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Save Time with Design Center
Tip# 3500 By Kevin D. Stober On 04-Oct-2010
4
Rated By 1 users
Categories : Import
Software type : AutoCAD 2011
Rename File To : No Files to download.
Transfer layouts and other elements from one drawing to another.

Kevin D. Stober shares a time-saving tip about using AutoCAD's Design Center.

"I think the best time-saver that AutoCAD has built in is the AutoCAD Design Center (to access it, type _adcenter on the Command line). Design Center is where you can transfer blocks, dimstyles, layers, layouts, linetypes, multileaderstyles, tablestyles, textstyles, and xrefs.

"One of the most useful tools is the layout function; it is so efficient to transfer the layout from one drawing to another in seconds. Being able to see blocks in other drawings and import them is also a big help.
 
"I think of all the tools in AutoCAD, this one has to be a huge time-saver on a daily basis, as well as one of the lesser-known tools that can help CAD operators easily transfer information between drawings. Just pick, right-click, and choose Add — it's as simple as that."

Notes from Cadalyst Tip Patrol:
AutoCAD's Design Center is very easy to use. Open it and browse to a file; there you can extract styles, layers, blocks, layouts, and more. Expand the list to see what is in the file for you to "borrow", select the items you want, and drag them to your current file.  

 

Average Rating:
4


User comments
Comment by Bouvier,Alan
Posted on 2010-10-04 19:01:18
I also like design center very much. However, if you use it to drag and drop blocks into your drawing that depend on the block's objects having the correct draw order, it will frustrate you. Otherwise, it is great! I love the way blocks are scaled automatically when the units are defined!
Comment by Anil,Lewis
Posted on 2010-10-15 12:35:51
FYI you do not have to type in _adcenter I just type in dc. The other day I was telling one of students about it and the name completely slipped my mind, so I told him, "Just type DC."