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I had planned a good April Fools day joke but, there has been too many things going on this week and my laptop is trying to die on me. I will save my idea for next year as it is timeless yet CAD related.
There is a good one out there from Google for a good laugh.
Introducing Google Translate for Animals
If only it were real. :-)
l はじめに
AutoCAD 2011 では「透過性」という新しいオブジェクト プロパティが追加されました。透過性プロパティの値には ByLayer、ByBlock、あるいは固有の値(0-90%)を設定することが可能で、色、線種、線の太さなどの他のオブジェクト プロパティと同様の操作方法で設定を行えます。透過性の用途として、オブジェクトが重なっている場合に、上にあるオブジェクトに透過性プロパティを与えることにより、下にあるオブジェクトが透けて見えるようになります。
l 透過性プロパティの適用方法
オブジェクトに透過性プロパティを適用するにはいくつかの方法があります。
1. リボン: リボンの[ホーム]タブにある[プロパティ]パネルに、透過性コントロールとスライダーが追加されました。コントロールでBylayer/Byblock/透過性の値を選択し、スライダーを使用して透過性の値をコントロールできます。
2. システム変数: CETRANSPARENCYと入力し、Bylayer、Byblock、または 0 から 90 までの値を指定します。ここで設定した値は、新しく作成するオブジェクトの既定の透過性レベルとなります。また、この設定はリボンのプロパティ パネルの設定と呼応します。
3. コマンド内のオプション: 次のコマンドに新しく透過性オプションが追加されました: CHPROP, CHANGE, -LAYER, VPLAYER, SETBYLAYER, LIST。
4. [プロパティ]パレットと[クイック プロパティ]パレット: [プロパティ]パレットと]クイック プロパティ]パレットの両方に[透過性]プロパティが追加されました。
5. 画層プロパティ: [透過性]カラムが追加されました。画層ごとに透過性をコントロールします。
l 透過性の印刷方法
透過性を適用した状態で印刷する場合は、[印刷]ダイアログの[印刷オプション]にある[透過性を印刷]をオンにしてください。透過性を印刷するとパフォーマンスが遅くなることがありますのでご注意ください。バッチ印刷やパブリッシュにより出力を行う場合、このオプションを設定することにより、特定の図面でのみ透過性を印刷するように指定することができます。
透過性の印刷をすべての図面で統一したい場合は、システム変数 PLOTTRANSPARENCYOVERRIDE を使用すると、[ページ設定]または[印刷]ダイアログにある[透過性を印刷]設定を上書きすることができます。PLOTTRANSPARENCYOVERRIDE の値に 0 (=オブジェクトの透過性を印刷しない)、または2 (=オブジェクトの透過性をすべての図面で印刷する)を指定してこれらを実行することができます。ただしこの方法は、[ページ設定]または[印刷]ダイアログの設定を書き換えることはないので、既定の設定を変えたことを忘れて印刷すると混乱を招く可能性があるのでご注意ください。
l 3D 図面で透過性を使用する場合
表示スタイルが[コンセプト]、[隠線処理]、[シェードとエッジ]などに設定されている場合、3Dオブジェクトの輪郭を示すシルエット エッジが見えます。このシルエット エッジを適用したくない場合は、システム変数 VSSILHEDGESの値を 0 に設定してください。また、3D 図面で透過性を使用する場合は、[手動によるパフォーマンス調整]ダイアログ ボックスにある[透過の品質]オプションを[高]に設定することをお勧めします。
Shiho Tanaka of AutoCAD QA
Here is a great tip on AutoCAD 2011 on a graphics hardware acceleration feature from my Autodesk colleague Randy Young who is the AutoCAD Graphics System QA Lead in the Autodesk San Francisco office.
In AutoCAD 2010 we said goodbye to a good friend of three years: the Smooth line display effect. Well, be sad no longer- your friend has comeback in AutoCAD 2011 with a new facelift and name change.
Now imagine “Hello old friend. It’s really nice to see you once again” as sung by Eric Clapton Circa 1977 playing softly in the background.
1) To visit him again just click on the new GRAPHICSCONFIG button on the status bar.
The image above is what the button looks like when you are in hardware acceleration:
This is what it looks like when you are not. I know, quite cool, right?
2) Choose the Performance Tuner… option
3) Click Manual tune button in the Performance Tuner dialog.
4) Now Choose on next to ON next to the Smooth display effect name.
