Instant-Impact Tips for ACA
Here are some handy tips you can use in AutoCAD® Architecture 2016.
Start Tab
When you start the program, open a new tab (+) or close the last drawing; a Start Tab is displayed (see Figure 1). Each Start Tab (formerly the New Tab) contains the Create Page and the Learn Page. The Create Page is a quick launch pad to decide what to do. The following sections are displayed on the Create Page:
- Get Started
- Start New Drawing
- Templates
- Open Files
- Open a Project
- Open a Sheet Set
- Explore Sample Drawings
- Recent Documents
- Connect
The Learn page provides access to learning resources such as videos, tips, and other relevant online content or services. For every new content update, a notification badge is displayed at the bottom of the page. It is important to note that if there is no Internet connection, the learn page is not displayed.
You can use Ctrl+Home or GOTOSTART to get to the Start tab quickly. If you don’t want the Start tab to display, set STARTMODE to 0.
Figure 1: Start tab
Smooth Line Display
AutoCAD® Architecture 2016 has added a solution to the jagged diagonal lines that you sometimes see in 2D wireframe drawings. The command is LINESMOOTHING. This variable can also be found under the Options dialog box, System tab. Click on Graphics Performance and the Graphics Performance dialog box appears. Checking Smooth Line Display removes the jagged lines. If your hardware supports High Quality Geometry, you can select the new “High Quality Geometry” option in the Graphics Performance dialog on the Status bar. Hardware acceleration must be turned on for this to work. Set LINEFADING to 1 to automatically fade geometry as you zoom into super-dense drawings. You can control the amount of fading with LINEFADINGLEVEL.
Status Bar
In AutoCAD Architecture 2016, the status bar can now automatically wrap onto two rows when there are more icons than can fit into a single row. At any given time, the model tab and at least one layout tab is always displayed. You can populate the status bar with the tools you want by clicking on the three-stacked lines in the lower-right corner of the editor (see Figure 2). Isolate Objects and Lock UI have been added to the status bar customization menu. The Lock User Interface tool on the status bar enables you to check and uncheck multiple UI elements at one time instead of having to reopen the flyout each time. You can click the icon to enable or disable UI locking. Also, please note that the previous text “Cut Plane:” has been replaced by an icon.
Figure 2: Status bar
ACA Revision Cloud
The Revision Cloud tool is enhanced in 2016 to provide more flexibility. It is accessible from the Annotate ribbon panel and includes three methods of creation—Rectangular, Polygonal, and Freehand—in addition to the Command line option to select an object. The last used creation method is remembered the next time the command is run. You can set your own default creation method using the REVCLOUDCREATEMODE system variable.
Whether you create rectangular, polygonal, freehand, or object revision clouds, editing their size and shape with grips is intuitive and easy. The number of grips displayed for revision clouds has been significantly reduced. The location and behavior of grips is based on the shape of the revision cloud. If you prefer legacy display of grips you can set REVCLOUDGRIPS to Off. In addition to easier editing with grips, a new Modify option allows you to draw new revision cloud segments and erase selected portions of existing revision clouds (put several revision clouds together).
Geographic Location
Geographic location information in a drawing file is built around an entity that is known as the geographic marker. The geographic marker points to a reference point in model space that corresponds to a location on the surface of the earth of known latitude and longitude. The program also captures the direction of the north at this location. Using this information, the program can derive the geographic coordinates of all other points in the drawing file. You can set a geographic location using the Set Location tool on the Insert tab of the ribbon. Then easily search for an address from a map and drop a marker on the map to mark the spot. Drawing units can be easily modified.
After you insert a geographic marker in a drawing, you can do any of the following:
- Make the program automatically determine the angle of sunlight when you perform sun and sky simulation.
- Insert a map from an online maps service in a viewport.
- Perform environment studies.
- Use position markers to mark geographic locations and record related notes.
- Locate yourself on the map in real-time on systems that support location sensing.
- Export to AutoCAD Map 3D and expect the model to position itself automatically.
You can remove geographic location information from a drawing file using the GEOREMOVE command. The geographic marker and GIS coordinate system are removed from the drawing file. However, position markers will continue to remain in the drawing file.
Lasso Selection for Objects
Lasso Selection is a new object selection feature that can be created by clicking, dragging, and releasing the mouse button (see Figure 3). You can now drag from left to right to select all objects that are entirely enclosed in the lasso or drag from right to left to select all objects that are crossed by the lasso. Click Enter. You can deselect objects by pressing shift and then clicking the individual objects or dragging across multiple objects. Press Esc to deselect all objects. It is important to note that when using lasso selection, you can press Spacebar to cycle between the Window, Crossing, and Fence object selection modes.
Figure 3: Lasso selection
Digital Signatures
AutoCAD Architecture 2016 offers extra security controls that help to protect your drawings. You will find a variety of Security Options on the System tab of Options. One option is Digital Signatures, now accessible via the new DIGITALSIGN command. A digital signature is a block of encrypted information that you can add to certain files to identify the originator and indicate whether a file has been altered since the digital signature was applied.
