I've upgraded???? my AutoCad to 2013. For some reason when selecting
objects to erase, for instance. I select the first object but when I select the
second the first is no longer selected. There must be some switch that I'm
missing. Can anyone help???
John

Hold shift while selecting.

But I think you want a permanent solution. Type pickadd in the command window, then set to 1 when prompted for new value.

Jim,
Thanks, I guess too lazy to read the upgrades. This version different
than 2000. Thanks again.
John

Pickadd goes way back - certainly to AutoCAD 2000, possibly to R14 when AutoCAD began attempting Windows compliance. There are so many of those system variables it's hard to keep track.

Originally Posted by potshot

Pickadd goes way back - certainly to AutoCAD 2000, possibly to R14 when AutoCAD began attempting Windows compliance. There are so many of those system variables it's hard to keep track.

The pickadd system variable goes back before Autocad R14, my Release 13 book from 1994 lists it in a way that suggests it was in version 12. I don't have the R12 books (R12 sucked horribly and R13 sucked slightly less) and I simply can't remember if it was in R11 or R12, the last two DOS-based versions. According to Autodesk, pickadd was implimented in release 12, June 1992.

Pickadd was either on or off, 0 or 1 respectively. Autocad 2011 added an new setting, pickadd value 2, where entities remain selected after the command Select is finished.

The OP, jcyr1, just upgraded from v2000 to 2013 (which is beyond where I am) and that big of a jump has got to be a big adjustment.

Agreed. I worked with it daily starting with version 2.17 in 1985. There wasn't much to learn back then as compared to now, and you (hopefully) picked up the new features as they came along. Learning it from scratch at the current levels of complexity is a daunting task. Hats off to those who are doing it.

nice to see version 2.71 that's must be back in the days before 286 machines i was Lucky started on version 9 and still use 2006 is autocad still using autolisp

Autolisp still works, a scripting language adopted by Autocad very early on. It's a subset of Lisp, invented in 1958 (!) and is the second oldest computer language still used. The inventor, John McCarthy, died last year; but Lisp continues. McCarthy's webpage is still up as a memorial.

The great thing about Autocad and Autolisp is that beginners can write scripts (SCRs) to automate drawing. As users get proficient, Autolisp is the next step to writing automated functions; Lisp can do complex geometry and math but is not too hard for a user to understand. Neither programming requires a deep knowlege of programming language, and Autolisp references from 10-20 years ago are still valid today.

Originally Posted by dpot

nice to see version 2.71 that's must be back in the days before 286 machines i was Lucky started on version 9 and still use 2006 is autocad still using autolisp

Not to dwell in the past, but I first ran AutoCAD on an 8086 machine with no hard drive and 256K of RAM. AND walked 8 miles through the snow to school - uphill, both ways