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Many users get really frustrated with setting up their
layouts and one thing they wrestle with is their sheet
margins. It really isn't that difficult. The sheet
margins are controlled by your printer device
properties.
It is helpful to realize that from AutoCAD 2000 and above, AutoCAD uses the Windows settings for any printer/plotter device. You don't even have to be inside AutoCAD to set your margins. Instead, go to your control panel, printers, highlight the printer that is giving you problems. Right click and go to Properties. From there, the margin settings may be controlled differently depending on the printer/plotter. However, it can be helpful to be able to preview how your margin settings affect the way your drawing will plot. For that, you need to be inside of AutoCAD. Keep in mind that the AutoCAD plot preview uses a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get). I can't tell you how many users I have met who engage in magical thinking - they believe that what they WANT is what they will get regardless of what they see. Don't fall in the magical thinking trap...instead get your plot preview to look like what you want and THEN plot. |
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If you assign a field to an object and then move the
object...the field will not move along with it, but the
link will remain. If you want your fields and objects
to move together, use the GROUP command.
Thanks to Jeremiah McKnelly for letting me in on the secret of the INSPECT command, available in ADT and MAP3D (email me if it is available in LDD as LDD users will find it useful). Just type INSPECT on the command line. Mouse over objects in your draiwng and information about the object will appear as you hover over the object. There is nothing in Help about this command, so I put it under the heading of Easter Egg - a really useful feature that Autodesk forgot about. |
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If you're a student (or know one) and you are looking
for a free 2D CAD software to create some simple
versions, you may want to check out AllyCAD. It
allows you to read and write R14 to 2002 AutoCAD
drawing files as well.
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Sometimes just one Autodesk product isn't
enough...this past week found me working in
Inventor, MDT, ADT, and vanilla AutoCAD. I was
trying to layout a floor plan of a manufacturing floor.
First, I wanted to create the manufacturing
equipment in Inventor, with the idea of importing it
into ADT to be rendered, with the walls, doors, and
windows, that come with ADT.
Well, that didn't work. Seems that the solids I created in Inventor are not considered solids by ADT (or MDT)...they come in as wire-frame, which means you can't apply materials to them. Creating equipment using solids in ADT is extremely frustrating because ADT uses the same solid modelling tools as AutoCAD ...(working with mass elements and groups can be extremely tedious compared to what you can do in Inventor or MDT). So, I create the models in MDT, but ADT won't open them as straight obejcts. Instead, I have to export them out of MDT as acis objects and then import them into ADT...how useless is this Autodesk software doesn't even talk to each other?! Then I want to be able to place materials on different features of the MDT-created equipment. Guess what? Got to explode it first! Which means if I have to move it, rotate it, etc., I better group it or some of the features could be left behind. Finally, if I wblock any of the solid groups which have different materials attached- guess what? All the material definitions are not included in any blocking. Oh, my goodness, so much extra work and time to do so many tasks which should be so simple. In the middle of all this, (with the project manager breathing down my neck to get him his rendering so he can use it to sell a customer on the equipment), the file goes south...you got it, it became corrupted...well, ya have to figure, Inventor objects, MDT objects, custom materials, and ADT objects all in the same drawing. Luckily, the Drawing Utilities AUDIT fixed it right up, but there were several ACAD_PROXY_OBJECTS which simply refused to be erased/deleted. I ended up wblocking out everything except for the proxy objects in order to ensure that the drawing was purged of anything that could cause a problem. Now, what about the poor souls who a) don't have all the different Autodesk software, so they can leverage the pluses in each one and b) the users who aren't as savvy as me to figure out the various work-arounds? The final drawing came out great...but the adventure underscored several issues with Autodesk software. |
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Free Tutorial from Moss Designs on Fields and
Titleblocks
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