I'll be speaking in Cairns on August 12 at RealTime International from 5:30 PM to 7:30 PM. For more info

I'll be speaking in Adelaide on August 20 from 6 PM to 8 PM. For more info

I'll be meeting with Melbourne users on Sunday, August 24. Time and place are still to be determined. You can email Peter Godfrey at petergodfrey@optusnet.com.au for more information.

	SFAUG Meeting to Help Unemployed CAD Professionals
On August 4, The San Francisco Autocad Users Group will hold their next monthly meeting. The focus of this meeting will be on the current state of the CAD/CAD/CAM employment market in the Bay Area, and what steps should a CAD professional take that will make them most competitive in the current and future employment market. We will also discuss what areas of training should CAD professions consider to stay competitive. This meeting of the SF Autocad Users Group is on Aug. 4, from 6 to 8 pm, at 425 Market St., room 301. For details... »

	This User Says ADT 2004 "More Appealing"
I am writing you back on your question about "What do you think of ADT2004?". As the Cad Manager for my firm, I would have to say I think it is a tremendous jump in the world of making it more Architecturally appealing. The graphical tool palettes are getting rave reviews from my Designers and Architects. I have always liked using objects/styles to set my standards with. In other words, because I preset my layers in the objects/styles, my designers and Architects do not have to think so much about the cad software and following standards because I have all of that set for them, but they can focus on Architecture. My firm has moved into the future with the live 3d model. When we decided to ramp up to this procedure we spent 2 months making all of our palettes, catalogs, etc... for ease of use, and to bring the focus of our users back to Architecture. You have to have standards or it will not work smoothly. We have been using ADT since R2 for walls, doors, windows, and schedules. I have to say I am very pleased with the direction ADT is heading and with my wish lists continuing to be incorporated in the next version (hopefully) I look forward to what is coming. Here are a few other things that make it better - *added functionality in schedules *Project Navigator *file size *everything and I mean everything you would ever want to do to an object is on the right mouse button click *Viz Render as a part of ADT I am not saying there are no glitches in the software, but I am saying that with the right amount of investment, you can make it work and make it work very well. I have 3 offices, on 3 continents, in 3 different time zones and with my Management wanting to do collaboration between all 3 offices, 24/7, with 300 cad users it is imperative that you set up the standards and take the time to do it right. HARVEY PHELPS SENIOR ASSOCIATE HOK Sport+Venue+Event Kansas City, Missouri 64105

	Calculate Total Area
This lisp routine will total the area of all the closed polylines you select. ;;;start of code (defun c:tot_area (/ ss vlaobj cnt arealst tarea) (vl-load-com) (setq ss (ssget)) (setq cnt 0) (if ss (progn (repeat (sslength ss) (setq vlaobj (vlax-ename->vla-object (ssname ss cnt))) (setq arealst (cons (vla-get-area vlaobj) arealst))) (setq cnt (1+ cnt)) );end repeat (setq tarea (apply '+arealst)) );end progn (setq taera 0) );end if (alert (strcat "\nTotal area is: " (rtos tarea 2 3))) (princ) );end defun ;;;end of code Cut and past the code into Notepad and save as tot_area.lsp. To run the routine, use APPLOAD to load into your drawing and then type tot_area at the command line.

	AUGI Seeks RUG Locations
AUGI (Autodesk User Group International) is looking to provide some mini-Autodesk Universities in regional areas throughout the continental United States. The plan is to have 1-2 day events that will run from 1 PM to 10 PM. 3-5 classes will be provided in the afternoon - a minimum of one in each industry, a buffet dinner, and then a general session, ending with a prize drawing. In order to keep costs down, AUGI is looking for companies or schools who can donate space for these Regional User Group meetings. The spaces should have 3-5 rooms for the classes, plus a large room for the general meeting and meal. If you have a good lead, email Yoshi Honda at yoshi.honda@augi.com Learn more about AUGI »

	Creating a Tool from the Content Browser
ADT 2004 comes with a Content Browser that is filled with all sorts of nifty tools and utilities. However, you can also create your own custom tools from the Content Browser. One of the tools I was missing was a Grid Labeler that labels an entire grid at one shot - instead of the existing tool which requires you to painstakingly label each gridline. To learn How To Create a Grid Labeling Tool... »

	Linking Excel & AutoCAD
If you are tired of copying and pasting from Excel to AutoCAD, you might want to try SPANNER. Spanner can be used across a network. This means that one person (an engineer, for example) can use Excel to build an electrical panel schedule or a parts list and another person (an AutoCAD operator, for example) working in another room (or across town) can put the panel schedule or parts list on the drawing. The engineer doesn't need to know anything about AutoCAD or have access to AutoCAD and the CAD operator doesn't need to use Excel or even have Excel installed on the CAD computer. The CAPM requires that both Excel and AutoCAD be running on the same machine at the same time. Spanner sheets are real AutoCAD blocks. They are composed of AutoCAD text and AutoCAD lines and behave like any other AutoCAD block; they can be moved, scaled, rotated and exploded. The CAPM sheets are special OLE objects which behave differently than standard AutoCAD objects and don't fit well in the AutoCAD environment. Spanner sheets can be accurately scaled. They are inserted into your drawing with a scale factor just like any other block; you can vary the scale to account for differing plotting scales and you can produce consistent results with text always being the same height. The CAPM allows stretching and scaling of the sheet 'by eye' only, you can't produce consistent results with multiple spreadsheets. To get a free trial of Spanner... »

	Tips
Windows XP Are you running Windows XP and would you like AutoCAD dialogs to have a Windows XP look and feel? Save acad.exe.manifest (641 bytes!) to the directory with your acad.exe and restart AutoCAD. This works for all AutoCAD versions. Disabling the F1 key In the menu, locate [F1]; type: ... [F1]^p^p

	BMPOUT New 2004 System Variable
Saves selected objects to a file in device-independent bitmap format Command line: bmpout The Create Raster File dialog box (a standard file selection dialog box) is displayed. Enter the file name in the dialog box. Select objects or : Press ENTER to select all objects and viewports or use an object selection method and press ENTER AutoCAD creates a bitmap file that contains the objects you select. The file reflects what is displayed on the screen. Saveimg works similarly to this new command. This command was introduced in R13, but has been improved for 2004. If your hidden geometry is not displayed properly, set shademode to 2D. Simply type SHADEMODE on the command line, then type 2D at the prompt. Then type BMPOUT again to create replacement file.

Quick Links...

Some Great CAD Tools - CompareDWG finds the differences between two revisions of an AutoCAD drawing and displays them graphically. Book on AutoCAD 2004 by Elise Moss Now Available!

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