Easiest Way to Import Points into AutoCAD from Excel

There are several way to draw points in AutoCAD from a list of coordinates in excel spreadsheet.

• Through AutoLISP/ Visual Basic or .NET
• Through Scripts

Through AutoLISP/ Visual Basic or .NET

AutoLisp, Visual Basic & .NET are programming language not everyone knows them. Also, these will not work with AutoCAD LT versions.

Through Scripts

This one is easier and is available across all AutoCAD versions. But, it is difficult to read an excel spreadsheet with script files.

Easiest Method

Click here to download the excel spreadsheet & read the instructions.

I found this the easiest method. No programming know-how required.
Just have to type your coordinates in the sheet and copy the commands. Goto AutoCAD set a point style of your choice and paste the copied command on your command line.
Your points will be drawn on the AutoCAD screen.

Hope you find the trick useful.

- Abhay Chauhan

PS : Don't forget to comment and share the post with your friends. 

AutoCAD System Variables

AutoCAD is a big program, I would say its a big collection of programs. Still, AutoCAD is highly customizable. Everybody uses it differently. Users customize the look of screen, menu, command line and so on. In our drawings also we use different settings, like text height,width & color, dimension styles, layers etc.
How AutoCAD manages it. AutoCAD has provided us a tool called System Variables.

This is what Autodesk help says about System Variables.

AutoCAD stores the values for its operating environment and some of its commands in system variables.

In general system variables are commands that control the overall behaviour of AutoCAD and its commands.  Most of the system variables are changable(some are not, they are called read-only).

How to get a list of system variable?

Use SETVAR Command.

Command : setvar
Enter variable name or [?] : ?
Enter variable(s) to list <*> : *

Read The ADDVARS2SCR Command post to export a list of system variable in a text file with *.scr extension.

System variables are stored either in registry or in your drawing. The vaiables stored in registry will effect all your drawings and variables stored in your drawing will have effect on your drawings only.

How to know where a system variable is stored?

You can use SYSVDLG command of AutoCAD Express tools. It will open up a dialog box showing all the system variables available. Here in "Saved in :" field you can get the location where the variable is saved.

If you click on "Save All" you will get an option to save the variables either in .svf or .scr file. This will give you a backup of your system variable settings. You can change the settings and then import the settings into AutoCAD.

If you have earlier taken a backup with this method in a .scr file you can restore or import your settings with SCRIPT command. click here to read more on Scripts.

If you take your back in a .svf file, you can still change your settings by editting the file with notepad. To import your settings simply run SYSVDLG command and click on "Read", select your .svf  file press "Open" and you are done.

That's all for now friends. Hope, you liked the information.
Your comments and feedbacks are expected.

Thanking You,

PS : Don't forget to comment and share the post with your friends.

The PASTEORIG Command

During our drafting work, we do a lot of copy & pasting from one drawing to another. sometimes we need to past some objects into our current drawing on the original coordinates on which it was drawn in the source drawing.

PASTEORIG
Using this command, objects copied into the clipboard will be pasted into the drawing at the same coordinates used in the source drawing. The only condition is, the source drawing should not be the current drawing.

In your source drawing select & copy your objects with ctrl+c go to your target drawing and on command line type PASTEORIG. Press enter & you are done.

Thanking You,

- Abhay Chauhan

PS : Don't forget to comment and share the post with your friends.

The ADDVARS2SCR Command

Want a list of your system variables as at text file?

ADDVARS2SCR is a command to add all your system variables to a .scr file.

After issuing the command you have to select a .scr file and AutoCAD will put all your system variables to that file.

With this file you can carry your variable settings with you. If you change your system and you want all your settings to be made, just run the .scr file and all your variables will be set in no time.

Thanking You,

- Abhay Chauhan

PS : Don't forget to comment and share the post with your friends.

The SETBYLAYER Command

This command was introduced in AutoCAD 2008. It is used to change the selected object's properties to ByLayer (& you can select all).

SETBYLAYER is different from changing properties from properties window. This command will change the properties of everything be it a block, nested block, layout and anyting you have on your drawing.

You can select the properties which you want to be set as ByLayer. Press "S" after issuing the command. You will see a dialog box shown in image below:

Here, you can select whatever properties you want to change.

The options available to you depend on a system variable "SETBYLAYERMODE". This variable is saved in registry. The value is saved as an integer using the sum of the following values:

          0          No properties selected
          1          Color
          2          Linetype
          4          Lineweight
          8          Material
          16        Plot style
          32        Changes ByBlock to ByLayer
          64        Include blocks when changing ByBlock to ByLayer

Hope you find the command useful. The command is specially useful when you are working on the drawing crowded with objects, nested blocks and annotations.

As always, your feedback is expected.

Thanking You,

- Abhay Chauhan

PS : Don't forget to comment and share the post with your friends.

The MTJIGSTRING Command

Hi Everyone,
Ever noticed the text on the tooltip when picking up the corner of the mtext window.
Why does AutoCAD shows this? Why it is there?

