AutoCAD succinctly

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AutoCAD

Succinctly

By

Lucio Da Silva

Foreword by Daniel Jebaraj

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Table of Contents

Table of Contents ..............................................................................................................................4

The Story behind the Succinctly Series of Books .................................................................................8

About the Author ............................................................................................................................ 10

Preface ............................................................................................................................................ 11

Introduction................................................................................................................................. 11

CAD samples ................................................................................................................................ 11

Getting the AutoCAD application .................................................................................................. 11

About this book ........................................................................................................................... 11

Conventions used on this book ..................................................................................................... 11

How to contact the author ........................................................................................................... 12

Chapter 1 Opening the Box.............................................................................................................. 13

The Start page .............................................................................................................................. 13

The AutoCAD interface ................................................................................................................. 13

Keyboard ............................................................................................................................................. 15

Quick Access toolbar ........................................................................................................................... 15

The ribbon ........................................................................................................................................... 16

The command window ....................................................................................................................... 19

Mouse ................................................................................................................................................. 19

Create a new drawing .................................................................................................................. 20

Drawing units .............................................................................................................................. 23

Display settings ............................................................................................................................ 24

Chapter 2 Speaking AutoCAD .......................................................................................................... 27

AutoCAD coordinate systems ....................................................................................................... 27

Drawing limits .............................................................................................................................. 28

Coordinate input .......................................................................................................................... 29

Absolute coordinates: (x, y) ................................................................................................................ 29

Relative coordinates: @x,y ................................................................................................................. 29

Relative polar coordinates: @distance<angle .................................................................................... 30

Other input methods .......................................................................................................................... 30

Drawing navigation ...................................................................................................................... 32

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Zoom command .................................................................................................................................. 32

Drawing organization ................................................................................................................... 34

Properties ........................................................................................................................................... 34

Layers .................................................................................................................................................. 38

Drawing templates ....................................................................................................................... 40

Create a template file ......................................................................................................................... 41

Chapter 3 Let There Be Lines ........................................................................................................... 44

Object snaps ................................................................................................................................ 44

AutoCAD Geometries ................................................................................................................... 46

Line...................................................................................................................................................... 46

Circle ................................................................................................................................................... 53

Arc ....................................................................................................................................................... 56

Polyline ............................................................................................................................................... 64

Rectangle ............................................................................................................................................ 66

Polygon ............................................................................................................................................... 68

Hatch ................................................................................................................................................... 70

Geometry construction helpers .................................................................................................... 78

Point .................................................................................................................................................... 78

XLINE (Construction Line) ................................................................................................................... 79

Ray ...................................................................................................................................................... 80

Divide .................................................................................................................................................. 81

Measure .............................................................................................................................................. 82

Display cleanup ............................................................................................................................ 82

Redraw ................................................................................................................................................ 82

Regen .................................................................................................................................................. 82

RegenAll .............................................................................................................................................. 83

Chapter 4 Managing the Drawing .................................................................................................... 84

Selecting objects .......................................................................................................................... 84

Window ............................................................................................................................................... 84

Window Crossing ................................................................................................................................ 84

Lasso ................................................................................................................................................... 85

Command prompt options ................................................................................................................. 85

Select Similar ...................................................................................................................................... 87

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Managing layers ........................................................................................................................... 88

Layer list .............................................................................................................................................. 88

Layer panel tools ................................................................................................................................. 89

Hands on layers .................................................................................................................................. 91

Modifying objects ........................................................................................................................ 92

Move ................................................................................................................................................... 92

Copy .................................................................................................................................................... 93

Rotate ................................................................................................................................................. 93

Offset .................................................................................................................................................. 93

Stretch................................................................................................................................................. 94

Mirror .................................................................................................................................................. 94

Scale .................................................................................................................................................... 94

Trim ..................................................................................................................................................... 94

Extend ................................................................................................................................................. 95

Fillet .................................................................................................................................................... 95

Chamfer .............................................................................................................................................. 95

Polyline edit ........................................................................................................................................ 96

Array ................................................................................................................................................... 97

Explode ............................................................................................................................................... 99

Erase ................................................................................................................................................. 100

Working with grips ............................................................................................................................ 100

Hands on editing objects .................................................................................................................. 102

Chapter summary ...................................................................................................................... 113

Chapter 5 Reference Objects ......................................................................................................... 114

Blocks ........................................................................................................................................ 114

Creating blocks ................................................................................................................................. 114

Inserting blocks ................................................................................................................................. 115

Edit blocks ......................................................................................................................................... 116

Write block to file ............................................................................................................................. 117

External references .................................................................................................................... 118

Insert external reference .................................................................................................................. 119

Edit external references ................................................................................................................... 120

Managing external references .......................................................................................................... 120

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Chapter summary ...................................................................................................................... 122

Chapter 6 Annotations .................................................................................................................. 123

Annotative objects ..................................................................................................................... 123

Text ........................................................................................................................................... 125

Text styles ......................................................................................................................................... 125

Single line text .................................................................................................................................. 126

Multiline text .................................................................................................................................... 127

Text alignment .................................................................................................................................. 127

Create annotative text: ..................................................................................................................... 128

Text masking ..................................................................................................................................... 129

Dimensions ................................................................................................................................ 130

Dimension styles ............................................................................................................................... 130

Dimensioning the drawing ................................................................................................................ 133

Multileader ................................................................................................................................ 136

Multileader styles ............................................................................................................................. 136

Adding leaders .................................................................................................................................. 138

Chapter summary ...................................................................................................................... 139

Chapter 7 Publishing the Drawing .................................................................................................. 140

Plotting ...................................................................................................................................... 140

Plot styles .......................................................................................................................................... 142

Layouts ...................................................................................................................................... 144

Viewports .................................................................................................................................. 146

Freeze layers in a viewport ............................................................................................................... 148

Chapter summary ...................................................................................................................... 148

8

The Story behind the Succinctly Series of Books

Daniel Jebaraj, Vice President Syncfusion, Inc.

taying on the cutting edge

As many of you may know, Syncfusion is a provider of software components for the Microsoft platform. This puts us in the exciting but challenging position of always being on the cutting edge.

Whenever platforms or tools are shipping out of Microsoft, which seems to be about every other week these days, we have to educate ourselves, quickly.

Information is plentiful but harder to digest In reality, this translates into a lot of book orders, blog searches, and Twitter scans.

While more information is becoming available on the Internet and more and more books are being published, even on topics that are relatively new, one aspect that continues to inhibit us is the inability to find concise technology overview books.

We are usually faced with two options: read several 500+ page books or scour the web for relevant blog posts and other articles. Just as everyone else who has a job to do and customers to serve, we find this quite frustrating.

The Succinctly series This frustration translated into a deep desire to produce a series of concise technical books that would be targeted at developers working on the Microsoft platform.

We firmly believe, given the background knowledge such developers have, that most topics can be translated into books that are between 50 and 100 pages.

This is exactly what we resolved to accomplish with the Succinctly series. Isn’t everything wonderful born out of a deep desire to change things for the better?

The best authors, the best content Each author was carefully chosen from a pool of talented experts who shared our vision. The book you now hold in your hands, and the others available in this series, are a result of the authors’ tireless work. You will find original content that is guaranteed to get you up and running in about the time it takes to drink a few cups of coffee.

Free forever Syncfusion will be working to produce books on several topics. The books will always be free. Any updates we publish will also be free.

S

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Free? What is the catch?

There is no catch here. Syncfusion has a vested interest in this effort.

As a component vendor, our unique claim has always been that we offer deeper and broader frameworks than anyone else on the market. Developer education greatly helps us market and sell against competing vendors who promise to “enable AJAX support with one click,” or “turn the moon to cheese!”

Let us know what you think

If you have any topics of interest, thoughts, or feedback, please feel free to send them to us at [email protected].

We sincerely hope you enjoy reading this book and that it helps you better understand the topic of study. Thank you for reading.

Please follow us on Twitter and “Like” us on Facebook to help us spread the word about the Succinctly series!

mailto:[email protected]

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About the Author

Lucio Da Silva has been working with AutoCAD© since 1990, while attending the Civil Engineering College at CEFET-PR (Brazil). His passion for CAD evolved until he fully dedicated his career to CAD and design, and became an Autodesk Certified Training Center (ATC) Manager in 2000. He has been a member of the Autodesk Customer Council, AutoCAD Connected Desktop Council, and the Autodesk Usability Testing Group since 2001. In 2011, he decided to pursue a degree in Information Technology and Software Development and Graduated on 2014 as Magna Cum Laude at Hodges University.

Lucio currently works with CAD and IT Consulting, 3D visualization, and programming. In addition, he is a musician and music minister at a Christian community church in South West Florida, where he lives with his wife and three children.

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Preface

Introduction

AutoCAD is a Computer Aided Design and Drafting (CADD) software application, developed by Autodesk and used across a wide range of industries by architects, engineers, graphic designers, project managers, and in 3D modeling, just to mention a few.

Autodesk also develops vertical solutions, using AutoCAD as a base platform, including enhanced features for many different disciplines, and a light version called AutoCAD LT (or AutoCAD Light) which does not include 3D design capabilities and advanced customization and programming, while AutoCAD offers very powerful tools for 3D modeling and customization.

This book covers common AutoCAD 2016 features. Users running other AutoCAD vertical solutions or AutoCAD LT and some older releases of AutoCAD may use this book as a quick-start guide for working with the product.

CAD samples

All drawings used in this book are available here for download.

Getting the AutoCAD application

You can download a 30-day free trial from Autodesk here, and if you are an eligible student, you can download the free, three-year student version here .

About this book

After reading and completing the exercises in this book, the user will be able to develop graphic design using AutoCAD basic commands.

This book is not discipline-oriented, and serves as base for most design fields.

Conventions used on this book

AutoCAD has aliases for most commands. When calling a command, you have the option to enter the full command name or the alias assigned to the command. Aliases can be modified by the user and the aliases shown in this book are the AutoCAD default command aliases.

The exercises step syntax on this book are composed as follows:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/gnzqcqjy71orl7w/AutoCAD%20Succinctly.zip?dl=0

http://www.autodesk.com/products/autocad/free-trial

http://www.autodesk.com/products/autocad/free-trial

http://www.autodesk.com/education/free-software/autocad

http://www.autodesk.com/education/free-software/autocad

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Command: L

The text format as shown in Command above emulates the AutoCAD command window, where L emulates the user input, and indicates the user should press the Enter key. Therefore, the

previous example expects that the user types L and presses Enter.

How to contact the author

If you would like to ask any questions or submit comments about this book or samples, please feel free to send an email to Lucio at [email protected].

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Chapter 1 Opening the Box

The Start page

After launching AutoCAD, it presents the Startup Window (Figure 1) from which you can start a new drawing using a template, open one of the last drawings, get notifications, or connect to Autodesk A360 (a project-based collaboration service for individuals, teams, and organizations), or send feedback about the product.

Figure 1: AutoCAD Startup Screen

The AutoCAD interface

The AutoCAD standard interface is composed of a number of items. The following figure shows the standard AutoCAD interface after launching AutoCAD and starting a drawing for the first time. Most interface components are floating or docked around the drawing area, and the most recent interface layout will persist after AutoCAD is closed.

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Figure 2: The AutoCAD Interface

The standard interface items are as follows:

1. Menu Browser: From the Start menu, you can find commands for file management, publishing, and utilities.

2. Drawing tabs: Shows all opened drawings and you can quickly switch between drawings with a single click.

3. Quick Access Toolbar: Includes useful commands such as New, Open, Save, Print, Undo, and so on.

4. The Ribbon: AutoCAD contains a ribbon across the top of the drawing area, including several tabs. You can access virtually all of the commands covered in this book from the Home tab.

5. Title bar: Displays the product name and the active drawing name. 6. View Cube: Widely used for 3D modeling. 7. Tool Palette: AutoCAD contains several distinct tool palettes. The floating palette shown

in Figure 2 is the “Design Feed.” To close a Tool Palette, click the X icon located at the top-left corner of the palette (it also could be located at the top-right corner, depending where it was last positioned.) If you have a tool palette currently open, you may close it, as we will not use it for the time being.

8. Drawing Area: The large area, dark gray by default, is where your design happens. Initially the drawing area shows a grid that may be hidden, as you like.

9. Crosshair Cursor: Creates and selects entities you create throughout the design process.

10. User Coordinate System (UCS) Icon: Shows the current orientation of x and y vectors of the coordinate system. Every point of distance you enter is consistent with it.

11. Layout Tabs: Consists of Model Space and Paper Space layouts. Model Space is where you create your design and Paper Space is your printing/plotting space. While you can create many Paper Space layouts, there can be only one Model Space layout.

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12. Command Window: This is where you communicate with AutoCAD, and where AutoCAD responds to your requests. You will learn more about the command window next.

13. Status Bar: Contains numerous quick-access readings, toggle, and selection tools to help you working with the drawing.

Keyboard

As you become familiar with AutoCAD commands, you will be working more by typing commands and command aliases instead of selecting on the ribbon or toolbars. The keyboard is also of several shortcut commands that help you work with your drawing.

The most common keyboard uses are:

Enter: Executes or ends a command to confirm an input. Pressing Enter at a blank command window will call the last command you run.

Spacebar: Functions the same as the Enter key, but may have different results when attempting to finish a command, depending of the command you run.

Escape (Esc) key: Finalizes or cancels commands. F1 key: Opens the Help window F2 key: If the command window is floating, it displays the extended command history;

otherwise it opens the AutoCAD Text History Window. To show the AutoCAD Text History Window when the command window is floating, press Ctrl+F2.

F3 key: Toggles object snap (osnap) on/off F7 key: Toggles the grid F8 key: Toggle orthographic (ortho) mode F9 key: Toggle snap to grid F10 key: Toggles polar mode F11 key: Toggles object tracking F12 key: Toggle dynamic input

Quick Access toolbar

The Quick Access toolbar is located, by default, on the top-left side of the application. It is fully customizable and the default tools are:

New: Start a new drawing from a drawing template

Open: Open an existing drawing

Save: Save the current drawing

Save As: Save the current drawing with a new name

Plot: Plot (print) the current drawing

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Undo: Undo the last command. AutoCAD can undo all up to the moment the drawing was created. When drawing is closed, the undo history is deleted, and a new history starts when the drawing is reopened.

Redo: Redo the last undone command, but only if immediately after the Undo command was used.

The ribbon

The ribbon is located, by default, docked across the top of the drawing area. It’s composed of several tabs, which are composed of several panels, as shown in Figure 3. The ribbon can also be docked at the sides for floating (undocked) within the drawing area or on another monitor.

Panels that have a small triangle pointing down are expandable panels, and you can expand those by a single click on the panel title.

Figure 3: The Ribbon

Some ribbon panels allow access to a dialog box related to that panel. To show the dialog box, click the small arrow icon located at the lower-right corner of the panel (see Figure 4).

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Figure 4: Dialog Box Launcher

A tooltip is displayed when you hover the mouse over a panel tool, and if you hold it a few seconds longer, a quick help window pops up, containing information about the respective command.

Figure 5: Tooltip

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Figure 6: Quick Help

Contextual ribbon tabs

A contextual ribbon tab is a type of related ribbon tab that is displayed as a replacement for a toolbar or dialog box when you select certain objects or execute some commands, and automatically closes when you end the command or the object is unselected.

Figure 7: Contextual Ribbon Tab for the Hatches

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The command window

The command window is the core of AutoCAD and it is, by default, located floating at the bottom of the drawing. You can place it at any location of your choice by clicking the bar on the left of the window and dragging (Figure 8). When you get closer to the top or bottom of drawing area, the command window will attempt to dock at the location. This characteristic is similar for tool palettes, which can be floated or docked to the sides.

Figure 8: Command Window

When you start typing a command, several possibilities are available to choose from, as shown in Figure 9. You can select your choice by clicking it or using the keyboard arrows to select the proper command, and then press Enter or the Spacebar.

Figure 9: Command Auto Complete

Mouse

It’s a good idea to have a mouse with left and right buttons and a wheel. A good mouse can save you a lot of time at the end of your project.

The following list describes how to use mouse keys:

Left button: Used for entity selection as well as marking coordinate points. Right button: Opens the contextual menu matching the current selected entity, if any. Wheel:

o Roll up: Zoom in o Roll down: Zoom out o Double-click: Zoom to the extension of your drawing o Press, hold, and drag: Pan the drawing

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Figure 10: The Mouse

Create a new drawing

There are a few ways to start a new drawing. If you just launched AutoCAD, you can start a new drawing from the Start page, previously shown in Figure 1. Click Start Drawing (Figure 2) to begin a new drawing. This will start a new, blank drawing based on the AutoCAD standard template.

Figure 11: Start Drawing at The Start Page

Another way to start a drawing is by clicking New in the Quick Access toolbar, as shown in the following figure.

Figure 12: Quick Access Toolbar

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Clicking New opens the New Drawing dialog window (Figure 12), from which you can select the template you would like to use to start your drawing.

Figure 13: New Drawing Dialog

If you work on imperial drawings, where it is assumed that you work in inches, you should use the acad.dwt (or acadlt.dwt if you are working in AutoCAD LT).

For metric units, it is assumed that units are millimeters; you may use acadiso.dwt (or acadltiso.dwt in AutoCAD LT).

Note: For simplification and generalization, all drawings in this book are based on the acad.dwt template.

You may also start a new drawing by selecting a template right from the Start page, as shown in Figure 14.

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Figure 14: Create a new drawing using a custom template

All objects created in Model Space should be created in full-sized, real-world units (1:1 scale). Entering 10 units as distance means that it could be 10 inches, 10 millimeters, or any other unit that you specify, such as meters or feet. It’s important to remember that you cannot mix units once you have started the drawing. If you started a drawing assuming that 1 unit = 1 mm., you cannot enter 5 cm. as distance; instead you will have to enter 50. You do not enter the actual units unless you are using the Architectural measurement type; then you may enter values such as 6’-6” and AutoCAD will interpret that as 78 drawing units.

