The H-Factor

Reducing Entropy

Recent Posts

Adding Hanger Types to HydraLIST

If you want to use a new type of hanger, or are a fab shop that gets a job from a contractor that uses a hanger type that you do not have, it is easy to add that new hanger type to your own machine. A hanger is an assembly, and an assembly is just…

art's avatar by art

Welcome

Recently our previous blog service (Typepad) ended their business – so, we have a new home. It will take a bit to get images back and displaying properly, but we are working on it! Final pageview count of original Typepad blog: 387,232

art's avatar by art

Using a Non-Standard Pipe Type in HydraCALC

A customer called today asking how to enter a 1″ black plastic underground pipe for the calc. This particular situation sounded unique enough that I did not tell him to add that pipe type to our database, as I would have if he expected to see this pipe type used repeatedly. I told him to…

art's avatar by art
September 2026
M T W T F S S
 123456
78910111213
14151617181920
21222324252627
282930  

about

  • Viewing Revit Files Without Buying Revit

    Q: How do you view Revit files without buying Revit? 

    A: From Autodesk – Download the Revit program and run it in Demo mode. Demo install can function as a viewer with no expiration. Demo mode
    allows all features of Revit, but you cannot save, plot or export
    your
    project after changes are made. Demo mode serves as a no-cost viewer for
    yourself or team members who need to view, plot, and export projects without
    changing them.

    —
    Jeff Hanson
    Autodesk – AEC Technical
    Publications
    Manchester, NH

    You can download Revit at Revit MEP Download

  • Renaming Multiple Files at One Time

    From a longtime customer – Joe O.:


    Here is one
    I just noticed in Vista and I was not sure if you knew about it…

     

    With Vista,
    if you highlight multiple files to change the name, the name will change but
    each file will retain their respective extensions.  This is very handy if
    you need to change the name of a few files with different extensions.  Couldn’t
    do that in earlier Windows versions.

     

    From Art: I have not tried this to change all the extensions at the same time, that is something in the past I wish I could have done

  • Tired of Must enter UNDO END?

    We all like UNDO perhaps more than any other AutoCAD command. (don't you wish Life had undos? Of course you do, if not, yer lyin')

    Well, if you ever get the Must enter UNDO END when trying to undo, just pick our ESC button on the HydraCAD Utilities toolbar, and that will do the UNDO END for you. Now you can continue to do the regular undo as long as you like (or you hit another UNDO END)

    Undoend

  • AutoList – Sending the Listing Tag Setup with the Drawing

    If you are sending us, or a coworker a drawing for them to AutoList or diagnose – how do you send the listing tag setup (the top 5 FIGs)? The good news is that you don't have to , they are part of the drawing as long as you are on 50.4/51.4 or newer. From the Recent Changes doc:

    When Autolisting, the top five Fitting Instruction Groups (FIGs) are now written to the dictionary of the drawing.  These are added so that future users of the drawing can ascertain which groups were used when listing.
       They can be read by going into Fitting Mapping and using the Read button. You can also set your FIGs to those of the drawing by using the new Match button in the Fitting Mapping command. Be sure to do this before running AutoList on the drawing or those groups will be overwritten

  • Speeding up when Booting up

    When I first got my computer and booted my machine, I went go get a cup of coffee from the kitchen here at the office. When I came back, i could use the computer. Now, after a few years, I feel like I could get to Colombia and back with a cup of coffee before I get to do anything.

    One way to speed up the boot is to reduce the number of programs that load upon booting. some programs, like AOL Instant Messenger and Windows Messenger have options to disable a load at startup. With Quicktime you need to tell it to not load the icon into the system tray.

    However, many more programs configure Windows itself to launch themselves. To see these and eliminate them from bootup, do the following:

    1. Pick the Start button

    2. Pick Programs or All Programs

    3. Find the Startup folder.

    4. Delete any items in that folder that you do not want auto-started. Deleting them here will not remove them from your hard drive.

    One more thing – The list of Programs is often jumbled. To list them alphabetically, right-click on any one of them and pick Sort by Name. You may need to do this once a month or so.

