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Introduction: AutoCAD experience and tips Keywords: CAD drawing, tips, drawing Question: What preparations are needed to start drawing? Answer: Sharpening the axe doesn’t delay chopping wood. Like hand-drawn drawing, computer drawing also requires some necessary preparations. Such as setting layers, line types, annotation styles, target snapping, unit formats, drawing boundaries, etc. Many repetitive tasks can be prepared in advance using template files such as ACAD.DWT, so that they can be used right away when starting a new drawing. Question: What scale is good for drawing in AutoCAD? Answer: It is best to draw at a 1:1 ratio; the output ratio can be adjusted as desired. Drawing scale and output scale are two different concepts. When exporting, if \"1 unit of output = 500 units in drawing\", it means the output is done at a scale of 1/500; if \"10 units of output = 1 unit in drawing\", it means the output is enlarged by a factor of 10. There are many advantages to drawing at a 1:1 ratio. First, errors are easy to spot, as drawing based on actual dimensions makes it simple to identify any unreasonable dimension settings. Secondly, marking dimensions is very convenient; the software measures the values itself, and if a mistake is made in drawing, it can be detected by looking at the dimension values (of course, the software also allows setting the dimension scaling, but it still requires extra effort). Third, when copying partial graphics between different drawings or using blocks, since the scale is 1:1, it is easy to adjust the block size. Fourth, it is very convenient for assembling assembly drawings from part drawings or for breaking down assembly drawings into part drawings. Fifth, there is no need for complicated calculations of scaling up or down, which improves work efficiency and prevents errors that may occur during the conversion process. Question: What is the use of layers? Answer: Making rational use of layers can achieve twice the result with half the effort. When starting to draw, some basic layers are set up in advance. Each layer has its own specific purpose, and the advantage of this is that by creating just one graphic file, it is possible to generate many of the required drawings; modifications can also be made specifically to each layer. Question: What are command aliases? Answer: To make it easier to enter commands and avoid having to remember their full English names, command aliases (ALIAS) can be used to replace them. Entering C is equivalent to entering the CIRCLE command, while L is equivalent to the LINE command. Command aliases can **speed up the input of commands and improve drawing efficiency. Experienced users usually use their left hand to type commands and their right hand to click the mouse. Command aliases are set in the ACAD.PGP file, which can be edited using any text editor. AutoCAD provides the ALIASEDIT tool for modifying command aliases, allowing for interactive editing of aliases through a dialog box. Question: Before drawing, must the drawing limits (LIMITS) be set properly? Answer: When drawing new diagrams, it is best to set the boundaries according to national standard sheet sizes. The graphic boundaries are like the size of a drawing sheet; when drawing, everything takes place within these boundaries, making it easy to see everything clearly. It is convenient to print drawings created according to the interface, and automatic batch printing is also possible. Of course, some people are used to drawing multiple diagrams in a single graphic file, in which case setting diagram boundaries doesn’t make much sense. Question: After dimensioning, small white dots sometimes appear in the drawing and cannot be removed. Why? Answer: When creating dimensions in AutoCAD, a DEFPOINTS layer is generated automatically to store information such as the locations of the dimension points; this layer is usually frozen. For some reason, these dots sometimes appear. To delete it, first thaw the DEFPOINTS layer before deleting. But note that if a point associated with a dimension is deleted, the corresponding dimension will also be deleted. Question: *I’m used to the full-screen crosshair in R12; the cursor in R14 is very small. What should I do? Answer: You can click on the menu Tools\preferences\point device and set the cursor percentage to 100% (the default is 5%). The CURSORSIZE system variable can also be modified directly in the command line. Question: Is target capture (OSNAP) useful? Answer: It’s very useful. Especially when drawing mechanical drawings that require high precision, target capture is the best tool for accurate positioning. Autodesk also attaches great importance to this; with each version update, the performance of the target capture feature improves significantly. Never use the cursor line to select a point directly, as such a point cannot be very accurate. Question: Why aren’t the drawn cross-hatching lines or dimension lines continuous? Answer: The hatch lines and dimension annotations created in AutoCAD can all have line type properties. If the current line type is not a continuous line type, then the drawn profile