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AutoCAD 2015 and AutoCAD LT 2015 Bible

The most comprehensive AutoCAD book around!

Defining alternate dimension units in AutoCAD

The dimension measurements in your drawing use a specific unit, whether millimeters, inches, or something else. But it’s common to need to show a second unit — perhaps a metric measurement if you’re using inches, or vice versa.

You define an alternate measurement on the Alternate Units tab of the Dimension Style dialog box. For […]

Change the font of a text style 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 the current era of globalization, many times you may have to work on drawings received from others. Sometimes, you may not be able to control the quality of the drawings you […]

Keep your own styles, layers & blocks at the top of the list

You’re always creating styles — text, dimension, etc. — layers, and blocks. But when you open the Layer Properties Manager or any other list with these items, they are alphabetized. Especially if you’re sharing drawings with others who add their own styles, layers, and blocks, what can you do to make it easier to find […]

Understanding how dimensions are associated with objects

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

Learning AutoLISP (or any other programming language) doesn’t compel you to become a programmer. You can still use it to better understand the internal working of AutoCAD and enhance your interactive working skill. This can also give you an edge over others.

Recently […]

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 […]

Use DIMEDIT to edit a dimension

The DIMEDIT command lets you move or rotate dimension text, change text, and create oblique (angled) extension lines. You type it on the command line. You see the following prompt:

Enter type of dimension editing [Home/New/Rotate/Oblique] <Home>:

You would use it only in certain situations.

Clean up dimension text location

If the text was moved, […]

Create a table on the fly from Excel data

You can create a complete table on the fly by importing data from Microsoft Excel.

Follow these steps:

Select the data in Excel and copy it to the Windows Clipboard. In AutoCAD, choose Home tab@@>Clipboard panel@@>Paste drop-down list@@>Paste Special. In the Paste Special dialog box, choose AutoCAD Entities and click OK. At the prompt, pick […]

Speed up your display for more productivity in AutoCAD

Some default settings in AutoCAD slow down its display and you may want to turn them off or change them. Here are some ideas. Please add a comment to contribute your own display speed tips!

Text

A large drawing with lots of text can slow down your work. Here are some text tips.

Quicktext

Quicktext […]

Specifying and changing line spacing

Sometimes, you need text to have a specific line spacing, to fit into a schedule in your drawing. If you can use the TABLE command, that’s great, because the text automatically fits nicely into the rows of the table.

But sometimes, you need to fit your text into an existing set of lines, like a […]

Tutorial: Create attributes

Attributes are tags, or labels, for blocks. You can use attributes to add any text to a block. For example, attributes are often used to fill in the text in a title block.

By placing the attributes where you want them in the title block, you can facilitate the entering of the text. […]