Between the Lines

Place your DWG File on a Diet

I received an email from blog reader Steve Roberts with a suggested tip topic on how to reduce the size and clean up DWG drawing files using four AutoCAD commands. I wrote a quick blog post in the topic.

It’s going to become Summer for many of us around the world so those bloated and unhealthy DWG files don’t look very good on the beach, and certainly not on your hard drive. What do you do?

There are a few commands you can use to get rid of the file bloating references. Be careful you are not removing things you actually need at some point like an unreferenced dimension style or block.

To clean up drawings, reduce file size and making the the files more healthy use these AutoCAD commands.

AUDIT
This command will examine the drawing file and find errors and allow you to fix them.

PURGE
This command will allow you to purge any unused styles, blocks etc. Be careful you don’t actually need them later or a coworker does. When in doubt don’t purge it out.

-PURGE
This is the command line only version of the PURGE command and used in customized Lisp and scripts.

OVERKILL
This awesome and aptly named command looks for things like duplicated lines on top of lines and removes them.
There is a -OVERKILL as well to be used in Lisp and scripts.

If you have a tutorial on an Autodesk product they want to be posted to this blog and read by thousands of readers, please email me.

Cheers,
Shaan

The Innovation of Innovation

Autodesk’s Bill O’Connor created this nice short video on Innovation. This is very fitting since I have given two keynotes on innovation recently from an Autodesk perspective from taking CAD from the mainframe to the PC, BIM, digital prototyping, and cloud computing technologies.

The path to innovation is paved with seven questions. Bill O'Connor, Founder of the Innovation Genome Project, shows us how these questions have been used in innovations throughout history—from fire to flight, writing to recycling, and everything in between.

Autodesk Project Blink Beta Opportunity - Run Remote Apps from PC & iPad

Project Blink gives you the power and flexibility to run software installed on your computer from a remote computer or tablet with lower latency than other solutions, and optimized for some Autodesk software. I wish I could say more, but this is a beta and you need to apply and get in the special beta to find out how amazing this cutting edge technology is compared to traditional remote hosted application technologies.

Sign Up for this Beta Opportunity http://bit.ly/11H7t8F
Currently the beta is acepting those from N. America.

The Very First AutoCAD Logo from 1982

I have one of the first AutoCAD manuals with this old logo and showed it at my keynote on the topic of Autodesk and Innovation #AutodeskInnovation at the ProSoft Powerlaunch event Thursday.

Autodesk Team OCTO pi in Fitness Race

Autodesk is a firm believer in healthy employees equates to happy employees as well as reducing healthcare costs as a side benefit. Autodesk has for the second year joined the Global Corporate Challenge where employees form seven person teams to compete within the company as well as against other companies. Team members record their daily pedometer steps and exercise in a competition over a three month period. The teams virtually race around the globe based on their recorded steps & distances.

Last year the program was a huge success for me as I lost 50 pounds (More Active = Less Shaan), and have kept it off using my FitBit One unit to help track and motivate me to keep moving. I even built a treadmill desk and stand up desk as opposed to a sit down desk.

This year I am on team “OCTO-pi” with members of our Office of the Chief Technology Officer “OCTO” including our fearless leader Autodesk CTO Jeff Kowalski.

Here are my current standings after just 2 weeks which included a week vacation in Mexico.

We hope to dominate the competition, but there are some very very active teams currently ahead of us. Personally I think they are entering their data wrong, and we “OCTI-Pi” are really the team winning.

We are ranked as team 21 within Autodesk, and team 6098 in the entire participating companies ranking. I am certain that if they included vertical feet climbed as a competition metric our OCTO-pi team would be top five overall.

Go Autodesk Team OCTO pi!

Cheers,
Shaan

AutoCAD Tip - Create a Seamless Wood Grain Hatch

SUPERHATCH is a former AutoCAD Express Tool that is now included in the core AutoCAD product. You can create a hatch pattern from most anything without having to learn how to write a hatch pattern definition file.

This AutoCAD tutorial is by Autodesk’s own Cliff Young of the AutoCAD Test Development Team.

Step 1. Draw a rectangle and divide it into quadrants.

Step 2. Draw wood grain. Draw polylines across the rectangle to simulate a wood grain. Be sure that the number of endpoints at the top edge is the same as the number of endpoints at the bottom edge, and the number of endpoints at the left edge is the same as the number of endpoints at the right edge. (This is important, because you will be connecting these endpoints later).

