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AutoCAD 2010 Essential Training
Richard Downs

AutoCAD 2010 Essential Training

with Jeff Bartels

 


AutoCAD 2010 Essential Training covers the most important features of this industry-standard 2D drafting and design application. Professional designer Jeff Bartels begins with a tour of AutoCAD's interface and the tools used to create basic shapes. He then focuses on the methods used to modify and refine geometry while emphasizing accuracy and good habits to build a solid design foundation. Jeff shows how to use layers, line types, and colors to organize a drawing file and explains how to efficiently annotate a design and prepare it for final output. Throughout the course, Jeff shares techniques used in the industry and reinforces the lessons with practical examples. Exercise files accompany this course.
Topics include:
  • Working in a multiple-document environment
  • Configuring units for architectural, civil, or metric work
  • Incorporating blocks (symbols) into a working file
  • Creating annotations that automatically size themselves
  • Transferring data between drawings
  • Preparing standardized layouts with title blocks

show more

author
Jeff Bartels
subject
CAD, 2D Drawing, 3D Drawing
software
AutoCAD 2010
level
Beginner
duration
6h 51m
released
Nov 19, 2009

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Introduction
Welcome
00:00(Music playing.)
00:03Welcome to the AutoCAD 2010 Essential Training title.
00:06My name is Jeff Bartels and it's truly an honor for me to be able to work with you
00:10and take you step-by- step through AutoCAD 2010.
00:14AutoCAD is the industry-standard tool for 2D drafting and design.
00:18It's so popular in fact that you'd be hard-pressed to find a form of
00:21construction or production work today that doesn't involve AutoCAD in some way.
00:26I've based this title on techniques that have proven successful in the classroom
00:30and in the real world of production drafting.
00:33We'll start our training by taking a thorough look at AutoCAD's interface.
00:36Next, we'll begin creating simple shapes.
00:39As we become familiar with the basics, we'll add to our tools, learning
00:43more productive ways to create and modify our geometry.
00:47Soon our drawings will become larger and we'll learn how to organize them using
00:50layers, line types, and colors.
00:53Next, we will get into annotation and add text, dimensions, and leaders to our drawings.
00:59Finally, we'll learn how to create professional looking plots of our designs
01:03using a standardized title block.
01:05So if you're interested in architecture, surveying, civil or mechanical
01:09engineering, or design, this title is perfect for you.
01:13Well, we've got a lot to talk about and I've got a lot of things I can't wait to show you.
01:17So let's get started.
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Using the exercise files
00:01If you are a premium member of the lynda.com Online Training Library or if
00:05you're watching this tutorial on a disk, you have access to the Exercise Files
00:09used throughout this title.
00:11Now I've placed my exercise files folder on my desktop; you can place
00:14yours wherever you like.
00:16I've organized the folders based on the chapter number and inside each folder
00:21are all the drawings that we use throughout that chapter.
00:23In many cases, if I thought it was helpful, I left you with a finished example.
00:28If you are a monthly or annual subscriber to lynda.com but you don't have access
00:32to the Exercise Files, you can follow along using your own drawings.
00:36Let's get started!
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1. Touring the Interface
Launching the program for the first time
00:01Well, this is where it all begins.
00:02As you can see I'm currently sitting at my desktop.
00:05Let's launch the AutoCAD 2010 application by double-clicking on this icon.
00:11And when the program comes up, the first thing we see is the initial setup dialog box.
00:16This is where AutoCAD is going to ask us some questions, try and find out
00:19what we do for a living.
00:20And then it will use that information to customize the content and tools that
00:24we see on our screen.
00:26So at this point we can move up and down the list and choose a discipline that
00:30best matches what we do.
00:33In the big scheme of things by making a choice here we're really doing
00:36anything permanent.
00:37All we're doing is building a custom startup workspace.
00:41For the purposes of this title, I'm going to select Other (General Design and
00:45Documentation) and I'll click Next.
00:48Now on Page 2, I can look at these four topics and determine if any of these interest me.
00:53If they do, I can put a check in the box and I can have the tools show up in my new workspace.
00:59Once again this is nothing permanent.
01:01If I leave the checks out of the boxes, I can always add these tools later manually.
01:05I'm going to leave these unchecked and we'll click Next.
01:09Finally, I can specify a drawing template file.
01:13Currently AutoCAD is going to use the default drawing template.
01:16If we were using this in an office environment and we had an office template,
01:19we could select that right here or if I wasn't sure what to use, I could check this box
01:24and I could specify my template based on the type of work I'm doing, whether
01:28it's Imperial or Metric.
01:31For this title, I am going to go with the default and then I'll click Finish.
01:35Now, based on the answers that I gave to those questions, AutoCAD has customized
01:39the tools and palettes that I see on my screen.
01:42If we look right down here, we can see the name of the workspace that we created.
01:46It's the initial setup workspace.
01:48Now I'm unsure at this point if this is the first time you've launched your AutoCAD 2010.
01:53Maybe you answered your questions differently than I did.
01:56Maybe you see different tools on your screen than I do.
01:59I think it's important that we all start from the same interface so what I would
02:03like you to do is come down and click this flyout and I'd like you to select 2D
02:08Drafting & Annotation.
02:10You can always come back to your initial workspace later if you wish, but for
02:14right now if we're both working with the 2D Drafting workspace, we can be sure
02:18that the tools that you see on my screen will match the tools on your screen.
02:22Now that we've made the adjustment, it's time to jump to the next video and get started.
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Understanding model space
00:00The first part of the interface we're going to talk about is this large area in
00:04the middle of our screen.
00:05This area is called model space and this is where we do all of our drafting.
00:10This is our virtual drafting board.
00:12Now I've got some line work on my screen.
00:14I don't expect you to open the same drawing.
00:16I only have this line work here as an example of what you might see in model
00:20space in a typical AutoCAD file.
00:22Now the nice thing about model space is that it's infinite in size.
00:27That means we can draft anything we want at a scale of one to one or full size.
00:33Think about this for a second.
00:34Back in the days when we drafted with a paper and pencil, if I was an architect and
00:38I was drawing this floor plan, I'd have to draw it to a scale such that it would
00:42fit within the confines of my sheet of paper.
00:46Now that we're drafting with a computer, we don't have to worry about scale.
00:49We can draft anything we want, whether it's as small as a gear or as large as an
00:54entire airport and we can draft it at full scale.
00:58Now this model space environment is actually a tab.
01:01If I look a little bit lower in my interface, I can see a series of tabs down there.
01:06If you're familiar with Microsoft Excel, these tabs will work the same way.
01:10Currently my Model Space tab is Current.
01:12I'm going to click on the Layout1 tab.
01:16When I do, it appears we're looking at a sheet of paper on our screen.
01:19Now this actually is a sheet of paper.
01:21Every new AutoCAD drawing comes with two sheets of paper that can be used to
01:25plot our drawings later.
01:27These sheets of paper are called layouts and we'll talk about these guys a
01:30little bit more when we get into our chapter about plotting.
01:34For right now just know that if you see a sheet of paper on your screen and you
01:37want a return to model space, simply click the Model Space tab.
01:42Model space is the place for all of our designs take shape, no matter how small
01:46or large they may be.
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Accessing the Ribbon
00:01Let's take a second and talk about how we access our tools in AutoCAD and how
00:04those tools are organized on our screen.
00:07If we look at the top of the interface this area right up here is called our Ribbon.
00:11This is where we access our AutoCAD tools.
00:12Now the Ribbon is divided up into tabs.
00:16By default the Home tab is current.
00:19If you'd like to flip to another tab, you can simply click the tab name to
00:23access additional tools.
00:25Think of the ribbon as being like a large tool chest and each one of these tabs
00:30represents a drawer in the chest.
00:33Now each drawer or each tab is divided up into panels and each one of these
00:38panels represents a small set of tools.
00:41For instance this panel, the Draw panel, will allow me to create geometry and
00:47this panel, the Modify panel, gives me tools that allow me to edit my geometry.
00:53Notice the tools on the panel are organized in the order in which you would use them
00:57and the tools that you are going to use most often are much larger than the others.
01:03In some cases a panel is going to have a little downward facing triangle.
01:07That means there are more icons than what can fit within this particular size.
01:12If I click the triangle, it will expand the panel and give me access to the
01:16additional tools and after I've selected my tool and moved my cursor into
01:20model space, the panel will collapse.
01:23If you'd like your panel to stay in the open state, simply click the triangle to
01:27open, click this pushpin and then that panel will stay open until you come up
01:33and click the pin again to remove it.
01:37Let's jump to the Annotate tab momentarily.
01:40Take a look at these panels.
01:42Notice on the lower right-hand corner some of these guys have little arrows.
01:46This arrow means that there is a dialog box that's associated with this panel.
01:50For instance if this is the Text panel, I will click this arrow and AutoCAD
01:55brings up a dialog box that allows me to create a Text Style.
01:59So if you see an arrow on your panel that is just a shortcut to a dialog box.
02:05Let me close this guy and I'm going to return to the Home tab.
02:09This is the tab that we are going to use most often.
02:13Take a look at this icon on the upper left, this big red letter A.
02:17If I click this it opens up my Application menu and this gives me access to my
02:21file maintenance tools.
02:23Notice I can create a new file or I can open one or I can save, print, email,
02:29as well as do some other drawing utilities.
02:32Now we will talk about several of these options a little bit later in the title.
02:36For right now notice that many of them are available right up here at the top of our interface.
02:41This toolbar is called the Quick Access Toolbar and it does just that.
02:45It gives us quick access to the tools that we use most often.
02:50To exit the Application menu, I can simply move my cursor in to model space
02:54and hit the Escape key.
02:56One thing is for certain. As you begin to use the Ribbon and access the tools,
03:00you'll find that they're extremely well organized and very easy to find.
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Leveraging dockable palettes
00:01Probably the most versatile tools we have in our interface are called palettes.
00:05Palettes give us quick access to drawing content, properties and commands.
00:10In this lesson, we are going to learn how to incorporate palettes into our interface.
00:15Now there are several palettes available in AutoCAD and we can find them in the
00:19View tab of our ribbon.
00:20They are located right here in the Palettes panel and each of these guy serves a unique purpose.
00:27For our example I am going to bring up the Properties palette by clicking this icon.
00:33In my opinion, this is the most important palette in AutoCAD.
00:36This is one we use to change the properties of our objects.
00:38Now let these guys open on the screen.
00:41Take a look at the little X. I can click this to close the palette.
00:44I am going to do that right now because I want to show you a shortcut to bring
00:49up the Properties palette.
00:51We don't actually have to go to the View tab.
00:53If you hold down Ctrl+1 on your keyboard, it will bring up the palette no
00:57matter what tab you are on.
00:59The first we notice about palettes is that they are huge.
01:02They do take up a lot of screen real estate.
01:06We can resize them with our cursor.
01:07If I place my cursor on the edge of this guy, the icon changes.
01:11If I click and hold on my mouse, I can drag this guy and release, make him a
01:16little wider. I can click, hold and drag and I can make him narrower.
01:23If I click and hold on this vertical mast, I can drag and drop and I can change
01:28his position on screen.
01:31If I click, hold and drag close enough to the left or right edge of my monitor,
01:36notice the shape changes.
01:37At this point if I release my mouse button he will dock on screen.
01:42Now think about this. If this guy is docked, this is just one palette.
01:46Notice all the other palettes I have available AutoCAD.
01:49We certainly don't have room to have all these guys docked at the same time.
01:53Let me show you a better way that we can manage these so we can have quite a few
01:57of them available and not take up much space at all.
02:01What I am going to do is undock this palette by clicking and holding on the
02:05palette name and then I am going to drag away from the edge of the screen
02:08towards the middle and release and then I'm going to right-click on the mast
02:14and select Anchor Left.
02:16This collapses my palette to the margin of my interface.
02:21So now if I want access to this guy, I can simply place my cursor in the margin.
02:26The palette will open up.
02:27Once again if I need to make it a little bit bigger, I can click and hold on the
02:30edge and drag him out.
02:32I can do my business and when I'm finished and move my cursor out, the palette
02:36will automatically collapse.
02:38Now we can even take it one step further.
02:41If I right-click in the margin and select Icons only, it will collapse the
02:48palette down to a single icon in my interface.
02:51This means that I can actually have several palettes open and only be taking up
02:55a couple of icons on my screen.
02:57I am going to bring up another palette. Another important one is the Design
03:01Center palette right here.
03:02Let me click the icon to turn on this palette.
03:05We would use the Design Center to move content from one AutoCAD drawing to another.
03:11There is a keyboard shortcut for this guy as well, if you hit Ctrl+2 on your keyboard.
03:18Notice that I just turned the palette off.
03:20Let me hit Ctrl+2 again to bring Design Center back up.
03:24I'm going to anchor this guy as well.
03:26Let me right-click on the mast and I can select Anchor Left or Anchor Right
03:31depending on which side of the screen I would like him.
03:34There we go and now I have the capacity of two palettes on my interface and they
03:40are only taking up two icons.
03:43If the time comes where you would like to dock one of these palettes, if you'd
03:46like it open for an extended length of time you, can simply click this Auto Hide
03:51button and this will dock the palette.
03:54If you want to return it to the icon state, we can hover over the palette name
03:59and we can click Minimize.
04:02palettes can be the most versatile tool that we have in our interface.
04:05They pack the functionality of an entire dialog box beneath a single icon.
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Monitoring the Status bar
00:00The area at the very bottom of our interface is called the status bar and this
00:05is where we look to see the current status of our AutoCAD session.
00:09Let me give you an example.
00:11As I move my cursor up in model space, take a look at the numbers in the lower
00:15left-hand corner of my screen.
00:17These numbers represent coordinates and what we are actually seeing is the
00:21current location of my cursor on the screen.
00:25If we look at the right side of the status bar, we can see I've got several
00:28tools and icons down here.
00:30Now we'll talk about several of these guys as we work our way through the title.
00:34For right now I want you to pay note to this row of icons.
00:38These icons represent mode settings and a mode is something that we can adjust
00:43to change the way our AutoCAD works.
00:46The important thing to remember is that these icons are toggles.
00:50We can use these to turn the mode on or off.
00:52Now if an icon is blue, it means that the mode is turned on.
00:57If the icon is gray it's turned off.
01:00What I'd like you to do is click all of the blue icons and turn all of your mode settings off.
01:07This way we are both starting with a clean slate.
01:09Now don't worry. We'll talk about what several of these guys do as we work our
01:13way through the title but for right now I want make sure our mode settings match
01:18because that's the best way to ensure that what you see me do on my screen
01:22matches what you see on your screen.
01:25If at any point as we work through the title you see differences, the first
01:29thing I want you to do is check to make sure our mode settings are identical and
01:35as we work through the title and you eventually learn what these guys do,
01:38you can turn them on and off whenever you like.
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Understanding the anatomy of a command
00:01As you can see I have just launched my AutoCAD 2010 and I am currently sitting
00:05in the blank Drawing1.dwg file.
00:09I'd like to take this opportunity to talk about the AutoCAD commands themselves.
00:13We are going to look at the workflow behind each command because you know what,
00:17they all work the exact same way.
00:19So in this lesson we are going to look at the anatomy of an AutoCAD command.
00:23I would like you to do this with me.
00:25Let's come up to the Draw panel in our ribbon and we will launch the Line
00:28command by clicking the icon.
00:31Now that the command's active, take a look at the bottom of the screen.
00:34This area right down here is called the command line.
00:37This is where AutoCAD speaks to us.
00:39This is where AutoCAD tells us what it needs to complete the current command.
00:44Right now AutoCAD is saying 'Specify first point'.
00:47So I will left-click a point on screen to start my line but if I look at the
00:52command line I can see Specify next point or if I want to I can undo.
00:57I'm going to left-click a few more points on screen.
01:01Take a look at the command line now.
01:03I have two options here within the brackets.
01:06Anytime you see choices between brackets, these guys are called sub-options of a command.
01:12A sub-option is just an additional feature that's located within the running command.
01:18If I want to access a sub- option there's two ways I can do it.
01:21One way is by using the keys on my keyboard.
01:24If I simply type the capitalized letter of the sub-option I want and hit Enter,
01:29that's one way to do it.
01:31So if I wanted to back up one segment I can type U for undo and hit Enter.
01:37If I wanted to back up another one, I can type U and hit Enter.
01:41Notice I am still in the command.
01:43So I could pick some more points on screen and if I wanted to close this shape,
01:48I can simply type C for close and hit Enter.
01:53Let's launch the Line command again.
01:55I am going to come up and click the icon.
01:57Once again I am going to pick a few points on screen.
02:00Let's look at another way to access sub-options.
02:04This happens to be my personal favorite.
02:06I like to get them through the right-click menu.
02:09If I right-click, the sub-options are always going to be located right in
02:14the middle of the menu.
02:16So if I wanted to back up one step, I can simply click Undo.
02:18If you want to back up another one, right-click Undo.
02:23I could continue on if I wish and if I wanted to close this shape, I could right-click
02:28and select Close.
02:30Virtually 90% of the AutoCAD commands contain additional sub-options and we can
02:35access them either way.
02:38I want to show you one more thing.
02:39Let's launch the Line command one more time.
02:41We will pick a few points on screen.
02:44Let's talk about how we can cancel out of a running command.
02:48If I have a command active in my command line and I want to get out of it,
02:51I can simply hit the Escape key on my keyboard and AutoCAD will stop the command in its tracks.
02:57Now since you are just starting out with this program, I can't emphasize enough
03:01the importance of keeping an eye on the command line.
03:04Remember this is where AutoCAD is speaking to you.
03:07Quite often as a beginner, people struggle because they may be entering
03:10something when AutoCAD is expecting something else.
03:13So if you are having problems, that's one of the first places you can look.
03:18Don't worry. Once you get the hang of it, you'll realize that all the commands
03:21are essentially set up the same way and you will begin to anticipate what
03:24AutoCAD needs before it even asks for it.
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Customizing AutoCAD's preferences
00:00AutoCAD is a very customizable program.
00:03The amount of flexibility we have can easily be seen in the sheer number of user
00:07preferences that are available.
00:09In this lesson we are going to learn how to change the way AutoCAD behaves.
00:13Now I have got a drawing open on my screen.
00:15I don't expect you to open the same drawing.
00:17This is merely here as a visual representation.
00:20So just play along with me for a second.
00:22If I'd like to adjust my AutoCAD user preferences, I need to bring up
00:26the Options dialog box.
00:28One way I can do that is by right clicking in the middle of my screen and at the
00:33very bottom of the menu, I can select Options.
00:36This brings up a very large dialog box that gives me access to literally
00:40hundreds of AutoCAD preferences that are divided up under these tabs.
00:46Now we are certainly not going to go through all of these settings.
00:48I am going to show you a couple, give you an idea of how they work and then
00:52I am going to show you how you can get information to explain what the other
00:55settings do for you.
00:56First thing's first. Let's take a look at an example.
00:58I am going to come down and set my Display tab current.
01:01Notice that each tab is divided up into named groups.
01:05This makes the settings a little bit easier to find.
01:08If we look in the Window Elements group, notice I have a checkbox called Display
01:12scrollbars in drawing window.
01:14I am going to click, put a check in the box and then I am going to come down and click Apply.
01:18When I do, watch my model space.
01:22Notice as soon as I clicked Apply, I now have scrollbars in my drawing window.
01:27Now in reality, scrollbars really aren't necessary anymore.
01:30There are better ways to adjust our view.
01:32So I am going to turn these back off.
01:34Let me remove the check from the box by clicking on it and then I will come down
01:38and click Apply one more time.
01:39As long as we are here, there is one setting that I would like you to change
01:43for the duration of this title and that involves the background color of model space.
01:49Let me click and hold on the top of my dialog box and I will drag this guy down
01:53so we can see the drawing.
01:55Notice that currently my model space background is set to white.
01:59Now in the old days, model space was always black and truthfully black gives us
02:03a much better contrast between our background and the colors of our line work.
02:08Notice I have got some boxes on my screen and I have set these guys to the seven
02:12or eight standard Windows colors that we have.
02:15Notice that the yellow is very hard to read on the white background.
02:20Let's set our model space back to black and see if this guy is a little
02:24bit easier on our eyes.
02:26To do that, I'm going to click and drag this dialog box back to the middle of
02:29my screen and once again this is a display issue, so I'm going to be on the
02:33Display tab and in the Window Elements area, I am going to come down and click the Colors button.
02:40This brings up a dialog box that allows me to adjust the colors of my interface items.
02:45Now fortunately by default, 2D model space and Uniform background happen to
02:50already be selected.
02:52So I am going to come over to the color area and click the flyout and I'm going
02:55to select black and apply and close.
02:59Once again we will move up and grab the top of the dialog box.
03:02Click, hold and drag him down and notice that my layers are much easier to see
03:06on a black background.
03:08This honestly is the way I prefer to work.
03:11Now that you know how to change it, you can experiment with other model space
03:14background colors if you like, but for the rest of the title, I am going to be
03:17using a black model space background.
03:20Once again I am going to drag the dialog box back to the middle of the screen.
03:24Let me show you where you can go if you want information about what the rest of
03:27these settings do for us.
03:29Notice AutoCAD brings up a small paragraph that explains to me exactly what that guy does.
03:33How about arc and circle smoothness?
03:36Once again I will just hover and AutoCAD gives me the information.
03:40In fact these little pop up paragraphs are a user preference themselves.
03:45Take a look at this in the Window Elements area.
03:47I've got an option that say Show tooltips.
03:50If I uncheck this and click Apply, that will turn off the
03:54additional information.
03:55Now since we are just starting out, this information can be helpful.
03:59So I'm going to turn this back on and click Apply and then we will click OK to
04:03dismiss the dialog box.
04:05At first glance the Options dialog box may seem little intimidating. However,
04:10as you continue to use the software, you will begin to recognize the relationship
04:13between the commands, the interface and your user preferences.
04:17Soon changing your settings will become second nature.
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Saving a workspace
00:01In this session I want to talk about the concept of a workspace.
00:04Now a workspace is a saved configuration of tools on our screen and while we are
00:09not going to be doing much screen customization in this title, I feel it's
00:13important for you to understand this general concept in the event the tools that
00:17you see on your screen don't match the tools you see on mine.
00:20If that's the case, you'll know exactly where to go to make the changes.
00:24Now if you look at my screen you can see I have got a drawing open.
00:26We are not going to be doing anything with this file.
00:29This guy is here merely to serve as a nice background image.
00:32That way we are not working with a completely blank interface.
00:36If I look at the lower right-hand corner of my screen, I can see that we are
00:39already working with a saved workspace.
00:42This guy is called 2D Drafting and Annotation and he comes preinstalled with AutoCAD 2010.
00:48Now AutoCAD 2010 includes other workspaces and I can see those by clicking this flyout.
00:53Right here above the horizontal line or the additional workspaces that
00:58are installed by default.
01:00To switch to a different workspace, I can simply select it from the list.
01:04Let's take a look at 3D Modeling.
01:07Notice how my screen changes.
01:08My ribbon is now populated with tools that are appropriate for 3-D drafting.
01:13The general reasoning behind having a workspace is taking the tools that you use
01:18most often for your type of work and making them available on your screen.
01:22I am going to come down and click the flyout again.
01:25Notice I have a workspace called Initial Setup Workspace.
01:29This guy was created automatically when you first launched AutoCAD 2010.
01:33If you remember, you were given a couple of dialog boxes and based on the
01:37answers that you gave, AutoCAD created a default workspace setup just for you.
01:43In this title, we are going to be doing a lot of 2D Drafting and Annotation, so
01:46I am going to set that workspace current again.
01:50I am going to make a couple of changes however just to show you how we can save a workspace.
01:55To do that, I'm going to add something to my interface and then we will save it.
01:58I am going to bring up the Property Changer.
02:01This is the tool that we use to change our properties and I am going to bring
02:04that guy up by hitting Ctrl+1 on my keyboard and as soon as he pops up on
02:09screen I am going to click and hold and I am going to drag this guy to the left
02:12until the shape changes and then I'll release my mouse button subsidies docked on screen.
02:19Let's save this current configuration as a workspace.
02:22To do that, I am going to come down and click the flyout and then I am going to
02:25select Save current as and then I am going to give this a name and I am going to
02:30call it Jeff's 2d Workspace and when I am finished, I will click Save.
02:38If I look down on the lower right- hand corner, I can see that my custom
02:40workspace is now current and if I was to click the flyout and jump to another
02:45workspace and then click the flyout and return, I can see that my custom
02:52workspace has been saved.
02:54Now I must admit, I don't like having my Properties palette docked on screen all the time.
02:58It does take up a little too much space.
03:00So what I am going to do is minimize this guy to a single icon.
03:04To do that I am going to place my cursor over the palette name and click the
03:07Minimize button. That will collapse into the left margin of my screen and then
03:12I'm going to right-click in the margin and select Icons Only. There we go.
03:17That's much more helpful.
03:18Now if I want the Property Changer, I can simply place my cursor over this icon
03:22to get access to the tools.
03:24Now that I'm done I'm going to resave my workspace.
03:27Let's come down and click the flyout.
03:29I am going to select Save Current As and then I am going to click this flyout,
03:35select the original name and click Save.
03:38And do I want to replace it? Yes, I do.
03:41In the future if I make further changes to my interface, I can always save those
03:45changes by updating my current workspace.
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Accessing Help
00:01When learning a program as large as AutoCAD, you're undoubtedly going to have questions.
00:05In this session, I am going to show you where you can go to get answers.
00:09First thing's first.
00:10Take a look at the top of my interface.
00:12This area up here is called the ribbon, and this is where all of our tools are located.
00:16Take a look at some of these tool icons.
00:19At first glance, those guys can seem a little cryptic and it may be hard to tell
00:23what each of those guys does. Watch this.
00:25If I place my cursor over a tool, AutoCAD will tell me what that tool does and
00:30if I wait a little bit longer AutoCAD will give me even more information and
00:34in this case, I'm also getting an illustration.
00:37This additional information is called an extended tooltip and I'll get an
00:40extended tooltip if I hover a little extra long over an icon.
00:45If I need even more information about this tool, take a look at the bottom of the tooltip.
00:50Notice it says, Press F1 for more help.
00:53If I hit the F1 key, on my keyboard AutoCAD will launch context sensitive help
00:58for the specific command.
01:00And if I grab my slider here, click and hold and pull up and down, I can get all
01:06the information I need.
01:07When I am finished, I can come up and click the X to close the Help feature.
01:10Now, this tooltip concept doesn't only work for just the icons.
01:15It also works in dialog boxes. Watch this.
01:18I am going to come up to the Quick Access Toolbar and click my Plot icon.
01:22This brings up the Plot dialog box. From here, if I question what any of these
01:26settings does, I can simply place my cursor over the setting and AutoCAD will
01:30give me a nice description.
01:32If further information is needed, most of the dialog boxes contain a hyperlink
01:36where I can get extended information.
01:39Now, what if I need help in the middle of a command? Watch this.
01:43I am going to come over to the Draw panel in my ribbon and launch the Circle tool.
01:47If we look at the command line, I can see that command is active.
01:50Take a look at some of these sub- options and I don't know what these guys do.
01:54Well, no matter. If you have a command active on your screen, if you hit the F1
01:59key on your keyboard, once again AutoCAD will take you to context sensitive
02:04help for this command.
02:06Notice here's the sub-options right here, and they're all hyperlinks.
02:09If I click a hyperlink, AutoCAD will tell me what that sub-option does.
02:14Once again, I am going to close the Help feature.
02:17What if I need help, finding a command? Watch this.
02:20If I come over to my Application menu, click the big red letter A, this area at
02:25the top of the menu is where I can do a command search.
02:28For instance, let's do a search for the Plot command.
02:32I am going to type Plot. Notice AutoCAD will search all of its commands and
02:36then it will show me the result of the search.
02:39Notice the Plot command is located in the Quick Access toolbar, which happens to be right here.
02:45The Plot command is also located in the Application menu under the Print icon
02:49and we can find the Plot command on the output tab of our ribbon in the Plot panel.
02:56Also notice as I hover over these options, I am getting additional tooltip
02:59information, and to be honest, these options are hyperlinks.
03:02If I want to launch the command, I can click this hyperlink from here.
03:06Now we'll get into this command a little bit later in the title, so I am
03:08going to close this.
03:10Take a look at the top of the screen.
03:12Right up here, I can take and type keywords for a specific topic that I am
03:16having trouble with.
03:17This is kind of like doing a search on the Internet.
03:20Let's say I am having trouble with a concept involving the ribbon.
03:23I am going to type ribbon and hit Enter and AutoCAD, will search all of its
03:28known sources of information.
03:29Let me grab this slider and push it up.
03:32Notice AutoCAD is looking in the User Guide, the Command Reference,
03:36the Customization Guide and the New Features Workshop.
03:40These are all places that reference the ribbon, and if I see a topic that I like,
03:44I can click this hyperlink to get more information.
03:49AutoCAD is a very feature rich application and it's nice to know that it goes
03:53out of its way to help you learn the program.
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2. Opening, Viewing, and Saving Drawings
Opening an AutoCAD drawing
00:00The first order of business in learning a new program is knowing how to open a file.
00:05So in this lesson, we're going to learn how to open an AutoCAD Drawing.
00:08To open a drawing, I am going to come up to the Quick Access Toolbar right up
00:12here at the top of my interface, and I am going to click the second icon.
00:14This guy represents Open.
00:18This brings up my Select File dialog box where I can navigate through my hard
00:22drive to find the drawing I'd like to open.
00:25In my case, the drawing I am looking for is inside the exercise files folder and
00:29we are going to look inside chapter_02.
00:32I'll double-click to open that folder.
00:34Now that we are in the folder, notice I can see several files, each of
00:38these guys contains a blue icon. This icon represents that the files in AutoCAD Drawing.
00:43Just for a second, take a look at the bottom of the dialog box.
00:45Notice it says Files of type.dwg.
00:49All AutoCAD drawings have a .dwg extension.
00:52DWG stands for drawing.
00:55In this case, the drawing I would like to open is this first drawing,
00:58the ball diamond drawing.dwg.
00:59Let me click this once to select it.
01:01Notice I get a nice preview over here to the right side.
01:04This is what the file looked like the last time it was saved by the way and then
01:08I'll come down and click Open and we can see the file is opened on my screen.
01:14Now that's one way to open an AutoCAD Drawing.
01:16Let me show you another way.
01:17Let's close this file first.
01:19To do that I am going to come up and click this X. That will close this drawing.
01:24Another way we can open drawings is by going to the Application menu.
01:27Let me come up and click this big red letter A. From here, I can come down to
01:31the Open menu, come over and select Drawing. This brings up the exact same
01:36Select File dialog box.
01:39From here, once again, I can select a drawing to open.
01:41Let me give you a shortcut.
01:44Let's say there is a folder that we go to frequently to open our AutoCAD drawings,
01:48the exercise files folder perhaps.
01:51Let me show you a fast way that we can get there.
01:54First thing I am going to do is navigate to that folder.
01:56Now my folder happens to be on the desktop.
01:58Yours may be someplace else.
02:00I am going to come down and click Desktop.
02:02Here is the exercise files folder.
02:04I am going to click and hold on this guy, drag him over to the left side of
02:08the dialog and release.
02:10This adds this folder as a favorite place.
02:13Now the next time I want to open a drawing, I can come right to this dialog box,
02:17I can come right over here and click my favorite place and it opens up
02:20that folder for me.
02:22At any point in the future, if I want to remove this guy from the list, I can
02:25simply right-click and select Remove.
02:28For now, I am going to leave him there. That will be very handy.
02:31Since I am in the folder, I am going to double-click on chapter_02.
02:34Once again, let's open up this first drawing.
02:38I want to show you one more helpful aspect of the Application menu. Take a look at this.
02:42I am going to come up and click the A. Right here on the right side of this menu
02:46I can see a listing of my Recent Documents.
02:49These are the last several AutoCAD Drawings that I've opened.
02:52Now if you're not seeing Recent Documents, there are two icons here.
02:56These are actually like a toggle.
02:57Let me click this one, this one will show me a listing of the open drawings that I have.
03:02Currently, I've got my default AutoCAD Drawing1 open, as well as this file.
03:06Let me jump back to Recent Documents.
03:09Notice that each of these file names has a pushpin next to it.
03:13If I click the pushpin, AutoCAD will maintain this drawing name in the list.
03:18It will never drop off.
03:20That way if there is a file that I open on a regular basis, I can just go right
03:23to my Application menu and I can grab it from here.
03:27Since I'm already in my drawing right now and I am finished with the Application menu,
03:30I am going to move outside the menu and hit Escape to close.
03:34Opening drawings in AutoCAD is very similar to opening files in other programs.
03:38And if you make use of the Recent Documents menu or the Favorite Places feature,
03:43you can get even faster access to your drawings.
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Understanding mouse functions
00:01Back in the old days, we used to create our drawings using a drafting pencil.
00:05Today, we work with a mouse.
00:07In this lesson, we're going to explore how our mouse buttons function inside of AutoCAD.
00:11If you take a look at my screen, you can see I've got a mechanical example.
00:15This happens to be a drawing of a handheld video game.
00:18Now let's start our mouse discussion by talking about, the left-mouse button or a left-click.
00:24In AutoCAD a left-click allows us to make a selection.
00:27For instance, if I place my cursor over this line and left-click, notice I
00:32just selected the line.
00:33Let me left-click on this dimension. I just selected the dimension.
00:36I am going to move up into the ribbon and I am going to left-click on this tool.
00:40This guy happens to represent Erase.
00:43Notice that I launch the tool and that line work is now gone.
00:46So a left-click allows us to make a selection, whether it would be entities on
00:50our screen, an icon in the ribbon or an option in one of the menus.
00:54All right, let's talk about the right-mouse button or a right-click.
00:59In AutoCAD, a right-click will bring up a context-sensitive menu.
01:03For instance, let me right-click right here on the middle of my screen.
01:06Notice the menu that I have.
01:08Now I set this as context-sensitive.
01:11That means that the menu that you see will change, depending on when and
01:15where you right-click.
01:16For instance, let me hit Escape to clear this menu, and I am going to come down
01:20and right-click over my command line.
01:22Notice my menu is different.
01:23This one gives me options related to the command line.
01:26Let me move up and I'll right-click in my ribbon.
01:29Once again, I get a different menu.
01:31This one is related to my ribbon.
01:33With this menu, I can turn my tabs on and off or I can turn off my panels.
01:38I am going to click on screen to remove this menu.
01:41Let's take it one more step.
01:43I'm going to select this dimension by left-clicking and then I'll right-click.
01:48Notice now I get options in my menu that are related to dimensions.
01:52This is very helpful if I would like to edit my geometry or entities on my screen.
01:57Since I don't want to make a change right now, I am going to hit Escape to clear
01:59the menu, and then I am going to hit Escape again to deselect this dimension.
02:04So to recap, the left-click makes a selection;
02:06the right-click brings up a menu.
02:08Soon the left and right-click functions of your mouse will become second nature,
02:12and you'll wonder how people were able to manage in the old days using a simple pencil.
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Zooming, panning, and regenning
00:02AutoCAD drawings come in all sizes.
00:04We can work on everything from a small mechanical part to an entire college campus.
00:09And we can have all of that geometry visible on our screen.
00:12So it's important that we know how to navigate our way around inside of our files.
00:17In this lesson, we are going to learn how to use the Pan and Zoom commands
00:20to adjust our view.
00:22If you look at my screen you can see I have got an architectural example.
00:25This is a drawing of a floor plan for a college dorm room.
00:28Let me also mention that I'm currently using a wheel mouse.
00:32I have got a wheel located between the left and right mouse button.
00:36This type of mouse is very common these days.
00:39The trick to panning and zooming in AutoCAD is knowing how to use this wheel.
00:43For instance let's say I would like to zoom in on this bathroom area.
00:48To do that I'll place my cursor inside the room, and I will roll my mouse wheel
00:53forward to zoom in and if I roll the wheel back I zoom out.
00:58Notice that my zooming is centered or focused on the cursor.
01:02So if I want to zoom in on the bedroom area, I can place my cursor in this room,
01:07and roll my wheel forward, or back to zoom out.
01:10We can also use our wheel to pan.
01:13If I click and hold the wheel down, remember your wheel is also a button.
01:18Notice my icon changes.
01:20And as long as I hold this wheel down, and move my cursor, I can pan my drawing.
01:24Let me release my mouse button.
01:27I'll come over to this Bedroom, and I'll click and hold and my wheel and it will
01:30pan and center this guy on screen.
01:33Panning around in an AutoCAD Drawing is very similar to panning in an
01:37Adobe Acrobat file.
01:39The important thing to remember is when we were panning,
01:42we are not actually moving our geometry.
01:44We are moving our position or are view in space.
01:48Now what if you don't have a wheel mouse?
01:51Well, for the time being you can access Pan and Zoom through the right-click menu.
01:56If I right-click on screen notice, Pan and Zoom are located right here.
02:00I am going to select the Pan from the menu.
02:04Notice my icon and now I'm able to pan just by clicking and holding down my
02:09left mouse button. When I'm finished, I can right-click and I can select Exit.
02:15Notice I can also jump to the Zoom command from here.
02:18I am going to pan back over to the other bedroom.
02:22We'll center this guy on screen.
02:24Notice in the upper right hand corner I have got some geometry.
02:27This represents a desk and chair.
02:30Let's zoom in on the desk, we'll center that guy on screen, and let's zoom in on
02:35this geometry in the corner.
02:37As I get little closer I can see that that is a handheld video game.
02:42If we zoom in on the screen we can see that these screen contains a copy of the
02:48dorm room floor plan.
02:49I am going to zoom in a little bit further on this bed area.
02:54Notice that I have zoomed in quite a bit on this drawing.
02:57Take a look at the line work on my screen.
02:59Notice it doesn't look pixelated like you would see in a photo editing program.
03:04That's because AutoCAD drawings are not based on pixels.
03:07They're based on vectors.
03:09This is a vector-based application, meaning this line work that we see on screen
03:13is all based on underlying mathematical computations.
03:17So I can zoom in on this as close as I want and the line work is always
03:20going to look good.
03:22With one exception. Watch this. I am going to pan down to the Bathroom area.
03:27Take a look at my toilet symbol. Now that guy should be round.
03:30Right now, he looks a little bit angular.
03:32Since AutoCAD is a vector-based program,
03:35if we pan and zoom great distances, it could be taxing on our processor and on
03:40our video card and AutoCAD will sacrifice the quality of our arcs to allow us
03:45to pan and zoom freely on our screen.
03:48Now this geometry will still plot just fine.
03:51It just happens that right now it doesn't look very good.
03:54If I want to clean this up, I am going to use a command called REGEN.
03:59Now unfortunately, there is no icon for REGEN. I can't get the command in the ribbon.
04:04The only way to access REGEN is through the command line. I have to type it.
04:08And fortunately, I don't have to type the entire command. If I just type re and
04:13hit Enter, AutoCAD, regenerates the database, refreshes my geometry and now
04:20I see a better representation of what this geometry should look like.
04:24At this point, I am going to zoom out.
04:25Let me roll my wheel backwards, got to keep rolling the wheel.
04:29Got to keep going little bit further back.
04:31And notice, I'm still rolling my wheel backwards. If you look at my status bar
04:35in the lower left-hand corner, AutoCAD is saying, Already zoomed out as far as possible.
04:40Let me try and pan at this point.
04:42Let me click and hold and pan.
04:44Notice as I pan it's like I am slamming into a wall.
04:46AutoCAD is restricting my amount of panning.
04:49This is also a REGEN issue.
04:52Remember that panning and zooming is taxing on your processor, and your video card.
04:55So at some point AutoCAD is going to say hey!
04:58You have moved a pretty good range now. I need to REGEN the geometry to allow
05:02you to pan and zoom further.
05:04No problem. I can simply the launch the REGEN command again.
05:08To do that, I'll re and hit Enter and now I can pan and zoom as normal.
05:13Let me show you one more helpful thing. I am going to zoom in on the kitchen sink area.
05:19If the time comes, where you want to back up and see the extents of your
05:22drawing, the quickest way to do that is by double clicking your mouse wheel.
05:27If I double click my wheel, AutoCAD will give me a zoom extents, such that I can
05:32see the entire extent of my line work.
05:36Using Pan and Zoom we can quickly move around our drawing environment,
05:40no matter how large or small that environment may be.
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Working in a multiple-document environment
00:00AutoCAD's interface is considered a multi-document environment.
00:04This means we can have more than one drawing open at a time.
00:08Opening multiple drawings is a great way to compare geometry from one
00:11drawing to another.
00:13It also allows us to steal components from one drawing and place them in another.
00:18In this lesson we are going to learn how AutoCAD allows us to work with multiple drawings.
00:23Now, if you look at my screen, you can see I've already got a drawing open.
00:26This is an architectural floor plan.
00:29At this point, I would like to open another drawing.
00:32To do that I am going to come up to the Quick Access toolbar, and click my Open icon.
00:36From here, I am going to look inside the Exercise Files folder.
00:40We'll go into the chapter_02 directory and we'll open up this
00:44drawing, kitchen_detail.
00:45Let me select this guy and we'll click Open.
00:48Now, at this point, I have two drawings open in my AutoCAD interface, and
00:53you may be wondering hey, where did the other drawing go?
00:56Let me show you where we can go to view the other drawing.
00:59To do that, I am going to come up and click the View tab on my ribbon.
01:03And then I am going to come down to the Windows panel.
01:06Right here I have got an icon that says Switch Windows.
01:09This tool will allow me to flip from one open drawing to another.
01:13If I click the icon, notice AutoCAD gives me a menu showing me the two drawings.
01:18This checkbox shows me which drawing is current on my screen.
01:22If I want to flip to the other drawing, I can simply select it from the list.
01:26If I want to flip back we can come up and click Switch Windows, and we can
01:30grab the other drawing.
01:32Now I love shortcuts.
01:34Let me show you a keyboard shortcut that will allow us to do the exact same thing.
01:39If I hit Ctrl+Tab on my keyboard, I can also jump to the next open drawing.
01:46Once again, if I hit Ctrl+Tab I can jump back.
01:51Now, what if I want to view more than one drawing at a time?
01:54Maybe I would like to do a side-by -side comparison of two drawings.
01:58I have got an icon right here that represents Tile vertically.
02:02If I click this guy, AutoCAD will split my screen and allow me to view each
02:08drawing in its own separate window, side-by-side.
02:11Now this is kind of like having multiple versions of AutoCAD running, because
02:15I can pan, zoom and work in this file, or if I click inside this drawing and put
02:21the focus on this window,
02:22I can pan, zoom and work in this file.
02:26Now, when would something like this come in handy?
02:29Let me give you an idea.
02:30I am going to zoom in on this kitchen area.
02:33Let's say I am working on my floor plan and in my kitchen I have got a
02:37countertop that wraps around and I've got an eating area right here.
02:40Let's say I would like to place a couple of stools here.
02:43But instead of drawing new geometry, I think to myself, you know what?
02:47I created a drawing a couple of weeks ago that had some stools that are
02:50exactly like what I need.
02:52Well, that would happen to be this drawing.
02:55Since this drawing is also open, I can steal components of this file and
03:00place them into this one.
03:01Let me show you how we can do that.
03:03I am going to click inside this window.
03:05We'll put the focus on this drawing.
03:08To move my geometry, I will click on it to select it, and then I will place my
03:13cursor over the dashed line work, and click and hold. This copies the line work
03:19to my cursor, and then I will drag it into the other drawing and release.
03:24Now that I am done, I don't need this drawing anymore. I can move up and
03:26click the X to close.
03:28I'm not going to save my changes and then I can maximize this drawing on screen.
03:35Don't forget when you're using AutoCAD, you'll never have to draw the same thing twice.
03:40If we use the multi-document feature, we can quickly move geometry from one file into another.
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Saving your work
00:01The most important feature we have in AutoCAD is the ability to save our work.
00:05Saving allows us to walk away from an unfinished drawing, and then resume work on it later.
00:11In this lesson, we are going to learn how to save an AutoCAD drawing.
00:15I'm using this detail drawing to show you how to save your work.
00:19If you'd like to follow along you can use any newly created file you want, and
00:24this drawing has not yet been saved.
00:26We can tell that by looking up the header. Notice it still says Drawing1.dwg,
00:31which is the blank drawing that we start with whenever we launch AutoCAD.
00:36So I've worked on this drawing up to this point.
00:38Let's say we've reached the end of the workday.
00:40It's time to go home.
00:41So I'm going to save this drawing, such that I can pick up where I left off tomorrow.
00:46If I would like to save this drawing, I am going to come up to Quick Access
00:50Toolbar and click the Save icon.
00:54This brings up my Save Drawing As dialog box, and I am going to save my drawing
00:59right here on the Desktop.
01:01Let me come down on the File name area and we'll change this from Drawing1 to
01:06fence-detail and I'll click Save.
01:11Take a look at the header now.
01:12Notice we can now see that this is a saved drawing.
01:16At this point we will simulate the end of the day. I am going to come over and
01:19close this drawing by clicking the X. All right, now I'm coming in the next day.
01:24It's time to open this drawing.
01:26To open the drawing I am going to come up the Application menu and click and
01:30I am going to move over into the Recent Documents area, since this is the last
01:34drawing that I worked on.
01:35It's right here on the list and I can open it by simply clicking the file name.
01:39Now I can continue to work on the file. I can add dimensions. I can change my geometry.
01:44And if I ever have to save the drawing again, I can simply come up and click the Save icon.
01:49Now notice that time when I clicked the icon, I didn't get a dialog box.
01:53In fact, we really didn't see anything happen, other than if we looked down at
01:56the command line, we can see that the QSAVE command was launched.
02:00If we are working in a drawing that has already been saved and we click
02:05the Save icon, AutoCAD will overwrite the original version with the current version.
02:11So at any point in the future, saving the drawing is as quick as coming up
02:14and clicking the icon.
02:16Now what if I want to save this drawing with a different name?
02:19Or maybe I'd like to save it in a different place.
02:22To do that, I am going to come up to the Application menu and click.
02:25Then I am going to come down to Save As and hover.
02:28Notice in the menu all the different choices that I have that I can use to save this file.
02:34Now typically we are always going to save our files in AutoCAD Drawing.
02:37So I can click it right from the menu here, or as a shortcut, we really don't
02:42have to go into the menu at all.
02:43If I simply click right here on Save As, AutoCAD is going to assume that I'd
02:48like to save this is a DWG.
02:51At this point I could navigate to a different folder on my hard drive or I could
02:54take and give this drawing a different name.
02:57In this case, I am going to leave the drawing just as it is.
02:59I am going to come up and close this dialog by clicking the X.
03:01Very seldom where you start and finish an AutoCAD drawing during a single session.
03:06If the time comes, where you need to walk away from your computer.
03:09You can use the Save or Save As features to store your drawing such that you can return to it later.
