- SAVEAS saves the current drawing to a new file name. Example: If you are working in "A.DWG" and you run the SAVEAS command and specify "B.DWG", then "B.DWG" is created and is now the current drawing in the editor.
- QSAVE simply saves the current drawing. If the current drawing is unnamed (not yet saved) or it is read-only, then QSAVE behaves like the SAVEAS command and allows you to specify a file name and location.
- SAVE writes the contents of the editor to disk. It is like SAVEAS in that you get to specify the file name and location, but the currently loaded drawing remains unsaved and unchanged, even though DBMOD is reset to zero in the current drawing. Using the above example, if you are working in "A.DWG" and you run the SAVE command, and specify "B.DWG", then "B.DWG" is created from the contents of the editor, but "A.DWG" remains loaded, unchanged, and unsaved.
The exception to this rule is that when the SAVE command is executed in an unnamed drawing, it behaves like the SAVEAS command and names the current drawing.
To confuse things even more, the pull-down menu entry titled SAVE, actually executes the QSAVE command. The SAVE command is only available at the command prompt.
Labels: AutoCAD, AutoCAD LT, Tips
PermaLink Posted 10/21/2008 06:22:00 AM Comments (0)
I frequently see the question "What is the difference between AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT?" Autodesk provides a comparison matrix that highlights some of the differences. (That particular document compares the 2008 versions).
But there really doesn't seem to be a comprehensive comparison of what the actual differences are. I imagine many new LT users figure out a command is missing when they go to use a familiar command and it tells them...
Command: XCLIP
Unknown Command "XCLIP". Press F1 for HELP.
Below I have listed a quick summary of major differences, a quick summary of the new features in LT, and then a list of 323 commands and 175 system variables that are available in AutoCAD, but not available in AutoCAD LT 2009.
General list of what is missing in LT...
Here is a summary of the major features that are not included in LT 2009.
- Sheet Set Manager
- Network licensing
- CAD standards management
- Most 3D tools and commands
- Express tools
- Action recorder
- Support for Autolisp, VBA, .NET and other programming languages.
New for LT 2009...
Besides the normal UI upgrade to match AutoCAD, the following previously unavailable features have been added to LT 2009.
- Image referencing
- Non-rectangular viewports
- Truecolor
- Fields
- 64-bit support
List of unavailable commands in LT 2009
Below is a list of 323 commands that are available in AutoCAD 2009, but not available in AutoCAD LT 2009.
*SCROLL
-3DCONFIG
-ACTSTOP
-ACTUSERMESSAGE
-ARCHIVE
-DWFADJUST
-EATTEXT
-INTERFERE
-MLEDIT
-OPENSHEETSET
-PARTIALLOAD
-PARTIALOPEN
-PUBLISH
-REFEDIT
-SHADEMODE
-VBALOAD
-VBARUN
-VISUALSTYLES
..ACADSTATUS
3D
3DALIGN
3DARRAY
3DCLIP
3DCONFIG
3DCORBIT
3DDISTANCE
3DDWF
3DDWFPUBLISH
3DFACE
3DFLY
3DFORBIT
3DMESH
3DORBIT
3DORBITCTR
3DRENDER
3DROTATE
3DSIN
3DSOUT
3DSWIVEL
3DWALK
ACISIN
ADCCUSTOMNAVIGATE
ACTRECORD
ACTSTOP
ACTUSERINPUT
ACTUSERMESSAGE
AI_BOX
AI_CIRCTAN
AI_CONE
AI_CUSTOM_SAFE
AI_DIM_TEXTABOVE
AI_DIM_TEXTCENTER
AI_DIM_TEXTHOME
AI_DISH
AI_DOME
AI_FMS
AI_INVOKENFW
AI_MOLC
AI_PRODUCT_SUPPORT
AI_PRODUCT_SUPPORT_SAFE
AI_PSPACE
AI_PYRAMID
AI_SELALL
AI_SPHERE
AI_TORUS
AI_TRAINING_SAFE
AI_WEDGE
ALIASEDIT
ALIGN
ALIGNSPACE
ALLPLAY
AMECONVERT
ANIPATH
APPLOAD
ARCHIVE
ARCTEXT
ARX
ASSIST
ASSISTCLOSE
ATTIN
ATTOUT
ATTREDEF
ATTSYNC
BACKGROUND
BATTMAN
BCOUNT
BEXTEND
BLOCK?
