WorldCAD Access

How to send email from overseas when your ISP blocks you

VPN to the rescue

 

When I want to send email from outside of Canada, the outgoing email is filed to Outgoing, the purgatory mailbox. It is never sent. The problem occurs whether I want to send email from my Android phone or my Windows laptop, using a desktop client like Eudora or eM Client, or mobile app, like AquaMail. Who blocks the email, and why, I don't know.

I asked my ISP's tech support. They had no clue, suggesting that I instead use their Webmail client, which is only slightly worse than Gmail's Web client. (The Webmail client is, admittedly, effective in overcoming geographic boundaries, but awkward to use.)

 

Fool 'em with VPNs

The solution is to use a VPN, a virtual private network, which fools everybody on the Internet and all software on your computer that you are in a different country. There are numerous VPNs that provide a basic service for free. I use TunnelBear, which offers 500MB a month of data transfer at no cost; paying for TunnelBear gets me unlimited data and use on up to five computers at once. (I use it at home on all our computers as a extra layer of protection.)

So, download and install a VPN like TunnelBear (https://www.tunnelbear.com/download), and then specify your home country, the one where your ISP is located. In my case, Canada. Problem solved.

If you have emails stuck in the Outgoing box, then you'll need to resend them. In some cases, the email client is smart enough to send them once it senses that you are "back in Canada." In other cases, you need to manually resend them, which might involve moving them to the Inbox, forwarding them as an original, or some other tactic. 

I use TunnelBear to watch videos, such as live news events, that are geographically locked. Some jurisdictions, however, like China, and some software giants, like Netflix, block VPNs. So, there is an alternative. 

 

The Alternative to VPNs

There is an alternative solution, involving a "visual" VPN like TeamViewer (https://www.teamviewer.com/en/download/windows). It displays on your local screen (laptop or Android device) what is displayed on the distant computer to which you connect. I primarily use this software to support the computers used by elderly relatives. It lets me see what is happening on their computer screens, operate the software, and even reboot their computers.

When I am abroad, I use TeamViewer to access my desktop computer back home. I've used it sometimes to transfer files that I forgot to take along, but mostly I use it to access my Eudora email client running on my primary desktop computer. I go through the incoming emails, answering them, and filing them into mailboxes.

It is possible to watch geographically-locked and VPN-blocked video with TeamViewer, but the frame rate is slow. It works, because as far as Netflix is concerned, the video is being watched on a geographically-correct computer. I don't know if TeamViewer is effective at evading the Great Red Firewall imposed by China.

 

 

 

How to place dimensions in Bricsys Shape

It's not easy

 

Shape is a new Windows CAD program from Bricsys that is meant for 3D modeling. Its inspiration was SketchUp (from Trimble) and its purpose is to do conceptual design for input to BricsCAD BIM software. However, for students, casual users, and architects doing pre-design, it stands alone.

A BricsCAD drawing opened in Shape

 

It is free, and it reads DWG files, as well as starting new models from scratch. But it does not read BIM data from existing BricsCAD BIM files. Download it from https://www.bricsys.com/en-intl/shape/

One reader wrote: 

I have down loaded Bricsys Shape and given it a brief trial. It seems to be well thought out and has some interesting features. However, if it is to be a serious rival to SketchUp it will need to have the capability to add dimensions. And it's a pity that you have to keep hitting the Enter key after every action, a la AutoCAD.
     - P.H.

 

Hitting Enter

Shape is a stripped down version of BricsCAD, and so the command-line interface is the same. So, yah, press Enter. In fact, you can press Ctrl+9 to expand the command line to the usual five-line height, and then you can customize it further by right-clicking the command line and choosing Options.

 

Dimensioning

Placing dimensions is possible with a workaround, but it is awkward. In short, you draw an aligned dimension (DimAli) or other dimension in BricsCAD, and then copy and paste it into the Shape drawing. 

Some tips:

• Start the drawing in BricsCAD with the same units as Shape (metric or Imperial), otherwise the dimension ends up tiny in Shape -- or too large.

Dimension drawn in BricsCAD being copied to the Clipboard

 

• It helps to draw the dimension in BricsCAD as similar as to how it will be used in Shape. So, draw it upside down for bottom edges, sideways for sides, and so on.
  
  
• When you paste the dimension in Shape (using Ctrl+V), pick a point as close to the object being dimensioned as possible.

Dimension pasted into Shape

 

• Once the dimension is in Shape, drag it by its grips into position, just like you would in other CAD packages. It sometimes helps to put the model in plan view.

Dimension being dragged into position in Shape

 

• You cannot use this method to dimension vertically.
  
  
• Is the dimension accurate? Yes. I used the Measure command to ascertain this:

Measure command confirming accuracy of dimension

 

When a virus isn't

Not ransomware, either

 

Last week a pair of folders appeared on my desktop computer, the workhorse that makes most of my income. The new folders had random letters, as shown below: A3fOg and X1W2J2. When I erased them, they reappeared a few minutes later with different names.

Each folder contained 10 files, such as .rtf, jpg, and .docx, with unusual looking file names. See figure below.

Naturally I installed and ran Malwarebytes, and it found some potential viruses that Microsoft's anti-virus utility missed. But the folders remained.

Naturally I researched what might have caused the folders and odd files but the google was silent on them. I did learn that innocuous looking files, like the .doc file, could contain VBA code that, when run, locks up files on the computer -- ransomware.

I worried about the spread, as I found a similar set of folders on my laptop. Two other desktop computers in my office were unaffected.

After a few days of research failures, I simply changed their attributes to Hidden and Read-only. After a day or so, the attributes would be removed automagically. I figured if I ignored the files, no harm would (probably) come to my machine. There wasn't much else I could do. I was puzzled, however, that the anti-ransomware software didn't squawk about the mystery folders and files.

This morning, all was revealed: the folders and files were placed by the anti-ransomware software (Cyberreason Ransomfree) as honey pots. It's one of the tactics the utility uses to determine if ransomware is infecting the computer. The reason the mystery folders appeared on just two computers on our network is that those were the two computers on which I installed the anti-ransomware software.

Knowing the folders are safeguards is a relief. But they irritate me, because one of my foibles is that I don't like unnecessary folders cluttering my computers (I even run RED, remove empty directories) -- a phobia that probably goes back to the days of diskettes and 30MB hard drivers, where every byte possible was kept available.

 

Transitioning away from AutoCAD

Pointing to folders

 

A reader writes:

I am trying to transition the AutoCAD users [at my firm] to BricsCAD and would like to run a "mixed" environment until I am certain I can pull the plug on AutoCAD.

Before I buy your books on BricsCAD, can you tell me if I can use my existing and extensive AutoCAD tool palettes? Or will I have to create them anew in the BricsCAD environment? It would appear that its not as simple as just pointing to the existing tool palette location.
- D. M.

You can use AutoCAD's XTP tool palette files in BricsCAD. The only thing that does not transfer over are the icon images that are embedded in AutoCAD. If you use custom icons, then those will transfer over.

I just checked, and BricsCAD V16 now supports palette groups, and imports AutoCAD's XPG [tool palette group] files.

You can edit the Settings dialog box in BricsCAD to point to AutoCAD's  XTP file folder; see figure below. This dialog box can be used to point to other AutoCAD support folders, such as for hatch pattern collections, linetype files, printer setups, and so on.

Best thing to do is to download the 30-day trial of BricsCAD to test if your palettes will work. I have written a book on how to transition from AutoCAD to BricsCAD, which is available as a PDF (free) from here: https://www.bricsys.com/bricscad/docs/en_INTL/V16/BricsCADV16ForAutoCADusers-en_INTL.pdf

 

Getting more disk space for free

Just a little bit more

 

With 3TB hard drives normal these days, computer makers are turning to SSD [solid state drives] to improve performance and increase prices. Problem is that they are still expensive. So 128GB and 256GB are the normal sizes in an age when we are used to 1TB drives in laptop computers.

