Table Tool in Autocad

New Versions

In the last section i was talking about  the new and latest versions of various softwares. Each time some new feature is added and and use of software is made simple and user friendly ( At least that is what the makers of them claim!) the new features are sometimes helpful and at some other , they are complicated to use.

Coming back to Autocad (That is the topic of this blog)

In older versions of autocad , the users found it very difficult to insert tabular data sheets. May be an area calculation  details in an architectural drawing or  material list  in a mechanical / electrical engineering drawing. 
Availability of an Excel worksheet made the job simpler as the user could copy/paste that in an autocad drawing. 

This is where the problem crops up.

Whenever an autocad drawing with an excel worksheet is plotted, it gives a lot of trouble. the data is printed very light, not printed at all or even a big black patch  of the size of data sheet is printed.
These problems can be solved sometimes at the time of printing  or making necessary settings ( like text colour,  background colour border colour , assigning a style etc.)

But the problem is solved in later versions of Autocad.  All  the facilities of data entry in an excel worksheet  ( or Table mode of MS_Word ) are incorporated in   the Table tool. Text entry, fonts , managing and formatting  cells, inserting /deleting rows or columns, and even adding math formula in the last column or row, everything is available. This has some definite advatages.

1) Easy and convenient for creation
2) No need of using a different software
3) no problems in printing.

In short using a table tool in CAD is much more convenient rather than combining it with Excel or Word files.

So go ahead, experiment and sve yourself some trouble.!!!!!!!!!!!

New versions

Think Over It !

While working on various softwares  right from operating system like dos to windows 7, graphic packages like corel draw, Photoshop and even Autocad,  i hv started wondering whether these new versions or updated versions are really worth?

Yes , it is true that in many cases the users life has become easy
Take the case of MS- Word

Spellcheck , bullets,  paragraph formatting etc have really made the document management very  easy. But on the other hand it is stretching the learning curve for the user, One has to see the new features , try to understand their use and applying them to his benefit , take a lot of energy and time. Also you have to remember a lot of new symbols which are either different or non existent in previous versions. In fact some of the functions become more difficult to use due to added facilities / features. The new versions mostly add the symbols  for the functions , but i find the earlier menu based version more easy to use. The result is , you have to keep on learning all the time as a new version comes up after certain time !!!!!!!!!

This is not to say that new versions should not be made. Improvement has to be there, but it should be convenient rather than tricky. Important aspect here is creating / improving always  gives a challenge to the intellectuals and even creating jobs and a means of earning for them!!

so what is the conclusion?

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Even i don't know!!!!!

restart

restarting the blog activity

Digital Architecture - Showcase 01

plot styles

A plot style table is a collection of plot styles assigned to a layout or the Model tab. There are two types of plot style tables: color-dependent plot style tables and named plot style tables.

Color-dependent plot style tables (CTB) use an object's color to determine characteristics such as lineweight. Every red object in a drawing is plotted the same way. While you can edit plot styles in a color-dependent plot style table, you cannot add or delete plot styles. There are 256 plot styles in a color-dependent plot style table, one for each color.
Named plot style tables (STB) contain user-defined plot styles. When you use a named plot style table, objects that have the same color may be plotted differently, based on the plot style assigned to the object. A named plot style table can contain as many or as few plot styles as required. Named plot styles can be assigned to objects or layers, just like any other property.

To set a plot style table type for new drawings

1. Click Tools menu  è Options. At the command prompt, enter options.
2. In the Options dialog box, Plot and Publish tab, click the Plot Style Table Settings button.
3. In the Plot Style Table Settings dialog box, select Use Color-dependent Plot Styles or Use Named Plot Styles.
4. (Optional) In the Default Style Table box, select a default plot style table.
5. (Optional) If Use Named Plot Styles is selected, select plot styles to assign to Layer 0 and to new objects.
6. Click OK.

Note

Setting plot style table types for new drawings does not affect existing drawings.

You can create either a named plot style table or a color-dependent plot style table. With a named plot style table, you can add and define plot styles as you like; the file name has the extension .stb. A color-dependent plot style table creates 255 plot styles based on color; the file name has the extension .ctb. You can specify whether you want to use a plot style table for new drawings or for pre-AutoCAD 2000 drawings when they are saved in a later format.