lines and dimension lines will not be continuous lines. Editor’s question: How to use the “Cancel Command” key on R12? Answer: The default key for canceling commands in R14 is the “ESC” key. If you are used to using “Ctrl+C” in R12, you can click on Menu Tools\Preferences\Compatibility\Priority for accelerator keys\AutoCAD Classic; this way, you can use “Ctrl+C” to cancel commands, while the “ESC” key will still work as usual. Question: How to cut multiple line segments at once? Answer: When the TRIM command prompts you to select the graphics to be cut, the common selection methods of window and crossing are not supported. When cutting multiple line segments, multiple selections are required to complete it. At this point, the fence selection method can be used. When the trim command asks you to select the shapes to be removed, enter “f”, then draw a dashed line on the screen and press Enter; all the shapes that intersect with this dashed line will be removed. Similarly, for the EXTEND command, entering F when prompted with \"select object:\" allows multiple entities to be extended at once. Question: Why did the deleted line reappear? Answer: The most likely reason is that several lines overlap each other. This is a common problem for beginners. Also, when a center line or dashed line remains a continuous line regardless of how the line width ratio is changed (after REGEN), this is most likely the reason as well. Question: How to quickly switch layers? Answer: Click the “Make objects’ layer current” button on the “Object Properties” toolbar (the button on the far left of the toolbar), then select any object on the layer you want to switch to in the drawing area; the current layer will immediately change to the layer containing the selected object. Question: How to handle manually drawn drawings, especially those with many previously hand-drawn engineering plans? Answer: Scanning the drawings into a computer might be a solution. But note that the graphics processed by AutoCAD are vector graphics, while scanned drawings result in raster graphics. Due to this difference in nature, although the graphic files generated from scanned drawings can be inserted into AutoCAD, they can only be viewed and not edited. There are also some vectorization tools that can convert raster images into vector images, but due to technical limitations, the efficiency and quality of such conversion are not satisfactory. The author has tried various such tools, and the results were disappointing. (If there’s time to do that, it’s better to redraw it.) Save Question: How can I reduce the file size? Answer: After the graphic is completed, use the PURGE command to remove unnecessary data, such as unused blocks, layers without entities, as well as unused line styles, fonts, and dimension styles. This can effectively reduce the file size. Generally, thorough cleaning requires PURGING two to three times. Additionally, by default, data is saved to R14 in append mode, which is faster. If disk space needs to be freed, the ISAVEPERCENT system variable must be set to 0 to disable this incremental saving feature, so that the file size is reduced upon the second save. Question: How to set up the auto-save feature? Answer: Set the SAVETIME variable to a smaller value, such as 10 (minutes). The default save time in AutoCAD is 120 minutes. Question: How to restore automatically saved graphics? Answer: AutoCAD saves automatically saved drawings in AUTO.SV$ or AUTO?.SV$ files. Find these files, rename them to the corresponding drawing file names, and they can be opened in AutoCAD. Generally, this file is stored in WINDOWS’ temporary directory, such as C:\WINDOWS\TEMP. Question: How can data be recovered if an accidental save overwrites the original image? Answer: If it was saved only once, promptly change the file with the BAK suffix to have a DWG suffix, and then open it in AutoCAD. If it is saved multiple times, the original image cannot be restored. Question: Why does the prompt appear in the command line instead of showing an Open or Export dialog box? Answer: The AutoCAD system variable FILEDIA is used to control the display of the file list dialog boxes. Setting FILEDIA to 1 will cause these dialog boxes to appear; if FILEDIA is set to 0, you can still get a dialog box to show by entering a symbol “~” in response to the first prompt for the command you have selected. Of course, when calling a file operation command from a batch command or an AutoLISP/ADSRX/ObjectARX application, a command-line prompt is required, and no dialog box should appear. Question: Why isn’t the date and time of a file updated in the file browser when it is saved? Answer: Autodesk has identified this issue; it only occurs in the Win95B operating system, and it has never happened under Win95A or Windows NT. As a temporary solution, the system variable ISAVEPERCENT can be set to 0 in AutoCAD R14, causing AutoCAD to rewrite the entire drawing content every time it is saved. This may prolong the saving time, but it ensures that the file date is updated correctly. Font question: Why can’t Chinese characters be displayed? Or did the entered Chinese characters turn into question marks? Answer: The reason may be: 1. The corresponding font does not use a Chinese character font, such as HZTXT.SHX, etc ； 2. There are no Chinese font files in the current system ； The shape files used should be copied to AutoCAD’s font directory (usually ...