IMPORTANT TIP: Never, never buy a Windows or Mac laptop or tablet with just a 128GB solid state drive. There's two reasons why:

• Because of the internal design, 128GB SSDs are inherently 2x slower than 256GB drives.

• The operating system takes up so much room that the drive won't have much space left. For example, I just bought a laptop with a "256GB" solid state drive. After taking away 10GB for the recovery partition, 17GB for Windows, installing my standard software, and 6GB lost to megabyte rounding [you didn't think that a 256GB drive actually holds 256GB of data, did you?] that 256GB drive had 156GB free -- 100GB lost before I even got to write my first article. A 128GB drive will leave you with 28GB free.

There is, however, a free way to gain back some GBs. Back in the 1990s, a company called Stax figured out how to do real-time data compression on DOS computers. It could just about double the amount of drive space in those days. No surprise, the idea was so brilliant that Microsoft copied the software, added it to DOS, and then got fined big bucks for the IP [intellectual property] theft.

(Real-time compression did not occur before Stax came along, because computer CPUs were just too slow to do the work in real-time.)

This technology is still in Windows in 2015, even in Windows 10. It is called Disk Compression and is hidden away in the Properties dialog box of File Manager. In a moment, I'll show you how to activate it.

This being 2015, there is a big drawback, however. Most files we deal with are already compressed: music is compressed (MP3s ares 10x smaller than CDs), photos are compressed (JPEGs are 30x smaller than BMPs), movies are compressed (MPEG-4 compresses by about 50x), and so on. Other kinds of files can't be compressed, such as binary EXE files.

(Compression works by removing repetitive information. For example, if a text file has 50 space characters in a row, compression replaces them by a code that says "50 spaces." Video compression works a bit differently: it compares adjacent movie frames, and stores only what little changes from frame to frame. No repetition, no compression.)

This means that, yes, Disk Compression will free up some disk space, but it won't be the spectacular 2x from yesteryear. Here is a specific example. I implemented Disk Compression on my new laptop with the 256GB SSD:

• Before compression: 165GB free
• After compression: 170GB free

So it gained me 5GB. Enough for half a season of CSI. The more files your hard drive has that are not already compressed, the more impressive the result

There is a drawback: folders that are compressed in Windows 10 get a pair of small blue arrows, whose look irritates me. See the figure below:

How to Implement Disk Compression

Right-click the drive icon, and then choose Properties:

In the Properties dialog box, click the Compress This Drive to Save Disk Space option.

Click OK. Windows will get right to it, telling you approximately how long it will take, which I have found is vastly overblown.

 

 

Microsoft doesn't want you printing folders; we show you how

DOS Redirection From 1983

 

One of the top requests for Windows 10 is that Microsoft allow printing of directory listings -- getting a print out of all the files in a folder. But Microsoft so far is maintaining a stance of deafness towards its customers and so it is up to me to show you how.

Now, I know that readers will tell me that such-and-such utility does this, and that's great. Here is the method I use, and it goes back to 1983 when PC-DOS v2 was released. The trick is to use redirection, which still works today in 2015.

1. In File Manager, go to the folder in which you want the file names printed.

2. In the address bar, right-click the path name, and then choose Copy from the shortcut menu. You do this so that you won't need to type in the long path name later on.

 

3. Click the Start button, and then choose Run.

 

4. In the Run dialog box, type cmd and then press Enter. Notice the DOS window.

 

5. Type cd (this is short for "change directory") and then type a space.

6. Right-click, and then choose Paste from the shortcut menu. Notice that the path is pasted.

7. Press Enter, and notice that Windows (or DOS) goes to the folder you want.

 

8. Now you can use redirection to print the contents of the folder. At the command prompt, enter the following command:

dir /b > dirs.txt

Nothing seems to happen. But it did. A new file is in the folder, named "dirs.txt."

What you did here is use the dir (directory) command with the /b (bare) option to send only the file names to a text file named dirs.txt. (The name of the file does not matter.) The > symbol redirects the output from the dir command to the file; without it, the file listing would appear on the screen.

9. Open the dirs.txt file in a word processor, edit it as required, and then print it.

 

Cumbersome, true, but that's Microsoft's fault. I like using this method, because it reminds me how powerful DOS was, and still is today.

 

 

 

Tip: Placing text along an arc path

A reader writes

 

Q: I am being taught AutoCAD 2009 here in Federal Prison. I bought one of your books, Using AutoCAD 2009, and I saw an address to write with questions. Is there a way in AutoCAD to create text that will run along an arc? If so, what command do I enter.

My teachers don't think there is a possible way to do this, so I thought I would turn to the experts! Please see the example below.
       - D. K.

 

A: It is possible to place text along an arc in AutoCAD and workalikes. The command you are looking for is called ARCTEXT.

In AutoCAD, the command is an "Express Tool," which is Autodesk's name for a bonus set of commands that are included with AutoCAD but not supported by Autodesk. Usually, these commands are not installed by default, which is perhaps why your instructors did not know about them. If the ARCTEXT command does not work, then the set of Express Tools need to be installed on the computer.

 

Windows keyboard shortcuts I find useful

Faster than the ribbon

 

The fastest way to get things done on computer is through keyboard shortcuts, and these are the ones I use often. (Depending on the software, certain ones might not work.)

 

Ctrl+W to close the current window; I press Ctrl+W repeatedly to close all windows in the current program; when there are no windows left open, then the final Ctrl+W closes the program.

Alt+Tab to switch to the next program; I use Alt+Tab to quickly switch between two programs I am using at the same time.

Ctrl+Tab to switch to the next window inside the current program

Windows+Right-arrow makes the current program take up the right half of the screen; I use this one to quickly size Windows Explorer, so that it takes up a half-screen. Pressing this key combo repeatedly places the window in different locations, including on the second monitor.

Alt+PrtScr to make a screen grab of the top-most window or program or dialog box; actually, I now use WinSnap instead of the Windows screen grab utility and so I programmed it to use Ctrl+Spacebar to make screen grabs

Tab (instead of Enter) to quickly move between fields of a form, such as on a Web site; press Shift+Tab to move backwards through the fields.

Esc to cancel something, such as getting out of full screen in a browser (press F11 to get the browser into full screen mode)

Ctrl+B, Ctrl+I. and Ctrl+U for boldfacing, italicizing, and underlining text

Ctrl+C, Ctrl+X, and Ctrl+V for copying, cutting, and pasting elements to and from the Clipboard

Ctrl+A to select everything

In the word processor I use, Atlantis, I press Ctrl+Alt+Ins to paste text unformatted.

 

When the cursor gets erratic, it's the mouse's nano-receiver at fault

It's common nowadays for wireless mice to be packaged with a nano-receiver, a tiny receiver the size of a small finger nail, that plugs into a USB port.

On two systems, I've experienced erratic cursor behavior as I move the mouse. The cursor jumps or sometimes doesn't react at all. 

The problem is due to the receiver being too close to the USB port. It picks up electronic noise generated by the computer's parts, interfering with the signals passing from the mouse. In addition, I found the problem specific to Logitech's Unifying receiver, which handles up to six devices. I suspect that there is just too much tiny electronics crammed  into the tiny chunk of plastic and metal.

The solution is to install an extender, a male-female USB cord. It moves the receiver away from the computer. Even a couple of inches helps, but in severe cases, you may need to use a longer cord.

Update: Some other methods I use to speed up slow computers

I neglected to mention a few other tasks I do to maintain computers:

Open up the computer as much as possible, and then use a can of compressed air to blow out dust, especially around the cooling and venting areas.

