AutoCAD: Delete a Layer that Contains Objects

Do you need to delete a layer but the purge command doesn't do it? No worries, there is an express tool for that.
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One more day of problem solving at work. Ryan asked me today if I knew how to delete a layer that the purge command doesn't delete. The solution is to use one of the Layer Express Tools. And of course I thought: let's write about it here during my lunch break! It is raining anyways.

LAYDEL is an Express Tools Command that allows us to delete a layer even if it contains objects. This is useful to delete layers we want to purge but because they might be included in some block definition we are not using anymore, the purge command can't delete them. Be careful though, since it will delete the layer and its contents. TO use it simply make sure that the layer you want to delete is not current, type LAYDEL and select an object on that layer (alternatively you can access this function through Format --> Layer Tools --> Layer Delete).

There is an alternative method to delete a layer but keep its objects. The LAYMRG Express Tool Command merges one layer into another and deletes the first one. It is very useful when trying to simplify the layer structure of a drawing but we want to keep all its graphical information. To use it, type LAYMRG (alternatively you can access this function through Format --> Layer Tools --> Layer Merge)select the layer to delete and merge, press ENTER, then select the target layer where you want the information to be merged to.

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SketchUp: Load new Plugins without Restarting the Program

Do you want to load a new Plugin without restarting SketchUp? Alex Schreyer has a Plugin for that.
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Sometimes we want to try new Plugins we just downloaded without the "hassle" of closing SketchUp and opening it againg. Alex Schreyer, has written a Ruby Script that allows us to do that.
PLUGIN LOADER (as_pluginloader.rb) adds a submenu to the plugin menu that allows us to reload the entire Plugins folder or to pick one by one which Plugins we want to load.



You can download the plugin using the above link or go to Alex Schreyer Website were he keeps updating it with the latest release.

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AutoCAD: Offset Ellipses and keep them as Ellipses

Tired of getting SPLINES when you offset you ellipses? Maybe you want to try this quick video tutorial.
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One of the biggest issues of working with ellipses is the fact that if we offset them using the OFFSET command, they become Splines. Splines are entities that are hard to work with, especially when we need to trim parts and later we want to extend them again. Tired of toggling the PELLISPE system variable many times, i wanted to see if there was a way to offset an ellipse but keep it as an ellipse. I did found the way to do it. It is a bit slower than using the OFFSET command, but if you think you might need to edit the resulting ellipse maybe you want to give it a try. See the video below.



The steps are simple:

1. Draw two lines from the quadrants of the ellipse. Their length should be the distance you want to offset the ellipse. (To be able to Snap on the qadrants, turn them or access the quadrant osnap with through the OSNAP contextual menu)
2. Select the ellipse, move one of the grips next to one of the lines to the other end point of that line while holding the CTRL key.
3. Move the grip next to the other line you previously draw to the other endpoint of the line

That´s it, your resulting parallel ellipse is still an ellipse and not a SPLINE.


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SketchUp Plugins: Color Terrain to Show Terrain Slope or Height

Need to see which are the high points of your terrain or which areas are too steep to build on? Use thses next two plugins to quickly see that.
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Chris Fullmer published some time ago a couple of plugins to Color Models according to the Height or the Angle of the faces. This turns to be very useful in many situations. I came across these Plugins because we were planning a new development and needed to easily visualize in plan which where the high points and were we had too steep areas.

COLOR BY Z (clf_color_by_z): Colors faces according to their height (z value). you can pick which color you want to be the one for the highest point, and which one you want for the lowest point. It will create a gradient from one color to the other. See the images below.





COLOR BY SLOPE (clf_color_by_slope): Does the same trick, but coloring the faces according to its angle (slope).



See these next two Plan shots to understand how this could be useful to you to identify potentially bad areas to build or to simply glimpse the height changes of your terrain in plan.




