Many of us use Copy and Paste in AutoCAD. Often when using Paste, we try to eyeball and line up the block we are pasting, or use osnaps. But there is a better way. Example: Say you need to Copy the plan view of a stairway detail from one drawing to another, and naturally, you…

Here is a quickie – if you need a block count in a hurry, type in BCOUNT at the command line. You will be asked if you want to select all blocks (ENTER) or just some. The output is displayed on the text screen (F2): Block………Count ——————-Tos………..4CAP………..3VAFF……….2VBTS……….1OPHEAD……..18TESTPT10……1REFPT………92pipex………186blkrdef1……4HEAD1………150HEAD13……..5HEAD15……..3SIDE1………336-48………130-42………124-36………1LGTITLE…….3NORTHARR……3

  This is the last major new AutoCAD 2011 feature I will devote a blog entry to. There are some others, and the new features of things such as POLYLINES and LINETYPES will probably start showing up in various V51 commands in the near future. This one is one the fringes of sprinkler design, but…

AutoCAD 2011 has a great feature call Add Selected. Just right-click on anything and pick Add Selected from the ensuing cursor menu and you will be creating another object the same as the one you clicked on. If it is a block, you will be inserting the exact same block in the same layer. You…

Sometimes part of a tree or some grid lines may not show up in HydraCALC when sent there by the AutoCalc process. How do you find the ones that are missing? This drawing should have 12 loops, since it is a grid with 13 lines: The AutoCalc process appears to run fine and gets the…

Each object in 2011 also has a Transparency property.To adjust the Transparency of an object(s) select those objects and then pick the Properties command or pick the Properties button on the Home Tab of the ribbon menu and use the slider to adjust. Valid settings are between 0 and 90 percent transparency.

This is the second in a series of posts on how to self-diagnose errors you may encounter while elevating your drawing to 3D or while running AutoCalc or AutoList. HydraCAD includes a number of tools to assist you with the diagnosis and correction of these errors, and these post will review some of them. Sometimes…

The next new feature is Isolate or Hide Objects. A new property that has been added to each entity is its Visibility. You can Hide or Isolate Objects individually, or by selecting a bunch of them. Say you have an area of a drawing that is particularly crowded, and you want to be able to…

Another new feature in AutoCAD 2011 is Selection Cycling. Ofttimes, you have two objects at the same place, and you may have difficulty selecting the correct one. That is where Selection Cycling is a big help. Turn Selection Cycling on by picking the Selection Cycling toggle on the AutoCAD Status Line: Note: If you have…

Select Similar does just what it's name implies. Select and object just by clicking it. Then right-click and pick Select Similar from the ensuing popup menu. All objects of the same type and layer will be highlighted. If you pick a block, then only the same block will be highlighted. You can now do whatever…