LD Assistant's User Coordinate System Icon To help visualize the current orientation of the user coordinate system, you can display the user coordinate system icon. Several versions of this icon are available, and you can change its size, location, and color. To indicate the location and orientation of the UCS, the UCS icon is displayed either at the UCS origin point or in the lower-left corner of the current viewport. You can choose one of three styles of icon to represent the UCS. Use the UCSICON command to choose between displaying the 2D or the 3D UCS icon. The shaded UCS icon is displayed for a shaded 3D view. To indicate the origin and orientation of the UCS, you can display the UCS icon at the UCS origin point using the UCSICON command. If the icon is displayed at the origin of the current UCS, a cross (+) appears in the icon. If the icon is displayed in the lower-left corner of the viewport, no cross appears in the icon. If you have multiple viewports, each viewport displays its own UCS icon. The UCS icon is displayed in various ways to help you visualize the orientation of the workplane. The following figure shows some of the possible icon displays. You can use the UCSICON command to switch between the 2D UCS icon and the 3D UCS icon. You can also use the command to change the size, color, arrowhead type, and icon line width of the 3D UCS icon. The UCS broken pencil icon replaces the 2D UCS icon when the viewing direction is in a plane parallel to the UCS XY plane. The broken pencil icon indicates that the edge of the XY plane is almost perpendicular to your viewing direction. This icon warns you not to use your pointing device to specify coordinates. When you use the pointing device to locate a point, it's normally placed on the XY plane. If the UCS is rotated so that the Z axis lies in a plane parallel to the viewing plane—that is, if the XY plane is edge-on to the viewer—it may be difficult to visualize where the point will be located. In this case, the point will be located on a plane parallel to your viewing plane that also contains the UCS origin point. For example, if the viewing direction is along the X axis, coordinates specified with a pointing device will be located on the YZ plane, which contains the UCS origin point. Use the 3D UCS icon to help you visualize which plane these coordinates will be projected on; the 3D UCS icon does not use a broken pencil icon. Featured Rendering - by Chris Murphy CAD Articles SSDs for CAD - high-performance solid state drive provides latency, random read/write performance by Greg Corke, Develop 3D When choosing a CAD workstation, storage often plays second fiddle to the CPU and GPU. Buy from a tier one vendor – the likes of Dell, HP, Fujitsu and Lenovo – and the default option is often a single 7,200 RPM SATA hard disk drive (HDD), even on some quite high-end machines.. The reality is, unless you’re buying from a specialist system builder – Workstation Specialists, Scan, and InterPro, for example – high-performance Solid State Drive (SSD) storage is still considered a bit of a luxury. But it shouldn’t be like this. Prices of SSDs have dropped considerably and long-term reliability has improved. SSDs should now be considered a stock component for the modern workstation. But what exactly is an SSD and how does it differ from a standard HDD? Click here to keep reading Combine Multiple AutoCAD Layers into One By - Lynn Allen Have you ever wanted to combine many layers into just one? LayMrg to the rescue! This handy command even deletes the empty layers when it's finished. Watch this video tip from Cadalyst and Lynn Allen to learn all about it. Click here for video Quick Tip: How to Strikethrough Single Line Text by Michael Beall, AUGI Library I was covering the features of Mtext not long ago and discovered a new option in AutoCAD 2013, found on the Formatting panel of the contextual Text Editor tab when adding Mtext: Strikethrough. Being a proponent of both Single and Multiline text (use the appropriate tool for the job) I was wondering if you have the Strikethrough option when editing single line text. The answer is ‘Yes’, but let me show you how I found it. Click here to keep reading Do I have options to control OFFSET result? by Edwin Prakoso Someone asked me if it’s possible to have the offset result is chamfered or filleted at the corners. The answer is yes. It’s not in the command’s option at command line. There is no option dialog box where you can change it. You need to change it in system variable. The system variable that is responsible for this is OFFSETGAPTYPE. The default value is 0. Offset will fill the result’s gap by extending lines. If you change the value to 1, then the gap is completed by adding fillet. The value 2 will complete the gap with chamfer. See the image below to see how it works. Click here to keep reading Tips & Tricks: Using the Shift Key in AutoCAD by John Flanagan's Blog AutoCAD – Shift for a Change (I didn’t know it could do that). On AutoCAD training courses, delegates are often surprised by the versatility of the Shift key. Several delegates have commented “I didn’t know it could”. Using the Shift key in conjunction with the mouse and right click menus will greatly improve your efficiency and productivity in AutoCAD. Tips & Tricks: Using the Shift Key in AutoCAD The SHIFT key is very versatile; it provides other options as well as changing some commands. Shift + Right mouse button will bring up your OSNAPs during editing commands providing your Right Click options are set accordingly in Options > User Preferences. Shift + Left mouse button will remove objects from your selection set providing you are selecting the objects before issuing a command. Click here to keep reading Thank You! Design & Drafting appreciates your interest in our products. Please forward this newsletter to your friends and associates, however, NO part of this newsletter may be used without permission. © Copyright 2013 by Chicago Stage Equipment Company Inc. D.B.A. Design & Drafting. Autodesk, AutoCAD, AutoCAD LT, DWF, DWG, DXF, ObjectARX are registered trademarks or trademarks of Autodesk, Inc., and/or its subsidiaries and/or affiliates in the USA and/or other countries. All other brand names, product names, or trademarks belong to their respective holders.© 2012 Autodesk, Inc. All rights reserved. Rufus W Warren III Editor