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CADgneto is a new blog for Autodesk mechanical products, with an emphasis on AutoCAD Electrical.
CADgneto is maintained by Steve McCarthy, an Applicaitons Specialist (and coworker) with SolidCAD.
Steve brings a wealth of experience with AutoCAD Electrical to SolidCAD customers and is using his blog to share that information with you.
Autodesk DWG TrueView is a free viewer for AutoCAD DWG/DXF files. Since Autodesk developed the DWG file format, using DWG TrueView to view and print AutoCAD files ensures that the integrity of the file is maintained.
Autodesk DWG TrueView can be downloaded here.
In addition to TrueView, a DWG Converter for converting DWG files between different versions of AutoCAD will be available in November. Check http://www.autodesk.com/dwgtrueconvert for more information about this product as it becomes available.
Autodesk has made available a trial version of AutoCAD which can be downloaded and used for 30 days:
"AutoCAD® 2006 30-day trial software is now available in a downloadable format at www.autodesk.com/autocad-trial. Customers can download this fully enabled trial version and immediately start to experience exactly how AutoCAD 2006 software operates in their work environment."
Vault Quest - Reader is a new application from Netstream that provides non-engineering users access to design data stored within Autodesk Vault. With Vault Quest - Reader, anyone within your organization is able to have secure access to design data.
Having used the application during the beta test period, I can attest that this is an easy to use application, which provides functionality not normally found in a free application.
Press Release:
Netstream Solutions Inc. is pleased to announce the immediate availability
of Vault Quest - Reader 1.0.
Vault Quest - Reader is a "Free" Query, View, Print application that
provides non-CAD Access to data stored within the Autodesk Vault.
We would like to thank all of those who have participated throughout the
Beta Test period. We have received tremendous feedback from Customers,
Autodesk Value Added Resellers and The Autodesk Development Support Team.
Please visit http://www.netstream.ca/downloads.php to download your free
copy today.
If this is the first time you are installing Vault Quest Reader, please
refer to the "Vault Quest Prerequisites" prior to installation.
If you have installed Beta in the past, please uninstall your version and
delete the Vault Quest Folder located in C:\Program Files\Netstream\Vault
Quest.
The released version will require activation within 30 days of installation.
This is accomplished over the web through a secure connection.
Thank-you
The Netstream Solutions Team
Vault Quest is a Free Query, View, Print and Copy Out tool for companies that use Autodesk Vault 4 and require non CAD access to documents stored in the Vault.
Vault Quest Beta is available for download at the following links:
Vault Quest - Reader Beta V1 (Vault 4.0 - comes with Inventor 10) Download link: http://www.netstream.ca/trials/VaultQuest_1_0_1_0-AV40.zip
Vault Quest - Reader Beta V1 (Vault 4.1 comes with Product Stream 4) Download link: http://www.netstream.ca/trials/VaultQuest_1_0_1_0-AV41.zip
These builds will expire on August 31 2005.
Please review the Required Supporting Software located below in order to successfully run the Beta version of the software.
For those of you who have installed previously, please uninstall the previous build before installing this version and delete the Vault Quest Folder from Program Files\Netstream. Please do not delete the Netstream folder.
**This version supports viewing with Inventor View. Please make sure that the Inventor View application is installed on the host PC. This can be installed from your Inventor R10 installation CD.**
Included in this Build:
Issues Resolved in this Release:
Required Supporting Software:
Before installing Netstream VaultQuest Reader, the host machine must have the supporting software loaded. (If you are installing onto a system that has Inventor 10 with Vault Explorer already installed, the required software will already be present).
Inventor View: Located on Autodesk Inventor R10 Installation DVD
DWF Viewer (Build 6,0,0,200): http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/item?id=3023925&siteID=123112&GP=IL13872
Microsoft WSE 2.0 SP2 Runtime (Must be SP2): http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=d3c8f18b-7bbf-489d-90e1-e8d4147205b8&DisplayLang=en
Microsoft .NET Framework Version 1.1 Redistributable Package: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=262d25e3-f589-4842-8157-034d1e7cf3a3&DisplayLang=en
The "Analyze Interference" command in Autodesk Inventor (Tools > Analyze Inteference) is a useful command but can be especially useful with the following tip:
When you perform an interference analysis, the command requires you to define 2 selection sets. Every component is selection set 1 is checked against every component in selection set 2. However, the command will NOT detect any interference between components in the SAME set.
