MTJIGSTRING
From Help: Sets the content of the sample text displayed at the cursor location when the MTEXT command is started. The text string is displayed in the current text size and font. You can enter any string of up to ten letters or numbers or enter . (period) to display no sample text.
PEDITACCEPT
From Help: (although my nagging memory says I've already posted this, sorry if I'm repeating myself)
Suppresses display of the Object Selected Is Not a Polyline prompt in PEDIT. The prompt is followed by “Do you want it to turn into one?” Entering y converts the selected object to a polyline. When the prompt is suppressed, the selected object is automatically converted to a polyline.
0
The prompt is displayed
1
The prompt is suppressed
TORIENT
From Express Tools Help: Aligns text, mtext and block attribute objects to new orientation.
Rotates text, mtext, and attribute definition objects so that they end up being as close as possible to horizontal or right-read (similar to the behavior of dimension text). Objects are rotated about their middle point in 180-degree increments. For example, if the text is upside-down, it becomes right-side up after a TORIENT operation. Similarly, left-read text becomes right-read text. The overall object location is not changed. As an option, you can specify a new absolute orientation angle for all selected text objects.
Microsoft Access 97: Any database managers out there who work with Access? You know that picture you have to look at while the program takes forever to boot up?
You can replace that with an image of your choice. All you have to do is place a .bmp of the same name as the database file into the same directory.
So, I rename ViggoM.bmp to PlansIndex.bmp, and I get to look at my fave lotr actor while I wait for Access to open.
2005-11-09
Geek Pickup Lines...
[Edit: if you're looking for -> Lord of the Rings pickup lines]
I just got this email from one of my fellow lug members...
These are hilarious, thanks Allan S!
(I realize this is an email forward, but, if anyone knows an originator, I'd like to give credit where it's due?)
Geek Pick-up Lines
11. Tell me of this thing you humans call *dramatic pause* love.
10. If you turn me down now, I will become more drunk than you can possibly imagine.
9. They don't call me Bones because I'm a doctor.
8. Your name is Leslie? Look, I can spell your name on my calculator!
7. What's a nice girl like you doing in a wretched hive of scum and villany like this?
6. You must be Windows 95 because you gots me so unstable.
5. My 'up-time' is better than BSD.
4. I can tell by your emoticons that you're looking for some company.
3. Is that an iPod mini in your pocket or are you just happy to see me.
2. Want to see my Red Hat?
1. If you won't let me buy you a drink, at least let me fix your laptop.
Geek Pick Up Lines: Part 2
11. You had me at "Hello World."
10. Mind if I run a sniffer to see if your ports are open?
9. You make me want to upgrade my Tivo.
8. By looking at you I can tell you're 36-25-36, which by the way are all perfect squares.
7. Jedi Mind Trick: "This is the geek you're looking for." *waves hand*
6. You can put a Trojan on my Hard Drive anytime.
5. Have you ever googled yourself?
4. How about we do a little peer-to-peer saliva swapping?
3. With my IQ and your body we could begin a race of genetic superchildren to conquer the earth.
2. What's a girl like you doing in a place like this when there's a Farscape marathon on right now on the Sci Fi channel.
1. I'm attracted to you so strongly, scientists will have to develop a fifth fundamental force.
Geek Pick-Up Lines: Part 3
11. I'm attracted to you so much that scientists will begin to doubt the Theory of Relativity.
10. What's a nice girl like you doing in a chatroom like this?
9. Resistance is futile.
8. No matter how I sort things, you'll always be first.
7. No, that's not a Logitech MX-100 in my pants, but thanks for noticing.
6. I think you could be an integral part of my project life cycle.
5. I'd switch to emacs for you.
4. You put the SPARC in my workstation.
3. If you have an empty slot, I have the card to fill it.
2. We're like SLI. Were great alone, but we'd be so much better together.
1. You got me stuck on Caps Lock, if you know what I mean.
Geek Pick-Up Lines: Part 4
11. I have so much love to give you'll have to pipe it through more.
10. Did you make a Google Bomb? Whatever I search for, it's you I find.
9. Do you work for a TelCom? Because I bet you'd be good at pulling cable.
8. I was hoping you wouldn't block my pop-up.
7. Would you like to play Scrabble with me? I am tired of playing with myself.
6. You compute me.
5. Girl, I wish I was your differential, because then I'd be touching all your curves.
4. But enough about me, let's talk about mu.
3. Be my queen and mate me with your knight moves.
2. You've stolen the ASCII to my heart.
1. You must've been made by Intel to be that hot!
I just got this email from one of my fellow lug members...
