AutoCAD 2009

The long list of inquiry tools within AutoCAD provide many ways to approach the task of performing quantity takeoffs on your drawings. Yet as powerful as these tools are, one limitation that has long challenged me is way 1 doesn’t always equal 1 in the context of quantity takeoffs. A common example of this is [...]

{ 4 comments }

AutoCAD provides an almost infinite number of possibilities when preparing a drawing for plotting. Setting up drawing to plot is like an artist making a reproduction of a painting; the two paintings will look very similar, but they’ll never look exactly the same. This is much like plotting in AutoCAD; you’ll probably find the right [...]

{ 2 comments }

How your clients can open DWF’s without downloading anything

March 9, 2010

Regardless if you think DWF’s are the best thing since sliced bread, if the person you’re sending the DWF to can’t open the DWF; how great DWF’s are becomes irrelevant mighty quick. In my experience, unless you’re sending a lot of DWF’s to someone, they’re not all that interested in installing yet another piece of [...]

Read More →

The X Factor – Placing text above and below dimension lines

February 4, 2010

Many veteran users already know this tip, as it has been around for a while now. Still, for the uninitiated figuring out how to get text both above and below a dimension line (without breaking the line) can quickly resemble one of those puzzles where you have to get a metal ring off an interwoven [...]

Read More →

Creating Zoom Macros with the Action Recorder

January 12, 2010

I can’t speak for the other vertical products out there, but both Land Desktop and Civil 3D have a handy assortment of Zoom Macros. These Zoom macros include things like ZE for Zoom Extents, ZP for Zoom Previous, and so on. Although both LDT and Civil 3D are built atop the beloved AutoCAD platform, these [...]

Read More →

Automate Sheet Setup with Named Page Setups

December 17, 2009

During my time at Autodesk University 2009 this year, I had the chance to sit down with Heidi Hewett and record some videos for the AutoCAD Exchange.  Among the topics we discussed were Named Page Setups inside AutoCAD.  Despite their time-saving potential, Named Page Setups seem to be one of those features that’s been in [...]

Read More →