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Drawing units

You can choose what unit of length you want use by running the UNITS command. From the

Menu Browser, select Drawing Utilities, and select the Units option. Or, from the command window, enter UNITS and press Enter or the Spacebar. The Drawing Units dialog window

opens, as shown in Figure 15:

Figure 15: Drawing Units Dialog

The Drawing Units dialog components are:

Length Type (or Format): Determines how lengths are shown. For example, a decimal length of 6.5 can be set to display as a fractional length of 6-1/2 instead.

Precision: Determines the decimal accuracy of a length. For example, a decimal length of 6.5 can be set to be displayed as 6.50, 6.500, or 6.5000.

Angle Type: Determines the unit of the angle. You may choose from Degrees Minutes and Seconds (Deg/Min/Sec), Grads, Radians, or Surveyor’s Units (e.g. N 10d25’10” E). Decimal Degrees is the default.

Clockwise: By default, angles are measured counter-clockwise; check this box if you need to revert.

Insertion Scale Units: Automatically scales inserted materials with other units to the correct unit. For example, if you are working in a drawing in which the unit is set to millimeters and insert a drawing set as inches, the resulting inserted objects are automatically resized with a scale factor of 25.4 (1 inch = 25.4 mm.).

Sample Output: Displays an example of the current settings for units and angles.

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Lighting: On photorealistic renderings, it controls the unit of measurement for the intensity of photometric lights in the current drawing.

If you plan to work in feet and inches, set the Length type to Architectural, and then when you create objects, specify their lengths in feet and inches (e.g. 3’5-3/4”). If you plan to use metric units, leave the Length type set to Decimal. Changing the unit format and precision does not affect the internal precision of your drawing. It affects only how lengths, angles, and coordinates are displayed in the user interface.

Display settings

Figure 16: Options dialog with Display tab active

The default AutoCAD display settings are a dark user interface, a dark drawing area in model space, and a white paper space. AutoCAD is fully customizable, so you can change the colors according to your preferences.

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To change display settings, run the OPTION command by clicking the Options button located at

the bottom of the Menu Browser or by typing OP at the command window and pressing Enter or the Spacebar.

This will open the Options dialog window containing a few tabs on standard AutoCAD (see Figure 16). Click on the Display tab to view the display settings options. I am not covering all items available in the Options dialog nor in the Display tab, as they will not affect the contents of this book. At this point, we are only to change how to adjust colors and Crosshair Cursor settings.

Under the Window Elements area, you find the Color scheme with two options: Dark and Light. This will change elements of the user interface, such as ribbon, palette, and menu colors. Dark is the AutoCAD default, and if you prefer a light gray interface, choose Light on the drop-down list.

To change drawing environment colors, click on the Colors… button located at the bottom of the Window Elements area to open the Drawing Window Colors menu, as shown in Figure 17. To change the space color, select 2D model space in the Context list, Uniform background in the Interface element list, and select the color of your choice in the Color list. You can safely change the colors and easily reset them by clicking the following buttons:

Restore current element: Reset the default colors of the selected item in the Interface Element list.

Restore current context: Restore the default colors of the selected item in the Context list. This will reset all items in the Interface Element list.

Restore all contexts: Restore the default colors for all Contexts and Elements. Restore classic colors: This button will set all colors to legacy AutoCAD colors.

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Figure 17: Drawing Windows Colors

Click Apply & Close to apply your changes and close the dialog box, or Cancel to close the dialog without applying any changes, and return to the Options dialog.

Note: Changing the uniform background color to white automatically changes the display color of white objects to black, and vice-versa. Actually, white objects print and plot in black by default. The crosshair cursor automatically adjusts its colors.

The Crosshair size slider changes the size of the crosshair cursor in the drawing area. It goes from 1 to 100, where 100 makes the crosshair axis cover 100 percent of the drawing area. The default value is 5.

Click OK to close the dialog and apply the changes, or Cancel to close without making changes.

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Chapter 2 Speaking AutoCAD

AutoCAD geometries consist of graphic entities used create your drawings, but before we start creating some, you first need to understand how to input coordinates in AutoCAD.

AutoCAD coordinate systems

All AutoCAD products consist of a three-dimensional (3D) coordinate system based on x, y, and z coordinates. When you start a blank drawing based on a standard template rather than 3D templates (acad3D.dwt and acadiso3D.dwt), you start with a top view, and you are only able to see the x and y axis of the user coordinate system (UCS).

This book covers only creating and editing two-dimensional (2D) geometries, assuming the z value of the coordinate system as zero.

Note: AutoCAD LT can open 3D models created on other versions of AutoCAD, but it is unable to create or edit 3D geometries, and doesn’t allow advanced customizations.

When you start a new drawing, the coordinate system is actually the World Coordinate System (WCS), and it only should be called UCS after any changes of direction, the x, y, or z axis, or the origin point location.

The WCS contains a small square at the origin point, while UCS does not (see Figure 18).

Figure 18: WCS and UCS

For simplification purposes, we will refer to the AutoCAD coordinate system simply as UCS.

You can change the UCS location just by clicking on it and dragging the desired node to the proper location or angle, if selecting one of the axis ends.

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Figure 19: Moving the UCS Origin

If you hover the blue squares, called grips, a menu pops up displaying the possible edit options for the referent node. Figure 20 shows the quick menu for the UCS origin point. Click World to return to the UCS to World Coordinate System.

Figure 20: UCS Quick Menu at origin point

Drawing limits

The drawing limits are represented by an invisible rectangular boundary in the drawing area. It does not define the area where you are allowed to drawn unless you turn drawing limits on. Typically, the drawing limits should be the extension of the paper size multiplied by the scale. For example, if your drawing is intended to be plotted at 1:10 scale and the paper size is 420mm x 297mm, your drawing limits could be from (0,0) to (4200,2970). This is not required, and many users never set or change the drawing limits.

To set the drawing limits, enter LIMITS in the command window and press Enter. The following options are displayed:

Lower left corner: Click or enter the lower-left corner for the drawing limits. Upper right corner: Click or enter the upper-left corner for the drawing limits.

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On: Turns limits on to avoid entering points or creating elements outside of the drawing limits.

Off: Turns off limits, but the current set is saved, although not enforced.

Coordinate input

Now let us understand how you will tell AutoCAD where you would like to locate the points you need to enter. There are three methods of entering coordinates in AutoCAD:

Absolute Relative Relative Polar

To simplify the display while you create geometric objects, press F12 to turn off dynamic input, or click the Dynamic Input icon on the status bar, as shown in Figure 21. A gray button at the status bar indicates that the variable is set as off.

Figure 21: Dynamic Input Toggle

Tip: If you are working only with 2D objects, the z coordinate value may be omitted when entering coordinates, and it will set to the current elevation setting (0 by default).

Absolute coordinates: (x, y)

Absolute coordinates are measured from the origin of the current UCS. If you create a point at coordinate (50, 25), the point will be located 50 units to the right (x direction) of the UCS origin point, and 25 units above (y direction) the UCS origin point. You may enter any numeric value for coordinates and negative values; you locate the point to the left or below the origin point.

Relative coordinates: @x,y

Relative coordinates are measured from the last point you entered. The @ symbol means “last point” or “from last point.”

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Relative polar coordinates: @distance<angle

On relative polar coordinates, you enter the distance (or length) and the direction (angle) to the next point, starting from the last point entered. Remember that by default, angles are measured counterclockwise in degrees. Negative angles you enter will rotate clockwise.

Other input methods

You may also quickly enter points by simply clicking at the location in the drawing area. You can also create line segments by placing the crosshair cursor to the direction you are willing to create the segment, and entering the distance value. This is very useful in combination with ORTHO and POLAR TRACKING, which help you to restrict angle directions.

To illustrate using ORTHO, first we need to make sure to restrict the cursor orthogonally.

To do so, press the F8 key, or click on the button on the status bar, as shown in the following figure (remember blue is on, gray is off).

Figure 22: Toggle ORTHO

Now just follow these steps:

1. Type L and press Enter or the Spacebar to start the LINE command. 2. Click a point on the screen. 3. Move the mouse above the drawing area, making sure that you have a vertical line.

Type 10 and press Enter or the Spacebar. 4. Move the mouse to the right, making sure that you have a horizontal line. Type 10 and

press Enter or the Spacebar. 5. Move the mouse below, making sure that you have vertical line. Type 10 and press

Enter or the Spacebar. 6. Type C and press Enter or the Spacebar to close the rectangle and end the command.

Similar to orthographic restriction, which limits to the x and y directions of the UCS, you can use Polar Tracking. To turn on Polar Tracking, press the F10 key or click on the Polar Tracking toggle button, as show in Figure 23 (remember blue is on, gray is off).

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Figure 23: Polar Tracking Toggle

With Polar Tracking, you can pick other angle increments for restriction and even add custom angles. Just click on the small down arrow next to the button to show a list of default increment tracking angles, as you can see in Figure 24, and make your selection.

Figure 24: Polar Tracking Settings

When you start creating lines with Polar Tracking on, a box with the distance and angle as well as a dashed green line shows the direction at the increment you choose. You can now enter distance just as you did with orthographic restrictions.

Figure 25: Polar Tracking in Action

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Drawing navigation

As your drawing grows, you need to navigate the drawing in order to zoom into drawing areas or pan to other locations. Besides the mouse navigation features discussed in Chapter 1, AutoCAD shows, by default on the upper-right side of the drawing area, a Navigation Bar where you can find almost all of the drawing navigation tools (see Figure 26).

Figure 26: Navigation Bar

Zoom command

The mouse wheel is limited to zoom in and out the drawing, while the Zoom command provides more advanced methods. You can execute the Zoom command from the command window by

typing ZOOM, or simply Z, and pressing Enter, as shown on Figure 27, or from the Navigation Bar, as shown on Figure 28.

Figure 27: Zoom Command Prompt

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Figure 28: Zoom Command in the Navigation Bar

Zoom All: Zooms to the extension of the drawing or drawing limits, whichever is larger. Zoom Center: Zooms by setting a selected point to the center of the screen and at a

magnification level. The larger the magnification level the smaller the drawing will appear on screen.

Figure 29: Before and After Zoom Center

Zoom Dynamic: Zoom and pan the drawing using a rectangular view box that can be shrunk or enlarged and moved over the drawing.

o To change the size of the view box, click, move the mouse to resize it, and click one more times to set the new size of the view box.

o To pan with the view box, hover it over the desired area and press Enter. Zoom Extents: Zooms to the extension of all objects in the drawing, independent of

limits. Zoom Previous: Restores the previous views, to a maximum of 10 previous views.

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Zoom Scale: Changes the zoom magnification by a scale factor. The scale factor is a positive, non-zero number, where 1 is the current magnification level, followed by X, to scale relative to the current view, or XP, to scale relative to paper space units. For example, entering .5x makes the object look half the size relative to the current size of the screen.

Zoom Window: Zooms to a specified rectangular area. This is the default method when running from the command window. Click any two corners to define the new display window.

Zoom Object: Zooms to one or more selected objects in order to fill the screen. Zoom Real Time: Works similar as the mouse wheel button, but with the mouse left-

button. Left-clicking and dragging up increases the zoom level, while dragging down decreases. Press Enter or Esc to exit the command.

Drawing organization

Properties

Every object created in AutoCAD has a set of properties. Some properties are common to all objects; others are exclusive to the object type. For example, a circle has the center point coordinates and radius, while a line has start point and end point coordinates (see Figure 31).

The common properties, called General Properties, are as follows:

Color

Object color is a very important property because it is easily used to identify objects in the drawing. There are 255 different colors in the AutoCAD color palette, but you can also use True Color or Color Books. The AutoCAD color palette allows you to control the appearance of the object when printed, if the drawing is set as color-dependent plot styles, which is how the acad.dwt template is set. This book covers only color-dependent plot styles.

When you call a command to select a color, AutoCAD displays the Color Dialog Box, as shown in Figure 30.

The top two large color palettes of the AutoCAD Color Index (ACI) are numbered from 10 to 249. The top palette contains even numbers, while the lower palette contains odd numbers.

The mid-colored palette shows colors from 1 to 9 where colors 1 to 7 are also named as red, yellow, green, cyan, blue, magenta, and white. The white color may show as black, depending of the drawing area background color.

The lowest palette shows shades of gray numbered from 250 to 255.

The buttons ByLayer and ByBlock set the object color to inherit the color from the layer or block it is associated with. These buttons are not available when selecting colors for layers.

The color text box allows you to enter the color index number or name.

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The color swath, the two squares to the left of the dialog box, show the selected color and the previous color, where the currently selected color overlaps the previously selected color.

Figure 30: Color Dialog Box

Layer: The layer on which the object is set. You are going to learn more about layers soon.

Linetype: The look of the line, such as continuous, dashed, center, etc.

Linetype scale: This multiplier changes the density of the line style.

Line weight: Controls how bold the object appears on screen. This does not affect the how it prints unless you specify so.

Transparency: Sets the visibility of the element in the drawing. Very useful to simulate shaded areas such as shadow.

Thickness: Defines the height of the object, like an extrusion or a wall. This have no effect when the drawing is in the Top view.

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Figure 31: Properties Palette showing Line Properties and Circle Properties

Note that in Figure 31, some General properties are set as ByLayer. This means that the object will inherit the properties defined in the layers on which it is set.

Object properties may be quickly edited from the Properties Panel located in the Home tab (Figure 33). You should set the object to inherit layer properties whenever is possible in order to keep your drawing visually manageable.

From the Properties tab, you can change objects’ color, line weight, line style, and transparency. You can also match the properties of a selected to object to other objects. Finally, the list

command shows a list of all selected objects and their geometric properties.

The following figure shows details of three selected objects: Circle, Polyline (listed as LWPOLYLINE), and a line.

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Figure 32: List Command

Figure 33: Object Properties Panel

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Layers

Layers are the most important method for organizing the objects in a drawing. Layers make your drawing easier to view and can improve performance by simply hiding all objects you do not need to see for a moment.

Imagine each layer as a transparent sheet where you draw some walls, for example. Then you add another transparent sheet on top where you draw the windows, another transparent sheet for notes, another for dimensions, and so on. At any time, you can simply remove one or more sheets and put it back when needed.

Creating Layers

Open AutoCAD and start a new drawing based on the acad.dwt template, if you have not yet done so.

To create layers, click the Layer Properties tool in the Layers panel (Figure 32). This opens the Layer Properties Manager palette.

Figure 34: Ribbon Layer Panel

Click the New Layer button shown in Figure 35. A new layer, named Layer1, is created and ready to be renamed. Type Walls and press Enter.

Click on the layer color to open the Select Color dialog and click the magenta color in the second color palette.

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Figure 35: Properties Manager

Repeat the previous step to create a layer named Walls Above with the color red. Click on the Linetype, currently set as Continuous, to open the Select Linetype dialog box (see Figure 36). Click Load… to show the Load or Reload Linetypes dialog box. Scroll through the Available Linetypes to select DASHED and HIDDEN. Use Ctrl+click to select multiple options. Click OK to load the selected Linetypes and close the dialog box. The two selected Linetypes are loaded and listed in the Select Linetype dialog box. Select HIDDEN and click OK to close the dialog box.

Figure 36: Select Linetype dialog

Create additional layers as follows:

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Layer name Color Linetype

Ceiling 9 DASHED

Doors cyan Continuous

Furn hidden red HIDDEN

Furniture yellow Continuous

Walls magenta Continuous

Walls Above red HIDDEN

Windows green Continuous

Double-click the Wall layer to make it the current layer.

Tip: Layers are the most effective and productive way to organize your drawing and enforce drawing standards. I recommend that you avoid changing object level properties, such as colors and linetypes, because you may lose control of your design as your drawing gets bigger.

Drawing templates

When you start a new drawing, it is created from a drawing template that can be either a default drawing template file, such as the one you used to create the drawing in Chapter 1, or a template file that you create with the settings and data of your choice

When you save this information as a drawing template file, you can start creating drawings without having to recreate or reconfigure any settings. Some of the settings you can define in a drawing template are:

Drawing Units Settings Layers and layer properties Linetypes Dimension styles Text styles Annotation Scales Layouts

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Plot and publishing settings

Create a template file

To save the drawing template, proceed with the following steps:

1. Click on the Menu Browser on the top-left corner of the AutoCAD window. 2. Move the mouse over the Save As menu item and hold until the panel Save a copy of

the drawing expands, or click on the arrow to the right of the Save As menu. 3. Click on Drawing Template, as shown in Figure 37. 4. The Save Drawing As dialog box opens at the default template folder selected. 5. Enter ACAD Succinctly in the File name field. 6. Click Save. 7. A dialog box opens so you can enter optional additional information about the template.

In the description box, enter Base template for the AutoCAD Succinctly book and Click OK.

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Figure 37: Save Drawing Template

You can now close the template file by clicking the X button in the drawing tab, as shown in Figure 38.

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Figure 38: Close the drawing

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Chapter 3 Let There Be Lines

It’s time to start creating your world. In this chapter, you’ll learn how to create the most common AutoCAD geometries

Open AutoCAD, if is not yet opened, and start a new drawing based on the ACAD Succinctly template.

Object snaps

Before we start creating geometries, let us talk a little about object snaps. Object naps are drawing helpers that allow you to select precise locations when prompted for a point.

AutoCAD has a feature called AutoSnap (Figure 39), which automatically snaps to the nearest point in an existing object. A visual confirmation marker is displayed with a tooltip when approaching an existing object when Object Snap is on. Press the F3 key to toggle AutoSnap on or off.

Figure 39: Object Snap toggle button

Figure 40: Snapping to the end point of a line

To see or set running object snaps, click in the small triangle to the right of the button to show the current selection. To turn the Object Snap mode on or off, click on the desired mode. A checkmark is displayed to the left of the active modes, as shown in Figure 41.

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Figure 41: Running Object Snaps

To temporary override running Object Snap modes, press and hold the Shift key and right-click the mouse button to show the Object Snap Override menu (see Figure 42) and select the temporary object snap mode of your choice. Temporary object snaps are active only for the current point to selection.