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Saving time with templates
00:01Instead of starting all of our drawings from a blank slate, why not start with a
00:05drawing that already contains the items we use most?
00:08In this lesson, we are going to take a look at the concept of templates.
00:12Now, if you look at my screen you can see I have just launched my AutoCAD 2010.
00:16We can see that because I'm currently sitting in the Drawing1.dwg file, that
00:21means that this file has not yet been saved, and more importantly this drawing
00:25is completely blank.
00:27It contains no content whatsoever.
00:29Anything I want in this drawing, I am going to have to create in this drawing.
00:33Instead of starting from this drawing, let's say I would like to use a
00:36different startup drawing.
00:38I am going to start from a template.
00:40To do that I am going to come up to my Application menu and click the letter A.
00:44I am going to come down to New and I'll come over and select Drawing.
00:48This brings up my Select template dialog box, where I can choose a new startup drawing,
00:53and we can see that there are several files pre-installed with AutoCAD 2010.
00:58First thing's first. Notice all of these files have a .dwt extension.
01:03DWT stands for Drawing Template, and here's the secret. There is no difference
01:08between an AutoCAD drawing and an AutoCAD drawing template.
01:11It's the exact same file, just a different file extension.
01:15Essentially all of these files are AutoCAD drawings that already have content.
01:20Now the example we are going to use is not located inside the default template.
01:24It's actually located inside our exercise files.
01:27So I'm going to jump to my Desktop, where I have placed my exercise files folder.
01:32I will double-click to open this, we'll go inside the chapter_02 folder, and
01:37we will select this file as our example and click Open.
01:42Now it doesn't look like a whole lot has changed.
01:43If we look at the top of the screen, we can see I'm in a new file
01:46called Drawing2.dwg.
01:49What AutoCAD has done, it's taken our template drawing and used that as the
01:53starting point of our new file.
01:56At first glance, this file looks empty, but if I come down here and take a look
02:00at my Layout tabs, I can see these guys have names.
02:03I'm going to click to select the 8.5x11 and notice that I've got a title block
02:08in this drawing already.
02:09Let's come down and click 22x34 and we'll click 11x17.
02:15So while this drawing contains no geometry and model space,
02:18it has three preset layouts with title blocks that I can use when the time comes
02:23that I'd like to print the geometry that I create.
02:26The idea behind a template is you take the items that you use most, you put them
02:30in an AutoCAD drawing, and then you save that drawing as a template.
02:34Your templates might contain text styles, title blocks, company logo, dimension
02:39styles or common symbols.
02:42By starting your drawing from a template, your drawing will already have many of
02:45the components that you'll regularly use.
02:47Now we are going to do any work in this file.
02:49So I'm going to close it.
02:51Let me move up and we'll click the X, and I am not going to save changes.
02:56This returns us to our blank file that we started with.
02:58Now you may be asking, how do you go about creating a template?
03:02Well, remember a template is nothing more than a drawing.
03:05So I'm in a drawing right now.
03:07Let's turn this into a template.
03:09First we have to add some content.
03:10Now we haven't talked much about creating content yet, so for the purpose of
03:14this example, I am just going to create a simple circle.
03:16I am going to come up and launch my Circle command right here.
03:20I'll pick a point on screen and then I'll pick another point.
03:23Let's say this circle represents our company logo.
03:25This is something that would obviously be in all the drawings that we create.
03:30Now we can create other content. For right now we are going to stick with just the circle.
03:33Let's save this drawing as a template.
03:36To do that I am going to come up to the Application menu and click.
03:39I'm going to come down to Save As and then I'm going to come over and select a Drawing Template.
03:46Once again AutoCAD returns me to my Template directory.
03:49Notice I am now saving this drawing with a DWT extension.
03:53I am going to change the file name to my custom template and I'll click Save.
04:01At this point, I could give my template a description.
04:03I'm going to keep the default for now and I'll click OK.
04:08Now let's close this drawing, and let's try and start a new file using our template.
04:16Let's click the Application menu, I'll select New, and now we can find our
04:21template in the list.
04:23If you happen to be wondering, the standard template that we always start with
04:26in AutoCAD, it's this guy right here, acad.dwt.
04:30That's the default that we typically start with.
04:33Let's come down and find ours, there we go, my custom template.
04:37I will select this and click Open.
04:40I have now created a new drawing using my template as a starting point.
04:46Templates can save you a lot of time. Think of it this way. Why start every
04:50drawing from an empty file, when you can start from a template that already
04:54contains the content you use most?
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3. Creating Basic Geometry
Constructing lines
00:00AutoCAD is all about putting our designs on paper.
00:03So it's time we start creating some line work.
00:06In this lesson, we're going to look at AutoCAD most basic tool, the Line command.
00:12If you look at my screen, you can see I have got a large green rectangle.
00:15This shape is going to serve as a boundary.
00:17It's kind of like a sandbox.
00:19We're going to use the shape to play around and explore AutoCAD's line Command
00:24Let's launch the tool by coming up to the draw panel in our ribbon and clicking the icon.
00:29If I look at the command line, AutoCAD says, 'Specify first point.' I'll pick a
00:34point on screen and then I'll pick a few more points.
00:37Fairly easy to use the Line command.
00:40Notice as I move my cursor for each segment, take a look at how the line moves
00:44with the cursor. This is called the Rubber Band effect.
00:48Before I create my next segment, I'm going to at the command line.
00:51Notice I can specify another point or I've got some sub-options here. I could
00:55close the shape or I could undo to back up one segment.
00:59To access a sub-option, I can right-click and I can find them right here in the menu.
01:04I'm going to select Undo to back up a segment.
01:08You know what, I'm going to backup one more, there we go and then I can continue on.
01:13And if I want to close to shape I can simply right-click and select Close.
01:17I'm going to launch the command one more time.
01:21Let's pick a few points on screen.
01:23At this point let's say I was finished with this geometry. To get out of the
01:27command there's two ways I can do it.
01:28One is by simply hitting the Escape key like that.
01:33AutoCAD stops the command immediately or let me launch the command again.
01:39If I'm in the middle of a command, at the point I'm finished I can
01:42right-click and select Enter.
01:46That will also finish the command.
01:47You will soon find that all AutoCAD commands function the same way.
01:52Now this line work that we've created is well, it's nice.
01:55It's very abstract.
01:57It has no real geometric value.
02:00Let's try and create some line work that's based on dimensions. All right!
02:03I'm going to come up and launch the Line command again.
02:06I'm going to pick a point on screen and this time, I'm going to pull off to the
02:11right here and I'm going to type in a value on my keyboard.
02:13I'm going type a distance of 5 and hit Enter.
02:18Notice I've created a segment 5 units long in the direction I was pulling.
02:22Let me pull down in this direction. I'm going to type 7 and hit Enter.
02:26Let me pull in this direction and I'm going to type 9 and hit Enter.
02:32And when I'm finished with my shape I'm going to only right-click and select Close.
02:37This method of drawing is called Direct Distance Entry and while we're still
02:41scribbling on our screen this line work is based on real dimensions.
02:46Now that we have a functional understanding of how to use the Line command,
02:50we're ready to move onto the next lesson where we'll learn how to create some
02:53geometrically accurate line work.
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Locking angles with the Ortho and Polar modes
00:00The purpose of drafting is to create and reproduce accurate geometry.
00:05In this session, we're going to learn how to use the Line command to create some
00:08line work that has geometric value.
00:11Now, before I get started, take a look at my Status bar, right down here.
00:14All of my mode settings happen to be turned off.
00:17They all appear gray.
00:19If you're going to work along with me make sure that your mode settings match mine.
00:23This guys are just toggles. If you click it once it's blue, blue means it's on.
00:27When it's gray, it's turned off.
00:29Now that we've done our housekeeping, let's launch the Line command.
00:33I'm going to come up and click the icon and then I'm going to start my
00:37line right about here.
00:38I'll pick a point on screen.
00:40Let's say I would like to create a simple square that measures 5x5.
00:46While at this point, as I move my cursor, it would be nice if I had a little bit
00:49more control over the angle at which I was pulling this line segment.
00:54To get more control, I'm going to use the mode setting.
00:57I'm going to come down and click this guy right here, the third one from the left.
01:00This guy represents Ortho.
01:02When I click this and turn it on, notice I am now locked to 90 degree increments on my screen.
01:08That means, I can pull to the right and I can type 5 for a distance and hit Enter.
01:13I can then pull down and type 5. Enter.
01:17I can pull to the left, type 5 and hit Enter and then I'm going to right-click
01:23and select Close to close my shape.
01:26So the Ortho mode locks our cursor movements to 90 degree increments.
01:31And its important note we can turn that mode on and off even if we are in the
01:35middle of a command.
01:37Knowing what we know now, I'm going to pan this drawing over and let's see if we
01:41can replicate this geometry that we see on screen.
01:45Once again I'm going to launch the Line command by clicking the icon, I'll pick
01:49a point on screen and we'll draw this guy in a clockwise direction.
01:54Now my Ortho is locked.
01:55So I will pull to the left and type 10.
01:57I will pull up and type 10.
02:01Pull to the right and type 4.
02:03I'll come down and type 6.
02:04Let me mention this. When you first start using AutoCAD and you lock your Ortho,
02:10your screen can look a little confusing, especially if you pull back over a line
02:14segment that you just created.
02:16Notice that it looks like it disappears.
02:19It's actually AutoCAD trying to display both lines on top of each other.
02:23Don't let that worry you. Simply move your cursor away to see your line seg.
02:27Let's finish this up. I'm going to type 6 and hit Enter and then I'm going to
02:31right-click and select Close to finish my shape.
02:35Now once you turn Ortho on, it is on forever until you turn it off.
02:38If we would like to turn it off, we can simply come down and click the mode
02:42setting or here's a shortcut. If you hit the F8 key on your keyboard.
02:47F8 turns Ortho on, F8 turns Ortho off.
02:51I'm going to pan to the right here just a little bit more just get some blank space
02:57and I would like to do a little bit more drafting.
02:59Let's launch the Line command again.
03:01Let's pick a point on screen and let's talk about another mode setting.
03:05You know the Ortho works nice.
03:06It locks us to 90 degree increments but what if I want angles less than 90?
03:12In that case I'm going to look at to this mode setting right here.
03:15The Polar Tracking mode.
03:16Let me the click to turn this guy on.
03:19Notice as I move my cursor now with Polar Tracking on, AutoCAD will snap to 90 degree increments.
03:26I can still draft at other awkward angles but at any point if I'd like a 90,
03:32I can simply snap to that ray to get the angle.
03:37Let me hit Escape to cancel out of this line segment.
03:39Now at this point Polar Tracking isn't going to help us much because we have 90 degree
03:43increments with Ortho. Watch this.
03:46If I come down and right-click on this mode setting, AutoCAD will show me what
03:50the current angle increments is set to and if I would to like to change it,
03:53I can simply choose a new angle from this menu. I'm going to select 45.
03:58Now when I launch my Line command and pick a point on screen AutoCAD is now
04:03snapping to every 45 degree angle.
04:06That means if I would like to create a diamond that measures 5x5,
04:10I can simply pull up in this direction and type 5, Enter.
04:13I can pull downward in this direction and type 5, Enter.
04:17We will pull back this way and type 5 and then finally I'm going to
04:22right-click and select Close.
04:24Now you may be wondering if there's a shortcut to turn our Polar Tracking on and off.
04:30That happens to be the F10 key.
04:32If I hit F10 on the keyboard, I can turn this guy on and off whenever I want.
04:37Take a look at this.
04:38If I try and turn on Ortho, Polar turns off.
04:41As far as these modes go it's an either/or proposition.
04:44I can't have both of them on at the same time.
04:46Let's pan the drawing over little bit more.
04:50Knowing what we know now, let's see if we can create this shape.
04:54Since I've got some 45s in here, I'm going to use Polar Tracking.
04:57So I'm going to turn that on.
04:58I'm going to hit F10.
05:00Let me launch my Line command and I'm going to start in the lower right-hand
05:05corner and we will snap the left here and I'll type in 6, Enter.
05:10I'll will snap upward and type 2, Enter.
05:14I will go to the 45 and type 4, Enter, pull up and type, 2.
05:20It's a race now to see who gets done first.
05:22Let me pull up and type 2.
05:25We'll pull over, do 6 and then finally, I'm going to right-click and select Close.
05:33As you can see, when combining the line command with the Ortho and Polar modes,
05:37we can quickly create accurate geometry on our screen.
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Drawing circles
00:01Drawing a circle in AutoCAD is as easy as drawing a line.
00:04Circles just require a little bit more information.
00:08In this lesson, we're going to learn how to create some circles.
00:11Now before I get started, take a look at my status bar.
00:14Notice that all of my mode settings are currently turned off.
00:18If you'd like to work along with me, make sure that your mode settings match mine.
00:21All right, let's talk about what AutoCAD needs to create a circle.
00:26Well, it's going to need the location of the center point and then it's going to
00:29need either the radius or the diameter.
00:33Now a circle's radius is the distance from its center point to an edge and the
00:38circle's diameter is the distance from one edge to the other that passes
00:42through the center point.
00:44It's essentially the width of a circle.
00:46Now I'm going to pan this geometry off my screen.
00:49I'm going to hold down the wheel on my mouse.
00:51It will push this off to the left.
00:54Now that we've got some open space, let's create our first circle.
00:58To do that, I'm going to come up to the Draw panel of my ribbon and click the Circle tool.
01:04I'll then pick a point on screen to define my center point and then notice as I move my cursor,
01:09I'm getting the rubber band effect, very similar to when we create a line segment.
01:15In fact it just like the line command, I can free pick a point on screen
01:19to finish the circle.
01:21Now this circle is nice, but it wasn't created using any real geometry.
01:25Let's create another circle and this time we'll enter some real measurements.
01:30Once again, we'll come up and launch the tool.
01:33Pick a point on screen for our center point and then take a look at the command line.
01:37Notice that AutoCAD is asking us to specify a radius.
01:41Let's say I'd like to create a circle with a radius of 3.
01:45So I'm going to type 3 on my keyboard and hit Enter.
01:48I'm going to come up and launch the tool again, because I would like to show you
01:51something interesting.
01:52Let me pick a point on screen for my center and take a look at my command line.
01:57Notice down on the far end, I can see that AutoCAD is remembering the size of
02:01the last circle that I made.
02:03That means if I'd like to create another circle of the same size, I can simply
02:08hit Enter at this point and accept the default value of three.
02:12Let's create another circle and this time we'll try entering a diameter.
02:16I'm going to place this guy right over here.
02:21We'll look at the command line and notice I've got a sub-option for
02:24Diameter right here.
02:26To access that I can right-click, come down and select Diameter from the menu
02:30and then I can enter my diameter.
02:33In this case, I'd like this circle to have a diameter of eight.
02:36So I will type 8 and hit Enter.
02:38Essentially, that's it.
02:39There is no real rocket science at all to generating circles in AutoCAD.
02:43Let's talk for a second about the Circle icon.
02:47Take a look right up here.
02:48Right next to the Circle icon, there is a flyout.
02:51If I click this, it opens up and AutoCAD gives me a menu showing me that I can
02:55create circles in six different ways.
02:57I show you this because I want you to know there is only one Circle command in AutoCAD.
03:03These choices that you see in the menu are merely shortcuts to be sub-options
03:07within the Circle command.
03:08For instance, let's try Center, Diameter.
03:12I'm going to come down and select this from the menu.
03:15I'll then pick a point on screen for my center point and if we look at the
03:18command line, notice that AutoCAD entered the Diameter sub-option for me.
03:24So to finish this circle, I can simply type in my diameter.
03:27This circle is going to have a diameter of 2, so I will type 2 and hit Enter.
03:32So if you like the idea of the shortcut icons, feel free to use them. Just know
03:37that whichever one you use last will become the default Circle command.
03:42Now that we how to create some circles I'm going to pan this geometry over.
03:46Let's try and replicate some existing geometry.
03:48I'm going to back up just a little bit, I'll roll my wheel back and we will push
03:52this geometry up on screen.
03:55I'm going to launch the Circle command by clicking the flyout and going back to
03:59the standard Center, Radius method.
04:02Then I'll pick a point on screen and I will enter my radius of 3 and hit Enter.
04:07Now I'd like to go right back into the Circle command.
04:09Let me give you another shortcut.
04:11If you hit the Spacebar on your keyboard, AutoCAD will re-launch the last command.
04:16Notice I'm back in the Circle command.
04:18I will pick a point on screen and we'll type 6 for this radius and hit Enter.
04:24Now let's take a look at this last circle.
04:27I'm going to zoom in a little bit.
04:29This is a diameter symbol, so this circle must have a diameter of 8. Let's back up.
04:36We'll center this on screen.
04:39Once again, I'm going to come up and launch the Circle command.
04:43Since I'd like to enter the diameter, I'm going to a right-click and select
04:46Diameter from the menu.
04:49I will then type 8 and hit Enter.
04:51At this point in our training, we are capable of creating any circle we wish,
04:55so long as we know the circle's radius or its diameter.
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Activating the heads-up display
00:01A major drawback to the command line is that we must always glance back and
00:04forth between our drawing and the bottom of our screen.
00:08Wouldn't be nice if we could have our command line information show up at our cursor?
00:12In this lesson, I'm going to show you how we can do that.
00:15The trick is by simply turning on one of our mode settings.
00:19I'm going to come down to my status bar and I'm going to click this icon,
00:22the third one from the right side.
00:24This guy represents Dynamic Input.
00:28Now that he is on, we really don't notice anything different on our screen.
00:32I'm going to launch a command.
00:32I'm going to come up and click the Line tool and notice that AutoCAD is now
00:37speaking to me from my cursor.
00:40This information that we see on screen is also referred to as a heads-up display.
00:44I'm going to pick a point to start my line segment and notice as I move my
00:49cursor I'm seeing a little more information than I've seen before.
00:53I can see a field that represents the line length and the line's angle.
00:58If I hit my Tab key, I can jump back and forth between these fields and I can
01:03use these fields to create accurate geometry.
01:05For instance, let's say I'd like to create a line segment that's 25 units long.
01:11Right now, I am focused on the line length and so I'm going to type 25 and hit Tab.
01:18And what I do is move my cursor.
01:19You can see that my length has got a padlock meaning that no matter what I'm
01:23going to create a 25 unit long line.
01:26AutoCAD just needs to know the angle.
01:28Now you may be wondering how the angles work.
01:31That's why I have created the small compass in the lower right-hand corner.
01:35Let's say I'd like to create this line 25 units heading to the right or to the east.
01:41That would have an angle of 0, so I'm going to type 0 and hit Enter.
01:46From this point, let's see if we can create a 25x25 square.
01:51To do that I'm going to type 25 for my length and hit Tab. Make sure you don't
01:55hit Enter, because if you hit Enter you're going to do direct distance entry.
01:58We don't want to do that.
02:00Now my angle, I'm going to pull down in this direction and my angle is going to be 90.
02:06So I'll type 90 and hit Enter.
02:08I'm then going to move in this direction and type 25 for my length and Tab.
02:14Now what's my angle?
02:15You might think the angle is 90 degrees again.
02:18The angles that we're entering are directions.
02:20It's more like a compass and it's not related to the last segment at all.
02:24So if we look at our compass, we can see that the angle is going to be 180.
02:29That's the direction I want to go.
02:30Let me type 180 and hit Enter and to finish this guy up, I'm going to
02:36right-click and select Close.
02:39Now that we know how to use the Dynamic Input or the heads-up display, let's try
02:44and use it to replicate some geometry.
02:46I'm going to pan my line work over and let's create this simple rectangle.
02:53Once again, I'm going to launch the Line command.
02:54I'm going to start in the upper left-hand corner.
02:57Let me pick a point on screen and my line length is going to be 12, so
03:02we'll type 12 and hit Tab.
03:04The angle will be 0, because I'm heading due east.
03:08Let me pull down and I'll type 30 for my length, Tab.
03:15My angle is going to be 90, Enter.
03:19Notice that my heads-up display is allowing me to draft accurately without
03:23having to use Ortho or Polar.
03:26Let's type a distance of 12, Tab, and my angle is going to be 180 because
03:32now I'm heading west.
03:34Then finally, I'm going to finish this shape by right-clicking and selecting Close.
03:39The heads-up display can be a very helpful tool to use as we're drafting.
03:43Not only does it give us additional control over the creation of our lines,
03:47it also allows AutoCAD to speak to us from our cursor.
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4. Understanding Drawing Units
Defining a unit of measure
00:00Up to this point, we've been referring to our distances as units.
00:04Now are these units inches, millimeters or feet?
00:07Let's take a second and discuss how we assign a real world unit of
00:10measurement to our drawings.
00:12If you take a look at my screen, you can see I have just launched my AutoCAD 2010.
00:16I'm currently sitting in the default Drawing1.dwg file.
00:20I am going to create a line segment.
00:22So I am going to come up and launch the tool.
00:25I'll pick a point on screen and then I'll pull over to the right here with my cursor.
00:30Now my angle is not important. I am just going to type in at distance of 1 and
00:34hit Enter, and when I'm finished with my line, I'll hit Escape to get out of the command.
00:40Let's zoom in on this guy.
00:41We'll center them on the screen.
00:44This line segment is one unit long.
00:46Now my question is what does this unit represent?
00:50Is this line 1 mile?
00:51Is it 1 millimeter?
00:52Is this line 1 foot?
00:54The answer is this line is whatever unit of measurement I wanted to be.
00:58All I have to do is tell AutoCAD the units I'd like to assign to this drawing.
01:02Let me show you where we'll go to do that.
01:04I am going to visit the Application menu by clicking on the big red letter A.
01:08Then we'll come down and hover over Drawing Utilities and when the menu pops up,
01:14I am going to come up and select Units.
01:17This brings up my Drawing Units dialog box and right here in the middle of the
01:21box is where I can assign a unit of measurement to this drawing.
01:25Currently, we can see that AutoCAD is defaulting to Inches.
01:28That means that technically speaking, this line that I drew is 1 inch long.
01:33Now I do have other choices.
01:35If I click the flyout, it'll open up a menu and we can see that most of the
01:39popular choices are up at the top. Unless you're working on the Death Star,
01:43you're probably not going to be using these guys down at the bottom.
01:46For right now, I am going to leave this set to Inches and you may be asking
01:50yourself, you know, what unit of measurement should I be using for my drawings?
01:53Well, consider this rule of thumb.
01:56If you're doing work for your own personal usage, use whatever unit of
02:00measurement is convenient for you.
02:02If you're doing production work, check with your CAD manager or other people
02:06who work in your field to find out what the industry standards are for your type of work.
02:11I can tell you this. If you're an architect, your drawings will always be set up
02:15such that each unit equals an inch and if you're a surveyor or a civil engineer,
02:21your drawings will always be set up such that each unit equals a foot.
02:27Now that we've selected our units, take a look at this note right here, Units to
02:31scale inserted content.
02:33This means if my next or neighbor is using AutoCAD and he creates a drawing and
02:37his units are set to millimeters and he saves his file and gives it to me,
02:42if I were to insert his drawing into mine, AutoCAD will automatically
02:46rescale his drawing such that it comes in at the proportionally correct size in my drawing.
02:53AutoCAD will do the units conversion scaling for me.
02:57Let's take a look at the top of the dialog box.
02:59Notice I have got two groups, Length and Angle.
03:02These settings control how AutoCAD lists my geometry.
03:06That means if I were to ask AutoCAD about this line, AutoCAD will give me its
03:10Length using decimal units to a precision of four decimal spaces and I will see
03:15its angle using decimals and the precision will be to the even degree.
03:20Note that in both cases, I can run my precision up to eight spaces to the
03:24right of the decimal.
03:25I am going to leave this to four and let's change our angle to two, just to make
03:29a change and let's come down and click OK and test this.
03:35To list the properties of my line, I'm going to use my Property Changer palette.
03:39So I'm going to come up and select my line. Now my palette happens to be
03:43anchored to my interface. If your palette is not visible on screen, you can
03:47simply hit Ctrl+1 to turn yours back on.
03:51Let me hover over the palette and when this guy opens up, I can come right down
03:54here and I can see the angle is being given via decimal units to two spaces to
03:59the right of the decimal.
04:00Now that I am finished, I am going to move my cursor outside the palette to let
04:04that close, and I am going to hit the Escape key to deselect my line.
04:09Let's go back into the Units dialog box and look at some of the other settings.
04:13Once again, I am going to go to my Application menu, we'll come down to Drawing
04:16Utilities and we'll select Units.
04:19Currently, I can see my Angle type is set to Decimal Degrees.
04:23If I click the flyout, I have some additional choices, Degrees/Minutes/Seconds,
04:25Grads, Radians or Surveyor Units.
04:30The selection you make will depend on the type of work that you're doing.
04:33By far the most popular option is Decimal Degrees.
04:37If you've any questions regarding the other options, simply hit the F1 key on
04:41your keyboard and AutoCAD will give you more information.
04:45Currently, my Length type is set to Decimal. I am going to click this flyout.
04:49Notice we have additional choices here as well.
04:52By far the most popular choices in this menu are Decimal or Architectural.
04:57For the purposes of our demonstration, I am going to set this to Architectural.
05:01If you've any questions about the other settings, once again simply hit F1 on your keyboard.
05:06Notice that since I've made this change, my Precision is now being given to me
05:09using fractional units.
05:11This means if I was to list my geometry now, it would be listed using feet and inches.
05:17In fact, if you're an architect, this is how you'll probably have all of your drawing set.
05:21I am going to click OK to close this dialog box and I'd like to open a couple
05:26of real world drawing, so we can take a look at how the units are set inside those files.
05:30I am going to come up and launch the Open command and we are going to go and
05:34look inside our Exercise Files directory, we'll look inside the Chapter_04
05:38folder and let's open up drawing number 01_survey.
05:45This drawing represents a plan of survey.
05:47This is a piece of property.
05:49I can see there's a couple of buildings on this lot.
05:52This cyan line around the outside represents the property boundary.
05:56I'm going to zoom in on this line segment, and I can see it's got a label of 234.88 feet.
06:03Let's select the line segment and I am going to go my Property Changer, and I
06:08can see that the length of this line is 234.88. So in this drawing each unit
06:13must equal one foot.
06:15To verify that, I am going to check my units.
06:18Let's open the menu, we'll go to Drawing Utilities and select Units and right here,
06:25I can see this drawing is set up such that each unit equals one foot. Let's close this.
06:30We'll close this drawing, we won't save changes and we'll open one more file.
06:34I am going to click Open, we'll look in the same Chapter_04 folder and
06:38I'll select the 01_mounting_ bracket drawing and click Open.
06:41This guy happens to be a metric example.
06:44If I zoom in on the center of this drawing, I can see this line is being
06:47dimensioned at 465 millimeters.
06:50If I select the line and go to my Property Changer, I can see this line
06:54is coming up at a length of 465, so in this drawing each unit must equal 1 millimeter.
07:00Once again, we can verify this by bringing up our Units and we can see
07:07this setting right here.
07:10AutoCAD by nature is flexible enough to allow you to draft using whatever unit
07:14of measurement is most convenient for you, and whether you like drafting in
07:18inches, millimeters, feet or something else entirely, you can always find
07:23whatever you need in the Units dialog box.
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Constructing geometry using architectural measurements
00:00If you decide you'd like to draft using architectural units, it's important to
00:04note that AutoCAD is a little bit picky about how you enter your values.
00:08In this lesson, we are going to learn the rules we need to follow when entering
00:11architectural measurements.
00:13If you take a look at my screen, you can see I've got a drawing of a floor plan.
00:17This happens to be a drawing of a college dorm room and this drawing was created
00:21using architectural units.
00:23We can verify that by visiting our Drawing Units dialog box. We can see right
00:29here this guy is set to Architectural.
00:30I am going to click OK to close this.
00:33What I'd like to do in this drawing is I'd like to take the geometry that we see
00:37in this bedroom and I'd like to replicate it in this bedroom and we're going to
00:41enter our values using architectural measurements.
00:44So I am going to start up by zooming in just a little bit, I will make this a
00:47little closer on our screen, and we are going to draw this rectangle first.
00:52This represents a full-size bed and the standard measurements for a full-size
00:56bed are 6' 3'' x 4' 6''.
01:01Let's come up and launch the Line command and I am going to move over into this bedroom.
01:05Now I am not going to be real concerned about trying to match the distance
01:08away from the wall.
01:09That's not important right now.
01:11I'm just going to pick a point on screen and then I am going to make things easy on myself.
01:16I am going to come down and lock my Ortho to restrict my movements to
01:1990-degree angles, and then I am going pull downward and I am going to type my first measurement.
01:25I am going to type 4 and apostrophe.
01:28The apostrophe is the key right next to the Enter key on your keyboard.
01:32AutoCAD needs this apostrophe to recognize that we're entering feet.
01:36I'll then type 6 and the quote. The quote happens to be the exact same key.
01:43The quote is the exact same key as the apostrophe.
01:45You just have to hold down your Shift key to get it.
01:48And AutoCAD needs this quote symbol to know that we're entering inches.
01:52At this point I am going to hit Enter and I finished my first line.
01:55Let me pull this to the left, now I am going to type my next measurement 6' 3".
02:04Notice that we're entering our values that are very similar to how an architect
02:07would write them on a piece of paper.
02:09Once again, I'll hit Enter, I'm going to pull in an upward direction and
02:14we'll type 4' 6", Enter and then I'll right- click and select Close to finish the shape.
02:24Okay, now we'll draw this shape. This rectangle represents a nightstand.
02:29Once again, I am going to launch my Line command and I'll pick a point near the bed.
02:34Let's pulled down, I am going to type 2' 3", Enter.
02:39Now I'll pull the left and we'll enter our next value.
02:42Notice the next value has whole inches and the fractional inches.
02:47If there's anything tricky about this, this is what you would consider the
02:50tricky part. Watch this.
02:52I am going to type 2' and then I'm going to type 2 for my inches, dash,
02:58three-fourth inches.
03:03Notice where I put that dash. I put it between the whole inches and the
03:06fractional inches. We have to do that otherwise AutoCAD looks at it as
03:1023 fourths which is incorrect.
03:13Let me hit Enter to finish my line.
03:16Once again, I'll pull up and I am going to type 2' 3", Enter.
03:22Then I could take the easy way out and close but you know what, I'm going to
03:25type the full dimension, just for practice. I am going to type 2' 2-3/4 inches.
03:34Always remember to separate your whole inches from your fractional inches with a dash.
03:38I'll hit Enter and then I can hit Escape to cancel out of the command.
03:41Now you may be wondering, are there any shortcuts to entering
03:45architectural measurements?
03:46Well, there is one.
03:47Let me show you how that works.
03:49We are going to draw this last shape.
03:50It's a circle that represents a lamp.
03:52Let me come up and launch the Circle command.
03:54I am going to pick a point approximately in the middle of the nightstand and
03:59then I'm going to type my radius 5-1/2.
04:04That's your shortcut.
04:05If you don't enter the quote symbol, AutoCAD assumes you're entering inches.
04:10Let's hit Enter to finish my shape.
04:13As you can see entering architectural measurements involves a little bit of
04:16extra work on our part but it's still quite simple so long as we remember how
04:20AutoCAD wants us to enter the values.
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Working with metric units
00:00So you'd like to draft using metric units.
00:03Well, in the big schema things, there is a little more to drafting in metric
00:06than merely changing our Unit Settings.
00:09The first thing we need to understand is that AutoCAD by default is set to an
00:12Imperial Drafting Environment.
00:15If you look at my screen, you could see I have just launched my AutoCAD 2010.
00:17I am currently sitting in the default blank drawing.
00:22Let's take a look at our Unit settings.
00:24I am going to come up and click my Application menu, then I am going to come
00:28down to Drawing Utilities, and I'll select Units.
00:31Right here in the middle of the dialog box, I can see that AutoCAD is
00:34defaulting to Inches.
00:36Now let's say I'd like to work in metric.
00:37Maybe I'd like my units to be Millimeters.
00:40I wish I could say it's as simple as simply clicking this flyout, selecting
00:44Millimeters from the list, and we're good to go.
00:47I'm afraid that's not the case.
00:48There is more to metric than adjusting this one setting.
00:52You see this setting doesn't account for my line type scale or my metric paper sizes.
00:58Watch this. I am going to click OK to accept this setting, and then I am going to come up
01:02to the top of the screen, and I am going to launch the Plot command by clicking this icon.
01:07We'll talk about Plot a little bit later in this title, but for right now,
01:10notice that AutoCAD is still referencing my paper sizes using Inches.
01:15So at this point, I am not working in a full metric environment.
01:19Let me click Cancel to close this.
01:22The easiest way to work in metric is to start from a metric template. Let's try that.
01:27I am going to create a new drawing.
01:28I am going to come up to the Quick Access Toolbar, and we'll click the New icon,
01:33and in the Template dialog box, I am going to select this template, acadiso.
01:38This template is designed for metric drafting.
01:41Then I'll come down and select Open.
01:44Let's take a look at our units in this new drawing.
01:51Notice in this drawing using the acadiso template, I am defaulting to Millimeters.
01:57Let's click OK.
01:59Once again, I am going to come up and launch the Plot command by clicking the icon,
02:02and notice that in this drawing AutoCAD is referencing my paper sizes in Millimeters.
02:08As you can see, I am now working in a metric environment.
02:11I am going to click Cancel to close this dialog box.
02:14Now, you may be wondering what drawing does AutoCAD default to when we launch it from the icon?
02:20Let's take a look.
02:21Once again, I am going to click the New icon.
02:24AutoCAD normally starts using this template, the acad template, and this drawing
02:28represents an imperial drafting environment.
02:30Now you may also be wondering if it's possible to start using the acadiso template.
02:36Yes, it is. Let me show you how we can do that.
02:38I'm going to close this dialog box, and if we'd like to start using the acadiso
02:44template, we're going to have to make a change to our options.
02:47So I'm going to right-click and select Options from the bottom of the menu, then
02:50I am going to go to the Files tab.
02:52This is where we change the paths where AutoCAD is looking to find the things.
02:58I am going to come down and click the plus and open up Template Settings. I will
03:03then click the plus next to Default Template File Name for QNEW.
03:08I will select this entry, and I'll click Browse.
03:11Notice AutoCAD takes me right to the Template directory.
03:14I can select acadiso and click Open.
03:17If I pull the slider down, we can see I've now added that path as my default template.
03:24I can click Apply and OK.
03:26At this point, I'm going to close out of AutoCAD.
03:29Let me click the X to close.
03:33We will relaunch the application.
03:43And once again, let's take a look at our units.
03:49Notice this guy is defaulting to millimeters. Let's click OK.
03:52We'll launch the Plot command.
03:57Notice this is also set to Millimeters.
03:59So now by default, AutoCAD is starting using the acadiso template.
04:05Now, I know what happens.
04:06You permanently change your AutoCAD's default drawing, and then two days later
04:09you say, you know what, I'd like to go back to the other drawing.
04:12How can I switch things back the way they were?
04:15Let me show you how we can do that.
04:16Once again we're going to go to Options.
04:18Let me right-click and select Options.
04:22We'll go to the File tab again.
04:24We'll come down to Template Settings.
04:26We'll open up Default Template File Name for QNEW.
04:30I will select to this path and I'll click Remove.
04:34I can then come down and click Apply and OK, and from now on, the next time I
04:39open AutoCAD, it will default back to its original drawing.
04:43If you have a desire to draft using metric units, it's nice to know that AutoCAD
04:47can be configured to suit your needs.
04:49If you're an occasional metric drafter, you can simply choose the acadiso
04:53template drawing when needed.
04:55For those of you who use metric units all the time, AutoCAD can easily adapt to
04:59a default metric environment.
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5. Maintaining Accuracy
Understanding the Cartesian coordinate system
00:00In this session, we're going to take a closer look at model space.
00:03Our approach is going to be a little bit different though, because we're going
00:06to look at model space from the computer's point of view.
00:09Taking this behind the scenes look can be very helpful in teaching us how
00:13AutoCAD maintains our line work.
00:15Model space is essentially an infinitely large virtual grid, much like a
00:19sheet of graph paper.
00:21We construct our geometry on this grid and AutoCAD uses the grid to maintain the
00:26accuracy of our drawing.
00:28Now, since this grid is infinite in size, AutoCAD needed a way to reference
00:32locations in space.
00:34It does this through the use of baselines.
00:37One of the major baselines runs East and West.
00:40This guy is called the X-axis, and the X-axis is also a number line.
00:46Everything to the right of 0 is considered positive X;
00:50everything to the left of zero is considered negative X.
00:53There is another major baseline running North and South.
00:57This guy is called the Y-axis.
00:59It is also a numbered line.
01:01Everything above the X- axis is considered positive Y;
01:05everything below the X- axis is considered negative Y.
01:08Now this grid is completely invisible.
01:10We can't see them on our screen as we draft, but it is there in the background.
01:15AutoCAD uses this system to identify all locations in space.
01:19Now, it has a term for locations in space and that term is coordinates.
01:24AutoCAD references coordinates using the format X, Y and AutoCAD uses these
01:30coordinates to recognize where we draft on the grid.
01:33There is a formal name for this grid and X and Y-axis system.
01:38It's called the Cartesian coordinate system.
01:40Let's take a look at how it works.
01:42Look at the intersection of my X and Y-axis.
01:46This location has a coordinate value of 0, 0.
01:50This location also has a name.
01:52It's called the origin.
01:53I am going to pick another point on the grid.
01:56What coordinate value would this point have?
01:59Well, this guy would have a value of 5, 3 because it's 5 units in the positive
02:04X direction and its 3 units in the positive Y.
02:08All coordinates are measured from the origin.
02:10Let's try another point.
02:12What coordinate value would this point have?
02:14Now this guy would have a value of -7, 4, because it's -7 in the X and it's
02:20+4 in the Y. Remember that AutoCAD references coordinates using the format X, Y.
02:27Let's try one more.
02:29How about this point?
02:30This guy has a coordinate value of 3, -6, because there's 3 in the positive X
02:36direction and negative 6 in the Y direction.
02:41This means when I draw a line on my screen, I am essentially picking two points
02:45and AutoCAD is creating a line between them.
02:47From the computer's perspective though, AutoCAD is seeing a line that was drawn
02:51from a coordinate of -8, -3, to a coordinate of 8, 10 and AutoCAD can use these
02:58coordinates to calculate the length of my line, as well as the angle.
03:02AutoCAD uses coordinates to maintain the accuracy of all of our geometry.
03:07Let's return to our AutoCAD interface.
03:11Now, I have just launched my AutoCAD 2010. I'm currently sitting in a blank drawing.
03:15As I move my cursor around on screen, take a look at my Status Bar in the
03:19lower-left hand corner.
03:21These guys are coordinates and they're showing me the current location of my
03:24cursor on my virtual grid.
03:27Also notice this icon in the lower left-hand corner. This guy is called the
03:30UCS icon and he is showing me the direction of positive X and positive Y on my screen.
03:37Now this is a completely blank AutoCAD file.
03:39I've just launched my AutoCAD 2010.
03:42Let's try and create some geometry using coordinates.
03:45I am going to launch the Circle command, and before I create the circle, I am
03:50going to come down and make sure that my Dynamic Input mode is turned off,
03:54because the Dynamic Input will take some liberties with my coordinates.
03:57I don't want to deal with that right now.
03:58So if yours is turned on, just take and click the box to turn it off.
04:02AutoCAD is asking us to specify a center point.
04:05I'm going to type a coordinate, 25, 25 and I'll hit Enter.
04:10Now we can see right away that coordinate is not visible on our screen.
04:14I am going to hold down the wheel on my mouse, and we'll pan this guy down.
04:19There we go, and I am going to give this circle a radius of 5 and hit Enter.
04:24Let's create another circle.
04:26I am going to do that by hitting my Spacebar to go right back into the command.
04:29I'm going to enter another coordinate for the center of this circle.
04:33I'm going to type 75, 25, Enter.
04:38That point is also slightly off my screen.
04:40Let me back up just a little bit.
04:42We'll pan this over, there we go.
04:43I am also going to give this guy a radius of 5.
04:46So I'll hit Enter to accept the default.
04:49Now, let's say I would like to draw a line from the center of one circle to the
04:53center of the other.
04:55That's actually not a problem because I know the coordinate of the center of
04:58each of these circles.
04:59I am going to come up and launch my Line command and for my first point, I am
05:04going to type a coordinate of 25, 25 and hit Enter.
05:09And for my second point, I'll type a coordinate of 75, 25 and hit Enter.
05:15Then when I am finished, I'll hit the Escape key to cancel out of the command.
05:19Now, most of the time we won't be entering coordinates as we draft.
05:23However, it is important for you to understand the fundamental way AutoCAD
05:27processes our line work in the background.
05:29Think of it this way.
05:30Everything we draft is mapped out on an underlying X, Y coordinate system, and
05:35AutoCAD uses this system to maintain the accuracy of our drawings.
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Locking to geometry using object snaps
00:00One thing is certain.
00:01We'll never create a drawing by simply free picking points on screen.
00:06If we want to draft accurately, we'll need to know how to use the AutoCAD's
00:10coordinate system to lock on to our geometry.
00:12In this lesson, we're going to learn how to use object snaps.
00:15Now, if you take a look at my screen, you can see I've got two rows of geometry.
00:20This upper row contains finished designs.
00:23The lower row contains some unfinished line work, and what we're going to do is
00:28go right down the line and we're going to complete each of these drawings, such
00:32that they match the design above.
00:34Before I get started, take a look at my Status Bar. Notice the only the mode
00:37setting that I'm currently running is the Dynamic Input mode.
00:41If you're going to work along with me, make sure that your mode settings match mine.
00:45Okay let's get started. I'm going to pan this over and we'll zoom in the on
00:48this guy on the left.
00:50Now, I'm going to complete this drawing using the Line command.
00:54So, let's come up and launch the tool.
00:57And obviously, I'm going to have to start my line at the end of this line.
01:01Now, that endpoint does have a coordinate.
01:04Unfortunately, I don't know what it is.
01:05I can wave around here and we can look in the lower left corner, but that's not
01:09a very accurate way to find it.
01:11Instead I'm going to use an object snap.
01:14Now, I'm in the Line command.
01:15AutoCAD is looking for a point.
01:17I'm going to hold down the Shift key on my keyboard and right-click on my mouse.
01:23This brings up my object snap menu and this menu allows me to lock on to a
01:27specific coordinates.
01:28For instance, I'm going to select Endpoint and then I'm going to place my cursor
01:33over this line and notice AutoCAD is finding an endpoint.
01:37If I move my cursor a little bit further, notice that AutoCAD will find the
01:41endpoint closest to my cursor.
01:43Pretend your cursor is AutoCAD's eye.
01:46If you place the eye on the line, AutoCAD will find the endpoint.
01:49Let me click to accept this.
01:51I've just locked to that co-ordinate in my drawing.
01:54Well, to finish this up, I'm going to Shift+Right-click, we'll select Endpoint
01:59again, and I'll come down and I'll grab this endpoint.
02:02Note that I don't have to be right on the icon to grab it.
02:06As long as I'm 50% of the way or better on my line, I can click and AutoCAD will
02:12find the correct Endpoint.
02:13Now that I'm finished, I'll hit Escape.
02:16Let's hit the Spacebar to go right back into the Line command. And where do I want to start?
02:21Shift+Right-click, we'll grab Endpoint from the menu and we'll click here to
02:26grab this endpoint and then we'll Shift +Right-click, select Endpoint from the
02:32menu and we'll click right here to finish and then I'll hit Escape.
02:36That is the Endpoint object snap.
02:39Okay let's pan this over.
02:41I'm going to backup just a little bit.
02:42We're obviously going to use the Circle command to complete this design.
02:47Let's come up and launch the tool.
02:49Now, where is the center of my Circle going to be?
02:51Well, I'm going to Shift+Right- click and I'm going to select Midpoint.
02:57Let's place the center of our circle at the midpoint of this line.
03:00Notice as I get close to the line, I can see the icon for Midpoint.
03:04Also note that icon is different than the one that we see for Endpoint.
03:07Let me click to accept that, there we go.
03:11Now, what's my radius is going to be?
03:13Well, I don't have to know the number, because this endpoint, Shift+Right-click,
03:18let me select Endpoint. I can grab this endpoint to define my radius.
03:23This is the Midpoint object snap.
03:26Let's go down little bit further.
03:29This time we're going to look at Intersection.
03:31I'm going to come up and launch my Line command and I would like my line to
03:35start at the intersection of these two lines.
03:38So I'm going to Shift+Right-click, select Intersection, I will place my cursor
03:45at the intersection and click and I'll Shift+Right-click again.
03:49We'll select Intersection, I'll place my cursor on this intersection and click
03:54and then I'll hit Escape when I'm finished.
03:57Now, the circle above is placed at the intersection of these two lines.
04:01Now, here's the problem. These two lines don't physically intersect. It doesn't matter.
04:06We can still use the Intersection object snap.
04:09Let me zoom in just a little bit. I'm going to launch my Circle command again.
04:14I want to place the center point at the intersection, so I'm going to
04:17Shift+Right-click, we'll select Intersection and watch.
04:21If I place my cursor over this line, note I'm not at the intersection.
04:25I'm just on the straight portion of the line.
04:28I get what's called an Extended Intersection.
04:31Let me click to accept this and then I'll place AutoCAD's eye over this line,
04:36and notice AutoCAD finds the intersection of the two entities.
04:39Let me click to accept this and then my radius is going to go to the
04:44Shift+Right-click, endpoint of this line.
04:49That is the Intersection object snap.
04:52Let's pan down little bit further.
04:54This time we're going to look at the Center point.
04:56AutoCAD allows me to lock onto the center of a circle or an arc.
05:00I'm going to launch my Line command and I would like to create my line from the
05:05center of this circle.
05:07So I'll Shift+Right-click and select Center.
05:12I will then place AutoCAD's eye on the arc.
05:15Note that it finds the center.
05:16At this point I can click to accept it.
05:19Let's Shift+Right-click, we'll grab Center again, and then I'll place the eye on
05:25this arc and click and when I'm finished I'll hit Escape.
05:29This is the Center object snap.
05:32Now to finish this design, I'm going to have to use a couple of other object snaps.
05:35Let's see if we can do this.
05:37I'm going to launch the Circle command and its center point is going to be the
05:41midpoint of the line.
05:42So let's Shift+Right-click, select Midpoint, I'll place my cursor on the
05:47line and click and my radius is going to be to the Shift+Right-click,
05:53Intersection, right here.
05:57Using object snaps, we can draw a very precise geometry and we can draft fairly quickly.
06:03Let's pan this down. We'll try another one.
06:05The object snap we're going to look at now is called Quadrant.
06:08Let me show you where the quadrants are located.
06:11If I click the line to select it, these little blue grips show me where my quadrants are.
06:17Essentially, quadrants are associated with circles and arcs and quadrants show
06:22up at the North, South, East and West locations.
06:25Let me hit Escape to deselect this circle and let's try and complete the design.
