Text

Text is comand to make article or description. Example letter, number, phonetic symbol, etc.
Mode of action :
1. Click at menu or types at command : text
2. Blog at area wanted
3. Writes and arranges as wanted
4. Last, click OK

Arc

Arc is comand to make bent line by the way of clicking 3 point of point.

Mode of action :
1. Click at menu or types at command : arc
2. Click at point that is first
3. Click at second point
4. And click at point that is third

Polygon

Polygon is comand to make facet. Example, rectangular, pentagon, hexagon, dst.
Mode of action :
1. Click at menu or types at command : polygon
2. Types at command, facet how many which wish to be made
3. Enter
4. Left click at making cool place
5. Enter
6. Types at command, big of the facet radius
7. Enter

Draw

• Line
• Polyline
• Polygon
• Arc
  
• Circle
• Text
  

Menu 2D

• Draw
  

Circle

Circle is comand applied to make circle.
mode of action :
1. Click icon at menu or types at command : circle
2. Left click at place wanted
3. Types how many circle radius wanted
4. Enter

Polyline

Polyline is comand applied to make line. This comand much the same to with line, the difference polylineline yields line which one.
mode of action :
1. Click icon at menu or types at command : polyline
2. Left click at place wanted
3. And so on
4. If completed, terminates with right click and chooses enter.

Line

Line is comand applied to make line.
mode of action :
1. Click icon at menu or types at command : line
2. Left click at place wanted
3. And so on
4. If completed, terminates with right click and chooses enter.

How to find the rotation angle of a layout viewport?

The angle of the current rotation of a viewport contents - e.g. from the command MVSETUP > Align viewports > Rotate view - is stored in the VIEWTWIST variable (you must be in the modelspace of the respective viewport).

You can also find the rotation with the VIEW command - Current view angle values.

Limiting RAM usage when plotting raster images.

When plotting drawings with raster images, AutoCAD may consume large amounts or RAM memory.

Since version 2007 you can limit the amount of this consumed memory through the variables RASTERPERCENT and RASTERTHRESHOLD. On the other hand, too low values (settings) of these variables can inadverently block plotting of larger drawings (maps).

The RASTERTHRESHOLD variable (by default: 20MB) controls the threshold of raster memory in megabytes. If the plotted raster image exceeds the limit, the availability of system memory is checked and the plot is aborted if the image is too big for the available memory.

The RASTERPERCENT variable (by default: 20%) sets the maximum percent of the available virtual memory which can be reserved for raster image plotting.

In case of problems you can try to increase the values to 100MB and 90%.

How to switch AutoCAD 2009 back to the original UI with pull-down menus?

AutoCAD 2009 and LT 2009 starts by default with the new user interface (UI) utilizing the Ribbon. If you prefer to revert back to the classic interface, you can close the ribbon (the RIBBONCLOSE command) and enable the pull-down menus - set the MENUBAR variable to 1.

You can achieve similar results also by switching your workspace to the predefined status "AutoCAD Classic" (with the WSCURRENT variable or by clicking on the gear icon on the right side of the bottom status line).

Geo-marker: an unselectable cone-arrow in AutoCAD drawings

If you find a 2D arrow ("flower") or a color 3D cone in your drawing and this entity cannot be selected, it is probably the "geomarker" placed to that position with the GEOGRAPHICLOCATION command:









This command sets the geographic location of the current drawing (model, project) - e.g. for export to Google Earth, sun lighting or environment calculations/analysis.

There are three ways to specify the geo-location:

1. manually enter the latitude and longitude data (e.g. from a GPS), plus the north direction
2. import (load) the current position from the running Google Earth application
3. import an existing KML or KMZ file in the Google Maps format (see e.g. the KML file with Xanadu offices - you can enter its web URL directly in the Import KML dialog)

You can switch off the marker with the GEOMARKERVISIBILITY variable.

AutoCAD freezes or has very slow startup.

During the application launch, AutoCAD practically freezes and doesn't paint the toolbars.

On a off-line computer (not connected to the Internet), this may be caused by the security communication.

