Bonus Tools

The Bonus Layer Manager Tool is an excellent tool to enable you to keep lists of layer configurations so that you can quickly turn groups of layers on & off etc. at the click of a button. However, be aware that if you use this feature, when it restores your layer visibility, it will also restore the colour & linetype that the layers were using at the time of saving the layer list. This can cause havoc if you have changed layer colours the normal way and then restore a layer list from the Bonus tool. The way around this is to use the Layer Manager Tool to change Layer Colour & Linetypes and then save this into your list. Be careful with this tool, you may have to do some tests.

(One way you could use this to your advantage is if you wanted to change a whole set of layer colours, Linetypes etc for a particular plotting exercise and then change them back again after.)

April 1998 - Newsletter

Slow Object Snapping

Question: Why is my osnap selection in Release 14 so slow?

Answer: One reason could be PostScript fonts in an xref. If you have an xref and it is using a PostScript font (such as city blueprint.pfd), osnap selection of the xref geometry is very slow, as in 5 to 8 seconds.

To solve the problem, change the style in the xref drawing to use a compiled shx font instead of the pfd font.

Using the MTEXT command A lot of people have complained to me that the MTEXT dialogue box often comes up with an odd shape text editing area. It is often long and narrow and doesn't represent the shape of the area selected. This is because the default text height in your drawing must be either much larger or much smaller that what you are intending on using. A way around this problem is to type H for Height straight after you have selected the first corner of your MTEXT box and set the height of your text before you select the other corner.

New use of the FILLMODE system variable

Some of you may not have noticed that the FILLMODE system Variable now controls the visibility of your Release 14/LT 97 Hatching. For those of you who use both Hatching and Polylines with width, now when you turn Fillmode OFF your hatching will also disappear. There is no stopping this happening, unfortunately it is one of Autodesks so called Productivity/Speed improvements? I use the word improvement loosely of course. For those of you who will need to have Hatching ON and fill of Polylines with width OFF for whatever reason, you can't do this anymore. The only way around is to actually have 3 polylines, one with width as before, on a Fill layer. And two either side in the position of the outside edges of the pline with width. And then use layers to control the visibility of the polyline fill instead of Fillmode.

In the last newsletter we suggested that PostScript fonts can have an effect on slow Object Snapping. Another solution to slow object snapping, which often occurs when you are selecting on MTEXT, is to temporarily set your DRAGMODE to OFF. Set it back to AUTO later. When the DRAGMODE system variable is set to AUTO, AutoCAD displays your objects on the screen as you move them etc. Because of AutoCAD trying to display the complex objects as they are moved this seems to be what causes the slow Osnapping.

3D Tricks

We always seem to be mentioning 2D tricks, time for us to mention some tricks for those of you who have either ventured into 3D modelling recently, or even those of you who have been modelling for awhile. Some of these may help you.

DELOBJ System Variable

When creating 3D Solids & Regions, you will notice that the original 2D object that you created to help construct the 3D Solid or Region disappears. This is because of a System Variable called DELOBJ being set to 1 (ON). This system variable Deletes originating objects once the new object is created.

Personally I like to have DELOBJ turned OFF (0). This way I can keep all of my 2D construction items which will help for later editing of the 3D model. This best way to manage this is to create the 2D objects on a layer named accordingly (e.g. Part1-2D). And then make a 3D layer (e.g. Part1-3D) 'current' prior to creating the 3D object. AutoCAD will automatically create the new object on the current layer. This way you can straight away Freeze the 2D layer until needed later.

It is much easier to edit a 3D solid model when you have kept the 2D original objects. Set your DELOBJ system variable to 0 in your Template /Prototype drawing.

Speeding up repeating commands

Don't forget to use your arrow keys on your keyboard to repeat commands which are not the command that you have immediately used last. For example, when you are setting up 3D Views you quite often use the Vpoint command, then the Hide command, to test your 3D viewpoint, then the DDView command to save your view. Because you tend to repeat these sequences most people either use the icons or create Aliases for these commands. You will still have to type the aliases or select the icons. Try using your up arrow key on your keyboard to scroll through the commands just used and hit enter when you get the one you want. For those who use it they say it's the best new Release 14 feature they have.

Hide and Shade Icons

If you have been looking for an icon for HIDE and SHADE, they are tucked into the front of the RENDER Toolbar in R14.

October 1998 - Newsletter

'CUTTING HOLES' in Raster Images

Well you can't actually cut hole in Raster images unless you did some heavy programming, but here is a great little work around. We seem to have had a lot of people asking us how to do this lately! Firstly, we have had a few of our clients having problems with importing Raster Images into their drawings. The common problems seem to be:

• Not checking which UCS you have current before importing the image.
• Before inserting an image it is best to be zoomed to the approximate area that you wish to see the image, and then when AutoCAD prompts you for the Insertion point - select the bottom left hand corner of where you wish the image to appear, then when prompted for Scale Factor - move your mouse to see visually the size of the image as if you are selecting the top right hand corner rather than trying to calculate a Scale. The image appears after you have selected and finished.

To Cut the Hole.

1. Firstly to insert a Raster Image into your drawing - either select the Insert Menu and then Raster Image or go to the View menu and then select Toolbars and activate your "Reference" Toolbar. The second half of the toolbar are icons related to Raster Images.

2. Create a new layer for construction lines and make it the current layer. 3. Draw a continuous Polyline around the outside of the image Object Snapping onto the corners (Endpt) and the Midpoint of one side and then into the middle of your image, around the hole and then back out of the image again. Have a look at my diagram and try to follow the same path. P1-P11 then close. 4. Set your running object snaps to Endpoint.

5. Select the Image Clip Icon off your Reference Toolbar or type "Imageclip".

IMAGECLIP
Select the image to clip:	(You will need to select on the edge of the image).
ON/OFF/Delete < New Boundary >	Hit Enter to creat a new boundary.
Polygonal / < Rectangular >	Type P for Polygonal

Now Snap to each of the endpoints of the polyline we created, in the same order as we used to create them. Sometimes at this point the polyline drops behind the image, you may have to just remember where the endpoints are or change your Draworder of the Polyline to Always on Top first. Even if your draworder is set it may still hide your polyline. This is why Object Snap is important.
[Of course alternatively you could have done this exercise without an original polyline]

6. Once you have closed, and finished the command, you should have what appears to be a hole in your image. 7. To move the position of the hole use the Stretch command and select a crossing window around the hole...

You might cut holes in Raster images so that you can overlay a new design or scheme on your drawing.