Page Last Updated And Links Checked: 19 July 2003 Page Last Updated And Links Checked: 19 July 2003 What is AutoCad And Why Do I Need It?
AutoCad is an example of graphics software that produces 'vector graphics' as opposed to the more common 'raster graphics' based on coloring pixals as used by 'paint' software. It may be over simplification but raster graphics are intended to be attractive to look at, or give an indication of what something looks like while a vector package like Autocad or similar is required to draw anything intended to be built or manufactured because it has the facility and the precision to convey the drawer's exact requirements to the builder or manufacturer.
autocadwhymore.html More on vector and raster graphics and the role of software like Autocad.
AutoCad Basics
These links have been selected to give a new user a point to commence their introduction to AutoCad without having to sift through links that may be aimed at more experienced users.
www.fbe.unsw.edu.au/Learning/AutoCAD/CADnotes
Jim Plume's UNSW FBE Introduction To AutoCad Notes.
Gives a broad conceptual understanding of the operation of AutoCad and a summary description of most of the principal commands used.
www.fbe.unsw.edu.au/Learning/AutoCAD/CADnotes/index.htm
Index of the principle commands used in the IntroductionTo AutoCad Notes above.
www.fbe.unsw.edu.au/learning/autocad
Links to all other UNSW FBE AutoCad material (including links to other online web related tutorials eg html).
Official Autocad Websites
www.autodesk.com/autocad
AutoDesk make Autocad, Mechanical Desktop, Inventor and other CAD products. They have set up their own "Autodesk Users Group International (AUGI)" (see lower down) and no longer list user groups. I prefer to search the net for real user groups or other independant AutoCad related links. They provide a "Knowledge Base" in which you are suppose to type questions as if you were talking to a support person. I tried it without much success. For a helpful (but AutoDesk moderated!) user's forum, click on Support>Discussion Groups then choose a Discussion Group such as MDT6, AutoCad 2002 or Inventor 5 for example. For a complete list of AutoCad forums go to my Forums section near the bottom of this page
www.autodesk.com.au
AutoDesk's website for Australia and New Zealand. They do provide contact with Australian user groups. Interestingly the entire list of approved trainers are various TAFE Colleges (the Australian public education college system). Seeking support beyond perusing lists of agents, trainers and user groups results in you being re-routed to the US site which, for practical purposes, means the user discussion forum in the previous listing.
pointa.autodesk.com AutoDesk's Point A
AutoDesk's website with useful information and articles for users. This entry page has no top nav bar (or a javascript problem on 8 May 02!) and invites you to sign up for membership. The impression given is that you have to sign up but unless you want a free fifteen day trial of A2002, access to 15 million symbols or something don't bother. Click on AEC, Manufacturing or any disipline listed in about the middle of the page except for 'General' (ie the entry page) that is highlighted. These other pages will have a javascript fired top nav bar you are away. Cunning marketroids.
www.autodeskpress.com/resources/olcs/acad2000
FAQ's, Tests, Tutorials and Topic of the Month, A2002 Commands (Ralph Grabowski's excellent articles with screen shots of the menus and expected output). AutoCad 2000/2000i/2002. Good.
ftp://adeskftp.autodesk.com/WebPub/education/manuals To download Autodesk (zipped) manuals from Autodesk.
Note some more product manuals in pdf form for direct viewing or printing available in A2002 section at support.drury.edu/docs/autodesk.
** Both links duplicated on MDT page.
Autodesk Users Group International (AUGI) AutoDesk's own "User Group"
www.eaug.org
The EFnet AutoCadUsers Group. 24hr on-line chat. Grew out of a once independant user group, now commercially involved with Autodesk. It's quite sad that their links, for example, don't let you leave their site ..you can only view linked sites through a window in their site. Does this indicate a lack of self-esteem or a lack of technical competance?
Some AutoCad User Groups
Keeping track of Autocad user groups is a full-time job. The first link has the the most comprehensive list I've seen and it makes sense to help him stay updated and provide a link. Below it are links to some user groups of interest to me.
www.llpsite.com/users.htm For the most complete listing of User Group URL's.
Excellent rated listing of user groups and more to interest those who support the user group concept. If you know any he does not have ..send them to him.
www.llpsite.com The home page of this good AutoCad links and information site.
www.paug.org Professional AUG (PAUG).
See Command of the Month and Lisp of the Month listing.
members.tripod.com/seva-aug Was Peninsula Area UG (another "PAUG") ..now Eastern Virginia AUG.
www.ramusergroup.org/default.htm (RAMs) Richmond Area Manifest (ie 'user group') in Virginia.
