by Dennis Collin
AutoCAD users often get lost with the vast number of variables the software employs to control its behaviour both at a system and document level. Full AutoCAD has a System Variable Editor Express Tool which is a useful asset in understanding the multitude of system variables that can be set for an AutoCAD system and its drawings and what the default settings are.
However, it can be hard to know when variables get changed from an ideal company standard and users do not often have time to check those variables have been set or unset correctly!
Typical symptoms of incorrect system variables include, line type patterns not scaling correctly, dialogue boxes not displaying and undesired functionality on editing and drawing commands. Fortunately help is at hand with a variable monitoring tool. The command can be accessed by typing in SYSVARMONITOR which will then present a dialogue where a list of variables can be selected and preferred values set. Should any setting be changed by manual user intervention or via a script or external application, a warning notification will appear offering a choice of actions.
Fig 1. Configuring the System Variable Monitor.
Should the user choose to ignore the inconsistency from the standard, an alert will display as an icon adjacent to AutoCAD’s drafting aid icons
Fig 2. Notification of a variable change!
Most variables will have a value of zero or one, (off or on), but some variables like IMAGEFRAME will have a super state setting of 2. Other variables have many more and are detailed further in AutoCAD help.
Some sample system variables to monitor could include:
- LTSCALE Typically set to ‘1’ if using annotative scaling
- MSLTSCALE Controls whether line types are affected by annotation scale
- CELTSCALE Current entity linetype scale (typically 1)
- PSLTSCALE Controls scaling of linetypes through viewports.
- FILDIA Controls whether dialogue boxes are displayed when opening and saving files
- SDI Controls whether AutoCAD can edit multiple drawings at a time
- IMAGEFRAME Controls whether raster images display a frame and whether it prints
- MIRRTEXT Controls the readability of mirrored text
This monitoring utility is a useful asset to any CAD manager who wishes to reduce the number of logged support calls from often a typical mis-set variable causing common drawing related issues.
System Variable Monitoring is available for all flavours of AutoCAD, Civil 3D, Plant, Mechanical and AutoCAD Map. It is even available for the AutoCAD LT platform.
AutoCAD LT Users also have the benefits of the System Variable Monitor!
An ideal standard can be set up to monitor not only for internal drawings, but also to scan and check incoming third-party drawings that are not drawn to a consistent standard. It is important to remember however, that the system variable monitor only checks for key variable values. To monitor and fix layers and annotation style settings, then the CAD standards checker should be used. I will discuss that function, along with its recent enhancements in a future post.