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Figure 42: Override running object snaps

AutoCAD Geometries

Line

Command: LINE

Alias: L

The line is the most basic and common AutoCAD object. Lines are straight segments connecting two given points (start and end points.) To draw a line, click the Line tool. To start a line, click the Line tool in the home Tab, or type LINE (or just L) in the command window and

press Enter or the Spacebar.

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Figure 43: Line Command in Home Tab

When you run the LINE command, you can create a series of connected line segments. Each

segment is an independent object that can be modified or erased without affecting the other segments.

It’s time to produce something. Let’s create the following drawing:

Figure 44: Line Segments

The following steps guide you on creating the external rectangle. You can run the LINE

command from either the command window or the ribbon tool.

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Command: L

Specify first point: 0,0

Specify next point or [Undo]: @1100,0


Specify next point or [Close/Undo]: @-1100,0

Specify next point or [Close/Undo]: C

As you start creating the drawing, it may extend beyond the current screen boundary. Double-click the middle button of the mouse to zoom to the drawing extension, or type Z and press Enter, then type E and press Enter.

In the previous steps, we started the first line segment right at the origin of the UCS by entering the absolute coordinates (0,0), followed by three relative coordinates, and finally closing the rectangle by typing C.

Tip: If you create a line segment with incorrect coordinates, just press U and then press Enter to undo the line segment without command interruption. You may undo as many segments as you like, but the only way to redo a segment is by reentering the point coordinates.

To create the remaining lines of the drawing, execute the command sequence as follows:

Command: L


Specify next point or [Undo]: 300,200


Specify next point or [Close/Undo]: @100<-45

Specify next point or [Close/Undo]: @200<0







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Note that I have used a mix of absolute, relative, and relative polar coordinates. There is no restriction on which coordinate input method you choose. For example, entering @-300,0 would

create the same segment as @300<180 creates.

Because angles are measured counter-clockwise from the positive direction of the X axis by default, I had to calculate a simpler angle measurement to enter. For example, in the third line segment, if you entered 135 for the angle measurement, it would result in a line segment to the top right from the previous point. Since we needed to go down and right, we entered -45 (90-135) for the angle measurement.

Save your drawing as Lines01.dwg.

Note: AutoCAD 2016 saves as AutoCAD 2013 file format by default, meaning that you can open files edited on AutoCAD 2016 on any AutoCAD version since AutoCAD 2013. If you need to open the drawing on older AutoCAD versions, select the version from the Files of type drop-down list.

Tip: To quick-save the drawing, you can use the shortcut Ctrl+S keys combined. To save the drawing with a different name, use Ctrl+Shift+S to show the Save Drawing As dialog.

Start a new blank drawing. We are going to create the following drawing by using Polar Tracking and distance input:

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Figure 45: Lines02.dwg

Make sure that Object Snap, Object Snap Tracking, and Polar Tracking are on, and that Polar Tracking is set to the 15º increment, as explained in Chapter 2.

Your status bar should look similar to the following figure, where a blue icon means that the corresponding helper is on:

Tip: Press F3 to toggle Object Snap, F10 to toggle Polar Tracking, and F11 to toggle Object Snaps Tracking.

Start the line command, either by typing in the command window, or clicking on the ribbon tool.

Command: L

Specify first point: Click anywhere in the drawing area

For the next points we will be positioning the mouse so that it simulates the direction of the vector, as shown in the Figure 46. Enter only the segment length in the command prompt and press Enter.

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Figure 46: Polar Tracking at 0º

Specify next point or [Undo]: 10




Specify next point or [Close/Undo]: 5



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Next we are using a combination of polar tracking and object snap tracking. First hover over the left-end point of the first segment created as shown on Figure 50. This will activate object snap on the point. When you move the mouse up approximately at 90º, the object snap tracking line is displayed. Continue moving the cursor up until the intersection with the Polar Tracking appears, as shown on Figure 51, and then left-click to select the point.

Figure 50: Activate Object Snap Tracking for a point

Figure 51: Object Snap Tracking and Polar Snap Tracking intersection

Specify next point or [Close/Undo]: Press the mouse left-button at the intersection between the Object Snap Tracking line and the Polar Tracking line.


Save your drawing as Line02.dwg.

Line Command Prompts

Specify first point: Selects the first point of the line segment. Pressing Enter will continue from the last point of the previously created object. If the previous object is an arc, pressing Enter will continue the line from the arc last point and tangent to the arc.

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Figure 52: Continuing a line from a previously created arc

Specify next point: Selects the endpoint of the line segment (and the start point of next segment until the command is completed).

Undo: Undoes the last line segment of the series. Close: Creates a line segment, starting at the end point of the last segment and

ending at the first point of the first line segment in the series, and finishes the command. You need to have at least two line segments in the series in order to use the Close command.

Tip: You can just click the option in the command window or type the corresponding uppercase blue letter.

Figure 53: Select command option from Command Window

Circle

Command: CIRCLE

Alias: C or CI

Use the Circle command to create a circle object in AutoCAD. The default method of creating

a circle is by selecting the circle center point and entering the radius value. Other methods to create circles are available if you click the small triangle below the Circle tool in the Draw Tab on the Home Panel.

To start creating a circle, click the Circle tool in the Draw tab, or enter CIRCLE (or simply C) and

press Enter or the Spacebar.

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Figure 54: Circle Command in the Home tab

Figure 55; Circle command prompt options

Note that the command window shows the options to create the circle. To select an option, click on the option or type the Alias, shown in blue, and press Enter or the Spacebar. You can also right-click and select the option from the context menu that pops up. This practice is similar on all AutoCAD commands.

You can create a circle using any of the following options:

Center, Radius: This is the default option to create a circle when typing the command at the

command window and at the ribbon until selecting another option. To create a circle, run the

command, and select a point by entering the coordinate values or choosing them on screen.

Enter the radius length by typing it at the command window or selecting a point. When you

select a point, the start point of the radius is the last point selected, which is the center of the

circle.

Center, Diameter (D): Same as Center, Radius, but you will be entering the diameter length

instead. When running the command from the command window, you can enter D and press

Enter or the Spacebar before entering the length. This will instruct AutoCAD that the next

length is the circle diameter.

Points (2P): To create the circle by selecting two points. The distance between the two points is

the circle diameter.

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Figure 56: 2 Points circle

Points (3P). This will create a circle in which the circumference passes through three selected points.

Figure 57: 3 Points circle

Tan, Tan, Radius (TTR). This creates a circle by selecting two tangent points and the circle radius. Sometimes the selection may result in more than one possibility to create the circle. When this happens, AutoCAD creates the circle in which the tangent points are nearest to the points you picked.

Figure 58: Circle tangents to the same two lines with different radii

Tan, Tan, Tan. This creates a circle that is tangent to three selected points. This option is not available as a command window option, but, actually, this is the 3P option used in combination with the tangent object snap, which you will learn about later in the book.

Figure 59: Circle with three tangent points

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Arc

Command: ARC

Alias: A

Arcs are created counterclockwise by default. Changing the angle direction using the Unit

command discussed on Chapter 1 also affects the direction in which arcs are constructed.

To create an arc, click the Arc tool in the ribbon’s Home tab (Figure 62) or enter A (alias of the

ARC command) in the command window and press Enter or the Spacebar. When running Arc

from the command window, the prompt changes to match the next point selection possibilities.

Figure 60: Arc command in the Command Window

3 Point. The default method to create an arc is by selecting three points in the drawing area. The arc is created passing through the three selected points.

Figure 61: Arc created with three points

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Figure 62: Arc Tools

Note: All construction methods in the ribbon tool are available through the command window with the combination of your choice on the run. Using the command window will make you more productive on most AutoCAD commands.

Tip: Some arc creation methods allow the user to change the direction of the arc by holding the Ctrl key when selecting the last point.

Start, Center, End. In this method, the first point selected is the start point of the arc, the second point selected is the center point, and the third (and last) point is the end point of the arc.

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Figure 63: Start, Center, End arc

Start, Center, Angle: In this construction method, you first select the arc start point and then the center point of the arc defining the arc radius. The last prompt specifies the included angle for the arc. You may enter the angle measurement or select a point to define the angle.

Start, Center, Length: Create an arc by selecting the start point, center, and the length of the chord.

Start, End, Direction: Create an arc by selecting the start point, end point, and the tangent direction for the arc.

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Start, End, Radius: Create an arc by selecting the first point, end point, and the radius.

Contiguous Tangent Arcs and Lines: You can continue an arc from a previously created arc or line. The start point of the arc will be the last point of the previously created object.

Figure 64: Creating an arc by continuing from a previously created line

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Figure 65: Continuing an Arc from a previously created arc

Okay, let’s produce something. We are going to draw a column base, as shown in the following figure:

Make sure that Object Snap, Object Snap Tracking, and Polar Tracking are on and Polar Tracking is set to the 15º increment, as explained in Chapter 2.

Change Drawing Units to Architectural (see Drawing units in Chapter 1).

Create a layer called ColumnBase with the color 5 (blue), and make it the current layer. See “Creating Layers” in Chapter 2 for a review on creating layers.

Command: L

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Move the mouse up so that the tracking tip shows the angle as 90º.


Move the mouse to the left so that the tracking tip shows the angle as 180º.

Specify next point or [Undo]: 1.5




Specify next point or [Close/Undo]: .75

Specify next point or [Close/Undo]:

Command: A

Specify start point of arc or [Center]: Click next to the end point of the last line created, make sure that the OSNAP tip is displayed as Endpoint, as shown in the following figure.

Specify second point of arc or [Center/End]: C

Specify center point of arc: @0,.75

Specify end point of arc (hold Ctrl to switch direction) or [Angle/chord Length]:

Command: L

Specify first point: Click near the end point of the previously created arc

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Specify next point or [Undo]: .5

Specify next point or [Undo]:

Command: A

Specify start point of arc or [Center]: @0,1

Specify second point of arc or [Center/End]: E

Specify end point of arc: Click near the end point of the previously created line

Specify center point of arc (hold Ctrl to switch direction) or [Angle/Direction/Radius]: R

Specify radius of arc (hold Ctrl to switch direction): .75

Command: L

Specify first point:

Specify next point or [Undo]: .5


Command: A

Specify start point of arc or [Center]:

Specify second point of arc or [Center/End]: E

Specify end point of arc: @0,1

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Specify center point of arc (hold Ctrl to switch direction) or [Angle/Direction/Radius]: D

Specify tangent direction for the start point of arc (hold Ctrl to switch direction):

Command: L



Specify next point or [Undo]: 1'4"


Now let’s mirror copy the profile to create the left side of the column base. You will learn more about the Mirror command in the next chapter.

Command: MI

Select objects: Click a point to the left and above the drawing to be selected and then click a point to the right and below the arc, as shown in the following figure:

Select objects:

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Specify first point of mirror line: MID (or hold shift and right-click to display the Override Running Object Snap menu and select Midpoint)

Of Click near the midpoint of the wide horizontal line

Specify second point of mirror line: Select a point above or below making sure that polar tracking is at 90O

Erase source objects? [Yes/No] <No>: N

Zoom to drawing extension. After running the command, your drawing will fill your drawing area.

Command: Z

Specify corner of window, enter a scale factor (nX or nXP), or [All/Center/Dynamic/Extents/Previous/Scale/Window/Object] <real time>: E

Now we will zoom out just a little (10%) to make the drawing more readable:

Command: Z

Specify corner of window, enter a scale factor (nX or nXP), or [All/Center/Dynamic/Extents/Previous/Scale/Window/Object] <real time>: .9x

Create a layer called ColumnBase-vis with the color 8, and make it the current layer.

Create lines connecting the end points of each level of the column base.

Save your drawing as ColumnBase.dwg.

Polyline

Figure 66: Polyline Tool

A polyline is a single object composed of multiple line segments or arcs. To create a polyline composed only of straight segments is similar to creating standard lines.

Command: PL or PLINE

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Polyline displays the following prompts:

Specify start point: Sets the polyline start point. A small tick marks the polyline first point

until the command is completed (see Figure 67). Pressing Enter with an empty prompt starts a new polyline from the last point selected when creating a line, arc, or other polyline.

Figure 67: Polyline first point tick mark

Linear Segments Prompt

Specify next point or [Arc/Close/Halfwidth/Length/Undo/Width]:

Arc: Start creating a curved polyline tangent to the previous segment. Length: Create a contiguous straight segment with a specified distance. If the previous

segment is an arc, the new line segment is tangent to the arc.

Arched Segments Prompt

Note: Arched polyline segment construction methods are similar to generic Arc construction methods.

Specify endpoint of arc (hold Ctrl to switch direction) or

[Angle/CEnter/CLose/Direction/Halfwidth/Line/Radius/Second pt/Undo/Width]:

Endpoint of arc: Completes an arc segment. The arc segment is tangent to the previous segment of the polyline.

Angle: Specifies the included angle of the arc from the start point. Direction: Specifies the tangent for the arc segment. Line: Sets the polyline construction mode back to straight segments. Radius: Specifies the radius of the arc segment. Second pt: Specifies the second point and endpoint of a three-point arc.

Common Prompt Options

Close: Connects the first and last segments to create a closed polyline. Be aware that the alias for linear segments is C, while the alias for arched segments is CL to avoid conflicts with Center (CE).

Halfwidth: Specifies the width from the center of a wide segment to an edge. This value remains until changed again and persists for new polylines for the current drawing.

Width: Specifies the full width of the next segment. This value remains until changed again and persists for new polylines for the current drawing.

Undo: Removes the last segment added.

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Note: Polylines with a defined width plot as defined and are affected by plotting scale as well as modifications made by scale commands. To reset, set the width to 0.

Rectangle

Figure 68: Rectangle Tool in the ribbon

Command: RECTANGLE

Alias: REC or RECTANG

Creates a rectangle according to parameters passed in the command window prompt:

Specify first corner point or [Chamfer/Elevation/Fillet/Thickness/Width]:

Specify other corner point or [Area/Dimensions/Rotation]:

You can quickly create a rectangle by selecting two points in the drawing area (First corner and Other corner.)

For example, the rectangle created in Figure 44 could be created as follows:

Command: REC

Specify first corner point or [Chamfer/Elevation/Fillet/Thickness/Width]: 0,0

Specify other corner point or [Area/Dimensions/Rotation]: @1100,800

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Note: For the “Other corner point” input, you may simply enter 1100,800 since the first point is at the UCS origin, and the relative and absolute coordinates are the same in this case.

Or by simply entering the rectangle dimensions as follows:

Command: REC

Specify first corner point or [Chamfer/Elevation/Fillet/Thickness/Width]: 0,0

Specify other corner point or [Area/Dimensions/Rotation]: D

Specify length for rectangles <10.0000>: 1100

Specify width for rectangles <10.0000>: 800

Specify other corner point or [Area/Dimensions/Rotation]: Select a point to the top right of the first point

Rectangle options:

Chamfer: Allows the user to specify chamfered corners for the rectangle with determined chamfer lengths. The chamfer lengths persist for new rectangles until changed.

Elevation: Specifies the Z level for the rectangle. New rectangles are created at the defined Z level until changed.

Fillet: Sets a radius to create rectangles with rounded corners. Thickness: Defines the segment thickness (height) for new rectangles. Width: Specifies the line width for new rectangles.

Figure 69: Rectangle Methods

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Polygon

Figure 70: Polygon Tool in the Ribbon

Command: POLYGON

Alias: POL

The Polygon method creates a closed polyline with a defined number of equal sides. The

minimum number of sides is three, and the maximum is 1,024. The following figures show two methods of creating polygons.

To understand the construction of polygons, let’s first create two circles, as listed in the following steps:

Command: C

Specify center point for circle or [3P/2P/Ttr (tan tan radius)]: 3,3

Specify radius of circle or [Diameter]: 2.5

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Command: C

Specify center point for circle or [3P/2P/Ttr (tan tan radius)]: 10,3

Specify radius of circle or [Diameter] <2.5000>: 2.5

Now let’s fit the drawing to screen:

Command: Z


Command: Z

Specify corner of window, enter a scale factor (nX or nXP), or [All/Center/Dynamic/Extents/Previous/Scale/Window/Object] <real time>: .7X

Now let’s create the two hexagons (6-sided polygons). The first will be circumscribed about the circle to the left, and the second inscribed in the circle to the right.

Follow the steps to create the first hexagon:

Command: POL

POLYGON Enter number of sides <4>: 6

Specify center of polygon or [Edge]: CEN

Of place the cursor next the perimeter of the circle to the left. A OSNAP tip reads “Center” and a small amber circle appears at the center of the circle. Left-click to select the center point of the circle.

Enter an option [Inscribed in circle/Circumscribed about circle] <I>: C

Specify radius of circle: 2.5

Now the second hexagon:

Command: POL

POLYGON Enter number of sides <6>: 6

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Specify center of polygon or [Edge]: CEN

Of place the cursor next the perimeter of the circle to the right. A OSNAP tip reads “Center” and a small amber circle appears at the center of the circle. Left-click to select the center point of the circle.

Enter an option [Inscribed in circle/Circumscribed about circle] <C>: I

Specify radius of circle: 2.5

Fit the drawing to screen, if needed, using the Zoom command.

Save your drawing as Polygons.dwg.

Other creation methods:

Edge: Creates a polygon by specifying the endpoints of the first edge.

Hatch

Figure 71: Hatch Tool in the Ribbon

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Command: HATCH

Alias: H

The hatch command allows the user to fill closed areas with predefined and custom patterns, as well as solid and gradient fills.

Figure 72: Hatch filled area

When you run the Hatch command or select a hatch object, the Hatch contextual tab is loaded

and activated showing the hatch options.

