Cadopolis AutoCAD 2010 Feeds

How to: trim and copy objects within a boundary

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 11:30 GMT

Do you need to copy objects within a rectangle, circle or polygon boundary like below?

Normally, I would recommend you to optimize AutoCAD layout. You can show a part of your drawing by creating viewport. However, we do need to do this once in a while.

We can copy it and trim the objects that extend the boundary later. But it can take too much time. Especially if you have so many objects like above.

A quick way to do it

This is a tip I found in CAD tutor forum by SLW210.

Export your layout

You can create a viewport in a layout that shows area you want to copy and trim away from your drawing.

Remember to set viewport scale to whatever you need. If you set it to 1:1 (full scale) then you will have the same size drawing. It doesn’t matter if your viewport boundary is too large for your sheet size. We won’t use it anyway.

After you have done, you can type EXPORTLAYOUT then [enter]. Remember, you have to do this in your layout.

Now you can save your layout as another drawing. You will have your drawing in model space there.

Copy it back to your original drawing

If you need to have that part of drawing in your original drawing, you have an extra work. You must copy that drawing and paste it to your original drawing.

Open exported file. Select all objects (or entities) you want to copy. Type COPYCLIP then [enter] (or press ctrl+C).

Open your original file. Type PASTECLIP (or press ctrl +V) to paste it to your original drawing.

It’s not perfect, but it does the job

I have to admit that this is not as easy as I expected. I wish AutoCAD has a tool that can do this directly.

For a simple drawing, probably this method is not effective. But for a very complex drawing, I prefer to use this method than manually trim and delete objects outside my boundary.

How about you, do you have a better method to do it?

Civil 3D, Cogo points, and PICKADD

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 23:23 GMT

This tip came to me while working with Cogo points in Civil 3D, but it could apply to many things. A while back I had a tip about setting PICKADD to 0. Now generally, this system variable set being to 0 would annoy most people since it only allows you to select one object at a time. But if you are working with Civil 3D Cogo points, say for example dragging labels to create a dragged state, and you are doing this over and over, setting PICKADD to 0 can be a big help. Doing so means you do not have to press Escape to clear the previous selection. As soon as you pick one point, it is selected and all other selections are cleared.

Remember to turn OFF the Properties Palette when working with Cogo points. If the Properties palette is on, Civil 3D has to look up and display the properties each time a new point (or points) is selected and this slows it down tremendously. Try it both ways and see if you see a difference.

Also see this note about PICKADD if you are running version 2011 or later.

Revit and Drop Box

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 22:00 GMT

In the context of Revit and Worksharing (central and local files) and using Drop Box.

I wrote about an experiment using Drop Box with Revit back in June 2010. Though it technically worked, in my opinion it isn't suitable for a real project with people working concurrently. Why? Because Revit makes element borrowing so easy that someone will inevitably borrow something subtle like a tag or text or a view setting and then not be able to synchronize any of their work.

Companies like Riverbed exist, and it's taken a lot of effort at Autodesk to develop Revit Server, because data integrity (Bits and Bytes/data transfer/latency) between Central and Local files (element permissions) is not trivial. Drop Box (I really like it btw) is really just copying files from one place to many places. It does it quickly but not quick enough for concurrent activity...not all the time, every time, never fail. It does nothing to manage Revit permissions and that's what will burn you, borrowing something at the same time as another person. It comes down to what sort of gambler you are. Comfortable with losing 10,20...30 minutes works?

There is hope...IF you are extremely competent with Revit...AND...the kind of person whose pen and pencils are arranged in a very specific order on your desk and can tell if someone touched your work area in some barely perceptible way...AND...the other person(s) you are going to try this with is your twin in this way...you might be able to pull it off. Might help if you are going about it as if you are playing Halo (WoW or COD) online and communicating (via a headset) with the other person continuously as you work.

It works great to share a project file if you and your teammate are "following the sun", you start working on it when they've finished for the day. The real danger is concurrency, doing stuff at the same time and the very real risk of borrowing the same thing at the same time.

I know there are people that have done this and have had success. There are exceptions to every "rule". There is a thread at RevitForum.org and post this morning at The Revit Kid advocating it works. What I'm most concerned about is people diving into a real project and having a go, then dealing with hours of work that can't be reconciled because they weren't prepared enough for the worst.

As I wrote at the beginning, if you ignore #1, don't be upset with #2. You've been warned. Be careful out there!

3 Construction or Reference Objects We Rarely Use

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 09:43 GMT

I posted a request in AutoCAD Exchange group on LinkedIn, asking the members to share their AutoCAD tips.

Harold Reuvers shares he loves XLINE and he created a macro to create horizontal and vertical XLINE quickly. Al Popovich shares his favorite object: point.

They remind me about AutoCAD entities/objects I rarely use. I often create elevation views by projecting a floor plan, but I don’t use XLINE! I literally draw lines by clicking a point from referenced object and another point at where I want the line ends.

Let’s see these objects/entities that we can use for creating quick reference or construction.

The 3 objects

XLINE

You can activate XLINE by typing it or accessing from home tab of your ribbon. It’s on draw panel. You have to expand it before you can see this tool.

XLINE will create infinite line that you can use as reference or construction. It’s much better than if you click two points to create a reference line!

You can use it to trim objects too. And if you trim an XLINE, it will convert to a line.

This is very useful for creating elevation/section view from a floor plan. Or other drawing that’s created by referencing from other drawing.

RAY

Ray is similar with XLINE. The difference is, you define two points: start point and direction. I prefer XLINE to help me complete my task. But if you need to create several infinite lines from a point with different angles, this is the right tool for you.

POINT

Point is point. We use it to create point references. In a very crowded drawing, you may find it’s not so easy to snap to end point or intersection. You need to some quite close until you can comfortably snap to a reference. If you place points in locations you are regularly snap to, you can quickly find a point by override your object snap to node.

Bonus tip

Those tools are already very useful as they are. Let’s see some tips so you can use them more efficiently.

Macro to create horizontal/vertical XLINE quickly

We, AutoCAD users always look for faster way to work. At least less key strokes to use AutoCAD tools.

This is the original tip from Harold Reuvers.

Using AutoLISP program

You can create an AutoLISP program using this code to create horizontal XLINE only by one character:

(defun c:H ()

(command "XLINE" "H" pause)

)

Not familiar with AutoLISP? You can try to create your first one by following this tutorial. Use the code above for your program.

Using macro for CUI or tool palettes

If you prefer to use macro, you can use this code, and place it in toolbar or ribbon by modifying CUI. Or you can place it in tool palettes:

^C^C_XLINE;H;

If you want to place it in ribbon/toolbar, learn how you can create new command in CUI. And if you prefer to place it in tool palettes, read how you can do it here.

For vertical XLINE, you can change H to V. Those two types of XLINE are the most used (at least for me). But I prefer to use XZ and XX instead of V and H. They will not replace default AutoCAD alias, and close to each other.

Point style

If you are not familiar with point yet, you may think it’s useless because it’s difficult to see. You can change point style for better visibility.

Type DDPTYPE then enter.

Choose the one that you think most suitable for you.

Hint: Change point style to blank when you plot your drawing. AutoCAD will plot points as displayed on your screen.

Conclusion

There are so many AutoCAD tools. Some of them are overlooked and we never use them. It’s not really necessary to know all the tools, but it would be great if we know the tools before deciding not to use them.

Do you use tools that people rarely use? And have you used these three tools above?

Thank you to Harold Reuvers and Al Popovich for sharing the tips!