Do the same for the keyboard, to blow away the crud. It can help to turn a keyboard upside down and shake vigorously <-- don't do this to a laptop! Do this for at least a minute and you'll be grossed out by what falls out. As my dad said, "But I don't eat at the computer!" Yah, well...

As a final touch, I spray the screen and other flat areas with Multisurface Pledge, and then wipe off with a soft cotton cloth.

---

Reader J. L. asked which firewall software I employ in computers. I find the Microsoft one sufficient. 

He asked also if I use anti-virus on Androids. None, I replied. I rarely install new software, because I have my set of productivity apps and so don't need much in the way of more. (Although I did get stung by a fake version of BBM.) Two more reasons:

• Google is working at cutting down on problem apps
• Androids are isolated from PCs in that Android virii cannot run on PCs or Macs (and vice versa)

At conferences like Autodesk U (which at one time in the past suffered from an infection running through the WiFi), I use a cell phone data plan on my Android to access the Internet, because I get better coverage.

 

Some other methods I use to speed up slow computers

My neighbour across the street complained to me that his wife's computer ran really slow, and that Outlook crashed a lot. Well, I don't use Outlook, but unfortunates who do, tell me that it crashes when it has too many messages and too many attachments. I offered to have a look.

After he brought over the computer, I promptly felt an uncomfortable feeling: this really was a personal computer, with pics of the kids, Skype running, links to favorite Web sites. I tried as much as possible to avoid looking at the personal stuff.

Anyhoo, here's some of the things I tackled to get the computer's speed up to an acceptable level.

First thing, I ran the Windows Experience Index, for it gives me an idea of which part of the hardware is slow. (WEI is in Windows Vista, 7, and 8, but has been pulled from 8.1 -- another reason to  not upgrade.) This computer was pretty depressing, as the hard drive was the fastest element:

• Hard drive: 5.6/7.9
• RAM: 5.5 
• Gaming graphics: 5.1 
• CPU 4.9
• Aero graphics: 3.9

I am not too concerned about the slow speed of graphics, and there is not much that can be done about the slow CPU. So, the solution was to make the CPU work less and so appear to speed up.

First thing I did was add a spare 8GB micro USB thumbdrive, and set up ReadyBoost. Next thing was to find out what was making the CPU run slowly, the sluggish response, and the fan roaring away.

To see what was consuming CPU cycles, I opened the Resource Monitor. Get to it  like this:

1. Press Ctrl+Alt+Del
2. Click Start Task Manager
3. Select the Performance tab
4. Click the Resource Monitor button
5. Choose the CPU tab.
6. Click the Average CPUheading so that the processes that consume the most CPU cycles over time are at the top of the list. See figure below (which shows my computer, not the one I was working on).

In the case of the problem computer, two processes were consuming 70% of the CPU cycle: one related to a piece of Apple software (about 40%), the other a drive monitor from Western Digital (about 30%).

I shut them down (right-click the name, and then choose End Process Tree), because they were not important. After a few minutes, the fan shut off, an audible indication the CPU was no longer labouring.

Next I used MsConfig to see what was being loaded during startup. Many applications today think they are so important that they have to be loaded first. To access MsConfig, click Start button, click Run, enter msconfig, and then press Enter. Click the Startup tab. (See figure below.)

 
I looked through the list, and deselected nearly 2/3s of the applications wanting to load at boot time. I picked things that just weren't that important, like all of the Apple software, that WD drive monitor, Adobe Reader, and Google Search Bar. Utility software that came with the computer was important, like support for the graphics board, well as crucial software like Dropbox.

In the list, I noticed no fewer than three anti-virus programs. Those would also slow down the CPU! I dechecked them, and then headed over to Control Panel | Uninstall a Program. I got rid of the three anti-virus programs; one was so cheeky that it insisted on emailing me a code number to uninstall it. I replaced them all with Microsoft's anti-virus, which (a) is free and (b) is pretty good (better than Avast, I have found). Download it from http://windows.microsoft.com/en-ca/windows/security-essentials-download

The last thing was to check the Outlook software. There I found the Trash had nearly 1000 emails. I recommended that she erase all that, as well as see what other emails she could remove from the Inbox.

With all this done, the computer now purred, instead of laboured.

 

How I make all my computers run faster

Computers are my tools for getting work done. As the Nth Graphics ads famously stated already back in the late-1980s, if you have to wait for more than two seconds, you are waiting too long -- or words to this effect. 25 years later, and waiting for a computer's split-second hesitation is too long for me.

The answer is RAM. RAM, and more RAM. Fortunately, the price of memory today has become so cheap that it doesn't make much to max out the memory in our computers, which is the key to running a fast one.

(Now, I am assuming your computer has a reasonable fast CPU, a quad-core running more than 2GHz and preferably closer to 3GHz. My desktop runs at 3.1GHz. Yesterday I had a wrestle with a friend's brand-new Lenovo G-500 laptop; wrestle , because it had only a single-core 1.5GHz CPU that sent the Windows 8 wait-cursor spinning for minutes on end. I didn't know it was still possible to make such bad computers today. I told him to return it.)

If you are on a budget, then upgrade your Windows computer in stages, like this:

1. Add ReadyBoost. This is the cheapest, fastest upgrade in speed. It consists of a USB thumbdrive (or SD card) that you plug into the computer, and Windows uses it as a large cache. The cache makes programs launch much faster, the second and subsequent launches. Vista uses a maximum of 4GB; 7 and 8 prefer to use 2x the amount of RAM (ie, 32GB ReadyBoost for 16MB RAM in the computer), but the drive must be formatted for NTFS to allow Windows to access more than 4GB. (Macs cannot use ReadyBoost.)

a. Plug the USB thumbdrive into the computer.

b. Right-click the new drive in Explorer, and then choose Properties

c. Click the ReadyBoost tab, and then choose Dedicate this Device to ReadyBoost

 d. Click OK. Windows tests the USB thumbdrive to see if it is fast enough. If so, success! If not, try a different model.

(This is a problem with USB thumbdrives: vendors don't state their speed, unlike for SD cards. I recommend buying a brand-name, since generic and free drives tend to be too slow for ReadyBoost.)

2. Max out on the RAM. Most computers today come with 4-8GB RAM. But maxing out the RAM means that Windows can keep more in speedy RAM before it needs to send parts of programs and data to the quite-slow hard disk.

The catches, however, are that (a)  you need to take apart the computer, which is sometimes easy, sometimes hard, and (b) every motherboard has a limit to the maximum amount of RAM it can work with. My daughter's MacBook is limited to a paltry 4GB; my Acer notebook to 8GB, my Acer desktop to 16GB; some high-end Windows workstations to 192GB.

Oh, and another drawback. Often all the memory slots are full, and so you end up throwing away existing RAM. (Well, I always keep the RAM modules I pull, in case another computer can use them. In this way, I've outfitted a couple of computers "for free.") The reasons the slots are sometimes full is that motherboards access memory faster when it can work with two RAM modules at a time.

Before buying any RAM, determine the maximum your motherboard accepts. You can find this out (usually) by visiting the hardware vendor's Web site and pursuing the specs for your computer's model number.

3. Replace hard drives with solidstate drives. This is the most expensive upgrade, and the most complicated one. Fortunately, the prices keep coming down and the longer you wait, the cheaper they'll get. Right now, you're looking at 60 cent to a $1 per GB. For instance, today I'm seeing a Samsung 1TB SSD drive for $590 at newegg.com, while for $100 you get around 120GB.

The process is complicated, because it involves hardware and software modifications: cloning the old drive's contents to the new one, and then replacing the hard-disk drive with the solid-state drive. I explain this in detail at...

