Line Some veteran AutoCAD users will think this is pure blasphemy but now is the time to kill we mean hide the command line Yes this anachronism from the days of teletypes has finally become dare we say it obsolete Maybe we won t go that far because it s a good idea to have our old friend waiting to come out of hiding at a moment s notice in case some thing goes wrong But with screen real estate i values going through the roof it s easier to Srap ond Ge Pol Teck ObectSoap Doame Inpr make the decision Enable Pointer Input Enable Dimension Input where possible Dynamic input effectively replaces the jakkin Ten a Ss Dy pesca command line Make sure the DYN toggle is on in the status bar if you re planning to hide the command line The F12 key toggles dynamic input on and off In addition right SKATE aa heck click the DYN toggle and choose Settings a Ir a dynamic promgt prese the eee Down Aroa key lo access options from the tiny shortcut menu SSSI O
14. AN to 0 because you won t be able to pan anyway Inputting with the Keyboard and Mouse 33 ZOOMWHEEL The ZOOMWHEEL system variable controls the direction you rotate the wheel to zoom AutoCAD has forever been set to zoom in when you rotate the wheel away from you forward direction Youre moving the camera toward the objects on the screen by scrolling forward and away from the objects by scrolling backward It s now possible to reverse that behavior by setting this system variable to 1 Why would you want to do that To make it easier on your visual cortex as you switch between AutoCAD and Autodesk Inventor Google Sketchup and or Google Earth All these apps and probably many others use the reverse mouse wheel zoom direction so that rotat ing the wheel forward away from you zooms out The objects are moving away from the camera and vice versa Now power users will be less disoriented as they switch between 3D programs although old habits are hard to break ZOOMFACTOR ZOOMFACTOR controls how quickly your mouse wheel zooms in and out when it s rotated The zoom factor is a number that represents a percentage of the maximum pos sible speed Set ZOOMFACTOR to a number between 1 and 100 to govern zooming speed Lower speeds give you finer control but it can take all day rolling the wheel to get anywhere This is a personal setting that you ll need to choose for yourself Customize the Right Mouse Button If you ve been usin
15. L TORN EE eNO eee Three check boxes appear on the Dynamic Input tab of the Drafting Settings dialog Select Show Command Prompting 22 Chapter 1 Arranging the AutoCAD User Interface And Command Input Near The Crosshairs You ll need this option if you plan to hide the command line Press the Down Arrow key to access command options on screen instead of on the command line See Input Dynamically in Chapter 2 Drag the command line window out from its dock to palettize it Turn on auto hide to save screen real estate Better yet anchor the command line it s a dockable window see the section Anchor Dockable Windows Certain commands such as FILLET and OFFSET don t display the current settings when using dynamic input Consequently you can easily display the command line when this additional information is needed Clean Up the UI You can do a few things to clean up the UI The first is to hide the layout tabs Why Haven t you noticed that the layout tabs occupy an entire row above the status bar taking up far more space than they re worth Right click a layout tab and choose Hide Layout And Model Tabs from the shortcut menu The entire bar housing the layout navigation buttons and tabs disappears making more space available to the drawing window Two new buttons Model and Layout appear on the status bar plus a couple of tiny arrows that give you access to additional layouts that appear in a s
16. a good chance your antivirus software is checking it to make sure it s clean trust us it is This can become annoying if it happens every time you open Help AutoCAD Help is a separate but linked task on the taskbar it disappears when Auto CAD closes Many antivirus programs think this is highly suspicious so they get triggered You Il have to figure out how to reassure your particular antivirus program that everything is OK This information is usually buried somewhere in the program options Try excluding the AutoCAD Help file specifically C Program Files AutoCAD 2007 Help acad170 chm You can even exclude chm files in general but this is the less secure option Use Cursor Help in Dialog Boxes This underused feature is quite helpful Most dialog boxes in AutoCAD have a question mark button on their title bars next to the close box X Click the button and the cursor will display a question mark icon next to the pointer Now click any part of the dialog box you re interested in querying A tooltip appears that displays information about the control you selected This is a great way to learn which sys tem variables the Graphical User Interface GUI elements control It s also much faster than going through standard Help For example open the Options dialog right clicking the command line is a quick way to get to Options Select the 3D Modeling tab and click the question mark button Then click the Visual Style While C
17. ad Cadder Michael Rotolo themadcadder blogs com continues on next page 20 Chapter 1 Arranging the AutoCAD User Interface Web log Title Host http Mistress of the Dorkness Melanie Stone mistressofthedorkness blogspot com The Autodesk Informer Ryan Small autodeskinformer blogs com CAD Managment Topics Scott Durkee scottdurkee blogspot com Raster Design with AutoCAD Jane Smith rasterdesign blogspot com The Digital Architect Scott Onstott scottonstott com vodcast Our apologies to any AutoCAD bloggers who aren t listed here This is an incomplete list even at the time of this book s publication Who knows how many more industry related weblogs will appear in the coming months and years Keep them coming B Using Workspaces Do you find it impossible to come up with the perfect arrangement of menus toolbars and palettes There are just too many toolbars and palettes and never enough screen real estate to make this wish come true Enter workspaces This feature was designed to fulfill this seemingly impossible dream Workspaces save any arrangement of menus toolbars and palettes that you care to create The idea is that you can save a workspace for every set of tasks that you want to perform Doing 3D modeling Save the relevant toolbars and palettes as a workspace Back to construc tion documentation You ll need different palettes toolbars you get the picture save it all as a workspace If you don t want to be bothered t
