The LT Side of Things

Autodesk Inventor LT 2009 - Technology Preview

2008-04-22T08:46:00.001-05:00

This is a kin to AutoCAD LT, Inventor LT 2009 was released yesterday for free download. Check it out for your 3D needs.

Erik

Quick Access Toolbar

2008-03-26T15:41:00.005-05:00

With the release of AutoCAD LT 2009 there have been many changes. One noticeable difference is the Quick Access Toolbar located in the top left of the main screen.

I created my own workspace & well, it disappeared. Here's how you add your own buttons to it. Open the CUI & drag from the command area to the Quick Access Toolbar, located under your created profile. Once there they will show up in the title area of AutoCAD LT 2009.

Book Recommendation

2008-02-29T08:50:00.004-06:00

I recently purchased a new book. I have bragged on Robert Green in the past & now I think they will keep coming. Since becoming a CAD Manager I have found that I have trouble focusing on what's important. His book helps to get you on track & on task to becoming a Expert CAD Manager.

Erik

AutoCAD LT 2009

2008-02-12T11:16:00.001-06:00

Well, the next release of AutoCAD LT is just about to ship, here is a link to the preview guide. I recently had the chance to look at the full version & well, it was a shock to the system. The interface has changed quite dramatically, of course you can always tweak & make it look like the old versions but where's the fun in that. I like to hear some comments after you take a look at the preview guide.

Erik

Holiday break

2008-01-29T14:09:00.000-06:00

Hello all, I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season. Mines been pretty busy. The company I work for moved offices over the holidays and I started teaching again. I plan on picking the posting back up this week & I hope that it will be helpful to someone.

Erik

AU Overview 2007

2007-11-30T12:50:00.000-06:00

AU in one word, OVERWHELMING!! The training was excellent, networking great, walking tiring. I was able to attend most of the classes I wanted to go to. I registered late & many of the classes were full by the first week. I sat through many CAD Manager classes. The classes were taught by Robert Green. If you get a chance to attend one of his classes, thru AU or AUGI CAD Camp, I suggest you get down there. I'll post more when I get home.

Later,

Erik

AU Day 3

2007-11-28T10:07:00.000-06:00

Well, I have survived another day at AU!! I have learned much on this trip so far. Things like when you are up $20.00 at the craps table it's time to call it a day. This knowledge came to me after I lost it plus the original $20.00 I bet. Seriously, The training here is really good. Yesterday I attended 3 classes, Today I have 5. I learned a little more about the CUI & I'll share those things when I get a little more time. I'm off to my next class. Talk with you later.

Erik

Feed the hungry

2007-11-20T10:52:00.000-06:00

I ran across this this morning on snopes.com, it's a word game that has real life consequences. For every word you get right they donate 10 grains of rice. It's gets a little challenging as the levels progress but I think you all can handle it.

http://www.freerice.com/index.php

Later,

Erik

Going to AU??

2007-11-01T11:04:00.001-05:00

It's a little close to go time for AU this year. I just found out that I will be there. I'm looking forward to meeting fellow bloggers there & other CAD monkeys like myself. If you're going to be there drop me a line & I'll try to see you there.

Later,

Erik

ZOOMFACTOR

2007-10-16T10:06:00.000-05:00

I recently had to re-setup my AutoCAD. Today after a few weeks of using my scroll wheel to zoom I realized that I had to scroll an awful lot to zoom just a little way. I forgot to set my ZOOMFACTOR. Default is 60 I like mine in the lower 90's. What do you like to set it at?

Erik

What's your OSMODE?

2007-10-03T14:57:00.000-05:00

Mine, 111.

Everyone has their own preferences for which running osnaps they like to have. Once you have yours set to your liking, type in OSMODE. Enter new value for OSMODE : will be your prompt. Write down or memorize that number in the brackets, that is your OSMODE. Now anytime you want to reset your running osnaps to your liking you can by entering your number.

Later,

Erik

Been a couple days

2007-09-25T12:58:00.000-05:00

It's been a few days since I posted anything, I had some computer problems to fix. Anyway, I added a search bar up top of my blog. This search will take you directly to the AutoCAD LT Discussion forum. It's not real pretty but it works. I find many of my LT questions have already been asked & have good & quick responses.

Later,

Erik

CADing && Coding

2007-09-14T11:19:00.000-05:00

I've had this blog as a link for a little while but wanted to spotlight it on my blog.
Here's a guy who seems to know his stuff when it comes to customizing AutoCAD LT.
Check it out.

http://cadingandcoding.blogspot.com/

Welcome to Mohamed Haris & his blog.

Erik

Plot Tip

2007-09-12T14:41:00.000-05:00

I just created a button for printing. It's a 1 button for all your plots kind of thing. Everything in the plot command is the same except for the plot scale. My first thought was to prompt the user to enter the scale like 1=48 type of thing. But, then I had an idea. Use DIESEL. Where it would prompt for the scale in the MACRO I added..