BLOCKREPLACE
BLOCKTOXREF
BORROWLICENSE
BOX
BREAKLINE
BREP
BROWSER2
BSCALE
BTRIM
BURST
CAMERA
CDORDER
CHECKSTANDARDS
CHURLS
CLIPIT
COMPILE
CONE
CONVERTOLDLIGHTS
CONVERTOLDMATERIALS
CONVTOSOLID
CONVTOSURFACE
COPYM
CYLINDER
DATAEXTRACTION
'DBCCLOSE
'DBCONNECT
DBLIST
'DDGRIPS
'DDSELECT
DIMEX
DIMIM
DIMREASSOC
DISTANTLIGHT
DVIEW
DXBIN
EATTEDIT
EATTEXT
EATTEXTEDIT
EATTEXTUPDATE
EDGE
EDGESURF
EDITTIME
EDITSHOT
EXOFFSET
EXPLAN
EXPRESSMENU
EXPRESSTOOLS
EXTRIM
EXTRUDE
FILTERS
FINISH
FLATSHOT
FLATTEN
FOG
FREESPOT
FREEWEB
FS
FSMODE
GATTE
GETSEL
GIFIN
GRADIENT
HELIX
HYPERLINKOPEN
IMAGEAPP
IMAGEEDIT
IMPRESSION
IMPRINT
INTERFERE
JOGSECTION
LAYERP
LAYERPMODE
LAYOUTMERGE
LAYTRANS
LAYVPMODE
LIGHT
LIGHTLIST
LIGHTLISTCLOSE
LIVESECTION
LOAD
LOFT
LSP
LSPSURF
MATERIALASSIGN
MATERIALATTACH
MATERIALMAP
MATERIALS
MATERIALSCLOSE
MENU
MINSERT
MIRROR3D
MKLTYPE
MKSHAPE
MLEDIT
MLINE
MLSTYLE
MOCORO
MOVEBAK
MPEDIT
MSTRETCH
MVSETUP
NAVSMOTION
NAVSMOTIONCLOSE
NAVVCUBE
NCOPY
NETLOAD
NEWSHEETSET
NEWSHOT
NEWVIEW
OLDMTPROP
OLELINKS
OPENSHEETSET
OVERKILL
PAINTPROP
PARTIALOAD
PARTIALOPEN
PFACE
PLANESURF
PLJOIN
PLT2DWG
POINTLIGHT
POLYSOLID
PRESSPULL
PROPULATE
PSBSCALE
PSELECT
PSFILL
PSTSCALE
PYRAMID
QDIM
QLATTACH
QLATTACHSET
QLDETACHSET
QQUIT
REDEFINE
REDIR
REFCLOSE
REFEDIT
REFSET
RENDER
RENDERCROP
RENDERENVIRONMENT
RENDEREXPOSURE
RENDERUNLOAD
RENDERUPDATE
RENDERWIN
RENDSCR
REPLAY
REPURLS
RETURNLICENSE
REVERT
REVOLVE
REVSURF
ROTATE3D
RPREF
RPREFCLOSE
RTEDIT
RTEXT
RTUCS
RULESURF
SAVEALL
SAVEIMG
SECTION
SECTIONPLANE
SEQUENCEPLAY
SETIDROPHANDLER
SHAPE
SHEETSET
SHEETSETHIDE
SHELL
SHOWURLS
SHP2BLK
SKETCH
SLICE
SOLDRAW
SOLIDEDIT
SOLPROF
SOLVIEW
SPHERE
SPOTLIGHT
SSX
STANDARDS
STATS
'STATUS
STLOUT
SUNPROPERTIES
SUNPROPERTIESCLOSE
SUPERHATCH
SWEEP
SYSVDLG
TABSURF
TARGETPOINT
TBCONFIG
TCASE
TCIRCLE
TCOUNT
TEXTFIT
TEXTMASK
TEXTUNMASK
TFRAMES
THICKEN
TJUST
TORIENT
TORUS
TRACE
'TREESTAT
TSCALE
TUTCLEAR
TUTDEMO
TXT2MTXT
UNDEFINE
VBAIDE
VBALOAD
VBAMAN
VBARUN
VBASTMT
VIEWPLAY
VISUALSTYLES
VISUALSTYLESCLOSE
VLIDE
VLISP
VPSCALE
VPSYNC
VSCURRENT
VSSAVE
WALKFLYSETTINGS
WEBLIGHT
WEDGE
XCLIP
XDATA
XDLIST
XEDGES
XLIST
XOPEN
XREFCLIP
List of unavailable system variables in AutoCAD LT 2009
Below is a list of 175 system variables that are available in AutoCAD 2009, but not available in AutoCAD LT 2009.
