Don’t Feed the DUCS

Two tips this morning, both involving the word “Dynamic:”

1) A new feature of Civil 3D 2007 is called Dynamic UCS.
This allows people using the 3D features of AutoCAD to change the UCS Dynamically (well, at least the name makes sense!) For example, let’s say that I drew a box in AutoCAD. With DUCS turned on, I can hover over any side of the box, and my UCS will temporarily change to be relative to that face. This is pretty neat, and something I’ve had fun playing with (I also teach a 3D Drawing and Modeling class on occasion). However, being Civil-minded people, we all know that a change in UCS could prove BAD for the type of work that we do. As such, I’m suggesting that it be turned OFF.

2) If you didn’t already know this…AutoCAD 2006 introduced the concept of “Heads-Up” design with Dynamic Input. This effectively put everything that could appear on the command line to be near your crosshairs. Again, great feature for AutoCAD, bad for Civil 3D. Some of the options that we need to choose on the command line in Civil 3D just don’t quite make the jump to the dynamic input area. Again, I’m suggesting that DYN (conveniently located right next to DUCS!) be turned off. As a matter of fact, remove these buttons from your screen so you don’t turn them on by mistake.

Have fun!

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