Don't Forget These Commands...Part 2

Two AutoCAD Map commands that everyone should know:

MAPCLEAN - A powerful utility that enables you to delete duplicate objects, weed polylines, and do many other cleanup actions.

MAPIINSERT - Inserts a raster image at the location and scale specified in the image or in the associated world file if available.

Raster Design OE 2011 has been posted

Thanks to James Wedding for announcing to all his loyal Twitter followers that the Raster Design Object Enabler for 2011 has been posted. There are different installation files for 32 bit and 64 bit operating systems so make sure you install the correct one.

Image Plotting Issues

Today we had a repeat issue of plotting a sheet from paperspace that contained tiff images of a two page subdivision plat in model space. The preview looked correct, and everything on the sheet plotted except the two images of the plat. The Plot and Publish Details showed that the plot had been canceled though it wasn't the user that canceled it.

• We plotted the layout to a different plotter with the same results.
• We plotted the layout to a DWF and the images appear as expected.
• We plotted the layout from a different computer and it plotted fine.

At this point, we decided it had to be computer specific. We contacted DC|CADD and Mark Martinez recommended that we uninstall and reinstall driver, plotter, etc. before proceeding any further. We got the same results (everything but the image was plotting) after the reinstall.

So, now we're thinking maybe it's a memory issue. We checked the system settings and the /3GB switch was not enabled on the problem computer. We changed the System Startup settings so that the /3GB switch would be enabled upon boot, then we rebooted the system.

After the reboot, the resulting plot contains everything on the sheet including the two images.

After the plot worked, we checked the size of the tiff images. (Yes, I know, why didn't we do that at the beginning.) Both images were under 300 KB. Hmmm, sounds small enough to me, but hey, I'm not going to look this gift horse in the mouth.

So, SCORE ONE FOR THE /3GB SWITCH!

Walk This Way, Talk This Way

I know, I know. I haven't posted in a while, but this particular subject is well overdue.

I'm sure you all know what it's like to get drawings that have objects in the wrong layer. So today I wanted to share with you an AutoCAD tool that might help you identify layering issues before you ever send the drawing to the client or start working with the drawing in your project.

The tool is called LayerWalk. The tool can be found in the AutoCAD LayersII toolbar. Or it can be accessed from the command line by typing laywalk and pressing enter.


After executing the command, a dialog box will appear that shows all the layers in the current drawing including xref layers.



By left clicking on any layer in the list, you can see what objects are on that layer. For us civil folks, it works great for checking the layers in a survey drawing before you start working with the file.




Unfortunately, it can work with Civil 3D objects if you set up your styles correctly. For example,create an alignment style with the alignment lines, arcs, and spirals on layer ALIGN. Now create an alignment object on layer WW-A-ALIGN. During execution of the layerwalk command, select only layer ALIGN, and you will see all the alignment linework in the drawing. If you select only layer WW-A-ALIGN, you don't see any alignment linework in the drawing.

On the other hand, create your alignment style with the alignment lines, arcs and spirals on layer 0. Now create an alignment object on layer WW-A-Align. During execution of the layerwalk command, select only layer ALIGN, then you don't see any linework. If you select only layer WW-A-ALIGN, then you see only the WW-A alignment linework.

Now don't forget to audit then purge your drawings (including regapps) and it just might brighten someone's day.

Don't Plot Those Image Frames Ever Again

Have you ever sent your plot to the plotter only to notice that the frames are visible around the images?

The problem is that if you set the frame visibility off (imageframe=0), then you can't select the image and execute commands on it such as draworder.

So you can spend your time changing the visibility of the image frame on then off, or you can take the advice of Lynn Allen and set the imageframe variable to 2. This will allow the frame to be visible, but it won't plot. This funcationality has even been added to AutoCAD LT 2009.

One more thing before I go. This variable is drawing specific, so you can set it in your template and never have to worry about it again for new drawings created from the template.

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