One of the most misunderstood commands in AutoCAD is the SAVE command. Note that SAVE, QSAVE, and SAVEAS all do different things. SAVEAS saves the current drawing to a new file name. Example: If you are working in “A.DWG” and…
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If you have written routines with Autolisp, then you have probably used the (ssget) function to select entities on the screen, either automatically or by prompting the user. (ssget) is a powerful function that can do more than you probably…
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In the previous post about Startup Lisp Functions, the special (S::STARTUP) function was mentioned. Startup lisp code is loaded before the drawing is initialized, but you cannot call the (COMMAND) function until after the drawing is initialized. The solution is…
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If you have lisp routines that you want to make available in each drawing session, forget the “Startup Suite” and load them using the “acaddoc.lsp” file. “acaddoc.lsp” is not included with AutoCAD, you create it yourself. But it is nothing more than…
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Here is a simple example of how to read a TXT file into lisp and then do something with the contents. In this example, the TXT file contains coordinates, and the code will draw either points or lines. One thing…
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Starting with AutoCAD 2008, you now have direct access to the Layer States Manager, without opening the LAYER dialog first. In AutoCAD 2008, click the button on the far right of the LAYERS toolbar. In AutoCAD 2009, click the ribbon…
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If you try to open a dialog in AutoCAD but nothing happens, there is a chance that the dialog is open but it’s just “off your screen”. If you cannot proceed until you press ESCAPE, then this is almost certainly…
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New to 2009 is the default icon mode for the drawing tool buttons. You know what these are, the SNAP GRID ORTHO POLAR OSNAP, etc. buttons down in the status bar. They take up less room as icons, but you…
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Workspace switching has been made easier in AutoCAD 2009 by a new tool in the status bar that mimics the functionality in the current Workspaces toolbar. See the animation below. This tool is visible by default no matter what workspace…
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One of the problems that has plagued AutoCAD 2008 and it’s verticals has been the bloated scale list. Scale list entries are propagated from drawing to drawing similar to the way named layer filters did back in AutoCAD 2002. You…
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