Key-Ins I Have Loved

Memories...all alone in the moonlight...I can smile at the pavement...I was beautiful then....



Whats better than Cats? Why, Autocad Key-ins of course!

In No particular order here are some good 'uns:

FILEDIA
After a crash or other wierd unexpected closing of Autocad (that means Civil 3D too!) your dialog boxes will not pop up when you expect them to. When you type this in set the value back to 1.

W or WBLOCK
Write an external block. I'm not sure when this functionality left the realm of being icon-worthy, but if you want to send your blocks outside of ACAD to be thier own DWG files this is how you do it.

LTSCALE
Linetype scale. Ever draw a line that's supposed to be dashed, but you can't see the dashes 'till you zoom in really really close? Change the linetype scale to fit the scale of your drawing. A little trial and error to get things to look right is not gunna hurt a thing. Any non-negative number will work. If you are using Civil 3D to draw an antfarm, you might need an LTSCALE of, say, 0.5. In regular feet units most engineers work with an LTSCALE around 4.

PSLTSCALE
Paperspace Linetype Scale. This variable asks the question, "Do you want your linetype scale to change based on the viewport scale?" If it set to 0 (zero) you are saying 'no.' If it is set to 1 you are saying "yes." To say it another way, setting it to zero forces the line to look the same in paperspace as it does in modelspace. You'll need to set this variable for each layout.

MBUTTONPAN
Middle mouse button pan. If you are not using a mouse with a middle mouse wheel you should stop reading this blog IMMEDIATLY. Go now! Get a better mouse. I'll wait.
If you already have a middle mouse wheel...then this is the variable that turns on or off the middle mouse wheel as a zooming and panning tool. You want this variable to be 1 or 'on.' Note: You may need to do some additional tweaking of mouse settings in the Windows control panel for everything to work properly.

MVSETUP
Multi-view setup. This is a GREAT tool for lining up multiple paperspace viewports (a P&P sheet for instance...?).

MOROCO
Is not a country in Africa, but a powerful tool for MOving, ROtating and COpying objects. Technically it is an express tool, but express tools need love too.

DVIEW
Ok bear with me here. Type this in, then hit enter to accept the default of DVIEWBLOCK. Then type TW and to twist a viewport to the desired rotation. The good thing about this is that it will not move your UCS. Moving UCS = BAD.

OST
Open Survey toolspace. Very handy if you can't find the survey menu. This guy is Civil 3D specific.

OPTIONS
Don't bother digging for it. Just type.