2004

850 | Glossary
dithering Combining color dots to give the impression of displaying more colors
than are actually available.
drawing area The area in which your drawings are displayed and modified. The size
of the drawing area varies, depending on the size of the AutoCAD LT window and on
how many toolbars and other elements are displayed. See also AutoCAD window.
drawing extents The smallest rectangle that contains all objects in a drawing,
positioned on the screen to display the largest possible view of all objects. (ZOOM)
drawing limits See grid limits.
DWF For Design Web Format. A highly compressed file format that is created from a
DWG file. DWF files are easy to publish and view on the Web. See also DWG and DXF.
DWG Standard file format for saving vector graphics from within AutoCAD. See also
DWF and DXF.
DXF For drawing interchange format. An ASCII or binary file format of an AutoCAD
drawing file for exporting AutoCAD drawings to other applications or for importing
drawings from other applications. See also DWF and DWG.
edge The boundary of a face.
elevation The default Z value above or below the XY plane of the current user
coordinate system, which is used for entering coordinates and digitizing locations.
(ELEV)
embed To use object linking and embedding (OLE) information from a source
document in a destination document. An embedded object is a copy of the informa-
tion from a source document that is placed in the destination document and has no
link to the source document. See also link.
environment variable A setting stored in the operating system that controls the
operation of a program.
explode To disassemble a complex object, such as a block, dimension, solid, or
polyline, into simpler objects. In the case of a block, the block definition is unchanged.
The block reference is replaced by the components of the block. See also block, block
definition, and block reference. (EXPLODE)
exploded dimension Independent objects that have the appearance of a dimension
but are not associated with the dimensioned object or each other. Controlled by the
DIMASSOC system variable. See also associative dimension, nonassociative dimension,
and explode. (EXPLODE)
extents See drawing extents.
external reference (xref) A drawing file referenced by another drawing. (XREF)
extrusion A 3D solid created by sweeping an object that encloses an area along a
linear path.
face A triangular or quadrilateral portion of a surface object.
feature control frame The tolerance that applies to specific features or patterns of
features. Feature control frames always contain at least a geometric characteristic
symbol to indicate the type of control and a tolerance value to indicate the amount of
acceptable variation.
drawing extents
elevation
X
Y