These are hilarious, thanks Allan S!
(I realize this is an email forward, but, if anyone knows an originator, I'd like to give credit where it's due?)
Geek Pick-up Lines
11. Tell me of this thing you humans call *dramatic pause* love.
10. If you turn me down now, I will become more drunk than you can possibly imagine.
9. They don't call me Bones because I'm a doctor.
8. Your name is Leslie? Look, I can spell your name on my calculator!
7. What's a nice girl like you doing in a wretched hive of scum and villany like this?
6. You must be Windows 95 because you gots me so unstable.
5. My 'up-time' is better than BSD.
4. I can tell by your emoticons that you're looking for some company.
3. Is that an iPod mini in your pocket or are you just happy to see me.
2. Want to see my Red Hat?
1. If you won't let me buy you a drink, at least let me fix your laptop.
Geek Pick Up Lines: Part 2
11. You had me at "Hello World."
10. Mind if I run a sniffer to see if your ports are open?
9. You make me want to upgrade my Tivo.
8. By looking at you I can tell you're 36-25-36, which by the way are all perfect squares.
7. Jedi Mind Trick: "This is the geek you're looking for." *waves hand*
6. You can put a Trojan on my Hard Drive anytime.
5. Have you ever googled yourself?
4. How about we do a little peer-to-peer saliva swapping?
3. With my IQ and your body we could begin a race of genetic superchildren to conquer the earth.
2. What's a girl like you doing in a place like this when there's a Farscape marathon on right now on the Sci Fi channel.
1. I'm attracted to you so strongly, scientists will have to develop a fifth fundamental force.
Geek Pick-Up Lines: Part 3
11. I'm attracted to you so much that scientists will begin to doubt the Theory of Relativity.
10. What's a nice girl like you doing in a chatroom like this?
9. Resistance is futile.
8. No matter how I sort things, you'll always be first.
7. No, that's not a Logitech MX-100 in my pants, but thanks for noticing.
6. I think you could be an integral part of my project life cycle.
5. I'd switch to emacs for you.
4. You put the SPARC in my workstation.
3. If you have an empty slot, I have the card to fill it.
2. We're like SLI. Were great alone, but we'd be so much better together.
1. You got me stuck on Caps Lock, if you know what I mean.
Geek Pick-Up Lines: Part 4
11. I have so much love to give you'll have to pipe it through more.
10. Did you make a Google Bomb? Whatever I search for, it's you I find.
9. Do you work for a TelCom? Because I bet you'd be good at pulling cable.
8. I was hoping you wouldn't block my pop-up.
7. Would you like to play Scrabble with me? I am tired of playing with myself.
6. You compute me.
5. Girl, I wish I was your differential, because then I'd be touching all your curves.
4. But enough about me, let's talk about mu.
3. Be my queen and mate me with your knight moves.
2. You've stolen the ASCII to my heart.
1. You must've been made by Intel to be that hot!
2005-11-07
Since Sliced Bread (aka R14), a couple of blogs, Salary Survey complete
What’s the best thing since sliced bread (aka autocad release 14)?
I’ve been following some interesting discussions on the Autodesk CAD Manager’s Newsgroup… what features do these users value? Which irritate them? Which missed the mark, but, could be a slam-dunk with some more work?
Best Features Since R14:
http://discussion.autodesk.com/thread.jspa?threadID=436751
Worst Features Since R14:
http://discussion.autodesk.com/thread.jspa?threadID=437107
Forget sliced bread, this came out half-baked…
Half-baked features Since R14:
http://discussion.autodesk.com/thread.jspa?threadID=437308
Hey, not to drive away any of my faithful readers, but, the AUGI home page this month is showcasing BLAUGI, the new official blog of the autodesk user’s group international. Check out a couple of posts under the heading ‘the rules of cad’, very interesting reading.
