Beginning AutoCAD 2002 Episode 1 docx

8 Beginning AutoCAD 2002 Figure 4.3 The pull-down menus from four menu bar selections... The Standard toolbar The Standard toolbar is normally positioned below the menu bar and allows t

Beginning

AutoCAD 2002

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AutoCAD 2002

Bob McFarlane

MSc, BSc, ARCST,

CEng, FIED, RCADDes

MIMechE, MIEE, MIMgt, MBCS, MCSD

Curriculum Manager CAD and New Media, Motherwell College, Autodesk Educational Developer

OXFORD AMSTERDAM BOSTON LONDON NEW YORK PARIS

SAN DIEGO SAN FRANCISCO SINGAPORE SYDNEY TOKYO

Butterworth-Heinemann

An imprint of Elsevier Science

Linacre House, Jordan Hill, Oxford OX2 8DP

225 Wildwood Avenue, Woburn, MA 01801-2041

First published 2002

Copyright © 2002, R McFarlane All rights reserved

The right of Bob McFarlane to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

No part of this publication may be reproduced in any material form (including

photocopying or storing in any medium by electronic means and whether or

not transiently or incidentally to some other use of this publication) without

the written permission of the copyright holder except in accordance with the

provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 or under the terms

of a licence issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd, 90 Tottenham

Court Road, London, England W1T 4LP Applications for the copyright

holder’s written permission to reproduce any part of this publication

should be addressed to the publisher

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress ISBN 0 7506 5610 7

Produced and typeset by Gray Publishing, Tunbridge Wells, Kent

Printed and bound in Great Britain by Bath Press, Avon

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publications visit our website at www.bh.com

Contents

Chapter 27 Polylines and splines 180

vi Beginning AutoCAD 2002

To: Stephen and Amanda.Many congratulations on your marriage,from Mum, Dad, Lynda and Ciara.

Enhanced features

AutoCAD Today

Allows the user to manage drawing and template files, load symbol libraries, access theBulletin Board for collaborative work and access the AutoDESK Point A design portal

Live Object Enablers

Increases the value of designs and reduces time between drawing and data sharing

Publish to Web

The user can the Publish to Web wizard with template, themes and I-drop options

Many (but not all) of these new features will be discussed in this book

2 Beginning AutoCAD 2002

Optional hardware

• Printer or plotter

• Modem or access to an Internet connection

• Network interface card

The installation procedure should follow the instructions given in the AutoCAD 2002Users’ Manual

4 Beginning AutoCAD 2002

The graphics screen

The AutoCAD 2002 graphics screen (Fig 4.2) displays the following:

The AutoCAD 2002 graphics screen 7

Figure 4.2 The AutoCAD 2002 graphics screen.

Title bar

The title bar is positioned at the top of the screen and displays the AutoCAD 2002 icon,the AutoCAD Release version and the current drawing name

The Windows buttons

The Windows buttons are positioned to the right of the title bar, and are:

a) left button: minimise screen

b) centre button: maximise screen

c) right button: close current application.

The menu bar

The menu bar displays the default AutoCAD menu headings By moving the mouse into

the menu bar area, the cursor cross-hairs change to a pick arrow and with a left-click

on any heading, the relevant ‘pull-down’ menu will be displayed The full menu barheadings are:

File Edit View Insert Format Tools Draw Dimension Modify Image Windows HelpFigure 4.3 displays the full menu pull-down selections for a sample of menu barheadings, i.e File, Format, Draw and Modify

8 Beginning AutoCAD 2002

Figure 4.3 The pull-down menus from four menu bar selections.

Menu bar notes

1 Pull-down menu items which display ‘…’ result in a screen dialogue box when the item

is selected, i.e left-clicked

2 Pull-down menu items which display  result in a further menu when selected This is

termed the cascade menu effect

3 Menu items in BOLD type are available for selection

4 Menu items in GREY type are not available for selection

using the Alt key with the letter which is underlined, e.g.

a) Alt with M, activates the Modify pull-down menu

b) then Alt with Y, activates the Copy command.

6 Certain items can be activated using the control (Ctrl) key with a letter or number The

most common items are:

a) Ctrl with N – New drawing

b) Ctrl with O – Open drawing

c) Ctrl with S – Save drawing

d) Ctrl with P – Plot drawing

e) Ctrl with 1 – Properties dialogue box.

