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Michael’s Corner

Michael BeallMichael's Corner is a monthly publication written by Michael E. Beall, Autodesk Authorized Author and peripatetic AutoCAD trainer. Michael travels all over the USA, bringing his fantastic experience and great understanding of AutoCAD to his clients. Michael's Corner brings together many of the tips, tricks and methods developed during these training sessions for the benefit of all users.

Michael's Corner provides something for every AutoCAD user. Every month, a number of articles cover a wide range of topics, suitable for users at all levels, including "The Basics" for those just starting out. Essentially, the aim of Michael's Corner is to help all AutoCAD users work smarter and faster.

This month…

October - One-derful!!!

It's a God-thing.

I had no idea that 14 years ago I would be given the opportunity to make an impact on the professional lives of so many. Only God knew what was ahead, and hopefully, the contributions I have made through Michael's Corner have equipped many of you to be more productive and a bit more savvy using AutoCAD. And apart from all the AutoCAD bashing that is going on, I'm sure it has a long life ahead.

So, in an effort to keep the AutoCAD fires burning, here's what I have for my final installment…

…A reminder on how to customize your hot keys
…Three Power Tools — one for Zoom, one for editing, and one for Layers
…Two Odd Spots — one for Layers and one for Hatching
…Buried text treasure
…And how to Search 14 years of the Archives

As for what's ahead for me, I will continue to present a variety of AutoCAD sessions — Fundamentals, Intermediate, Customizing, Updates, and 2D & 3D. I will also keep training CAP Designer, 20-20 Worksheet, Visual Impression (those three from 20-20 Technologies, Inc.), and some Revit Fundamentals. Next year I'm looking forward to being very involved in training CET (from Configura, Inc.) when Herman Miller joins the growing number of manufacturers embracing this software that is being touted as the ‘Future of Space Planning’. Personally, I'm looking forward to spending a bit more time with Donna, my lovely bride of 30 years. When this posts, we'll probably be within days of going on our 30th Anniversary vacation to the Tanque Verde Ranch in Tucson; Ee-Hah! We had such a good time when we went for our 20th, we figured we'd do it again!

Ah, and I'm hoping to have The AutoCAD Workbench, Final Edition out before snow flies.

And with that, Mike drop! …so to speak.

The LORD bless you and keep you;
The LORD make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
The LORD lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace. Numbers 6:24-26

This month's articles

Change F1 to ESC
Smoother Zoom
Stretch with Extension
Lock Layers with a Crossing Window
Layer Columns & Hatch Background Color
Text Frame on Mtext

From the Vault

Originally published April 2013

Loading Materials

Create TransmittalBack in November 2011, I covered how to map materials to a 3D object. But if you receive a drawing with a mapped material—in this case, a .JPG—that you don't have on your computer, you will see an error alert on the image and in the Material Editor.

Materials downloaded from another location (not part of the default AutoCAD library) are not saved within the .DWG and consequently, will not be seen on any system that doesn't have that same material .JPG.

Missing material

Note: And for those of you who have made that mental leap, yes, that would make it an external file, and that material IS included in eTransmit. In fact, any raster image file that is used in a drawing, including any materials from the default AutoCAD Material Library, is included in eTransmit.

Once you have acquired the missing material and saved it, here's what you can do to resolve the error.

How to Update the Drawing with a Material

  1. LocateOn the View tab, set the Visual Style to Realistic.

  2. Open the Material Browser [View tabPalettesMaterial Browser].

  3. Under Document Materials: All, double-click on the material displaying the error to open the Materials Editor for that material. The error will probably be seen in the Image preview.

  4. Under Generic, click the Image preview to open the Material Editor Open File dialog box.

  5. Navigate to the location you saved the image, then select it and click Open.

  6. The Image preview will update to the selected image and the object in the drawing will now display the selected material.

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