Excellently made website with links, downloads and articles. Relatively new group.
www.spaug.org South Plains AUG (SPAUG)
Good monthly tip, autolisp, and 3D block ..all archieved and viewable. See Accurender 3 page.
www.sydneypc.com Sydney PC User Group ** 21 June 03 did not come up **
Use to be able find out about the AutoCad SIG of the Sydney PC User Group but site no longer seems to give details of the meetings of their special interest (SIG) groups.
www.autodesk.com.au/../ Autodesk Australia's listing of contacts for Australian User Groups.ncludes a Sydney and a St George (a Sydney suburb) contact.
Some Other Interesting Links
www.cadforum.cz/cadforum_en/default.asp Heaps of Autocad/MDT tips **duplicated in MDT page (MDT Links) and MDT My Tips and Memory Joggers.
www.cadalyst.com/exclusive Cadalysts Bugwatch (better than AutoDesk!). Plus access Hot Tip Harry and tutorials.
www.ccadinc.com An AutoCad Trainer that provides provides very good tips and faq sections. Recommended by LLP
From www.fourmilab.ch/autofile A brief history of AutoCAD by John Walker, founder and ex-ceo AutoCAD.
www.oocities.org/SiliconValley/Drive/8979/Lisp.html Jim's Website. Has a bit of everything.
www.cadsense.co.nz See the wishlists for AutoCad, MDT, Solidworks and other packages.
dmoz.org/Computers/CAD_and_CAM/AutoCAD DMOZ. A volunteer, man made and maintained resource listing. ## 400Not Found 19July03 ##
www.upfrontezine.com/welcome.htm Ralph Grabowski's respected, independant Canadian AutoCad and CAD related information source. See also links to 3D related pages in the AutoCad Customising Miscellaneous (Non VBA) Customising section. He is an author of AutoCad books and writes better technical articles than computer journalists. See his Command of the Month series for Autodesk Press in a link above. Recommended by CADTutor.
www.contractcaddgroup.com Contract Cad Group (UK).
See their overview of what A2000/i/02 offers. Check out their downloads page for some free lisp's, vb/vba, ocz and some Solidworks VB. An interesting site for it's use of Java Scripts and for those interested in using the internet to display their CADD work.
Resources
www.cadserver.co.uk No nonsence resource for CAD users. Excellent (British).
paulaubin.home.attbi.com New Website!
Paul F. Aubin (author of Mastering Autodesk Architectural) and AutoDesk University ADT presenter.
paulaubin.home.attbi.com/resources/ACAD_VARIABLES.pdf ## 400Not Found 19July03 ## to download a complete list of AutoCAD 2000/2000i/2002 System Variables (including some undocumented) with explanations by Andy Anderson. Pdf format (unzipped) 81 pages to view on-screen or print. *See Afralisp link below for zipped pdf and Word versions to download.
www.afralisp.com/lisp/acadvar.htm
Afralisp is providing (380kB) zipped pdf and (56kB) zipped Word format to download. *See Paul Aubin link above for on-screen viewable and printable pdf version.
www.74mph.com Hurricane for AutoCad.
For scripted batch file handling routines. Source of listings below.
acad2000cmds.html AutoCad 2000 Command Listing.
acad2000sysvar AutoCad 2000 System Variable Listing.
acadfileformats/R14fileformats.html A tabular listing of file formats supported by AutoCAD R14. Next to each listing there is a full description of the format and how AutoCAD supports the type and what commands can be used to read or write it.
Raster Image Notes
acadtoraster/replay_image_background_draworder_render.html
Some notes on using raster images in Autocad drawings -Ralph Grabowsky.
Role and use of the REPLAY, IMAGE, BACKGROUND, DRAWORDER and RENDER commands referred to.
acadtoraster/dotsonbmpjpg.html
Some notes on making raster images from Autocad drawings (refers to png) -Terry Dotson.
acadtoraster/plot2jpg.html
Some notes on using the Plotter Manager to make raster images from Autocad drawings -Source?
AutoCAD Design Center (ADC) References
acadcust/leonid/leonidtips.html#descentrick Leonid Nemirovsky suggests putting blocks accumulated over the years into 'library' drawings and use the AutoCad Design Center to access them. This way you can acess them and don't have to convert the blocks into your current AutoCad version format. Local copy. (Leonid Nemirovsky is respected in the forums for his programming skills ..see the AutoLisp section of my Cad Customising page for links to two (of his websites.
designcenter/grabowskipoints Summary of Ralph's main points. Particularly important as this command is the oldest in the Autdesk Press Command of the Month archive and probably due for removal (-Aug 02 now removed! ). In this respect see Ralph Grabowski's own website where you might find older articles he has written for others. See up in AutoCad Links section for listing of the archive for other Commands, Tutorials and Article of the Month.
www.cadenceweb.com/2000/0400/circles0400.html
Cadence article on the AutoCad Design Center by Lynn Allen.
designcenter/lynnpoints.html Summary of Lynn's main points.
designcenter/markpoints.html Some quotes and proceedure points made by Mark Middlebrook in a September 1999 Cadalyst article.
www.markcad.com Mark Markham's own website (listed elswhere on my site).