How to make your aging netbook run like ZIP!  (for Windows 7 and older systems)

and

How to clone drives under Windows 8 (it's harder than before) 

 

How to erase Windows from a reused hard drive

I wrecked the motherboard of my previous desktop computer, but the 500GB hard drive was perfectly good; plus, it contained all my files. So I installed it into my current desktop computer. It still had Windows and some Windows-oriented folders, which contained system-protected files that I could not erase -- even though Windows no longer uses any files on this second hard drive.

I knew I could get Linux to erase the folders and files, but I didn't want to turn my desktop computer into a dual-boot machine. I tried running Linux in a virtual machine using Oracle VM VirtualBox software, but I couldn't access the drive.

So here is my solution. I had wanted anyhow to install Linux Mint 15 on a spare, external, USB-powered drive, so that I wouldn't have to deal with dual-booting on any computer. I did that (using a utility called YUMI), and then attached the drive to a USB port on my desktop computer.

As my Acer desktop computer was booting, I pressed F12 repeatedly to access the boot screen. I selected the external USB drive, and booted into Linux. I was then able to easily erase the Windows folder, and other folders that Windows wouldn't erase.

The effort freed up 38GB of disk space.

- - -

Bonus Tip!

I have found the best way to deal with an old Windows hard drives is with a Mac. The Mac's Disk Utility program (found in Applications > Utilities) effortlessly wipes out existing partitions and reformats drives in seconds. Windows own disk utility is wonky about partitions, and Linux is too technical.

(Hard drives pulled from Windows computers usually have three partions, two of which are used for backup and OS recovery purposes. You gain disk space by removing these partitions, which become unecessary when the drive no longer runs Windows.)

Mac OS X does not, however, support NTFS natively, and so you'll need to install a driver to recognize NTFS drives and to format them. I use the free NTFS-Free driver from Anton Altaparmakov. (Some others say they are free, but don't tell you they are free for just 15 days.)

 

Where is there a multi-body SAT viewer for free?

A reader asks,

Can you recommend a “free” SAT (ACIS) file viewer that can view the files. Viewers like Spatial’s RADF Viewer only seem to see the one object or feature. For now, I am importing them into AutoCAD to verify the content but that’s rather clunky. I hope all is well on the wet coast.

- H. M.

I believe that the "see one object" was a limitation of older versions of the SAT file format. It used to be that when you exported to SAT, you could select only one "body."  What you are looking for is a multi-body SAT viewer, and I don't think there are any that are free, due to licensing fees.

As for those of us on the "wet coast," it certainly is wet, like last Spring. Today, the sun is shining, and we are not quite sure what to so about it.

 

How to get rid of that "Are you sure" question when erasing files in Windows

It irritates me that Windows asked every time I delete a file, "Are you sure?" A silly question, because even Microsoft's smart programmers know that the file is not being deleted; it gets moved to the Recycle folder, from whence accidently erased files can be recovered. Only very large files and folders are erased immediately, ones that are too large for Recycle -- although I have no idea why any would be too large for Recycle on today's 1TB and 2TB drives.

Last week by chance I found how to remove the irritating dialog box:

1. Right-click Recycle icon on your desktop.

2. Choose Properties from the shortcut menu.

3. Turn off Display Delete Confirmation Dialog.

4. Click OK. No more irritation.

 

 

TIP: Getting the full list of + commands in AutoCAD 2012

AutoCAD has a number of commands that begin with the + character. These are usually commands that open multi-tabbed dialog boxes. By prefixing the command name with the +, AutoCAD then prompts you for the tab number, which begins with 0 for the first tab. These are primarily meant for macros and LISP routines.

For example:

Command: +options 
Tab index <0>: (Enter an integer.)

AutoCAD 2012's new command interface lists all commands starting with the same letter. Normally, I find this a pain, since it will tend to list a closing command before an opening one. For instance, it lists MatBrowswerClose before MataBrowserOpen, since it works in alphabetical order. But how often do you need to know the name of the command for closing a palette? (Just click the X.)

Anyhow, this new command interface lists for us all command names that start with +:

+ConstraintSettings
+DSettings
+Layer 
+Options
+Publish
+Ribbon
+SaveAs
+UcsMan
+VPorts

Of the commands on this list, three do not display tabbed dialog boxes. They react differently:

Command: +SaveAs
Input save format [dwG/dwT/dwS/dwF/Other]:

+SaveAs lets you specify the file format; the Other option lets you specify the version number, ranging from 0 = AutoCAD 2010/1/2 DWG, down to 11 = AutoCAD R12 DXF.

Command: +Ribbon
Enter <menugroup name>,<element id> of the tab to make active (e.g. ACAD_Tabhome):

The +Ribbon command opens a specific tab in the ribbon.

Command: +Layer 
Specify filter [All/All Used Layers/Unreconciled New Layers/Viewport Overrides] <All>:

 The +Layer command lets you specify layer filters.

 

 

Attn all AutoCAD 2012 users: redefine ScreenMenu cmd

Thanks to Mark M, who pointed me to this item at Autodesk's support site:

The SCREENMENU command was undefined by default in AutoCAD 2012 so that CIP data could be gathered indicating how many customers redefined the command and how many never noticed it was missing. The command is still supported, tested, and functional, but it must be manually redefined.

This means we should all redefine ScreenMenu -- as well as the other undefined commands, BlipMode, Trace, and DsViewer. Redefining ScreenMenu nevertheless leaves it missing from CUI.

Problem is that some/many users turn off CIP [customer involvement program, where Autodesk tracks your command usage], and so Autodesk would never know.

Source.

 

AutoCAD 2012 Tips: by Ignacio Arrúe Matilla

Ignacio Arrúe Matilla is an architect at OpenCartis in Spain, and he sent me some details of AutroCAD 2012:

• I can access "removed" system variables -- BlipMode, ScreenMenu, and so on -- through AutoLISP: (setvar "blipmode" 1) and (setvar "screenmenu" 1). This last ones displays screen menu, even though I can't see it in the .cuix file.
  
  
• The new associative array object acts like a block, and so the Clip command and the new NCopy command work on it. Very useful!

• Chamfer and Fillet commands now preview the chamfers and fillets when the cursor passes over the second object or the polyline, but this works only when SelectionPreview is set to 2 or 3; previewing does not work when the sysvar is set to 0 or 1.

 

 

 

 

TIP: How to force AutoCAD to save AutoSave time

Architect K.M. writes:

We have a persistent problem with AutoSave turning itself off. My hope was that we could somehow add it to the ACAD2010doc.lsp to force it to be turned on when AutoCAD is launched. We tried adding this string (setvar 'savetime>5) with no luck – what would the correct line be? Have you heard of this problem, and do you know a fix?

I have never heard of this problem. I would check to make sure the location where AutoCAD saves its .bak backup files and its .cfg configuration file is valid. You may want to check support.autodesk.com in case this is a known problem.

The correct syntax for saving the drawing every five minutes is:

(setvar "savetime" 5)

Change the 5 to any number of minutes you like. Five minutes is certainly the smallest, otherwise AutoCAD spends most of its time saving, especially with large drawings. 

How to see the same CAD drawing twice, on two monitors

A.L. writes:

I’m using AutoCAD 2011, and I have a large monitor for my drafting use. Is there a way to have a smaller monitor to show the same file to see the overall view (e.g. – floor plan). Then I could zoom into the view on the large monitor to do my detailed drafting.

I think this should work: start a second session of AutoCAD (you can have more than one copy of AutoCAD running at a time), and then open the drawing file. (This file will open as read-only, but that is fine for your purposes.) Drag the second AutoCAD over to the other monitor.

