Heidi Hewett's Blog

Preliminary 2008 AUGI CAD Camp Schedule

The AUGI CAD Camps offer a unique opportunity for you to attend Autodesk University-style courses at a location near you. The sessions are taught by local, national, and even international instructors, many of whom teach the same courses at Autodesk University. If want to learn more about your Autodesk software applications as part of your New Year’s Resolution (surely that is what you’re thinking about as the clock strikes midnight on New Years Eve, right?), consider attending a day-long CAD Camp in your area. AUGI released the following preliminary list of CAD Camps cities (and a few dates) for 2008. The cities and dates are subject to change, so be sure and visit www.cadcamp.com for the most current schedule information.

United States
Seattle, WA                       Feb 21, 2008
Honolulu, HI
Chicago, IL
Milwaukee, WI
Baltimore, MD
San Francisco, CA
Denver, CO
Phoenix, AZ
San Diego, CA
Minneapolis, MN
Omaha, NE
Houston, TX
Atlanta, GA
Tulsa, OK
Dallas, TX
Tampa, FL
New York City, NY
Las Vegas, NV
Indianapolis, IN
Columbus, OH
Kansas City, MO
St. Louis, MO
Jacksonville, FL
Boston, MA
Austin, TX
Orlando, FL
Miami, FL
San Antonio, TX
Albuquerque, NM
Tucson, AZ
Springfield, IL
Arlington, TX
Cincinnati, OH
Portland, OR

International
Toronto, Ontario, Canada       Jan 11, 2008
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Mexico City, Mexico               Jan 17, 2008
Hamburg, Germany                Feb 28, 2008
London, England
Dublin, Ireland
Paris, France
Madrid, Spain
Melbourne, Australia
Moscow, Russia
Edinburgh, Scotland
New Delhi, India
Mumbai, India
Kolkata, India
Chennai, India
Shanghai, China

More on Layer Evaluation/Notification…

Who’d have thought layer notification would create so much response? I’ve received several more suggestions regarding my previous posts on Layer Evaluation and Layer Notification.

Thanks to Mark for providing the following response and code:

The annoyance is most typically found when starting a new session of AutoCAD.  When AutoCAD is started it typically opens in a drawing. The drawing name is "Drawing1.dwg".  A hybrid solution to the problem listed under the "Prompting to save new drawings" post is to only have the code run on drawings that are not named "Drawing1.dwg".

;; RUN WHEN OPENING DRAWING
(IF (/= "Drawing1.dwg" (getvar "dwgname"))
  (PROGN
    (IF (/= 0   (GETVAR "LAYEREVAL"))  (SETVAR "LAYEREVAL" 0))
  )
)

As Mark points out, the previous code is specific to files named Drawing1.dwg. If you want a more general solution, consider the suggestions I received from Jim and Jimmy, two different people with similar names and solutions! They suggest resetting the DBMOD variable to “trick” AutoCAD into thinking no changes were made to the drawing. You can learn the details and copy the code from Jimmy Bergmark’s blog, JTB World.

Thanks to Mark, Jim, & Jimmy for the detailed follow-up on what seemed to be a simple solution!

Good Question… and Answer: Prompting to save new drawings.

After posting my response to the Good Question: Automatically Disabling Layer Evaluation, I received an email from R.K. McSwain…with a good question and answer! He mentioned that, after implementing acaddoc.lsp functionality, users sometimes ask him why AutoCAD prompts them to save their new drawing even if they haven’t made any changes.

The answer to that good question, as R.K. pointed out, is that AutoCAD has made changes, automatically. When you use acaddoc.lsp (as described in my previous post) the code in that file automatically runs when you open (or create) a drawing. It may not be obvious to you, but if you immediately try to close a new drawing without saving it, AutoCAD will prompt you to save changes.

Thanks to R.K. McSwain for anticipating the questions and providing the answer!

Good Question: Automatically Disabling Layer Notification

Today’s good question comes from Alex. He was happy to learn about the ability to disable Layer Evaluation. However, even after implementing the procedure I described in my previous post, Alex was still receiving the Unreconciled New Layers notification.

Oops… my bad. When I was testing the procedure for my Layer Evaluation post, I was using drawings that had no existing unreconciled layers. So, turning off layer evaluation was enough. However, as Alex discovered, if you open a drawing with existing unreconciled layers, the layer notification still displays. To disable layer notification, you’ll need to add the following line of code to the acaddoc.lsp file:

(setvar "LAYERNOTIFY" 0)

For more information about acaddoc.lsp and layer evaluation, view my previous post.

Even after you open a drawing with this code in the acaddoc.lsp file, the layer notification bubble may still appear. However, after you save and reopen the drawing, it should be gone... for good... Or, at least until you reenable LAYEREVAL and LAYERNOTIFY.

Good Question: Automatically Disabling Layer Evaluation

Today’s good question comes from Tony. He asked if there is a way to automatically disable the layer reconciliation functionality.

The layer reconciliation functionality, introduced in AutoCAD 2008, can be extremely helpful in “reminding” users to conform to layer standards. However, if you work in a single-user environment and don’t share drawings with consultants or others that require consistent layer standards, layer evaluation may cause unnecessary work. You can disable layer evaluation by setting the LAYEREVAL variable to 0. However, since this variable is stored in the drawing, you have to disable it for each drawing.

Fortunately, you can automate this process by adding a simple line of code to the acaddoc.lsp file, which automatically runs each time a drawing is loaded. The acaddoc.lsp file is not included in a default install of AutoCAD so I’ll step you through the process of creating it. If you’re already using an acaddoc.lsp file, you can simply add the new code.

Since the LAYEREVAL variable must be set per drawing, you’ll need to add the appropriate LiSP code to acaddoc.lsp file.

Using a text editor, create the acaddoc.lsp file.

1. Launch a text editor and enter the following code:
   (setvar "LAYEREVAL" 0)
2. Choose Save As.
3. Specify a folder location to store the acaddoc.lsp file. A typical location would be under Documents and Settings for the local user but it can be in any location that makes sense.
4. Specify plain text (TXT) as the file type.
5. Enter acaddoc.lsp for the file name and choose Save.

In AutoCAD, ensure the location where you stored the acaddoc.lsp file is in the AutoCAD Support Path.

1. Right-click in the AutoCAD window and choose Options.
2. Select the Files tab.
3. Expand the Support File Search Path. Be default, AutoCAD lists several locations for the search path including the support folder under the local user. If you create the acaddoc.lsp file in a location that is already in the search path, you don’t need to change anything in the Options dialog box. If you store the acaddoc.lsp file in any location that is not currently on the search path, such as C:/My Custom AutoCAD Files, you must add that location to the list of search paths.
4. Select Support File Search Path and choose Add.
5. Choose Browse and navigate to the folder containing your acaddoc.lsp file.
6. Choose OK to close the dialog boxes.

Now when you open a drawing in AutoCAD, the acaddoc.lsp file automatically loads, setting the LAYEREVAL variable to 0. You can add similar LiSP code to the acaddoc.lsp file to set other variables.