A customer just called and said he wanted to copy some of the layout tabs from another drawing into his new drawing. I didn’t know how to do this so I asked Alan here what to do. Here is how you do this: 1. Start a New drawing using our template2. Use the AutoCAD INSERT…

This is the first in a series of articles on how CAD Managers can more easily manage their users machines. Further articles will include discussion of the CUI menu files and how to customize them so that you can easily maintain menus for an an entire company. Ever sit down at a user station to…

I was creating a new toolbar button yesterday and tried to alter an existing button image (known variously as icon or bitmap). When I did this in the CUI, I got a cloud picture and had to resort to a backup plan. The same happens if you create a custom toolbar and want to use…

So, imagine more than 7500 AutoCAD geeks in one place and you have a good idea of what Autodesk University is. Now throw in Las Vegas as the setting and the Venetian Hotel and Casino as the venue and it all comes together. Four days, 12 – 15 hours a day. I am in the…

A Question today from a customer: Where do I switch from plotstyles ending with *.stb to *.ctb? Answer, from Greg here at Hydratec: The normal HydraCAD template is set to use “ctb” files. Load this template for ctb The “Hydracad_stb” template is set to use “stb” files. Load this template for stb Next, there is…

As promised, the second installment of our exciting series. This will cover up to AutoCAD 2000i. For later releases and more on all releases check out the Unofficial AutoCAD History Pages for all the info! Release 12   June 1992 AutoCAD Release 12 drawings are compatible with AutoCAD Release 11 This was a big deal. It…

Notice that nifty new zoom features in 2007? The one where you feel like you are flying down a roller-coaster? Don’t care for it either, huh? Type in VTOPTIONS (View Transitions) and uncheck the first box – Enable animation for pan & zoom. Or play with the Transitions speed to maybe make it more to…

I am sure many of you that are new to AutoCAD take many of the features of AutoCAD for granted, but those feature weren’t always there. Just like things that will come in the future are here yet. If you know what I mean. For example – some milestones that look pretty primitive right now:…

AutoCAD’s FIND command is pretty handy in way you might not expect. Here’s an example: Say you want to change a bunch of hangers from #11 to #16 – 1. Turn off all but the Hangers layer2. Type in Find3. Type in 11 in the Find text string field (do not enter the # sign…

From a Customer: We often get architects drawings that are drawn under a angle, we save these drawings as world and then create a new view (1) where we rotate the drawing that it becomes in a horizontal layout on our screen, this makes it easier to work with. Our Solution: Don’t rotate the drawing,…