The other solution is to use the DSViewer command, which opens a bird's-eye-view window. You can make the window as large as your second monitor.

PS: Here is the part I am wondering about. Mr L. works for big consulting engineering company working in the energy field. I am wondering why the CAD manager (or even the IT guy) couldn't provide the answer.

In any case, Mr L. wrote back that my answer provided him with the solution for which he was searching.

Here is how I back up data from my computer

The best backups are those that (1) back up files to a different hard drive and (2) make restoring files easy to understand. It's probably not well known that AutoCAD has the first feature: In the Options dialog box, click Files tab, change the path for Automatic Save File Location to another drive. On my computer, that's to an external 500GB portable drive.

As for the second feature, well, I don't use any backup softare, because I don't trust the restore process. In the panic that follows data loss, you don't have the luxury of learning now how to restore. Restores are complicated when (1) they rely on the backup software, which might not be working anymore, (2) they use incremental backups to save disk space, and (3) they might be compressed to further save space.

Backup

I don't use backup software; instead I used a backup strategy.

First, I triage my files:

 - many files are not important, and so they are not backed up. These includes program files that can be reinstalled.

- files that are important, but change rarely, such as my 70GB collection of MP3s and 90GB of digital photos. I keep copies on two other external drives, plus a set of DVDs at my dad's place. These I back up every few months using TeraCopy's Older Only option (see below) as I have time.

 - file that represent my current work, particularly InDesign book files. At the end of each day, I drag the folders I worked over to the external drive. On the external drive, I have seven folders named after the seven days of the week: Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and so on. This allows me up to seven archival copies.

I use the TeraCopy software, which has a useful feature: it only copies changed files through its Older Only ption. This makes the file copying process faster, since there is no need to copy unchanged files. As a bonus, TerraCopy is much faster than Windows own Copy command. (It is worthwhile paying for the Pro version at http://www.codesector.com/teracopy.php, because then it'll also copy files locked by apps.)

 - files that are crucial, such as my email address book, the spreadsheet that keeps track of my income, and so on. For these, I set up the Windows Briefcase utility to copy these files to my external hard drive. (Right-click Briefcase, and select Update All. Again, only changed files are copied.) Every so often, I upload the ZIP'ed Briefcase folder to an online location.

Restore

Should I need to restore files, it's a simple matter of locating them on the backup drives. I don't need to figure out how the proprietary restore software works; I don't need to wonder about incremental backups; I don't need to deal with compressed backups. Since they are on an external drive, the files can be read by any computer -- Linux, OS X, Windows.

 

 

 

What consumes memory in drawings

The Bricscad update log has an entry I found interesting:

A user-provided drawing required more than 1.5GB of memory to load and display, due to dense dashed linetype patterns used for long entities. The threshold to switch to displaying such entities using continuous line type was lowered, resulting in reducing the memory need by 1.1GB.

How come text looks so good in AutoCAD?

As I work with DWG-compatible CAD systems, I notice that text on their screens looks dreadful, whereas text looks smooth in AutoCAD. I took a close look to find out why.

Here is what text looks like in non-AutoCAD software (enlarged 10x):



It gets worse when I turn on lineweights:



In contrast, here is how text looks in AutoCAD 2010:



Notice that Autodeks uses anti-aliasing to smooth out the edges of the text. When lineweights are turned on, text is unaffected.

I noticed a change in AutoCAD 2011:



Autodesk now uses color anti-aliasing. To my eyes, however, text looks no different from grayscale anti-aliasing used earlier.

Anyhow, the point is that AutoCAD competitors need to (a) add anti-aliasing to their in-drawing text display, and (b) prevent text from being given lineweights. I dunno if this is an issue the Open Design Alliance needs to fix, or if it is up to each CAD vendor to address.

Update
IMSI/design's Bob Mayer points out that their DoubleCAD XT also does a fine job displaying text in drawings, using grayscale anti-aliasing, as illustrated below:

Undocumented options in AutoCAD 2011's Hatch command

The Hatch command was massively overhauled by Autodesk in AutoCAD 2011, making it very interactive via the ribbon. Some like it the instant results; some don't care for the sometimes unpredictable results.

(You can always switch back to the AutoCAD 2010 mode through the HpDlgMode system variable. Autodesk is usually pretty good at maintaining old features.)

As I update my Using AutoCAD 2011 book, I am finding that the new Hatch command has a number of hidden options. So far I have uncovered the following:

MA - Match Properties -- makes the properties of the new pattern match those of an existing pattern.

OR - Origin -- prompts you to pick a new origin for the hatch pattern.

(Both of these are normally access through the ribbon; macro writers can use them at the command line.)

Other settings are adjusted on the fly through transparent system variables. For instance, clicking the Annotative button toggles 'HpAnnotative at the command line.

In addition, AutoCAD makes use of these undocumented system variables:

HatchBoundSet reports the contents of the hatch boundary set (read-only):
0 – current viewport (default).
1 – existing set.

HatchCreation reports whether the Hatch command is active (read-only):
0 – hatching is not active (default).
1 – hatching is underway (Hatch command is active).

HatchType specifies the type of hatch pattern (read-only):
0 – predefined (default).
1 – user defined.
2 – custom.

HpLastPattern reports the name of the last hatch pattern used (read-only); “Ansi31” is the default.

Owen Wengerd explains why memory-wimpy 32-bit AutoCAD must be installed on your 64-bit 64GB fire breathing computer

In Owen Wengerd's Outside The Box blog ("Random thoughts about AutoCAD, ObjectARX, and the meaning of life"), we learn why some users are forced to install 32-bit AutoCAD on 64-bit computers: because some third-party apps are only compatible with the 32-bit version of AutoCAD -- even (shock, horror!) some written by Autodesk itself, says Mr Wengerd.

One commenter writes:

Eagle Point has refused to port their product to 64-bit, and now that they are closing the doors on their civil software for vanilla CAD, I don't expect them to. Our office was forced to install 32-bit Windows just because of this one program. 

The primary disadvantage to 32-bit AutoCAD is that it is limited to addressing 3GB RAM, at most. If your drawings are not large, then 64-bit is unnecessary.

Read the technical details at Port Your ObjectARX Code to 64 Bit.

Ribbons and Tool Palettes

A reader asks:

I bought your ebook "Tailoring AutoCAD 2010 CUI." Great information and very clear. I am using AutoCAD Architecture 2010. I have some custom tool palettes with tools that I would like to get into the Ribbon.

I can't seem to find a way to link the tools from the host drawing into the Ribbon. Do you know of a way to do this? 

     - JSB

I am unfamiliar with Architecture, but your question fascinated me. I had never thought of this situation. I tried it out in AutoCAD 2010, and found it is not possible. Tools from the Tools palette cannot be placed in the Ribbon. Perhaps this is the reason that the Tools palette has its own customization command (Customize); it is independent of CUI.

  The only thing you could do is to customize the Workspace so that the appropriate Tools palette appears when you start AutoCAD and/or Architecture. To do this:

1. Start CUI command.

2. Open Workspaces node.

3. Open an existing workspace, or create a new one.

4. Over in the Workspace Contents area, open the Palettes node.

5. Open the Tools Palette node.

6. Down in the Properties section, click the Default Group droplist, and then choose the name of a Tools palette group.

To customize Tools palette groups, use the Customize command. It lets you group individual tabs (aka palettes) by named groups.

 

TIP: Acad 2010 Alt-Shortcuts

A lot of Windows software has Alt-key shortcuts to access items on dropdown menus. For example, you can hold down the Alt key, and then press F and S to save a document (File menu, Save item). 

AutoCAD 2010 turns off the menu bar, but today I noticed that Alt sequences still work, but in different areas from menu bars.

