WorldCAD Access

Constructing multi-character complex linetypes in AutoCAD -- by hand

Yup, even though competitors like MicroStation and TurboCAD have had built-in linetype editors for years now, Autodesk still expects the customers of its $4,100 software to construct linetypes by hand, in writing the cryptic code in Notepad.

Reader A.C. last week wrote me:

I have been reading your tutorials on linetype files for AutoCAD and I have made an attempt at a complex linetype, but unfortunately I can’t get the coding right. Is there any way you can help? What I am after  is combining two to make one. Is it possible to add the crosses from the ‘redundant apparatus’ linetype to the ‘foul water rising main’ linetype?

He provided me with the code he had written and screen grabs of what he wanted. I did some experimenting in Notepad, going through this debugging cycle:

1. Write some linetype code in Notepad.

2. Save the file as an LIN file.

3. Use the -linetype command to load the LIN file.

4. Enjoy (not!) decoding the cryptic error messages, all of which read generically like this, no matter the problem:

 

(Reporting a problem in Line 2 is unhelpful, Autodesk, because Line 2 is the entirety of the code.)

5. Repeat.

Anyhow, eventually I found that yes, we can place two characters in a single complex linetype definition. The character codes are shown in boldface:

A,.5,-.2,[Box,GCltypeshp.shx,S=.1,R=0.0,X=-0.05,Y=-.05],-.1,[ZAG,GCltypeshp.shx,x=-.2,s=.2],-.2

The key to success was to put in a "dummy" code between the two characters, such as the -.1 shown in red, above.

Mr A.C. was happy with my discovery, writing:

I have adjusted the coding to give me a slightly different arrangement:
*Foul Water Rising Main - Abandoned,x-/-x-/-x-/-x-/-x-/-x-
A,.5,-.2,["X",STANDARD,S=.1,R=0.0,X=-0.575,Y=-.05], .01,-0.01,[ZAG,GCltypeshp.shx,x=-.425,s=.2],-.2

And then he had one more request:

Out of interest, do you know if it is possible to change the colour of the ‘x’s? Possible to black rather than the same colour as the line?

But no, Autodesk does not allow us to set the color for individual elements; just for the entire line.

 

Why doesn't every CAD package have this new function in BricsCAD?

Here is a useful function added to BricsCAD V13.1.15: 

DUAL MONITORS: when using an external display, dockable dialogs like the Properties Bar, Command Line window and Toolpalettes could be off-screen after switching from 'Extend these displays' to 'Show desktop only on 1', or after the external display had been disconnected.

Now, when BricsCAD starts up, and a dockable dialog's position is off-screen, the dialog is moved to a default position. So 'lost' dialogs can be retrieved by restarting BricsCAD.

Source: http://www.bricsys.com/common/releasenotes.jsp?i=3120

AutoCAD 2013 still runs on netbooks

Some of us beta testers are finding that Autodesk 360 does not work with the shipping version of AutoCAD 2013, and so in writing our books we have to install AutoCAD on a different computer.

I, however, have limited possibilities. My wife's computer runs Linux. My powerful, 8GB notebook computer is being used by my daughter-in-law for drawings in her fashion design courses. That leaves my 1GB netbook.

To get AutoCAD 2013 running on a netbook is just like earlier releases:

0. Remember to plug into the netbook a high-speed USB thumbdrive or SD card for ReadyBoost memory caching. This will speed up operations considerably.

1. Download the 32-bit version of AutoCAD. (64-bit version won't install.)

2.  Install using Custom mode to leave out all the things not needed. In my case, I only needed the Autodesk 360 module.

3. At this point, you need to hook up an external monitor, because the install screen is taller than the 600-pixel height of Autodesk's installation dialog boxes. TIP: Press Windows+P to quickly set up the second monitor.

If you don't have a spare monitor, then there are workarounds:

• Bill Fane hooks up his netbook up to the tv, and then drags the AutoCAD window to the tv screen. He reminds you to quit AutoCAD before unattaching the tv, otherwise you won't be able to reach it.
• A reader (sorry, don't have your name!) says in a pinch he uses his computer's video options to rotate the screen image by 90 degrees. Now the dialog boxes have 1024 pixels to work in.