There was also some great reading in a recent blog posting by heidi hewett of autodesk on how tv and video games affect our learning.
I’d like to take a second to make a personal THANK YOU to the record thousands of respondents to the AUGI Annual Salary Survey, which is a project that I volunteer my time for. Be sure to keep an eye out for the next issue of AUGIworld for the first round of results! Every year we make changes based on the feedback of participants, and we hope those changes help to make the results more useful to you.
I’ve been following some interesting discussions on the Autodesk CAD Manager’s Newsgroup… what features do these users value? Which irritate them? Which missed the mark, but, could be a slam-dunk with some more work?
Best Features Since R14:
http://discussion.autodesk.com/thread.jspa?threadID=436751
Worst Features Since R14:
http://discussion.autodesk.com/thread.jspa?threadID=437107
Forget sliced bread, this came out half-baked…
Half-baked features Since R14:
http://discussion.autodesk.com/thread.jspa?threadID=437308
Hey, not to drive away any of my faithful readers, but, the AUGI home page this month is showcasing BLAUGI, the new official blog of the autodesk user’s group international. Check out a couple of posts under the heading ‘the rules of cad’, very interesting reading.
There was also some great reading in a recent blog posting by heidi hewett of autodesk on how tv and video games affect our learning.
I’d like to take a second to make a personal THANK YOU to the record thousands of respondents to the AUGI Annual Salary Survey, which is a project that I volunteer my time for. Be sure to keep an eye out for the next issue of AUGIworld for the first round of results! Every year we make changes based on the feedback of participants, and we hope those changes help to make the results more useful to you.
2005-11-04
New Playground, Grand Canyon Skywalk, Excel (97) Header Row
Well, it snuck up on me, but, it's FALL now! Wow. Just took my 2 1/2 year old out trick or treating for the first time (at the mall). I almost passed on it again this year, as I figure he's too young to know what he'd be missing, and I don't really give him candy very often anyway. But! after he thanked me for taking him to the park and zoo, etc, I just had to. I bought him a pirate costume and away we went! He was just wide-eyed with wonder no matter what he was handed; a tootsie roll, a coupon, stickers, shampoo samples... lol. Nothing has ever felt so good as noticing the light in his eyes seeing our favorite mall turned into a halloween wonderland with decorations and hundreds of kids dressed as everything from lobsters to elmo. He didn't actually eat any candy that day. He just kept looking at it, putting it piece-by-piece into and out of his bag (then, after that wore out, I gave him a box, and almost a week later, he can still amuse himself by doing that). What a wonderful experience for the both of us. Something new for him, and a renewed sense of wonder for myself.
We played hookie one day this week, and I took him out to the zoo and to play at the park to enjoy this wonderful weather.
Laundry can wait.
In the news! Forest Park has recently completed building an 'all-inclusive playground', a place where children with handicaps can play along side the rest of the kids. Hopefully this will foster a sense of understanding and acceptance by children and their parents, seeing that those with handicaps are pretty much just like them, as well as a feeling of belonging for the ones who normally can't play on most playgrounds. Excellent work to all of those involved, including St. Louis Children's Hospital.
Check out the Grand Canyon Skywalk. Wow! (I snoped it, it's twue, it's twue!) I don't think I would feel comfortable walking out on that, but, it seems to have some pretty impressive specs on it.
Nothing but a glass bottom and sides
Glass is supported by steel beams
Accommodates up to 120 people at a time
Can hold up to 72 million pounds
Can withstand 100 mph winds coming from 8 different directions
Can survive earthquakes up to 8.0 in magnitude Admission is $25
Working with Excel (97, not sure if that makes a difference) spreadsheets with an obscene amount of data, I have my forumlas below the data, and I can't see my header rows! So, I select the row BELOW the one(s) I want to be able to see, then go to the Window pulldown and select 'Freeze Panes', and I can scroll down and still keep my titles visible.
This also works vertically, if you select a cell below and to the right of the content you want to remain visible.
We played hookie one day this week, and I took him out to the zoo and to play at the park to enjoy this wonderful weather.
Laundry can wait.
