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AutoCAD Tips'n'Tricks

Below are listed the most recent AutoCAD tips'n'tricks.

ON/OFF or THAW/FREEZE?

Both the off and frozen states make layers invisible. AutoCAD introduced the frozen and thawed layer states to reduce regeneration time - and that's the main difference between On/Off and Thawed/Frozen layer visibility options. However, today's computers are faster, and AutoCAD has since introduced several ways to avoid regeneration while panning and zooming - such as Aerial View, Zoom Dynamic, and real-time zooming and panning. Also, remember that thawing a layer causes a regeneration, whereas turning a layer back on only causes a redraw. As a result, you might actually save a regeneration by using On/Off instead of Thawed/Frozen.

Filleting Lines

If you have lines within your drawing that you'd like to fillet that you built without the POLYLINE command, you can quickly convert your series of lines to a polyline using the PEDIT command and then use the polyline option during your FILLET command to put fillets on each corner of the polyline - all at one time.

To convert your series of lines to a polyline, type PEDIT at the command line and when prompted to select objects, select one of the objects on your screen. AutoCAD will tell you that the line isn't a polyline and then will ask you if you want to turn that line into one. Reply Y for yes and press [Enter]. At the next prompt, Enter an option…

[Close/Join/Width/Edit vertex/Fit/Spline/Decurve/Ltype gen/Undo]:

Type J for join and press [Enter]. You're then prompted to select the objects onscreen to join. Draw a window around the objects you want to join together as a polyline. Press [Enter] again to exit the command. Your objects have been joined as a polyline and you're now ready to use the FILLET command.

First specify a radius for your fillet by typing FILLET at the command line and then entering R for radius. Then, type a value for the radius and press [Enter]. Press [Enter] again to re-enter the FILLET command and this time type P for polyline in response to the prompt. Select your newly created polyline on your screen and all the corners are filleted onscreen.