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AutoCAD 2015 and AutoCAD LT 2015 Bible

The most comprehensive AutoCAD book around!

Squeeze or stretch single-line text to fit in a space with TEXTFIT

The TEXTFIT command lets you easily squeeze or stretch existing single-line text (TEXT or DTEXT) so you can fit it into a defined space, such as a title block.

TEXTFIT doesn’t work with multi-line text (MTEXT).

When you start the command, you select the single-line text and TEXTFIT puts a drag-line under the text. Just […]

Select objects: prompt secrets

When you start an editing command, you see the Select objects: prompt. But AutoCAD doesn’t explicitly tell you how to select those objects. In fact, this prompt has hidden options that you should know.

Here’s a list of some of the most useful.

Last

One that I use often is Last. It selects the most […]

Avoid reselecting objects in editing commands that go wrong

Have you ever had an editing operation go wrong? You know, you select the objects and move them, but AutoCAD snaps to the wrong location and now they’re all in the wrong place.

Or have you selected some objects, and moved them, only to find that you moved more objects than you want to — […]

Draw fast, accurate revision clouds

Revision clouds show areas of a drawing that have been recently revised. When the REVCLOUD command was introduced to AutoCAD, I thought that they were for quick and dirty indications of revised areas of a drawing. Then I saw that people liked them to be neat!

If you like neat over messy, here’s the technique. […]

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 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 […]

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 […]

Use Dynamic Input, or not

Dynamic Input is a way of specifying coordinates near your cursor, instead of on the command line. It’s on by default, but you can turn it off using the Dynamic Input button on the status bar.

When you’re doing simple drawing tasks, there isn’t much difference between having Dynamic Input on or off.

But […]

Using hyperlinks

A hyperlink in an AutoCAD drawing can link any drawing object or objects to a URL, any file, or a location in a file (such as a named view in another drawing). If you haven’t been using hyperlinks, consider doing so, as they offer lots of possibilities. Examples of files you can link to are […]

Match properties

An object can have a lot of properties and sometimes you want one object to have the same properties as another object. Here are 3 tools that you can use to get the job done quickly.

Match Properties

The MATCHPROP command has been around a long time and lets you easily copy properties from one […]