Michael’s Corner

Michael'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…

From the Vault

Originally published April 2011

User-Defined Field Format

There are several formats for Date fields [Insert tabData panelField]. The cool thing is, you can make your own!

How to Create a Custom Date Field

1. Launch the Field command, then select Create Date in the list of field names.

2. On the right side of the Field dialog box are several ‘Hints’ for formatting the field. Click in the Date Format edit box, then consider the following:

   [Created] MM.dd.yyyy

   dd MMM, ADyyyy

3. After entering the desired format for the field, click OK, then place the field text as necessary. If you need to change the height, enter H for the Height option.

   Note: By default, a field has a background to distinguish it from the other four text objects in AutoCAD [single line text, multiline text, dimension text, and attribute text]. To turn off the background for field text, go to ToolsOptionsUser Preferences tab, and toggle off the check box for Display Background of Fields (lower left on that tab).

4. To store your custom field so you can reuse it on other drawings, take a look at my coverage of fields in Michael's Corner, May 2008, where you learn how to create a block from the field, then add it to a tool palette.

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