He stores a lot of his articles that have been published. Go to his 'Cad Related Articles' then scroll down to 'Not so Recent Articles' and you find stuff on the AutoCad DesignCenter (Adcenter) otherwise just start reading anything ..you cannot lose.
Linking And Internet Related
>A collection of references to creating raster images, displaying drawings on the Internet, Word, Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) and anything else of that order.
acadhyperlinks/hyperlinks.html Hyperlinking in AutoCad by Ellen Finklestein at pointa.autodesk.com (since removed).
acadtoraster/plot2jpg.html Copy of Spaug's January plot to jpg tip.
The jpg's produced for the article's screenshots should really have been gif or png. Herein lies the issue. The same process outlined could just have easily selected png for which would be better for most vector drawings and dialog box screen shots. Overall, png is smaller in file size than gif (which is the property of AOL) and although it can't be used to make animations, should be choosen in preference to .gif. The recent WC3 svg standard will provide for animation and the effects that use to be provided by Macromedia's flash format). For photo real rendered models you do need jpg while for rendering in plain whole colors gif or png are better for file size and avoiding the patches that occur in big areas of plain color with jpg.
acadtoraster/dotsonbmpjpg.html
* * Press browser backbutton to return.
Some forum excerpts including expert comment by Terry W. Dotson of www.dotsoft.com. He contrasts BMPOUT with the PLOT to a raster file method and makes his case for png format (Note PNGOUT added in A2004 -aj).
pages.prodigy.net/bdeshawn/bdeshawn.htm William (Bill) DeShaun's webpage (a forum poster).
Displays of Bill's work. Useful as a reference for Volvoview and Whip. Also an example of how to use a gif as a thumbnail to bring the full gif up (I feel he should be using .png to display drawings on a website).
www.autodesk.com/cgi-bin/whipreg.pl To download the free Whip Viewer (for A2000) or Volo View Express (for A2002). Word around the forums is keep one seat of A2000 if you send drawings by internet for viewing by people without AutoCad because of problems with anything with the word Volo in it.
dynamicdrive.com The website designers (duplication of listing in Links 1).
Free DHTML/Javascript code to set your website up. They expect a link.
AutoCAD2002 
My Collection Of AutoCAD 2002 Information
To turn off the Today thingie that tries to connect you to the internet use:-
Tools->Options->System and change Startup to Show Traditional Startup Dialog.
What are the real differences between 2000/2000i and 2002, and what does 2002 fix that was giving 2000/2000i problems? Differences include associative dimensioning; when you move a wall the dimension moves with it, and the control to change attributes that had to be done one at a time with -attedit is very good. There are other little things, but not enough to convince me to change from 2000/2000i but make the move now! if your still on R14 but hang on to your Express Tools because unbelievably this invaluable feature has been removed from 2002 (why don't AutoCad mention this in their promotional material I wonder.)
I also heard dimensioning in paperspace (curves and associativity) is improved but also that you should hang onto 2000 if you send people .dwf's because the .dwf functionality has been removed or reduced by AutoDesk marketing people to try to boost sales of alternative products.
Also remember that 2000 was the last version without the C-dilla spyware/copy protection that requires you to get another re-authorisation code from Autodesk (cf Windows XP) when you reload the software for any reason. 2000i appears to be a mechanism to introduce C-dilla behind the screen a 'new release'. Also take on board the arguement that AutoDesk is generating 'new releases' to convince subscribers they are getting value for their annual payment. Also take on board blurring between bug fixes and patches, service packs and new releases (and beta releases) as marketing people manouvre to maximise cash milking.
I heard 2002 had a VBA recorder like Excel. Interesting if true. Also heard there are functions to aid Cad Managers enforce Drawing Standards
Note: 2000/2000i. and 2002 are completely different programs to R14. You can install the 2000 series and R14 will be left intact so you have both on the computer. Doing this, and not removing R14 could be a good idea to provide for learning curves, particularly printing, as well as compatibility problems with dwf and dxf. If you have got anything dependant on OLE linking then write that off. OLE linking is application version and AutoCad version specific. Who would have thought it with all the early marketing hype.
acadbonusexpress/migrate_express_tools.html Taking Express Tools into AutoCad 2002. Use browser backbutton to return.
See also similar acadmdt/bfane/3dtextobjects/bonus_express_tools.html Migrating Bonus and Express Tools
See my acadbonusexpress/index.html Index of AcadBonusExpress Folder And Related From Elsewhere where I gather together everything I can on Bonus and Express tools including a link to download the A2000 Express tools for use in A2002. And eventually info about the Express tools that have reappeared in A2004 although some have been incorporated into the main package I understand.
