November 12, 2016

ACA: WALL Command

I was asked a question about the various command line options for the WALL command in AutoCAD® Architecture, and was surprised to find that the online Help does not have an article on this command. I suppose that, in recent years, most people use the WALLADD command to add a new Wall, most likely through a Tool Palette tool, Ribbon tool or the Styles Browser, but the WALL command still exists. There are other ways to execute the other options as well. The heyday of the WALL command was most likely back in the early days, before Tool Palettes and the Styles Manager (let alone the Styles Browser), but if it is good enough to remain in the program, it should be covered in the Help.
For ease of future reference, here are my findings on the command line options:
  • Add: This option is the equivalent of running the WALLADD command, and allows you to create a new Wall.
  • COnvert: Use this option to select lines, arcs, circles, or polylines and convert them into Walls. You will be given the option to keep or delete the selected linework. Using this option appears to result in a Standard-style Wall, regardless of what the current drawing's default Wall Style is. You may be better served by right clicking on a Wall tool on a tool palette which references the desired final style and then choosing Apply Tool Properties to > Linework from the context menu. (Applying a style to linework is not available from the Styles Browser.)
  • Properties: Use this option to select one or more Walls and have the Properties palette open (if closed) and display the Wall's properties. Unless you do not keep the Properties palette open all the time, this option is fairly worthless. Even if you keep it closed, selecting the Wall, right clicking and choosing Properties from the context menu is faster than typing WALL and choosing the Properties command option. It is a relic from the bad old days before the modern Properties palette, when each AEC Object had its own Properties dialog.
  • Styles: Opens the Style Manager, filtered for Wall Styles.
  • CLeanup groups: Opens the Style Manager, filtered for Wall Cleanup Group Definitions.
  • Dimension: Allows you to select one or more Walls and have AutoCAD Dimensions (not AEC Dimensions) added to it/them. The dimensions will be oriented parallel to the first Wall selected, so choose wisely.
  • Interference: Allows you to add or remove a Wall interference. If you are going to add an interference, you will need to have the AEC object(s) that will be the interfering objects in the drawing and selectable prior to executing the command. Likewise, to remove an interference condition requires that the AEC Object(s) doing the interfering are selectable when the command is run, so if any are on layers that are Off or Frozen, you will want to turn those layers On and/or Thaw them and your display settings need to have an active Display Representation that has visible graphics for those objects.
  • Reverse: Reverses the direction of one or more selected Walls. More easily done for individual Walls with the flip grip in more recent versions of the program, but if you had a reason to reverse the direction of a large number of Walls at once, do not want to maintain the location of the justification line, dislike using tools on contextual ribbon tabs or right-click menus and would rather not click on all those flip grips, one by one, the Reverse option of the WALL command is the way to go.

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