LT Unlimited

Announcing an LT Webcast & Survey!

First up, the survey. Autodesk is conducting a survey of LT users, and we need your input! (Yes, I know you just filled out the AUGI salary survey, but this one's easy too.)

I've said it before, but I'll say it again -- user feedback is extremely important to us. Lisa Crounse, the LT Product Manager, and I (among others) will be paying close attention to the results of this survey, so make your opinion heard!

You can either find the survey link in the Communication Center, or visit one of these two links:
If you live in the US: US Survey
If you live elsewhere: Global Survey

The survey runs through July 25th, 2008 -- thanks in advance for your participation!

And now for the really big news...

Announcing the first-ever AutoCAD LT Webcast!

That's right, on July 16th, 2008, at 10:00 PDT, I'll be hosting a "Tips and Tricks" webcast exclusively for LT users! Come on by to hear about the latest & greatest features in LT 2009, as well as tips on big features from previous releases (like tables & annotation scaling).

Look for an e-mail invitation soon, or just go to the Registration Page to sign up -- and tell all your friends!

I'm really looking forward to it -- hopefully it'll be the first of many LT-focused events.

The 2008 AUGI Salary Survey is here!

That's right, the AUGI is once again running their annual Salary Survey, and they need your help! As with any survey, the more responses it gets, the more valuable its information. So take a few minutes to fill out the (anonymous) survey, and check for the results to be published in AUGIWorld later this year.

The survey only runs until Monday, June 30, 2008, so don't delay!

AUGI Salary Survey

For more information on the survey:
BLAUGI
Mistress of the Dorkness (the blog of Melanie Perry, Salary Survey Manager)

Columns in Multi-line Text

AutoCAD 2008 introduced the column functionality to mtext, enabling you to break a long section of text into columns without breaking it into separate objects. It makes working with long notes and trying to fit them into a defined space much easier!

To add columns in an existing mtext object, first double-click the text to open the mtext editor. The column option is available either by right-clicking or from the icon on the Insert panel of the Multiline text Ribbon tab. There are a lot of options here, so we'll go through them one at a time.

Dynamic Columns, Auto Height
With this option, you set one height for all columns, and AutoCAD LT splits the text into the appropriate number of columns.

Dynamic Columns, Manual Height
With this option, each column can have a different height. AutoCAD LT still automatically generates the appropriate number of columns.

Static Columns (Number Varies)
With static columns, you pick the number of columns you want. All columns have the same height, unless the last column contains extra text, in which case it continues down (instead of over, as a dynamic column would do).

With all the options, you can adjust column width, height, and spacing either with grips (outside the editor) or with the ruler controls (inside the editor). The image below shows the grips for the Dynamic Columns, Manual Height option.

Quick Select

Quick Select is one of my favorite tools, but from what I've seen, it's among the most under-used commands out there. In my opinion, it's the fastest way to populate a selection set of objects that share specific properties.

I've often used Quick Select as a method of checking drawing standards. It's happened that (more than once) I've been happily annotating a drawing, when I look up to discover that I had the wrong layer set current. Oops. The fix is simple, though, with Quick Select.

First, it helps to verbalize what you want to find. "I want to find all dimensions that are not on the DIMENSION layer." Then start Quick Select, choose "dimensions" as the object type, "layer" for the property, "not equal" as operator, and "DIMENSION" as the layer. See how each of those pieces came straight out of the sentence above? They're in a slightly different order, but all the information is there.

Click OK, and you're left with a selection set consisting of nothing but dimensions on all layers other than DIMENSION. Now all there is to do is put them on the right layer, and you're done.

That's just one example of how Quick Select works. The possibilities really are endless. You could select all polylines with an area less than 100 sq. ft., or lines with a length greater than 10, or blocks named LIGHT, or anything. You can even run Quick Select multiple times to add property filters. For instance, all circles with a diameter less than 5 whose color does not equal ByLayer. See?

Play around with Quick Select, and soon you'll wonder what you did without it!