If you’ve worked in some larger AutoCAD drawing files in some of the more recent releases, you may have come across a message in your Status Bar saying “Scanning the Drawing” while your drawing takes an unusually long time updating. The Progress Bar that coincides with this message may take several seconds or even minutes to complete. Now whether this shows up due to panning or zooming in a drawing containing a large background image or if you are modeling a large corridor in Civil 3D, the result is the …

Maybe you’ve experienced this issue or maybe you haven’t. It is also quite possible that you’ve come across this without even realizing it. After all, there are only subtle differences, but those differences are annoying none-the-less. Look at your AutoCAD Text. Look at it again. Do you see any instances of that text appearing a little larger or bolder than others? Do you occasionally find AutoCAD Text that plots darker than it should? You might have just disregarded it, but I would bet on the possibility that you probably tried …

Well it has been nearly a year, but AUGI has decided to re-run my “FIELD of Study” ATP course for the month of May. I’ve kept in touch with Ken Leary, the ATP Coordinator and Board Member for AUGI, and I agreed with him that it would be a great idea to post the course again. This course covers everything from the very basic purpose and application of AutoCAD Fields all the way to the most complex implementation of customized Fields into the Sheet Set Manager, AutoCAD Tables, and Dynamic …

One of the more annoying issues users have with the AutoCAD Sheet Set Manager is trying to delete the .dst file its associated with.  Sometimes it is necessary to erase a sheet set and start over, or maybe part it out into separate sets and it is necessary to eliminate the .dst file due to the rule AutoCAD has about layouts only being associated with a single sheet set.
The first thing you must do is make sure that absolutely no one on the network has that .dst file open or …

Continuing with the potential issues that can arise with the AutoCAD Sheet Set Manager, another issue to be considered is it’s use in an office where multiple people may be working on the same project simultaneously.  Opening files to editing works just the same as without the SSM.  If someone has the drawing open, it is locked for editing and others can open it read-only.  While this is great for controlling the content of your drawings, it also poses an issue for plotting.
If someone has a drawing(s) from the set open …