AutoCAD’s evolution fascinates me. Arguably, still the top computer aided drafting package available. The tool set allows the documentation of mundane shop/field drawing up to multi sheet, legally binding plan sets. AutoCAD is the essence of Graphical/Textural communication.
Users of the software tend to be the most prolific authors of digital data. Not many jobs call for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, near 52 weeks a year of high intensity button clicking. And it’s all about communication – clear, concise, accurate, and, ofttimes, immediate.
As a frequent practitioner of that type of intensity, I really see the benefits of saved button clicks. There are times, deadlines looming, when a missed button click causes palpable anxiety. Even with complete certainty that a mere few second readjust will correct the situation, the anguish of lost efficiency stabs home. I perceive it as an incursion in the thought process. It’s an unseen speed bump, very disruptive at full throttle. In this analogy “speed bumps” have no redeeming value as I’m not likely to run over some hapless pedestrian.
I don’t think I’m alone in this. Anyone dealing with AutoCAD regularly has a vast assortment of tricks to speed up processes and eliminate redoes.
Many of those users have also made a habit of reading the various Blogs, Newsgroups, Forums dedicated to AutoCAD. I’m a reader/member in just about all of them. And all of them have offered tricks and procedures to save at least few button clicks per hour. I’m extremely grateful.
One of my other intentions for this blog is to present some tips and tricks that I have not seen presented elsewhere . . . . or, at least not presented well enough to have disseminated to all that would find them useful.
Most of the tips will be in the form of command macro’s. As restricted as that process may be, it still provides many opportunities to avoid incursions.
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