LT Unlimited

More Multifunctional Grips

Multifunctional grips first showed up (in very basic form) for hatches in AutoCAD LT 2010. They were improved in AutoCAD LT 2011 and extended to polylines, and now they’ve gone even farther in AutoCAD LT 2012.

I already showed you one example in the UCS icon post, but you’ll also find multifunctional grips on lines, arcs, elliptical arcs, dimensions, and multileaders. For some objects, you’ll see different options depending on which grip you hover over.

Before we start our tour of the new grips, here’s a refresher on how they work.

• Hovering over an eligible grip brings up the multifunctional menu.
• You can use the arrow keys or the mouse to pick an item from the list.
• If you just left-click on the grip instead, you can use Ctrl to cycle through the available modes.
• You can also use the space bar after left-clicking to cycle through the standard grip-editing modes of Move, Copy, Rotate, Scale, and Mirror.
• And if you make it all the way back to Stretch (after Mirror), you can use Ctrl again to access the multifunctional behavior.

Now, here’s where you’ll find the new grips.

Lines

The middle grip is not multifunctional.

Arcs

  

Notice that the old “double-grips” with both an arrow and a square are gone. That’s because you can access both functions from the multifunctional grip. The center grip is not multifunctional.

Elliptical Arcs

These grips are a little funny. The only time you’ll actually see a multifunctional menu is if your elliptical arc ends at a quadrant – 0, 90, 270, or 360 degrees. Then, you can either stretch the axis or lengthen the arc.

Otherwise, the end grip will be a non-multifunctional arrow that will lengthen the arc, like you see on the left end of the arc above, and the quadrant grips will just show the lengths of the axes. If you left click on a quadrant grip, you can change the axis length either with the mouse or by entering a new distance.

Dimensions

 

For dimensions, some of the options that were previously in the right-click shortcut menu are now in multifunctional grips.

Multileaders

 

A couple things to note here. “Lengthen Landing” leave the text where it is, unlike the arrow grip which shifts the note. Also, “Add Vertex” lets you specify a new location for the arrowhead, adding a segment between it and the existing grip. This is different from polylines, where new vertices are added between existing ones.

New Tutorials on AutoCAD LT Training Page

I’ve recently added several new tutorial videos to the AutoCAD LT training page.

http://usa.autodesk.com/autocad-lt/training/

In addition to the demo videos that you may already have seen on YouTube, there are in-depth explorations of Array and Groups, and a feature on AutoCAD WS.

What do you think about videos like these – helpful, too much detail, too little detail, too long, too short, just right? Should I write articles too?

My turn to ask a question

Most of the time, I use this blog to share information or tips about AutoCAD LT. Today I want to turn that around, and ask you a question instead.

If you had to go back to an older release of AutoCAD LT, what would you miss from your current version?

I don’t mean all the way back to LT97 or anything, just a few releases back – to whatever you were using before you got what you’re using now.

I’ve got a pretty good list of my own going, but I’m curious…what would you miss?

Update to Selection Windows

Time to update an old post today, on mouse clicks and selection windows.

In AutoCAD LT 2012, the PICKDRAG system variable has a new default option – 2. (Previously available were 0 and 1.)

The new setting means that you can start a selection window either by clicking once and letting go, then clicking again somewhere else and letting go; or by pressing and holding the left mouse button, moving the mouse, then letting the button go.

In older versions of AutoCAD LT, you had to choose which method you want to use, but now they’re both available all the time.

If you still use the two-click method, you’ll also notice that Fence, Window Polygon, and Crossing Polygon are now available even when you’re not inside a command. (Before, you had to have a command active to see those options.)

Two Events Today!

I have not one, but two events to tell you about today – and even better, you don’t have to choose between them.

First up: AutoCAD WS for Android!

