Michael’s Corner

Michael's Corner is a monthly publication written by Michael E. Beall, Autodesk Authorized Author and peripatetic AutoCAD trainer. Michael travels all over the USA, bringing his fantastic experience and great understanding of AutoCAD to his clients. Michael's Corner brings together many of the tips, tricks and methods developed during these training sessions for the benefit of all users.

Michael's Corner provides something for every AutoCAD user. Every month, a number of articles cover a wide range of topics, suitable for users at all levels, including "The Basics" for those just starting out. Essentially, the aim of Michael's Corner is to help all AutoCAD users work smarter and faster.

This month…

From the Vault

Originally published January 2004

Load Only What You Need

If you're not working in a vacuum, working on another guy's drawing is a part of life, so it's important to know how to keep clutter to a minimum. In the Select File dialog, the Partial Open feature lets you be selective about what layer "geometry" is loaded when you open a drawing. Choose Partial Open from the item drop-down to open the dialog, then check the layers of the geometry/objects that you would like to see in the drawing.

Tip: Smart money says you open the drawing first and turn on/thaw all layers so you know what you have, identify the layers you'll need, then close it and start Partial Open.

The geometry that has been created on the layers selected will be the only information that is physically opened and displayed. You will notice, however, that all the layers names for the drawing will be listed in the Layer dialog, even though the objects on those layers aren't loaded.

But what if you didn't get all the information you needed? Once a drawing has been partially opened, you can load additional layer geometry using File/Partial Load. The Partial Load feature is only available for drawings that have already been partially opened.

The Partial Load dialog box looks virtually identical to the Partial Open dialog with one exception: The "Pick a window" button. With this feature you can load additional layers in a user-specified area!

One final note: The partial open/load features can only be used with the AutoCAD format you're using. In other words, if you have A2004 and try Partial Open on an A2000/i/2 drawing, it won't work. Simply open and save the drawing in A2004, then run Partial Open.

When you re-open a drawing that was saved in the Partial Open state, AutoCAD gives you an alert box from which you can choose to Restore the partially opened state or Fully Open the drawing.

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