18. ad the aesthetic pleasure of seeing these surprisingly long lived structures end their temporary status when they were demolished to make room for a library renovation The moral of the story is that things and files labeled temporary often hang around long after they stop being useful and start becoming a nuisance Windows needs help in deciding just how temporary your temporary files are meant to be You can avoid all manner of strange crashes hung systems frozen mice and other maladies that mystify technical sup port personnel by periodically cleaning out your temp files 1 Close all your programs 2 Open Windows Explorer A nice shortcut to do this by the way is Windows key E if your keyboard has a Windows key Otherwise right click the Start menu and choose Explore which is also a nice tip 3 Highlight the text in the address bar type TEMP and press Enter This is an environ ment variable surrounded by percent symbols that resolves to the Windows Temp folder which in my case is C Documents and Settings Admin Local Settings Temp This is much easier than trying to scout around for your temp directory yourself trust me My user name is Admin so that s why you see it in this path Using TEMP is the easy way for sure Tweaking Windows 7 4 Delete all the files in the Temp folder just do it 5 Did you know that AutoCAD is tied to Internet Explorer Yes AutoCAD has many Internet feature
19. agement l EA Intell Graphics Media Accelerator Driver General Adapter Wlonitor Troubleshoot Adapter Type Intel R 8291 5G GV S10GL Express Chipset Family Adapter Information Chip T ype Intel R 82975664791 DGL Express Chipset DAC Type Internal Memory Size 128 MB Adapter Sting Intel R 829756 G 91 0GL Express Chipset Bios Informationc Intel Video BIOS List All Modes PERETE E IntelA 829756 Aa S10GL Express Chipset Family Driver Provider Intel Comporation 23 03 2006 Drive Version 6 14 10 4543 Digtal Signer X Microsoft Windows Hardware Compatibility Publ Onrver Details To view detalls about the driver files Driver Dabe To update the driver for this device Ifthe device Fals after updating the diver roll He Hse A back to the previously installed driver To uninstall the diver Advanced Update Autodesk s Hardware Certification Database AutoCAD 2007 has a new feature that monitors your graphics card driver and compares it with Autodesk s Hardware Certification Database If a new driver is available a bubble noti fies you when you launch AutoCAD Unfortunately you need to manually download the Hardware Certification Database to keep this system up to date This is worth doing to get the best 3D performance out of the installed graphics card 1 In AutoCAD use the Options command and choose the System tab Click the Perfor mance Settings b
20. an be used to set up drawing parameters in a new 60S Customize the Drawing Environment Concepts drawing file An SCR file trpe is assumed 54 To use the commend line version of a command Procedures S1 The Command Window Commands 49 To draw a line end arc combination polyline ic Configuration folder Specifies the palh for ihe hardware configuration file lhatyou wart io use Procedures YOU can Specify a directory or a particular file A CFG file type is assumed 42 To draw aline and are combination potyine lFyou dont set the fc switch the executable directory is searched and the Procedures ACADCF OW or ACADCFG environment variable is used as a way to define 4E The Command Yindow Concepts he configuration file and directory location 4555 Navigate and Edt Within the Commend Window Concepts aa EAE Aeran aS r a SATS Lia nT aneks ARY of DEX Loads a specified ARX or DEX application Use the following format 4456 Enter Commands onthe Command Line Concepts application lt path sfilename gt ARK 44 To create a commend tool trom the Customize User ifthe path or file name contains spaces then the path or file name should Interface Procedures 135 Navigate and Edt Vithin tee Command Window Commands be wrapped in double quotes fno path information is included the program search path is used Siopies shown ick fo view ell matching tonice Didnt find hat you were looking tor gick here SeSrch the We
21. and toolbars disappear Anchored dockable windows are still usable in this mode Clean screen mode gives the drawing window center stage and is most useful in presentations Many people find it difficult to work for any length of time without palettes and toolbars so toggle out by eae 2 pressing Ctrl 0 again Anchor Dockable Windows lt The ability to anchor dockable windows also known at times as floating palettes is one of the best new features in AutoCAD 2007 In case you haven t noticed there has been a prolif eration of dockable windows in recent AutoCAD releases These include the following Advanced Settings Dialog Command Line Dashboard dbConnect Manager Design Center External References Info Palette Lights In Model Materials Markup Set Manager Properties Quick Calculator Sheet Set Manager Sun Properties Tool Palettes Visual Style Manager 24 Chapter 1 Arranging the AutoCAD User Interface With all these dockable windows competing for space on screen Move there is now officially no room left for drawing Autodesk probably a figured that it couldn t just tell everyone to go out and buy three more y Allow Docking monitors so it invented the anchor feature Anchor Left lt h j h Right click the vertical title bar of any palette or more correctly ee dockable window and toggle on Allow Docking if it s not already on eee Repeat and choose Anchor Left or Anchor Right
22. atic Updates control panel Windows doesn t come with antivirus software Clearly Microsoft has some work to do Antivirus software is a must If you re not about to buy a commercial antivirus package then try one of the free ones like AVG www free grisoft com Make sure you set whatever pro gram youre using to update the virus definitions regularly notice a theme here If you re into privacy then try Spybot or Ad Aware Don t open attachments from untrusted senders Don t even open attachments from those you do trust unless you know what to expect Many viruses are spread by joke attach ments that carry a humorous message and also a dangerous secret payload Sorry to get into all this fear based thinking but you have nothing to fear when you practice safe computing Know Your Display Control Panel Most folks are aware that the Display Properties dialog box is the place to go to change the resolution of the screen Fewer know that the Display Properties dialog box also controls how many UI features appear both in Windows and in AutoCAD This section will introduce you to the more interesting parts of the Display control panel Are Your Graphics Drivers Up to Date Before you begin making changes in the Display control panel update your graphics card drivers to the latest version Graphics card companies often release new versions that contain bug fixes and or support for additional features Follow these steps 1 You need
23. b for customize command line switch Tiare elt earths Dinah ho Aa meres ended Ae ec a aaa Click Advanced to access a list to search only within a specific component think book in the user documentation set instead of everything together For example if you re looking for a customization issue you can choose the Customization Guide ACG from the list the search results are then updated Choose a component to search before or conveniently after you ve performed the search and the results are updated Click a search result and you see its associated oar ee ey help in the right hand pane Now click the Contents 2 AutoCAD Help E QQ User s Guide tab the table of contents tree should expand to E Get Information 5 E The User Intetace the page you just accessed If the tree doesn t Toolbars and Menus The Command Window expand try clicking the Back and Forward arrows E Customize the Drawing Environment sometimes this does the trick 2 Set Interface Options 2 Create Task Based Work The Contents tab reveals the context in which the Sea asec E atic IS sought for page exists Browsing through the table of PN Settee Sd Start Organize and Save a Drawing DesignCenter contents in the context of a focused search is the fast est way to find what you re looking for Finding Helo 17 Disable Antivirus Checking of Help File If the AutoCAD Help window takes forever to open there is