Annotation

 Annotative Text 

..... continued from last section.

• Another way of setting the text height properly is by setting the annotation scale using the toolbar at the bottom of the screen. By default it is set at 1:1
•  You can also change existing non annotative text to annotative by changing the text’s Annotative property  to Yes. This applies to any text created through text styles or through the TEXT and MTEXT commands.
• You can set the orientation of annotative text objects to match the orientation of the paper..

Text confusion

Annotative Text

In one of my earlier article with the title “ Text size confusion” I had given a method by which one can ensure that the height of printed text is correct on paper. In other words, the printed text is of the desired size , not to big to be irritating or not to small so as to be unreadable. The method was a simple one , for a layman or for new user of autocad. However if one is familiar with the “TEXT STYLE” command , then the problem can be solved very easily or in fact there will not be any problem.
The concept of annotative text should be used for the purpose. Here either

1. You are sure of the scale at which the drawing is going to be printed
2. You are going to use viewports and layouts for printing.

1) The Annotative Scale should be defined in Text Style dialog box. Where you can attach the “annotative” property to the text. In that case there will option available for setting the “Paper Text Height”, which is the height of the text when the drawing is printed at the desired scale.

Use annotative text for notes and labels in your drawing. You create annotative text by using an annotative text style, which sets the height of the text on the paper.

The current annotation scale automatically determines the display size of the text in model space or paper space viewports.

For example, you want text to display at a height of 3/16" on the paper, so you can define a text style to have a paper height of 3/16". When you add text to a viewport that has a scale of 1/2"=1'0", the current annotation scale, which is set to the same scale as the viewport’s, automatically scales the text to display appropriately at 4.5".

....to be continued

Manage your text in MS-WORD

In one of my earlier write up i had written some simple rules to be followed when entering text.  the rules apply to all computer  typing. as everybody knows , MS-WORD is the most easily, frequently  used software for managing the text. 

Here are some tips for using the WORD  fro text typing / or processing.

  Tricks of Text

1.       Select any text which is to be modified. Then hold down shift key and press F3 key. The selected text will toggle in UPPERCASE, lowercase, Title Case and Sentence case.

2.       F7 key starts spelling and grammer check. Every user knows that.
Keep the cursor anywhere in the text. Then hold down shift key and press F7 key. This will select the word near the cursor  and show the thesaurus dialog box on the RHS of the screen.

3.       Pressing F4  key repeats the previous action.  

a.       If previously you have copy – pasted some text, hitting F4 key will go on pasting it again and again

b.      If previously you have used UNDO command , hitting F4 key will go on doing UNDO from last action , backwards.

4.       Normally for using menu items , we use the alt key + the capital letter in menu name. ( e.g for insert menu use alt+I ). if u press F6 key , all the menus will display that letter  in  box. Hitting F6 again will switch them off.

a.       Press F6 as said above. Then press H key as shown by the letter below the HOME menu. This will change the entire toolbar to sub items of home menu ( which is normal ) , but each item shown with  corresponding important letters to be used for them.

5.       The page margins can be shifted or adjusted directly by clicking and dragging the mouse in the gray area of the ruler. This is done without measurements. But holding down the ALT key while adjusting the margins will show the actual measurements

6.       From 12 point onwards , font sizes are available in steps of 2, i.e. 12, 14, 16 etc.  In order to get any font size , select the text and then use “]” key ( right square bracket ) while holding down the CTRL key.  This will increase the font size by one point for every hit of “]” key.  As opposed to this hitting the “[“ key while holding down CTRL key will reduce the point size by one at a time.

7.       Place the cursor at the start of document. Then press F8 key twice. This will start sequential type of selection.  Hitting F8 next time will select the first word.  Hitting F8 again will select the sentence. Next stroke will select entire paragraph.  And lastly the next stroke will select all the paragraphs. Also if a part of text is selected , then clicking the mouse further  will add to the selection , while clicking the mouse before, will reduce the selection.  Please note that when we start using F8 key , it will be difficult to come out of the loop. Save the file and u will be able to do any other work.

