AUTOCAD AND AUTOCAD LT REFERENCE GUIDE
TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 1 ABOUT THIS BOOK 1 FOOLISH ASSUMPTIONS 2 CONVENTIONS USED IN THIS BOOK 2 HOW THIS BOOK IS ORGANIZED 2 BOOK I AUTOCAD BASICS 2 BOOK II 2D DRAFTING 3 BOOK III ANNOTATING DRAWINGS 3 BOOK IV LT DIFFERENCES 3 BOOK V 3D MODELING 3 BOOK VI ADVANCED DRAFTING 3 BOOK VII PUBLISHING DRAWINGS 4 BOOK VIII COLLABORATION 4 BOOK IX CUSTOMIZING AUTOCAD 4 BOOK X PROGRAMMING AUTOCAD 4 ICONS USED IN THIS BOOK 4 BOOK I AUTOCAD BASICS 7 CHAPTER 1 DRAWING ON AND IN AUTOCAD 9 USING CAD IN THE DRAWING OFFICE 9 UNDERSTANDING AUTOCAD FILES AND FORMATS 10 SEEING THE LT 12 USING AUTOCAD S LATEST AND GREATEST FEATURE SET 12 CHAPTER 2 NAVIGATING THE AUTOCAD INTERFACE 15 STARTING THE APPLICATION 15 CREATING START MENU SHORTCUTS 16 USING DESKTOP SHORTCUTS 17 ACCESSING FILES FROM WINDOWS EXPLORER 18 TOURING THE AUTOCAD INTERFACE 19 TITLE BARS 19 AUTOCAD MENUS 20 AUTOCAD TOOLBARS 21 PALETTES 23 DRAWING AREA 25 THE FLOATING COMMAND WINDOW 26 THE STATUS BAR 27 COMMUNICATING WITH YOUR SOFTWARE 28 THE COMMAND LINE 28 DYNAMIC INPUT 29 DIALOG BOXES 29 RUNNING AUTOCAD COMMANDS 30 GRASPING THE AUTOCAD DIFFERENCE 30 REPEATING A COMMAND 30 CANCELING A RUNNING COMMAND 31 INVOKING TRANSPARENT COMMANDS 31 REACHING FOR AUTOCAD HELP 32 USING BUILT IN HELP 32 USING THE INFO PALETTE 33 FINDING ONLINE RESOURCES 33 CHAPTER 3 ALL ABOUT FILES 35 FILE TYPES IN AUTOCAD 35 STARTING A NEW DRAWING 38 STARTING FROM SCRATCH 40 USING A WIZARD 40 USING A TEMPLATE 42 SAVING A DRAWING 43 SAVE 44 SAVE AS 44 QSAVE 44 OPENING AN EXISTING DRAWING 46 OPEN COMMAND 46 USING WINDOWS EXPLORER 48 THE MULTIPLE DRAWING ENVIRONMENT 50 CLOSING WINDOWS 50 FILE MANAGEMENT FOR AUTOCAD 51 NAMING DRAWING FILES 52 STORING YOUR FILES 52 BACKING UP IS HARD TO DO 53 CHAPTER 4 BASIC TOOLS 55 DRAWING LINES 55 CREATING CIRCLES 58 TAKING A CLOSER LOOK 60 CHECKING OUT ZOOM REALTIME 60 USING PAN REALTIME 61 EDITING OBJECTS 63 ERASING AND UNERASING STUFF 63 USING THE DIGITAL ERASER 63 UNERASING OBJECTS 64 UNDO REDO UNDO REDO 65 CHAPTER 5 SETTING UP DRAWINGS 67 CHOOSING UNITS OF MEASUREMENT 67 AUTOCAD UNITS 69 IMPERIAL OR METRIC 70 SYSTEM VARIABLES 70 SETTING UNITS IN YOUR DRAWING 71 SETTING LIMITS FOR YOUR DRAWINGS 72 UNDERSTANDING DRAWING SCALE 74 SCALING ON THE DRAWING BOARD 74 SCALING IN AUTOCAD 75 SCALE FACTORS 75 USING SCALE FACTORS TO ESTABLISH DRAWING SETTINGS 76 LOST IN SPACE MODEL OR PAPER 77 A LAYERED APPROACH 78 CREATING LAYERS 79 DEFINING LAYER PROPERTIES 80 SETTING LAYER MODES 81 MODIFYING LAYER SETTINGS 82 THE LAYER CONTROL DROP DOWN LIST 88 OBJECT PROPERTIES 89 USING AUTOCAD S COLOR SYSTEMS 89 USING LINETYPES 90 SETTING UP STANDARDS 91 CHAPTER 6 PRECISION TOOLS 93 UNDERSTANDING ACCURACY AND PRECISION 93 UNDERSTANDING COORDINATE SYSTEMS 94 THE WORLD COORDINATE SYSTEM 96 ENTERING COORDINATES 97 DIRECT DISTANCE ENTRY 101 DYNAMIC INPUT AND COORDINATE ENTRY 102 SETTING GRID AND SNAP 102 UNDERSTANDING ORTHO AND POLAR TRACKING 105 USING ORTHO MODE 105 USING POLAR TRACKING 