Monday, June 25, 2007

Annotative Scales - "XREF XREF XREF etc..."

Have you seen this problem in 2008 with the annotative scales list?
Click pic to see a larger view...





Good grief... As we bring our 2007 AutoCAD drawings into the 2008 world and xref them into new drawings, the annotative scales list becomes outrageously HUGE! The list becomes so large over time that the dialog box for the "SCALELISTEDIT" command will not even open.

But there is a solution. You can use the command "-SCALELISTEDIT" to (R)eset the list to the original preset list. Don't forget the "-" dash before the command; this will temporarily disable the dialog box and forces command line prompting. Doing this removes the unwanted "Xref" scales and restores the original scales list. Thanks to Almas at Autodesk for the support tip.

I've actually added a line to the S::STARTUP section of my ACAD.lsp file to automatically delete (reset) the scales for me. Here's the LISP string



(command "-scalelistedit" "r" "y" "e")



Happy annotating!

Friday, June 01, 2007

C3D 2008 Workaround - Contour labels will not update

In 2008, when you edit a surface that has contour labels applied, the labels do not update automatically. This issue has been submitted to Autodesk and is a known issue. To update the labels, you have to move or grip-edit-move each individual label line. Rebuilding the surface or regenerating the drawing does not help.

I have developed a very simple LISP routine which will move the label lines for you all at once. The routine assumes that Contour Label Lines are being drawn on layer "C-TOPO-TEXT".

Also be aware that by using this routine, anything else on layer "C-TOPO-TEXT" will be MOVED @ X=0.001 , Y=0.001.

You may revise my program to fit your needs.

Download here: UL.lsp - update labels (contours)

Civil 3D 2008 Bug List

Thanks to James Wedding and his colleagues at Civil3D.com for creating a running list of Civil 3D 2008 bugs and issues. The list can be found at http://www.civil3d.com/index.php/2007/06/whats-bugging-you-about-2008/. This list will help us determine if a problem that we find while using C3D '08 in our everyday work life has been identified by others as well.