New Old Tricks for Newbies and Old Dogs
In the 26-ish years that I’ve been using Autodesk products, like many seasoned users, I’ve picked up a few tricks along the way. In that time, it has been interesting to see which tricks that have remained “classics” over the years (which are easy to find anywhere) and which ones have been forgotten (due to improvements in the software negating such tricks).
But what about tricks that are still relevant, but never saw the light of day?
Hopefully, this article will cover these tricks so that even the most seasoned user will find something useful. A lot of these tricks (what I like to call “old habits”) are as applicable now as when they were first introduced, while some of the tricks featured here work best with the newest features of AutoCAD®.
Let’s begin…
Start Spreading the NEWS
Well, actually, it’s “Start Spreading the NWS”
Regardless of your CAD experience, you are most likely familiar with the ROTATE command and/or rotating objects with GRIP handles. I would also hazard a guess that the majority of the time you rotate your objects 90, 180, or 270 degrees (it should go without saying as to why you don’t rotate anything 360 degrees).
Here’s the trick: To cut down on inputting the orthographic numeric values, you can simply enter the characters “N”, “W”, or “S” to rotate your objects 90, 180, or -90 respectively when prompted to “specify rotation angle.”
Figure 1
Oh SNAP to the ZEE
Using object snaps back in the day was simple because WAY back then, everyone was still drafting in 2D orthographic views, and we didn’t have to worry about 3D entities “getting in the way” when using commands such as DISTANCE, or snapping to the wrong endpoint when creating geometry.
Nowadays, it’s a different story because the majority of Autodesk products have an element of 3D to them (i.e., Civil 3D, Revit, etc.), but the problem of accidentally object snapping to the wrong point still exists.
To get the distance between two points on either a single 3D object or between two separate 3D objects, I’ve seen people draw a line between the two desired points, and then change their respective “Z” values to the same number so they get the true distance between the points (in order to avoid the hypotenuse error created by the different “Z” values).
Here’s the Trick: Before you use any commands that require you to object snap between two 3D points, enter the system variable OSNAPZ and set it to a value of 1 first. This system variable setting forces AutoCAD to forget about the “Z” value and think in 2D only. When you need to work in 3D again, make sure you set OSNAPZ back to a value of 0.
Ha Ha Ha – Circular WIPEOUT
The WIPEOUT command has been around for a number of years now, but to this day it still cannot create a wipeout frame in a circular fashion. That is, it can’t use circles as a source to define the size and shape of the wipeout. The majority of users will click multiple points in an erratic, time-consuming fashion to best eyeball a circular shape.
Here’s the Trick: The next time you need to create a wipeout frame in the shape of a circle, use the POLYGON command. When prompted to “Enter the Number of Sides,” enter a value of 36, center it within the circular limits you wish to wipe out, and define the radius accordingly. This will create a 36-sided polyline where each segment is the same incremental length and 10 degree angle. At a glance, it looks just like a circle, and then just use the WIPEOUT command as you normally would.
Come on, baby… Let’s Do the VIEWTWIST
Have you have ever needed to know what the view angle within a Layout Viewport is? Surprisingly, neither the Properties Manager nor the LIST command will give you any results.
You can find the view angle of the Viewport if you are good at programming, or you can even create some geometry within the viewport to get its included angle, but there is an easier way.
Here’s the Trick: If you need to know the rotation angle of a Layout Viewport, regardless if it has a custom UCS setting, simply enter the command VIEWTWIST, and the command prompt will display the angle.
Figure 2
Quickly Modify Multiline Attributes
I was thrilled when AutoCAD introduced Multiline Attributes because it eliminated the need to have several individual attributes defined to simulate the appearance of a paragraph of text, and it also eliminated the hassle of cutting and pasting several word segments between each attribute.
Multiline Attribute emulated the same features as an MText object, which allowed for unique characters and word-wrapping.
However, editing the text became a minor hassle because you had to jump within two editors just to change a single word of text.
That is, until now…
Here’s the Trick: If you only need to edit a couple of words within the Multiline Attribute, don’t bother going into the attribute editor and then the MText editor. All you have to do is select your block containing the Multiline Attribute, open the Properties Manager (my Properties Manager palette is always open) , and below the “Misc.” category in the Properties Manager, you will see a list of all the attributes that are editable. Simply insert your cursor inside the desired attribute field, change the text as desired, and press the Enter key.