*_TOOLPALETTEPATH
_LINFO
_SERVER
3DCONVERSIONMODE
3DDWFPREC
ACADPREFIX
ACADVER
ACIS15
ACISOUTVER
APSTATE
ASSISTSTATE
AXISMODE
AXISUNIT
BINDTYPE
CAMERADISPLAY
CAMERAHEIGHT
CMATERIAL
CMLJUST
CMLSCALE
CMLSTYLE
COMPASS
CPROFILE
CPUTICKS
CSHADOW
CURRENTPROFILE
DBCSTATE
DBGLISTALL
DEFAULTLIGHTING
DEFAULTLIGHTINGTYPE
DEMANDLOAD
DRAGVS
DWGWRITE
DXEVAL
ENTERPRISEMENU
FACETRATIO
FFLIMIT
FLATLAND
FULLOPEN
GFANG
GFCLR1
GFCLR2
GFCLRLUM
GFCLRSTATE
GFNAME
GFSHIFT
GTAUTO
GTDEFAULT
GTLOCATION
HPASSOC
IMPLIEDFACE
INTERFERECOLOR
INTERFEREOBJVS
INTERFEREVPVS
LASTPROMPT
LAYOUTREGENCTL
LAZYLOAD
LEGACYCTRLPICK
LIGHTGLYPHDISPLAY
LIGHTINGUNITS
LIGHTLISTSTATE
LIGHTSINBLOCKS
LINEARBRIGHTNESS
LINEARCONTRAST
LISPINIT
LOFTANG1
LOFTANG2
LOFTMAG1
LOFTMAG2
LOFTNORMALS
LOFTPARAM
LOGEXPBRIGHTNESS
LOGEXPCONTRAST
LOGEXPDAYLIGHT
LOGEXPMIDTONES
LOGEXPPHYSICALSCALE
LOGINNAME
LONGFNAME
MATSTATE
MENUCTL
MENUNAME
NOMUTT
OFFSETGAPTYPE
OSNAPZ
PFACEVMAX
PLOTID
PLOTTER
PLQUIET
POPUPS
PROJECTNAME
PSOLHEIGHT
PSOLWIDTH
PSQUALITY
PSVPSCALE
PUBLISHCOLLATE
QAUCSLOCK
QUEUEDREGENMAX
RE-INIT
REFEDITNAME
RENDERPREFSSTATE
RENDERUSERLIGHTS
RIASPECT
RIBACKG
RIEDGE
RIGAMUT
RIGREY
RITHRESH
SAVEIMAGES
SCREENBOXES
SCREENMODE
SHADOWPLANELOCATION
SHOWHIST
SHPNAME
SKETCHINC
SKPOLY
SOLIDCHECK
SOLIDHIST
SPACESWITCH
SSFOUND
SSLOCATE
SSMAUTOOPEN
SSMPOLLTIME
SSMSHEETSTATUS
SSMSTATE
STANDARDSVIOLATION
STARTUPTODAY
STEPSIZE
STEPSPERSEC
SUNPROPERTIESSTATE
SUNSTATUS
SURFTAB1
SURFTAB2
SURFTYPE
SURFU
SURFV
TBCUSTOMIZE
TEMPPREFIX
TEXTOUTPUTFILEFORMAT
UCSDETECT
UCSVP
UNDOONDISK
USERS1
USERS2
USERS3
USERS4
USERS5
VSBACKGROUNDS
VSEDGECOLOR
VSEDGEJITTER
VSEDGEOVERHANG
VSEDGES
VSEDGESMOOTH
VSFACECOLORMODE
VSFACEHIGHLIGHT
VSFACEOPACITY
VSFACESTYLE
VSHALOGAP
VSHIDEPRECISION
VSINTERSECTIONCOLOR
VSINTERSECTIONEDGES
VSINTERSECTIONLTYPE
VSISOONTOP
VSLIGHTINGQUALITY
VSMATERIALMODE
VSMONOCOLOR
VSOBSCUREDCOLOR
VSOBSCUREDEDGES
VSOBSCUREDLTYPE
VSSHADOWS
VSSILHEDGES
VSSILHWIDTH
VSSTATE
WHIPTHREAD
WRITESTAT
XFADECTL
XREFNOTIFY
If you spot a mistake or would like to add something, leave a comment please. Thanks.
Labels: AutoCAD, AutoCAD 2009, AutoCAD LT, Tips
PermaLink Posted 5/07/2008 11:57:00 AM Comments (11)
Starting in AutoCAD 2006, you can specify a highlight color and opacity to your selection areas as illustrated by the green area shown in the example below.
Below is a description of these options and how to change them.
