Welcome
Recently our previous blog service (Typepad) ended their business – so, we have a new home. It will take a bit to get images back and displaying properly, but we are working on it! Final pageview count of original Typepad blog: 387,232
Recent Posts
Using a Non-Standard Pipe Type in HydraCALC
A customer called today asking how to enter a 1″ black plastic underground pipe for the calc. This particular situation sounded unique enough that I did not tell him to add that pipe type to our database, as I would have if he expected to see this pipe type used repeatedly. I told him to…
Using the Hydratec Software Download Area
Hydratec uses ShareFile to distribute our software installs and updates. New customers, or those without access, must request access to be able to get at these downloads. Access is only available to customers with a Hydratec subscription or those on an update plan. You can access the download area and request access by picking the…
about
Month: June 2007
-
Some of you have noticed that our HydraCAD shortcuts have a -p Hydratec or -p SMaRTools in the Target field of the desktop Shortcut and have asked what those mean. Others have asked how to call up a Profile that a user has created by using the desktop Shortcuts. Here you go: 1. Set up…
-
By now most of you are aware of three tools for eliminating z-coordinates from a drawing: 1. Eliminate Z-Coordinates Phase 12. Eliminate Z-Coordinates Phase 2 Both from our HcadTool->Tools pulldown menu and… 3. Flatten – the AutoCAD Express Tools command If neither of these gives you the results you want then try the following, written…
-
Many of you know this one, but many don’t – so I will show it here. If you are entering input manually one of the fastest ways to do it is to use the ENTER key to copy input from the line above. For example, if you have a line of input that looks like…
-
A customer called this morning saying he is about to bid on a project that requires that all drawings be submitted in MicroStation (.dgn) format. Over the years we have heard of similar requests and in the past all we could say to the customer is to send a .dxf file. But, there is finally…
-
In AutoCAD 2008 Autodesk made a change in how they display drawing entities in layers that are locked. Entities in these locked layers show up as dimmed images compared to those entities in unlocked layers. As always, there is an AutoCAD variable that can control the amount of dimming or turn it off entirely. The…
-
This one comes via Robert Matteson of Dynamic Fire Protection Systems, Inc – Texas: When selecting objects using a window or crossing window, I am sometimes hindered from selecting all items that I want quickly due to the rectangular constraint of the window or crossing window. I found out today, that by entering WP (window…
-
Tired of defining the same sprinkler heads over and over again? Then do it in your template once and get it over with. Open up the template you use most often and hit cancel if asked for sheet size and scale. This preserves this option for when you start a new drawing. Next, define the…
-
Is the Architect/Fire Marshall insisting that you use specific layer names? Try using the LAYTRANS tool that comes with AutoCAD 2007 and later. You can type it in or find it under Tools->Cad Standards->Layer Translator… 1. Once open, pick the New button and type in each new layer name you want2. Pick a layer on…
The H-Factor 