$M=$(/,1,$(getvar,dimscale));

this will enter the ratio of plotted units to drawing units. No prompting, no hassel.

Thanks,

Erik

AUGI Forum

2007-09-10T14:21:00.000-05:00

Keep a lookout on AUGI Forum for good information. I recently found this viewport creation tool for LT users.

http://forums.augi.com/showthread.php?t=66878

Thank you to Shinyhead for the tip.

Set current layer by selecting object

2007-09-06T11:55:00.000-05:00

**EDIT**
It was brought to my attention that I missed something right in front of my eyes. AutoCAD LT 2007already has a button to do this, it's on the LAYER toolbar. But, for those of you with LT versions below 2000 this is a good alternative.
**EDIT**

More DIESEL. I spent a couple days looking & trying to figure out how to set the current layer to an object I picked. Of course with lisp this is fairly simple, but I think I came up with a good alternative for Us LT users.

^C^C_ai_molc;\setenv;CL;$m=$(getvar,clayer);-layer;set;"$m=$(getenv,CL)";;

Also by changing the code a little you can use it to freeze, turn off, lock or unlock a layer.

I hope this is helpful,

Erik

Toggle TILEMODE with DIESEL

2007-09-04T10:22:00.000-05:00

Here's a quick way to toggle TILEMODE with a DIESEL expression. You can program this as a button.

'setvar;tilemode;$M=$(!=,$(getvar,tilemode),1)

Also once you make this a toolbar button you can assign a keyboard shortcut to access it.

Erik

Be sure to check the comments

2007-08-31T10:05:00.000-05:00

I'm getting good feed back on the comments. Some of the visitors have added their own tips there.

Thanks for stopping in,

Erik

Align Command

2007-08-29T08:54:00.000-05:00

Here's a way to get LT to mimic the align command. Create a toolbar button & use this as a macro..
^C^C_select \_move _p ;\\_rotate _p ;@ _r @ \\

Thanks to...

Dean Saadallah
Add-on products for LT
http://www.pendean.com/lt

for the tip.

Erik

Fellow LT Blogger

2007-08-28T11:24:00.001-05:00

Thanks to Shaan Hurley I've been introduced to a fellow LT blogger. http://katescadtips.blogspot.com/

Everyone stop by & say hello.

Cheers,

Erik

Status bar

2007-08-24T15:51:00.001-05:00

I used to have a little lisp that when added to the acad.lsp file, would display drawing information on the status bar. With out the use of lisp I can do the same thing, I just have to go about it differently. I created a startup script & added the following... (watch for word wrap)

MODEMACRO Date =$(edtime,$(getvar,date),mon/dd/yyyy) | Dimscale =$(getvar,dimscale) | LTscale =$(getvar,ltscale) | Dimstyle =$(getvar,dimstyle)

I then added "/b startup.scr" to the target line in my AutoCAD icon. Now every time I start AutoCAD it will run this script & my status bar will have the information I like.

Have a good weekend,

Erik

DIESEL "IF" Statement

2007-08-23T11:30:00.000-05:00

While looking for LT info I ran across this help.

$M=$(if,$(=,$(getvar,tilemode),1),TRUE,FALSE)

The portion in orange is the test (IF "tilemode" equals 1). If the test is true it does the first statement, if the test is false it does the second statement. Each statement is separated by a comma.

http://forums.augi.com/showthread.php?t=58338

Thanks for the tip Ty.

Custom keyboard commands

2007-08-22T10:16:00.000-05:00

**EDIT**

I learned something new, the SHIFT key overrides the default radius. So when prompted to pick lines to fillet hold the SHIFT key down to fillet with a zero radius. This will keep your radius stored & will not over write it.

**EDIT**

I used to use FF to execute a lisp routine that would fillet with a radius of zero. You can create a toolbar, menu or tool palette object to do this but what about the keyboard. Here's a tip.

In the CUI drag the command fillet up to the keyboard shortcuts part of the CUI tree.

Once added you can adjust the macro to set the fillet radius to zero & specify a keyboard shortcut to execute the command, I use SHIFT + F to execute it.

Default Layer for Tool Palettes

2007-08-21T16:00:00.000-05:00

If you right click on a tool palette object you can select properties
& set the default layer for that object.
This way you can keep your CAD standards in tact & increase productivity.

Use DIESEL

2007-08-21T12:01:00.000-05:00

While trying to figure out different ways to do things I used to do with lisp, I found this out.
Use DIESEL in your commands. Tool palette, menus or toolbars it will work in all. I created this one to automatically set text height per dimscale.

^C^CTEXTSIZE;$M=$(*,$(getvar,dimscale),0.125);_dtext

I hope this will help,

Introductions

2007-08-21T11:46:00.000-05:00

Hello all,
my name is Erik Deyo & I recently took on the duty of CAD Manager at a small engineering firm. Working at a small business has its good & bad points, smaller budgets mean smaller resources. We currently use AutoCAD 2007 LT & I plan on sharing pieces of information with all of you as I discover them. I look forward to sharing with everyone.