In the news! Forest Park has recently completed building an 'all-inclusive playground', a place where children with handicaps can play along side the rest of the kids. Hopefully this will foster a sense of understanding and acceptance by children and their parents, seeing that those with handicaps are pretty much just like them, as well as a feeling of belonging for the ones who normally can't play on most playgrounds. Excellent work to all of those involved, including St. Louis Children's Hospital.
Check out the Grand Canyon Skywalk. Wow! (I snoped it, it's twue, it's twue!) I don't think I would feel comfortable walking out on that, but, it seems to have some pretty impressive specs on it.
Nothing but a glass bottom and sides
Glass is supported by steel beams
Accommodates up to 120 people at a time
Can hold up to 72 million pounds
Can withstand 100 mph winds coming from 8 different directions
Can survive earthquakes up to 8.0 in magnitude Admission is $25
Working with Excel (97, not sure if that makes a difference) spreadsheets with an obscene amount of data, I have my forumlas below the data, and I can't see my header rows! So, I select the row BELOW the one(s) I want to be able to see, then go to the Window pulldown and select 'Freeze Panes', and I can scroll down and still keep my titles visible.
This also works vertically, if you select a cell below and to the right of the content you want to remain visible.
2005-10-25
Farewell to a pioneer
Civil Rights Pioneer Rosa Parks Passes away at age 92.
At a celebration in her honor, she once said:
"I am leaving this legacy to all of you ... to bring peace, justice, equality, love and a fulfillment of what our lives should be. Without vision, the people will perish, and without courage and inspiration, dreams will die — the dream of freedom and peace."
At a celebration in her honor, she once said:
"I am leaving this legacy to all of you ... to bring peace, justice, equality, love and a fulfillment of what our lives should be. Without vision, the people will perish, and without courage and inspiration, dreams will die — the dream of freedom and peace."
2005-10-21
txt2mtxt, txtexp and preparing for winter
Working on cleaning up some floor plans. Most areas have room names and room numbers, but, different areas have different-sized text.
I use a qselect to pick all of the text, then, modify the height in the properties dialog... the only problem is, that now the text is overlapping since each piece of text only had so much space between them.
Hmm, what to do?
Ah! txt2mtxt!!! I just select my two or three pieces of text, and viola'! I now I have an mtext object containing two lines of characters with a respectable space between them.
This is an express tool. From the express help file:
TXT2MTXT will work on any text objects created with the TEXT or DTEXT commands. If the original set of text objects was created with DTEXT or with successive text commands, enabling the Sort top-down option and disabling the Create word-wrap MText options will produce the most visually similar results.
The selected text objects will be removed from the drawing and a new MText object will be inserted.
This command attempts to honor text size, font and color changes between text objects.
:SHOCK:! Wow... while looking txt2mtxt up in the help file, I see a command that I'd never noticed before!
TXTEXP: Explodes Text or MText into geometry that can be assigned a thickness or an elevation.
Hmm, I can think of a few occasions when I'd have benefited from having that. cool.
Don't forget to prepare for winter! Get some good shoes and coats before all the nice styles are taken. Sew/pin/tie little mittens to the insides of winter coat cuffs. Buy some sand/salt for your steps, and an extra bag for your car. Make sure your extra blankets are out of the closet and washed, put one in your vehicle for emergencies. Dust off your space heaters and check to make sure they're functioning properly. Check the batteries in your Carbon Monoxide Dectector, and, if you don't have one, get one! You haven't fired up that furnace since early spring, so be alert!
Have a safe and happy weekend!
I use a qselect to pick all of the text, then, modify the height in the properties dialog... the only problem is, that now the text is overlapping since each piece of text only had so much space between them.
Hmm, what to do?
Ah! txt2mtxt!!! I just select my two or three pieces of text, and viola'! I now I have an mtext object containing two lines of characters with a respectable space between them.
This is an express tool. From the express help file:
TXT2MTXT will work on any text objects created with the TEXT or DTEXT commands. If the original set of text objects was created with DTEXT or with successive text commands, enabling the Sort top-down option and disabling the Create word-wrap MText options will produce the most visually similar results.
