The CAD Times

An AutoCAD Newsletter for CAD Users

The CAD Times brings you the latest AutoCAD tips, tricks and articles that can help you become a more efficient CAD user.

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Issue #8, September 2005

Hey everyone! RJ here from cad-design-and-drafting-services.com.

Ah September… As the TV commercial jingle goes, “It’s the most wonderful time of the year!”. While parents are prancing around the stationary stores joyfully snatching up school supplies while their disheartened kids, with moping faces, are dragging their feet along. School has once again begun.

And…

Is it just me or do the summers seem to be getting longer? I have a feeling we won’t be seeing cool weather until November. Feels like warm spring temperatures here in Northern Ontario. You won’t find me complaining anyways … :)

Onto this month's tips and tricks...

Copying Objects Between Drawings – COPYBASE / PASTE

There is a great way to copy information from one drawing file to another, without having to create WBLOCKS.

The commands to use are COPYBASE and PASTE.

COPYBASE

Ok, let’s say you have been working on a landscape plan that contains contours.

The boss calls you in to tell you that you need to add ¼ meter intervals to your site plan.

He puts you in touch with the surveyor and before you know it you have a 20 MB survey file, full of a mess of information; most of which you don’t need. Still with me?

Ok, so you isolate the contours in the surveyors drawing and now you want to bring them into your CLEAN site plan.

You could just block them out, using the WBLOCK command.

Or, you can use the COPYBASE command to grab the contours at a certain insertion point and drop them into your site plan using the PASTE command.


PASTE TO ORIGINAL COORDINATES

It’s always nice when the AEC disciplines are on the same page with their drawing coordinates; however, most unlikely – in my experience anyways.

But, if by chance the surveyor, engineer, landscape architect and architect ARE using the same coordinates – great!

You can use the PASTE TO ORIGINAL COORDINATES command in your target file.

But if they are NOT using the same coordinate system, read on…


PASTE

When the coordinate system you are using is different from those of other disciplines, you will need to find a common point in both files to be used as the “insertion point”.

By selecting a point that exists in both files, i.e. building corner, surveyor’s property bar, etc., you can then PASTE your selected entities into your target file using the same reference point.

You can also Paste as Block and Paste Special… Play with these two paste options; I think you’ll like them.

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The Measure Command

Similar to the Divide command (but not to be confused with) the Measure command is a great AutoCAD tool for placing points (nodes) along entities at specific intervals.

“An example would be nice”, I hear you thinking.

Ok, let’s say you have a polyline that runs here and there with a few arcs and straight segments in it, and is about 20’ in total length. You would like to know where the 2’ intervals are.

So…use the Measure command to specify the 2’ intervals on the polyline and presto – AutoCAD places nodes along the polyline at 2’ intervals. Now you can use the OSNAP feature to snap to these individual nodes as needed.

The Measure Command and Blocks

Here’s a neat little feature of the Measure command.

Why not insert your blocks at the specified intervals along the polyline?

Great for creating a fence using your fence symbols.

Just specify “Block” when prompted to “Specify length of segment or [Block]:” after selecting the object to Measure.

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Until next month :)

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