Category Archives: BASICS

AutoCAD 2015 Controlling the Status Bar Icons

Posted on February 16, 2015 by AutoCAD Tips

With AutoCAD 2015 came the annoyance of being able to display the status bar icons as text. And even more frustrating is that not all of the normal Status Bar icons that we are used are even displayed. See this … Continue reading →

Posted in BASICS, Customization, New in 2015, TIPS | 6 Comments

Number of Lines of Command History on the Command Line

Posted on January 15, 2015 by AutoCAD Tips

Prior to the new “floating” command line, if you wanted to see more or fewer lines on the command line, you could simple drag the edge of the command line up or down (as shown below – and if your … Continue reading →

Posted in BASICS, Settling In | 1 Comment

AutoCAD for MAC Hot Keys & Command Aliases

Posted on January 12, 2015 by AutoCAD Tips

A while back I did a post on regular “Vanilla” AutoCAD “Hot Keys” and Aliases that was produced by Autodesk [found here]. But what about all you AutoCAD Mac users? Here is a link to the same type of list … Continue reading →

Posted in AutoCAD for Mac, BASICS, Settling In, TIPS | 1 Comment

AutoCAD 2015 Tray Settings for Print Pop-Up

Posted on November 18, 2014 by AutoCAD Tips

After you print in AutoCAD, there is a little annoying notification that stays open in the bottom right of the screen until you click to close it. This is the default setting. This setting can be changed so that it stays … Continue reading →

Posted in BASICS, Customization, New in 2015, Printing - Plotting, TIPS | 2 Comments

Issues With Using DEFPOINTS for Viewports

Posted on September 5, 2014 by AutoCAD Tips

It may seem like a great idea to use the layer “DEFPOINTS” as the layer for your viewports since it doesn’t plot by default. And you may have heard from various posts that you shouldn’t do so but may have not … Continue reading →

Posted in BASICS, Layers, Layout, Manage, Paper Space, Trouble Shooting, Viewports | 7 Comments

AutoCAD Cursor/Crosshair Angle

Posted on March 27, 2014 by AutoCAD Tips

Have you ever opened someone else’s drawing and the AutoCAD cursor is at some odd angle? The system variable to help control this setting is SNAPANG. Below is an example of a cursor at an odd angle while in a … Continue reading →

Posted in BASICS, TIPS | 1 Comment

Missing Hatch Ribbon or Dialog Box setting

Posted on January 24, 2014 by AutoCAD Tips

The hatch ribbon has become the “norm” for the last couple of releases of AutoCAD but you may have switch how you place and edit hatches to the legacy dialog box version. But what happens if you switch to the … Continue reading →

Posted in BASICS, Hatch | 2 Comments

Rotate Objects to Reference an Angle

Posted on January 14, 2014 by AutoCAD Tips

The Rotate command can be used to match an angle of an existing object or allow you to input an angle.   This tip is especially helpful when you don’t know the angle of the objects. maybe all you know … Continue reading →

Posted in BASICS, Modifying, TIPS | 12 Comments

OFFSET Polyline True Distance – OFFSETGAPTYPE

Posted on August 2, 2013 by AutoCAD Tips

The OFFSET command creates parallel copies of an object away from the original object. Here’s the scenario – You have an electrical drawing with limited space. You also have an oddly shaped electrical box that requires a 4 foot space … Continue reading →

Posted in BASICS, Modifying, Polylines, TIPS | 1 Comment

Cant See .ctb files: CONVERTPSTYLES

Posted on June 24, 2013 by AutoCAD Tips

When opening a drawing that is from someone else, they may have set the drawing to plot/print using a “Style” that has a file extension of “.stb” instead of a “.ctb” What is a “.stb”? The settings that define how … Continue reading →

Posted in BASICS, Printing - Plotting | 12 Comments