Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
a “lightweight” version of a DWG file intended for design review or posting on a
Web site.) I discuss attaching DWFs or PDFs as external references at the end of
this chapter, and describe the Web functions of DWFs in Chapter 20.
Both AutoCAD 2012 and AutoCAD LT 2012 enable you to attach DGN files to current
drawings via the External References palette.
DGN
files are drawing files created by one
of AutoCAD's major competitors: MicroStation from Bentley Systems. (You can also im-
port and export DGN drawing data in both AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT.) If you're new to
AutoCAD, you're not so likely to encounter DGN files unless you're working for a large
company that exchanges a lot of drawings with partners and consultants. For more in-
formation on DGN files in AutoCAD 2012, enter
DGN Files
in the Search box at the top of
the online help Home page
.
As I mention in Chapter 17, blocks, external references, DWF underlays, PDF underlays,
raster images, and DGN files enable you to reuse your work and the work of others, giv-
ing you the potential to save tremendous amounts of time — or to cause tremendous
problems if you change a file on which other people's drawings depend. Use these fea-
tures when you can to save time, but do so in an organized and careful way so as to
avoid problems.
Arraying Associatively
Things used to be so simple, back around . . . oh, AutoCAD 2011. ARRAY was unequivoc-
ally a modifying command, just like COPY or ROTATE. You filled in values in a dialog
box, and after a bit of tweaking, you ended up with multiple copies of the source ob-
jects, neatly arranged in geometric patterns: either in evenly spaced rows and columns,
or evenly distributed radially about a center point. Then Autodesk's programmers de-
cided old-fashioned arrays weren't enough. They took the old ARRAY command into the
lab, wired electrodes to its brain and threw the switch — and up rose the new super
ARRAY!
Comparing the old and new ARRAY commands
The results of using the new ARRAY command are so different from those you got in pre-
vious releases that I really wish they'd given it a new name. I'm going to do my best to
clarify the muddy waters, so here's the terminology I'm using in this topic:
ARRAY:
The new AutoCAD 2012 command for creating associative and non-associ-
ative rectangular, polar, path and 3D arrays of existing objects. The ARRAYRECT,
ARRAYPATH and ARRAYPOLAR are subsets of the ARRAY command.
