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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

Follow-Up: Blank Tool on a Palette

Last summer [August 2006] I was quite delighted to let you know about the improved method by which to get a command button onto a palette. While training in Birmingham (Alabama, USA) this week, I reminded my students that they can actually get a blank button onto the palette with one extra step. Here are all the steps…

Instructions to Add a Blank Button to a Palette in A2007 & A2008

  1. Open the Tool Palette window (CTRL+3).
  2. Type CUI to open the Customize User Interface dialog box. Position the Tool Palette and the CUI so you can see each of them.
  3. In the lower left portion of the CUI there's a Command List area. In A2007 you will see a button labeled "New". In A2008 you have two icons (of course, why would you need words when you can have pictures?! Moving on…). Click the one with the starburst in the corner labeled "Create a New Command".
Create a new command
  1. After clicking that button, you will see the new item in the Command List, Command1.
Drag and drop then edit
  1. Click on Command1 in the list, then pick and drag it onto your palette.
  2. To add a macro to the button, right-click on the button, select "Properties…" and then edit the Command String as necessary in the Tool Properties window. Here are a couple ideas:

^C^COSMODE;8 This routine cancels the current command, launches the Osmode variable (the semi-colon essentially presses Enter), then sets the binary value for Osnap to 8 which is Node snap only. To find the Osmode value for the osnap settings you like, set up the osnaps, then run Osmode and see what the value is. That’s what you would use in the command string on your button.

^C^CTFRAMES For those of you who have inserted raster images for your logos, in order to move them you have to have the frame of the raster image on. After moving the image, you probably would prefer to have the image frame off. The Tframes command is one of the Express tools that "toggles frames" for raster images as well as wipeout objects.

Remember, if you want to add a raster image for your button, in the Tool Properties window, right-click on the blank area under Image, then click Specify Image.

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4th February 2025

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