5 Useful new features in AutoCAD 2011

AutoCAD 2011 has now been released and so we’ll shortly be issuing a new AutoChart install that is compatible with the new 2011 platform. In the mean time, here is a brief overview of 5 new features of AutoCAD 2011 that could prove to be useful when dealing with Charts and charting data:

1. Transparency

Potentially one of the most useful features is that entities can now have a transparency property, allowing objects behind a transparent entity to show through. The transparency value can be set as a percentage and can be applied to a Layer, Block or individual entity.

This functionality could mean for example that seabed feature sediment hatching can overlay an image but such that the underlying data can still be seen:

2. Selection Cycling
If you’ve ever run into the problem of trying to select a particular object that is coincident with other object then the Selection Cycling functionality should help by presenting a dialog of the coincident objects from which the required one can be selected:

3. Xref Selection Highlighting in the Xref Palette

When you now select an xref with the cursor, it is highlighted within the Xref Palette (xref manager). This allows you to easily identify the name and location of the source xref simply by selecting an object.

4.  Polyline Vertex Grip Editing

Editing of polylines has become easier as you can use the polyline grips to add, remove or move (stretch) a vertex. Additionally you can convert a chord in the polyline to an arc. This functionality is accessed simply by selecting a polyline and hovering the cursor over the grip to be edited.

5. Hatch Enhancements

The Hatch command now asks you to first select an entity or objects to hatch rather than presenting the Hatch properties dialog (it retains the properties of the last hatch) and allows automatic previewing of the hatch by hovering the cursor within a closed area. The Hatch properties dialog can be accessed from the command line before specifying the object/area to hatch if required. A background colour can now be added to a patterned hatch. A HATCHTOBACK command has been added which changes the DrawOrder of all hatch objects within the current drawing so that they are at the back.

The above examples are just an overview of the AutoCAD 2011 features that I could find useful myself. There are numerous other enhancements and changes that have been introduced and there are a number of sources of information on the web that provide more details. See the links below for a few other blogs and websites that discuss some of the changes within AutoCAD 2011.

http://resources.autodesk.com/autocad

http://www.jtbworld.com/autocad2011.htm

http://cadpanacea.com/node/202

http://lynn.blogs.com/lynn_allens_blog/2010/04/autocad-2011-tips-and-tricks-booklet.html

http://autodesk.blogs.com/between_the_lines/2010/03/autocad-2011-system-requirements.html

Creating Descending KP Charts

There can sometimes seem to be some confusion amongst some of our users when it comes to making Charts in that have the route KPs running from right to left on the chart. Maybe the process isn't as clear as it could be until you are aware of the options available in AutoChart, so hopefully this article will go some way to clearing up any confusion.

If your route runs in a predominantly East-West direction, you run into the situation that with the KPs running from Left to Right on the Chart, the Plan view box ends up having North pointing towards the bottom of the page. If you want the Plan view box to have North pointing upwards (generally the preferred option) then you need to make the KPs run from Right to Left on the chart. In AutoChart this is achieved by creating 'Descending KP' Charts.

Part 2 - A few useful AutoCAD Drawing variables

In my last article, I discussed a number of variables that take effect over the AutoCAD application itself, this time I’m going to cover a few of the common Drawing specific variables – i.e. those settings that apply to the individual dwg files rather than globally. I’ve covered a couple of the important ones previously, so also be sure to check out the previous posts on INSUNITS and VISRETAIN.

There are numerous variables available to control all manner of settings within the AutoCAD drawing environment, those shown below are just a few examples that may be encountered during a typical charting project. Further details can be found in the AutoCAD Help documentation.

FRAME – The Frame variable turns the display of frames on and off for all external references, images, and DWF, DWFx, PDF and DGN underlays. When you insert an Image, an underlay or perform an XCLIP around an external reference, the border around that object can optionally be displayed. The Frame setting overrides the individual IMAGEFRAME, DWFFRAME, PDFFRAME, DGNFRAME and XCLIPFRAME settings and can have the following values:

0 - The frame is not visible and it is not plotted

1 - Displays the frame and allows it to be plotted

2 - Displays the frame but keeps it from being plotted

3 - The individual setting varies for all underlays in the current drawing

(i.e. external references, images, and DWF, DWFx, PDF underlays all have different frame settings).

Note this value is used internally by AutoCAD, so the FRAME variable cannot be set to 3 by the User.

IMAGEFRAME, XCLIPFRAME, DWFFRAME, PDFFRAME and DGNFRAME can be set individually to a value of 0, 1 or 2 following the same conventions as per the FRAME variable above.

LWDISPLAY – Controls whether the lineweights of objects are displayed and can be set to either ON or OFF. Note that the setting is controlled separately for model space and all paper space layouts.

LAYEREVAL – Specifies whether the layer list is evaluated for new layers when added to the drawing or to the attached xrefs. Setting LAYEREVAL to 0 turns it off, 1 detects when new xref layers have been added in the drawing and 2 detects when new layers have been added in the drawing and xrefs.

LAYERNOTIFY – Specifies when an alert displays when unreconciled new layers are found and can be set to a bitcode value consisting of the following:

0   - Off
1   - Plot
2   - Open
4   - Load/Reload/Attach for xrefs
8   - Restore layer state
16 - Save
32 - Insert

Note: LAYEREVALCTL overrides the LAYEREVAL and LAYERNOTIFY setvars. When LAYEREVALCTL = 0 it acts like a global off (but not a global on). There is no effect even if LAYEREVALCTL is turned on if LAYERNOTIFY = 0 or LAYEREVAL = 0. LAYEREVALCTL must be set to 1 for LAYERNOTIFY and LAYEREVAL to function correctly.

As explained in the previous article,you can display a Dialog box showing the numerous AutoCAD variables available and their current settings using the System Variable Editor Express Tool.