Introduction 1 About This Book 1 Foolish Assumptions 1 Conventions Used in This Book 1 Icons Used in This Book 2 Beyond the Book 3 Where to Go from Here 3 Book 1: Autocad Basics 5 Chapter 1: One-on-One Time with AutoCAD 7 Starting AutoCAD or AutoCAD LT 8 Creating a new drawing 9 What is created should be saved 10 Accessing the right tools for the right job 11 Getting Familiar with the User Interface 11 Application menu access 12 Ribbon access 13 Toolbar access 15 Setting Up Drafting Aids and Layers 16 Getting snappy and griddy 16 Establishing the limits 17 Organizing objects with layers 19 Drawing, Viewing, and Editing Objects 21 Walking the straight and curved 21 Getting up close with objects 28 Modifying objects 29 Annotating with Text and Dimensions 32 Expressing yourself through text 32 Entering the drafting dimension 34 Fast Track to Plotting 36 Chapter 2: Drawing on and in AutoCAD 37 Understanding AutoCAD Files and Formats 38 Seeing the Light (or LT) 39 Using AutoCAD''s Latest-and-Greatest Feature Set 40 Chapter 3: Navigating the AutoCAD Interface 43 Starting the Application 43 Pinning AutoCAD to the Start menu 44 Pinning AutoCAD to the taskbar 45 Using desktop shortcuts 45 Accessing files from File Explorer 46 Welcome Home: The Start Tab 47 Touring the AutoCAD Interface 47 Title bars 47 Application menu 49 Quick Access toolbar 50 Ribbon 50 Palettes 51 Drawing File tabs 54 Drawing area 55 Crosshairs 56 The floating Command Line window 57 The status bar 57 "Legacy" menus and toolbars 61 Communicating with Your Software 63 The command line 63 Dynamic input 64 Starting AutoCAD Commands 65 Grasping the AutoCAD difference 65 Repeating a command 65 Canceling a running command 65 Undoing and redoing commands 66 Reaching for AutoCAD Help 67 Tooltips 67 My Insights 68 Using online HELP and the UI Finder 69 Autodesk Assistant 70 Finding online resources 70 Analyzing AutoCAD performance 71 Chapter 4: All about Files 73 Learning about the File Types in AutoCAD 74 Starting a New Drawing 77 Starting from scratch 79 Using a wizard 79 Using a drawing template 80 Saving a Drawing 81 Using the SAVE command 82 Using QSAVE (Quick Save) 82 Using the Save As Command 84 Opening an Existing Drawing 85 Using the OPEN command 85 Accessing recent drawings 87 Using File Explorer 87 Exploring the Multiple-Drawing Environment 89 Closing a Drawing 90 File Management for AutoCAD 91 Naming drawing files 91 Storing your files 92 Backing Up Is Hard to Do 92 Chapter 5: Setting Up Drawings 95 Choosing Units of Measurement 95 AutoCAD units 98 Imperial or metric 98 System variables 99 Setting units in your drawing 99 Setting Limits for Your Drawings 101 Understanding Drawing Scale 102 Scaling on paper (or on a drawing board) 102 Scaling in AutoCAD 103 Scale factors 104 Using scale factors to establish drawing settings 105 Lost in Space: Model or Paper? 106 Taking a Layered Approach 107 Creating layers 108 Defining layer properties 109 Setting layer modes 111 Modifying layer settings 113 The Layer Control drop-down list 118 Layer tools 119 General Object Properties 121 Using AutoCAD''s color systems 122 Using linetypes 122 Setting Up Standards 124 Book 2: 2d Drafting 125 Chapter 1: Drawing Objects 127 Locating and Using the Drawing Tools 127 Let''s Get Primitive 130 Keeping to the straight and narrow 130 Going around in circles 132 Arcs of triumph 134 The point of the exercise 137 Creating Construction Geometry 138 Xlines for X-men 138 A little ray of sunshine 140 A Bit Sketchy 140 Drawing Parallel Lines 141 Creating Complex Curves 143 Lucy, you have some splining to do! 143 Solar ellipses 145 Constructing Complex Objects and Shapes 148 2D solids 148 Rectang(le), polygon, and donut 148 Polylines 150 Cloudy with a chance of revision 152 Ahhhh wipeout 153 Chapter 2: Precision Tools 155 Understanding Precision and Accuracy 156 Understanding Coordinate Systems 157 The world coordinate system 158 Entering coordinates 159 Direct distance entry 167 Dynamic input and coordinate