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AutoCAD LT 98

Ralph Grabowski

AutoCAD LT 98, from Autodesk, is an incremental upgrade to its predecessor, LT 97. The upgrade primarily contains a number of user interface enhancements. Both versions of the program are fairly compatible with AutoCAD Release 14, though some differences exist.

The feature that may cause the most excitement among users is the "drag'n drop" hatch pattern. The Content Explorer, introduced in LT 97, displays all blocks and Xrefs. LT 98 expands the functionality to hatch patterns. To hatch an enclosed area, you simply drag the hatch pattern from the Content Explorer into an area. If you used the Setup wizard to prepare the new drawing, LT 98 uses the appropriate scale for the hatch pattern. To change any parameter of the pattern, simply right-click to display the BHatch dialog box.

Content Explorer lets you drag hatch patterns into a closed area in the drawing.

The Array and Purge commands have been converted to dialog boxes. (Type -Array and -Purge to run them at the command line, which may cause problems for some macros). The new Array dialog box contain all the options you expect from the command, plus a few extras (see figure 2). A preview shows what the array will look like; an option lets you place the rectangular array at an angle; another option turns the completed array into a group.

The Array command's new dialog box sports a preview window.

The Purge dialog box displays an Explorer-style tree of purgable objects. A radio button causes AutoCAD to display non-purgable objects, instead. Selecting a non-purgable item causes AutoCAD to explain briefly why the object cannot be purged.

The Purge command's new dialog box displays purgable items in a tree view.

The RevCloud command (a bonus command in R14) draws revision clouds around areas. LT 98 finally adds the Arc and Circle command options that had been missing all along.

LT 98 combines the previously-separate toolbar-related dialog boxes into a single, tabbed Customize dialog box (see figure 4). The Commands, Toolbar, and Properties tabs are for toolbar customization, while a fourth tab, Keyboard, is for defining keyboard shortcuts for commands. For example, to assign Ctrl+Shift+W to execute the Zoom Window command, simply select the command from a list, then press the Ctrl, Shift, and W keys.

The new Customize dialog box for customizing toolbars and keyboard shortcuts.

First introduced with Release 14, a "group" is like a named selection set. You select one or more objects, then give them a name. Select one object of the group and you select the entire group (sort of like a block). LT 98's Group Manager dialog box, however, will throw R14 users for a loop, since it has had a complete makeover. Now it's a modeless dialog box, which means it is always displayed, even while performing other editing operations. You can dismiss it when you have no need for it.

The modeless Group Manager dialog box

Also new to LT 97 (and found in R14) are the Region and several related commands. To create a region, you draw a closed object using lines, arcs, polylines, etc. Then, you use the Region command to convert the object into a region. Use the new MassProp command to review its "physical" properties, such as area, perimeter, and centroid.

If you have drawn two or more overlapping regions, you can apply commands, such as Union, Subtract, and Intersect -- these are known as "Boolean operations." To join two regions to form a single region, use the Union command. Use the Subtract command to remove the area of one region from another. And Intersect removes all non-overlapping areas of the two regions.

The Undo list displays recent editing operations.

The unlimited Undo has been joined by unlimited Redo. Also, the Undo listing makes it more convenient to jump back by several editing operations. Updated plotter drivers are provided for HPGL/2 devices. There continues to be no AutoLISP or other programming language provided with LT 98. Note that you may need to remove LT 97 before you can install LT 98 due to some incompatibility with the Windows registry. LT 98 runs on any computer that can run Windows 95/98.

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