\FONTS\) ； 3. For certain symbols, such as Greek letters, the corresponding font file must also be used; otherwise, they will be displayed as ? Number. Question: How to resolve the issue of garbled Chinese characters when opening R12 files in R14? Answer: When using R14 to open an R12 file, garbled characters appear even if the Chinese font file is selected correctly, because R14 and R12 use different code pages, DWGPAGECODE. You can download the code page conversion tool wnewcp from AutoDesk’s homepage. After running wnewcp, first select the “R11/R12” checkbox, then click the “Browse” button to choose the file or directory to be converted. Next, select the new code page (ANSI) and click “Start Conversion” to begin the conversion. After the conversion, Chinese characters will be displayed correctly in R14. The code conversion tool DWGCODE.EXE provided by Tianzheng can also be used for code conversion. If these tools are not available, open the graphic file to be converted in the R12 environment, enter DWGCODEPAGE in COMMAND mode, change its value to ASCII, and then save the file. Batch modification can be achieved using the SCR command set files or through LISP programming. Question: Why can’t the height of the entered text be changed? Answer: When the height value of the font being used is not 0, the DTEXT command does not prompt for entering a height when writing text; as a result, the height of the text created in this way remains constant, including dimension labels created using that font. Question: How to change an existing font format? Answer: If you want to change the size, font, aspect ratio, spacing, tilt angle, insertion point, etc., of existing text, it is best to use the “Properties (DDMODIFY)” command (provided that you have already defined various text formats). Click the “Properties” command, select the text you want to modify, press Enter, and the “Modify Text” window will appear; then select the items you wish to change. Question: Can system fonts be used, such as Song typeface or Kai typeface? Answer: Although ACADR14 can use *.TTF Chinese font files, such fonts consume a lot of CPU time; on computers with lower specifications, the display speed (such as when using the real-time scaling command) is extremely slow. It is recommended that computers with lower specifications use *.shx files. In Chinese character *.shx files, it is recommended to use the HZ*.shx font files provided by Daheng or Haochen for ACADR12; however, the absence of such fonts on different machines can cause issues with the display of Chinese characters. Of course, using the system font in small amounts for aesthetic purposes is also acceptable. Menu Question: Why are the button icons on the toolbar replaced by smiley faces? Answer: When AutoCAD cannot find the path to the button bitmap file, these button icons in the toolbar or toolbox will be replaced by a smiley face. This may occur after the toolbar has been customized, and the menu template file (MNU) has been edited manually. In this case, a text editor can be used to open the menu source file (MNS) and the menu template file (MNU). The customized toolbar section from the MNS file can be copied and pasted into the MNU file. Then, the old MNS, MNC, and MNR files can be renamed or deleted. Finally, the MENU/MENULOAD command is used to load the MNU file; AutoCAD will recompile the menu files, creating new MNS, MNC, and MNR files, thereby resolving the issue. Additionally, this issue can also occur if the bitmap file is not in AutoCAD’s supported paths. Please make sure that the support path in the “Preferences (System Settings)” dialog box includes the directory where the bitmap file is located. For example, if you move a button from a customized toolbar to a toolbar in AutoCAD’s standard menu, you must edit the button file so that the bitmap file is saved in a supported path. It can be done following these steps: 1. After moving or copying the icon to a different menu toolbar, keep the toolbar dialog box open, and right-click on the icon to edit it. 2. In the button properties dialog box, select the “Edit” button. 3. In the Button Editor dialog box, select the Save as button and specify a bitmap file directory on a path supported by AutoCAD. 4. Close the button editor, then select the Apply button in the button properties dialog box. Finally, close AutoCAD and restart it. Question: How to localize the menu? Answer: Under WIN95/98, use an editor such as Notepad to open the acad.mnu file in the support directory, change the English command names inside it to Chinese, save the file, and then exit. Then enter the “menu” command in R14 to load the acad.mnu menu file, and the drop-down menu will change to Chinese. If there is a already localized menu file, it can be used directly. Printing Question: Why do the PLOT and ASE commands only produce prompts in the command line, without any dialog boxes appearing? Answer: The AutoCAD system variable CMDDIA is used to control the display of dialog boxes for the PLOT command and the ASE command; setting CMDDIA to 1 will resolve the issue. Q: The quality of the printed image is very poor; there are differences in gray levels along the lines. Why? A: This situation is usually related to the configuration of the printer or plotter, its drivers, and the operating system. Generally, the problem can be solved by considering the following points. 