40 autocad tips in 40 minutes

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    40 AutoCAD Tips in 40 MinutesLynn Allen - Autodesk, Inc.

    AC120-1RIf you want a plethora of power user tips, then be sure to join Cadalyst columnist and author Lynn Allen as she takesyou through a whirlwind of productivity techniques that are certain to improve your everyday drawing life. At a tip aminute, you are certain to discover some AutoCAD features that will remove some of the tedium and boost your abilityto meet project deadlines .

    About the Speaker:

    Lynn Allen, Cadalyst columnist and Autodesk Technical Evangelist, speaks to more than 30,000 usersworldwide each year. For the past 16 years, she has written a monthly column in Cadalyst magazinecalled "Circles and Lines" and is the voice behind the popular Cadalyst videos - Tips and Tricks Tuesday

    with Lynn Allen . Lynn started using AutoCAD software with Release 1.4 over 20 years ago, and taughtat the corporate and collegiate level for 13 years before joining Autodesk. A sought-after public speakerwith a unique comedic style, Lynn is always one of the highest rated speakers and host of AutodeskUniversity. The author of three AutoCAD books, her latest is entitled AutoCAD Professional Tips and Techniques .

    Email: [email protected] Twitter: Lynn_AllenBlog: www.autodesk.com/lynnallen

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    Introduction With so much going on in our everyday drawing life we have a tendency to get in an AutoCADrut. The goal behind this course is to show you a variety of tips that will spark a newawareness and lead you down the road to increased productivity!

    User Interface Tips:

    1) AutoComplete (Tab to cycle) After keying in a one or more characters - use the tab key at the command line to cyclethrough all of the command and system variable combinations

    2) Arrow to move up and down command list.Up and down arrows can take you through previously executed commands. Great forLispers.

    3) Control+9 to toggle command line on/off.

    4) Right Click on the command line to retrieve previous commands from theshortcut menu.

    5) Move Model space/Layout tabs to the Status bar for more screen real estate. Move to and from the status bar via the right click Hide Layout/Model tabs option.

    6) Dynamic editing of Layout Tabs

    Double Click to rename the tab. Use Control key to copy layout tabs, simply drag to movethem.

    7) Drag and Drop layout tabs to Sheet Set After saving your drawing you can easily drag and drop your layout tabs to the active sheetset.

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    8) Maximizing ViewportsDouble click on a viewport to open and edit the contents as though you were in model

    space. No need to worry about accidentally modifying the scale factor and yet zoom andpan all you want. Click outside of the red area to quickly get back to your paperspacelayout.

    9) Taskbar to 1 Display all open files at the taskbar by setting the system variable TASKBAR to 1.

    10) Customize the Quick Access Toolbar for maximum productivity! (Layer drop-down, SAVEAS)

    11) Search for commands in the Application MenuCant find a command in the Ribbon? The Application Menu will show you where it is!

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    Tool Palette Tips:

    12) Quickly create a Tool Palette of your blocks in Design Center

    Tip: Be sure to PURGE the drawing with the blocks first!

    13) Drag and Drop blocks to your Tool Palette Highlight a block and use a right click to drag a block to an open tool palette. Your new toolwith also remember the layer, rotation angle, scale, etc.

    14) Set up tools to automatically scale to your drawingSet the Auxiliary scale factor to Plot Scale or Dimscale

    15) Drag and Drop Hatch patterns to your Tool Palette Highlight a hatch pattern and use a right click to drag thehatch pattern to the tool palette. The pattern, layer, scalefactor, and rotation angle are also saved with the hatch pattern.

    16) Drag and Drop a Dimension to save all the settings and the layer for speedy additions of new dimensions with the same settings.

    17) Easily customize your icon with an existing image file .

    18) Bonus tip : Use ADD Selected in AutoCAD 2011 to achieve muchof the same results

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    Layer Tips:

    19) Customize your Layer Columns For maximum productivity be sure to turn off any columnsyou arent using.

    20) Layer States for maximum productivity

    AutoCAD gurus use Layers States so they can avoid constantly changing the layer settings.

    21) Applying Layer States per Viewport

    After setting up your layer states you can apply them to individual viewports

    22) SETBYLAYER This is a fantastic command to set any object (including those within nested blocks) back toBYLAYER!

