Next, let's say you work with a consultant who still can't get out and buy ACAD r14. Before sending it to him, you might wish to check it out in your old version of r13. It is easy to see the difference between which version you are in by changing the color of the cross hair in r13 to a different color, such as orange. Use the PREFERENCES command to do this.
This one will save you a lot of time if you are trying to draw something quickly. When you use the EXTEND or TRIM command, type in your command and hit return. It will ask you to select objects. Rather than then selecting objects, just press return. This will select all the objects on the screen to use to trim with or extend to. This cuts your time in half because you no longer have to pick the objects to use.
The command LMAN allows you to save your current layer settings and recall them when you want. You can also export them to a file and import them into another drawing.
Since we are talking about layers, did you know you could turn off layers independently in different mviews? In model space, type the command LAYER and you will see four colums of symbols in the dialog box - On/Off, Thaw/Frozen, Thawed in current viewport/Frozen in current viewport, and Thawed in new viewports/Frozen in new viewports. You want the third symbol - the current viewport thaw and freeze. This is a nice way to have a plan with lots of information on it, and create from it a roof, floor, electrical, lighting, enlarged and other plans using different mviews.
Do you do work on the Internet? If you have a client or consultant that needs to view your drawings without having AutoCAD, have them install the Whip! plug-in for their browser and they can zoom, pan, adjust layers, etc. To create this file, simply type the command DWFOUT to save your drawing. Place this file on you web page for viewing. I have done this on a site I just created for a local architectural company where I do some work. Check it out at http://www.sonic.net/tfa and see what you think and to see the codes used in creating it. They can be a bit tricky at first, but once you get used to them it is really fairly simple to do. You can also get around various emailing problems by not emailing your file to a consultant, but rather placing it on your FTP site or on your page for them to download directly. I've found this to be very helpful, especially when dealing with people on AOL. In order to see how web pages are put together, in Netscape type CNTRL+U or choose VIEW then PAGE SOURCE. In IE choose VIEW then SOURCE. This is also good to learn how pros create web page tricks.
