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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 2007

So, You Want To Know About Sheet Sets?

Sheet Set ManagerWhat I'm going to do here is give you the key features of Sheet Sets. The things that I first wrapped my head around as I was learning about this new concept that was to be introduced in A2005.

New Sheet SetThe Sheet Set Manager in its simplest form is a window in which you can organize the drawings for a project. That's about it; plain and simple. Yes, it has useful features like letting you choose the title block/border sheet you want to use for each size page, and providing a dialog box in which you can number and name your "sheets", along with many other features, but at the end of the day, it's a giant organizational tool for existing drawings.

Key Concepts Regarding Sheet Sets

  1. The easiest and most practical way to create a sheet set is to use the Example Sheet Set which is one of the options when you New Sheet Set from the Sheet Set Manager drop-down list. I'll base the rest of these items on that resulting sample sheet set for an "Architectural Imperial Sheet Set".
  2. It's all about layouts (and, to a lesser extent, named views). A "sheet" listed in the sheet set contains a link to a layout in an existing drawing (DWG). If you are beginning a drawing from scratch, you can add a new sheet to the sheet set, at which point you can give the sheet a number and a name, enter a filename (which will be the name of the resulting DWG), and inserts the requested layout. When using the Architectural Imperial Sheet Set, a predefined title block with a border is used.

When you use the sample sheet set, several subsets are provided such as "General", "Architectural", "Structural", etc. Just like you would organize a set of working drawings for a project, the Sheet Set Manager provides a forum in which you can organize your DWG files.

Try this:

  1. Right-click on the sample sheet set's subset named "General", then click "Import Layout As Sheet"
  2. Click Browse For Drawings and navigate to AutoCAD's Sample folder. In A2006 thru A2008, select "Blocks And Tables – Imperial", then click Open.
  3. The name of the drawing will appear in the list, with a check box that’s checked. Click Import Checked to add the D-size Plot layout to the sheet list. Please notice this drawing is not opened, just added to the sheet set list.
  1. Sheets are added to the Sheet Set Manager independently of the current drawing. This simply means that you could be in a new drawing and still create an entire sheet set.
  2. If you have a template (DWT) with layouts that contain page setup configurations, you can add a New Sheet to the sheet list using one of the layouts from that template.

For those of you with a template containing your title blocks, try this:

  1. PropertiesRight-click on the Sheet List name at the top of the Sheet Set Manager, then click Properties to open the Sheet Set Properties dialog box in which many of the values have been preset.
  2. Under the Sheet Creation area, change the Sheet Creation Template to be your .DWT file, then in the Prompt For Template field, change it to Yes. Click OK to close the Properties dialog box.
  3. To use one of the layouts from your template, right-click on one of the subsets in the sheet list, then click New Sheet to open the Select Layout as Sheet Template dialog box.
  4. Click the browse button and select your template, then select a layout from the list.
  5. In the New Sheet dialog box, enter a Sheet Number and Sheet Title and you see that those become the name of the resulting DWG. Click OK to add that sheet to the list.
  6. Double-click your new sheet to open the drawing with the specified layout tab from your template.
  1. You can choose a named view from any drawing to add to a sheet. When you add a view to a sheet in the sheet set, the drawing with the named view is attached as an Xref, and a viewport is created in the layout of the sheet. Because the geometry of a named view is attached as an Xref, this method of creating a sheet enables you to have more than one drawing displayed on your sheet.
  2. Named views are found in Reference Drawings. The path for Reference Drawings is established on the Model Views tab of the Sheet Set Manager. The Add Location node enables you to specify folders where your drawings are located.

If you have a drawing with a named view, try this:

  1. Just to get an idea of how this works, delete any existing viewports that are on the current layout.
  2. Click the Model Views tab, then right-click the Add New Location node, then click, um… Add New Location.
Place on Sheet
  1. Navigate to the folder where your drawings are located, then click Open.
  2. Expand the drawing node to display the views available, then right-click on the named view and click Place On Sheet.
  3. Before specifying the insertion point, right-click to display a list of plot scales, then click one. Do it again just to see how it works.
  4. Now specify the location of the view and a viewport will be created, the resource drawing will be Xref'd, and in A2008, a label will be added.

Hopefully that helps you understand the general idea of sheet sets. More could be written, of course, but the intent here was mostly for exposure. The AutoCAD Help feature would be a great place to turn as an additional resource.

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