The H-Factor

Reducing Entropy

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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

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…

July 2026
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Author: art

  • I have a customer/friend here from Sweden this week for training. He brought his laptop and started working on it like anyone else would and I didn’t give it a second thought until he mentioned it was a Macintosh! He has a MacBook with an Intel Dual-core processor running BootCamp which is downloadable free from…

  • An update to HydraCALC which contains the ability to printout hydraulics conforming to NFPA 2007 is now available for download on our website. As always – when you update your HydraCALC, you must update your HydraVIEW. Set up your Info Sheet under View->Info Sheet and choose NFPA 2007. Also choose NFPA 2007 when you print…

  • It is possible to automatically save a 2004 version of a drawing every time you hit SAVE in 2007, but you need an add-on to do it. DUALSAVE.ARX is the add-on. 1. Download the DUALSAVE.ARX from our website at this address and save it to your H40\PROG\CAD2007 folder2. In AutoCAD, pick Tools, Load Application…3. Navigate…

  • It is pretty easy to list an extra threaded outlet off a welded line (or main), for example a plug for future. 1. Go into Sprinkler Setup and pick New Symbol. Select either PLUG1.DWG or PLUG2.DWG2. Select Attached Directly to Line or Main3. Pick OK and choose the proper thread size for the outlet4. Insert…

  • For those of you still using digitizers (and it may only be one of you and you know who you are), you may have found that there are no default tablet commands with V45. We do, however, ship a separate tablet menu that you can transfer into the main HydraCAD menu so you can merrily…

  • It is possible (and quite straightforward) to access your work computer from home or a job site these days, and you don’t have to pay a monthly service to do so. What you need is a network, VPN software and Microsoft Remote Access (comes standard with Windows) and an IT person to put it all…

  • This past weekend was spent splitting and stacking firewood for next year. I was hoping for close to 3 cords, but alas, 2.07 was what we have… I am going to cut some more this week and get to 2.5 cords, which is what we used this past year, more or less. The good news…

  • In AutoCAD 2008 some of you might have noticed that you do not get a Startup dialog box and there is no longer a setting for it in the Options. Great, huh? In their wisdom, AutoCAD removed that ‘feature’ and now we are relegated to typing it at the command prompt, so type in STARTUP…

  • Sometimes after you AutoList you might find that your listing tags look rather underfed. The main reason for this is that the Style BOLD has been redefined (or was defined differently in the first place). The solution is to define BOLD using the STYLE command, make it look like below and pick Apply:

  • A common complaint from users of the newer versions of AutoCAD is that hitting the Up and Down arrows now show coordinates instead of the last distance typed in. If this bugs you as much as it does me, try this: Type in INPUTHISTORYMODE and Enter 0 – You will now be able to recall…