AutoCAD: How to Modify the XCLIP Frame Without Redrawing it

You can easily edit which part of an XREF is clipped without redrawing a new polyline.
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A few months back a wrote a post about the XCLIPFRAME system variable. What I didn't know back then is that the frame shown with this system variable could actually be edited.

For those who don´t know what an XCLIP is: with the XCLIP command, we can clip (hide) part of a Block or XREF. This will allow us to keep the Block or the XREF unexploded while showing only the part of it that we want in our drawing. As I already mentioned before, I hate people who explode blocks as a hobby, but I understand they do so because they don´t know they have these options.

So back to editing the XCLIP Frame, if we set the XCLIPFRAME system variable to 1, we will be able to see the frame that is used to hide part of the Block or XREF. This frame can be modified by selecting it and moving its grips. In many cases, when we have created a very complex XCLIP Frame, this becomes extremely useful so we don't have to redraw the polyline we used to clip de Block or XREF while still allowing us to hide or show a different part of the object. I made a quick video showing the power of the XCLIPFRAME system variable. Check it out below.



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Photoshop: Isolate a Layer

How do you Isolate a layer in photoshop?
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This is probably my shortest post, but I've been using Photoshop a lot lately and this is a very useful trick. When you want to isolate one layer, just press Alt and click on the little eye near the layer you want to isolate. Instead of hiding that layer, it will hide all the others. To turn all the layers back on do the same. One thing though, if you manually switch on one layer while having the layer isolated, then you will have to switch all the others on manually.

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CAD-Addict's first anniversary!!

It is CAD-Addict´s first anniversary. Tell me what would you like to see here before the second one.
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It's been one year since I started taking this website seriously. I started it back in 2007 but not till last June I started to Blog regularly. One year is not a long time but I am happy to have helped some people find their way to work smarter, and I have to say the will to write here has forced me to find solutions that previously I might have just avoided to search for. I encourage all of you to find some time to blog about those tools you use more often, we will all benefit from the shared knowledge and you will realize that you will learn more when you have to explain to others what you just found out.

The English version of CAD-Addict had over 34000 visits in the past 12 months(over 28000 visitors) and over 75000 pageviews. I have to confess that it is much more than I expected when I started. This added to the overall more than 45000 visits if we add the other languages, make me want to blog more and more to reach more and more people. Besides that 130 people are currently subscribed to this blog's feed which is not a bad number.

To help me improve the website on the following months please don't hesitate to write a comment on this post telling me what would you like to improve on the website, or simply use the Poll on the upper right corner to quickly choose from 4 topics what would you like to change.
Again, thanks so much for reading me and feel free to contact me here if you need anything.

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SketchUp Plugin: Shape Bender

An extremly useful Plugin to Bend an object to follow the profile of a curve
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Not so long ago, I wrote a post about the Rhino command FlowAlonSrf (Flow Along Surface) that allows us to bend objects to match a curved surface. At that time I thought it was something I would not be able to do with SketchUp, but again the Ruby scripting community has surprised me positively.
There us a SketchUp Plugin written by Chris Fullmer that does something very similar. It is a bit less complete compared to Rhino's "Flow Along Surface", since in this case it bends objects using a curved line, but still it is a very good tool to have on your set of SketchUp tricks. See how using this tool I bended the following text to match a curved line.


I am going to post a video soon but on the mean time see the original post by Chris that already has a quick video on how to use it. You can use that post too to download the plugin.

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AutoCAD: Select Using an Irregular Shaped Polygon

It is sometimes easier to select objects if we use an irregular polygon instead of the standard rectangular selection. And it is very easy to do.
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When yo have a drawing with a lot of objects sometimes selection multiple objects becomes tedious because using the rectangular selection window might select a lot of objects that we do no want to select.
The solution is to select using an irregular shaped polygon. This option, generally unknown is very easy to access. When AutoCAD prompts us to select objects, we enter CP and click enter. This will trigger the "Cross Polygon" mode, which means that instead of a rectangular selection window, we will use an irregular polygonal one. See this quick video to see this option in action.


It is one of those options that it is unbelievable how many of us didn't know about it. Remember Socrates, "all I know is that I know nothing".

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AutoCAD: How to Make a Block Unique

How do you turn one instance of a block into a unique block in a single an easy step? There is an easy way.
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If you are a SketchUp and AutoCAD user like me, probably you miss the "make unique" option from SketchUp when you are using AutoCAD. For those who do not use SU, Make Unique will turn an instance of a Component (Blocks in SketchUp are called Components) into a Unique one, allowing us to modify it without affecting the other instances of that Component.
I always miss this is a feature in AutoCAD, but lately I came to realize that there is a way to do the same (only for 2D blocks though). The trick is to use the FLATTEN command. If we select "Sample Block 01" and run the FLATTEN command, the result will be a flattened version of the same block called "Sample Block 01-flat1". Because the new block has a different name we can modify it without affecting the other instances of that block. So the result achieved would be the same we get in SketchUp using "Make Unique".
This, of course, only works in 2D, since the command FLATTEN flattens linework, it would turn a 3D block into a 2D one.

