Models for the drawing
Are you looking to purchase human forms for your drawings?  There are some great models at this website that can be used for giving your drawing a sense of scale while showing an activity.  Visit http://www.cadonline.com/features/

499people/499people.htm to check out their 3D models. 

Layers, layers, layers…

The variation of layer standards continues to be astonishing.  What’s really surprising is that CAD operators often run the show.  I have seen drawings completed in only layer “0”.  Standards should define which layer you draw entities on.  Standards may call for hundreds of predefined layers.

The Public Works and Government Services, Canada, has around eight hundred layers with basic layer names containing eight characters.  They use a systematic approach that includes architectural layers beginning with the letter A, and mechanical layers starting with the letter H (for HVAC).

Text can be another matter, however.  Text attributes within symbols, labels or blocks might best be defined to their own layer to allow the inter-discipline use of drawing entities.  This allows text layers to be split away from the entities they describe.  Some drawings use complex linetypes that include text strings in the line.  The text height, however, is based around the LTSCALE system variable.  This may require a much higher LTSCALE that reduces the number of insertions of the string and results in the letters being too high.  Consider using an AutoLISP routine that breaks the line, inserts the text string, and places the text on the corresponding text layer. The advantage complex linetypes have over this is that the line is all one entity, which is important if the drawings are used for estimating purposes.


Miscellaneous Department

It works on everyone else’s system but mine…
Does your “Delete” key refuse to erase selected objects?  You select several objects and then press the Delete key, but the objects remain selected and are not erased?  If you would like it to work like “ERASE”, set the value for the “PICKFIRST” system variable to 1.

AutoCAD Release 14 - Error when editing multiline text…
The following error message is displayed when you do anything related to MTEXT, such as edit existing text:  “Unable to find a component needed for stacked fractions.”

This error occurs for one of two reasons--either AutoCAD is missing some files it needs for the MTEXT command or the Windows registry is corrupt.

To resolve this problem:
1. Uninstall AutoCAD.
2. Reinstall AutoCAD.
[Editors note... you may want to take a look at  "MTEXT WOES" above BEFORE trying the Paul Backus technique of remove and reinstall]