Tutorials

Boundary Trim in AutoCAD

At one point or another, we are all faced with the tedious prospect of breaking or trimming a large [...]

AutoCAD Dynamic Blocks – Part 2: Alignment Grip

In this installment of our look at Dynamic Blocks in AutoCAD, we are going to add the alignment grip [...]

AutoCAD Dynamic Blocks – Part 1: Multiple Insertion Points

I am going to start a series of posts demonstrating the creation of dynamic blocks in AutoCAD [...]

Selecting Images in AutoCAD

The most common way to select an image in AutoCAD is to pick the image frame. This works well most o [...]

Replacing Styles in Civil 3D

In Civil 3D you can delete styles one at a time by right-clicking on them, or even purge large numbe [...]

Divide and Measure in AutoCAD

Divide and Measure are two often forgotten but very useful commands — they don’t actuall [...]

Shortest Distance Between Objects

Have you ever needed to find the shortest distance between two objects in your drawing? Civil 3D has [...]

Non-destructive Breakline Boundaries in Civil 3D Surfaces

Outer, Show and Hide boundaries have the option to be created as non-destructive breaklines. When [...]

Where are my Civil 3D Point Leaders Pointing

When you drag a Point Label away from it’s default position and into the Drag State it typical [...]

CADapult Training Events for 2020

CADapult Software Solutions will be involved in several events around the US that you will want to c [...]

Keep your AutoCAD Attribute Values with the Burst Command

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The Lasso Selection in AutoCAD

The Lasso selection in AutoCAD allows you to create an irregularly shaped window or crossing selecti [...]

Offsets or True Buffers in AutoCAD

You are most likely familiar with the OFFSET command in AutoCAD and have probably used it thousands [...]

Import a PDF into AutoCAD

PDF files are commonly used to share information. If a PDF file was created with vector data and y [...]

Take a Walk with your Layers

The Layer Walk command in AutoCAD allows you to select one or more layers from a list and immediatel [...]

Get more out of the Civil 3D Status Bar

The Status Bar is something we all use often in Civil 3D, but probably take for granted. Other tha [...]

Copy Objects from an Xref or a Block

You can copy objects out of an xref or block and into your drawing using the NCOPY command. Just t [...]

CADapult Training Events for the First Half of 2019

CADapult Software Solutions will be involved in several events around the US that you will want to c [...]

Feature Lines Linked to a Surface

Civil 3D has long been able to drape (or project) feature lines onto a surface. This is a valuable [...]

Select Similar in Civil 3D

You can right-click on an object in Civil 3D and pick Select Similar to select all the objects in a [...]

Select Similar in AutoCAD

You can right-click on an object in AutoCAD and pick Select Similar to select all the objects in a d [...]

“Add Selected” to Create New Objects

“Add Selected” is an often overlooked tool that can save you time in AutoCAD. How ofte [...]

CADapult Training Events for the First Half of 2018

CADapult Software Solutions will be involved in several events around the US that you will want to c [...]

An Award Winning Class at Autodesk University 2015

This year was my 10th consecutive year teaching at Autodesk University and a very busy one for me te [...]

Which Mapping Products Are “Better”, ESRI’s Or Autodesk’s?

I’ve heard the question many times, and I’ve heard a lot of answers. “ESRI’s products make i [...]

Converting & Tracking Map Coordinates

If you are using Civil 3D or Land Desktop, it includes a version of Autodesk MAP, which provides a [...]

Inserting Georeferenced Raster Images

Autodesk MAP includes the ability to properly insert a georeferenced image into a drawing. A geore [...]

Thematic Mapping

With the introduction of the Display Manager in Autodesk MAP 3D 2005, you now have a better way to c [...]

An Important Step When Moving Annotation Labels

Most maps need to convey a lot of information graphically. Even though many concepts such as locati [...]

Need to Find Objects in your Drawings? Just Ask!

AutoCAD Map 3D, which is sold as a stand-alone application, but is also included with Land Desktop a [...]

Transform – Scale, Rotate and Move in One Step

TRANSFORM is a command in Map 3D (which is also a component of Land Desktop and Civil 3D), that has [...]

Save the Current Map as a New Drawing

One of the many powerful features of AutoCAD Map 3D is Thematic Mapping, which allows you to quic [...]

Vexed by 3D Polylines?

3D Polylines can be quite useful, but sometimes you might find them in a map and struggle to use th [...]

Sources of Free Geospatial Data

Here are a few sources of geospatial data that I have used. If there are any sources not listed that [...]