The selected text objects will be removed from the drawing and a new MText object will be inserted.
This command attempts to honor text size, font and color changes between text objects.
:SHOCK:! Wow... while looking txt2mtxt up in the help file, I see a command that I'd never noticed before!
TXTEXP: Explodes Text or MText into geometry that can be assigned a thickness or an elevation.
Hmm, I can think of a few occasions when I'd have benefited from having that. cool.
Don't forget to prepare for winter! Get some good shoes and coats before all the nice styles are taken. Sew/pin/tie little mittens to the insides of winter coat cuffs. Buy some sand/salt for your steps, and an extra bag for your car. Make sure your extra blankets are out of the closet and washed, put one in your vehicle for emergencies. Dust off your space heaters and check to make sure they're functioning properly. Check the batteries in your Carbon Monoxide Dectector, and, if you don't have one, get one! You haven't fired up that furnace since early spring, so be alert!
Have a safe and happy weekend!
2005-10-20
FREE DWG Viewer and Parents as Teachers
From Shaan Hurley's blog (imho, one of the best places to get acad news)
New and Free DWG TrueView™ - view DWG files
DWG TrueView™ is now available for free from Autodesk. http://www.autodesk.com/dwgtrueview
Spread the word! You can view DWG files 100% just like AutoCAD can for free.
"Share AutoCAD® drawings easily and accurately among engineers and architects with DWG TrueView™. View and plot DWG and DXF™ files, and then publish them as DWF™ files for quick and easy review and markup in Autodesk® DWF™ Composer. And you’ll always get full drawing fidelity because the DWG viewer is built on the same viewing technology as AutoCAD® 2006 software."
Parents as Teachers Program wanted to take a moment, to mention something to each of you that is very important to me, NOT JUST as an educator, but as a mom & resident of the St. Louis City area.
The Parents as Teachers program, for the St. Louis Public School District, is facing elimination. No other school districts are threatened, JUST St. Louis Public, the city district. For over 20 years now, PAT has been disseminated through EACH of the public school districts throughout Missouri (& is also in all 50 states through social services programs, FYI).
PAT is NOT a program for low income or poorly educated individuals & families, it is a program for EVERYONE that was created to strengthen the home-schoolrelationship, to better prepare our kiddos for preschool or kindergarten enrollment, while giving parents KEY INFORMATION about their child's development & to provide families with resources within their community to assist them in being their child's BEST FIRST TEACHER.
The way the program is written, for each home visit or group meeting that is conducted, a certain "payment" is made to the district, & these payments pay our salaries. For the last two school years, salaries have come in higher than state reimbursements due to LOW ENROLLMENT. The district has had to pick up some of the salaries, & this violates the way the program was written. Therefore, on April 30th, after a very tedious audit, it is possible that this program will no longer exist in our district, thedistrict that quite possibly needs this program THE MOST.This is unacceptable.
Until the administration gets out there & goes to bat for us, we have to count on each other's support. I would like to encourage you to PLEASE forward this email to EVERYONE you know & have them do the same. We need to get enrollment up to what it is in the other districts in St. Louis.Webster Groves, just as an example, has a waiting list to get enrolled.The Parent Educators are given their caseloads TO THEM on the first day of the school year. In the St. Louis Public Schools, we FIND OUR OWN FAMILIES, as the call in rate is low if not almost non-existent. We carry, or SHOULD CARRY, a 40 family caseload as a part-time provider. When I accepted myposition, I was given TWO FAMILIES. The rest was up to me. We can't do this alone.
There are 4 types of families in the city, the way I see it.
FAMILY #1. They think they don't NEED this program.
They are misinformed about what we provide & who we service. They assume it is a public schoolteacher coming for visits & with the state of the district, this concerns them. What they don't realize is we are ALL TRAINED at the National Center & CHOOSE the district we WANT to work for. I CHOSE THE CITY.
FAMILY #2. They sooooooo desperately need this information, but are afraid they will get HOTLINED when we view their living conditions.
How sad.
FAMILY #3. They don't even KNOW what PAT is or how to get involved. MY JOB is to find them.
FAMILY #4. They have either called in & been assigned, or have been recruited by someone like me. They LOVE PAT & tell all their friends!THANK YOU if this is you!
