0878book.fm Page 1 Wednesday, March 15, 2006 8:31 PM Chapter 1 Getting Familiar with AutoCAD If you are totally new to AutoCAD, you’ll want to read this chapter. It provides an overview of AutoCAD’s layout and shows you what to expect when you start to use it. Even if you’ve had a class or have used an older version of AutoCAD, you will find this chapter useful. You’ll start by taking a tour of the AutoCAD window to get familiar with the menus, toolbars, and other components.
0878book.fm Page 2 Wednesday, March 15, 2006 8:31 PM 2 CHAPTER 1 GETTING FAMILIAR WITH AUTOCAD To start out, you'll take a look at the two different ways that AutoCAD displays a drawing. Then for the rest of this chapter, you'll focus on the 2D drawing environment. After installing AutoCAD, take the following steps: 1. Choose Start All Programs Autodesk AutoCAD 20072007 AutoCAD 2007. You can also double-click the AutoCAD 2007 icon on your Windows Desktop.
0878book.fm Page 3 Wednesday, March 15, 2006 8:31 PM UNDERSTANDING THE AUTOCAD WINDOW You’ve got AutoCAD set up for 2D drawing, so let’s take a more detailed look at the AutoCAD window. You’ll find that, for the most part, it is a typical Windows-style graphics program window with a few twists. Figure 1.1 AutoCAD as it first appears when opened into a 3D Modeling workspace in the top image or the AutoCAD Classic workspace in the bottom image.
0878book.fm Page 4 Wednesday, March 15, 2006 8:31 PM 4 CHAPTER 1 GETTING FAMILIAR WITH AUTOCAD Changing 3D Views to 2D Views and Back Even though the opening file in AutoCAD's 3D Modeling workspace looks completely different from the new 2D file you create using the acad.dwt template, they really are basically the same. They just have different display settings turned on. You can change the default drawing1.dwg 3D view to a 2D view by doing the following: 1. Choose View Visual Styles 2D Wireframe.
0878book.fm Page 5 Wednesday, March 15, 2006 8:31 PM UNDERSTANDING THE AUTOCAD WINDOW Figure 1.2 Menu bar The components of the top of the AutoCAD window Workspace toolbar Standard toolbar Layers toolbar Styles toolbar Properties toolbar In the middle is the drawing area where you will do your actual drawing. One difference between the bottom of Figure 1.1 and what you see on your screen is that the background in the default AutoCAD drawing area is black.
0878book.fm Page 6 Wednesday, March 15, 2006 8:31 PM 6 CHAPTER 1 GETTING FAMILIAR WITH AUTOCAD Figure 1.3 The Tool palettes If you don’t see the Dynamic Input display, go to the bottom of the AutoCAD window to the status bar and click the DYN button . This is the Dynamic Input setting. Along with the Dynamic Input display, the Command window and status bar just below the drawing area provide feedback as you work with AutoCAD commands (see Figure 1.4).
0878book.fm Page 7 Wednesday, March 15, 2006 8:31 PM UNDERSTANDING THE AUTOCAD WINDOW Controlling the Status Bar Display To the far right of the status bar, you’ll see a downward-pointing arrow, which opens a menu that controls the display of the status bar. You use this menu to turn the items in the status bar on or off. A checkmark by an item indicates that it is currently on.
0878book.fm Page 8 Wednesday, March 15, 2006 8:31 PM 8 CHAPTER 1 GETTING FAMILIAR WITH AUTOCAD If you click the right mouse button, the shortcut menu appears. Just as with most other Windows applications, a right mouse click frequently opens a menu that contains options that are context sensitive. This means that the contents of the shortcut menu depend on where you right-click as well as the command that is active at the time of your right-click.
0878book.fm Page 9 Wednesday, March 15, 2006 8:31 PM UNDERSTANDING THE AUTOCAD WINDOW You’ll want to pay close attention to the Command window as you start using AutoCAD because it tells you what AutoCAD expects you to do. It also lists information when you query AutoCAD for certain types of information, which you’ll learn about in later chapters. In addition to getting feedback from the Command window, you will also see the Command prompt at the cursor whenever you have Dynamic Input display turned on.
0878book.fm Page 10 Wednesday, March 15, 2006 8:31 PM 10 CHAPTER 1 GETTING FAMILIAR WITH AUTOCAD options there have the same icons that appear in the Modify toolbar along the right side of the AutoCAD window. Another menu bar feature is the command description in the status bar. As you open a menu from the menu bar and point to options, you’ll see a brief description of the option in the status bar. Try the following exercise to get a feel for how the menu bar works. 1. Click View in the menu bar.
0878book.fm Page 11 Wednesday, March 15, 2006 8:31 PM UNDERSTANDING THE AUTOCAD WINDOW 2. Move the highlight cursor slowly down the list of menu items. As you highlight each item, notice that a description of the item appears in the status bar at the bottom of the AutoCAD window. These descriptions help you choose the menu option you need. At the end of the description, you’ll see a single word in capital letters. This is the keyboard command equivalent to the highlighted option in the menu or toolbar.
