AutoCAD Mouse control and the Command Line

Since this blog is about AutoCAD and More, I figure I'd better start writing about AutoCAD things.

Some of the most overlooked efficiency tips are probably Mouse control and the Command line. So, taking a couple pages from my Weekly Planner, available in the Apps store from Autodesk Exchange, here are some Mouse and Command line tips.

MOUSE CONTROL

You pick objects with the left mouse button. What else can you do with your mouse?  Assuming your settings are set as described in the Assumptions page of this planner, you can do the following.

With the Mouse Wheel:

· Double click the wheel to Zoom Extents.

· Hold the wheel down and move the mouse to PAN.

· Hold Shift+Wheel (in that order) and you can Orbit (for 3D drawings).

· Hold Wheel+Shift (in that order) and you PAN vertically or horizontally as if ORTHO is on.

· Roll the wheel forward and backward and you zoom in and out respectively. (Tip: Set the ZOOMFACTOR variable to control how fast you zoom in and out with the wheel.)

With the Left Mouse Button:

· Single click to select objects

· Shift+Left click to deselect objects

· Doubleclick to edit objects. (Tip: You can customize how the doubleclick edits objects in the CUI.)

· Pick one or more objects, then hold down the left mouse button to drag/move those objects.

With the Right Mouse Button: (Depending on Right Click Customization under Options > User Preferences)

· Click the right mouse button (or Enter or Spacebar) to bring back the last command.

· Click the right mouse button (or Enter or Spacebar) during a command to end the command.

· With objects selected, Right click brings up a pop up menu full of pertinent editing options.

· Select objects, then hold the right mouse button to drag and move or copy objects.

· Shift+Right click while in an editing command will bring up the OSNAP menu.

· Right click in the command line for a pop up menu. This is an easy way to access Options.

· Right click and hold for a pop up menu containing useful commands.

If you have a multi button mouse such as one of the many available gaming mice, you can program those buttons to be just about anything. I like programming a few of the buttons to be F3 (Osnap toggle) and F8 (Ortho toggle) as well as Escape.  Get a Razor Naga mouse and the world of AutoCAD commands is literally at your finger tips, well, thumb tip. It has 12 programmable buttons on its side.

COMMAND LINE

Watch your command line while issuing commands. Even if your an old pro, you may notice something you've never known was an option.

Examples:

· Check out all the command line options when drawing a RECTANGle. You can create a rectangle with chamfered edges and control the poly line width.  You can set it's size by total area, width & height, and give it a rotation angle.

· Watch the command line when doing simple things like COPY or ROTATE. Did you know you can make copies while rotating?

· UNDO has a lot of options that can be useful. Set UNDO marks to come back to, UNDO the entire drawing if you want to.

· Dimensioning has some neat things too.

· ZOOM to All/Center/Dynamic/Extents/Previous/Scale/Window/Object.

Pay attention to the command line and a whole new AutoCAD world may open up to you.

These command line options may be put to good use in custom palette or toolbar commands and script files.

Many people scrunch up their command line to just one or two lines. They are missing a lot of information while they are drafting.  I like mine with four lines. 

To see what commands and information has gone by, press F2 to see the command line history (Text Screen). Press F2 again to close the command line history.

With 2012 and above, as you type in the command line, a list will appear that shows what commands or settings are possible that begin with the text you are typing.

Thanks,

Lyle

Photogrammetry for the 21st Century

Before I get to the good stuff, I'll bore you with some history...

I've always liked Airplanes. I glued painted plastic models in grade school and attempted control line flying and RC flying in high school. I built balsa gliders from scratch and can still fold a mean paper airplane. Even though I never really 'got off the ground' with model airplanes like I wanted to, I pursued a college education in Aviation at Purdue. I have my pilot's license and even an Airframe and Powerplant mechanics license. (I've not use any of those licenses for almost 20 years.)  I worked in an aerial photography company, Dickerson Aerial Survey, in Lafayette, IN during and after college. I now work at an engineering firm compiling information from Aerial surveys and photos. I think it's time for all this history to come together.

Here's what I'm thinking....

There is software called Photomodeler and a more sophisticated version called Photomodeler Scanner.
http://www.photomodeler.com/products/pm-scanner.htm
There are other programs as well, but I'm familiar with PhotoModeler.
These softwares can take images and create 3D virtual models of those images. We've used PhotoModeler in our company a few times with limited success.  The Scanner version takes multiple images and more automatically builds a surface model. PhotoModeler is more of a manual, click, click, click process to match points to points among several different photos.

Now, couple this software with some nice Radio Controlled airplanes and you may have some inexpensive cartography going on. This is what an Australian company, Aerial Photography Specialists does.
http://www.apspecialists.com.au/

Maybe not so inexpensive, however. MicroDrones are fully autonomous quadcopters with GPS.. These puppies can cost $30,00 to $50,000 once you include the swiveling camera mount, camera (video or still), controls, software, and base station. As you can guess, these are not toys. A user can trace a 3D path with the software and these quadcopters will automatically fly that path and take your photos.

Couple all this to get a bunch of data points, then use Autodesk's Civil 3D and you can produce some accurate contour maps. I'm thinking that each flight, and transportation to the site has got to be less expensive than flying a real plane, with two people in it. I'll have to do more research on this.

Now, how about a cheaper version?  Search on YouTube for FPV (First Person View) flight. People are placing small video cameras (about $60) and transmitters (another $100) on Radio control planes and having fun. In my opinion, a more productive use would be to get a QuadCopter. Something like this, http://store.scoutuav.com/products-page/robots/airframes/scout-3-arf-kit-2/. There are several kinds out there that have adequate payload capacities for a camera. Most all of them can carry the little video cameras mentioned above.

So, for under a thousand dollars, you can have your own aerial photography business. For $30,000 to $50,000 you can be a real professional.

Who's in?

Welcome to Lyle's AutoCAD!

Well, here we go! I'm Blogging!
I've often wanted to.  Never have. So why now?
I was just notified today that my 2012 AutoCAD Weekly Planner went live on the Autodesk Exchange Apps store.

So, if you use AutoCAD, which I'mthinking you do if you found this blog, go to the Exchange Apps store and search for Planner, download the PDF file, print it, bind it and learn an AutoCAD command, tip or trick every week while you plan your days.

I will be posting tips and tricks and things I learn here (hopefully) regularly.

Who am I? What do I do?

My name is Lyle Hardin. I have used, and customized AutoCAD since 1989.
Since 1994, I have worked at CDG Engineers in St. Louis, Missouri. CDG is a full service Engineering firm specializing in heavy industrial engineering, mostly material handling for the power and mining industries. I am Supervisor of our Design Technology Department. The DTD is basically the IT department of the engineering / design software.  We research, test, purchase, install, customize the CAD software; support and train the users; and develop new ways to use the software.  I also develop 3D models and animations for preliminary concepts for the client and potential clients.

I enjoy what I do (most days) and have fun at work (for the most part).

A future post will have to deal with how all this software works (or doesn't) work together. We use Inventor for the Mechanical department, Revit Structure for the Structural department, Civil 3D for Civil work and plain AutoCAD everywhere. The 2013 versions of this software promise better interoperability. We'll see. And I'll post.

Later,
Lyle.

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