About Entering Commands in the Command Window

About Entering Commands in the Command Window

Commands are the instructions that tell the program what to do. 

There are many ways to initiate a command: 

• Make a selection on a ribbon, toolbar, or menu. 
• Enter a command in a dynamic input tooltip. 
• Enter a command in the command window. 
• Drag a custom command from a tool palette. 

The dockable, resizable command window accepts commands and system variables and displays prompts that help you complete a command sequence (including commands that were initiated at another location such as the ribbon). 

Respond to Command Prompts 

After you enter a command, you may see a series of prompts displayed at the command line. For example, after you enter PLINE and specify the first prompt, the following prompt is displayed: 

PLINE Specify next point or [Arc HalfwidthLength Undo Width]: 

In this case, the default is to specify the next point. You can either enter X,Y coordinate values or click a location in the drawing area. 

To choose a different option, click the option. If you prefer to use the keyboard, specify the option by entering the capitalized, colored letter. You can enter uppercase or lowercase letters. For example, to choose the Width option, type w and press Enter. 

Sometimes the default option (including the current value) is displayed after the angle-bracketed options: 

POLYGON Enter number of sides <4>:

n this case, you can press Enter to retain the current setting (4). If you want to change the setting, type another number and press Enter. 

Note:When you click a ribbon option to start commands that change property settings such as color, layer, lineweight, dimension style, and multileader style, the command line prompts are hidden. This reduces the display of unnecessary text. 

Display Suggested Commands and System Variables 

By default, the name of a command or system variable is automatically completed as you type it. A suggestion list of commands and system variables that use the same letters is also displayed. You can control the settings for these features in the Input Search Options dialog box. 

If the automatic completion features are turned off, type a letter on the command line and press the Tab key to cycle through all the commands and system variables that begin with that letter. Press Enter or Spacebar to start the command or system variable. 

Enter Command Aliases 

Some commands have abbreviated names, or command aliases, that you can enter at the command line. For example, instead of entering circle to start the CIRCLE command, you can type c and press Enter. The command Suggestion List (if displayed) indicates the alias in front of the command name: 

C (CIRCLE)

Command aliases are defined in the acad.pgp or acadlt.pgpfile. 

Interrupt a Command with another Command or System Variable 

Many commands can be used transparently. That is, they can be entered on the command line while you use another command. Commands that do not select objects create new objects, or end the drawing session usually can be used in this way. 

To use a command transparently, enter an apostrophe (') before entering the command at any prompt. On the command line, double angle brackets (>>) precede prompts that are displayed for transparent commands. After you complete the transparent command, the original command resumes. In the following example, you turn on the grid and set it to one-unit intervals in the middle of the LINE command. 

Command: line

Specify first point: 'grid

>>Specify grid spacing (X) or [ON/OFF/Snap/Major/aDaptive/Limits/Follow/Aspect] <0 .5000="">: 1

Resuming LINE command 

Specify first point: 

Changes made in dialog boxes that you have opened transparently cannot take effect until the interrupted command has been completed. Similarly, if you reset a system variable transparently, the new value cannot take effect until you start the next command. 

Aids for Entering Commands 

The program offers several ways to remember which commands to use: 

• Automatic completion. Completes name of a command or system variable as you type it. 

• Command line suggestion list. Displays a list of commands or system variables that match or contain the letters you have typed. The order of this list changes as you use the program, so that the commands you use most frequently are displayed at the top of the list. The program also offers suggestions for misspelled entries. 

• Automatic correction. Commands that you frequently misspell. The program automatically adds words that you misspell and correct a specified number of times to the AutoCorrectUserDB.pgpfile. You can also update this text file manually. 

• Command cycling. Cycles through commands you have already used in the current session when you press the Arrow keys. An arrow button on the left end of the command line also displays this list. You can change the settings for these options from the command line Customization button or shortcut menu. 

This document contains content adapted from the Autodesk® Knowledge Network, available under Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works. Copyright © Autodesk, Inc.

Create New Drawing Dialog Box

Create New Drawing Dialog Box

Defines the settings for a new drawing.

Summary

Start from Scratch creates a new drawing using either imperial or metric default settings. Use a Template creates a new drawing using the settings defined in a drawing template you select. Use a Wizard creates a new drawing using the settings you specify in either the Quick or Advanced wizard. (The first option, Open a Drawing, is not available from the NEW command. To open an existing drawing, use OPEN.)

List of Options

The following options are displayed.

Start from Scratch

Starts an empty drawing using default imperial or metric settings (MEASUREINIT system variable). You can change the measurement system for a given drawing by using the MEASUREMENT system variable. The Drawing1.dwg that opens when you start the program is a drawing that is started from scratch.

Imperial

Starts a new drawing based on the imperial measurement system. The default drawing boundary (the grid limits) is 12 by 9 inches.

Metric

Starts a new drawing based on the metric measurement system. The default drawing boundary (the grid limits) is 429 by 297 millimetres.

Tip

Displays a description of the selected measurement setting.

Use a Template

Starts a drawing based on a drawing template file. Template drawings store all the settings for a drawing and may also include predefined layers, dimension styles, and views. Template drawings are distinguished from other drawing files by the .dwt file extension. They are normally kept in the template directory.