If you want to go through the OPTIONS dialog, open it up and switch to the Selection tab. Click on the Visual Effect Settings button. Everything you need to control is there on the right half of this dialog, shown above.
If you want to change these options with code or a macro, here are the system variable names to do that.
- SELECTIONAREA - turns this feature off (0) or on (1).
- WINDOWAREACOLOR - sets the color used during a window selection (1-255)
- CROSSINGAREACOLOR - sets the color used during a crossing window selection (1-255)
- SELECTIONAREAOPACITY - determines the amount of transparency used by the selection area colors (0-100)
Here is an example of setting these variables using lisp
(setvar "selectionarea" 1)
(setvar "windowareacolor" 30)
(setvar "crossingareacolor" 51)
(setvar "selectionareaopacity" 30)
Labels: AutoCAD, AutoCAD 2008, AutoCAD LT, Programming, Tips
PermaLink Posted 12/12/2007 12:36:00 PM Comments (0)
Now you have a drawing containing layouts with the proper plot settings. Let's do some more things.
Create and scale additional viewports.
You can create as many viewports as you need in a given layout. Not only that, but each one can be scaled differently. Maybe you are putting together a detail sheet with various scaled details, or maybe you need a blow up detail of something in your first viewport. To do this, just repeat the steps in part 1. Let's number the steps here so we can refer back to them.
- Type in the command MVIEW (or choose View, Viewports, 1 Viewport from the pull-down menus)
- Pick a rectangle on your "paper"
- The contents of model space will appear within this viewport. If you have objects spread out in MS, you may not see anything. Hang on, we'll fix this.
- In the Status Bar of AutoCAD, find the PAPER button. Click it. It will change to MODEL. Now your cursor is restricted to the limits of the viewport. (If you do not have this PAPER button, use the type in command MSPACE to switch to Model Space)
- Pan or zoom as desired. Notice how only the MS entities move. Layout entities stay put.
- Now let's scale the model accurately. Type in ZOOM, the "C" for Center. Then pick a point roughly on the center of your model.
- Now enter the scale factor. If the scale is 1"=50', enter 1/50XP. If the scale is 1"=20', enter 1/20XP. You can also use the viewport toolbar to set the scale, but you may get undesired results.
- After you have set the scale, you can PAN without altering the zoom level.
- Once you are satisfied, click the MODEL button in the status bar. It will change to PAPER. (If you do not have this MODEL button, use the type in command PSPACE to switch to Paper Space)
- Click on the viewport to highlight the grips. Right click anywhere and choose Display Locked, Yes.
Viewport shapes other than rectangular
So far, all we have made is rectangular viewports. However, you can make polygonal, circular, or elliptical viewports also. You can actually make them any shape you want. Let's start with a polygonal viewport.
- Type in the command MVIEW (or choose View, Viewports, Polygonal Viewport from the pull-down menus).
- If you use the type in command MVIEW, then enter "P" at the next prompt.
- Now draw a figure just like you were drawing a polyline. Notice that arcs are allowed.
- Pick up at step 4 above.
Viewports from objects
Now you can create a polygonal viewport. What if you already have an object created that you want to use as a viewport, but you don't want to have to trace it. No problem, follow these steps.
- Type in the command MVIEW (or choose View, Viewports, Object from the pull-down menus).
- If you use the type in command MVIEW, then enter "O" at the next prompt.
- Now select a closed object. You can select any of these closed objects: CIRCLE, ELLIPSE, SPLINE, REGION, or POLYLINE. A viewport will be created.
- Pick up at step 4 above.
Note: Viewports created from objects retain the original object also, and they are linked. If you select a viewport created from an object, TWO items will be selected, the viewport and the original object. This is important to remember if you are trying to edit a viewport in the Properties window and it's properties do not show up.
Setting properties on a per-viewport basis
You can control entity color, linetype, lineweight, and visibility on a per-viewport basis. To do this...
- While you are in a layout, click the PAPER button in the status bar. (If you do not have this PAPER button, use the type in command MSPACE to switch to Model Space).
- Open the layer manager, and scroll over to the right.
- You will see columns that are not normally there while you are working on the Model tab. These are VP Freeze, VP Color, VP Linetype, VP Lieweight, and VP Plot Style.
- Modifying any of these properties for a given layer only changes those properties in the viewport that is active.
See the image below. There are 4 viewports. Three of them were copies of the upper left one. You can clearly see how we are able to modify properties of entitys per-viewport.
- The upper left viewport has not been modified. This is how these entities look in Model Space.
- In the upper right viewport, all the lines have been changed to color 6.