Press the Alt key, and tooltips appear near buttons in the Quick Access toolbar and tabs in the ribbon, as shown below:

Press key(s) to access the items, such as 1 for New Drawing and R for the Render tab.

Then AutoCAD displays tooltips with keyboard shortcuts for each item in the tab, such as XR for a button, VS for the droplist, VY for the panel extension, and VM for the options dialog box. (Shown below are the tooltips for the Render tab.)

Antz on Your AutoCAD 2010 Screen

One of AutoCAD 2010 undocumented commands is named after the movie "Antz" (In unrelated news, Autodesk's Maya software was the secondary computer graphics app used for the movie Antz.)

The Antz command controls some aspects of the ViewCube and SteeringWheel -- user interface elements that Autodesk also has in Maya. After loading gstest.Arx with AppLoad, enter the following command:

Command: antz
[ViewCube/SteeringWheel/Refresh]:

ViewCube 

Click on ViewCube part or [?]: 

Enter in an integer; this causes the ViewCube to rotate to that position, such as Top and BackTopRight -- kind of like a command-line interface to controlling the ViewCube and standard views in the drawing. It would be used by macros.

SteeringWheel

[Show wheels/SImulate operation]:

The Show wheels option displays all seven SteeringWheels on the screen. SImulate operation animates sample operations like Oribt and Dolly.

Refresh

This option doesn't seem to do anything.

(PS: GsTest.Arx contains many undocumented commands for testing the graphics system, which I have documented in the past.)

Linking Google Earth with AutoCAD

Scott Sheppard has a well written tutorial on Working with large models and the Google Earth Extension for AutoCAD in his It's Alive in the Lab blog. It turns out that models can be too big to publish to Earth, as described by the blog entry.

His entry also has a link to the user guide that teaches you how to:

• Import Google Earth images into AutoCAD.
• Publish 3D AutoCAD models to Google Earth.
• Drape Google Earth images onto AutoCAD 3D meshes.
• Attach time span information to models.

Reading Your CEO's Lips

How can you tell if you might be a victim of the economic climate change we are experiencing these days? Nicholas Carlson tells us phrases CEOs are using these days to gloss over the damage suffered from losing one's job:

• "We are living in a time of unprecedented economic challenges."
• "Our best chance of getting through this rough time." 
• "I made the decision to go very deep, very quickly so we won't have to do it again."
• "We are making aggressive moves to strengthen our leadership positions in [insert name of industry niche here] to competitively position our company for long-term growth."

Here's something I like to see: the ceo and other executives taking 10% pay cuts to at least make it appear that this economy-thing is affecting them as well. 

The above it's-not-your-fault reasons do ring more nicely than what human resources at AOL apparently said:

The people who were let go all knew why and it was because they weren't pulling their weight.

TIP: Open "Any" File with Acrobat Pro Ext 9

In working with the beta of Adobe's updated Acrobat 9 Pro Extended (nee Acobat 3D) I found that it can import many kinds of supported files -- even though it doesn't look like it can. Here's how:

1. From the File menu, choose Open.
2. In the "Files of Type" droplist, the only file types available are PDF and All Files.  Choose All Files.
3. Navigate to a folder that holds CAD files, such as STEP, PRT, or DWG. Select one and click Open.

Acrobat converts and opens the file. Using this method, I was able to view the Pro/E files provided by Via's Open Notebook initiative.

(Warning: IGES files take a long time to open, and can bog down the system.)

# of Ways to Quit AutoCAD

After Visa balloned the number of ways to shut down the operating system, I wondered how many ways there were to end AutoCAD -- especially after seeing the new Exit AutoCAD button in the new menu browser.

1. Quit command.
2. Exit alias.
3. Press Ctrl+Q.
4. Press Alt+F4.
5. From the menu browser, choose File | Exit.
6. From the menu browser, click the Exit AutoCAD button.
7. From the menu bar, choose File | Exit.
8. On the title bar, click the X button.
9. Right-click the title bar, and then choose Close from the shortcut menu.

TIP: Use Memory Cleaner with AutoCAD 2009

Working with AutoCAD 2009 the other day, it suddenly complained of a lack of memory. The Vista computer upon which I am running it has 2GB RAM and 92GB free disk space.

Earlier, I found a memory cleaner that frees up memory that's being hogged by applications. When I ran it, it reduced the amount of used RAM from around 1500MB down to the normal 1000MB. After that, AutoCAD was happy again.

I now run Memory Cleaner just about every day after using AutoCAD 2009. You can get a copy of the utility from www.vasileios.gr/freesoft. (Strictly speaking, it is a graphical frontend for Vista's own FreeMem command. Mr Vasileios also has a version for XP.)

TIPS: New in AutoCAD 2009

I downloaded the 30-day eval version of the AutoCAD 2009 shipping version, and found three more new items:

* SkyStatus - new sysvar.

* LayerDlgMode - toggles which layer UI is displayed by the Layer command: dlg box or palette.

* Text Find -- new toolbar.

TIPS: Adorable Toolbars

The redesigned toolbars in AutoCAD 2009 are just adorable -- cute and tiny. Just one problem: how to get them to show up when the ribbon is the user interface.

In the past, the usual shortcut manner of accessing toolbars was to right-click a toolbar. This worked well, because there were usually a couple toolbars open. With AutoCAD 2009, zero toolbars are open by default.

The new workaround is to right-click the Quick Access toolbar (found on the title bar), and then choose Toolbars | AutoCAD.

(There is another method that should work, but doesn't: when I choose View | Toolbars from the Big Red A, AutoCAD 2009 displays the Customize User Interface dialog box -- which is useless for toggling the display of toolbars.)

The other method is to click the Workspace button (moved to the status bar) and select "AutoCAD Classic" as the user interface. All the familiar menus and toolbars return. Yet another method is to use the -toolbar command, but for this command you have to know the name of the toolbar.

Bonus tip: The new, undocumented MenuBar system variable toggles the display of the menu bar. This lets you have the traditional (legacy) menu bar just below the title bar -- even with the ribbon UI active.

Tips: AutoCAD 2009 Shortcut Keystrokes

AutoCAD 2009 has a couple of new shortcut keystrokes, and moves around a couple of others.

New
CTRL+SHIFT+H -- Toggle HidePalettes command, turns on and off the visibility of all palettes at once.
CTRL+SHIFT+P -- Toggles Quick Properties; can also use the undocumented QuickProperties command.

Changed
CTRL+D -- Toggle dynamic UCS (also available through F6).
CTRL+I -- Cycle through coordinate displays (used to be Ctrl+D).

Other Font Formats - They Exist

I knew about TTF and PostScript Type 1 fonts, but learned of another format that's actually supported natively by Windows.

My youngest daughter is becoming a designer. She asked how to install a font she downloaded from an online source, such as DaFont. I told her to put it into the \Windows\Fonts folder. But she got stalled, because the download was a ZIP file.

I opened the ZIP file for her, and found an OTF file. "Wha?" I wondered. A google search quickly informed me that (1) OTF files are open text fonts, and (2) are supported by Windows. Sure 'nough, was true, and my daughter went on to happily design a T-shirt.

Adobe explains it:

The OpenType format is an extension of the TrueType SFNT format that also can support Adobe PostScript font data and new typographic features. OpenType fonts containing PostScript data, such as those in the Adobe Type Library, have an .otf suffix in the font file name, while TrueType-based OpenType fonts have a .ttf file name suffix.

Does CAD support OTF?

I tried out AutoCAD 2008, but its Style command does not recognize .otf files. Its Compile command converts PostScript fonts for use in drawings, but it also does not recognize .otf files.

Non-CAD programs do, such as PaintShop Pro and the Atlantis word processor.

