AutoCAD Archives - Page 2 of 13

Creating Dynamic Viewport Scale Labels in AutoCAD 2018

Donnie GladfelterJune 20, 2018August 10, 2017

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

Sheet Setup Made Easy with AutoCAD 2018.1 Views and Viewports

Donnie GladfelterJanuary 2, 2018August 2, 2017

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,

Disable the Glowing Line Highlighting Effect inside AutoCAD

Donnie GladfelterJuly 24, 2020June 5, 2017

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

A CAD Geek’s First Impression of AutoCAD 2018

Donnie GladfelterAugust 8, 2017March 21, 2017

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,

Updating AutoCAD Block Attributes using Microsoft Excel

Donnie GladfelterFebruary 28, 2017January 18, 2016

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

Recreating the AutoCAD Classic Workspace

Donnie GladfelterAugust 15, 2019November 10, 2015

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

AutoCAD 2016 SP1 Adds Support for Windows 10

Donnie GladfelterNovember 19, 2015October 2, 2015

Although service packs already exist for many AutoCAD 2016 verticals like Civil 3D; Autodesk released service pack 1 for “vanilla” AutoCAD this week. Whilst I recommend always paying attention to new service pack releases, this service pack is especially important for a few reasons. Reason 1: The Service Pack Fixes Things The basic function of

Converting PDFs to AutoCAD DWGs using Adobe Illustrator

Donnie GladfelterFebruary 28, 2017September 9, 2015

The ubiquity of PDFs make them a great choice for collaboration when you’re not sure what software a recipient is using. By sending a PDF you can rest assured whomever the recipient – they’ll be able to open it. But what if you’re the recipient, who has AutoCAD, and you really needs a DWG version

Brighten up AutoCAD with a Lighter Color Scheme

Donnie GladfelterJanuary 2, 2018August 11, 2015

Customization has long been among AutoCAD’s core strengths. Even as changes are made to the program it’s typically always possible to tailor the interface to your liking. One recent change that some users love, and others could do without is the graphite interface. Those who enjoy the graphite interface cite the reduced eye strain, whereas others seem to prefer the contrast of the former (lighter) interface.

Whilst I don’t have a strong preference either way, I have found the light interface to work a little better for me when presenting to an audience with a projector. Given the number of presentations I do for my job at CADD Microsystems, it likely goes without saying I typically change the AutoCAD interface to its former – lighter interface. Watch the video above to learn how to make this change on your own system.

Applying Child Dimension Styles: A Geek and a dimension is born

Donnie GladfelterDecember 17, 2015August 5, 2015

Wrapping up my sixth edition of AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT: No Experience Required; few things can top the excitement of sharing months of hard work that, as an author, I sincerely hope will help others get a footing in the industry – much as I did many years ago. I emphasize few things can top that excitement because Shaan Hurley, longtime friend and Between The Lines blogger, recently spotlighted one of those moments that even exceed the definition of excitement. My wife and I just celebrated the 1-month birthday of our first child, a baby boy, that we chose to name Jackson. Joining in the festivities (and the subject of Shaan’s blog post) was the outfit my company, CADD Microsystems, had made for our little guy. The outfit that set off an incredibly geeky Facebook thread simply reads “Latest Autodesk Product.” Needless to say, my wife and I couldn’t be more excited to welcome Jackson into our lives, and I certainly can’t wait until the day I get to begin teaching him about design.

In the spirit of children, I thought I’d share a quick tip on creating and using Child Dimension Styles. If you’re not familiar with the concept, Child Dimension Styles are an absolute necessity when you need to change the appearance for different types of dimensions. As an example, many architectural plans use Architectural Ticks for linear dimensions, but an Arrow may be more appropriate for Radius dimensions. In lieu of creating a different style for Linear and Radius dimensions, Child Dimension Styles can capture both dimension types into a single (centrally managed) dimension style. Have a look at the video to learn how.

Where did the Coordinate readout in the AutoCAD status bar go?

Donnie GladfelterJanuary 16, 2015January 19, 2015

Whenever you first learned AutoCAD, there’s a good chance at least some portion of the class/book included a discussion about the Cartesian coordinate system used throughout AutoCAD. I’ll spare you the details, but to summarize coordinates help us identify the precise location of objects in our drawings. While I would argue coordinates are important for

Applying Parametric Constraints to Dynamic Blocks

Donnie GladfelterMarch 3, 2017September 16, 2014

AutoCAD block libraries can quickly become unwieldy due in part to the need to capture multiple options of what’s effectively the same item. A common example of this is a table that is offered in 6 ft, 8 ft, and 10 ft varieties. Each of these requires it’s own block simply because of the differing lengths. To