Introduction
Welcome to AutoCAD Platform Customization! Have you ever thought about customizing the Autodesk® AutoCAD® program only to think it is not for you because you're not a programmer? If so, you are not alone—many people connect customization with programming. However, customization is not the same as programming, although programming can be considered a form of customization.
While using one of the supported programming languages can be useful in implementing custom workflows and new commands, simpler ways exist to increase your drafting efficiency in a shorter period of time. AutoCAD supports a wide range of customization features that you can learn and begin to leverage in minutes, which can lead to improved CAD standards and a decrease in the amount of time it takes to complete a task.
I, like many others—even you, most likely—have customized AutoCAD without even realizing it. Have you ever created a new layer, text style, or block? Chances are pretty good that you have created one or more of those items before. You might have even stored those items in a drawing template (DWT) file so they would be available each time a new drawing was created. While you might not have thought about these as forms of customization, they are indeed a few of the basic drawing customization features that can be used to enhance the out-of-the-box AutoCAD experience.
Drawing customization affects the appearance of and settings in a drawing file or drawing template file, and should form the cornerstone of your company's CAD standards. Often when people think of customization, they think of application customization, which includes the support files that AutoCAD uses, as well as the tools in the application's user interface. Application customization is not dependent on which drawing is currently open, but on which user profile or workspace is current.
AutoCAD Platform Customization: User Interface and Beyond provides you with an understanding of all the customization features to improve your productivity. This book is designed to introduce you not only to concepts related to defining CAD standards and customizing AutoCAD, but also to key customization concepts through procedural-based exercises.
This book is the first book in a series of three that focuses on customizing and programming AutoCAD. The three-book series as a whole is known as AutoCAD Platform Customization: User Interface, AutoLISP, VBA, and Beyond, and will be available as a printed book in late 2014. Book 2 in the series, AutoCAD Platform Customization: AutoLISP, will be available in spring 2014; Book 3, AutoCAD Platform Customization: VBA, will be available in late 2014. These two books focus on the AutoLISP® and VBA programming languages, starting with the basics and working you toward advanced concepts.
AutoCAD Platform Customization: User Interface and Beyond covers many of the customization features that can be found in AutoCAD on Windows and Mac. If any of the following are true, this book will be useful to you:
Customization is one of the feature areas that sets AutoCAD apart from many other CAD programs. Even though the product can be used out of the box, configuring the user interface and modifying the support files that come with the product can greatly improve your productivity. By customizing AutoCAD, you can streamline product workflows and create new ones that are a better fit with the way your company works. These workflows might range from importing layers and styles into a drawing to the extraction of drawing-based information into a spreadsheet or database.
Not all of the customization features require you to learn a new tool or skill set; chances are you might have customized AutoCAD and not even realized it. If you have ever created a layer or a block, you already understand some of the customization features of AutoCAD. AutoCAD customization features can be grouped into three categories: basic, intermediate, and advanced. The advanced features require you to know a programming language and an AutoCAD-specific application programming interface (API).
The following outlines many of the common customization and programming options available:
Basic
Intermediate
Advanced
This book is organized to help you learn the fundamentals of establishing CAD standards and then how to manage and implement those standards by customizing the AutoCAD program. Additional resources and files containing the samples found throughout this book are available on the companion web page, www.sybex.com/go/autocadcustomization.
Chapter 1: Establishing the Foundation for Drawing Standards
In this chapter, you'll learn how to establish drawing standards. Drawing standards allow you to enforce consistency across multiple drawings. By enforcing a set of standards, you can easily share your drawings and make them look the same when plotting them.
Chapter 2: Working with Nongraphical Objects
In this chapter, you'll learn how nongraphical objects affect display and output of objects in a drawing. Nongraphical objects such as layers and text styles make it easy to update the look of all the objects that reference them.
Chapter 3: Building the Real World One Block at a Time
In this chapter, you'll learn how to create and manage blocks. Blocks allow you to create logical object groupings that can be used several times in the same drawing. For example, you could create a small assembly of parts and insert it more than once in a drawing. If the assembly changes, you just need to update the block, and all instances of that block are changed.
Chapter 4: Manipulating the Drawing Environment
In this chapter, you'll learn how to change the AutoCAD drawing environment. During startup, you can control several of the settings that affect the AutoCAD program. These settings can affect the display of the user interface, behavior of tools in the drawing environment, and where AutoCAD looks for support files.
Chapter 5: Customizing the AutoCAD User Interface for Windows
In this chapter, you'll learn how to customize the elements and display of the AutoCAD user interface on Windows. The Customize User Interface (CUI) Editor allows you to create and manage the tools that are displayed by the AutoCAD user interface.
Chapter 6: Customizing the AutoCAD User Interface for Mac
In this chapter, you'll learn how to customize the elements and display of the AutoCAD user interface on Mac OS. The Customize dialog box allows you to create and manage the tools displayed by the AutoCAD user interface.
Chapter 7: Creating Tools and Tool Palettes
In this chapter, you'll learn how to create and customize tool palettes in AutoCAD on Windows. Tool palettes allow you to create a visual set of tools that can be used to insert blocks, start commands, or even hatch a closed area. Tool palettes are available on Windows only.
Chapter 8: Automating Repetitive Tasks
In this chapter, you will learn how to create scripts and action macros to automate repetitive tasks. Script files and action macros allow you to combine multiple commands into simple logical sequences without needing to know a programming language. Action macros are supported on Windows only.
Chapter 9: Defining Shapes, Linetypes, and Hatch Patterns
In this chapter, you will learn how to create custom shapes, linetypes, and hatch patterns that you can use to control the way line work appears in a drawing. The AutoCAD install provides a limited number of standard shapes, linetypes, and hatch patterns. You can extend the standard definitions by creating your own shapes, linetypes, and hatch patterns for use in your drawings.
Chapter 10: Using, Loading, and Managing Custom Files
In this chapter, you will learn how to use, manage, and migrate custom files. After you have spent the time customizing AutoCAD, all you have left to do is deploy and manage your files.
An online counterpart to this book, the companion website contains the sample files required to complete the exercises found in this book in addition to the sample code and project files used to demonstrate some of the programming concepts explained in this book. In addition to the sample files and code, the website also contains some additional resources that are not mentioned in this book. The companion website can be found at www.sybex.com/go/autocadcustomization.
This book assumes that you know the basics of your operating system—Windows or Mac OS X—and AutoCAD 2009 or later. When appropriate, I specify when a feature does not apply to a specific operating system or release of AutoCAD. Most of the images in this book were taken using AutoCAD 2014 in Windows 8 and Mac OS X 10.7.
Although this book was not written to cover AutoCAD LT®, much of the content does apply to that software package.
This book uses a number of styles and character formats—bold, italic, monotype face, all uppercase or lowercase letters, and others—to help you distinguish from the text you read, sample code you can try, text that you need to enter at the AutoCAD Command prompt, or the name of an object class or method in one of the programming languages.
As you read through this book, keep the following conventions in mind:
I hope you enjoy AutoCAD Platform Customization and it changes the way you think about completing your day-to-day work. If you have any feedback or ideas that could improve this book, you can contact me using the following address:
On my blog and website you'll find additional articles on customization and samples that I have written over the years. You'll find these resources here:
If you encounter any problems with this publication, please report them to the publisher. Visit the book's website, www.sybex.com/go/autocadcustomization, and click the Errata link to open a form and submit the problem you found.
3.12.74.87