Figure 73: Hatch Contextual Tab

The Hatch contextual tab includes the following panels and tools:

Boundaries panel: Includes tools for addition and removal of areas to be hatched

o Pick Points: Allows the user to select boundaries by clicking inside of closed areas

o Select: Allows the user to select objects to be hatched

o Remove: Removes a boundary area from the selection set

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o Recreate: Available only when editing the hatch; creates a closed polyline of the hatch boundary

Pattern Panel: List of available hatch patterns in AutoCAD

Properties Panel: Allows the user to set and modify properties for the hatch

o Hatch Type: Allows the user to select the type of fill to be applied. You can choose from Pattern (default), Solid, Gradient, and User defined.

o Color: Sets the hatch color. If Hatch Type is set to Gradient, this becomes the gradient fill start color (Color 1).

o Background Color: Sets a color for the hatch background. If Hatch Type is set to Gradient, this becomes the gradient fill end color (Color 2).

o Hatch Transparency: Sets the hatch of fills transparency level from 0 to 90% where 0 is totally opaque hatch.

o Angle: Changes the hatch pattern angle. The angle is relative to the X axis for the current UCS.

o Scale: Allows increasing or decreasing pattern visibility scale. This option is available only when Hatch Type is set as Pattern.

o Layer Name: Allows the user to set the hatch layer to which the hatch is assigned.

o Relative to Paper Space: Scales the pattern relative to paper space units allowing the have consistent scale display (available only when working on layouts).

o Double: Used for User Defined Hatch Type; creates another set of lines perpendicular to the original lines.

Origin Panel: Controls the base point to generate pattern. This is very useful when creating patterns, such as tiles, where you need to have control of the pattern start point.

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Options panel: Includes a set of tools to manage pattern fill mode.

o Associative: Maintains the pattern associated with the original boundary objects. If the boundary is modified, the hatch pattern is updated to match the changes.

o Annotative: Makes the pattern scale relative to annotative scale sets. (You will learn about Annotative Objects in Chapter 6 Annotations.)

o Match Properties: Copies hatch properties from an existing hatch object.

Let’s see how the Hatch command works by creating adding hatches to the site plan drawing.

If you have not yet done so, please download the drawings for this book from DRAWING_LOCATION.

Open the SitePlan.dwg file located in the Chapter03 folder.

Let’s start by adding hatch to the building footprint. Zoom closer to the building area using your preferred zoom tool. The building footprint is a dark blue polyline, as shown in the previous figure. Proceed with the following steps:

Activate the layer L-Deck Pavers by selecting it from the Layer list in the Home tab Layers Panel.

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Note: Make sure that no object is selected before selecting a layer. Selecting a layer while one or more objects are selected will assign the selected objects to the layer. Press the Escape (Esc) key to cancel any selection before picking a layer.

Figure 74: Making a Layer Active

Move the UCS and place it on the top-left corner of the building.

1. Click on the UCS icon at the bottom-left corner of the drawing area. A blue box depicting the origin and two blue circles at the end of each axis are displayed.

2. Click the blue box and drag it to the top-left corner of the building. Make sure you see and amber rectangle depicting the End Point of the line, and click the mouse again.

3. Click on the blue circle depicting the X axis to rotate the UCS, and then select a point south of the same line where the origin was set. The UCS icon should show, as seen in the next figure. Press the Escape key to cancel the selection. Note that your cursor has changed to match the UCS orientation. Anything you create now will be referent to this UCS.

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Run the hatch command by clicking the hatch tool or entering H, and press Enter in the command window.

Command: H

The Hatch (Hatch Creaion) contextual tab shows in the ribbon. In the Boundaries panel, click the Select tool.

Select objects or [picK internal point/Undo/seTtings]:_S

Click on the building footprint boundary to add it to the selection set.

Select objects or [picK internal point/Undo/seTtings]:1 found

The hatch appears on the selected boundary as a solid gray fill. Make sure that ANSI31 is selected in the Pattern panel, and then, in the Properties panel, set the scale to 96 and press Enter.

Select objects or [picK internal point/Undo/seTtings]: Press the Escape (Esc) key to complete the command.

Once again move the UCS to the deck area, as shown in the following figure:

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From the Home tab, Layers panel, click on Turn Layer Off tool (see the following figure.)

Command: LAYOFF

Current settings: Viewports=Vpfreeze, Block nesting level=Block

Select an object on the layer to be turned off or [Settings/Undo]: Click on a Text object.

Layer "L-Text" has been turned off.

Select an object on the layer to be turned off or [Settings/Undo]: Click on a Dimension object.

Layer "L-Dims" has been turned off.

Select an object on the layer to be turned off or [Settings/Undo]: Click either doors or the MultiLine object representing the screened enclosure.

Layer "L-ScreenCage" has been turned off.

Select an object on the layer to be turned off or [Settings/Undo]: Click on any of the light blue lines inside of the pool area

Layer "L-Pool Misc" has been turned off.

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Select an object on the layer to be turned off or [Settings/Undo]: Press the Esc key

Tip: Turning the layers off facilitates selecting the right boundaries in addition to improving selection performance.

Run the Hatch command again.

Command: H

From the Boundaries panel, click on the Pick Points tool.

Pick internal point or [Select objects/Undo/seTtings]: Click inside of all four paver designated areas, the Lanai, Pool Deck, and Door paddings, as shown in the following figure:

Tip: If you choose the wrong boundary, you can undo the selection by clicking the Undo tool in the Quick Access Toolbar, or by entering U and then pressing Enter in the command window.

In the Pattern Panel, scroll to find and select the AR-HBONE pattern.

In the Properties Panel, enter 1 in the Hatch Pattern scale box and press Enter.

Press the Esc key to end the command.

From the View Cube helper, click on the dropdown menu below the View Cube and select to return the UCS to its original state.

From the Layers panel in the Home tab, click on the Turn All Layers On tool, shown in Figure 75, to show all layers that you hid on previous commands (you will learn more about layer management in Chapter 4).

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Figure 75: Turn All Layers On

Save your drawing as MySitePlan.dwg.

If you need to make modifications in hatched areas, select the hatch by clicking on it. The Hatch Editor contextual tab is activated in the ribbon so you can make the needed changes.

Note: Editing hatches created on another UCS will reset the hatch to match the current UCS. Make sure to set the UCS properly prior editing the hatch.

Geometry construction helpers

Point

Figure 76: Point tool in the Ribbon

Command: POINT

Alias: PO

Points are objects that work as helpers that you can snap with the OSNAP Node option. The commands Divide and Measure (explained later in this section) create points along the

selected object.

Points may become very difficult to see in the screen. To change how the points are displayed, click on the Point Style tool in the Utilities panel of the Home tab (Figure 77) or enter PTYPE

and press Enter in the command window to show the Point Style dialog, and choose how you would like the point to be displayed.

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Figure 77: Point Style tool in the Ribbon

Note: Points are plotted as shown on screen; make sure to change the appearance to the desired style to avoid unnecessary replots of your drawings. Another option is to create points on a non-plotting layer such as the Defpoints layer (created automatically when dimensioning) or a custom, non-plotting layer (you will learn more about Layers in Chapter 4).

XLINE (Construction Line)

Figure 78: Construction Line Tool in Ribbon

Command: XLINE

Alias: XL

XLINE is a linear object with infinite length; it has no start point or end point. XLINES are ignored on Zoom Extend operations.

The XLINE prompts as follows:

Specify a point or [Hor/Ver/Ang/Bisect/Offset]:

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Point: Specifies the points the XLINE passes through.

Hor or H: Creates an XLINE parallel to the current UCS X axis (perpendicular to the Y axis).

Ver or V: Creates an XLINE perpendicular to the current UCS X axis (parallel to the Y axis).

Ang: Allows the user to specify the XLINE angle measured counterclockwise from the X axis (by default).

Bisect: Creates an XLINE that bisects an angle selected by three points: vertex, start point, and end point of an imaginary arc.

Offset: Creates a XLINE that is parallel to an existing linear object with a given distance or through a selected point.

Ray

Figure 79: Ray tool in the Ribbon

Command: RAY

Rays are similar to XLINES with the difference that rays go infinitely in only one direction. If you trim an XLINE in one point, it will become a ray.

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Divide

Figure 80: Divide tool in the Ribbon

Command: DIVIDE

Alias: DIV

Divide a geometric object (line, polyline, arc, circle, ellipse, or spline) in a given number of equal length segments. By default, the segment divisions are marked with Point objects.

The Divide command prompts are as follow:

Select object to divide:

Enter the number of segments or [Block]:

If choosing Block in the previous prompt, the following prompts are displayed:

Enter name of block to insert:

Align block with object? [Yes/No] <Y>:

Figure 81: Block aligned with the object (left) and not aligned (right)

You will learn about blocks in Chapter 5.

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Measure

Figure 82: Measure tool in the Ribbon

Command: MEASURE

Alias: ME

Divides a geometric object (line, polyline, arc, circle, ellipse, or spline) in a number segments with given a given length. By default, the segments divisions are marked with Point objects.

The Measure and Divide commands work the same way. The only difference is that in the

Divide command, the user enters the number of desired segments, and the segment length is

calculated. In the Measure command, the user enters the desired segment length, and the

number of divisions is calculated.

Display cleanup

Redraw

Command: REDRAW

Alias: R

Performs a quick display refresh in the active viewport and removes temporary graphic helpers.

Regen

Command: REGEN

Alias: RE

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As your drawing gets bigger and you zoom and pan to many distinct areas of the drawing, eventually, when you zoom closer to a curved object, it may look faceted, and hatches may look broken. You also need to regenerate the drawing when changing Annotative Scale settings.

This is because AutoCAD readjusts the drawing to improve display performance, but does not readjust automatically. To do so, you run the Regen command to regenerate the entire drawing

from in the active viewport as follows:

Recalculate the locations and visibility for all objects Re-index the drawing database in order to optimize display and object selection

performance Reset the overall area available for panning and zooming

RegenAll

Command: REGENALL

Alias: REA

Performs all Regen processes, but for all viewports in the space or layout.

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Chapter 4 Managing the Drawing

Selecting objects

Whenever you need to modify your drawing, you need to select the objects you are willing to change. AutoCAD includes a number of methods to help selecting objects. You can select any object that is not in a frozen or locked layer.

You can select objects before or after running a command. If you run a command while no object is selected, AutoCAD presents the following prompt in the command window:

Select objects:

You can select objects by simply clicking on it or using either a Window, a Window Crossing, or a Lasso without additional prompts.

Window

Selects all objects completely inside a rectangular area defined by two points selected from left to right.

To start selecting, click in the drawing area to the left (above or below) the object or objects you are willing to select (do not hold the mouse button) and move the mouse to the right to create a rectangular area around the object or objects. The selection window is filled in blue with a solid border.

Figure 83: Window selection

Window Crossing

Selects all objects that are inside or crossed by a rectangular area defined by two points selected from right to left.

The selection window is filled in green with a dashed border.

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Figure 84: Crossing Selection

Lasso

You can lasso select objects by holding the left button of the mouse and drawing around the objects you are willing to select. Similar to the Window and Window Crossing selection, start dragging the mouse from left to right to select all objects that are completely inside of the lasso boundaries. Starting from right to left (Crossing Lasso) will select all objects inside the lasso as well those crossed by the lasso boundaries.

Figure 85: Lasso Selection

Tip: You can deactivate the Lasso Selection mode from the Options Dialog, Selection Tab. Uncheck the “Allow press and drag for Lasso” checkbox.

Command prompt options

All: Selects all objects in the drawing, including objects on other spaces (except those on frozen or locked layers.)

Select objects: all

6110 found (204 duplicate), 5217 total

893 were not in current space.

Last or L: Select the last created object in the active drawing space, assuming the object’s layer is neither frozen nor locked.

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Select objects: L

1 found

Crossing: Same as Window Crossing, but allows crossing selection to any direction.

WPolygon or WP (Window Polygon): Select all elements that are completely inside of a polygonal boundary defined by points.

Select objects: WP

Figure 86: WPoligon Selection

CPolygon or CP (Crossing Polygon): Select all objects inside and crossed by a polygonal boundary defined by points.

Select objects: CP

Figure 87: CPolygon Selection

Fence of F: Similar to CPolygon, except that only the objects crossed by the boundary are selected.

Select objects: F

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Figure 88: Fence Selection

Select Similar

Select Similar allows the user to select all objects similar to the one previously selected. Select Similar is very helpful if you want to select, for example, a group of matching blocks in the drawing.

Figure 89: Select Similar

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To select similar objects, first select the object or objects to use as reference, then right-click the mouse to show the contextual menu, and click on Select Similar, as shown in Figure 89.

Managing layers

You became familiar with layers and the Layer Properties Manager in Chapter 2. Now it’s time to review the power of using layers in AutoCAD. Most graphic design software available has a method to organize the drawing in layers.

You can use layers to control the visibility of the objects in the drawing or output as well as set properties like color, line type, line weight, and transparency. When an object is created, it inherits the properties associated to the layer on which is was created, although you can override object properties as needed. When you see an object property shown as BYLAYER, it means that that property is inherited from the object’s layer.

To open the Layer Property Manager window:

From the Home Tab, Layers Panel, click on the Layer Properties tool.

Command: LAYER

Alias: LA

Layer list

The layer list in the Layer Property Manager window shows the list of the layers in the drawing and the properties. You can sort the list by clicking in the column header.

Figure 90: Layer List

Tip: Press and hold the Shift key to select a continuous group of layers, or press and hold the Ctrl key to select alternating layers.

The layer list has the following columns:

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Status: Shows an icon depicting the layer status. The layer with a green check mark is the current layer. To set another layer as current, double-click the layer status or layer name.

Name: Shows the layer name. To rename a layer, select the layer and press F2. On: Turns the selected layers on or off. Turn a layer off to make the layer invisible in the

display as well when plotting. Objects in an “Off” layer participate in the regeneration process and some selection methods.

Freeze: Frozen layers are invisible, not plotted, and are ignored when selecting objects and regenerating the drawing. This improves performance and regeneration time on complex drawings.

Lock: Objects in a locked layer cannot be modified, although you may add new objects in the layer.

Color: Defines the layer’s color. Linetype: Defines the layer’s linetype. Lineweight: Sets the layer lineweight. Transparency: Sets the layer’s transparency level from 0 to 90, where 0 is completely

opaque. Plot Style: Allows selecting a plot style for the layer. This option is disabled if the

drawing plot style policy is a color dependent plot style. Plot: Sets the visibility of objects when plotting. When set as no-plot, objects are

displayed on the screen but not in plots. New VP Freeze: Defines if the layer is visible on newly created viewports on layout tabs. Description: You can enter a friendly description for the layer. This field is optional, and

you and edit by pressing F2.

Layer panel tools

Figure 91: Layer Panel

The Layer panel is located in the Home tab, by default, and consists of the following tools:

Layer Properties: Open the layer property manager from where you can add new layers, edit existing layers’ properties, manage layer filters and states, or remove empty layers.

Layers List: Show the current (active) layer. All new objects are assigned to this layer. You can also activate another layer from this list or change the layer properties of an object selection. You can also change the layer state from this list.

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Figure 92: Layer List Dropdown

Note: Make sure that you have no objects selected if willing to activate another layer. Changing the layer in the list with one or more objects selected will assigned the objects to the selected layer.

Off: Turn off the layer by selecting objects. Use this command to clear the view and facilitate reading the drawing or plots.

Isolate Layers: This command turns off all layers except those from selected objects. Very helpful when willing to work only with certain objects. For example, you may want to work only on walls, windows, and doors and hide all dimensions, ceiling plans, notes, etc. You restore the layer state with the Layer Un-isolate command.

Freeze: Freezes layers by selecting objects.

Lock: Locks layers by selecting objects. This is useful when you need to see and snap to objects in a layer without risking accidentally modifying or deleting these objects.

Make Current: Make the selected object the current (active) layer.

Layer On: Turn all layers on in the drawing.

Un-Isolate Layers: Restore the layer state as prior to the last Layer Isolate command.

Thaw All Layers: Thaw (unfreeze) all layers in the drawing. It does not thaw layers frozen in Paper Space layouts.

Unlock: Unlock layers by clicking on objects.

Match Layer: This command allows the user to match another objects’ layer to a selected object’s layer.

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Hands on layers

In this topic we are going to work on an existing file to edit layers, hide and isolate layers and objects, as well as editing existing objects. Please proceed with the following steps:

1. Open AutoCAD, if not already opened. 2. Open the First Floor Plan drawing located in the Chapter 04 folder. This drawing is an

architectural plan including a basic survey and landscape plan.

The drawing is very difficult to read, so let’s turn off some layers to make it easier to read.

3. Zoom closer to the center of the house so that the Great Room fits in the drawing area.

4. In the Home tab, Layers panel, click the Off tool (see the Layer panel tools topic earlier in this chapter).

5. Randomly click some objects to turn their assigned layers off. If you accidentally turned off a layer, enter U and press Enter to restore the last layer visibility. You can pan and zoom with the mouse wheel as needed without interrupting the command.

6. Press Enter, Spacebar, or Esc to finish the command.

Note: You may receive an alert in the command window informing you that you are attempting to turn the current layer off. You have to confirm the action. It is not recommended to turn the current layer off, as you may create new objects that will be invisible until you turn the layer on.

To turn all layers back on, click the Layers On tool in the Layers Panel, or type LAYON in the command window and press Enter or the Spacebar. All layers that were turned off are now on.

You can also turn layers on or off directly from the Layer Properties window or from the Layer List in the Layers panel; a gray light bulb indicates that the layer is off, and a yellow light bulb indicates that the layer is on.

Open the Layer Properties Window and turn off the following layers:

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A-Anno-Det-TAG, A-Anno-Dims, A-Anno-E-Dr-TAG, A-Anno-Elev-TAG-48, A-Anno-Mas-Dim, A-Anno-Mas-Slab-Elev, A-Anno-Mas-Text, A-Anno-TieB-Txt, A-Anno-Win-TAG, A-Clng-Circ, A-Clng-Head, A-Clng-Lite, A-Flor-Case, A-Furn-Free, A-Grid-Cntr, A-Roof-Lines, A-Site-Hatch, A-Site-Vegn, A-Str-Slab-Edge, A-Str-Tie-Beam, A-Str-TieBm-Htch, S-Anno-Site-spot elev, S-Anno-Site-Text, and S-Site-Misc.

Close the Layer Properties if needed.