Note: There is some duplication of these links under MDT Articles (Bill Fane) in the MDT page.
R12 to 2002 Command and System Variable Comparison Map (printable) By Shaan Hurley of AutoDESK. Includes hidden commands not in menus or on buttons.
autocad2002.html Press Backbutton to return.
My AutoCAD 2002 Page. Links to pages that describe specific new features of AutoCad 2002.
If prints with 'Produced on an AutoDesk educational product' around the edge. One of these actions will work. Save the drawing as an AutoCAD 2000 DXF file then open the DXF file in AutoCAD. If that does not work, try saving it as an R14 DXF file then open it in AutoCAD. You won't lose any data by saving it as R14 (will survive roundtrip).
www.onlinecad.net/helpful_tools.htm All the tips and tricks and things you should know from AutoDesk University 2001 (includes A2002). Pdf but worth printing to study.
support.drury.edu/docs/autodesk ## Did not come up 3May,2June03 ##
To refer to or print out all the Autodesk pdf product manuals that are on-line at drury.edu. None are zipped for downloading. Lots of stuff but of particular interest to me is to refer to is:-
AutoCad 2002 Customisation Guide (198 pages). Good -well worth printing out.
AutoCad 2002 Command Reference (604 pages). Good -just refer to or print out odd pages of interest.
** link duplicated on my Mechanical Desktop (ie MDT) page.
AutoCAD2004 
My Collection Of AutoCAD 2004 Information
www.jtbworld.com/?/autocad2004.htm An experienced user's (Jimmy Bergmark) practical summary of what is in A2004.
www.jtbworld.com/autocad2004tips.htm His tips. ** See also link to JTB World in AutoCAD Sites With VBA Pages section of Customising page (he has a lot of Autolisp too.).
www.dotsoft.com/acad2004.htm Terry Dotson's A2004 page. Includes images depicting true color, graded fill and other dialog boxes.
Note: In particular Terry shows that compressing and uncompressing slows down local opening and saving. No wonder ADesk is trumpeting that the compressed files are quicker to send over the internet. I imagine even people who do transmit on the internet still do a lot of local opening and saving. I expect there is a substantial net loss of efficiency and that this will be substiated in time.
Also note you can't save to R14 format (R12 is one of my favourite formats).
In a nutshell:
Mtext editor - tabs and indents
Hatching - supports gradient fills
Tool palettes - a tabbed tool interface for keeping standard blocks, hatches, etc. (and it can 'autohide')
Rendering - New ability to view and plot fully shaded viewport windows
Publish - to batch plot multiple dwgs and/or layouts to configured plotters *or* dwf files.
Draworder - fixed
Right-Click - can be used for context menus *and* as an enter key depending on how long it is pressed.
Xrefs - xopen command lets you right click an xref and immediately open it in a new window.
Xrefs - Automatic notification popup window alerts you whenever someone changes and xref in your drawing.
True color - the ability to assign full true colors (i.e. HLS & Pantone) rather than just the standard 256 colors.
Properties window and Design Center can now be docked and use 'autohide'
Security - Digital Signatures and the ability to assign passwords to your drawings
...and dozens more 'little' things too numerous to remember, much less mention...
An unannounced feature: the Trim and Extend commands, introduced in 1986, now have a multiple option. (Rememember pressing shift in ether trim or extend allows you to swapp between them during use from A2002)
QNnew command: it starts a new drawing based on a template, but only if a .dwt file has been specified in the Options dialog box.
AutoCAD 2004 supports Pantone and RAL. RAL is short for 'Reichs-Ausschuß für Lieferbedingungen' (German for 'realm committee for supply conditions') and is administered by the German Institute for Quality Assurance and Labeling www.blitzschutz.com/ral/index.htm (German language site).
Hopefully in 2004, they bring back the old way of editing an attribute by double clicking it. Instead of having to type in ATE each time in 2002 to get the same box to appear. To labour intensive.....
We had the same complaint. Our engineer got this reply from Autodesk. Follow these instructions and you'll be good to go! HTH:-
Currently there is no variable that switches between old attribute editor and Enhanced attribute editor. Adding the following lines to ACAD2000DOC.LSP located in the \AUTOCAD2002\SUPPORT directory will get the old attribute editor when an attribute is double clicked:
(command "undefine" eattedit)(princ)
(defun c:eattedit() (command "ddatte"))
I don't understand. What's the benefit of the old DDATTE command when the EATTEDIT command provides a sizable dialog box?
The enhanced ATTEDIT does not work well for keyboard navigation. Move back and forth between the attributes is just not possible in an easy way.