06:30I'm going to launch my Line command and I'm going to start my line at the
06:36Shift+Right-click, Quadrant, right here.
06:41Note that as I move my eye or my cursor around the arc, I can grab whichever
06:46quadrant I'm closest to.
06:48I'm going to click right here to start at the top and then I'm going to draw to
06:52the Shift+Right-click, Quadrant here, and then I'm going to go over the
06:57Shift+Right-click Quadrant here, to the Shift+Right-click Quadrant here, then
07:05we're going to the Center point. Shift+Right-click, I'll select Center,
07:11put my cursor on the arc, AutoCAD finds the center and I'll click and then finally
07:16I can Right click and select Close to finish the shape.
07:19Let's pan over a little bit more.
07:23This time we're going to look at Perpendicular.
07:25These lines are forming a 90- degree angle, with the central line.
07:30Perpendicular essentially means a 90-degree or a right angle.
07:35I'm going to come up and launch my Line command and I'm going to start from the
07:40Shift+Right-click Midpoint of this line.
07:45Let me click and I'm going to draw that to Shift+Right-click Perpendicular and
07:53I'll select this line.
07:55Notice I can click anywhere I'd like along this line and AutoCAD will still find
07:59the perpendicular location.
08:02I'm going to click to get that and then I'll hit Escape to get out of the command.
08:06We'll do one more.
08:06I'll hit my Spacebar to back in the Line command and we're going to draw a line
08:11from Shift+Right-click Midpoint of this line, to a point, Shift+Right-click,
08:19perpendicular to this line and I'll hit Escape to finish.
08:25Let's pan this over and we'll look at our last one.
08:27This object snap is called Tangent, and it allows us to snap to the tangent
08:32point of an arc or a circle.
08:34I'm going to come up and launch my Line command.
08:37Now, where do I want to start my line?
08:39I will Shift+Right-click and select Tangent.
08:44I will then place my cursor over the line work and click and notice this.
08:48As I pull away AutoCAD is creating a line segment that is tangent to that circle.
08:54I will then draw this to a point, Shift +Right-click, Tangent to this circle.
08:59Let me place my cursor on the line and click.
09:03When I'm finished, I'll hit Escape.
09:06Let's finish this guy up.
09:07I'll hit the Spacebar to go back to into the Line command and we'll start from
09:11a point, Shift+Right-click, Tangent to this circle and I'll go to a point,
09:17Shift+Right-click, Tangent to this circle and then I'll hit Escape to exit the command.
09:25From this moment on, we will always use object snaps as we draft.
09:29Using object snaps is the only way to guarantee that we're creating
09:32accurate geometry.
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Automating object snap selection
00:00The first thing people notice when they start using object snaps is that it's a
00:03little tedious to have to Shift+Right-click for each one.
00:07In this lesson, we're going to learn how to automate some of our object snaps.
00:11If you look at my screen, you can see I've got an abstract example.
00:15Just for a second, let's assume that I had to close off all of these shapes on
00:19the left to create some squares.
00:22Well I would come up and launch my Line command and then I would have to start
00:26at the endpoint of this line.
00:27So I'm going to Shift+Right-click, select Endpoint and click right here and then
00:32I'm going to have to go the other Endpoint.
00:34So I'll have to Shift+Right-click, select Endpoint and click here and then I'll
00:39hit Escape to get out of command.
00:40As you can see to finish the rest of these shapes I'm going to have to go
00:45into that menu six more times and if I also wanted to create a line segment
00:49that connected the centers of these circles, I'm going to have to bring up
00:53the menu eight more times.
00:55Let's look at how we can automate some of our object snaps.
00:59We can do that by adjusting one of our mode settings.
01:01If I look right down here, in the Status bar, it's this icon.
01:04He is fifth from the left side.
01:07This guy represents our running Object Snap mode.
01:10I'm going to click to turn this on and then let's find out what we just turned on.
01:15I'm going to right-click on this icon and if we look at the menu right here,
01:19I can see a listing of object snaps.
01:22Notice that some of these guys have squares around the icon.
01:26That means these guys are running object snaps.
01:29This means unless I specify otherwise AutoCAD is always going to be looking for
01:34these object snaps when it needs a co-ordinate.
01:37Now, I would like to change these settings.
01:38I'm going to come down and click the Settings option in the menu, and from
01:42here I can place a check in the box of any of these object snaps I would like
01:46to be running as I work.
01:48For right now, I'm going to uncheck these two and I'm only going to have a
01:52running object snaps set for Center point and Endpoint.
01:56Let's click OK and I'm going to complete the rest of my geometry.
01:59Let me come up and launch the Line command.
02:03I'm going to place my cursor next to this line.
02:05Notice AutoCAD is already looking for the Endpoint.
02:09If I was to place my cursor next to this circle, AutoCAD would find the center,
02:12because right now Center point and Endpoint are running object snaps.
02:16So I'm going to click right here and right here and hit Escape.
02:21Let's hit the Spacebar to go right back into the command and I'll click right
02:24here and right here and hit Escape.
02:27I'm going to hit Spacebar again to back in the command and I'll click right
02:31here and right here and hit Escape.
02:33I'm going to go right back into the command and then I'm going to connect all of
02:38these center points and it's as fast as simply clicking on the arcs.
02:42All the way down the line AutoCAD is automatically finding that center point and
02:47when I'm finished, I'll hit Escape.
02:50Let's go back and take another look at our running object snap menu.
02:54Once again I'm going to right-click on the Object Snap mode icon and select Settings.
02:59Now, I must admit it's real tempting to come over here and click Select All and
03:04set all of these guys as running object snaps, thinking that, you know what?
03:08Whatever my cursor is closest to, that's what I'm going to grab.
03:11Unfortunately as you start working on more complicated drawings, the more
03:15running object snaps you have means the better chance that you're going to
03:18accidentally grab an incorrect snap.
03:22So I'm going to clear these and I would suggest that you pick the top two object
03:27snaps that you use most often, set those as running object snaps.
03:32I prefer to use Center and Endpoint to myself and then I would suggest that you
03:36grab all of your other object snaps from the Shift+Right-click menu.
03:40Let's come down and click OK and I'm going to pan my geometry over a little bit.
03:44Let me zoom in a little and let's try and use our new running object snaps to
03:49help us complete this geometry we see here.
03:51I'm going to start by launching my Line command and I'm going to pick a point
03:55right about here, then I'm going to have to lock my Ortho.
03:59Let me come down and click my Ortho mode to turn it on.
04:01I will pull down and type 5, Enter.
04:05I'm going to pull to the left and type 5, Enter, I pull up 5, Enter and then
04:12since I have the running object snap set, I can simply come over and click this
04:15line to finish the shape and then I'll hit Escape.
04:18Now let's see if we can find the location of this circle.
04:22What I'm going to do is launch my Circle command.
04:24I am going to create a circle at this Endpoint.
04:26Once again, no Shift+Right-click necessary and I'm going to give this guy a
04:30radius of one and hit Enter.
04:33Now, what if I launch my Line command? I'm going to create a line from the
04:37intersection right here.
04:39Now I don't have a running object snap set for that so I'm going to
04:42Shift+Right-click and select Intersection.
04:45I'll click right here and my Ortho is locked.
04:47I am going to pull down and type 1 for the distance, hit Enter and then I'll hit Escape.
04:53This endpoint represents the center of the circle.
04:57Now, one thing I notice we don't have dimensions on these circles.
05:00No matter. Let's find out what the radius of the circle is.
05:03If I simply click to select the circle, I can come over to my Property Changer,
05:08which happens to be anchored to my interface.
05:10If yours is not visible on screen simply hit Ctrl+1 to turn yours back on.
05:14Let me hover over the palette and I'm going to come down and I can see the
05:18Radius of this circle is .5. So I'm going to move outside the palette and I'll
05:23hit Escape to deselect that circle and then I'm going to generate my circle by
05:27launching the command.
05:29I'm going to click the Endpoint of this line and I'll type a radius of .5 and hit Enter.
05:35All right we can do the exact same thing to find the circle down in this corner.
05:39I'm going to hit my Spacebar to go right back into the Circle command.
05:43I'm going to grab the endpoint of this line as its center point and I'm going to
05:48give it a radius of 1.
05:49So we'll type 1 and hit Enter.
05:51Once again we'll launch the Line command.
05:54I'm going to create a line from the intersection.
05:56So I will Shift+Right-click select that from the menu.
06:01I'll click this intersection and I'll pull up.
06:03This line will have a length of 1.
06:05Simply type 1 and hit Enter.
06:06Then I'll hit Escape to get out of the command.
06:10I'll then re-launch the Circle command and I'll create my circle at the Endpoint
06:14of this line and it'll have a radius of .5, Enter.
06:18All I have to do is get this guy in the center.
06:21Now notice there is no dimensions on this guy.
06:24But as long as I place it right in the middle of the square, I should be fine.
06:27I am going to create an object snap at that location.
06:31What if I came up and launched the Line command?
06:34I start at my line at the Endpoint of this corner.
06:37Now, as I pull away, notice my Ortho is making my line look a little bit unusual.
06:41I'm going to come down and turn this off for a second, there we go.
06:45I'll draw my line to this Endpoint and hit Escape and then I will create my
06:50circle from the Midpoint of this line.
06:53That should fall right in the middle of that square.
06:56So I'll Shift+Right-click and select Midpoint from the menu.
07:00I'll click this line and then I'm going to hit Enter to accept the default of
07:04.5, which is the same size as the last circle that I made.
07:08Now that I'm done, I can select the geometry I'd like to get rid of.
07:12Now that I'm finished, I can remove the sketch geometry.
07:16I'll do that by clicking on each unnecessary object and then I'll press the
07:19Delete key on my keyboard to erase.
07:23Taking the object snaps that you use most often and setting them as running
07:26object snaps can save you a lot of time when drafting.
07:30Personally, I like to use Endpoint and Center point as my running object snaps
07:35and for the remainder of this title, unless I specify otherwise, this is how
07:39my running object snaps will be set.
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Using temporary tracking to find points in space
00:00Sometimes it's hard to find locations in space, without first creating some sketch lines.
00:06This usually means going back and erasing the unnecessary line work when we're finished.
00:11In this lesson we're going to look at a way to place geometry in our drawing
00:14without creating any extra line work.
00:16If you look at my screen, you can see I've got a drawing of a couple of speakers
00:20and what we're going to in this lesson is we're going to take the dimension to
00:24circles that we see on this speaker and we're going to recreate them over here.
00:27Now before I get started, take a look at my Status Bar.
00:30Notice my current mode settings.
00:33Right now my Dynamic Input mode is turned on, as well, as my running object
00:37snaps and if I right-click on this, we can see that I currently have a running
00:41object snaps set for Center as well as Endpoint.
00:44If you're going to work along with me, make sure your settings match mine.
00:48I'm going to hit Escape to clear this menu, then I'm going to zoom in a little bit.
00:52We'll center this on screen, and I'm going to create it using the sketch line method first.
00:58I can see that my circle is 13 inches down from this Endpoint.
01:03This drawing happens to be set for decimal inches by the way.
01:07And I can see that the circle is 4.75 inches from this edge.
01:11Well I can find that location by using my Line command.
01:14I'm going to come up and launch Line.
01:17Let me grab the Endpoint right here, and I'm going to lock my Ortho.
01:25Let's pull straight down and I'm going to type 13 and hit Enter.
01:29I will then pull to the left and type 4.75 and hit Enter.
01:34At this point, I can hit Escape to get out of the command and this Endpoint
01:38represents the center of the circle.
01:41So we could come up and launch the Circle command, we can click to grab the
01:45Endpoint of that line and the circle has a radius of 2.
01:49So I'll type in 2 and hit Enter.
01:52Now there's nothing wrong with this method, except I have to go back and delete
01:56this unnecessary line work.
01:57Let me click to select these guys and I'll hit the Delete key on my keyboard
02:02to get rid of them.
02:03In fact as long as we're at it I'm going to click this circle and hit Delete.
02:06We'll get rid of this.
02:07And I'm going to show you a way to place this circle without creating any
02:11unnecessary line work.
02:12I'm going to do that by using a feature called Temporary Tracking.
02:16Let me come down and turn my Ortho off and let's try this.
02:20I'm going to come up and launch my Circle command.
02:24AutoCAD wants me to specify a Center point.
02:27I'm going to type tk on my keyboard.
02:30This stands for Temporary Tracking and I'm going to hit Enter.
02:34Notice as soon as Temporary Tracking is turned on, AutoCAD automatically turns
02:38on my Ortho and from here,
02:40I can simply guide AutoCAD to where I want to place the center of the circle.
02:45So my first tracking point is going to be the endpoint of this line.
02:50I'm going to pull down and type 13 and hit Enter.
02:54I will then pull to the left and type 4.75, Enter.
02:59Essentially, I'm creating an invisible line.
03:01Now that I'm where I want to be, I can hit the Enter key on my keyboard to
03:06finish the Temporary Tracking.
03:08Notice AutoCAD automatically turns off my Ortho and I can enter my radius.
03:13I am going to type 2 and hit Enter.
03:15Let's see if we can place this circle using Temporary Tracking.
03:18I am going to hit my Spacebar to go right back into the Circle command.
03:23Let's type tk for Temporary Tracking.
03:27My first tracking point is going to be the Endpoint right here.
03:30I'm going to pull to the left and type 6.5, Enter.
03:35I will pull down and type 6, Enter.
03:39Now that I am at my location, I am going to hit the Enter key again and the big
03:43circle has a radius of 3.5, Enter.
03:48Now, to create the rest of the circles, I don't have to use Temporary Tracking.
03:51I can simply use the Center point of this circle.
03:54Let me hit Spacebar to go back into the Circle command. I'll select the center
03:58of the circle and the next radius is 1.5, Enter.
04:04I'll hit my Spacebar again, I'll grab the center of circle and I'll type 1.4
04:10for that radius, Enter.
04:12I'll hit my Spacebar one more time.
04:14I'll select the circle and the final radius is .5, Enter.
04:20Using Temporary Tacking, we can easily place geometry into our drawing without
04:24the need for extra unnecessary line work.
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6. Using Specialized Drawing Commands
Drawing rectangles
00:00In this lesson, we're going to learn a way to draft a little bit faster.
00:04We're going to take a look at AutoCAD's Rectangle command.
00:07Rectangle allows us to create rectangular shapes in just a couple of steps.
00:12The Rectangle tool is located in the Draw panel of our ribbon.
00:15I'm going to click the icon right here, to launch the command.
00:19Now, when we create rectangles in AutoCAD, the only thing AutoCAD is really
00:23interested in are the locations of the opposite corners.
00:27Notice AutoCAD is asking me for my first corner point.
00:30I'm going to pick a point on the screen and now, AutoCAD is asking for the
00:34other corner point.
00:35I'm going to move right up here and click and that's it, my rectangle is done.
00:40Now that this guy is finished I'm going to select it and notice that AutoCAD
00:43looks at this geometry as being a single entity.
00:47To deselect this line work, I'm going to hit the Escape key on my keyboard.
00:51Now, this rectangle is nice, but it wasn't based on any real measurements.
00:55Let's create another rectangle and this time we'll use some actual dimensions.
00:59If we look right down here, you can see I already have a dimensioned rectangle.
01:03This guy represents a standard home size pool table, and we can see it measures
01:089'5" long by 5'10" wide.
01:12Let's do one more thing.
01:13I would like to take a look at the units that are assigned to this drawing.
01:17Let's come up and click the Application menu, we will come down to Drawing
01:20Utilities and we'll select Units.
01:23Notice this drawing is set to Architectural.
01:26Because this is set to Architectural, when I enter my measurements I'm going to
01:30have include the apostrophe and the quotes to designate between feet and inches.
01:34I'm going to close this dialog box and let's recreate the rectangle.
01:39I'm going to come up and launch the Rectangle tool.
01:42We'll pick a point on the screen and then take a look at my command line.
01:46Notice I have a sub-option down here called Dimensions.
01:49I'm going to a right-click and select Dimensions from the menu and now all I
01:54have to do is answer the questions.
01:56What is the length of my rectangle?
01:58I'm going to type 9'5'', Enter.
02:02What's the width of my rectangle? 5'10'', Enter.
02:08And notice I'm still in the command.
02:10That's because AutoCAD needs to know where the opposite corner is locate.
02:14Based on my dimensions, that corner could be up here.
02:17It could in the upper left, it could be in the lower left or it could be in the lower right.
02:22I'm going to place my cursor in this area and click to finish my rectangle.
02:26Now, that we get an idea of how this works, I'm going to pan my drawing over.
02:31We'll zoom in a little bit.
02:33Let's see if we can replicate this geometry.
02:35This line work represents a small couch and what I would like to do is recreate
02:40the geometry over here, and let's see if we can have our version of the couch
02:44facing the original.
02:45I'm going to start by drawing the back of the couch first.
02:49So I'm going to launch my Rectangle command.
02:51I'm going to pick a point on the screen, right-click and select Dimensions.
02:57The length of my rectangle is 10'' inches, Enter and the width of my rectangle
03:03is 58''. Now could I have also typed 4'10''? Yes.
03:09But you know what, 58'' works just as well.
03:13Now that I've entered my values I'm going to pick on screen to finish my rectangle.
03:17All right let's take care of the armrests.
03:20I'm going to hit my Spacebar to go right back into the Rectangle command.
03:23I'm going to create my rectangle from the endpoint right here.
03:27Fortunately, I have a running object snaps set for Endpoint.
03:31Let's right-click, select Dimensions and this guy is 24'' long by 6'' wide and
03:42I'll pick to finish.
03:44Let's hit Spacebar again. We'll start our next rectangle at this endpoint.
03:50Right-click and select Dimensions.
03:52Now, take a look at the command line.
03:54Notice AutoCAD is remembering the size of the last rectangle we created.
03:58Now, this does say 2' but the 2' is the same thing as 24''.
04:03So I'm going to hit Enter to accept the default value then I'm going to hit
04:07Enter to accept the 6'' and then I'm going to pick up here so that my armrest is
04:12on the correct side.
04:13Let's launch the Rectangle command again.
04:15I'm going to create my next rectangle from this Endpoint.
04:19We'll right click and select Dimensions.
04:23This guy has a length of 26'' and a width 23''.
04:31And I'll pick to finish.
04:33One more, I'm going to hit Spacebar to go right back in, I'm going to start
04:38rectangle at this endpoint and you know what, I don't have to enter dimensions
04:41for this one, because this rectangle goes to the endpoint of this one.
04:46Don't forget AutoCAD is only looking for the location of the corners.
04:49Rectangular shapes are a huge part of two-dimensional drafting.
04:53And I'm sure you'll agree that the Rectangle command allows us to create the
04:56shapes four times faster than the Line command.
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Drawing polygons
00:00Another shape we see frequently in AutoCAD Drawings are polygons.
00:04An example of a polygon would be a hexagon or an octagon or a square.
00:10In this lesson, we are going to learn how to quickly create the shapes using
00:13the Polygon command.
00:15If you look at my screen, you can see I have several examples of polygons.
00:18Each of these guys was created using the Polygon tool.
00:22Now, polygons are considered equilateral shapes, meaning that each of the sides
00:26is the same length, and another important note. All of the polygons that we
00:31create in AutoCAD, are based on an imaginary circle.
00:35If I pan this drawing over, we can see the circles that were used to create the shapes.
00:41In fact, the workflow behind creating a polygon is identical to creating a circle.
00:46AutoCAD is going to ask us for the center point and then it's going to ask us for the radius.
00:50There is one other thing to consider. Is my polygon inscribed or circumscribed?
00:58Since the polygons are based on circles, AutoCAD needs to know, if the polygon
01:02falls inside the circle or outside.
01:05How do we know which method to choose?
01:07It depends on how our polygon is dimensioned.
01:10If the polygon is dimensioned to the corners, it's considered inscribed because
01:15it would fall on the inside of the circle.
01:17And if the polygon is dimensioned to the faces, it's considered circumscribed
01:21because it would fall on the outside of the circle.
01:24Let's create some polygons.
01:25I am going to backup a little bit.
01:27We'll pan our drawing over.
01:29On my screen, I've got a drawing of a skateboard.
01:32I am going to zoom in on this upper half.
01:36Let's see if we can use the Polygon command to finish the hardware on the
01:40bottom of this board.
01:41To launch the tool, I am going to come up to the Draw panel in my ribbon.
01:45Now unfortunately, Polygon didn't make it into the upper half of the panel.
01:48So I am going to click the fly- out and select the tool right here.
01:52Now AutoCAD is asking me for a number of sides. 6 happens to be perfect.
01:58I am going to be recreating one of these hexagons, so I'll hit Enter to accept 6.
02:03Now AutoCAD wants the center of my polygon, I will grab the center of this circle.
02:08Fortunately I have a running object snap set for Center.
02:11Now is this guy inscribed or circumscribed?
02:14Take a look at my dimension.
02:15Notice it's being dimensioned to the faces.
02:18So this guy must be circumscribed.
02:20I am going to select that from the menu.
02:23And then finally, AutoCAD wants to know the radius of the circle.
02:26While the overall distance is 0.3, that would be the diameter.
02:31So the radius of my circle must be 0.15, so I will type that and hit Enter.
02:36Let's create the hexagon in the lower right-hand corner.
02:39Once again, I am going to come up to the Draw panel and launch the tool.
02:43We will hit Enter to accept the number of sides.
02:45I'll select the center of this circle.
02:49Notice AutoCAD is remembering my previous setting. I can select this from
02:53the menu or simply hit Enter to accept circumscribed and then I will enter my radius of 0.15.
02:58I have got one more hexagon I would like to create.
03:02He goes right here.
03:04I've got the dimension that I would like to use right over here.
03:07To go back into the Polygon command, I am going to hit Spacebar.
03:11We'll accept the number of sides.
03:14I'll select my center point.
03:17Now is this guy inscribed or circumscribed?
03:20In this case, my dimension is to the corners.
03:23So this guy must be inscribed.
03:26Finally, what's my radius?
03:28Well, my diameter in this case is 0.62.
03:32So my radius must be 0.31.
03:36Now that I am finished, I will eliminate my sketch geometry by selecting it and
03:41hitting the Delete key on my keyboard.
03:44As you can see using the Polygon command is a much more efficient way of
03:47creating the shapes than using the standard Line command.
03:51Once you understand the meaning behind inscribed and circumscribed, you can
03:55easily create any polygon you can imagine.
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Drawing ellipses
00:00Back in the paper and pencil days, creating an ellipse required the use of
00:03a plastic template.
00:05Today using AutoCAD's Ellipse command, we can create any size ellipse we like
00:10and it's as easy as creating a circle.
00:12If you look at my screen you can see I have got a diagram of an ellipse.
00:16Essentially an ellipse is a circle that has two diameters.
00:20You can see that we've got a horizontal diameter called the major axis and we've
00:24also got a vertical diameter called the minor axis.
00:28Note that if we are looking at the distance from the center to the edge,
00:32these guys are called the major and the minor radius.
00:35Creating an ellipse in AutoCAD is very similar to creating a circle. Let's try it out.
00:40I am going to pan this drawing over.
00:42I have got a couple of ellipse examples here.
00:46Let me push these up and we will center them on screen.
00:49Let's try and use the Ellipse command to re-create this geometry.
00:53The Ellipse tool is located in the Draw panel of our ribbon.
00:56The icon is right here.
00:58I'm going to hover for just a second, because I want to show you that the
01:01default method of creating an ellipse is the center method.
01:04Let's click to launch the tool.
01:06I will then click to define my center point and now I have to tell AutoCAD
01:11the major and the minor radius.
01:13Well, I am going to lock my Ortho.
01:15Let's come down and click the Ortho mode and turn that on.
01:17Then I will pull it to the right or left, doesn't matter which way, and I'll
01:22type in my major radius.
01:25Right now I can see the diameter is 24, so my major radius must be 12 inches.
01:31Don't forget the quote. We are doing an architectural example.
01:34Let's hit Enter and now I can enter my minor radius.
01:38In this case, since the diameter is 14, my minor radius must be 7 inches, Enter.
01:46Let's look at another way we can create an ellipse.
01:49I'm going to come back up to the tool.
01:50Notice right next to the icon I have got a flyout.
01:53Let me click to open this up and notice there are three ways to create
01:57an ellipse in AutoCAD.
01:58This time we are going to look at the Axis, End method.
02:01With Axis, End we will define our major axis and then we will define our minor radius.
02:07I am going to click to launch the tool. That now becomes the default Ellipse method.
02:12I am going to come down here and I'll click once to define the left side of my
02:16major axis and my Ortho is locked, I am going to pull across and my major axis
02:21distance is 15 inches.
02:22So, I will type 15 inches, Enter and then notice where I am pulling from,
02:27the center point, so I will now enter my minor radius.
02:31In this case the diameter is 8, so my radius must be 4 inches, Enter.
02:37Now that we understand how we can create an ellipse, let's try and use this tool
02:41in a practical example.
02:42I am going to pan my drawing over. I am going to zoom in just a little bit and
02:48let's try and replicate this drawing.
02:50This line work represents a symbol for a basin that you would see in a typical washroom.
02:55I am going to start by drawing the large ellipse first and we will use the Axis, End method.
03:01So that happens to be the default.
03:02I'll come up and click the icon.
03:04I am going to start my axis end point right here and I am going to pull to the
03:07left and my major axis is 20 inches, so I will type that and hit Enter and then
03:14my minor radius in this case would be 8 inches, since the overall is 16.
03:20Let's hit Enter and that ellipse is finished.
03:23Now the next ellipse is placed at the centre of the first one.
03:27Currently I have a running object snap set for center.
03:30Let's create the next ellipse using the Center option.
03:33I will click the flyout and select Center.
03:37Now where is the center of my ellipse going to be?
03:39I will hover over this ellipse.
03:41Notice that AutoCAD finds the center of an ellipse just like it does the
03:44center of a circle.
03:45I am going to click to accept that object snap and we will pull to the right and
03:50my major radius for this guy is going to be 8 inches, Enter.
03:55I will then pull in an upward direction and my minor radius is going to be 6 inches.
04:02The only thing we have left is this circle that represents the drain.
04:05It looks like it has a radius of 1 inch and it is positioned 4 inches above the
04:10centre of the ellipse.
04:12Let's come up and launch the Circle command and I'm going to place this
04:15using temporary tracking.
04:17AutoCAD is asking for a center point. I am going to type TK and hit Enter and
04:22then I am going to guide AutoCAD to the location.
04:25So, my first tracking point is going to be the centre of this ellipse. I'll click.
04:30I will then pull in an upward direction and type 4 inches, Enter.
04:36Now that I'm at the point where I want to be, I'll hit Enter again and I'll set
04:40my radius for 1 inch, Enter.
04:44As you can see creating an ellipse is very easy.
04:46Once you understand the concept of the major and minor axis, creating an ellipse is
04:51as simple as drawing a circle.
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Organizing with hatch patterns
00:00Hatch patterns have been a part of drafting since the days of paper and pencil.
00:04Well-placed hatch patterns can add visual interest to your drawings, as well as
00:08represent materials to be used for construction.
00:11In this lesson, we are going to learn how to create some hatches.
00:15If you look at my screen you can see I've got several abstract shapes.
00:18We are going to use this geometry to learn how the Hatch command works.
00:22Let's start by hatching this circle.
00:24I am going to pan this guy over the center and I will zoom in a little bit.
00:29The Hatch command is located in the Draw panel of our ribbon.
00:33The icon is right here.
00:36This brings up my Hatch dialog box and the first thing I'd like to do is select my pattern.
00:41There are two ways I can do this.
00:43I can click the Pattern flyout and I can select the pattern name from this menu
00:48or-- Let me hit Escape to close the menu, probably the most intuitive way to
00:53select your pattern is by clicking this Ellipsis button.
00:57This brings up the Hatch Pattern Palette where our patterns are divided under
01:01these tabs and each tab shows me the pattern name, as well as a representation
01:07of what the pattern looks like.
01:09For my first pattern, I am going to go to the ANSI tab and I'm going to come
01:13down and select ANSI37 and click OK.
01:16Notice I can see a preview of that hatch right here.
01:19Now that we've chosen our pattern, we need to tell AutoCAD what we want to hatch.
01:23We can do that in two ways.
01:25I can either select an object, otherwise known as my boundary, or I can pick a
01:31point inside my geometry and AutoCAD will find the boundary automatically.
01:36Since I'm dealing with a nice closed shape, I am going to use the Select Objects method.
01:41I will then select my circle and right-click and in the menu, I am going to select Preview.
01:48And this is a very dense pattern.
01:49Let me zoom in a little bit.
01:51That piece is very dense on our screen.
01:53Let me back up, so I can see the entire circle and let's make a change.
01:57I am still in the Preview mode,. If I hit the Escape key on my keyboard, I can
02:02bring back the dialog box and let's make a change to our scale.
02:06The scale controls the size of our pattern.
02:09Now there is a flyout here but unfortunately it's not very helpful.
02:13It only goes up to two.
02:15So instead, I am going to click in this field and I am going to type 30.
02:18And I'm going to come down and click Preview.
02:20And that looks a little bit better.
02:22Now that I like my hatch, I can right-click to accept it.
02:26Let's pan the drawing over a little bit and we will take a look at these shapes.
02:31Now each of these guys was created using the Rectangle command.
02:34I am going to hit Escape to deselect them.
02:37Let's try and create a hatch pattern that falls in between these two shapes.
02:42Once again I am going to launch the Hatch command.
02:44I am going to go with a different pattern, so I am going to click the
02:47Ellipsis button and let's go to the Other Predefined tab and I am going to
02:52select the square pattern.
02:56Once again, since I am dealing with closed shapes, I am going to use the Select
02:59Objects method. I will then select this shape and this one and right-click and
03:08I will select Preview.
03:09Now before I finish my hatch, let's hit the Escape key and bring back the dialog box
03:13and we will look at a couple of other settings.
03:16Let's take a look at angle.
03:18Angle controls the rotation of my pattern.
03:21In this case, the flyout is a little bit more helpful.
03:24I am going to click this and I am going to set this to 45 degree rotation.
03:28If you have any questions about the other settings in this box, simply place
03:32your cursor over the setting and AutoCAD will give you more information or you
03:37can always come down and click Help and AutoCAD will direct you to the
03:41information you need.
03:42Since I have set this to 45, I am going to click Preview.
03:45Notice that my pattern is now rotated.
03:48Let's bring up the dialog box one more time and take a look at this setting
03:52right here under Options.
03:53It says Associative.
03:55By default all of the patterns that we create in AutoCAD are associative,
03:59meaning they're related to our geometry.
04:01Let me show you what I mean.
04:03I am going to click OK to accept this hatch pattern and then I'm going to click
04:08on one of my entities.
04:10Notice I get these little blue grips on the corners.
04:13If I click on a grip and then move my cursor and click again, I can change my
04:18geometry and notice the hatch goes along for the ride.
04:22Since it's associative, I can change my geometry as much as I like and my hatch
04:26will always look correct.
04:28Once again, to deselect, I am going to hit my Escape key.
04:32Let's pan this over and we will take a look at this geometry.
04:35Let's say I would like to hatch this interior area. Here's my problem.
04:40This is not a closed shape.
04:42It's a bunch of individual line segments.
04:45No problem. We will hatch this using the Pick Points method.
04:48Let's deselect this.
04:50I am going to go right back to the Hatch command.
04:53Once again we will choose a different pattern.
04:54I am going to come down and I'm going to select the cross pattern this time and click OK.
05:02Notice AutoCAD is remembering our previous angle.
05:05Let me set this back to zero and this time I am going to come up and select Pick
05:09Points and this works a lot like you are throwing a rock into a puddle.
05:15I will pick inside this shape and AutoCAD will fan out and find the boundary for me.
05:20Then I can right-click and select Preview and if that looks good, I can
05:24right-click to accept.
05:26Let me show you one more thing.
05:28Occasionally you will create a pattern like this and then you will want to make a change.
05:32If you want to edit your AutoCAD hatch, all you have to do is double-click on it.
05:38This brings the dialog box back and we can make any change we like.
05:41For instance, I'm going to change my pattern.
05:45Let's go with the Escher pattern this time.
05:47I'm always looking for a reason to use Escher.
05:49I will click Preview and I will right-click to accept my hatch.
05:56Now that we understand how to hatch objects in AutoCAD, let's try and use this
05:59tool in a practical example.
06:01I am going to pan my drawing over.
06:05On my screen I have got a portion of an architectural floor plan.
06:09This happens to be a public restroom inside a movie theater.
06:13Let's say I would like to put a hatch pattern on the interior of my walls to
06:17help simplify the appearance of my drawing.
06:20Well, first thing's first, what method am I going to use?
06:23I obviously don't have a perfectly closed shape here.
06:27So, this is going to be a job for Pick Points.
06:29Let me deselect this geometry.
06:31We will launch the Hatch command.
06:34I'm going to choose a pattern.
06:37Let's go to ANSI and I am going to set this to ANSI31 and click OK.
06:41I'm going to change my Scale to 20.
06:43We will make this a little bit smaller and then I'm going to come up and click Pick Points.
06:48I will then pick inside the wall.
06:51Notice how AutoCAD finds the boundary for me.
06:54I can then right-click and select Preview. That looks good.
06:58I will right-click again to accept.
07:00Hatch patterns can be very effective in helping you visually organize your drawings.
07:05They can also transform an average drawing into a professional looking presentation.
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7. Making Primary Modifications
Making geometric changes using the property changer
00:00The Property Changer is the most powerful palette with an AutoCAD.
00:04With it, we can modify or correct anything in our drawing.
00:07In this lesson, we are going to learn how to use the Property Changer to make
00:10some geometric changes to our objects.
00:13If you look at my screen, you can see I have two mechanical parts.
00:16Now these guys are supposed to be identical.
00:19The part on the right has been drawn correctly.
00:22The part on the left has got some problems.
00:25The goal in this lesson is to fix the geometry of this part using the Property Changer.
00:30My Property Changer palette is currently anchored to my interface.
00:34If you're not seeing yours on screen, simply hit Ctrl+1 on your keyboard to turn it back on.
00:39Now, I am going to be using this guy frequently in this lesson, so I'm going to
00:43click the Auto-hide icon so that it stays docked on my screen.
00:49Notice the palette is filled with settings that are organized into major groups.
00:54If we want, we can expand and contract the groups by clicking these triangles
00:59and it's important to note that the number of settings that we see will change
01:03depending on what we select.
01:04For instance, I'm going to select this circle, and if we look at the top of
01:09palette, we can see that AutoCAD recognizes that I've selected a circle.
01:13For the work we're going to do in this lesson, we are going to look at the
01:16Geometry group of settings.
01:19So, I'm going to collapse 3D Visualization, so I can see all of my
01:23Geometry settings on screen.
01:25Take a look at the settings that we have. Note that they're all specific to circles.
01:30If I'd like to change one of these values, I can simply click in the field.
01:33For instance, we'll change the Radius and from here I can type a new value.
01:37I'm going to type 0.5 and hit Enter.
01:40Notice the geometry changes instantly on my screen.
01:44Take a look at some of the other things we can change.
01:46We could change the circle's diameter, we could change its circumference, or
01:49we could change its area.
01:51Notice that some of the fields have gray backgrounds.
01:55If a field is grayed out, the value cannot be changed.
01:59Now that we know how this works, let's assign the appropriate radius to the circle.
02:03If I look right up here, I can see it should be set to 0.25, so I'll click in
02:08the field and we'll type 0.25 and hit Enter.
02:11And when I'm finished making my changes, I can hit the Escape key on my keyboard
02:15to deselect my circle.
02:17At this point, I have three more circles to correct.
02:20Let's try and fix these and we'll do it a little bit faster.
02:22I am going to select this circle, and I'll select this one and this one.
02:29Take a look at my heading. Notice that there are three circles selected.
02:32Once again, we'll come down to Geometry and in the Radius field I can see it
02:36currently says Varies.
02:38That means each of these circles has a different radius.
02:41No matter. I can click in the field and I can type in the value I'd like, 0.25,
02:46and hit Enter and we just corrected all of those circles in a single step.
02:50Once again, I'll hit Escape to deselect my entities.
02:54Finally, let's correct the ellipse.
02:56I will select this guy.
02:58Notice there are many more Geometry settings for an ellipse.
03:02If I click on this slider and hold, I can pull this down so we can see all of them.
03:07Right now my ellipse has a major radius of 1.25.
03:11If I look right over here, my major radius should be 2 because the overall
03:15diameter is 4, so let's click in the field and I'll set this to 2 and hit Enter.
03:21Notice that aspect of the ellipse is now correct and my minor radius is now highlighted.
03:27Let's set this to 1.25, since the overall diameter is 2.5 and now that I am
03:34finished, I will hit Escape and then I am going to come up to the top of the
03:37palette, and click Minimize to collapse this guy back down to an icon.
03:42Without a doubt, the Property Changer is the most valuable tool in our interface.
03:46As we continue exploring AutoCAD and learn how to create more objects,
03:50keep looking to the Property Changer as a means of modifying anything on your screen.
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Moving and copying elements
00:00AutoCAD's Move and Copy commands work side-by-side, allowing us to reposition or
00:05duplicate our entities.
00:07Now I say side-by-side because these commands essentially work the exact same way.
00:11Let me show you what I mean.
00:12We are going to look at the Move command first.
00:15Let's say I would like to move my circle, such that its center point is located
00:20at the upper-left corner of my rectangle.
00:23To do that I am going to use the Move command. Move is located right up here in
00:27the Modify panel of the ribbon.
00:30I will then select my circle and right-click.
00:33Now AutoCAD wants a base point.
00:34The base point is the point I would like to use to pick this object up.
00:39I'm going to pick it up from the center of the circle.
00:42Notice I'm holding it from that location, and now where do I want to put it down?
00:46I would like to put it down at the endpoint of this line.
00:49So I'll click right here, and that's it. We just completed our move.
00:54Let's move it again, this time I am going to place it to the upper right-hand corner.
00:58Let's launch the Move command.
01:00I'm going to select my circle and then I'm going to right-click so that AutoCAD
01:05knows I'm done selecting objects.
01:08Let's pick it up from the center point and I am going to place it to the
01:12endpoint right here.
01:13I am going to pan the drawing down a little bit and let's try
01:15something different.
01:17Let's say I would like to move this circle, such that its center point is 10
01:22units above my rectangle.
01:25Once again, we'll launch the Move command.
01:26We'll select the circle and right-click.
01:29I'm going to pick it up from its center point and now instead of using an
01:34object snap, I am going to come down and lock my Ortho.
01:37I am going to pull in an upward direction, and then I am going to type in my distance.
01:42In this case I am going to type in 10 and hit Enter.
01:46That is called the direct distance method of moving our geometry.
01:50Let's take a look at the Copy command.
01:52Functionality-wise, Copy works the exact same way as Move.
01:56Let's say I would like to create a copy of this circle at all four corners of my rectangle.
02:01Now, the Copy command is also located in the Modify panel.
02:05The icon is right here.
02:07I'm going to select my circle and right-click.
02:10Let's pick it up from the center of the circle, and my Ortho is locked.
02:14I really don't need that on right now.
02:16I am going to turn it off by hitting F8 key. All right.
02:20Where would I like to create my first copy?
02:22I am going to drop one at the endpoint of this line, and notice I am still in the command.
02:29That's because AutoCAD always assumes you want to make multiple copies.
02:33So, I can drop one at the endpoint of this line, I could click the endpoint
02:37of this line to make another one and we'll drop another one at the endpoint of this line.
02:41And when I am finished I can hit the Escape key to get out of the command.
02:44Now that we get the idea of how these tools work, let's try and use them in
02:47a practical example.
02:48I am going to pan my drawing over and we'll zoom out a little bit.
02:52On my screen I have got an architectural example.
02:56This happens to be a floor plan for a public restroom.
02:59I'm currently working on the stalls. As you can see I have the two
03:02handicap stalls finished.
03:05Let's take this symbol that represents a toilet and place it in this next stall.
03:09I am going to pan over and we'll center that on screen a little bit.
03:13Let's launch the Move command.
03:15I'm going to select my symbol and right-click.
03:18Now where would be the most logical place to pick this guy up from?
03:21Well, I am going to pick him from the midpoint of the back.
03:25Now, I don't have a running object snap for a midpoint, so I will hold my Shift
03:29key and right-click and select Midpoint from the menu.
03:33I will then select the midpoint of this back line.
03:37Now, where do I want to put it down?
03:39Well, I'd like it to be centrally located in the stall.
03:43Let's look at another object snap.
03:45I am going to Shift+Right-click and I am going to use the object snap
03:49Midpoint Between 2 Points.
03:52I will then click the endpoint of this line and the endpoint of this line and
03:58AutoCAD places my symbol directly between them.
04:02I am going to backup a little bit.
04:03I am going to center this on the screen a little better.
04:05And let's use the Copy command to finish the rest of these stalls.
04:09Let's come up and launch Copy.
04:10I am going to select my symbol and right-click.
04:13Now, where do I want to pick it up from?
04:15Well, I am going to zoom in and I am going to pick it up from the endpoint of this wall.
04:20Because this point is common among all of the stalls.
04:23So, we'll pick it up from here.
04:26Notice where I am holding it from and I will place one to the endpoint here, to
04:31the endpoint here, we will pan over a little bit, place one here and one to
04:36the endpoint here.
04:37Then when I am finished, I'll hit my Escape key.
04:41As you can see the functionality of the Move and Copy commands are essentially
04:44the same. Using either of these tools along with object snaps we can quickly
04:48modify or add to our drawing.
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Rotating elements
00:00Rotate is another fundamental skill we need to work effectively in AutoCAD.
00:05I'm sure you'd agree that it's much faster to rotate an object than it would be
00:08to draw new one at a different rotation.
00:11In this lesson, we are going to learn how to use the Rotate command.
00:15If you look at my screen you can see I have got a drawing that represents a clock.
00:18Let's start out by rotating this hand.
00:22To do that we are going to use the Rotate command.
00:24Rotate is right up here in the Modify panel.
00:28I will then select the object I want to rotate and right-click and now
00:32AutoCAD wants a base point.
00:34The base point is the point I'm going to be rotating my object around.
00:38In this case I'd like it to rotate around the center of this end.
00:42Now be careful when you pick this point. I currently have a running object snap
00:46set for Endpoint and Center, and whichever of these snaps my cursor is closest to,
00:51that's what I am going to get.
00:51So, I am going to click right here to make sure I get center.
00:55And now all I have to do is specify my angle.
00:58I could pick a point on screen to do that, or I could type in a value.
01:01I am going to type in 45 to represent 45 degrees and I'll hit Enter.
01:08When using the Rotate command, if you use a positive angle, your entities will
01:13rotate counterclockwise.
01:15To rotate this hand clockwise, I'd have use a negative angle.
01:19Let's watch the command again and this time we are going to look at one of the sub-options.
01:23I am going to come up and click the icon.
01:24I'll select the object I want to rotate and right-click.
01:29Let's rotate him around the center of the end.
01:33Now before I enter my angle take a look at my command line. Notice I have got
01:36a sub-option of Copy.
01:38I can create a rotated copy of my original. Let's do that.
01:42I'm going to right-click and select Copy from the menu, and I would like my copy
01:47to be rotated at 65 degrees clockwise from the original.
01:52So, I am going to type -65 for my angle and hit Enter.
01:57Now that we get the basic idea of how this command works, let's try and use it
02:00in a practical example.
02:01I am going to pan my drawing over and we'll zoom out a little bit.
02:05On my screen I have got an architectural example.
02:09This is a floor plan for a single-family home.
02:12If you take a look right up here in the master bedroom area, notice I have got a
02:16symbol that represents a queen size bed.
02:19I would also like to have a queen size bed in my second bedroom right down here.
02:23Let's zoom in a little bit and I'll center this.
02:26And I am going to start out by creating a copy of the original.
02:29So, let's launch the Copy command. I will grab the bed and right-click.
02:34Now, where should we pick it up from? Watch this.
02:37I am going to pick it up from a point right out here.
02:40Since this is furniture and I'm not going to be placing it precisely in the
02:44other room just yet, holding it out here can actually help me because my running
02:48object snaps won't get in the way when I put this down.
02:50I am going to drop it right here and then I'll hit Escape. Let's zoom in.
02:56Now, I don't want the bed situated in this room like this.
03:00I would like to rotate it, so that the headboard of the bed is along this wall.
03:04So, let's rotate this guy.
03:06I am going to come up and launch the Rotate command.
03:08We'll select our geometry and right-click.
03:12Now what point do I want to rotate around?
03:14Now, I am going to rotate around a point right in the middle of the bed.
03:17Once again, it's furniture.
03:19I don't have to be that precise. And my rotation angle,
03:22since I want to go clockwise, it's going to be -90.
03:24Let me zoom in a little bit more.
03:27Now, let's place this guy precisely in the room.
03:31I would like to place him such that he is 6 inches away from this wall and 6
03:34inches away from this wall.
03:36And since this is an architectural example, we are going to be using the quotes
03:40when we enter our inches.
03:41I am going to launch the Move command and I will select the geometry and right-click.
03:46I'm going to pick it up from the endpoint right here and I'm going to use
03:50temporary tracking to help me place this.
03:52I am going to type tk, Enter.
03:55And then I'm going to guide AutoCAD to where this thing should be placed.
03:58I am going to start out at the endpoint here and I'm going to pull up and
04:03type 6 inches, Enter.
04:05Then I'm going to pull to left and type 6 inches, Enter.
04:12Now that I am where I want to be, I will hit the Enter key one more time to place the bed.
04:18When using the Rotate command, the most important thing to remember is that a
04:21positive angle will rotate your objects counterclockwise.
04:25Once you understand this concept, you can easily rotate your entities to
04:29match their surroundings.
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Trimming and extending geometry
00:00In this lesson, we are going to learn how to clean up our geometry.
00:03We are going to take a look at the Trim and Extend commands.
00:06Trim and Extend help us correct our line work after we've made changes.
00:10If you look at my screen you can see I have got some simple geometry.
00:13Notice I've got a horizontal line passing through this circle.
00:17Let's say I'd like to remove the portion of the line that falls outside my circle.
00:23To do that, I'm going use the Trim command.
00:26Trim is located right up here in the Modify panel and when I launch the command,
00:31take a look at our command line.
00:33Notice AutoCAD is asking me to select a cutting edge.
00:37When we use the trim command, we are essentially using one object to cut another.
00:42So, I'm going to select my circle as my cutting edge, and I'll right-click.
00:47I will then select the portion of the line I would like to trim and notice
00:50AutoCAD pulls it back to meet the cutting edge.
00:54Let's select this end as well, and when I am finished I am going to hit the Escape key.
00:59Now let's look at the exact opposite situation.
01:01Let's say I would like this horizontal line to be drawn such that it meets
01:05these outer circles.
01:07In this case I need to extend my geometry.
01:09Extend is also located in the Modify panel.
01:12I am going to click the flyout right next to Trim, and notice that Trim and
01:16Extend share the same menu.