Start Internet Explorer and go to Tools > Internet Options > Advanced tab > Settings > Security. In this section, clear the Publisher's Certificate Revocation check box. Exit by OK.

Now restart AutoCAD.

Flip dimension arrows - outside extension lines.

You can force the dimension arrowheads outside the extension lines even when text does fit.

Use the AIDIMFLIPARROW command. It is available also in the dimension entity context (right-click) menu - "Flip arrow" (the 6th item in AutoCAD 2009).

How to protect users from saving password-protected DWG drawings?

You can disable Security functions during custom installation of AutoCAD.

In an already installed AutoCAD-based application, you can disable passwords using a registry setting.

Use Regedit to open the key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Autodesk\AutoCAD\Rxx.x\ACAD-xxxx:xxx\Applications\AcSecOpt

and set the AllowEncryption value to 0. You can change the value even when AutoCAD is running. You can force the change using Windows group policy.

Locked layers displayed faded.

Locked layers - resp. objects in locked layers - are displayed by default with 50% fading (dimmed). If you want to see the entities in locked layers in full color (not grayed), or with higher dimming, set your LAYLOCKFADECTL variable.

Be careful when naming your AutoCAD action macros.

Action macros you record with the ACTRECORD command can be assigned any name you choose except for the names of AutoCAD internal commands. Macros are then stored to the individual files myMACRONAME.ACTM in the default folder c:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\Autodesk\AutoCAD 2009\R17.2\enu\Support\Actions.

AutoCAD scans this folder after you launch a session and loads any ACTM macros it finds here. You cannot name your macro after an internal command name and AutoCAD even refuses to load an ACTM file which was renamed manually.

But be careful - this protection applies only to the names of AutoCAD commands, not to any external (user-defined) commands you may have defined in your LISP applications (defun c:CMDNAME), other add-on programming tool or even a PGP command alias. You can effectively map out (disable, hide, overlay) your existing commands when you inadverently assign a "wrong" name to your action macro. Your commands, menus, scripts and LISP utilities may suddenly and magically cease to work!

Command/macros can be also overlaid in the opposite way - if you name an action macro the same as an AutoCAD localized command name (it allows you to do this), such macro will run the original command, not the recorded actions.

How to switch off the InfoCenter function in AutoCAD or Map?

You can use the CAD Manager utility to deactivate the InfoCenter and Communication Center. But if you want to disable this function completely, you can use the Registry setting (Regedit).

In the Registry tree go to:

HKLM\Software\Autodesk\AutoCAD\R17.X\ACAD-XXXX:XXX\Applications\InfoCenterAcConn

and set the LoadCtrls key to 0. Restart AutoCAD.

My AutoCAD does not recognize the PDFATTACH command.

If AutoCAD 2009 reports PDFATTACH, PDFLAYERS, PDFCLIP or PDFADJUST as unknown commands, you have probably not installed the Bonus Pack 2.

These commands are included in the "Subscription Bonus Pack 2", not in the basic version of AutoCAD 2009.

Download and install the Bonus Pack 2 from your Subscription Center.

Forcing DWG format version for save in AutoCAD.

AutoCAD allows to save DWG drawing files also in older versions of the DWG format. This setting for the DWG format can be done in the Options dialog, on the "Open and Save" tab.

With the following less-known trick you can force an older save format also from a menu macro, from a LISP utility or through a site-wide setting in the Registry (e.g. using GPO, logon script, etc.).

The default save format in AutoCAD is controlled by the environment variable "DefaultFormatForSave". This value is stored in the Registry - e.g.:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Autodesk\AutoCAD\R17.2\ACAD-7001:409\Profiles\<<>>\General

and you can set it with the function (setenv).

This variable can be set to the following values:

* 48 - AutoCAD 2010 DWG format (estimated)
* 36 - AutoCAD 2007 DWG format
* 24 - AutoCAD 2004 DWG format
* 12 - AutoCAD 2000 DWG format

So e.g. the function (setenv "DefaultFormatForSave" "24") will set the default save format in AutoCAD 2009 to DWG2004.