Categories

AutoCAD 2015 and AutoCAD LT 2015 Bible

The most comprehensive AutoCAD book around!

Stretch a circle with grips and specify the radius or change in radius

You can easily stretch a circle with grips. To specify the new radius, just enter it on the command line (or in the Dynamic Input tooltip). But suppose the information you have is the difference between the two radii?

For example, let’s say that your circle’s radius is 1.825 and you know that you have […]

Easily hide and isolate objects in AutoCAD 2011

AutoCAD 2011 has three new commands that help you hide selected objects or isolate them (hide everything except the selected objects).

The ISOLATEOBJECTS command hides all objects except those that you select. After selecting objects, right-click in the drawing area and choose Isolate> Isolate Objects. The HIDEOBJECTS command hides selected objects. Select the objects, right-click […]

Tips for working with layers

Everyone works with layers. Most of the time, you set up your layers in a template and that’s that. But when you need to make changes, a few tips can help make the process easier. Here are some of mine:

Create a similar layer: When you create a new layer, often you want its properties […]

The flexible CHANGE command

The CHANGE command changes the endpoint of a line and the radius of a circle. The CHANGE command works differently, depending on whether you select lines or circles, so it’s best not to choose lines and circles at the same time.

Note: You can use the CHANGE command to change text , the text and […]

Tips on viewing your drawing

The faster you can display the section of your drawing where you need to work, the faster you can get started drawing and editing. With that in mind, here are some tips for viewing your drawing:

Use the mouse wheel

The mouse wheel is the key to fast view changes:

You can zoom in and […]

Precisely scale an object when you know before and after dimensions

Ken Monsanto of Bahrain Precast Concrete sent in this tip for scaling an object when you know the current and desired dimensions. For example, let’s say that you have a circle with a diameter of 35 and you want to scale it so that it has a diameter of 50.

He suggested these steps:

Start […]

How to control what you see by clipping xrefs and blocks

You can attach other drawings to the current drawing to facilitate the drawing process. For example, you can attach a floor plan to a drawing of an electrical layout to make sure that you put the outlets in the right location. These other drawings are called external references, or xrefs.

Sometimes, xrefs can be large. […]

Replace one block with another

I received a question about how to replace one block with another block. Replacing blocks is useful for 3 reasons:

To create multiple versions of a drawing, each with a different block. For example, you could try out a floor plan with different desks. When your company replaces one part with another part If your […]

Remove duplicate and overlapping objects

Duplicate and overlapping objects waste ink and mean that your drawing isn’t accurate. However, often, they’re invisible.

The OVERKILL command, part of Express Tools, can help. This command deletes duplicate objects and goes further to combine overlapping lines and arcs. However, it’s not on the menu, toolbar, or ribbon, so you have to type it […]

Break objects quickly in AutoCAD

Michael Tabacinic sent me this e-mail:

“First off, I’d like to say, love your blog and love your tips; So helpful! Especially the last one; coincidentally, I had been asking our CAD manager for the past three weeks if there was a way to give the “Break at Point” command (^C^C_break \_f \@ ) an […]