Several template drawings are included with this program. You can make additional template drawings by changing the extensions of drawing file names to .dwt. See “Use a Template File to Start a Drawing” in the User's Guide.

Select a Template

Lists all DWT files that currently exist in the drawing template file location, which is specified in the Options dialog box. Select a file to use as a starting point for your new drawing.

Preview

Displays a preview image of the selected file.

Browse

Displays the Select a Template File dialog box (a standard file selection dialog box), where you can access template files that are not available in the Select a Template list.

Template Description

Displays a description of the selected template. If you create your own template, you can use the Template Options dialog box to specify the text that you want to display here. See the SAVEAS command.

Use a Wizard

Sets up a drawing using a step-by-step guide. You can choose from two wizards: Quick Setup and Advanced Setup.

Quick Setup

Displays the Quick Setup wizard, in which you can specify the units and area for your new drawing. The Quick Setup wizard also changes settings, such as text height and snap spacing, to an appropriate scale.

Advanced Setup

Displays the Advanced Setup wizard, in which you can specify the units, angle, angle measure, angle direction, and area for your new drawing. The Advanced Setup wizard also changes settings, such as text height and snap spacing, to an appropriate scale.

Wizard Description

Displays a description of the selected wizard.

This document contains content adapted from the Autodesk® Knowledge Network, available under Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works. Copyright © Autodesk, Inc.

AutoCAD DWG Files unexpectedly increase in file size

Issue: 

Drawing files in AutoCAD end up being much larger than they should, often with no obvious data in them. Other symptoms include failure to copy and paste elements in the drawing, when selecting text with the properties palette open will cause the process to hang for a long time.  

Causes: 
This happens when data is imported from a DGN file and the original linetypes were either incorrectly or not mapped to AutoCAD linetypes. This produces a huge object database in the drawing that cannot be purged with the standard tools. Furthermore, if you copy and paste an entity from the drawing into another drawing, the entire database is also copied, spreading the problem to the new file. 
  
Solution: 
There is a hotfix for AutoCAD to overcome this problem. The Hotfix includes two files:  
The DgnLsPurge.dll, once loaded will allow you to purge these DGN objects. 
The AcDgnLS.dbx is included to keep the DGN objects from propagating to new files when copying, pasting or inserting from other files.

For AutoCAD 2013 / 2014: AutoCAD® DGN Hotfix 
For AutoCAD 2012: AutoCAD® DGN Hotfix for AutoCAD 2012 

For AutoCAD LT: 
Try out the following procedure. 

• Open the file with AutoCAD LT.
• DXFOUT the full file.
• In a new file DXFIN the file created in previous step.
• DXFOUT the full file.
• In a new file DXFIN the file created in previous step.
• Purge all.
• Save the file.

Note: The problem is partially solved with AutoCAD 2014 and AutoCAD LT 2014 with the SP1 (the part to avoid the propagation with the copy and paste), but to clean the file you need to install the hotfix and run the DGNPURGE. 

If you have installed the SP1 for AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT 2014: 

1. Try the following procedure if the previous methods fail: 
2. Open the file.
3. With the LAYER command, assure that all layers are On, Thaw and Unlocked.
4. Copy all objects in the drawing to the Clipboard (CTRL+C).
5. Open a new file and paste all objects (CTRL+V).
6. Save the file.

For Autodesk AutoCAD LT 2013, please follow the following workaround: 

1. Open the affected drawing file using Autodesk AutoCAD LT 2013
2. Enter DGNEXPORT at the command line
3. Select V8 DGN under Files of type and click SAVE
4. When the Export DGN Settings message box is displayed,
5. Verify that the correct seed file and units are selected
6. Click OK
7. After the DGN export is complete, open a new template and enter DGNIMPORT at the command line
8. Select the newly created DGN file and click OPEN
9. Verify that  the Conversion unit is correct
10. Click on Mapping setups and select new and make sure Mapping type is Import
11. On the new Mapping setup, click on Modify…
12. GO to Linetype tab, change all rows to ByLayer (Tip: Right click on the first row which has been set to ByLayer and the select Copy. Select all the Rows>Right click>Paste)
13. Click OK

This document contains content adapted from the Autodesk® Knowledge Network, available under Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works .

How To Create a Drawing Template

Create a new template from an existing drawing or drawing template.
After changing the settings of any drawing file, you can create a template to quickly create new drawings with the same conventions and default settings.

1. Erase all of the objects in the drawing that you do not want to keep.
2. Click the Application button Save As AutoCAD Drawing Template. DWT files must be saved in the current drawing file format. To create a DWT file in a previous format, save the file in the desired DWG format, and then rename the DWG file using a DWT extension.
3. In the Save Drawing As dialog box, File Name text box, enter a name for the drawing template and click Save.
4. Enter a description for the drawing template and click OK.

The new template is saved in the template folder.

Read more at AUGI articles “Why You Should Use a Template”. Here’s the link: http://www.augi.com/library/tipniques-why-you-should-use-a-template






This document contains content adapted from the Autodesk® Knowledge Network, available under Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works . Copyright © Autodesk, Inc.