Or you might as well use the properties palette where you easily can edit the attributes. TAB and SHIFT+TAB works well.
Editing attributes in Property Palette is a new AutoCAD 2004 functionality.
www.avatechsolutions.com/training/elearning/default.asp Go to eDemos for Windows Real Meadia demo of some new A2004 enhancements (and some A2002 enhancements). See also Tech Tips for AutoCad and 'Mechanical' (which includes Mechanical Desktop and Inventor). Link repeated on MDT page.
we-r-here.com/cad/other/acad24k/acad24k.htm The Cad Guy's take on 2004. Lots of shots of dialog boxes. Good. His one line summary seems to be that there is not a lot for Joe User but it might get a power user or cad manager drooling. No new commands.
www.caddigest.com/../ Ralph Grabowski of UpFront Ezine helfully groups changes under the headings: User Interface Changes, New and Improved Commands, Publishing Support, Removed Features, Undocumented Features and Other Items.
www.tenlinks.com/CAD/USERS/AUTOCAD/ACAD2004.htm Ten Link's A2004 page.
Hardware: Computers, Chips, RAM, Video Cards and Operating Systems For CAD
For AutoCad 2002 and MDT6 you have to look at Windows 2000 at least (avoid Win 98). Inventor 5 is unforgiving of inappropriate hardware or operating systems. I am opposed to Windows XP because of the burden placed on the user who wants to reset up their computer from time to time (got to get new installation codes issued and then only so many times and your out! See what the Excel guru, John Walkenbach, has to say at j-walk.com/ss/excel/activation.htm ..frightening. See a summary of Walkenback's main points and some related links on my productactivation.html page.
Sad thing is you can buy a cracked Windows XP for a couple of bucks in Hong Kong, Bejing, Seoul, or Singapore etc, with a SN inside the spiffy looking jacket that works first time on every re-load. So for the first time, pirate software is no longer just a copy but is better, more functional software than the original software. Sadder yet, my 13 year said older kids at school had Windows XP cracks (so much for preventing casual copying!) but many will not use XP because there are not enough drivers around, and it was slowing down their computers. Some were uninstalling it and putting their old operating system back on.
AutoCad 2000 does not use the C-dilla spyware/protection system. 2000i and 2002 do. One 2000i user in the forums who re-formats his harddrive on average 8 times a year was told he had exceeded his allowed number of re-authorisations.
C-dilla (licence management system) will not uninstall when you uninstall the the original product/demo ..it is a seperate installation that hangs on and will effect your usage of your equipment. If you complain they will say that you elected to install C-dilla when you made the decision to install the software it came with because a pop-up screen informed you that "Licencing software was being installed" and you could have elected not to install the software you purchased!! Because it is not transparent that you are loading a separate program and does not uninstall with the program it came with, continuing to function with a mind of it's own "protecting against software piracy" causing inexpliacable system problems (one guess why your read write CD drive is not working!), C-dilla is being referred to as spyware/copy protection. See www.privacyandspying.com/privacy-c_dilla.html.
Some compare C-dilla with trojan horse viruses.
I'll stay with AutoCad 2000 and Windows 2000 (both C-dilla free) until I can sort it out if it is justified to get a crack or a pirate copy to keep in the bottom draw as insurance against re-installation problems in an emergency. I wonder what the watchdogs would say about buying pirate software to get youself up and running when the licenced software falls over. I read about a British guy who emailed every user group and forum he could in a spamming-like exercise, saying that Autodesk were refusing to give him a re-authorisation number. Eventually someone senior in AutoDesk Europe rang him personally and provided the re-authorisation number. He said he lost three days. Why does the EULA make no reference to the process.
(July 01) I think the AMD Athlon is the way to go. A 1.5 mz P4 sees only a minor speed increase 550mz P3. The AMD Athlon is more stable and smoother, than any PIII we have. I will buy AMD's for now. No way am I going to pay more for less! Why would anyone even try to fix the (deliberately crippled?) P4 with the Itanium already here (currently it is out performed by the delayed release P4 Xeon but it's 64 bit addressing and potential to double it's speed should put it in a strong position in 2003).
Anybody owning Intel stock care to comment? Intel engineers are as good as they come, but if marketing people interfere with the product development cycle (which for a chip can be up to 5 years ) trying to maximise revenue or position product in the short term, they gamble with Intel's reputation. A logo on the box won't maintain sales if there is an equal or even better product available at a good price ..IBM found that out. The view creeping in that P4 was crippled and P4 Xeon delayed so their emerging new Itanium (7 years in the making with HP) would be an attractive proposition to upgraders (currently P4 Xeon ..and hence comparable Athlon systems, outperform the release Itanium) means that the trust and respect Intel engineers have earned for Intel is being squandered by marketers.
