…then you might like this.  For those of you who don’t have Google Earth Pro, I found an application that will automatically download and stitch together Google map tiles (as well as Microsoft maps).  This means you can create a high resolution image of your map area, limited only by the maximum zoom level of Google Maps.

Here’s what you need:

gMapMaker, available here.  (latest version is 0.7.3.2 as of this writing)

After you install and run gMapMaker, you will want to set the options like so:

I set the Max Parallel downloads to 1 and the Wait between requests to 6000 ms so as not to piss off the Google Maps Server.  Meaning that downloading too many tiles at once will result in the server temporarily banning your IP.  Sometimes even these settings will trigger a ban, if you download enough files, so you may want to be even more conservative. You’ll know if you get banned if the bottom parts of your image end up as black squares.  It took me about 20 minutes to download about 300 256×256 tiles, which is better than waiting 12 hours or so for your IP to get unbanned.  Fortunately, thanks to gMapMaker’s cache, you don’t have to re-download tiles that have already been downloaded when you try again.

The next setting is Map Area.  Here you define the bounding box of your image with lat/long coordinates.  gMapMaker has a built-in interface that allows you to select which area of the Earth you want to grab map tiles from, but if you want something a little more accurate, use the interface at the bottom of this page.  Be sure to set the blue marker to the upper-left corner of your selection, so as to match the Map Area inputs in gMapMaker, then copy the lat/longs underneath the map to gMapMaker.

You can set the zoom level by going straight to Google Maps, zooming into the area you want (at the appropriate zoom level, it is not necessary to view the entire area), and hovering your mouse pointer over the “link” link in the upper-right corner.  The URL in your status bar (if you use Firefox, anyway) should have something like “&z=14″ at the end.  That number (14 in this example) is the zoom level you want to put into gMapMaker.  If you are using some other browser that doesn’t show you the URL, just click on the “link” link and note the zoom level at the end of the URL that pops up (select the URL and hit the “end” button your keyboard”).  Take note of the image size and memory needed at the bottom left of gMapMaker.  If the image is too big for your application, you might want to lower the zoom level or shrink the area.

Be sure to set the map type to “Google Satellite”, unless you want another type.

You can set the image format to whatever works for you.  Make sure to set the Operating mode to “OziExplorer mode, download and build merged image”.

Click Go, select a location to save the stitched-together image, and sit back and wait.  This dialog will show you gMapMaker’s progress:

Have fun.

Summer’s over!  I’m back from my vacations and forays into the world of pavement inspection.  Time to do some blogging.

I noticed that AutoCAD was ignoring certain keypresses occasionally.  For instance, when I was in the middle of a pline command, I’d type “cen” but “cn” would appear in the command line.  So I did a little googlin’ and came across this thread.  I wasn’t quite satisfied with the answer (what’s the point of dual monitors if I can’t display the non-modal windows on my second monitor?), so I played around a little bit and I think I found a solution.

In AutoCAD 2009 and onward, there are two command line windows, one that you access with F2, and one that you can access by typing “commandline” or hitting CTRL+9.  I prefer the F2 one because it is quicker to toggle on and off.  So I put the F2 command line window on my secondary monitor, and I noticed that I had tried to put the CTRL+9 command line window there as well, then turned it off.  Well, apparently AutoCAD still thinks it is there, because when I turned it back on and then docked it, the keypress delay disappeared.  Problem solved!  Now, with the CTRL+9 command line docked, I can turn it off, and the delay is still gone.

I tested this in Civil 3D 2009; I’m not sure if it will work in other versions.  Please let me know if it does or doesn’t solve your problem.

The latest issue of AUGI World has a great article by Donnie Gladfelter about Civil 3D Data Shortcuts.  There is also some really useful info at the end of the article about saving memory and regen time.  Highly recommended for Civil 3D users.

QVLAYOUT is a handy command,for sure.  It lets us hide our layout and model space tabs, recovering valuable screen real estate, and it provides a nice thumbnail view of each layout.  But it takes a few extra milliseconds to generate the thumbnails, and if you know you want to go to the first layout (which is often the case) and you are a keyboard commando, you might find this LISP routine useful.  It’s called LayoutNav.  Props to Lee Ambrosius for writing this back in 2003.

Load it up with APPLOAD, then you can use the command “FirstLayout” to jump right to the first layout tab.  I used ALIASEDIT to alias “L1″ to “FirstLayout”, so it’s EVEN QUICKER.  I’m into efficiency, if you haven’t noticed.

Next week: How to convince your clone to write your blog for you.

PDFCreator is a free, open source printer driver that allows you create PDF files without the need for any Adobe software.  I use it all the time, using Acrobat only to crop and rotate my PDFs.  It features auto-naming and auto-saving, so it is great for batch plotting.  Check it out.

There’s some useful info out there:

Dave Dixon has some really useful info on Speeding Up Civil 3D.  I suspect these tips will work for vanilla AutoCAD as well.

Ellen Finkelstein on Clipping Blocks

Justin Zeimba on the downsides of ClearType

Donnie Gladfelter shows us how to Create Blocks with Multiple Insertion Points

Shaan Hurley links hatches to tables

Aleksandr Smirnov has a nice collection of LISP routines

Happy New Year!  I’m back, and I have present for you.

I’m proud to reveal my latest bit of coding handiwork, the AutoCAD Coordinizer.  I originally created this in PHP, but didn’t have a free web host for it, so I just ported it to Python and put it on Google’s Apps site.

What it does, basically, is take the output of a LIST or ID command (or series of commands) and extract the X and Y values, placing them in a handy list.  I wrote it to simplify the creation of coordinate tables.

I created an animated demo to show how it works.  Here’s Part 1.  The link to part 2 is at the bottom of the part 1 page.

Enjoy.

The CAD Geek has a post about how to use commas in a sheet set sheet title:

The secret is to press and hold the ALT key while you type 0130. It will then insert a character that looks like a comma, but more importantly works with SSM.

Also, the comments had this useful tip:

You also can use %%44 in the sheet name, this will regenate a comma, in most .shx fonts, when translated into autocad.

Here’s my official endorsement for the next election.

To wrap up my series about open source/freeware utilities for Windows, I’d like to present Folder View.  This simple but useful application gives you a quick way to access shortcuts to your most commonly-used folders.

Folder View is pretty straightforward.  A little yellow folder icon sits in your system tray, and when you left-click on it, a list of folders pops-up.

It’s easy to customize, too.  Just drop a link into the Folder View folder (which you can set up to be anywhere on your computer).

There are also options to place Folder View in your standard windows Open and Save Dialogs.  This places a link to the Folder View folder in the left pane, which, when clicked, gives you access to all of those shortcuts.

Also note that Folder View features a “recent” entry, which contains links to all of the recent folders you’ve visited.  This is handy if you don’t have a shortcut set up for a job you’re working on.

It’s free, so give it a try!