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Turn All Layers On or Off at Once in Autocad
Sometimes we when we have several layers turn on we just want to turn them off or vice versa. To do this, we often turn then off one by one which is tedious. Well, it's time to say bye to that becuase in this autocad tutorial I'll teach you how to turn all layers on or off at a single time . So here are the ways to do it.
Solution A.
To turn off the layers:
1. Type the autocad command "LA" and press ENTER.
2. Type OFF and Press ENTER
3. Press ENTER, ENTER, ENTER. (that's 3 times)
4. This time the layers should be turned off except the current layer.
To turn on the layers:
1. Type the autocad command "LA" and press ENTER.
2. Type ON and Press ENTER.
3. Press ENTER, ENTER, ENTER. (that's 3 times)
4. This time the layers should be turned off except the current layer.
Solution B.
To turn off the layers:
1. Go to the Layer Manager.
2. Press Ctrl+A .
3. Click one of the lightbulbs.
4. At this point the layers should now be off.
Autocad Plugin/Addon and Autocad Mechanical Desktop, Autocad Architectural Desktop.
You have probably encountered the Autocad Mechanical Desktop and Autocad Architectural Desktop because they are getting popular these days. Well, these software packages are actually a combination of the typical Autocad software you have in your desktop computer and Autocad plugins . The core autocad engine, programs and dynamic link libraries, are basically the same to make it run and functional as a computer-aided drawing software.
Unlike typical or third party autocad plugins or addons, the autocad plugins in Autocad Mechanical and Architectural Desktop come built in them. When you buy these softwares, you don't have to do a separate installation of the plugins/addons. The software package comes with an installer that takes care all the things for you to run a fully functional Autocad Mechanical or Architectural Desktop. With a third party autocad plugin, you have to do a separate installation aside from the usual installation of your autocad software. However, these third party autocad plugins/addons, also come with their installers that automatically set up everything. But there are also third party developers that write plugins which doesn't have installers. To use the plugin, you have to load it using the command "appload" of autocad and type the custom autocad commmands
that come with it. These are ussually the case for free but fully functional autocad plugins and for those plugins/addons that are under beta release.
What makes the Autocad Mechanical Desktop stand out from your ordinary Autocad program and other CAD systems are the custom commands tailored specially for detailing mechanical drawings. With the Autocad Mechanical Desktop, you don't have to type long series of commands just to draw a particular mechanical part. You also don't have to repeat a tedious series of commands just to draw bigger, smaller or extended variation of a mechanical part. All you have to do is hit a custom command (autocad commands specific to this software) for a particular mechanical part and you are done. The same is true with Autocad Architectural Desktop. The only difference is that its custom commands are tailored for drawing architectural objects faster and easier.
Autocad Tutorial: Use OVERKILL Command To Remove/Clean Up Overlapping Drawings - Useful When Creating Regions
If you have tried several times to create a region but still failed, chances are you have overlapping lines or curves in your drawing object. These overlaps give problem to autocad to create regions successfully. So, they must be removed first. But what if you have a drawing object that is composed of almost a hundred lines? It would be very impractical to zoom in to each line to check for overlaps.
Set/Convert From One Unit (say mm) to Other Unit (say inches) in Autocad Drawing
Though common drawing or engineering unit used now in many countries is system international, there are also other firms especially in the US that use the Imperial/English system.
Tools, Programs To Set/Convert From
One Unit (say mm)
to Other Unit (say inches)
in Autocad:
Thus, we ocassionally need to draw in autocad using inches. If you have a drawing in mm unit, you must to convert it to inches. Here's what you should do.
1.Type in the command 'D' and press Enter.
2. The Dimension Style Manager should appear. Now, set the Unit Format to Architectural. Pess OK, set Current and Close.
3. Type in 'UN' (drawing units) , press enter. Set the Length Type to Architecural and set the Insertion Scale to inches.
That's it! You're done.
