time-savers in drafting plans. Many of these tips and tricks have come from other CAD users who are sometimes reluctant to spill their top secrets.

Well, today is your lucky day! Below is a list of some of my most valuable commands that have really led to greater productivity and efficiency in completing a single task.

OOPS

OOPS is a command that will allow the user to restore the very last object erased. This command is extremely useful when you accidentally delete a very important object, such as a boundary line, and the only way to get it back is to undo your last 10 minutes of work. The OOPS command will restore the last erased object without losing work.

BURST

BURST is similar to EXPLODE, but it will allow you to preserve the original value of an attribute within a block. If you have ever exploded a block and lost all of its information, use this command.

OVERKILL

Have you ever deleted an object only to find a duplicate behind it? The OVERKILL command goes through the drawing and deletes any duplicates and overlapping lines along with the following….

• Duplicate copies of objects will be deleted.
• Arcs drawn over portions of circles will be deleted.
• Lines at the same angle that partially overlap are combined into a single line
• Duplicate line or arc segments will be deleted.
• Overlapping and zero-length polyline segments will be deleted.

MAPTRIM 

Map trim is a command that allows you to quickly trim everything outside or inside a polyline. This can be a very effective way to clip out a large amount of information when importing big files such as parcel and contour shape files. Select a boundary, select objects looking to delete, and finally select whether you want everything inside or outside that boundary to be trimmed.

Multifunctional Grip

Multifunctional grips are versatile in reshaping, moving, and editing line string and polygon features. By hovering over a grip, you have the ability to stretch, add a vertex, delete a vertex, and convert to a line or curve.

Text Component Editor (Unreadable text?)

A common problem within Civil 3D, which has frustrated me for years, is how hard it is to read text in the Text Component Editor. This can be caused by a feature in Windows called Clear Text. Here are a few steps that can enhance the legibility of your text. In your Windows search bar, type and click on “Adjust Clear Text.” Uncheck the box labeled “turn on Clear type. It will now show the component of your text much brighter.   

           CLEAR TYPE TEXT “ON”   

CLEAR TYPE TEXT “OFF”

Another tip that only a few people know is that all PDF, tiff, and jpeg files can be dragged straight into AutoCAD without inserting or attaching.

These commands are just a few ways to help simplify your drafting headaches. Our goal here at Howell Engineering and Surveying is to educate our employees, especially our younger staff, with all of our past knowledge to hopefully, one day, teach us old dogs some new tricks.