The H-Factor

Fixing a Bad Drawing

We all have drawings that go bad. Over time, the minor errors build up and overwhelm the ability of AutoCAD to cope. How do we attempt to fix them? This is our usual plan of attack, in order:

1. Run RECOVER

2. Run Super Purge (PURG)

3. Start a new drawing and insert bad drawing into it

4. Start a new drawing and copy and paste objects from bad drawing to new drawing

Speak To Me - or - Checkups Congratulations Message

Many years ago, customers asked us to give them an 'atta boy' for getting no errors when running Checkups. That evolved from just the Congratulations dialog box to the dialog plus the Congratulations spoken message.

The voice being used depends on the version of Windows you have. On Windows XP, the voice is officially known as Microsoft Bob. Windows Vista is Microsoft Mary. Windows 7 is Microsoft Anna. You can download additional voices if you want and you can change the speed and other options as well. To do this:

1.       Open control panel, click on speech recognition.

2.       In advanced speech option, click on text to speech tab.

3.       Select the voice from the drop down of Voice select.

If you are tired of The Voice, don't despair. The next release (50.10/51.10) of HydraCAD will give an option to turn off the voice, period

Oh - and one other thing. There has been a hidden command in HydraCAD for a few years now. Type in SPEAK at the command line and enter a message. It will be spoken back to you. Amuse your friends!

AutoCAD 2012 Performance Slowdown Hotfix Released

Autodesk has released a 2012 Performance Hotfix for all AutoCAD 2012 based products.

This is manual file replacement hotfix that fixes performance issues that occur because of layer control tools in the Ribbon. Some customers have noticed a 300% speed increase when running Cadalyst's 3D benchmark tests.

This Hotfix can be downloaded here: 2012 Performance Hotfix. Follow the instructions found in the Readme.htm file found on the same page.