5) Now ok out of the two dialogs and sing “Hello old friend”
Here are two screen captures of the difference between Smooth display enabled and disabled. Please note that this effect is very graphics card specific and it could cause graphics system slow downs, so if you see any I would suggest turning the effect off.
Thank you Randy!
Here is a great tip from my Autodesk colleague Shiho Tanaka an AutoCAD QA Engineer here in the Autodesk San Francisco office. This tip covers the new AutoCAD 2011 Transparency property which has been a top request of AutoCAD customers.
In AutoCAD 2011, we added a new object property called “Transparency.” This is just like other object properties, such as Color/ Linetype/ Lineweight etc, and has ByLayer/ ByBlock/ Transparency value (0-90%) settings available. The purpose of Transparency is to make objects transparent so that you can see through objects underneath when they’re overlapping each other.
There are several ways to apply Transparency to an object.
1. Ribbon: We added Transparency control and slider in Properties panel in Ribbon Home tab.
2. System variable: CETRANSPARENCY. This controls the default Transparency value when creating a new object.
3. Commands: We added Transparency option in CHPROP, CHANGE, -LAYER, VPLAYER, SETBYLAYER and LIST commands.
4. Properties palette and Quick Properties: We added Transparency property in both Properties and Quick Properties.
5. Layer Property Manager: We added Transparency column in Layer Property Manager.
The primary option for controlling plot transparency is in the “Plot transparency” checkbox in the Pagesetup/Plot dialogs. It was added as an option because there is a performance hit when plotting with transparency. This checkbox option allows you to specify that only certain plots in their Batch plot/Publish process be plotted with transparency.
If however, you would like a “global” switch to turn transparency On or Off for all plotted output, you can use the PLOTTRANSPARENCYOVERRIDE system variable to override the “Plot transparency” setting in the Pagesetup/Plot dialogs. The PLOTTRANSPARENCYOVERRIDE=0 or 2 option (OFF and ON for all drawings) should be used sparingly, as it does not update the “Plot transparency” checkbox in the Pagesetup/Plot dialogs, and could lead to confusion.
You will see back face lines in 3D objects when visual styles, such as Conceptual, Hidden, Shaded with Edges,,,etc are selected.
When you’re seeing these back face lines, please set VSSILHEDGES system variable to 0 to turn the lines off.
Also, for the best result in 3D drawings with Transparency, setting “Transparency quality option” to High in Manual performance Tuning dialog is recommended.
Starting today March 25th 2010 you will begin to see and hear a great deal of information about the new 2011 products being released from Autodesk.
There will be a webcast in a few hours and you can register at http://www.autodesk.com/webcast to see AutoCAD 2011, Revit 2011, Inventor 2011, and 3ds Max design 2011 demonstrated.
There are some really nice enhancements included in AutoCAD 2011.Here is just a quick taste with a more detailed list and tutorials coming soon:
And much more!
I will be updating my AutoCAD Release History pages over the next few days but here is an updated AutoCAD timeline. AutoCAD 2011 is the 25th version of AutoCAD.
Cheers,
Shaan
Today I travel from snow covered Utah to the warmer weather of San Francisco California.to attend a special Autodesk event on Thursday March 25th, 2010.
If you would like to attend the webcast of this special event you can sign up at: http://www.autodesk.com/webcast.
Expert of The Week on AutoCAD Exchange
Paul Owens, CAD Systems Administrator at Parsons Brinckerhoff
Paul has more than 16 years experience in the industry, with experience as a CAD Manager handling multi-billion dollar projects, and providing Autodesk customization and deployments for multiple users.
Ask Paul a question – www.autocad.autodesk.com
The 18th annual Autodesk University is coming up at the end of November, and if you’d like to teach a course, now is the time to submit your ideas. AU's high-quality classes and large number of knowledgeable instructors are some of the best to be found anywhere—and this is your opportunity to distinguish yourself and share your expertise as an industry leader with like-minded professionals.
We are looking for:
To learn more about what we want and to get information on speaker benefits and deadlines, please visit the Call for Proposals website.
To see some of the classes and content offered at Autodesk University last year, visit the Autodesk University website. You'll find class handouts, datasets, and presentations, including screencasts of about 2000 sessions presented at the past four AUs.
And don't forget—the deadline for proposals is May 14, 2010.
