AutoCAD - The CAD Geek

Simplify AutoCAD Plotting by Hiding System Printers

January 2, 2018January 2, 2018 by Donnie Gladfelter

With the plethora of available options, plotting from AutoCAD can feel intimidating no matter how long you’ve used the software. A common question I receive from both veteran AutoCAD users and novices is why they get inconsistent plots when plotting to the same plotter. Though the answer to this question is as nuanced as plotting itself, a common reason is you didn’t actually plot to …

The CAD Geek Joins Autodesk’s Expert Elite

March 9, 2018September 11, 2017 by Donnie Gladfelter

Last week I had the incredible opportunity to share what a day in the life of The CAD Geek is like during my takeover of the @AutoCAD twitter account. Being the first ever AutoCAD Twitter Takeover, I had little idea what to expect of the whole event but knew I was in good hands with the phenomenally talented AutoCAD marketing team. A core reason I’ve continued …

Creating Dynamic Viewport Scale Labels in AutoCAD 2018

June 20, 2018August 10, 2017 by Donnie Gladfelter

The AutoCAD 2018.1 update makes it easier than ever to change the scale of a viewport, but how do you ensure that change reflects across your view scale annotations? The process of managing viewport scales and view scale annotations inside AutoCAD are typically separate workflows, and ripe for falling into an asynchronous state. The good news is these two tasks do not have to remain siloed. Leveraging …

Sheet Setup Made Easy with AutoCAD 2018.1 Views and Viewports

January 2, 2018August 2, 2017 by Donnie Gladfelter

It’s only been about four months since Autodesk released AutoCAD 2018, but that hasn’t slowed the development team. Just last week the team introduced AutoCAD 2018.1, a mid-release update that brings with it numerous incremental updates to AutoCAD 2018. The update is free to anyone with an active subscription or maintenance agreement to AutoCAD, AutoCAD-based verticals, Design Suites, and Industry Collections. You can read about all …

Disable the Glowing Line Highlighting Effect inside AutoCAD 2018

January 2, 2018June 5, 2017 by Donnie Gladfelter

By default, when you select objects in AutoCAD, a blue glowing effect displays to indicate the selected state of an object. The glowing visual effect has been the default for many years now, but some AutoCAD veterans might recall the former dashed effect used to indicate when objects are selected. Although many have come to appreciate, or at least accept the glowing effect, others still …

A CAD Geek’s First Impression of AutoCAD 2018

August 8, 2017March 21, 2017 by Donnie Gladfelter

Spring is in the air, and a new version of AutoCAD is now on the street. Today Autodesk announced the release of AutoCAD 2018, and it is one worth celebrating. Not only does it introduce some impressive new features, but it also represents the 35th-anniversary of AutoCAD. To put that milestone in perspective, MS-DOS 1.0, an operating system long succeeded by Microsoft Windows (not to …

Updating AutoCAD Block Attributes using Microsoft Excel

February 28, 2017January 18, 2016 by Donnie Gladfelter

Block Attributes are an integral component of nearly every AutoCAD-based project I’ve worked on. Beyond the ubiquitous title block, Block Attributes are commonly used for Room Tags, to display calculations, and more. Whilst it isn’t too difficult to update a couple of Block Attributes, when the blocks to update ventures beyond that – the task quickly becomes as tedious as it is time-consuming. I’ve long wished …

Recreating the AutoCAD Classic Workspace

June 18, 2018November 10, 2015 by Donnie Gladfelter

Despite several improvements to the Ribbon interface over the years, many AutoCAD users still prefer the AutoCAD Classic workspace featuring menus and toolbars. Since introducing the Ribbon interface in AutoCAD 2009, Autodesk has been nice enough to provide a classic interface to aid users transitioning from the old interface. The menu and toolbar-based AutoCAD Classic Workspace was included with the 2009-2014 versions of the software, but …