The CAD Times

An AutoCAD Newsletter for CAD Users

The CAD Times brings you the latest AutoCAD tips, tricks and articles that can help you become a more efficient CAD user.

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The CAD Times

Here's this months tips and tricks...

#1) Put a smile on your boss’s face :) Setup an effective AutoCAD Document Management system

Why is managing your AutoCAD documents so important? Simple -- because it saves you TIME and your company MONEY. And we all know what makes the bo$$ happy…

We've all had at least one day of joy when we had to search through the hard drive or server to find a drawing that was worked on 3 months ago, but no one can remember its name. And how long did it take to find it? Oh yeah, I remember now, FOREVER!

As you'll see, setting up a simple AutoCAD document management system can do wonders at keeping you organized and a little less frustrated. Read the full AutoCAD document management article…

#2) Don’t be a Scrooge, Share Your AutoCAD Tips Ö

Our AutoCAD Tips reviewer has been pretty bored lately. Remember the Maytag man from the TV commercial? Sitting around waiting for a call…

Well that’s poor Joe here at icadtec.com. Twiddling his thumbs; waiting to receive your helpful AutoCAD tip. Good thing we’ve got Joe keeping the front walk cleared from all the snow. Just kidding Joe ;)

Seriously folks, I know many of you are just sitting on some great AutoCAD tips. Our newsletter reaches nearly every corner of the globe and yule be doing many fellow CADDERS a great favor! (ho ho, get it? YULE)

Tis the season!

You can share your tips at https://www.icadtec.com/suggest-autocad-tips.html.

#3) Subscribers Corner: Q & A

Here are some answers to questions we received from some of our readers:

Q. Is there a way I can trim many items at once?

A. If you have several objects that extend beyond a cutting edge, try using the “Fence” object selection method.

Command: trim
Current settings: Projection = current Edge = current
Select cutting edges...
Select objects: pick the desired cutting edge, Enter
Select object to trim or [Project/Edge/Undo]: F, Enter, Start the fence at one end of the multiple objects to be trimmed (left mouse click) and drag it across the other objects to be trimmed (left mouse click again).

If you play with it, you’ll get the hang of what can be accomplished from there :)

Q. Should I turn off or freeze a layer?

A. When you freeze a layer AutoCAD hides the frozen entities and does NOT perform regenerations (REGEN). If you are working with a large size drawing file, lengthy REGENS can be time consuming and slow you down while working. It’s best to freeze layers when working with large files, but keep in mind that AutoCAD does perform a REGEN once you thaw the layer.

When you turn off a layer, AutoCAD hides the off entities but DOES perform regenerations. Consider turning off layers when the drawing file size is not that large and you regularly change the layer's visibility. Once you turn on a layer, the entities are shown without a regeneration being performed.

#4) Macros

Freeze All Layers

Here’s a simple macro that you can use to freeze all visible layers (except the current layer of course) that I use quite often. It is similar to isolating a layer, except it freezes all the layers instead of turning them off. I utilize this macro within a customized icon.

^C^C-la;f;*;;

Thaw All Layers

Same deal here, except this macro thaws all layers.

^C^C-la;t;*;;

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