Converting 3D drawings into 2D drawings

If your drawing is made up of solids, you should use SOLVIEW and SOLDRAW or SOLPROF, because they provide the most accurate results.

• SOLVIEW automates the creation of floating viewports and orthogonal views of your model. SOLVIEW also creates a special layer for dimensioning. For a view that you have named "front," look for a layer called front-dim. You can use these layers to create dimensions in paper space.
• SOLDRAW works with the views created by SOLVIEW and creates 2D profiles, including hatching for sections.
• SOLPROF requires that you create your own floating viewports and that you start on a layout in model space. This command then creates profiles. You can create hidden views by choosing Yes at the "Display hidden profile lines on separate layer?" prompt and then freezing or turning off the layers that represent hidden lines.

If you drawing contains non-solids, your best bet is to create a DXB file (a binary file containing all the specifications of your drawing) and then import that file into a new drawing. These results are not as accurate, but acceptable for most presentation purposes. Here are the steps:

1. Choose Tools > Wizards > Add Plotter. The Add Plotter wizard opens.
2. Click Next. On the Begin screen, choose the location for your plotter, My Computer, Network Plotter Server, or System Printer. Click Next.
3. On the Plotter Model screen, choose AutoCAD DXB File from the Manufacturers list. Click Next.
4. On the Import Pcp or Pc2 screen, click Next unless you want to import an existing plotter configuration file.
5. On the Ports screen, Plot to File should be checked. Click Next.
6. On the Plotter Name screen, you can keep the default name (DXB File) or type a new name. Click Next and then click Finish. You have now finished the setting up of the DXB plotter. You don't need to to this step again.
7. In your drawing, set up the view you want to plot.
8. Click a layout tab and create a floating viewport. (By default the Page Setup dialog box appears. Click OK to create one floating viewport.)
9. If you want a hidden view, select the viewport itself (the border). Right click and choose Hide Plot > Yes. If you don't want the viewport border itself to appear, put it on a different layer and freeze the layer.
10. Choose Plot from the Standard toolbar. On the Plot Device tab, chose DXB File.pc3 (or whatever you named your DXB plotter).
11. In the Plot to File section, name your file and choose a location. (You can click the ellipsis button to browse to a location.) Note that the Plot to File checkbox appears grayed out.
12. Click OK to create the DXB file.
13. Open a new drawing and choose Insert > Drawing Exchange Binary. Locate and choose the file you created and click Open. (If you model is rotated, just use the ROTATE command.) You now have a 2D representation of your 3D drawings, everything broken down into lines.

A new Express Tools command is Flatten, which converts a 3D drawing to 2D. The results depend on the viewpoint you are using when you execute the command. For example, a cylinder viewed using the SE Isometric viewpoint becomes a set of polylines. If viewed from the top, the cylinder becomes a circle, because that's what you see. Since AutoCAD 2007, there's a similar FLATSHOT command.

Convert text to Mtext and vice versa

Text, also called single-line text, or Dtext, makes every line a separate object. It's great for short annotation in a drawing. On the other hand, Mtext, also called multiline text, has more formatting options, and is better for larger amounts of text. Mtext is especially important if you need to create left and right margins and wrap the text between those margins.

Sometimes, you have single-line text that should be multiline text, or vice versa. Here are two simple ways to convert between the two types of text.

From text to Mtext

To convert from text to Mtext, use the Express Tools command TXT2MTXT. Choose Express> Text> Convert Text to Mtext. (In AutoCAD 2009, click the Menu Browser first.)

At the Select objects: prompt, select the text objects that you want to convert. If you press Enter instead, you get the Text to MText Options dialog box. Set the options as you want and press OK. By default, the command sorts from the top object downward, and tries to word wrap the Mtext that it creates.

One nice feature of the command is that if you select text objects first, the command executes without further input -- very efficient! Another efficient feature is that the command does a true conversion; your old text objects are gone.

From Mtext to text

The easiest way that I found to convert Mtext to text is simply to copy and paste. Double-click the Mtext to open the Mtext editor. Select the text and copy to the clipboard. Then close the editor.

Start the DTEXT or TEXT command. Specify the start point, height and rotation angle as usual. You'll then see a small box and cursor. Paste from the clipboard and press Enter to end the command. You'll then need to delete your Mtext object.

Find Duplicate Data Using Conditional Formatting in Excel 2007

People frequently have to identify duplicated data within a list or table, and doing this manually can be very time-consuming and error-prone. To make this job much easier, you can hack one of Excel’s standard features, Conditional Formatting.

Take, for example, a table of data with a range of $A$1:$H$100. Select the top-left cell, A1, and drag it over and down to H100. It is important that A1 be the active cell in your selection, so don’t drag from H100 to A1. Select Format ➝ Conditional Formatting... and, in the Conditional Formatting dialog box, select Formula Is from the top-left pop-up menu. In the field to its right, enter the following code:

=COUNTIF($A$1:$H$100,A1)>1

Click the Format tab (that’s the Format button under Mac OS X), followed by the Patterns tab, and select a color you want applied to visually identify duplicate data. Click OK to return to the Conditional Formatting dialog box and click OK again to apply the formatting.

All those cells containing duplicate data should be lit up like a Christmas tree in the color you chose, making it much easier to eyeball duplicate data and delete, move, or alter it as appropriate.

It is vital to note that as A1 was the active cell in your selection, the cell address is a relative reference and is not absolute (unlike your table of data, $A$1:$H$100). By using conditional formatting in this way, Excel automatically knows to use the correct cell as the COUNTIF criterion. By this we mean that the conditional formatting formula in cell A1 will read as follows:

=COUNTIF($A$1:$H$100,A1)>1
while in cell A2, it will read:
=COUNTIF($A$1:$H$100,A2)>1
in cell A3, it will read:
=COUNTIF($A$1:$H$100,A3)>1

and so forth.