This show a sample of your current font and text settings. Seeing this, you can come to know if you need to change the settings.

By default the AutoCAD always shows "abc".

You may wish to replace it with your own name or something like "Abhay Writes." or something of your choice.

MTJIGSTRING is a system variable that stores this value.

On command line enter MTJIGSTRING and provide a string of your choice. This can be anything of your choice.
Remember it is limited to 12 characters so be careful.

Dont like to show any thing at all.
Put a "." This will show a "." which will hide under of your cursor or window band.

That's all for now. Keep visiting for more tips.

ThankingYou,

- Abhay Chauhan

PS : Don't forget to comment and share the post with your friends.

The MTP Command

Hi Everyone,

Ever wondered how to find the mid point of two points in AutoCAD.

Say, you have two parellel lines at an unknown distance and you have to draw a line equidistanced from both. How to do this.

Use MTP command.

While executing any command you can type MTP at the command line or dynamic cursor and pick two points which you need to find the mid of.

Here in example I will use line command :


Command: line
Specify first point: mtp
First point of mid: Second point of mid:
Specify next point or [Undo]:

Without this command, to find the mid of two points you will have to :

1. Draw a line joining both the points 
2. In next command you will be able to snap the midpoint of the line.
3. Erase the line drawn to join both the points if not required.

So, Firends! start using MTP to save your time and keystrokes.

That's all for now.

Thanking You,

- Abhay Chauhan

PS : Don't forget to comment and share the post with your friends.

The OOPS & REDO Command

Hi Everyone,

Hurriedly used UNDO command or accidentally deleted wrong object. Following command will help you.

REDO
Undone something by mistake try REDO command. This will reverse the effects of a single UNDO command. It should immediately follow "u" or UNDO command.

MREDO
Reverses the effects of several previous UNDO or U commands. Options available are :

• Numbers : Reverses the specified number of actions.
• All : Reverses all previous actions
• Last : Reverses only the last action.

OOPS
OOPS command will bring you back the elements deleted by last erase coomand. OOPS can be used after BLOCK or WBLOCK commands also.

Thanking You,

- Abhay Chauhan

PS : Don't forget to comment and share the post with your friends.

The UNDO Command : Beyond Ctrl+Z

Hi Everyone,

This command is probably most used command in AutoCAD. Well! we all make mistakes and UNDO gives us a chance to rectify them.
This is the command, most of us use in a hurry and dont notice there are more options available.
So, we shall look into those options.

Well, if you undo actions with [Ctrl + Z] or simply typing "U" on the command line, you will not see the options availabe. Type UNDO instead and see the magic you have several options. What are those? See the images below :



Now let's understand the options available,

Number of operations to be undo
This option lets you undo a number of steps. No need to press "U" [Enter] again & again.

Auto (A)
Groups the actions in to a command reversible with a single UNDO command. By default Auto mode is on.
UNDO Auto is not available if the Control option is turned off or limited the UNDO feature.

Control (C)
This option controls the UNDO command. Options available under this are as follows :

• All (A) :Turns on the full UNDO command. All the features will be available.
• None (N) :Turns of the UNDO command and discards any UNDO command information saved earlier in the editting session the full UNDO command. 
• One (O) :Limits UNDO to a single operation.
• Combine (C) : This option controls whether multiple, consicutive zoom and pan commands are combined as a single operation for UNDO and REDO operations. Pan and Zoom commands which are started independent of a command are not combined.

Begin (BE), End (E)

Groups a sequence of actions into a set, to be undone with a single UNDO command.

Mark, Back

Mark will place a mark in the undo information. Back undoes everything to the Mark. while undoing one by one we are informed once the mark is reached.

Any number of marks can be placed, Back will move back one mark at a time. If no mark is found command will warn you, "This will undo everything. OK? <Y> Enter y or n or press enter" if "Y" is pressed everything done in the current session will be undone.

That's all for today and about UNDO command. You are always welcome if you find something new about UNDO command.

Thanking You,

- Abhay Chauhan

PS : Don't forget to comment and share the post with your friends.

The AUDIT Command

Hi Everyone,

Sometimes, when we are working on a large drawing it is populated with entities like line, circle, text, dimensions, blocks XREF's etc etc the database behind the drawing keeps getting heavier. The heavier the drawing the complexer the database, so are the chances of getting a drawing corrupted or damaged.

Audit command will help. Periodically, we should check the health of our drawing. Audit command will check the drawing for its integrity. It will provide you the description of the errors and recommendations to correct them. We can also specify if we want the program to fix the errors.

Here is an example :

Related system variables is AUDITCTL set the value to 1 if you wish to have a written audit file. This will create an .adt file that can be opened with notepad.


Now, despite doing everything, sometimes due to the program crash or system failure the drawings sometimes get damaged or corrupted. How to recover them, Read here.

 Thanking You,

- Abhay Chauhan

PS : Don't forget to comment and share the post with your friends.

The RECOVER Command

Hi Everyone,

So, your program just crashed due to unknown reasons. You restarted the program and tried to open your drawing and it says drawing corrupted. What to do?

