SECRET super convenient feature of AutoCAD!

My gosh.

After mousing and clicking half my life away in AutoCAD panning and zooming (even though the zoom is super efficient - on the mouse wheel), I discovered BY ACCIDENT..

PRESS on the mouse wheel and you get the "hand", for super easy, fast panning!

OK, how come none of you AutoCAD jocks never told me about this feature? No doubt there are hundreds of other (basic) things I don't know about. Thousands maybe.

(Don't tell me to RTFM.)

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"I never thought much of the courage of a lion-tamer. Inside the cage he is at least safe from people." -George Bernard Shaw

There are rituals to go through before such knowledge is imparted

Larry
it is a great feature, I think you will be discovering many other things in Auto Cad, and besides what fun would it be if you were told all this????

Yes it is a pity, the Auto Cad manual is a year worth of reading, Thank goodness for windows or I would still be using a drafting table, T-Square & my trusty Graphic pens.

OK wise guy, I've GOT to see you put the lines on a stunter with Autocad!

I have a question that I cannot find the answer to in the book...

When the wheel starts panning the drawing up and down, how do you get it back to the zoom mode?

>I have a question that I cannot find the answer to in the
>book...
>
>When the wheel starts panning the drawing up and down, how
>do you get it back to the zoom mode?
>
>Curt

I can't get my mouse wheel OUT of zooming mode, and I don't see a help entry on selecting scroll mode. No doubt it is a feature.

Reboot?

Just kidding. But this reminds me of an antecdote about CAD. We had an electronic technician who did PC layout for years, using a light table, mylar, and red and blue tape. So, naturally, when we went "computer", he was designated to learn to use PCAD. Unfortunately, there were several problems. First, the PC was about as pukey as they come, barely up to the CAD use in terms of resources. Second, PCAD was full of "sparkles" (bugs) and software problems. Third, the technician was completely computer illiterate. Fourth, even his manual taping technique was poor, he tried to start from one corner of the card and do a single pass layout - as soon as he encountered an obstacle, he would rip it all up and start over!

One afternoon I found the technician near tears - PCAD was hung, and the computer wouldn't turn loose. And he didn't even know how to reboot the computer without powering it up and down, which played havoc with his files. So I told him to use CTL-ALT-DEL, which would not save his open files, but might be a little easier, but ONLY WHEN PCAD WAS ABSOLUTELY HUNG. And he got restarted, was very happy.

A couple days later, I found out that he was warm-booting out of the PCAD program everytime he encountered any layout obstacle. Then he would "start all over", with a new layout and name - he had 40 some aborted layouts, was running out of space on the disk!

I couldn't fault the poor guy - he was trying a "work around" in the only manner he knew, and our backwards management didn't want to invest in any training for him.. While his example might seem extreme, I recognize every day that I have a bunch of "work around" approaches to get things done, when I would probably do much better if I simply knew the software!

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"For centuries, theologians have been explaining the unknowable in terms of the-not-worth-knowing." -H. L. Mencken

>>I have a question that I cannot find the answer to in the
>>book...
>>
>>When the wheel starts panning the drawing up and down, how
>>do you get it back to the zoom mode?
>>
>>Curt
>
>I can't get my mouse wheel OUT of zooming mode, and I don't
>see a help entry on selecting scroll mode. No doubt it is a
>feature.
>
>Reboot?
>
>Just kidding. But this reminds me of an antecdote about CAD.
>We had an electronic technician who did PC layout for years,
>using a light table, mylar, and red and blue tape. So,
>naturally, when we went "computer", he was designated to
>learn to use PCAD. Unfortunately, there were several
>problems. First, the PC was about as pukey as they come,
>barely up to the CAD use in terms of resources. Second, PCAD
>was full of "sparkles" (bugs) and software problems. Third,
>the technician was completely computer illiterate. Fourth,
>even his manual taping technique was poor, he tried to start
>from one corner of the card and do a single pass layout - as
>soon as he encountered an obstacle, he would rip it all up
>and start over!
>
>One afternoon I found the technician near tears - PCAD was
>hung, and the computer wouldn't turn loose. And he didn't
>even know how to reboot the computer without powering it up
>and down, which played havoc with his files. So I told him
>to use CTL-ALT-DEL, which would not save his open files, but
>might be a little easier, but ONLY WHEN PCAD WAS ABSOLUTELY
>HUNG. And he got restarted, was very happy.
>
>A couple days later, I found out that he was warm-booting
>out of the PCAD program everytime he encountered any layout
>obstacle. Then he would "start all over", with a new layout
>and name - he had 40 some aborted layouts, was running out
>of space on the disk!
>
>I couldn't fault the poor guy - he was trying a "work
>around" in the only manner he knew, and our backwards
>management didn't want to invest in any training for him..
>While his example might seem extreme, I recognize every day
>that I have a bunch of "work around" approaches to get
>things done, when I would probably do much better if I
>simply knew the software!
>
>[photo not recovered: 3e69bb3870f12ad5.jpg]
>
>"For centuries, theologians have been explaining the
>unknowable in terms of the-not-worth-knowing." -H. L.
>Mencken

