If you have ever imported an ESRI SHP file containing polygons using the ._MAPIMPORT command, and the polygons came in filled, you may have wondered how to turn off this fill.

Use the ._POLYDISPLAY command to enable or disable the fill on these MPOLYGON objects.

Command: ._POLYDISPLAY
Enter mpolygon display mode [Edges only/Fill only/Both] : _E

If for some reason, you don't want MPOLYGON objects, you can control the default object import type (MPOLYGON vs. closed polyline) by running the MAPUSEMPOLYGON command.

Command: MAPUSEMPOLYGON
Enter new value for MAPUSEMPOLYGON : _OFF

If you typically deal with a lot of layers in your drawings, and you are not using layer filters, then you may be subjecting yourself to unnecessary frustration. Depending on your discipline, a layer standard may contain 100 or more layers. Take your base drawing and add a couple of xrefs, and you could have hundreds of layers to sift through.

So why doesn't everyone use layer filters? Maybe they don't want to take time to create them? Maybe it's unknown territory? Maybe they don't think they need them?

Well, first off you only need to create them once in your template drawing(s) and second, there is nothing magical about creating them. The only real catch is you need some type of layer standard so that a filter in one drawing will work in the next. But most importantly, if you want to filter layers by name, your layer naming standard should be structured in such a way that makes this possible.

I try not to post new articles simply repeating others, but this is an exception (see link below). If you are on subscription and wish to continue receiving actual media when a new version is released - then you need to go to your subscription site and change the settings, because Autodesk has set you up for downloads only.

Steve Johnson over at blog nauseam has more details on this situation.

Generally when you open AutoCAD, your default template is loaded and a drawing named "Drawing1.dwg" is presented to you. If you open a drawing using the OPEN command or using the Sheet Set Manager, the other drawing will open and "drawing1.dwg" will go away.

Cadalyst Magazine

I last reported on the state of Cadalyst last February, just prior to the move to their new publisher, Longitude Media, LLC.

Cadalyst.com and most other electronic forms of publication remained unchanged, however the future of the printed magazine was undetermined.

Fast forward to Autodesk University, December 2009, Cadalyst successfully "re-launches" the print version. Learn more about the new Cadalyst magazine here.

Return of Hot Tip Harry

Starting with the return of the print version, I have agreed to work with Cadalyst to perform the duties of "Hot Tip Harry". Currently, I will be working with the editors to compile and publish your tips in the Hot Tip Harry column. I will also be moderating the Hot Tip Harry CAD forum at Cadalyst.com Feel free to drop by the forums and ask a question, answer a question, or just say hello.

If you want to submit a tip for Hot Tip Harry or for the CadTips site at Cadalyst, please visit this page for the submission guidelines and a link. You can also submit your code to harry@cadalyst.com

 

On the heels of the poll posted earlier this week, the dates and locations for the 2010 Augi Cad Camps have been announced. So far, 29 locations are on the schedule.

http://www.augicadcamp.com

Missing from the list are a couple of the largest markets in the United States, Miami and Houston. Also, there is a large populated area with no coverage along the Gulf Coast in an area roughly bounded by South Texas, Shreveport, Little Rock, Memphis, Birmingham, and Tallahassee. (Honolulu not shown on the map below, it is included on the full map)

View 2010 Augi Cad Camp Locations in a larger map

If you have not already, add your response to the poll in the upper left corner. Thanks.

It's not uncommon for someone, even these days in the era of the Ribbon, to want to turn on a toolbar. Many people know that you can right click in the toolbar area, and each loaded menugroup will be listed, then you can choose the appropriate toolbar to display.

But what if you don't have any toolbars showing at all? Then there is not a suitable location in which to right click.

Here is what you do, run the -TOOLBAR command. Note the leading hyphen, which calls the command line version of this command. The first prompt asks for the toolbar name. Enter a toolbar name such as "MODIFY". Then it will ask you how you want to display the toolbar. Press "F" for float. It will then ask you for coordinates at which to place the toolbar. You can accept the defaults (0,0) and the toolbar will appear in the upper left corner of your primary monitor. If you want to specify a certain location, be aware that the values increase as you move left and down. So if you specify a location of 300,500, the toolbar will be placed 300 pixels to the left and 500 pixels below the upper left corner of your primary monitor. The last prompt it asks you is how many rows for the toolbar.

Of course you could script this using a menu macro or lisp routine. If you watch the prompts on the -TOOLBAR command, you'll see that you can hide toolbars also, so it's possible to setup some shortcuts to show and hide various toolbars - which should be quicker than switching workspaces.

Here is one way to generate a list of polyline vertices using lisp. This function requires one argument, a polyline entity. The polyline can be the old style POLYLINE entity (2D or 3D), or it can be an LWPOLYLINE entity.

(defun getcoords (ent)
  (vlax-safearray->list
    (vlax-variant-value
      (vlax-get-property
	(vlax-ename->vla-object ent)
	"Coordinates"
      )
    )
  )
)

I have been working with the Civil 3D 2010 API in visual lisp recently, and I thought I would share an example of working with an alignment object. This example has plenty of comments, but basically it shows you how to find a point near the alignment based on a station and offset. Then it does the opposite and shows you how to determine the station and offset, given a point. For clarity, I have left out most of the error checking.