SPAUG-Tip of the Month 1998

December's Tip of the Month

How do I fix the error message in R14: "Hatch spacing too dense or dash size too small"?

First of all, this particular error is set by the environment variable MAXHATCH which is defaulted to 10,000. This means that you attempted to hatch an area that would have created more than 10,000 segments. This variable is stored in the Windows system registry. Editing the registry can be dangerous if not done properly. Instead of editing the registry, the easiest way is to use a small lisp funtion on the command line or in a menu section:

ex. (setenv "MAXHATCH" "20000")

Tip based off of the January 1999 issue of Cadalyst - Dr. Debug's AutoCAD Clinic.

November's Tip of the Month
How do you attach the SAME Xref more than once in order to get different colors and linetypes in R14?
	The purpose for this tip is to be able to change the colors and linetypes for an xref without changing the base Xref. For example, I have 2 Mviews in paperspace for 1 sheet. I want the Floor Plan to be 1/4" in 1 Mview, and the Roof Plan to be 1/8" in the other Mview. The only problem is that I want the walls in the Roof plan to be screened but full tone in the Floor Plan. 1. Attach your base drawing as an Xref. We will use the name 98143.dwg as an example. When you rename the Xref (in step 2) the layer names that used to look like: 98143\|WALL now look like: ROOF\|WALL etc. Question was asked by Terry Echols.
	2. Click twice (slowly) on the name 98143 to open up the name for renaming. Type in a new name, in our example we used ROOF.
	3. Now re-attach the base drawing again. You can repeat this process for as many times as you need.

October's Tip of the Month

How to Dxfout a multitude of files:

First use the old DOS command to get a dir of the files you want to dxfout &
write to a file.

ex: DIR *.DWG/W > C:\SOME_DIR\DXFOUT.TXT

now open this file with a text editor & cut out the lines that you do not
need. Click & <cr> beside each file to end up with something like this:

file.dwg
file2.dwg
file3.dwg

Now the bulk of the work is done, everything from here on is consistent.
Just copy and paste the lisp commands as shown inside the dxfout.txt file.
I suggest you try just a few before editing the whole file. Save the file as
DXF_?_.scr. Call up one the drawing in the directory the files are in and
type
SCRIPT and select the file you just created.

(command "open" "y") FILE.DWG
(command "dxfout" "" "16")
(command "open" "y") File2.dwg
(command "dxfout" "" "16")
etc.......

********extra time saving*******
You don't by chance have a programmable keyboard or have a copy of the old
windows routine RECORDR.EXE? If you do you can make the above editing very
simple by placing the cursor on line of first file and:
.{note: the OPEN lisp string should be in windows clipboard}
{program start}<HOME><ctrl-V><down-arrow>{program end} run
program...........

Now for dxfout part, copy this command to the clipboard <ctrl-c>. Place the
cursor on line 1 of the file and:
{start program}<END><CR><CTRL-V><down-arrow>{end program} run
program.............

Sent in by Rodney Estep

September's Tip of the Month

A Workaround for Purging non-purgeable layers.

If you have tried everything you can think of, to purge that
annoying layer that just won't go away:

Take all of the entities on a different layer and change them
to the layer that won't purge. Then rename the layer you just
moved the entities from to "NONE" (ex. name only). Then
rename the non-purgeable layer to the name that was "NONE".
Then purge "NONE".

This may sound silly, but it works.

August's Tip of the Month

Controlling Entity Sorting. AutoCAD's version of WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get).

Type DDSELECT, then hit Object Sort Method... Try using 55, as shown in the image.

0 - None - Oct-tree sorting on for everything

1- Object Selection - pickbox finds most recent entity, window or crossing selects in reverse order

2 - Object Snap - when you use QUick object snap to find the most recent entities

4 - Redraws - to make entities appear in their order of creation

8 - Slide Creation - forces the order of appearance to match the order of creation

16 - Regens - same as redraw

32 - Plotting - force the order of appearance to match order of creation

64 - Postscript Output - control the order of postscript file (PSOUT)

(Note: If an item is checked, oct-tree sorting is off for that item.)

July's Tip of the Month

How to change the default startup directory.

Right click on the AutoCAD icon on the desktop and that will
bring a box from which you can select PROPERTIES.
Click on the SHORTCUT tab and change the START IN field
to the location of your choice.

Sent in by Ellsworth Jenkins

June's Tip of the Month

Here is a quick way to update a hatch pattern,
when you have changed the UCS origin.

All you have to do is pick on and off of a grip(hit the same grip twice).
This will make a hatch pattern update to the new origin,
if it is still associative.

May's Tip of the Month

Do you hate guessing what scale your hatch patterns should be?

Change LINE and NET to full scale hatch patterns.

*LINE2, Parallel horizontal lines - full scale
0, 0,0, 0,1

*NET2, Horizontal / vertical grid - full scale
0, 0,0, 0,1
90, 0,0, 0,1

All you have to do is change all the .125's to 1

Now when you want 12"x12" tile, the scale factor is just 12.

April's Tip of the Month

A better way to use the Color Dialog.

Change line 109 in the DDCOLOR.Lsp file (in the Support Directory)
from:
(setvar "cecolor" citocs clr)))

to:
(command "_layer" "c" (citocs clr) "" ""))

Now when you click on in R13 or from the Format...Color... pop-down in R14,
the color dialog now changes the current layer's color. Instead of drawing BYCOLOR,
you are drawing BYLAYER.

The only thing that doesn't work are the buttons for BYLAYER & BYBLOCK, which
are no longer needed for setting the current layer's color.

March's Tip of the Month

Have you ever received a drawing from someone else
that didn't know what BYLAYER means?

Here are two simple macros that will change all selected entities,
by auto windowing or cross-windowing, back to BYLAYER.

Changes back to Color Bylayer:
[Color - BYLAYER ]*^c^cCHANGE AU \\ P C BYLAYER ;

Changes back to Linetype Bylayer:
[Ltype - BYLAYER ]*^c^cCHANGE AU \\ P LT BYLAYER ;

February's Tip of the Month

How do I find the midpoint between two endpoints?

Here is a custom button that works transparently.
Calmee.Bmp

1. Copy the BMP on the Acad path.

2. Create a custom button, use the info to the right as a guide or paste the below into your menu:

Toolbar section, you choose which one you want it in:
ID_CALMEE [_Button("Find Midpoint (CAL)", calmee.bmp, ICON_32_BLANK)]'cal mee;\\
Helpstrings section:
ID_CALMEE [Finds the midpoint based on 2 endpoints.]

January's Tip of the Month

Have you hated that fact that the Size button in the Plot Dialog is always
Grayed out when set to System Printer?
Here is how to trick ACAD into accepting different sizes for System Printer.

1. Set all the values exactly the way you want them in the Plot Dialog with any ADI driver
(except system printer).

2. Hit "Device and Default Selection..."

3. Then "Save Defaults to File..."

4. Type in a name. (The PCP will automatically be appended.)

5. Change the current plotter to "System Printer".

6. This time hit "Get Defaults from File..." and select the PCP file you just created.
(You should see "Plot Configuration updated without error." at the bottom of the dialog box)

Now the paper size will reflect what you have set in the PCP file.
Note: You can create a PCP for all paper sizes that you use for quick changes.
i.e. 11x17.pcp, 24x36.pgp, etc.