0878book.fm Page 12 Wednesday, March 15, 2006 8:31 PM 12 CHAPTER 1 GETTING FAMILIAR WITH AUTOCAD Starting Commands The third type of item you’ll find on menu bar menus is a command that directly executes an AutoCAD operation. Let’s try an exercise to explore a typical command. 1. First, turn off the Dynamic Input display by clicking the DYN button in the status bar. It should look like it is in the off position.
0878book.fm Page 13 Wednesday, March 15, 2006 8:31 PM UNDERSTANDING THE AUTOCAD WINDOW In step 1, AutoCAD shows you exactly what the cursor is pointing to by highlighting objects that will be selected with the next mouse click. In drawing and erasing the rectangle, you were exposed to the most common processes you need to know about to work in AutoCAD: you selected a command from the menu bar, and then you selected points in the drawing area while following the messages in the Command window.
0878book.fm Page 14 Wednesday, March 15, 2006 8:31 PM 14 CHAPTER 1 GETTING FAMILIAR WITH AUTOCAD Using the Toolbars The menu bar provides most of the commands you’ll need in a format that most Windows users will find easy to understand, and as a new user, you will probably be most comfortable using the menu bar. As you become more familiar with AutoCAD, you can start to use the toolbars. The toolbars offer the same commands as the menu bar but in a more compact format that is quicker to access.
0878book.fm Page 15 Wednesday, March 15, 2006 8:31 PM UNDERSTANDING THE AUTOCAD WINDOW Working with Flyouts Earlier, you saw how cascading menus in the menu bar provide a set of additional options that expand from an option in an open menu. A toolbar flyout works in a similar way, but instead of menu options, you get an additional set of tools that “fly out” of the toolbar. And just like cascading menus, a toolbar flyout shows a small triangular arrow in the lower-right corner of the tool icon.
0878book.fm Page 16 Wednesday, March 15, 2006 8:31 PM 16 CHAPTER 1 GETTING FAMILIAR WITH AUTOCAD 2. Click and hold down the left mouse button. Notice that a gray box in the shape of the toolbar appears by the cursor. 3. Still holding down the mouse button, move the mouse downward. The gray box follows the cursor. 4. When the gray box is over the drawing area, release the mouse button, and the Standard toolbar—now a floating toolbar—moves to its new location. 5.
0878book.fm Page 17 Wednesday, March 15, 2006 8:31 PM UNDERSTANDING THE AUTOCAD WINDOW Closing and Opening Toolbars Many experienced AutoCAD users prefer to start commands through the keyboard rather than through the toolbars. That way, they can remove the toolbars from the screen to maximize the area available for drawing. If at some point, you find you prefer to remove the toolbars entirely, you can do so easily. Or you can remove and recall toolbars as needed. The next steps show you how. 1.
0878book.fm Page 18 Wednesday, March 15, 2006 8:31 PM 18 CHAPTER 1 GETTING FAMILIAR WITH AUTOCAD Other Toolbars I mentioned earlier that not all the AutoCAD toolbars are open and visible. If they were, there wouldn’t be any room for a drawing area. In the previous exercise, you saw the list of all the available toolbars. Table 1.1 provides a brief description of each toolbar. Table 1.
0878book.fm Page 19 Wednesday, March 15, 2006 8:31 PM UNDERSTANDING THE AUTOCAD WINDOW Table 1.1: The Full List of AutoCAD Toolbars (continued) Command Description Object Snap Tools to help you select specific points on objects, such as endpoints and midpoints. See Chapter 3. Orbit Tools for controlling 3D views. Properties Commands for a set of drop-down lists and tools for manipulating the properties of objects.
0878book.fm Page 20 Wednesday, March 15, 2006 8:31 PM 20 CHAPTER 1 GETTING FAMILIAR WITH AUTOCAD Checking Out the Draw and Modify Toolbars In the next section, you’ll start to work in the drawing area by drawing some lines. Before you do that, take a moment to examine the Draw and Modify toolbars. You will be instructed to use them frequently throughout this book, so it will be helpful for you to get a feel for their arrangement and what they contain. 1.
0878book.fm Page 21 Wednesday, March 15, 2006 8:31 PM STARTING A DRAWING Table 1.2: The Options on the Draw and Modify Toolbars (continued) Draw Icon Modify Tool Icon Tool Revision Cloud Scale Spline Stretch Ellipse Trim Ellipse Arc Extend Insert Block Break at Point Make Block Break Point Join Hatch Chamfer Gradient Fillet Region Explode Multiline Text Table Starting a Drawing Let’s create a new file. 1. Choose File Close to close the current file.
0878book.fm Page 22 Wednesday, March 15, 2006 8:31 PM 22 CHAPTER 1 GETTING FAMILIAR WITH AUTOCAD 3. Locate and select the acad.dwt file, and then click Open to open a blank drawing window. 4. To give your new file a unique name, choose File Save As to open the Save Drawing As dialog box. 5. Type My First Drawing. As you type, the name appears in the File Name text box. Notice that the file will be saved in the My Documents folder by default. 6. Click Save.
