1. AutoCAD Tips & Tricks for Civil Engineers
Lynn Allen
Cadalyst columnist & Autodesk Technical Evangelist
AutoCAD Tips & Tricks for Civil Engineers

2. The New Sheet Set Manager (SSM) organizes for You!
Simplified:
Drawing organization
right click plotting
Transmittal sets
Archiving
Standards compliance
Everyone stays in sync with the project
New DST file format
AutoCAD 2005
The new Sheet Set Manager in AutoCAD 2005 provides:
An easy way to collate drawing sheets into logical sets of drawings (customers can organize DWG’s in to sets using the same system as they do on paper
Customers can store project information for later use in drawing title blocks or project title sheets
Drawing can be batch plotting, published to DWF, eTransmitted or archived with a simple right click.
No more hunting around for files trying to ensure you plotting all the drawings in the set
Know your contractor or client will get all the files they need to make design changes
Project standards can be build into the sheet set so all project drawings use the same CAD Standards
Team members can all access the sheet set information simultaneous so that they can keep track of what other team members are adding to the project.
You can quickly assemble sheet sets using existing drawings, propagate sheet standards over multiple projects,

3. Keys, Keys, Keys Clean Screen (Control+0)
Double click on the toolbar handles to float
Control+R to cycle through all of your viewports
Control+A to select all the objects in your drawing
Control to cycle through objects
Tab to cycle through object snaps
Navigate through layouts with Control+PageUp and Control+PageDown
Hold down right mouse button to clear grips
Shift for more than one hot grip
Shift to remember distances and angles in gripmode
Arrow up and down through commands
Control+Tab to cycle through open drawings

4. Everyday Timesavers
New OSNAP (keyboard modifier) – Midpoint between two points (M2P/MTP)
Zoom to Object(s)
Maximize Viewport
Revcloud – new Calligraphy Option
Delete Named Layer Filters
Right Click Customization
Trim/Extend Shortcut (enter to select cutting edges/boundaries)
‘CAL – Geometric Calculator
Some additional timesavers…

5. Secret System Variables
SYSVDLG – friendly dialog box for your system variables
MAXSORT – maximum number of named objects AutoCAD will sort
MTJIGSTRING – MTEXT sample string
MBUTTONPAN – Third button accesses OSNAP menu
OSNAPHATCH – controls OSNAPS with hatch patterns
PEDITACCEPT – turns off extra prompt in PEDIT
PLINEGEN – Tells Linetypes to traverse across vertices
TASKBAR – Open drawings appear on the taskbar
UCSFOLLOW – tells the UCS icon to change to the plan view whenever the UCS is modified
XREFTYPE – set attachment or overlay as default

6. Bhatch Tips With Bhatch, you can: Assign draworder to hatch objects
Hatch an area with a boundary gap
Trim a hatch to a new boundary

7. MTEXT Tips Supports a background mask New Symbols
Click outside of dialog box to exit command quickly
MTJIGSTRING System Variable
TEXTTOFRONT command
Mtext has been improved to incorporate tabs and in place editting
Word Docs come into AutoCAD with full fidelity
3. MIRRTEXT System Variable
no limit to the page size of Excel OLE documents when using Microsoft Office Windows XP SP1
How much time do you spend aligning and updating annotations? How many notes in your files are made up of single line text objects? When you copy and paste notes from Microsoft Word, does the formatting get jumbled?
Formatting problems won’t be a problem any longer. The Multiline Text (MTEXT) Editor has been updated, giving you the capability to put indents and tab stops into your annotations. Even pre-formatted text will paste as-is into the new MTEXT editor. You also have in-place editing capabilities, letting you see how the text will look like on the display without the dialog box getting in your way.
NOTE TO SPEAKER: Ask audience, “Who has a need to format text in their drawings?”
How do you currently mark-up designs, red pen and paper? How long does this process take? AutoCAD 2004 now has Revision Clouds, enabling you to perform markups on your design files.

8. Awesome Express Tools Reset Dim Text Value SuperHatch Layer Walk Burst
Make Linetype
Edittime
Flatten
Overkill (Deletes Duplicate Objects)
Layer Delete and Layer Merge
Change Space/Align Space

9. Embed Drawings into PPT!
Insert

10. Powerpoint Steps: Insert Object Right Click on Control Icon
DWF Viewer Control =>Properties
Select the DWF

11. Startup switches Target - "C:\Program Files\AutoCAD 2005\acad.exe“
/b run a specific script file
/t template file
/p profile
/v view name
/nologo starts AutoCAD without logo screen
/layout displays a specific layout in a specified drawing file
/nossm turns off the Sheet Set Manager
/set displays a specific sheet set
For more info: look up “Customize Startup” in help file or visit

12. Easter Egg
Shift+Ctrl+pick

13. AutoCAD 2005 lynn.allen@autodesk.com www.autodesk.com/lynnallen
Insert slide for VARs and ATCs…