Harold Reuvers shares he loves XLINE and he created a macro to create horizontal and vertical XLINE quickly. Al Popovich shares his favorite object: point.

They remind me about AutoCAD entities/objects I rarely use. I often create elevation views by projecting a floor plan, but I don’t use XLINE! I literally draw lines by clicking a point from referenced object and another point at where I want the line ends.

Let’s see these objects/entities that we can use for creating quick reference or construction.

The 3 objects

XLINE

You can activate XLINE by typing it or accessing from home tab of your ribbon. It’s on draw panel. You have to expand it before you can see this tool.

XLINE will create infinite line that you can use as reference or construction. It’s much better than if you click two points to create a reference line!

You can use it to trim objects too. And if you trim an XLINE, it will convert to a line.

This is very useful for creating elevation/section view from a floor plan. Or other drawing that’s created by referencing from other drawing.

RAY

Ray is similar with XLINE. The difference is, you define two points: start point and direction. I prefer XLINE to help me complete my task. But if you need to create several infinite lines from a point with different angles, this is the right tool for you.

POINT

Point is point. We use it to create point references. In a very crowded drawing, you may find it’s not so easy to snap to end point or intersection. You need to some quite close until you can comfortably snap to a reference. If you place points in locations you are regularly snap to, you can quickly find a point by override your object snap to node.

Bonus tip

Those tools are already very useful as they are. Let’s see some tips so you can use them more efficiently.

Macro to create horizontal/vertical XLINE quickly

We, AutoCAD users always look for faster way to work. At least less key strokes to use AutoCAD tools.

This is the original tip from Harold Reuvers.

Using AutoLISP program

You can create an AutoLISP program using this code to create horizontal XLINE only by one character:

(defun c:H ()

(command "XLINE" "H" pause)

)

Not familiar with AutoLISP? You can try to create your first one by following this tutorial. Use the code above for your program.

Using macro for CUI or tool palettes

If you prefer to use macro, you can use this code, and place it in toolbar or ribbon by modifying CUI. Or you can place it in tool palettes:

^C^C_XLINE;H;

If you want to place it in ribbon/toolbar, learn how you can create new command in CUI. And if you prefer to place it in tool palettes, read how you can do it here.

For vertical XLINE, you can change H to V. Those two types of XLINE are the most used (at least for me). But I prefer to use XZ and XX instead of V and H. They will not replace default AutoCAD alias, and close to each other.

Point style

If you are not familiar with point yet, you may think it’s useless because it’s difficult to see. You can change point style for better visibility.

Type DDPTYPE then enter.

Choose the one that you think most suitable for you.

Hint: Change point style to blank when you plot your drawing. AutoCAD will plot points as displayed on your screen.

Conclusion

There are so many AutoCAD tools. Some of them are overlooked and we never use them. It’s not really necessary to know all the tools, but it would be great if we know the tools before deciding not to use them.

Do you use tools that people rarely use? And have you used these three tools above?

Thank you to Harold Reuvers and Al Popovich for sharing the tips!

What can we do with acaddoc.lsp?

Now if you know you can run commands automatically when you open a file, what would you do?

1. You can load AutoLISP file automatically.
2. You can define new command. In the tutorial, we redefine PLOT command to update datalink before AutoCAD starts to plot.
3. You can run commands before you start working with your file.
4. You can set system variable before you start working.

In this article, we are going to focus to the last one. I found that there are many users confused why their AutoCAD doesn’t work as usual. And they become regular questions. These are some samples of changed system variables.

Common unexpected system variables change

These are several common system variables that change regularly.

1. File dialog box is missing. You have to type file path and file name from command line. It’s because FILEDIA system variable has changed.
2. AutoCAD default noun-verb selection becomes verb-noun selection. It’s because PICKFIRST system variable has changed.
3. Single document interface is activated. It’s controlled by SDI system variable.
4. And more…

There is a debate why they changed. Most people think that it was because routines in AutoLISP or other 3rd party applications. I used to be agree with it, until I saw this problem also happens in AutoCAD LT. So it remains a mystery to me.

We can force to set the variables in acaddoc.lsp

Harold Reuvers reminds me that we can set those variables in acaddoc.lsp. I prefer to backup my system variables and restore them when I have problem. We can’t remember all the variables, right?

However, if you have specific system variable that changes often, this is a good solution.

