Datasheet

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. You now have a file called My First Drawing.dwg, located in the My Documents

folder. Of course, your drawing doesn’t contain anything yet. You’ll take care of that next.

The acad.dwt template file you selected in step 3 is really just an AutoCAD drawing file that has

been set up with standard settings. AutoCAD uses those settings to create a brand-new file. As you

saw in the Select Template dialog box, you can choose from several such templates.

This new file you just created shows a drawing area roughly 60 units wide by 30 units high. The

units can be inches, meters, or millimeters. You determine what the units are equivalent to through

the Drawing Units dialog box, which you will learn about in Chapter 2.

The drawing area you’re presented with initially is your workspace, though you’re not limited

to the 60-by-30-unit area in any way. No visual clues indicate the size of the area. To check the area

size for yourself, move the crosshair cursor to the upper-right corner of the screen and observe the

value in the coordinate readout in the lower-left corner of the AutoCAD window. This is the stan-

dard AutoCAD default drawing area for new drawings using the acad.dwt drawing template.

WARNING The coordinate readout won’t show exactly 60 units by 30 units, because the propor-

tions of your drawing area are not likely to be exactly 6 x 3. Factors such as the size and resolution

of your display and the shape of the AutoCAD window affect the dimensions of the drawing area.

Point here.

Read the coordinate here.

0878book.fm Page 22 Wednesday, March 15, 2006 8:31 PM