24. do something about it My favorite switch gives me the ability to automatically load a specific sheet set so I don t have to load it myself after AutoCAD launches Here s how you do it Let s say the name of the sheet set you want to load automatically is BigClient dst The startup looks like the following and yes in case you re wondering most of the switches fol low this syntax switch name C Program Files AutoCAD 2007 acad exe set C ACAD 2007 Project BigClient dst set is the switch C ACAD 2007 Project is my directory path Notice the directory is in quotes and you have to use the complete path statement Switches are a little wishy washy on the path statements some require the complete path information such as sheet sets but others don t such as script files For those that don t make sure they fall within the AutoCAD search path If you plan to work on the same drawing file for a while you can set up a startup that launches AutoCAD and goes straight to that specific drawing file To load the drawing file called Engine from your ACAD 2007 project directory you use the following syntax C Program Files AutoCAD 2007 acad exe C ACAD 2007 Project Engine Cycle through Tasks and Documents E If your resume identifies you as a multitasker then were sure you have many programs run ning and multiple drawing files open in AutoCAD at any given moment while youre also talking on the phone and drinking coffee
25. e and the layout separated with a vertical bar For example if you have a drawing file called Engine and a layout called Assembly use C Program Files AutoCAD 2007 acad exe layout C ACAD 2007 Project Engine Assembly y Opens the indicated drawing file and zooms to a specific view views are much more popular in AutoCAD 2007 p Launches AutoCAD and loads a specific profile This profile is in effect only for the cur rent AutoCAD session nossm Suppresses the existence of the new Sheet Set Manager upon entering AutoCAD for those of you who haven t embraced it d Loads a specified ARX or DBX application You have to include the complete path information c Specifies the path for the hardware configuration file you want to use during your Auto CAD session When using these switches be sure to give each icon a new name so you can easily distin guish them You can also change the tooltip in the Shortcut tab by modifying the contents in the Comment section The Shortcut tab also allows you to tell AutoCAD you always want it to launch maximized which is a must if you find yourself maximizing it manually each time 14 Chapter 1 Arranging the AutoCAD User Interface Loading Sheet Sets Automatically Before I Lynn got into using sheet sets I used to load the sheet set manually nearly every day because AutoCAD didn t remember that I had it loaded when I left the drawing I m not a fan of tedium so I decided to
26. em can make you a much happier CAD user and human being In addition it s a little known fact that a few parts of AutoCAD s UI aren t controlled by AutoCAD at all Shhh in these cases AutoCAD must defer control to Almighty Windows Maintain a Healthy Disk Drive How can you use AutoCAD successfully if you don t install it on a healthy disk drive The following basic tips are essential reading for all Windows users Defragment and Check the File System The two most important things you can do to maintain a healthy disk drive are to defragment and error check the file system periodically We know it sounds like a hassle but it isn t These things are easy to do once you know where to find the tools Defragmenting the file system will speed up your hard drive If you ve never done it before you ll be pleased because you ll probably feel like you have a brand new com puter Maybe you can justify putting off that hardware upgrade for another year once you see what an amazing tip this is In this section we ll reveal how to defragment on a schedule so you can literally set it and forget it We ll also explain how to troubleshoot through error checking Defragmenting Files aren t the smallest unit of storage on a hard drive The information in one file may be stored in multiple clusters across several sectors all over your hard drive which is probably more than you wanted to know Your data gets scattered in the c
27. en done to make your interface the streamlined masterpiece it has become Of course doing this is more critical if you ve set the workspace to automatically save changes see Using Workspaces earlier in the chapter Click the padlock icon in the lower right corner of the Floating Toolbars gt Docked Toolbars screen and choose All gt Locked if you re going for a total Floating Windows Docked Windows lockdown If you re not so sure lock only toolbars and or windows floating and or docked Better safe than sorry Recover Lost Dockable Windows amp Have you ever lost one of your dockable windows for example the Command Line It isn t visible anywhere on the screen when you toggle it on Almost immediately panic sets in Why did you ever undock it How will you live without your command line You toggle the window on and off frantically with shortcut keys and then you try the menu before dread ing that you might have to reinstall AutoCAD Wait don t do that the fix is easy 1 Use the CUI command to open the Customize User Interface window 2 Expand your current workspace in the Customizations In All CUI Files pane 3 Expand Dockable Windows in the Workspace Contents pane 4 Select the lost item in the list 5 Change Orientation to anything other than Do Not Change Left for example Click OK and the case is closed 6 Move the recovered dockable window back to your preferred location
28. ft handed One of your hands is on the mouse right We certainly wouldn t want you to let go of the mouse The other hand can hold down a key combo to temporarily over ride while you continue to use the mouse Then if you really practice you can answer the phone E i Specify next point or with your foot This is the default list of temporary over rides all of which can be customized with the CUI command see Chapter 10 Left Hand Function Right Hand Function Shift A Toggles object snap Shift Toggles object snap Shift S Enables object snap enforcement Shift Enables object snap enforcement Shift E Object snap override endpoint Shift P Object snap override endpoint Shift V Object snap override midpoint Shift M Object snap override midpoint Shift C Object snap override center Shift Object snap override center Shift Q Toggles object snap tracking Shift Toggles object snap tracking Shift D Disables all snapping and tracking Shift L Disables all snapping and tracking Shift X Toggles polar tracking Shift Toggles polar tracking Shift Z Toggles dynamic UCS Shift Toggles dynamic UCS Shift Toggles orthogonal mode Shift Toggles orthogonal mode Crosshairs in 3D If youre planning to do any 3D modeling and you should be if you re using AutoCAD 2007 set up the crosshair cursor for 3D so you ll know which way is up Use the Options command and click the 3D Modeling tab Select Show Z Axis In Crosshairs