All you need is to create an acaddoc.lsp using notepad or visual LISP editor.

Just type these code:

(SETVAR "PICKFIRST" 1)

Feel free to add more lines or change system variables and values as you preferred.

If you want to learn how to use Visual LISP editor, see this basic AutoLISP tutorial.

What system variables do you find change often?

Do you find system variables in your AutoCAD change often? What are they?

If you haven’t follow his tutorial, you really miss those great tools. If you don’t have time to follow the tutorial, Paul Munford shares his tool palette file, so you can just use them.

You can download the tool palettes and import it to your AutoCAD. Click here to download it.

How to: import tool palettes

If you never import tool palettes before, you can follow this guide:

Download and extract the tool palette to your local drive.

In AutoCAD, open your tool palettes. Right click on palette title bar, or click properties button. Choose customize palette from contextual menu.

In customize palette dialog, right click inside palettes column. The left column. Click import.

Find ACME VPORTS.xtp in folder you placed extracted file before. Click open.

This palette should be in the list now. Close this dialog and you should see it’s the active palette now.

Open layout and test those tools. You love it don’t you? I know I do!

This command string:

‘^C^C_line’

Is known as a command Macro, and you can create your own command Macro’s to help speed up your workflow.

In this post I want to share some commands Macro’s that I use to help me speed things up when I’m working with AutoCAD’s paper space viewports, and I’ll show you how to set these up on a tool palette for easy access.

Setting up.

Before we start work, I want you to open up your company standard AutoCAD template DWG file. Navigate to paper space, make your company standard viewport layer active and create a viewport. I’ve used a layer called ‘VPORTS’ for this exercise, but you should use the appropriate standard layer.

Tip: If you don’t have a company standard template read Edwin’s excellent post on templates here.

Setting up a tool palette.

In this post I am advising you to host your new tools on a tool palette, simply because tool palettes are easy to set up, maintain and migrate. You could apply these techniques in the CUI instead and build your custom commands into a tool bar or ribbon tab… but that’s for another time.

To open the tool palettes go to:

View Ribbon tab > Palettes panel > Tool Palettes

Or type ‘toolpalettes’ at the command line and hit Enter.

Now you have your tool palettes open, right click over any palette and choose ‘New Palette’. You can name your new palette anything you like; I’ve called mine ‘ACME VPORTS’.

Note: Tool palettes are not saved until the drawing is closed.

Creating a new tool

The next part is the fun bit. Click on the viewport you created earlier and drag and drop it onto the tool palette. You have now created your first tool – that was easy!

Note: Left Click on the viewport once to select it. Now with the viewport selected, left click again and hold the left hand mouse button down. You can now drag the viewport onto the palette to create the tool.

To test your tool, click on it. You should be prompted to draw a viewport. Once you’ve created a viewport, click on it once to select it. Notice which layer it’s on? That’s right; your new tool has created a viewport, on your company standard layer and it didn’t even change the current layer while it did it.

Note: This tool will also create the layer it needs if the layer does not already exist in the current drawing file.

I hope that you are already impressed – but we can do more.

How does it work?

To see what the tool is doing, right click over it and chose ‘Properties…’. I hope you notice the ‘Command string’ box, about half way down. The command string that this tool is running looks like this:

^C^C_vports

The ^C part of the macro is equivalent to pressing the ‘Esc’ key – it cancels the current command. This command uses ^C^C because some AutoCAD commands need two ‘escapes’ to completely cancel out of the currently command. It is good practice to start all your command Macro’s this way.

Note: Can you think of an AutoCAD command that would need THREE ‘escapes’ to fully cancel out of it? Answers in the comments please…

The underscore before the command is used to ‘Internationalize’ the command. If you are not working with the English language version of AutoCAD the command names will have been translated. The underscore tells AutoCAD to use the default English version of the command.

The ‘vports’ part of the string is exactly the same as typing ‘vports’ at the command line.

I also want you to notice the boxes under the ‘General heading’. You can see that this tool will create a viewport on the ‘VPORTS’ layer, and you can also override some of the other properties here.

Applying a little finesse.

There are a number of ways that you can personalize your new tool. You can change the name to something that makes more sense to you. You can change the description (the description value becomes a handy little tool tip when you hover over the tool on the palette). You can also change the picture by right clicking over the picture and choosing ‘specify image’.

