in this issue
Happy Holidays!
Thanks to all who emailed their season's greetings and
expressed thanks for the cheers, jeers, and data I
provide throughout the year.
I am going to take the next two weeks off as I am
going to be traveling to Missouri to visit some friends
over the holidays.
I have been buried in work - both paid and volunteer, in
addition to being a new mom again, so I do not have
my usual "reservoir" of CADzettes built up. Hopefully, I
will be able to improve next year.
Expect a CADzette in your in box the first week of
January - filled with tips, tricks, tutorials, and CAD
news - both large and small....and Have a wonderful
celebration!
Quick Links...
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Greetings!
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WBLOCK doesn't use SAVE Setting
I work in an office where we have remote users who
have different versions of AutoCAD. To be safe, I have
everyone's SAVE setting in the Options dialog to save
to Version 2000. This ensures that everyone can
access drawings when they need.
Today I was creating some blocks for an engineer in
India. Because I was creating the blocks "on the fly", I
simply built the block in my open drawing and used
WBLOCK to create the file. I then emailed him the file
and thought "life is good".
He emailed me a few minutes later saying he couldn't
open the file. He is working in AutoCAD 2002 and I am
working in AutoCAD 2006. Apparently, WBLOCK does
not use the SaveAs Option setting. The WBLOCK
command uses the version of the software you are in.
I opened the file and performed the SAVEAS so he
could use the block. So, if you are a CAD Manager or
share your blocks, be aware of this issue.
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Junior Drafter Wanted in Saratoga, CA
Once again, my son goes on a search for an assistant
drafter for his company. He hired his first drafter
through the San Francisco AutoCAD User Group, but
the fellow only lasted a few months before he wearied
of commuting down into Silicon Valley.
This second drafter has not even lasted through the
probation period...coming in late, leaving early, and
b**ching in between. My son will not be sorry to see
him go...although the quality of the work he did was
good.
He is looking for someone who is familiar with AutoCAD
(refer to his test posted in a previous CADzette), who
doesn't mind creating structural drawings for a
construction company - mostly beams and column
details. Dan is willing to train whoever he hires, but he
is expecting a decent CAD foundation.
Email your resume to daniel@stassart.org.
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AutoCAD 2007 Changes Drawing Format Again!
Folks may recall that when AutoCAD 2004 was
released, there was a great hue and cry about
Autodesk "encrypting" the file format for 2004. While
folks at Autodesk said it was not encrypted, it was
compressed - in order to speed up file loading and
reduce file size, the result was that folks who had to
deal with other people using lower revision AutoCAD
were mightily inconvenienced until 2005 was released.
2005 allowed you to save down to the lower revs
without having to go the dxf route. You will be
dismayed, annoyed, and peeved to learn that once
again in 2007, the file format has been changed.
Probably to allow better interoperability with Inventor
and to support the new 3D modelling capabilities.
You can still go to Options and set your File Save to
save to a lower rev and I suggest you do so if you
need to work with the rest of the world.
Is this a deal-breaker that means you won't upgrade to
2007? Gosh, considering how buggy the CUI is in 2006,
I hope not. As long as you are aware of the file format
change, you can work around it.
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