SubscribeArchive for April, 2006
Color field is missing from properties when contour is included in selection set
Typically, when a selection set includes various kinds of entities, their common features are visible in properties. When a contour is part of a selection set that also includes non-contours, then the color property isn’t available in properties.
Exhibit A – Selection set of several types of entities.
Exhibit B – Contour added to selection set.
Workarounds: Use [...]
This version of AutoCAD was not installed properly (2006 vertical specific)
After installing Land Desktop 2006 with Civil Design and / or Survey 2006 from a silent deployment, you receive a message stating that AutoCAD wasn’t properly installed when launching LDT as a second user.
Caveats: There is a hotfix (see below), but it will only work for new installations. To fix existing installations, you must first [...]
Middle mouse button stops responding
When MBUTTONPAN is set to 0 and you are using a CUSTOM.CUI as your main CUI, with LAND.CUI, EXPRESS.CUI, and CIVIL.CUI as partials, the middle button stops working immediately after using any Land Desktop command.
Workaround: In Config / Profiles, select the current profile and re-set it as current
First Appeared: Land Desktop 2006
Status as of 2006 [...]
Symbols insert at 1/12 of intended scale
Some (but not all) of the blocks that shipped with Land Desktop 2006 have some associated lisp code that runs when they are inserted. It appears that much of this code predated the new interpretation of INSUNITS, and wasn’t updated to account for it. When using Autodesk’s own functions to insert any of these blocks, [...]
Slow Points Listing
When listing points (Points > List Points), it can take several minutes to populate the points list.
Workarounds: If you have maximized or otherwise resized your points window, stretching it back to its original size causes the points list to populate as fast as before.
First Appeared: Land Desktop 3
Status as of 2006: Still reproducible
Status as of [...]
Unneccessary recompiling of ACAD.MNR
When “automatically save workspace changes” is turned on, ACAD.CUI is saved every time you close AutoCAD, regardless of whether or not you made any changes to your workspace. At the next startup, since AutoCAD.CUI holds a newer filedate, the application needlessly recompiles ACAD.MNR, adding a little more time to a startup process that is already [...]
“Partial Preview” displays incorrect information when plotting named model space views
The new “partial preview” like icon seems to indicate incorrect image positioning when plotting named model space views.
For an example, enter (or script) these commands:
_vscurrent
2
plan
w
ucs
w
setvar
osnapcoord
1
._rectangle
1380000,445000
1380010,445007.50
._-VIEW
w
MYVIEW
1380000,445000
1380010,445007.50
._zoom
e
Then, in the plot dialog box notice how the “partial preview” shifts when switching between plotting extents and plotting MYVIEW.
Workaround: Use “full” preview when plotting named views
First Appeared: AutoCAD 2006
Status as [...]
Missing commands
Commands such as BHATCH and XREF fail to work after running multiple plots when “plotting to file.” This is not related to the CMDDIA variable.
Workarounds: Shutdown and restart
First Appeared: AutoCAD 2006
Status as of 2007: Cursory testing unable to reproduce error. Touch luck 2006 customers.
LWDISPLAY automatically turns on when file is opened
On some systems, LWDISPLAY, which is typically a DWG-stored variable, automatically gets set to 1 in every file that is opened. Like other CAD Managers, I’ve seen this on only a handful of systems, but on those affected systems it is consistent. It’s not a bug in the profile, nor is it introduced anywhere in [...]
RTEXT confuses VBA
When using VBA to iterate through entities within any block (including modelspace and paperspace), the first time an RTEXT entity is encountered, an error is produced. Whats worse is that this error cant be trapped with “on error resume next.”
For example:
Sub RtextError()
Dim oEnt As AcadEntity
Dim oBlock As AcadBlock
For Each oBlock In ThisDrawing.Blocks
If Not oBlock.IsXRef Then
For [...]
Background Mask is incompatible with “Lines Merge”
When 2005 was released, we were introduced to a new property for MTEXT entities: background mask. Unfortunately, background masking only works when output devices are set to “lines overwrite.” From an OOP point of view, its easy to guess why it works the way it does out of the box. From a users point of [...]
HPGAPTOL doesn’t “just work”
The new variable HPGAPTOL was supposed to allow the user to specify the maximum size of gaps that can be ignored when creating a hatch. It wowed the crowd in the 2005 demonstration that I went to. In practice, the variable setting rarely works.
Workarounds: Some users have reported that selecting objects (rather than internal points) [...]
LAYERP confuses associative hatches
After using BHATCH to create hatches against XREFfed entities, LAYERP may distort the hatch boundary.
Exhibit A – Xref or block has been inserted
Exhibit B – One of the referenced layers is frozen
Exhibit C – Associative bhatch
Exhibit D – LAYERP has been run
Workarounds: Use non-associative hatches under these conditions or thaw your layers using LAYTHW, -LAYER [...]
Scattered Toolbars
In AutoCAD 2006, if you use a main CUI with one or more partials, as well as an enterprise CUI with one or more partials, then your toolbars may not stay in place when you start AutoCAD, even when youve saved then in a workspace. It appears that, at startup, the toolbars are placed according [...]