RAM Online

Meeting Reminder for August 2010

admin — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 20:30:12 +0000

On Wednesday, August 25, 2010, Donnie Gladfelter (aka The CAD Geek), will be presenting a session about Parametrics in AutoCAD 2011. He is currently polishing up his presentation and will cover both Dimensional Constraints as well as Geometric Constraints. Be sure to block out the time to attend this meeting as it will be very informative.

As always, there will be refreshments and snacks available. The meeting will be held at our regular meeting location in the County of Henrico Health and Human Resources building on Dixon Powers Drive. Doors open at 5:30 and the meeting will run approximately 2 hours.

See you there!

Meeting Reminder for July

sjohns — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 02:21:47 +0000

Coming this Wednesday, July 28! Same time, same place! This month’s discussion will be about Annotative Scaling and Dynamic Blocks in AutoCAD.

As usual, snacks and soft drinks will be available for those who are interested. Please join us and bring a friend or colleague!

See you there!

Copy Local Revit Files Simply

pkirill — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 01:35:00 +0000

**Updated 4/1/09 to version 1.9.5 – fixed date issue – when appending date to local file name, date now updates day-to-day; fixed open local file menu prompt – selection stays; fixed disable logo link menu option – now can actually disable logo link.**

Paul Kirill has added a VB.NET application to the downloads page – the Local File Creator. This application eases the chore of creating your Revit local files. Once installed, you simply configure your local file and folder standards (you only do this once) and select a central file to copy. The program will rename the local file and even create local subfolders if that is your preference. Once copied, you will even be prompted to open the file in Revit. It keeps track of your central files in a list so you only have to find the central file that first time. It should work with all versions of Revit, and both 32 and 64 bit versions of XP and Vista. You can find it on our Downloads page. Give it a shot and leave a comment!

More details can be found at Paul’s website here: http://tech.kdcad.com/?p=151

Add Meeting Reminders to Outlook

admin — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 17:13:23 +0000

As our our members know, RAM meetings are typically the last Wednesday of every month. We do occasionally shift the date due to holidays or severe weather – but we do strive to be as consistent as possible. It is always amazing how fast that last Wednesday sneaks up on you! So here’s a little something to help us remember. The link below opens an iCalendar file that when saved, will insert a recurring appointment into your calendar program. It works with Outlook and a variety of other calendar programs. All you need to do is:

* Using Internet Explorer, click the link, click Open to open the iCal file in your default calendar program and then save it.
* Using Firefox, right click the link and select ‘Save Link As’, then go to where you saved it and open the file.

Pretty simple!

**RAM Meeting Reminder**

(For more info on iCalendar files, check out these links: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICalendar, http://www.icalworld.com/news.html)

Object Cycling

admin — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 05:23:04 +0000

Object Cycling has been around since R13, but isn’t a widely known ability, perhaps because it’s not a command. Whenever you are at the ‘Select Objects’ prompt and have overlapping objects, simply hold down the Ctrl key as you pick a location. AutoCAD will cycle through the objects at that location, highlighting each one until you accept one and move on.

Pick Between Overlapping Viewports

admin — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 05:21:03 +0000

When you have two or more paper space viewports that overlap or are contained within another, it can be difficult to impossible to switch with the mouse pointer. Therefore the keyboard command for this can be indispensable.

The keyboard command sequence is Ctrl+R

Offset Half the Distance

admin — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 05:20:26 +0000

This tip can be used in other places then offset, but for the purpose of an example the offset command is used. If offsetting around a centerline symmetrically, type at the offset distance prompt; 50/2. Click the centerline and click on a side to offset. The centerline will be offset 25.

Handy tip, but only works with whole numbers. Example: If you entered 50.5/2 at the prompt, AutoCAD will prompt you again for the distance.

Pick the Center of a Rectangle

admin — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 05:19:31 +0000

When prompted for pick point, type ‘CAL then MEE, then pick opposite corners of the rectangle. MEE is “midpoint between two endpoints” (CAL automatically grabs the endpoint when you pick corner of rectangle).

Of course if you are using AutoCAD 2006 you can just hit SHIFT+RIGHT CLICK and select Mid Between 2 Points.

Toggle Between OSNAPS

admin — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 05:18:04 +0000

Toggle between OSNAPS by pressing the TAB key. Example: At a ‘T’ intersection there is a end point, an intersection and possibly a mid point. Users can toggle between the three types by press the TAB key.

Note: You can only toggle through OSNAPS that are “active”. If you only have the intersection and midpoint OSNAPS checked in the OSNAPS settings. In the above example, when you press the TAB key it would only cycle between the intersection and midpoint OSNAPS.

Check Your Web Spelling

admin — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 05:11:25 +0000

Have you ever looked back on a web-based email, forum post or blog entry and been amazed/embarrassed at how many typos were in there? There is a solution and it’s free. You need to check out ieSpell. It works with both Internet Explorer and FireFox (I actually think it works better in FireFox). It does operate a little differently depending on which browser you are using and what type of web-form you are in. In some cases (like Gmail in FireFox), a small red underline appears dynamically under a misspelled word. In other cases, you can right click on a form or field and select the ieSpell option. Worst case, you need to select ieSpell from the Tools menu in IE.

There are some other web based spell checkers out there – ranging in price from free to $295! Of the free version I’ve found, I like ieSpell the best because it has the look and feel of the Office spell checker interface and, in fact, uses the Office dictionary by default (although you can specify a different one if you want).

So if you are a “blogger” or use web-based email – give ieSpell a look. You can find it here: http://www.iespell.com.