01:20Once again, let's take a look at our command line.
01:22This time AutoCAD is asking us to select a boundary edge.
01:26You see Trim and Extend work the same way.
01:28Whereas Trim pulls our geometry back to meet a cutting edge, Extend projects our
01:33geometry forward to meet a boundary edge.
01:36So, I'm going to select this circle, and this one is my boundary edges, and I'll right-click.
01:42I will then select this end of my line to extend and then I'll select this end
01:46as well, and when I am finished I'll hit my Escape key.
01:50The Trim and Extend commands are so similar in fact that we can launch one
01:54from within the other.
01:55Let me show you what I mean.
01:57I am going to pan my drawing over.
01:59On my screen I have got some more simple line work.
02:03Let's try and convert this geometry into the shape of a ladder.
02:06Well to do that, I would have to extend some of these lines, and I would have to
02:11trim off some of the others.
02:13Let's try and do all of it with one command.
02:15I am going to come up and launch the Extend command, which happens to be the
02:19default now, since we launched that one last.
02:23I will then select this vertical line, and this one as my boundary edges,
02:27and I'll right-click.
02:29And I'll extend this line, and this one, and this one, and this one.
02:34And take a look at my cursor.
02:36I can select more objects to extend, or if I hold my Shift key I can toggle
02:41to the Trim command.
02:43So as long Shift is held down I can click this line and this one, this one and
02:49this one, and you can see that my boundary edges become cutting edges.
02:53When I'm finished I'll hit the Escape key.
02:56Now that we understand the workflow behind Trim and Extend, let's try and use it
03:00in a practical example.
03:01I am going to pan my drawing over.
03:05We'll center this on screen.
03:08Let's see if we can finish the window on the left, such that it looks like the
03:11window on the right.
03:12I am going to start by creating the arch top.
03:15I am going to do that by using the Circle command and I would like to create my
03:18circle from the Shift+Right- click, Midpoint of this line.
03:25And I can see that this circle must have a diameter of 39.
03:27So, I'm going in right-click and select Diameter and I'll type 39 and hit Enter.
03:34Let's create one more circle.
03:36I am going to hit my Spacebar to go right back into the command.
03:39I'll create my new circle from the center of this one.
03:44And looking at my dimensions, it looks like the radius of my inner circle is 1.5
03:49inches less than the outer one.
03:51So, the diameter must be 3 inches less or 36.
03:54So, I am going to right-click and select Diameter and I'll type 36 and hit Enter.
04:00Let's zoom in a little bit.
04:02Now I don't need the bottom half of these circles, so I am going to trim them off.
04:06I am going to come up and click the fly-out and select Trim.
04:10We'll use the top of the window as our cutting edge and I'll right-click and
04:14then I will select the bottom half of each of these circles.
04:17Now I also don't need these little pieces on the end.
04:21Let's trim those off.
04:23Once again, I am going to launch the Trim command and I'll select this arc and
04:27right-click and then I will click to remove these outer pieces.
04:33Before I get out of the command, I am going to hold down my Shift key to
04:36toggle to extend and I'm going to project each of these lines up to meet that same edge.
04:43And then I'll hit my Escape key.
04:45Finally, I need to remove a bunch of little tiny pieces, so I am going to need a
04:49lot of cutting edges this time.
04:51Let's take a look at this option.
04:52I am going to launch Trim again.
04:55Instead of selecting all of my cutting edges, take a look at my cursor.
04:59AutoCAD says select cutting edges, or if I hit the Enter key I'm selecting
05:10everything as a cutting edge.
05:12I am going to hit Enter and then I will trim off this line and this one, this
05:18one and this one, this one, a couple more.
05:23There we go and when I am finished, I will hit Escape.
05:26As you can see the Trim and Extend commands have essentially the same workflow.
05:30Jumping from the one to the other is as simple as pressing your Shift key.
05:34Knowing how to use both of these commands will allow you to quickly and
05:37accurately clean up your geometry.
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Creating offsets
00:00In this lesson we are going to look at another way to copy our geometry.
00:04This time we will use the Offset command.
00:06What makes Offset special is that it creates parallel copies of our line work.
00:10On my screen I have got these simple line segment, a circle and a rectangle.
00:15Let's create a parallel copy of this line first.
00:18To do that, I am going to launch my Offset command.
00:20Offset is right here in the Modify panel.
00:24I will then enter my Offset distance.
00:26This is the distance between the copies.
00:28I am going to type 0.5 and hit Enter.
00:31I will select my entity and then finally I will click on screen to identify on
00:36which side of the object I'd like to create my copy.
00:40Since I would like my copy below the object, I am going to click down here
00:43to finish my Offset.
00:45Notice I'm still in the command.
00:46AutoCAD always assumes you want to make multiple offsets. So if we also wanted
00:51to offset our circle, we could click the circle and then click to the outside.
00:56If I wanted to make an offset to the inside I would grab the circle and click to the inside.
01:00When I am finished with the Offset command, I can hit the Enter key to exit or
01:05I can always hit the Escape key.
01:08Let's create another offset.
01:09Let's say I would like to offset this rectangle 0.25 units to the outside.
01:14We will launch the command.
01:16I am going to type in my distance, 0.25, Enter.
01:21I will select my rectangle and I'll click to the outside to make my offset.
01:26Now, when you are making offsets be mindful of your running object snaps.
01:30I currently have a running object snap set for Endpoint and I'm still in
01:34the Offset command.
01:35Let me click this line and if I'd like to create my copy above the line
01:40I need to pick far enough away such that the running object snap isn't getting in my way.
01:45If I was to click here, this could confuse AutoCAD because I'm not really
01:48picking to the side of the object. My endpoint is grabbing a point on the object itself.
01:54So, when you're picking your side, make sure you're far enough out so that your
01:57running object snaps aren't getting in the way.
02:00Now that I'm finished with the command, I am going to hit the Escape key to get out.
02:02Now that we understand the basic workflow behind Offset, I am going to pan my drawing over.
02:09Let's see if we can re-create this drawing and we'll see how Offset can help us along the way.
02:14I am going to start out by launching the Line command and I am going to pick a
02:18point on screen right about here.
02:20I am going to come down and lock my Ortho and I'll pull straight across.
02:25The length isn't important right now.
02:27I'm going to click right here to define my length and then I will hit Escape.
02:31This line is going to represent the center line of the part.
02:34I am going to go right back into the Line command by hitting the Spacebar and
02:38I am going to pick a point right about here and my Ortho is still locked.
02:42I am going to pull my line down and click and hit Escape.
02:47This intersection that I've created will represent the intersection right here.
02:51Let's create our inner circle.
02:53I will launch the Circle command and I'd like to place that at the--
02:58Shift+Right-click to bring up the Object Snap menu.
03:01We will select Intersection and I will put it right at the intersection here.
03:05This circle has a radius of 1, so I will type 1 and hit Enter.
03:10Now these circles share the same center point and I can see their
03:13radiuses differ by one unit.
03:15So, let's offset this circle out 1 unit.
03:18We will launch the Offset command.
03:21My distance will be 1, Enter.
03:24I will select my circle and I will click to the outside and hit Escape.
03:29Now, let's find the center point of these circles.
03:32If I offset this vertical line 7 units over, that would show me where the
03:36centers are located.
03:38Once again, we will launch the Offset command.
03:41My distance is 7, Enter.
03:43I would like to offset this line to the right and I'll hit Escape.
03:48Now I could create two new circles, but instead I am going to use the Copy command
03:52and I am going to copy this circle and this one. Right-click.
03:56We will copy them from the center and I will place them to the intersection
04:04right here and I'll hit Escape.
04:06Now let's find the top and the bottom of the part.
04:09Well, if the radius of this circle is 2, that means if I was to offset this
04:14center line 2 units up and 2 units down, that would show me the top and
04:18the bottom edge of the part.
04:21So, we will launch Offset again.
04:22I am going to type in 2 for my distance.
04:25I will offset this line up and this line down and I will hit Escape.
04:32Let's trim up our line work.
04:33I will launch the Trim command and I am going to use this edge and this edge as
04:38cutting objects and right-click.
04:40We will trim off these outer lines and we will trim off the inner half of these
04:47circles and I will hit Escape.
04:49Finally, we just need to find the edges of these notches.
04:53Well, if I offset this vertical line over 2 units and then if I offset it
04:58another 3 that would give me the vertical edges.
05:01If I offset my center line up and down, that would give me these horizontal edges.
05:08Let's launch Offset again and my distance is already 2, so I will hit Enter to accept that.
05:13I will offset this line over and hit Escape.
05:17Unfortunately you can't change distances in the middle of the Offset command.
05:21You have to get out and get back in.
05:23Let's go right back into the command and I will type in 3 for my distance and hit Enter.
05:28We will offset this line over and hit Escape.
05:31Finally, we will go right back into the command.
05:33This time I am going to do it by hitting the Spacebar.
05:36I'll type in a distance of 1 and hit Enter and we will offset our center line up
05:42and down and I'll hit Escape. All right.
05:45All we have to do is some cleanup work.
05:47I am going to launch my Trim command and I'm going to use these two vertical
05:51lines as cutting edges.
05:52I will use these horizontal lines as cutting edges and I'm going to want to
05:57trim off these outside pieces so I'll use these lines as cutting edges and I will right-click.
06:04Then we will trim off the lines at the top and the bottom.
06:07I'll remove this line to create my gap.
06:11I'll remove these lines on the left and right side and then finally, I'll remove
06:17these vertical lines and when I am finished I will hit Escape.
06:21As you can see creating offsets is a great way to build your geometry on screen.
06:26I think you will find the Offset command to be one of AutoCAD's most useful tools.
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Erasing elements
00:00Let's face it.
00:01You're not going to keep all the line work you create in AutoCAD.
00:04Along the way you may create some sketch lines. Your design may change.
00:08You may even make a couple of mistakes.
00:10In this lesson, we are going to look at how do we erase unwanted entities.
00:13On my screen I have got an architectural example.
00:16This is a drawing of a small cabinet.
00:19On one side of the cabinet I have got a door and on the other side I have got three drawers.
00:24Let's make a design change.
00:26Maybe I would like to remove these drawers and have two shelves on this side of the cabinet.
00:32So, I obviously don't need my drawer hardware anymore.
00:35To remove these guys, I am going to use the Erase command.
00:38Erase is located right up here in the Modify panel.
00:41Once I launch the tool, I can select the objects I'd like to erase and right-click.
00:48Now that's one way to remove geometry from your drawing.
00:52Let's say I would also like to remove the shelves.
00:55Another way I can erase line work is by selecting it first.
00:59Let me select all four of these guys and then I'll press the Delete key on my
01:04keyboard and we get the same result.
01:07Now, I don't want to leave this side of my cabinet open. Tell you what.
01:11Let's match the door that we have on the right side.
01:14To do that, I'm simply going to copy the handle over.
01:18And I can see from the dimension that the center of the handle is 2 inches from this edge.
01:23So, I am going to launch my Offset command and for my distance, I am going to
01:27type 2 inches. Remember this is an architectural example. I'm going to select
01:33this line and offset it to this side and I will hit Escape.
01:36And we will launch the Copy command and we will grab this circle and right-click.
01:42I am going to copy it from the center and I'd like to place it to the midpoint
01:51of this line and I will hit Escape.
01:55Finally, I don't need this sketch line.
01:57I am going to come up and launch my Erase command, we will select the line and right-click.
02:03So, if your design needs a change or you need to get rid of some sketch lines or
02:07you just feel like throwing away a portion of your drawing and starting over,
02:11you can always remove your unwanted entities by using the Erase command.
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Undoing and redoing actions
00:00If you ask most AutoCAD users what their favorite command is, Undo is
00:04usually the answer.
00:06That's because we all make mistakes and when we do the Undo command will let us
00:10put things back the way they were.
00:12In this lesson, we're going to learn how to use the Undo command.
00:15On my screen I've got a mechanical example. This is a drawing of a gasket and
00:20this happens to be a metric drawing.
00:21It was created such that each unit equals 1 millimeter.
00:25Now, to demonstrate Undo, first we have to do something.
00:28So, I'm going to make a design change to this geometry.
00:31Currently this tab is rotated at a 45-degree angle.
00:36I would like to rotate it 15 degrees clockwise from its current position.
00:41To do that I'm going to launch the Rotate command and I'll select the geometry
00:46I'd like to rotate and right-click.
00:49I'd like to rotate this around the center of this circle and to rotate
00:53clockwise, I would typically type -15.
00:56But remember, we're talking about Undo, so I'm going to make a mistake.
01:00I'm going to type -115 and hit Enter and that's obviously incorrect.
01:08To fix this I'm going to use the Undo command.
01:11Undo is located at the top of our interface.
01:13It looks like the backward pointing arrow.
01:16Now, before I click this, notice there's also a forward pointing arrow that
01:20happens to be grayed out and we'll talk about this command in just a second.
01:23I'm going to click Undo and notice AutoCAD backs me up one command.
01:29Also notice that since I've done the Undo, the forward arrow is now available.
01:34This is the Redo command.
01:36Redo will reverse the effect of an Undo.
01:39So, if I click this, I can put the geometry back to its previous position.
01:44Now, I don't want it there, so I'm going to click Undo again and let me give you
01:48one important tip with regard to Redo.
01:51The Redo command can only follow an Undo.
01:55Since I just did an Undo we can see the command is active.
01:58If I so much as pan my drawing on screen, notice Redo is no longer available.
02:03Now let's rotate this geometry correctly.
02:06I'm going to launch Rotate command again, select the geometry and right-click.
02:14I'll rotate it around the center.
02:17And then I am going to rotate it -15 and hit Enter.
02:21Let's make a more significant design change.
02:23I'm going to change the tab geometry itself.
02:26I'm going to start by selecting this arc, then we'll go to the Property Changer
02:31and I can see that this arc has a radius of 115.
02:33I'm going to click in this field.
02:36Let's change it to 85 and I'll hit Enter.
02:39Now that I've revised the geometry, I'll move off the palette and let it
02:43collapse and then I'll hit Escape to deselect the arc.
02:46Now, these lines are no longer useful so I'm going to erase those.
02:51Let's launch the Erase command, we'll select the lines and right-click and then
02:55we'll create some new lines.
02:56I'm going to launch the Line command and then I'm going to Shift+Right-click.
03:01It will bring up the Object Snap menu and I'm going to use the Tangent
03:05object snap, because I'd like my line to be tangent to this arc and then I
03:10will Shift+Right-click.
03:11We will select Tangent and I want a tangent of this arc and I'll hit Escape.
03:16I'm going to hit the Spacebar to go right back into the Line command and we will
03:20do the same thing for the other side.
03:29One more thing. I'm going to zoom in and check the geometry where the
03:32straight line meets the arc.
03:36Now at first glance that can seem a little frightening because that
03:39geometry should touch. Don't worry.
03:41It's a regen issue.
03:43My arc isn't appearing as smooth as it should.
03:45I'm going to type re and hit Enter to regenerate my geometry.
03:51And I can see the tangency point from the previous arc to the new arc is
03:55obviously different.
03:56So, I'm going to have to trim off a little bit of this arc segment.
03:59I'm going to launch my Trim command and I'll select this cutting edge and you know what?
04:04It's going to be the same on the other side.
04:06So, let's zoom out and I'll pan over and I'll select this line as a cutting
04:10edge and right-click.
04:11Now, I'll zoom back in and I'll trim off this piece.
04:17We'll zoom out, we'll pan over and I'll trim off this piece.
04:24Now my geometry touches end- to-end all the way around.
04:27Let's hit Escape to get out of the command and then we'll center this
04:30geometry on screen.
04:33Now, here's a question. What if I hit another design change that said, put this
04:37part back the way it was?
04:38Well, we could go through and click Undo, Undo, Undo and just keep backing up
04:44one step at a time or notice there is a flyout next to the Undo command.
04:49If I click this, I can go back several commands in one step.
04:53Notice here is where I created my two new line segments.
04:56Here is where I change the radius of the arc.
04:58I'm going to click right here to take away all those steps and notice my
05:02geometry is restored to its previous state.
05:04The Undo command is a lot like an insurance policy. No matter what we may do to
05:08our drawing, we can always restore our geometry by using the Undo command.
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8. Selecting Geometry
Selecting entities using a window
00:00Selecting our entities one at a time is okay but it's not the most efficient way to work.
00:05In this lesson, we're going to learn how to select multiple objects by using a window.
00:10If you look at my screen, you can see I have several shapes.
00:13Let's say I'd like to erase these 6 circles.
00:16To do that, I'm going to launch my Erase command and instead of picking these
00:20guys one at a time, I'm going to click on the screen right here and I'm going to
00:24pull to the right and notice what's happening.
00:27This is called a window selection, and a window selection will select the
00:30entities that fall completely within the window.
00:34So I'll move my cursor down here so that all of my circles fall inside the shape
00:38and I'll click to finish my window and now that I'm done selecting objects,
00:42I'll right-click to finish the command.
00:46Let's click Undo to bring our circles back and we'll look at another type
00:50of window selection.
00:51This time let's say I'd like to erase my rectangles.
00:56Let's launch the Erase command and to select these, I'm going to move my cursor
01:00over here and click and then pull to the left and notice this selection.
01:05This is called a crossing window.
01:07A crossing window will select all of the entities that fall completely within
01:10the window or cross over its boundary.
01:14So if I move my cursor over here and click to finish my selection window, all of
01:18the rectangles are selected because they crossed over the boundary.
01:22Once again, now that I'm done selecting objects, I'll right-click to finish the command.
01:27Let's bring our rectangles back.
01:30These window selection methods will work with any AutoCAD command that asks
01:34us to select objects.
01:35For instance, if I launch the Move command, AutoCAD is asking me to select objects.
01:40I'm going to pick on screen.
01:42Note that the type of selection that I get depends on which way I move my cursor.
01:46If I move to the right, I get a window.
01:48If I move to the left, I get a crossing window.
01:51Since we're in the Move command, let's move our 6 circles 100 units down.
01:55I'm going to place my window around the circles and click.
01:59I'll right-click to finish the selection.
02:01I'm going to pick these up from the center of this circle and my Ortho happens
02:05to be locked, so I'm going to pull straight down and type 100 and hit Enter.
02:10Now that we understand the workflow behind the window selections, let's try and
02:14use this tool in a practical example.
02:16I'm going to pan my drawing over.
02:21We'll center this geometry on screen.
02:23Let's say we'd like to rotate the tab portion of this gasket 25 degrees
02:28clockwise from its current position.
02:30I'm going to launch the Rotate command and at the Select Objects prompt,
02:35I'm going to click right up here and I'm going to pull to the left to create a
02:38crossing window and click.
02:41Notice that that simple window was enough to select all of that geometry.
02:44Let me right-click to finish the selection.
02:47I'd like to rotate this geometry around the center of this circle and my Ortho
02:52is still locked. Don't worry about that.
02:53I'm going to enter my angle.
02:55I'm going to type -25 and hit Enter.
02:59Let's make one more change.
03:00Maybe I'd like to rotate this inner geometry and these slots 45
03:05degrees counterclockwise.
03:07Once again, we'll launch the Rotate command and this time, I'm going to pick
03:10right about here on the screen and I'm going to make a window around just
03:15this geometry and click.
03:17Notice that it's the only geometry that we've selected because it's the only
03:20geometry that fell completely within the window.
03:23Let's right-click to finish selecting objects.
03:26I'm going to rotate these around the center of this circle and I'll type 45 and
03:32hit Enter, since we're going counterclockwise.
03:36More than half the work you do on AutoCAD will require you to make selections.
03:40Knowing how to use windows to select multiple objects is one of the fastest ways
03:44to increase your productivity.
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Adding and removing from selections
00:00Sometimes when selecting objects we may select more than what we intended.
00:04In this lesson, we're going to learn how to remove objects from a selection.
00:08Take a look at my screen.
00:09We're going to work with this geometry on the left first.
00:13Let's say I would like to erase all of these green circles.
00:16To do that, I'm going to launch the Erase command and then I'm going to make a
00:19window around this geometry.
00:21Now I've obviously selected too much.
00:24Let me show you how we can deselect entities.
00:27If I hold my Shift key, I can click to select each of these rectangles and
00:31they'll all be removed from the selection.
00:34I can now take my finger off the Shift key and since I'm done selecting objects,
00:38I can right-click to finish the command.
00:41Let's bring our geometry back and we'll turn it up a notch.
00:44This time, let's try and erase all of the green circles in this drawing.
00:48Once again, I'm going to launch the Erase command. I'm going to make a window
00:52around all of these geometry.
00:53I'll then hold my Shift key to deselect and instead of picking these guys one at a time,
00:59I'm going to click right here in the middle of this rectangle and notice
01:03that we can also use a selection window to deselect their entities.
01:07Let me click right down here to finish and these guys have been removed from my selection.
01:12I'm still holding down the Shift key.
01:14Let me click right here and I'll make a crossing window to right down here
01:18to remove these guys.
01:20I will then release the Shift key and now that I'm finished, I'll right-click to
01:24complete the command.
01:26Once again we'll bring the geometry back.
01:28Let's try one more.
01:30This time I'd like to move these rectangles and let's see how fast we can select them.
01:36I'm going to launch my Move command and I'm going to click right here.
01:40We'll make a window around these guys.
01:42I'll then hold my Shift key and click right here and it'll make a crossing
01:47window to deselect these circles.
01:50Now that I'm finished selecting objects, I will right-click and we'll pick these
01:54rectangles up from this endpoint. My Ortho happens to be locked.
01:59I'm just going to pull to the left and type 10 and hit Enter.
02:04Now that we understand how to remove objects from a selection, let's try and use
02:08this tool in a practical example.
02:10I'm going to pan my drawing over and on my screen I've got pair of speakers.
02:17Now, there's been a design change. The newest version is on the right-hand side.
02:22I can see that the speaker mount for this speaker has changed from a
02:26semi-rectangular shape to a simple circle.
02:29Let's see if we can correct the geometry on the left so that it looks like the
02:33geometry on the right.
02:34I'm going to zoom in on the speaker and I obviously don't need this line work
02:38around the outside anymore, so I'm going to erase it.
02:42When I launch the Erase command and probably the easiest way to select this
02:46geometry is by selecting everything.
02:48I'm going to make a window around the entire speaker and I want to keep the
02:52geometry on the inside so let's remove that from the selection.
02:55I'll hold my Shift key and click.
02:57It'll make a crossing window this way and I'll click.
03:02Now that I'm finished selecting objects, I'll right-click, there we go.
03:05Let's back up a little bit. It looks like we need to create a circle with a diameter of 8.8.
03:10I'm going to launch my Circle command.
03:13I'll create my circle from the center of this one and I want to enter a
03:16diameter so I'm going to right-click and select Diameter from the menu and then
03:21we'll type 8.8 and hit Enter.
03:25So the next time you select more than what you need, whether it be
03:28intentional or unintentional, you can always remove entities from your
03:31selection by using your Shift key.
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Using keyboard shortcuts
00:00Sometimes using a window isn't the most effective way to select our objects.
00:04At times like these, we can use the key-in functions to quickly select objects
00:08that are difficult to select using a rectangle.
00:11In this lesson, we're going to learn how to select objects using some
00:14keyboard shortcuts.
00:16On my screen, I've got a civil engineering example.
00:18This drawing happens to be a small public park, created such that each unit
00:22equals 1 foot, and we're going to make some changes to this drawing and
00:27in doing so we are going to learn some key-in functions that will allow us to
00:30quickly select our objects.
00:33The first key-in I'd like to look at is all.
00:35Let's say I would like to erase all of the geometry in this drawing.
00:39I'm going to come up and launch my Erase command and at the Select objects
00:42prompt, I'm going to type all and hit Enter.
00:46This selects everything in my drawing.
00:48In fact any command in AutoCAD that asks us to select objects, we can type all
00:52to select everything.
00:53Now that I am done selecting objects I can right-click to finish the command.
00:58Let's click Undo to bring the geometry back and let's zoom in on this
01:02southeast corner of the park.
01:05Down here I've got some geometry that represents a couple of tennis courts.
01:09Notice this yellow dashed line. This line shows me the buildable area of my lot,
01:15and I cannot build anything south of this line.
01:18We can obviously see the tennis courts are encroaching on the setback.
01:21So we'll have to move this geometry, and in doing so we'll look at another key-in.
01:26I'm going to launch my Move command, and selecting all this geometry with a
01:31rectangle or a crossing window is going to be difficult. Instead I'm going to
01:34type wp and hit Enter.
01:38Wp stands for Window Polygon.
01:40I'm going to click right here to set my first polygon point and then I'm going
01:45to click here, and then I'm going to come down.
01:47Now, be careful of the running object snaps.
01:50Let me turn those off momentarily.
01:53There we go. I'll pick another point on screen, and I'll pick another one.
01:56Notice the type of selection I'm making.
01:59Essentially, this is a window selection but I am not having to conform to
02:02a perfect rectangle.
02:03Let me click up here.
02:05Now that I've surrounded my geometry, I'm going to right-click and select
02:10Enter, and then I will right-click again to let AutoCAD know I'm done selecting objects.
02:17Let's zoom in on the corner and I'm going to turn my running object snaps back on.
02:22Let's pick up the geometry from the endpoint of the fence and I'm going to
02:26place it to the Intersection of the fence and the setback line, and now
02:33my geometry is no longer encroaching on the setback.
02:36Let's try something else.
02:37I'm going pan my drawing down and let's zoom in on the playground area.
02:42Let's say I would like to rotate this concrete boundary around the playground.
02:47I'd like to leave some of this equipment alone.
02:49I just want to rotate the boundary.
02:50I'm going to launch my Rotate command.
02:52I'm going to make a crossing window to select this geometry, and let's make a
02:57window to select these two toys, so they go along for the ride.
03:01I'll right-click to finish my selection and I'd like to rotate this around the
03:05center of this circle.
03:06Now be careful. I currently have running object snaps set for Endpoint and
03:10Center, so I need to make sure that my cursor is closest to the center point,
03:15and I'm going to rotate this 45 degree.
03:16So I'm going to type 45 and hit Enter.
03:20Now this is obviously a problem.
03:21My concrete is now encroaching on the swing set area.
03:25Let's rotate this geometry back a little bit.
03:28To do that, I'm going to hit my Spacebar to go right back into the Rotate
03:31command, and at the Select objects prompt, I'm going to type p.
03:35P stands for Previous and Previous allows us to reselect our previous selection, and hit Enter.
03:41I'm going to right-click to finish selecting objects.
03:46Once again I want to rotate this around the center of this circle and
03:49let's rotate him back about 20 degrees.
03:51I'm going to type -20, and hit Enter, and that looks much better.
03:56As you can see the key-in options are helpful alternative to the selection
03:59window, and they allow us to work outside the box when making our selections.
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9. Refining Geometry
Creating fillets
00:00In this lesson, we're going to learn how to clean up our intersecting line work.
00:04We'll do that by using the Fillet command.
00:06Fillet creates nice rounded corners.
00:09On my screen, I've got some abstract geometry.
00:11We're going to use these Xs to learn how to Fillet command works.
00:15Fillet is located in the Modify panel of our ribbon, the icon is right here, and
00:20when we launch the command, Fillet essentially wants two objects.
00:25I'm going to select my first object and my second one, and AutoCAD creates a rounded corner.
00:30Now I know what you're thinking.
00:31That corner doesn't look very round.
00:33That's because we neglected to do one thing.
00:36We didn't set a radius.
00:38Let's click Undo, and we'll do this again.
00:40I'm going to launch the Fillet command, and take a look at my command line.
00:44Notice I've got a sub- option right here of radius.
00:46Also notice that I can see that the current radius is set to 0.
00:50That's why we created a sharp corner.
00:52I'm going to right-click and select radius from the menu and we'll set our
00:56fillet radius to 25 and hit Enter.
01:00Now I'll select my line segment and my other one to create my fillet.
01:04Let's create one more. I'm going hit the Spacebar to go back into the Fillet
01:08command, and notice that AutoCAD remembers my previous radius.
01:13In this case I'd like to show you that it's important where you select your lines.
01:17You want to click on the portion of the line that you want to keep.
01:20In this case I've got the exact same geometry that I had over here and if I
01:24select my line segment down here and down here, I get a different outcome.
01:28Now that we have a working understanding of the Fillet command, let's try and
01:33use it in a practical example.
01:34I'm going to backup a little bit and pan my drawing down.
01:38On my screen I've got a mechanical drawing, this happens to be metric.
01:42It was created such that each unit equals 1 millimeter, and I'm obviously working on a
01:46skateboard, and at this point I am rounding corners on the wheels.
01:51We can see that this side of the board is finished let's finish this left side.
01:55I'm going to zoom in on my wheel, and I would like to round these corners with a
01:59radius of 8 millimeters.
02:02To do that, I'm going to launch the Fillet command.
02:04I'm going to right-click and select Radius, and let's set this to 8 and hit Enter.
02:09I will then select my line and my other line to create my fillet.
02:14Now one of the drawbacks to fillet is AutoCAD assumes you only want to do one.
02:19Let me show you how we can do multiple fillets.
02:21I'm going to hit the Spacebar to go back into the command.
02:24AutoCAD remembers my radius.
02:26Notice I've got sub option of Multiple.
02:29I'm going to or right-click and select Multiple from the menu, and then I'll
02:33click my first object and my second one and notice AutoCAD keeps me in the
02:37command and I will stay in the command until I hit my Escape key.
02:42So I'll finish this up, and then I'll hit Escape.
02:44I'm going to backup a little bit, we'll pan this down, and we'll take a look at this wheel.
02:49Now this wheel was created using the Rectangle tool.
02:53So AutoCAD considers this object to be a Polyline or a multi-segmented line.
02:58Let me hit Escape to deselect this, and let's fillet this geometry.
03:03I'm going to launch the command.
03:06Once again AutoCAD remembers my radius.
03:08Notice there's a sub-option here of Polyline I'm going to a right-click and
03:13select Polyline from the menu, and then if I select my Polyline AutoCAD will
03:18apply the fillet to all of the corners.
03:20Now, I have got one more thing I want to do.
03:23Let me zoom in on the truck area here.
03:26Notice my geometry needs to be cleaned up on these corners.
03:29Let's zoom in and we'll fix this one first.
03:32I can fix this with the Fillet command.
03:34Now I don't have to set my radius to 0.
03:37Watch this. If I launch Fillet and select my first object,
03:42take a look at the command line.
03:44I can select my second object or if I hold my Shift key when I'm selecting the
03:49second object, AutoCAD will apply a sharp corner.
03:52It doesn't matter what my radius is.
03:54Knowing that, let me pan this up, and we'll get this last one.
03:58Fillet, I'll select my first object, and then I'll hold my Shift key, and click
04:03the second one to make a sharp corner.
04:06Fillet is a tool that gives us more control over our intersecting line work,
04:11whether our design requires a rounded corner, or even a sharp corner, we can
04:14always use the Fillet command.
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Creating chamfers
00:00Sometimes our design may require a beveled or angular corner.
00:04In cases like this we can use AutoCAD's Chamfer command.
00:08Chamfer works the exact same way as Fillet, except that it results in a beveled corner.
00:13On my screen I've got an architectural example.
00:15This is a drawing of an employee lunchroom, and we're going to use the Chamfer
00:19command to make some modifications to this geometry.
00:21I'm going to start out by zooming in on these refrigerators.
00:26Notice the way these guys are situated, my countertop is restricting the amount
00:31that I can open the refrigerator doors.
00:33Worse yet, since this countertop has a sharp corner I run the risk of denting
00:37the door if I open it too far.
00:40To fix this I'm going to chamfer this corner.
00:43Now the Chamfer command is located in the Modify panel of our ribbon.
00:46I'm going to click the flyout right next to Fillet and notice that Fillet and
00:51Chamfer share the same menu.
00:53In fact whichever command we use last becomes the default icon right here.
00:58Now, Chamfer works just like Fillet.
01:00AutoCAD wants me to pick two lines.
01:02Before I do that I need to enter some values.
01:05There are two ways to create a Chamfer in AutoCAD.
01:08There is the Distance method and the Angle method.
01:10We're going to look at Angle first.
01:12I'm going to right-click and select Angle from the menu, and then for my first
01:17chamfer length, I'm going to type 3 inches and hit Enter, and then for my
01:22chamfer angle, I'm going to type 45 for 45 degrees and hit Enter.
01:27Now I can select my two lines.
01:29Here's how it works.
01:31When I select my first line AutoCAD is going to measure back those 3 inches from
01:36the corner, and when I select my second line AutoCAD is going to rotate 45
01:41degrees from that point to create the chamfer.
01:44Let's go ahead and chamfer the other side. I'm going to hit the Spacebar to go
01:48back into the chamfer command.
01:50Notice AutoCAD remembers my previous settings, so I can select this line and
01:55this one to create the other chamfer.
01:58Let's look at something else.
01:59I'm going to pan my drawing over.
02:02Notice I've got a very deep countertop on either side of my sinks.
02:07In fact, if we look at this dimension we can see the difference is 8 inches.
02:11I would like to create a chamfer or a taper on this countertop such that my
02:15transition isn't quite so abrupt.
02:17Let's use the Chamfer command again and this time we're going to look at
02:20the Distance method.
02:21I'm going to launch the command and then we'll right-click and select
02:26Distance from the menu.
02:28For my first chamfer distance, I'm going to type 8 inches and hit Enter and for
02:33my second chamfer distance I'm going to type 12 inches and hit Enter.
02:38Once again now I can select my lines.
02:40Here's how it works.
02:42When I select my first line, AutoCAD is going to measure back from the corner,
02:46my first distance, which was 8 inches, and then when I select my second line,
02:50AutoCAD is going to measure back from the corner of my second distance, which
02:53was 12 inches, and then it's going to use those measurements to create the
02:57Chamfer, and that is a much nicer transition than what we had before.
03:02Let's take care of the other side.
03:03Once again I'm going to hit the Spacebar to go back into Chamfer.
03:06AutoCAD remembers my distances.
03:08So I will select this line and this one to create my Chamfer.
03:14The Chamfer command gives us yet another choice when dealing with
03:16intersecting geometry.
03:18If a sharp or rounded corner isn't acceptable for our design, we can also use
03:22the Chamfer command to create beveled corners.
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Using the Array command to create copies in a rotated pattern
00:00Creating manual copies of our entities can be tedious, especially if the
00:04copies also need to be rotated.
00:06In this lesson, we're going to learn how to use the Array command to copy our
00:09geometry into a rotational pattern.
00:12Now, on my screen I've got a simple drawing consisting of a roundtable and a chair.
00:17Let's say I would like to create some copies of this chair around the outside of the table.
00:21Well if I was to do this manually, it would be very tedious.
00:24I mean I could copy the chair to each location, but then I would also have to
00:28come back and rotate each one.
00:30Instead I'm going to use the Array command to create my copies in a single step.
00:35Array is located right up here in the Modify panel of our ribbon.
00:38When I launched the command it brings up the Array dialog box where I can build my Array.
00:44Notice there are two Array types, the Rectangular and the Polar Array.
00:48We are going to be looking at the Polar Array.
00:51This will create rotated copies.
00:54Let's come over and click the Select Objects button, and I can select the object
00:57that I'd like to copy.
00:58In this case I'll grab the chair and right-click.
01:01Now a center point.
01:02At what point that I like copy this chair around?
01:05I'm going to click the Pick Center Point button, and I'll grab the center of my table.
01:11Now, Total number of items, how many chairs do I want when I'm finished?
01:15Right now this is set to 4.
01:16I'm going to leave that as it is and Angle to fill. Currently this is 360,
01:22meaning I am making my copies around a full 360 degree circle.
01:26Take a look at the right side of the dialog box.
01:28Over here I can see a rough preview of what my Array is going to look like.
01:33If I make a change, for instance we'll change this to 90 degree, and
01:37I'll click in the other field,
01:40notice my preview shows four objects copied around to 90-degree angle.
01:44Let's set this back to 360, and I'll click Preview.
01:49Now this looks pretty good.
01:51Take a look at my command line.
01:52Notice I'm in Preview mode.
01:54That means if I like the Array I can right-click to accept it.
01:58If I'd like to make a change I can hit the Escape key on my keyboard to bring
02:02back the dialog box.
02:04Let's make a change.
02:04I'm going to set this to 6 chairs and click Preview.
02:09That's not too bad.
02:10I think we can fit one more.
02:11I'm going to hit Escape again and we'll change this to 7 and I'll click Preview.
02:17That looks pretty good.
02:18When I'm happy with my Array I can right-click.
02:21I am sure you'll agree that making rotated copies of this way is much faster
02:25than doing it manually.
02:27Now that we understand the workflow behind the Polar Array, let's try and use
02:31this tool in another example.
02:32I'm going to pan my drawing over, and on my screen I've got a mechanical drawing.
02:39On the right side I've got a finished gear, and on the left side I have
02:43got some unfinished line work.
02:44I've drawn just enough to create the gear.
02:47I can take this geometry and finish the drawing using the Polar Array command.
02:51Let's start with this circle.
02:52I'm going to launch Array, I'm going to click Select objects and we will grab
02:58the circle and right-click.
03:00Let's click the Pick Center point button, and I would like to create my copies
03:05around the center of this circle.
03:08I'll move the dialog box over.
03:10Looks like I want six items when I'm done so I'll set this to 6.
03:15360 degree arc is fine. Let's click Preview.
03:19That looks good. I will right-click to accept the Array.
03:22Now, let's do the teeth.
03:24Notice I have created the geometry for a single tooth and gap.
03:28Let's copy this geometry around to finish the gear.
03:31Once again I'll launch the Array command, we'll click Select objects, and I'm
03:35going to make a window around this geometry and right-click.
03:38Center point, AutoCAD is remembering the previous center point so that's fine.
03:42Now Total number of items, let me slide this over, I can see that I need 30 teeth.
03:48So I'll set this to 30.
03:51We'll click Preview.
03:52That's exactly what I want.
03:53I will right-click to accept my Polar Array.
03:56Keep your eyes open for objects that fall into a rotational pattern.
04:00By creating a Polar Array, you can easily avoid doing a bunch of manual copying.
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Using the Array command to create copies in a rectangular pattern
00:00The Array command can also be used to create copies that are organized
00:04into columns and rows.
00:05In this lesson we are going to learn how to create a Rectangular array.
00:10On my screen, I've got an architectural example.
00:12This is a drawing of a hotel meeting room.
00:14As you can see the room is essentially empty.
00:17I do have a table over here with two chairs for the presenters and over here
00:22I've got a small table and three chairs for the audience.
00:25Now, I would like to fill this room with tables and chairs and since my copies
00:30are to be arranged into rows and columns, this is a perfect opportunity to
00:34create a rectangular array.
00:36The Array command is located in the Modify panel of our ribbon.
00:41When I launched the tool it brings up the Array dialog box. Notice there are two
00:45different Array types, Rectangular and Polar.
00:48We're going to create a Rectangular Array, since our copies will fall into a
00:53rectangular pattern.
00:54I'm going to come down and click Select objects button and I'll select the
00:58objects I'd like to copy.
00:59I'm going to create a crossing window and grab this table and the three chairs
01:05and I'll right-click.
01:06Now how many rows do I want?
01:09Take a look at the icon.
01:10Rows run horizontally on our screen.
01:12I'm going to move this dialog box over.
01:15I believe I can fit three rows.
01:17So we'll set this to 3 and I'll click in the Column field.
01:21Take a look at my preview over on the right side of the dialog box.
01:25This gives me a rough idea of what my Array is going to look like.
01:29For right now I'm going to stick with 4 Columns.
01:31Let's come down and look at Row and Column offset.
01:34First of all, Row offset.
01:37I would like my tables to meet edge to edge.
01:40So you would think the Row offset would be 0. Notice that's not the case.
01:46What this value essentially means is how far do you want to copy this object up
01:51to create your next row?
01:52Since my table is 6 feet 9 inches, I am going to set my Row offset to 6 feet 9 inches,
01:59and then my tables will touch edge to edge.
02:02Now, Column offset, how far do I want to copy this geometry over to create my next column?
02:07Well I can see the distance from the front edge of the table to the back of
02:11the chairs is 3 feet.
02:13Maybe I'd like 3 feet of walking space between the columns so I'm going to set
02:18my Column Offset to 6 feet.
02:21Let's come down to click Preview.
02:23Now that doesn't look too bad. Take a look at my command line.
02:26Notice I'm in Preview mode right now.
02:28If I like the Array the way it is, I can right-click to accept it.
02:32If I like to make some changes, I can hit the Escape key on my keyboard to bring
02:37back the dialog box.
02:38I'm going to hit the Escape key, because I would like to add one more column.
02:43Let's change this to 5 and I'll click Preview again. There we go.
02:48That looks perfect.
02:49I'm happy with the Array I'm going to right-click to accept it.
02:53As you can see the Array command is yet another way to create copies of your geometry.
02:57It's the perfect tool to use when your copies are arranged in a predefined pattern.
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Creating mirrored copies of geometry
00:00In this lesson, we're going to learn how to get twice as much work done in half
00:03the time by using the Mirror command.
00:06Mirror allows us to create symmetrical copies of our geometry.
00:10If you look at my screen, you can see I've got some simple line work.
00:12We're going to use more to use this geometry to learn how the Mirror command works.
00:17What I have is a polyline that represents one half of a wine glass and since
00:22this wine glass is symmetrical, I don't have to draw the other side.
00:26Instead, I can finish this drawing by creating a mirrored copy.
00:30Now, what does AutoCAD need to create a mirrored copy?
00:33Well, it needs an entity and it needs a line segment that defines our mirror line.
00:38Let's try it. I'm going to launch the Mirror command right here in the Modify panel.
00:43Then I will select the object I'd like to copy and right-click and then
00:47I'll click one endpoint of my mirror line and I'll come down and click the other endpoint.
00:52Finally, do I want to erase my source object?
00:55I don't have to keep it if I don't want to.
00:57In this case, I would like to keep it, so I'm going to right-click and select No to the erase.
01:04Now that we understand the workflow behind the Mirror command, let's try and use
01:08this tool in a practical example.
01:09I'm going to pan my drawing over and on my screen I've got some unfinished
01:14geometry that represents a skateboard.
01:17Let's see if we can finish this drawing using the Mirror command.
01:20I would like to start by mirroring this wheel to the other side.
01:24So I'm going to create a line segment down the middle of my board to define my mirror line.
01:30Let's launch the Line command and I'm going to create my line from the Midpoint
01:35of this end of the board to the Midpoint of this end.
01:39Then I'll launch the Mirror command and I'm going to select my geometry using a
01:45window and right-click and then I'll grab this endpoint of my mirror line and
01:51I'll grab this endpoint.
01:53Finally, I'll right-click and select No to the erase.
01:56All right, I don't need my mirror line anymore.
01:58Let's click the Erase icon and we'll select this guy and get rid of him, and
02:03you know what, we don't actually have to have a physical line segment to create a
02:07mirrored copy. Instead all we need are the object snaps.
02:11Let's try and mirror this hardware to the other side of the board and this time
02:15we'll do it without having a physical line.
02:18Once again, I'm going to launch the Mirror command and I'm going to create a
02:21window around all of this hardware and right-click.
02:25Now the first point of my mirror line is going to be the Midpoint on this
02:30side of the board and my other mirror line point is going to be the Midpoint of the side.
02:36And then I'll right-click and select No.
02:39Remember that every time you're working with symmetrical geometry, you've got an
02:42opportunity to use the Mirror command and if you use it properly you'll be
02:46making AutoCAD do half of your work.
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Stretching elements
00:00In this lesson, we're going to learn how to quickly revise our geometry.
00:04We'll do that by using the Stretch command.
00:06Stretch allows us to press or pull parts of our line work.
00:10If you look at my screen, you can see I've got a small part and this guy
00:13measures 6 inches long.
00:16Let's say I would like to extend or stretch these arms another 6 inches to the right.
00:22To do that, I'm going to launch the Stretch command.
00:24Stretch is located right here in the Modify panel.
00:28Now that I've launched the tool, take a look at my command line.
00:31Notice AutoCAD is requiring us to make our selection using a crossing window.
00:36So I'm going to click right here and here is the trick.
00:40You only want to include the endpoints that you want to move in your selection.
00:44So I'm going to click right here to finish my window and then I'll right-click.
00:49Let's pick the geometry up from this endpoint and notice as I move my cursor
00:53I am stretching the endpoints that fell within my selection.
00:56Now this isn't very accurate.
00:59Let's come down and turn on the Ortho and I'll pull this to the right and
01:03types 6 inches, Enter.
01:06Let's make one more change.
01:07This time, I would like to stretch this arm 4 inches back to the left.
01:12Once again, I'll launch the Stretch command.
01:14I will select the endpoints I'd like to move and right-click.
01:19I will pick the geometry up from here and I will pull back to the left and types 4 inches.
01:25Now be careful of your running object snaps. Even though I've entered 4 inches,
01:30because of the location of my cursor AutoCAD is looking at the
01:34endpoint of that line.
01:36So if I hit Enter, absolutely nothing happens. Instead as I pull to the left,
01:41I'm going to move my cursor up high enough so the object snap doesn't get in my way.
01:46Now I'll type 4 inches and hit Enter and it works just fine.
01:51Always be mindful of your running object snaps.
01:53Now that we understand the workflow behind the Stretch command, let's try and
01:57use this tool in a practical example.
01:59I'm going to pan my drawing over and let's assume I'm a furniture designer and
02:06I'm working on a small coffee table.
02:08I'd like to make some changes to this geometry.
02:11First of all, I can see this table is 19 inches tall.
02:14Let's make the table a little bit shorter.
02:16To do that, I'm going to launch the Stretch command and I'm going to make a
02:20crossing selection around the bottom of the table.
02:24I'll then right-click and I'll grab the leg and I'll pull up.
02:28I'm being mindful of my object snaps end let's make this table 3 inches shorter.
02:33I want to make another change.
02:35Maybe I'd like to move this edge beneath the drawer one inch down.
02:39I'm going to hit my Spacebar to go back into Stretch.
02:42I'm going to make a crossing window around these endpoints.
02:45I'll then select this endpoint and I'll pull down and type 1 inch.
02:52Finally, I'd like to make this table 6 inches shorter overall.
02:56I wish we could do it all from one side, but unfortunately we can't do a
02:59symmetrical stretch.
03:01So I'm going to have to take 3 inches off of either side.
03:04Let's hit the Spacebar to go back into the command.
03:07I'm going to make my crossing selection and when I have to pick up my
03:11geometry, I don't have to use a point right on the object.
03:15I can pick a point in space if I like and pull to the right.
03:18In fact, this is actually the method I prefer to use.
03:21This way my running object snaps can't get in the way.
03:24Let's type 3 inches and finally I'm going to hit my Spacebar.
03:28I will select this side of the part and right-click.
03:31I'm going to pick it up from a point right down here and pull to the left and
03:35we'll type 3 inches.