Have you tried out the free Community Commands AutoCAD plug-in on Autodesk Labs? http://labs.autodesk.com/utilities/acad_community_commands/
This plug-in allows you to explore other commands from the community of other AutoCAD users submitting CIP (Customer Involvement Program) data based on your AutoCAD usage.
There is a YouTube video overview of this plug-in. Getting started with Community Commands
Keep your eye on the Autodesk Labs for some cutting edge technologies!
Cheers,
Shaan
We have invited some blog, discussion group, and social media participants to visit with the AutoCAD Teams next week in the Autodesk San Francisco office. No details on the occasion yet but there will be a live webcast.
The webcast is available for registration now. http://www.autodesk.com/webcast
Here are some of the confirmed invitees:
The invited will be free to blog and tweet about the event but not obligated to say one single thing if they wish to remain silent. We at Autodesk respect the independence and street credibility of those in the social media and discussion groups and truly appreciate and commend all their efforts in providing feedback and assisting others on their own time.
I received a question from a Between the Lines blog reader John Reid this week in response to a previous post “StarBacks BBQ Floor Space Planning with AutoCAD FIELDS”. I thought it would be a great lunchtime challenge to break free of all the other things I was doing, and have some CAD fun.
The question was about having a FIELD read a BLOCK quantity in the drawing.
I created this tutorial showing how I accomplished this challenge. There could be other ways, but this was the method I used and came natural to me.
I used BLOCK ATTRIBUTES in the BLOCK definitions, in this case an ATTRIBUTE named “PART”. This way I could get both the BLOCK name as well as the part name. With the BLOCK definitions I could then use the Data Extraction wizard to export the BLOCK ATTRIBUTES and block counts to an AutoCAD TABLE. I could then have the table as my BLOCK counts and reference the cell in the table in a field elsewhere in the drawing. Now if I deleted one of the instances of the BLOCKs, the counts would magically be updated to reflect the true count of BLOCKs,
Note in order for the TABLE count to update frequently when you save the file and in turn update the fields you need to have your system variable DXEVAL set to 32 so that the value updates when the drawing is saved.
OK lets step through this visually.
I have a drawing in AutoCAD 2010 with a HVAC design for a building. I setup 2 blocks one for a specific HVAC return and one for diffusers with a attribute of PART in the block editor. The blocks were inserted multiple times throughout the design.
Now I start the Data Extraction wizard and have it automatically select all content. After saving a extraction template, select the option to display blocks with attributes only.
Next
Filter in on the attribute in common I want, in this case “PART”.
Next
Select the option to create a table from the data. It will create the block properties I selected as well as a total count per block with the default option for count to display.
Next
Now that I have inserted the generated table, I can create a FIELD to reference the cells in the table that contain the block counts.
Next
I use insert FIELD and select formula and then select the option “cell” and then select the cell in the table I want to display in the FIELD.
Done
Now I have both a table with block count and attributes as well as a field referencing the table cells. The best of both worlds. I could place the field in a label elsewhere in the drawing instead of a table format.
I linked to the online AutoCAD Help (http://www.autodesk.com/autocad-help) documentation for certain terms and commands in this blog article.
Thanks to John Reid for giving me the fun challenge.
Cheers,
Shaan
AutoCAD Product Manager, author of blog what a Mesh!, and hard rockin’ bass guitarist Guillermo Melantoni has asked for people to send him screen captures of their AutoCAD desktop UI. He is looking for visual research data on how people setup their AutoCAD to look. Audience participation part 1 - MyUI .
Here is my AutoCAD desktop, pretty plain other than custom colors and perhaps a few things missing that I hid some things on purpose. I really do use the ribbon now with AutoCAD 2010 along with most users as evidenced by the CIP data we receive daily from thousands of AutoCAD users who choose to send the great data.
You can use Snagit to capture the screen image or the free Jing (for Mac or Windows) from the same awesome company Techsmith. So grab a screen capture of how you set your AutoCAD up and send it to Guillermo as he requested in his blog post.
OK now it is your turn to send your desktop image to Guillermo.
Cheers,
Shaan
I am finally back in my office after a few weeks in training and meetings…
I usually get the request to break or jog a dimension line from customers from the mechanical disciplines. They want to show a broken dimension or to shorten one of those long radius dimensions.
Let’s take the example of a heat exchanger that may be too long to show length to scale so you use the AutoCAD Express Tool Break-Line Symbol.
How would I dimension this? In AutoCAD 2008 we added the DIMJOGLINE Command.
Two quick notes:
Cheers,
Shaan