29. g AutoCAD for a long time then you ll remember how efficient it was when a right click meant Enter You could draft much more quickly with the mouse instead of having to use the other hand to hit the Spacebar or Enter key to end and repeat the last command Somewhere along the path of AutoCAD s continual evolution a shortcut menu began to appear when you right click instead of our good friend Enter Although the shortcut menu l ap often has Enter as one of its many options it s clearly PEC a compromise situation Right clicking for Enter is C Tum on time sensitive right click Quick click for ENTER faster Longer click to display Shortcut Menu Longer click duration 250 miliseconds To be fair the right click shortcut menu has Default klode advantages too Some people have even grown to rely ica wees A Repeat Last Command on it We swear that there are commands in the short Shortcut Menu cut menus that we have yet to find anywhere else The Edit Mode lf one or more objects are selected right click means good news is you can customize right click behavior C Repeat Last Command Shortcut Menu so you can have the best of both worlds Sana ee Use the Options command and select the User petal See ater gene Preferences tab Click the Right Click Customization ba Sates Mere ene ened O Shorteut Menu enabled when command options are present button to bring up a dialog box of the same name
30. g glasses I have to compromise and set resolution at a more modest 1600 x 1200 pixels which is plenty in my humble opinion Make certain that color quality is set to Highest 32 bit Some older graphics cards sup port higher resolutions only at a lower color depth It may have been acceptable in the old days to run AutoCAD in 256 colors but doing so would be a major faux pas today now that AutoCAD has true color 32 bit support If you perceive a flicker at higher resolu tions there is something you can do that may correct this annoying problem Click the Advanced button on the Settings tab of the Display Properties dialog box A dialog box appears that is specific to your monitor Click the Monitor tab and change the screen refresh rate from the drop down list Try the highest rate and work your way down the list if necessary until you eliminate that pesky flicker Monitor type Mitsubishi Diamond Pro 2060u M5271 207 A Moniter settings Seen refresh rate J60 Herz 75 Hentz monitor cannot display corectly This may lead to an unusable display andor damaged hardware Keeping Up Appearances Tweaking Windows 11 If your aesthetic sense has long been offended by the saturated blues and greens of the default Windows XP interface then rejoice for relief is on its way The Appearance tab of the Display Properties dialog box makes it possible to alter many of the UI components under Windows control
31. hortcut menu So they provide the same functionality as the buttons and tabs they replace The only thing we miss is the shortcut menu that appeared on the old layout tabs Right click the Model or Layout button on the status bar to display the old UI if you ever want it back Another UI tidbit is to hide unwanted individual buttons on the status bar When is the last time you used snap We don t mean object snap which everybody uses every day Few use the old school snap that is tied to absolute space Why not get rid of its status bar but ton While youre at it get rid of the Ortho button too Polar is much better Unless you re really into 3D you may also find it useful to remove the Grid button The fewer buttons you have on your status bar the less likely you ll be to select the wrong one a Mode aaa Imama III IMMM IiI Organizing the Interface 23 Click the downward facing arrow in the lower right corner of the status bar to open the status bar menu Turn off any buttons you can live without These buttons will disappear from the status bar f Cursor coordinate values clean screen toggle Click it or press Ctrl 0 if you aren t on Ser Ss 1 in v Ortho F AutoCAD 2007 to experience minimum clutter AutoCAD is v OSnap F3 Ei OTrack F11 Dynamic UCS Fe w Dynamic Input Fiz w Lineweight Finally the button adjacent to the status bar menu is the maximized and all palettes
32. ias C Click Edit and seers i change the association to COPY Click OK ae es in all the dialogs and confirmation dialogs me that appear and AutoCAD will reinitialize so the change is live INSTALL THE EXPRESS TOOLS lf you haven t installed all the Express Tools then drop everything and install them immediately do a custom install and select Express Tools The Express Tools are extremely useful Some have already found their way into core AutoCAD they have come of age and are now considered to be grown up AutoCAD features Other Express Tools haven t been so lucky they still suffer from lack of worldwide acceptance Some Express Tools are waiting to be oca ized translated into every language in which AutoCAD is offered Because the Express Tools don t run on AutoCAD LT only tools that make their way into the core product are available to LT users 30 Chapter 1 Arranging the AutoCAD User Interface Function Key Master List Many of the function keys have been the same since time immemorial since 1982 But recently a few of them have changed and it behooves you to make some additional changes on your own Instead of trying to piece together all this information on your own you can memorize the fol lowing chart or photocopy it and pin it up or tattoo it on yourself if youre into that Fl Help F2 Text Window F3 Object Snap F4 Tablet F5 Cycle Isoplane F6 Dynamic User Coordinate System F7 Grid F8 O
33. indi vidual drawings visible as tasks on the taskbar may be the way to go Then you can toggle between them using Alt Tab because each drawing is well a task BH astocaDpsChysa Oxkine doc Mera Di civi impevekdua an Finding Help Perhaps the phenomenon is confined to roughly half of the species but rumor has it that it s a rare event indeed when a man will ask for help and yes Scott is writing this All the women out there probably don t need to read this section but please do anyway because Pm sure you ll learn new ways to find support Read this section and seek help in secret if you need to or do it overtly with the full confidence that you ll find the answers you seek The truth is much help is at your fingertips if you know where to look Of course this book is the ultimate resource for AutoCAD tips and techniques even if we do say so ourselves but you may not always have it handy say it isn t so In such an emergency you ll want to know how to find help in other forms Search Tips The AutoCAD Help system runs in its own window and can be opened by pressing the F1 key choosing Help gt Help from the menu or using on the command line How many times have you accidentally hit Fl when you meant to press the adjacent Esc key If you don t want help at your fingertips see Chapter 10 to learn how to reassign F1 to Cancel or something else more user friendly Click the Search tab enter a search que