03:37As you can see, by using the Stretch command you can make significant changes to
03:41your geometry in absolutely no time.
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Scaling elements
00:00If you've ever used a copy machine to make enlargements or reductions of images,
00:04you are already familiar with the concept of scale.
00:07Just like we can make our images larger or smaller using a copy machine, we can
00:11make our geometry larger or smaller by using the Scale command.
00:14Now on my screen, I've got a drawing of a handheld video game.
00:18Let' say there has been a design change that requires us to make our
00:21thumb controls smaller.
00:24To resize this geometry, I'm going to use the Scale command.
00:28Let's zoom in a little bit and Scale is located right here in the Modify panel.
00:34After I'll launch the tool, I will select the objects I'd like to resize and
00:39then I'll right-click.
00:40Now Auto CAD wants a basic point. That is the point about which my part is going
00:45to get larger or smaller.
00:48I'm going to select the center of the circle and notice as I drag my cursor
00:51I'm getting the rubber band effect.
00:54I could free pick a point on screen to change the size of my part, but instead
00:58I'm going to use a value.
01:00Notice the default value is 1.
01:011 represents no change.
01:03It's a one-to-one scale.
01:06Let's say I'd like to make this thumb control half as big.
01:08I'm going to type .5 and hit Enter.
01:12That's obviously too small.
01:13Let's scale it up a little bit.
01:15I'm going to launch the Scale command and at the Select Objects prompt,
01:19I'm going to type p and hit Enter to reselect my geometry.
01:23Let's right-click to finish our selection and this time I would like to scale my
01:27geometry from the Midpoint of this side.
01:32This way as my part gets larger,
01:34it will always maintain the same distance to that left edge.
01:37I'm going to make this guy two and a half times larger than its current size.
01:41So I'm going to type 2.5 and hit Enter.
01:46This is an example of using the Scale command for a design change.
01:50Scale also comes in handy when we have trouble with our drawing units.
01:54Let's look at an example.
01:55I'm going to close this drawing and I'm not going to save.
01:59Let's come up and click the Open icon and we're going to look inside the
02:03exercise files folder.
02:05We'll go into the Chapter_09 directory and I would like to open up both of these drawings.
02:10I'm going to select the ball_field and then I'm going to hold my Shift key and
02:13select a baseball_bat and we'll click Open.
02:17This opens both drawings in my interface.
02:19Now I would like to see these guys side by side of my screen.
02:22So I'm going to go to the View tab on my ribbon and then we'll come down to the
02:26Windows panel and select Tile Vertically.
02:28All right, let's clean up the view a little bit.
02:31Currently, my left window is active so I'm going to zoom out a little bit and
02:35we'll center this guy.
02:36And then I will click in this window to put the focus on that one and I'll zoom
02:40out a little bit and center.
02:43The drawing of the left represents a standard little league baseball field and
02:47this geometry was created such that each unit equals 1 foot.
02:52I can see that by launching the Units command. We can see it right here.
02:59Now the drawing on the right was created such that each unit equals 1 inch.
03:05Once again, we'll verify that.
03:11I'm going to select the baseball bat and then I will click and hold on this
03:15highlighted line and then we'll drag this geometry into the other drawing.
03:20Let's zoom in and notice my problem.
03:23You see AutoCAD only sees units.
03:26In this drawing, the bat was 32.
03:28Well, that 32 means 32 inches.
03:30When the bat came over, it's still 32 but in this drawing it's 32 feet, which is
03:3512 times larger than it needs to be.
03:38To correct this, I'm going to use the Scale command.
03:41Let's go back to the Home tab. I'm going to launch Scale and I'll select my
03:45bat and right-click.
03:46I'm going to scale it from the endpoint down here, any point is fine and from my
03:51scale factor I'm going to type 1/12 and hit Enter.
03:57Let's use the Move command and we'll select the bat.
04:00We'll pick it up from any object snap and we'll place it right down here next to
04:04home plate and we can see this guy is now appropriately sized for this drawing.
04:09Whether we need to resize our entities as part of the design change or to
04:13correct a difference in drawing units, we can accurately make our entities
04:16larger or smaller by using the Scale command.
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Leveraging grips
00:00Grips are probably the most versatile tool in AutoCAD.
00:03We can use them to make quick revisions to our geometry.
00:06In fact, we can use grips to accomplish nearly every modification command we've
00:10talked about so far.
00:12Let's take a look at how they work.
00:13On my screen, I've got a drawing of a handheld video game and off to the side
00:17I've got some scrap geometry.
00:19We are to use this line work to explore the concept of grips.
00:23I am going to start by selecting this line and notice these little blue squares.
00:28These guys are called grips and they act a lot like handles.
00:31Now this feature should be on by default.
00:34In the event you select your line and you don't see these grips, let me show you
00:37where you can go to turn the feature back on.
00:40First of all I am going to hit Escape to deselect this line and then I'm going
00:44to right-click in the middle of the screen and we'll come down to Options and if
00:48we go to the Selection tab, the Enable grips setting is right here.
00:53You want to make sure there's a check in that box.
00:56Let's click OK and as long as we're talking about settings, let's also make sure
01:01that our Dynamic Input is turned on.
01:04Dynamic Input will give us additional functionality for the grips.
01:07I am going to reselect this line and watch this.
01:11If I place my cursor over this end, I can use this grip to query my geometry.
01:16Notice I can see my line length and the angle at which the line was drawn.
01:20Let's select this circle.
01:22I will hover over this grip.
01:24AutoCAD will tell me the radius.
01:26I am going to select this arc and I'll hover over this grip. I can see the
01:31radius of my arc and the arc's concluded angle.
01:34So we can use grips to find out geometric information about our line work.
01:39To clear these grips and deselect the entities, I am going to hit the
01:42Escape key on my keyboard.
01:44Let's look at how we can use grips to change our geometry.
01:47Once again, I am going to select this line and I am going to place my cursor
01:51over this grip and click.
01:53This makes the grip hot and notice I have got some fields.
01:57There are actually four fields here.
01:59The first one represents the amount of change I'd like to make to my line length.
02:04If I hit my Tab key, this field will let me change the total length of the line.
02:10Let me hit Tab again.
02:11This field is a little bit hidden but it represents the total angle of the line.
02:16Let me hit Tab again.
02:18This guy represents the amount of change I'd like to make to the angle.
02:22Let's make this line segment two units long.
02:24I am going to hit my Tab key until I get to the total length field. I will type 2 and hit Enter.
02:31If I hover over this grip, I can see it's now two units long.
02:34I want to change one more thing.
02:36Let's set this guy to a zero degree angle.
02:38I am going to select my grip, I am going to hit Tab, Tab, until I get to the
02:43total angle, I will set this to 0 and hit Enter.
02:47Let's make a change to our circle.
02:48I will select this guy, I will then click to select this grip and notice I have two fields.
02:55One represents the total length of the radius and the other one represents the
02:59amount I'd like to change my radius.
03:02In this case, let's change the Radius to 1.25 and I'll hit Enter.
03:07Once again, I will select the grip, and I am going to hit Tab and then I'm going
03:11to pull in this direction and I would like to change the radius to 0.25, Enter.
03:18Notice this guy now has a radius of one.
03:21Finally we'll make a change to the arc.
03:23I will select it and if we want to make numeric changes to an arc, we have to
03:27use the triangular grips.
03:30Let me click right here. Notice I can change the radius.
03:33I am going to change this to 1.25 and hit Enter.
03:38If I click one of these end triangles, I can change the start or end angle of
03:43my arc, or I can free pick a point on screen to adjust my arc length.
03:48Once again I can deselect these by hitting the Escape key on my keyboard.
03:52Now there are even more changes we can make to our geometry using grips.
03:56Let's look at a couple more.
03:57I am going to select line and then I'll select this grip and make it hot.
04:03Then I'll right-click and take a look at the menu.
04:06Notice that I can Move, Mirror, Rotate, Scale, or Stretch this geometry.
04:10I am going to select Move. Notice I am moving this line and I am holding it from
04:15the location of the grip.
04:17If I right-click, I can select Rotate.
04:19I am now rotating the line around that grip.
04:21Let me right-click again and select Scale, I am now scaling this line based on that grip.
04:28Take some time and explore some of the other modification settings available in this menu.
04:33Before we leave, I am going to rotate this line.
04:35I am going to select Rotate, and we will rotate him 10 degrees and I'll hit Enter.
04:40Now that we have a working knowledge of grips, let's try and use them in
04:43a practical example.
04:45Let's take a look at this handheld game over to the left.
04:49Maybe I would like to change its screen size.
04:52Let's select this geometry and I'll hover over this grip and I can see the
04:56screen currently measures 1.7 inches wide by 1.6 inches tall.
05:02Let's make this screen 1.75 inches tall.
05:06I can do that by selecting this grip and then I will hit my Tab key until I get
05:10the total length of the vertical line and we'll type 1.75 and hit Enter.
05:17That takes care of one side. I will then select to this grip and I'll hit my
05:21Tab key until I get the overall length of the other vertical line, and I will
05:26type 1.75 and hit Enter and I can see that we've successfully changed the
05:31geometry of our screen.
05:33Let's make one more change.
05:34I am going to hit Escape to deselect this line work.
05:37Maybe I'd like to move this button a quarter of an inch closer to the screen.
05:42To do that, I am going to zoom in little bit.
05:44I am going to make a window and select this geometry.
05:47I will then select the grip and right-click.
05:50We'll select Move from the menu, and this won't be very accurate, so I am going
05:56to lock my Ortho, and then I will pull straight up and type 0.25 and hit Enter.
06:02Using grips can be one of the fastest ways to make changes to your geometry.
06:06In fact, grips can do much more than what we've seen here.
06:10If you know how to use these little blue handles, you are well on your way to
06:13understanding future concepts, like dynamic blocks, or 3-D modeling.
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Exploding elements
00:00In this lesson, we are going to learn how to explode our geometry.
00:03Now when you think of the word explode, you might expect to see something
00:06spectacular happening on the screen.
00:08I am afraid that's not the case.
00:10What exploding does is convert our compound objects back into their
00:14individual components.
00:15Let's take a look at how it works.
00:17On my screen, I've got some simple shapes.
00:20I created this geometry using the Rectangle command.
00:23I created this pentagon using the Polygon command and I've also created a
00:28circle and some hatch.
00:29Now if I select this geometry, notice AutoCAD treats it as a single object and
00:34even though I used the Rectangle command to make it,
00:37if I come over my Property Changer, I can see AutoCAD is viewing this object as
00:41a polyline or a multi-segmented line.
00:44Let's hit Escape to deselect and I am going to select to this polygon.
00:48Notice it's also treated as a single shape and once again AutoCAD views this as a polyline.
00:54Finally let's take a look at this hatch pattern.
00:56Even though it looks like we have a lot of line work here, if I select this,
01:00AutoCAD is treating all of this hatch as a single object.
01:03Let's try and explode this geometry.
01:06To do that, I am going to use the Explode command.
01:08The icon is located right here in the Modify panel.
01:11I will then select to the objects I'd like to explode and right-click and when I do,
01:18if I select these objects, you can see that they've been reduced to their
01:22individual components.
01:24These entities are now simple lines.
01:26I am going to hit Escape again to deselect this geometry and let's explode our hatch.
01:32I will launch the Explode command.
01:35We'll select the hatch and right-click.
01:37Now let me say, you never want to explode hatch. Because if you do, it reverts to
01:42individual line segments and you will always have more control over your hatch
01:47if it's still considered a hatch object.
01:49Now you may be wondering when you would ever want to explode your geometry.
01:52Well, let's pan our drawing over and we'll try and use this command in
01:58a practical example.
01:59One my screen, I have got a drawing of a standard light switch cover.
02:03Let's see if we can reproduce this geometry.
02:05I am going to start out by creating a rectangle and then I'll pick right here
02:09for my first corner, I'm going to right -click and select dimensions and I can
02:13see the length of my rectangle is going to be 2.6 and I can see the width of my
02:20rectangle is going to be 4.5.
02:24Finally, I'll move my cursor over here and click to set my opposite corner.
02:29Now let's reproduce this centerline.
02:30I am going to launch the Line command and I am going to create a line from the
02:36midpoint of the top, to the midpoint of the bottom of bottom.
02:42Let's take a look at this rectangular shaped hole.
02:45I can see that it has a width of 0.4.
02:48Let's offset our centerline half the distance either way.
02:51I'm going to launch Offset and my offset distance is going to be 0.2, Enter.
02:59I will select this line and offset in this direction.
03:01I will select the line again and we'll offset in this direction and when I'm
03:05finished, I'll hit Escape.
03:07Now to get the top edge of this hole, I'm going to offset the top edge of my part down 1.75.
03:14Here is the problem.
03:15If I attempt to offset this edge, I'm going to end up offsetting the entire rectangle.
03:20Instead, let me deselect this.
03:23I'm going to explode the rectangle and now I can offset each of the
03:29lines individually.
03:30I am going to launch the Offset command again.
03:32I am going to type 1.75.
03:36I'll offset this line down.
03:38I am going to select Offset again, and I am going to type in a distance of one and hit Enter.
03:44We'll offset this down to get the bottom edge and when I am finished, I am going
03:47to hit Escape, and we'll clean up our geometry using the Trim command.
03:52For cutting objects I'm going to click right here and make a crossing window
03:56around all of this geometry, and a right-click and I'll use a crossing window
04:00to remove these edges and these edges and then I'll remove these four lines individually.
04:08When I am finished, I'll hit Escape.
04:10Finally let's find the centers of these circles.
04:13Once again I am going to offset the top- down and bottom-up to find those locations.
04:18Let's launch Offset and my previous distance is good so I am going to hit
04:22Enter to except that.
04:24I would like to offset the top-edge down.
04:26Once again that would not be possible if we didn't explode the rectangle.
04:30Let's grab this bottom edge and we'll offset it up and I'll hit Escape.
04:34Finally we will create our circles.
04:36I am going to create my circle from the intersection here and it has a radius of 0.13.
04:42I am going to hit my Spacebar to back into circle.
04:46I am going to create another one at the intersection here, and then I will hit
04:50Enter to except the previous radius.
04:53Finally we will clean up after ourselves.
04:54I am going to launch the Erase command.
04:56I am going to create a crossing window and select all of this geometry, and then
05:01I am going to hold my Shift key and make a window around the stuff I'd like to
05:04deselect, and then I will right-click.
05:07If the time comes when you want to convert an object back to its individual parts,
05:11 use the Explode command.
05:12While it may not be spectacular to watch, it is the best tool to use for the job.
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Joining elements together
00:00Sometimes it can be easier to work with your line work if you join it together.
00:04In this lesson, we are going to look at the Pedit command.
00:07Pedit allows us to join entities into a single polyline.
00:10On my screen I have got some geometry that represents a simple part and I'm just
00:15about finished with this drawing.
00:16In fact, the only thing I have left to do is trim up some line work.
00:20So I'm going to launch the Trim command and for my cutting objects, I am going
00:24to select all of this geometry and right-click and then I'll trim off these
00:29lines, these lines, these, and these and I'll hit Escape.
00:35Now that my part is finished, let's take a look at it.
00:38I am going to select some of these entities and this is supposed to represent
00:43a part but unfortunately the computer is looking at it as a bunch of
00:46individual segments.
00:48Instead I'd like to join all of this geometry together into a single polyline.
00:53To do that, I am going to use the Pedit command.
00:56Pedit is located in the Modify panel.
00:58We will have to click this flyout to access the icon and once I launch the tool,
01:03I can select one of my segments and AutoCAD says, hey that's not polyline.
01:08Do you want to turn it into one?
01:10I'm going to right-click to accept yes.
01:12Now the Pedit command does a lot of things.
01:15For right now we re going to look at the Join option.
01:17So I'm going to select Join from the menu.
01:21I will then select the objects I'd like to join to my segment and right-click
01:25and then to exit the Pedit command, I'll hit the Escape key.
01:28Now, if I select this geometry, I can see that AutoCAD is viewing it as a single polyline.
01:34If we join our line work together, it's easier to Move, Rotate, Offset, even Erase.
01:40Let me mention this.
01:41Your line work must meet end- to-end in order for it to join.
01:45If you're having trouble joining your segments together, take a closer look at your geometry.
01:50Now that we understand how to join segments together using Pedit, let's try and
01:54use this tool in a practical example.
01:58On my screen, I've got an architectural drawing. This happens to be a light
02:02fixture detail that I've been working on.
02:04I am going to zoom in a little bit closer and you can see that my fixture is
02:07finished and the wall plate is finished.
02:10Right now I have a centerline that represents the conduit that will connect the
02:14light of the building.
02:16Now this is supposed to be a one-inch conduit.
02:19So I would like to offset this centerline.
02:22Unfortunately that's going to be difficult because right now these are a bunch
02:25of individual segments.
02:27To make my offset little bit easier, I'm first going to join all these
02:30segments into a polyline.
02:33So I am going to launch Pedit.
02:35I will then select a segment and right- click, we will select Join and then I'll
02:41select the objects I would like to join together.
02:43I've got a small one right over here and when I'm finished, I will right-click.
02:50And very important.
02:51Take a look at the command line.
02:52Notice AutoCAD says, three segments added to polyline.
02:56That's a good thing.
02:57That means the command worked.
02:58If you see zero segments added to polyline, it means it didn't join and you have
03:02got a problem with your geometry.
03:04Let's hit the Escape key to get out of the command and then we will offset the centerline.
03:08I am going to launch the Offset command and I'd like this to be one-inch conduit.
03:14So I'm going to set my distance to 1/2 inch inch.
03:16I will then select my polyline and click to the outside.
03:22I'll select my polyline again and click to the inside and then I don't need my
03:26centerline anymore. I am going to launch the Erase command and we will select
03:30this geometry and erase.
03:32Use the Pedit command to your advantage.
03:34If you think you may need to move or rotate or offset your geometry,
03:38it might be best to join it together into a single polyline.
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Editing hatch patterns
00:00You might think that since Hatch is treated as a single object, it must be hard to edit.
00:04That is not the case.
00:06The Hatch patterns in AutoCAD are very easy to modify, even if they've lost
00:10their associativity.
00:12In this lesson, we are going to learn how to edit our Hatch.
00:14On my screen, I have got a polyline that I created using the Rectangle tool and
00:20inside the shape I've created some Hatch.
00:23First, I'd like to talk about how we can change the appearance of our Hatch pattern.
00:27One way to do that is by double-clicking on the Hatch object. This brings up our
00:31Hatch Edit dialog box and from here we could change our Hatch Pattern, we could
00:36change the Angle, Scale as well as other settings.
00:40Let's click Cancel because I want to show you another way we can edit our Hatch.
00:44If I select this Hatch Pattern and go to my Property Changer, notice right here,
00:49underneath the Pattern group, I can change my Hatch Pattern, my Angle, my Scale,
00:54as well as other settings.
00:57As long as we are here, let's change the Pattern.
00:59I'm going to click in the Pattern name field and then I will click the Ellipsis
01:02button and we will change this to ANSI37 and click OK. And then I will hit Escape
01:09to deselect the Hatch.
01:11Now this Hatch is associative to this polyline.
01:14Meaning if the polyline changes, the Hatch will go along for the ride.
01:17I am going to select the polyline and click one of these grips and I am going to
01:22pull the grip over here and notice that the pattern changes.
01:25Let's try something catastrophic.
01:27I am going to launch my Erase command and I'm going to select my polyline and right-click.
01:35If you look at the command line, we can see that our Hatch associativity has been removed.
01:39Obviously, because the boundary is gone.
01:41Now you might think that this hatch is completely worthless at this point. Watch this.
01:47If I select the hatch, notice that AutoCAD remembers the previous boundary.
01:53Take a look at these grips on the corners.
01:56If I select a grip, I can pull it someplace else on my screen and click.
02:01If I'd like to remove this corner, I can select it and then I can tap the Ctrl key
02:06on my keyboard and AutoCAD will toggle to Remove mode.
02:10Notice I have got a little minus sign by my cursor.
02:13Also notice we can see the effect of the remove over here.
02:16If I want to get rid of the corner, I can simply click on screen.
02:20So using the Ctrl key, I can toggle between move or remove my corners.
02:25Take a look at the grips between the corners.
02:27This is called an Edge Grip.
02:30If I select this and pull out, I can click again to create a new corner and two new edges.
02:36Let me grab this edge and pullout.
02:40If I tap my Ctrl key, I can toggle between Corner mode and Arc mode.
02:46The Ctrl key acts just like a toggle.
02:48We can hit it once.
02:49We can hit it again.
02:50We can change back and forth.
02:51I am going to place my arc right here. Knowing what we know now, let's try and
02:57use these Hatch Edit tools in a practical example.
03:00I am going to pan my drawing over and on my screen I have got a mechanical
03:05part that's obviously been modified.
03:07We can see that the Hatch obviously was not associative.
03:11Instead of erasing this hatch and starting over, let's see if we can modify
03:14this existing pattern.
03:15I am going to select it and then I am going to grab this corner and place it here.
03:21I will grab this corner and place it here.
03:23We will grab the edge grip and I'm going to place this to the quadrant right here.
03:30I will grab this corner and place it to the endpoint.
03:33Replace this one to the endpoint here.
03:36This one to the endpoint here.
03:38We will get this one and then we will finish the outside of the part by grabbing
03:43this edge and I will place it to the quadrant here.
03:49Now it looks like the original part had a slot. It looks like the slot has been
03:53converted into a hole.
03:54So I'm going to have to remove some of these corners.
03:58To do that I'm going to select the corner and then I'm going to tap my Ctrl key
04:02to toggle to Remove mode and then I'll pick on screen.
04:06I will select this one as well and tap Ctrl and pick on screen and then
04:12we'll select this edge.
04:14I will tap control to get an arc and I will place it to the quadrant right here,
04:21and when I'm finished, I will hit Escape.
04:24As you can see, even if your Hatch loses its relationship to the geometry,
04:28it's still very easy to edit and can easily conform to a new shape.
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10. Organizing Drawings
Understanding layers
00:00Layers are used in AutoCAD to organize our drawings.
00:04By placing our entities on different layers, we have the ability to turn
00:07linework on and off, as well as control colors, line types and line weights.
00:12On my screen, I have got a mechanical example and I'm sure you'll agree that
00:15there's a lot of linework in this drawing.
00:18Let's pretend for a second that I created this drawing using a traditional paper and pencil.
00:22And let's say I gave the drawing to you and you looked at it and said, you know what?
00:26This drawing is kind of busy.
00:28Can I get a copy of this without the dimensions?
00:30Well, unless I get some white-out or an eraser, there's really no way I can give
00:35you that drawing because everything exists on that paper.
00:38Let's look it at a different way.
00:40What if I drew my part geometry on the paper and then what if I laid a clear sheet
00:45of plastic over my drawing and then I drew my dimensions on the plastic.
00:49Now, if you wanted to see a copy of that drawing without dimensions, we can
00:53simply peel back the plastic and the dimensions are gone.
00:56That is exactly how layers work.
00:59Each layer represents a clear sheet of plastic and we use layers to organize our drawing.
01:05We can put dimensions on their own layer.
01:06We can put centerlines on a layer.
01:09We can put notes or drawing components on a layer.
01:12Having logical layers also gives more control when we plot.
01:16As an example, the drawing that we are looking at on screen was created
01:20using several layers.
01:21Let's say I would like to plot this except I'd like to plot it without the dimensions.
01:26I am going to come up to the Layers panel in our Ribbon and I am going to
01:29click this flyout.
01:31This guy is my Layer control.
01:33This shows me all of the layers in my drawing.
01:35I am going to come down to the part- dimensions layer and I am going to click
01:39this light bulb to turn the layer off.
01:41Then I can click on screen to close the menu.
01:44Notice my dimensions are no longer visible.
01:46Let me pan this over a little bit and why stop there?
01:50Let's go back to the Layer control and I am going to turn off my centerlines and
01:55let's also turn off these labels.
01:57These guys are on a layer called part- labels. We will turn that off and then
02:01I will click on screen.
02:04Not only do layers give us more control when we plot, they also give us more
02:07control when we are working.
02:08I am sure you will agree that it's much easier to work on a drawing when it's
02:12uncluttered with excess information.
02:15Let's turn our layers back on.
02:16So again, we will come up to the Layer control and I will turn all of these
02:20light bulbs back on.
02:23When it comes right down to it, layers give us more control over our drawing.
02:27If we use a system of logically named layers to organize our line work, we give
02:31ourselves more options when plotting or viewing our geometry on screen.
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Creating and adjusting layers using the Layer Property Manager
00:01Once we decide we need to create some layers, the place we want to visit is the
00:04Layer Properties Manager.
00:06This is our one-stop shop for creating, managing and manipulating the layers in our drawing.
00:12Now, I have just launched my AutoCAD 2010 and if you look at the top of the screen
00:15you can see I'm currently sitting in the default AutoCAD drawing.
00:19What I'd like to do in this session is create some layers and adjust their
00:24settings and give you an idea of how the Layer Properties Manager works.
00:28So to bring up the Manager, I am going to go to the Layers panel of the Ribbon
00:32and I'm in going to click this icon and the first thing we notice,
00:36the Layer Properties Manager is huge.
00:38Now, fortunately this guy is also a palette.
00:41So if I move my cursor out, it will collapse.
00:44While it's open, I'd like you to come up and click the Auto-hide icon such that
00:48we see the double arrows.
00:50That way the palette will stay open until we come up and click this X to close it.
00:55At the top of the palette, we can see the name of the current layer. Right now it's layer 0.
01:00Anything we draw at this point will be created on the current layer.
01:05If we look over here to the right, we can see a listing of all of the layers
01:08that are in this drawing as well as their settings.
01:11Now, since this is a default blank drawing, I only have one layer, layer 0.
01:17Layer 0 is kind of a special layer.
01:20Every AutoCAD drawing starts with layer 0 and we cannot rename or delete this layer.
01:25You will always have a layer 0 in your drawing.
01:28To the right of my layer name are my layer settings, and these guys are
01:33organized into columns just like Microsoft Excel.
01:36Now unfortunately, we can't always read the text at the top of the columns.
01:41If you would like to make your columns a little wider, you can click and hold
01:44between the columns and drag them out.
01:47Better yet, if you right-click on a column header, you can come down and select
01:51Maximize all columns and then you can easily read the text for all of these.
01:57Now they do take up more space this way, so you may have to come down and click
02:01and hold on this blue slider and drag it back and forth, so you can see all of
02:06your layer settings.
02:07To adjust any of our layer settings, all we have to do is click on it.
02:12Let's take a look at this one first. On and off.
02:15I am going to click this icon to turn my layer off.
02:19When I do AutoCAD brings up a warning.
02:20It's saying, hey, you're turning off your current layer.
02:23Are you sure you want to do that?
02:25In this case, yes I do.
02:26So I will select this option.
02:29That turns off the light bulb and any geometry on this layer would no longer
02:32be visible on screen.
02:34I am going to click the light bulb again to turn the layer back on and let's
02:38take a look at this setting.
02:39This controls the color of my layer.
02:42If I click this color swatch, it brings up AutoCAD color picker where I can
02:46select from any one of 255 standard AutoCAD colors.
02:51For right now we're going to leave this layer set to the default color of white.
02:55So I am going to come down and click OK.
02:57Let's take a look at this setting, Linetype.
03:00This controls the appearance of my geometry.
03:03Is it going to look like a solid continuous line or is it going to be broken up
03:06into various sized dashes?
03:09To make an adjustment I will click and AutoCAD brings up a dialog box showing me
03:14all of the Linetypes that are loaded into this current drawing.
03:17Right now I just have the one.
03:19To load additional Linetypes, I can click the Load button and I can select from
03:23several Linetypes that come preinstalled with AutoCAD.
03:27To bring one into my drawing, I can select it and click OK.
03:31Now that it's in my drawing, I could select it to apply it to my layer.
03:35Once again I am going to leave layer 0 set to the default of Continuous and we will click OK.
03:40Finally, let's take a look at Lineweight.
03:43Let's click to make a change.
03:45This brings up my Lineweight dialog box and I can select my Lineweight that
03:49I would like the geometry on this layer to appear when it's plotted.
03:52We will talk more about Lineweights when we get into our chapter on plotting.
03:58Once again I am going to leave this set to the default and I will click OK.
04:02Let's create a new layer.
04:04To do that I am going to come up and click the New Layer icon and then I will
04:08give my layer a name.
04:09I am going to type part and hit my Enter key.
04:14Then we will assign this layer a color.
04:15Let's click the color swatch and I'll come down and select yellow and I will click OK.
04:21Finally let's set this layer Current.
04:23I am going to make sure the layer is selected and then I will click this green check,
04:27and notice we can see that the Current layer is now reflected up here.
04:31I am going to close the Manager.
04:34And as a side note, notice the Current layer is also reflected right here.
04:38Let's create some geometry.
04:39I am going to draw a circle and notice my circle is taking on the settings
04:45of the Current layer.
04:46My circle is yellow because the layer is yellow.
04:49In fact, anything I create is going to take on the settings of the current layer.
04:55Let's make a change.
04:55I am going to bring back the Manager and you know what, this wasn't supposed to
05:00be called layer part.
05:02Let's change the name.
05:03I am going to click once to select the layer and then I will click again on the
05:07name and I am going to change this to the object layer and I will hit Enter.
05:14I'm also going to change the color.
05:15Let me click the color swatch and you know what, this was supposed to be magenta.
05:19Let's click OK and we will close the Manager.
05:23Notice my geometry has taken on my new layer settings.
05:26I'm going to create a new layer.
05:29Let's bring the Layer Properties Manager.
05:31We will click the New Layer icon and I'm going to create a layer called hidden lines.
05:37Unfortunately, we can't see the entire layer name.
05:39So I am going to click between these columns and I will drag this over.
05:44Let's change the color of this layer to cyan and then let's click the Linetype setting.
05:50Since these are going to be hidden lines, I am going to come down and click Load
05:54and as long as we're here, notice all the Linetypes at the top of this list
05:58start with ACAD_ISO.
06:01Do not use these Linetypes if you are creating a drawing with imperial
06:04measurements, because these Linetypes are pre-scaled for metric.
06:08I am going to come down to the hidden line area.
06:11Notice I have three types depending on the size of the dashes I'd like.
06:15I am going to select the standard one and click OK to load it into my drawing.
06:19I will then select it and click OK to apply it to my layer.
06:24Finally, I am going to set this layer Current by clicking the green check and we
06:28will close the Manager.
06:30I am going to create some more geometry.
06:31We will make a rectangle.
06:33And since my rectangle was created on the hidden lines layer, it is taking
06:37on those properties.
06:39Let's set the 0 layer Current.
06:40That will bring back the Manager.
06:42And here's a shortcut, another way we can make a layer Current is by
06:45double-clicking on the name.
06:47Let me close the Manager and now everything I create is being created on layer 0.
06:52Let's do one more thing.
06:53I am going to launch the Erase command and I'm going to erase this geometry.
06:59I've essentially erased everything on the object layer.
07:02Let's go back to the Manager and take a look at the icons in the Status column.
07:07Notice the icon next to the object layer is grayed out.
07:10That tells me there's nothing on that layer.
07:13In this case, I can ask myself do I really need this layer anymore?
07:16If not, I can delete it.
07:18To do that I can select the layer and I can come up and click this X to delete
07:23and when I am finished, I will close the Manager.
07:25Whenever you're adding geometry to your drawing, ask yourself, is this something
07:29that needs to be a different Linetype or Lineweight?
07:32Or, is this something I may want to turn off when I print my drawing?
07:35If your answer is yes, you will want to visit your Layer Properties Manager
07:39and create a new layer.
07:41In our next lesson, we are going to explore the Layer Properties Manager a
07:44little bit deeper and we are going to create our first drawing where we organize
07:48our geometry on to logical layers.
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Using layers to organize a drawing
00:01In this lesson, we're going to create a simple drawing and we'll use the Layer
00:04Properties Manager to organize our geometry on to logical layers.
00:09If you look at my screen, you can see I've got a mechanical example. This is a
00:12drawing of a restrictor plate and this drawing was created using several layers.
00:17What I'd like to do is starting new drawing and use the Layer Properties Manager
00:21to help us re-create this file.
00:23Well we'll recreate everything except for the dimensions.
00:28So I am going to create a new drawing.
00:29We'll click the New icon and we will start using the blank acad template, and
00:36now that I have two drawings open, I am going to go to the View tab on my
00:39ribbon, and then I'll come down and select the Tile Vertically icon.
00:44So I get a side-by-side view of my drawings.
00:47Let's click in this window and we'll adjust our zoom and we'll pan this over and
00:52center it on screen, and then I will click to put the focus on this window.
00:57We'll go to the Home tab and we'll get started.
01:01The first thing I'd like to do is create some layers.
01:03I am going to come up and click my Layer Properties Manager icon, and
01:08this guy is awfully big. You know what?
01:09Since it's a palette, let's right-click on this mast.
01:14We'll make sure Allow Docking is checked and I am going to select Anchor Left.
01:18That will reduce the palette down to a single icon.
01:22Now if I want access to it, I can simply hover.
01:25It opens up and I can use the tool. I can then move away, and it will collapse.
01:29I am going to open it back up.
01:31I am going to create a new layer, and I am going to call this part and then I'll
01:37click the color swatch and I'll select yellow.
01:41And unfortunately, one of the byproducts of the collapsible palettes is it
01:44collapses when you select your color.
01:46So let me get back over the palette open it up. I am going to create another layer.
01:50I am going to call this hidden lines. We'll set its Color to magenta and
01:58we will set its Linetype to HIDDEN.
02:02I'll do that by selecting Load and then I'll choose the Linetype I want from the
02:07list and click OK. This loads the Linetype into my drawing.
02:11I can now select it from this list and click OK to apply it to my layer.
02:16Let's hit the part layer current. I will select it and click the check and
02:20then I'll move outside the palette.
02:21I am going to start by creating the outer rectangle.
02:24We'll launch the Rectangle command and I will pick a point on screen and I can
02:30see that my dimensions are 12x12.
02:36Let's take a look at these circles.
02:38Notice that each circle measures one inch from each of the adjacent edges.
02:42So I am going to use my rectangle to my advantage.
02:45I am going to launch the Offset command.
02:47I am going to type in a distance of 1 and hit Enter.
02:50I will then offset my rectangle to the inside, and then I can create a circle in
02:56all four of these corners.
02:59Looks like my radius is .5, so I'll enter that and then we will copy this circle
03:07from the endpoint to here to here to here to here.
03:11And then I will erase my extra rectangle.
03:15Now, let's offset this lower edge up 3.75 and 6 to find the centers of these circles.
03:23Well, before I can offset this, I should probably explode t. That way I can
03:26offset my edges individually.
03:28I'll launch the Explode command and click this and then I will launch Offset.
03:34I will enter a distance of 3.75 and we'll offset this edge up.
03:41I will then click the offset command again and type 6 and we'll offset this edge
03:47up 6, and then I will offset the left edge over 6 units, and both of my circles
03:54can be created at these intersections.
03:58Once again I will launch the Circle command and I will create my circle at the
04:02intersection here, and this circle has a radius of 1.75.
04:08Now we have to create something on the hidden line layer.
04:10Let's set that current.
04:11Let's go to the Layer Properties Manager and I am going to double-click on the
04:16hidden lines layer and then I will move out and let the palette collapse.
04:21Let's go back in the circle. I will create this circle at the intersection right here,
04:27and this one has a radius of 4.
04:29Then we'll clean up after ourselves.
04:33I'll launch the Erase command and we'll get rid of these lines.
04:37Finally, let's take care of the center lines.
04:39I am going to zoom in on this circle.
04:42Let's create a layer for these. I am going to come up and click the New Layer icon.
04:48We'll call this layer center lines.
04:51We'll set its color to green and we'll set its Linetype to CENTER.
05:04Finally, we'll set that guy Current and we'll let the palette collapse.
05:10I'm going to draw a line from the quadrant over the top of this circle to the
05:16quadrant of the bottom.
05:17And then we'll draw another line from the quadrant of this side to the
05:24quadrant of the other.
05:25And notice we're not seeing the little dashes.
05:28That's because the lines have to be a particular length to be long enough
05:32to support the dash.
05:33So don't worry about that yet.
05:35I am going to launch my Scale command and I'm going to scale both of these from
05:41the center of the circle, and we will pull these out. I will zoom a little bit,
05:47and we'll make them about the size we see in the other drawing, and we'll free pick
05:50a point on screen.
05:53That looks pretty good.
05:55I am going to copy. AutoCAD say selects objects. I am going to hit the letter P
05:59for previous and then I'll right-click and I will copy these from the center here,
06:04and I'll place one of the center here and here and here and let's drop one
06:10at the center of this big circle too.
06:12I am going to launch my Scale command again, and I'll select these.
06:17Then we'll scale them from the center of this circle and once again I will pull
06:22these out until they look similar to what I see in the other drawing.
06:26Be careful of your running object snap. I'm pulling out just far enough so
06:31that snap goes away.
06:32If you have to, you can always turn those off momentarily.
06:34Let's create one more.
06:38I am going to copy this line from the center of this circle to the center of this one.
06:46And it would look nice if I trimmed these sides off, such that all of
06:49the lengths were equal. Tell you what.
06:52Let's create a circle from the center of this one, and I will pull my radius out
06:57to the endpoint of this line.
06:59Now, I can use my Trim command, grab the circle as my cutting edge and
07:04right-click and I can trim off this side and this side.
07:08Let's erase this circle since it's no longer necessary, and we're essentially
07:13done with one exception.
07:15Let me click in this window and we'll zoom in. These center lines always look
07:20best when the breaks fall right at the centers of your circle.
07:24Unfortunately, if I click on my side and zoom in, we can see that's not happening.
07:29There is no relationship between this centerline and our circle.
07:32So AutoCAD doesn't know where to put the breaks.
07:36Let me show you how we can create these manually.
07:38I am going to launch my Circle command, and then I'm going to zoom in at this
07:45intersection, and I'll create a circle at the intersection right here, and
07:50I will pull this out, and I will visually pick a point on the screen where my
07:54circle would meet that dashed line, because there is no object snap right here.
07:59Let's hit the Spacebar and we'll go right back into circle.
08:02We will create it from the center of this one and then once again, visually
08:07I will pick a point on the screen where my circle meets the edge of the dash. There we go.
08:12Let me back up a little bit and now we will copy these two circles from the
08:17center here to the center here, and I can use these circles to trim my lines.
08:23Let's launch a Trim command and I will grab these two circles and right-click,
08:26trim this and this and this and this and unfortunately when I did my trim,
08:32it shortened up the line, which messed up the dashes here.
08:35Let's go back into the Trim command and we'll grab these two circles and we'll
08:38trim this line and this one.
08:40When I am finished I'll hit Escape, and then we can launch the Erase command and
08:45get rid of the sketch geometry.
08:47If we use the Layer Properties Manager and organize our geometry on the
08:51layers, we open up a whole new world of color and Linetype possibilities for our designs.
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Changing layer settings using layer control
00:01Now that we've seen the full-blown Layer Properties Manager, you may be
00:04wondering if there is a faster way to adjust your layer settings. In fact there is.
00:08In this lesson, we're going to learn how to use the Layer control.
00:12The Layer control is located right here in the Layers panel, and first and
00:16foremost, the Layer control tells us the name of the current layer.
00:20Anything I create at this point will be drawn on layer dimensions.
00:25If I click the flyout, I can see a listing of all of the layers that are in my
00:29drawing and if I'd like to make another layer current, all I'll have to do is
00:33click on the layer name and that becomes the current layer.
00:37Let's open up the Layer control again, and take a look at these icons to the
00:41left of the layer name.
00:42These are the same icons that we see in the Layer Properties Manager and these
00:47guys represent the current settings for each layer.
00:50Let's make a change.
00:51For instance, maybe I'd like to change the color of the centerlines layer.
00:55I am going to click the Color Swatch, this brings up AutoCAD's Color Picker and
01:00I'm going to change this to green and I'll click OK.
01:04Notice we can see the change happen on screen.
01:07Let's make another change. Maybe I'd like to turn my centerline's layer off.
01:11If I open up the Layer control, I can come down and click the light bulb to turn
01:15off that layer and then I can click on screen to close the menu.
01:19Now I would like to keep that layer on.
01:21So I am going to open this up and we'll click the light bulb again and then
01:25we'll close the menu.
01:26It's important to note that the Layer control is not a substitute for the
01:30Layer Properties Manager.
01:32The Layer control is primarily for adjusting your layer settings.
01:36If you want to create layers or delete layers or rename your layers, you are
01:40going to have to do that through the Layer Properties Manager.
01:43Now this drawing that I have on screen is a mechanical example. In fact, I'm
01:47almost done with this drawing.
01:49Really, all I have to do is create one more circle in this lower left-hand corner.
01:53So I'm going to launch my Circle command and I am going to create my circle from
01:57the center of this arc and unfortunately, I can't grab that object snap.
02:02I'm going to Shift+Right-click and select Center and the circle has a diameter of 1.
02:12Now notice my problem. My circle is obviously on the wrong layer.
02:16Take a look at this.
02:17I've created this circle on layer 0.
02:20Now, I don't have to erase it and start over. Instead, I am going to use the
02:23Layer control to move this circle onto the correct layer.
02:28To do that, I will select this circle and now I'll come up to the Layer
02:31control and I'll select the appropriate layer and my circle automatically
02:36moves to that layer.
02:37When I'm finished I can hit Escape to deselect my geometry.
02:41Now that my circle is in place, I'm going to copy my center lines down, copy
02:46these from the center here to the center here, and you know what?
02:50As I look at this, I can see I've got a dimension that's on the wrong layer.
02:54Take a look at this.
02:55I can see in my Layer control that the current layer is 0.
02:59If I select this entity, notice AutoCAD will tell me what layer this guy is sitting on.
03:04He is sitting on the part layer, which is obviously incorrect.
03:08I'm going to click the flyout and I'm going to put him on the dimensions layer
03:12and then I'll hit Escape.
03:13Using the Layer control is the fastest way to change your layer settings
03:17and it's a great tool to use if you want to move an entity from one layer to another.
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Understanding the BYLAYER property
00:01As we've seen, when we place our geometry on a layer, it looks like that layer.
00:06For instance, if I draw a circle on a green layer, the circle looks green.
00:10If I draw a rectangle on a layer that has a hidden linetype, the rectangle will
00:14have a hidden linetype.
00:16This is because my geometry has a ByLayer property applied to it.
00:20The ByLayer property means that the layer setting dictates how the entities look.
00:24Now I've got a drawing open on my screen, and this drawing contains no geometry
00:29but it does have four layers.
00:31To view my layers, I am going to go to the Layer Properties Manager.
00:35Now mine happens to be anchored to my interface. If yours is not visible on screen,
00:39you can always open it by clicking this icon.
00:42I am going to open up the manager and if we look right here, we can see our four layers.
00:47If I come down little bit further, we can see they are each a different color
00:51and some of them have a different linetype.
00:54I am going to move my cursor in the model space and we'll let this collapse.
00:57Take a look at the Layer control.
00:59Notice my current layer is layer part.
01:01I am going to create a circle.
01:03I am going to pick my center point right in the middle of the screen and it will
01:08give this guy Radius of 3.
01:12Notice how my circle is taking on the appearance of the part layer. Let's select this.
01:17We'll click the Layer control and I am going to put it on the layer hidden lines
01:22and I'll hit Escape.
01:23Notice it now looks like the hidden lines layer.
01:25I am going to select that again, click the flyout, and we'll put it on the
01:29centerlines layer.
01:31Once again, as you would expect, it is now taking on the appearance of that layer.
01:35This is because my circle has a ByLayer property.
01:39ByLayer means my layer settings dictate how this entity is going to look.
01:43Now it's important to note that we can also force properties on our objects.
01:47Right over here in my ribbon, we have a Properties panel.
01:50Notice that this guy contains three settings:
01:53one for Color, one for Line Thickness and one for Line Type.
01:57Also notice that each of these guys currently is set to ByLayer.
02:01Let's make a change.
02:02I am going to click the Color flyout and I'm going to set this to Cyan.
02:07This means that every entity that I create from now on is going to be forced to
02:11have a color of Cyan regardless of the layer that it's sitting on.
02:15Let's create another circle.
02:16I am going to launch the command and we'll create the circle from the center of
02:20this one, and then I'll just free pick a point on screen.
02:24Notice, even though this circle was created on the part layer, it is forced to
02:29have a color of cyan.
02:31This is actually a terrible way to work.
02:34If you force properties on your objects, you are greatly reducing your ability
02:38to change those properties later.
02:40Imagine if I copied this circle 700 times throughout my drawing, and then what
02:46if I have to change the color of these circles?
02:48If their Color property was set to ByLayer, I could easily change the color of
02:52all of them, just by changing the color of my layer.
02:55If their color is forced on them, I am going to have to go through and manually
02:59select each of these guys and change their color property.
03:03Let's set this circle's color back to ByLayer.
03:06To do that, I'm going to select it, I am going to come up to my Color flyout and
03:10I'm going to select ByLayer and then I'll hit Escape.
03:14And then one more thing, notice my current color is still set to Cyan.
03:18Let me click the flyout again, and I'll select the ByLayer such that each new
03:22entity will have a color property of ByLayer.
03:26The best advice I can give regarding the ByLayer property is don't touch it.
03:30You should never force properties on your objects.
03:33If all of your entities are set to ByLayer, making Color, Linetype or Lineweight changes,
03:37is as simple as changing your layer settings.
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Using the Layer Previous command
00:00Sometimes it can be easier to work on a drawing if we change some of our layer settings.
00:06For instance, turning off unnecessary geometry can simplify what we see on
00:10screen and make visually complicated drawings easier to understand.
00:15The nice thing is when we finish our work we can use AutoCAD's Layer Previous
00:19command to restore layers to their original settings.
00:23On my screen I have got an architectural example.
00:25Let's say I would like to make some changes to this floor plan.
00:29The first thing I'm going to do is turn off all the layers that I won't be working with.
00:34So I'm going to open up the layer control and let's turn off the Text layer,
00:39we'll turn off the Plumbing layer, and the Furniture layer, and then I'll click
00:43on screen to close the tool.
00:46As you can see my geometry is now simplified, and I don't have to worry about
00:50that extra line work getting in the way when I make my changes.
00:54Let's start out by zooming in on the Foyer area, and let's say I would like to
00:59move this wall back 2 feet to give me a little bit of extra room in front,
01:04in the event I'd like to add a small porch.
01:06I'm going to launch my Stretch command, and we'll make a crossing window around
01:11this geometry, and then I will pick this up from the endpoint here, and my Ortho
01:17happens to be locked.
01:18So I will pull straight back and we'll type 2 feet, Enter.
01:23I'm going to make another change.
01:26Let's pan over to the master bedroom area.
01:29Let's make this room a little bit smaller.
01:31We'll bring this wall in a foot-and-a-half.
