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AutoCAD 2015 and AutoCAD LT 2015 Bible

The most comprehensive AutoCAD book around!

How to create a text style for a dimension

You should have at least 1 text style for your dimensions and perhaps a text style for each dimension style.

When you create a dimension style, you can create a text style from within the New Dimension Style dialog box. On the Text tab, click the Ellipsis button as shown here.

The Text Style […]

AutoCAD tutorial: Attach an xref

Xrefs (external references) let you view another drawing within your current drawing without actually inserting that other drawing.

Why use xrefs? Xrefs keep your drawing smaller. Each time you open a drawing, AutoCAD loads a current copy of the xref, so that you always have the most updated version. The drawing contains a link to […]

Autofill AutoCAD table data like you do in Excel

You can auto-fill data in an AutoCAD table like you can in an Excel spreadsheet. This makes it easy to copy data along a row or column and to automatically create incremental data, such as consecutive numbers.

To auto-fill cell data, click in a cell that you’ve already filled with a value. Click and drag […]

Dynamic blocks in AutoCAD–When and why?

I’ve written posts about how to create specific types of dynamic blocks and about some of their features, but I’ve never explained when and why you would use a dynamic block.

If you have a block library that contains variations on an object or component and you insert them at various scales and rotations angles, […]

How to load an AutoLISP program

This is a guest post by Sanjay Kulkarni, an AutoCAD programmer.

This post describes the method to load an AutoLISP program in an open drawing.

Some basic & fundamental information before we move to the procedure

An AutoLISP program runs inside (in the same workspace of) an open drawing. Therefore it is necessary to load […]

How to trim objects quickly

When you trim objects, the first prompt asks you for a cutting edge. Gerardo Martinez e-mailed me a reminder that you can press Enter (or right-click, depending on your right-click settings) to specify all objects as potential cutting edges.

Then you just select the part of the object that you want to trim and AutoCAD […]

Another way to align a rectangle with a line on the fly–using AutoLISP

This is a guest post by Sanjay Kulkarni, an AutoCAD programmer. You can read more about him at the end of this post.

In an earlier post, Ellen showed how to align a rectangle with a line on the fly. You can easily create the same effect using AutoLISP. This AutoLISP routine is simple, and […]

How to merge layers in AutoCAD–move objects to another layer and delete the merged layer

You may have objects on the wrong layer–in fact, you may not want to even keep the layer those objects are on. The solution is the LAYMRG command. This is a guest post by Will Forty, who has a great blog called HowToAutoCAD.com.

He writes:

“I was recently asked if there was a quick way […]

How to cut out a groove to fit a tongue in a 3D model with the INTERFERE command

Bill Walker sent me the following tip.

Sometimes you need to cut out part of one 3D object to fit another object. For example, in tongue & grove construction, you need to cut out the groove to fit the tongue. You can make this process easy with an option of the INTERFERE command.

Follow these […]

Get rid of the annoying tooltip when you hover over an object

A reader of my book, AutoCAD & AutoCAD LT Bible (the 2010 version) wrote me the following:

“Whenever the mouse crosshairs land on a line in a drawing, a small ‘window’ appears, listing

Line.

Color. By layer

Layer. Plan

Linetype. Continuous

This is extremely annoying and I can’t see how I can prevent this entirely […]