Heidi Hewett's Blog

Quick tips for customizing the CUI

If you’ve ever customized the AutoCAD user interface using the Customize User Interface dialog box, you’ve probably experienced the ultrafast scrolling list, which makes it tough to drag and drop from the command list onto a UI element. For example, try expanding the Modify toolbar node in the Customizations in All CUI Files pane and then drag the Rename command from the command list up to the Modify toolbar node. As soon as your cursor passes from the Command List pane to the Customizations in All CUI Files pane, the pane automatically begins scrolling to the bottom of the list. You have to push the cursor above the top of the Customizations in All CUI Files pane to make it scroll back up.

   
Fortunately there are some tricks to make this task a little easier. You can use the right-click menu to Copy the command from the Command list and Paste it under the Modify node. Or, if you *really* want to drag and drop, you can “sneak up” on the toolbar (or other UI element) by approaching it from the side.

Thanks to my coworker, Bud, for this handy tip!

Layout enhancements in AutoCAD 2008

Each release of AutoCAD offers many subtle improvements that may not create all the hype of bigger features, but will save you time none the less! For example, in AutoCAD 2008, in-place editing enables you to rename a layout by double-clicking on the layout tab. You can also drag and drop layouts to reorder them. Use familiar tools (Ctrl and Shift) to select multiple layouts and then drag them to their new location. If you press Ctrl as you drag and drop the layouts, AutoCAD will create copies or the layouts rather than moving them.

Good Answer: Palette Sensitivity

I received several follow-up emails in response to one of my recent posts about palette sensitivity. Thanks to Ray and Jimmy for suggesting Jimmy's freeware utility on JTB World that enables you to adjust the palette sensitivity without manually editing the XML files.

Good Question: Palette Sensitivity

Today's good question comes from Bill. He asked this question during my AutoCAD Tips & Tricks session in Calgary and, although I didn't know the answer, I knew someone that did!

Bill asked if you can control the sensitivity of Auto-hide for palettes. He wanted the palettes to be less sensitive when hidden so he wouldn't accidentally activate the wrong one, and more sensitive when open so they would disappear immediately.

This is just one of the many "wicked cool" tricks you can learn from Matt Murphy's Tool Palettes class at CAD Camp or Autodesk University.

The following comes from Matt Murphy (Top Autodesk University 2006 Speaker):

The timer settings for rollup, rollout, the new "roll out then rollup" (called "holdopen") are stored in the fixed profile XML file. By default these settings are not specified. You can add these settings to the file by editing it to provide non-default values for each of these behaviors.

1. To make the changes first back up the "FixedProfile.aws" file in your support/Profiles directory and then edit it using any text editor. I use Windows Notepad. Remember there is a distinctive fixed profile based on user login name of your Windows operating system.
   
2. When you open the file it will be hard to read because it is not well formatted, but the changes to make are near the top of the file.
   
3. Search for the word "<AcApData>" (should be right at the top).
   
4. Immediately after this string paste in the following:
   <PaletteRolloutInfo PaletteRolloutDelay="100"/>
   <PaletteRollupInfo  PaletteRollupDelay="800" PaletteHoldopenDelay="4000"/>
   Carriage returns and additional white space in this file is ok.
   

Note: Each of the values is specified in milliseconds. In the sample above the values provided are the same as the defaults (1/10th second rollout delay. So the above string is 8/10th second rollup delay, 4 second holdopen delay). So to change the holdopen delay to 5 seconds use:
<PaletteRollupInfo  PaletteRollupDelay="800" PaletteHoldopenDelay="5000"/>

You will need to restart AutoCAD for these changes to take effect. These changes are global and affect all palettes.

Thanks to Bill for the great question and to Matt for the valuable response!

Maximizing your AutoCAD workspace 105

I wanted to share some feedback and a tip regarding my previous post about turning off the Command window. Maybe this will give some of you the necessary encouragement to relinquish your dependence on the Command window :-)

Refering to the ability to hide the Command window, Steve Goodmansen wrote: “Every user I've asked to give it a try has loved it and never gone back to having a command line.” He pointed out that “your Command Line is only an F2 away".

Just in case you are not familiar with Function key F2, it opens the AutoCAD Text Window, which is like a really big Command line! It displays everything that the command line does *and* you can scroll back to view, copy and paste previous command line input. The AutoCAD Text Window is also a great resource for learning/training because you (or the instructor) can scroll back through previous operations to see where you went wrong!