01:34Once again, we'll launch the Stretch command and I will make a crossing window
01:38around this geometry.
01:39We'll pick it up from the endpoint here and once again I will pull this down.
01:45I am being mindful of my running object snap.
01:48Let me move my cursor to the right just enough so that goes away, and we will type 1'6".
01:56At this point, let's assume that we're done making changes.
01:59I'm going to double-click the wheel on my mouse to do a Zoom Extents, and let's
02:05put our layers back the way they were.
02:07Now remember we turned off three layers. Essentially we made three changes
02:11to our layer settings.
02:13To put this back, I'm going to move up and click the Layer Previous button. Let me click once.
02:18Notice one of my layers comes back.
02:20I'll click again, and I'll click again to bring back my layers.
02:24Essentially, Layer Previous allows you to backup in time and restore your
02:28previous layer settings.
02:30Don't be afraid of changing layer settings,
02:32if it'll make it easier for you to work on your drawing.
02:35Even if you make several adjustments, you can always restore your layers to
02:39their original state by using AutoCAD's Layer Previous command.
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11. Adding General Annotations
Creating single-line text
00:01No matter what you're drafting, at some point you're going to need to add some text.
00:05Fortunately, AutoCAD has several Annotation tools to help you get the job done.
00:09In this session we're going to look at Single Line text.
00:13On my screen, I've got a mechanical example in the upper-right corner.
00:16I've got an Isometric view of my part.
00:19I also have the standard top, front, and right side views.
00:24Now, I would like to label each of these views and the labels I'm going to be
00:27creating don't require a high degree of formatting.
00:30There's no word wrap involved or any paragraph concerns.
00:35Basically, each label is going to be a single line of text.
00:39If you look at my layer control you can see I've created a layer for my text and
00:43to create my labels, I'm going to come up to the Annotation panel in Ribbon, and
00:48I'm going to click this fly-out and I'll select Single Line text.
00:53Now, AutoCAD would like the start point of my text.
00:55Where do I want to put my label?
00:57I'm going to click right here.
01:00Now, I can specify my height.
01:02Your text height is very important because you want to make sure that your text
01:05is legible when this drawing is plotted.
01:08We'll discuss how to set appropriate text types a little bit later after we've
01:12talked about plotting.
01:13For right now, I'm going to go with the text height of 0.4, and I'll hit Enter.
01:19And then finally AutoCAD wants a Rotation angle.
01:21How do you want this text to read on screen?
01:25I could free pick a point to define my angle. Instead I'm going to hit Enter and accept 0.
01:31The 0 angle causes my text to read horizontal on screen.
01:37Now I can start typing.
01:39We'll type Top View, and when I'm finished, I will hit Enter and then Enter
01:44again to get out of the command.
01:46Let's label the Front View.
01:47Once again, I'll click the flyout and we'll select Single Line text.
01:50I'm going to click right here to place my text label.
01:55I will then hit Enter to accept the height and Enter again to accept the angle.
02:01This is the Front View, Enter, Enter.
02:03I'm going to hit my Spacebar to go back into the Single Line text command and
02:09I'm going to pick right here to set my text.
02:13I'll hit Enter twice, and we'll type Right Side View.
02:18I'd like to create one more label for my Isometric view.
02:22Let's do it a little bit different.
02:24To go back in the Single Line text, I'm going to hit my Spacebar and then for
02:28the start point of my text, I'm going to grab the endpoint of this line.
02:33And for my height, let's make our text a little bit smaller.
02:36I'm going to type 0.35 and hit Enter.
02:40And now for my Rotation angle, instead of having it read horizontal
02:44on screen, I'm going to come down and click the endpoint of this line to
02:48define my Rotation angle. And notice as I type this my text is a little bit
02:53close to that line.
02:54It's important to note that text objects in AutoCAD are like anything else.
02:58We can treat them just like standard geometry.
03:00For instance I can launch my Move command.
03:03We'll select this text, right-click.
03:06I'm going to pick it up from the end-point here, and let's place it a little bit farther away.
03:11That looks better.
03:12Knowing that, I'm going to back up a little, and I'm going to launch my
03:15Move command again.
03:16I'm going to select my Top View label, and right-click.
03:20Now, where do I want to pick this up from?
03:23I'm just going to pick it up from a point in space. Since this is a text label,
03:27I really don't need a high degree of accuracy when I place this.
03:31Let's move it right up here and click.
03:34Single Line text is the perfect choice for view labels, area labels, title
03:39block info, street names or any other annotation that doesn't require
03:43paragraph style formatting.
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Justifying text
00:01With most software, your choices for text justification are limited to left,
00:05center, or right justified.
00:07AutoCAD however gives us complete control over our justification, allowing us to
00:11position and justify our text at nearly every conceivable location.
00:16I'm currently working on a title block drawing.
00:18We'll be using this title block later when we get into our chapter on plotting.
00:23If you look right over here, you can see I've made a copy of a portion of this title block.
00:28Let's zoom in on this geometry.
00:30What I would like to do is use this copy I've made to the right to show you how
00:34I positioned my text in the title block.
00:37And before we create any text, I'd like to take a second and talk a little bit
00:41about justification.
00:42On my screen, I have some text.
00:46Just for a second, let's make the assumption this text is sitting on a baseline.
00:51Now most programs that allow us to justify our text give us a couple of basic options.
00:55For instance, Left Justified. All of my text will be justified to that leftmost point.
01:03We also have Center as well as Right Justified options.
01:07So these are the big three.
01:09AutoCAD gives us a lot more choices.
01:11Notice I have additional baselines. I've got a bottom, a middle and a top and
01:16each of those baselines contain three justification points:
01:20left, center, and right.
01:22So we have an insane amount of control when it comes to placing or
01:26justifying our text.
01:28Let's return to our AutoCAD drawing.
01:30If you look at my geometry on the right, notice I've got these purple lines.
01:34These are offsets that I created to define the margins that I'd like to use
01:38inside my title block.
01:40Let's start out by creating these text objects.
01:42These identify the initials of the people that have worked on this drawing.
01:46I am going to come up and click my Text flyout and select Single Line and for
01:52the start point of my text, I am going to select the intersection of my offsets.
01:57I'll then specify a height of 0.05 and I'll accept the rotation angle of 0.
02:05And we'll type XXX and I'll hit Enter twice to get out of the command.
02:09I am going to zoom in a little bit because I want to mention that all text that
02:15we create in AutoCAD by default is left justified.
02:19As you can see this text is justified to the intersections of my offsets.
02:24It's also important to note that we can use this justification point to move or copy our text.
02:29For instance, I'd like to create some copies of this text to fill in these other two squares.
02:36So I'll launch my Copy command and I'll select this text object and right-click.
02:41Now where do I want to pick him up from?
02:43Let's look at a new object snap.
02:44I am going to Shift+Right-click and I am going to come down and select Insert.
02:49This stands for insertion or justification point.
02:53When I place my cursor over the text, notice where AutoCAD's going to pick it up from.
02:57I can then place my copy at the intersection here and I'll place another
03:02one at the intersection here.
03:07Let's create this text object.
03:10Once again, we'll launch the Single Line text command and this time
03:14left justified text isn't going to help me.
03:17Take a look at the command line.
03:19Notice I've got an option called Justify.
03:21I'm going to right-click and select Justify.
03:25This is why I showed you those slides.
03:27TL, TR, what do these stand for?
03:30Top Left, Top Right, Middle Left.
03:32Basically, these are all of our justification options.
03:35Now in this case, I'd like my text to be Right Justified and I would like it to
03:40be justified to the intersection right here.
03:44Let's hit Enter to accept the height and the angle, and then I'm going to type
03:47DSGN:. This represents 'designed by.'
03:52I want to create one more.
03:54Let's take care of this Date label right here.
03:56I am going to hit my Spacebar to go back into the Text command.
04:00Let's right-click and select Justify and this time I am going to used TL.
04:04I'd like it top left justified.
04:07Let's grab the Intersection of these offsets.
04:10I'll accept the height and the angle and I'll type Date:
04:14and we'll exit out of the command.
04:16Generally speaking, I used this same workflow to create all of the text that we
04:20see in this title block.
04:22Before we go, I'd like to give you one more example.
04:24Frequently in our AutoCAD drawings, we'll see text labels where the text is
04:28placed within a circle.
04:29I have created a small circle here.
04:31Let's place some text at the center of the circle and we'll properly justify it.
04:35I am going to launch my Single Line text command. I will right-click and select Justify.
04:42This time I'll select MC for Middle Center and I'd like my text justified to the
04:48center of this circle.
04:50For height, let's go a little bit larger. I am going to type 0.075 and
04:55I'll accept the rotation angle of 0, and notice whatever I type in the circle,
04:59it'll always be perfectly centered inside that shape.
05:03AutoCAD certainly gives us a lot of choices when it comes to justifying our text.
05:08Using these justification options along with our Insertion object snap, we can
05:12insert or reposition any text object with complete control.
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Controlling appearance using text styles
00:01When we want to control the appearance of text, normally we think about changing our font.
00:05While AutoCAD will certainly allow us to change fonts, we can actually go one
00:08step further and create a text style.
00:12A text style is a name that's given to a collection of text settings.
00:15On my screen, I've got a drawing that represents a title block and when we think
00:20about title blocks, we usually think about text.
00:24I'm going to zoom in on the bottom of this drawing so our text is a little
00:27easier to see and I want to mention that the appearance of all of these text
00:31objects is being controlled by text styles.
00:35Let's create a new text style and we'll see how this works.
00:39To do that, I am going to come up to the Annotation panel and click the flyout
00:43and at the very top of the menu, I can see the name of my current style that
00:46happens to be Standard.
00:48All AutoCAD drawing start with a Standard text style that's because you have to
00:53have at least one style in your drawing in order to create text.
00:57To make a new style, I am going to come down and click this icon.
01:01This brings up a dialog box that I can use to build my text style.
01:06In the upper left corner, notice once again we can see the name of the current style.
01:10This list on the left side shows me the styles that have already been created in this drawing.
01:15If I select a style name from the list, I can see a preview of that style right down here.
01:21On the right side of the box, I've got some buttons to help me manage my text styles.
01:25Notice I can set a style current, I can create a new one or I can delete a style.
01:31In this case, I'd like to create a new one so I'll click the New button and
01:35we'll give our style a name.
01:36I am going to call this General Notes.
01:40It's important to make your style name descriptive of what your text is going to be used for.
01:46Let's click OK.
01:47Now that my style has been created, I am going to come over to the Font area and
01:50click this flyout and we'll assign a font to our style.
01:55As I grab this little slider and move up through the list, notice that some of
01:58the fonts have a TT icon next to the name and some of them have a Caliber.
02:04The Caliber show us fonts that were installed with AutoCAD and the TT stands for
02:09TrueType. These are your Windows fonts.
02:11Now everybody's system is a little bit different, so the fonts that I see on my
02:15screen may be a little bit different than the fonts you see on yours.
02:18I am going to select the Simplex font.
02:21We can see a preview of that right over here.
02:23Then we can come down and address the size.
02:26For right now, it's probably better to leave our text height at 0.
02:30That way any time I create text using this style, AutoCAD will ask me for a text height.
02:36Let's take a look at Effects.
02:37You know, maybe anytime I create text using the style, I'd like it to be Upside
02:41down or Backwards or Vertical.
02:45My Width Factor controls the width of my characters. If I set this to 2, you can
02:50see that the characters are now twice as wide.
02:52Let's set this back to 1.
02:55The Oblique Angle controls the slant of my text.
02:59If I set this to a 15-degree angle, you can see that my text has somewhat of
03:03an italicized look.
03:05Once again, I am going to set this back to the default of 0.
03:09My General Notes style is Current.
03:11Let's come down and click Apply and Close.
03:14I am going to create a Single Line text object, we'll place it right here and
03:20for my text type, I am going to type in 0.15 and I'll accept the default angle.
03:26This is what the General Notes style looks like.
03:33Since my General Notes style is current, all text I create from this point on
03:38will look like this.
03:39If I want to change the current style, I am going to come back up and click the
03:43Annotation flyout. I will then click my Text Style flyout, where I can see a
03:48listing of all of the styles in my drawing.
03:51To make a different style current, I'll select it from the menu.
03:55Let's create another text object and I'm going to accept the default height and angle.
04:01This is what the Title style looks like.
04:05Now this style was already defined in the drawing and this guy is controlling
04:10the appearance of these larger text objects in my title block.
04:13Now you may be wondering, why are styles important?
04:16Well, styles give us flexibility.
04:20If we modify a text style, all of the text that was created using that style
04:24will automatically update. Let's try that.
04:27I am going to go back to my Text Style Editor.
04:32The Titles style is current.
04:34Let's change the font that's associated with the style.
04:37In this case, I'm going to select a Times font and rather than going up and down
04:42through the list, I am going to hit the letter T, which is the first letter of
04:45that font name and notice AutoCAD will take me to that point in the list.
04:48Then I'll click my arrow a couple of times. We'll change our font to Times New Roman.
04:53Notice the difference.
04:55Let's click Apply and Close.
04:58And as you can see, all of the text that was created using that style is updated.
05:03Now if your text did not update automatically on screen, you may have to do a regen.
05:07Simply type re and hit Enter to force your text to update.
05:12Text styles control the appearance of all the text in our drawing.
05:16As you can see, by making a simple modification to a style, we can automatically
05:20update all text that was created using that style.
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Annotating with multi-line text
00:01Sometimes we have to go beyond single line notes and create paragraphs of text.
00:05At times like these, it's nice to know that AutoCAD has a fully featured word processor.
00:10In this lesson, we are going to learn how to create multiline text.
00:14On my screen, I've got a detailed drawing that I've been working on and at this
00:18point in the process I would like to create some general notes.
00:21Now I am practicing good form. As you can see I've already created a text style
00:26and a layer for my notes, and since these notes may exceed a couple of
00:30paragraphs, we are going to use multiline text.
00:34To launch the command, I am going to come up to the Annotation panel and there
00:37is actually two ways we can do this.
00:39I can click the flyout right here and select the tool from the menu or I can
00:44come up and click this big letter A. Now before I create my real paragraph,
00:49let's pan the drawing over a little bit and I'll zoom in and we'll get an idea
00:53of how this tool works.
00:55I am going to start out by picking a point on screen and then I'm going to move
00:59my cursor down and to the right, and essentially what I'm doing is creating a
01:03rectangle that establishes the size of my column of text.
01:07I am going to click to finish my rectangle and then I can start typing.
01:11This as an example of multi-line text.
01:17Notice I now have word wrap.
01:20Notice one more thing. We have a new tab on our ribbon.
01:24We'll see this tab whenever the Multiline Text Editor is open on screen.
01:29One thing you'll notice about the editor is that it's very similar to Microsoft Word.
01:33Notice I have a ruler above my text and we can turn this ruler on and off
01:38by clicking this icon.
01:40The ruler shows me the location of my tab stops, so if I click to put my
01:45cursor in front of this word and hit my Tab key a couple of times, we can see the tab stops.
01:51I am going to hit my Backspace key to put this back the way it was.
01:55If I place my cursor over this diamond and click and hold, I can drag and adjust
02:00the width of my column.
02:02Notice that I also have several formatting options.
02:04For instance, if I click, hold and drag across one of these words, I can come up
02:10and make this word bold or italics. I can underline it or overline it.
02:15Let me turn these off and let's take a look at our paragraph formatting.
02:20Currently my text is left justified.
02:23I can also make the text center justified or right or if I click this icon
02:28I'll have full justification.
02:30If I go down one more, I'll have full justification with distributed text.
02:34I am going to put this back to Left Justify and we'll assume we are
02:38finished with our paragraph.
02:39So to close the editor, I am going to come up and click the Close button, and
02:43then I am going to come down and click the Close icon.
02:46Now that may seem unusual, why I had to click that twice to get out.
02:50The reason why that was is because the panel was collapsed, similar to this one,
02:54and I had to click it once to open it up to get access to the tool.
02:57Now that we've created some multi-line text, I'm going to erase this one and
03:03I'll back up, we'll pan over and we'll create our real general notes.
03:07Once again, I am going to launch the tool, I'm going to pick a point on screen,
03:11and take a look at the abc characters.
03:14Those guys are a representation of my current text height.
03:18Now currently it's a little big. I'd like to make my text a little smaller.
03:22Take a look at my command line.
03:23Notice I've got several options.
03:25I'm going to right-click and select Height and I am going to change my Height
03:30to 0.2 and hit Enter.
03:31I'll then pull over here and click to define my column width.
03:36Then I'll zoom in a little bit. Notice I can pan and zoom while the editor is on
03:41screen and I can enter my text.
03:46Now that I am finished, I could make some final tweaks if I like. I could grab
03:50this diamond and adjust my column.
03:53One thing I would like to do is underline General Notes so I am going to click,
03:57hold and drag across this text and we'll come up and click the Underline button.
04:02Now that I'm finished, let me show you a shortcut to get out of the editor.
04:05You know, we don't have to click the Close button at all. If you simply click on
04:09screen outside of the editor, it'll close automatically.
04:14Multiline text or MText, as it's also called, will definitely be your first
04:18choice for all the notes and call- outs you create in your drawing.
04:22Using multiline text is as close to a professional quality word processor as you
04:26can get while still being inside a CAD program.
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Editing text
00:00Computer drafting is all about being able to make changes.
00:04Fortunately, one of the easiest things we can edit in AutoCAD is our text.
00:08As an example, let's make some changes to this detailed drawing.
00:12I am going to start out by zooming in on the title and let's say this was
00:16incorrect. This should say Detectable Warning Panel.
00:19To edit my text, I don't have to know any special commands. All I have to do is
00:23double-click on it, and when I do, AutoCAD selects all of this text.
00:27I am going to click in between these two words to place my cursor and then I'll
00:31click, hold and drag to select this word and I'll type Panel.
00:37When I'm finished, I'll click off to the side to deselect my text.
00:41Notice AutoCAD is looking for another text object.
00:44It always assumes that you'll want to edit more than one.
00:47Let's zoom in on this N.T.S. text.
00:50This stands for Not To Scale.
00:52Since AutoCAD is already looking for text, I only have to click this once and
00:57let's type this out, Not To Scale. And you know what, this is a single line text
01:03object as is my title and you may be wondering how I underlined my single line text
01:08because when we create single line text, we don't have all the options
01:12available that we see when we create multiline text.
01:15Let me show you how to do that.
01:17If we'd like to underline a single line text object, we can click, hold and
01:21drag across the text that we'd like to underline and then we can hit Ctrl+U on our keyboard.
01:28This is a standard Windows function.
01:29Now that I am finished making my changes, I'll click out here in space to
01:33deselect my text. And to let AutoCAD know that I am done making text changes
01:38right now, I'll hit my Escape key.
01:40I am going to back up.
01:43Let's pan this drawing down a little bit and we'll take a look at this
01:46multiline text object.
01:48If I'd like to make changes to this text, it's the exact same procedure.
01:52Simply double-click on it.
01:54AutoCAD brings back my Text Editor panel and I have access to all of my tools.
01:59I'm going to change this to Detectable Warning Panel and we'll add that
02:04right down here as well.
02:07You know what, I'm going to change my paragraph formatting as well.
02:10Let me click Center Justified and notice it only did the bottom paragraph.
02:15If you have text that's separated with a hard carriage return and you'd like
02:19to format all of it, you'll need to select all of the text and then click the justification.
02:25Once again, when I'm finished making changes, I'll click on screen.
02:29One important thing to note, multiline text can also be edited with grips.
02:33If I click on this once and select it, notice I get a series of grips.
02:38If I click this one in the upper left, I can change the location of my multiline text.
02:43I am going to move this down just a little bit.
02:46If I select the grip in the upper right, I can drag back and forth and adjust my column width.
02:53If I click the grip below, I can adjust my column height.
02:57Now if I pull this down, it doesn't make any difference because I don't have
02:59enough text to fill this column, but if I push it up, AutoCAD will start a second column.
03:05Imagine the possibilities.
03:07I am going to pull this back down and click and then we'll click our column
03:10width and I'll drag this back over, and when I am finished, I can hit my Escape key
03:15to deselect the text.
03:17I am going to back up a little bit more.
03:19We'll pan this over just a little.
03:22Another way we can edit our text is by using the Property Changer.
03:25If I select this text object and open up my Property Changer, notice right here
03:31under the Text group, I can see the text style.
03:35If I click in this field and then click the flyout, I can change the text style.
03:41I can also change the text justification or its height, rotation.
03:46I can change my line space factor.
03:48Right now it's set to 1.
03:49Let me change it to 1.5 and I'll hit Enter.
03:53Now 1.5 is a little large.
03:55Let me click in this field again and I am going to set this to 1.25 and I'll hit Enter.
04:00Make sure and explore all the settings that you have available in the Property Changer.
04:04You'll be surprised by the amount of things that you can change very easily.
04:07Let me move outside the palette and we'll let it collapse.
04:12I am going to click my grip and move my text up just a little bit more and then
04:16I'll hit Escape to deselect.
04:18As you can see, if you have to edit any aspect of your text, height,
04:22style, location or contents, AutoCAD allows you to make your changes quickly and easily.
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Creating bulleted and numbered lists
00:01It's very common to find numbered lists on construction drawings.
00:05In the past, it was always a headache to add or remove items from a numbered list,
00:08because it meant a lot of manual renumbering.
00:12Well, that's not the case anymore, as all our lists are fully automated and easy to change.
00:17In this lesson, we are going to learn how to create a numbered list.
00:20On my screen, I have got an architectural example.
00:23This is a drawing of a landscape fence and I would like to any list of notes to this drawing.
00:28I am going to start out by panning this over to the left to give myself some room and
00:33then I'm going to create some multi-line text.
00:35I'll click right here to specify my first corner and then I'm going to
00:40right-click and select Height from the menu and make sure that my text type
00:45is set to 2 inches.
00:47I will then click again to set the size of my column and let's zoom in a little
00:51bit and we can start typing.
00:54Type NOTES and we will hit Enter.
00:56I will type my first number and then here's the trick to creating a list.
01:01Hit your Tab key after you create the first number and that signifies to
01:06AutoCAD that you're starting a numbered list.
01:08I will then add my note and when I hit Enter, notice AutoCAD adds the next
01:13number for me and then formats my text such that my word wrap looks appropriate.
01:20All I have to do is keep typing notes and AutoCAD takes care of all the work for me.
01:27Now that I am finished with my list, I am going to make a couple of
01:29formatting changes of my own.
01:31For one, I'm going to select to this text and underline it.
01:34Then I am going to come over and grab this diamond and make my column width
01:39a little bit wider.
01:41Now that I'm finished, I'll click on the screen to close the editor.
01:45Let's take a look at how easy it is to edit a numbered list.
01:49If I'd like to change this, I'm going to double click on the text and let's say
01:54I'd like to add a note to my list.
01:56I will click right after my fourth note and hit Enter and AutoCAD picks up
02:00right where we left off.
02:04Now what if I'd like to remove a note, maybe a note that's in the middle of the list?
02:08To do that I'm going to click-hold- drag across my text and they'll hit the
02:13Delete key on my keyboard.
02:16Notice AutoCAD removes the note and renumbers the list.
02:19Maybe I'd like to add some space in between my notes.
02:22These guys are awfully close together.
02:24You'd think that you could add an empty space by clicking after a note and hitting Enter.
02:29Unfortunately AutoCAD adds another number.
02:31I am going to hit my Backspace key to take that number away.
02:35Once again notice AutoCAD renumbers the list.
02:38Now I did get what I wanted, but let me show you a faster way we can do it.
02:42I am going to click at the end of note number 2, and I am going to hold down my
02:45Shift key and hit Enter and AutoCAD will give me a blank space between my notes
02:51and when I am done making changes, I will click on screen to close the editor.
02:55Let's try something else.
02:56I am going to double-click on this list and maybe I don't want this to be a numbered list.
03:01Maybe I'd like it to be a bulleted list.
03:04To make that change, I will select all of my notes and then I am going to come
03:09up to the Paragraph panel and click of this flyout.
03:12This controls the type of list that we have.
03:15Right now it's to Numbered.
03:17If I click this option, we'll have a bulleted list.
03:20If I don't like that, I can click the fly-out again.
03:22Maybe I'd like a lettered list and maybe I'd like it to be uppercase letters.
03:27Once again when I am done, I will click on screen.
03:30As you can see, the list creation is very flexible.
03:33Making and editing your lists is as intuitive as using your favorite
03:37word processing program.
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Incorporating symbols
00:01Each discipline of drafting has its own unique symbology and sometimes we need
00:05to incorporate these special symbols into our text.
00:08In this lesson, we are going to learn how to find these extra characters that we
00:11don't typically see on our keyboard.
00:14On my screen, I've got a civil engineering example.
00:17This is a cross-section of a typical residential street.
00:21This vertical line represents the centerline of my street and I would like to
00:26label this using a centerline symbol.
00:29The centerline symbol is a typical symbol used in civil engineering drafting.
00:34To create my label I'm going to zoom in and then I'm going to launch the
00:38Multiline Text command.
00:40I will specify my first corner and I'm going to right-click and select Height
00:48and make sure that my text height is set to 0.4.
00:52I will then right-click again and I'm going to select Justify.
00:55I will use the middle center justification and I will drag my box such that this
01:02lower arrow is pointing right at the end of the line.
01:06All of our special symbols are located in the Insert panel beneath this Symbol icon.
01:11Let me show you how this works.
01:13I am going to type the number 45 and then I am going to click the Symbol icon
01:19and I will select Degrees.
01:21Notice I created a degrees symbol.
01:23I am going to hit Backspace to take this away.
01:26This time I'll choose plus/minus.
01:28Once again I've added another symbol.
01:30I am going to go back in and take a look at the choices beneath this horizontal line.
01:36In this list we see many of the standard symbols that are used in civil,
01:40mechanical, and architectural drafting.
01:42For instance, here is the Delta symbol.
01:46If you're a surveyor, never again do you have to draw these little triangles by hand.
01:50Now that we know how this works, I am going to Backspace to take away my text
01:55and we'll add our Center Line symbol.
01:57The Center Line is located right here and when I add to that my drawing, notice
02:03it doesn't look as nice as you would think.
02:06Let me mention that the text style that I'm using has the Arial font assigned to it.
02:12Let's zoom in a little bit and we'll find out what happened.
02:15I am going to click, hold and drag across this text and notice AutoCAD changed
02:20my font to Isocpeur.
02:23That's because the centerline symbol is not a native character in the Arial font.
02:28Sometimes the symbol you choose might not be available in your font.
02:32Now I don't care for the way this looks.
02:34I am going to click the flyout and I am going to come down and select the Simplex style.
02:40I know that this character is native in that font.
02:44That looks a little better.
02:45Now that I am finished, I am going to click on screen.
02:47I am going to back up a little bit and let's create another symbol.
02:51Maybe I would like to add a copyright symbol to this drawing.
02:55Once again, we'll launch the Multiline Text tool.
02:57I am going to pick a point on screen and then I will drag to set my column width.
03:04Let's go back to the symbol list. Unfortunately the copyright symbol doesn't
03:08show up in this list.
03:10If I want something extra, I am going to come down and select the Other option.
03:16This brings up the Character Map where I can select from any character that's
03:20native to the Arial font, or any other font on my machine for that matter.
03:27Now this list is quite extensive. We do have a lot of choices.
03:30Let me push this back up to the top.
03:33Let me also mention that these previews are kind of small.
03:36If we click once on a symbol AutoCAD will blow it up so it's little easier to see.
03:42The copyright symbol is right here.
03:43Let me select that.
03:45I will then come down and click the Select button, which moves my symbol into
03:50the Characters to copy area.
03:52Once my symbol is down here, I will click Copy, which copies the symbol to my clipboard.
03:57There is no magic to this at all.
03:58It's just using the Windows Clipboard.
04:01Let's close the Character Map and then I'm going to paste this into the editor
04:05by hitting Ctrl+V on my keyboard.
04:08Now as a courtesy, AutoCAD gave me an extra carriage return.
04:12Let me click right after this character, and I can finish my text.
04:18While AutoCAD will probably never have every symbol we could possibly need.
04:21They have gone a long way to provide us with many of the industry standard
04:25symbols that we use on a regular basis.
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Correcting spelling errors
00:01In this lesson to learn how to protect ourselves from ourselves.
00:04I am speaking about spelling errors.
00:07Let's face it, we have all done it. Fortunately we don't have to worry about
00:10that anymore, because AutoCAD is now made it difficult to misspell words.
00:15On my screen, I've got a civil engineering example.
00:17This is a drawing of a paving plan for an existing restaurant and I'm at the
00:22point in this drawing where I would like to add some notes.
00:25So I am going to zoom in right here and let's create some multiline text.
00:29I'll pick a point on the screen and then I will right-click and make sure
00:35that my text height is set to 4. We will pick the other corner and I will start typing.
00:43Notice I've misspelled the word.
00:45More importantly AutoCAD noticed it too and drew a line underneath that text.
00:49Now if you are not seeing the red line on your screen,
00:52it's because this feature is turned off and that's very easy to do on accident.
00:57If we come up to the Spell Check panel in our editor, the Spell Check button is
01:01a toggle that turns the feature on and off.
01:05To correct my word, I will right-click over it and at the very top of the menu,
01:09I can see AutoCAD's top three suggestions.
01:12If these aren't going to work for me, I can come down to More Suggestions to
01:16see additional choices.
01:18If this word happened to be spelled correctly, I could add it to my dictionary,
01:22or if I didn't want to go that far, I could click Ignore All just to remove the
01:26line from this word.
01:28In this case I'm going to select the correct spelling to fix my word and then
01:32I will click screen to finish my label.
01:35Now this is nice, the fact that AutoCAD is monitoring everything we type for
01:38spelling errors, but what if we got this drawing from someone else and what it
01:43already contains a lot of existing text?
01:46How can we spell check this?
01:49Let me show you where we can find the tool.
01:51Now I don't know if you've noticed this yet, but all of the text tools we've
01:55been using so far have been located in this Annotation panel.
01:59This is actually a miniature set of Annotation tools.
02:02Notice there is also an Annotate tab on our ribbon and this contains a full set
02:07of all of the Annotation tools.
02:09The spell checker is right here and when this guy comes up on screen, you'll
02:13find it works very similar to a program like Microsoft Word.
02:17First of all we need to identify where we'd like to search for errors.
02:21By default AutoCAD wants to look at the entire drawing.
02:24If I click at this button, I can select a specific object to search.
02:28I am going to click I Start and when I do, AutoCAD pans and zooms around the
02:32file looking for a word that it doesn't recognize.
02:36I say it doesn't recognize, because if AutoCAD finds a word it doesn't
02:40necessarily mean that it's misspelled.
02:42It just means that AutoCAD doesn't have that word in its dictionary.
02:45In this case it's stopped on my road name.
02:48We can see the word is not in the dictionary.
02:50I can see AutoCAD's best suggestion for this word and if this one isn't correct,
02:55I have a list of additional choices below that I can select from.
02:59I can use these buttons on the right to tell AutoCAD what I'd like to do with this word.
03:04I can add it to my dictionary, I can ignore this instance, I can ignore all
03:09instances of this word, I can change the word using AutoCAD's suggestion, or I can
03:14change all instances of this word.
03:17Now this word is spelled correctly, and I don't necessarily want to add it to my dictionary.
03:21So I am going to click Ignore.
03:22Let me move this box up a little bit.
03:26Now in this case, the word is misspelled and if I look at the suggestion, I can
03:30see this is correct.
03:32So I'm going to click Change to fix my word.
03:34AutoCAD has found another misspelled word and once again the suggestion is good,
03:39so we'll click Change.
03:41In this case the word AutoCAD found is a product name and this is a product name
03:46that we see frequently in our drawings.
03:48So I am going to add this to my dictionary.
03:50That way this word will never come up again as a spelling error.
03:54Now that my spell check is complete, we will click OK.
03:57Now sometimes you may feel a little hesitant about adding a word to your dictionary.
04:01That seems awfully permanent.
04:03Let me show you how we can make some changes to our dictionary.
04:06I am going to click the Dictionaries button.
04:09Right up here at the top, we can see that we're using the American
04:11English dictionary.
04:13We do have other choices and this list below shows us all of the words that have
04:17been added to our dictionary.
04:19If I grab this slider and pull it to the bottom, we can see SUPERPAVE.
04:22If I'd like to remove this word, I can select it from the list and click Delete
04:29and then we'll click Close to close up these dialog boxes.
04:33As you can see, not only does AutoCAD monitor everything we type, it also allows
04:37us to spell check the stuff we didn't.
04:39So spelling errors may finally become a thing of the past.
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12. Dimensioning
Creating general dimensions
00:01It's important to remember that the drawings we create in AutoCAD are
00:03construction drawings.
00:05This means that someone somewhere will be referring to our drawing in order to
00:09construct their design.
00:11Knowing this, we need to be sure that our design is well dimensioned.
00:15In this lesson we are going to learn how to add dimensions to our drawing.
00:18On my screen, I have got a mechanical example.
00:21This is a drawing of a small gasket and before I create my first dimension, take
00:26a look at my layer control.
00:28Notice I'm practicing good form.
00:29I have already created a layer for my dimensions.
00:32As long as I'm here, I am going to click the flyout so we can see a listing of
00:36the layers in this drawing.
00:38Our dimensioning tools are located in the Annotation panel of the ribbon.
00:42The flyout is right.
00:45Let's start up by creating a linear dimension.
00:48Maybe I'd like to dimension the distance from the center of this circle to
00:51the center of this one.
00:53Now I have a running object snap set for Center so I will click this circle and
00:58this one and I will pull up and click to place my dimension.
01:02It is very important to use object snaps when we create dimensions.
01:06It's the only way your dimensions are to be accurate.
01:09Let's create another.
01:10I am going to come up and click this icon. Linear happens to be the default
01:13now and we will dimension the distance from the center of this circle to the
01:18center of this one.
01:20A linear dimension will give us the horizontal or vertical distance between our two points.
01:26It just depends on which way we pull our cursor.
01:29I am going to pull this up and place it at the endpoint of this arrowhead.
01:34I am going to create one more.
01:35This time I am going to hit the Spacebar to go back into the command and we will
01:39dimension from the center of the circle to the center of this one.
01:43And in this case, I'd like the vertical distance.
01:45So I am going to pull this out and place it right here.
01:49Now let's take a look at our layer control.
01:52Notice we have a new layer, Defpoints.
01:55Now, we didn't create this.
01:57AutoCAD did as soon as it placed the first dimension.
02:00If I zoom in on one of these dimensions, notice AutoCAD has placed the pixel at
02:04the dimension location.
02:05This is called a Defpoint and AutoCAD is using these to maintain the accuracy
02:10and location of our dimensions. Now don't worry.
02:12These little pixels won't plot;
02:14nothing on layer Defpoints does.
02:17I only mention it in the event you see the layer and wonder where it came from.
02:22Let's create another type of dimension.
02:24I am going to click the flyout and this time we'll select Aligned.
02:28Aligned gives us the true distance between two points. For instance, we will
02:32dimension the distance from the endpoint here to the endpoint here and I'll pull this out.
02:37We will create one more. We will dimension from the endpoint here to the
02:42endpoint here. Unless your desire is to have a horizontal or vertical dimension,
02:48Aligned is probably the one you are going to use most often.
02:52Let's create an angular dimension.
02:55Once again we will click the flyout and I will select Angular.
02:58To create an angular dimension all I have to do is click on two lines.
03:02I'll click this one and this one and then I will click to place my dimension.
03:08I am going to make one more.
03:12Let's click this line and this one.
03:14Let me zoom in a little bit and before I place this, notice if I pull to the
03:21outside I can dimension the opposite angle and if I pull to the left or right,
03:26I can dimension these supplementary angles.
03:30Now knowing that, you may wonder if it's possible to dimension an angle
03:33greater than 180 degrees.
03:36Let's create another angular dimension and take a look at my cursor.
03:39I can either specify my lines or if I right-click, I can specify my vertex first.
03:48Let's grab this vertex and then I will grab the endpoint here and the endpoint
03:53here to define my lines and notice AutoCAD is giving me a dimension greater than 180.
04:01Let's create a radial dimension.
04:05To dimension a radius, all I have to do is click on the arc or circle and I can
04:09pull this out and place it.
04:11I am going to hit the Spacebar to go back into the command. I will select this
04:15circle and we will pull out another radial dimension and place it here.
04:19We can also do diameter and we will select this dimension, we will select the circle
04:25and I will pull my leader out to here.
04:28Notice AutoCAD adds the diameter symbol automatically.
04:31I am going to hit my Spacebar to go back into the command and we will dimension
04:37the diameter of this circle.
04:41Using AutoCAD's dimensioning tools along with our object snaps, we can
04:45quickly and easily document our drawing and allow a contractor to accurately reproduce our design.
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Creating continuous and baseline dimensions
00:01Creating dimensions one at a time is okay, but what if we want to create a
00:04string of dimensions?
00:06In this lesson, we are going to learn how to use the Continuous and
00:08Baseline dimensioning tools.
00:11On my screen, I have got a mechanical part and I'd like to add some
00:14dimensions to this drawing.
00:16Now I have already created a layer for these and I'd like to start out by
00:20creating a linear dimension from the center of this end to this end.
00:25Now this is a nice overall dimension, but what if I'd like to create a
00:29dimensions string to label the location of all of these other points?
00:33Well, I could do that manually, but instead I'm going to use a dimensioning tool
00:37that will do most of the work for me.
00:39Now, I am afraid the tool we are looking for is not in this menu.
00:43This is, in fact, a limited amount of dimensioning tools.
00:46Instead, we are going to go to the Annotate Tab on our ribbon and this gives us
00:50access to all the tools associated with dimensioning.
00:53The one we are looking for is right here.
00:55This guy will let us create a continuous dimension string. Here is the trick.
01:00First, we have to create a dimension.
01:02I'm going to create a linear dimension.
01:04Notice we have the same menu here as we had on the Home Tab. And I'll create it
01:09from the center of this and to this endpoint and I will place it here.
01:14Now, I will come up and click my Continue button and notice AutoCAD picks up
01:18where I left off and I can click all of these other endpoints and AutoCAD
01:23creates a continuous dimension string.
01:26When I am finished, I can hit my Escape key.
01:29Now this is nice, but what if I'd like to create a series of dimensions to a common baseline.
01:34Well, we can do that also.
01:37Once again, we are going to create a dimension first.
01:40Let's create a linear dimension from the center here to the endpoint here and
01:45we'll go down this time.
01:46Then I am going to come up to the same place and I am going to click the flyout
01:50and we will select the Baseline tool.
01:53As you can see, AutoCAD is picking up where I left off except this time all
01:57of my dimensions are from the original baseline and when I am finished I'll hit Escape.
02:02So in the event we need a series of dimensions, it's nice to know we don't have
02:06to create them one by one.
02:08Whether they be a continuous string or baseline dimensions, AutoCAD has a tool
02:12to create them automatically.
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Controlling appearance using dimension styles
00:01All of the dimensions we create in our drawing will conform to a dimension style.
00:05A dimension style is very similar to a text style and that it controls the
00:09appearance of our dimensions.
00:11In fact, text styles and dimension styles work the same way.
00:15Just like a change in your text style will modify your existing text, a change
00:19to your dimension style will modify your existing dimensions.
00:22On my screen, I've got a mechanical example, this is a drawing of a small gasket
00:28and I've already created several dimensions in this drawing.
00:30Let me mention that all of these dimensions were created using the default
00:35Standard dimension style.
00:37To see my styles, I can click the Annotation flyout and right here, I can see
00:42the name of my current dimension style. Right now it's Standard.
00:45All drawings start with a Standard dimension style.
00:48You have to have at least one style in order to create dimensions.
00:52If I click the flyout, we can see that that's the only style in this drawing.
00:56To create a new style or make changes to this style, I can click this icon.
01:00This brings up my Dimension Style Manager and right here, once again, I can see
01:04the name of the current dimension style.
01:07This area to the left will show me any dimension styles that are defined in this drawing.
01:12Over on the right, I've got some buttons to help me manage my dimension styles.
01:15For instance, I can set a different style current, I can create a new style,
01:20I can modify an existing style, I can make overrides to a style, or I can compare
01:25one style to another.
01:28Now, since all of these dimensions were created using an existing style,
01:31we won't be creating a new dimension style on this drawing.
01:34If you did want to create a new one you can click this button.
01:37Here is where you would give your style a name and notice that you will always
01:41create a new style from an existing one.
01:44So in this case, our new style would start with the same settings as
01:48the Standard style.
01:49I'm going to hit Cancel and then we'll click the Modify button to make some
01:53changes to our existing style.
01:56First of all, notice that there are 7 tabs of settings that are used to create a dimension style.
02:02Now, we're not going to be going through what each of these settings does, but
02:06I am going to tell you how you can get information about each setting.
02:09First of all, if you place your cursor over a setting, AutoCAD will give
02:12you more information.
02:14Second of all, notice our settings are organized into tabs, much like our ribbon.
02:19Using the tab names will make it easier to narrow down your search if you're
02:23looking for a particular setting.
02:25Let's go to the Lines tab.
02:27Notice that our settings are organized into major groups.
02:31Also keep an eye on this preview.
02:33If you're unsure what this setting does, change it and watch the preview.
02:37Notice this is suppressing my dimension line.
02:39If I click this, it suppresses one of my extension lines.
02:43Using these techniques along with a little experimentation will help you learn
02:47what all of these settings do.
02:49Let's make a change.
02:50I'm going to go the Primary Units tab and right now I can see the precision of
02:54my dimensions is 4 decimal spaces.
02:56I'm going to click the flyout and we'll set that to 2.
02:59Notice my Preview changes.
03:01Let's click OK and then I'll move the Manager over a little bit and we'll click Close.
03:07Notice my dimensions now conform to the new settings.
03:11Let's make another change.
03:12I am going to go back to the Dimension Style Manager, and we'll click Modify.
03:15Since we're on the Primary Units tab, let me click the Unit format flyout and
03:21I'll select Architectural.
03:23This is how you can create your architectural dimensions.
03:27Now, this drawing set up for decimal, so I'm going to put this back and I'd like
03:31to make a change to my text height.
03:33Well, that's probably on the Text tab and if I look right down here, I can see
03:37the setting that I'm looking for. Right now this is set to 0.1800.
03:42Let's change this to 0.125 and we'll make another change. Under Text alignment,
03:48I can see that my dimensions are reading Horizontal on my screen.
03:52Maybe I would like them to be aligned with the dimension line. Let's click OK.
03:55I'll move the Manager over a little bit and we'll click Close.
04:00Once again, all of my dimensions are updating automatically.
04:03I'm going to make one more change.
04:04You know the arrowheads are a little large. Let's fix those.
04:07I'm going to back to the Manager and click Modify.
04:12Now that would probably be on the Symbols and Arrows tab.
04:16Right down here is the setting that I am looking for.
04:18Let's change our arrow size to 0.1200.
04:22We'll click OK and Close.
04:25Dimension styles give us the same flexibility of the text style.
04:29If we need to make global changes to the appearance of our dimensions, we
04:32can simply modify our dimension style and all of our dimensions will update automatically.
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Modifying dimensions
00:01AutoCAD dimensions are very flexible.
00:03We can position them wherever we want and reposition them if necessary, if we
00:07need to make room for new dimensions.
00:09We can even break the rules a little bit, when it comes to our dimension style.
00:13Let's look at how we can modify our dimensions to suit our needs.
00:16On my screen, I've got a mechanical example and this drawing contains
00:20several dimensions.
00:22Let's make some changes.
00:24Let's say I'd like to move this dimension.
00:27First I'll select it. Notice I get several grips.
00:30I'll then select the grip on top of my number and then I'll pull out with my
00:34cursor and click to finish my move.
00:38But I also have full control over the location of the text.
00:41Notice if I pull the text outside the extension lines, AutoCAD
00:45automatically creates a leader.
00:46I'm going to click right here to place my dimension.
00:50Let's try something else.
00:51Maybe I'd like to line up these two dimensions.
00:54Well, I'll select this one and this one, and then I'll click the grip at the end
00:59of this arrowhead, and I'll place it to the end of this one.
01:02We can use grips to modify the location of any dimension in our drawing.
01:06Let's select this Radial Dimension.
01:09I'll grab the grip, and as I pull this guy around, notice as I get to the top
01:14of the drawing, the text automatically flips to the other side.
01:18Come back around again and it flips.
01:19I can move this to any location in my drawing.
01:23Now, take a look at this holes that are on the four corners of my part.
01:28Notice I don't have a dimension for these.
01:30I'm going to create one now.
01:32We'll create a Radial Dimension and I'll select this circle and we'll pull it out to here.
01:36Now, maybe I would like to add some text to this dimension.
01:40Let me zoom in a little bit.
01:42Normally, if we want to edit text, we double-click on it.
01:45Here is the problem.
01:46If I double-click on this text, AutoCAD brings up my Property Changer.
01:51So I'm going to hit Escape to deselect this and we'll try something else.
01:55If you want to edit text that's part of the dimension, we're going to use a
01:58command called ddedit.
02:01This is the manual way for me to launch AutoCAD's Text Editor.
02:05I can then select this dimension.
02:07I have access to my text.
02:09Notice I have several of the same features that we have with the Multiline Text tool.
02:13I'm going to click my Right Arrow key to jump pass to my dimension value and I'm
02:18going to type typical.
02:21I'll hit my Enter key and then we'll type 4 Holes.
02:25Notice my dimension value is a different color.
02:27That's a visual cue to remind me that value is being derived from my circle.
02:33When I'm finished with my edits, I can click on screen and then I'll hit Escape
02:37to get out of the command.
02:38Let's pan up and we'll make a change to this dimension.
02:41I'm going to select this one and instead of selecting a grip, I'm going to
02:47right-click and notice I have several options at the top of my menu that will
02:51allow me to modify my dimensions.
02:53Let's take a look at Dim Text position.
02:55I'm going to come down and select Move text alone.
03:00This allows me to position this text any place I want independently of
03:04the dimension lines.
03:06I can drop it there. I can select this.
03:08We can move it down here.
03:10Select that again and we'll put it over here.
03:12Let's reassociate this text to our dimension lines.
03:16To do that, I'll select it and right-click.
03:18I'll go back to Dim Text position and I'm going to come down and select Move
03:22with dimension line and now this dimension is acting the same as it did when I
03:27put it in for the first time.
03:29Now I'd like these lined up.
03:30I'm going to click right here to place it and then I'm going to select both of
03:34these dimensions. I'll grab the arrowhead of this one and I'll drop it at the
03:38arrowhead of this one.
03:42Let's back up and we'll make a change to this dimension.
03:44I'm going to select it.
03:46Once again, we'll go to the right-click menu. Notice I can modify my Precision.
03:51Remember, I said that we can break the rules when it comes to our dimension style.
03:55Well, currently this dimension is to two decimal spaces.
03:59I'm going to change it to 5.
