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738x.book Page 3 Monday, June 25, 2007 11:37 PM Chapter 1 Exploring the AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT Interface Before you can start to use AutoCAD 2008’s new capabilities, you’ll need to become familiar with the basics. If you’re completely new to AutoCAD, you’ll want to read this first chapter carefully. It introduces you to many of AutoCAD’s basic operations, such as opening and closing files, getting a close-up look at part of a drawing, and changing a drawing.
3738x.book Page 4 Monday, June 25, 2007 11:37 PM 4 CHAPTER 1 EXPLORING THE AUTOCAD AND AUTOCAD LT INTERFACE NOTE AutoCAD 2008 is designed to run on Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows Vista. This book was written using AutoCAD 2008 on Windows XP Professional with a Windows Classic desktop theme. If you already installed AutoCAD and are ready to jump in and take a look, proceed with the following steps to launch the program: 1. Choose Start All Programs Autodesk AutoCAD 2008 AutoCAD 2008.
3738x.book Page 5 Monday, June 25, 2007 11:37 PM TAKING A GUIDED TOUR If this is the first time you’ve started AutoCAD since you installed it, you’re asked to register and authorize AutoCAD in step 2. If you’re using the Trial version, you can use the default serial number 000-00000000 for the one-month trial. After you’ve entered the registration information, you see the New Features Workshop window described in step 4. Let’s look at the AutoCAD window in detail.
3738x.book Page 6 Monday, June 25, 2007 11:37 PM 6 CHAPTER 1 EXPLORING THE AUTOCAD AND AUTOCAD LT INTERFACE The AutoCAD Window The AutoCAD program window is divided into six parts: ◆ Menu bar ◆ Toolbars ◆ Drawing area ◆ Command window ◆ Status bar ◆ Dashboard Figure 1.1, shown earlier in this chapter, shows a typical layout of the AutoCAD program window. Along the top is the menu bar, and just below that are the Workspaces and Standard Annotation toolbars.
3738x.book Page 7 Monday, June 25, 2007 11:37 PM TAKING A GUIDED TOUR The menu bar at the top of the drawing area (as shown in Figure 1.3) includes drop-down menus from which you select commands in a typical Windows fashion. The toolbars and Dashboard provide a variety of commands through tool buttons and drop-down lists. Figure 1.3 The menu bar, the Workspaces toolbar, and the Standard Annotation toolbar. LT users may see a floating Workspaces toolbar instead of the docked version shown at far right.
3738x.book Page 8 Monday, June 25, 2007 11:37 PM 8 CHAPTER 1 EXPLORING THE AUTOCAD AND AUTOCAD LT INTERFACE Below the Command window is the status bar (see Figure 1.4). The status bar gives you information at a glance about the state of the drawing. For example, the coordinate readout toward the far left of the status bar tells you the location of your cursor.
3738x.book Page 9 Monday, June 25, 2007 11:37 PM TAKING A GUIDED TOUR If You Can’t Find the UCS Icon The UCS icon can be turned on and off, so if you’re on someone else’s system and you don’t see the icon, don’t panic. If you don’t see the icon or it doesn’t look as it does in this chapter, see Chapter 21 for more information. The Command Window At the bottom of the screen, just above the status bar, is a small horizontal window called the Command window. Here, AutoCAD displays responses to your input.
3738x.book Page 10 Monday, June 25, 2007 11:37 PM 10 CHAPTER 1 EXPLORING THE AUTOCAD AND AUTOCAD LT INTERFACE Here’s an exercise to let you practice with the drop-down menus and get acquainted with the way you issue AutoCAD commands: 1. Click View in the menu bar. The list of items that appears includes the commands and settings that let you control the way AutoCAD displays your drawings. Don’t worry if you don’t understand them yet; you’ll get to know them in later chapters.
3738x.book Page 11 Monday, June 25, 2007 11:37 PM TAKING A GUIDED TOUR 5. Click the Draw option from the menu bar, and then click the Rectangle command. Notice that the Command window now shows the following prompt: Specify first corner point or [Chamfer/Elevation/Fillet/Thickness/Width]: AutoCAD is asking you to select the first corner for the rectangle, and, in brackets, it’s offering a few options that you can take advantage of at this point in the command. Don’t worry about those options right now.
3738x.book Page 12 Monday, June 25, 2007 11:37 PM 12 CHAPTER 1 EXPLORING THE AUTOCAD AND AUTOCAD LT INTERFACE Figure 1.6 After you’ve selected the first point of the rectangle, you see a rectangle follow the motion of your mouse. Communicating with the Command Window and Dynamic Input Display AutoCAD is the perfect servant: It does everything you tell it to, and no more. You communicate with AutoCAD by using the drop-down menus and the toolbars. These devices invoke AutoCAD commands.
3738x.book Page 13 Monday, June 25, 2007 11:37 PM TAKING A GUIDED TOUR The Dashboard The menu bar provides most of the commands you need in a format that most Windows users will find easy to understand, and many users are more comfortable using the menu bar. If you prefer using toolbars with their graphic icons, you can start to use the Dashboard. The Dashboard offers many of the same commands as the menu bar but in a more compact format that is quicker to access.
