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Archive for April, 2009

Join Us in Sheboygan!

Monday, April 6th, 2009

The Wisconsin Geospatial User Group (WGUG) is holding it’s first annual tech conference June 1-3rd 2009 at Blue Harbor Resort & Convention Center in Sheboygan, Wis.

In addition to co-sponsoring the event, MasterGraphics will provide specialists to train conference attendees on advanced AutoCAD® Civil 3D® 2010 software, which was recently selected as the preferred solution for road and highway design by the Wisconsin Department of Transportation. 

MasterGraphics classes include:

  • Civil 3D Test Drive- Interactive tour of AutoCAD Civil 3D.
  • Pipe Networks - Hands-on workshop on pipe networks for non-gravity pipes.
  • Presenting Your 3D Design Using the Power of Visualization -
    Fly-by and drive-through animations, how to prepare date, as well as the fundamentals of how animations are created.
  • Survey 2010- an in-depth look at the latest features of AutoCAD Civil 3D’s survey tools and techniques.

Autodesk®staff & other Midwest resellers will also be at the conference to provide training on AutoCAD Civil 3D as well as GIS System implementation and usage. 

The conference is open to all civil engineering and geospatial design firms and, in addition to training at intermediate and advanced levels, provides attendees with networking opportunities. For more information about the conference, e-mail Tom Horness at thorness@ci.sheboygan.wi.us or call (920) 459-3397.

Click here for seminar and class descriptions

See you there!

Lou

Posted in Civil | No Comments »

How to Protect Yourself from Being an AutoCAD April Fool

Wednesday, April 1st, 2009

By Colleen Klein

Do things really go wrong just because it’s April Fool’s day? I’m not sure but I thought it would be a good day to give you a few tools to help you watch your back.

Before you get taken as an April Fool there are some simple things you can do to prevent problems.

  • First save your Profile. Profiles are found in Options on the Profile tab (very clever location).  You can add your own Profile to the list, Export any it out and save it as a safety net. Import the Profile back if you have any problems. Profiles save many variables related to you system settings, that is variables that are not drawing specific. If your settings go bad, just reset the Profile.
  • Secondly you can save a script of ALL of your variables. This is somewhat an extension of the first thing we did. The script of system variables will be far more complete than a profile. In the Express tools, using System Variable Editor, SYSVDLG, you can save all of your system variables to a script. Just make sure to switch the file type. If your settings go wrong you can drag-n-drop the script from Windows Explorer right into the AutoCAD graphics screen. When you do, it will reset your variables.
  • The third step you should take to cover yourself is to save a Workspace. This will save how you want to view your Toolbars, Ribbon Tabs, Pallets, and Quick Access Toolbar. It also saves the loaded menus. Before you’re done with setting up the workspace, make sure it’s set to “Do Not Save Changes to Workspaces” when Workspaces are changed.  This way when inadvertent changes happen to your interface, you can get everything back. If you want to make changes to your Workspace, just save with the same name again.
  • The Fourth tip I have for you today is to save your default layers settings in the Layer States Manager. The other safety nets are good for your computer in general. This one would have to be done per drawing. If you’re ahead of the game you will have a Default Layer State saved in your template.  The Layer State Manager is easily accessible in the Layers Property Manager.

Ok, so what are the problems you may encounter? And how do you fix it?

Missing Lines

When you start drawing and you can’t see your lines, what’s wrong?   You probably have the current layer turned off. That’s an easy fix.  Just turn it on from the Layers toolbar; or, you can reset your default Layer State.

Missing Toolbars

Speaking of toolbars, did you ever lose an open toolbar? Usually to access a toolbar you just right click on any button, you get the list of toolbars and you simply open it; but, if it is already open, it can cause intense confusion if you can’t find it. The simple fix is to reselect your Workspace. If your Workspace is set to automatically save changes you’re out of luck with that solution.  

Do you know what to do now?  It’s pretty easy. At the Command line,  type  –TOOLBAR and use the Bottom option. Here is an Example with the DRAW toolbar. Using Bottom and <0,0> forces it to the bottom of the screen where you can easily find it.

Command: -TOOLBAR

Enter toolbar name or [ALL]: draw

Enter an option [Show/Hide/Left/Right/Top/Bottom/Float] <Show>: b

Enter new position (horizontal,vertical) <0,0>:

Object Selection Issues

When you start a command and select objects you can run into the following situation; as you pick another object to add to the selection set, the first one is de-selected. Why would it do this to you?  The most common culprit to that is the PICKFIRST system variable was changed. That sometimes happens if you click the + symbol in the row of icons in the Properties Palette.  You can go back to the palette to fix it. Click on the 1 symbol to toggle it back on. Or if you don’t remember what variable it is just drag your script file that you created into the drawing and you’re ready to go!

Missing Command Line

Your command line is gone, how do you get it back? If you’re using Workspaces and the kept the default settings, reset your Workspace and all is well in the world. If you not using Workspaces,  CTRL+9 will open it back up. I prefer using the Workspace because it’s one less thing I have to remember.

Missing Command Line Text

Here’s the big one for April Fool’s day. When you type at the command line and you can’t see any text; even  the word “Command:” is gone, what happened? Somehow the command line text color was changed to the same as the command line itself (very suspicious).  A variation of this is when the crosshairs get inadvertently changed to the same color as the background; also very suspicious. Fix this in Options on the Display tab or just import your profile you created.

More Fixes

There are hundreds more things that can be fixed by saving and using those four little backups; including the notorious FILEDIA, CMDDIA, and ATTDIA that sometimes get turned off. I’ll let you explore and see if you can figure out which one of our backups will take care of restoring these settings.

Here is to hoping that you and I both won’t be caught as an AutoCAD April Fool.

Happy drawing!

 

Posted in Building / AEC, Civil, General, Manufacturing | No Comments »

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