To attach a digital signature to a file, you must either have a digital certificate issued by a certificate authority or you can create a self-signed certificate using one of several utilities. You can examine a file's digital signature. This is important when you are working on collaborative projects or if you receive an executable file. For drawing files, an icon is displayed on the status bar if a drawing file is digitally signed. When you click the icon, you can verify information such as the validity of the signature, the name of the individual or organization that signed the file, and so on.
PDF Enhancements
The updated PDFs in AutoCAD Architecture 2016 are much faster than they used to be! Truetype fonts in MText and Text with any formatting options as well as Polygonized text, SHX text and Unicode characters are now searchable in PDF output files. The Export to DWF/PDF Options dialog box has been split into two separate dialog boxes—one for DWF and one for PDF. Both are accessible from the Output ribbon tab. PDF Options now include the PDF quality and font handling controls as well as new controls for hyperlinks and bookmarks. The hyperlinks control enables you to include hyperlinks from the drawing in the PDF file. The bookmarks control exports sheets and named views as bookmarks so you can easily navigate between them when viewing the PDF file.
When using the Plot tool to create PDF files, you can now choose from four predefined PDF presets offering a quick way to apply different PDF output options that meet various needs. If you select any PDF pc3 from the Printer/plotter dropdown list, a PDF Options button is displayed, providing convenient access to the PDF Options dialog (see Figure 4). Similar PDF presets and options controls are available when creating PDF files using the Export to PDF and Batch Plot tools.
The Sheet Set Manager has also been updated to support these PDF enhancements. Layout names are automatically displayed as page labels in the PDF file, making it easy to identify sheets when viewing the PDF.
Figure 4: PDF options
Command Preview
The Command Preview provides you a quick feedback of the active command and shows you exactly how the objects will look when the command is executed. As you make changes within the command, you can instantly preview the final result. The interactive preview applies to the following commands:
- BREAK
- CHAMFER
- FILLET
- EXTEND
- LENGTHEN
- MATCHPROP
- OFFSET
- TRIM
- BLEND
- ERASE
- ROTATE
- STRETCH
- SCALE
You can enable/disable the Command Preview control on the Selection Tab of the Options dialog box.
Text Alignment
AutoCAD Architecture 2016 now has a new TEXTALIGN command that allows multiple text objects to be aligned to a base object and provides a preview of the result. After typing TEXTALIGN, the prompt Select Text Objects to Align [Alignment Options] is displayed. Select two or more objects to align and press Enter. With this command, you can easily control the spacing or alignment direction.
Smart Dimensions
In AutoCAD Architecture 2016, the updated DIM command is now accessible from the ribbon and is smart enough to detect objects and provide various visual dimension options. The DIMLAYER command can be used to create a new layer for dimensioning. You are given horizontal, vertical, and aligned dimension previews when you select a linear object. From these previews, you can simply place the desired dimension. You can also select another non-parallel linear object to display and place an angular dimension. You can specify a type of dimension by using the various dimensioning options in the right-click menu. The default values are automatically assumed for the dimension text and angles, but you can still change them from the right-click menu or command line. The DIM command remains active until you exit the command, allowing you to knock out multiple dimensions at one time.
Rendering
The new rendering engine in AutoCAD Architecture 2016 is simpler to use and yields better results. The Render ribbon panel on the Render ribbon tab is updated to support the new rendering engine. It includes a size drop-down where you can quickly select from standard pre-defined render sizes (see Figure 5).
The Render Presets list includes additional options enabling you to control the render quality by setting either the number of levels to render or how much time to render. The new Render Presets Manager is much simpler than the previous Render Presets Manager. You can create, modify, and delete custom Render Presets. Specify Render Preset name and description as well as the duration and accuracy. You can render directly from the Render Presets Manager, choosing to render in the Render Window, the current viewport, or a specified region in the current viewport.
When rendering in the render window, a drop-down list enables you to select from a list of standard render output sizes or choose More Output Settings to access the new Render to Output Settings dialog box. In the Render to Size Output Settings dialog box, you can specify the image size and resolution. You can also choose to automatically save the rendered image to a file including BMP, TGA, TIF, JPEG, and PNG formats.
A new Render Environment & Exposure palette offers powerful new Image Based Lighting (IBL) environments. When the Environment control is turned on, you can select from pre-defined, image-based lighting environments. The image-based lighting environments automatically apply lighting effects. Some of them include 360 background images that emulate a realistic environment as you orbit around the model. The viewport must be in a perspective view and you must render to see the IBL environment.
A control in the Render Environment & Exposure palette enables you to use a custom background image. Custom images are static and do not emulate a realistic 3D environment as you rotate. Additional controls in the Render Environment & Exposure palette enable you to adjust the Exposure and White Balance. The Exposure slides between Bright and Dark. The White Balance slides between Cool and Warm. The new render window displays the current render process and allows you to save a snapshot, zoom in and out while rendering, and print the rendered image. Render history is displayed in the expanded section of the render window.
Figure 5: Render to size