Pump Up the Saturation

I've finally figured out how some photographs look simply fabulous, like the ones by pro photographers that always win Canadian Geographics’ annual photo contest. They pump up the saturation.

Saturation is the intensity of colors. More saturation and the colors are more intense; less, and the photograph begins to look like a black-white photo.

Your camera might have a saturation settings. On my Canon S1is, it is found in the Func. menu. Move down to Custom Effect, press Set, and then change Saturation. This camera offers only three settings: more, normal, or less.

My other camera, the Samsung NV3, handles saturation differently. Press the + button, and the press the four-way controller until you get to the Red-Green-Blue setting. Now increase each one by a few steps.

Take some photos, and suddenly they no longer seem so bland looking.

If you don't want to contaminate the "original" photos with the camera's saturation settings, you can post-fix them. For example, Picasa has a saturation setting that lets you see the effect in real time. Notice that when the saturation is too strong, colors start to look wrong, and black areas can get flooded with electric blue.

Saturation is like salt: a little enhances your photos, but too much kills them.

Getting Photos Back into Cameras

My dad asked if I could solve a problem for a friend: "At church a lady asked me how to transfer pictures from the computer back to the camera."

It is possible. It might be that the software that comes with your camera allows this.

If not, then follow these steps:

1. Take out the camera's memory card.
2. Insert it into a card reader, which is attached to your computer. Some computers now include card readers; if not, you may need to buy one.
3. The computer will recognize the card reader and the memory card as another disk drive. Use Windows Explorer to open the new "drive."
4. Drag photos (JPEG files) from your computer onto the new "drive." In some cases, you may need to place the JPEG files in a specific folder of the memory card.
5. When done, click the "Unplug or Eject Hardware" button on the task bar (bottom right of the screen). Choose the drive name, and wait for Windows to tell you that it's now safe to remove the card.
6. Put the card back into your camera, and check if you can view the photos.

My dad replied, "Thanks for mailing the answer to her question. She had some transfers done by [the local camera dealer] and they charged her one dollar per picture! Come to think of it: I never asked her why she wants to transfer pictures back to the camera, would you know of a good reason?"

To use the camera as a photo viewer. They have such big screens today, that we can use the camera to show pictures to friends and relatives.

What Needs to be Fixedin AutoCAD

With AutoCAD 2009 shipping in a half-year, it's time to begin ranting on how the top-seller needs to be improved. Not how it could be improved, but needs to be.

#1 on the list of emails I get is frustration with linetypes, a technology essentially unchanged in nearly 25 years. It's disappointing that Autodesk didn't fix linetypes with AutoCAD 2008, which it had touted as the "annotation" release. Linetypes not a form of annotation? Tear up my engineering degree!

Blog reader shachar_k asks avery sensible question:

I have trouble to create a linetype with a attributed blocks. I want that when I make a line [it] will ask me the question of the attribute. I hope that will be possible to do this.

No, it's not.

I follow Mr Shachar's thinking: it would be much more efficient to have one linetype that can be used for many different situations simply by responding with a different attribute value. One linetype to rule them all, whether each line needs different numbering (Line 1, Line 2, Line 3, etc) or lettering (Line GAS, Line A, Line HW, etc).

But, as is often the case in AutoCAD, there is a possible workaround. I haven't tried this, but this might be possible:

1. Draw the line or spline or whatever.
2. Use the Measure or Divide commands to place the block along the line.
3. Respond to attribute prompt.

Any why doesn't AutoCAD pre-load all linetypes with its template drawings? Inventor does.

Multilines, Grrr

#2 that needs to be fixed in the 15-year-old multiline. Mlines need to be more than just "lines" -- if Generic CADD was able to do multiline splines, and if Autodesk bought the code, then what's the excuse?

That intersection cleanup is not automatic is an even bigger scandal. The MlEdit command is as relevant today as AutoCAD's original numbered menu ("Enter 1 to start a NEW drawing" => click icon in dialog box to select pair of intersecting mlines to cleanup; reopen dialog box; click another icon for another type of cleanup; ugh!) It's just not 1982 anymore. Even AutoCAD LT has auto cleanup of its dumbed-down version, DLine (draws double lines).

[end of rant]

When A Full Battery Looks Empty to the Camera

My daughter was leaving on a four-day trip and asked me for a new set of batteries for her Samsung digital camera. I always have four NiMH batteries "simmering" in a trickle charger, so that there is always a set fully charged and ready to go.

She thanked me, took them, and returned minutes later. "I hate my camera!" Turning it on, the battery meter showed three bars: fully charged. "Wait a couple of minutes," she instructed me. Sure enough, the battery meter suddenly turned red (the sign of empty batteries) and the camera shut itself down.

I tried different rechargeable batteries. Same problem. I stuck in a pair of alkalines that I happened to have nearby. While playing with her camera, trying to find the problem, I noticed a menu item named Battery. There was the problem:

The battery type was set to Alkaline, but she was using rechargeable. I changed the setting to NiMH, and the camera worked correctly.

Here's what happened:

* Alkaline batteries have a nominal voltage of 1.5V (volts) and are nearly dead when the voltage drops to around 1.2V.

* NiMH (and other rechargeable) batteries have a nominal voltage of 1.2V.

When you stick NiMHs into a camera (or other device) expecting alkalines, the camera assumes the batteries are nearly dead, because it measures a voltage of just 1.2V. Change the setting to NiMH, and the camera then realizes that the "low" voltage of 1.2V is normal.

A consumer camera should not have an alkaline setting; it's just too confusing!

AutoCAD Tip: "Free" Lights

AutoCAD 2008's biggest changes weren't even emphasized during the new software's rollout: lights for rendering.

One group of commands had me really puzzled when I first read about them: "free" lights, as in FreeSpot and FreeWeb. The documentation says, "Creates a free spotlight, which is similar to a spotlight but without a specified target". What's the point of a spot light that doesn't point at anything? Its whole purpose is to point at some spot!

Playing around with them I found that the documentation isn't quite accurate: the target point of FreeSpot lights is implied, rather than not specified.

FreeSpot lights do point at targets: they point straight down. This feature makes them useful for placing them in ceilings and streetlights, because you don't have to specify the target location.

Once the free light is in place with its target pointed at -Z, you can adjust the target point like this: in the light's properties, change Targeted to Yes; the target grips appear, allowing you to relocate it.

From Camera to Zen Micro?

A strange tip over at Popular Photography.com:

Using select camera cables, I can connect digital cameras from several makers to my Creative Zen Micro music player, and their image files are transferred automatically.

I have both -- several digital cameras and the Zen Micro -- but I haven't been able to try this tip, because the cables are a problem. The Zen Micro has the miniUSB female connector; most cameras have the same or a proprietary connector. Thus, an adapter cable is needed, which I don't have.

But, I can't see this tip working, because neither the camera nor the Zen Micro are USB servers -- one is needed to initiate the file transfer operation. I wonder if the editors of Popular Photography tested the tip, which needs more information. For example, should the Zen Micro be in File Transfer mode?

I wonder if the tip submitter used a USB transfer box, which allows two non-server USB devices to communicate with each other. I've looked at them at London Drugs (about $40), but decided they wouldn't work well, because there is no control over which files are transmitted, and where they end up on the receiving device.

TIPSAutoCAD Keyboard Modifiers

Even as Autodesk works to make AutoCAD more interactive, the company is also adding more keyboard modifiers. Trolling the Web, I came across two that I didn't know about:

Ctrl+Shift

Credit Autodesk's Heidi Hewitt for this shortcut that acts like AutoCAD 2007's PressPull command:

1. Draw a closed 2D object, like a circle, and then change to a 3D viewpoint.
2. Move the cursor inside the circle.
3. Hold down Ctrl+Shift. (Notice that AutoCAD highlights the circle; on the command line, it reports "1 loop extracted. 1 Region created.")
4. Move the cursor. (Notice that the circle turns into a 3D solid cylinder.)