3738x.book Page 14 Monday, June 25, 2007 11:37 PM 14 CHAPTER 1 EXPLORING THE AUTOCAD AND AUTOCAD LT INTERFACE Take a moment to examine the top portion of the Dashboard where the 2D Draw control panel resides. You’ll be instructed to use the tools in this control panel frequently throughout the early part of this book, so it will be helpful for you to get a feel for their arrangement and what they contain. You’ll get a closer look at the Dashboard and control panels in Chapter 2.
3738x.book Page 15 Monday, June 25, 2007 11:37 PM TAKING A GUIDED TOUR Figure 1.9 The toolbar shortcut menu 3. You won’t need the View toolbar right now, so go ahead and close it by clicking the X in the upper-right corner of the toolbar. You may have noticed that the shortcut menu displays a check mark next to the name of a toolbar that is currently open (see Figure 1.9). You can click a checked toolbar name to close the toolbar. AutoCAD remembers your toolbar arrangement between sessions.
3738x.book Page 16 Monday, June 25, 2007 11:37 PM 16 CHAPTER 1 EXPLORING THE AUTOCAD AND AUTOCAD LT INTERFACE Many tools and commands have keyboard shortcuts; shortcuts are one-, two-, or three-letter abbreviations of a command name. As you become more proficient with AutoCAD, you may find these shortcuts helpful. As you work through this book, the shortcuts will be identified for your reference.
3738x.book Page 17 Monday, June 25, 2007 11:37 PM WORKING WITH AUTOCAD 2. Choose File Open to open the Select File dialog box. This is a typical Windows file dialog box, with an added twist: The large Preview box on the right lets you preview a drawing before you open it, thereby saving time while searching for files. To the left is a panel known as the Places List in which you can find frequently used locations on your computer or the Internet.
3738x.book Page 18 Monday, June 25, 2007 11:37 PM 18 CHAPTER 1 EXPLORING THE AUTOCAD AND AUTOCAD LT INTERFACE Figure 1.10 The Layout1 view of the clip.dwg file You may recall that a layout is a type of view that lets you lay out different views of your drawing in preparation for printing. Also notice that the AutoCAD window’s title bar displays the name of the drawing. This offers easy identification of the file. This particular file contains both 2D drawings and a 3D model of a typical locking clip.
3738x.book Page 19 Monday, June 25, 2007 11:37 PM WORKING WITH AUTOCAD Your view changes to show the full 3D model with the 2D representations of the model. 2. Choose View 3D Views Plan View World UCS. You can also type PLAN↵W↵. Your display changes to a two-dimensional view looking down on the drawing, as shown in the top image of Figure 1.11. Click the Zoom Window button on the Standard toolbar. You can also choose View Zoom Window from the drop-down menu or type the command Z↵W↵. 3.
3738x.book Page 20 Monday, June 25, 2007 11:37 PM 20 CHAPTER 1 EXPLORING THE AUTOCAD AND AUTOCAD LT INTERFACE Figure 1.11 Placing the zoom window around the clip Click here for the first corner. Click here for the opposite corner. Getting a close-up view of your drawing is crucial to working accurately, but you’ll often want to return to a previous view to get the overall picture. To do so, choose View Zoom Previous from the menu bar.
3738x.book Page 21 Monday, June 25, 2007 11:37 PM WORKING WITH AUTOCAD You can quickly enlarge or reduce your view by clicking the Zoom Realtime button in the 2D Navigate control panel. Follow these steps to change your view with the Zoom Realtime button: 1. Click the Zoom Realtime button on the 2D Navigate control panel of the Dashboard. You can also right-click and choose Zoom from the shortcut menu. The cursor changes to a magnifying glass. 2.
3738x.book Page 22 Monday, June 25, 2007 11:37 PM 22 CHAPTER 1 EXPLORING THE AUTOCAD AND AUTOCAD LT INTERFACE As you can see from this exercise, you have a wide range of options for viewing your drawings, just by using a few buttons. These buttons are all you need to control the display of 2D drawings. Saving a File as You Work It’s a good idea to save your file periodically as you work on it.
3738x.book Page 23 Monday, June 25, 2007 11:37 PM WORKING WITH AUTOCAD Figure 1.13 Erasing a portion of the clip Click here. Opening Multiple Files You can have multiple documents open at the same time in AutoCAD. This can be especially helpful if you want to exchange parts of drawings between files or if you want another file open for reference. Try the following exercise to see how multiple documents work in AutoCAD: 1. Choose File New to open the Select Template dialog box.
3738x.book Page 24 Monday, June 25, 2007 11:37 PM 24 CHAPTER 1 EXPLORING THE AUTOCAD AND AUTOCAD LT INTERFACE 4. Let’s see what can be done with these two files. Click in the window with the clip drawing to make it active. 5. Choose View Zoom All to get an overall view of the drawing. 6. Click the 2D version of the clip at the bottom of the drawing to select it. A series of squares and arrows appears on the drawing. These are called grips, and you’ll learn more about them in the next chapter. 7.
3738x.book Page 25 Monday, June 25, 2007 11:37 PM THE BOTTOM LINE You can open the Tool Palettes window by clicking the Tool Palettes Window tool in the Standard Annotation toolbar. Once it’s open, you can select a tab containing the predrawn objects you want to use and then click the specific object you want to add. The object appears at the cursor, ready for you to select a location.
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