4. When the install is finished, start AutoCAD 2013. A dialog box pops up warning you that AutoCAD needs 1024x768 in which to run. Close it and ignore it. AutoCAD starts up normally, and here it is, tiny but perfect: 

 

Yip, AutoCAD 2013 runs on Windows 8

Earlier, I described on my Gizmos Grabowski blog about how to run Windows 8 in a virtual machine; see worldcadaccess.typepad.com/gizmos.

Later that day, I got AutoCAD 2013 (RC beta) running in 8.  It works, except that running inside a virtual machine, the graphics are a bit sluggish, because 3D graphics are emulated --  no hardware drivers.

Point is, however, that AutoCAD runs in Windows 8, even if it is not on the official support list. Here's a picture; click it for the unfuzzy view. The large white icons along the right edge are generated by Windows 8, when you move the cursor over the time-date display on the status bar.

 

 

 

Social media becomes commands in AutoCAD 2013

With the embargo coming off AutoCAD 2013 early, information about the new release will start dribbling out from bloggers keen to share their knowledge. Well, what ever else there is to know beyond what Autodesk Japan revealed this week.

As the author of the What's Inside? AutoCAD series of ebooks, I work harder and dig deeper to learn what's inside new releases. Here are a pair of social media commands from deep inside AutoCAD 2013:

ai_open_facebook_with_product and ai_open_twitter_with_product open the Autodesk pages for Facebook and Twitter in your computer's default browser. The "with_product" part makes me think the commands access Facebook and Twitter sites specific to the product you are running, such as AutoCAD or another program.

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I anticipate releasing What's Inside? AutoCAD 2013 before the end of March. In the meantime, you can get a copy of last year's edition for $12 from here: www.upfrontezine.com/wia12.

 

Oopsie: Autodesk undoes NDA on 2013 products a month early

In about an hour, Autodesk releases its Q4 and fiscal year information to the public, and speaks with financial analysts.

Yesterday, Autodesk Japan unveiled details of AutoCAD 2013 and related products, easily readable with the help of online translators. The details were released more than a month too soon, which wasn't to happen until the big, two-day media event planned for the end of March in San Francisco.

When those of us in the beta program learned of the Japanese leak, we asked Autodesk PR for an explanation of our status. I never heard back, but others did. One author tells me...

[At first, Autodesk PR told me that] the NDA still stood. I suspect I wasn't the only one to complain, because not long after I got another email to the effect that anything released in Japan was fair game, but that this did not include suites, cloud, and a couple of other items. This morning I sent the link at your site (with the link to the Google translation) pointing out that the features comparison chart lists the cloud, and asked for clarification. That was just a couple of hours ago, so no answer yet. I suspect Autodesk PR have gone into Disaster Recovery mode.

 

Extending Bricscad through user-written .net commands

From the Universitätsbauamt Heidelberg in Germany, Konstantin Sakellaris writes to tell me about three commands that he programmed using the C# .NET API of Bricscad. As much as V12 is an advance over earlier releases of Bricscad, it lacks commands like Sweep, Loft, and Slice (cut a 3D solid using a surface. And so he wrote them for Bricscad V12:

• SWEEPX and LOFTX sweep and loft solids and surfaces as swept and lofted ACIS surfaces.
• SSBS is short for "slice solid by surface" and it slices solids.

He recommends that you look to the Bricscad Support Forum thread for documentation, comments, screenshots, and newer versions: https://www.bricsys.com/common/support/forumthread.jsp?id=17053

1. Use the NETLOAD command to load the SweepX-LoftX-bc12.1.12.dll file

2. Then use the commands -- SWEEPX, LOFTX, or SSBS 

Note: this .dll works only with the latest sub-release of V12, 12.1.12. 

 

In the figure below, I used LOFTX; the properties bar shows the resutl is a LOFTEDSURFACE object. 

