A user called to ask if there was to secure a drawing file so no one else can change it. Seems the AHJ is demanding a DWG file, so sending a PDF or DWF won't cut it. One of my coworkers (George) found this app by googling: CadVault Has anyone tried this? There is a…

Problem: The picture below shows apparently false defline (Dline) errors. What's up with those? Cause: Look at the riser nipple 'clam-shells'. The opening does not line up with any piping. The user inserted the riser nipples and then rotated the drawing. (side-note, he should have just changed his crosshairs to align with the sloping building…

From a Customer: Q: Is there a setting that allows you to put the inch mark (“) after pipe sizes? Some of our drawings have the inch mark and then newer drawings leave the mark off? A: Yes. When you start a new drawing, there is a place there for adding a suffix. If you…

One more nice thing about AutoCAD 2011. If you create a Polyline it automatically has extra vertices added between each segment: Notice the different-looking grips in the picture below. If you hover over a grip at the end of a segment you will be given the option to Add or Remove a Vertex whereas in…

This problem is not what it might seem at first glance. While it is true that the water supply block may not be at the end of a pipe, it is more likely that the riser nipples somewhere in the grid (it is usually seen in a grid) are set to User Specified when they…

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…