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Autodesk Announces Support for MAC Boot Camp Users

One step closer to be able to use AutoCAD on your Mac 100% hassle free.
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Autodesk has a website were it announces support for Boot Camp Mac users. This doesn't mean you will be able to run AutoCAD on your MAC OS, you still need bootcamp, but at least now Autodesk is making sure AutoCAD (and other products such as 3Dmax, Inventor and Revit) run properly on Boot Camp. I can't tell if the rumors of a deal between Autodesk and Apple to have a MAC version of AutoCAD are true (I've read numerous posts about it) but at least this is little step forward.

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SketchUp: How to Install Plugins

What you need to know to install and find Google SketchUp Plugins
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SketchUp Plugins, also referred to as Ruby Scripts, are pieces of Ruby code intended to extend the functionality of SketchUp. How to install SketchUp Plugins ? You simply need to copy them into the Plugins Folder of SketchUp and restart the program (or use the Plugin loader as-pluginloader.rb). By default the plugins folder is located under

C:\Program Files\Google\Google SketchUp 7\Plugins. (Windows)
or
Macintosh HD/Library/Application Support/Google SketchUp 7/SketchUp/ (Mac)

Once you've done this, the plugin will appear in one of the menus. Be sure to check both the Plugins Menu, and the Tools menu. Many developers prefer to put their plugins into the Tools menu instead of Plugins, this is the case for plugins such as Joint Push Pull, Make Faces, and many others. So be sure that you check all the menus because the new feature might be in some other menu that is not the Plugins menu. There are even some plugins that end up on the View menu, like PageExIm.rb and some others.

If you want to be sure of which Menu the plugin should appear in, you can open the .rb script file and check its description. Many developers include in the beginning of the script some comments that explain how to use or where to find the script. If those comments are missing, scroll down to the bottom of the code and you will find a string of code like these ones.





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AutoCAD: Use the autosave files to recover your work

Make sure you activate the autosave option and see where to recover the files from.
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We had an awful day at work today with lots of FATAL ERROR crashes, probably due to some circular references on the XREFs. Some of the files ended up being completely unrecoverable so we had to find the most updated backup files we could find. This made me write an e-mail to everyone explaining how to find and use the backup files that are created with the auto save option in AutoCAD.

Although for "light" crashes, these files can be accessed through the recovery wizard, this was not our case, so it was a question of searching and finding those auto-save files to replace the corrupted ones. I thought I'd share here that information in case someone doesn't know about the auto-save feature and how o locate those files.

1. Go to Tools --> Options
2. Inside Options go to the “Files” Tab (far left)
3. Inside the files tab go to: “Automatic Save File Location” and see where the autosave files are stored. (mine where stored at C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\Local Settings\Temp)
4. Then access that folder and try to find a file with the same file name but different extension. (The autosave files should have a either a .BAK or a .SV$ extension) (if you can’t see the folder, you need to go to Tools --> folder Options --> View --> and Make sure "show hidden files and folders" is SELECTED) .
5. Check the "date modified" of those files, if the date and time makes sense according to when you had the last file crshes, there is a good chance that those files contain the information you need, so there is no need to redraw everything.
6. Change the file extension of the file you think it might be the good one from .bak or .sv$ to .dwg (to be able to change the file extension you need to be able to see it. To do that, on any folder go to Tools --> Folder Options --> View --> and make sure that "Hide extensions for known file types" is UNCHECKED)

If your auto-save feature is disabled, you can enable it in AutoCAD by going to Tools --> Options --> "Open and Save" Tab --> and there make sure that the "Automatic save" on the lower left corner is active and preferably set to every 10 minutes or less. To easily change the time of the autosave feature, use the SAVETIME system variable (this last tip thanks to lazydrafter)

Hope this helps, it saved me 2 hours of work. Using it properly is like having good car insurance. You never know when you'll need it!

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SketchUp Plugins: Turn Lines into Tubes / Cylinders

Turn lines into cylinders with one of these two Plugins.
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There might be several reasons why you want to turn your lines into cylinders/tubes. You might just want to be able to render a bunch of lines in your model. In that case, you need to turn them into cylinders or else they will not appear on renderings. You have two plugins to do this.

