Here are a couple of quick tips on External References.

• Rather than opening the External References palette, then right clicking to attach a reference, you can go use the ._XATTACH command to go directly to the "Select File" dialog.
• You can still access the old "Xref Manager" and "Image Manager" dialogs by running the ._CLASSICXREF and ._CLASSICIMAGE commands, respectfully.
• If you want to attach multiple DWG references at one time, you will have to use the older ._CLASSICXREF command mentioned above.
• Starting in AutoCAD 2010, the XDWGFADECTL system variable controls the dimming of referenced DWG files.

Yes, I'm way late on this, but in case you have been in a cave for the last week or so, Autodesk released their latest Advantage Packs for AutoCAD 2010, and several verticals last week. These Advantage Packs are available for subscription members only.

I'm going to cover the tools included in the Advantage Pack for AutoCAD 2010 below. The "Subscription" tab for the ribbon for this Advantage Pack is shown above. Keep reading for more....

Update 2 for AutoCAD Civil 3D 2010 is out. You can find it using the link below.

http://usa.autodesk.com/getdoc/id=DL13921667

This update fixes over 40 issues, and it contains all the previous fixes from C3D update 1, AutoCAD update 1, and Map update 1. As always, be careful with any new software patches on production machines. A similar update is out for AutoCAD Civil 2010 also.

Thanks to Tony Tanzillo for posting the information needed to disable the Infocenter. This was repeated by others such as Jimmy at JTBWorld, and Owen at Outside the Box. I even linked to it here also.

Anyway, we are rolling out some 2010 products and I thought it would be a good idea to perform this step as early as possible and per user (not per machine - since this is a per user setting now)... So why not put it in a windows startup script...? So I turned it loose on a set of test machines...

Starting with AutoCAD 2010, the old Portable License Utility (PLU) has been replaced by the License Transfer Utility (LTU). The old PLU essentially created a "license file" that you could move from one computer to another using a network, flash drive or any other method. If you bought a new computer for example, you could install AutoCAD on the new computer, and use the PLU to transfer the activation from the old machine to the new one.

The only problem with this is that the PLU failure rate was about 50%, and because you had to define the target machine when you exported, you could not re-import back onto the same machine.

So along comes the LTU. So what is the difference? The LTU copies your activation up to the Autodesk servers where it can sit until you are ready to import it. So far in my testing, it has not failed once. Of course you will need an internet connection on both machines, and you will need an Autodesk UserID and password. If you don't have one, you can create one.

Since at least R14, inside the OPTIONS dialog, on the Files tab, the first expandable checkbox contains the Support File Search Path (SFSP).

This is a list of local and/or network paths in which AutoCAD looks for support files when needed. You might not put too much thought into this, and the settings on your machine may even be set by your CAD manager. But it's good to know how this affects AutoCAD.

If you would like to open the OPTIONS dialog to a particular tab, maybe in a menu macro or lisp routine, or even from the command line, you can do it.

Just prefix the OPTIONS command with a "+" sign. The next prompt will be for an index number. The tabs are numbered starting with zero (0). As an example, if you wanted to open OPTIONS to the "Display" tab, you would enter the command like this:

Command: +OPTIONS
Tab index <0>: 1

Update 1 for AutoCAD 2010 and AutoCAD LT 2010 has been released. You can download it here. The readme file can be found here.

Notes: This update is for AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT only. It does not apply to and will not install on vertical products like Civil 3D, Map, etc. There are separate 32-bit and 64-bit versions.

Ok, I know many of you know some of these, maybe even a few that know about all of them, but there are new AutoCAD users every day... Some of these are old and some are new.

So what is your favorite "obscure" command?

1. CONVERTPOLY (R14-R2010) - This undocumented command will allow you to convert "heavy" polylines to LWPOLYLINE's and vice versa. "Heavy" polylines are the pre-R14 version. They still have uses today, and the PLINETYPE system variable controls what gets created by default.
2. DBLIST (Version 2.0 - R2010) - This command will list every entity in the drawing. Useful when you think you have some entities that are not showing up. You can erase everything visible and then run DBLIST to see what else is still there.