Visit
www.emulators.com/pentium4.htm For a learned look at CPU's in general. A $1500 Athlon system is a far better choice of computer than a $4000 Pentium 4 system. Increasing the, inexplicably reduced, L1 cache size, putting back the removed L3 cache and fixing some other details could result in the Pentium 4 being in a position to challenge the Pentium III. See also x86.org Robert's site and www.tomshardware.com Tom's Hardware.
www.xicomputer.com/products/mtoweramd.asp
I have been using an Athlon 1.3 GHz Xi computer for one year now. I really love it and it is so reliable and durable. My opinion is the Athlon are much better than Pentium, even Xeon (two chips), basically for the price and the performance. If considering Xeon for Autocad, it's probably better to spend money on good graphics card and more than 512 Mb RAM.
pcpitstop.com
To run a free test of your system to tell you what kind of video card you have.
Forums
I enjoy the forums. You learn heaps from good people, and can often help others.
www.CADTutorForum.net David Watson's (ex Uni of Greenwich) CADTutor's AutoCad and other forums page.
www.cadchat.com CADChat. AutoCad/MDT/Autodesk and other sections such as IntelliCad or MicroStation for example. Started by experienced practioner (with real day job). Supported by AfraLisp. Easy to navigate. Good People. Recommended.
Note:
David Whynot is the founder and owner of CADchat.com, an AutoCAD hacker since 1988. He is the creator of the original CADsyst website (now CADdepot - http://www.caddepot.com) which he still is involved with as librarian. David's 'real' job is IT manager, website developer and AutoCAD draftsman for Halsall Associates Ltd - www.halsall.com, a consulting engineering firm. Self taught in the ways of AutoCAD, website development and NT networking, David enjoys the opportunity to learn from others, hence one of the reasons for creating CADchat.com. "I found the newsgroups I visited too congested with spam and other irrelevant distractions and I hope this website offers a safe haven of pure information dedicated to the various CAD programs available".
www.eng-tips.com's General Engineering Programs AutoCad, MDT, Spreadsheets, VB and VBA.
Tek-Tips AutoCAD Technical Help Forum. Fair activity.
Google Group's CAD Forums Includes AutoCad/AutoDesk, Solidworks, Microstation or Pro Eng forums for example.
Google Group's Alt CAD Forums Includes AutoCad/AutoDesk and Intellicad Forums for example.
Google Group's Autodesk Forums Select the AutoCad forum (or one of the other other Autodesk product forums).
www.mcneel.com/support.htm Active forums for AutoCad, Rhino3d and other Newsgroups. Can be read without joining. news2.mcneel.com/scripts/dnewsweb.exe? McNeel's News Web listing.
communities.msn.com/AutoCADusersforum/messageboard.msnw MSN AutoCad Forum. Separate AutoDesk product/release boards. Fair activity. Poster tips and tricks, secret commands, bug list. Inactive MDT and Inventor. Probably needs .Net or hotmail to post.
www.caddepot.com/online-help.htm CADdepot On-Line Help
They now use of www.CADchat.com which replaces the old CADdepot Discussion Forum.
Access to Autodesk Newsgroup and other CAD Newsgroups via Google Beta. (My AutoDesk link NOK.)
See the User Group listing. Note advisor system seems not to be working.
clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/autocadusers Plenty of activity. Sections are really the different Yahoo Clubs which may be product/version specific or may be general AutoCad.
www.cad-portal.com/forums/forum.php3 Enough activity. Sections for AutoCad, Solidworks, Catia (Deassult), Pro E and others. www.cad-portal.com describes itself as a portal for "Engineers" and has a review of the freeware 'FreeCad' by ASKoh which is good 3D and motion software.
www.dczaland.com/appinatt Appinatt Forums. Select AutoCad forum (Note Excel, Word and many other forums -Ten Link award). Interesting format. Good community. Postings are kept with related posts in topic subject groups eg 'Drawing Commands', 'Layers' although 'Miscellaneous' is the biggest. Posting of Tips n Trick suggestions encouraged and are at the top of each page ..scroll down the page for the forum help request postings. Newer website. Probably will be advanced much further up this list based on activity and usefulness.
See acadhelpadditions/acadhelpmodify.html for a local copy of a posting on how to add html files to AutoCad Help. Duplicated in Customising page under MakeWinHelpFile (remove from here in time).