How to Import Autocad Layers and Linetypes from One Drawing to Another Drawing
Sometimes we wish to copy a set of properties in a drawing to another. One of them is the Autocad layers and Linetypes. If we encounter a drawing with layers and linetypes that are excellent,
1. Go to the Design Center.
2. At the Design Center. Look for you the drawing file where you want to copy the linetypes and layers from.
3. Right click and Click Add to drawing.
That's it. You're done.
Which is better/best ObjectArx, VBscript or Autolisp in Automating Autocad?
If you really want to become a power autocad user, you have to learn autocad automation. It is not enough to just master all the autocad commands available in your autocad package. Even if you are fastest human on earth, you are still human and you always reach the peak or the ceiling. One of your limitation is time and in order to draw a drawing object entity, you have to do a series of repeatitive commands called routines. The long list of routines that we do to finish a task is what limits us from finishing more projects. Therefore, to be productive we have to find a way to automate these routines. After all, these are just routines. We learn nothing new doing them over and over.
Fortunately, Autocad comes with tools that can help us automate it: ObjectArx, VBscript and Autolisp. So the problem now is which of these tools should you use to become an autocad power user. Which is better than the other? And which is best: ObjectArx, VBscript and Autolisp?. Well, the answer actually depends on the type of user. By the way, when we talk about automation we are talking about programming or scripting. The things I mentioned are not just plain tools,
they require you to operate them a little more complex than simple tools we used to know. To those who does not know programming, don't be scared. Programming is actually very easy .It is just like giving instructions. Now back to the question. It depends on who uses the tool. For beginners, VBscript is the preferred language not to mention that it is also the most practical. If your purpose is productivity and you don't want to spend more time programming/scripting, then go ahead learn how to automate autocad using VBscript. Go to your autocad help menu and you'll find a button that points you to the documentation and tutorials.
The last two: ObjectArx and Autolisp belong to those who has little experience in programming. Actually, even if you don't have experience in scripting languages, you can still learn AutoLisp. This scripting language is way simplier than objectArx. The good thing about Autolisp is that it has the power of ObjectArx but its codes are very simple and short. A single line of code in Autolisp could be several lines of code in ObjecArx. A simple capability that they both have is the ability to add autocad custom commands and of course the ability to accept values from autocad users. In autolisp, to accept a value from a user takes only a single line of code while in ObjectArx, it takes two to three. When we talk about power and simplicity, AutoLisp is the winner. It is also as simple as VBscript however it is as powerful as ObjectArx. However when it comes to real power and total control over autocad, then the trophy goes to ObjectArx. ObjectArx is so powerfull that you can almost do anything you can imagine for a CAD system with it. As a matter of fact, when you open the program files folder of Autocad, you'll see a lot autocad components that have an icon of Arx which means that they are written using the ObjectArx application programming interface. ObjectArx can only be programmed using C++ - this is the
language of the real geeks in the computer science. Because the ObjectArx topic is so broad, you can't even find its documentation in Autocad help files unlike Autolisp and VBscript. You have to visit the website of Autodesk to learn more about it. Learning ObjectArx at the beginning. But when you already have a good grasp of it, you'll be very happy and you'll feel a complete control over your this most popular CAD system.
Determine the Length of An Arc in Autocad
Deterimining the length of an arc in Autocad is one of the poblems that draftsmen encouter. This problem is actually quite easy and in fact it can be solved in two ways.
Solution A.
1. Select the arc on the screen.
2. Go to Modify Menu and Click Properties.
3. The Properties window will appear.
4. In that window, look for the parameter Arc length
5. That value is the length of the arc in autocad
Solution B.
1. Type in the command PEDIT in the command line.
2. Enter Y.
3. The polylines options will appear. Just enter X.
4. Type in AREA and press ENTER.
5. ENTER O (optin for object).
6. Select the arc on the screen.
7. The command line should now display the length of the arc selected.
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