Photoshop: Shortcut to select all the contents of a layer

Select all layer contents wit a single click
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When working with Photoshop sometimes we might want to get a selection of the entire content of a layer. This is useful for man reasons. An easy way to do this is to go to the layers tab and click on the thumbnail of the layer with the left mouse button while holding CTRL (I guess command key in MAC??)
If you point at the layer thumbnail with your cursor and press CTRL, you will see how the cursor will change from a pointing hand to a pointing hand with a marquee on top. This means that when you click there instead of selecting the layer as active, it will use the contents of that layer to create a selection.
This is very useful to create selections based on the shapes of layers such as texts. See this example that I created using this method. From the following two images...



...i used the one on the right with the multiple CAD-Addict.com texts to create the selection using the explained method. Then, I used the slection to erase parts of the layer on the left. The reslult is as follows


This is a very useful trick to speed up you workflow in pshop.


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AutoCAD: Load LISP and Applications Manually or Automatically

Hot to load LSIP routines and other applications
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I wrote recently some posts about using LISP routines to speed up certain tasks. I forgot to mention, how to load these Files. The manual way is to use the command APPLOAD. This will call the Load Application Dialog Box where you can browse for the saved LISP.



Alternatively, if it is a LISP that you use regularly, simply drag and drop it into the icon saying Startup Suite in the APPLOAD dialog box. This will make the LISP or application load automatically at start of the AutoCAD session.


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Excel: Turn numbers exported from ACAD into European Format

There is a quick way to turn numbers in Excel into European format and to remove apostrophes.
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European Number Format, uses a coma as a decimal separator instead the period of the English format. When exporting data from AutoCAD to Excel using the DATAEXTRACTION command, the numbers exported are in English format, so to transform them to the European Format we need to replace the points for comas. This can very done very easy by using the find and replace function in Excel. Type CTRL + F or click the Replace button on the Editing area of the Home Tab (Excel 2007). Find Points and replace them by comas, and select Replace All.


There is an extra step needed if we want to be able to use the data from AutoCAD in Excel as numbers. All the Cells exported from CAD start with an apostrophe ('). See below.


This makes the numbers not usable as such. Luckily there is a trick to batch remove this sign. If you have a column with numbers, insert a new column to its right. On the cell next to the first number in the row enter the follwing fórmula.


Where D2 is the Cell with the numbers with the apostrophe you need to eliminate. Then copy the cell next to all numbers you want to transform. You will see now the result of the formula as the number you want to use. Something like this:


The left cell is the one still containing the apostrophes, and that is why the numbers are aligned to the left. The one on the right is the result of the formula we have applied.

A final step I would recommend is to copy all these new cells and paste them in a new column using Paste Special. Paste Special can be accessed after copying some cells by right clicking on a cell. Then On the Paste Special Window Select "Values".


That's it, now you can delete the other columns (the one with the apostrophes and the one with the formulas, and you have just the new column with plain numbers. The explanations is long, but the process takes lest than a minute.


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AutoCAD: AutoLISP to Generate Multiple Hatch Boundaries

Do you need to re-generate the boundaries of multiple hatch patterns? An AutoLISP routine will do it.
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I had to work on some files converted from ArchiCAD to AutoCAD and needed to use the AEC Space entities to get the areas. Unfortunately, plain AutoCAD doesn't read the are of this objects, and by exploding them, it generated Hatch Patters that would not show their area on the properties palette.

The solution for a single AEC_SPACE, was simple, explode it, regenerate the boundary of the Hatch Pattern, and select the resulting Polyline to see the area (or to extract the area to an excel file as explained on a previous post). The problem came becuase there were a lot of this AEC_SPACE objects,and AutoCAD does not allow to regenerate boundaries of multiple Hatch Patterns at the same time.

The solution was found via DigitalCAD, in the form of a LISP routine called HATCHB.LSP. This routine when used, allows you to select as many Hatch Patterns as you want and obtain their boundaries in the form of polylines. The polylines will be generated on the current layer, and properties.

Some thoughts: This real life situation is a clear case that shows how format incompatibilities makes us waste a lot of time. In this case the lead architect works in ArchiCAD, but we as Contruction Managers have only AutoCAD, so everytime we get files from them there is a lot of information in those files that is wasted, because we can not read it properly, so we have to waste hours on retracing polylines to be able to double check the information we have received...


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About me - 2010 resolution

The BIM revolution is happening right now, I wanna be an active part of it.
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I have never introduced myself properly in my own blog, kind of rude, but as some of you already know it all started as a record keeper of little things I was learning. The snowball became bigger and bigger, and then i forgot to be polite. Since this article needs a bit of my own background I am going to start with that.

My name is Martí Broquetas, I am an Architect from Barcelona. For those who don't know it I am currently studying a Master in International Building Project Management and working at the Construction Management Team at a big Project Management Company in Stuttgart, in Germany.

