The H-Factor

We have long been able to convert drawings that are made in our competitors software into ours. The conversion are pretty good (if I say so myself), but all have some limitation due to the way each package creates objects.

As a rule – this is the procedure to follow:

1. Start a new drawing using our template

2. Insert the competitor’s drawing into it, exploded

3. Pick the appropriate conversion tool. Note which heads it finds and say no to
conversion

4. Insert one HydraCAD head for each competitors head found and restart
conversion

Note: If you don’t do steps 1 and 2, in that order, then the conversion will
not work

HydraCAD has a command called Change item Colors. It is found right after Pretty Pipes on the Cleanup toolbar. What does it do? It lets you assign colors to different parts of your drawing. It is run after you run Pretty Pipes, hence it’s location on that toolbar.

You can assign three additional colors to Pretty Pipes such as Existing Pipe, Demo Pipe and New Pipe. You can also assign different linetypes to these parts of the drawing as well. The colors and linetypes can be applied to the areas you select or to just one pipe if you want. Sprinkler heads and other objects will change color as well.

While I was training a customer in New Castle, PA last week a question came up that I thought had long been answered. By the mere fact it was asked showed how wrong I was. They had trouble shipping their drawings to their engineers because the engineers could not see our 1/2 and 1/4 symbols. The solution to this is easy, and there are a few ways to handle it.

1. Email them all of the HydraCAD fonts along with the drawing. What are our fonts? They are in your appropriate HydraCAD folder, ie: HES\HydraCAD\Ver50\Programs\Version53, \Version54, etc. They all have a file extension of .SHX. Send all of these along with the drawing. The engineers can either place these font files in their Program Files\AutoCAD (version)\Fonts folder or keep them in the same folder as the drawing, where they will be automatically found upon opening the drawing.

2. Use AutoCAD's ETRANSMIT function. This will create a package which contains the drawing and any fonts used by the drawing.

3. Use HydraCAD's Replace Fractions command (RF). This command will replace all of the fractions in your drawing with regular AutoCAD characters. This is only a one-way conversion, so save your drawing before you do this.

4. Log into your ShareFile account and download the Fonts.Zip file in the HydraCAD Data subfolder for downloading and sending to someone who needs them

This is the list of our text styles and their associated fonts:

Smooth: HCADR.SHX
Classic: HCAD.SHX
Hand Drawn: HCADH.SHX
Slashless: HCADCON.SHX
Arch/Single: ARCHAND1.SHX
Arch/Double: ARCHAND2.SHX
Arch/Triple: ARCHAND3.SHX

Does anyone have any experience with any of the PDF to DWG converters out there?

I have not been able to find any reviews of the half dozen or so converters that came up in a Google search. The ones I have found are:

AutoDWG
AnyDWG
aidecad
pdf2cad

These are all about $180. Sounds like a little cartel action going on

This one came via a customer for subscribes to Steve Johnson’s blog Cad Nauseam

From Steve Johnson, blog nauseam, April 10, 2008.

"If you’ve noticed some normal drafting operations are much slower in AutoCAD
2009 than in earlier releases, try turning off the new Layer Palette and see if
the problem goes away. For example, editing viewports with the Layer Palette
visible can be completely unworkable. Don’t just auto-hide it, close it
altogether.

Another problem presented by the Layer Palette is that any layer changes you
make are applied as you make them. This sounds great in theory, but if each
operation takes a while to perform then that’s much less efficient than the old
method where all changes are made at once when OK or Apply is picked.

I know a non-modal layer interface was a common wish and it sounded like a
cool idea, but now Autodesk has actually been kind enough to grant this wish I’m
finding I prefer the old method. I generally don’t need access to all that layer
functionality all of the time, so it makes sense to only have the interface
occupying that big slab of screen real estate when I actually need it. Your
requirements may differ, of course.

If you’re a layer Luddite like me, you can use the old interface by issuing
the Classiclayer command. Alternatively, if you set the undocumented system
variable LAYERDLGMODE to 0, the Layer command will invoke the old interface
instead of the new one."

You wouldn't be the first (or last).

It helps to think of an armover as having three parts:

  A. The 'Up' piece (riser nipple)
  B. The Arm piece
  C. The Drop piece

Item C – The Drop piece is already handled because Drops already go into a separate branch line section in HydraLIST named DROP. Just delete it if you don't want those listed.

Items A and B are easy to handle using an OVERRIDE. Inserting the 'Arm Over' override
works differently depending on where it is inserted. If inserted on the
head, then the Arm piece B will get listed in a branch line section
named ARM1. If inserted on the riser nipple, then the Up piece will get
listed in that same section named ARM1.

For both items – Choose the 'Arm Over' override from the Line Fitting – Elbow category. Then check the Insert Multiple Overrides option and pick Insert Fitting Override. For Item A, pick one of the riser nipples to set the filter and then pick a window around all of the riser nipples to tag. One Arm Over override will be placed at each riser nipple location. For Item B, pick one of the sprinkler heads to set the filter and then pick a window
around all of the heads to tag. One Arm Over override will be
placed at each sprinkler head that matches the head you picked. Repeat for each type of head. 

Another way to do this even faster is to use Autoline to connect your armovers and add the Armover overrides at the same time. The placement rules mentioned in the previous paragraph apply.

Just delete the ARM1 section in HydraLIST to eliminate these from the stock list.

Autodesk has advanced programming topics that are recorded and can be downloaded and viewed on their Developer Center site. The site lists upcoming classes (fee based, free in some cases). A couple of weeks after those classes take place, you can see a recording of the class.

Put on your geek hat for these!

Logitech makes nice mice. The problem is that they are configured like MS mice when shipped. This always causes problems with the Wheel and Panning in AutoCAD.

This from the great website: CAD Forum