  • Plotting a 3D Riser Detail Properly

    From a customer (Aaron at Dalmatian), via Bill, my coworker:

    "I spoke to
    you about an hour ago regarding the ugly mesh around all of the 3d objects when
    setting the viewport shade plot to 'hidden' with the model otherwise set to
    '2dwireframe'.  I’ve figured this one out and thought I’d share it with
    you: the check box 'draw true silhouettes for solids and surfaces' must be
    checked in the global options dialog (tools menu drop down, options, display tab,
    display performance, aforementioned checkbox is at bottom). just spreading the
    love around… have a happy holiday!"

    What he was talking about, graphically:

    Bad Riser Good Riser

    Bad Riser        Good Riser

    Options

    Options Settings

  • Fixing Really Long Copy and Pastes

    Does it take 20 minutes for you to copy and paste drawing entities? The reason is that probably have a bazillion SCALE LISTS as part of your drawing, thanks to all those that are parts of each XREF you have attached.

    Type in SCALELISTEDIT and pick Reset to clear them out. Note: If you reattach the Xrefs, the Scale Lists are going to come back also.

  • Bayspace and Drawing One Line or No Lines

    Many people use Bayspace to insert sprinkler heads and connect them with branch lines. Most don't know that you can also have Bayspace draw one pipe from the first head to the last head or draw no pipes at all.

    This option is on the second dialog box as seen below.

    BS-Lines 

    The One Pipe option is handy for when you are not sure exactly where to run you branch lines. If you choose this option, and leave the pipe where it is, be aware that you can use AutoLine to automatically break the pipe into individual pipes terminating at each head location. In AutoLine choose not to insert riser nipples and leave the Longest Armover length at anything greater than 0 (zero). No need to tempt fate.

    The No Pipe option is useful if you want head locations, but want to lay out your own piping scheme for your branch lines eventually.

  • Saving Your Menu Customizations

    AutoCAD lets you modify your menus to add toolbars, modify them, make Workspace changes and so forth. BUT, our installs and updates will overwrite them, so you REALLY should save those changes. This is how you do that.

    In AutoCAD, workspaces, menu and toolbars are stored in a menu file with the extension .CUIX file. The one for HydraCAD is named HCADWIN.CUIX. You do not need to create your own Workspace in order to save CUI menu changes, but it is a good idea:

    A few tips:

    To add your own Workspace –

    Arrange the screen the way you want it (command line, scroll bars, ribbons, whatever) and pick Save Current As: from the Workspace toolbar

    To make your Workspace load upon opening a drawing –

    Pick Customize from the Workspace toolbar and then right click on your preferred Workspace and pick Set Default.

    To save your Workspace, Toolbars and other Menus so that you can get them back after you update HydraCAD –

    Pick Customize and pick the Transfer Tab. Then, drag your Workspace from the Main CUI File window over to the New CUI folder. Drag over whatever else you want to save (Toolbars, Menus, Ribbon Stuff, Cursor Menu, etc). Then pick the Save command from the New CUI window to save your changes.

    To import your Workspace (especially after a HydraCAD update) –

    Pick Customize and pick the Transfer Tab. Open your CUI from the New CUI window. Then, drag your Workspace from the New CUI File window over to the New CUI folder. Drag over whatever else you want to bring in (Toolbars, Menus, Ribbon Stuff, Cursor Menu, etc).

    If these steps do not work, please try An Alternate Method for Saving Workspaces

    Note: Each HydraCAD Install and Update saves your old menu to a backup file. This can be loaded through AutoCAD and your changes extracted.

  • Changing Double-Click Behavior to Change Attribute Edit

    Sorry for the long absence. I was just helping wrap up to large projects (hint, hint) that are finally done! News about those next week.

    Some of you miss the old (pre-2007) double-click behavior whereas you got a full dialogue of attributes when you double-clicked on a block. AutoCAD changed this some time ago, but with V50/50 and the CUI file, it is very easy to bring back.

    1. Type in CUI

    2. Pick Partial CUI Files, ACAD, Double Click Actions and then pick Attribute Block, Edit Attribute

    3. Erase the first 'e' from _eattedit to make it _attedit under the Macro entry and pick OK

    Doubleclik

    That will do it. Notice you can alter double click behavior for any type of AutoCAD entity. We do this ourselves for one of our HydraCAD entities, the HydraPipe in our own section of the menu.