To workaround this, only define a single set (put every component into selection set 1) and when you click "OK" the command will check for interference between every component.
"Area31" offers "Custom programming, design ideas and other interesting oddities for CAD programmers"
"The Mad Cadder" offers "News and links on Autodesk Products such as AutoCAD, Architectural Desktop, Building Systems and Revit"
These are both excellent resources of information and offer clear, concise articles.
Both sites have been added to my "CAD LINKS" section.
Even though this site is devoted to Autodesk products, I wanted to mention a really handy tip when working with Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, etc.) to control the display. I'm justifying this non-Autodesk tip since most engineers rely on these programs daily :)
To zoom in/out within a Microsoft Office file, hold down the CTRL key and roll the middle wheel on the mouse. This allows you to quickly control the view.
The Autodesk Informer blog was launched in September 2004 and as of today (January 6, 2005) has had 25,000 visitors.
In 2005, The Autodesk Informer will continue to be a source of product and industry news as well as provide a collection of useful tips and tricks.
For a laugh, check this out - evidence on the existence of Santa Claus for the scientifically-minded: http://www.physlink.com/Fun/IsThereSanta.cfm
A new website located at http://www.inventor-certified.com provides information on certification programs for Autodesk Inventor:
With the introduction of layers into Autodesk Inventor 9, one common scenario is to move an entire part, or collection of parts onto different layers within an IDW. By following the steps here, this is an easy process:
Autodesk Inventor Series Service Pack 2 (Sp2) is now available. To download the service pack and view the readme file, go to http://autodesk.com/inventor-updates/.
I would suspect that Service Pack 2 for Autodesk Inventor Professional will be released within a couple weeks.
Any 3D graphics artist will tell you that you NEVER render direct to video; instead, ALWAYS render to sequential still images instead. There are numerous reasons for this:
When you render to sequential still images, 3D Studio MAX will name each frame by appending the frame number to the end of the filename. This will give you the following filenames as an example:
teapot_100.jpg, teapot_101.jpg, teapot_102.jpg ..... teapot_xxxx.jpg where each frame of the animation is a seperate file.
Now that you have these series of still images, the question becomes "how do I stitch them together into a single animation?" For that, I use a GREAT piece of free software called Rad Video Tools.
From within Rad Video Tools, simply select the first still image in the series and click the button labelled "Convert a file".
Rad Video Tools will present a dialog box asking if you would like to treat the series of images as a single animation since it will automatically detect that there are multiple images with the same name; say "yes" to this prompt. After this, you will be presented with a new dialog box from which you can specify the filename of the video including a multitude of output settings (frame rate, scaling, etc.) and then hit the "Convert" button to produce an AVI file of your video.
Not only do the Rad Video Tools have a multitude of options for creating your video file, but you can also do batch conversion, convert video files back into a series of still images (the reverse of this tutorial) and a number of other things.
One other aspect of the Rad Video Tools that is really useful is the ability to create an EXE file of your video. This guarantees that your video will playback on any Microsoft Windows machine since both your video and the player are embedded into a single executable file. To do this, you need to encode your video using the Bink codec (a proprietary codec developed by the creators of Rad Video Tools) which you can do by choosing the "Bink it" button, rather than the "Convert a file" option mentioned previously. After creating the Bink video, you can select it from in the application and choose "Advanced Play" from which you can create an EXE file.
*Click the screenshot images to see a larger version*
Discreet has announced that customers on the subscription program for 3D Studio MAX software will receive a software extension (plugin) in January for cloth simulation:
More informationThe Cloth Extension to 3ds max 7 delivers a sophisticated cloth simulation system that gives artists the creative tools to build realistic, film-quality clothing for 3D characters in Film, Television, Advertising and Games projects. With this powerful new tool in your 3ds max 7 arsenal, you can:
- Build clothing that behaves just like it would in the real world
- Create cloth that reflects both fabric type and clothing pattern and can be tailored to fit any model.
- Save and share your cloth types to boost productivity among artists.
Autodesk Inventor lists assembly-level constraints under component occurences in the browser. However, if you have a problem with an assembly constraint, this can make it difficult to locate the troublesome constraint as you need to expand each component in the browser to see it's associated assembly constraints. As a handy tip, when your in the assembly, use the dropdown arrow indicated in the image to change Inventor into "Modeling view". This will cause all the assembly constraints at that level of the assembly to exist in one folder labelled "Constraints". Now you can quickly scan the folder for any constraints that require your attention. Once done, simply change the dropdown back to "Assembly view". For example, looking at the image I can easily identify "Mate:18" and "Mate:21" as constraints in need of fixing.
