Increased Functionality
The basic system within AutoCAD can always be improved both for functionality and ease of use. And in AutoCAD 2002 a few touches of brilliance have been put in to whet your appetite for even more improvements.
Layer States
Aside from editing objects, manipulating of the “layer state” is the second most used action within AutoCAD. Users are constantly turning on and off layers and freezing and thawing them as well. With an unlimited number of layers in AutoCAD, it seems that folks have gone overboard and made layers to control everything. With that comes a management nightmare, swapping layer settings while in a drawing and transporting that information to other drawings. Well, you are in luck—a new feature in AutoCAD 2002 can bring back the speed to your production workflow.
Referring to Figure 1.15 you will see how the Save Layer State allows you to specify which layer properties to record, such as freeze and color status. This then is named and saved with the drawing.
Figure 1.15. The Save Layer States dialog has options for layer properties to record.
After you get done saving a state, you use the Layer States manager (see Figure 1.16) to do any of a number of things. You can restore it, helpful after messing up your current layer configuration. You can remove or rename it. And most helpful, you can export it and import it into another drawing. Once you spend time getting a layer state just right you can actually bring that setup into another drawing.
Figure 1.16. The Layer States Manager lets you restore, export, or import a state.
Learn more about using layers in Chapter 4, “Organizing a Drawing with Layers.”
Tip
Also new to AutoCAD 2002 is the Layer Previous toolbar button. Just to the right of the Layer Manager toolbar button on the Object Properties toolbar, this system records the previous “state” of your layers and will restore it when pressed. If you freeze a whole bunch of layers to do something, using undo will undo your changes before it undoes the layer freeze. This leaves all content as is and brings back the previous layer state.
Drag and Drop Hatch
Everyone knows hatching is a tedious and time-consuming process filled with all sorts of options and settings that slow you down. But hatching can be fun! A new enhancement to DesignCenter allows you to browse a hatch pattern file (.PAT) and then “drag and drop” swatches of hatch into closed areas in your drawing. And if you need to modify properties before you drop, then just double-click a swatch and the hatch parameters will be brought into a BHATCH session. Then you can adjust and continue to hatch as normal. Hatching is covered in detail in Chapter 16, “Drawing Hatch Patterns.”
Array Dialog
One of the most difficult commands to master is the ARRAY command. It has so many controls and options that invariably you will repeat an array process to get the settings right. Well, in AutoCAD 2002, the ARRAY command has been given a dialog that spells out exactly what result you will get when complete (see Figure 1.17). All the options are there as before but now you get a visual clue of the outcome. And to top if off, you can preview the result in AutoCAD before committing to end the command!
Figure 1.17. The new ARRAY command dialog has all the controls and a preview to make using array very simple.
How to use ARRAY is found in Chapter 11, “Advanced Geometry Editing.”
Purge Dialog
Ever feel like your drawing is dragging you down? Perhaps it’s time to purge. In the old days doing this meant a few minutes weeding through tons of stuff you may or may not want to get rid of. With AutoCAD 2002 comes a new PURGE command dialog that will make the process of specific purging so much simpler (see Figure 1.18). And if you want to speed-demon your way to purging bliss, a PURGE ALL has also been included.
Figure 1.18. The new Purge dialog allows specific or wholesale purging of non-used named objects.
The new Purge dialog is discussed in Chapter 11, “Advanced Geometry Editing.”