The H-Factor

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, instead rotate the crosshairs. The command you want to use is our Set X-Hairs by
Picking from the HydraCAD Auxiliary toolbar.

1. Leave the drawing as the architect sent it to you, don’t
rotate it.

2. Now pick the Set X-Hairs by Picking button from the
HydraCAD Auxiliary Toolbar and pick an LINE that is drawn at the same angle as
the building. This will change your crosshairs to be at that same orientation.
All the HydraCAD commands will then work.

3. When you are done, Pick the Reset X-Hairs from the same flyout
and that will put your cross-hairs back to ‘normal’

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 (Options/Files) to be a location on the server so every 10 minutes the file gets backed up there.

Any other ideas?

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 accessible from the page: Autodesk Viewers

The first option is to purchase the Autodesk Design Review program. This will open both DWG and DWF files and gives the reviewer the option to redline and place notes on the drawings/dwfs. This can be purchased from Hydratec or any AutoCAD dealer

A second option is to download the free Autodesk utility known as: DWG TrueView™ , This will let you  view, plot, and publish DWG files.

The third option is to use the AutoCAD 360 Mobile viewer to upload DWG files directly from AutoCAD® to an online workspace. View and edit files on your mobile device or on the web without any software. Share drawings with others and plot to PDF or DWF.

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
first one to suffer from fat fingers as I’ve heard of a user or two who
physically removed the F1 key from the keyboard to prevent the Help window from
popping up.

So, with a little help from Lynn
Allen of Autodesk, we have a solution which isn’t so
extreme nor difficult to setup.  Basically, the idea is to re-assign the F1 key
to some other command.  In this case, I’ll choose to change it to the Escape
key… well, it makes sense to me
anyway.

1. In AutoCAD 2007, click on
Tools » Customize »
Interface

2. In the Customize tab, select
acad.cui from the
‘Customizations in Main CUI’ section in the upper left
corner.

3. Select the + sign next to
‘Keyboard Shortcuts’

4. In the Command List
section found in the lower left corner, locate ‘Cancel’. If you have more than one, use
the one which has an Element ID of ‘ID_Cancel’ (you will see this on the lower
right section named ‘Information’.

5. Drag the Cancel command up to the
Keyboard Shortcuts>Shortcut Keys option.  This will add an option called
‘Cancel’ under the Shortcut keys. 

6. Select the new Cancel option
under Customizations in Main CUI.  You will now see a ‘Properties’
section in the lower right corner.  In there, under Access, you will see a
Key(s) option.  Select the ellipsis (…) and a new window will pop up.  On your
keyboard, press the F1 key then select the OK button.

7. Press OK again and you will be
all set.

If you actually need some AutoCAD help, you
can always type in HELP at the command prompt, or select it from the pulldown
menu.

And I think that’s everything, thanks for your time and I hope to
talk to you all again soon. George.

PS – Since this was my first contribution
to the H-Factor, now is probably the best time to bring this up.  After viewing
the photo of Art that appears on the left-hand side, I now realize I shouldn’t
get on his bad side since it’s clearly obvious he’s attended Hogwart’s
Academy… *rimshot*

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:

1. Get into OPTIONS by picking it off the Tools pulldown, Right-clicking on the command line or just by typing it in.

2. Go to the Selection Tab and uncheck ‘When no command is active". This will stop objects from continuously highlighting when you move your crosshairs but will still allow it when you are trying to select something.

3. Next, pick the Visual Effect Settings button on the same tab. On this new dialog, pick the ‘Dash’ option under Selection Preview Effect instead of the default ‘Both’. This will also ease up on the clutter when you move your crosshairs.

 

This should get you on your way. Later on I will talk about how to create your own menus and toolbars