How do you save user drawing files? How often do you back them up, and how? Do you back them up to a server? run tape backups? Please share you experiences since a number of customers have asked how others do it. One of our customers does it by changing his Automatic Save File Location…

I got a request form a customer today asking: "If I am using AutoCAD 2014 can one of the estimators put 2012 in his machine so he can open and preview cad drawings sent to him? If not, is there a CAD viewer program available for cheap somewhere?" Yep! There are actually three options- all…

I consider myself a pretty good touch typist, but it never fails that at some point in the day, I’ll press the F1 key when I attempted to press ESC.  It could be my subconscious trying to tell me I need some’ help’, but I choose to ‘suppress’ that notion.  Anyway, I wouldn’t be the…

So, you’ve just installed AutoCAD 2007 and you see some new stuff going on. The first thing you probably notice is that when you move your crosshairs over an object it highlights that object. This is a really handy feature but it is a bit much in its default configuration so I suggest the following:…

Today we got a drawing that would crash because the designer had duplicate pipes right on top of each other. There is a quick way to check for and fix this. The AutoCAD Express command OVERKILL will delete duplicate objects, among other things. Either type in OVERKILL at the command prompt or pick it from…

If you are still on AutoCAD 2000, it’s way past time to get off of it and upgrade. That goes for 2000i and 2002, too. We are adding new features and functionality to the current versions of HydraCAD (V43, 44 and 45) and some of these features do not translate back to V42 (2000). One…

Almost daily I get calls from customers saying that when they type in Open they don't get a dialog box but a command line asking for a file name, or their pipe sizes come in with the word -LENGTH- instead fo the actual length. AutoCAD variables are usually at fault. Here are the most common…

We hear from a number of customers who have trouble with one of three related things in AutoCAD 2006: 1. A regen causes machine to lock up2. Switching between layout tabs causes machine to lock up3. Previewing a plot causes machine to lock up While these three things are not limited to the 2006 version…

I just signed up for classes at Autodesk University, held once again this year in Las Vegas. This is an annual four day orgy in all things AutoCAD and we send 3-5 people each year to brush up on programming skills and learn new features about Autodesk programs and how to properly use them. You…

Many people I know have a bunch of AutoCAD seats in their company and get pretty frustrated trying to keep them straight. AutoCAD has two ways to make this easier: First is a Network License. With this you can install, say, a five user networked AutoCAD on a server and users can ‘check-out’ a copy…