By the way, Steve also pointed out that the AutoCAD Text Window “is especially helpful when the user has 2 monitors”. You can display the AutoCAD drawing window on one monitor and the text window on the other. Talk about maximizing your workspace!!!

Maximizing your AutoCAD workspace 104

In my previous post, I described how you can gain drawing space by turning off the scrollbars. This works great for reclaiming the vertical ribbon of space that was used by the vertical scroll bar. However, the horizontal scrollbar at the bottom of the display is simply replaced by more space for layout tabs. This additional space for layout tabs can be helpful if the drawing contains many layout tabs and you switch between them frequently. However, if your drawing only has a few layout tabs, much of that space is wasted.

Beginning in AutoCAD 2007, you can choose to display the Layout and Model tabs as buttons on the Status Bar rather than tabs. Simply right-click over any Layout or Model tab and choose Hide Layout and Model tabs.

The horizontal ribbon that was previously used by the Layout and Model tabs is reallocated as drawing space and new Layout and Model buttons are automatically added to the status bar! Even if your drawing contains many layouts, you might find them easier to access using the status bar buttons because a flyout menu enables you to view and select layouts without having to scroll across a long ribbon of layout tabs!

You can easily change your display back from status bar buttons to tabs by right-clicking over the Layout or Model buttons and selecting Display Layout and Model Tabs.

Maximizing your AutoCAD workspace 103

When you are working in AutoCAD, any space that you can reclaim from the user interface to use as drawing space can be helpful. An easy way to gain an extra strip of drawing space is to turn off the scroll bars.

Depending which version of AutoCAD you are using, the scroll bars may be turned off by default. If not, you can turn them off using the Display tab of the Options dialog box.

When the scrollbars are turned off, you’ll gain an extra ribbon of vertical space along the right side and you’ll have more space along the bottom for viewing layout tabs. Did I say layout tabs? I’ll show you how to reclaim *that* space in the next posting!

By the way, if you are actually using the scroll bars, PLEASE do yourself a favor and get a wheel mouse! It is inexpensive and it will pay for itself many times over with the amount of time you will save zooming and panning your drawings.

Maximizing your AutoCAD workspace 102!

In a previous post, I described how you can maximize your drawing are by anchoring and auto-hiding your palette windows (Tool palettes, Properties, Sheet Set Manager, External References, etc). In that post, I briefly mentioned that these anchored and hidden palettes can also include the command window.

For most AutoCAD users, hiding the Command window is a crazy and scary thought! I know it was for me! For years I had been trained (and trained many others) to “look at the command line!” However, after Dynamic Input was introduced in AutoCAD 2006, it was no longer necessary to look at the command line. At first, the dynamic input functionality may seem annoying, especially to you veteran users because you aren’t used to see all that “stuff” at the cursor. You might have turned off dynamic input and forgot it existed. No worries! Dynamic input is easy to renable AND using it can save a significant amount of screen space!

Whether you use Dynamic Input or not, command information is always displayed at the Command line. If the DYN (Dynamic Input) toggle (on the status bar) is enabled, command information is also displayed at the cursor.

By default, you can respond to the dynamic input prompt in the same way you would respond to the command window. For example, when drawing a line, you can enter the coordinate values as x,y. However, using DYN, you have even more flexibility. You can press the Tab key to cycle between values. For example you can cycle to the y-coordinate, enabling you to enter and automatically lock in that value before entering or picking a value for x.

Dynamic Input offers a variety of controls that enable you to customize its behavior and appearance. If you right-click over the DYN toggle on the status bar, you can choose Settings to access the Dynamic Input tab of the Drafting Settings dialog box. On this tab, you can specify if you want DYN behavior to include Pointer Input, Dimension Input, and/or Prompts. In addition you can specify the appearance of the drafting tooltip.

Pointer Input refers to the values that you enter or pick in response to a command prompt. You can control their format and visibility using the Pointer Input Settings dialog box.

Dimension Input displays the distance and angle values when a command prompts for a second point or when you grip-edit an existing object. When both Pointer Input and Dimension Input are enabled, Dimension Input supersedes Pointer Input. The first image shows the tooltip for entering the second point of a line when only Pointer Input is enabled. The second image shows the tooltips when both Pointer Input and Dimension Input are enabled.

You can control the visibility of Dimension Input for grip editing using the Dimension Input Settings dialog box.

The default option displays only two dimension input fields at a time (distance and angle or two distance values). However you can specify additional dimension input fields.

