The H-Factor

CAD Manager Stuff I - Workspaces

This is the first in a series of articles on how CAD Managers can more easily manage their users machines. Further articles will include discussion of the CUI menu files and how to customize them so that you can easily maintain menus for an an entire company.

Ever sit down at a user station to fix a problem and your eyes fall out because you can't stand the way they have their screen arranged? Imagine if you could sit at any AutoCAD station and have the AutoCAD desktop look exactly like you are used to. Wouldn't that make it easier for you to diagnose user problems?

Workspaces! That's how you do it, at least in AutoCAD 2006 and 2007.

It's easy:

1. Arrange the toolbars, colors, command line, palettes just the way you want them
2. Pick the Tools pulldown then pick Workspaces
3. Pick Save Current As and enter in whatever name you want to give it

That's it! The user can now customize to his or her content. When you sit down, just pick Workspaces and select the Workspace you've created and you are in business.

Trouble with icons

I was creating a new toolbar button yesterday and tried to alter an existing button image (known variously as icon or bitmap). When I did this in the CUI, I got a cloud picture and had to resort to a backup plan. The same happens if you create a custom toolbar and want to use our button images on your new buttons.

I think this is a bug in AutoCAD 2007 because it works in all earlier versions. My way around it is as follows:

Open up AutoCAD 2006 or earlier and edit the bitmap there and do a Save As to some file name into the folder you distribute your menus. Then you can Open it in your toolbar. Those versions of AutoCAD are more flexible and seem to have no trouble finding the bitmaps

If this is all Greek to you, I suggest you visit our website and download the AutoCAD produced tutorials on customizing your menus. The web page is here

K-Factor Analysis

Did you know that V50 HydraCALC has a tool to help you figure out what K-factor is best for your job?

The tool is found in the Graphical Pressure Display (GPD), which can be used on any job that has the Input Type field filled out. Jobs that come over from HydraCALC-Sizer and HydraCAD have already have this field filled out for you.

Calc your job, then pick the GPD. Move your cursor to the E.H. Press field and click on it.

This will bring up the Review and Alter K-Factors screen. Notice the list of K-Factors on the left and the End Head Pressures on the right. This list of Ks comes from the choices found in the right-click menu of the K-Factor field on the Input Screen. You will see a list of all the Ks and what the end head pressure would be if you used them. Some of these will be in red. The red indicates that if you use that K-factor, the end head pressure will be below the minimum and have to be boosted up.

If you select a K-factor you will be asked if you want to convert all the Ks already in the calculation to that new one. Say yes and it will be done for you.

Vista

I wish I could see clearly now...

But I can't. I just ordered a Vista machine for testing out our installs. A coworker (Mike) has already installed it and found that AutoCAD 2007 will not install on it. We really do not know if Autodesk plans a patch to allow 2007 to install on Vista (we will certainly keep you informed). I want to know if 2004, 2005 or 2006 will install on Vista. I should know next week.

We already know that HydraCALC V41 and HydraLIST V41 will not run on Vista because those application had some 16-nit elements to them. But since they are long retired/obsolete I am not losing any sleep over them.

Stay tuned