Right click defaults to help 1

[haynewp]

When I open a new autcad 2002 session, if I accidentally hit the right mouse button the help comes up if I have not yet issued a first command. Does anyone know how to turn off this default?

 

[Striker]

The problem is you have the right click edit function turned off. Unfortunately, you only have three options, right click means enter, right click means context menu, right click means program menu. If you have the option set so all you have to do is right click to execute the last command (or provide the carriage return for a command in progress) you will have this problem until you execute a command in AutoCAD, at which point AutoCAD will run that command. I can offer a suggestion that will effectively stop the help file from opening if you immediately right click after opening a drawing. If you have a file acad.lsp it should have a defined program called S::Startup. If it does them simply add this line as the last line in the startup program:

(command "redraw&quot

If you do not have a acad.lsp file, then create an empty acad.lsp file with this as the contents:

(defun S::STARTUP ()
(command "REDRAW&quot
)

Make sure you set the system variable ACADLSPASDOC in post R14 versions to 1.

You should not have this problem again.

Cheers.....

 

[haynewp]

I can see the redraw command come up on the command line when I start autocad. However, it is still not overriding the help coming up. I changed the command to "line" instead. Then I opened the drawing and I hit the right button and the line command started. Interestingly, after I finish or escape this first "line" command, the second time I hit the right button, the help comes up.

 

[Striker]

The problem simply is, the right click will either enter the last executed command unless it is canceled, the last completed command that was entered, or if no command was entered, it will issue a carriage return which will call the help dialog. Just thinking off the cuff here, there are 2 quick solutions.

1) In the options setting User Preferences, Right Click Customization, select Shortcut Menu for the Default mode.

2) A little more in depth but a solution none the less. Replace the (command "Redraw&quot since we found out that it redraws the drawing but does not enter the command into the command list with (command "script" "redraw&quot then create a file called redraw.scr in the support folder and in this file enter REDRAW on the first line, make sure there are no spaces before or after it, and then one enter. If you look at the properties of the file once you save it, it should only be 8 bytes. You will see redraw pop up on the command line and the drawing will be redrawn, and redraw will be entered as the first command on the command list. So when you right click the drawing will simply redraw, and no help dialog will pop up.

Outside of this, I cannot think of anything to solve your issue right now.

 

[OZZY84]

just don't "accidentally" right click before you enter any commands.
too many steps to solve simple problem.

Intel P4 1.7 GHZ
768 RDRAM
Win 2000 Pro
Autocad 14, 2002 with EP 2.3.1

 

[haynewp]

Easier said than done.

 

[Striker]

Ozzy84, while I too find this to be a simple problem, I must also recognize that the very first time the help file is loaded in AutoCAD, especially when you are starting a new drawing, It is incredibly slow. Why oh why did Microsoft get away from the simple help file and convert to compiled html for help files I will never know, but quite honestly, I find them cumbersome, and extrodinarily slow. So if it makes someones life a wee bit better by spending 5 minutes doing the steps I laid out, then so be it. If you use that train of thought on everything, then we would have no automation and no neat little tools to make our life easier. Case and point:

I once had a boss who thought it too time consuming to spend 15 minutes to create a macro and toolbar to draw a simple frame, something that everyone in the department had done for years by inserting a block, and making the minor modifications, probably only took 5 minutes to create the frame originally, but then it was prone to mistakes and inconsistencies. After writing the program, the frame drawings took 5 seconds, and there were no inconsistencies or errors. After the first three drawings, the company was saving around 2.50 per drawing, not including correction time, failed components, and rework costs in the field. It turned out that it saved the company over 10000.00 over the course of a year, that was direct bottom line profit. Was it worth the time, I certainly think so, are all projects worth the time to implement them, probably not, but if we presume a few things we can easily see how the 5 minutes to stop the help dialog from poping up can quite easily amount to a sizeable savings in time and frustration.

Consider that it takes 5 seconds to open the help dialog and then close it, this is on a pretty fast computer, I have seen some take 10 seconds just to display.
The user opens 12 drawings a day, and saves one minute every day. That is five minutes a week, that is 4 hours and 10 minutes just closing the help dialog when it is not wanted every year. I can do a heap of drawing in 4 hours.
If you implement that for 10, 20 or even 100 users it makes a sizeable difference in production.

This is just my take on it, I am personally glad that the question was posed, now I am implementing it on all of our systems in my office. It is a simple problem, with a relatively simple solution, so why not make life a tiny bit easier for those in the trenches.

 

[haynewp]

Thanks, I changed the file association to u

"C:\Program Files\AutoCAD 2002\acad.exe" "%1" /b "REDRAW"

under folder options and now I can click on any autocad dwg and it works.

 

[haynewp]

Do you have a lisp command to load this "redraw.scr" every time instead?

 

[Striker]

If you look at the second post, I made a note to replace the original line in the acad.lsp file and it would be loaded automatically with each drawing.

i.e.

;begin acad.lsp
(defun S::STARTUP()
(command "script" "redraw&quot
)
;end acad.lsp