The following products will allow you to create PDF files for free:
All the products listed rely on Ghostscript to produce PDF files, its just that some of them already have Ghostscript built-in to the installer.
Although it is not necessary to know what Ghostscript is, more information about it can be found in the Ghostscript FAQ available here.
Once you have installed one of these programs, it creates a new windows printer for PDF creation. So from within your document, simply choose this PDF printer and it will prompt for the filename and VOILA!
Of course, be sure to checkout DWF files if your considering plotted drawings.
The purpose of this article is to introduce the main functionality of Autodesk Vault.
Autodesk Vault is included with all Autodesk mechanical-based products. As a result, a number of companies are at least considering the vault; if not actively implementing it. I thought it would be beneficial for those of you that aren't familiar with the product to help provide some insight into the capabilities of Autodesk Vault.
Autodesk Vault works on the basis of checkin/checkout. Anyone familiar with Autodesk Inventor's Multi-user modes (Shared or Semi-Isolated) will be familiar with this concept. For those of you that aren't, checkin/checkout ensures that only one person is editing a file at a time. The process of checking out a file, informs the Vault that you have control to edit the file, and therefore, makes it so that others are restricted from editing it until you check it back in.
The process of checking out a file for editing can be both pro-active and re-active. If you know that you are going to be editing a file, you can right-click on the file in the Inventor browser and choose "Checkout" - this would be a pro-active checkout. On the other hand, if you start to edit a file that has not been previously checked out, a dialog box will appear giving you the option to checkout the file prior to editing - this would be a re-active checkout.
Anytime a user wants to work on a file that is in the vault (even if just for the purpose of viewing the file), the files have to be retrieved from the Vault into the users "Working Folder". This working folder is unique to each user and is typically a location on each users local drive, although it is possible to specify a personal share on a network drive as your working folder.
At this point its important to examine where data in the Vault is stored. In a network environment, users are accustomed to accessing the data for their projects from a shared network location. Because of this, anyone wanting access to this data can simply browse to this location using simple Windows Explorer. However, in a Vault environment, once the data on this shared location has been added to the vault (adding files to the vault is a one-time process which takes a copy of the file(s) from the source location on the shared drive and places it into the vault), this source data can be completely removed from the server (although its a very good idea to back this data up, especially if you realize later that there are files that you forgot to add to the vault).
So if the source data in the vault isn't stored on a shared location on the network, where is it stored? When you create a vault, you define the storage location for the filestore. This filestore location does NOT need to be a shared location, and in fact, is preferable that it isn't to prevent users from tampering with it. When someone wants to work on data stored in the Vault, they retrieve copies from the vault to their working folder which is the location where all work on the files is performed.
Understand that as users work on the files contained within their working folder and consequently save the files, this does not constitute checking files back into the vault. Once you feel that you have performed work on the file that warrants adding a new version of that file into the Vault, you check the file back into the vault.
Anytime you check a file into the Vault, you are essentially creating a a new version (backup or snapshot in time) of that file. So, in simple terms if a file is being edited throughout the day and is being checked into the vault periodically as work as being performed on it, you are creating a new version of that file in the vault each time it is checked in. Therefore, at any point in time, it is possible to go to the Vault and retrieve a previous version since there is an entire history of that file.
When it comes to versions, it is important to note that Autodesk Vault also tracks version dependencies. In other words, lets suppose that an assembly file is checked into the Vault. Not only is that assembly file at a particular version, but so are the dependent files and Autodesk Vault will retain this information. Therefore, if you need to roll-back to a previous version of a parent file (ie: assembly which has dependent children), Vault knows which versions of the dependent children were used at the version of the parent assembly that you request, and will retrieve the appropriate versions of these files also to give you a complete roll-back. This is the difference between traditional "OldVersions" backups that Inventor creates and versions stored within Vault. OldVersions does not store any information about the versions of the dependent children. In addition, once previous versions of files are retrieved from the Vault, work can be performed on them to generate a new version.
Another thing to keep in mind is that Autodesk Vault manages versions, not revisions. Since a new version is created each time a file is checked back into the Vault, and a version essentially represents a backup or copy of the file at a point in time, its entirely possible that you will create multiple versions of files in the process of taking the project from one revision to the next.
