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AutoCAD 2015 and AutoCAD LT 2015 Bible

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How to control what you see by clipping xrefs and blocks

By Ellen Finkelstein

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. […]

December 12th, 2008 | Tags: , , , | Category: Editing | 14 comments

Display a named view in a viewport

By Ellen Finkelstein

While you create your drawing, you may specify named views (View > Named Views) that display areas you’ll want to show in a viewport on a layout (paper space).

When it comes to creating viewports, you can display a named view in a couple of ways. One, of course, is to double-click inside a viewport […]

November 11th, 2007 | Tags: , | Category: Plotting & Output | Leave a comment

Use the Dashboard to display a related tool palette

By Ellen Finkelstein

The Dashboard was introduced in AutoCAD 2007 for 2D tools and expanded in 2008 for 3D tools. Starting with 2008, it is also customizable.

The Dashboard has a little-known feature that lets you quickly display an associated tool palette. This tip works in both AutoCAD 2007 and 2008.

Each control panel (section) in the Dashboard […]

April 2nd, 2007 | Tags: , , | Category: Drawing | Leave a comment

Control the display of tooltips

By Ellen Finkelstein

AutoCAD displays tooltips for object snaps, polar tracking, and dynamic tooltip. The object snap and dynamic tooltips can get in each others’ way. The Quadrant tooltip, as you move the cursor slightly, will alternate between saying Quadrant and Specify next point or ↓.

By changing the TOOLTIPMERGE system variable to 1, you can […]

March 20th, 2007 | Tags: , | Category: Drawing | 3 comments