Note: Although much of the posting is acknowleged as coming from the AutoCad Help file, the truth is I can find no references to it in the Helpfiles of A2002. The poster's signiture specifies his equipment as Win 2000 and A2000 and it all is detailed in AutoCad 2000 Help. Presumably it will work fine in A2002 and they were just losing the plot with Today (I note Today was dropped in AutoCad 2004).
cad-mall.community.everyone.net Different AutoCad Release sections. Enough activity in the AutoCad 2000 section to get me involved.
www.cadalog.com Select FORUMS from top navbar then choose from three discussion groups: General, Part Library and Shareware. Enough activity and interest for me. Plenty of AutoCad in General section and Lisp in Shareware section. Got a good lisp to redefine/undefine AutoCad commands. Part Library was facinating as people were looking for, and providing all sorts of 'parts' including body anatomy for example. See the Power Users ..2 of the 6 are Sydney based! (add their sites, if they have one, to my website).
network54.com AutoCad Forum/Hide/Forum/13562 Little activity. Has moronic poster, 'Machead' (#Email sent re-Machead 6Feb02#) (Note Aug02. Activity has picked up ..machead not in evidence). Apparently you do not need to register to post.
Autodesk Discussion Groups
User forums for each Autodesk product. Autodesk "moderated" which means posters have to choose their words carefully to avoid being percieved as being critical of an Autodesk product or policy and having their posting moved from the board they posted to.
cnczone.com Scroll down for CNC Zone's Autocad/MDT forum.
Tests
Use these test links to confirm AutoCad knowledge.
www.tenlinks.com/CAD/users/autocad/test.htm Ten Top Links AutoCad Tests (On-line). Waste of time ..only got ProgressPrint and J Attree -SBU links (2Nov J Attree -SBU link not there).
New!! www.progressprint.com You have to register. Good. I enjoyed doing the test I did.
http://homepage.dtn.ntl.com/terry.rawkins Terry Rawkins site. 2D Index, 3D Index or Solids Index for revision questions in these areas.
(** See if he fixes or removes the FERL link I emailed him and then advise him of this otherwise ignore it.)
www.uti.com/~boudreau Scott A. Boudreau's site. See Autocad tests.
www.uti.com/~boudreau/jjc102/lessons.html Index page of all his Autocad lesson topics, tips, reviews. (Link also in Script section of Customising page.)
What follows is notes to myself and thinking aloud -Visitors please ignore!
pisces.sbu.ac.uk/BE/SUDP/Architecture/acadhtml/l4-test.html ## Did not come up 15Sep02 to 19Jul03 ##
This the single test for Lesson 4 in J. Attree's, South Bank University (SBU) tutorials selected at random from the index page for all the tutorials and the associated tests listed in both the 2D Tutorials or 3D Tutorials sections.
It is a form with the code to email it back to the tutor. You only have to pick true/false radio buttons but with each question is a link to a paragraph of information that permits you to judge for yourself wether you are correct which makes it more like "flashcard" learning re-inforcement. Perhaps the other tests differ in some marked way but I have not looked at them all.
They remind me of Western Civilisation's tests (ie html/xml, stylesheets and graphics) done in javascript and forms which also provide explanations of why an answer is correct or otherwise. They provide 4 or 5 possible answers to select from as a good test of this type should. If you pick the wrong answer, a message says "Incorrect ..try again" (which can be humiliating when you are down to the last possible selection and a message says "Congratulations ..you are correct!"). Like SBU you don't get a total correct mark at the end .
Note. Somewhere in my clutter is a blank pro-forma test in html and javascipt downloaded from a website for school teachers that is a genuine test. It spits out a mark out of 100. Any learning reinforcement would have to be put in somehow (as would be code to email the results to a teacher/tutor). Maybe after you are marked it could represent the questions answered incorrectly and the necessary theory made available.
Fact is I've got all the elements to do something spiffy myself that would re-inforce my own AutoCad, html (including forms) and javascript knowlege as well as being of interest to my visitors. It's a matter of time and priorities. At the moment it's all just firming up in my mind as an option and hence these notes to myself.
Scrolling Mouse
An IntelliMouse compatible mouse (a scrolling mouse with a wheel in the center) allows you to work more efficiently in Autocad.
The IntelliMouse mouse actions supported in AutoCAD (note they work in the ORBIT command too) are:-
Zoom in or out
Rotate the wheel forward to zoom in, backward to zoom out
Move the mouse to the point you want to have as center when zooming.
Zoom to drawing extents
Double-click the wheel button
Pan
Press the wheel button and drag the mouse
Horizontal and vertical pan
Press Shift and press the wheel button and drag the mouse
Joystick pan
Press Ctrl and press the wheel button and drag the mouse
Change the zoom factor
Set the system variable ZOOMFACTOR (Default is 10%). But this makes it too slow so raise it to 50 or what you feel is comfortable.
Consider disabling the scroll bars in the drawing window since it might interfere with the scroll-mouse. I never have the scroll bars up anyway as I consider them redundant with AutoCad and they use up valuable screen space.
