Tailoring AutoCAD

Peter Kitson

ISBN : -

Order a printed copy of this book from Amazon --UNAVAILABLE--

For your free electronic copy of this book please verify the numbers below. 

(We need to do this to make sure you're a person and not a malicious script)

1. Introduction to AutoCAD Customization

by Ralph Grabowski

If you\'re a messy sketcher like me, then you appreciate how computer software makes your work neater. For too many drafters, that\'s all AutoCAD amounts to: a neater drafting machine.

The real power behind AutoCAD, however, is in its ability to be customized to the way you work. Customize is jargon for letting AutoCAD do some of the drafting for you. That can range from drawing a linetype specific to your discipline, to drawing a 3D staircase to fit between two floors and more.

The benefit? You get your work done is less time, or, if you are a free-lancer, you get more work done in the same time.

The drawback to customization is that it takes two bits of time. First, you need to take the time to learn how to customize AutoCAD -- that\'s what this series of tutorials is all about. Then, you need some more time to create the customization.

Time isn\'t something most professionals have a lot of. I sometimes find myself doing a repetitive editing function under the false belief that it would take longer to write (and debug) a macro that would automate the task. So, I have a rule-of-thumb: I write a macro when the same action is repeated more than three times. There lies the responsibility of Autodesk to make automation easier for the end-user. Still, the time you invest in automation makes you a more productive AutoCAD user, even in the short run.

By my count, there are more than two dozen ways to customize AutoCAD (some of these may vary, depending on the version of AutoCAD you are working with):

• ADI - Autodesk Device Interface and plotting formats (replaced by HDI in AutoCAD 2000)
• ADS - AutoCAD Development System (no longer available as of AutoCAD 2000).
• API - Applications programming interface
• ASI - AutoCAD SQL Interface
• DCL - Customizable dialog boxes
• DDE - Dynamic Data Exchange
• DIESEL - Direct Interpretively Evaluated String Expression Language
• DWG - DraWinG; create custom symbols and user-defined objects.
• DXB - Drawing Interchange Binary
• DXF - Drawing Interchange Format
• DXFIX - Drawing translation (no longer available as of AutoCAD 2000)
• HLP and AHP - Customizable help (no longer available as of AutoCAD 2000)
• INI - Toolbar macros and initialization files (no longer available as of AutoCAD 2000)
• LIN - Customizable linetypes
• LSP - AutoLISP
• MNU - Customizable menu and tablet, popdown, cursor, and icon menus
• ObjectARX - AutoCAD Runtime Extension
• OLE - Object linking and embedding
• PAT - Customizable hatch patterns
• PGP - Program parameter files
• RPF - Raster pattern file
• SCR - Script files
• SHP - Customizable text fonts
• SHX - Shapes
• SLD and SLB - Slides and slide libraries
• VBA - Visual Basic for Applications
• VLISP - Visual Lisp