Technical data

Chapter 2 Getting Started with AutoCAD Land Development Desktop

Working with Drawings

All AutoCAD Land Development Desktop documents that you work

with are called drawings. They are AutoCAD drawings that are saved

with a .dwg file extension. This section explains how to create

drawings, establish the drawing settings, and open drawings.

Creating New Drawings

You can create a new drawing from either the Startup dialog box or by

selecting the New command from the File menu.

When you create a new drawing, you name it and you associate it

with a project. Every time you create a new drawing, you are

automatically prompted to set up the drawing. Depending on which

option you select for “First Time Drawing Setup” (see “User

Preferences” in this chapter) either the New Drawing Wizard or the

Drawing Setup dialog box is displayed, or a setup file is loaded

automatically.

The New Drawing Wizard steps you through each setting that you

must establish for a drawing. The Drawing Setup dialog box contains

all the settings available in the New Drawing Wizard, but does not

step you through the setup process.

Whenever you set up a drawing, you can save the drawing setup

options to a file that you can load later. AutoCAD Land Development

Desktop includes several existing setup files. If you use a setup file,

then you do not have to step through drawing setup each time you

create a new drawing.

Key Concepts

■

When you create a new drawing, you must name the drawing

and select or create a project.

■

When you create a new drawing, you can create a new project.

■

You can base a new drawing on a drawing template. Template

files store all the settings for a drawing and can also include

predefined layers, dimension styles, and views. For more

information about using drawing templates, look up “Using

Templates” in the online Help.