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SketchUp Plugins: 1001bit Tools

A Plugin with a full set of tools for Architecture to build your buildings way faster and easier
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The commercial Plugin 1001bit Tools is an awesome set of Tools to streamline your modelling of buildings. It includes tools to do almost anything you would expect to need when modelling a building. We just purchased it at work and I couldn't wait to share it here. The tools sells for only 29 dollars, which I think is a pretty good deal for the amount of features that you get with it. See this video to check some of the features of this awesome plugin.


You can download a trial version for 30 days or purchase a license for 29 dollars.

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AutoCAD: Convert a 3D Model into a 2D drawing with hidden line

Easily convert 3D models into 2D Objects. Choose if you want to show the hidden lines and how.
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If you have a 3D model and need to extract 2D drawings from it, you should be aware of the existence of the FLATSHOT command. This command converts a 3D view of a 3D object into a 2D drawing.
Set the view you want to flatten and run the FLATSHOT command. The result will be a 2D block that will be placed on the XY plane. See this quick example. We have this 3D Object, on this view. ANd we want to get a 2D drawing showing the hidden lines in a grey dotted style.


We need to run the FLATSHOT command, and on the dialog box configure the hidden line settings to match how we want to show them. You can later on edit the block, but if you want the hidden lines to show differently be sure to give them a diferent style.


Once you have run the command, a flattened version of your view will appear on the XY plane (be sure the UCS is set to world, if you have any other UCS active, it will be used to place the flattened view)


If you set the view to top again, you will get the drawing to look as you expected.




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AutoCAD: Scale Objects in one dimension only.

There is a way to scale objects only on one axis.
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I used to work with Microstation long time ago and that program has the scale in one dimension as a standard option of the scale command. Unfortunately AutoCAD doesn´t. If you need to scale objects on one dimension there is a way in AutoCAD to do it though.
You need to select the objects you want to scale and create a block out of them. Be sure to create the block with the "scale uniformly" option unchecked. Then, this block can be scaled in one direction by modifying the X or Y scale. Once you have the geometry scaled as you wanted you can explode the block.
Of course it is not as precise as using the scale command, but so far it seems to be the only way to do this.

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Table of Contents

The CAD Addict Blog Directory
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On this page you can see the whole list of posts published in CAD-Addict.com. To show the full table of contents, please click on the link below (this may take a few moments to load). The table of contents is organized alphabetically by post title, you can rearrange it by post date clicking on the DATE header. You can browse the blog also using the labels near each post, label cloud on the right sidebar or using the search box.

Show table of contents

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AutoCAD Weekly Block #06: Dynamic Graphic Scale

Download this Block and learn a bit about Visibility states in Dynamic Blocks
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This week's Block is a Graphic Scale created as a dynamic block that will be fit for the following scales: 1:50, 1:100, 1:200, 1:500 and 1:1000. The block is meant to be used on paper space. Download the block or see the image below.


The Block is created using a visibility state for each scale, so only the text that fits that scale will show. On the previous image you can see how if you click on the triangular grip of the bock, the different visibility states are shown.
The process of creation is simple. Once you have the linework and text for one of the scales, create the different visibility states for each of the scales. Copy the text and change it values to the one that fits the next scale and hide hat text on the scale you don't want it to be shown. Repeat the process for each scale you want to create. For more details on how to create and modify visibility states check this older post. To summarize what it is important check the buttons related to visibility states in the Block Editor and what they are for. They are situated on the upper right corner of the block editor interface. They are the following.

1. Toggles objects on other visibility states on and off.
2. Makes an object visible in the current visibility state
3. Hides an object form the current visibility state
4. Calls the visibility states dialog box (where we will create different visibility states)

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Rhino: What to Do if Make2D Runs out of Memory?

If you are trying to turn your Rhino model into a 2D drawing but your computer crashes, you might want to try this work around.
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I was recently trying to extract 2D linework from a very large 3D model in Rhino to be used in AutoCAD drawings, but no matter what I tried, either the result was not the expected or the computer crashed in the process.
What I tried first was the Make2D command, but the computer "ran out of memory" so Rhino crashed. (see that I was doing this on a 8core, 3Gb of RAM computer, so its not an old and slow machine).
Then second option I tried was to Export to AutoCAD and then try to use the FLATSHOT command, but for some reason, the geometry exported to AutoCAD was not suitable for this command. I tried to Export from Rhino to 3Ds to import it in AutoCAD, but again Rhino would crash.
So I found myself without options involving a direct transfer. The only solution I found was to Print the view on hidden line in Rhino to a PDF with big quality, and then convert that PDF to a DXF using a PDF to CAD converter. The one I used is this one, the free trial allowed me to do what I wanted, and the results are better than using the Make2D command from Rhino.

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