entry 168 Setting Grid and Snap 173 Understanding Ortho and Polar Tracking 175 Using ortho mode 176 Using polar tracking 176 Working with Object Snaps 179 Using Point Filters 184 Working with Object Snap Tracking Mode 185 Temporarily Overriding Drafting Aids 187 Chapter 3: Modifying Objects 189 Setting Selection Options 189 Selecting Objects 191 Selecting multiple objects 192 Object selection modes 194 Selection preview 196 Object groups 196 AutoCAD''s Editing Commands 199 Removing stuff 202 Unerasing objects 203 Relocating and replicating 204 Rotating and resizing 212 Breaking, mending, and blowing up real good 214 Double-barrel commands 216 Specialized commands 217 Changing properties 219 Coming to Grips with Grips 221 Chapter 4: Managing Views 223 A Zoom of One''s Own 226 Wheeling through your drawing 228 Realtime zooming 229 Panning in a Flash 231 Grabbing the Wheel and Hanging On 233 Naming That View 235 Creating named views 236 Other named view options 238 Having AutoCAD Put on a Show 239 To Redraw or to Regen That Is the Question 241 Book 3: Annotating Drawings 243 Chapter 1: Text: When Pictures Just Won''t Do 245 Adding Text in AutoCAD 245 Getting familiar with text terminology 246 Will that be one or two lines? 247 Justification 248 Where should text go? 250 Futzing with Fonts 252 Working with Text Styles 253 Creating Single Line Text 257 Working with Multiline Text 260 Creating Multiline Text 261 Formatting options 263 Numbered and bulleted lists 263 Controlling the flow of text 265 Fields, masks, and other multiline text delights 265 Editing Text 267 Editing single-line text 267 Editing multiline text 268 Leading the Way 269 Making way for multiple leaders 270 Legacy leaders 273 Turning the Tables 274 Setting the table with styles 274 Creating and editing tables 276 Link me up Scotty 278 Finding Text and Spell Checking 279 Chapter 2: Dimensioning 281 Understanding What a Dimension Is Made Of 282 Understanding the Types of Dimensions 283 Associative dimensions 283 Non-associative dimensions 284 Exploded dimensions 284 Creating New Dimensions as Associative 284 Using and Creating Dimension Styles 285 Working with the Dimension Style Manager 286 Creating a dimension style 286 Styling dimensions 288 Defining the scale for dimensions 292 Dimension variables 294 Setting a dimension style as current 295 Modifying a dimension style 295 Renaming a dimension style 297 Deleting a dimension style 298 Comparing dimension styles 298 Importing a dimension style 298 Creating Dimensions 298 Linear and aligned dimensions 301 Baseline and continued dimensions 302 Angular dimensions 303 Arc length dimensions 304 Radius, diameter, and jogged dimensions 305 Ordinate dimensions 306 One dimension command to rule them all 307 Quickly place dimensions 307 Trans-spatial dimensions 307 Editing Dimensions 308 Adding overrides to a dimension 308 Editing the dimension text 308 Using grips to edit dimensions 309 Associating dimensions 309 Breaking and spacing dimensions 310 Inspecting dimensions 310 Marking the Center of Objects 311 Using centerlines 311 Using center marks 312 Using "legacy" center marks 312 Editing and associating centerlines and center marks 313 Working with Geometric Tolerances 313 Chapter 3: Hatching Your Drawings 315 Adding Hatch Patterns and Fills 316 Adding hatches to a drawing 317 Hatching and DesignCenter 320 Advanced settings for additional control 320 Working with Hatch Patterns and Solid Fills 322 Predefined patterns 322 User-defined patterns 322 Custom hatch patterns 322 Using Gradient Fills 323 Editing Hatch Patterns and Fills 324 Chapter 4: Scaling Mt Annotation 325 The What, Why, and How of Annotation Scaling 326 Making Styles and Objects Annotative 327 Annotative styles and block definitions 327 Annotative objects 328 Adding and Removing Annotation Scales 330 Controlling the Annotation Scale for Output 332 Book 4: Advanced Drafting 333 Chapter 1: Playing with Blocks 335 Working with Reusable Content 335 Creating Blocks 336 A.