AutoCAD: Disable XREF Preview

Disable the XREF Preview to improve performance on the Select Reference File contextual Menu.
Català - Castellano
When XREFs are big files or have big image files attached to it they might become a problem if your computer is not very powerful. As I mentioned on a previous post, you can optimize performance by using the old XREF Manager instead of the new External References Palette.
One more way to improve performance is to tell AutoCAD to not show a preview of the XREF when using the "Select Reference File" pop up window. I can't tell right now which versions have this options, but I can confirm that ACA 2009 has it. See the picture below.
Unchecking the option "Preview" under the "Views" menu on the upper right side of the Dialog will stop showing XREF Previews making everything faster and smoother.


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SketchUp Plugins: Creating Tensile Like Structures

Learn about a Plugin that will allow you too create Curved Tensile-like surfaces.
Català - Castellano
Soap Skin Bubble is a Plugin developed by Josef Leibinger intended to represent tensile like structures.
The truth is that as you will learn with some practice, it is a tool to create almost any curved surface based on it´s profiles. THe plugin includes a Flash animation that I am including below and that quickly shows some of the features of this Plugin.

The Plugin use is not very intuitive, in the beginning you might think it is not working properly. Just give it some trial an error and you´ll see you can achieve almost any shape with it, so it is worth the time it takes to get used to its "weird" behaviour.
You can download the Plugin here directly on the developer website. You can find some more information and examples that will help you understand better how to use the Plugin.

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Rhino: Commands List

A quick reference of commands for Rhino.
Català - Castellano
Rhino is a great tool for designing and modeling complex shaped buildings. We've have recently increased in my office the use of this tool and it is giving results far better than what we could achieve with SketchUp, so expect to get also tips about Rhino once in a while.
I have started lately to get some time to restart my Rhino training and one of the first things I was looking for was a list of commands. The help provided with the program is actually great. For an online list of commands you can go to the McNeel website where the list is reproduced.
This post will be in the future the directory where I will update any commands I find specially important to know when using Rhino.

• BlockManager: Updates and deletes Blocks and linked files.
• FlowAlongSrf: Transforms a group to match any type of curved or flat surface.
  
• InPlaceBlockEdit: Edits Blocks in Place (requires the Block Editor PlugIn)
• PluginManager: Allows you to load Plugins
• SoftMove: Moves objects according to their distance from a central point.
  

Remember that Rhino has a similar system of Aliases like AutoCAD. See this post to know how to import AutoCAD Aliases or your customized ones.


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AutoCAD: Attachments or Overlays?

Know what it means to use Attachments or Overlays as XREFs. It is important to avoid file troubles.
Català - Castellano
XREFs can be inserted as Overlays or as Attachments. That choice will affect the behaviour of the drawing where they are inserted.

• Overlay: Inserting a drawing A as an overlay in drawing B is the equivalent of just allowing that external reference A to bee seen in the current drawing B. The external reference does not become part of that drawing. When inserting drawing B in another drawing, let's say C, A will not appear.
• Attachment: Attachments work the opposite way. An external reference inserted as an attachment becomes part of the drawing where it is inserted. In this case, drawing A would become part of Drawing B when inserted as an attachment. They would still remain two separate drawings, but any time we'd attach drawing B in lets say drawing C, drawing A would be attached too since it is "part" of drawing B.

Letters apart, consider the implications of this. If you are working on a section and insert a floor plan as an attachment, this floor plan will become part of the section drawing. Then if you work on the floor plan and insert the section (as attachment or overlay, it doesn't matter) you will be also inserting the floor plan (the same you are working on) creating a circular reference.
You will get a warning message when this happens, and remember, when you do is it time to consider what are yo doing. Circular references are number 1 ingredient i a recipee for disaster.
In general, when projects get more and more complicated, the amount of circular references could be so big, you will have big trouble detaching XREFs or worse you will be unable to batch Plot, etransmit files, etc.
In my team we have long ago decided to not use attachments at all, since they have been giving us a lot of trouble.
The use of attachments is in general only justified to save some steps reattaching drawings. On certain situations, you might choose to use them, sometimes it feels almost unavoidable, but remember the possible problems described when doing so and consider if an overlay would do the trick.
My advice is to use always overlays, only use attachments wisely and because you feel there is no other option. And s a general rule, if you are in charge of the file structure of a project, don't let anyone else use attachments except with your permission. Knowing who is using attachments and why will allow you to control where the problems could arouse and how to solve them.



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AutoCAD: Getting Back the old XREF manager

Are you missing the old and simple XREF manager? Don't worry, it is still there.
Català - Castellano
Since version 2007, AutoCAD uses by default the External References Palette instead of the old XREF Manager to handle External References and Images all in one interface.
Although it is useful to have a palette always on to handle XREFs, it is sometimes a big annoying to have all images and XREFs listed. What we do with images and XREFs tend to be pretty different, so it could be good to see only the XREFs listed if we wanted.
If we add that the External Reference Palette tends to be much heavier in terms of computer resources used, we have enough reasons to want to old XREF manager back. That wish is granted just by knowing that the old XREF was never deleted from AUTOCAD (at least till the day and version 2009), and it can be accessed typing CLASSICXREF. See the image below where I have the new External References Palette and the old XREF both showing on the screen.

I have my list of aliases customized so XR points to CLASSICXREF instead of opening the External References Palette. By typing IM (for Image) I still get to access easily the new External References Palette. (note that the old Image Manager can also be accessed using the CLASSICIMAGE command)



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Finding Any Possible Vehicle Turning Radius

Do you need to find out if you have enough space for vehicles to turn? There is a pogram to draw any possible turning radius.
Català - Castellano
If you are designing a parking garage and have very narrow turning spaces or if you are trying to fit a service dock in an area where you are not sure if the trucks will be able to manoeuvre a template showing the inner and outer turning radius might not be enough.
What you need is a program that can simulate the trajectories of Cars, Trucks, Buses, etc. And there is one. The awesome piece of software created by Transoft Solutions is called AutoTURN. It is a commercial product with a price that varies depending on the type of license (we inquired at work some months ago and the price given for our type of license was around $250), but if you are into any kind of Site Design, Road Design or anything involving vehicle movement it is worth the price in a single use.
Let me show you a quick snapshot so you can get an idea. Recently we've been trying to figure out if we could fit a Service Dock for 4 SemiTrailers 16.50m long in a pretty tight piece of a project. With AutoTURN we managed to see that we did have enough space making some little adjustments on the project.


The Program works both on AutoCAD and Microstation platforms, it has a very wide range of vehicles for many different countries, works both in metric and imperial unit systems and I insist it is amazing how useful it is. Just imagine the fees you could save on Traffic Consultants...
You can download a Demo Version going to the AutoTURN Website to give it try with only one vehicle type (an articulated Bus).


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SketchUp Plugins: The Scale Tool Becomes Smart

Finnally someone made some sense and created a Plugin that allows us to scale the objects properly no matter they orientation
Català - Castellano
Thanks again to Jim and his amazing SketchUp Plugins Blog I came across the video you can see below that shows the very impressive FreeScale.rb Plugin developed by Fredo6.

I think the video speaks for itself, but basically what you should know is that the new Plugin allows you to Scale any object basing the bounding box alignment on any line you have in the drawing. (there is also an amazing Taper tool). This is no doubt one of those Plugins it is hard to believe it is released for free.
You can download the Plugin here and the library needed to run it here or go to the Plugin release thread. One of the most complete, easiest to use and most useful Plugins I've come across. Thanks Fredo.

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