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AutoCAD 2015 and AutoCAD LT 2015 Bible

The most comprehensive AutoCAD book around!

Flip objects with dynamic blocks

You can create dynamic blocks that you can easily flip after you insert them. This is great for doors which may open from the left or right, or open inward or outward. Dynamic blocks were introduced in AutoCAD 2006.

Follow these steps to create a door that flips both ways:

Start with a door block, […]

Find coordinates

Some coordinates are easy to find. For example, to find the endpoint of a line, you just use the Endpoint object snap.

But others are more elusive.

For example, recently someone asked me, “I would like to ask if there is a simple way to select a center of a rectangle.”

My answer was: If […]

Draw with tiled viewports

Tiled viewports let you divide up the drawing area into tiles and display different parts of your drawing in each. The great thing about tiled viewports is that you can draw from one viewport to another without missing a beat, making them great for large drawings where you need to alternate between working in detail […]

Divide up a polyline or spline

Ever need to place an object evenly along a polyline or spline? For example, you may want to divide a plat into equal sections or 40′ sections. For whatever reason, you can do this easily using the DIVIDE or MEASURE command.

These commands are especially useful when your object is a curvy polyline or spline […]

Control hatch origin

When you place a hatch inside a closed area, by default, the pattern starts at the origin of the drawing, which is usually 0,0 of the current User Coordinate System (UCS). Since your closed area probably doesn’t start at 0,0, the hatched area starts somewhere in the middle of the pattern.

For simple hatches, such […]

AutoCAD Tutorial: Calculate scale and sheet size

This tutorial is unusual, because you don’t need AutoCAD to do it.

You draw full size in AutoCAD. But before long, you may need to set the scale of text, dimensions, and other objects that need to be the right size after you plot on a sheet of paper. In a large drawing, such as […]

All the ways to open a drawing

There are lots of ways to open a drawing and sometimes you may not think of the quickest way right away. Here’s my list:

The OPEN command. This is the obvious one, of course. Click the Open button on the Standard toolbar. (In 2009, click Open on the Quick Start toolbar.) Or type open on […]

Align a block to other objects with a dynamic block Alignment parameter

If you’d like to be able to quickly snap a block aligned or perpendicular to another object, a quick, helpful use for dynamic blocks is the Alignment parameter. Unlike most other parameters, you don’t need to specify an action.

The Alignment parameter is easy to create. Make the block and open the Block Editor (the […]