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The Autodesk Knowledge Base
(Editor's note: If you spent any time in the old AUGI Guilds or the new AUGI Forums, you may very well recognize this author's name. Michael Perry is a master of Autodesk's vast Knowledge Base and shares his TIPniques with us this month.)
The Knowledge Base area on the Autodesk website should really be in everyone's CAD help armory. It gives you access to thousands of Technical documents (referred to as TDs), which contain answers to many frequently asked questions (FAQs) including some of the more obscure ones. These TDs can offer a wealth of direction, guidance, and light on a variety of issues and problems that CAD users may experience in their day-to-day work.
Getting There
From Autodesk's home page at www.autodesk.com, pick the Support link (shown below).
Then select the desired Autodesk product on the Technical Support drop down list (shown below). You're now within the Knowledge Base section for that particular product. It may be worthwhile to bookmark or save this link for easy access in the future.
Another option is to use the Search link (shown below) on the Autodesk home page. This takes you to the main Search page for the Autodesk website. From this page, you can Search the entire site, including the Knowledge Base on all products.
Getting Started
To get started, let's begin at the AutoCAD product knowledge base search page (shown below). You can navigate to it by following this website: Home->Products->AutoCAD->Support->Knowledge Base, or simply click here.
For the moment we will ignore the "Search for:" text entry box. The "Restrict my search to:" drop down box should be self-explanatory—it simply lists the different versions of AutoCAD that the Knowledge Base covers. Selecting a version will limit the "Search for:" to results (Technical Documents) that apply to that version. Note, most TDs apply to more than one version at a time. Due to this behavior, I rarely bother with this drop-down box because there is the odd occasion when a TD will apply to a certain version even though that version is not listed within the TD's header.
The "Advanced Search" link opens a set of tools that help narrow one's search. These can be useful if you have a reasonable idea of what you're after or need a guiding hand to lead you in the right direction as AutoCAD has been broken down into categories. I very rarely use these tools; I prefer to narrow down the results obtained from my initial search by carrying out further searches within the returned list of TDs (which can involve a little more work on occasions). By using the Knowledge Base in this manner I've found that I've learned a little more due to the fact that I'm exposed to a greater number of TDs. Granted, by working in such a way you will sometimes initially have to deal with a large number of TDs, some of which will be irrelevant to the particular issue or problem at hand, but it's amazing how they can often become relevant or even ping the old light bulb further down the road when another issue or problem comes to light.
Now back to the "Search for:" entry box. This is where you place your key/search word(s). By default, if you enter more than one word a Boolean "AND" operation is used (this must have changed recently as "OR" was the Boolean operation used by default not long ago). I've found it is best to enter one key/search word, then, using a new key/search word, perform subsequent searches within the returned TDs. This process refines the list of TDs one stage at a time. This method may be redundant now due to the default Boolean operation update.
Getting Results
How do you get good results? The obvious answer is to supply good, accurate key/search word(s). The majority of the time this should prove to be a relatively simple task but there will be the odd occasion when a little more effort and work is required.
If you're experiencing an issue or problem with a certain command, first try searching for that specific command, like Hatch or Plot. Using Plot as a keyword, the search returns 500 TDs (below). Unless you are up for some heavy reading, you'll probably want to refine the search. A search for the Array command returns a more manageable quantity of TDs: 19.
To refine a search, you will want to do a "search within a search" using the "Search these results" option. If you enter another key/search word, the search engine will look for this word only within the TDs returned by the previous search, narrowing down the number of TDs returned. After each new search, this option is selected by default except when performing a search from the home page (an inconsistency on Autodesk's part).
As mentioned, using good key/search word(s) is the key to efficient searches. One source of these key/search word(s) is AutoCAD's Error/Warning messages. There will usually be a word in the message that can be used as a key/search word(s) for your search criteria. If you're experiencing an issue or problem with a piece of hardware, using the hardware's name or model is another good choice for key/search word(s).
It can be helpful to perform similar searches using some variety. For example, if you need information on a Hewlett Packard 1050 plotter, you'll get different results using HP and Hewlett as the key/search word. Using "Hewlett" as a key/search word returns 57 TDs and searching within these results for "1050" comes up empty-handed. Whereas searching for "HP" returns 87 TDs and, when searching within these results for "1050", it returns one TD.
With this example, you can see that the choice of key/search word(s) can be important. This can be a real problem sometimes, especially when you are new to the Knowledge Base, but as you become familiar with the phrasing/wording the Knowledge Base uses and spend more time there, it will get easier.
Getting Details
Once you're happy with the number of TDs returned, it's time to read. Normally a quick browse/scan of the summaries is good enough to identify the ones that will hopefully offer the answer/solution you're after or at least offer a gentle nudge in the right direction, enabling you to resolve the issue or problem yourself.
When reading an actual TD you may find that it doesn't answer the particular issue or problem you're currently trying to resolve. Before moving to the next TD, I recommend you scroll to the bottom of the TD and refer to the "See also" area (shown below).
This area normally contains a series of links to other TDs that usually have some relevance to the TD you're currently in. I've found it's generally a good policy to follow these links as it can lead you down a slightly different search path, where you may come across the answer/solution you're after.
Getting Busy
The Knowledge Base will not be able to answer or offer solutions to all your CAD issues/problems. That would be asking a little too much, but by making use of it you have one more handy resource at your disposal to aid you in your times of CAD darkness. In addition to the Knowledge Base, here is a list of other FURs (Frequently Used Resources).
Submitted by Mike Perry, who works in the UK for FaberMaunsell (An AECOM Company) within its Bridges and Special Structures Division.
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