34. key for a suggested command completion AutoCAD pages through all the commands and system variables that start with those characters For example type SP and then press Tab Keep pressing Tab and complete commands will cycle at the prompt You ll see these commands SPACETRANS SPELL SPHERE SPLANE SPLINE SPLFRAME on and on alphabetically ad nauseum If you re too hasty in pressing Tab and you go past the command you want press Shift Tab to go backward Press Enter to execute the selected command and youre back in business Command cycling is another input optimization of note Press the Up Arrow key to see the previous command that you used appear at the prompt This list isn t alphabetical like Autocomplete these are the commands you really used not just thought about using Press the same key again to see the command before that and so on Use the Down Arrow key to go forward through the cycle Press Enter to execute as always Where is this feature useful Let s say you observe that youre going through the same repetitive motions while ae drawing You re using OFFSET and then FILLET and maybe on TRIM repeatedly Instead of hunting for the correct tool gt siian 19 0205 4 9787 i button just press the Up Arrow key for quicker command Q on a access Anything to save a few microseconds aaia The final input optimization to mention is Recent peat Input This is similar to command cycling but i
35. l be checked the next time you start the computer It may take 20 minutes so plan ahead 3 4 Chapter 1 Arranging the AutoCAD User Interface Put Defragmentation on a Schedule Manually defragmenting your hard drive can get old Are you really going to remember to defragment on a regular basis or are you likely to forget about it until your hard drive slows to a crawl again Fortunately there is help for the terminally busy or lazy If you schedule defragmentation then you can potentially forget about it forever and why isn t this part of Windows already Scheduling defragmentation is a simple two step process First make a batch file that runs the command line version of DEFRAG Then schedule the batch file to run as often as you like Begin by creating your batch file 1 Open Notepad found by selecting Start gt Programs gt Accessories gt Notepad and type the following DEFRAG C v The v option shows verbose output in the command window while defragmentation is happening If you don t care to read this information or don t need help sleeping leave off the v switch Save the file under C Windows for example as DefragmentC bat the bat extension indicates a batch file Click Start menu gt Settings gt Control Panel gt Scheduled Tasks gt Add Scheduled Task The wizard guides you through the steps Browse for DefragmentC bat which you created in the previous step Thi
36. m as magnetism on spinning metallic disks If you re concerned about a single machine then a portable hard drive that matches the size of your system disk is a great backup solution If you need to back up a local area network LAN then consider a tape solution or redundant array of inexpensive disks RAID Backup systems pay for themselves many times over it s a false economy to think that backup systems are too expensive Windows XP has a built in backup program Click Start menu gt Run and type ntbackup exe to launch the Backup or Restore Wizard Backups should also be scheduled regularly but that should go without saying Practice Safe Computing Gone are the days when the Internet was a safe network for a few academics and geeks Now you need protection from malicious adversaries who are into stirring up trouble 8 Chapter 1 Arranging the AutoCAD User Interface Please tell me that you re using a firewall In the age of always on Internet algorithms are constantly pounding on your digital door The firewall is the only thing keeping them out Let s face it Windows is chock full of security holes Microsoft finds more every week as evidenced by the numerous security patches the company offers via the Automatic Updates feature Do keep up to date with these by all means Usually people who get hacked could have avoided it by installing readily available security patches Control how updates are delivered to you in the Autom
37. nding to input Submit Comments about AutoCAD Help Let the fine folks at Autodesk Technical Publications group who are responsible for the AutoCAD Help documentation know your mind Now there is an easy way to report errors omissions deficiencies deliberate obfuscation Comments Microsoft Internet Explorer a 1 and or praise to the technical writers Every page in the Help window has a min iscule link in the lower right corner that says Please send us your comment about this page Maybe they re hoping you won t be able to read text that small No we re sure that s not it Click the link and a dialog box appears giving you the power to vent or praise as the case may be You can optionally enter your name and e mail address Finding Helo 19 Don t use the comment mechanism in the Help system if you want technical support Instead submit comments to make AutoCAD Help better in the future Online Help You can access tons of AutoCAD help online The AutoCAD Help menu has links to many excellent resources including these e Learning training is available to subscription customers a wonderful utility worth trying E Help A4 Info Palette CTRL S hu Wiorkspac The Support Knowledge Base is a good place to go when you have a specific New Features Workshop Gf Subscription e Learning Catalog g create Support Request F a View Support Requests WE Edit
38. ne at a time Right click the shortcut to acad exe on the desk top and choose Properties 3 Place the cursor at the end of the text in the Target text box and type nologo All startup switches are added to the end of the target line and immediately follow a forward Tweaking Windows 13 slash These options are passed to the executable me Oe when it starts up Switch to the General tab and General Shoteut Compa Secu File Hoshes rename the shortcut AutoCAD 2007 Click Apply aieo and close the dialog box Target bee Appleation Taiga location AuteCeD 2007 4 Launch AutoCAD with the shortcut and observe Tage Program Fiee utoCAD 2007 avad ene noiogo that the splash screen no longer appears lS ee CAPromamFies AuleCAD 2007 stene Other Switches in the Startup ae Before we tell you about Lynn s favorite switch let s look at some of the more popular startup switches Follow each switch with a space and then what it s asking for script file template layout and so on b Runs a script file upon launching AutoCAD t Creates a new drawing based on the indicated template file AutoCAD assumes a DWT file type so complete path information isn t needed You may decide to have two different startup icons for 2D and 3D The latter will use the new ACAD3D template file layout Opens a specific layout in the indicated drawing file The syntax requires you to specify the drawing fil
