Exploding Arc Text in AutoCAD

We needed to explode the arc aligned text in AutoCAD to import it into another program. Exploding the text made it revert to the wrong text and using the Express Tools Explode Text did not work. To get what we needed we first added a text style with the font we desired. We exploded the arc text with "explode" command. We then selected all of the text, changed its style property to the style with the font we wanted, and then used the Express Tools "explode to text" command. This got us very very close to what we needed and worked out well.

AutoCAD file refuses to open - stuck at 93%

I have had a terrible time with a group of dwg files that would not open. No matter what I did, they would not open (always stopping at 93% open). We create 2D dwg files from NX6 drafting files and have really not had any issues until yesterday. I tried opening the files in AutoCAD 2010, AutoCAD 2009, tried inserting like blocks, tried Recover, tried drag and drop. Nothing helped. Funny thing, I can open them quickly and smoothly in Dassault's DraftSight software (free by the way). Then I had an epiphany; I opened them in DraftSight and then removed the customer part file (a complex casting drawing made mostly of splines). Saved the file and what do you know, AutoCAD opened it up with no issue. Hmmm, I guess Autodesk could take a few pointers here and figure out how to open up dwg files better. I am back in business

Outlook 2010 Macro - Repeat Appointments And Change Category

I was getting annoyed with the inability of Outlook to make a recurring monthly bill that I could change the color of individual bills to mark as paid. I spent a little time and came up with a macro to do it. The first macro lets you make one year of appointments that occur on the same day each month. A second button lets you select an appointment (bill) and make it change its category. It is simple but a few others had the same question elsewhere. Enjoy.

Public Sub Create_OutlookRepeatingAppt()

Dim appt As Outlook.AppointmentItem
Dim sName As String
Dim sDay As String
Dim lYear As Long
Dim l As Long
Dim lMonth As Long
'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
sName = InputBox("Input Name", "Input")
sDay = InputBox("Day of month", "Day of month")
lMonth = Month(Date)
lYear = Year(Date)

For l = 0 To 11

Set appt = Outlook.CreateItem(olAppointmentItem)
appt.Location = ""
appt.Subject = sName
appt.Body = ""
appt.Start = CDate(lMonth & "/" & sDay & "/" & lYear & " 12:00")
appt.End = CDate(lMonth & "/" & sDay & "/" & lYear & " 12:00")
'Appt.Label = "Personal"
appt.Categories = "PENDING" 'Create your own category for this
appt.Save
'Bump values if at end of year
Select Case lMonth
Case 12
lYear = lYear + 1
lMonth = 0
End Select
lMonth = lMonth + 1
Next l
Set appt = Nothing

End Sub

Public Sub Appointment_SetToPaid()
Dim appt
Set appt = Application.ActiveExplorer.Selection.Item(1)
appt.Categories = "PAID" 'Create your own category for this
appt.Save
Set appt = Nothing
End Sub