7 In this book, items will be generally selected from the menu bar with the mouse

The Standard toolbar

The Standard toolbar is normally positioned below the menu bar and allows the user

access to 30 button icon selections including New, Open, Save, Print, etc By moving the

cursor pick arrow onto an icon and ‘leaving it for about a second’, the icon name will

be displayed in yellow (default) The standard toolbar can be positioned anywhere on

the screen or ‘turned off’ if required by the user

The Object Properties toolbar

Normally positioned below the Standard toolbar, this allows a further seven button icon

selections The icons in this toolbar are Make Object’s Layer Current, Layers, Layer

Control, Layer Previous, Color Control, Linetype control and Lineweight Control

The Windows taskbar

This is at the bottom of the screen and displays:

a) the Windows ‘Start button’ and icon

b) the name of any application which has been opened, e.g AutoCAD

c) the time and the sound control icon

d) perhaps some other icons depending on the user’s system.

By left-clicking on ‘Start’, the user has access to the other Programs which can be run

‘on top of AutoCAD’, i.e multi-tasking

The Status bar

Positioned above the Windows taskbar, the status bar gives useful information to the

user:

a) on-screen cursor X, Y and Z coordinates at the left

b) drawing aid buttons, e.g SNAP, GRID, ORTHO, POLAR, OSNAP, OTRACK, LWT

c) MODEL/PAPER space toggle

The AutoCAD 2002 graphics screen 9

Command prompt window area

The command prompt area is where the user ‘communicates’ with AutoCAD 2002 toenter:

a) a command, e.g LINE, COPY, ARRAY

b) coordinate data, e.g 120,150, @15<30

c) a specific value, e.g a radius of 25.

The command prompt area is also used by AutoCAD to supply the user with information,which could be:

a) a prompt, e.g from point

b) a message, e.g object does not intersect an edge.

The command area can be increased in size by ‘dragging’ the bottom edge of the drawingarea upwards I generally have a two- or three-line command area

The coordinate system icon

This is the X–Y icon at the lower left corner of the drawing area This icon givesinformation about the coordinate system in use The default setting is the traditionalCartesian system with the origin (0,0) at the lower left corner of the drawing area Thecoordinate icon will be discussed in detail later

The drawing area

This is the user’s drawing sheet and can be any size required In general we will use A3sized paper, but will also investigate very large and very small drawing paper sizes

The cursor cross-hairs

Used to indicate the on-screen position, and movement of the pointing device will result

in the coordinates in the status bar changing The ‘size’ of the on-screen cursor can beincreased or decreased to suit user preference and will be discussed later

The Grips/Pickfirst box

This is the small box which is normally ‘attached’ to the cursor cross-hairs It is used toselect objects for modifying and will be discussed in detail in a later chapter

Scroll bars

Positioned at the right and bottom of the drawing area and are used to scroll the drawingarea They are very useful for larger sized drawings and can be ‘turned-off’ if they arenot required

Layout tabs

Allows the user to ‘toggle’ between model and paper space for drawing layouts Thelayout tabs will be discussed in a later chapter

Modify and Draw toolbars

By default, Release 2002 displays these two toolbars at the left of the screen Toolbarswill be discussed later in this chapter

10 Beginning AutoCAD 2002

AutoCAD 2002 terminology is basically the same as previous releases, and the following

gives a brief description of the items commonly encountered by new users to AutoCAD

Menu

A menu is a list of options from which the user selects (picks) the one required for a

particular task Picking a menu item is achieved by moving the mouse over the required

item and left-clicking There are different types of menus, e.g pull-down, cascade, screen,

toolbar button icon

Command

A command is an AutoCAD function used to perform some task This may be to draw

a line, rotate a shape or modify an item of text Commands can be activated by:

a) selection from a menu

b) selecting the appropriate icon from a toolbar button

c) entering the command from the keyboard at the command line

d) entering the command abbreviation

e) using the Alt key as previously described.

Only the first three options will be used in this book

Objects

Everything drawn in AutoCAD 2002 is termed an object or entity, e.g lines, circles,

text, dimensions, hatching, etc are all objects The user ‘picks’ the appropriate

entity/object with a mouse left-click when prompted

Default setting

All AutoCAD releases have certain values and settings which have been ‘preset’ and are

essential for certain operations These default settings are displayed with <> brackets,

but can be altered by the user as and when required For example:

prompt _polygon Enter number of sides<4>

respond press the ESC key to cancel the command

Note: a) <4> is the default value for the number of sides

b) _polygon is the active command.

