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AutoCAD Tips & Tricks forCivil Engineers

Lynn Allen

Cadalystcolumnist &

Autodesk

Technical

Evangelist

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Autodesk Civil 3D 2005

The New Sheet Set Manager (SSM) organizesfor You!

Simplified:

Drawing organization right click plotting

Transmittal sets

Archiving

Standards compliance

Everyone stays in sync with the project New DST file format

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Keys, Keys, Keys

Clean Screen (Control+0)

Double click on the toolbar handles to float

Control+R to cycle through all of your viewports

Control+A to select all the objects in your drawing

Control to cycle through objects

Tab to cycle through object snaps

Navigate through layouts with Control+PageUp and Control+PageDown

Hold down right mouse button to clear grips

Shift for more than one hot grip

Shift to remember distances and angles in gripmode

Arrow up and down through commands

Control+Tab to cycle through open drawings

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Everyday Timesavers

New OSNAP (keyboard modifier) Midpoint between two

points (M2P/MTP)

Zoom to Object(s)

Maximize Viewport

Revcloud new Calligraphy Option

Delete Named Layer Filters

Right Click Customization

Trim/Extend Shortcut (enter to select

cutting edges/boundaries)

CAL Geometric Calculator

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Secret System Variables

SYSVDLG friendly dialog box for your systemvariables

MAXSORT maximum number of named objectsAutoCAD will sort

MTJIGSTRING MTEXT sample string

MBUTTONPAN Third button accesses OSNAPmenu

OSNAPHATCH controls OSNAPS with hatchpatterns

PEDITACCEPT turns off extra prompt in PEDIT

PLINEGEN Tells Linetypes to traverse acrossvertices

TASKBAR Open drawings appear on the taskbar

UCSFOLLOW tells the UCS icon to change to theplan view whenever the UCS is modified

XREFTYPE set attachment or overlay as default

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Bhatch Tips

With Bhatch, you can:

Assign draworder to hatch objects

Hatch an area with a boundary gap

Trim a hatch to a new boundary

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MTEXT Tips

Supports a background mask New Symbols

Click outside of dialog box to exitcommand quickly

MTJIGSTRING System Variable

TEXTTOFRONT command

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Awesome Express Tools

Reset Dim Text Value

SuperHatch

Layer Walk

Burst

Make Linetype Edittime

Flatten

Overkill (Deletes Duplicate Objects)

Layer Delete and Layer Merge Change Space/Align Space

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Embed Drawings into PPT!

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Powerpoint Steps:

Insert Object

Right Click on Control Icon

DWF Viewer Control

=>Properties

Select the DWF

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Startup switches

Target - "C:\Program Files\AutoCAD 2005\acad.exe

/b run a specific script file

/t template file

/p profile

/v view name

/nologo starts AutoCAD without logo screen

/layout displays a specific layout in aspecified drawing file

/nossm turns off the Sheet Set Manager

/set displays a specific sheet set

For more info: look up Customize Startup in help file orvisit www.cadalyst.com

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Easter Egg

Shift+Ctrl+pick

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