Pan and zoom to the Pool Area and click the Isolate tool button in the Layers Panel, or type LAYISO in the command window and press Enter or the Spacebar.

Tip: By default, the LAYISO command (Isolate tool) locks and fades the layers of unselected objects. To make it turn the layers off, enter S in the command window, press Enter, type O, and press Enter. This setting is preserved for new drawings or AutoCAD sections until you change it again.

Select any line within the pool and press Enter.

Click the Unisolate tool button in the Layers panel, or type LAYUNISO in the command window, and press Enter or the Spacebar, to restore the previous state.

Save your drawing as My First Floor Plan and close the drawing.

Modifying objects

AutoCAD offers a number of tools to support reusing and modifying existing objects. Most of these tools are located in the Modify Panel (Figure 93) in the Home tab.

Figure 93: Modify panel

Common prompt options:

Select objects: Select the objects to be modified. Base point: Select a point to use as reference point

Move

Move selected objects to a new location.

Command: MOVE

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Alias: M

Copy

Create a copy of selected objects in a new location.

Command: COPY

Alias: CP or CO

Prompt options:

Mode: Change the option to allow creating many (Multiple) copies in a single command, or to finish the command after one copy is created (Single).

Array: Creates a linear array with an equally spaced number of objects. o Number of Items to Array o Second Point: Defines a distance and direction for the array relative to the

base point. The first element in the array is positioned at the specified distance and the remaining elements are equally distributed at this given distance.

o Fit: Create a number of copies of the object equally spaced in order to fit a selected distance.

Rotate

Rotates one or more objects around a base point to an absolute angle.

Command: ROTATE

Alias: RO

Prompt options:

Rotation Angle: Defines the angle of rotation where the rotation axis passes through the selected base point and matches the current UCS orientation.

Copy: Creates a copy of the selected objects for rotation. Reference: Allows the user to specify a new angle to use as the base angle. The object

is then rotated in reference to the new selected angle.

Offset

Create a copy of a selected object parallel or concentric to the original object.

Command: OFFSET

Alias: O

Prompt options:

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Offset Distance: Specify the distance from the source object. Exit: Exits the command. Multiple: Repeats the offset operation using the current offset distance. Undo: Reverses the previous offset. Through: Creates an object passing through a specified point.

Stretch

The Stretch command allows you to modify a selected object by stretching the points enclosed

by a crossing window or other crossing selection method described in the Selecting Objects topic earlier in this chapter.

Command: STRETCH

Alias: S

Mirror

Creates a new objects mirrored from a selection of objects.

Command: MIRROR

Alias: MI

Prompt options:

Specify first point, second point of mirror line: Defines a line that acts like a mirror. All selected objects are mirrored through the mirror line. The distance from the mirrored object’s points to the mirror line is the same as the source object’s points to the mirror line.

Erase source objects: Option to keep or remove the source object.

Scale

Resizes one or more objects by specifying a base point and the scale factor. A negative scale factor mirrors the selection.

Command: SCALE

Alias: SC

Trim

The Trim command allows the user to trim objects at a selected trimming boundary. To use all

existing objects as trimming boundaries, press Enter at the first prompt for object selection. The Trim command is useful to trim lines at a wall opening, for example.

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Command: TRIM

Alias: TR

Tip: Using Shift + Click when selecting an object to trim will extend the object rather than trimming it.

Extend

Extends selected objects to touch a previously selected boundary. This command works similarly to the Trim command.

Command: EXTEND

Alias: EX

Tip: Using Shift + Click when selecting an object to trim will trim the object rather than extending it.

Fillet

Create a rounded corner from two objects. By default, Fillet automatically trims or extends

open objects (lines, arcs, open polylines) as needed.

Command: FILLET

Alias: F

Prompt options:

Undo: Undo the previous fillet corner in the command section. Polyline: Round all the corners of a polyline with the specified fillet radius. Radius: Sets fillet radius. Trim: Defines if the filleted segments are to be trimmed.

o Trim. Selected segments are trimmed to meet the endpoints of the fillet. This is the default setting.

o No Trim. Selected segments are preserved and are not trimmed. Multiple: Allows the user to create multiple filleted corners on a single command run.

Chamfer

Creates a beveled corner from two non-parallel linear segments.

Command: CHAMFER

Alias: CHA

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Prompt options:

Undo: Undo the previous chamfered corner in the command section. Polyline: Chamfers all the corners of a polyline with the specified distances. Distance: Sets chamfer distances.

o Specify first chamfer distance: The chamfer distance on the first selected line. o Specify second chamfer distance: The chamfer distance on the second

selected line. Angle: Sets the chamfer distance from the selected element intersection point and the

angle from the first segment. Trim: Defines if the filleted segments are to be trimmed.

o Trim. Selected segments are trimmed to meet the endpoints of the chamfer. This is the default setting.

o No Trim. The chamfer segment is created but the original selected segments are preserved.

Multiple: Allows the user to create multiple chamfered corners on a single command run.

Polyline edit

This command allows the user to edit a polyline or create a new polyline from existing lines, arcs, and splines.

Command: PEDIT

Alias: PE

Prompt options:

Close: Close the polyline by creating a segment connecting the last point to the first point in the polyline.

Open: Remove the segment closing the polyline. Join: Allows the user to add additional elements to the polyline. The polyline must be

open and the elements to be added must share end or start points. Width: Set the polyline width. This is a scalable value. If the width value is greater

than zero, the output width is scaled to match the plot scale. Edit vertex: Allows the user to edit each vertex in the polyline individually. Fit: Create a curved polyline with arcs connected on each polyline vertex. Spline: Converts the polyline to spline-fit polyline where each vertex of the polyline is

a spline control point. Decurve: Straighten a curved polyline. All curved segments become linear

segments. Ltype gen: Useful when a line type other than continuous is assigned to the layer or

polyline. When this feature is on, the polyline line type is generated continuously without re-staring on each segment.

Reverse: Reverses the vertex order of the polyline. Undo: Undo each action through the polyline edit section.

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Array

The Array command creates copies of objects evenly spaced and can be created as

rectangular form, radial (polar), or following a path. The array tools are found in the Modify panel of the Home tab, as shown in the following figure:

Figure 94: Array Tools

Command: ARRAY

Alias: AR

The ARRAY command has the following options:

Figure 95: Array Types

The following options are common to all array creation methods:

Associative: Specifies whether the arrayed objects are associative or independent. o Yes: The array is created as a single object containing multiple instances of the

source objects. Associative array allows editing the array after the command is completed through the Properties Palette of the Array Contextual Tab, as well as editing the source objects.

o No: The resulting array is composed with independent objects, cannot be dynamically edited, and editing the source objects will not affect the others.

Base point: Allows the user to set the base point and base point grip of the array. Exit or Close Array: Ends the command.

Rectangular

Rectangular arrays are composed with rows and columns. The alternative command to create rectangular arrays is ARRAYRECT.

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You can create arrays by selecting objects before or after calling the command. After the selection of objects is completed, the Array Creation contextual tab is displayed in the ribbon, as shown in Figure 96

Figure 96: Rectangular Array contextual tab

The options to create a rectangular array are:

Columns: Specify the number of columns in the array. Columns are created following the X direction of the current UCS.

o Between: Sets the distance between centers of the elements in the array in the X direction of the current UCS.

o Total: Sets the total length of the array in the X direction of the current UCS. Rows: Specify the number of rows in the array. Rows are created following the Y

direction of the current UCS. o Between: Sets the distance between centers of the elements in the array in the

Y direction of the current UCS. o Total: Sets the total length of the array in the Y direction of the current UCS.

Levels: Specify the number levels in the array. Levels are created following the Z direction of the current UCS.

o Between: Sets the distance between centers of the elements in the array in the Z direction of the current UCS.

o Total: Sets the total length of the array in the Z direction of the current UCS.

Path

Create an array of objects evenly spaced along a selected path. The alternative command to create rectangular arrays is ARRAYPATH.

To create a path array:

1. Click on the Path Array tool 2. If you had no objects selected prior calling the command, select the object(s) you

want to distribute (source object) along the path. Press Enter to complete the selection.

3. Select the distribution path. The path can be a line, polyline, 3D polyline, spline, helix, arc, circle, or ellipse.

The Path Array Creation contextual tab is activated in the ribbon as shown in the following figure:

Figure 97: Path Array Creation panel

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The options to create a path array are:

Method: Controls how to distribute items along the path. o Measure: Distributes the objects along the path at points equally spaced by the

entered distance. Items: Specifies the number of instances to be distributed

o Divide: Distributes the objects along the path to fill the entered distance. The distance between items is calculated.

Between: Specifies the distance, center to center, of the objects to be instanced along the path.

Tangent direction: Specifies how the objects in the array are aligned relative to the starting direction of the path. Select two points that defines the tangent line of the first element in the array that is to be distributed throughout the path.

Rows: Specifies the number of rows in the array, the distance between them, and the incremental elevation between row.

o Number of rows: Defines the number of rows along the path. o Distance between rows: Identifies the distance between each row evenly

distributed. o Total: Defines the total distance between the first and last rows.

Align items: When set, the items in the array are rotated to follow the path, otherwise the items maintain the same orientation as the source object(s).

Polar

Polar arrays repeat the selected objects by rotating around a selected point, as shown in the following figure:

Explode

Converts the selected objects to the next primitive level. For example, exploding a polyline converts the polyline to regular independent line and arc segments.

Command: EXPLODE

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Alias: X

Erase

The Erase command deletes the selected objects from the drawing. It does not copy the object

to the clipboard to be pasted somewhere else.

Command: ERASE

Alias: E

Shortcut: DEL key

Tip: The OOPS command restores the last erased objects independently of how many commands were executed after they were erased.

Working with grips

If you select objects when no command is running, the selected objects display small, solid-filled squares on each vertex node, or base point of the object (Figure 98). These squares are called grips (a blue grip is called a cold grip), and you can edit the object by dragging the grip stretch, move, rotate, scale, or mirror objects quickly. More edit options are available, depending on the type of object. The action you choose to execute is called a grip mode. I personally edit objects more frequently using grips than any other method.

Figure 98: Grips on Selected Objects

Note: Grips are not displayed on objects that are on locked layers.

To edit objects using grips, click on a grip, the grip turns red, called a hot grip. By default, the edit is on stretch mode. Right-click the mouse to show the contextual menu (Figure 99) to choose a different action.

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Select and modify multiple grips

You can select various grips by holding the Shift key while selecting a grip. The selected grips are called the multiple hot grip selection and participate in the edit actions; they are useful mainly when stretching the object using grips. After warming the desired grips, release the Shift key and select a grip, either warm or cold, to use as base point (or reference point) to perform the action.

Figure 99: Grip Mode Contextual Menu

Stretch with grips

To stretch an object using grips, just click on the grip to be stretched, and after the grip turns red, move the grip to the new desired location.

Note: When working with objects such as circles and ellipses, the grips shown are for the object center point and the four quadrants. In this case, the distance is measured from the center of the object (or radial distance) and actions like stretch will actually change the object radius, and not the displacement from the selected grip.

Move with grips

1. Select the grip to be used as a reference point. 2. Right-click the mouse and chose Move. 3. Move the selected objects to the desired location and click to place the objects. 4. Press Enter, Spacebar, or Esc to cancel grip mode.

Rotate with grips

1. Select the grip to be used as a reference point. 2. Right-click the mouse and chose Rotate.

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3. If the rotation center point (base point) is not appropriate, right-click the mouse and choose Base Point to select a new base point.

4. Move the mouse to rotate the selected objects and click to place the objects. 5. Press Enter, Spacebar, or Esc to cancel grip mode.

Scale with grips

1. Select the grip to be used as a reference point. 2. Right-click the mouse and chose Scale. 3. If the scale base point is not appropriate, right-click the mouse and choose Base

Point to select a new base point. 4. Enter the scale factor value and press Enter, or move the mouse to dynamically

scale the selected objects and click to place the objects. 5. Press Enter, Spacebar, or Esc to cancel grip mode.

Mirror with grips

1. Select the grip to be used as a reference point. 2. Right-click the mouse and chose Mirror. 3. If the mirror base point is not appropriate, right-click the mouse and choose Base

Point to select a new base point. 4. Select a second point of the mirror line.

Make multiple copies with grips

1. Press Enter, Spacebar, or Esc to cancel grip mode 2. Select the desired action from the contextual menu. 3. Press C and press Enter, or Hold the Ctrl key while you perform the action.

Continues making copies until you press Enter, Spacebar, or Esc.

Hands on editing objects

In this practice, you are going to exercise the many methods to edit objects. The drawing we are going to work is a landscape plan.

1. Open AutoCAD, if not yet opened. 2. Open the drawing Landscape Plan located in the Chapter 04 folder. 3. Save the drawing as My Landscape Plan. 4. Zoom to the pool area so that the whole pool fits the drawing area.

Let’s first create the pool steps using the Offset command

Command: O

Specify offset distance or [Through/Erase/Layer] <1'-0">: 12

Select object to offset or [Exit/Undo] <Exit>: Select the line delimiting the shelf as shown in the following figure:

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1

Specify point on side to offset or [Exit/Multiple/Undo] <Exit>: Click anywhere below the selected line.

Select object to offset or [Exit/Undo] <Exit>: Select the newly created line.

Specify point on side to offset or [Exit/Multiple/Undo] <Exit>: Click anywhere below the selected line.

Select object to offset or [Exit/Undo] <Exit>: Press Enter, Spacebar, or Escape (Esc) to complete the command.

Next let’s create a vanishing edge and trough at arched edge of the pool.

Command: O


Select object to offset or [Exit/Undo] <Exit>: Select the arc

Specify point on side to offset or [Exit/Multiple/Undo] <Exit>: Click anywhere below the arc


Command: Press Enter or the Spacebar to repeat the last command

Specify offset distance or [Through/Erase/Layer] <0'-8">: 2’6”

Select object to offset or [Exit/Undo] <Exit>: Select the top arc

Specify point on side to offset or [Exit/Multiple/Undo] <Exit>: Click anywhere above the arc


Command: Press Enter or the Spacebar to repeat the last command

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Select object to offset or [Exit/Undo] <Exit>: Select the newly created arc

Specify point on side to offset or [Exit/Multiple/Undo] <Exit>: Click anywhere above the arc


Notice that the new arcs created using the offset command do not touch the pool boundaries. To fix that, we are going to use the Extend command.

Command: EX

Select objects or <select all>: Select the lines as shown in the following figure and then press Enter or the Spacebar to confirm the selection.

Select object to extend or shift-select to trim or [Fence/Crossing/Project/Edge/Undo]:

Path does not intersect with the bounding edge.

Select object to extend or shift-select to trim or [Fence/Crossing/Project/Edge/Undo]: Click near the end each end-point of the created arcs to extend

Select object to extend or shift-select to trim or [Fence/Crossing/Project/Edge/Undo]: Press Enter, Spacebar, or Esc to finish

Press Ctrl+S to save your drawing.

Now let’s build the stair steps to the right side of the pool deck. Zoom to the area so it fits the drawing areas as shown in the following figure:

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Use the Offset command to offset both: the vertical line to the right, and the horizontal line to

the top of the proposed stair. The offset distance is 12; repeat the offset three times for each line towards the building. The results should be like the following figure:

We need to fix and trim the lines. Zoom closer to the area to the trimmed (the top-right area where the step lines are crossing), then proceed as follows:

Command: TR

Select cutting edges ...

Select objects or <select all>: Select the two step lines as shown in the following figure and then press Enter

Select object to trim or shift-select to extend or [Fence/Crossing/Project/Edge/eRase/Undo]: Click the horizontal line to the right of the intersection

Select object to trim or shift-select to extend or [Fence/Crossing/Project/Edge/eRase/Undo]: Click the vertical line above the intersection

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Select object to trim or shift-select to extend or[Fence/Crossing/Project/Edge/eRase/Undo]: Press Enter, Spacebar or Esc to finalize the command

Another approach to quickly trim segments in this type of scenario is using the command Trim

as follows:

Command: F

Select first object or [Undo/Polyline/Radius/Trim/Multiple]: R (set fillet radius)

Specify fillet radius <2'-3 11/16">: 0 (set radius as zero)

Select first object or [Undo/Polyline/Radius/Trim/Multiple]: M (multiple trim actions)

Select first object or [Undo/Polyline/Radius/Trim/Multiple]: Click on a line next to the intersection.

Select second object or shift-select to apply corner or [Radius]: Click the nearest intersecting line

Select first object or [Undo/Polyline/Radius/Trim/Multiple]: Click on a line next to the intersection.

Select second object or shift-select to apply corner or [Radius]: Click the nearest intersecting line

Select first object or [Undo/Polyline/Radius/Trim/Multiple]: Press Enter, Spacebar, or Esc to finalize the command

Zoom so that the whole pool deck fits within the drawing area. There is a table-set between the lanai and the lower-left corner of the pool shelf. We need a symmetric copy in the other side. We can accomplish this by using the Mirror command as follows:

Command: MI

Select objects: Select the table set

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Select objects:

Specify first point of mirror line: press and hold the Shift and Right-Click the mouse, select Mid from the Contextual Menu. _mid of Click the near the midpoint of a pool stair step

Specify second point of mirror line: press and hold the Shift and Right-Click the mouse, select Mid from the Contextual Menu. _mid of Click the near the midpoint of another pool stair step to create a vertical mirror line.

Erase source objects? [Yes/No] <No>: N (this will maintain the source, choosing Yes erases the source objects)

Press Ctrl+S to save your drawing, and let’s work in the front part of the site.

Command: Z


We first need to change the paver pattern. To do so, we need to edit the hatch using the Hatch Editor contextual tab. Zoom closer to the front yard if needed.

1. Select the Driveway hatch pattern. The Hatch Editor contextual tab is loaded in the ribbon.

2. In the Pattern panel, find and select the pattern named AR-HBONE. 3. In the Properties panel, change the scale to 1.

The driveway is now showing a Herringbone hatch pattern.

