LT Unlimited

Exploring the Units Dialog

You can use the Units dialog choose the display and input format of length and angle measurements. The command location has moved around a bit in recent years: In LT 2010, it's under the Application Menu-->Drawing Utilities-->Units; in LT 2009, it's on the Tools tab, Drawing Utilities panel; in previous versions look under Format-->Units; and in all versions you can type UNITS.

For length, you have the following options. The numbers in parentheses show how a sample length -- 41.5 units -- would be displayed with each type.

• Architectural (3'-5 1/2")
• Decimal (41.5)
• Engineering (3'-5.5")
• Fractional (41 1/2)
• Scientific (4.15E+01)

You can choose the precision you want to display, from low to high -- this doesn't affect input, just how many decimal places or fraction denominators you'll see when you list something or use a measuring command.

You can also choose the format of your angles. The numbers in parentheses show a sample angle -- 30.5 -- would be displayed for each type.

• Decimal Degrees (30.5)
• Degrees/Minutes/Seconds (30d30'0")
• Grads (33.889g)
• Radians (0.5323r)
• Surveyor's Units (N 59d30'0" E)

You can set the display precision for angles too, and choose to have them go clockwise instead of counterclockwise.

For any of these linear or angular formats, you can only use special characters that correspond to the current type. For instance, entering 4'6 when your type is set to Decimal or 45d10 when your type is set to Grads won't work. But decimal entry always works.

The Insertion Scale option has to do with copying content between files that have different units. It's related to other settings in the Options dialog, so I think I'll say more on that another day.

Finally, down at the bottom, is the Direction Control dialog.

This enables you to set the "zero" angle for your file -- to the right (East), up (North), left (West), down (South), or any direction you choose. (East is the default -- it corresponds to most standard coordinate systems.)

New-to-LT External Reference Tools

A couple weeks ago I told you about the improved reference clipping in LT 2010, but that's not the only new external reference feature.

In-place editing (REFEDIT) is now supported, along with the ability to open a referenced file (XOPEN).

Watch out for Open Reference, though -- except for DWG references (as in the above image), the only place to find it is in the External References palette.

Stay tuned for more on In-place Editing in a future post...

AutoCAD LT on Facebook

I've been on Facebook for a long time now (pretty much ever since they opened it up to non-students), and it's been great for keeping in touch with friends and family, finding old classmates, that sort of thing.

But Facebook isn't just about people. It's also about what people like. In fact, without even joining Facebook, you can see what I like by seeing what I've become a fan of. It seems like you can become a fan of almost anything these days...even Autodesk products!

AutoCAD has had a virtual Facebook fan club for a while, and over 12,000 people have joined. Yesterday, I figured it was about time that AutoCAD LT got its own club! So I created a page for it, and if you're on Facebook, you can become a fan too. Think we can find 12,000 people who like AutoCAD LT? I hope so!

Not on Facebook? That's okay -- you can still see the pages. Click here for AutoCAD's, and here for AutoCAD LT's. You can see everything the page has to offer; you just won't be informed of new content, and you can't connect with other users.

While this will be a great way to get news out about AutoCAD LT and connect users, I'm also looking forward to the video feature. I've only posted two so far, but there will be more...many more. Hopefully this will help those of you who would like to watch the LT videos but can't get to YouTube at work.

See you on Facebook!

3... 2... 1... Launch!

That's right, today is the official ship date for AutoCAD 2010 and AutoCAD LT 2010. AutoCAD sure has some amazing stuff this time around, with freeform modeling and parametrics, but LT is also the best release I've seen in a while, what with PDF, xref tools, block attribute management, and more.

And, as exciting as that is, it's not the big news I promised you yesterday.

Today also marks the beginning of the AutoCAD Exchange, a new community site for AutoCAD and LT users. It's a great place to find tons of resources -- video tips, chats with the product team, blog links, AU classes, even humor. (I love the CAD cartoons!) You can network with other users, and rate or add comments to content you find on the site. Lisa Crounse, the LT product manager, and I have a whole series of tips that should show up about once a week -- if you like them, be sure to give them a rating!

There's even a place for you to submit your own tips to appear on the site.

The more people who sign up, the more effective it will be, so I hope to see you there!

Sticky Ribbon Panels in LT 2010

In AutoCAD LT 2009, you could drag panels off a ribbon tab to let them float in the drawing area, sort of like a toolbar. But when you changed tabs, the panel would disappear -- probably defeating your purpose in dragging it off the ribbon in the first place.

But in LT 2010, one of the many improvements to the ribbon is that dragging a panel off its tab makes it "sticky". This means that it'll remain visible no matter which tab is active. In this image, I've pulled the Draw panel off the Home tab, but I can still see it even though the Annotate tab is active.

