The H-Factor

Reducing Entropy

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Unblocking a Group of Files

After downloading a file, it is often Blocked. You must right-click on it, pick Properties and then check the Unblock item: But doing a dozen or more files gets old, real fast. I just learned a way to Unblock a batch of files at once. It involves using PowerShell, a Microsoft tool that is a…

by art September 30, 2026

Adding Hanger Types to HydraLIST

If you want to use a new type of hanger, or are a fab shop that gets a job from a contractor that uses a hanger type that you do not have, it is easy to add that new hanger type to your own machine. A hanger is an assembly, and an assembly is just…

by art July 31, 2026

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

by art October 20, 2025May 21, 2026

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Using the Rename Tool in AutoCAD to Rename Layers, Blocks, and Other Things

March 30, 2016

I had no idea this command existed, but found it when looking for a better way to rename a layer after a customer reported an error while running an AutoList.

The cause of the error was that the pipe block layer, SPRKDATA, was built in the drawing as sprkdata (lower case). While may of HydraCAD’s routines are trained to work with either lower or upper case names, this routine was not.

Enter the RENAME command. As you can see from the dialog below, you can use it to rename many things in the drawing.

There are also command line options, to automate the renaming of many layer at once, for example. Such a procedure will be added to checkups in a future HydraCAD update, to eliminate such problems.

Posted in HydraCAD