39. nical arrowheads on the axis tips by default but observe that it follows the same hard and fast color coding rules You might choose to label the axes on the crosshairs in Options but once you get the color mnemonic doing so will be overkill Before closing the 3D Modeling tab of the Options dialog select Show Z Field For Pointer Input This option is helpful if you ever want to key in Z coordinates on screen using dynamic input but point input must also be enabled in Drafting Settings As the Wheel Turns lt 4 T Tell us that you have a wheel on your mouse If you don t what are you thinking Go out and buy a wheeled mouse ASAP have a bake sale or a carwash whatever it takes The mouse wheel is one of the best productivity boosters A few important system variables control the behavior of the mouse wheel MBUTTONPAN MBUTTONPAN is the system variable that controls whether the middle buttons pans or displays the object snap menu which isn t quite as useful Panning with the wheel button is so intuitive that most of us take it for granted Its on by default but if someone turns it off you ll probably go crazy so this tip will make your day Set MBUTTONPAN to 1 for pan ning and set it to 0 to display the object snap menu There s no need to use the scroll bars on the screen or key in PAN anymore when MBUTTONPAN is on Just use the wheel button Those of you who still have an ancient three button mouse will prefer setting MBUTTONP
40. o manually save changes to your ever evolving work spaces you can elect to automatically save workspace changes Use the WSSETTINGS com mand or click the first button on the Workspaces ea WOFRKSPaCce SEUSS toolbar Click the second radio button to make this My Workspace h Menu Display and Onder C ange 3D Modelno ARA However there is some danger with this WJAutoCAD Classi ES a Wakepce approach Everything you change is saved automat ically so there s no room for massive experimenta Perhaps When Switching Workspaces Do not save changes to workspace Automatically save workspace changes revert back to Do Not Save Changes To Workspace save during a period of experimentation Then once youre satisfied that your workspaces are more or less carved in stone Organizing the Interface 21 A hybrid approach is to lock down certain workspaces that are carved in stone read only via an Enterprise CUI file This is an excellent approach to offering standardized draw ing environments to everyone on your team Don t worry about not being able to edit these files because every user also has their own customizable workspaces that may diverge from the official standards See Chapter 10 s CUI for the Enterprise section for more information If you want a particular workspace to appear on startup use the w command line startup switch in the shortcut
41. ourse of doing your digital business and over time your hard drive head one of the moving parts has to work harder to put all those tiny clusters back together If you ve ever heard your hard drive grinding away without just cause that s the head moving frantically it s time to defragment Defragmenting is like rearranging your closet Everything gets tidied up so you save time searching for what you want Bonus You ll prolong the life of a hard drive by defragmenting To defragment click the Start menu and choose Run Type dfrg msc and click OK Alternatively right click your hard drive in Windows Explorer and choose Properties Select the Tools tab and click Defragment Now Select the C drive under Volume and click the Analyze button to see a graphical representation of how fragmented your drive is Red is bad blue is good green is neutral and white is free If you see a lot of red then it s definitely time to clean things up Select Defragment and let Windows do the rest if only organizing my closet were so easy If you ve never done this or it s been a long time defragmenting could take hours consequently you ll want to defragment at night when youre finished with work You may also need to do it multiple times to get rid of all the red Tweaking Windows Fie chon view Sto tetera Eaa oe eh er ee R oume Session Status FeSysten Capacky Free Space Free Space eit oad ais an a Frez ii E
42. own to a reasonable scale while match ing the size of the application and drawing caption buttons in AutoCAD The size and font of text on the tool palettes in AutoCAD are controlled by the ToolTip item in the Advanced Appearance dialog box it s in the Dis play Properties Es Themes Desktop Screen Saver Appearance Settings Inactive Window Windows and butlers Windows F style Siker F nt sire Advanced Appearance al T ae Lng i ae fart Inactive Window Active Window Normal Oseblecd Seleebed Window Text Message Box E Message Text OK IF you select a windows and buttons setting other than Windows Classic it will override the Following setings escept in some older programs Fank a i Tor L 2 Calor esee ille m 12 Chapter 1 Arranging the AutoCAD User Interface Item drop down list Could this be more obscure I Lynn personally find this frustrating because I like the font of the tooltips to be larger than that on my tool palettes After youre finished tweaking the appear ance of the Windows UI select the Themes tab of the Display Properties dialog box if you A theme is a background plus a set of sounds icons and other elements to help you personalize your computer with one click Themes Desktop Screen Saver Appearance Settings have one and save a theme Should anything Sy change this will make it easy to recall all your MyFavoite Theme
43. reating 3D Objects drop down list The tooltip describes this drop down s function in more verbose prose and it also reveals the name of the associated system variable DRAGVS in this example a ca cae rameter Pat 1 etc ac ara cael Show g axis in crosshairs Visual Stile while creating 3D objects C Label anes in standard crossb Specifies the visual style while creating 3D solid 4 primitives DRAGS system variable i O Use N E z oes x Use custom labels ge i A z Y ibolines on surfaces and meshes Display UCS leon 6 Dl nanana CI Display in 20 model space i Display in 3D parallel projection 1 Display in 30 perspective projection 3D Navigation Cl Reverse mouse wheel zoom J Welk and Fly settings e Dynamic Input gt TE Sha rai ret ok cancel J trey tel 18 Chapter 1 Arranging the AutoCAD User Interface Quick Help Offers Contextual Information New users of AutoCAD will benefit most from the Quick Help feature It displays contextual help information in the Info Palette as you work Every time you enter a command informa tion appears about the active command Obviously this gets old after you fully understand the commands you re using However more experienced users can still benefit by opening the Info Palette just prior to using an unfamiliar command Press Ctrl 5 or choose Help gt Info Palette Lea
44. rthogonal rs Snap F10 Polar Tracking pal Object Snap Tracking fal Dynamic Input All the function keys except F1 are toggles that turn modes on and off Some of the keys have corresponding buttons on the status bar We suggest that you change F1 to Cancel to avoid accidentally hitting the Help function when you miss the Escape key We also recommend that you change the F4 key from the archaic Tablet to something more valuable Lynn s is set to 3DOrbit to sync up with the set tings in Autodesk Inventor see Chapter 10 to learn how to customize the function keys Temporary Overrides Are Here to Stay Temporary overrides were introduced in AutoCAD 2006 and are worth getting to know only if you can walk and chew gum at the same time They work when you hold down a key combination usually involving the Shift key while doing something with the mouse A tiny icon appears near the cursor to visually clue you in that something is being overridden at the moment This feature comes in handy when you can t be bothered to toggle a mode off because you know youre going to need to turn it right back on in a second that would mean two clicks or button presses think of the time waste Press the correct keys and the mode in question is overridden but just temporarily while you re holding down the keys Inputting with the Keyboard and Mouse 31 There are two sets of temporary overrides one for each hand depending on whether youre right or le
