How to Setup Your AutoCAD Workstation – Part 1, Open and Print
Posted by madmarv on December 14th, 2009 filed in AutoCADComments
Part 1 of ???
I’m starting a series of posts to document what I need to do when I (re)install AutoCAD. These are just the beginning customizations that are necessary to make a default install useful in a work environment. This is going to be a scatterbrained list of things and I’ll add more in later posts as I think of them. And yes, a lot of this could be done by making custom deployments, but those deployments don’t just come out of thin air.
This is what you would need to do to make a fresh AutoCAD install open a DWG and plot it as it was intended.
Find the fonts, line styles, plotters, plot style tables, etc. that you would need to plot your DWG. If you’ve ever used ETRANSMIT, these are the sort of things that are found in the zip file created by ETRANSMIT.
Put your custom fonts etc. in the places where AutoCAD expects to find them.
Now you could dump these files into the appropriate folders on your C: drive, but that only works well in a one-man shop. Since you probably have company standard fonts and plot style tables you should have a common folder on the network where everyone can access these files. This should make things easier. All you have to do is copy the path to that folder and paste the path into the appropriate field in your Options.
Bring up your Options screen and go to the Files tab. Paste in the path to the FONTS and SUPPORT folders into the Support File Search Path. The list of folders is processed with priority going to the ones higher on the list. So put your custom FONTS and SUPPORT folders
Next, replace the paths in the Printer Support File Paths with the paths to your custom plotters, plot styles etc.
If everything was setup correctly, your PLOT dialog box will look something like this:
If it is not setup correctly, it will look something like this:
PDFs for CAD drafting – So easy a caveman could do it
Posted by madmarv on December 12th, 2009 filed in AutoCAD, CAD TipsComments
Starting in AutoCAD 2007, PDF’s can be plotted directly from AutoCAD. As of AutoCAD 2009, PDFs created by AutoCAD’s PDF plotter have layers that can be turned on and off just like they can in DWGs. The only caveat is that these PDFs must be opened by Adobe Reader 8 or higher or else the reader will think that the PDF file is corrupt. This function alone makes the Autodesk DWG to PDF plotter driver the best tool for creating PDFs in CAD.
Free PDF printers:
The only sad thing is that I can’t use Autodesk’s PDF plotter outside of CAD. I have to use Microstation every now and then and I need a good PDF printer. Each of these programs are free for commercial use and can plot PDFs up to ARCH E / ISO A0 paper sizes.
CutePDF – This is my goto PDF printer outside of CAD. Easiest and fastest to use that I’ve found so far.
doPDF – I use this when WIPEOUT and TEXTMASK’ed objects are blacked-out or obscured when plotting w/ CutePDF. It’s not really CutePDF’s fault, it is a bug in the Ghostscript engine that CutePDF uses. Nonetheless, I would normally use doPDF as my default PDF printer, except that it is much slower than CutePDF.
PDFCreator – I liked to use this before I got CutePDF. PDFCreator has a screen that pops up and asks you to fill in the metadata for the PDF you’re creating. I found that to be annoying after a dozen or so plots. However, this program stays on my computer because it can do more with PDFs than CutePDF or doPDF. For example, if you want to print to a BMP, JPG, GIF, SVG or PSD; encrypt or digitally sign the PDF, PDFCreator can do that from the Options button on that pop-up screen.
Free PDF reader and editing tools:
Foxit Reader – A free alternative to Adobe Reader. Not only is this PDF reader much faster than Adobe’s, Foxit allows you to markup PDFs. You can write / draw on top of a PDF with text, lines, and shapes (hint: revision clouds). You can also “whiteout” the underlying PDF by drawing a rectangle and setting the line color and fill color to white. Then you can write on top of the whiteout, exactly as you would use an old fashioned typewriter to fill out a form. Foxit Reader is free for commercial use, but it will watermark any PDF you save. Get around this by paying $40 for the Pro version or print your marked up PDF to another PDF, see the above tools.
PDFill Free PDF Tools for simple editing of PDFs. It will merge, split, rotate and crop existing PDFs with no watermark and no strings attached. The GUI is as wonky as they come but it gets the job done.
I have no affiliation with any of the above companies and this post is not sponsored.
CAD Management – Network Folder Setup
Posted by madmarv on July 19th, 2008 filed in AutoCAD, CAD ManagementComments
CAD Management – Network Folder Setup
Here is how I’m rolling out our network folders for customizing AutoCAD and implementing CAD standards. Currently each department keeps their customization files on their department server or on individual’s workstations. Now, the workstations reference a network folder common to all departments.
These shared folders should be read-only so nobody can inadvertently modify the standard. However, users will inevitably need to tweak these files at some point. So, instead of linking to the network folder directly, create a shortcut that points to the network folder and put the shortcut in the default file search path in AutoCAD, see CAD Management – Support File Search Paths. This will save any modified file to the user’s C: drive and leave the standard file untouched.
Notebooks and other off-site computers (i.e. when users install AutoCAD on their home desktop) will not have continuous access or will have comparatively slow access to the network folder. To get around this problem, synchronize the network folder to a folder on their local computer. Then map the shortcuts to the local folder.