There is a vehicle (block) in the driveway, and we need to rotate it to fit the driveway natural flow. We can use the Move command or we can rotate in Grip mode. There is no rule for which

method to use, but for this case, let’s rotate in Grip mode.

1. Select the vehicle block. A blue, solid grip appears near the center of the car. 2. Click the grip; it becomes red. Enter into Stretch mode (because this object is a

block, stretch will act as move). 3. Right-click the mouse and choose Rotate from the contextual menu. 4. If you know the rotation angle, you could enter the value here. In this case the

rotation angle is unknown, so we will select the direction. Press and hold the Shift key, right-click the mouse, and choose Center from the contextual menu.

5. Click anywhere on one of the arc segments, creating the arched drive. 6. Press Esc to cancel the section.

Next we will create two shrub beds around the driveway. There are two polylines that will define the path to distribute the objects representing the shrubs. The path to the right has the object located at the left end of the path. Before creating the array, copy the shrub to one of the end points of the path to the left.

1. Select the shrub (the small green circle with a cross in the center). 2. Click the grip in the center of the block. 3. Right-click and choose Move.

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4. Right-click and choose Copy. 5. Press and hold Shift, right-click the mouse, and choose Endpoint to override snap

to endpoint of segment. 6. Click near the endpoint of the arc to the left. 7. Press Esc to finalize Grip mode. 8. Press Esc to clear the selection. 9. Press Ctrl+S to save your drawing.

Next we are going to create an array that follows the paths around the driveway. Click on the Path Array tool to start a path array.

Select objects: Select the shrub block at the end of the polyline path to the right.

Select objects: Press Enter to commit the selection.

Select path curve: Select the polyline to the right for the array path.

Select grip to edit array or [ASsociative/Method/Base point/Tangent direction/Items/Rows/Levels/Align items/Z direction/eXit]<eXit>: From the Array Creation contextual tab, Items panel, enter 36 in the Between field and press Enter.

Select grip to edit array or [ASsociative/Method/Base point/Tangent direction/Items/Rows/Levels/Align items/Z direction/eXit]<eXit>: Press Enter, Spacebar, or Esc to finish the command.

Repeat the previous steps to create the shrub bed in the left side of the driveway.

Select both polylines that were used to define the array path. You may need to zoom closer to make sure to not select the array.

Press the Delete key to erase the paths.

Zoom closer to the palm tree at the center of the driveway. There is a block representing a shrub, and it needs to be arrayed around the palm tree. We are going to use the Array Polar command to accomplish this:

From the Home tab, Modify Panel, click on the Polar Array tool:

Command: _arraypolar

Select objects: Select the shrub symbol under the palm tree symbol.

Select objects: Press Enter to confirm selection and move to the next step.

Specify center point of array or [Base point/Axis of rotation]: Press and hold the Shift Key, right-click the mouse, and select Insert from the contextual menu: _ins of Hover over the palm tree, an amber symbol shows at the center of the symbol. Left-click the mouse to select the Palm Tree Insertion point as center of the array.

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Select grip to edit array or [ASsociative/Base point/Items/Angle between/Fill angle/ROWs/Levels/ROTate items/eXit]<eXit>: On the Array Creation contextual tab, enter 12 for the Items count and press Enter.

Select grip to edit array or [ASsociative/Base point/Items/Angle between/Fill angle/ROWs/Levels/ROTate items/eXit]<eXit>: Press Enter or Esc to finalize the command.

Now we need to create a shrub bed in the courtyard. There is a shrub symbol next to the lower-left corner of the courtyard walls. We are going to create a rectangular array using that block.

Click on the Rectangular Array tool and follow these steps:

Command: _arrayrect

Select objects: Select the shrub symbol.

Select objects: Press Enter to confirm selection and move to the next step.

Select grip to edit array or [ASsociative/Base point/COUnt/Spacing/COLumns/Rows/Levels/eXit]<eXit>: On the Array Creation contextual tab, Columns Panel, enter 3 for the Columns count field and 48 for the Between value (this is space between items, base-point to base-point).

Select grip to edit array or [ASsociative/Base point/COUnt/Spacing/COLumns/Rows/Levels/eXit]<eXit>: Rows Panel, enter 8 for the Rows count field and 48 for the Between value.

Select grip to edit array or [ASsociative/Base point/COUnt/Spacing/COLumns/Rows/Levels/eXit]<eXit>: Press Enter or Esc to finalize the command.

Next we should amend the walk area between the pergola and the driveway. Zoom to the sidewalk. We need to chamfer the corners of the sidewalk apron to create a smoother transition. This will be accomplished using the Chamfer command:

Command: CHA

Select first line or [Undo/Polyline/Distance/Angle/Trim/mEthod/Multiple]: D

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Specify first chamfer distance <0'-0">: 48 This is the chamfer distance for the line number 1 shown in the previous figure.

Specify second chamfer distance <4'-0">: 36 This is the chamfer distance for the line number 2 shown in the previous figure.

Select first line or [Undo/Polyline/Distance/Angle/Trim/mEthod/Multiple]: Left-click the line number 1 shown in the previous figure.

Select second line or shift-select to apply corner or [Distance/Angle/Method]: Left-click the line number 2 shown in the previous figure.

Repeat the previous action to camper the right side of the sidewalk apron as well.

To complete this exercise, we need to move the green circle, located to the right of driveway access, closer to the driveway apron, as shown in the following figure, and then add trees to additional locations. Please follow these steps:

Command: M

Select objects: Select the tree symbol.

Select objects: Press Enter to commit selection.

Specify base point or [Displacement] <Displacement>: Press and hold the Shift key and right-click the mouse. From the contextual menu, select Center.

Specify base point or [Displacement] <Displacement>: _cen of Click on the tree symbol circumference.

Specify second point or <use first point as displacement>: Press and hold the Shift key and right-click the mouse. From the contextual menu, select Center _cen of – Left-click on the arc as shown on the previous figure.

Now proceed with the copies:

Command: CO

Select objects: Select the Tree symbol you relocated in the previous action. Press Enter to commit the selection.

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Specify base point or [Displacement/mOde] <Displacement>: Press and hold the Shift key and Right-click the mouse. From the contextual menu, select Center _cen of Click on the tree symbol circumference.

Specify second point or [Array] <use first point as displacement>: Copy the Tree symbol to locations as shown in the following figure. Make sure to use Center Object Snap override. Press Enter, Spacebar, or Esc to finish the command.

Press Ctrl+S to save your drawing.

Close the drawing and then open the drawing named ColumnBase Partial located in the Chapter 04 folder. This is the same column base we worked on Chapter 3, and the objective of the following exercise is to convert the arcs and lines to a single polyline. We will also practice changing the height of the column base using the Stretch command.

1. From the Home tab, Modify panel, click on the Stretch tool.

2. Click a point to the right of the objects to be stretched (point 1 shown in the previous picture), and then a point to the left of the elements to be stretched (point 2.) It is critical that all points that will participate of the Stretch action are enclosed by the Crossing Window, and that elements to be affected to be crossed are enclosed by the Crossing Window.

3. Press Enter to commit the selection. 4. Click anywhere in the drawing area to mark the base point. 5. Make sure that Polar Tracking is on, and that the angle increment includes 90º (see the

“Other input methods” section in Chapter 2). 6. Move the cursor up in the drawing area. The objects start to stretch following the cursor

direction. Make sure that the Polar Tracking is showing 90º, type 1, and press Enter. 7. The base is stretched and the dimension was updated to 4”.

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Next we need to join the elements to create a polyline:

Command: PE

Select polyline or [Multiple]: Select the vertical blue line (measuring 4”) and press Enter.

Because the selected object is a line (not a polyline), AutoCAD confirms if it should be converted to a polyline. We need to accept by entering Y in the prompt:

Object selected is not a polyline Do you want to turn it into one? <Y> Y

Next we will join the other segments that define the base profile:

Enter an option [Close/Join/Width/Edit vertex/Fit/Spline/Decurve/Ltype gen/Reverse/Undo]: J

Select objects: Create a Crossing Window as seen in the previous figure in the stretch action. 11 found

Select objects: Press Enter to join the selected segments to the polyline.

8 segments added to polyline

Enter an option [Close/Join/Width/Edit vertex/Fit/Spline/Decurve/Ltype gen/Reverse/Undo]: Press Enter, Spacebar, or Esc to finish the command.

Note: Dimension lines are automatically filtered from the selection since they cannot be joined or converted to polyline.

Position the mouse over the new polyline to confirm if objects were joined.

Let’s use the Mirror command to mirror-copy the polyline to define the profile to the left:

Command: MI

Select objects: Select the polyline. 1 found

Select objects: Specify first point of mirror line: Press and hold the Shift key and right-click the mouse. From the contextual menu, select Midpoint. _mid of

Specify second point of mirror line: Make sure that Polar Tracking is on, move the cursor 90o up or down, and left-click to define the mirror line.

Erase source objects? [Yes/No] <No>: N (we need to keep the source object.)

Let’s join them all to create a single polyline:

Command: PE

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By default, you can edit one polyline only. We are going to use the Multiple option to select all objects in a single run:

Select polyline or [Multiple]: M

Now let’s select all objects in the drawing. Dimension objects are automatically excluded from joining:

Select objects: ALL

5 found

Select objects: Press Enter to commit selection.

Convert Lines, Arcs and Splines to polylines [Yes/No]? <Y> Y

Enter an option [Close/Open/Join/Width/Fit/Spline/Decurve/Ltype gen/Reverse/Undo]: J

Enter fuzz distance or [Jointype] <0'-0">: 0

10 segments added to polyline

To close the polyline:

Enter an option [Close/Open/Join/Width/Fit/Spline/Decurve/Ltype gen/Reverse/Undo]: C

Enter an option [Close/Open/Join/Width/Fit/Spline/Decurve/Ltype gen/Reverse/Undo]: Press Enter, Spacebar, or Esc to finish the command.

Now the column base is a single polyline object. Press Ctrl+Shift+S to open the Save Drawing As dialog box. Save your drawing as MyColumnBasePL.dwg.

Chapter summary

In this chapter, you learned how to select, modify, modify, and create copies of objects. AutoCAD’s editing power goes way beyond what was covered here, and you surely will find your own ways to work with the many modification tools AutoCAD provides.

In the next chapter you will learn how to reuse objects in very effective way. See you there.

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Chapter 5 Reference Objects

As you get experience in AutoCAD, you will soon realize that you have to repeat drawing and editing the same objects over and over. AutoCAD provides tools to empower the reuse of objects either in the same drawing or between drawings.

One way to reuse objects is by creating copies. You can copy any object in the drawing as many times as you like to reuse it anywhere in the drawing. Let’s assume that you create copies of a selection of objects a number of times, all over the drawing. Now assume that your client decided that part of those (repeated) objects need to be amended. If your selection was made of plain geometries (polylines, arcs, lines, etc.), you would have to find each of the copies and edit or replace the affected area for each of the instances.

In this chapter you are going to learn how to work with two great methods to reuse objects in a very effective way: blocks and external references (XREFs).

Blocks

A block is a single object composed other objects, and each element within the block may have its own property set.

Blocks are time and file-size savers. When a block is defined, AutoCAD stores it in an internal library in the current drawing, called Block Table. A block may exist in the drawing even if not used (inserted) anywhere, and if you create several instances of the block, either by re-inserting or by copying, all instances reference to the block library. If you edit a single block reference, all other blocks are equally updated.

Creating blocks

Command: BLOCK

Alias: B or BL

Before you create a block, first draw the element as you would do when creating any drawing. To illustrate creating a block, we are going to work on the Column Base drawing we created in previous chapters.

If AutoCAD is not already opened, open it now, and then open the drawing ColumnBase.dwg located in the Chapter 05 folder.

The drawing is composed of a blue polyline defining the column base outline and gray lines defining the column base transitions.

The elements are properly set on defined layers, but there are some practices that, although not required, become very handy when working with simple blocks like this:

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Set all objects to layer 0. The Layer 0 is a “magic” layer, and facilitates many operations when hiding or freezing layers.

Set all properties as ByBlock. This will allow the user to change the block element’s appearance by changing the block properties, and if the block (object) properties are set as ByLayer, the block inherits the layer properties. If set as ByLayer, the block inherits the Layer Properties and changes in the block properties will not affect the block elements.

Define a meaningful basepoint (insertion point).

Again, these are not rules, but become handy on low-density blocks. For more complex blocks, such as details, you may want to maintain all properties so that you can manage by other means.

Let’s change the objects properties for this block:

1. Select all objects by Window or Window Crossing. 2. From the Home Tab, Layers Panel, select Layer 0 from the layer list. 3. From the Properties panel, change all properties to ByBlock (currently showing as

ByLayer). 4. Press Esc to unselect all objects. 5. From the Layers panel, set the layer 0 as the current layer. 6. From the Home tab, Block panel, click on the Create tool to open the Block

Definition dialog. 7. Enter Column Base in the Name field. 8. In the Base point area, click Pick point. 9. Press and hold Shift, right-click the mouse, and select Midpoint from the contextual

menu. 10. Click near the midpoint of the lowest horizontal line. 11. In the Objects area, click Select objects. 12. Select all objects defining the column base and press Enter. 13. In the Select objects area, click on Convert to block. 14. Click OK.

The source objects are now erased and the newly created block reference is inserted, in the current layer, where the source objects were before.

1. Select the Block insertion. 2. From the Home tab, Layers panel, change the block Layer to Column Base, then

press Esc to clear selection. The block inherits the Layer properties. 3. Save your drawing as MyBlocks.

Inserting blocks

Insert a block that exists in the current drawing’s Block Table

Command: INSERT

Alias: I or INS

Now that we have a block, we can insert additional instances of the block in the drawing, or you can copy the existing instances. For now, let’s see how to insert a block:

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1. Zoom out enough so that you may fit at least one more column base block in the drawing area.

2. Set ColumnBase as the current Layer. 3. From the Home tab, Block panel, click the Insert tool, or type I (or INSERT) and

press Enter or the Spacebar. 4. A list of the available blocks appears. Select the Column Base block. If no blocks

are available in the drawing’s block table, the Insert dialog shows up, so you can load a drawing to insert as a block.

5. A glyph denoting the block shows at the cursor, click anywhere in the drawing area to insert the block.

6. Try copying the block as you did with the plant blocks in the previous chapter.

Insert an existing drawing as a block

Frequently, you will need to insert drawings from a file library that you have previously created or downloaded from a manufacturer’s website. Ideally the drawing to be inserted is a regular drawing and not a defined block in the drawing, as a new block definition containing the elements in the selected drawing is created upon insertion.

To insert an existing drawing as a block in the current drawing:

1. From the Home tab, Block panel, click the Insert tool and then click More Options to open the Insert dialog.

2. Click the Browse button and navigate to the location were you downloaded this book’s exercise files. In the Chapter 05 folder, select the drawing named sink.dwg and click Open.

3. If needed, you can enter a new name for the block. Inserting a drawing with a name already existing in the Block Table will redefine existing blocks.

4. Make sure that the Specify On-screen check box is checked so you can select the insertion point in the drawing area.

5. Click OK. 6. The block glyph appears in the crosshair cursor; click anywhere in the drawing to

insert the block. 7. The block is inserted in the current layer.

Edit blocks

Command: BEDIT

Alias: BE

You may need to make changes to the block. For example: I really didn’t like the way the column base transition lines are displayed, and they may plot to bold, depending on the plot style definition. We are going to edit the column base block so that the transition lines are gray:

1. Select one of the column base block instances. 2. Right-click the mouse and select Block Editor from the contextual menu.

The drawing area background color change to gray and the Block Editor contextual tab is loaded in the ribbon. You are now in the Block Editor mode.

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Figure 100: Block Editor Contextual Tab

1. Select all seven lines connecting across the column base (do not select the outline polyline).

2. If the Properties palette is not visible, press Ctrl+1 to show the Properties palette. 3. On the Properties palette, General properties, click the color dropdown menu and

choose Select Color from the list. 4. In the color text box, enter 9 and click OK to set the selected objects’ color. 5. Press Esc to clear selection. 6. Click Close Block Editor in the Block Editor contextual tab. 7. Click Save to save the changes to Column Base. 8. All instances of the block are updated.

Tip: When creating a block, you have the option to avoid the block to be exploded. This is quite helpful to avoid accidentally exploding blocks. This property can be changed from the Properties palette when on Block Editor mode.

Explode the sink block:

Command: X EXPLODE

Select objects: Select the sink block and press Enter or Spacebar.

The object is no longer a block.

Command: I

The Insert dialog opens; select sink from the Name list and click OK.

Specify insertion point or [Basepoint/Scale/X/Y/Z/Rotate]: Select a point in the drawing area.

A new instance of the sink block is inserted because the sink block definition remains in the drawing’s Block Table.

Write block to file

You frequently will need to write a block to file so you can reuse it in future drawings. To write a block to a file, the selection does not have to be a block; it could be any selection set, including sets containing blocks and other non-block objects.

Command: WBLOCK

Alias: WB

Let’s write the Column Base block to a file:

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1. From the Insert tab, Block Definition panel, select Write Block, as shown in the following figure:

Figure 101: Write Block

2. Select Block from the options. 3. From the Block list, select Column Base. 4. In the destination area, click the … button to show the Browse for Drawing File dialog

box. Browse to a location of your preference. 5. In the File name text box, enter My Column Base.dwg and click Save. 6. Click OK to save the block.

The block is now saved, and you can reuse it in any future drawings.

Save and close the drawing.

Note: The resulting saved file does not contain a block; it contains the objects composing the selected block.

Tip: You can use Ctrl+C to copy objects from a drawing and Ctrl+V to paste in another drawing.

External references

An external reference (Xref) is similar to a block, but instead of saving the block in the current drawing’s block table, it is linked to an external file that could be in any folder in the file system. The Xref definition is saved in the Xref table and like with blocks, deleting an Xref instance from the drawing does not remove the file from the Xref table.

Xref is widely used when working with big files from different disciplines, and to facilitate design management. For example, in an architectural design, you can have a main floor plan that is an Xref into an interior design, structural, landscape, mechanical, or other plans.