1. When configuring a printer or plotter, is the error jitter switch turned off? ； 2. Are the drivers for the printer or plotter correct, and is an upgrade needed? ； 3. If AutoCAD is configured to output using the system printer, reconfigure it by using the ADI drivers provided by AutoCAD for various printers and plotters ； 4. For different models of printers or plotters, AutoCAD provides corresponding commands that allow for further detailed configuration. For example, for printer series that support the HPGL/2 language, the command “hpconfig” can be used” ； 5. In the AutoCAD Plot dialog box, set the correspondence between pen numbers and colors, line types, and pen widths ； Assign the same pen number to different colors (preferably 1), but the line style and pen width associated with that pen number can vary. Some inkjet printers can only support pen numbers from 1 to 16; if the pen number is too large, printing will not be possible ； 6. Is the pen width set too high, for example, greater than 1? ； 7. If the operating system is Windows NT, an updated NT patch package (Service Pack) may be required. Question: After installing R14, there are no fonts available in MS WORD. What’s going on? Answer: The reason affecting the MS WORD font is related to a virtual printer named Phantom AutoCAD OLE/ADI, which is installed on R14 as part of the system. The Phantom AutoCAD OLE/ADI virtual printer enables R14 to print or draw raster graphics through the new ADI driver. In a typical R14 installation, this option is not available; this virtual printer is created only during a full or custom installation. Sometimes it is even set as the default system printer without any notification. Based on the \"what you see is what you get\" principle of Microsoft Office software, the font used in MS WORD documents is determined by the system’s default printer. In other words, the font displayed on the screen should be the same as or similar to the font used for printing. Windows first looks for a suitable screen display font based on the printer’s print font. If no matching font is found, or if the printer driver does not provide information on screen fonts, Windows will choose the screen font that is closest to the printer’s font. If the Phantom AutoCAD OLE/ADI virtual printer is set as the default system printer, MS WORD will only have two font options: modern and plotter. In the Windows system, by designating the correct system printer as the default printer, the fonts in MS WORD can return to normal. If there are no other printers in the system, a Windows printer should be configured first in the \"Printer Settings\" – even a \"logical\" printer will do. One thing to keep in mind is that you must not modify the properties of the Phantom AutoCAD OLE/ADI virtual printer, nor should you delete it arbitrarily; otherwise, it will affect the output of raster graphics and OLE objects, and may even cause the system to crash. Question: Is batch printing possible? Answer: Method 1: First, output the graphic to a PLT file, and then use a batch file in DOS to print the PLT files in a specified directory in batches. Method 2: R14 has dedicated external functions that enable multiple graphic files to be sent to one or more printers or plotters, based on different printing configuration files, thereby achieving batch output of graphics. These two methods are more flexible, have fewer chances of errors, and are therefore more efficient. Select Batch Plot Utility in the AutoCAD program group. Question: The lines in AutoCAD drawings pasted into a Word document come out too thin when printed. What should I do? Answer: Cutting and pasting AutoCAD drawings into an MS Word document seems to work fairly well. But when the document is printed, those AutoCAD graphic lines become very thin, resulting in a poor appearance. We offer the following solutions to users: 1. Use the PostScript printing driver in AutoCAD to configure a PostScript printer. 2. If the background color in AutoCAD differs from that in MS Word, for example, the default background color in R14 is black, then you need to change AutoCAD’s background color to match that of MS Word. 3. Run the PLOT command and select to save the plot to a file. Set the brush width in the Brush Settings dialog box. 4. Start a new diagram and enter this.eps file using the PSIN command. 5. Then cut and paste the graphic into MS Word. There is another method: in AutoCAD, convert the lines into PLINE lines, set the width, and then copy and paste them into WORD. Question: Why can some graphics be displayed but not printed? Answer: This occurs when the graphics are drawn on layers automatically created by AutoCAD (DEFPOINTS, ASHADE, etc.). Entities should be avoided on these layers.