Our district not only conducts home visits, but we do group meetings at shelters, teen homes for pregnant young women, prisons, etc... this is how COMMITTED we are to providing this service.Bottom line - in a district that is already missing a KEY PIECE, the home-school connection, we CANNOT eliminate the only one left.
PLEASE HELP ME SPREAD THE WORD, & save this VITAL PROGRAM! Again, PLEASE forward this to everyone you know.
Bless you for listening to my rantings.
Julia Rottjakob
Certified Parent Educator
St. Louis Public Schools
Visit the Parents as Teachers website for information about programs available in your area.
http://www.parentsasteachers.org/site/pp.asp?c=ekIRLcMZJxE&b=272091
New and Free DWG TrueView™ - view DWG files
DWG TrueView™ is now available for free from Autodesk. http://www.autodesk.com/dwgtrueview
Spread the word! You can view DWG files 100% just like AutoCAD can for free.
"Share AutoCAD® drawings easily and accurately among engineers and architects with DWG TrueView™. View and plot DWG and DXF™ files, and then publish them as DWF™ files for quick and easy review and markup in Autodesk® DWF™ Composer. And you’ll always get full drawing fidelity because the DWG viewer is built on the same viewing technology as AutoCAD® 2006 software."
Parents as Teachers Program wanted to take a moment, to mention something to each of you that is very important to me, NOT JUST as an educator, but as a mom & resident of the St. Louis City area.
The Parents as Teachers program, for the St. Louis Public School District, is facing elimination. No other school districts are threatened, JUST St. Louis Public, the city district. For over 20 years now, PAT has been disseminated through EACH of the public school districts throughout Missouri (& is also in all 50 states through social services programs, FYI).
PAT is NOT a program for low income or poorly educated individuals & families, it is a program for EVERYONE that was created to strengthen the home-schoolrelationship, to better prepare our kiddos for preschool or kindergarten enrollment, while giving parents KEY INFORMATION about their child's development & to provide families with resources within their community to assist them in being their child's BEST FIRST TEACHER.
The way the program is written, for each home visit or group meeting that is conducted, a certain "payment" is made to the district, & these payments pay our salaries. For the last two school years, salaries have come in higher than state reimbursements due to LOW ENROLLMENT. The district has had to pick up some of the salaries, & this violates the way the program was written. Therefore, on April 30th, after a very tedious audit, it is possible that this program will no longer exist in our district, thedistrict that quite possibly needs this program THE MOST.This is unacceptable.
Until the administration gets out there & goes to bat for us, we have to count on each other's support. I would like to encourage you to PLEASE forward this email to EVERYONE you know & have them do the same. We need to get enrollment up to what it is in the other districts in St. Louis.Webster Groves, just as an example, has a waiting list to get enrolled.The Parent Educators are given their caseloads TO THEM on the first day of the school year. In the St. Louis Public Schools, we FIND OUR OWN FAMILIES, as the call in rate is low if not almost non-existent. We carry, or SHOULD CARRY, a 40 family caseload as a part-time provider. When I accepted myposition, I was given TWO FAMILIES. The rest was up to me. We can't do this alone.
There are 4 types of families in the city, the way I see it.
FAMILY #1. They think they don't NEED this program.
They are misinformed about what we provide & who we service. They assume it is a public schoolteacher coming for visits & with the state of the district, this concerns them. What they don't realize is we are ALL TRAINED at the National Center & CHOOSE the district we WANT to work for. I CHOSE THE CITY.
FAMILY #2. They sooooooo desperately need this information, but are afraid they will get HOTLINED when we view their living conditions.
How sad.
FAMILY #3. They don't even KNOW what PAT is or how to get involved. MY JOB is to find them.
FAMILY #4. They have either called in & been assigned, or have been recruited by someone like me. They LOVE PAT & tell all their friends!THANK YOU if this is you!
Our district not only conducts home visits, but we do group meetings at shelters, teen homes for pregnant young women, prisons, etc... this is how COMMITTED we are to providing this service.Bottom line - in a district that is already missing a KEY PIECE, the home-school connection, we CANNOT eliminate the only one left.