In addition to maintaining versions of files, Autodesk Vault also stores file properties in a database that can be quickly queried to locate a particular file. When a file is initially added to the vault, or subsequently checked in as work is performed on the file and new versions are created, Vault indexes the properties associated with the files (ie: Part Number, Designer, or even custom properties) and stores them in the database. Therefore, if you want to locate a file in the Vault, you can simply query the database which provides a fast method of locating the files. This is because, rather than have to examine each file in the Vault to see if it meets the criteria, Vault searches the database which is a far more efficient method.
Think of it this way: When you want to find something on the Internet, you go to Google or some other search engine that has indexed all the data. This provides a much faster form of searching, since Google simply scans their database. On the other hand, if you had to do the search in real-time across the entire Internet to perform your search, it would be extremely in-efficient.
Hopefully this article has helped to introduce you to Autodesk Vault.
The latest release of Autodesk Revit; Autodesk Revit 7 is now available for download from the download center.
This download will serve as a trial (60 days). Customers on subscription can also download Autodesk Revit 7 from the above site but will not be able to authorize the product until they receive Revit on CD.
Autodesk has made available a new document which discusses a method of setting up Autodesk Vault under a single project file configuration.
Based upon my experience, this is the most versatile method of deploying a Vault.
If you are located in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) and would like to discuss implementing Autodesk Vault within your organization, please contact me.
View the document here.
The hotfix is available for download here.
In addition to applying the hotfix, you should also set your undo file size within Inventor's application options to the maximum amount (1000MB) and also your Wndows swap file to 2-3 times the physical RAM in your computer. For example, if you have 1GB of RAM installed, set the minimum and maximum values for your swap file to 3 GB (it is important to set both values identical).
The "Place Component" command in Autodesk Inventor only allows you to place a single component at a time. Therefore, it can be a tedious and time-consuming operation when you have multiple components to insert. As a workaround, launch Windows Explorer but adjust it so that you can see your assembly window in the background.
Navigate in Windows Explorer to a 
folder within your project and select the components that you would like to place using the CTRL and SHIFT keys. With the components selected, click and drag from Windows Explorer into the assembly window which should be partially visible in the background.
Click on the image to see a larger popup window showing this process.
Note: Since the first component in every assembly becomes the grounded component, I will typically insert this first component using the traditional "Place Component" command and then use the method above to quickly place the remaining components.
A new hotfix has been released that addresses a bug when using the "Find Files" function within Design Assistant.
Anyone using Design Assistant to perform file management operations should install this Hotfix.
Download the hotfix here.
This month, Autodesk has been running technical webcasts for Autodesk Revit.
This is a great opportunity to not only see Autodesk Revit software but also understand more about "Building Information Modeling - BIM").
You must register to attend the live webcasts.
Previous webcasts in this series have been archived and are available for immediate viewing.
Netstream Solutions Inc. is pleased to announce the upcoming beta program for iCenter 1.5. Netstream is looking for candidates to test this exciting new release to ensure the highest possible product quality. A limited group of qualified participants will receive a "FREE LICENSED VERSION" of iCenter for their efforts. Please select the link provided below if you are interested in registering for this Beta opportunity.
http://www.netstream.ca/betaregistration.php
Some of the enhancements included in iCenter 1.5 are:
> Formulas and Concatenation of iProperties
> Database Combo Lists for iProperties
> Sorting and Filtering the iCenter Browser display
> Multi Select and Multi Set of iProperty values
> Stored Custom Views
Kind Regards,
The Netstream Solutions Team
3D Studio MAX 7 (3ds max 7) trial is now available for download.
Discreet started shipping 3D Studio MAX R7 to customers today (October 13, 2004).
For product information go here.
Download 3ds max 7 technical specification document.
Read the press release here.
Service Pack #1 for Autodesk Inventor Professional is now available for download here.
Because the service pack is for ANY language version of Autodesk Inventor Professional it's a pretty hefty download at 60+ Megabytes. Long live broadband!!!
Autodesk is looking for users of 
Autodesk Inventor to help prioritize the Autodesk Inventor Wishlist:
"The Inventor Product Management team wants to capture your input and prioritize the Inventor Top 10 Wish List. This list was originally defined by your input during the Inventor 8 timeframe. Your answers will be used to help prioritize functionality in future versions of Inventor."
When entering values into dialog boxes in 3D Studio (Autodesk VIZ, 3ds max), if you enter 
the value with the letter "r" preceeding the number, that value will get interpreted as being a relative amount.
