ellen finkelstein logo

Ellen Finkelstein.com
AutoCAD PowerPoint About Links
       

Over 130 AutoCAD tips and tutorials!

AutoCAD Tips
AutoCAD Tips Blog

Get free tips!
Sign up for our monthly tips newsletter. Free, bonus e-booklet!


RSS: What is it? Why do I want it? How do I get it?

Add to My Yahoo!
Subscribe with Bloglines

Buy a Book

E-mail This Page 
to a Friend

Submit a tip! If you include your name and I post your tip, I'll give you credit.

AutoCAD Tips & Tutorials

Control the display of tooltips

AutoCAD displays tooltips for object snaps, polar tracking, and dynamic tooltip. The object snap and dynamic tooltips can get in each others' way. The Quadrant tooltip, as you move the cursor slightly, will alternate between saying Quadrant and Specify next point or ↓.

By changing the TOOLTIPMERGE system variable to 1, you can combine the tooltips and see them together.

Sometimes the tooltip hinders you from seeing part of the drawing. To temporarily turn off dynamic input, along with its tooltip, press and hold F12. When you release F12, dynamic input comes back. This can be smoother than clicking the DYN button off and on, on the status bar.

You can control whether you see the tooltip when a prompt appears for a point (the default), only when you start typing a point, or always. Right-click the DYN button, and choose Settings, Then click the Settings button in the Pointer Input section.

When you grip edit objects, by default, you see one dynamic input tooltip, representing the change in length, of a line for example.

The line was 1 unit and will now be 1-7/16 units, so the change is 7/16 units.

But you have many other tooltip options. For example, you can show both the change in length and the resulting dimension.

The problem with this is that it can be hard to tell which tooltip is giving you which information.

Finally, you can show 3 other tooltips:

  • Absolute angle
  • Angle change
  • Arc Radius

Here's what happens when you show all of the tips!

OK, so that's a little overwhelming. But here's how to control what you see:

Right-click the DYN button and choose Settings.

In the Dimension Input section of the Dynamic Input tab of the Drafting Settings dialog box, choose Settings.

In the Dynamic Input settings dialog box, choose one of the following:

  • Show Two Input Fields at a Time
  • Show the Following Dimension Input Fields Simultaneously, and check the fields that you want to see

 

 

 

Back to main tips menu for more tips

Page copy protected against web site content infringement by Copyscape


Books by Ellen

New!
AutoCAD 2009 and AutoCAD LT 2009 Bible

This is the 9th edition of this book! Completely updated to conform to the new interface and, of course, it covers all the new features, such as the ribbon, Quick View, ShowMotion, the View Cube, the SteeringWheel, and more.

AutoCAD 2008 and AutoCAD LT 2008 Bible
Learn the great new features with wide application to all disciplines. Get the most comprehensive book on AutoCAD! DVD contains a 30-day trial of AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT. Thorough exercises guide you through each feature.

AutoCAD 2007 and AutoCAD LT 2007 Bible 
Discover the 2007 features, especially the radically improved 3D tools. CD has AutoCAD 30-day trial, 3rd-party software, and drawings for exercises.

AutoCAD 2006 and AutoCAD LT 2006 Bible 
Understand and use the 2006 features, including dynamic blocks and the new method of customizing menus and toolbars. CD-ROM has AutoCAD trial, software, and drawings for all exercises.


AutoCAD 2005 and AutoCAD LT 2005 Bible
Fully explains latest 2005 features:  tables, fields, and sheet sets. For the first time, covers AutoCAD LT! CD-ROM comes with software and drawings for all exercises.


AutoCAD 2004 Bible

Covers all features in detail. Hands-on exercises. Over 1300 pages + CD-ROM with software and drawings for all exercises.

                                  Home  |  AutoCAD  |  PowerPoint  | E-StoreAbout  | Links | Contact | Site Map
Copyright Ellen Finkelstein, Inc.