45. ry and press Enter In AutoCAD 2007 you can ask questions in plain language thanks to the new AnswerWorks engine AnswerWorks ranks search results with percentages and functions much like an Internet search engine 16 Chapter 1 Arranging the AutoCAD User Interface ea a OA Hide Back Foner Home Pim ET Options The User Iofertece Customize Startup Concepte Command line switches can specify a separate startup routine for each project You can use command line switches to specify several options when you start the program For example i Concepts ME Procedures F Command yOu can run a script starl wilh a specified drawing template and display a specified vew when a drawing is opened With command line switches you can also set up several program icons each with different Fert Frets 100 To start the program wath a command ine svitch Procedures Command line switches are parameters you can add to the acad ese command line associated with a 64 Switch Between Dialog Boxes end the Commend Line Microso Windows shortcut icon or the Windows Run dialog box You can include several switches Concepts within a single command line Walid switches are listed in the following table 1 Swich Between Dialog Boxes snd the Command Line omanda Script name Designates a scripito run after you start ihe program th stands for batch paS Customize Startup Concept process Scripts c
46. s is the task you want to schedule AL 301 AM every day starting 03 07 2005 Schedule Task Siart line cr Schedule Task Dail Every i a dayle C Shoo mukiple schedules Canca Apply Select a time when youre likely to be away from your computer but plan to leave it on We suggest running DEFRAG daily in early morning hours if you leave your computer on all the time Open the task after completing the wizard if you want to make any changes Diskeeper is commercial automatic defragmentation software that does a more thorough job than DEFRAG www diskeeper com Tweaking Windows 5 Take Control of the Swap File lt Have you ever opened a number of big drawings maybe with loads of Xrefs or 3D geometry only to discover that AutoCAD is taking an inordinate amount of time to do anything Maybe you also have many different programs running AutoCAD Autodesk VIZ Autodesk Inventor Microsoft Word and or Microsoft Outlook If you ve already defragmented then there must be another reason for the slowdown Chances are you ve run out of memory When your system is overtaxed with too much information to process rather than immediately crashing Windows stores what should be going into the now full random access memory RAM in virtual memory Virtual memory is another way of saying your computer is paging to disk or recording data to the swap file Every time your system pages
47. s like hyperlink Communication Center and even Help that borrow from IE So you should clean out these temporary files as well Click Start menu gt Settings gt Control Panel gt Internet Options 6 Click Delete Files in the Temporary Internet Files area to clean out the browser cache Click OK in the confirmation dialog and that s it Perform Basic Maintenance It s surprising how many self identified power users neglect basic computer maintenance If it sounds like you may be one of these folks it s time you start taking these things more seriously because it s no joke Clean Up Your Hard Drive We hate to say it but clean up your hard drive will you Uninstall unused applications and archive ancient data This task can become a nightmare if you ve put it off for years Spend a few days if that s what it takes and while you re at it organize your file system Pick an orga nizational scheme and stick to it A great portion of human productivity is wasted trying to find the right files It doesn t have to be that way Back Up Religiously Blessed are those who back up regularly for their files will not be scattered to the winds Be proactive and perhaps a bit cynical Expect corruption of the digital sort Perhaps it s a bit harsh to say this but if you don t have a backup then ultimately you re wasting your time Never before in history has so much human effort been stored in so ephemeral a mediu
48. s used for input instead of commands thus the well chosen name pe icat When youre at an input prompt for example when you re H A drawing a line right click to access the Recent Input short 4 3341 21 7513 cut submenu here you ll find recently used coordinates and 11 7728 6 4358 commands with quick reuse potential Inputting with the Keyboard and Mouse 29 Board the Command Alias Express Command aliases are abbreviated command names L is the alias for LINE A is for ARC and so on Surprisingly command aliases aren t part of the CUI editor they re still con trolled by the ancient ACAD PGP file Ever since Autodesk went with the Microsoft standard for AutoCAD the support folder that contains the program parameters file is buried deep in the file system Way deep look how far you have to go to manually reach this hidden folder C Documents and Settings lt username gt Application Data Autodesk AutoCAD 2007 R17 0 enu Support acad pgp Theoretically you could edit this text file by hand but why bother Instead use the File Edt Help ALIASEDIT Express Tool to edit the file Command Aliases Shell Commands without leaving the comfort of AutoCAD i Gac For example many people prefer to use AMAD command 4 the alias C for the COPY command rather ne evSTarE than CIRCLE To make this change use CAMERA ALIASEDIT Scroll down the command ae list and select the al
49. se customizations with one click at a later date Prepare for AutoCAD Launch 5 4 3 2 1 Startup switches are options you can add to the shortcut s that launch AutoCAD They allow you to boot up AutoCAD with some preexisting conditions in place Startup shortcuts are usually placed on the desktop In the old days pre AutoCAD 2000 startup switches were more commonly used because they set the default folder something that s handled with a system variable now See Folders To Remember or Forget in Chapter 8 Startup switches are still useful giving you the ability to select a particular script template configuration folder view name support folder user profile workspace and more to start with AutoCAD Look up startup switches in AutoCAD Help for all the options Using Startup Switches To see how startup switches are used let s disable the splash screen that appears when Auto CAD launches in AutoCAD 2007 it s a transparent green box That splash screen not only slows you down but it can be downright annoying after a while 1 Create a shortcut for launching AutoCAD if you don t already have one on your desktop Use Windows Explorer to locate C Program Files AutoCAD 2007 acad exe the file that launches AutoCAD right click and choose Send To gt Desktop create shortcut 2 Get back to your desktop by minimizing everything press Windows key M or tediously minimize the windows o