2 At the command line enter LTSCALE <R> and:

prompt Enter new linetype scale factor<1.0000>

enter 0.5 <R>

Note: a) <1.0000> is the LTSCALE default value

b) we have altered the LTSCALE value to 0.5

The escape (Esc) key

This is used to cancel any command at any time It is very useful, especially when the

user is ‘lost in a command’ Pressing the Esc key will cancel any command and return

the command prompt line

The AutoCAD 2002 graphics screen 11

A cascade menu is obtained when an item in a pull-down menu with  after its name

is selected, e.g by selecting the menu bar sequence Draw-Circle, the cascade effect

shown in Fig 4.4 will be displayed Cascade menus can be cancelled by:

1 moving the pick arrow to any part of the screen and left-clicking

2 pressing the Esc key – cancels the ‘last’ cascade menu

12 Beginning AutoCAD 2002

Figure 4.4 Pull-down and cascade menu effect.

Dialogue boxes

A dialogue box is always displayed when an item with ‘…’ after its name is selected,

e.g when the menu bar sequence Format-Units is selected, the Drawing Units dialogue

box (Fig 4.5) will be displayed Dialogue boxes allow the user to alter parameter values

or toggle an aid ON/OFF

Most dialogue boxes display the options On, Cancel and Help which are used as follows:

Cancel: cancel the dialogue box without any alterations

Help: gives further information in Windows format The Windows can be cancelled

with File-Exit or using the Windows Close button from the title bar (the most button)

right-The AutoCAD 2002 graphics screen 13

Figure 4.5 The Drawing Units dialogue box.

Toolbars are aids for the user They allow the Release 2002 commands to be displayed

on the screen in button icon form The required command is activated by picking

(left-click) the appropriate button The icon command is displayed as a tooltip in yellow

(default colour) by moving the pick arrow onto an icon and leaving it for a second There

are 26 toolbars available for selection, and four are normally displayed by default when

AutoCAD 2002 is started, these being the Standard, Object Properties, Modify and Draw

toolbars Toolbars can be:

a) displayed and positioned anywhere in the drawing area

b) customised to the user preference.

To activate a toolbar, select from the menu bar View-Toolbars and the Customize

dialogue box will be displayed allowing the user access to four tabs: Commands, Toolbars

(active), Properties and Keyboard To display a toolbar, pick the box by the required

name Figure 4.6 displays the Toolbar tab of the Customize dialogue box with the

Dimension and Object Snap toolbars toggled on, as well as the default Draw, Modify

and Object Properties toolbars active When toolbars are positioned in the drawing area

as the Object Snap and Dimension toolbars in Fig 4.6, they are called FLOATING

toolbars Figure 4.6 also displays the Tooltip from the Snap to Perpendicular object snap

icon

14 Beginning AutoCAD 2002

Figure 4.6 The Customize dialogue box with the Toolbars tab active and displaying floating and docked toolbars.

Tooltip

Toolbars can be:

1 Moved to a suitable position on the screen by the user This is achieved by moving the

pick arrow into the blue title area of the toolbar and holding down the mouse left button

Move the toolbar to the required position on the screen and release the left button

2 Altered in shape by ‘dragging’ the toolbar edges sideways or downwards

3 Cancelled at any time by picking the ‘Cancel box’ at the right of the toolbar title bar

It is the user’s preference as to what toolbars are displayed at any one time In general

I always display the Draw, Modify, Dimension and Object Snap toolbars and activate

others as and when required

Toolbars can be DOCKED at the edges of the drawing area by moving them to the

required screen edge The toolbar will be automatically docked when the edge is reached

Figure 4.6 displays two floating and four docked toolbars:

a) Docked: Standard and Object Properties at the top of the screen; Draw and Modify

at the left of the screen These four toolbars ‘were set’ by default

b) Floating: Object Snap and Dimension These two toolbars were ‘activated’ by me.

Toolbars do not have to be used – they are an aid to the user All commands are

available from the menu bar, but it is recommended that toolbars are used, as they greatly

increase draughting productivity

When used, it is the user’s preference as to whether they are floating or docked

Fly-out menu

When an button icon is selected an AutoCAD command is activated If the icon has a

at the lower right corner of the icon box, and the left button of the mouse is held down,

a FLY-OUT menu is obtained, allowing the user access to other icons The following

fly-out menus are available from the Standard toolbar:

Temporary Tracking Point: object snap icons

UCS: UCS options in icon form as Fig 4.7

Named view: the viewpoint preset icons

Zoom: the various zoom options in icon form

The AutoCAD 2002 graphics screen 15

Figure 4.7 The fly-out menu from the UCS button icon with the tooltip from the 3 Point UCS icon.