With every release of AutoCAD comes new features, commands and system variables. Many of these are well documented. At the same time, other commands that have long been in use that are forgotten or dropped from documentation, but still functional in the software. Here is a short listing of some of my favorite obscure commands.

MULTIPLE
When entered preceeding another command, will repeat the command until you cancel out of it.

CIRCULAR ARRAY
At the command line enter -array, pick the object(s), and when you are presented with the Rectangular or Polar options, enter C for Circular instead.

TCIRCLE
creates a circle, slot or rectangular object around selected text, mtext or attdef entities.

CHSPACE
changes objects from model space to paper space and vice versa.

XLINE
use it to create a never-ending construction line in both directions.

RAY
use it to create a never-ending construction line in one direction.

TFRAMES
toggles wipeout frame visibility.

WHOHAS
when you try to open a file that is already in-use, this command will tell you who is using it (this is a default trigger in version 2007 and up).

PEDITACCEPT
set this to “1″, and it won’t ask you “do you want to convert this line to a pline”. It just does it automatically.

WP or CP (selection)
when used with a command that prompts you for a selection, this will let you use a polygon window/crossing instead of a rectangular one.

._DBLIST
lists all entities in the drawing.

MOCORO
move, copy, rotate in one command and from the same basepoint.

‘(command)
run another command transparently inside of the original command.

Credit and thanks for not only the idea for this thread, but also for many of the included commands, goes out to the guys and gals on the AUGI forums, specifically this thread.

Have an obscure command that you want to share? Use the comment form to post it up.

Word is making the rounds that Autocad 2009 will pack some fairly impressive new features. Today is the first day that I’ve been able to read up on those goodies, but from the list I’ve seen it looks like my company will be upgrading to it immediately, as opposed to our odd-year version skip in 2007.

I guess the most talked-about new feature is the new “ribbon” GUI. It’s similiar to the one used in Office 2007 and is highly customizable, but there are many more improvements in the offering.

Read the rest of this entry »

Kenneth Wong has started a good article on implementing Civil 3D with Vault, where he follows a couple of companies who have successfully gone through it, albeit by different routes. One of the most confusing aspects of a Vault installation is deciding which version of SQL is best for you, and Kenneth does an excellent job of breaking it down to simple to follow terms, by using an example of each method in real-world use. Part 1 is in the bag with the remainder to follow next month.

With AutoCAD Civil 3D and Vault, Autodesk introduces what it describes as “a dynamic engineering model that delivers proven power to complete projects up to 75% faster.” The software is designed so that “surfaces, cross-sections, profiles, production drafting … are dynamically linked and updated automatically,” the company states. Some users see it as a possible solution to an age-old problem: sharing work across offices to make the most of organizational resources. But with this benefit, they also face new challenges.

In Part 1 of this article, we follow the progress of two firms, Bowman Consulting Group and David Evans and Associates (DEA), to understand the work involved in migrating from Autodesk Land Desktop to Civil 3D. In doing so, we follow their decision-making processes and their workflow considerations.

You can find the article over at cadalyst GIS Tech News.

Quick note to let anyone who has subscribed to or bookmarked our site know that we now have a dedicated domain. CAD Monkeys is hosted on the business webhost of Jenkins, Stanford & Associates, Inc. (the employers of Mike, Zack and Matt), and until recently our direct URL was http://www.jsaengineering.com/blog/

Now we have our own dedicated domain: http://www.cadmonkeys.net

We did this in order to provide a more company neutral URL in the hopes of drawing regular subscribers and contributors. Anyone reading this blog, who uses or is interested in Autodesk products, is invited to register an account and help provide content on the blog. If you wish to become a content contributor, please let us know via comment to this post.

Afterall, the reason the blog was created is to provide a place where fellow CAD Monkeys can share tips, tricks, tutorials, personal experiences and so forth with other CAD Monkeys.

So if you’ve previously bookmarked the site, please update your bookmark with the new URL. I’m not sure how the new address will affect subscriptions, but it might not hurt to re-subscribe, just to be safe.

Mike

Wow…. we’re having an absolute blast here at AU 2007!

Autodesk has outdone themselves this year with the entire program, from the organization to the actual classes. This is the fourth time I’ve attended, and this year has by far been the best. They say there are about 10,000 attendees here and I believe them. That being the case, however, the Venetian seems to be very adequate in terms of available space. The exhibit hall / dining area is huge and the ballrooms where the general session and AUGI annual meeting were held were plenty big enough to accomodate those who chose to attend those events.

The general session was very impressive. They had the presentation stage setup in the center of the hall (in-the-round style), with huge projection screens wrapping around the entire perimeter. The stage itself had more screens above. Digital media was a major theme this year and the way they presented the program was top-notch. I was quite impressed with the content of the presentations, which included demonstrations from planned future Autodesk products.

As far as actual classes go, so far mine have focused mainly on setting up and managing styles within Civil 3D 2008. This has been a major challenge and point of apprehension for myself and others in my company when planning and implementing our software rollout. The sessions that I’ve attended have really made me feel more comfortable about tackling this duty. I now have a pretty good idea of what I need to do to get our standard template(s) created.

This afternoon I have a class on subdivision grading and commercial site grading. I’m excited to see what the software can do to streamline our design process and help speed up the visualization and revision aspects of day-to-day tasks. Once I get a little down-time, I’ll be writing a series of articles that include what I thought of each class I attended.

Finally, I’ve added a bunch of photos to the AU Gallery (top-left). We’ve yet to venture out into the night on the strip, but once we do, I’ll have alot more photos to share.