- In the lower left viewport, all the lines except the top one have been frozen.
- In the lower right viewport, all the linetypes have been changed. You can see how this gives you a lot of flexibility.
Plotting/Publishing
When you are ready to plot, everything should be in order since you have already set the plotting parameters for each layout (see part 1). To plot multiple layouts from a single drawing...
- Click on the first layout, then hold the Ctrl Key and click on the other layouts (you can also hold the Shift Key and click on the last layout to select them all).
- Right click and choose Publish Selected Layouts.
- The Publish dialog will open with your layouts included.
- Check the "Publish To" section of the dialog. If you want to create a DWF file, check this option - otherwise leave it set to "Plotter named in page setup"
- If you are plotting to file (including DWF), click the Publish Options button to verify the destination directory and other options.
- Click the Publish button to begin.
Note: Publishing layouts from multiple drawing files has other steps that I did not cover here. More detail on the PUBLISH command can be found in this article by Ellen Finkelstein.
Labels: AutoCAD, AutoCAD 2008, AutoCAD LT, Tips
PermaLink Posted 11/07/2007 07:05:00 AM Comments (1)
Before starting, let me say there are many ways to do what I'm outlining here, this is simply one of them. There are also many options in AutoCAD that could cause one or more of these steps to be missing or could cause an extra step to appear. I'm using a stock copy of AutoCAD, right out of the box.
Preparation
- First, open up the OPTIONS dialog, and switch to the Display tab.
- Under Layout Elements, make sure all the checkboxes are checked ON, except "Create Viewport in New Layouts".
- Close OPTIONS
Set the plotting options
- Right Click on Layout1, choose Rename
- Give it a name like "MY TEST".
- Now click on the MY TEST layout.
- The Page Setup Manager will appear, and "MY TEST" will be highlighted in the list.
- Click the modify button.
- The dialog that opens looks a lot like the PLOT dialog.
- Set your printer, paper size, plot style table, orientation, etc.
- Leave "What to Plot" set to "Layout"
- Make sure the scale is 1:1
- Click Ok, then Close the Page Setup manager.
Create the Viewport
- Create a Viewport
- Type in the command MVIEW (or choose View, Viewports, 1 Viewport from the pull-down menus)
- Pick a rectangle on your "paper"
- The contents of model space will appear within this viewport. If you have objects spread out in MS, you may not see anything. Hang on, we'll fix this.
- In the Status Bar of AutoCAD, find the PAPER button. Click it. It will change to MODEL. Now your cursor is restricted to the limits of the viewport. (If you do not have this PAPER button, use the type in command MSPACE to switch to Model Space)
- Pan or zoom as desired. Notice how only the MS entities move. Layout entities stay put.
- Now let's scale the model accurately. Type in ZOOM, the "C" for Center. Then pick a point roughly on the center of your model.
- Now enter the scale factor. If the scale is 1"=50', enter 1/50XP. If the scale is 1"=20', enter 1/20XP. You can also use the viewport toolbar to set the scale, but you may get undesired results.
- After you have set the scale, you can PAN without altering the zoom level.
- Once you are satisfied, click the MODEL button in the status bar. It will change to PAPER.(If you do not have this MODEL button, use the type in command PSPACE to switch to Paper Space)
- Click on the viewport to highlight the grips. Right click anywhere and choose Display Locked, Yes.
You are ready to go now. No more selecting the printer and paper size each time you want to print. It's ready to go. As mentioned before, you can import this layout into any other drawing. Here is how.
Importing this layout into another drawing
- Save the drawing you have been working on.
- Open a different drawing.
- Right click on any layout tab.
- Choose From Template
- Change the files of Type from "DWT" to "DWG"
- Find the DWG that you just saved and select it.
- A new dialog will appear that contains the "MY TEST" layout. Select it and press OK.
- The layout you created earlier has now been imported into the current drawing.
For best results, create the various layouts you need in your template drawings. Then they will always be there when you start a new drawing. You can add a sheet border and title block to the layout also.
Part 2 is here
Labels: AutoCAD, AutoCAD 2008, AutoCAD LT, Tips
PermaLink Posted 10/30/2007 08:52:00 PM Comments (2)
Kate's CAD Tips
By: Kate M
Blog: http://katescadtips.blogspot.com/
Feed: http://katescadtips.blogspot.com/atom.xml
The LT Side of Things
By: Erik
Blog: http://ltsideofthings.blogspot.com/
Feed: http://ltsideofthings.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Labels: AutoCAD LT, Notices
PermaLink Posted 9/09/2007 08:21:00 AM Comments (0)