LINES TO TUBES (lines2tubes.rb): by Didier. Formerly known as LINE TO CYLINDERS (lin2cyl.rb)Will turn a bunch of lines, arcs, circles, curves, etc into cylinders of a given diameter. It doesn't matter if they are connected, just select the linework, go to Tools --> "Convert circles, arcs, curves, lines to cylinders". Download it here.The advantage is that you can simply select all the linework and convert it to pipes, the disadvantage is that all the corners between different entities will not have Follow Me connections, just pure Push Pull.



TUBE ALONG PATH (TubeAlongPath.rb): by TIG. Does the same operation but only for connected paths. It has the advantage of automatically creating follow me operations when reaching corners of the path. The disadvantage is that only connected paths can be created at once. To use it select the lines that create the path, go to Plugins --> Tube Along Path. Download it here.




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SketchUp Plugins: Fill the Section Cut With a Face

Fill the section cut with a face for better display with the sectioncutface plugin
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TIG has published an updated version of his SectionCutFace.rb plugin (version 2.2). THis plugin adds a face to fill the section created with the standard SketchUp tool "Section Plane".

For those newbies who don't know "Section Plane", it is a standard tool (under the Tools menu --> Section Plane) that allows you to automatically cut a section trough your model. See it graphically.


What TIG's plugins adds is the feature to select the section plane, right click it and select Add Section-Cut Face. This (if you have a clean model) will generate the face for the section cut, like in the image below.



The Plugin has a dialog where you can play with several of the options, and that looks like this.



To be able to run the plugin, you need to have the section plane active. To do so go to the Menu View --> Section Planes (it has to be checked so you see it on the screen so you can right click on it).

You can Download the Plugin here.

If you are new to SketchUp chek here to know how to Install SketchUp Plugins

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SketchUp: List of Plugins

Find here all the SketchUp Plugins that have been listed on CAD-Addict.com
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This is the up to date, list of all the SketchUp Plugins I´ve talked about in CAD-Addict.com (it will be updated in the future as soon as new Plugins are added as new posts)