For example: Suppose that you previously extruded a wall 8'. Now the design requirement is that the wall must be 8'6". Rather than having to type 8'6" in the dialog, simply type "r6"" (without the outer quotes) and the wall will now be the desired height.
Note that it does not matter whether the letter "r" is lower or upper-case.
Autodesk Inventor automatically applies constraints when creating geometry in the sketch environment (ie: parrallel, perpendicular, tangent, etc.). While this is generally very useful, there can be cases where you don't want Inventor to perform auto-constraining as you create sketch geometry. By holding down the CTRL key as you draw, auto-constraining is temporarily disabled.
Autodesk has released new service packs to address issues in Architectural Desktop 2005 and Building Systems 2005.
Here are links to the service packs:
Autodesk® Architectural Desktop 2005 Service Pack 1
Autodesk® Building Systems 2005 Service Pack 2
Service Pack #2 for Building systems is historical which means that you do not need to have SP1 installed to apply SP2.
Autodesk added a very nifty (yet undocumented) system variable in AutoCAD 2005: "OSNAPHATCH"
This system variable controls whether AutoCAD has the ability to snap to hatch patterns.
To change the setting of this system variable type "OSNAPHATCH" at the command line. There are 2 available settings:
"0" - Ignore hatches when snapping
"1" - Hatch patterns can be snapped to
Thanks to Michael Rotolo for submitting this very useful tip.
Autodesk Inventor Series 9 Service Pack 1 is available for download. Please note that this download is only for Inventor Series. Autodesk Inventor Professional users will still have to wait for SP1 (although it shouldn't be much longer).
Autodesk will be running a series of four, 1 hour webcasts for Autodesk Vault.
The topics and dates are:
Design Resuse - Thursday, September 23rd
Version Control - Thursday, October 21st
Design Team Management - Thursday, November 11th
Getting the Most out of Autodesk Inventor - Thursday, December 16th
The webcasts begin at 10:00 a.m. Pacific time (1:00 p.m. Eastern time) but you must register for the event.
In AutoCAD 2005 type “XREFTYPE”. This system variable controls the choice of either Attachment or Overlay in the Xref Manager when attaching a drawing. By default, XREFTYPE is set to 0 (Attachment), set the variable to 1 (Overlay) and when the user goes to attach the Xref, OVERLAY is the default choice in the dialog box instead of attachment.
Thanks to Michael Rotolo for submitting this tip.
Autodesk has just posted 4 new demonstration videos for Autodesk Vault. These show specific functionality available within Autodesk Vault.
The new videos can be viewed here. Not that in addition to these new function-specific videos there is also an overview video for Autodesk Vault.
I HAVE NO MORE INVITES AVAILABLE
As a subscriber to Google's Gmail service, I have 5 invites available. Gmail is Google's new email service which at this point is only available to people who have been invited. 
In the near future, Google will be making the service available publicly but by signing up now, you can ensure that you get the email address you want.
So if you want Gmail, add a comment to this post and in it include your first name, last name and current email address.
Mechanical Desktop 2004DX Service Pack 2 is now available for download. Since Mechanical Desktop is only available as part of either Autodesk Inventor Series or Autodesk Inventor Professional, you need to ensure that you download/install the correct SP.
Download locations for Autodesk Mechanical Desktop 2004DX Sp2:
Most users are aware that AutoCAD uses "Support Paths" which identify the locations where both dependent AutoCAD files and any custom files (ie. lisp addons) reside. Since AutoCAD defines multiple support paths and the fact that you can include your own additional paths, locating a file within one of these locations can be a tedious process; especially since later versions of AutoCAD point to locations outside of the installation directory.
That being said, using a single line of lisp code at the command line in AutoCAD makes locating these files a breeze. In lisp, the FINDFILE function searches all of your support paths for the file that you specify. Therefore, as an example, if we wanted to search for the "ACAD.PAT" file within the support paths we would simply enter the following at the AutoCAD command prompt and hit enter:
(findfile "acad.pat")
Looking at the image we can see the exact path to this file (click on image to see it enlarged).
Autodesk has released Service Pack 1 for the following products:
You can download the updates as well as view the readme files outlining the summary of fixes by clicking the links in the list above.
So you've designed a part in Autodesk Inventor and now you would like to create a mirror of it so that you have both a left and right-hand version of the part file. Fortunately, in Autodesk Inventor this is a very easy process. In order to accomplish this task, we need to make use of Inventor's "derived component" functionality.
