A customer asked today if AutoCAD 2013 is compatible with Windows 8. Guess what – offcially, it isn't! Here is the official list of compatible OS for each AutoCAD version: Operating system compatibility for AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT We have run AutoCAD 2013 on Win 8 and have seen one or two funky things happen…

The AutoCAD variable LAYOUTREGENCTL controls REGEN between, er,  Layouts. There are three settings, 0, 1 and 2. AutoCAD help explains these options the best: Why even have a 0 (zero) option? Well, if your RAM is extremely limited, this keeps you from getting fatal errors due to the memory being overloaded. The best setting is…

This post was prompted by a call from a long time customer (Hi, Debbie!). I found the following on another blog and it sounded interesting enough to repeat here: From Ellen Finkelstein's AutoCAD blog (a very excellent one, by the way) "I want to make sure that you know about 3 really handy commands that…

From a customer: "I started using the Viewbase command, which I learned from the H-Factor blog.  I love it, it makes pump details very easy to do.  My only question would be about certain block/details.  A lot of the time I use Revit models from manufacturers, such as Reliable.  I will download a 3D valve…

From AutoDesk: "Product keys are required for installation of Autodesk products and are used to differentiate products that are both sold independently and as part of a product suite. For example, installing AutoCAD 2016 as a point product requires product key 001H1, but installing AutoCAD 2016 from the Autodesk Product Design Suite Ultimate 2016 requires…

How Autodesk licenses are handled when you have more than one network seat or suite has often puzzled me. Can you open both Acad and Navis at the same time? Can one user open the Acad, one the Navis and a third the Revit? The answer is no, unless you have more than one network…

I ran into this one about two years ago and swore that I wrote a blog entry. Apparently not. I ran into it again today via a customer in the Bahamas (nice place, huh?). This virus is not dangerous or vicious, but it is really annoying. It causes an error upon loading HydraCAD due to…

SHIFT can do some SHIFTy things (sorry, I had to ). I found this on Cad Addict's website: SHIFT while drawing a line will lock the perpendicular inference. It is like a temporary activation of the ORTHO mode. If you press SHIFT, a tooltip with similar to the macro Icon of digital cameras appear to…

Once you 'go to 3D' in HydraCAD, you get a wireframe model. This is actually a Visual Style named '2D Wireframe'. If you would like to make a more professional looking presentation, you could apply a different Visual Style. To open up the Visual Style palette, type in VISUALSTYLES or pick the Visual Style button…

Version 51.11, and by extension, V52.01 added a new function named Bundle PDFs to the brand new Collaborate toolbar. This command will be renamed Create Submittal Pack in the next update (V51.12/V52.02), so keep an eye out for the new name. This command will scan the drawing an pull out PDFs for many of the…