Defining Scale Ranges in the FDO Style Editor

When stylizing Feature Data Objects in Map 3D, there is a powerful setting that many users overloo [...]

A Better Way to Join Polylines

We’ve all been there. It’s crunch time and you encounter hundreds or maybe thousands of indivi [...]

Exporting Object Data to a DBF

In our book “Digging Into AutoCAD Map 3D 2011 – Level 1 Training” we cover the basics of Obje [...]

Accessing Geodatabase Files from ESRI

Autodesk has added the capability to access Geodatabases that were created with ESRI ArcGIS 9 produc [...]

Using Range Tables in Property Alteration Queries

Here is a relatively easy way to create a quick thematic map, based on Object Data. In addition t [...]

Interface Changes in AutoCAD Map 3D 2012

Among the many enhancements and changes to AutoCAD Map 3D for 2012 are new workspace ribbons, as w [...]

Viewing and Editing Linked Data

In AuotCAD Map 3D, when an external database is attached to a drawing, the data is not brought into [...]

Calculating Geodetic Distance

There are many tools in AutoCAD for measuring distances. With features like Object Snap, it is [...]

Selecting and Managing Raster Images

One of the many useful features of AutoCAD Map 3D is placing a rectified raster image in the proper [...]

Converting A Land Desktop Project From Feet to Meters

Converting a Land Desktop project from Feet to Meters has always been a challenge. But now with La [...]

New COGO Commands

Some new COGO commands have been added to Autodesk Map and Land Desktop 2004. This includes the ca [...]

Building A Surface From 3D Faces

We have all probably received a drawing at one time or another that contains 3D faces representing a [...]

Legal Descriptions In Land Desktop

Autodesk Land Desktop has had the ability to define Parcels and generate Area, Inverse and Map Check [...]

Using Formulas In Your Land Desktop Labels

Did you know that you could add mathematical formulas to your Land Desktop labels? This will allow [...]

Drawing Cross Section Templates In Land Desktop

You may have run across a problem from time to time in Land Desktop where the Draw Template command [...]

Working With AutoCAD Dimensions In Land Desktop

Working With AutoCAD Dimensions In Land Desktop can be frustrating if you decide to fight with the p [...]

The Object Viewer Vs. 3D Orbit

At first look the Object Viewer in Land Desktop and the standard 3D Orbit command in AutoCAD look ve [...]

Dynamic Quick Sections Of A Surface

The Quick Section command is one of those Land Desktop commands that have been forgotten by many peo [...]

Surveyor’s Units In Land Desktop

A common question that I get is how to use Surveyor’s Units in Land Desktop. Many people become [...]

Creating a Surface from 3D Faces or 3D Lines in Civil 3D

We have all probably received a drawing at one time or another that contains 3D faces representing a [...]

Automatically Scaling Point Symbols in Civil 3D

Lets look at scaling points based on data in a point file. You may have scaled points in LDT but how [...]

Highlights of Civil 3D 2008

The 2008 version of AutoCAD Civil 3D has been available for some time now. With another version come [...]

Using Styles to Speed up Civil 3D Drawings

If you have been working with larger drawings in Civil 3D you may have wished for a way to speed up [...]

Section Views & Sample Lines

While Section Views are dynamic and will reflect the changes to the corridor model they are also dyn [...]

Using Drag-and-Drop to Manage Civil 3D Styles

With Civil 3D 2007’s use of Styles to control the display of objects it’s a great idea to create [...]

Label Styles in Civil 3D from the Top Down

In AutoCAD Civil 3D it can be very tedious to edit Label Styles one at a time. Depending on your CAD [...]

Importing Styles Into Civil 3D Drawings

Copying Civil 3D styles from one drawing to another or importing styles into an existing drawing fr [...]

Civil 3D Grading – When Feature Lines Cross

Using Feature Lines for grading in Civil 3D has been an area of the program that has continued to ev [...]

Do I have to use the Ribbon?

In the 2010 version of Civil 3D the interface has been dramatically redone to incorporate the ribbon [...]

Wild Cards in Description Keys

Many of us use wild cards in Civil 3D description key codes to help sort through the raw descriptio [...]

2 Quick Tips for Improving Performance in Civil 3D

There are many different tips and tricks for improving performance in AutoCAD Civil 3D. This tutori [...]

Sharing Parcels in Civil 3D

In Civil 3D 2010 you can create Data Shortcuts to share Surfaces, Alignments, Profiles, Pipe Network [...]

Exaggerating a Surface in the Object Viewer or 3D Orbit

I am often asked if there is a way to exaggerate the vertical scale of a Civil 3D surface when it is [...]