Step 3. Make 3 copies   2 copies of everything (rectangle, quadrant lines and wood grain).     1 copy of just the rectangle and quadrant lines.

Step 4. Trim the wood grain and copy the quadrants.

Inside the first rectangle, trim or delete all the wood grain from the upper-right and lower-left quadrants. Inside the second rectangle, trim or delete all the wood grain from the upper-left and lower-right quadrants. Copy the trimmed wood grain quadrants to their opposite quadrant in the new rectangle (E.G. upper-right to lower-left, etc.)

Step 5. Clean up the wood grain.

Make any other changes you want to any of the interior vertices of the wood grain. The only rule is to never move any of the outer-edge endpoints. Move the interior endpoints so that they are coincident. Do not move any of the outer-edge endpoints - these need to remain where they are so that the pattern will tile seamlessly.

Step 6. Join all the polylines and convert to splines.

AutoCAD Command: PEDIT > Multiple (Select all wood grain polylines) > Join > Spline

Step 7. Create a Block.

Create a Block from the wood grain (do not include the rectangle and quadrant lines in the block geometry).

Step 8. Draw a boundary to be hatched with the wood grain.

Step 9. Using SUPERHATCH, apply the wood grain block to the boundary.

AutoCAD Command: SUPERHATCH > Block Select the wood grain block Place the block in inside the boundary Accept all the SUPERHATCH defaults Pick a point inside the boundary

Step 10. Experiment.

Try different SUPERHATCH scales (X and Y) and rotation angles. In this example: X scale = 1.2 Y scale = 0.7 Angle = 3

Download Wood Grain Tutorial DWG

Download Wood hatch other DWG

Thanks Cliff!

If you have a tutorial on an Autodesk product they want to be posted to this blog and read by thousands of readers, please email me.

Cheers,
Shaan

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AutoCAD 2014 & Revit 2014 Free Book Titles Released

Longtime AutoCAD, Revit and Architecture veteran, writer, trainer, consultant, photographer,and friend David Cohn sent me a note that he has released some iBooks on AutoCAD 2014 for those of you with Apple devices. These iBooks are multimedia rich with text, images, and video. You can even add your own notes while going through the iBook. There are also Point Cloud and Revit Architecture 2014 titles available free in the iBook store by CADLearning™ by 4D Technologies.

These titles are also available as free eBook titles on the CADLearning website.

Matt Murphy let me know that the eBook announced on this blog (Free AutoCAD 2014 eBook) caused many downloads from my Between the Lines blog readers. Matt has now published a new Revit Architecture 2014 title:

Autodesk Revit Architecture New Features & Enhancements - Revealed! for you to get free.

http://www.cadlearning.com/revit-2014-new-features

Friday Fun - A Few Days on the Mexican Riviera

I am still getting back to speed after returning this week from 5 amazing days on Cozumel Island in Mexico. Cozumel is one of the top scuba and snorkel diving locations in the world, with the worlds second largest barrier reef. I had a ladder into the Caribbean located just 10 steps from the condo where I was staying in the Northern region of the island. I found the amazing Marazul condo on AirBnB.com which was all new to me but I will most definitely use the service more often as the location was like living in a fully furnished home instead of a hotel or resort experience. There was Wi-Fi, food, even beer in the fridge. It was a great deal of fun to go snorkeling on the reef within 5 minutes. I did swim and snorkel other locations up and down the island, but honestly preferred the abundance of coral and sea life behind the condo units. I took many underwater photos using my iPhone in a special Seashell case that was rated to 100 feet depth, luckily there were no leaks.

One of the highlights of the trip was getting to see the self-contained submarine Atlantis II. I helped design and fabricate this vessel about 16 years ago while working for a large metal fabrication company in Portland Oregon. The submarine was currently in Cozumel in dry dock for some maintenance before going back to work on the reef to the delight of tourists wanting a unique experience.

I took the ferry over to the mainland to Playa del Carmen which had amazing sandy beaches where the heat and beverages must have got to me. I found myself getting my feet made baby smooth by a tank of doctor fish that were setup in a special tank at a shop along the tourist trap lined street. I can’t remember when my feet were this soft. 