PLEASE HELP ME SPREAD THE WORD, & save this VITAL PROGRAM! Again, PLEASE forward this to everyone you know.
Bless you for listening to my rantings.
Julia Rottjakob
Certified Parent Educator
St. Louis Public Schools
Visit the Parents as Teachers website for information about programs available in your area.
http://www.parentsasteachers.org/site/pp.asp?c=ekIRLcMZJxE&b=272091
2005-10-13
Explaining Autosave? and block names with wildcards
Well, I'd seen this come up on a few newgroups/forums, and I thought about doing a write-up, and of course, someone else is smarter and quicker than me... but, I won't hold it against him.
RK Mcswain, on his blog, CAD Panacea reveals the mystery behind the workings of autosave. http://rkmcswain.blogspot.com/2005/07/autosave-mystery.html
And, as for my question the other day, about wacky blocks; between my readings on the autodesk knowledgebase, the help files and explanations from those more experienced/informed than myself (Mark H., Eric W., Richard L.), I've come to the firm realization that:
no, these anonymous blocks can't be edited by the normal commands (for the most part! as seeing a couple of them show up in the rename dialog but not the rest is what sent me on this crazy crusade)
yes, these blocks all seem to show up in qselect
sometimes these blocks will show up when you purge them, other times they won't (deleted the same blocks from duplicate drawings, one showed them in the purge dialog, others didn't, but, both were afterwards missing from the qselect list)
the prefixes (*E, *U, *X, etc), I'm informed, are for different types of entities. it's hard to clearly say which types. I was unable to explode a couple of them, and I'm collecting unexplodable blocks as a hobby to play with in my 'free' time. hahahahahahahaha
even more fun, I had some nested blocks (comes from copy, paste, bind, export to acad, flatten and any number of other things), some of which had anonymous blocks in them, some were anonymous blocks which just contained regular blocks within them.
so, it was just a matter of either properly exploding, or flat-out replacement of these blocks (I did a qselect of the blocks starting with asterisk u and copied them into another drawing and worked on them there for simplicity's sake).
oh, and when I was cleaning up these drawings (making sure the blocks were on '0' and bylayer then renaming them to things that make sense), I realized that when I was looking at the blocks in design center, then right-clicking to edit them, then I'd go back and I wasn't sure which ones I'd edited yet, because their previews weren't accurate any longer... I ran BLOCKICON, and viola'! the thumbnails were accurate.
I recently saw a lisp routine which changed a block's entities all to bylayer, but, I can't recall where I'd found it, so I'll have to do a search and post a link back when I think about it.
that's enough from me for now. happy cadding.
RK Mcswain, on his blog, CAD Panacea reveals the mystery behind the workings of autosave. http://rkmcswain.blogspot.com/2005/07/autosave-mystery.html
And, as for my question the other day, about wacky blocks; between my readings on the autodesk knowledgebase, the help files and explanations from those more experienced/informed than myself (Mark H., Eric W., Richard L.), I've come to the firm realization that:
no, these anonymous blocks can't be edited by the normal commands (for the most part! as seeing a couple of them show up in the rename dialog but not the rest is what sent me on this crazy crusade)
yes, these blocks all seem to show up in qselect
sometimes these blocks will show up when you purge them, other times they won't (deleted the same blocks from duplicate drawings, one showed them in the purge dialog, others didn't, but, both were afterwards missing from the qselect list)
the prefixes (*E, *U, *X, etc), I'm informed, are for different types of entities. it's hard to clearly say which types. I was unable to explode a couple of them, and I'm collecting unexplodable blocks as a hobby to play with in my 'free' time. hahahahahahahaha
even more fun, I had some nested blocks (comes from copy, paste, bind, export to acad, flatten and any number of other things), some of which had anonymous blocks in them, some were anonymous blocks which just contained regular blocks within them.
so, it was just a matter of either properly exploding, or flat-out replacement of these blocks (I did a qselect of the blocks starting with asterisk u and copied them into another drawing and worked on them there for simplicity's sake).
oh, and when I was cleaning up these drawings (making sure the blocks were on '0' and bylayer then renaming them to things that make sense), I realized that when I was looking at the blocks in design center, then right-clicking to edit them, then I'd go back and I wasn't sure which ones I'd edited yet, because their previews weren't accurate any longer... I ran BLOCKICON, and viola'! the thumbnails were accurate.
