'ZOOM and other Transparent Commands

ZOOM! and Transparent Commands

Zoom? Really? What's to know? Well, there's more to ZOOM than meets the eye. 

ZOOM

Yes, one of the oldest commands, but there are some neat things you can do with it.

First of all, Zoom Window, can be faster than using the mouse wheel especially in large drawings. Actually, while on that topic, I'm surprised how many people don't use the mouse wheel to zoom. But, using the mouse wheel is for another post....

To save a step when zooming a window, you don't need to type in W for window, Window is the default. Just Z for zoom (or 'Z for a transparent zoom. See below.) and pick your two window corners. The 'Z will issue a transparent Zoom. That is, it can be issued during another command, such as in the middle of Move or Erase. The quote mark ( ' ) will cause some commands to be transparent such as 'ZOOM and 'PAN among others. More on that below.

Look at the command line after issuing the Zoom command and experiment with the Zoom options.

Here's a tip: 
Zoom Object Last. ( Z enter, O enter, L enter). This will zoom to the last thing you drew or placed in the drawing. This works with the Previous (P) selection set, too. Z enter O enter P enter.

Zoom Object Last is my favorite way to find where, in modelspace, a viewport is viewing. Did you follow that? You know in some big drawings, you get 'lost' when going from a viewport in paperspace to modelspace?
Here's how to find out where you are: 
Through the viewport, draw a circle (or anything really. I just like circles). Go to the Model tab and Zoom, Object, Last ( Z Enter, O Enter, L Enter ) and it will zoom to that circle. This tip is great for large site plans or confusing drawings with a gazillion viewports showing a gazillion details. Sometimes, you're not looking where you think you are.

Quickly Zoom Extents by double clicking the Mouse Wheel (or middle button).


Zoom Dynamic has been all but forgotten by most. It allows you to create a temporary window that you can size and move around your drawing to zoom into a specific area. Again, it's probably quicker to Zoom Extents, then Zoom Window or to just use the wheel, but some people still like to zoom dynamic.


Zoom Center centers the screen where you pick, but you also get to enter a scale or height to zoom to. In all honesty, I can't really think of much value to that other than zooming to a point in a LISP routine or a script or something. 


Again, just type Zoom and experiment with the various options. You might find something you like.
The system variable ZOOMFACTOR controls how much you zoom in and out with each 'click' of
the mouse wheel.

COMMAND LINE AND TRANSPARENT COMMANDS

If you've used AutoCAD for many years, you may remember when it was all Command line driven (back in the days of DOS for instance). There were few dialog boxes back then.
TRANSPARENT commands are those commands you can use while in the middle of another command. The most useful and well known are 'ZOOM and 'PAN. Notice the single quote mark ( ' ) before the command. That is what is needed to make the command transparent. 'LAYER is another command you can use transparently. The usefulness of Transparent commands has diminished with the use of mouse wheels (ZOOM & PAN) and dialog boxes (LAYER), but can still be useful at times. To see if a command has a command line equivalent or might be transparent, just type - or ' before the command to see it is a valid command or not.
Many commands still offer command line versions by using a dash (-) before the command. For instance, type "-LAYER" (without the quotes, but with the dash) and you will get the old fashioned command line version of the LAYER command.

A few other commands are -PURGE, -BLOCK, -WBLOCK, -SAVEAS, etc. This is useful to know for writing scripts, macros and LISP routines. Note that not all commands have command line equivalents.


Well, that's it for another week. 
Live long and prosper.
Lyle