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Xref may be nested. You can attach an Xref that already contains other Xref attached, and this file could be an Xref for another drawing, and so on.

Because you can unload and reload an Xref on demand, its proper use may significantly improve drawing performance and design productivity, and also facilitates project management.

When an Xref is updated, all host drawings are automatically updated when closed, and if the host drawing is opened, a balloon notifies the user that the Xref was saved and needs to be updated.

You can freeze or turn layers off within the Xref.

Xrefs cannot be exploded unless bound (which turns the Xref into a block).

Xref types

Attachment: An attachment Xref is loaded on all drawings where the attachment host file is inserted, independent of the number of levels.

Overlay: An overlay is ignored when the drawing to which it is attached is then attached as an Xref to another drawing.

Insert external reference

Command: ATTACH

1. Open the file FloorPlan.dwg located in the Chapter 05 folder. 2. Make sure that the current layer is 0 (it’s a good practice to insert Xrefs on layer 0). 3. From the Insert tab, Reference panel, click Attach. 4. Navigate to the Chapter 05 folder. 5. From the Files of type list (below in the dialog box), select Drawing (*.dwg). 6. From the file list, select Survey.dwg and click Open to show the Attach External

Reference dialog box. 7. Make sure that Attachment is selected in the Reference Type area. 8. In the Scale area, make sure that Specify On-screen is unchecked and that X, Y,

and Z values are 1.00. 9. In the Insertion point area, make sure that Specify On-screen is unchecked and

that X, Y, and Z values are 0.00 (the Xref base point location). 10. In the Rotation area, make sure that Specify On-screen is unchecked and that the

angle is 0.00. 11. Click OK to insert the Xref. 12. From the Insert tab, Reference panel, click Attach. 13. From the file list, select Electrical.dwg and click Open to show the Attach External

Reference dialog box. 14. Make sure that Overlay is selected in the Reference Type area. 15. Click OK to attach the Electrical plan. 16. Save the drawing. 17. Open the Landscape.dwg file. 18. Repeat the steps from 4 to 11 to attach the FloorPlan.dwg drawing. 19. The Floor Plan and Survey drawings are now attached, but not the Electrical plan,

because it is an overlay in the Floor Plan drawing. 20. Save the drawing.

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Edit external references

To edit an Xref, just open the file, make the changes, and save. The host drawing receives a notification every time an attachment is saved.

To quick-open an Xref:

1. Click the Xref to select. 2. Right-click the mouse to show the contextual menu. 3. Select Open Xref to open the file. 4. The Open Reference Files dialog is displayed, showing all attached and nested

Xrefs. 5. From the Reference Name list, select Survey, then click Open. 6. The Survey drawing is loaded in a new drawing tab. 7. Zoom and pan the drawing, and then save and close it (I’m not really willing to make

changes, but AutoCAD recognizes any command as a drawing change). 8. A notification balloon appears in the host drawings. Click Reload Survey to update

the Xref. 9. Save and close all drawings.

Managing external references

You can attach virtually any number of Xrefs, and you have full control over how and when they are visible, or if you need to detach any.

When you attach an Xref, AutoCAD shows the layers for each Xref prefixed by the Xref name, such as Landscape|L-Pool. You can change the layer properties and visibility without affecting the source, and any layer property change persists even if you reload the Xref, or across AutoCAD sections by default.

Tip: The layer visibility state is controlled by a system variable called VISRETAIN, and is drawing-persistent. When VISRETAIN = 1, the host drawing preserves layers’ property changes. When VISRETAIN = 0, the layers’ properties are restored every time the Xref is reloaded.

AutoCAD offers a tool to support managing Xrefs, called XRef Manager. Follow these steps to open the Xref Manager and manage Xrefs:

1. If AutoCAD is not running, open AutoCAD. 2. Open the Full Project With Xrefs drawing located in the Chapter 05 folder.

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3. In the command window, type XREF and press Enter to open the Xref Manager palette, as shown in Figure 102.

Figure 102: Xref Manager

4. In the File References list, select Annotation. Note that the Xref is highlighted in the drawing area.

5. Right-click on Annotation. A menu appears with the commands available for the Xref.

6. Select Unload. The Xref is unloaded and is no longer visible in the drawing area. 7. Right-click on Annotation and choose Reload. The Xref is reloaded and visible in

the drawing area. 8. Right-click on Electrical and choose Detach. The Xref is detached from the drawing;

it is no longer visible and cannot be reloaded. 9. Right-click on Annotation and choose Bind. 10. In the Bind Xrefs/DGN underlays dialog box, select Insert and click OK to bind the

Xref.

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11. The Annotation plan is visible in the drawing area, converted to a block reference (you can explode the block as needed), and the Xref name was removed from the list.

Note: When binding Xrefs, the Bind mode preserves the layer, blocks, and other drawing elements’ prefixes (the Xref name), while Insert removes all prefixes.

12. Click Attach DWG located at the top left of the palette. 13. Find and attach the Electrical drawing as an attachment to the drawing.

Chapter summary

In this chapter, you learned how to work with blocks and external references, probably the most-used techniques to reuse drawings. Many design companies use blocks and Xrefs to define title blocks and detail sheets in drawings. We will accomplish this in Chapter 7.

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Chapter 6 Annotations

Adding notes and dimensioning is probably the most boring phase of the design process. Fortunately, AutoCAD provides the right tools to add annotation faster and in a very effective way.

In this chapter, you will learn about how to add notes to AutoCAD, including text, leaders, and tables. You will also learn how to spell check your notes and how to create text styles to use in your drawings.

You can work with annotation objects in the Annotation panel in the Home tab, and you have access to more powerful tools from the Annotate tab.

Figure 103 shows the Annotation panel located in the Home tab, from where you can open dialogs to define styles and set a current style.

Figure 103: Expanded Annotation Panel in the Home Tab

Annotative objects

Annotative objects allow you to create a single annotation object that can represent multiple sizes or scales (see Figure 104). Instead of creating multiple instances of the annotation object on different layers, you can enable the Annotative property of an annotation object and assign many drawing scales to the object.

Figure 104: Annotative Text with two annotation scales assigned

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The proper use of annotative objects increases your productivity and helps you avoid unnecessary errors when editing or removing annotative objects.

When creating annotative objects, the object size is scaled to match the current annotative scale.

Figure 105: Annotative Controls in the Status bar

The annotative controls are the following:

Show annotation objects: When on (blue), all annotative objects are displayed independently if associated to the current annotation scale of the current view. Objects are displayed to the closest associated scale. When off (gray), only the annotative objects associated to the annotation scale of the current view are displayed.

Tip: Turn “Show annotation objects” on when working in model space and off in paper space. This will help you avoid creating annotative objects that already exist in the drawing, and all you have to do is assign the necessary scales.

Add scales to annotative objects when scale changes: When on (blue), all annotative objects are associated to the annotation scale when another scale is selected.

Annotation scale of the current view: Shows the current annotation scale. Click to select another annotation scale from a list, or edit/add annotation scales.

Add and delete annotation scales to objects:

1. Select an annotative object and right-click. 2. Click Annotative Object Scales.

a. Add Current Scales: Add the current annotative scale to selected objects. b. Delete Current Scale: Remove the current annotative scale from selected

objects. This option is only available if the object has more than one annotative scale associated.

c. Add/Delete Scales: Opens a dialog box from which you can select multiple annotative scales to add or remove.

d. Synchronize Multiple-scale Positions: Annotative objects can be stretched without affecting other scales assigned. This option repositions the scale to match the selected annotative scale.

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Text

Text styles

Before you begin adding annotations, it’s important to set at least two text styles. Text Style is a library where AutoCAD stores text formats, such as text height and font information, for the many annotation purposes you may need. Ideally, you should create the text styles in the template file.

To create Text Style:

1. Start a new drawing. 2. From the Home Tab, expand the Annotation Panel and click the Text Style tool (see

Figure 105) to open the Text Style dialog box. 3. There is currently one style in the Styles list (Standard.) We are going to create some

additional styles. 4. Click the New… button to add a new style, enter Normal for the name and click OK

to add the style. 5. In the Font area, select:

a. Font Name: Arial b. Font Style: Regular

6. In the Size area: a. Make sure that Annotative is checked (a symbol appears next to the Style

name indicating that the style is annotative). b. Height: 0.1 (this is the size of the font when plotted at 1:1 scale).

7. In the Effects area: a. Make sure that Upside down is unchecked. b. Make sure that Backwards is unchecked. c. Set Width Factor = 1 and oblique Angle = 0.

8. Click Apply. 9. Click New… and enter DimTxt for the Style name and click OK. 10. In the Font area, select:

a. Font Name: Arial b. Font Style: Regular

11. In the Size area: a. Make sure that Annotative is unchecked. b. Height: 0 (when Height is set to zero, the height is defined when creating the

text). 12. In the Effects area:

a. Make sure that Upside down is unchecked. b. Make sure that Backwards is unchecked. c. Set Width Factor = 0.8 and oblique Angle = 0.

13. Click Apply. 14. Create additional Text Styles as follows:

Name Font Name Font Style Annotative Height Width Factor Oblique Angle

Revision Arial Italic Yes 0.1 1 0

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Name Font Name Font Style Annotative Height Width Factor Oblique Angle

Title1 Times New Roman

Bold No 0.25 1 0


Bold Italic No 0.16 1 0


Italic No 0.125 1 0

In the Styles list, select Normal and click Set Current to make Normal the current text style. Click Close to close the dialog box.

Now that you have a few text styles defined, you are ready to start adding notes to your drawings. The two most common types of text are single line text and multiline text.

Figure 106: Text Tools

Single line text

Use single line text when creating basic texts, such as labels, that do not require advanced formatting.

Single line text creates a new line of text every time the Enter key is pressed. Each line of text is an independent object that you can edit as you wish without affecting the other lines.

Command: DTEXT

Alias: DT

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Multiline text

Use Multiline Text to create paragraph texts objects. All lines and paragraphs are part of a single object that you can edit using the AutoCAD Text Editor.

Command: MTEXT

Alias: T or MT

When creating a multiline text, the Text Editor contextual tab is displayed in the ribbon, from which you can format the text similar to the way you would in Microsoft Word or other desktop text editor.

Figure 107: Text Editor contextual tab

If you explode a multiline text, it is converted to single line text, where each line of text is an independent object and all formatting is dismissed.

Text alignment

Figure 108: Text Alignment Base Points

TL = Top Left ML = Middle Left L = Left BL = Bottom Left

TC = Top Center MC = Middle Center

M = Middle C = Center

BC = Bottom Center

TR = Top Right MR = Middle Right

R = Right BR = Bottom Right

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Create annotative text:

1. From the Home tab, expand the Annotation panel and make sure that the active Text Styles annotative (annotative text styles show a small blue triangle shape). For this exercise, select the Normal text style.

2. In the status bar, select the appropriate annotation scale (you can add additional annotation scales to the object later). Select 1/8”=1’-0” for this exercise.

Create annotative single line text:

1. Continuing the previous drawing, create a new Layer named A-Anno-Note, color 231, continuous Line Type, Plotable (see the “Creating Layers” topic in Chapter 2 to review how to create a layer). Set A-Anno-Note as the current layer.

2. Zoom so that the building fits in the drawing area. 3. From the Home tab, Annotation panel, expand Text and select Single Line Text. 4. Press F3 to turn Object Snaps off. The command window displays a message informing

you of the Osnap state. If it reads <Osnap on>. press F3 again to turn it off. 5. Click near the center of the big room area at the center of the building. 6. Enter 0 and press Enter for the rotation angle of text. 7. Enter Great Room, press Enter, FFL +7’-0”, and press Enter. 8. Press Enter to finish the command. 9. Select the text. Note that they are two independent objects.

Create annotative multiline text:

Single line text has no width limit, and the line continues until you press Enter to create a new line of text.

With multiline text, you can specify a width limit, and the line breaks automatically when it reaches the specified width.

1. From the Home Tab, Annotation Panel, expand Text and select Multiline Text. 2. Specify first corner: Click near the center of the garage area 3. Specify opposite corner: Click a point so that the text box is nearly 125 units wide. 4. Type Garage and press Enter, and type FFL +6’-6”. Do not press Enter; instead,

click outside of the text box to finish the command. 5. Select the multiline text; the text is a single object with two lines.

Import existing text to multiline text

1. Double-click the middle button of the mouse to zoom extend. 2. From the Home tab, Annotation panel, expand Text and select Multiline Text. 3. Click a blank area to the left of the site. 4. In the command window, enter W and press Enter to specify the textbox width. 5. Enter 550 and press Enter for the width. 6. From the Text Editor contextual tab, expand the Tools panel and select Import

Text. 7. Browse to Chapter 06 folder of this book’s exercises, and select the MText.txt file. 8. Click Open. 9. The text was imported into the textbox. 10. Click outside of the textbox to finish the command.

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The steps to create non-annotative text are the same as creating annotative text, but you need to make sure to select a text style that is not set as annotative, and you may be required to specify the text height on screen.

Edit texts

Command: TEXTEDIT

Alias: ED

To edit a text, just double-click the text object or select the annotation object to be edited, type ED in the command window, and press Enter or the Spacebar.

Note: If TEXTEDIT is executed with no annotation object selected, AutoCAD prompts to select an annotation object to be edited.

Text masking

Sometimes text becomes difficult to read if it’s overlapping other objects. Multiline text can be easily masked so that background elements are hidden and the text becomes readable.

To illustrate this, copy the multiline text added in the garage to over the driveway area to the right. Double-click to edit the text, and replace Garage with Driveway. Click outside of the text area to commit.

The text is really difficult to read over the hatch pattern. Follow these steps to mask it:

1. Select the multiline text. 2. Right-click and choose Properties from the contextual menu to open the Properties

palette. 3. In the Properties palette, under Text group, find Background mask. 4. Click the No text, and then click the small icon to the right of the field, as shown in

Figure 109. 5. In the Background Mask dialog box, select Use background mask and Use

drawing background color. 6. Enter 1.25 in the Border offset factor textbox. This is the gap distance from the text

to the mask border relative to the text size. 7. Click OK to apply the setting and close the dialog box. 8. In the command window, type REGEN and press Enter to regenerate the drawing. 9. Use Grip mode to adjust the text box width. 10. Save and close your drawing.

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Figure 109: Mtext Background Mask

Dimensions

A design is not complete without dimensions. Dimensions are a critical part of the design process and must be easy to read and precise.

You need to add dimensions on virtually every type of project, from concept to production and construction drawings. AutoCAD includes the right tools to help you to make dimensioning a smooth design process.

Dimension styles

Dimension style is a set of parameters saved within the drawing where you define all standard properties, from lines to unit formats.

Command: DIMSTYLE

Alias: D

To create or edit dimension styles from the Home tab, expand the Annotation panel and click on the Dimension Style icon (see Figure 103) or type DIMSTYLE in the command window and press Enter or Spacebar to open the Dimension Style Manager dialog box.

The Styles list (the box to the left) shows all dimension styles available in the current drawing. When you select a dimension style in the list, the preview is displayed in the preview box.

To create a new Dimension Style, click New…, to the right of the dialog box, to open the Create New Dimension Style dialog box:

New Style Name: Enter the name for the new style.

Start With: Allows you to select a style to be used as template.

Annotative: Allows the user to define if the new dimension style is annotative.

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Use for: Allows the user to define which type of dimension the new style is to be applied to. For example, you can create a set of parameters to be used only for angular dimensions. When a specific type of dimension is selected, the new name is not available and the new style becomes a sub-style of the dimension selected in the Start with dropdown list.

Create a dimension style as follows:

New Style Name: MyDimStyle Start with: Standard Annotative: Yes (checked) Used for: All dimensions

Click Continue. The Dimension Style Editor (Figure 110) is loaded, and you can start configuring your new dimension style.

The Dimension Style Editor (New, Modify, and Override Dimension Style Dialog Boxes) is composed of seven tabs:

Lines: Controls the appearance of all lines in the dimension.

o Dimension lines: The lines where the dimension text is located.

o Extension lines: The lines from the object being dimensioned to the dimension line.

Symbols and Arrows: Controls the appearance of arrowheads and center marks.

Text: Controls the appearance, location, and alignment of the text to be placed in the dimension style.

Fit: Controls how text and arrows are to be placed.

Primary Units: Controls the dimension unit format.

Alternate Units: Allows the user to define a second unit for the dimension. For example, assuming you have the primary unit set to the Architectural format (feet and inches), you can set an alternate unit to show the dimension in centimeters.

Tolerances: Controls the appearance of text in tolerances.

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Figure 110: Dimension Style Editor

Continuing with our dimension style:

1. Select the Lines tab: a. Dimension lines:

i. Color, Linetype, and Lineweight: ByBlock ii. Baseline spacing: 0.2 iii. Suppress: both unchecked

b. Extension Lines i. Color, Linetype, and Lineweight: ByBlock ii. Extend beyond dim lines: 0.1 iii. Offset from origin: 0.5 (This is the distance from the deflection point to

the extension line.) iv. Suppress: both unchecked

2. Select the Symbols and Arrows tab: a. Arrowheads:

i. First: Architectural tick ii. Second: Architectural tick iii. Leader: Closed filled

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iv. Arrow size: 0.1 3. Select the Text tab:

a. Text appearance: i. Text style: DimTxt ii. Text color: Green iii. Fill color: Background (This is like the mask used on Multiline Text in

the previous topic.) iv. Text height: 0.1

b. Text placement: i. Vertical: Above ii. Horizontal: Centered iii. View Direction: Left-to-Right iv. Offset from dim line: 0.05

c. Text alignment: ISO standard 4. Select the Primary Units tab:

a. Linear dimensions: i. Unit format: Architectural ii. Precision: 0’-0 1/16” iii. Fraction format: Horizontal

5. Click OK to add the dimension style and close the dialog box. 6. In the Dimension Style Manager, select MyDimStyle in the Styles list and click the

Set Current button. 7. Click Close to close the Dimension Style Manager. 8. Save the drawing.