50. stimated disk usage before defragmentation li 6Clt Estimated disk usage after defragmentation View Report Defragment Pawe stop E Fraented les W conigows fles M Ureovable fies J Free space You must have at least 15 percent free space on a volume to defragment it If you don t have this much free space make some by archiving old files onto DVD or tape backup Error Checking If your system locks up or dies due to power failure pay attention California there is a good chance your hard drive scrambled a few files in its death throes when the head jerked erratically across the platters as they spun down sounds horrific doesn t it Checking and fixing your hard drive is a good idea if you see the Windows blue screen of death after expe riencing a serious crash Although it may not solve every problem a Windows utility called CHKDSK check disk in English may be able to repair the damage You have to be logged on with Administrator rights to run CHKDSK Click the Start menu and choose Run Type CHKDSK C f and click OK The f switch is necessary because it fixes problems rather than just telling you about them like your coworkers If you do this on your C drive you ll see a message like this Chkdsk cannot run because the volume is in use by another process Would you like to schedule this volume to be checked the next time the system restarts Y N Type Y and the drive wil
51. to find out exactly what graphics driver you have To do so minimize all your applications by pressing Windows key M or minimize each application manually if you don t have a Windows key we d never buy a computer without a Windows key Right click the desktop and choose Properties from the shortcut menu to open the Display Properties dialog box 2 Select the Settings tab and click the Advanced button 3 A dialog box with your particular graphics adapter appears Choose the Adapter tab of this dialog and click Properties Display Mitsubishi Diamond Pro 2060u NS21 207 on Intel 8297 5G AGS 0GL Express Chipset Family green resolution r Goler quality Highest 32 bit ka Ea Anl Gl Eag Teea 0K Cancela Aot h Less More 1600 by 1200 pixels 4 The Properties dialog displays the name of your particular adapter or chipset in the title bar Note that the driver version is shown on the Driver tab this is what you re looking for so make a note of it 5 Now you need to check for driver updates Use your browser to surf to the manufactur er s website and locate the driver download part of the site Search for your adapter or chipset name and or driver version If a new version is available download and install it Click OK in all the open dialogs you ll probably have to restart the computer for the new driver settings to take effect Tweaking Windows Color Mari
52. todesk think about the obvi ous name collision with this well known Windows feature One of these control panels 2D Draw isn t visible out of the box so let s turn it on Right click anywhere inside the Dashboard palette Choose Control Panels gt 2D Draw Control Panel from the shortcut menu The missing control panel appears at the top of the palette its icon is a 2D triangle and square Consider using this control panel for basic drafting tools instead of using the bulkier Draw and Modify toolbars Each control panel can be activated by clicking its icon When a control panel is active it s highlighted in orange revealing more hidden controls There is more to the control panels than meets the eye Bear with us and activate each control panel one at a time After you activate one hover the mouse over the Tool Palettes to unhide them if anchored no need to hover if they re floating and staring you in the face Many of the control panels automatically trigger differ ent tool palette groups to activate This is the mysterious connection alluded to earlier For example when you activate the 3D Navigate control panel the Cameras tool palette group is likewise triggered bringing its one and only Cameras palette to the fore When you activate the Materials control panel the Materials tool palette group brings numerous pal ettes to the fore in the Tool Palettes Get it m UL A gee ea 2077 08 eo canr7e0n 8 2
53. utton to open the Adaptive Degradation and Performance Tuning dialog 9 10 Chapter 1 Arranging the AutoCAD User Interface 2 Click the Check for Updates button Internet Explorer launches and takes you to a page on the Autodesk website 3 The page that appears has instructions for downloading and installing the latest Hard ware Certification Database Close AutoCAD follow the instructions and restart AutoCAD You ll be notified if a new graphics driver is available and whether it s fully compatible with AutoCAD s new 3D features Set Screen Resolution and Color Quality You should set the screen resolution to the maximum you can see without squinting squinting causes wrinkles As you increase resolution everything gets smaller while screen real estate effectively grows Use the screen resolution slider on the Settings tab of the Dis play Properties dialog box to adjust the resolution Everybody wants more screen real estate it s a valuable commodity but don t exceed what your tired eyes can comfortably see or you ll have to boost that eyeglass prescription before you know it even though Lynn s husband an optometrist appreciates the business Boosting resolution is a poor substitute for a larger monitor after all I Scott have a 22 monitor which is great and my graphics card supports resolutions up to 2048 x 1536 pixels but that s way more than I can see and yes I m wearin
54. ve the Info Palette floating and visible or put it in a dock as you prefer Any command you enter will automatically open its corre sponding documentation page in the Info Palette For example let s say you want help using the new Thicken Gal e Aal command in AutoCAD 2007 Type Thicken and press Enter THICKEN Command procedure list Quick Help and documentation is instantly available The Info Palette dis plays the brief description Creates a 3D solid by thickening a To convert one or more surfaces to solids 1 Click Modify menu 30 Home Operations Thicken Back surface You probably could have guessed as much A hyper 2 Select the surfaces you y Ponsod se linked procedure is also shown icken Print pe Rites Click To Convert One Or More Surfaces To Solids and 4 Specify a thickness for the hal solid 5 Press ENTER observe that a step by step procedure is listed that you can cma HIG follow But wait As soon as you try to follow the steps the a Dashboard 30 Make panel ak Thicken Surface x procedure list disappears because the Info Palette must follow whatever is happening at the moment To keep what is currently displayed in the Info Palette right click inside the palette and choose Lock from the context menu Now you can go ahead and follow the steps as you work After you ve completed the task you ll have to unlock the palette to keep it respo
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