AutoCAD & AutoCAD LT All-In-One Desk Reference For Dummies (2006)

402 Managing External References Outside of AutoCAD

2.In the Insert Object dialog box, select the Create from File option.

Create from File allows you to link to an existing file, whereas if you use Create New, you can’t link to the newly created file.

3.Select the Link check box.

This way, you keep a live link between the drawing and the selected file.

4.Click Browse and then select the word processor document or the file that you want to link to in your drawing. After you select the file, click Open to return to the Insert Object dialog box.

This way, you keep a live link between the drawing and the selected file.

5.Click OK and the document is placed into the drawing.

The document is placed in the upper-left corner of the drawing window.

Once an OLE object is placed in the drawing, you can modify it using many of the standard AutoCAD commands. If you want to edit the document, you can either double-click the object or select the object, right-click, and then choose an option from the OLE submenu. OLE objects cannot be rotated and are plotted best when using a system printer over a plotter.

Managing External References Outside of AutoCAD

AutoCAD comes with a utility called the Reference Manager. From the name, you can tell it must do something with external references. The Reference Manager allows you to modify the paths of external references that are attached to drawing files that you might create or receive from a contractor. This can make updating the locations of external references much easier than having to open each file one at a time and then update the external references location. The Reference Manager enables you to update the locations of xrefs, DWF underlays, raster images, plotter configurations, plot styles, shapes, and font files.

The Reference Manager is available only with AutoCAD and not with AutoCAD LT.

Follow these steps to access and edit dependency files of a drawing through the Reference Manager:

1.Click Start (Windows button) [All] Programs Autodesk AutoCAD

2007 and Reference Manager.

The Reference Manager dialog box appears (see Figure 3-10).

404 Managing External References Outside of AutoCAD

7.In the Edit Selected Paths dialog box, click the ellipsis button to browse for the folder in which the file is located. Select the folder and click OK to return to the Edit Selected Paths dialog box.

The selected folder appears in the New Saved Path text box.

8.In the Edit Selected Path dialog box, click OK.

The item you double-clicked should now have the status of Resolved with a blue check mark in front of it with a pencil. The pencil shows which dependencies you have edited during the current session of the Reference Manager.

9.Keep editing any dependencies that need to be updated. When you are done updating the dependencies, click Apply Changes.

A Summary message box is displayed and provides some information about the number of host and reference drawings that have been updated and the number of files that couldn’t be updated. Click OK to close the Summary message box or click Details to try and figure out why a file couldn’t be updated.

10.Choose File Exit.

The Reference Manager dialog box closes. If you didn’t apply the changes, AutoCAD prompts you to do so. Click Yes to save the changes, No to discard the changes, or Cancel to stay in the Reference Manager dialog box.

406 Using the Windows Clipboard

An example of creating a uniquely named block to be used for an A-sized title block by company ABC might be TitleBlock-A-ABC. Now this is only a recommendation that we have observed through the years of exchanging drawings with other companies. There is nothing wrong with calling your title block TB or TitleBlock. No matter how you decide to name objects such as layers, text styles, and layouts to name a few, it is a good idea to develop a naming convention and make sure everyone in your company follows it. Doing so makes managing CAD drawings much easier.

Using the Windows Clipboard

AutoCAD is a Windows-based program, and like most Windows-based programs, AutoCAD is capable of using the Windows Clipboard to exchange information between two programs. The two programs may be two instances of AutoCAD, or AutoCAD and another Windows-based program, or even two different drawing windows. You can copy or cut objects from a drawing and place them on the Windows Clipboard. From there, you can paste them into AutoCAD or another application. You can also copy information from other Windows-based programs and paste that information into an open drawing.

Copying objects from a drawing

You can copy objects to the Windows Clipboard in a couple of ways. You are able to do a basic copy of select objects in the drawing window through the use of the COPYCLIP command, the standard keyboard shortcut of CTRL+C, or by clicking the Copy button from the Standard toolbar. When you use COPYCLIP on objects in the drawing, AutoCAD copies the objects to the Windows Clipboard and calculates an insertion point to use when pasting the copied objects from the Clipboard. The insertion point is based on

the lower-left corner of the extents of the selected objects, also known as the bounding box of the selected objects.

If you want control over choosing the insertion point of the copied objects, you can use the command COPYBASE or the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Shift+C. If you are not concerned with accurate placement, you can copy objects within the same drawing or between two drawings by dragging them onscreen. If you select the objects without any command running and start dragging the objects, they are moved if you released the mouse button, but if you hold the Ctrl key while dragging the objects, a plus sign appears near the crosshairs, allowing you to copy the objects instead of moving them.

Cutting objects from a drawing

Copying objects in your drawing or between files using the Windows Clipboard is nice, but at times you might just want to cut (or move) objects. To cut objects from one drawing and place them onto the Windows Clipboard, use

The AutoCAD DesignCenter is an interface that allows you to perform data mining. Data mining is a popular buzz phrase in the marketing world, but you

408 AutoCAD DesignCenter

can do it with AutoCAD drawings, as well. Data mining allows you to locate information that is of importance to you and reuse it. In marketing, data mining might determine whether a product will sell; in AutoCAD, you are mining your data for reusable content in the form of drawings, images (AutoCAD only), layers, blocks, and other named objects.

DesignCenter (see Figure 4-1) was originally introduced in AutoCAD 2000. It allows you to access content that is stored in drawing, hatch pattern, linetype pattern, and image (AutoCAD only) files, and reuse the content in any drawing that you have open. The command ADCENTER is used to display the DesignCenter.

Tree View Toggle

Search

To start the ADCENTER command and display the DesignCenter palette, use one of these methods:

Tools menu. Choose Tools Palettes DesignCenter.

Standard toolbar. Click the DesignCenter button on the Standard toolbar.

Keyboard input. Type ADCENTER and press Enter.

Command alias. Type ADC and press Enter.

Shortcut Key. Press the key combination CTRL+2.

410 AutoCAD DesignCenter

To search for a block, follow these steps:

1.Use any of the previously mentioned methods to initiate the ADCENTER command.

The DesignCenter palette appears.

2.In the DesignCenter palette, click Search.

The Search dialog box appears.

3.In the Search dialog box, select Blocks from the Look For drop-down list.

Normally, you would select the type of content that you want to search for from the Look For drop-down list. This controls many of the options in the Search dialog box.

4.Either select a folder from the In drop-down list to scan for content, or click Browse and browse to the location where you want to start scanning for content.

If you click Browse, the Browse for Folder dialog box appears. Browse to the folder you want to select in the Browse for Folder dialog box, select the folder, and then click OK. You can also uncheck the Search Subfolders option to limit the scanning for the content in the folder that you select.

5.In the Search for the Name text box, enter the block name for which you want search.

You can use wild characters to help broaden the search if you don’t quite remember the name of the block. You can use a pound (#) symbol to replace a single character or an asterisk (*) to replace a range of characters.

6.Click Search Now.

The search results appear at the bottom of the dialog box.

7.Click Stop to end the search early if it has found what you wanted, or wait until the search has completed.

8.Right-click the content you want to place in the drawing or load into the Content Area of DesignCenter.

Based on the content for which you were searching, the options vary on the right-click menu.

9.Click the Close button (“X”) on the DesignCenter to close it, or leave it displayed so you can access it later if necessary.