The H-Factor

Many times customers have trouble registering their AutoCADs and need additional help. Unfortunately we don't have too many resources to draw on, since AutoCAD holds the keys to the registration vault, so to speak. So the next step is to call Autodesk, and therein lies the problems. Years ago Autodesk proudly and prominently displayed phone numbers; nowadays they are nearly impossible to find, because they want you to email or look in a support database.

We have had luck finding phone numbers through Google, and these numbers seemed to solve customers problems. Here is a list I found by Googling, from the Vancouver (BC) AutoCAD Users Group:

Autodesk Authorization Codes 800-551-1490 Direct phone line for
various software authorization codes including AutoCAD Designer, AutoCAD UNIX and more.

Autodesk Customer Service and RMA 800-538-6401 Lose a manual? Do
you need an AutoCAD software update? You can register your software. You can also check
your (Returned Merchandise) RMA order status. This number is an alternative to using a
dealer.

AutoCAD Over-The-Phone Registration 800-538-6401(will be
discontinued later) Register your AutoCAD over the phone, or at least confirm that
it’s registered.

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.

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.

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.

The question now arises, what machine to buy for all this 3D stuff. This from one of our customers

“We just ordered 12 machines: They’ll all be 64 bit with
Windows 7 Ultimate loaded… 9 gigs of ram, 10,000 rpm Raptor hard drives, and
NVidia 260 video cards with 1.8 gigs of ram on them”

This sounds great to me. Now that the Vista horror show is over, and we work on 64-bit operating systems, it's a good time to take advantage of what is out there.

Now, if he would just send me one to test for a couple of years, I'd be happy…

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:

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

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.

Don't use Format->Layer Tools->Layer Delete on any of Hydratec's stuff. I fact, I don't recommend using it in architect stuff, either. Here's why – besides deleting everything on the selected layer and the layer name itself, it also redefines all blocks that have a foot in that layer and remove those parts that do.

An example is one of our pipe sizes. If you were to select on when using this command, you would be notified thusly:

******** WARNING ********

Do you wish to continue? [Yes/No] <No>:

So, this not only gets rid of everything on SPRKDATA, it also redefines the PIPEX block and removes all the attributes that refer to SPRKDATA, in short – the Length and Diameter. The only fix (if it is too late to UNDO) is to start a new drawing and insert this drawing into it

8/19/09 – Autodesk released Update 1 for AutoCAD 2010. This can be downloaded from Autodesk Update 1 for AutoCAD 2010 – It fixes about 200 things, according to the list of changes found on that webpage.

There do not seem to be any compatibility issues with HydraCAD at this time. Is has fixed some odd errors that some customers have reported seeing.

Thanks Ed from Aero!