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The computer world has been taken over! Internet functions have been slowly creeping into our programs. What used to be buttons have changed into little blue pieces of text. We ALL know what to do when we see this, don't we? Click here, and you are launched to a better place! Well, a different place anyway. What a great thing, though, to be able to add information to a sentence or image that you need with a single mouse click! Entire databases can be created using these little blue pieces of text. It was just a matter of time before AutoCAD® started using this method to allow users to retrieve information.

In this lesson, I will show you how to add hyperlinks to drawing objects. These links can call up a page on the Internet, a file on your local computer or network, or another object in a different drawing. It can even zoom in on it! So, let's get started.

What's a hyperlink?
A hyperlink is a piece of code that can be associated with virtually anything you can create in any kind of document. This piece of code tells the program to open up a specific file when the associated object is clicked on. A web page, after all the hype, is simply just another file. It just happens to be on a Wide Area Network. A real wide area! Its name comes from the Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML) used for the Internet. Luckily, to insert a hyperlink, we don't need to be HTML specialists!

Adding a hyperlink
There are many items in a drawing on which we could use additional information. Defining invisible attributes is one way, but hyperlinks are much cleaner, and you don't need to lug around blocks that have 20 grips when you select them.

• We have to work backward in that we need to know the URL (web address) of the web page we want to link to our object. Go to the Internet and browse for the exact page you want in your hyperlink. Once you have the page, click in the address bar, and copy the path.

  

• Open a drawing that has an object to which you would like to associate the web page. The example for this article will be a shelf bracket.

  

  Figure 1-1: The associated object.

• There are a few different ways to add a hyperlink to an object. For this example, select the object and bring up the properties dialog. See figure 2-1.

  

  Figure 2-1: Properties

• Scroll down the properties dialog until you come upon the Hyperlink row in the General portion of the properties. Next to that, you will find a builder button. Click it.
• Text to display: can read anything you choose. It is just text and doesn't impact the functionality of the link.
• Type the file or web page name: Paste the path of the web page here.
• Or select from list: This may be useful of you are adding the same URL to different objects.
• Select OK.

See Figure 4-1 for an illustration.

Figure 4-1: Insert Hyperlink

Hyperlinks in AutoCAD function differently than on the web
They have to. At times, I'd like to see that familiar little hand pointing to the object when I mouse over it, but MOST of the time I want to select the object. We still need to be allowed to do this.

• Mouse over the object.
• An icon appears indicating that a hyperlink has been appended to the object.
• Select the object and right-click.
• Scroll to the bottom and point to Hyperlink.
• From the cascading menu, select the open choice.
• The desired web page will open.

  

Linking to another drawing!
There are many reasons to link drawing files. My two favorite "excuses" for adding hyperlinks to navigate to another drawing are cover pages (a list of drawing names with hyperlinks to open the actual files from a central directory) and section markers. It is real handy to eliminate the need to browse in order to locate a section that may be drawn in a different folder location.

• Again, working backward, open the file where the section resides. I am purposely going to use a very messy, cluttered "drawing" to illustrate how using a pre-defined view can make life easier for us.

  

• Type view at the command prompt.

  

  Figure 6-1: Defining a view

• Click the new button.
• Give the view a name.
• Either zoom in on the section or define a window.

  

Section

• See Figure 7-1

  

Figure 7-1: New View

• Click OK

  

• Your new view should show up.
• Click OK again.
• Save and close the drawing.

Adding the link

• Open the drawing where the section marker lives.

  

• Select the section marker and add the hyperlink by right-clicking and going to properties or by using the icon.

  

Figure 8-1: Browse for file

• Type the file or web page name. This time, click the Browse for: File... button.
• Once the file is ˇ§loadedˇ¨, select the Target... button.
• AutoCAD understands that a target is going to be a named view.
• Scroll through the tree to find the view you created
• Click OK
• See Figure 9-1

  

Figure 9-1: Select place in document

• Select the section marker and right-click. Go to hyperlink and open the section. It should zoom in on the view defined within the page.

That's a wrap! Keep in mind that hyperlinks, like any other tool, should be used with care. Don't get too carried away. This could lead to hyperlinks linking to wrong web pages or drawing files. Decide where and when you will benefit from this and then apply it.

If you have any questions please contact me at eew@khhpc.com. Also, if you are interested in more lessons structured like this and want to talk to the instructors in a forum setting, please consider going to the ATP Fast Track — coming real soon!

Logon to www.augi.com and follow the education link. From there, go to the AUGI Training Program. Within the ATP you can register for a class.

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Submitted by Eric Wing, AUGI Training Program (ATP) Manager.