Digit Grouping with Commas in Civil 3D

Sometimes it can be the little things in life that can make you happy, or that can annoy you and dri [...]

Using Points and User Defined Properties to Manage Measure Downs

In this tutorial we will look at a workflow in Civil 3D to manage and label measure down information [...]

Using Mr. Sid Files in Civil 3D

If you have tried to insert a Mr. Sid Image into AutoCAD Civil 3D using the MAPIINSERT command (foun [...]

Rotating Civil 3D Point Symbols Independent of Label Text

Point Symbols can be quickly and easily rotated in Civil 3D by using the Rotate Point grip. Howeve [...]

Improve Performance of Large Surfaces with a Data Clip Boundary

The increased availability of LIDAR data and other forms of large point datasets have brought new ch [...]

Improve Civil 3D Performance by Optimizing Label Styles

Most of us are always looking for ways to improve the performance of Civil 3D, let’s be honest, no [...]

Tips to Improve Civil 3D Performance

In previous tutorials I have discussed a number of ways that you can improve the performance of Auto [...]

Labeling Structures from the Top or Bottom in Civil 3D

I’m often asked questions by users that are frustrated when labeling pipe network Structures in Ci [...]

Purging Styles from Civil 3D Drawings

Cleaning up Civil 3D drawings and removing unwanted or unneeded styles has been a tedious process in [...]

Digital Signatures In AutoCAD

You can use a digital signature to sign a drawing or group of drawings from within AutoCAD or by usi [...]

Don’t Forget DRAGGING to Copy and Move Objects Quickly

Sometimes we old-timers stick with old methods to do everything, like selecting the Move and Copy co [...]

Better Elevation Banding In Civil 3D

I have always been frustrated with the way that Civil 3D preforms an Elevation Surface Analysis. [...]

Maximum Text Length for Labels in Civil 3D

Learn how you can limit the length of labels in Civil 3D so that they fit the area that you have ava [...]

Smooth Pipes in Section and Profile Views in Civil 3D

When drawing Civil 3D Pipes in Section Views or when displaying crossing Pipes in Profile Views you [...]

Surface Level of Detail in Civil 3D

It has become common to work with surfaces in Civil 3D that are created from large datasets that con [...]

Annotative Object Properties

There are a number of very interesting new features in AutoCAD 2008, including the ability to fade [...]

Be Careful With The Defpoints Layer

Many times you will have an object in your drawing, like a viewport for instance, which you want to [...]

Accuracy vs. Precision

The words accuracy and precision are tossed around a lot in the CAD, mapping and engineering fields, [...]

Creating Linetypes with Measure and Divide

I’ve been using AutoCAD to create maps since the mid-1980s, and I had to develop a lot of kludges [...]

Password Protecting Drawings, Is It A Good Idea?

A new feature of AutoCAD 2004 is the ability to password protect drawings. This is a feature that [...]

Streamlining The PEDIT Command

Object selected is not a polyline Do you want to turn it into one? <Y> This is a prompt that w [...]

Finding WHOHAS A Drawing Open And For How Long

If you have ever tried to open a drawing only to find that it is already open so that your only opti [...]

Saving Time With The Fillet Command

Did you know that you can use any of the standard AutoCAD selection options when selecting objects d [...]

Recover Lost Toolbars

This is something that has happened to all of us. You drag a toolbar over to the edge of your scre [...]

Creating PLT Files With The Publish Command

Over the years there have been several different options for batch plotting. The Publish command h [...]

A Bhatch Of Improvements

The BHATCH (Boundary Hatch) command has undergone several improvements in AutoCAD 2005 that you may [...]

Hidden Tool Palette Commands

A great new feature of AutoCAD 2004 is the Tool Palette. One of the things that it lets you do is [...]

Protect Your Toolbars

New to AutoCAD 2005 is the TBCUSTOMIZE system variable. When set to 0 (or OFF) the commands to cus [...]

Lock Those Viewports

Have you ever had a layout set up perfectly, only to have the scale and orientation of the viewport [...]

Where Are My Automatic Save Files?

Most people don’t think about their Automatic Save files until they need them. Then the first qu [...]

Incremental Save Percentage

Incremental Save Percentage or ISAVEPERCENT is a system variable that Autodesk introduced to improve [...]

Easier Plotting Part 1 – Layouts And Templates

We all know that Plotting underwent a huge change in the transition from AutoCAD 14 to AutoCAD 2000 [...]

Easier Plotting Part 2 – Page Setups

In last month’s tutorial “Easier Plotting Part 1 – Layouts And Templates” we looked at how s [...]

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