Modify or Delete Individual MLeader Arrows
This trick is a newbie, but a goody. As you probably know, MLeaders have the ability to create multiple leaders within it so that it is part of the MLeader entity. You can also delete the extra leaders as desired, but there is a lot of clicking and right-clicking just to delete one of these extra leaders. This can be time consuming.
Here’s the Trick (No.1): Since the 2013 release of the AutoCAD family, you can delete these extra leaders simply clicking once on the MLeader object in order to activate its selection grips, and then hover your cursor over the active grip of the arrowhead you want to delete. A pop-up window will appear with a number of options you can choose from including “Remove Leader.” There are fewer hoops to jump through with this tip, but it is still a tad time consuming.
Here’s the Trick (No.2): If you want an even quicker way to remove unwanted leaders from your MLeader object, try this instead. First, do NOT select the leader, you don’t need to. Simply hold down the Ctrl key on your keyboard and with your left mouse button, click on the desired leaders (note: don’t click on the arrowhead) you want to delete, and once they are highlighted, simply press the Delete key on your keyboard.
Bonus Trick! Now that you know how to individually select an MLeader leader by using Ctrl, did you know that you can also have individual arrowheads as well? As described in Trick No.2, hold down the Ctrl key on your keyboard and select the desired leader to change. Once the leader or leaders are selected, you can then use the Properties Manager to change the style of the arrowhead if need be (along with other features, so don’t be afraid to experiment).
Figure 3
Figure 4
Hey, Get a GRIP
I like using grips on objects, and I especially like using grips on multiple objects at once. Assuming you do as well, you may have noticed the only problem is that if you have to modify the same group of objects AGAIN, you have to reselect every object again, which is time consuming.
Here’s the Trick (No.1): Let’s say you manipulated a number of objects using grips and cleared the selection set using the Esc. key as you normally would. But then you realized that you have to manipulate the objects again. Instead of clicking on the objects to activate their grips, simply enter the PSELECT command, enter P for “Previous,” and when you press the Enter key, the previous selection set will be highlighted with its grips active.
Here’s the Trick (No.2): In addition to using the PSELECT command to highlight the grips of the last selection set of objects, you can also use the PSELECT command to highlight the grips of the last object created. Enter the command PSELECT and then enter L for “Last.” When you press the Enter key, the last object created will be highlighted. This works great if an object was just created in a large cluster of objects and you need to find it quickly.
Get To the Point with GETPOINT
I think it is safe to assume that many of us create drawings that are so “busy” with information that it can be confusing navigating within the model from time to time. You may end up spending a lot of time ZOOMing In and Out, and PANning Side to Side trying to get your bearings.
During my drawing session, I like to set up a series of reference points throughout my drawing that I constantly ZOOM or PAN to by using some on-the-fly LISP programming right at the keyboard.
Here’s the Trick: As mentioned above, let’s say you constantly zoom or pan to a particular area over and over again in your drawing. By using the following LISP code at the keyboard, you can create a reference point (or several) that can recalled later. First, navigate to the desired area in your drawing, and at the command prompt enter the following code exactly as you see it: (setq P1 (getpoint)) Once you enter that code, press the enter key and then pick a point anywhere near the desired area on your screen. You have just saved the X&Y coordinates of the point you picked into a variable defined as P1 (note: it doesn’t have to be called P1; you can call it “Bob” if you wish).
Now, in the future during the current drawing session, if you are zoomed into another part of your drawing and you need to quickly PAN to that area where you saved P1, simply enter the -PAN command (note the hyphen at the start of the command). When prompted to ”Specify base point or displacement,” enter the following at the command prompt: !P1 (note the exclamation point before the P1 variable), press the Enter key, and then pick near the center of your screen. The PAN command recalled the X&Y coordinates of the P1 variable and used it as the base point.
This trick works great if you have to pan around within a Layout Viewport. Keep in mind that the variables you save are good only during the current drawing session. Once you close the drawing, the memory of those variables will be lost and you’ll have to recreate them again.