8.       Shift + F10 Key  gives pop-up Dialog box.

9.       F1 key shows help dialog box. Shift +F1 shows formatting dialog box on RHS.

10.   Methods for selection of text

a.       Click at the start of desired text and drag the mouse , holding down the button, till you cover desired part of the text.

b.      Double click the mouse on any in the text will select the word.

c.       Double clicking in left margin selects the nearest paragraph.

d.      Triple clicking the mouse will select the entire paragraph.

e.      Clicking the mouse along the line in left margin will select the line.

f.        Click the mouse anywhere in text. Then use right or left  arrows while holding  down shift key. This will select text in the direction of arrow used. Using UP and DOWN arrows will select the lines in those directions.

g.       Clicking the mouse in left margin and dragging it upwards or downwards will select lines in that direction till you leave the mouse button.

h.      CTRL+A selects all text.

i.         SHIFT+CTRL+ DOWN arrow / UP arrow selects text from current cursor position upto end / start of paragraph.

j.        SHIFT+CTRL+ END / HOME selects the text from current cursor position upto end / start of the document.

colour printing - further

• Autocad  has  a colour pallette  of  256 basic colours. However the darker shades of these colours look almost same or nearly black on screen. If u are using any of the darker shades, use a greater lineweight so as to make those lines properly visible.
• Light colours  like yellow or cyan  when printed on white paper, do not appear clearly.  Avoid them or at least use higher lineweight for them. Other way out is instead of pure yellow use a darker shade of yellow ( say colour no 40 ) so as to make it visible on a white paper.
• If u are using true colours, then remember that they will print in colour even after keeping the setting as monochrome CTB.  To ensure everything is printed in Black ( as required for a Tracing Paper print ) , go to the printer setting / options and choose " print in Black only " or "print  in Grayscale " .

Colour printing -- let us go further

lord Ganesh

colour printing - further

Whenever we r printing a CAD drawing , we are having different situations.
  If the drg is to be printed  on  Tracing paper , generally it is preferred to print in pure black ink. Tracing paper prints are mainly used for longer storage and taking Ammonia prints (or blue prints as they are called. ) If there are large patches of solid hatch pattern in the drg, then blue prints of the same do not look right. with the ugly patches.  Also the lines crossing or overlapping the solid hatch get mixed in them. this is because only black ink is used for printing, irrespective of the colours used in the drg.these problems can be avoided by
     a. Use separate colours for the boundary of the hatch and the hatch itself. Then , in the printer setting, edit   the   ctb setting , ----- specify  a suitable shade of gray colour for the solid hatch patches and all other colours as black ink. 
     b.  Use only different  shades of gray colour for hatch patterns. This will make the ctb setting easy---- all colours as black except the grey,  for which the setting will be " Use Object Colour "
     c.   If gradient hatch patterns are used , then u will have to set the printer for " print in grayscale" option. or "use only black" setting. Otherwise gradients will print in colour.

We will discuss  printing CAD drgs in colour in our next session !!

Colour Printing

In my earlier post I had highlighted some printing problems. These were more related to autocad printing.

Today i am going to tell u about printing in colour, whether it is a CAD Drg or a graphic from packages like Coreldraw, Photoshop, Illustrator etc.

• First thing to be noted is the fact that that the appearance of colours will never be same in print. What i want to highlight is that the colours as they appear in print will not match the way they look on screen either from brightness/ darkness point or in terms of colour shades. This is because all Display devices use RGB colour Combination whereas CMYK Combination is used in Printing technology. The colours get converted from RGB Format to CMYK Format ,  and hence the difference in their appearance when printed.
• Secondly  the media on which the drg or graphic is printed also makes a difference in the appearance. The type of Paper, Film and its properties affect the colours.
• The colours  appear on a CRT screen and a LCD Screen  differently. However  it is found that the printed colours are matching to a greater extent to a CRT Screen rather than a LCD Screen.

          All the above points refer to mostly printers used in home / office which are of inkjet type or laser type, using Four different colour cartridges viz. Cyan , Magenta, Yellow and Black.  The advanced printers use 6 or 8 cartridges and they produce the colours much better. Generally the additional cartridges have matte black, photo black,  light cyan and light magenta colours. They give more accurate colours.

      Due to all this above it is always advisable to get trial prints or check prints before going for multiple copies. It may increase the cost a little bit but instead of  being unhappy with the presentation or cursing oneself , better to take the necessary precaution !!!!!!!!!!!!

Colour printing

In my earlier blog i had written about printing problems. I am adding some more information , check points, precautions to be taken while printing a drawing.

