Arranging the AutoCAD User Interface TE RI AL UI — THE USER INTERFACE — is an acronym that is thrown around a lot. Just for a moment, don’t think of it as just those two letters. The UI is what comes between you (the user) and it (the essentially incomprehensible computer). The UI lets you interact with the inner workings of the machine, ideally in an intuitive fashion. whose stick-shift and clutch are parts of its permanent UI, your computer’s UI is highly customizable.
Chapter 1 Arranging the AutoCAD User Interface a Tweaking Windows Although using Windows out of the box works, you’ll get more out of your operating system— and AutoCAD — if you make a few alterations. This section offers you tips and tricks for tweaking the ubiquitous Windows. These aren’t exactly AutoCAD tips proper, but knowing a few things about maintaining the health of your operating system can make you a much happier CAD user and human being.
Tweaking Windows Select the (C): drive under Volume, and click the Analyze button to see a graphical representation of how fragmented your drive is. Red is bad, blue is good, green is neutral, and white is free. If you see a lot of red, then it’s definitely time to clean things up. Select Defragment, and let Windows do the rest (if only organizing my closet were so easy!).
Chapter 1 Arranging the AutoCAD User Interface Put Defragmentation on a Schedule Manually defragmenting your hard drive can get old. Are you really going to remember to defragment on a regular basis, or are you likely to forget about it until your hard drive slows to a crawl again? Fortunately, there is help for the terminally busy (or lazy). If you schedule defragmentation, then you can potentially forget about it forever (and why isn’t this part of Windows already?).
Tweaking Windows Take Control of the Swap File Have you ever opened a number of big drawings, maybe with loads of Xrefs or 3D geometry, only to discover that AutoCAD is taking an inordinate amount of time to do anything? Maybe you also have many different programs running: AutoCAD, Autodesk VIZ, Autodesk Inventor, Microsoft Word, and/or Microsoft Outlook. If you’ve already defragmented, then there must be another reason for the slowdown. Chances are, you’ve run out of memory.
Chapter 1 Arranging the AutoCAD User Interface 3. In the Performance Options dialog box, click the Advanced tab. Click the Change button in the Virtual Memory area. 4. Click the Custom Size radio button, and set Initial Size at twice the size of your RAM. For example, if you have 1 GB of RAM, set Initial Size at 2048 (RAM is in powers of 2) MB. 5. Set Maximum Size at three times your RAM, and then click Set. Click OK in each of the open dialog boxes, and you’re done. 6.
Tweaking Windows 4. Delete all the files in the Temp folder (just do it). 5. Did you know that AutoCAD is tied to Internet Explorer? Yes, AutoCAD has many Internet features like hyperlink, Communication Center, and even Help that borrow from IE. So, you should clean out these temporary files as well. Click Start menu ➔ Settings ➔ Control Panel ➔ Internet Options. 6. Click Delete Files in the Temporary Internet Files area to clean out the browser cache. Click OK in the confirmation dialog, and that’s it.
Chapter 1 Arranging the AutoCAD User Interface Please tell me that you’re using a firewall. In the age of always-on Internet, algorithms are constantly pounding on your digital door. The firewall is the only thing keeping them out. Let’s face it: Windows is chock full of security holes. Microsoft finds more every week, as evidenced by the numerous security patches the company offers via the Automatic Updates feature.
Tweaking Windows 4. The Properties dialog displays the name of your particular adapter or chipset in the title bar. Note that the driver version is shown on the Driver tab — this is what you’re looking for, so make a note of it. 5. Now you need to check for driver updates. Use your browser to surf to the manufacturer’s website, and locate the driver download part of the site. Search for your adapter or chipset name and/or driver version. If a new version is available, download and install it.
Chapter 1 Arranging the AutoCAD User Interface 2. Click the Check for Updates button. Internet Explorer launches and takes you to a page on the Autodesk website. 3. The page that appears has instructions for downloading and installing the latest Hard- ware Certification Database. Close AutoCAD, follow the instructions, and restart AutoCAD. You’ll be notified if a new graphics driver is available and whether it’s fully compatible with AutoCAD’s new 3D features.
Tweaking Windows Keeping Up Appearances If your aesthetic sense has long been offended by the saturated blues and greens of the default Windows XP interface, then rejoice, for relief is on its way. The Appearance tab of the Display Properties dialog box makes it possible to alter many of the UI components under Windows’ control. In turn, these affect how AutoCAD appears — because, after all, AutoCAD runs on Windows.
