Tips & Tricks 

 To "explode" some text in a drawing, you must first define a DXB plotter. This is done via the CONFIG command. Create a new plotter, select the AutoCAD file formats and then choose DXB file. Now when you want to explode some text, plot the text (plot a window and window the text). Use the DXBIN command to import the text back into the drawing. It is usually difficult to control the scale of the imported objects so it may often be best to import it into a new drawing and INSERT that into the drawing after scaling the objects to the correct size. The objects will all be lines - arcs and circles will be made up of a large number of very short lines. Note that few fonts actually have arcs or circles defined in them. They are usually simulated with a number of short lines.

 You can insert a drawing file that has extension other than .DWG. At the "Block name (or ?):" prompt, type in the filename including the extension. This technique is a good way to insert a .BAK file or the Autosave file which has a .SV$ extension. You can prefix the filename with a * to bring it in pre-exploded. You can only use the INSERT command - DDINSERT does not allow non-dwgs to be inserted. Drawings containing Xrefs will have the Xref converted to a block containing text of the Xref name.

 Another way of exploding text in a drawing is to use the EXPORT command and write the text out to a .WMF file. Delete the text in the drawing and use the IMPORT command to bring the text back in. The text will come in looking exactly as it was when it was written out unless you ZOOM or PAN between the EXPORT and IMPORT commands. The text comes in as a block and when exploded will be polylines, which can, if necessary, be exploded again. This only works for R13 for Windows and later.

 Objects created on a layer called DEFPOINTS will not plot. This is useful for "embedding" instructions or reference notes into prototype drawings. It can also be used for notes that refer to issues only in the electronic form of the drawing such as a list of associated XREFs.

 The ARRAY command has an undocumented option. Besides the usual "R" (Rectangular) and "P" (Polar) that we are used to, there is the "C" (Circular?) option. It produces a Polar type array but it asks for the angle between each element rather than the angle to fill. The only other difference is that the default is NOT to rotate the elements. Alternatively, you can download ARRAY.ZIP with my ARRAY.LSP which has this as well as an extra Rectangular style option called Divided.

 I have since discovered that <C>ircular was the original option in very early Releases of AutoCAD and documentation for it was dropped after the introduction of the <P>olar option.

 You can quickly change the location of an attribute to clear other objects in a crowded drawing without resorting to the cumbersome ATTEDIT command. Pick any entity of the block to bring up the grips and then grab the attribute's insertion grip. With the STRETCH option active, drag the grip and the attribute will move. Any of the other grip options will affect the entire block so you can't use this technique to rotate attributes.

 If you need to select objects by particular properties, such as all lines on a particluar layer or all blocks with names starting (or ending) with the same characters, you need to use the FILTER command. It takes a little while to become proficient at it but the time invested will be recovered very quickly for many people. You can even save frequently used filters so you can call them up with just a couple of clicks. Available R12 and later.

 Prior to each AutoCAD upgrade it is a good idea to open and save all drawings that you have. Pay particular attention to those that have been archived off. Although AutoCAD will migrate drawings to the current database level from several releases ago, there is a limit. If you have some old drawings that have not been opened and saved in the last few releases, you may find that AutoCAD will refuse to open them.

 My "n.scr" script file in the n.zip download will enable you to open and save all drawings in a directory overnight.