Alas, nothing reminds you that you have returned from a tropical location and brings you to a screeching and stinking reality more than a fist sized dead crab in your backpack. Yes, I had a dead crab that made its way into my clothes before he decided to expire during the journey home…I have already heard all the jokes on this experience.

I wish I could be back there on the beach - without email and phone service…ahhh

Adios Amigos!
-Shaan

AutoCAD Tip: How Can I Restore the "Classic" AutoCAD Interface, with Menus and Toolbars?

The Autodesk product teams receive several emails from the Autodesk Product Feedback Form. Your feedback goes to the products teams and they read them. In many cases team members respond if there is enough detail and time permitting but they can’t respond to every feedback submission, but do try to help when they can.

This solution on the Menubar and Toolbars is by AutoCAD Test Development’s Chris Miller.

So you like to have AutoCAD look and feel like previous classic release. This is one of the powerful traits of AutoCAD and that is it can be customized seven ways from Sunday.

You can restore the standard Menubar and Toolbars by using the command: WSCURRENT and setting this system variable to AutoCAD Classic. In the more recent AutoCAD releases this setting is available from the quick access toolbar in the upper left of the screen:

Once this workspace is restored you can right-click any toolbar and check to display other toolbars you may want.

You can even get your current AutoCAD to look like AutoCAD R12 many many years ago.

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An Insider's View of the Myths and Truths of the 3-D Printing 'Phenomenon'

Autodesk CEO Carl Bass discusses the myths and truths of 3D printing in opinion editorial in Wired.

“What are its real life applications?”
”Will it bring back old manufacturing?”
”Has it reached the Hype point?”

Never before have we had a technology where we can so freely translate our ideas into a tangible object with little regard to the machinery or skills available. Yet just as the microwave didn’t replace all other forms of cooking as initially predicted, 3-D printing will not replace other manufacturing technologies let alone industrial-scale ones for a variety of reasons. It will complement them.

3-D printing won’t replace other manufacturing technology

3-D printing is indeed an important fabrication technology, because it has the marvelous ability to make anything regardless of the complexity of the form. Other fabrication techniques, honed over decades of industrialization, struggle with geometric complexity — where 3-D printers can print either the most intricate shapes or simplest cube with equal ease.

Read the entire Wired op-ed piece by Carl Bass:
http://autode.sk/12LJHGo

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AutoCAD 2014 Tips & Tricks Book by Lynn Allen

If you want to get the latest tips and tricks for the current AutoCAD 2014, then Lynn Allen's Tips and Tricks booklet is the prescription the Doctor ordered.  

 

 

Lynn Allen's Tips & Tricks Book for AutoCAD 2014 (free PDF)
http://autode.sk/lynntips2014

If you haven't kicked the tires of AutoCAD 2014, download the free full version trial here and give it a try: http://http://autode.sk/ZdRG2i

Friday Fun - Travel MacGyver Creates a Delta Margarita

I travel by air a fair amount of time over the years and have fancied myself a bit of a travel related MacGyver. The first real stroke of MacGyver’ness was using crushed Altoid mints rubbed in my mouth on my teeth with my clean fingers to brush my teeth and end up with a powerfully minty breath. This was to be used when you did not have your toothbrush or toothpaste handy and didn’t want to offend others with the long flight breath.

Now here is another one of my grand travel creations. This nugget came to me on a long flight. I didn’t have time to grab any of the horrible fast foods at the airport, and most flights today don’t serve meals in this day in age. I had to be resourceful to fashion something that was somewhat filling and healthy, or I could resort to cannibalism of the passengers unlucky enough to be seated near me. After being given packs of peanuts and pretzels, it hit me. Maybe it was the low blood sugar causing the crazed thoughts but I asked for a virgin Bloody Mary mix which is free when not ordered with alcohol. Now I had the spicy tomato base and then poured the peanuts and pretzels into the glass and stirred, not shaken. And voilà I had invented my own cold airline stew or what I call my Delta Airlines Margarita. It is even good with a good shot of Vodka if you feel the need.

Don’t knock it until you are starving on a flight as it is really quite good, as long as you eat the pretzels before they get soggy. The flight attendants have now started laughing as the word spreads of a mad man on some Delta flights eating Bloody Marys as a meal.

What crazy things have you come up with while traveling?

Happy Travels!
Shaan

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