Before moving to Germany in September '09, I worked for the previous 3 years in Baltimore, MD in a mid sized (nearly 100 employees) Architecture and Design Firm, I worked as a Project Designer on big projects all over the world. After learning the insights of a big architectural practice i realized I wanted to get a better insight of the construction industry itself, and for this reason I chose the IBPM Master in Stuttgart.

My workflow has mostly comprised working with CAD Design softwares like AutoCAD, Microstation, SketchUp and Rhino and doing some tweaks with Photoshop and other image editing programs. This is the reason why most of the posts are related to these programs.

I haven't wrote much about BIM here since unfortunately it has not been part of my workflow since I started this blog. But I am intending to change that soon. I am very much decided on writing my Master Thesis on the role of Building Information Modeling (BIM) and Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) to make the Design and Construction Process more efficient (I know, i need a shorter title line). I am not an expert on either, but I intend to become one.

So from now on (it might take a couple of months to really get something interesting enough to be published here) and with the same spirit of sharing knowledge that made CAD-Addict what it is, posts related to this two topics will hopefully appear here as often as possible. The idea is not only to publish posts that explain better ways to work with BIM programs like Revit or ArchiCAD, but also to encourage the discussion about the need for change in the way architects work to make building design a much more efficient practice.

The website is named CAD-Addict, and for a while i thought to maybe start a separate blog for the topic. But I sincerely think it is better to have the discussion here, since pure CAD users can benefit from and contribute to the discussion about BIM and IPD a lot. Plus, I am sure a lot of the readers of this blog are already BIM users. Aren't you?


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AutoCAD: Project Butterfly Works as a Free Version Converter

Use the new Autodesk cloud CAD tool as a free translator between AutoCAD versions
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I discovered recently the so called Project Butterfly (update: now released as AutoCAD WS) from Autodesk. See this previous post for a more general overview to it. It is basically a lite version of AutoCAD that resides entirely on the cloud, meaning you can use it by simply having an up to date web browser.
What i recently realized, is that this "program" can be actually used to convert files from a newer version of AutoCAD to an older one. In case you get some AutoCAD file in the newer 2010 format, but you are not using AutoCAD 2010, you will not be able to open the file. normally you would have to ask whoever sent you the file to "please save it in 2007 / 2004 version". Using Project Butterfly you can skip that request and do the conversion to an older version yourself.
Project butterfly can read files in the new 2010 format. This files then can be downloaded. the trick is that when you click on the download as DWG button on the upper right part of the PB interface, it asks you in which version of AutoCAD you want to download the file. See the image below.


Although this is not the main goal of this application, well, it can be used for that. The limitations are that it saves only in 2004, 2007 or 2010 versions, so if you are working on an older version than that, this won't work, although maybe you should consider Upgrading...
This is the link to the Project Butterfly website, you'll need to register to be abel to use it, but it takes 1 minute.


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AutoCAD: PEDIT Command Without Confirmation

A trick to speed up the PEDIT command
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PEDIT is a command that allows us to edit Polylines. It also allows us to edit lines, arcs and splines, by asking us the question we many hate

"Object selected is not a polyline
Do you want to turn it into one? "

Although this might be useful to remember that the geometry selected is not a polyline, it turns to be an extra click that we would love to skip. We will skip it from now on thanks to Josh from Lazydrafter.
Josh posted recently about the PEDITACCEPT system variable. The variable is by default set to "0", and that is why AutoCAD asks us that annoying question. Well, set it up to "1", and the question is gone. Now it takes no extra step to edit lines, arcs. Spline still ask for the conversion factor, but still you'll be saving couple of clicks. All to work faster!


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AutoCAD 2010: New System Variable to Fade XREFs

AutoCAD 2010 has a new system variable to fade XREFs.
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New versions come sometimes with some nice surprises. One I just discovered by using AutoCAD 2010 at work is the XDWGFADECTL system variable. We had seen long ago on a previous post how to control the fading of locked layers and the objects seen outside the REFEDIT mode. Just as a quick reminder on that since that is a very old post.

LAYLOCKFADECTL directly controls the intensity of the fading of locked layers.
XFADECTL is used to control the fading when we enter the REFEDIT mode (everything that does not belong to the XREF that we enter to edit in place will be faded).

This was what we had available so far. In case we wanted to fade the XREF, my common procedure was to set the fading of the LAYLOCKFADECTL to between 30 and 50% (depending on the screen), be sure that all my XREFs where in one layer, and lock that layer. This would allow me to see my XREFs fades, making very easy to understand what was in the current drawing and what was a reference.
The only problem with this is that sometimes, when we had to move those XREFs, we had to unlock the layer and lock it after finishing the operation. Minor nuisance maybe, but it has disappeared from now on.

XDWGFADECTL is one of the new system variable added to AutoCAD 2010 that allows to control how XREFs are faded. It is useful. It might seem a minor tweek, but when you are using a dwg as an underlay to draw something else, it is really practical to see this dwg faded. And although this could be done before with the locked layers fading, now we have a second way to do it to suit every situation (or almost every)

Remember that there is a list of all the system variables that have been explained at CAD-Addict following this link.