Back to the Macro.

In this case the command string that has been created uses the ‘vports’ command by default. However, the vports command also has a purpose in Model space. Let’s change the tool to use the ‘mview’ command instead, which only works in paper space.

All you need to do is change:

^C^C_vports

To

^C^C_mview

More viewport creation tools.

To create more tools, just right click over the tool and chose ‘copy’ and then hover anywhere over the blank palette and choose ‘paste’.

Here is another example of an alternative command macro you could use:

^C^C_mview;f;

The semi-colon ‘;’ in this command strings is just like pressing ‘enter’ on your keyboard. So the macro could be read as:

Hit ‘esc’ twice, type ‘mview’ at the command line, hit ‘enter’, type ‘f’ at the command line and then hit ‘enter’ again.

Try it out. What do you get?

That’s right – a viewport, taking up all the available room on the drawing sheet. Writing this into a command Macro allows us to do all that with a single click!

How about this one:

^C^C_mview;2;v;

This command string launches the Mview command with the ‘Two viewports, vertically aligned’ options current. Just two clicks to create two viewports, on the right layer.

Here’s one more:

^C^C_mview;p

This command string uses the Mview command with the ‘Polygonal’ option to create an irregular shaped viewport.

The final one in this section gets a bit more complicated:

^C^C_circle;\\_mview;o;l

This command string creates a circular viewport. It does this by running the circle command, and then immediately afterward, running the Mview command using the option to create a viewport from the last object created, in this case our circle.

The two back slashes ‘\\’ are interpreted as pauses. In this case the user must pick the centre point and radius of the circle. This is two clicks – therefore two back slashes.

Note: It is not easy to include error checking in a command macro. In this case the macro expects two clicks, if the user decides to choose a method of creating a circle other than ‘Centre radius’ the command will fail. If you need to include error checking in your Macro’s you may need to use Lisp.

Locking and unlocking viewports globally.

For the next example, I want you to copy your tool as you did before; but this time, open the tools’ properties and set all the values in the ‘General’ options to ‘use current’ except the layer control, which you should change to ‘0’. In this case, our macro won’t be creating any geometry, so we don’t want those properties set.

The next example will help us speed up locking and unlocking viewports:

^C^C_mview;l;on;all;;

Run the command and then hit F2 to bring up the AutoCAD text window. Have a look to see what commands the Macro is executing…

That’s right; this command string locks all the viewports in the current layout – very handy to run before you close down your drawing for the day.

The reciprocal is this, which unlocks all the viewports in the current layout:

^C^C_mview;l;off;all;;

Turning the viewports layer on and off

To turn the ‘VPORTS’ layer on and off, we need to use the ‘layer’ command. Copy and paste the tool as before, and add this command string to turn the ‘VPORTS’ layer on:

^C^C_-la;on;VPORTS;;

And this command to turn the ‘VPORTS’ layer off.

^C^C_-la;off;VPORTS;;

I hope by now that you can work out what these macros are doing. If you aren’t sure, click the button to run the macro, and then hit F2 to bring up the command window and see what’s happened.

Note: Replace ‘VPORTS’ with your layer name. If you layer name contains a space, make sure that you put the layer name in quotes e.g. “VPORTS 1”. The layer name is not case sensitive.

Freezing and thawing the viewports layer

If you would prefer to freeze or thaw the VPORTS layer, you can use these two macros instead.

To freeze the ‘VPORTS’ layer:

^C^C_-la;f;VPORTS;;

To thaw the ‘VPORTS’ layer:

^C^C_-la;t;VPORTS;;

Round up and further reading

I hope that you enjoyed this post and that you found it useful. If you have any questions, please leave a comment below.

If you’d like to know more about Tool palettes, Edwin has a great tutorial here:

http://cad-notes.com/2009/09/creating-your-own-autocad-palette/

If you’d like to know more about command macros check out the developer help files. You can find the help files online here http://cadso.co/t17wRy.

AutoCAD express tools has many handy tools, that can speed up your work significantly. They can do things that you can’t do just with default AutoCAD tools.

But do you know there are some tools that we can use… only by activating them using command line?

One popular tool in this category is BCOUNT. Speedy way to count how many blocks in your active drawing. I prefer data extraction, but BCOUNT can give quick result for review.

Where can I find the rest of these tools?

