Most new GeoTools users often ask similar questions about how GeoTools can be used to perform their common AutoCAD tasks. We list some of these common questions along with their answers to help you get started quickly with GeoTools. 

I have installed and loaded GeoTools but I do not see the pull-down menu?
Some flavors of AutoCAD like Land Development Desktop may sometimes cause GeoTools initialization to fail depending on the startup configuration. If you do not see the GeoTools pull-down menu, first make sure that the program is loaded by running the GT_LOAD command. If the program is loaded and the menu is still not visible, you can load the menu by typing AddGeoT on the AutoCAD command line. You can use this command at other times also, for instance when you change the menu palettes in LDDT. This operation causes the GeoTools menu to get unloaded and the AddGeoT command can be used to bring it back.

How do I find out the maximum and minimum elevation in a 3d polyline?
GeoTools>>Polyline>>Express Pedit, select the polyline and type 'S' (Statistics).

How do I annotate every polyline vertex with its elevation?
GeoTools>>Polyline>>Label Vertices, select Elevation in the dialog box. 

But what if I want to annotate only the first and last points of the polyline?
GeoTools>>Polyline>>Label Vertices, check the option that says "Annotate only first and last points" and choose your annotation type.

Text created by GeoTools is not appearing in the right size. It is either too big or too small or rotated?
GeoTools>>Settings, Here you can edit all default GeoTools operational parameters which affect all commands, Included is text height, rotation, justification and more.

How do I change the precision of various linear, angular and height measurements GeoTools uses?
GeoTools>>Settings, Here you can edit all default GeoTools operational parameters which affect all commands, Included is text height, rotation, justification and more.

I need to quickly and globally edit my block attributes? What do I do?
GeoTools>>Blocks>>Global Attribute Editor. All the editing options are shown here. 

How do I edit blocks graphics and attributes independent of each other?
GeoTools>>Blocks>>Edit block graphics and attributes independently. All the editing possibilities are shown here. 

I need to quickly and globally extract my block attributes to an ASCII file?
GeoTools>>Export>>Block Attributes. All the extraction options are shown here. You do not need to understand and create extraction templates any more!

I have a long road or a property boundary as a polyline. I need to label the segment lengths quickly. What do I do?
GeoTools>>Polyline>>Label Segments and you can label your polyline segments as you desire.

I need to place labels on 200 property lots, with the prefix "LOT #" and starting with the lot number 4000?
GeoTools>>Text>>Draw Quick Text - Create running text, sequentially incremented and 
with options that are fully configurable.

How do I build my roads right-of-way from the center line?
We have a special command for that at GeoTools>>Build>>Make Rights of Way/Pavement.

I have a long traverse polyline with plenty of XY sampled positions but I know the elevations only at a few key locations along the polyline. How do I assign meaningful elevations to the rest of the points.
GeoTools>>Polyline>>Assign interpolated Z values to vertices will perform linear interpolation and fill in any zero elevations between two non-zero vertices on a polyline.

The Pedit command does not allow me to join 3d segments. Is there any GeoTools lsolution to this?
Yes, GeoTools>>Polyline>>Join 3d segments.

I have over 5000 polylines broken and scattered in a spaghetti manner. Is there any quick fix joining procedure?
Yes, depends on how bad the situation is. You could perform linework cleanup with GeoTools>>Drawing Cleanup>>Linework snap [MAGNET] to snap all loose ends and then use GeoTools>>Polyline>>Automated Join - 2d polylines. A good part of your cleanup and join would be done.

I have 2d polylines and need to convert them into 3d polylines and assign heights to them. What should I do?
GeoToolsàPolylineà2D-to-3D and GeoToolsàPolylineà3D-to-2D allow you to convert polylines in both directions.

I spend a lot of time doing Pedit vertex editing. Do you have tools that can speed my work?
Yes. GeoTools>>Polyline>>Delete Vertex allows a single pick delete of polyline vertices. GeoTools>>Polyline>>Insert Vertex allows a single pick insert of polyline vertices. GeoTools>>Polyline>>Express Pedit allows a faster access to vertices in long polylines, a single click break option and a single click elevation setting. There are two polyline Join options under GeoTools>>Polyline that shorten considerable editing time.

I want to obtain some vital statistics about my drawing. Do you have any tools for this?
Yes. GeoTools>>Inquiry>>Display Drawing Statistics gives detailed drawing information which can be output to an ASCII file.

I am working with elevation data and need to find objects in the drawing within a specified range of elevations. How do I get this?
GeoTools>>Selection>>Find Objects in selected Z range. Enter the lower bound and upper bound elevation values and GeoTools will extract a selection of objects meeting this criteria. 

I have a long polyline and need to extract or offset only a part of it between two points. Is there a quick way to do this?
GeoTools>>Polyline>>Offset part or polyline and Extract part of polyline 

How do I reverse the direction of polylines?
Go to GeoTools-->Polylines-->Flip direction

How do I filter polylines based on their properties like Closed, Open, Fitted, Z Range…
Go to GeoTools-->Polylines-->Property Filter

How do I do Pedit on a multiple selection of polyline objects?
Simple. Go to GeoTools-->Polylines-->Multiple Pedit

My drawing is too heavy. I want to get rid of redundant data. Do you have any tools for that?
Yes, there are two tools you could use. GeoTools-->Drawing Cleanup-->Weed polyline vertices to remove any two vertices that are closer than the value you specify. GeoTools-->Drawing Cleanup-->Delete Duplicate objects to get rid of duplicate and overlapping objects. That should lighten your drawing.

How do I quickly find the angle between two lines or segments of a polyline? Do I have to start the Dimension command.
No. GeoTools>>Inquiry>>Display angle will display the angle between two lines or between two segments of a polyline and print the results on your screen.

How do I search and replace text?
GeoTools>>Text>>Zoom to Text allows to interactively zoom to selected text and even replace parts or whole of them with another string.

How do I search for text matching a pattern?
GeoTools>>Text>>Text Filter allows text and MText objects to be filtered based on their string text or their numeric values.

I have designed a roadway horizontal alignment as a polyline with arcs and want to replace the arcs with linear segments. Is this possible?
GeoTools>>Conversion>>Convert arc segments to linear segment polyline will allow arc objects and arc segmented polyline to be linearly approximated using three different methods.

Okay. GeoTools has a nice and clean dialog box driven user interface. But how I do use its commands to do an unattended batch processing using scripts?
We realize this is an important requirement for many of you. So, we have taken care to add in this features. You can go to GeoTools>>Settings and ask GeoTools to display command line options. Using command line options, no dialog box will ever come in your way and you can study the sequence of prompts for each command and simply create your script to respond to these prompts in the same sequence. When you invoke GeoTools commands in a script, automatically the command line mode runs. So, you do not need to explicitly set it in Settings.