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    Misc. Layer Tips:

    23) Layer Translater (LAYTRANS) Great for mapping layers from one naming convention to another

    24) LAYWALK (View layers individually)

    Use the LAYWALK command to quickly view individual layers

    25) LAYDEL (Delete even the most stubborn layers!)Use this fantastic Express Tool to delete any layer (except for 0 and defpoints)

    26) LAYISO Isolates layer(s) for easy editing. AutoCAD 2008 and above allows youto fade the other layers so you can see the objects on the other layers but notaccidentally modify them.

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    27) COPYTOLAYER

    Allows you to make a copy of an object to another layer. You can even create anew layer if needed!

    28) Autodesk Seek Use the DC Online tab in Design Center to easily get to the content on Autodesk Seek (or just select the Autodesk Seek button in AutoCAD 2010+)

    2005 Autodesk9

    Autodesk Seekwww.autodesk.com/seek

    TIMESAVERS:

    29) JOIN command (Glue) Use the Join command to glue together polylines, lines, arcs, elliptical arcs andsplines. Join two lines together that are collinear, even if there are gaps betweenthem. Join different types of objects together if there are no gaps. Join more thanone arc, even with gaps, as long as they lie in the same imaginary circle.You can even use the JOIN command to turn an arc into a circle.

    30) OVERKILL

    This Express tool is a great way to delete duplicate objects and clean up yourdrawing. OVERKILL removes unneeded objects by deleting duplicates andcombining line and arc segments that overlap. There are multiple settings to ensureyou get just the results you want.

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    31) CHANGE command to shorten/lengthen Use the age-old CHANGE command to quickly lengthen/shorten line segments to a specificpoint (Ortho on)

    32) Highlight objects and use a right click to Move and Copy

    33) Speedy Array (Control key) Select objects, select a grip, C for Copy and hold the Control key down to do a quickiearray!

    34) Shift for more than one hot grip

    35) Speedy Trims/Extends Hit an extra enter to turn the entire drawing into a cutting edge (objects dont highlightthough!).

    36) More Trim/Extend: Shift key to switch between Trim and Extend and Edgemode

    37) Fast Corners using Shift in FILLET commandUse the Shift option in the FILLET command to quickly square off corners (no need to setthe radius to 0)

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    38) FILTERS commandGo directly to the undocumented FILTERS command to quickly delete excess layer filters.

    System Variables:

    39) PEDITACCEPTSet PEDITACCEPT to 1 to avoid the irritating Do you want to turn it into a polyline question.

    40) OSNAPZ to replace Z Value with Current ElevationWhen snapping to objects with different elevations, you may want the current elevation tobe used for the Z value. Set OSNAPZ to 1.

    41) PLINEGEN - Sets how linetype patterns generate around the vertices of a 2D polyline.

    42) WHIPARC to 1 for smooth arcs and circles (forget dealing with VIEWRES!)

    43) SELECTIONANNODISPLAY Set to 0 to turn off ghosting with annotative objects

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    Display Order:

    47) TEXTTOFRONT commandBring all of the text to the top of the draworder with the TEXTTOFRONT command.

    48) HATCHTOBACK commandSends all hatch patterns to the bottom of the draworder.

    Table Tips:49) AutoFill AutoCAD Tables

    Use AutoFill to do automatic numbering in Tables.

    50) Tables wrap automatically over multiple columns (as long as Table Breaks areenabled)

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    Misc. Tips:

    51) Control the Text Sample string with MTJIGSTRING

    52) Fade External References (by default they are faded by 70% in 2011)XDWGFADECTL

    53) Use OSNAP Tracking to quickly find the center of a box(in fact use Object Snap Tracking to make your life much better period!)

    54) BURST to explode blocks with Attributes and maintain their attribute value (not definition)

    55) Reverse Search for XrefsIn Design Center, Use the Search tool to do a reverse search for drawing files that arexrefd into other files.

    56) The Magical QDIM command Use for speedy dimensioning!

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    Zooming Tips

    57) ZoomwheelControls the direction of the Scroll Wheel for zooming in and out

    58) ZoomfactorControls the speed of the mouse wheel (3 to 100) undo doesnt work on ZOOMFACTOR

    59) VTOPTIONStop secret command that controls the transition speed of zooms (or whether or not there isa transition)

    60) Turn your mouse into a Joy Stick with Ctrl+Wheel

    61) Double Click for Zoom Extents

    Keys, Keys, Keys

    62) Control+R to cycle through all of your viewports

    63) Control+A to select all the objects in your drawing

    64) Tab to cycle through object snaps

    65) Hold down right mouse button to clear grips

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    66) Visit my blog: www.autodesk.com/lynnallen

    67) Go to Autodesk University 2011!

    Visit Autodesk University Online to view my other 30 tips!

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