04:01As far as this dimension is concerned, it is taking all of my dimension style
04:05settings with the exception of my precision.
04:07I'm going to select this again and right-click.
04:10Notice we can also use this menu to flip arrowheads.
04:14We can use it to create a new dimension style from an existing dimension or we
04:18can change a dimension from one style to another.
04:22Probably the most powerful tool that we have to modify our dimensions is
04:25our Property Changer.
04:26I'm going to select this dimension again.
04:30We'll open up the Property Changer and there are several settings on my screen.
04:34I'm going to click these little triangles to collapse all of these.
04:38Notice that the groupings that we see are the same tabs that we have in
04:41our dimension style.
04:43This means that I can modify any of my dimension style settings for
04:47specific dimensions only.
04:49Now, currently this guy is five decimal spaces. I'm going to open up my Units group.
04:53Right down here is my Precision.
04:55We can also change it here.
04:56I'm going to change this to the even integer.
05:00We'll collapse this one and we'll open up text.
05:03Maybe I'd like to change my rotation to 90 degrees and maybe I'd like to change
05:08the height of this dimension to 0.2.
05:13Now this is just an example. There is one realistic change I would like to make.
05:17Let me pan this up.
05:19When I created my Radial Dimension here, notice that AutoCAD added a big red
05:23center mark at the center of my circle.
05:26Now, none of my other Radial Dimensions have this.
05:28Let's remove this center mark.
05:31I'll select my dimension.
05:32We will go to the Property Changer and in the Lines & Arrows group I can come
05:38down and adjust my Center mark value to None.
05:42As you can see, our dimensions can be easily modified.
05:46With a little effort we can position or customize them to suit any situation.
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Creating multi-leaders
00:00Multileaders can be just as important as fimensions when annotating your drawing.
00:05They can be used to specify building materials, typical conditions, or give
00:09special instructions to the contractor.
00:11In this lesson, we're going to learn how to create multileaders.
00:13On my screen I've got a TREE PLANTING DETAIL.
00:18Let's zoom in a little bit and I've got an example of a multileader right here.
00:22Sometimes these guys are also referred to as callouts.
00:26Now a multileader is nothing more than a text object that's associated with the leader.
00:31Let's create one. The Multileader tool is located right here in the Annotation panel,
00:36and the first thing we'll do is specify the location of our arrowhead and then I'll
00:41pull out to create my leader and click and then I can enter my text.
00:46Notice that the text associated with a multileader is multiline text, so we have
00:50access to all of the same formatting options.
00:54As I type this, if I'd like word wrap, I can click-and-hold on these arrows and
00:59I can drag this over to set the width of my column.
01:03When I'm finished, I'll click on screen.
01:06Now one of the nicest things about multileaders is that AutoCAD lets me choose
01:10how I'd like to create them.
01:12Let's make another.
01:14This time instead of placing my arrowhead, I'm going to right-click and
01:18I'm going to select Content first.
01:21Now I can create my text column and we can add the leader afterward.
01:28As soon as I click on screen to finish my text, I can then place my arrow and
01:32I can place it to either side.
01:35Now, it's important to note that the method that you use last will become the
01:39default the next time you launch the command.
01:41I'm going to create one more and I prefer to place the arrowhead first.
01:46I am going to give myself a little word wrap and we'll finish this up.
01:56When it comes to adding callouts to your drawing, nothing is as flexible and fast as multileaders.
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Controlling appearance using multi-leader styles
00:01You're probably wondering and you were right, the appearance of your
00:03multileaders is also controlled by a style.
00:07In this lesson, we're going to take a look at multileader styles.
00:10On my screen, I've got a Tree Planting Detail and this drawing contains
00:14several multileaders.
00:16Let me mention that all the multileaders that you see were created using the
00:19default Standard multileader style. Let's take a look.
00:23I'm going to come up to the Annotation panel and click the flyout and
00:27right here, I can see the name of the current multileader style.
00:30It happens to be Standard.
00:32Just like with text and dimensions, all AutoCAD drawings start with a
00:35Standard multileader style because you have to have at least one style to
00:39create multileaders.
00:41If I click this flyout, I can see that Standard is the only multileader style on this drawing.
00:46If I'd like to make a change to this style or create a new one, I can click this icon.
00:53This brings up my Multileader Style Manager and you'll probably notice that this
00:57looks a lot like the Dimension Style Manager.
00:59In fact, it works the same way.
01:02I can see the name of the current style, I can see a listing of all of the
01:05multileader styles in this drawing and using these buttons on the right, I can
01:10set a new style current, create a new style or I can make changes to a style.
01:15Notice I also have a Delete button here.
01:17Now this is grayed out because I only have one style in my drawing.
01:20Let me drag this over a little bit.
01:22Since I already have several existing multileaders in my drawing, I'm not going
01:27to create a new style right now.
01:28Instead we'll make changes to the existing one.
01:31If you did want to create a new style, you could click the New button and you
01:34could give your style a name and just like with the dimension style, your new
01:39multileader style will start using the settings from an existing style.
01:44I'm going to click Modify.
01:46Notice that multileaders have far fewer tabs and settings than dimension styles.
01:51That's because there is not as much to multileaders.
01:54Essentially we have settings for the Leader Format, Leader Structure, and Content.
01:59Now we're not going to be going through all of the settings in this dialog box.
02:03One great place you can go to learn about these settings is this hyperlink right here.
02:07If you click this hyperlink, AutoCAD will give you more information about the
02:10concept of multileaders and their styles.
02:14For information about specific settings, simply hover over it with your cursor
02:18and AutoCAD will give you more information and then don't forget your preview.
02:22This is a nice visual cue of what your style is going to look like.
02:26If you question what a setting does, change it and take a look at your preview.
02:29I am going to start out by making a change to my text height. 0.18 is pretty big.
02:34I'm going to knock this down to 0.12.
02:37Let's click OK and then we'll click Close and notice that all of my multileaders
02:42conform to the new settings.
02:43I'm going to make one more change.
02:45Let's go right back to the Multileader Style Manager and click Modify.
02:50I'm going to go to the Leader Structure and right here, the Landing Distance,
02:55right now this is set to 0.36.
02:58This controls the length of this landing.
03:00Now, 0.36 is kind of long.
03:02I'm going to move this down to about 0.15 and I'll click OK and Close.
03:08As you can see, multileaders hold the same principle as text and dimensions.
03:13Their appearance is controlled by a style, which standardizes their look and
03:17makes it easy to perform global changes.
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Modifying multi-leaders
00:00Multileaders are one of the easiest annotative objects to edit, which is nice
00:05because in a busy drawing, they are one of the first things you start moving to
00:08give yourself more room.
00:10In this lesson, we're going to learn how to edit our multileaders.
00:12On my screen I've got a drawing that has several multileaders.
00:16Let's make some changes to these.
00:18I'm going to start out by zooming in, and we'll center our screen on this one.
00:23Let's talk about text first.
00:25If you'd like to edit the text associated with the multileader, simply
00:29double-click on it. This takes you right into the Text Editor and you can make your changes.
00:36Since this is a multi-line Text Editor, we have access to any of these features as well.
00:41When I'm finished, I'll click on screen.
00:44Now, what if I want to change the position of my multileader?
00:47I can do that with grips.
00:48If I select this, notice several grips pop up on my screen.
00:53The grip in the upper left-hand corner allows me to move my callout wherever I like.
00:57In fact, if I move this far enough to the left, it'll snap to the other side of my text.
01:03Let's zoom in a little bit more.
01:05Notice I have a grip on the arrowhead.
01:07Using this grip, I can change the location where this leader is pointing to.
01:11I'm going to zoom in a little bit more.
01:14We also have grips on our landing line.
01:17Using these triangles, I can stretch out the line to the left or right, and if I
01:22use the middle grip, I can move the entire callout using the landing line.
01:27Using the grip on the right, I can adjust the width of my column.
01:30I'm going to back up a little bit, and we'll take a look at this leader on top.
01:38Maybe in this case I would like to add a leader.
01:41To do that, I'm going to come up to the Annotation panel and click the flyout
01:45right next to the Multileader tool and I'll select Add Leader.
01:50I'll then select my multileader and I can pull out a new leader and place it here.
01:56Now, AutoCAD always assumes you want to put in more than one.
02:00So I'll drag another one down and put it here.
02:02If I was to move far enough to the right, I could add my new leaders to the other side.
02:06In this case, I'm finished. So I'll hit my Escape key.
02:10Now even though I have three leaders on this guy, if I select them and move,
02:13notice all of those leaders go along for the ride.
02:17Now, we can addleaders, we can also take them away.
02:20Once again, I'll click the fly- out and I'll select Remove Leader.
02:24I will then select my multileader and then I'll select the leader that I would
02:27like to remove, and I'll right-click and select Enter.
02:32Let's back up a little bit more.
02:34Now, in this drawing, I have several leaders on this side.
02:36Maybe I would like to align them all.
02:39To do that, I'll click the flyout and we'll select Align.
02:43I will then select all of my multileaders that I would like to line up and I'll right-click.
02:49Then I will select the multileader that defines where I would like to align them to.
02:54This looks a little bit weird.
02:55Let me turn my Ortho on, and then I will pull straight up and click and AutoCAD
03:02has aligned these vertically.
03:06Let's zoom in on this note to the left.
03:08I'm going to take and pan this over a little bit.
03:10We can also make changes to our multileaders using the Property Changer.
03:14I'm going to select this.
03:16It will open up the Property Changer.
03:18I'll collapse some of these groups.
03:20Notice that I have a Leaders and a Text group.
03:23This is where I can make changes independently of my multileader style.
03:27For instance, my Arrowhead Size is 0.18.
03:30Let's make this a little smaller.
03:31I'm going to make it 0.10, and I'll hit Enter.
03:35Let's change my Text Height.
03:36Right now it's 0.12. I am going to make it a little smaller.
03:39Let's make it 0.10.
03:42I can change my justification.
03:43Maybe we can make this Left Justify.
03:47Do some experimentation with your Property Changer and you'll find that you can
03:50make specific multileaders look just about any way you like.
03:54I'm sure you will agree that multileaders are one of the most flexible
03:57annotation tools, and they're as easy to edit as your dimensions or text.
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13. Generating and Managing Reusable Content
Inserting blocks
00:00In this lesson, we're going to talk about blocks.
00:03Blocks are something that we use whenever we have geometry that's repeated
00:06throughout our drawing.
00:07They are a lot like symbols.
00:09I'm going to start out by inserting a block into this drawing to give you an
00:12idea of how they work.
00:13On my screen I've got a civil engineering example.
00:16This is a site plan for a proposed restaurant.
00:20Let's start out by zooming in on the parking lot area and I'm going to center
00:24one of these stalls on the screen.
00:26I'm going to insert a block that represents a car.
00:29To do that I'm going to come up to the Block panel and click the Insert button.
00:34And when this dialog box comes up, I'm going to make sure that the only check
00:37that I see is this one on the left hand side and then I'm going to come down and click OK.
00:43We'll come back and talk about this box in just a little bit.
00:47Notice I'm holding a car at the end of my cursor.
00:50I can then position this in between some parking stripes and I can click
00:54to place it on screen.
00:55This car is a block.
00:58If I select this, notice AutoCAD treats it as a single entity.
01:01Let's hit Escape to deselect and we'll insert another one and this time we'll
01:05talk a little bit more about the dialog box.
01:08Once again I'll click Insert.
01:10In the name area I can click this flyout and I can insert any block that's been
01:15defined in this drawing.
01:17Currently, I only have the one.
01:19If we select our block name, we can see a preview of the block right over here.
01:23If we come down a little bit further we can see three checkboxes.
01:27Each one of these checks represents a question.
01:29For instance, where do you want to put your block?
01:33How big do you want your block to be?
01:35Do you want to rotate your block?
01:37If there is a check in any of these boxes, AutoCAD will ask me that question
01:41when I insert my block.
01:43So currently when I insert this sports car again, AutoCAD is only going to ask
01:46me for the Insertion point.
01:49Click OK and I'm going to pan the drawing down little bit and we'll place
01:55the car right here.
01:57Now I obviously didn't center that too well inside that stall.
02:01Take a look at this.
02:02If I select my block, notice I have a grip right here.
02:05This grip represents the Insertion point of my block.
02:09That's the point at which I'm holding it when I place it in the drawing.
02:12We can use this Insertion point to help us accurately position our blocks in our drawing.
02:17I'm going to deselect this and let's center it correctly in this stall.
02:21I'm going to launch the Move command.
02:23I'm going to select my block and right- click and then I would like to pick this
02:27up from the Insertion point, so we'll use the Insert object snap.
02:33Notice when I place my cursor on the car, AutoCAD finds that point and when I click,
02:39notice I'm now holding it from that location.
02:42Now where am I going to put it down?
02:43Well, if I would like it to be perfectly centered in the stall, I'm going to
02:47Shift+Right-click and I'm going to use the Midpoint Between 2 Points object snap
02:52and I would like to place it to the midpoint between this endpoint and this one.
02:57Let's back up a little bit.
02:58We will pan this up and let's insert another block.
03:03This time we'll see if we can position it correctly in the stall as its inserted.
03:08Once again I will click the Insert button and as far as my questions are
03:11concerned I do want AutoCAD to ask me for the Insertion point.
03:15In this case I would also like it to ask me for a Rotation.
03:19As long as we're here notice there is one more check down on this
03:21corner called Explode.
03:23This will explode our block when it's inserted.
03:25So, technically it's not a block any more.
03:28It will be inserting the individual entities.
03:31So, it's important if we want this to be a block that there's no check in this box.
03:36Let's click OK and then I'm going to place this to the Midpoint Between 2 Points.
03:42I'll grab this endpoint and this one.
03:44Notice AutoCAD is now asking me for a rotation.
03:47I can free pick a point on screen or I can type in a rotation if I like.
03:51I'm going to make this easy on myself.
03:53I'm going to hit F8 key and turn on my Ortho and then I can snap this to
03:58whatever angle I like.
04:00Then I can click to place my block.
04:02By having this current geometry as block, I'm sure you'll agree that it's
04:06much easier work with.
04:07It's certainly much easier to insert.
04:10Now that we understand what a block is and how to insert them in our drawing, in
04:14our next lesson we'll learn how to create our own blocks.
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Creating blocks
00:00Whenever we have duplicated geometry in our drawing, it's a good idea to convert
00:04that geometry into a block.
00:06Generally speaking, a block is a group of geometry that's been given a name.
00:11In this lesson, we're going to learn how to create a block.
00:14On my screen, I have got an architectural example.
00:16This is a drawing of a proposed community park.
00:20Just for a second, let's assume we're a landscape architect and we'd like to
00:23insert some trees into this drawing.
00:26Now I've already created my first tree over to the side. This guy has got a 25 foot diameter.
00:32It represents a shade tree, and currently, it's a bunch of individual entities.
00:37Now I'm sure you'll agree it would be very time consuming to redraw one of these
00:41at each new location in the file.
00:44Likewise, I don't want to copy this geometry to each location, because we'll end
00:48up with literally thousands of entities in this drawing.
00:51Instead, I'm going to convert this geometry into a block.
00:54To do that, I am going to come up to the Block panel and click the Create
00:58button, and then we'll click right here in the Name area and we'll give our
01:02block a name. I am going to call this Shade Tree.
01:06In the Base point area I will click the Pick point button and then I'll select a
01:11Base point for this block. This is the insertion point or the point I'll be
01:16holding the block when I insert it into my drawing.
01:18I am going to use the center of this circle and then in the Objects area,
01:25we'll click the Select objects button and I'll select the objects that I'd
01:29like to be part of my block.
01:30I don't need this dimension. That was more for you.
01:32When I am finished selecting geometry, I'll right-click.
01:37Let's move this over just a little bit and finally, what do I want to do
01:41with this geometry?
01:42Do I want to keep it as it is?
01:44Would I like to convert this into my first inserted block?
01:48Or do I want to delete it?
01:50In this case, I'm going to select Delete. I really don't need this geometry
01:54anymore. If I want it again, I could just insert my block.
01:56When I am finished, I'll click OK.
01:59My block has been created, my geometry has been erased, and we can erase this
02:03dimension as well. We don't need this anymore.
02:05I am going to back up a little bit, and we'll pan over and let's insert a
02:09tree into this drawing.
02:10I am going to click the Insert button.
02:13I can see my block name right here and I would like to specify the
02:16Insertion point on screen.
02:19I will leave this Scale and the Rotation unchecked, and I'll click OK, and
02:24I'll place it right here.
02:27Having this geometry as a block makes it easier to move, copy or manipulate in my drawing.
02:32For instance, if I needed another tree I could insert another, or I can copy
02:37this geometry. I am going to copy it from the insertion point of the block and
02:43I'll place another one right here.
02:45We'll drop one over here.
02:48I'll place one more over here.
02:50Blocks can be used for trees, manholes, fire hydrants, labels, plumbing fixtures.
02:56Pretty much anytime you have multiple instances of the same geometry, it's a good
03:00idea to create a block.
03:02Let's create another block and this time we'll take the concept to another level.
03:05I am going to turn on a layer I've been hiding from you, layer alt-tree, and
03:11then we'll zoom in on this geometry right here.
03:13This line work represents another tree symbol that you might see in a landscape
03:17architect's drawing.
03:19This one was created with a diameter of one foot, and we'll use this diameter to
03:23our advantage in just a second.
03:25Let's convert this geometry into a block.
03:27I am going to click my Create button. We'll give this block a name.
03:32I'm going to call this Ornamental Tree. We'll click Pick point and we'll grab the Insertion point.
03:42I am going to use the center of this circle.
03:44I'll click Select objects and we'll select the objects that will be part of our block,
03:49and right-click and then I'm going to delete this geometry, because I
03:54really don't need it anymore.
03:56Another important setting in this dialog box is Scale uniformly.
04:00I am going to make sure this is checked.
04:01We'll talk about this setting in just a little bit.
04:04Finally, now that I am done, I'll click OK. My block has been created.
04:08Let's erase this dimension and I'll back up and we'll insert some ornamental trees.
04:15I'll click Insert.
04:17This time I will select my Ornamental Tree block.
04:20I want AutoCAD to ask me for the Insertion point. This time I would also like
04:24AutoCAD to ask me for a scale, and I'll click OK.
04:30Let's say this tree should have a 15-foot diameter.
04:33Well, let me take my location on screen, and then from my scale factor, I am
04:37going to type 15 and hit Enter.
04:39Remember the original block had a diameter of one.
04:4215 times one is 15.
04:45Let's insert another.
04:47Maybe this block should have 10-foot diameter.
04:52If I wanted to, I could click Insert and I could say don't ask me the question.
04:56I'm just going to hard code the scale right here.
04:58Maybe this one should have a 7-foot diameter.
05:01Now remember when we check that box that says Scale uniformly, that's what
05:05controls these boxes right here.
05:07By saying Scale uniformly, I'm only using one number to adjust the scale of my block.
05:12If Scale uniformly was not checked when this block was created, I would have to
05:16specify my length, width and height scales independently.
05:21I'll click OK and I'm inserting a 7-foot tree.
05:25You know what, as long as we're here, what if we'd like to change these?
05:29If I select this tree and come over to my Property Changer, notice right here,
05:33I can see its scale is set to 15, which means it has got 15 foot diameter.
05:37Maybe it should have 20-foot diameter.
05:40Maybe I wanted to do all three trees at the same time.
05:44I can select all of these, go to the Property Changer, AutoCAD found 3 blocks.
05:50I can see their scale varies. All of these were supposed to be 10 foot diameter trees.
05:56So as you could see, having this geometry as a block makes it very flexible.
06:00Anytime you have geometry that's repeated throughout your drawing, it's wise to
06:04consider converting that geometry into a block.
06:07Blocks are faster to insert, easier to manage, and they will keep your file sizes much smaller.
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Leveraging blocks
00:00Now that we know how to create a block, let's expand on the concept and talk a
00:04little bit about how to use blocks to our advantage.
00:07On my screen, I have got an architectural example.
00:09This is a drawing of a floor plan for a proposed office building.
00:13I am going to zoom in a little bit and let me select some of these, because I
00:16want to show you that virtually all of the objects that you see were created using blocks and better yet,
00:22each of these blocks was created using real dimensions.
00:25Let me show you what I mean.
00:27I am going to hit Escape, and let's zoom in on this room.
00:30I'm going to select this desk. This desk is obviously a block. We'll go to the
00:35Property Changer and right here in the Miscellaneous group, I can see the name
00:39of this block is Mayline.
00:41I created this block using dimensions from a real Mayline desk.
00:45That means that any time I want to insert a Mayline desk into this floor plan,
00:49all I have to do is insert my block and if the block fits in the room, I know
00:53the furniture will fit because the block was created using real dimensions.
00:57The fact that all of my objects were created using blocks, means my furniture is
01:01also easy to arrange and rearrange inside the rooms.
01:04For instance, I am going to launch my Copy command and let's copy this desk from
01:10the endpoint here, and we'll copy it into this office.
01:14Now, I don't like that my return is so close to my doorway, so let's mirror this desk.
01:19I am going to launch the Mirror command, we'll select our block and right-click.
01:24I would like to mirror it from the endpoint here to the endpoint here and then
01:28I'll right-click and yes, I would like to erase the original.
01:32Then I'll launch the Move command and we'll pick this up from the endpoint here,
01:37and we'll place it to the endpoint here.
01:39In addition to rearranging and copying my blocks, I can also insert new ones.
01:43Let's place a chair into this office.
01:45I am going to click Insert. I'll click my flyout. Notice I have several blocks
01:50in this drawing. I am going to select chair, and I would like to specify my
01:55Insertion point as well as my Rotation and I'll click OK.
02:00I am going to drop it right here, and then I am going to lock my Ortho.
02:05I'll pull to the left and I'll click to finish placing my chair.
02:09Notice I've already placed several chairs in this drawing, and for some reason
02:13this chair looks different than the others.
02:15Remember this, because in a little bit I am going to give you a quiz and you're
02:18going to tell me why this chair looks different.
02:20Let's pan over in this direction a little bit and we'll talk about some
02:24block best practices.
02:27First of all, blocks should be placed on the layer of their own.
02:31In a drawing like this, maybe you might create a layer and call it furniture,
02:34and place all of your furniture blocks on that layer.
02:37Maybe you create a layer called plumbing and put all of your plumbing blocks on that layer.
02:41Now I took it to an extreme.
02:43If I open up the Layer control, you can see I have layers for specific types of furniture.
02:48Let me hit Escape to close this.
02:50And notice if I select to this block, we can see it's on the
02:53desks-executive layer.
02:56I can see this block is on the drafting-tables layer. This block is on the
03:00leather furniture layer.
03:02So it's personal preference.
03:03You can be as general or specific as you want, just make sure that you put
03:07blocks on a layer of their own.
03:09Also it's very helpful, if you create your blocks from geometry that was drawn on layer 0.
03:15Let's take a look.
03:16First of all, I am going to set layer 0 current.
03:19Then we'll zoom in on this office and we'll create a new block.
03:22I am going to draw a simple waste can.
03:24Let's create a circle, we'll put it right here and I'm going to give this
03:29a radius of 8 inches.
03:31I'll go ahead and create a new circle at the center of this one and will give
03:35this a radius of 7-1/2".
03:39Okay, this geometry represents a standard waste can, and it was drawn on layer 0.
03:45Let's turn this into a block.
03:46I am going to click create, we'll call this waste can, I'll click my Pick point button,
03:53and we'll use the center of this block as its Insertion point.
03:57I'll click Select objects and I would like my block created from these two
04:01circles and I'll right-click.
04:04Finally, we'll delete the originals and click OK.
04:06Now, let's follow good form.
04:09We'll create a new layer for our waste can blocks.
04:12Let me just call this waste cans, and I will set the color to cyan.
04:19Finally, let's set that layer current, I can do it from the Layer control and
04:24let's insert one of our new blocks.
04:28I'll select it from the list, I'm going to specify its location on screen and
04:33I'm not going to worry about Scale or Rotation.
04:36I'll place it right here and notice that this block is taking on the properties
04:45of the current layer.
04:47If you create your block from entities that were drawn on layer 0, that block
04:51will assume the properties of the layer it's inserted on.
04:55That is actually a very powerful concept.
04:58If I set my folding-tables layer current, and we insert one of our waste cans,
05:05notice once again it looks like the current layer.
05:08This means that we can have one symbol and it can show up using different colors
05:11and linetypes depending on what layer we put it on. And as a bonus,
05:17this is also a visual cue that we are putting the block on the wrong layer.
05:20Let me select this.
05:22We'll click the Layer control and we'll put this on the correct layer.
05:27Finally, I am going to click my grip.
05:29Let's turn off the Ortho and then I am going to put the waste can over here.
05:32Now, let me pan back over to this chair and here's the quiz. Why is this chair red?
05:40If I selected this, we can see the answer.
05:42It was inserted on the doors layer.
05:46This block was also created from geometry that was drawn on layer 0, so it's
05:51assuming the properties of the doors layer.
05:54Let's put it on the correct layer, and now it looks just like the others.
06:00As you can see this file is almost completely created from blocks.
06:04Since we use blocks for this geometry, as opposed to copying individual lines
06:08and arcs, we have much more control over our furniture and we can make fast
06:12revisions with the assurance that our geometry is consistent across the entire drawing.
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Redefining blocks
00:00Probably the most compelling reason to use blocks is that they can be
00:03redefined if necessary.
00:05By simply changing the geometry of one of the blocks, every other instance of
00:09that block will automatically update.
00:11In this lesson, we're going to learn how to redefine a block.
00:14On my screen I have got a floor plan for a proposed office building.
00:18Let's zoom in a little bit and notice that I've already inserted several
00:22chairs into this drawing.
00:23Now, let's assume my chair block is based on the dimensions of a real chair, and
00:29maybe after inserting all these, we decided to go with a different model.
00:33Now, I don't want to draw a new chair and then reinsert one at each of these
00:37locations. Instead I'm going to redefine my existing chair block.
00:42To do that, I will zoom in on any of the existing chairs and to redefine this,
00:47it's just like editing text.
00:49All I have to do is double-click on it.
00:53AutoCAD will then show me a preview of the block I am going to edit.
00:56At this point I can also choose a different block, if I like.
00:59Let's click OK, and this brings up the Block Editor.
01:04Notice that my model space background has changed color, as a visual cue that
01:08I'm in the Block Editor.
01:09Also notice that we have a new Block Editor tab on our ribbon. We will see this tab
01:14and these tools anytime we're editing blocks.
01:18Now as you can see the Block Editor does a lot of things.
01:20For right now, we're just going to make a simple geometric change.
01:23Let me select some of this geometry, just so that I can show you that the editor
01:28is giving us access to our individual entities.
01:30It's essentially the same as it was when I was creating this block for the first time.
01:34I am going to deselect my geometry.
01:36Let's go down to the Home tab and I'm going to launch the Erase command.
01:41We'll erase the seat portion of this chair, because we'll say the new chair
01:45has got a round seat.
01:47Let's launch the Circle command and I'll create a circle from the center of this
01:51arc to the endpoint of this line.
01:54We could make other changes or additions if we wished. For right now this
01:57will be good enough.
01:58This will represent the geometry of our new chair.
02:02Let's go back to the Block Editor. I am going to come down and click Save Block,
02:06and then I'll click Close.
02:08Notice that all instances of that chair block have been updated.
02:12Redefining a block is probably one of the biggest timesavers in AutoCAD.
02:16If you have the foresight to use blocks in your drawing, making global changes
02:20later can be done in seconds instead of hours.
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Building a block library
00:00Once you start using blocks, it won't be long before you'll want to create a
00:04library of your common symbols, such that you can use them in other drawings.
00:08In this lesson we are going to learn how to use the Design Center to build a
00:11custom block library.
00:12On my screen I have got an architectural example and this drawing
00:16contains several blocks.
00:18I am going to click my Insert button and if I click the Name flyout, we can see
00:22a listing of all of the blocks that have been defined in this drawing.
00:25Now, one of the drawbacks to a block is that it only exists in the file in
00:29which it was created.
00:31That means if I was to start a new drawing right now and try and insert a block,
00:35this list would be empty.
00:36What we are going to do is learn how to take the blocks that are in this file
00:40and use them in any drawing that we want.
00:43So let's close this and I am going to close this drawing also.
00:47Don't forget the name. 05_office_bldg.
00:52Let's create a new AutoCAD drawing.
00:54We will use the default acad template.
00:57Let's do one more thing.
00:58Let's set this drawing to architectural units.
01:01To do that, I will click to open the Application menu, I will come down to
01:05Drawing Utilities and then I'll come over and select Units.
01:09In the dialog box under Length, I will click the flyout and set this to Architectural.
01:14Since the drawing that contains my blocks is set to Architectural, I want to
01:18make sure that this drawing is set to the same units. That way AutoCAD doesn't
01:21try and resize my blocks when I insert them into this drawing.
01:25Now that our units matched, let's open up the Design Center.
01:29The Design Center is used to move content from one drawing to another.
01:33Now there are two ways we can open it.
01:35One way is by going to the View tab and then come down to the Palettes panel and
01:40click the icon right here.
01:42Another way to open the Design Center is by hitting Ctrl+2 on your keyboard.
01:47And the first thing that we notice when the Design Center opens up is that it's
01:50a palette, meaning that I can anchor this or dock it to my interface.
01:55Generally speaking, the tool itself functions a lot like Windows Explorer.
02:00I can grab this slider, and I can move up and down.
02:02I can navigate through the hard drive on my machine.
02:05I can click these plus icons to jump in and out of folders.
02:09When we first open the Design Center, AutoCAD defaults to the
02:12DesignCenter folder, which is located inside the Sample folder inside
02:17your AutoCAD 2010 directory.
02:20Since I've already opened this folder, notice it contains several drawings.
02:24Feel free to explore the content in these files as many of them are based on
02:28real-world production work.
02:30Right now, I'd like to navigate to a different folder.
02:33But before I leave, let's make it easy to return to this one.
02:37If I right-click on this folder, I can come down and select Set as Home.
02:42That means no matter where I navigate on my hard drive, I can always return to
02:45this folder by coming up and clicking the Home icon.
02:48I am going to grab this slider, we will push it to the top and I will grab this
02:52slider and we will pan over a little bit.
02:54Let's close up my directories and I am going to look inside the Exercise
02:58Files folder and then we will navigate into the chapter_13 folder,
03:04scroll this down just a little bit and where the Design Center surpasses Windows
03:08Explorer is right here.
03:10Take a look at this icon.
03:12If I click this plus, I can navigate into this drawing and AutoCAD shows me a
03:17list of all those things that I can steal from this file.
03:21Let's select Blocks and notice in the pane on the right I can see a preview of
03:26all the blocks that exist in this drawing.
03:29To bring one of these blocks into my current drawing, I will click, hold and
03:34drag it in and then release.
03:36I am going to zoom out a little bit and it looks like I have to do a regen.
03:43Let's type re and hit Enter.
03:48Let's bring in another block.
03:49I am going to bring in the leather chair.
03:51Once again click, hold and drag it in.
03:54Now the only thing we're really missing when we insert blocks this way is we
03:58don't have a whole lot of precision.
04:00We are not holding the block from our insertion point when we place it in the drawing.
04:04If you'd like to insert one of these blocks using the standard dialog box,
04:08simply double-click on it.
04:09Then we can decide if we want AutoCAD to ask us the three questions.
04:15And when I place this, I'll be holding it from a logical insertion point.
04:21Imagine if we navigate it to another drawing and brought an additional furniture blocks.
04:25Maybe I could name this current drawing furniture.dwg.
04:30I could then save this on my hard drive and the next time I needed a furniture block,
04:34I could use Design Center to navigate to this drawing and I could select
04:38from any of my standard symbols.
04:39Imagine creating a drawing that contained all of your landscape symbols.
04:44You could create a drawing that contains all of your fixtures and appliances.
04:48Essentially a block library is nothing more than a drawing that contains
04:52your common symbols.
04:53I am going to save this drawing. I will come down and click Save As and I'd like
04:59to save this in the chapter_13 folder inside the Exercise Files directory and
05:04I am going to call this call furniture symbols.
05:10Now at any point in the future, if I create another furniture block, I can use
05:14Design Center to add it to my furniture symbols drawing.
05:18Using the Design Center, we can easily organize a custom block library that
05:22holds all the symbols we use most.
05:25And later on, as we create more symbols we can return to the Design Center to
05:28add them to our library.
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14. Accessing Specialized Tools
Querying drawing using rollover tool tips
00:00In this lesson, we are going to talk about a tool that you've probably already
00:03discovered on your own.
00:05It doesn't take long before you notice that if you hover over an entity, AutoCAD
00:09will display a pop-up that tells you a little bit about the object.
00:13This is called a rollover tooltip and we can use these to get information about
00:18the entities in our drawing.
00:20For instance, let's hover over this wall.
00:22Notice AutoCAD tells me what this object is, as well as some general
00:26property information.
00:28Now, if you're not seeing rollover tooltips, it's because the feature is
00:31turned off on your system.
00:32Let me show you where you can go to turn it back on.
00:34We are going to visit our Options, so I will right-click, we will come down and
00:40select Options and if we go to be Display tab, there is a check box right here
00:46that allows us to turn our rollover tooltips on and off.
00:49I am going to leave mine on, and we will click OK.
00:52Using this tool is a lot like interrogating your drawing.
00:56What layer is this on?
00:57It's on the countertop layer.
00:59Is this stool a block? Yes, it is.
01:01How about my stove? Is this a block?
01:04No, it's not.
01:05It's obviously a Polyline and these guys are individual circles.
01:10Since I'm not actually selecting my geometry, this is a fast way to get information.
01:14Now rollover tooltips do have a flaw, and it has to do with text, specifically
01:20text that was created using a TrueType font. Watch this.
01:24Let me place my cursor on this text and notice there's no tooltip.
01:29In fact, I can hover in here all day long and they will never show up.
01:33If you're dealing with a TrueType font and you want to see your tooltips, you
01:36have to hover slightly outside the text.
01:39I know it seems odd but once you understand the tool's weakness, it's pretty
01:44easy to work around.
01:46The beauty of the rollover tooltip is that you can get information without
01:49having to select your geometry.
01:51Because of this, rollover tooltips can be the fastest way to review your drawings.
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Taking measurements using the Distance command
00:00Finding the distance between two points doesn't always require us to create a dimension.
00:05Sometimes just knowing the numeric value is all we want.
00:08At times like these we can use AutoCAD's Distance command.
00:11On my screen, I have got an example of a site plan and this drawing was created
00:15such that each unit equals 1 foot.
00:18Now I would like to verify some of the measurements in this drawing.
00:22So, let's zoom in a little bit and we will start up by finding the width of
00:26this parking stall.
00:28To do that, I'm going to use the Distance command.
00:30Distance is located in the Utilities panel.
00:33If I click this flyout, we can find it right here at the top of the menu.
00:37Note that Distance happens to be the default command.
00:40So if I wanted to, I could also launch it by clicking this big icon.
00:44Now to find a distance, essentially we are just going to pick two points on
00:47screen and AutoCAD is going to tell us how far apart they are.
00:51I am going to select the endpoint here and the endpoint here and I've got a
00:55distance of nine units, so the stall must be 9 feet wide.
00:59If I would like to take another measurement, I can repeat the command by
01:02hitting the Enter key.
01:03Let's find the width of this ramp.
01:07Once again, I will select the endpoint here and the endpoint here.
01:11And this ramp is obviously 5 feet wide.
01:13It's very important to make sure that you're using object snaps when
01:16you're finding distances.
01:17It's the only way to ensure that your measurements are accurate.
01:20I am going to do one more.
01:22Let's hit Enter, we will back up a little bit and we will find the width of this aisle.
01:27So I'd like to distance from the endpoint here to perpendicular to here and I
01:35can see that's 28 feet.
01:37When I am finished using the command, I can come down and select Exit or I
01:40can hit the Escape key.
01:43Now finding distances one of time is okay, but what if I'd like the cumulative
01:47total of multiple distances.
01:49For instance, maybe I'd like to find the perimeter of my property boundary.
01:54Once again, I will launch the Distance command, I will select my first
01:58Endpoint and then I will right-click and select Multiple Points and then I'll
02:04click the Endpoint here.
02:09At each point I click, AutoCAD is adding the distance to the previous
02:12measurements, until I come around and finish and then I will right-click and
02:17select Total and I can see the total length is slightly more than 1293.7 feet.
02:26So if your desire is to simply verify some measurements in your drawing,
02:29whether it be one of the time or a cumulative total of several measurements,
02:34you can use AutoCAD's Distance command and avoid the hassle of producing
02:37unnecessary dimensions.
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Modifying properties using the Quick Properties tool
00:00In this lesson, we are going to learn the fastest way to change the
00:02properties of our objects.
00:04I am speaking of the Quick Properties tool.
00:07This tool is like having a miniature property changer, right at your cursor.
00:11And I'd like to make some changes to some of the entities in this drawing.
00:15Let's turn on the Quick Properties tool.
00:18Quick Properties is actually a mode setting, we can find the icon right down here.
00:22Let me click to turn it on and we don't notice anything different on our screen,
00:27until we select something.
00:30I am going to select this circle and when the tool comes up, notice it looks
00:33exactly like our property changer.
00:36Essentially, it is the exact same thing.
00:38It's just a smaller set of settings.
00:40It's the settings that you would probably use most often, based on the object
00:44that you have selected.
00:45Now it is coming up in a collapsed state.
00:48If I place my cursor over the tool, it will expand and give me access to
00:51additional settings.
00:53In this case, let's change the radius.
00:55I will click in this field and we will set this to 0.25 and I will hit Enter.
01:00When I am finished, I'll hit my Escape key to deselect the circle and notice
01:04the tool closes on its own.
01:06Let's make another change.
01:08Currently, these two lines are on the wrong layer. I'd like to fix that
01:12so I will select this line and this one.
01:14I will come up the Layer field and click, we'll select the flyout and I'll put
01:19these guys on the centerlines layer and I will hit Escape.
01:23As you can see by having our properties close to our cursor, it's very fast to make changes.
01:27I am going to select this circle again.
01:30We'll bring the tool up one more time and this time we'll talk a little bit
01:33about the tool itself.
01:35In the upper-left, I have got this bumpy-looking area. This is a handle.
01:39If I click and hold on this, I can place the tool wherever I like on my screen,
01:44in the event it gets in my way.
01:46If I move over and click the Options icon, I can adjust the Settings that are
01:51associated with this tool.
01:52For instance, Palette behavior, this is what controls the collapsing of the palette.
01:58Right now, I can see that it will collapse and when it's in a collapsed state, I will see 3 rows.
02:04Also Palette Location, where is it going to come up on my screen?
02:08Is it going to come up at a Static location, or the at same place each time, or
02:12is it going to come up in relation to my cursor?
02:15If it does, I have control over where it comes up around my cursor, as well as
02:21how far away from my cursor it's going to be, measured in pixels.
02:25Let's click OK and I am going to set this circle back the way it was.
02:29I will change this back to 0.5 and hit Enter and then we'll it Escape.
02:36Let me show you one more thing.
02:38You are going to notice that some of the objects that you select aren't going to
02:41have all the properties that you'd like.
02:43For instance, if I select this dimension, notice I have no control over the layer.
02:48That's what this button is for.
02:50If I click Customize, I can see, right here, that I've selected a Rotated
02:56Dimension and over on the right, I can see checks showing all the properties
03:00that are showing up in my Quick Properties tool.
03:02Well, I would like to be able to change my layer as well.
03:06So I will select this, I will click Apply and OK.
03:12And from now on, when I select the dimension, I'll have the ability to change its layer.
03:20It is important to note that all dimensions are not the same. If I select this
03:23Radial Dimension, notice it's a different type.
03:27So, I have to go through the same process to add that setting to this type of dimension.
03:33Using the Quick Properties tool, we can make many of our property changes much
03:36faster because the settings are just inches from our cursor.
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Automating calculations using the Quick Calculator feature
00:00Another helpful tool AutoCAD gives us is the Quick Calculator.
00:04But makes a Quick Calculator nice is that it can be used transparently within
00:07our AutoCAD commands.
00:09Let me show you what I mean.
00:11On my screen, I have got some sketch geometry.
00:13Let's take a look at this circle first.
00:16Maybe I'd like to create a new circle and I'd like its radius to be one-half the
00:20radius of this existing one.
00:22Well, I am going to launch my Circle command and I will create my circle from
00:27the center of this one.
00:28Now, what's my radius is going to be?
00:30This is where we typically get our handheld calculator, but you know what?
00:34We don't have to do that.
00:35AutoCAD has a built-in calculator.
00:38I am going to hit Ctrl+8 to bring it up onscreen.
00:42Notice, right here, it says Active Command: Circle.
00:45That means whatever value I come up with AutoCAD is going to apply it to
00:48the Circle command.
00:50Now since this is the first time we've launched the calculator, it's in a collapsed state.
00:54I am going to click this more than button, so we can see the numeric keypad.
00:58And I'm going to click 2.143/2 =. There's my value.
01:08Let's come down and click Apply and notice AutoCAD dumps that value to my
01:12command line and at this point I can hit Enter on my keyboard to accept it.
01:17Let's take it one step further.
01:18Maybe I'd like to create a circle whose radius is half of this one.
01:23Once again, we will launch the Circle command and we will create our circle from
01:27the center of this one and for my radius, I am going to let the computer
01:31figure it out. I am going to hit Ctrl+8 to bring up the calculator.
01:35Take a look at this area above.
01:37This is our history.
01:39AutoCAD keeps track of our previous computations.
01:42The nice thing is I can steal from the history. If I double-click this value,
01:47AutoCAD moves it into the expression area and I can use it in my new equation.
01:51I am going to click divided by 2.
01:54We can also use the buttons on our keyboard.
01:56I will click = then Apply and then I will hit Enter to accept the value.
02:01I'd like to do one more.
02:03Let's create a circle whose radius is twice this original one.
02:06I am going to right back into the command.
02:08I will select the center of this circle.
02:11I will hit Ctrl+8 and notice that I can steal from both sides of my history.
02:17This is my previous equation.
02:19I am going to double-click on this to move it into my expression area, and I
02:23will change this to an asterisk.
02:26The asterisk represents multiplication.
02:28I will click Apply and Enter.
02:31Let's try something else.
02:33This geometry on the right represents a simple square.
02:37Maybe I'd like to offset this line and divide its width into five equal parts.
02:43Let's launch the Offset command and what's my offset distance? I'm not sure.
02:47I am going to hit Ctrl+8 to bring up the calculator. And you know what?
02:51At this point, I don't even know how long this line is.
02:54Let's come up and click this button, this stands for distance between two points.
02:59I will then click this point and this one.
03:03Notice AutoCAD places that distance in my expression area.
03:06From here, I can type divided by five.
03:09Let me mention that we have only scratched the surface of what this calculator can do.
03:14If you'd like to explore this tool further, click the Help icon and AutoCAD will
03:19give you more information.
03:21Let's click Apply and then I'll hit Enter to accept that value and I can offset my line.
03:27I will offset one here, and here and here.
03:31While the Quick Calculator may not completely replace the handheld calculator
03:36we keep at our desk,
03:37it certainly makes computations, within AutoCAD, much easier.
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15. Plotting
Creating quick plots
00:00At some point in our design process, we'll need to produce a hard copy of our work.
00:05Let's look at how we can create a quick print of our drawing for review purposes.
00:09On my screen, I have a mechanical example.
00:11Let me mention that the units for this drawing were set to Decimal Inches.
00:15So, if I zoom in a little bit, I can see that my part is 12 inches wide by 12 inches tall.
00:23So, we're dealing with a relatively small drawing.
00:26I would like to produce a hard copy of this guy and I don't require the
00:30formality of a title block.
00:32I pretty much want to print this drawing on paper, so I can put it in someone's
00:35hands for the review.
00:37To do that, I am going to come up to the Quick Access toolbar and launch the Plot command.
00:42This brings up my Plot dialog box and before we move on, if you have any
00:47questions about plotting, one great place you can go is this hyperlink right here.
00:52If you click this, AutoCAD will give you additional information for putting
00:55your designs on paper.
00:57Likewise, if you have any questions about the settings in this box, simply hover
01:01over the setting and AutoCAD will tell you a little bit more about it.
01:06All right, let's start out by selecting our printer. I am going to click my Name
01:10flyout and right here, at the top of the list, take a look at these icons.
01:14These icons represent system printers that are connected to my machine or
01:18visible on my network.
01:20Now, each person's system is different so you may see different printers on my
01:24machine than you see on yours.
01:26If we look at the bottom of the list, notice the icons are different.
01:29These plotter icons represent plot configuration settings and these come
01:34pre-installed with AutoCAD.
01:35We'll look at some of these in a little bit.
01:38For right now, I am going to select a printer.
01:40I happen to have Adobe Acrobat installed on my machine, so I'll select
01:44the Adobe PDF printer.
01:46You can select any printer on your machine that will handle a letter size sheet of paper.
01:51Now, we'll come down to Paper size, Letter happens to be what I want.
01:56If I click the flyout, I just want to mention that this list is dynamic, so
02:01whatever printer that you select, these paper sizes that you see in this list will
02:05be the ones that are available for that printer.
02:10Let's come down to Plot area. This is where we tell AutoCAD what we want to print.
02:14There's a few ways we can do this.
02:16I am going to click the flyout and we'll use the Window method.
02:19Let me back up just a little bit and I am going to pick a point right here and
02:25I'll pick a point right here.
02:27Essentially, what I'm doing is creating a rectangle and this rectangle defines
02:30the boundary of what I want to print.
02:32Let's come down to Plot offset and I'll check Center the plot, now when I do
02:38this watch my preview right over here.
02:42Each time I adjust a setting, my preview will update automatically.
02:46Notice the preview is showing me an 8.50 x 11 sheet of paper.
02:50The hatched area in the middle represents the geometry that I'm printing.
02:54Let's come down to plot scale.
02:55Right now, this is set to fit to paper.
02:58That's probably the worst setting. Usually, you'll want you print your drawings
03:01to a measurable scale.
03:02Let me uncheck this.
03:05We'll go to the Scale flyout and click.
03:08Notice I have several of the standard engineering and mechanical scales on top
03:12and I've got standard architectural scales on the bottom.
03:16If this drawing was set for architectural units, I'd be using these scales.
03:20Let's try and plot this at a scale of 1:1.
03:24Take a look at my preview. Notice the red line. That shows me that my plot is
03:28larger than my paper, which stands to reason because this drawing is 12" x 12".
03:34I am going to click the Scale again.
03:36We'll make it half scale, 1:2.
03:39That looks like it will fit nicely.
03:41Now, if you want, you can use this area below to create your own scales.
03:45If I'd like to plot this at 1:3, I could change my units to 3.
03:49Let me click in the other box to update my preview, we can see that on our screen.
03:54Essentially, what I'm seeing is 1 printed inch is equal to 3 units in model space.
04:00Since my model space units are inches, this drawing is 1:3.