A derived component creates a part file that is based upon another file. Essentially, the source file is referenced (linked) into the new component, thereby creating a derived part. Because there is referencing between the files, a change made to the source file will propagate through to the derived part. The nice thing here is that after you have created your mirrored part, should you need to go back and change the source file, those changes will appear in the mirrored version either by re-opening it or clicking the "update" button.
Assuming that you've already created the source file, here is the process to create a mirrored version:
1) Begin a new part file
2) Finish the sketch
3) From the "Part Features" commands, choose "Derived Component", the "Open" dialog will appear
4) In the dialog, browse to the source file and click "Open" (ensure that the source file is contained within the project file as you are referencing between files)
5) In the "Derived Part" dialog that appears (see image below), click the toggle for "Mirror" and then say "Ok"
6) At this point you can add any additional features to the mirrored version that do not appear in the source file (note: changes made to the source file will appear in the derived part; however, any changes made to the derived part will not affect the source file)
7) Save the mirrored part
Closing thoughts: Derived parts are very powerful and in future installments we'll talk about some of their additional uses.
Autodesk has recently released two Inventor 9 hotfixes.
These hotfixes address issues where constraints are not honored while dragging geometry within a sketch and also a instability problem when attempting to mirror/copy within an assembly.
Download:
Discreet has announced the upcoming version of 3D Studio MAX (R7) and product literature is available on discreet's website.
From a design visualization perspective, the following features are of note:
3D Studio MAX and Autodesk VIZ allow for the creation of a default template file named "maxstart.max" or "vizstart.max" depending on what product you are using. This defines the default settings used for new files created either when the application starts or when a new scene is begun using File > Reset.
From the help file for 3ds max:
maxstart.max − At startup and when you reset, 3ds max looks for this file in the Scenes directory specified in Configure Paths, and if found, loads it. This allows you to specify the default state of the workspace whenever you start or reset the program.
Note: In the above paragraph, the default template file should be called "vizstart.max" if you are using Autodesk VIZ.
Personally, I customize this file so that I have a 4-view layout but with the views defined orthographically. With this configuration, the upper-left view is "TOP", lower-left is "FRONT", lower-right is "RIGHT" and upper-right is "PERSPECTIVE" as indicated by the image.
The updated version of Autodesk DWF Viewer is available for download.
Primarily the updated viewer adds support for viewing 3D DWF files.
Note that when you go to the download link above, it is not necessary that you enter your contact details. You can opt-out of this process by choosing the "go straight to the download" link.
Autodesk is now shipping Autodesk Inventor Professional 9. Built on the Inventor Series platform, the Professional product also includes Cable & Harness, Tube & Pipe, Stress Analysis (parts only) and IDF Import functionality. The Stress Analysis module is based upon Ansys - the leader in FEA. Note that while the FEA functionality is for parts only, assemblies can be derived into a single part file. Granted, there are some limitations to this (for example, since the assembly is now as single part file, you cannot specify seperate materials for each component) it may prove to be an acceptable workflow depending on your assembly and FEA requirements.
Autodesk has begun shipping Autodesk Inventor Series 9 to customers. Users on the Subscription program are already receiving their copies.
Click here for more information on Autodesk Inventor Series 9.
Autodesk Inventor Series 9 also includes Autodesk Vault 3 for integrated data management.
Often times while working within the viewport in 3D Studio, you want to do a transparent pan. However, if you try to pan with the middle wheel/button on your mouse, the current command is cancelled. Instead, while you are in the command, move your mouse to the location that you want to be the new view center and hit the "i" key.
The Properties Manager command is the most versatile command for modifying object properties. However, in my experience, many users aren't aware that you can access sub-selections within this command to limit the objects that you want to modify. When you make a selection within the properties manager and that selection is made up of different types of geometry, the selection dropdown will indicate the word "All (#)". This is an indicator that your selected objects are not all the same type (for example: you may have a selection made up of lines, dimensions, arcs and blocks). By clicking the down button at the right of the dropdown, you can access a subset of this overall selection.
An example of where this can be very useful is changing the properties of a schedule or parts list. Simply make a selection of the entire schedule or parts list and at the "All" level, change the properties common to all objects. Then click the dropdown and access the "Text" objects to change properties specific to the text objects and repeat for the linework by accessing the "Line" objects.
