CADzette
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CAD News - Large and Small |
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| Volume III, Issue 26 |
November 11, 2005 |
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Greetings!
In the United States, today marks Veteran's Day. Small
American flags will decorate the graves of those who
have fallen. Those who served and survived may
march in a parade or meet their buddies at the local
pub and make a toast to the memories of their
comrades who did not make it.
Take a moment out of your day to say a prayer for
their sacrifice. If you have a friend or relative who
served, call them up and say "Thanks!"
Matrox Introduces New Way to Add Multi-display Support
Matrox Graphics Inc. introduces
DualHead2Go(TM), the world's first multi-display
upgrade of its type.
This easy-to-setup external device connects to the
monitor connector of
a computer and adds support for an extra monitor. The
operating system
treats DualHead2Go like a monitor supporting
resolutions twice as wide
as standard resolutions and DualHead2Go uses Matrox
patent-pending
technology to divide the monitor output from the
computer into 2
separate displays, one showing the left half of
this "monitor" and the
other showing the right half.
"An increasing number of professionals in information-
intensive fields
like CAD and GIS are using laptops as their main
computer," says Samuel
Recine, Product Manager, Matrox Graphics Inc. "Many
of these same
professionals want the advantages of a multi-display
workstation while
at the office. Because DualHead2Go is an external
upgrade, it's ideal
for adding an extra display to closed, already validated,
mission-critical systems or to computers with no
available expansion slots."
Unlike installing a new graphics card, the DualHead2Go
setup doesn't
require opening a computer, inserting parts into it, or
replacing any
hardware or software. This multi-display solution uses a
computer's
existing graphics hardware and software for 2D, 3D,
and video
acceleration. By helping to manage more information,
Matrox
multi-display technology can improve productivity and
reduce errors.
Matrox DualHead2Go is available now at a
list price of $169 (USD). This product can be purchased
from authorized
Matrox resellers worldwide or, in North America and
Europe, directly
from Matrox at http://shopmatrox.com.
Learn more....
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Autodesk releases new Migration Tool for 2005 |
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Use the Menu and Toolbar Porter to move your custom
pull-down menus, toolbars, and keyboard shortcuts
(accelerators) from previous versions of AutoCAD into
AutoCAD 2005. You can also rename, remove, or
rearrange menu, toolbar, and keyboard shortcut items
from an existing menu file.
Note: This is replaced by the new customization
interface in AutoCAD 2006.
Download it here... »
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Changing Servers and how it Affects the CUI |
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So, I have set up a custom menu in my CAD
department, finally get all the menus working and what
happens? My IT guy decides to change servers, so all
the block libraries, etc. are moved onto the new
server. My menu items all look like this
insert *\\servername\folder1\folder2\blockname ...
What's a gal gotta do? I opened the files up in
Wordpad and performed a find and replace, but it sure
made me nervous.
Robert Bell, AUGI board member, pointed me to a better
solution. Right click on the CUI menu. There is a built-
in Find and Replace function.
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Gripping Behavior in AutoCAD 2006 |
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For those users who rely on grips for their editing (and
if you don't, you should try it - it can be fun.), the
behavior of grips was changed in 2006.
Try this...draw a line. Click on the line. This will
activate the grips. You will see three blue squares.
Those squares are the grips. The squares on a line are
located on the endpoints and the midpoint. (A circle
will have five grips - one on each quadrant and one at
the center.)
A blue grip indicates an inactive grip. Click on a grip
and it turns red. This means the grip is active. Right
click and a short cut menu allows you to make all sorts
of edits - Move, rotate, copy, etc. using the selected
grip as the basepoint.
You can make more than one grip hot (red). Try
selecting all three grips on the line - make them all red.
Now, press SHIFT and click on one of the grips. What
happens? Play around with the grips in 2006 and you
will see that they have become more user friendly and
a little more fun.
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From the Mailbag.... |
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Jeff Anderson, Bakersfield, CA writes....
I enjoy your site very much, thanks for all the great
tips and tricks!
I have one that perhaps you may find interesting. I
recently downloaded your calculator tool from (the link
below).
It bothered me that every time I used the button that
it opened a "shell" window. I fixed this by slightly
modifying the button's code as follows:
n step 6. of the calculatortool.pdf document, I just
replaced ^C^Cshell;calc.exe; with ^C^C^P
(startapp "calc" ) ^P and viola, no more shell window!
[Editor's note: In AutoCAD 2006, you have a new tool
on the standard toolbar with a calculator. You can also
bring it up by typing 'quickcalc' on the command line.]
Read the tutorial Jeff mentions... »
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From the Mailbag Part II |
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Seymon Solomon, San Jose, CA writes in...
In your last issue, CADzette- Volume III Issue 24, you
wrote about the
penchant some
individuals have to re-install AutoCAD when things don't
go as they should. With
AutoCAD 2006,
there is a service pack that should be re-installed first
to see if that solves
their problem. As
with AutoCAD 2005, one needs to save a copy of
the "adlmdll.dll" file that is in
the root AutoCAd
2006 directory before installing the service pack.
Furthermore, if they feel the
need to
re-install AuotCAD, they should not only migrate out
their license, they should
make a copy of the
entire "enu" folder that is located at: "C:\Documents
and
Settings\Administrator\Application
Data\Autodesk\AutoCAD 2006\R16.2\enu". That is
where AutoCAD saves all of your
customization
files, shortcut files (acad.pgp), plotter configuration
files (*.pc3),
ToolPalette, etc. After a
re-install, or any new install, one only needs to replace
the "enu" directory
with your backup.
Just save the original, however, should their be a
problem with your backup.
Booting up AutoCAD
after an install/re-install, and replacing the "enu"
directory, you'll find that
most of your
customiztion is ready and waiting for you. By the way, I
keep all of my *.lsp
files in a separate
directory (C:\LISP), and just add the path in the
Options dialog box. You will
have to re-appload
them after an install.
I enjoy all of the issues of CADzette, even the one's
about Laertes. Keep
up the good work.
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Lisp Routine for an Arc Leader |
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MikeO posted this lisp routine in the AutoCAD forums
recently. It allows you to place a leader using an arc
instead of a line or spline.
Download the lisp routine to try out... »
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Free Lisp Routine from Moss Designs |
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Thomas Pope requested this lisp routine...it allows you
to select the values in a table, mtext, or standard text
and then adds the selected items for a total.
You have to pick each individual item to add, so this
can be tedious if you want to add up more than a few
entities. However, (this part is a little cool) you can
mix entity types - select a cell value, then an MTEXT
item, then a TEXT item, and add them all together.
As always, the code is open, so you can modify it for
your own use.
To run, use APPLOAD and select the file.
Then type 'totab' on the command line to run.
Download the routine... »
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Autodesk releases New Drawing Converter Software |
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DWG TrueConvert translates any AutoCAD or AutoCAD-
based drawing file for compatibility with AutoCAD
Release 14, AutoCAD 2000, AutoCAD 2000i, AutoCAD
2002, AutoCAD 2004, AutoCAD 2005, and AutoCAD
2006 versions. The DWG TrueConvert software allows
conversion of pen widths to lineweights and the
addition of page setups.
Download here... »
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