04:04Let's put it back to 1:2 and we'll come down and click our Preview button.
04:12As you can see, here's a representation of my paper.
04:15I can see my drawing on the sheet and this plot preview works just like model space.
04:19If I roll my wheel forward, I can zoom in and out.
04:22If I hold my wheel down, I can pan.
04:24If I zoom in a little bit closer, you can see the pen weights on my lines.
04:28There is only one problem. Everything is wanting to plot using my layer color.
04:33Let's close this Preview and we'll address that issue.
04:37I am going to come down and click this More Than button so we can see the
04:40additional settings in our Plot dialog box.
04:44And then we'll come right up here to the Plot Style table.
04:48We'll click this flyout and we're going to select some pens.
04:51I am going to grab the Monochrome pen table. I'll select Yes.
04:57We'll talk about pen settings in detail in just a little bit.
05:01Let's click Preview again.
05:02Let me zoom in a little bit.
05:05Now, notice my Plot Preview looks as you'd expect.
05:08I'm ready to create my print.
05:10Let me close the preview, and we'll come down and click OK.
05:15Now, if you just plot it directly to your printer, your paper is already coming out.
05:19Since I'm plotting to a PDF, I'm going to give my file a name.
05:25I am going to call this 'restrictor' and I am going to save it to my Desktop.
05:32The image that you see on screen is an example of my final plot.
05:36If your plot doesn't require the formality of a title block, plotting a window
05:40for model space is a great way to produce hard copies of your design.
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Selecting a pen table
00:00You may be wondering why it's necessary to select a plot style table when
00:03printing your AutoCAD drawings.
00:06We certainly don't need a plot style table when we print from Microsoft Word
00:09or Adobe Photoshop.
00:11Remember that AutoCAD is a vector-based program, which means the information we
00:15see on screen is mathematically-based lines and curves, and not pixels.
00:21Each color choice we have available on AutoCAD represents a virtual pen that
00:25could be configured to plot however we like.
00:27Let's talk about plot style tables.
00:30I am going to start out by going to my Layer Properties Manager.
00:33Let's come over to the Color column and I'll click one of these swatches.
00:38This brings up AutoCAD's color picker and, in reality, we are not really picking a
00:43color in this box, we're selecting a pen. Watch this.
00:47If I place my cursor over this color, notice just above it, it says index color 1.
00:52That's essentially my pen number.
00:54Let me come over and click this one, this is pen number 2, move over again and
01:00click, this is pen number 3. Notice pen number 3 happens to be green.
01:05You know, only these first seven pens have real color names.
01:09If I come up above and click a pen, we can see the pen name is the same as the color name.
01:14Now, there are 255 pen choices available in AutoCAD.
01:18It's kind of like a large box of crayons.
01:21Each of these pens can be configured to plot a specific way.
01:24I am going to Close this box and let's launch the Plot command.
01:30Now, we assign Plot style tables right here.
01:33Let's click the flyout and I am going to select Monochrome and we'll click Yes.
01:39This Plot style table is configured such that all pens will plot as black.
01:43I am going to come over and click the Edit button and we'll take a look at
01:46this Plot style table.
01:47Now, there is two ways to view our data, the Form View and the Table View.
01:53The Table View is very similar to Microsoft Excel.
01:56I am going to go back to Form View and on the left side I can see a listing of
02:02all of the pens that are in this style.
02:05If I grab the slider and come all way to the bottom we can see there is 255 pens.
02:10Let me drag this back to the top.
02:13If I select a pen, I can then configure how this pen is going to print by using
02:18these settings on the right.
02:20For right now, notice this pen is going to plot as black.
02:23Let me select Pen Number 2.
02:24It will also plot as black.
02:27Pen Number 4 will plot as black.
02:29They will all plot as black because this is the Monochrome pen table.
02:33Let's make a change.
02:34I am going to select the Pen Number 2 and then I am going to click the Color
02:37flyout and I would like Pen Number 2 to plot as red.
02:42That's the only change I am going to make.
02:43I am going to save this plot style table. We'll do that by clicking Save As
02:48because I don't want to overwrite my original and then I am going to call this
02:54my custom pens, and I'll click Save and then we'll Close this dialog box.
02:59We will then select our new custom pen table and we'll finish our plot.
03:06I am going to click my printer flyout and I am going to go with the Adobe PDF printer.
03:13You can select any printer on your machine that will support a letter size
03:16sheet. Looks like my paper size is good.
03:19I am going to come down and click the flyout and I'd like to define my Plot
03:23area using a Window.
03:25I am going to click right here and I'll come down and click right here.
03:30Let's Center the plot on the sheet and I would like to plot this to a scale, so
03:34I'm going to uncheck Fit to Paper.
03:37Let's click the Scale flyout and we'll try a scale of 1:1 and that's
03:41obviously not going to work.
03:44Let's click the flyout again and we'll try half scale 1:2.
03:48That looks like it'd work out just fine.
03:50Now, I am going to come down and click Preview but before I do, let me pull this
03:54box down a little bit.
03:57Notice the part of this drawing that's using Pen Number 2, or yellow.
04:01Remember, we made a change to that pen.
04:07Let's click Preview and notice we can see that change on screen.
04:12We will also see that change in the finished plot.
04:16Now, if I would like to plot this, there is short cut.
04:18If I right-click, I can select plot from here to send my drawing.
04:24If you send your drawing to your printer, it's probably already coming out.
04:28Since I am plotting mine to PDF, I am going to place it on my Desktop.
04:35Now, if you send your drawing to your printer, it's probably already coming out.
04:38Since I am plotting mine into PDF I have got to give it a file name.
04:42I'm saving this to my Desktop. I am going to call this 'gasket' and I'll click Save.
04:55On my screen is an example of my finished plot.
04:58One of the benefits of having a pen table is that you can customize AutoCAD to
05:02your own office standards.
05:04Most offices will configure a pen table to be used for all of their plotting needs.
05:09For now, as a beginning student, it's probably best to stick with the Monochrome
05:13pen table such that all of your line work will plot using the color black.
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Choosing line weights
00:00Since we are getting into the topic of plotting, it's important for us to take a
00:03minute and talk about lineweights.
00:06Our lineweight setting controls the thickness of our line work when it's printed on paper.
00:11In this lesson, we are going to learn how to set lineweights.
00:13On my screen, I have got a mechanical example. This drawing is essentially
00:17finished, but before I print it, I'd like to visit the Layer Properties Manager,
00:22and notice that, currently, all of the layers in my drawing are set to have a
00:26Lineweight of Default.
00:28That means when I print this drawing, all of my lines are going to have the same thickness.
00:33Typically, we'll use lineweights to emphasize more important parts of our drawing.
00:37For instance, I would like the geometry of my part to be a heavier lineweight
00:43than maybe my dimensions, and I'd like my dimensions to be a heavier lineweight
00:48than maybe my hidden lines or my centerlines.
00:51Let's make a change.
00:52I am going to click this setting.
00:54This brings up my lineweight control where I can select from any printable
00:58lineweight in this list.
00:59Here is my problem.
01:02I don't know what the default lineweight thickness is, so how do I know I'm
01:06picking something that's heavier or thinner than what I already have?
01:10Second of all, this drawing was set up for imperial units.
01:13This is a decimal inches drawing, yet AutoCAD is defaulting to millimeters
01:18for my lineweights.
01:20Let's hit Cancel and we'll see if we can answer some of these questions.
01:23I am going to visit the Options dialog box.
01:26Let's right-click and we'll select Options and if we go to the User Preferences
01:31tab, we can come down and click the Lineweight Settings button and this is where
01:36we can get our answers.
01:37Notice, right here, AutoCAD is defaulting to millimeters for our lineweights.
01:41If I want, I can set this to inches to see the inches equivalent.
01:47Now millimeters has always been the standard, so I am going to leave
01:50that setting as it is.
01:52Notice, right here, my default lineweight has a width of 0.25 millimeters and if I
01:58wanted to, I could set the default width to something else, but for right now
02:03at least we know what that width is.
02:06Since I haven't made any changes, I am going to exit this dialog box and we'll
02:10close our Options and we'll go back to the Layer Properties Manager.
02:14I am going to click the lineweight for my restrictor plate, and I'm going to set
02:20this to have a plottable line thickness of 0.6 millimeters.
02:24Then I'll change the lineweight for my dimensions layer to be a little bit thinner.
02:29Maybe we'll go with 0.3 and I'll click OK and I'd like my Hidden lines to be a
02:34little bit thinner than that.
02:35Now I know default is 0.25, I'd like to go a little bit thinner.
02:39I am going to change this to 0.13 and I'll click OK and I'm going to give my
02:45centerlines the same line thickness.
02:50Finally, I don't have to worry about Defpoints because nothing on Defpoints will plot anyway.
02:55Likewise, layer 0 has no geometry on it so I won't worry about changing its
03:00Lightweight Setting either.
03:01Now that my lineweights are set, this drawing is ready to plot.
03:06In our next lesson, we'll learn how to put this drawing on paper.
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Creating a layout pt. 1: Choosing a paper size
00:00Most production drafting will require us to create formal plots.
00:04These plots will typically include a title block that contains our company logo,
00:08client information, scale information, drawing, title and other things.
00:13To create our formal plots, we're going to use what's known as a layout.
00:17In the session, we'll set up our first layout and choose a paper size.
00:20On my screen, I've got a mechanical example.
00:24Let's say I'd like to plot this drawing using our company title block.
00:29To do that, I am going to set up a layout.
00:31If we look in the lower left-hand corner, we can see that this drawing
00:34contains two layouts.
00:36A layout is a virtual piece of paper that we can use to plot our drawing.
00:40I am going to select Layout1 and we'll take a look.
00:43Notice, we can see a sheet of paper.
00:45Note that this paper also contains a rectangle, inside of which we can see our part.
00:51Now, this rectangle is called a viewport and we are going to talk about viewports later.
00:55So since I've selected this, I am going to hit the Delete key on my keyboard to erase it.
01:00Now, the paper that we see on screen is a representation of what our plot is
01:04going to look like when it comes out of the printer.
01:06Notice I have a dashed line around the outside. This represents my printable
01:10margin. Anything that falls outside this boundary won't print.
01:15It's important to note that the shape of this paper and the shape of the
01:18boundary will change depending on the printer and the paper size that I select.
01:23Let's select a piece of paper for our plot.
01:25To do that, I'm going to right-click on the Layout tab and select Page Setup Manager.
01:31Then I'll come over and click Modify and notice that the Page Setup Manager looks
01:36strangely similar to the Plot dialog box.
01:39That's because we're, essentially, setting up our plot ahead of time.
01:43You see a layout is merely a visual representation of our plot settings.
01:47I am going to start out by choosing a printer.
01:49Let's click the Name flyout and since I've got Adobe Acrobat installed on my
01:54machine, I am going to select the Adobe PDF printer.
01:58You can select any printer that's installed on your machine that will support
02:01a letter size sheet.
02:03Now, if you don't have a printer that you can use to print your drawings,
02:07select the DWF6 ePlot.
02:10This is a virtual printer that you can use to finish the tutorials.
02:15Let's come down and look at Paper size, this is to set to Letter, so this is fine.
02:19For Plot area, what do I want to plot? I want to plot the Layout. This is also good.
02:24Finally, let's take a look at Scale.
02:26Notice this is set to 1:1.
02:29You know, if we plot using layouts, our scale will always be set at 1:1, because
02:34the layout is a true size environment.
02:36Our paper is measured in inches and we want to plot that paper at a 1:1 scale.
02:41Since I'm finished with my settings, I'll click OK and then we'll click Close.
02:46Layouts are essentially a visual display of saved plot settings.
02:50The piece of paper we see on screen is a real-life representation of our paper
02:54as it'll come out of the printer.
02:56In our next session, we'll add a title block to our new layout.
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Creating a layout pt. 2: Inserting a title block
00:00Now that we have set up our layout and established our paper size, our next goal
00:04is to add the title block.
00:06Generally speaking, a layout acts just like model space.
00:10So if I wanted to, I could draft my title block right here on my Layout tab.
00:14You know, I could come up and launch the Rectangle command and I could create a
00:18rectangle from here to here, and then I'll hit Spacebar to go back into the
00:21command and create one from the end point here to here, and I could slowly build
00:27my title block on this layout.
00:29Instead, to save time, I've already created a drawing that contains my
00:33title block geometry.
00:35Let's drag that geometry onto my layout.
00:39So, I am going to erase these rectangles and let's open a drawing.
00:42We are going to look in the chapter_ 15 folder, inside our Exercise Files
00:48directory and let's open this one, 05_titleblock.
00:54Now that I have two drawings open in my interface, I am going to go the View
00:57tab on my ribbon and select Tile Vertically so I can see a side-by-side view of these drawings.
01:04Now let's clean up the view a little bit. I am going to click in this window on
01:08the right to put the focus over here and I'll back up just a little bit.
01:12Then we'll click in the window on the left and I'll pan this drawing over.
01:18Now to move my geometry from one drawing to another, I'm going to select it and
01:23then I'll click and hold on a highlighted portion of the line and I'll drag it
01:28into the other file and I'll try and center this as well as I can on my layout.
01:34Now I don't need my title block drawing anymore. I can close this and I can
01:39maximize this drawing.
01:40Let's zoom in a little bit.
01:42We'll see how well I did.
01:43You know, this is centered pretty good on this sheet.
01:46I can always come back and adjust the location of my title block after I make my first plot.
01:51From this point, I can zoom in and I can edit this text to suit my needs.
01:58
01:59In addition to title blocks, layouts are a great place to put notes, legends,
02:04north arrows and scale bars.
02:06In our next session, we'll complete our layout by adding a viewport and setting
02:10our geometry to a measurable scale.
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Creating a layout pt. 3: Cutting viewports
00:00Now, that we've added a title block to our layout, we're ready to create a
00:03viewport, such that we can see our part and set it to a measurable scale.
00:08Now, you may be asking yourself, "Where is our part drawing in relation to this Layout tab?"
00:13Let's take a look.
00:13I am going to come down to the lower-left and click on the Model tab.
00:18This will return us to model space, where our part geometry is located.
00:22Model space is where we do all of our drafting.
00:25Conversely, let me select Layout1.
00:29Layouts represent our sheet of paper and layouts are where we insert our title block.
00:35The layouts sit on top of model space.
00:38So if I want to see my part, I need to cut a hole in this piece of paper.
00:42Now, AutoCAD calls this hole a viewport, and if we want to create a viewport in
00:48our drawing, we need to place it on a layer of its own.
00:51Take a look at my Layer control.
00:53Notice I am practicing good form.
00:54I've already created a viewport layer and that layer is current.
00:58To create my viewport, I am going to go to the View tab on my ribbon and the
01:02tool we want is located in the Viewports panel.
01:06Now, launching this command is essentially three clicks.
01:09I am going to click New, then Single and then OK.
01:15Now, I will pick two points to define the rectangular shape of my viewport.
01:19I am going to select the endpoint here and then I'll come down and select
01:24the endpoint over here.
01:26Notice I can now see my part through this viewport.
01:29A viewport is a lot like a window in the model space. Watch this.
01:34If my cursor is inside the viewport and I double-click, AutoCAD gives me
01:38access to model space.
01:40From here, I can pan and zoom and I can work through this viewport.
01:45It's kind of like reaching your hand through a window.
01:48In fact, we'll set the scale of this geometry by adjusting our zoom factor.
01:53Now, we're not going to be doing that manually.
01:55Instead, once we are in the viewport, we're going to come down to the Viewport
01:59Scale menu and click and I can set my scale here.
02:04Notice, at the top of the menu, I have several standard engineering and mechanical
02:08scales, and at the bottom, I have my standard architectural scales.
02:12Let's see if this drawing will fit in my viewport at a scale of 1:1.
02:17That's actually very close.
02:19Let me click-and-hold my wheel and I'll pan this down and center it a little bit better.
02:24Once you set the scale of your viewport, it's a good idea to come down and click
02:28this icon to lock it.
02:30Otherwise, notice mine is not locked yet.
02:32If you're working in the viewport and you pan and zoom, you just trashed your scale.
02:37Now, you might think you could adjust your wheel and straighten this out,
02:39but that won't work.
02:41The only way to correct your scale is to go back to the Viewport Scale menu and
02:46reselect it from the list.
02:48Once again, I am going to center this a little bit better and when I'm
02:53finished, I will lock this.
02:55Now, even if I'm working in this viewport, if I pan or zoom, AutoCAD will pan
03:00and zoom the entire layout.
03:02To get out of my viewport, I will place my cursor outside the viewport
03:05boundary and double-click.
03:08Now, my cursor is back on the Layout tab and I have access to all of my layout objects.
03:12Now, you may be wondering, "Why do we put these viewports on a layer of their own?"
03:18That's a good question.
03:19Let me deselect this.
03:20I am going to go to the Home tab. We put them on their own layer because if we
03:25turn this layer off, the rectangle goes away and now I don't have to worry about
03:32it showing up on my plots.
03:34Let's look at something else.
03:35I am going to right-click on my Layout tab and select Page Setup Manager.
03:40We'll click Modify and we've already taken care of these settings earlier.
03:45Let's take a look at our pens.
03:47I am going to click my Pen flyout and select monochrome pens.
03:52Notice, since I'm using a layout, I also have a check box that will allow me to
03:56display my Plot Styles.
03:58Let's click OK and I'll click Close.
04:01Notice that my geometry is now displaying as monochrome.
04:05We can take it one step further.
04:08Let's come down to the Status bar and we'll look at another mode setting.
04:11This icon toggles the display of my Lineweights.
04:15If I click this to turn it on, I can now see my Lineweights on screen as well.
04:20Now, when I work on my layout, it's just like I'm working in a plot preview mode.
04:24One thing I do want to mention about this toggle. If we go back to model space,
04:29notice the pen weights also show up here, and they always stay the same width on
04:34screen, so as I back up they tend to look fatter and fatter and fatter.
04:39If you find this to be annoying, you can always come down and turn it off.
04:42The pen weights will plot just fine, whether this toggle is turned on or not.
04:46I am going to leave mine on.
04:48We'll go back to our Layout tab.
04:51Let's do one more thing before we plot this.
04:53Let's rename this layout.
04:55Layout1 is kind of generic.
04:57I'm going to double-click on the Layout tab, and I am going to call this final design.
05:06When the time comes to plot this layout, remember I've already set all of my
05:10plot settings ahead of time.
05:13All I have to do to send this to the printer is click Plot and OK and since
05:19my layout is set to Plot to the Adobe PDF Plotter, I will give my PDF a name
05:25and I'll click Save.
05:26Now, my screen is an example of my finished plot.
05:35Layouts are the most powerful way of creating plots in AutoCAD.
05:39Their benefits even go beyond the viewports, plot preview and naming features
05:43that we've seen here.
05:44If we can incorporate layouts into our workflow, we've taken the first step
05:48towards using even more powerful features, like sheet sets, page setups, and publishing.
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Reusing layouts
00:00The best part about layouts is that you can reuse them.
00:04This means that you only have to set up your 8.5" X 11" layout one time, and then
00:08you can use it for any other drawing you wish to print to 8.5" X 11" paper.
00:13By the way, in the drafting world, an 8.5" X 11" sheet is also called an A-size sheet.
00:19In this lesson, we're going to learn how to plot a drawing using an existing layout.
00:23On my screen, I've got an architectural example.
00:25Let's say I'd like to plot this on an A- size sheet using our company title block.
00:31Now, we've seen this takes a little bit of time, but you know what? I don't have
00:34to setup a new layout, I already have an A-size layout in another drawing.
00:39I am going to extract the layout from my previous drawing and use it in this
00:43one, and I'll do that with the Design Center.
00:45I am going to hit Ctrl+2 on my keyboard to open up the Design Center onscreen,
00:51and then I will navigate to the drawing that contains my layout.
00:55Let's close up chapter_13 and I am going to come down and open up chapter_15 and
01:00the drawing I am interested in is 06_layout_pt3_finished.
01:05Let's click the plus to navigate into this drawing and I'll select Layouts and
01:10if we look over to the right, we can see the layouts that are in this file.
01:14I'd like to use the final design layout.
01:17So I will click-hold-and-drag this into my drawing and release.
01:22And if we look right down here, we can see that layout was copied into my file.
01:25I am going to close Design Center and we'll take a look.
01:31It's important to note that if you copy a layout from one drawing to another,
01:35the only geometry that comes along is the geometry that exists on the layout.
01:39So, none of that part geometry came along with this sheet.
01:43I seem to recall this layout had a viewport and I believe we turned that
01:47viewport layer off.
01:49Let's go the Layer control, we'll turn the viewport layer back on, there we go,
01:56there is my viewport.
01:57Now, that I've verified that we have a viewport on this sheet, I am going to
02:00double-click inside it and then I'll do a zoom extends to see our geometry. Hey!
02:06Notice that didn't work. You know why?
02:08The viewport is still locked.
02:10Let me click the icon to unlock it and then I'll do another zoom extends.
02:15There we go, there is my geometry.
02:16Now that we can see it, let's set it to a measurable scale.
02:19I am going to come down to the Viewport Scale menu and, since this is an
02:24architectural example, we'll be using one of these scales towards the bottom.
02:28I am going to try 1/2" = 1'- 0" and that's not going to work.
02:34Let's open up the menu again and we will try 1/4" = 1'- 0" that looks like it's
02:39going to work perfectly.
02:40I am going to pan this up just a little bit and then I'm immediately going to
02:45lock this viewport, so I don't accidentally mess it up.
02:49Now that I am finished setting my scale, I am going to move my cursor outside
02:52the viewport and double-click.
02:55Now, I have access to the objects on my layout.
02:57I am going to zoom in and let's make some changes to this text.
03:02I am going to call this ARCHITECTURAL EXAMPLE and most important, let's make
03:11sure our scale is accurate, 1/4" = 1'.
03:19Finally, before I create my plot, I'm going to turn the viewport layer off.
03:26And then I'll plot the drawing by clicking the Plot icon, then clicking OK.
03:33Since I'm plotting this drawing to PDF, I am going to give it a name and I'll click Save.
03:38On my screen, you can see an example of my finished plot.
03:45Imagine if you created a master drawing on your network that contained all of
03:50your typical title block, saved as layouts.
03:53Anytime you needed to add a title block to a drawing, you could simply
03:56drag-and-drop a layout from your master file.
03:59Layouts give you the power of automating your title block insertions and reduce
04:03the effort of plotting to a couple clicks of the mouse.
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Organizing layouts
00:00AutoCAD drawings can contain several layouts.
00:03This means we have complete control over how, or how much of our model
00:06space geometry we plot.
00:09Since we can have multiple layouts, let's look at how we can organize the
00:12layouts in our drawing.
00:13On my screen, I have a mechanical example.
00:16I actually have two parts, drawn in model space.
00:19They're both related.
00:20Each of these is an electrical cover plate.
00:23On the left, I've got a switch cover, and on the right, I've got a receptacle cover.
00:27Now, even though these drawings are together, I would like to plot them
00:30individually, on separate layouts.
00:33If we look right down here, you can see that I've already used the Design Center
00:37to insert an A-size sheet, and this layout contains a viewport and the layer
00:42happens to be turned off.
00:44Let's go to the Layer control and we'll turn that layer back on. There we go.
00:49Now, I'll double-click inside the viewport and then we'll do a zoom extends
00:52to see our geometry.
00:53Then I'll pan this over because I'd like to use this layout to plot my switch cover.
01:00We'll center this guy in the view and then we'll set our viewport to
01:04a measurable scale.
01:05I am going to try 1:1 and that looks like it will work.
01:09The only problem I have is I can still see some of the other geometry.
01:12Let me show you how we can fix this.
01:15I am going to move my cursor outside the viewport and double-click.
01:18I now have access to the geometry on my layout.
01:21I am going to select the viewport edge. Notice I have grips on the corners.
01:27I am going to select this grip and I am going to make sure my running object
01:31snaps are turned off.
01:32These tend to get in the way, if we are editing a viewport boundary.
01:35Let me move this edge over to here, and then I will click this grip and I will
01:42pull this edge to here.
01:45Since our viewport is a window in the model space, I can use these grips to
01:49change the size of my window.
01:51Now that I'm finished, I'll deselect this and I'll turn the layer back off.
01:57Now, this layout is just about finished.
01:58I want to do one more thing though.
02:00I'd like to rename it.
02:02To rename a layout, we'll double-click on it and then we can enter a new name.
02:07I am going to type 'CP1' and hit Enter.
02:11If we have multiple layouts in our drawing, we can click-hold-and-drag these to
02:15a new location and release, if we want to change their order.
02:18Now that my layout's finished, I'd like to create a copy of this layout to
02:23use to plot the other half of my drawing.
02:26To copy a layout, I will click-hold-and- drag and while doing that, I am going to
02:30hold down the Ctrl key and then I'll release my mouse button to create my copy.
02:35Let's select this layout. Notice, it's the exact same thing.
02:39I am going to change the name.
02:40We'll make this CP2 and let's adjust the contents of our viewport.
02:46I am going to try and do this without turning the layer on.
02:49Let's double-click to jump into the viewport and then I will pan this over and
02:55it looks like the geometry will fit nicely.
02:58Now, that I'm finished, I'll double- click outside the viewport and we can change
03:03some of our title block information.
03:07This is a DUAL RECEPTICLE COVER and I misspelled that.
03:14Let me right-click on it and I'll select the appropriate spelling, there we go.
03:20I'd like this to be sheet CP2 and before we wrap this up, you may wonder, "Hey,
03:28"I've got a couple layouts in this drawing that I am not going to be using.
03:31"Is there any way I can remove a layout?" Yes, there is.
03:34If you want to delete a layout, right-click on the tab and select Delete from the menu.
03:40Now, you will get a warning, saying, "Hey, you're actually deleting this layout.
03:43"Do you want to do that?" That's fine.
03:45I am going to click OK.
03:46Let's get rid of Layout2 as well.
03:52Using these layouts, I was able to take my model space geometry and create
03:55two separate plots.
03:57AutoCAD drawings can support an unlimited number of layouts.
04:00With a little organization, we can take the same model space geometry and plot it any number of ways.
Collapse this transcript
16. Creating Properly Sized Annotations on Plotted Drawings
Using the Annotative property to automatically size text
00:00Let me start by saying that we should never place text in a drawing, until we
00:04know our intended plot scale.
00:06That's because the scale of our plot will dictate how large our text needs to
00:09be, such that it's readable on the printed sheet.
00:13Fortunately, if I know my plot scale, AutoCAD will size my text automatically.
00:18In this lesson, we're going to learn how to create predictably sized text in our drawings.
00:23On my screen, I have got an architectural floor plan and I would like to label
00:27each one of these rooms.
00:28Now, before I get started, let me mention that there is already a layout
00:32created for this drawing.
00:34And if we take a look at the layout, we can see that the scale of the
00:37viewport is 3/16" = 1'-0". You know what?
00:41Good practice says you never take the title blocks word for it.
00:44I am going to double-click in this viewport.
00:46Let's look right down here.
00:48Yes in fact, it is 3/16' = 1'-0".
00:51All right, let's double-click out, we'll go back to model space and I can create my labels.
00:57Now, here is my problem.
00:58How large should I make my text such that it's readable on my printed sheet?
01:03Better yet, how large should I make my text if I wanted to be a specific size
01:08when it's printed on the sheet?
01:09A couple of years ago, we used have to work out the math to set our text
01:13types in model space.
01:14Now, AutoCAD does everything automatically.
01:17Let me show you how it works.
01:18I am going to create a text style.
01:21Notice, I already have some styles in this drawing.
01:24These are the styles that are being used on my title block, by the way.
01:27I am going to click New and I'm going to call the style, Room Labels.
01:33And I would like these to have the Arial font.
01:36Let's make it Bold.
01:37Then we'll come down to Size.
01:39Now, instead of setting a size here just yet, I am going to come over and click
01:43the Annotative button.
01:45And when I do, notice my Text Style has an icon next to it.
01:49That means that this text style will automatically size itself to match my plot scale.
01:55Since this style is set to Annotative, I can set the height I would like my text
01:59to be on my paper, right here.
02:02I would like it to be 3/16" and that's it, my Text Style is Current.
02:07Let's click Close and we can create our text.
02:11We do have to do one thing first.
02:13Take a look right down here.
02:15This is my Annotation Scale flyout.
02:17Let me click this to open it up and we'll set this to our plot scale. 3/16" = 1'-0".
02:24Now, when I create my text or any annotative object, AutoCAD is going to properly
02:29size it for this plot scale.
02:31I am going to create some multiline text.
02:33Let me zoom in a little bit and I'll click right here, and I'll set my column. This
02:41is the Living Room. We'll make one more up here. This one is the Kitchen.
02:47Now, we could keep creating new ones or, if you like to recycle, you can copy
02:52these to the other rooms and then just change them.
02:55Notice, if I place my cursor over this text, I can see the Annotative icon.
03:00This is a visual reminder to let you know that text is sizing
03:03itself automatically.
03:04I am going to double-click and we'll change this to Bedroom.
03:09We'll change this one to Bathroom.
03:13I can then copy these for the other rooms.
03:20Let's jump back out to our layout and take a look.
03:23Notice, my text is definitely legible.
03:25Let's zoom in a little bit and I am going to take a quick measurement.
03:28Remember, we wanted this text to appear 3/16" tall on our printed sheet.
03:34I am going to launch my Distance command and I don't have object snaps with this text.
03:38So I am going to click really close, right here and then I am going to lock my
03:42Ortho and we'll pull up to the top of the L and notice our height is 3/16".
03:48From this point on, it would be a good idea to make all of your text styles annotative.
03:53By using Annotative text, we can be certain that our text will always be a
03:57consistent size on our plots, regardless of the scale we use of our drawing.
Collapse this transcript
Using the Annotative property to automatically size dimensions
00:01Our rule for dimensions is the same as our rule for text.
00:04We should never place dimensions in a drawing until we know our intended plot scale.
00:09Fortunately, dimension styles can also be annotative.
00:12So, once I know my plot scale, AutoCAD will set the size of my
00:16dimensions automatically. Let's take a look.
00:19On my screen, I've got a mechanical example and I'd like to add some
00:22dimensions to this drawing.
00:24Before we get started, let me mention that I've already created a layout, and if
00:28we look right down here, we can see that my part is being displayed at a scale
00:32of 1:2 or half scale, meaning my part is showing up at half its true size.
00:39Now, I've already verified my viewport scale, so I know that's good.
00:43Let's return to model space and we'll create our dimensions.
00:47At this point, I have not yet made a dimension style, so we'll do that first.
00:51Let me bring up the Dimension Style Manager and I'll click New and then I'll
00:56give my style a name. I am going to call this Annotative Dimensions.
01:02I will be starting with the same settings as the standard style and then I am
01:07going to put a check in this box, this will ensure that my new style is
01:10Annotative and I'll click Continue.
01:13Now, I can go through and adjust the settings for my New Style.
01:16Here is the way it works.
01:18Anytime you have a size setting in this dialog box, you want to set the size to
01:23the size you want your dimension to appear on paper.
01:26So all of these sizes are paper sizes.
01:29I am going to start out by going to the Lines tab and I'm going to change the
01:34amount of my extension lines extend beyond the dimension lines. We'll make that 0.10.
01:41That's the distance right here, by the way.
01:42Let's go to Symbols and Arrows. I'd like my Arrow size to be a little smaller.
01:47I'll make that 0.12.
01:49Let's go to Text. I'd like my Text height to be a little smaller.
01:52Let's make it 0.10.
01:55Once again, all of these are the sizes I want my dimensions to appear on paper.
01:58Since we are talking about text, you might wonder if you're making an Annotative
02:02Dimension style, do you have to use an annotative text style with it? No, you don't.
02:07You can use a Standard Text Style.
02:09I am going to do one more thing. We'll go to Primary Units and we'll set our
02:13Precision to two spaces, and I'll click OK.
02:18Notice my Dimension Style has the Annotative icon.
02:21This means that it will automatically size itself to match my plot scale.
02:25It happens to be current, so I'll click Close.
02:28I'm going to come down to the Annotation Scale flyout and click, and I am going
02:33to set this to match my plot scale, 1:2.
02:36Since I've made that change, I am going to do a regen.
02:39Let's type re and hit Enter and when I do, watch my line types.
02:44Notice my line types also conform to this annotation scale.
02:47All right, I am going to create a Linear dimension from the endpoint here to the
02:52endpoint here, and I'll pull this out.
02:54I'll create another one from the endpoint here to the endpoint here.
02:59Now, I am not going to dimension everything, I am just going to put a few dimensions in.
03:03We'll create one from here to here, and we'll pull it out to the endpoint
03:06here, and you know what?
03:08Let me zoom in a little bit.
03:09I don't like that I grabbed this so far down.
03:11Let me select this dimension.
03:12I am going to grab the grip and move it up to the endpoint here.
03:16That looks a little bit better.
03:17Let me back up a little bit, and you know what?
03:20Let's do a scientific experiment.
03:22What if I changed my Annotation Scale to 1:4. Will that affect these dimensions? No.
03:29It'll only affect any new objects that you create.
03:31I am going to create a Radial dimension right here.
03:35Notice the size difference. In the event my part was being plotted at quarter
03:39scale, this would be an appropriately sized dimension. Now, I don't need this.
03:44I am going to erase it, and let's set our Annotation Scale back to 1:2.
03:50I will then create an appropriately sized radial dimension.
03:54That's pretty good.
03:55Let's return to our Layout and take a look.
03:58As you can see, my dimensions are legible and they are appropriately sized for this viewport.
04:03From this point on, it would be a good idea to make all of your Dimension Styles annotative.
04:08This way you can ensure that your dimensions are always consistently sized,
04:12regardless of the scale of your plot.
Collapse this transcript
Using the Annotative property to automatically size callouts
00:01You're probably wondering about this and you're right, multileaders can also be annotative.
00:06In this lesson, we're going to learn how to create predictably sized
00:09multileaders in our drawings.
00:11On my screen, I've got an architectural example and I'd like to create some
00:15multileaders to label the part numbers of some of these plumbing fixtures.
00:20Before I do that, I want to verify the plot scale of this drawing, so let's take
00:24a look at the layout that's been created.
00:26I am going to look right down here and I could see my geometry is being
00:29displayed at a scale of one- quarter of an inch equals a foot.
00:33Knowing that, we'll return to model space, and I'm going to create an
00:37annotative multileader style.
00:39Let's go to the Annotation panel. We'll bring up our Multileader Style Manager.
00:44I am going to click New and I am going to call this Annotative Multileaders.
00:50I'll be starting with the same settings as the standard style, and then I
00:53am going to put a check in the Annotative box to ensure that my new style is annotative.
00:59Let's click Continue and then I can make adjustments to my style settings.
01:04Now, just like a Dimension Style, anytime you see a size setting in this box,
01:08you want to set the size to the size you want your leader to appear when printed on paper.
01:13All of these are paper sizes.
01:15I am going to make a couple of changes.
01:18Let's change the Arrowhead Size to 1/8".
01:23I am going to go to Leader Structure and I'm going to change the length of my
01:27Landing distance. Let's click in here and we'll make this 1/8" as well.
01:34Let's go to Content and I'll set my Text height to 1/8".
01:39When I am finished, I'll click OK.
01:41Notice my new style is Annotative, so it will size itself appropriately to
01:45match my plot scale.
01:47It happens to be current, so we'll come down and click Close.
01:50I will then set my Annotation Scale to match my plot scale, and we'll set this
01:55to 1/4" = 1'-0",
01:57the same as our plot scale.
02:00Let's zoom in a little bit.
02:01I am going to start out by creating a label for these basins.
02:04We'll launch the Multileader command and you know what? I'd like to be able to
02:09point right to the edge of this object.
02:11Let's look at a new object snap.
02:12I am going to Shift+Right-Click and then I'll come down and select Nearest.
02:17This will guarantee that I grab a point on the edge of this entity.
02:20Let me pull this out a little bit and give myself some word wrap.
02:28I am going to pull it out just a little bit more. There we go. That looks better.
02:38Let's create one more.
02:39I am going to launch the command again.
02:42We'll use our new Nearest object snap and I'll grab the edge of the back of this
02:47toilet and I'll create one more call out.
02:54That looks pretty good.
02:56I know these guys are sized appropriately.
02:58Let's go back to our Layout and take a look.
03:02It would be a good idea to make all of your Multileader Styles annotative.
03:06If you do this, your Multileaders will always be legible and they will be
03:09consistently sized on all of your plots.
Collapse this transcript
Revising the scale assigned to annotations
00:01In this lesson, I am going to show you how to fix a problem that many beginning
00:04students run into when they start using Annotative Styles, and that is what
00:08you do if you've already annotated your drawing and you find out you've used the wrong scale?
00:13On my screen, I've got a mechanical example. This drawing contains
00:16several annotations.
00:18If I hover over these, we can see the icon that shows us that these were created
00:22using an Annotative Style.
00:25Now, all of my annotations were created using an annotative scale of 1:1 because
00:30I made the assumption that my part would fit on my sheet at that scale.
00:34Let's take a look at our layout.
00:36This is a standard A-size sheet and my layout contains a viewport.
00:41Let's go to the Layer control and we'll turn on the viewport layer and then
00:45I'll double-click in the middle of my viewport and we'll do a zoom extends to see our geometry.
00:50Finally, we'll come right down here and we'll set our viewport scale to 1:1.
00:55Now, here is my problem. My annotations look great, but unfortunately, my part
01:00doesn't fit on my sheet. Let's try this.
01:02I'm going to change the viewport scale to 1:2, and notice, now the part fits on
01:08the sheet, but all of my annotations disappear.
01:11That's because my annotations were designed for a 1:1 viewport and this
01:15viewport isn't 1:1.
01:17Let's look at how we can fix this.
01:19First of all, I know I have to go with the scale, so I am going to center this a
01:23little bit better on my sheet.
01:25I will then double-click out and before I do anything else, I am going to zoom
01:29in and we'll change our Scale down here.
01:32We'll make sure this says 1:2.
01:35Then we'll return to model space.
01:38To fix this, I am going to go to the Annotation Scale and I'm going to set this
01:41to what I should have used, 1:2.
01:44Then I am going to go to the Annotate tab. We'll come all the way down to the
01:48Annotation Scaling panel and I am going to click this flyout and select Add
01:53Current Scale. This will add the current Annotation Scale to all of the
01:57objects that I select.
01:59I am just going to window every thing, and right-click.
02:04Now, my annotations are appropriately sized for a half-scale viewport.
02:08Let me zoom in a little bit. Notice as I place my cursor over this object, we
02:12see two annotative icons.
02:14That's because my annotations are now supporting two different scales.
02:19If I select this, notice we can see the other size right here.
02:20Now, I am going to grab all of these and right-click.
02:22This is my 1:1 size.
02:24Now, this isn't a bad thing, but you know what? I don't need the 1:1 scale version anymore.
02:30So I am going to deselect this and I am going to do a zoom extends, and let's
02:33remove the unnecessary scale.
02:37To do that I am going to go back to my Annotation Scale and we'll set this to
02:401:1. We'll go to our Annotation Scaling panel and this time I am going to
02:45select Delete Current Scale. This will remove the current scale from any object I select.
02:56Finally, we'll make sure our Annotation Scale is set at 1:2, in the event I add
03:01more annotations to this drawing.
03:02Let me back up a little bit and my annotations look pretty good. They just
03:06overlap a little bit.
03:08I am going to select this note, and I'll click my grip and I'll pull this out a
03:12little bit. Maybe this dimension would look a little bit better over here. Maybe
03:19these dimensions would look a little bit better if they were farther away. That looks good.
03:26Once again, let's return to our Layout.
03:28As you can see, I didn't have to erase my annotations and start over. We were
03:33able to correct the ones that we already had.
03:36The only thing we have left to do is turn off the viewport layer.
03:41In the event we annotate our drawing using the wrong scale, we don't have to
03:44start over. We can simply add the correct scale and then remove the incorrect
03:48one from our annotative objects.
Collapse this transcript
17. Sharing Data
Saving drawings to other formats
00:00Occasionally, we may be asked to send our AutoCAD drawing to someone else.
00:04When this happens, it's important to remember that everyone doesn't necessarily
00:07use the most current version of AutoCAD.
00:09Some firms, in fact, don't use AutoCAD at all.
00:12They may use a completely different CAD program.
00:15Let's look at how we can save our drawings for clients who may not be using the
00:18same software as we are.
00:19On my screen, I've a got a plan of survey.
00:22Let's say that I'm a surveyor and I need to send this drawing to a civil
00:26engineer and let's say the civil engineer isn't using AutoCAD 2010.
00:30Maybe they're using AutoCAD 2000.
00:33Let me show you how we can save this drawing as an older release, such that we
00:36can email the file to our client and they'll be able to open it.
00:40To do that, I'm going to come up to the Application menu and then I'll come down
00:43and select Save As, and in the Files of type area, I'm going to click the flyout
00:49and notice that we can save our drawing as several older releases of AutoCAD.
00:53We can go all the way back to release 14.
00:56Looking at the bottom in the menu, we can see that my file can also be saved as a dxf.
01:01Dxf stands for Drawing Exchange Format.
01:04Select this format if your client is using CAD program other than AutoCAD,
01:08because just about every CAD package you can open a DXF file.
01:12Now, my client is using AutoCAD 2000
01:14so I'll select that and I don't want to overwrite my original drawing,
01:18so I'm going to add a suffix to my File name and then we can click Save.
01:24Now before I click this, it's important to mention that there are certain
01:27features that exist now that didn't exist in older releases.
01:31So, certain things like Annotative objects aren't going to work the same for my
01:35client as they do for me.
01:37AutoCAD will convert these objects into something else like plain text, so that
01:41my client will be able to see them.
01:43I'm going to finish with my Save and the file that we've created could now be
01:47sent to the client and he would be able to open this without any problems.
01:50No matter what CAD package our client may be using, whether it be an older
01:54version of AutoCAD or a program from another company, we can still provide our
01:58client with a drawing they can use by simply saving as an alternate format.
Collapse this transcript
Plotting to PDF
00:00The PDF file format is the industry standard for exchanging documents.
00:04In AutoCAD 2010, we can create PDF files of our drawings.
00:08This means we can collaborate with any of our clients, even if they don't have a CAD program.
00:12On my screen, I've got a finished drawing and my drawing has been set up in a layout.
00:17I've plotted this a couple times.
00:18And let's say I just received a call from my client and they want me to provide
00:22them this drawing as a PDF.
00:24Well, back in the old days that meant I needed to own a version of Adobe Acrobat
00:28in order to create my file,
00:29but not anymore. In AutoCAD 2010 we can plot directly to PDF.
00:34To do that, I'm going to come up and launch the Plot command and no matter what
00:38printer I was using, I'm going to come down and select DWG to PDF.
00:43This is a virtual printer that gets installed with AutoCAD and that's all I have to do.
00:48I can come down and click OK.
00:50I'm going to save my PDF in the Chapter_17 folder, inside the exercise files directory.
00:55I'm going to keep the file name the same and I'll click Save.
00:58On my screen is an example of the finished PDF.
01:04When it comes right down to it, no matter who your client is,
01:07they can always view a PDF file.
01:09Plotting the PDF may be the easiest way to make your drawings accessible to everyone.
Collapse this transcript
Plotting to the Design Web Format
00:00Sometimes a client may want to review our CAD drawing, but they don't have AutoCAD,
00:04so a DWG file isn't helpful.
00:07At times like these, we can ship our client a DWFx file.
00:10The DWFx stands for Design Web Format, and a DWFx file can be opened or plotted
00:16from a current version of Internet Explorer.
00:18On my screen, I have got a finished drawing that's been set up in a layout.
00:22Let's say I need to send this drawing to my client for their review.
00:26And let's also say that my client doesn't have a version of AutoCAD.
00:30So, what I am going to do is plot this drawing as a DWFx.
00:34To do that, I am going to launch the Plot command and regardless of the plotter
00:38I was using, I am going to select DWFx ePlot.
00:42This is a virtual printer that is installed automatically with AutoCAD.
00:46That's all I have to do.
00:47I can come down and click OK, and I am going to save my file in the chapter_17
00:52folder, inside the Exercise Files directory.
00:54I am going to accept the default name and we will click Save.
00:59The file that I just created can be opened natively in Internet Explorer.
01:03I am going to bring up my Windows Explorer. We will navigate into the Exercise
01:08Files folder. We will look in chapter _17 and right here is our DWFx file.
01:13I am going to right-click and select Open With and I can choose Internet Explorer.
01:19Now, if you don't see Internet Explorer on your machine, you can select Choose
01:22Program and you'll be able to find Internet Explorer in this list.
01:26Let me select that and click OK and then I will click and allow the blocked content.
01:35This is how my client could review the file.
01:37Notice even though I'm in Explorer, I can pan and zoom just like we can in AutoCAD.
01:43There is also a ribbon with tabs.
01:45It happens to be collapsed.
01:46Let me open this up.
01:48This is where my client could print the drawing if he wanted to.
01:52If you wanted to take this concept to the next level, you could look at Markup
01:55and Measure and this is where the client could make comments or take
01:58measurements, just something else to explore.
02:02Let's close our Windows and return to AutoCAD.
02:06Plotting our files to the DWFx format allows our clients to collaborate on the
02:10design process, even if they don't have AutoCAD.
02:13So long as they have a current version of Internet Explorer, they can easily
02:17view or print our drawings.
Collapse this transcript
Sending drawings via email
00:00E-mail is the primary way that companies communicate.
00:03Using e-mail, we can ship our drawings to clients or sub-consultants in a matter of seconds.
00:08In this lesson, we are going to learn how to use AutoCAD to e-mail our drawings.
00:11On my screen, I have got a civil engineering example.
00:14This is a drawing of a site plan for a proposed public park.
00:18Let's say I would like to e-mail this drawing to a surveyor.
00:21The fastest way to do that is to come up to the Application menu.
00:25Then I will come down to Send and then we will select e-mail.
00:27Then, as you can see, AutoCAD launches my e-mail program and adds my file as an attachment.
00:34All I have to do is enter my surveyor's e-mail address and click Send.
00:38As you can see, emailing a drawing from AutoCAD couldn't be easier.
00:41In less than five clicks, you can send your file on its way and hopefully meet your deadline.
Collapse this transcript
Conclusion
Goodbye
00:00Well, we've come to the end.
00:02Let me say it's been my privilege to work with you for the last few hours.
00:05I hope you've enjoyed the time as much as I have, and even though our time
00:09together has ended, now it's your time to take the skills that you've learned
00:13and the foundation that you've started and build on it. Who knows?
00:16Maybe someday in the future you and I may end up working on the same project.
00:20Until then, I wish you the best of luck.
Collapse this transcript


Suggested courses to watch next:

AutoCAD 2011 Essential Training (6h 48m)
Jeff Bartels


AutoCAD 2009: Mastering References (2h 3m)
Jeff Bartels


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