105 WORKING WITH OBJECT SNAPS 108 USING POINT FILTERS 110 WORKING WITH OBJECT SNAP TRACKING MODE 112 BOOK II 2D DRAFTING 115 CHAPTER 1 DRAWING OBJECTS 117 LOCATING AND USING THE DRAWING TOOLS 117 LET S GET PRIMITIVE 120 KEEPING TO THE STRAIGHT AND NARROW 120 GOING AROUND IN CIRCLES 121 ARCS OF TRIUMPH 123 THE POINT OF THE EXERCISE 124 CREATING CONSTRUCTION GEOMETRY 126 XLINES FOR X MEN 126 A LITTLE RAY OF SUNSHINE 127 WITHOUT A TRACE 128 A BIT SKETCHY 129 DRAWING PARALLEL LINES 130 MAKING MULTILINES 131 COMPLEX CURVES 133 LUCY YOU GOT SOME SPLINING TO DO 133 SOLAR ELLIPSES 135 COMPLEX OBJECTS AND SHAPES 137 2D SOLIDS 137 RECTANG POLYGON DONUT 138 POLYLINES 139 CHAPTER 2 MODIFYING OBJECTS 143 SETTING SELECTION OPTIONS 143 SELECTING OBJECTS 145 SELECTING MULTIPLE OBJECTS 146 OBJECT SELECTION MODES 147 OBJECT GROUPS 149 AUTOCAD S EDITING COMMANDS 150 REMOVING STUFF 153 RELOCATING AND REPLICATING 154 ROTATING AND RESIZING 162 BREAKING MENDING AND BLOWING UP REAL GOOD 163 DOUBLE BARREL COMMANDS 164 SPECIALIZED COMMANDS 166 CHANGING PROPERTIES 167 CHANGING YOUR MIND 168 COMING TO GRIPS WITH GRIPS 168 CHAPTER 3 MANAGING VIEWS 171 A ZOOM OF ONE S OWN 173 WHEELING THROUGH YOUR DRAWING 175 REALTIME ZOOMING 176 PAN IN A FLASH 178 REALTIME PANNING 179 NAME THAT VIEW 180 CREATING VIEWS 180 OTHER VIEW OPTIONS 182 BOOK III ANNOTATING DRAWINGS 185 CHAPTER 1 TEXT WHEN PICTURES JUST WON T DO 187 TEXT IN AUTOCAD 187 GETTING FAMILIAR WITH TEXT TERMINOLOGY 188 WILL THAT BE ONE LINE OR TWO 189 JUSTIFICATION 190 WHERE SHOULD TEXT GO 192 FONTS 195 TYPES USED BY AUTOCAD 195 USING FONTS IN DRAWINGS 195 WORKING WITH TEXT STYLES 196 CREATING SINGLE LINE TEXT 199 WORKING WITH MULTILINE TEXT 201 CREATING MULTILINE TEXT 203 FORMATTING OPTIONS 203 NUMBERED AND BULLETED LISTS 204 FIELDS MASKS AND OTHER MULTILINE TEXT DELIGHTS 205 EDITING TEXT 207 EDITING SINGLE LINE TEXT 207 EDITING MULTILINE TEXT 207 TURNING THE TABLES 208 SETTING THE TABLE WITH STYLES 208 CREATING AND EDITING TABLES 210 CHAPTER 2 DIMENSIONING 213 UNDERSTANDING WHAT A DIMENSION IS MADE OF 213 TYPES OF DIMENSIONS 215 ASSOCIATIVE DIMENSIONS 215 NON ASSOCIATIVE DIMENSIONS 215 EXPLODED DIMENSIONS 215 SPECIFYING THE TYPE OF DIMENSION TO CREATE 216 USING AND CREATING DIMENSION STYLES 217 WORKING WITH THE DIMENSION STYLE MANAGER 217 CREATING A DIMENSION STYLE 218 THE NEW DIMENSION STYLE DIALOG BOX 219 DIMENSION VARIABLES 223 SETTING A DIMENSION STYLE CURRENT 224 MODIFYING A DIMENSION STYLE 224 RENAMING A DIMENSION STYLE 226 DELETING A DIMENSION STYLE 226 IMPORTING A DIMENSION STYLE 226 CREATING DIMENSIONS 227 LINEAR AND ALIGNED DIMENSIONS 227 BASELINE AND CONTINUED DIMENSIONS 229 ANGULAR DIMENSIONS 230 ARC LENGTH DIMENSIONS 231 RADIUS DIAMETER AND JOGGED DIMENSIONS 232 ORDINATE DIMENSIONS 234 THE QUICK DIMENSION COMMAND 234 TRANS SPATIAL DIMENSIONS 235 EDITING DIMENSIONS 235 ADDING OVERRIDES TO A DIMENSION 235 EDITING THE DIMENSION TEXT 236 USING GRIPS TO EDIT DIMENSIONS 236 ASSOCIATING DIMENSIONS 236 LEADERS 237 WORKING WITH GEOMETRIC TOLERANCES 238