When you want to put the panel back, just use the "Return Panels to Ribbon" button identified by the red arrow below.

The bars to the left and right of the main panel appear when you hover over it. You can click-and-drag them to move the panel around after you've pulled it off the ribbon. Also, in addition to the "return to ribbon" button, there's a button to toggle the panel orientation, so the panel name appears below the tools instead of next to them.

Sticky ribbon panels...just another one of the "little" things in LT 2010 that make a big difference in productivity.

P.S. Be sure to check back tomorrow for some big AutoCAD & LT news! (And no, it won't just be about the 2010 products.) :-)

Reload all References

In AutoCAD LT, the easiest way to reload a referenced file (to see the results of changes made to that file) is through the External References Palette.

You can either right-click on each reference to reload...

...or you can reload them all at once with the middle icon at the top of the palette.

Watch out for the "Refresh" option -- it's not the same as Reload. (As best I can tell, Refresh and Reload are similar to Redraw and Regen...close but not quite the same.) But once you've selected Reload all, the icon changes and becomes the default for the next time.

<edit> No sooner did I finish this than I found an old post that reminded me there's another way to reload drawing files: at the status bar. Right-click on the xref icon (marked below with a red arrow) and choose "Reload DWG xrefs." This one won't catch other types of references, but it's stll there.

Scale by Reference with Points Option

A long time ago, I posted about the reference option in the Scale command. This feature enables you to scale an object to a given size or length without having to calculate a scale factor first.

But I left out an option for defining the new size or length -- Points. (This is what I get for assuming a basic command hasn't changed since LT 2004. Turns out this option was added in LT 2006 and I never noticed it, until yesterday.)

It used to be that, when scaling by reference, you had to be careful about where you picked your base point. That base point would become the starting point for your new distance. You could pick points anywhere in the drawing to define the reference length, but when it came to the new length, you were tied to typing in a number or defining a distance relative to your base point. Sometimes that meant that I had to scale an object and then move it, because the base point wasn't exactly where I needed it to complete the operation in one step.

But in LT 2006, an option was added to enable you to pick points to define the new length as well as the reference. Now you can pick your base point anywhere you want, and not worry that you won't be able to define your new length where it will be most helpful.

I try to learn something new about AutoCAD LT every day (and when I do, I post it here). But I wasn't expecting to find something new in a command I've used for years! Just goes to show you that you never know where you'll find fun little tips and tricks...

Collapse Layer Filters Pane

One of the improvements to the Layer Properties Manager introduced in LT 2009 was the ability to collapse the layer filters pane, located on the left side of the palette.

In this drawing, there aren't any layer filters, so I don't need to see the pane all the time. Instead, I'll use the double-arrows at the right of the pane to collapse it, enabling me to see more layer properties at once, or to show the same information in less space.

Even though the filters pane is collapsed, you can still access them with the button highlighted in red in the above image.

And if you want a compromise between the default filter pane size and total collapse, you can move the bar between the filter pane and the layer list to resize it.

Scale Text in Place

In Wednesday's post I talked about the Justify Text command, which enables you to change the justification of text objects without changing their location. Today I want to follow up with a similar command that enables you to change the size of text without relocating it.

The command is Scale Text, and it's also on the expanded portion of the Text panel on the Annotate tab. (Or by SCALETEXT at the command line.)

Unlike the regular Scale command, Scale Text doesn't ask you to pick a base point with the mouse. Instead, it asks you to choose one of several base point options. You can choose to use each text object's current insertion point, or scale them all by one of the standard justification points (left, right, center, etc.)

After you choose your base point, you need to enter a new height. You can either enter a new absolute height or a scale factor. If you enter an absolute height, it will be called "model height" (for non-annotative text) or "paper height" (for annotative text). Entering a scale factor provides a ratio for scaling all text, whether it's annotative or not.

2006 Product Retirement Almost Here

Tomorrow (Friday, March 13th) is the last day to purchase an upgrade for any of the 2006 family of products -- including AutoCAD LT 2006. (More details on retirement here.)

So if you're running AutoCAD LT 2006, today would be a good day to hop on the phone or the internet and get yourself an upgrade. Because after tomorrow, you'll have to pay full price for new software. If you're in the US, and you choose to buy over the internet, please go with one of these companies -- they're the ones authorized to sell LT online.

My personal recommendation, though, would be to not only buy the upgrade, but also one year of Subscription. That way, you'll be able to get LT 2010 when it comes out on March 24th. Don't get me wrong, 2009 is a good release, but 2010 has a bunch more features that I think you'll really like. If you don't want to keep Subscription, you don't have to -- it's just a way of bridging the gap between retirement & launch.

Just a heads-up...