0878book.fm Page 23 Wednesday, March 15, 2006 8:31 PM STARTING A DRAWING Next, try drawing a couple of objects just to get comfortable with drawing in AutoCAD. You’ll draw a rectangle again, plus some additional objects. 1. Click the Rectangle tool in the Draw toolbar. You can also choose Draw Rectangle from the menu bar. 2. Click a point in the lower-left of the drawing area as shown in Figure 1.8. Don’t worry about the exact location. You’re just practicing right now.
0878book.fm Page 24 Wednesday, March 15, 2006 8:31 PM 24 CHAPTER 1 GETTING FAMILIAR WITH AUTOCAD When You Need to Undo Recently AUGI, the AutoCAD User Group International, conducted a survey to identify the most commonly used features in AutoCAD. They found the Undo and Escape keys were at the top of their list. Everyone makes mistakes, and it would be impossible to get any work done if it weren’t for these two features.
0878book.fm Page 25 Wednesday, March 15, 2006 8:31 PM PANNING AND ZOOMING TO ADJUST YOUR VIEW Panning and Zooming to Adjust Your View One of the greatest features of AutoCAD is its ability to draw accurately through a wide range of scales. For example, you can draw a football field, zoom into a blade of grass, and draw its cell structure. With such a broad range of views to work with, you need to be familiar with AutoCAD’s view features.
0878book.fm Page 26 Wednesday, March 15, 2006 8:31 PM 26 CHAPTER 1 GETTING FAMILIAR WITH AUTOCAD WARNING If you have a mouse that uses special drivers, you might not be able to use the wheel to control pans and zooms. There are several other Zoom- and Pan-related commands, but those you’ve just tried are the ones you’ll use 90 percent of the time. You can try the other Zoom and Pan options, which are displayed when you choose View Zoom.
0878book.fm Page 27 Wednesday, March 15, 2006 8:31 PM UNDERSTANDING THE LAYOUT TABS Accurate Panning Realtime Pan is a great tool for quickly getting around in a drawing, but sometimes you need to pan in an exact distance and direction. A version of the Pan command lets you do just that. If you choose View Pan Point, you see the prompt: Specify base point or displacement: This is the prompt you see for the Move or Copy commands, though in this case you’re not affecting the objects in your drawing.
0878book.fm Page 28 Wednesday, March 15, 2006 8:31 PM 28 CHAPTER 1 GETTING FAMILIAR WITH AUTOCAD 2. Move the cursor over the rectangle that immediately surrounds your rectangle and circle drawing, as shown in Figure 1.10. 3. Click the highlighted rectangle, and then press the Delete key. Your drawing disappears. 4. Click the Model tab to return to model space. You see that the objects you drew are still there. 5.
0878book.fm Page 29 Wednesday, March 15, 2006 8:31 PM UNDERSTANDING HOW COMMAND OPTIONS WORK When you see a set of options in the Command window, note their capitalization. If you choose to respond to prompts using the keyboard, these capitalized letters are all you need to enter to select that option. In some cases, the first two letters are capitalized to differentiate two options that begin with the same letter, such as LAyer and LType. 3.
0878book.fm Page 30 Wednesday, March 15, 2006 8:31 PM 30 CHAPTER 1 GETTING FAMILIAR WITH AUTOCAD 6. Move the cursor so that it points vertically from the center of the arc. You’ll see the Polar Tracking vector snap to a vertical position as shown in Figure 1.11. 7. Click any location with the Polar Tracking vector in the vertical position. The arc is now fixed in place. As you can see, AutoCAD has a distinct structure in its prompt messages.
0878book.fm Page 31 Wednesday, March 15, 2006 8:31 PM GETTING HELP Using the Search Tab If you’re a beginning AutoCAD user looking for help, the Help window’s table of contents may not be as useful as it could be. To use it, you have to know a little about what you’re looking for. Sometimes it’s quicker to use the Search feature of the Help window. 1. Click the Search tab in the left panel.
0878book.fm Page 32 Wednesday, March 15, 2006 8:31 PM 32 CHAPTER 1 GETTING FAMILIAR WITH AUTOCAD If you scroll down to the bottom of the Search tab, you’ll find a “Search The Web For How do I zoom into my view.” This does just what it says. If you don’t find a satisfactory answer in the AutoCAD Help system, you can select this option to open a search web page in the panel on the right. (Make sure you are connected to the Internet if you use this option.
0878book.fm Page 33 Wednesday, March 15, 2006 8:31 PM GETTING HELP Additional Sources of Help The Help Topics tool is the main online source for reference material, but you can also find answers to your questions through the other options in the Help menu. Here is a brief description of the other Help menu options: Info Palette A pop-up window that offers immediate help with the command that you are using. It’s helpful for first-time users.
0878book.fm Page 34 Wednesday, March 15, 2006 8:31 PM 34 CHAPTER 1 GETTING FAMILIAR WITH AUTOCAD As the Communication Center dialog box explains, the Communication Center provides a way to stay informed about the latest software updates and support issues for AutoCAD. Click the Settings button to open the Configuration Settings dialog box. The Communication Center works best if you use an “always on” Internet connection such as a DSL connection or high-speed cable connection.