In express tools help, of course. Express tools help is separated with AutoCAD help file. If you are using AutoCAD menu (with or without classic workspace), you can open it from AutoCAD menu: express> help.

If you don’t use menu, I don’t know if there an access to open it. At least I can’t find it on express tools tab.

A less elegant way to open it if you don’t use menu is by activating any express tool, then press F1 (at least it works!)

The hidden tools

Expand categories in contents’ tree. Expand command line only. You will find the tools there.

There are many interesting tools here. Some that you may find it useful are: BSCALE, GATTE and TFRAMES.

GATTE can be very useful if you have many common values in your block attributes, but you prefer not to link your attributes to external excel file. You can change all of them at once using GATTE.

You can use TFRAMES to quickly turn on/off wipeout and image frames.

There’s also SSX, similar to QSELECT but without dialog box.

Well, you may have your own favorite. You can share in comment section what it is!

Do you often to insert block with non-uniform scale? Sometimes I do.

Have you ever found that when you insert your block, you can’t disable uniform scale option?

If you dig further, you will find that it’s a block specific. The same thing will happen if you try to insert the block on other computer. You will find other blocks you have don’t have this problem.

Solution:

This option is disabled because when you created the block, you activate scale uniformly in block definition dialog.

So what if you already created and placed several blocks? Do you have to explode and recreate the block?

No. You can open the block in block editor then open properties palette. Find scale uniformly parameter, and change it to no.

The problem with sharing contents over network is performance. If you have good infrastructure, it might not be a problem. But if you share your contents over WAN or internet, with hundreds of users, it can be really painful. Even pulling a block from your server can take a while.

It is a good thing to centralize your company standard contents and customization, to force standards among your users. You can see some sample like sharing tool palettes like describe here, enterprise CUI like here, or in this AU archive about AutoCAD tool palettes. But again, it may decreasing your productivity, not increasing it if you have problem with network connection.

Set your offline files

One thing that you can do to eliminate this problem is by working with offline files. You can set offline files, so your computer will copy files from your server and put them locally. This is pretty much like working with local files.

No, you don’t have to copy them to your local drive manually. All you need is to set a network folder to always available offline. Windows can sync your files by following a schedule or other events that you prefer.

See this Microsoft documentation how you can work with offline files.

Once you set it, you can click work offline in Windows Explorer. Even if you are connected to network, your Windows will not take those files from your server anymore!

It might be better if you set automatic sync in Windows Sync Center. Windows can sync your offline files daily if necessary, or you can sync them manually when you know there are changes have been made.

Just try it, and explore the options that will work for you.

If you are not familiar with these options, here is the explanation. Who knows, you need to use it.

To use this command options, you must type UNDO then [enter].

Undo a number of commands

You can undo several operations by typing a number here. Let’s say you want to undo 5 commands, just type 5 then [enter]. To be honest, I never use it except to undo everything. Typing 999 is faster than pressing U [enter] several times. I don’t think anyone will remember how many steps they want to go back.

Auto option

Auto is turned on by default. It will group commands in a macro, allows you to undo the commands in a single undo command.

Control

Control has sub options. In short, it allows you to control how UNDO command should behave.

All

All is the default UNDO options. It will behave just like how we use it today (if nothing goes wrong).

None

This will disable UNDO. AutoCAD will not record your commands and you simply can’t use it. Even undo button on quick access and modify toolbar is disabled.

One

This option will limit UNDO to one command only. Let’s say you activate 5 commands. You only can UNDO your last command, and AutoCAD doesn’t remember the other 4 commands.

Combine and Layer

Combine will combine screen navigation like zoom and pan. We zoom and pan many times to draw and modify our drawings. If disable this option, when you pan 5 times, to undo it you need to press undo five times. You only need to press one time if you activate it.

Layer option works similarly with combine, but it’s for combining layer operation.

Mark and Back

If you want to test creating some objects and think you may need to undo to certain point, you can mark before you start playing with your drawing. If you do need to undo your work, use BACK to restore it to your mark point.

UNDO from quick access toolbar

The most convenient way to undo, of course using undo button from quick access or modify toolbar. You can click the small down arrow and see the recent commands you use. Click at a point where you want to undo those commands.

Thank you to Murray Clack for bringing this up! Do you think any of these options can help you? Which one, and how do you use it?