1. first and the most important point to be noted here is do not expect the printed colours to be exactly same when compared to the screen . What I want to highlight here is the fact that  the appearnce of  printed colours will not match  to the colours or shades as they are seen on screen.  This is because the display units use the RGB colour scheme and printing technology uses mainly CMYK combination. the screen colours are converted to the CMYK format , which may not be 100 % accurate.

on our keyboard there are 3 special keys which either revee\rse the normal command or give some special command. you must have guessed them easily as SHIFT. CTRL and ALT keys.

although the best way to find their use is to try them on own , here are some of them .
Use of Shift , ctrl and alt keys.

1. You can use the Shift key in AutoCAD in many ways to help make your AutoCAD tasks easier and quicker:
2. Press Shift with the FILLET or CHAMFER command to change the radius to 0 and extend to lines to meet
3. Press and hold Shift to temporarily override ORTHO.
4. Press and hold Shift+A to temporarily override OSNAP.
5. Press Shift key and click on selected objects with mouse, to deselect.

Ctrl key :

1. Press Ctrl + A to select all objects.
2. Press Ctrl + 0 ( zero ) to remove all toolbars and menus. This is useful for expert users who know the commands by heart and use keyboard shortcuts.

we will go on adding to this list and you are also requested to add any of such ideas , which can be shared.

working with text

For modifying or formatting text we need to select it first. Depending on the situation  one may use any suitable method.  Some of them are given below “

Methods for selection of text

a.       Click at the start of desired text and drag the mouse , holding down the button, till you cover desired part of the text.

b.      Double click the mouse on any in the text will select the word.

c.       Double clicking in left margin selects the nearest paragraph.

d.      Triple clicking the mouse will select the entire paragraph.

e.      Clicking the mouse along the line in left margin will select the line.

f.        Click the mouse anywhere in text. Then use right or left  arrows while holding  down shift key. This will select text in the direction of arrow used. Using UP and DOWN arrows will select the lines in those directions.

g.       Clicking the mouse in left margin and dragging it upwards or downwards will select lines in that direction till you leave the mouse button.

h.      CTRL+A selects all text.

i.         SHIFT+CTRL+ DOWN arrow / UP arrow selects text from current cursor position upto end / start of paragraph.

j.        SHIFT+CTRL+ END / HOME selects the text from current cursor position upto end / start of the document.

working with text

For modifying or formatting text we need to select it first. Depending on the situation  one may use any suitable method.  Some of them are given below “

Methods for selection of text

a.       Click at the start of desired text and drag the mouse , holding down the button, till you cover desired part of the text.

b.      Double click the mouse on any in the text will select the word.

c.       Double clicking in left margin selects the nearest paragraph.

d.      Triple clicking the mouse will select the entire paragraph.

e.      Clicking the mouse along the line in left margin will select the line.

f.        Click the mouse anywhere in text. Then use right or left  arrows while holding  down shift key. This will select text in the direction of arrow used. Using UP and DOWN arrows will select the lines in those directions.

g.       Clicking the mouse in left margin and dragging it upwards or downwards will select lines in that direction till you leave the mouse button.

h.      CTRL+A selects all text.

i.         SHIFT+CTRL+ DOWN arrow / UP arrow selects text from current cursor position upto end / start of paragraph.

j.        SHIFT+CTRL+ END / HOME selects the text from current cursor position upto end / start of the document.

Text Basics

In computer we use text many times. Here are some basic definitions to be remembered while typing text in any of the softwares.  These are known since long and defined in grammar from good days, but keeping them in mind in computer related work helps a lot, saves time, reduces errors  and  makes the formatting of document , an easy task.

1.       Anything typed between two space bars is treated as one word.

2.       When a full stop  is followed by space bar , it indicates the start of a new sentence.

3.       Whenever we press ENTER key , it starts a new paragraph.

4.       If we press Enter key while holding down shift key, it is line break but not a new paragraph.

5.       Kerning is referred to as the gap between two letters in a word.

6.       Leading is the space between two successive lines.

7.       In sentence case, the first letter of the sentence is in uppercase and in Title case first letter of every word is in uppercase.

8.       Pressing TAB key moves the cursor approx. 5 spaces

9.       Descriptive text is Left aligned and numbers are right aligned by default.