Notice that this key combo automatically creates a region of the circle.

Ctrl for Increments

The Ctrl key is used for several different things in AutoCAD, and credit CAD Tutor's Michael Beall for uncovering yet another one: setting an increment distance during copying by grips editing. Effectively, these steps create linear and "random" arrays:

1. Draw an object, like a circle.
2. Select it to show the grips; select a grip to make it hot (red).
3. Press the spacebar to get to Move mode.
4. Press C to switch to copy mode.
5. Move the cursor to show the direction.
6. Enter a number to specify the copy distance.
7. Hold down the Ctrl key.
8. Move the cursor. Notice that the object jumps (moves in increments).
9. Click to place the object.
10. Repeat: move cursor and click.
11. When done, press Esc.

Notice that you are not limited to linear copies, but can place the copies in any direction.

Visio has a similar increment feature, but operates more easily: after you copy an object, press F4. Visio makes another copy at the same distance and direction; repeat pressing F4 for as many copies as you need. This makes it easy to quickly place lots of objects that are evenly spaced apart.

TIPAutoCAD Dynamic Viewing

I had read that AutoCAD 2007 has real-time 3D view movement, but I could never get it to work using this procedure:

1. Hold down the Shift key.
2. Hold down the middle mouse button (typically the scroll wheel on today's mice).
3. And then move the mouse.

This is a shortcut to the 3dOrbit command. You can use it during commands, or between commands, to shift around the 3D viewpoint.

While others were happily telling us to do the Shift-Middle mouse button to change the view, it never worked for me. All I got was AutoCAD trying to select objects. (For a nice introductory online video series on AutoCAD 2007 3D, check out CADclips.com.) I decided to investigate.

After trying a number of ideas, I wondered if the Logitech mouse driver might be involved. I always set the middle mouse button for double-click; might this be interfering? In the Mouse applet of the Control Panel, I changed the definition of the middle button to the generic "Middle Button."

It worked. Here are all the view changes possible with the middle mouse button-wheel:

* Realtime Pan -- drag mouse while holding down middle button (wheel).
* Joystick Pan -- drag while holding down Ctrl key and middle button. The scene moves around you.
* Realtime 3dOrbit -- drag while holding down Shift key and middle button. You move around the scene.

* Realtime Zoom -- roll the wheel.
* Zoom to Extents -- double-click the wheel.

(The difference between the two pans is that Realtime Pan is flat like the Pan command, while Joystick Pan [Autodesk's term] is curved like the 3dSwivel command.)

A problem, however: I can't use the middle button for double-clicking with a single click in other applications -- unless I get back into the mouse driver applet and change back the definition.

Acad: Hidden Stretch Options

Numerous commands have options not listed in their prompts, hidden options. The best-known one is in the Text command:

Command: text
Specify start point of text or [Justify/Style]: r

Instead of entering J, you can directly enter the abbreviation of a justification mode, such as "r" for right.

Sometimes Autodesk mucks about with the prompt wording, yet leaves in the old prompts unanounced. The best know example here is of the UCS command.

And sometimes I discover a new one, like for grips editing. Standard practice has been to press the spacebar to get through the the grips editing options: stretch, move, rotate, scale, mirror, and back to stretch again. It turns out you can get directly to them by entering their abbreviation, as undocumented by Autodesk:

***Stretch*** -- st
***Move*** -- mo
***Rotate*** -- r
***Scale*** -- sc
***Mirror*** -- mi

Even so, the whole 2D grips editing system in AutoCAD is in need of a serious overhaul, one that I hope to see in AutoCAD 2008. For example, even TurboCAD includes a rotation handle with its grips editing.

Acad 07: Undocumented MaterialAssign Command

AutoCAD always has numerous undocumented commands, and here is one that I missed when I scoured AutoCAD 2007 earlier this year for my "The Illustrated AutoCAD 2007 Quick Reference" book (Autodesk Press).

I had found it curious that AutoCAD 2007 has a MaterialAttach command for attaching materials to layers, but no command for attaching materials to objects. (The workaround is to drag materials from the Tool palette onto the object.)

By accident this evening, I typed in MaterialAssign and found it works like this:

Command: materialassign

Notice that the paintbrush cursor appears.

Select objects: (Pick one or more objects.)
Select objects or [Undo]: (Press Enter to exit the command.)

Hmm... it never asked which material to assign to the objects. It turns out that this command uses whichever material is stored in the CMaterial system variable. When changing the value of this system variable, you have to use quotation marks when the material name contains spaces, like this:

Command: cmaterial
Enter new value for CMATERIAL <"ByLayer">: "Metals.Structural Metal Framing.Steel"

In the end, it is easier to just drag materials off the Tool palette and onto objects.

Acad 07: Grab Render Images

AutoCAD 2007 has a new rendering engine (based on 'mental ray'), which optionally outputs rendered images to a separate Render window. This window hosts a history of renderings of the current session, so that you can compare different settings.

AutoCAD stores the images as PNG files in this hidden folder: C:\Documents and Settings\(user name)\Local Settings\Temp. You can copy these files, which is probably easier than (1) using the Render window's File menu, (2) selecting Save, (3) entering a filename, (4) selecting the folder, (5) choosing the file format, and (6) then clicking OK.

PNG is a public format that uses lossless compression (short for "portable network graphics.") Upon exiting the drawing, AutoCAD erases the stored images.

Acad 07: Quick Access to Tool Palettes

In AutoCAD 2007, Autodesk greatly expanded the number of palettes displayed by the Tool palette. As one way to harness many the many palettes, it provided "groups," which lets you group palettes into subgroups. This is done with the Customize command.

To access palettes and groups, you can right-click the mass of tab lines at near the bottom of the Tool palette. But then you still have to chose from a long list of palette names.

Here's a way to avoid the congestion and get right to the palette you need: click the big icon that represents each of the control panels in the Dashboard:

* 3D Make control panel: click the icon to display the Modeling tool palette.
* 3D Navigate control panel: displays the Camera tool palette.
* Visual Styles control panel: the Visual Styles palette.
* Light control panel: curiously enough, displays the Modeling palette, a bug I suppose.
* Materials control panel: shows the the many Materials palettes.

The 2D Draw and Render control panel icons display no tool palettes.

Alternatively, you can right-click the big icon for each control panel, and then select Tool Palette Group from the shortcut menu.

AutoCAD Entity Oddities

Digging through AutoCAD 2007's entities (objects), I've come across some oddities:

Ellipses and elliptical arcs cannot be given a thickness. Circles can, but not ellipses. Strange.

Multiline styles (MlStyle command) have never worked as expected. In AutoCAD, normal behavior is for the style to control the object, such as changing a text style changes the look of the associated text. But not mlines.

Reading the DXF spec shows why: the style is hard-coded into the multiline definition. It seems that the only purpose of the MlStyle command is to help start drawing mlines without having to specify all parameters anew each time.

To change the style of an mline, you need to erase it, and start over. Even the Properties palette has no control over mline style options, even though the data is available to AutoCAD. Nasty.

DgnImport

I tried out Autodesk's MicroStation V8 DGN file importer, and found this change: it appears to me that Autodesk first planned to have DGN files attached, like DWF files (due to the presence of the DgnAttach and related commands hardcoded into AutoCAD 2007). But the released software add-on actually imports and translates the DGN design files.

The difference? Attaching DGNs would make them visually more accurate, but importing DGNs makes the entities editable. Naturally, AutoCAD has a hard time with some MicroStation concepts, like constraints -- which are translated into lines.