The Mvsetup command provides several options for aligning objects in viewports, a handy feature when you are creating drawings with three or four views. Alignment options include Angled, Horizontal, Vertical alignment, and Rotate view. First, click on a layout with multiple viewports to activate it. Start Mvsetup at the command prompt.

Caption: Start Mvsetup and select Align (left), then select the alignment option (right).

Enter A for Align, then enter your choice of options.

Angled: Aligns a point in one viewport at the distance and angle you specify from a base point in another viewport.
Horizontal: Aligns a point in one viewport horizontally with a base point in another viewport.
Vertical: Aligns a point in one viewport vertically with a base point in another viewport.

AutoCAD prompts you to Specify basepoint. In the viewport that the others are going to be aligned to (make sure this viewport is current), select the alignment point. The next prompt asks you to Specify point in viewport to be panned. Click in the viewport you want to realign, then select an alignment point in that view. If you selected the Angled option, you will also be prompted to enter a distance and displacement angle from the base point to the alignment point in the second viewport.

Rotate is also an option under Align. This option rotates the entire view. You specify the viewport with the view you want to rotate, then specify the base point and rotation angle. The entire view will rotate within the viewport.

AutoCAD 2000 introduced Partial Open, which allows you to access only a portion of the geometry in a drawing. If you’re dealing with a large drawing, you can load just the geometry from a specific layer or view. Note that this feature is not available in AutoCAD LT.

To access the Partial Open command, select Open from the File menu, then select the drawing you want to open. From the Open button’s pulldown menu, select Partial Open or Partial Open—Read Only.

Caption: Select the drawing to open, then use the arrow at the right of the Open button to access the Partial Open command.

Multiple users can partially open a drawing, but only one user has full read/write access. In the Partial Open dialog box, select the layers or view that you want to view and edit.

Caption: In the Partial Open dialog box, select the view and layers you want to work with.

Finally, select Open to load the objects on the selected layer(s) or view.

Note: All layers in the drawing will be listed in the Layer dialog box, but only those that you specified in the Partial Open dialog box can be edited.

If the Partial Open button is missing when you select a drawing in the Select File dialog box, the drawing was probably saved in a version of AutoCAD that doesn’t support partial open. If you try to type in the Partialopen command to open a drawing that doesn’t support partial open, the following alert displays:

Drawing file was created by an incompatible version

Once you partially open a drawing, you can load additional geometry using the Partial Load command in the File menu. (That command is available only when a drawing is partially open.) The Partial Load dialog box looks just like the Partial Open one, except for the Pick a Window button. This button lets you load additional layers in an area you specify by selecting two diagonal corners.

You can use the Field command to insert the area value of a closed boundary. The area value will be associated with the boundary, so that when the boundary is stretched or scaled, the area value will also change.

Create your closed boundary with the Pline command. Enter Field at the command prompt.

Caption: Field settings to display the area of a closed boundary.

When the Field dialog box displays, select Objects from the Field Category pulldown list. In the Field Names box, select Object. Click on the Select Object button, then select your boundary line. The Object Type box should now show the word Polyline. Select Area in the Property Selection box, then click OK. Specify the insertion point for your field.
When you stretch the boundary using grips or the Stretch command and then type regen at the command prompt, the area value displayed in the field will update.

Several AutoCAD commands (e.g, Fillet, Trim, Extend, Chamfer, Hatch) refuse to work with objects that are not coplanar. To make objects in a drawing coplanar, you can use the Change command. Type Change at the Command prompt and select the objects. Enter P for Properties, then E for elevation. Enter 0 for the new elevation, then press Enter twice.

If that doesn’t solve the problem (and it probably won’t), you can use the Properties command to change the properties of the objects. Note that you need to explode objects such as blocks and groups first. Select Properties from the toolbar, or type Properties at the command prompt. Click on Quick Select in the Properties window. In the Quick Select dialog box, select Entire Drawing from the Apply To list, or click on Select Objects to pick specific objects in the drawing. In the Object Type list, select the object type you want to change (usually, lines are the problem). Select Start Z from the Properties list. Note that if objects start at z=0 but are skewed in the z axis, you will want to select End Z instead of Start Z. Select Not Equal (<>) from the Operator List, and enter 0 in the Value field. This will select only objects that are not on z=0. Select Include in New Selection Set under How to Apply, then click on OK.

Caption: Quick Select options to select all objects with a z value not equal to zero. Note the End Z option, which you may want to try if Start Z doesn’t do the trick.

Depending on the number of objects, it may take a while for AutoCAD to select them all. Once they are selected, the Quick Select dialog box closes, and the grips of the selected objects display in the drawing window. In the Properties window, click in the Start Z field and change the value to 0, then press Enter. Repeat the process in the End Z field. Note that the Delta Z value automatically changes to 0 to reflect your changes.

When you install AutoCAD 2007 (LT also) with Service Pack 2, which is required, on Windows Vista, the Program Compatibility Assistant displays this warning:

This program has known compatibility issues

According to Autodesk, this is a “benign” warning. You can safely ignore this message and select the Run Program option to start AutoCAD.