Author: Adam

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AutoCAD LT 2015 Start Menu shortcut broken

Having now noticed that the shortcut entry in the start menu for AutoCAD LT 2015 is broken on several machines I have used, I would go as far as saying this is probably a common issue, however I cannot seem to find much on the internet about it.

startmenuallprograms

The issue is when you click on “AutoCAD LT 2015 – English” under the AutoDesk – AutoCAD LT 2015 – English folder, AutoCAD attempts to configure itself again, even though it is installed and configured. After a short space of time the configuration will fail resulting in a pop-up stating

“Run setup.exe to install AutoCAD LT 2015 – English”

Clicking on the OK button results in another pop-up stating

“Fatal error during installation.”

LTfail01

Not particularly helpful AutoDesk, did you actually test this software? Useless software support as usual. Anyway, as  the desktop shortcut works fine (I hope you didn’t delete it), all you need to do is delete the broken shortcut in the start menu and copy the desktop shortcut into the folder.

To do this, left click on the Windows Blob and then right click on “All Programs” and go to “Open All Users” (under a locked down environment this will need Administrator rights to edit).

Openallprograms

Double click on Programs and again on Autodesk and then once more on AutoCAD LT 2015 – English, now you will see a Migrate Custom Settings Folder, Attach Digital Signatures link and the AutoCAD LT 2015 – English link. Delete this link and copy the one from the desktop to this folder. Close window and the Start menu will now have a working link.

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So you want a blank drawing at startup?

In AutoCAD 2015 (and LT), AutoDesk have introduced a welcome screen that is more difficult to turn off rather than just unchecking “Display at Startup”.

Welcome-Screen-in-AutoCAD

 

Now you get the New Tab “feature”. I quite like the integration of it, rather than it looking like an afterthought. AutoDesk are definitely working towards a better design for AutoCAD, over the last couple of versions there have been many visual improvements.

new_tab_screen

So if you look around the internet there are two methods to turn off this feature, one just turns off the tab and leaves you with a blank AutoCAD, as if you have closed all the drawings but not closed AutoCAD. I don’t particularly like this solution but if you want to go with this just type NEWTABMODE and set it to 0.

The other option which appears in the help and therefore seems to be the preferred method by AutoDesk is to change the STARTUP variable.

0- Starts a drawing without defined settings.
1 – Displays the Startup or the Create New Drawing dialog box.
2 – A New Tab is displayed. If available in the application, a custom dialog box is displayed.
3- A New Tab is displayed and the ribbon is pre-loaded when you open or create a new drawing.

3 is the default for 2015. 1 gives you a really old school dialog box that I haven’t seen since version 2002!

startup-01

0 is the option you will want to default to 2014 and previous style behaviour.

Closing the last open drawing in modes 1, 2 or 3 will bring up the New Tab welcome screen.

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Office 2013 animations

If you, like I, have been forced to upgrade from the nice looking, really well functioning Office 2012 to the new awful Windows 8-esque Office 13, you have instantly noticed the animations, everything slides around as it it was floating on oil.

If you are also in the same boat as myself I really do not like this sliding nonsense. Fortunately you can turn them off. However Microsoft in their infinite wisdom have not provided this within their programs. This is also a global setting and affects the whole suite (or possibly other programs).

After a little searching most sites recommend a registry hack, though if your computer is locked down in a corporate environment, this might not be possible. Fortunately there is another working method:

1.Open the Ease of Access Center (shown below) by pressing the Windows logo key + U.

2.Under Explore all settings, click Use the computer without a display.

3.Under Adjust time limits and flashing visuals, click Turn off all unnecessary animations (when possible).

4.Click OK.

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Annoying Auto Zooming Viewports

Today I noticed that one of drawing I opened automatically zoomed the viewport to extents when double clicking in the viewport. This is extremely annoying, particularly if I wanted to pan after setting the scale.

The solution is that a variable was set wrong.

In order to fix this it is fairly simple (though if you have many viewports time consuming – see here for a LISP that might help with many viewports).

  • First lock the viewport using properties
  • Then double click in viewport
  • Then type UCSFOLLOW
  • Set UCSFOLLOW to 0
  • Click back to paperspace
  • Unlock viewport

 

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Proxy Objects

Previously I noted that you could remove deeply buried proxy objects (or zombies) using an exchange application. There are other LISP routines out there to remove proxy objects. However neither of these are possible unless you have the full version of AutoCAD but what if you have LT?

This site notes, that if you have LT you can re-save your file using the AECTOACAD command. This however might remove objects! Make sure you backup first.

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Selection Methods

Today one of my colleagues asked whether he could select an object and select all other objects on the same layer or by type without using quick select (QSELECT).

I found on another Blog some interesting selection methods, however as this was published in 2008 some of the features of AutoCAD LT in particular have been updated since.

The one in particular that is now avaiable in AutoCAD LT 2015 is SelectSimilar. This allows you to click on an object and select all items that are similar, whether by layer or by colour etc. SE within the command brings up the settings check box, rather than the usual S.

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Scale in one axis

One of my colleagues today asked, can you scale in only one axis or by differing in the X and Y axes? The answer is no if you use the SCALE command. However there is a workaround.

If you place the objects in you require to scale non-uniformly into a block the block can be scaled in the properties pallette.

block_property_pallette

Once scaled, explode the block and voila you have scaled your group of objects by only one axis.

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Pickfirst is on and objects just don’t select

Today I encountered a strange AutoCAD issue. At first it seemed to be the old pickfirst issue where if the variable is off you have to run the command then select, rather than the default behavior where you select and go.

The issue encountered today was similar but only seemed to happen on CTRL+C and mtext (MTEDIT). Otherwise all commands worked with select then run command.

After a bit of searching this error appears to be an issue with QAFLAGS. QAFLAGS is an undocumented system variable that appears to have no obvious use. It is problem an internal AutoDesk variable for testing. Though its strange behaviors can be used to assist in writing LISP and scripts!

QAFLAGS can be set to 1 or 2 apparently but the default should be 0. If it is not on 0 the strange semi-PICKFIRST=0 behavior will occur!