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AutoCAD: SaveAs 2004 Script

A script to save your drawings on a previous AutoCAD version.
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As I promised on a previous post about Running Scripts on Multiple AutoCAD files, here comes the script to save your files as 2004 version. I found the need of this script recently, when a collaborator of mine was working with AutoCAD 2004 (i didn't know that in advance) and I was working with 2010. After finishing the tweaks on some of the files, he asked me "can you convert them to 2004, otherwise I can't read them". Well there were nearly 40 drawings, so I had no intention to save them one by one to 2004 format. I set myself to generate a script to do that for me.
This is the script file SaveAs2004.scr and let me easily explain how it works. Let's analyse it line by line.

FILEDIA 0 - This line turns off the dialog boxes (see this post for more info)
SAVEAS 2004 Y - this part is the proper saving as 2004 version. we call the saveas command, stipulate 2004 (or any other version we want) and then click yes, because the program will ask us if we want to overwrite the existing file. note here that there are 2 spaces between 2004 and Y, this is due to the fact that the first is to enter 2004, and the second is needed, to confirm the file name. (If you want to understand this better, run the different commands manually with the FILEDIA system variable set to 0, and you will be able to see all the steps I am following).
FILEDIA 1 - here I simply wanna make sure that after running the script the settings return to what they were, so i set the FILEDIA SV back to 1.
CLOSE - Closes the file, be sure that there is a space or an enter after close, since it is easy to forget that being the last text in the script file. This is generally not neecessary if you use a batch scripting program such as Autoscript or ScriptPrp, but in case you run the script directly in one file, this will close the file after running it.

That's it, now you have a script to save as 2004 version. Replace 2004 by, R14, 2004, 2007, 2010, Standards, DXF or Template, and you will save in that format.


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AutoCAD on the Cloud: Project Butterfly

AutoCAD goes cloudy! The future is here!
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I just learned through Revit3D.com of the existence of something called project butterfly. What is it? It is basically AutoCAD running on a web browser.
One of the latest tends in software development is to turn regular Programs into programs that can run "on the cloud". Run on the cloud means that you don´t need to install any other software other than a web browser, and that the files are stored on a public server, not in your hard drive or intranet.
For many years I have been using Google Docs, which allow you to create Word and Excel Type of files (the functionalities are less than with MS Office or Open Office) and the files can be edited collaboratively by different people.
Well, this has now arrived to AutoCAD. With Project Butterfly you can upload a file to the cloud, share it with collaborators/consultants and edit it without even having AutoCAD installed in the computer. Of course, do not expect the speed and easy of use of "real" AutoCAD, but for small corrections and collaboration, it seems like an awesome idea.See a snapshot of the Project Butterfly Interface (click the image to enlarge it)
.

You can read more on the Autodesk labs blog and try Project Butterfly here.

via revit3d.com


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AutoCAD Architecture: Recover the Menus Part II

Autodesk keeps making our lives more difficult. Fortunately, there is a way around most of the time...
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I wrote the other day about how to ditch the ribbon and recover the standard Menu Bar. Well, that solution worked for my AutoCAD 2010 at work. Unfortunately at home I installed the AutoCAD Architecture 2010 Student Version (I am a student too). When I tried to follow the steps exposed on that previous post, I got a message saying, "No Menus are Defined". Apparently, Autodesk is trying to force the use of the Ribbon, so is supplying copies of AutoCAD "menu naked"
The partial solution to this problem was found via the Autodesk Discussion Group. If you download this Zip File and follow the instructions described in it, you will get some of the menus back. Although I think I am still missing some of them...With this solution I got the Menus: File, Edit, View, Insert, Format, Window and Design, is that all??


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AutoCAD: Run scripts on multiple files

You can run scripts on multiple files using ScriptPro
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Imagine that you want to purge 100 files to be sure that not unnecessary information is saved, wasting space. Or imagine that you want to save all the drawings of a project to a previous version of AutoCAD so a consultant of yours can read your files. You don't want do it yourself or appoint someone to do it manually.
What you want is a software to Batch process scripts on multiple files, Autodesk actually provides the application for free.
This application is called ScripPro. You can directly download it here, or go to the information page.


For versions of AutoCAD previous to 2007, you'll need this version instead.
For thsoe who don't know what scripts are in AutoCAD, just imagine them as entering a set of commands without typing them manually. You can save them in a text file, and when you run the scrip file (by entering the SCRIPT command) all the set of commands will run one after the other.
I will post an example script soon, so those who are new to scripts can get a better idea of what they do. I already posted another example before explaining how to create a script to generate all your standard layers.

Update: The installer of ScriptPro is for 32Bit windows only...my 64bit windows doesn't like it, i get "not compatible with operationg system,,,crap!"
Update 2: I found this freeware software called Autoscript that runs on Windows 7 64bit. It adds a new menu called autoscript, that actually doesn't work!!! but if you type AUTOSCRIPT as a command it will run a program that works the same way as ScriptPro. Via Cadig.


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