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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…
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Author: art
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If you want to select an intersection, but don't have two lines that meet, what do you do? Many times while training customers, I have noticed hesitation when this comes up. Users will often extend lines so they meet, or try to finagle some other osnap into doing what they want. But, there is an…
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If you have found that some of the commands you used to use no longer have a button, you can add the button back in yourself in most cases, because we did not delete the command, only the button. And, it isn't that hard. For example, let's say that you want to add back in…
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This week I gave bad news to two long-time, independent customers – the AutoCADs they own cannot be upgraded and, furthermore, are likely pirated. One bought theirs from eBay, the other from a website that sells (and buys) older AutoCADs. In the industry, these are called 'non-traditional sources'. The problem? The serial numbers are not…
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Added in V52.4/V53.01, this new feature allows users to specify a central location (drive path) to look for sprinkler head symbols, so that all users have access to the same symbols. This is done by editing the HCAD_ENV.INI file found in the 50.3/Version53 folder and adding the full path to the head library next to…
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The Autodesk Subscription Center is where many of us are dragged kicking and screaming to get our updates, but it has a great deal of useful information. You can get previous versions, download installations and patches, and check you serial numbers and product key. You can also assign rights to users in your organization. This…
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A long time customer of ours (good guy, has poor taste in baseball teams) emailed me a drawing in which he could not explode the bulk of the building. Some research produced a solution – the block was specified to not allow exploding when it was created. This, fortunately, is easily correctable. A LISTing of…
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Possibly the coolest new feature of 2015 is the Lasso. This new selection mode lets you freehand a selection set of virtually any shape, quickly and (sometimes) easily. It can be used anytime you are selecting objects. When presented with the familiar Select Objects: prompt, just hold down the left mouse button and drag the…
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There are two ways of doing this. the first involves the Design Center and is, perhaps, the now preferred method: Design Center Method 1. Open the drawings or template you want to copy from, and to2. Switch to the 'to' drawing – the one that needs the layout tabs3. Open Design Center (from the AutoCAD…
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From a customer: "With the fabricators current technology tagging piping with system names and main/line numbers, we prefer to not use painted color marking on the pipe bundles. Can I change the default pipe color to None? Seems like every time I start a list, It wants to default to Red…" Yes – and here…
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This question comes up often. The answer is, it depends. It depends on what the bid documents are specifically asking for and what the Architect/GC/Project Engineer/AHJ is asking for. Right now, there are three basic formats: 1. AutoCAD Drawing – If the concerned party is asking for an AutoCAD drawing, then they will also need…
The H-Factor 