Remember also to set MBUTTONPAN to 1.
www.abicad.com ABI Mouse. Lets you map AutoCAD commands and macros to your mouse buttons. Just One Click for your often used commands. Plus other useful mouse related stuff and tips.
Miscellaneous Or Unallocated
Undocumented
Undocumented commands are +CUSTOMIZE, +DSETTINGS, +OPTIONS, +UCSMAN, and +VPORTS. With the '+' sign before the command name AutoCAD ask you to enter the index for the tab that will be active in the dialog box. +PUBLISH is another one.
From www.teknigroup.com
AutoCAD Support News - December 27, 2001
2002 Associative Dimensioning Settings.
In 2002 Dimensions are now associated with the object(s) being dimensioned, in model or layout space. This feature is enabled by setting DIMASSOC to 2.
Check your template drawing. In AutoCAD 2000i and below, the DIMASSOC setting is 1, which will revert your 2002 efforts to 2000i characteristics.
With DIMASSOC set to 2, you will no longer have to set DIMLFAC to correspond to layout scales. Dimensions will display the proper values in each view.
Dimensions are attached to layout space objects when dimensioning in layouts. This is the preferred method for dimensioning.
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IGES and NURBS Surfaces in AutoCAD
NURBS splines are standard object types in R2000/R14/R13. Some confusion arises as to the nature of splines and surfaces. AutoCAD does not support NURBS surfaces, nor will IGES translate NURBS surfaces into AutoCAD without conversion. NURBS surfaces will be translated as either Polyface meshes or NURBS spline wireframes. There will be a great deal of accuracy lost in a model is NURBS surfaces or splines are converted into polylines or polyface meshes. Mechanical Desktop will accomplish the translations accurately, but standard AutoCAD will not.
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Obtaining ACIS Solids from existing 2D Drawing Views
A short tutorial on creating acis solids from existing 3 view 2D drawings is available by selecting Go Solids.
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Restoring Lost Toolbars
Toolbars (icons) may be inadvertently deleted when an icon is selected with the right mouse button, then selecting "Delete" in the dialog instead of "Cancel". To restore the original toolbars, simply type menu, then select .MNU filetype, finally the menu name of choice. Warning: be sure to save all customization changes from the .MNS file to the appropriate .MNU file before recompiling!
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Using Polar and Object Tracking in R2000/2000i
Object tracking used in conjunction with Polar Tracking permits rapid construction of geometry without the need to create any additional construction geometry. When used with running object snap, the user merely pauses over a snap point, creating a temporary marker that will be used to enable the Object tracking.
As an example, using running Midpoint and Intersection snap and Object Tracking, initiate the circle command and pause over the vertical midpoint of the side of a rectangle, creating a marker. Then, without picking, pause over a horizontal midpoint of the rectangle, creating another marker. Move your cursor toward the center of the rectangle and observe the horizontal and vertical tracking lines. When you have your cursor near the intersection of the tracking lines, the Intersection snap indicator will light. Pick to establish the center of the circle.
If you indavertantly create a marker in the wrong place, just drift your cursor back over the marker and it will disappear.
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Do subscript/superscript text? (Terry Dotson)
It can't be done in TEXT but you can do it in MTEXT using the stack mechanism. As an example bring up the MTEXT editor dialog and paste in something like:
Raise to the 3rd^ Power!
The procedure is to use the ^ carat symbol along with the same number of spaces as you have characters to shift up/down. In my example above I would enter this into the MTEXT editor dialog box, there are three spaces after the ^, two to balance the shift of the 'rd' and a third for the natural space between the words. In the MTEXT editor I would highlight the 5 characters "rd^ ", then press the A/B stacking button in the dialog. The 'rd' then becomes superscript. To achieve subscript simply reverse the order putting the spaces and carat first, for example " ^rd".
If you wanted to underline the superscript or overline the subscript, use a "/" (forwardslash) instead of the carat symbol.
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In A2000i/A2002, set OSNAPCOORD = 1 to avoid having osnaps override typed points and distances.
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I have created line types with text in them to represent utility lines in a civil drawing. Problem is when I use them on an arc the text always faces the same way, with the top of the text towards the center of the arc. Is there a lisp that fixes this or a way to get the text facing the direction I want it?
Turn on Linetype Generation (LTGEN) for the polyline and it will show in the direction of the polyline (T.Dotson).
This situation can be handled by REV.LSP from http://www.turvill.com/t2/free_stuff
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acadsheetmetal/index.html Awaiting a home after evaluation. At present this call is in Autocad, Customizing, and MDT.
sgilogo/index.html Index Of SGI Logo Folder. Awaiting a home after evaluation. At present this call is in Autocad, Customizing (script), MDT and Rhino (where it all started because a tut link went dead.
Contact: Aussie John wpsmoke@yahoo.co.uk