From the course: AutoCAD for Mac 2020 Essential Training

Geometry of your geometry - AutoCAD for Mac Tutorial

From the course: AutoCAD for Mac 2020 Essential Training

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Geometry of your geometry

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- We are almost ready to start drawing in AutoCAD, but first, let's take a quick look at the common components our geometry will have, as it is the information we will use to both create and modify out geometry in the future. Here I have a line, a circle, and a rectangle. If I select each of these by moving my mouse over each one and left-clicking, we can see each one is selected. I can tell they're selected because they become blue, kind of fuzzy, and we get all these small, blue boxes everywhere. These blue boxes are called "grips", and they're the bounding information of our shapes. For example, our line has three grips: one at each of the endpoints and one at the midpoint. Our circle has five: one at each of the four quadrant points, and one at the center. These grips are tied to the geometry of the shape, and abide by the geometric rules of each shape. For example, the midpoint of a line is always equidistant between the two endpoints. So, if I click and drag one of the endpoints, the midpoint moves accordingly. To move a grip, I place my cursor over it and left-click, and then I can drag anywhere I like. If I drag the midpoint of my line, the entire line moves. If I click and drag one of the quadrants of my circle, I can change the diameter. If I click the center, I can actually change the location of the entire circle. As we work with drawing lines and moving objects, we're constantly being asked for reference points for which we can use the geometry of the objects that we've already created. These objects can be referenced using what are called "object snaps". These allow you to literally snap to the appropriate geometry of the objects. These can be accessed anytime AutoCAD asks for a point. The easiest way to access them is simply holding down the Shift key on your keyboard, and then right-clicking. Here, we can see all of the object snaps we have access to, including endpoint, midpoint, center, perpendicular, and more. I'm going to click Escape to get out of this window, and I'm going to come down here to the Status bar and find the object snap icon here. I'm going to right-click and then click on Settings. Here we can see all of the available object snaps. Rather than specifying a singular object snap we want every time we draw a shape, we can select these boxes to enable what are called "running object snaps". Running object snaps will always be looking for those points on the geometry any time AutoCAD asks for a point. Each object snap is represented by a different symbol: a square for endpoint, a triangle for midpoint, and so on. Eventually, you'll learn these by sight. These are the object snaps that I have chosen for my way of drafting, and the ones I will be using for the rest of the course. However, you need to choose the ones that are most accurate and most used for the way that you will be drafting. Once you have yours selected, go ahead and press OK. Now, I'm going to come up and start the line command here, and we can see as I move my cursor over any of the objects that I have, the object snap points start to appear. Again, if you're not sure which one is which simply by looking at the icon, hold your cursor for just a moment, and the tool tip will change and tell you exactly which object snap is which. If you ever find that AutoCAD can't seem to grab the right object snap point with running object snaps, whether it just doesn't pop up or there are too many too close to differentiate, you can hold down Shift and right-click to access the object snap list this way. I'm going to click Endpoint here, and I've now started what is called object snap override. This means that AutoCAD will only recognize that singular snap point, in this case endpoint. AutoCAD is now only finding the endpoints of my lines, and ignoring all the rest. Once I click on one of the endpoints, AutoCAD returns to the running object snap mode, and I can see all of the other object snaps that I have running. The geometry of the objects that we create not only define the parameters of the shapes, but are also incredibly useful in modifying the shapes in the future, or in creating new objects.

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