On the Dynamic Input tab, the Dynamic Prompts option enables you to launch a command by typing at the cursor and to display the command prompts at the cursor. For example, when this option is enabled, if you type “L” or “LINE” to launch the Line command, you will see that text at the cursor as you type… just like you see it at the command line. After you press Enter to launch the command, AutoCAD displays the command prompt at the cursor in addition to the Pointer Input values.

Note that, while it is possible to select Dynamic Promts without enabling Pointer or Dimension Input, the results may not be as you expect. For the best behavior and most efficient functionality, I suggest enabling all three options: Pointer Input, Dimension Input, and Dynamic Prompts.

Tooltip Appearance enables you to control the color, size and transparency of the tool tips that appear at the cursor when DYN is enabled.

So, after all of this talk about Dynamic Input, what does it have to do with maximizing your workspace? If you can enter commands, read prompts and enter values at the cursor using dynamic input, why do you need to the command line? If you don’t need to look at the command line, why is it taking up so much room on your display? Just to be clear, I don’t suggest that you completely disable the command line. There are some instances where the dynamic input tooltip doesn’t display as much information as you might need. I like to have my command window rolled up (autohide) and anchored along the side with my other palettes (see Maximizing your Workspace 101). This way it is easily accessible on those rare occasions that I need it. However, I can work 99% of the time using only dynamic input. And look how much of my drawing space I have reclaimed

After years of learning to “look at the command line” it can take a few weeks to retrain yourself NOT to look for the command line. It might feel awkward at first but if you give it a chance, you’ll save drawing space AND you’ll work more efficiently because your eyes (and attention) will remain focused near the cursor!

Maximizing your AutoCAD workspace 101!

Have you ever complained about having too much drawing area? I didn’t think so! There are two things that control the amount of space in which you have to draw. One is hardware and the other is software. I can’t give you a bigger monitor (I can’t even get one for myself!) but I can show you how to create a larger drawing space using your AutoCAD software! During this series, I’ll show you how to configure your AutoCAD drawing environment for maximum drawing area while maintaining easy access to your drawing and editing tools!

My FAVORITE UI (user interface) enhancement in AutoCAD 2007 is palette anchoring. When I say “palette”, I don’t just mean the Tool Palettes window. I mean everything that looks and acts like a palette. Sometimes these palettes are referred to (by software developers and ultra-techies) as Enhanced Secondary Windows (ESW). These palettes (ESWs) are different from other UI elements such as dialog boxes because they can exist outside of the main AutoCAD Window and they can remain open while you perform other tasks in AutoCAD.

You might have noticed, over the past few releases, that many of the newer AutoCAD tools have been introduced as ESWs (Tool Palettes, Sheet Set Manager, Dashboard) and some older AutoCAD tools have been converted to ESWs (External References Manager, Command Line). For example, in AutoCAD 2007 you can move the External References manager outside the AutoCAD window and you can leave it open while you continue to launch other AutoCAD commands.

In AutoCAD 2006, the External References manager is not an ESW. It can’t be moved outside the AutoCAD window and you must close it before you can continue using other commands.

So what does all of this have to do with maximizing your workspace? ESWs have special display controls that enable them to be easily accessible without consuming large areas of the drawing window. You can move, resize, open and close them, and you can dock them at the side of the AutoCAD window. You can also enable Auto-hide so they roll-up out of the way and then unroll when you pass your cursor over them.

All of this functionality is available for ESWs in AutoCAD 2006. You can open your favorite palettes, resize and move them, and then enable Auto-hide. However, in AutoCAD 2006, when you pass your cursor over the palette titlebar to unroll it, the palette maintains its current height. So, if you have three palettes stacked on the side, each one will be “short” requiring you to scroll up and down to access content.

AutoCAD 2007 offers a solution to this limitation by enableing you to "anchor" a palette to the left- or right side of the screen.

                     
Then, if you enable Auto-hide, regardless of how many palettes you anchor and how “short” they are, the palette will unroll to the full height of the AutoCAD window.

You can even right-click on the titlebar and specify “Icons only” so that only the palette icon is displayed.

Using this functionality, you can have every AutoCAD palette (including the Command window) at your fingertips in the space of a single toolbar! You can literally do all your AutoCAD work in an environment like this!

So, exactly what AutoCAD functionality is available as a “palette”? In AutoCAD 2007, look under the Tools Menu. The “Command Line” as well as everything under the Palettes submenu are ESWs. In addition to these palettes, Sun Properties and Drawing Recovery are also ESWs.