Are CAD Vendors Thinking "HTML 5" Yet?

None of the product managers I spoke with at Autodesk University were aware of HTML 5 and how it might impact Autodesk's Web-based apps. It is important, for it appears that next year Google will switch from Gears to HTML 5.

(Gears allows some Google apps to work offline, specifically GMail, Docs, and Reader. "Off-line" means you can work with these Web-hosted applications when your computer does not have an Internet connection. At least one of Autodesk's Lab apps uses Gears, as I understand it.)

The HTML 5 spec supports 2D drawing (inline SVG), document editing, drag'n drop, offline storage, and geolocation APIs, and eliminates the need for Flash, Silverlight, and JavaFX. Google's Chrome is one browser that support HTML5.

Employees of Google and Apple are the primary editors of the spec, and you can figure out why they are keen to promote it.

Vernor Wins; Customers Win

A judge decided today that Tim Vernor did not contravene the USA Copyright Act, when he resold AutoCAD software he apparently picked up at garage sales. The judge told Autodesk to back off harassing him.

From Owen Wengerd's CAD/court:

"The court declares that Plaintiff's [Vernor's] sales of Defendant's [Autodesk's] copyrighted AutoCAD software do not violate the Copyright Act to the extent Plaintiff [Vernor] acquired them in the manner described in the order. Defendant [Autodesk] is hereby enjoined from asserting its rights under the Copyright Act as a basis for preventing or otherwise hindering Plaintiff's [Vernor] sales of AutoCAD software."

(The back story: With the assistance of the EFF Public Citizen, Vernor had taken on Autodesk, to stop the billionaire corporation interfering with his used AutoCAD sales on eBay. Autodesk had gotten eBay to block Vernor's sales.)

The court agrees that customers can resell software like a book, but in this one specific situation (as I understand it): that you buy the software and then resell it, without reading the license agreement -- which is what Vernor had done. (He is not a CAD user, but a guy who makes an income from finding used software and then reselling it.)

Vernor (and me) figure software should be no different than any other consumer good: buy it, use it, resell it, or toss it. Software companies blanche at the thought of a second-hand software market, which would cut into their sales.

(The most extreme license terms require you to physically return the discs to the software vendor after a certain number of years!)

I am guessing this will go to another level of court, as Autodesk desperately tries to keep its finger in the dike on behalf of all large software corporations against the freeing up of the marketplace. Software resales may become inevitable, however, given today's popularity of reselling used software games, and selling used computers with Windows licenses glued on.

Cui Group Name

I am updating my ebook, Tailoring AutoCAD CUI 2010, and came across a ribbon button property that isn't documented by Autodesk: Group Name, under the Appearance section.

I couldn't find an explanation for in with the help files provided by Autodesk with AutoCAD 2010. I googled for it, but only found references to another kind of Cui-related "group" -- partial CUI files loaded with the CuiLoad command. A few moments worth of tinkering found that Cui's Group Name is not related to the names of Cui groups.

I reread the Cui dialog box's description for Group Name:

Specifies the group name for the command when grouping is enabled for a drop-down.

It appeared to be related to drop-downs, Autodesk's new name for flyouts. I searched through the Cui file to see if Autodesk used this Group Name feature anywhere. It didn't appear to.

Then I found that flyouts (sorry, drop-downs) have a different property for groups: Grouping can be Yes or No. The dialog box's description for this option is:

Specifies whether commands under a drop-down are grouped together using their assigned group name (Yes or No).

Things that make you go, "Hmmm..." I knew that buttons in flyouts are listed by the order in which they appear in the Cui file. I wondered if Grouping grouped the buttons by user-defined names specified by Group Name.

I randomly assigned the names "jim" and "bob" to the buttons in the Circle flyout, and then tested it. My hunch was right, as the following figure illustrates:

The grouping option allows you to segregate flyout buttons into user-named groups.

There is no way to specify the order of the user-defined names. Because I gave the first button the group name of "jim," jim got listed first.

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As for Tailoring AutoCAD CUI 2010, I hope to have it ready for purchase by early next week.