I recently saw a lisp routine which changed a block's entities all to bylayer, but, I can't recall where I'd found it, so I'll have to do a search and post a link back when I think about it.
that's enough from me for now. happy cadding.
2005-10-10
Block Thumbnails and Block Names with Wildcards
First an answer, then a question...
Thumbnail images for blocks are not displayed in AutoCAD® DesignCenter
Published date: 2003-03-06 ID: TS34512
Applies to: AutoCAD® 2002AutoCAD LT® 2002AutoCAD LT® 2000iAutoCAD LT® 2000
Issue
Thumbnail images for blocks do not display in AutoCAD DesignCenter for drawings created in previous versions of AutoCAD or AutoCAD LT® software.
Solution
Blocks created in older versions of AutoCAD or AutoCAD LT do not store a preview or thumbnail of the block in the drawing. Instead, you must use the BLOCKICON command to save a thumbnail image for blocks.Enter BLOCKICON on the command line. Press ENTER. Enter an asterisk (*) to update all blocks, or enter the name of the block you want to update. Press ENTER. The number of updated blocks is displayed on the command line.
Now, for the question...
Renaming blocks with wildcard characters
I'm doing some drawing cleanup, drawings have been modified with different programs such as ADT, etc. I've done some flattening, translating, exploding, etc. I have design center open, and am using the RENAME command to relabel the blocks to things that make sense.
I noticed that there were some blocks named, eg, *E535. They showed up in the RENAME dialog box, but, not in Design Center. So, I used rename to remove the asterisk, then they showed up in DC preview just fine so I could see what they looked like and rename them accordingly.
BUT! while there were a few of those that have shown up, I was moving around the drawing and saw some objects with block names of eg. *U174, etc but they show up neither in the DC nor the RENAME dialog.
Why is that? And, how can I get at them to rename them easily?
Anyone have an answer/solution/work-around for me?
Thumbnail images for blocks are not displayed in AutoCAD® DesignCenter
Published date: 2003-03-06 ID: TS34512
Applies to: AutoCAD® 2002AutoCAD LT® 2002AutoCAD LT® 2000iAutoCAD LT® 2000
Issue
Thumbnail images for blocks do not display in AutoCAD DesignCenter for drawings created in previous versions of AutoCAD or AutoCAD LT® software.
Solution
Blocks created in older versions of AutoCAD or AutoCAD LT do not store a preview or thumbnail of the block in the drawing. Instead, you must use the BLOCKICON command to save a thumbnail image for blocks.Enter BLOCKICON on the command line. Press ENTER. Enter an asterisk (*) to update all blocks, or enter the name of the block you want to update. Press ENTER. The number of updated blocks is displayed on the command line.
Now, for the question...
Renaming blocks with wildcard characters
I'm doing some drawing cleanup, drawings have been modified with different programs such as ADT, etc. I've done some flattening, translating, exploding, etc. I have design center open, and am using the RENAME command to relabel the blocks to things that make sense.
I noticed that there were some blocks named, eg, *E535. They showed up in the RENAME dialog box, but, not in Design Center. So, I used rename to remove the asterisk, then they showed up in DC preview just fine so I could see what they looked like and rename them accordingly.
BUT! while there were a few of those that have shown up, I was moving around the drawing and saw some objects with block names of eg. *U174, etc but they show up neither in the DC nor the RENAME dialog.
Why is that? And, how can I get at them to rename them easily?
Anyone have an answer/solution/work-around for me?
2005-10-07
Using a Block to Trim
Btrim
have a great weekend, and thanks to my better half for the above.
oh, and some interesting reading: http://www.miniature-earth.com/
If we could turn the population of the earth into a small community of 100 people, keeping the same proportions we have today, it would be something like...
have a great weekend, and thanks to my better half for the above.
oh, and some interesting reading: http://www.miniature-earth.com/
If we could turn the population of the earth into a small community of 100 people, keeping the same proportions we have today, it would be something like...
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