DRAWINGRECOVERY is a command that will show you a list of drawing files that can be recovered after a program or system failure.

RECOVER command will let you repair the damaged drawing. A standard file selection box will open for you to select the drawing file to be recovered.

Below is a sample report of generated from RECOVER command.

RECOVERALL will recover the selected drawing file and all attached xref's including all nested xref's are opened, repaired, resaved and closed.

If you want to check an open drawing for errors and fix them try AUDIT command.


Hope you liked the post.

Thanking You,

Abhay Chauhan


PS : Don't forget to comment and share the post with your friends.

The TSPACEINVADERS Command

Hi Everyone,

TSPACEINVADERS :

Pretty long command name! Can you make out what it does and how it can help you save time and efforts.
This command is an undocumented one, you would'nt find it in AutoCAD^® help. I incidentally found this on command line. While I was playing with my "tab" key.

This command is used to find the TEXT and MTEXT entities that have their space invaded by other entities. This command will place all invaded TEXT or MTEXT entities into your selection set and then you can use TEXTMASK command to make a background mask so that your text becomes clearer and readable.

Here is how you do it:

You can of course avoid cycling through each entity for visual verification.

This command is very useful when you are working on detail drawings and have a crowded drawing.

Hope, I was clear in my writing and this was useful.

By the way do you use any command which you think is rarely used by others or has an unusual name.


Thanking You,

- Abhay Chauhan

 PS : Don't forget to comment and share the post with your friends.

AutoCAD Icon/ Startup Switches

Hi Everyone,

Today we shall discuss about AutoCAD Icon Switches.

First of all, What are Icon/Startup Switches?

These are parameters to be added to the shortcut properties any program's Windows desktop icon.

Second, What is the use?

Executing External Commands/ Utilities From Inside AutoCAD

In an earlier post I shared the BROWSER command that opened a webpage of your choice from inside AutoCAD. This time we will see how we can execute some external command from inside AutoCAD.

What if you are working on your important drawing and you need to see the properties of a steel section?

What we do is, Minimize AutoCAD window go to the location of our steel table in explorer and double click it or fireup Microsoft Excel and open the steel table's soft copy.

What if we could open the steel table file from AutoCAD command line.

Yes, You can.

The MASSPROP Command

Hi Everyone,

This command is used to calculate the properties of 2D and 3D objects.

This command will give different properties for different type of objects.
Here is a list of properties for the different objects "MASSPROP" will provide :

Regions :

• Area
• Perimeter
• Bounding Box
• Centroid

If you select more than one Region "MASSPROP" will provide the information about the regions which are coplaner with the first selected region.

If the regios selected are coplanar with XY plane current UCS, "MASSPROP" will provide following additional properties

• Moment of inertia
• Products of inertias
• Radius of gyration
• Principal moments and X,Y,Z directions about centroid.

Solids :

• MASS
• Volume
• Bounding Box
• Centroid
• Moments of inertia
• Products of inertias
• Radius of gyration
• Principal moments and X,Y,Z directions about centroid.

Use "AREA" command to find out the surface area of solids.

After showing you the properties in the text window, "MASSPROP" will ask you if you want to write the properties to a text file. If you select "Yes" it will ask you the filename. The file created will have a .mpr extension. This is a text file and you can open it with Notepad or any other text editor.

There are properties that are dependendent on current units like Length & Density. These in turn effect other properties like :

• Mass of solids
• Volume of solids
• Area of regions and surface area of solids
• Bounding box, radius of gyration, centroid and perimeter
• Moment ofinertia, products of inertias and principal moments

This command is very useful when engineers need to use a non-standard section for their analysis and they need the properties of the section to put into the analysis software like STAAD.

- Abhay Chauhan

 PS : Don't forget to comment and share the post with your friends.

The Browser Command

Hi Everyone,

Do you know, you can open your default web browser from your command line, you can even tell it to open a website of your choice.

Use "Browser" command, see the attached snapshot,

Maximize Your Workspace

Dear Fellow Cadders,

Hope all is well at your end and you are all having fun doing good work!

All well on my side, expect my broadband had been down for few days.

OK Let's get to the topic,

Have you ever noticed that with the newer versions of AutoCAD we are getting less space for working. Most of the screen is covered with Ribbons, Paletts and Icons.

Don't you feel the more workspace would be better. So what to do about it?

Change your monitor!

Just Kidding!!!!

48 AutoCAD Shortcuts

Fellow Cadders,

Good morning to you all,

Here I am again with a new post.
This post is about shortcuts available in AutoCAD. You can find them by going to Tools > Customize > Interface and look for "Keyboard Shortcuts". There you can also customize these to your taste.

Shorten the Command

Fellow Cadders,

A very good day to you all.

Today I am going to explain a way to make your own personalised shortcuts for any command you consider to be of long length.

The benefits, First this way the command belongs to you and becomes easier to remember, Second less keystrokes, that makes you faster and saves you time.

The LAYMCUR Command

An Easy Question:

What you do if you have to draw an object on the same layer as the existing objects are drawn on?