The SPMiniPac

The SPMiniPac Settings dialog box

This collection of bonus tools was extracted from the Sincpac C3D for Civil 3D. However, a few of the tools in the Sincpac C3D are also incredibly handy for Autocad users in general, so those tools have been extracted into this collection.  This collection works in any Autocad product, version 2008 or later (excluding Autocad LT).

At some future point, Autodesk may change the core product enough that the SPMiniPac will no longer work without an update, but we expect it to work in future releases for some time yet.  It will even work in Civil-3D, although users of the full edition of the Sincpac C3D would have no reason to use it, since the Sincpac C3D Full Edition already includes all of the features in the SPMiniPac.

Features

Below is a summary of the features in the SPMiniPac.

Drawing Logging

The SPMiniPac includes the same Drawing Logging functionality found in the Sincpac C3D.  This feature is a must-have for anyone who goes for too long before filling out that time card!

Sample output from the Drawing Logging feature

The log even includes a total editing time for each drawing.  When multiple drawings are opened simultaneously, this editing time only counts upward for the drawing that is currently active.  It can make it much easier to identify how much time you've spent in each drawing during a particular editing session.

Point Inverse

The newest feature of the SPMiniPac is the PTINVERSE command.  This is basically the same thing as the PTINV command from the full Sincpac C3D, except without the ability to key in a Cogo Point number.  (This command has a different name in the SPMiniPac in order to prevent conflict with the PTINV command available in the Original Sincpac for Land Desktop.)

The PTINVERSE command is similar to the DIST command in Autocad, except with many more features, and it is particularly useful for Civil Engineering tasks.  It displays both a Horizontal (2D) and Slope (3D) distance, bearing, slope, and grade between points, along with a Delta X, Delta Y, and Delta Z.  In addition, it has three different modes of operation, and keeps track of a running total of measurements, making it possible to easily identify a total overall length in addition to the length of individual segments.  Most users use Command Aliases to assign this command to "D" or "DI", and use it instead of the default DIST command.

Background Masking

One key feature that the SPMiniPac adds to Autocad is the ability to automatically apply background masks to MTEXT and MLEADER entities as they are created. You may also specify the default background scale factor. So if you don't like Autocad's default factor of 1.5, the SPMiniPac allows you to specify whatever value you wish.  It also includes the BGMASKOFF, BGMASKON, and BGMASKTOGGLE commands from the Sincpac C3D.

Auto-Align to DVIEW TWIST

This collection also contains the feature to automatically align MTEXT, MLEADER and Dimension entities to the current DView TWist as they are created. If you regularly work in views with a DView TWist applied, you may have noticed that these entities are always aligned to the current UCS, and not the current view. However, sometimes it is not desirable to use a UCS (such as when using Land Desktop or Civil 3D). By enabling the auto-rotate feature, MTEXT, MLEADER, and Dimension entities (such as DIMALIGNED, DIMRADIUS, etc.) will automatically align with the DView TWist, making it much easier to work with these entities in twisted views.

Link DIMSCALE to Annotation Scale

The final auto-feature included in this collection is the ability to auto-switch the DIMSCALE when switching between modelspace and paperspace.  When switching to modelspace, the DIMSCALE is set to the modelspace Annotation Scale (CANNOSCALE).  This allows old-style (non-annotative) dimensions and leaders to work much like Annotative ones, assuming they are configured to properly-scale with the "Fit" setting in the dimension style.  In paperspace, the DIMSCALE is set to 0, which causes dimensions to scale correctly in paperspace, and also scale correctly when placed into modelspace through a paperspace viewport.

Rotation Commands

The SPMiniPac also includes the various rotation commands from the Sincpac C3D.  These commands can be very handy, especially since they also work on text that uses Annotative text styles (unlike the TORIENT command from Express Tools, which does not work on Annotative Text.)  The commands include FlipObjects, RotateAligned, RotateIndividual, RotationMatch, and TWISTGROUPS.  Some of these (especially FlipObjects and RotationMatch) are extremely handy when added to the default Edit Context Menu in the CUI, so these commands appear in the right-click edit menu.

Download

To try the product free for 28 days, download the link below:

SPMiniPac v2.0 Trial Edition (released July 25, 2009)

After downloading the self-installing package, follow the instructions in the installer to activate the SPMiniPac in all products and user Profiles where you wish to use the SPMiniPac.  These instrucations can also be found in the Help file and the README file in the SPMiniPac installation directory.  Once you install the SPMiniPac, type SPREGISTER and follow the on-screen instructions to get your trial activation key.

The SPMiniPac also includes a CUI file, which is installed along with the executable file.  Add the CUI file to your current Main or Enterprise CUI as a Partial CUI, and you will have the MPSETTINGS command assigned to the F4 key, and the BGMASKTOGGLE command assigned to CTRL+T.

Purchase

The SPMiniPac is available now from our secure web store for $27.95 for a single license.  Discounts are available for bulk and educational purchases, so contact us for details.