Yes, AutoCAD WS is now available for Android devices as well as iOS ones. Get it now on the Android Marketplace: http://autode.sk/get_acadws_androidapp

Once your excitement over that dies down a bit, head over to the Autodesk “Make Your Most Amazing Ideas Happen” Virtual Event, which kicks off at 8:00 Pacific. (Also known as 11 am here on the East Coast…a much more civilized hour.)

http://experience.autodesk.com/all/

Lynn Allen’s webcast on AutoCAD 2012 will be presented at 9:00/12:00, and you can watch the AutoCAD LT 2012 webcast on-demand at any time.

I’ll be staffing the AutoCAD booth most of the day – stop by if you’d like to chat!

Recently-Used Files

One of the most convenient places to find your recent AutoCAD LT files is in the Application Menu.

(If you’re running Windows 7, of course, there are also jump lists.)

By default, you see the 9 most-recent files in the list. But why stop there? In the Options dialog, you can increase that number all the way to 50, if you want.

Make sure you change the “Application Menu” setting, not the “File Open” setting. “File Open” applies to the old File pull-down menu, and that one maxes out at 9.

Nudge Objects

The ability to “nudge” objects is another new wishlist feature added to AutoCAD LT 2012.

If you select an object, hold down Ctrl, and press an arrow key, the item will move a few pixels in that direction.

(I love simple new features like this, that don’t need more than a single sentence to explain how they work.)

But before you get all carried away worrying about the effect of Nudge on precision, I’ve got a couple things to say.

First, that’s what training is for. There are plenty of ways to create a bad drawing without ever touching Nudge. (Explode, anybody? Or object snaps – or lack thereof?) Explain to your people the consequences of misusing these tools, and encourage them to do it the right way.

Second, you can turn on Snap before you use Nudge. When Snap is on, the Nudge distance is your snap interval, so the objects will move a precise distance instead of using pixels.

Viewing Layouts in AutoCAD WS

You may have seen the hints that we’ve been dropping over the past several weeks (Was Heidi holding an Android device in the launch webcast? Yes, she was!), but yesterday it became official.

AutoCAD WS is coming to Android!

CNBC actually broadcast the announcement live from the Autodesk Gallery. Here’s a link to the clip: Designing Autodesk’s Growth

The app isn’t available for download just yet, but it will be next Wednesday, April 20. It’ll have the same feature set as the mobile app available for iOS (iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch), including the subject of today’s post: Layouts.

AutoCAD WS 1.2 for mobile devices supports layouts in addition to modelspace, so you can see your sheets and titleblocks as well as the regular drawing geometry.

To switch to a layout, just tap the layout button…

…and pick a layout from the list.

(The screenshots above are from my iPad, ‘cause I don’t have an Android device…yet.)

You can’t edit objects in a layout, but you can add markups using AutoCAD WS’s built-in tools.

One caveat: Viewport-specific properties aren’t supported yet. This includes layers that are frozen in a viewport or layers that have color or linetype viewport overrides.

But for the most part, it’s just tap, switch, markup and share.

Have you used the Layouts feature on your iOS device, or do you plan on using it with your Android? Leave a comment and tell us about it!

Frame Leader Text

On Friday, I posted about the new ability to extend a multileader landing all the way to its text (instead of stopping at the bounding box). Today’s post is about the other tweak to multileaders.

If you like to draw a box around your leader text, you’ve probably seen the “frame text” option in the Multileader Style dialog.

But until now, you couldn’t control the spacing between the text and its frame. It was one-size-fits-all.

However, in AutoCAD LT 2012, the landing gap now controls that spacing. See the possibilities:

-or-

Happy Blog-iversary!

Four years ago today, I put up my first AutoCAD LT post and entered the world of blogging. Hard to believe it’s been that long – but on the other hand, so much has happened since then! New job, new apartment, not to mention four releases of AutoCAD LT. Cool stuff.

This block wouldn’t be what it is if it weren’t for you, my readers. Without you, I’d just be muttering to myself in cyberspace. (Although that’s been known to happen too, on occasion.) So:

Here’s to another great year!