Larry I have Illustrator 10 I have seen upgrades to run 2D Are they any good?

Robert,

I don't know anything about Illustrator.

My resident expert on Adobe graphics stuff is Robert Compton. I think he used Illustrator to clean up my Mo'Best lion and crest decal art, which I had initially done in Photoshop LE (freebie "light" version). Try emailing Robert Compton, he's a wizard on it.

[photo not recovered: 3e69bb3870f12ad5.jpg]

"If people get a kick out of running down pedestrians, you have to let them do it." -Paul Jacobs, marketing director for Death Race 2000

>
>Larry I have Illustrator 10 I have seen upgrades to run 2D
>Are they any good?

Robert,

I have Illustrator 10. It's a wonderful program, and the class act for vector graphics, but it's not really CAD. I'm a little confused at your question, because it is native 2D, but there are plug-ins that will let you extrude 2D Illustrator objects into 3D. The one I have is KPT Vector Effects. It's no longer sold, though - probably because the new Illustrator CS has 3D in the program.

I use it for graphics like logos. It does have a very important feature for CAD: it will edit and convert PDF (Adobe Acrobat) files into native DWG format (AutoCAD). This means you can download Bradley's Dr.Jekyll/Mr.Hyde PDF file from UHP, pull it up in Illustrator, export it to a DWG, and then you have a full-fledged CAD drawing in AutoCAD.

Don't tell him I said you could do that, though.

Here's some stuff I've done in Illustrator for my daughters' high school - their mascot is a Bronco.

1. The first pic is complete Illustrator, using 3D extrusion with the horse head and the text.
2. The second pic started with Illustrator for the flat vector graphics, then it was ported into Photoshop for the 3D and materials rendering.
3. An example of Bradley's plan in AutoCAD after the PDF file was converted to DWG in Illustrator.

Keyboard shortcuts are the secret to quick working. I spend my life designing on a CAD system and have been since 1980 and I find that I can always work faster once I know the shortcuts and avoid mouse usage. I had to reinvent my mouse when I ran into RSI difficulties.

>I have a question that I cannot find the answer to in the
>book...
>
>When the wheel starts panning the drawing up and down, how
>do you get it back to the zoom mode?
>
>Curt

On my computer you just let the zoom wheel back up and it converts back to zoom mode instantly

>I have a question that I cannot find the answer to in the
>book...
>
>When the wheel starts panning the drawing up and down, how
>do you get it back to the zoom mode?
>
>Curt

The CTRL key, with the mouse wheel button held down, does the mode you are talking about, Curt.

If it sticks, try pressing CTRL and the button again.

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"Never play cards with a man named Doc and never eat at a place alled Mom's." -John O'Hara

Hey Larry
To put line on a stunter just point & click on select line type, size, scale and point and click to the length required. Oh yes, you will need to pick a control line handle and line connector type from the CL Library. Ha ha hahhahahahahahaha. see how easy it is!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

with my 3D Studio version and player I can even put a flyer out in the middle of the circle and fly the airplane but it is a lot of work but no fun at all.

>My gosh.
>
>After mousing and clicking half my life away in AutoCAD
>panning and zooming (even though the zoom is super efficient
>- on the mouse wheel), I discovered BY ACCIDENT..
>
>PRESS on the mouse wheel and you get the "hand", for super
>easy, fast panning!
>

Hey, Larry - try double-clicking on the mouse wheel, too - it will do a window-fit. You can zoom in and out all day long with the mouse wheel, then double click it to fit the drawing and reposition your zooming center.