1. ARTMINE: Allows you to import more than 5000 pieces of art to your sketchup model
2. BEZIER (bezier.rb): creates Bezier curves
3. CADSPAN: Makes your model 3D print ready and exports to STL format.
4. CAMERA RECORDER (clf_camera_recorder.zip): Records your camera movements and exports a set of images to be able to create a walkthrough animation.
5. CLEANUP (tt_cleanup.rb): excellent Plugin to clean geometry, unnecessary coplanar edges and other features.
6. COLOR BY SLOPE (clf_color-by_slope.rb): Colors faces according to their angle
7. COLOR BY Z (clf_color_by_z.rb): Colors Faces according to their Z value (height)
8. COMPONENT STRINGER (clf_component_stringer.rb): Places components along a path, with several options of scaling and rotation.
9. CUBIC PANO OUT (cubicpanoout.rb): exports 6 images to generate a 360 degrees quicktime panorama.
10. DELETE COPLANAR EDGES (deletecoplanaredges.rb): Removes unnecessary edges between coplanar faces.
11. DROP (drop.rb): Drops groups/components till they intersect with the model, ideal for site modeling.
12. ELLIPSE ( rp_ellipse_v12.rb): Allows you to draw ellipses
13. ENGINEERING TOOLBOX (EngineeringToolbox.rb): Allows you to place standard beams, ducts, elbows, etc.
14. EXTRAPOLATE COLORS (lf_extrapolate_colors.rb):paints a bunch of faces randomly allowing you control on the colors used.
15. EXTRUDE EDGES BY EDGES (extrudeEdgesByEdges.rb): to extrude a curved edge along a curved path.
16. EXTRUDE EDGES BY FACE (ExtrudeEdgesByFace.rb): An easie to use follow me Tool. Extrude a face along a path without the need to align that face with it.
17. EXTRUDE EDGES WITH ROTATION (ExtrudeEdgesByLathe.rb): Extrudes rotationg the edges or the face a certain angle around a given axis.
18. EXTRUDE EDGES BY RAILS (extrudeEdgesByRails.rb): Extrudes an edge following to given rails.
19. EXTRUDE LINES (extrudelintool.rb): extrudes lines using a vector.
20. FLATTERY (flattery.rb): An upgraded unfold tool, to turn your 3D model into a 2D unfolded model ready to be cut in paper and glued together.
21. FLIGHT PATH (flightpath.rb): Allows to generate the scenes of a flythrough animation by selecting a path.
22. FREE SCALE (FreeScale_Tool.rb): Aligns the Scale Box to any line on the drawing.
23. GEOMETRIC CURVE SMOOTHING (crvsmth.rb): Edit Curves
24. GREEBLE 2 (clf_greeble_2.rb): Allows you to add random, and not so random, complexity to your geometry.
25. GRIDS (grid.rb): to create parametric grids.
26. HELIX (drawhelix13.rb): Draws a helix or a spiral
27. HOVER SELECT (HoverSelect.rb): Select or deselect edges by click and drag.
28. INSTANT ROAD (InstantRoad.rbs): Creates roads quick and easy
29. INSTANT ROOF (InstantRoof.rbs): Creates pitched roofs with just a few clicks
30. JOINT PUSH PULL (JointPushPull.rb): Allows you to Push Curved Faces.
31. LATICEIZER (Laticeizer.rb): creates a window with its mullions and glass parts from a series of faces, cleaning up the intersections very neatly
32. LINES TO TUBES (lines2tubes.rb): turn a bunch of lines, arcs, circles, curves, etc into cylinders.
33. LOFT (clf_simple_loft.rb): Creates a simple loft between two or more profiles.
34. MAKE FACES (makefaces.rb): Generates all possible faces from selected geometry.
35. XD MAKE FUR (fur_en_v1_2.rb): A Plugin to generate Fur / Grass with a lot of control.
36. MIRROR (mirror.rb): Mirror objects selecting a mirror plane.
37. MODELFUNCTION (Modelfunction.exe): Sort of explicit history (primitive grasshopper) for SketchUp, very promising
38. OFFSET ON SURFACE (OffsetOnSurface.rb): Allows you to offset curved faces.
39. ONION DOME (oniondome.rb): to create onion shaped domes.
40. ONTIME 5D (ontime5d.rbs): easily simulate the construction process (virtual scheduling or 4D modelling) for free.
41. PAGE EXPORT IMPORT (PageExIm.rb): Allows you to export pages to be imported to another model.(not free)
42. PLUGIN LOADER (as_pluginloader.rb): Loads plugins without restarting SketchUp.
43. ROTATED RECTANGLE (rectangle.rb): creates rotated rectangles.
44. ROUND CORNERS (RoundCorner_Tool.rb): Turns sharp corners into round ones.
45. SCALE ROTATE MULTIPLE (clf_scale_rotate_multiple.rb): Randomly Scale and rotate objects, ideal for Vegetation / Site Design.
46. SECTION CUT FACE (SectionCutFace.rb): Fills the section cut with a face.
47. SELECTION HIDE/SHOW (SelectionHideShow.rb): Adds contextual menu options to show hide selections in many different ways.
48. SHAPE BENDER (clf_shape_bender.rb): to Bend an object to follow the profile of a curve.
49. SHAPES (shapes.rb): to create and editing a number of parametric shapes.
50. SIMPLIFY CONTOURS (SimplifyContours.rb): it simplifies the geometry, making it easier to work with.
51. SLICER (slicer.rb): Creates slices from your model.
52. SMART PUSH PULL (a4_smartpushpull.rb): Pushes faces considering the contiguous oblique faces.
53. SOAP SKIN BUBBLE (SoapSkinBubbleTools.rb): Creates tensile like structures.
54. SPHERE (rp_sphere_v11.rb): Models spheres
55. STRAY LINES (stray_lines.rb): Deletes lines that do not generate faces.
56. SUPERELLIPSE (rp_superellipse_v12.rb): A superellipse is a shape that is in between an ellipse and a rectangle.
57. SUPERELLIPSOID (rp_superellipsoid_v10.rb): Creates a shape between a round shaped ellipsoid and a square shaped rectangular box.
58. XD SYNCRO PROJECT CONSTRUCTOR (price $800): allows you to simulate the construction process (virtual scheduling or 4D modelling). It's more a stand alone program rather than a plugin.
59. TORUS (rp_torus_v10.rb): Creates Torus and Twisted Torus.
60. TUBE ALONG PATH (TubeAlongPath.rb): turns connected line paths into cylinders.
61. UNFOLD TOOL (jf_unfoldtool.rb): Unfolds a model to a flat set of faces.
62. VERTEX TOOLS (price $20): Performs all sort of operations with vertex. Equivalent to 3D Max Soft Selection feature.
63. VOLUME CALCULATOR (VolumeCalculator21.rb): to calculate volumes of objects.
64. VRAY: Creates realistic renders from SketchUp (not free).
65. WEB EXPORTER (Sketchup6webexporterwen.exe): allows you to export a model to be published on web.
66. WELD (Weld.rb): Welds lines into polylines.
67. WINDOWIZER (windowizer.rb): Creates Windows with multiple options.
68. WINDOW MAKER (windows.rb): creates parametric double-hung and slider windows.
69. XD VIRTUAL BUILDER (price $59): allows you to simulate the construction process (virtual scheduling or 4D modelling)
70. 1001BIT TOOLS (1001bit_tools.rbs): a full set of tools for Architecture to build your buildings way faster(not free).
71. 3D to PDF (price $95): Converts your sketchup model into a 3D Pdf to easily share your models