Chapter 1 Arranging the AutoCAD User Interface Item drop-down list). Could this be more obscure? I (Lynn) personally find this frustrating because I like the font of the tooltips to be larger than that on my tool palettes. After you’re finished tweaking the appearance of the Windows UI, select the Themes tab of the Display Properties dialog box (if you have one), and save a theme. Should anything change, this will make it easy to recall all your customizations with one click at a later date.
Tweaking Windows slash. These options are passed to the executable when it starts up. Switch to the General tab, and rename the shortcut AutoCAD 2007. Click Apply, and close the dialog box. 4. Launch AutoCAD with the shortcut, and observe that the splash screen no longer appears. Other Switches in the Startup Before we tell you about Lynn’s favorite switch, let’s look at some of the more popular startup switches.
Chapter 1 Arranging the AutoCAD User Interface Loading Sheet Sets Automatically Before I (Lynn) got into using sheet sets, I used to load the sheet set manually nearly every day (because AutoCAD didn’t remember that I had it loaded when I left the drawing). I’m not a fan of tedium, so I decided to do something about it. My favorite switch gives me the ability to automatically load a specific sheet set so I don’t have to load it myself after AutoCAD launches. Here’s how you do it.
Finding Help Ctrl+Shift+Tab to cycle backward through the list of open drawings. The Shift key is used to reverse the cycling direction in all multitasking key combinations. If you’re comfortable switching tasks with Alt+Tab but don’t think you’ll be able to remember Ctrl+Tab, then the TASKBAR system variable is for you. Set TASKBAR to 1, and all open drawings will immediately appear as separate buttons (a.k.a. tasks) at the bottom of the screen.
Chapter 1 Arranging the AutoCAD User Interface Click Advanced to access a list to search only within a specific component (think book) in the user documentation set, instead of everything together. For example, if you’re looking for a customization issue, you can choose the Customization Guide (ACG) from the list; the search results are then updated. Choose a component to search before (or conveniently after) you’ve performed the search, and the results are updated.
Finding Help Disable Antivirus Checking of Help File If the AutoCAD Help window takes forever to open, there is a good chance your antivirus software is checking it to make sure it’s clean (trust us, it is). This can become annoying if it happens every time you open Help. AutoCAD Help is a separate but linked task on the taskbar (it disappears when AutoCAD closes). Many antivirus programs think this is highly suspicious, so they get triggered.
Chapter 1 Arranging the AutoCAD User Interface Quick Help Offers Contextual Information New users of AutoCAD will benefit most from the Quick Help feature. It displays contextual help information in the Info Palette as you work. Every time you enter a command, information appears about the active command. Obviously, this gets old after you fully understand the commands you’re using. However, more experienced users can still benefit by opening the Info Palette just prior to using an unfamiliar command.
Finding Help Don’t use the comment mechanism in the Help system if you want technical support. Instead, submit comments to make AutoCAD Help better in the future. Online Help You can access tons of AutoCAD help online. The AutoCAD Help menu has links to many excellent resources, including these: a e-Learning training is available to subscription customers (a wonderful utility worth trying). a The Support Knowledge Base is a good place to go when you have a specific technical problem.
Chapter 1 Arranging the AutoCAD User Interface Web log Title Host http:// Mistress of the Dorkness Melanie Stone mistressofthedorkness.blogspot.com The Autodesk Informer Ryan Small autodeskinformer.blogs.com CAD Managment Topics Scott Durkee scottdurkee.blogspot.com Raster Design with AutoCAD Jane Smith rasterdesign.blogspot.com The Digital Architect Scott Onstott scottonstott.com/vodcast Our apologies to any AutoCAD bloggers who aren’t listed here.
Organizing the Interface A hybrid approach is to lock down certain workspaces that are carved in stone (readonly) via an Enterprise CUI file. This is an excellent approach to offering standardized drawing environments to everyone on your team. Don’t worry about not being able to edit these files, because every user also has their own customizable workspaces that may diverge from the official standards. See Chapter 10’s “CUI for the Enterprise” section for more information.
Chapter 1 Arranging the AutoCAD User Interface And Command Input Near The Crosshairs. You’ll need this option if you plan to hide the command line. Press the Down Arrow key to access command options on screen instead of on the command line. See “Input Dynamically” in Chapter 2. Drag the command-line window out from its dock to palettize it. Turn on auto-hide to save screen real estate. Better yet, anchor the command line — it’s a dockable window (see the section “Anchor Dockable Windows”).
