LT Unlimited

On the road

I'm on vacation today (hooray for pre-loading blog posts), but I thought I'd tell you about a little experiment I'm running while I'm gone.

It started with reducing the amount of weight I have to lug through the airport. Normally I try to disconnect from work when I'm on vacation, and usually that works out pretty well. However, I've got a few projects that I'm trying to get done, and I'm pretty sure that I'll want more than my iPad to work on. So I have to bring a laptop. I really don't want to bring both the Mac and the HP, 'cause that's a little overboard even considering the number of gadgets I usually travel with. But I also know that I may need files from both machines.

So the experiment is this: Leave the HP at home, turned on and connected to the internet. Bring the Mac with me. Use LogMeIn to connect to the HP as needed, if needed.

I only signed up for LogMeIn last week, so this'll be its first real test. The tests I've run at home seem to have gone pretty smoothly. Worst case, I can't get in, but I'll only be out of the office for three days and I'm pretty sure the world will not end whatever happens. :-)

When I get back, I'll let you know how it went. In the meantime, have any of you tried LogMeIn or something similar? How'd it go?

AutoCAD 2012 books out now

Looking for a little light summer reading? Then this post isn't for you -- the books I'm about to recommend weigh in at average of almost 1000 pages. (But all four are also available as Kindle books, if you prefer your books in electron form.)

These books aren't small, but when you consider that their subject matter is AutoCAD 2012 and AutoCAD LT 2012, their size isn't surprising.

Ellen Finkelstein, Donnie Gladfelter, George Omura, and David Byrnes are all well-established CAD authors with a long history of quality publications. This latest batch of books has been updated with all the new features in AutoCAD 2012 and AutoCAD LT 2012 – sure, there’s a bunch of stuff that’s not in LT, but there’s even more that is.

Whichever you choose, you're sure to find a wealth of knowledge presented in a clear, easy-to-read way. Happy reading!

Multiple Plotter Support File Paths

AutoCAD LT 2012 includes a tweak to the Options dialog that some of you may find very handy.

On the Files tab, there’s now an “Add” button available for the Printer Configuration (PC3), Printer Description (PMP), and Plot Style Table (CTB/STB) options.

Previously, you could only have one folder for each, limiting your organizational opportunities.

But now, you can put your printer support files in multiple places (maybe organized by different client standards or by different office locations) and AutoCAD LT will still be able to find them all.

Looking for Ribbon Feedback

The AutoCAD Research team has put out a survey on the Ribbon and Contextual Ribbon tabs and panels.

If you’ve got 5-10 minutes to spare today, they’d really appreciate your input.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/ContextualRibbon

Facecast Recording Available

First off, a big thank you to those of you who attended Wednesday’s AutoCAD LT Facecast, and an even bigger thanks to those who sent in questions. For some reason, it’s harder to answer live questions over a webcam than it is in person, but I hope you got some useful information.

If you missed it, the recording is available on the AutoCAD Facebook page.

And if you have questions that didn’t get answered, or suggestions for what we could do better next time, send them in! We’re still in the early stages of exploring this medium, so any and all feedback is welcome.

Facecast Today!

The first-ever AutoCAD LT Facecast starts in just a couple hours – 10 Pacific, 1 Eastern.

Click here to join: http://autode.sk/kX9khB

Hope to see you there!

AutoCAD LT Facecast Tomorrow

The AutoCAD team has been trying something a little different with webcasts lately: instead of going through LiveMeeting or another company, we’re hosting Facecasts on Facebook now. (Get it? Facebook + webcast = Facecast.)

There have been several already on AutoCAD for Mac and AutoCAD WS, and last week Heidi presented on parametrics, but tomorrow it’s my turn!

Tune in to the AutoCAD Facecast page at 10:00 Pacific / 1:00 Eastern for an interactive chat about AutoCAD LT 2012.

At least, it’ll be interactive if you send in your questions. Otherwise I’ll just be talking to myself! (Which I can do, of course, but it’s more fun talking to you.)

You can send in questions during the Facecast on the Facecast page, or beforehand through comments here on the blog, the AutoCAD LT Facebook page, Twitter, e-mail…it doesn’t really matter how they get sent in, I’ll try to find them.

See you tomorrow!

Stacked Fraction Options

I found today’s tip in the July edition of the excellent Michael’s Corner series—I’d never seen this particular option before, and I just love learning new things!

Let’s say you’ve got a stacked fraction in AutoCAD LT 2012:

But you want to modify it. So you highlight it—an obvious first step.

From here, the most obvious second step is to right-click and select “Stack Properties” from the shortcut menu.

But, as Michael discovered, if you left-click on the highlighted fraction, a small arrow appears at the bottom.

Click on that, and you see “Unstack” and “Stack Properties” right there.

From here, you can modify the stack properties or even access the AutoStack feature to control how future fractions are stacked.

Double-clicking on the fraction also brings up the Stack Properties dialog, and works in earlier versions of AutoCAD LT too.

Desktop Magnifying Glass

Today’s tip is more of a presentation trick than an AutoCAD one, but if some of you give lunch-and-learns or other demos, you may find it handy.

(Confession: I’m also writing this post because I turned this feature on during a live demo last week…and forgot how to turn it off. Maybe if I write it down, I’ll remember next time!)

At any rate, this handy built-in Windows feature is a magnifying glass. It enlarges a portion of your screen by 200-1600% – below is a sample of 200% magnification.

You can turn on this feature by pressing and the “plus” sign (+) simultaneously, or from the Control Panel.

At that point, the magnifying lens pops up, along with a toolbar.

It’s got buttons for zooming in and out; a “Views” menu where you can choose between Lens (which follows your cursor around), Full Screen (which magnifies the entire desktop), and Docked (which puts a static zoom window on the screen); and a Settings dialog.

It can be a little tricky to grab some of those buttons on the toolbar until you get used to the magnifier, so you can also use + “plus” and + “minus” to zoom in and out.

Also, if you don’t use the toolbar for a little bit, it gets hidden behind a magnifying glass:

Click on that to bring the toolbar back.

Now, what you really need to know is how to turn this thing OFF. During my presentation last week, I finally located the toolbar and got rid of it, but you can also just use + ESC.

Wish I’d remembered that then!