progeCAD 2009 Professional Tips

I found this available on the progeSOFT trial forum and thought I would repost it here so that readers might utilize some of these little known tips of productivity. If you have other tips please feel free to post them in the comments section of this post…

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After updating to the 2009 I was so surprised to find that some of my favorite AutoCAD not-so-widely-known features were available… The last ACAD version that I used to work with is 2002, so my info may seem obsolete to somebody, but anyway.

Here are some great features that I found in the 2009 PCAD and some of them make me really powerful and fast

1. Switching between TRIM and EXTEND. When the TRIM or EXTEND command is active pressing the [Shift] turns it to the opposite one – EXTEND or TRIM respectively.
2. Crossing window selection for TRIM and EXTEND. When one of these commands is active and the cutting or boundary entity is defined, you just have to select all the lines by crossing window and voila! See the result!
3. TRIM or EXTEND linear dimensions. Well, actually I found this feature active back in 2008 It’s simple – trimming or extending the dimensions just like they are lines.
4. LENGTHEN. Well, if you want to make some lines to be equal in length to another existing line, it’s simple:

Command : LEN
Edit length:  DYnamic/Increment/Percent/Total/<Select entity to list length>:
[select the existing line]    //the one which length you want to give to other lines

Current length: 48.3547
//so you get it's actual length
Edit length:  DYnamic/Increment/Percent/Total/<Select entity to list length>:
use the [T] option
//T is for "total"
Angle/<Enter total length (48.3547)>: [enter]
Mode/<Select entity to change>:
[select the desired line(s) that you want to change]
Mode/Undo/<Select entity to change>: ...
Command :

5. [Shift]+[Ctrl]+[left mouse button pressed]+[mouse move] = very powerful zoom. I think most of the users know this option, but still mention it, because I consider it extremely usefull.
6. [Alt]+[Ctrl]+[left mouse button pressed]+[mouse move] = dynamic 3D rotation, very useful in certain cases. If by accident you activate this option and get your 2D drawing in undesired 3D point of view, you can fix it using the command PLAN
7. [Ctrl]+[Tab] for switching between the open drawings. This was available in previous versions too. Just try it and enjoy

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I didn’t know about the LEN command but that’s handy…