Organizing the Interface Click the downward-facing arrow in the lower-right corner of the status bar to open the status-bar menu. Turn off any buttons you can live without. These buttons will disappear from the status bar. Finally, the button adjacent to the status-bar menu is the clean-screen toggle. Click it or press Ctrl+0 (if you aren’t on AutoCAD 2007) to experience minimum clutter. AutoCAD is maximized, and all palettes and toolbars disappear. Anchored dockable windows are still usable in this mode.
Chapter 1 Arranging the AutoCAD User Interface With all these dockable windows competing for space on screen, there is now officially no room left for drawing. Autodesk probably figured that it couldn’t just tell everyone to go out and buy three more monitors, so it invented the anchor feature. Right-click the vertical title bar of any palette (or, more correctly, dockable window), and toggle on Allow Docking, if it’s not already on. Repeat, and choose Anchor Left or Anchor Right.
Organizing the Interface Setup the Dashboard / Tool Palette Connection The Dashboard is definitely an interesting new feature in AutoCAD 2007. Did you know that there is a mysterious connection between the Dashboard and the Tool Palettes? The Dashboard is filled with control panels (ahem; didn’t Autodesk think about the obvious name collision with this well-known Windows feature?). One of these control panels, 2D Draw, isn’t visible out of the box — so let’s turn it on.
Chapter 1 Arranging the AutoCAD User Interface You can customize which tool palette group is connected with each control panel. Activate a particular control panel, and then right-click its icon. From the shortcut menu, choose which tool palette group you want to associate with the active control panel.
Inputting with the Keyboard and Mouse see it because it’s off the screen. You may also lose your dockable windows when you change the resolution of the screen (which once happened to Lynn in front of about 150 people in Denmark!) If neither one of these situations applies to you, dockable windows have also been reported to disappear for no good reason at all. a Inputting with the Keyboard and Mouse Long gone are the days when tablets were popular input devices in the AutoCAD community.
Chapter 1 Arranging the AutoCAD User Interface Autocomplete is another nifty feature that should be popular among the lazy, forgetful, and/or dyslexic (which should include just about everyone). This tool comes in handy when you can’t remember how to spell a specific system variable or command. Autocomplete works both in dynamic input prompts and on the command line.
Inputting with the Keyboard and Mouse Board the Command Alias Express Command aliases are abbreviated command names. L is the alias for LINE, A is for ARC, and so on. Surprisingly, command aliases aren’t part of the CUI editor; they’re still controlled by the ancient ACAD.PGP file. Ever since Autodesk went with the Microsoft standard for AutoCAD, the support folder that contains the program parameters file is buried deep in the file system.
Chapter 1 Arranging the AutoCAD User Interface Function Key Master List Many of the function keys have been the same since time immemorial (since 1982). But recently a few of them have changed, and it behooves you to make some additional changes on your own.
Inputting with the Keyboard and Mouse There are two sets of temporary overrides, one for each hand (depending on whether you’re right or left handed). One of your hands is on the mouse, right? We certainly wouldn’t want you to let go of the mouse. The other hand can hold down a key combo to temporarily override while you continue to use the mouse. (Then, if you really practice, you can answer the phone with your foot.
Chapter 1 Arranging the AutoCAD User Interface The mnemonic, or way to remember it, is RGB=XYZ — red represents the X axis, green for Y, and blue for Z. The UCS icon is fatter and has conical arrowheads on the axis tips by default, but observe that it follows the same hard and fast color-coding rules. You might choose to label the axes on the crosshairs (in Options), but once you get the color mnemonic, doing so will be overkill.
Inputting with the Keyboard and Mouse ZOOMWHEEL The ZOOMWHEEL system variable controls the direction you rotate the wheel to zoom. AutoCAD has forever been set to zoom in when you rotate the wheel away from you (forward direction). You’re moving the camera toward the objects on the screen by scrolling forward and away from the objects by scrolling backward. It’s now possible to reverse that behavior by setting this system variable to 1.
Chapter 1 Arranging the AutoCAD User Interface Should the right button repeat the last command, bring up the shortcut menu, or act like Enter? If you ponder it, your answer probably depends on whether objects are selected and a command is in progress. Amazingly, all these possibilities are customizable, but you’ll find in practice that locking in the mouse behavior in this fashion can be a bit too constraining.
