This command is useful when you need to create many Viewports in a Layout and see all of them. Why? By default you can see only about 20 Viewports.
Type MAXACTVP and you will be able to maximize it to 64.
Below you can see the compression of the viewport with this command set to 10 and to 64.
One thing to remember about attributes – attributes which are not inside the block are not visible when attached in an external reference.
There is ATTDISP command which allows to change visibility of attributes which are also in blocks but it still doesn’t work when attributes are xrefed.
If there is a way to show them in xrefs please let me know. Thanks.
After years of using AutoCAD one can still discover something new and useful in this program. This happens to me every now and then.
CHSPACE command allows on a layout to transfer selected objects between model space and paper space and vice versa. It is in AutoCAD since version 2007.
Here’s a simple step-by step guide how to use this command:
Here is an example when this was useful for me to move dimensions and annotations from Model Space do Paper Space. The scale of the objects was automatically adjusted to the Paper Space. 
This is the view in the Model Space.
This is the view in the Paper Space. I have moved the dimension and the leader annotation to position them outside the viewports. Additionally I have override the dimension text to represent the real Model Space dimension.
This command could be a real tie saver. I’m sure you will find you own ways how to use this command. You can find some more examples e.g. here or here. Good luck.
Most of us in Europe work in metric units. We usually start a new file and it’s already preconfigured but sometimes we need to amend something in the file received from someone else and we encounter Imperial units like on the image below:
Of course changing the UNITS doesn’t help.
On the list of available scales which we can add still there is no metric scales:
Only one thing can be done in this situation – command MEASUREMENT need to be entered and its value changed between 1 and 0 (or from 0 to 1 for opposite problem) Command MEASUREMENT is responsible for the file internal units settings where values mean: 0 – Imperial file system 1 – Metric file system
Recently we had this situation in my office so I hope this tip may be helpful to you in the future.
WIPEOUT – This by many forgotten command can save you a lot of time and effort.
A Wipeout is an image type object. Most commonly it is used to “mask” part of a drawing for clarity.
I’ve rediscovered it recently and found it useful when creating louvers. With hundreds of them I didn’t need to cut and trim additional few hundreds lines of windows behind them. And reposition of them was so easy. I also used it for window tags and handles in elevation view.
The Wipeout command can be used for 3 different operations.
It can be used to draw a Wipeout object, as you might expect (only without arcs), but it can also be used to convert an existing closed Polyline (only without arcs) into a Wipeout. Additionaly it can be used to control the visibility of Wipeout frames.
You can also change Wipeout frames directly from WIPEOUTFRAME system variable. The result of available value is below.
| Value | Result |
| 0 | Frames are not displayed or plotted. Frames are temporarily displayed for object selection and selection preview. |
| 1 | Frames are displayed and plotted |
| 2 | Frames are displayed, but not plotted |
Value no.2 exist since AutoCAD 2013.
Personally I use value.1 to not duplicate the lines and when I need to make a particular frame unvisitable I change it line type to thin doted line with a big scale (like 1000). Only corners then are visible as dots. I use this method to create hollow objects like window frame.
Another post in the series of Isolate Selection. A friend asked me is it also possible to isolate any object in AutoCAD?
It is since AutoCAD 2011 and it was even in earlier versions of Architectural Desktop.
The ISOLATEOBJECTS and the HIDEOBJECTS commands hide specific objects.
The UNISOLATEOBJECTS command restores hidden objects .
These commands are found in the right-click menu…
…or near the right end of the status bar.
It is also possible to add toolbar icons allowing to isolate and end object isolation to any toolbar with Customize User Interface window.
Information acquired from CCAD.
Today a problem arose. I like to have a menu under a right-click of my mouse (with other useful commands) but my colleague get use to use Enter on that button. How then to open a block in the Block Editor she asked?
There is a command BEDIT ( BE or what ever is specified in the acad.pgp file) or a toolbar to open blocks in-place (or you can double click the block). But there is no toolbar icon to open a block in the Block Editor accept a right-click menu.
However there is a command which is not even listed in the acad.pgp file.
“-BEDIT” opens selected block in the Block Editor. You can add that command to a acad.pgp command list with a shortcut e.g. “-BE“. It will work. Somehow AutoCAD 2013 is smarter and activates that command with a shortcut not even listed in the acad.pgp file.
Also in AutoCAD 2013 there is a predefined command with an icon in User Interface which can be easily added to any toolbar or tab.
-BEDIT in Autodesk Help
Have a good weekend everyone 🙂
How to convert a single line text into a multiline text?
Enter Express Tool command TXT2MTXT. Located also under the Express Tools menu=>Text=>Convert Text to Mtext
(Many single line text objects will be converted into one multiline object)
How to do opposite? Use EXPLODE command.
Did you ever created a block with attributes and wanted to amend them? AutoCad doesn’t update your changes to a block. I usually was creating a new block from the beginning to have it like I want. But there is a way – easy to remember – I call it Batman. You need to type a command BATTMAN. It opens Block Attribute Manager. All you need to do is to choose your block from the extendable list and click “Sync” button. Changes you made to your block will be implemented.
(Don’t ask me why it’s not done automatically after block amendments!)
