Tipster Tawfik Shehata shares a trick that uses AutoCAD's Quick Select tool to check a drawing's contents.
"In addition to all the regular benefits of using Quick Select, you can also use it to quickly check some contents in busy drawings (especially those provided by others) as per the following examples. "Use Quick Select to check which hatch patterns are used in the drawing: - Start Quick Select from the icon at the top right corner of the Properties palette, or type Qselect.
- Under Object Type, select Hatch. If Hatch isn’t listed, that means the drawing doesn't contain any hatching, since this list only includes the object types used in the drawing, regardless of their layer states.
- Under Properties, select Pattern Name.
- Under Value, you will find a list of all the hatch pattern names contained in the drawing.
"Determine which blocks are used in the drawing: - Apply the previous steps, using Block Reference as the object type and Name as the property.
"Check if there are any viewports containing layer property overrides in a layout: - In a layout and while in paper space, apply the previous steps to Viewport, Layer property overrides = Yes
- If no viewport was selected, that means this particular layout has no layer overrides.
"Please note that you can apply the same method to part(s) of the drawing using Apply To in the Quick Select dialog box. Also remember that when you apply Quick Select to an entire drawing, it will pick the object types you select even if their layers were locked or turned off, or if the objects were hidden by HideObjects or IsolateObjects."
Notes from Cadalyst tip reviewer Brian Benton: This is a cool trick. Many times we have to work with old files or files from a third party. Using Quick Select in this way can help you understand how the file was set up: what styles are used, which blocks, etc. It can also help you to change some of those objects to meet your company's CAD standards. |