Edit dimension styles

To Eedit an existing dimension style, open the Dimension Style Manager, select the dimension style to be edited, and click the Modify… button. When you done editing, click OK to commit the changes and close the dialog box, or click Cancel to discard all changes and close the dialog box.

After all dialog boxes are closed, AutoCAD regenerates the drawing to apply the changes to existing dimensions associated to the edited style.

Dimensioning the drawing

You can work with dimensions from the Annotation panel in the Home tab, or for more advanced tools, from the Dimensions panel in the Annotation tab. There are basically seven basic types of dimensions:

Linear: Linear dimensions are vertical or horizontal dimensions matching the current UCS orientation.

Aligned: Aligned dimensions are linear dimensions on which the dimension line is rotated to the direction of the extension lines origin points.

Radius: Radial dimensions that measure circles’ and arcs’ radii. Jogged is a Radial dimension that you can use to jog the dimension line.

Diameter: Radial dimension that measures the diameter of circles, and although not commonly used, arcs.

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Angular: Measures the angle of selected objects or by specifying three points (vertex, angle start point, and angle end point).

Ordinate: Measures the vertical or horizontal distance from the UCS origin point. Arc Length: Measures the length of arcs.

Figure 111: Dimensions Tools

Baseline and continued dimensions

Baseline and Continued are dimension commands that support continuing to dimension from a previously created dimension or by selecting an existing one.

Continue Dimension creates a new dimension starting from the second dimension line of the previously created dimension.

Baseline Dimension creates new dimensions where all subsequent dimensions start from the first extension line of previously created dimensions, and are spaced by the value specified in the baseline spacing set in the dimension style.

To jumpstart dimensioning, open the Column Base Notes drawing located in the Chapter 06 folder. This is the same drawing created and edited in previous exercises, but on this one, I have added a dimension style named Dim with Alternate Unit. This dimension style includes a primary unit in architectural units, and an alternate unit in millimeters. Feel free to open it in the Dimension Style Editor to review the properties.

Let’s add some dimensions to the column base:

1. Make sure that Osnap is on. You can press F3 anytime to toggle Osnap as needed. 2. From the Home tab, Annotation panel, select the Linear dimension tool.

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3. Click near the lower-left corner of the column base. Make sure that snaps to the end point.

4. Click the end point immediately above. 5. Move the cursor left and click to place the dimension line. 6. Activate the Annotate tab in the ribbon. 7. From the Dimensions panel, select Baseline.

Figure 112: Dimensions Panel in the Annotate Tab

8. Select each end point of the column base transition sequentially, up to the top-most point.

9. Press Enter, Spacebar, or Esc to finish the command. 10. Select the Linear dimension tool. 11. Select the lower-left end point of the column base. 12. Select the end point of the lower-left corner of the column base second level. 13. Move the cursor down so that the dimension line is horizontal. Click to place the

dimension below the column base. 14. Select the end point to the right of the second level of the base, and then the lower-

right corner of the base. 15. Select the Linear dimension tool. 16. Select the points 1 and 4 shown in the following figure.

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17. Move the cursor down and select a point to place the dimension line below the existing horizontal dimensions.

18. Save your drawing.

Multileader

Multileader is an annotation object used to create text with leader lines.

Figure 113: Multileader

Multileader styles

To create or edit Multileader Styles from the Home tab, expand the Annotation panel and click on the Multileader Styles icon (see Figure 103) to open the Dimension Style Manager dialog box.

The Styles list (the box to the left) shows all multileader styles available in the current drawing. When you select a dimension style in the list, the preview is displayed in the preview box.

To create a new multileader style, click the New… button, to the right of the dialog box, to open the Create New Multileader Style dialog box:

New Style Name: Enter the name for the new style.

Start With: Allows you to select a style to be used as template.

Annotative: Allows you to define if the new dimension style is annotative.

In the Column Base Notes drawing, create a Multileader Style as follows:

1. New Style Name: MyMultileader

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2. Start with: Standard 3. Annotative: Yes (checked) 4. Used for: All dimensions

Click Continue.

The Multileader Styles Editor is loaded, and it consists of three tabs:

Leader Format: Settings to control the appearance of the leader line and arrowhead. Leader Structure: Settings to deal with the leader format. Content: Settings to control the multileader contents. You can choose from Mtext, Block,

or none (leader only).

Continuing with our new Multileader Style configuration:

1. In the Leader Format tab: a. General:

i. Type: Straight ii. Color, Linetype, and Lineweight: ByBlock

b. Arrowhead: i. Symbol: Closed filled ii. Size: 0.1 (because of the drawing units setting, the value will be

automatically converted to inches) 2. In the Leader Structure tab:

a. Constraints i. Maximum leader points: Checked, 2 (this will limit the leader line to

two points) ii. First and second segment angle: Unchecked

b. Landing Settings: i. Automatically include landing: Checked ii. Set landing distance: Checked iii. Landing distance: 0.25 (you can adjust the landing distance using

grips after the leader is created) c. Scale:

i. Annotative: Checked 3. In the Content tab:

a. Multileader type: Mtext b. Text Options:

i. Text Style: Normal ii. Text angle: Keep horizontal iii. Text Color: Blue iv. Always left justify: Checked v. Frame text: Unchecked

c. Leader connection: i. Horizontal attachment: Checked ii. Left attachment: Middle of top line iii. Right attachment: Middle of top line iv. Landing gap: 0.5 (this value also affects the text frame offset)

4. Click OK to save the changes and close the dialog box. 5. Select the MyMultileader style and click Set Current. 6. Click Close.

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Adding leaders

You can work with leader from the Annotation panel in the Home tab or from the Leaders panel in the Annotate tab.

Figure 114: Multileader tools in the Annotation Panel

1. Open the Column Base Notes drawing, if not opened. 2. Click the Leader tool in the Annotation panel. 3. Right-click the mouse and choose Geometric center from the Object Snap

Override menu. 4. Move the crosshair near the column base perimeter. Make sure it is snapping to the

center of the column base and click. 5. Move the cursor to the right of the drawing and click to place the multileader. 6. Type: Cast stone finish Color TBD 7. Press Ctrl+Enter or click anywhere outside of the text box. 8. Select the Add Leader tool. 9. Select the multileader object. 10. Add two more leaders, above and below the existing leader. 11. Press Enter, Spacebar, or Esc to finish the command. 12. Click the Leader tool in the Annotation panel. 13. Click near the mid-point of the lowest right vertical line of the column base. 14. Move the mouse to the right and click to place the leader. 15. Type: Structural by others 16. Press Ctrl+Enter to finish. 17. Save your drawing.

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Chapter summary

In this chapter, you learned about how to add notes to the drawing. You created text styles, dimension styles, and leader styles, and also added notes to the drawing.

Drawing notes are critical in a drawing. This is how you communicate your ideas and the production requirements of your product.

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Chapter 7 Publishing the Drawing

In this chapter, you will learn how to prepare your drawing for plotting for client review or production.

Everything you have created so far was done in Model Space. When thinking about plotting and printing, you should work in Paper Space. Although you can print the drawing from Model Space, Paper Space layout is the correct space to create your sheets for printing.

Plotting

The plotting process in Model Space and Paper Space is the same. Click the Plot tool located in the Quick Access bar, or press Ctrl+P to show the Plot dialog box:

Figure 115: Plot dialog box

You can plot using the printer configured in the operating system or AutoCAD Printer Configuration (PC3) files.

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In the Printer/Plotter list, you can differentiate System Printers and PC3 files by:

Denotes a System printer

Denotes a PC3 printer

PC3 files allow you to custom configure a plotter or printer and save the setting (to a pc3 file) to use later, even in other drawings. The same plotter or printer can have many different configurations, according to your needs. For example, you may create a PC3 file with the sole purpose to plot vector graphics, and another to plot graphic images.

To plot you drawing from paper space, follow these steps:

1. In the Printer/plotter area, select DWG to PDF.pc3. 2. In the Paper size, select ANSI B (17.00 X 11.00 Inches) 3. In the Plot area, select Extents 4. In the Plot offset area, check Center the plot 5. In the Plot scale:

a. Uncheck Fit to paper b. Select 6” = 1’-0” in the Scale list. Note that this is the same scale as the

Annotation Scale.

Note: It is not required that you match plot scale and annotation scale, but if they are not the same, the resulting plotted annotations may be smaller or bigger than you planned.

In the two fields below the Scale list, you can enter a custom scale. For the selected scale (6” = 1’-0”), it shows 6 inches = 12 units (12” is equals to 1’-0”). Entering 1 and 2 to the respective fields will result the same scale, but is denoted as custom.

Internally, AutoCAD is unitless; the plotting scale says 6 inches (paper units) is equal to 12 drawing units, meaning that every six inches measured in the paper document is equivalent to 12 inches in the real world.

1. If the Plot dialog box is not showing all options, click the More Options button located in lower-right corner of the dialog box.

2. In the Plot style table (pen assignments) area, choose monochrome.ctb. 3. Select No in the question about assigning this plot style to all layouts. 4. In the Plot options:

a. Plot in background: Unchecked b. Plot object lineweights: Checked c. Plot transparency: Unchecked d. Plot with plot styles: Checked e. Plot stamp: Unchecked

5. Save changes to layout: Unchecked 6. Drawing orientation: Landscape 7. Click Apply to Layout to allow reusing this setting on any model space plot. 8. Click OK to plot. 9. Browse to the location where you want to save the PDF. By default, AutoCAD names

the PDF as the drawing name suffixed with the layout name. Enter Column Base-Model_1.pdf for the file name.

10. Click Save.

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11. Assuming you have a PDF reader in your computer, the plotted PDF opens when the plot is completed.

Tip: AutoCAD saves layer information when plotting to PDF. You can turn the layers off in the PDF Reader.

The plot came out okay, but all of the lines, although black because of the settings in the monochrome.ctb file, have the same lineweight. To correct that, we are going to create a new Plot Style Table.

Plot styles

Plot Style Tables are color mapping configurations where you can define how each AutoCAD Color Index is to be plotted. You can have as many plot styles as you need, for many different purposes and settings. We are going to create a plot style to better suite our needs:

1. Click the plot or press Ctrl+P to show the Plot dialog box. 2. Make sure that the plot parameters are the same as the last plot. If they are not, select

<Previous plot> in the Page Setup Name. 3. In the Plot style (pen assignments) list, select New. 4. Select Start from scratch in the Add Color-Dependent Plot Style Table and click Next. 5. Enter Succinctly in the File name field and click Next. 6. Check Use this plot style table for the current drawing and uncheck Use this plot

style for new and pre-AutoCAD drawings. 7. Click Plot Style Table Editor.

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Figure 116: Plot Style Table Editor

1. Activate the Form View tab, if not activated. 2. In the Plot styles list, select Color 1, press and hold Shift, and select Color 9 to

select the range. 3. In the Properties panel, select Black in the color list. 4. In the Plot styles list, select Color 1. 5. In the Properties panel, select 0.1000 mm in the Lineweight list. 6. Proceed with the remaining colors:

a. Color 2: 0.2000 mm b. Color 3: 0.3000 mm c. Color 4: 0.4000 mm d. Color 5: 0.5000 mm e. Color 6: 0.8000 mm f. Color 7: 1.000 mm

7. Select Color 8: a. Screening: 70 (70% gray) b. Lineweight: 0.1500 mm

8. Select Color 9: a. Screening: 50

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b. Lineweight: 0.1500 mm 9. Click Save & Close. 10. Click Finish. 11. Click Apply to Layout and then click OK to plot. 12. Save the file as Column Base-Model_2.pdf. 13. The plot now has different line weights. 14. Save your drawing.

Plot styles are saved as a separate file, and are available for use on any drawing after they are

created.

Layouts

Layouts are 2D sheet layout environments where you define the paper size, create multiple views (viewports) of the drawing, and add a title block and other notes. Each drawing viewport may have a different scale, view direction, and visual style, and you can define which layers are to be hidden and even assign different layer colors.

To activate a layout, move the mouse over the Drawing tab and pause until the layout thumbs are displayed, as in the following figure:

Figure 117: Activate Layouts from Drawing Tab

Alternatively, you can activate a layout by selecting it from the Layout tab located at the bottom of the drawing area:

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Figure 118: Layout Tabs

Tip: You can control Drawing File tabs’ and Layout tabs’ visibility from the Options dialog box, Display tab. To open the Options dialog box, type OP in the command window and press Enter.

Let’s configure a plot layout:

1. Let’s continue with the Column Base drawing that you worked in the Plot Styles section in this chapter.

2. Activate the Layout1 layout.

When you activate a layout, the Layout panel is added to the ribbon, from where you can create new layouts and viewports:

Figure 119: Layout Tab

1. Right-click the Layout1 tab and select Rename from the contextual menu. 2. Type D-101 and press Enter. 3. Click the Page Setup tool in the Layout panel of the Layout tab. 4. In the Page setups list, select *D-101* and click Modify to show the Page Setup

dialog box, which is similar to the Plot dialog box. 5. In the Page Setup dialog box:

a. Set the Printer/Plotter Name to DWG To PDF.pc3. b. Set the Paper size to ANSI B (17.00 X 11.00 Inches). c. Set What to plot to Layout. d. Set Scale to 1:1 (this is the default scale when plotting layouts) e. Set Plot style table (pen assignments) to Succinctly.ctb.

6. Click OK to apply the changes and close the dialog box. 7. Click Apply to Layout, then click Cancel to close the dialog box without plotting. 8. Click Close to close the Page Setup Manager dialog box.

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Viewports

A viewport works like a window to the model. You may have several viewports in each layout, each with different scale and layer visibility. When working with 3D objects, a viewport can be set to display a shaded or more realistic visual style, among other options.

Whenever you create a new layout, a viewport is included to the layout zoomed to the extents of the drawing (Figure 120). In order to adjust the scale or edit the drawing, double-click in the viewport.

Before making viewport adjustments, let’s add a title block to our sheet:

1. Create a new layer named A-Anno-Title, color green, and make this the active layer.

2. In the Block panel, click Insert and then More options. 3. In the Insert dialog box, click Browse… 4. Navigate to the Chapter 07 folder, select the Title Block 11x17 drawing, and click

Open. 5. Make sure to uncheck the Specify On-screen for Insertion point, Scale, and

Rotation. 6. Click OK to insert the title block.

Figure 120: Paper Space Layout

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With the Title Block in place, we can now adjust the viewport. One thing I like to do is assign viewports to non-plot layers so that the viewport borders are not shown in the output:

1. Select the Viewport by clicking on one of its edges. 2. From the Layers panel in the Home tab, select Defpoints from the Layers list.

Defpoints a non-plot layer automatically created whenever dimensioning. 3. Drag the grips to adjust the viewport to best fit in the title block. 4. Double-click in the viewport to activate it; alternatively, you can type MS in the

command window followed by Enter or Spacebar. 5. Now you can pan and zoom within the viewport, and also edit objects as you

normally would. 6. Zoom to Extents to fit the drawing in the viewport. 7. From the Annotation Scale (in the Status bar), select 3” = 1’-0” to set the viewport

scale. Note that the dimensions disappeared from the viewport. This is because the dimensions are associated to the 6” = 1’-0” scale.

8. Select the 6” = 1’-0” scale from the annotative scale list.The dimensions are showing, but some notes and dimensions are cropped.

9. From the Navigation Bar, floating to the right of the viewport, click Pan (the hand icon).

10. While holding the Shift key, click and the drag the mouse to the left until you can see all dimensions. Press Enter, Spacebar, or Esc to finish the command.

11. In the Status Bar, click the Maximize Viewport button shown in the following figure:

Figure 121: Lock and Maximize Buttons in the Status Bar

12. Select the multileader that needs to be stretched, and select the grip in the middle and move closer to the drawing.

13. Double-click the text to edit, move the cursor to the end of the “Structural” word, and press Enter. Press Delete to remove the space before the letter “b” and click outside of the text box to apply the changes, or press Ctrl+Enter.

14. Click Maximize Viewport to return to the layout. 15. Select the viewport by clicking on any of its borders and click the Lock Viewport

button (see Figure 121). This locks the viewport scale, and the annotative scale cannot be changed until you unlock the viewport.

Tip: If you cannot select the viewport because the borders are overlapped by the title block, position the cross arrow on top of the overlapping edge, press Ctrl+Space to cycle between objects, and click when the desired object is highlighted.

16. Double-click in the viewport to activate it. Zoom and pan randomly. The whole layout now is affected because the viewport scale is locked.

17. Plot the layout as you have done previously. 18. Save and close your drawing.

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Freeze layers in a viewport

You can select layers to be frozen for each viewport without affecting each other or the model:

1. Open the Residence drawing located in the Chapter 07 folder. 2. The drawing opens with the A-101 layout active. Double-click in the viewport to

activate the viewport. 3. From the Home tab, Layers panel, click Layer Properties. 4. In the left panel (Filters), expand the Xref group by clicking the tiny + sign to the left

of the group name. 5. Select Electrical to filter the layer list. 6. Freeze all layers for the current layout by clicking on the VP Freeze (see the

following figure) icon. You can widen the column by dragging the separator line in the column header.

7. Repeat step 6 for the structural Xref. You may close or minimize the Layer Manager if needed.

8. From the Layers panel, click Freeze . 9. Click the circular (green) symbols, doors and windows tags, and other layers that you

find obstructive for this view. You can pan and zoom using the mouse wheel as needed, and press Enter, Spacebar, or Esc when done to finish the command.

10. Plot the viewport. 11. Save your drawing.

Chapter summary

In this chapter, you learned about preparing your drawing for distribution. You can distribute your drawing by generating hardcopies or Portable Digital Format (PDF) files. AutoCAD allows the user to generate other digital formats, such as DWF (Drawing Exchange Format) and image files (jpg, png, tiff, etc.). Independent of the output format you choose, it is critical to have standard plot styles to effectively manage output appearance, and also to make sure that the output is readable and is not showing elements that are not meant for the discipline.

AutoCAD provides outstanding tools to manage the drawing output that can increase productivity and also prevent misleading information from being distributed.