If you are new to Ruby Scripts, check this post on How to Install SketchUp Plugins.

There are other online resources to find Ruby scripts online. Some of the best online libraries where you can find and download SU Plugins are, as far as I know:

• The RUBY Depot
• Smustard
• Sketchucation

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SketchUp Plugins: Delete Coplanar Edges

Easily delete all those unnecessary coplanar edges with this Plugin. It will reduce de size of your model drastically.
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I've been doing a lot of SketchUp modeling at work, that's the reason why you see here more posts about SU Plugins than usual. Anyways, I needed to clean part of my model that had a lot of unnecessary edges separating coplanar faces. And I though, there must be a Plugin for that. I wasn't wrong.

The deletecoplanaredges.rb Plugin, easily erase those unnecessary edges, turning a bunch of coplanar faces into a single one. See this quick example.

We want to remove all those lines that play no role anymore other than increasing the file size. Once you have the plugin installed, simply select all the geometry you want to clean up, right click on it and on the context menu select "Delete Coplanar Edges.

The result will be like the image below, a single face made of all the previous coplanar faces.

You can download the Plugin here.




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AutoCAD: Make object's layer current with an Alias

Switching between current layers is one of the most common operations in AutoCAD, make it an alias instead of clicking on the icon to work faster.
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Those who have been reading me for some time will already know that I am a keyboard freak when it comes to enter commands. I strongly believe it multiplies the speed you work on with AutoCAD as oppose to clicking on icons. This becomes even more important with those things we do hundreds of times a day.

Making an object's layer current is one of these operations we repeat and repeat every day many times. By default, you have to select the object, then click on the icon on the right of the Layer Properties Toolbar.


This operation can be sped up by setting up an ALIAS for it. If you pay attention to the command line, every time you click on the previous button, the command that it actually triggers will appear there. This command is either LAYMCUR or AI_MOLC depending on the AutoCAD version you have. All you have to do is to edit your acad.pgp to create an Alias for either of these commands. I have my acad.pgp set up with LK to point to AI_MOLC. It is a time saver.

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