LT Unlimited

AU Early Bird Registration Ends Tomorrow

Thinking about attending AU 2009? You may want to think a little faster -- the $500 early-bird discount expires tomorrow.

AutoCAD LT doesn't always get a lot of mention at AU, but there's still plenty training available for it. To prove it, I've put together a schedule showing the LT-relevant classes in each time slot. Especially on Wednesday, there are so many classes in each slot that I'm going to have a hard time choosing which to attend! Click here to download the schedule (XLS format).

If it's too expensive even with the discount, there's still time to enter the AU YouTube contest. We're giving away 3 all-inclusive passes (you only pay airfare), and so far there's only 11 entrants. Pretty good odds! Upload your video by October 12th to be considered, and visit the official contest page for all the rules and regs.

Webcast tomorrow -- are you registered?

The next in the AutoCAD LT webcast series is tomorrow -- are you registered?

We have over 500 people registered, and it should be a good show. If you're not one of the 500 yet, it's not too late. Here's the link.

We'll be going "Back to Basics", with everything you ever wanted to know about drawing and modifying objects. If you've been following my rectangle posts from last week, you've seen a preview. You'd be surprised how much hidden stuff there is even in what seems like a simple command -- tune in tomorrow to see what you didn't know you didn't know!

~~~~~~~~~~~~
On a side note, I'd like to thank all my blog readers for making September my best web stats month to date.  Average daily RSS subscribers topped 300 for the first time, and we came awfully close to 4,000 visitors and 8,000 pageviews for the month.

This blog wouldn't be what it is without readers, so thank you for visiting!

Rectangle by Area

Today I'll conclude my 3-post series on drawing rectangles in AutoCAD LT. (Who'd have thought there could be so much to say about rectangles?)

By now you know that you can define the second corner of a rectangle (after you pick the first corner) by specifying a rotation or dimensions. The option that's left is specifying an area.

This time, you start the RECTANG command, pick your first point, and enter A for Area.

Specify other corner point or [Area/Dimensions/Rotation]: A

The next prompt is for total area. Remember to use the current units, i.e. square inches for architectural drawings.

Enter area of rectangle in current units <100.0>: <enter number>

Then you're asked for either the length (aka X direction) or the width (Y direction), to be used in calculating dimensions.

Calculate rectangle dimensions based on [Length/Width] <Length>:

Enter rectangle length <10.0000>: <enter number>

The sign of the number you enter determines which side of the cursor your rectangle ends up on. Positive numbers create rectangles above and to the right (positive X and Y), and negative numbers create rectangles below and to the left (negative X and Y).

You may notice that this finishes the command. So if you want to use the Rotation option too, you'll need to set it first.