AutoCAD Basics 2004 bible phần 8 potx

To create a scene, choose Scenes from the Render toolbar to open the Scenesdialog box, shown in Figure 25-16.This dialog box lists your scenes and enablesyou to create, modify, and delet

To create a scene, choose Scenes from the Render toolbar to open the Scenesdialog box, shown in Figure 25-16.This dialog box lists your scenes and enablesyou to create, modify, and delete scenes.

Figure 25-16: The Scenes

dialog box

To create a new scene, follow these steps:

1 Click New to open the New Scene dialog box, shown in Figure 25-17 The New

Scene dialog box lists all the saved views and all the lights you have created

2 Type a name in the Scene Name text box, no more than eight characters long.

3 Choose a view You can choose only one.

4 Choose the lights you want Press Ctrl to choose more than one light Press

Shift to choose a range of lights You can also choose *ALL*to quickly chooseall the lights for the scene

5 Click OK.

Figure 25-17: The New Scene

dialog box

Your scene is now listed in the Scenes dialog box Click OK again to return to yourdrawing When you render the drawing, you can choose this scene from the Renderdialog box.

The drawing used in the following Step-by-Step exercise on creating a scene,ab25-2.dwg, is in the Results folder of the AutoCAD 2004 Bible CD-ROM

Step-by-Step: Creating a Scene

1 If you have ab25-02.dwgopen, use it Otherwise, open it from your AutoCADBiblefolder or the Resultsfolder of the CD-ROM

2 Save the file as ab25-03.dwgin your AutoCAD Biblefolder If the Rendertoolbar is not open, right-click any toolbar and choose Render

3. Choose Scenes from the Render toolbar Click New in the Scenes dialogbox to open the New Scene dialog box

4 Type morning in the Scene Name text box.

5 Choose RENDER1 from the Views list.

6 Choose D1 and P1 from the Lights list, pressing the Ctrl key while you select

the second light

7 Click OK twice to return to the drawing.

8 Save the drawing If you are continuing on to the next Step-by-Step exercise,

keep it open

Working with Materials

Working with materials involves two steps — adding them to the drawing andattaching them to objects Designing appropriate materials is an important part ofthe rendering process and greatly affects the results Materials interact with lights

For example, shiny materials reflect light differently than dull materials becauseshiny materials create highlights The object’s color affects how light appears on

it as well

Adding materials

AutoCAD comes with a large selection of materials You can modify these tocreate your own materials To add materials to the drawing, choose MaterialsLibrary from the Render toolbar to open the Materials Library dialog box, shown inFigure 25-18

On the CD-ROM

Figure 25-18: The Materials Library dialog box

Working with lists of materials

Materials are saved in a file with the extension mli(materials library) The defaultmaterials library is render.mli The left side of the Materials Library dialog boxrepresents materials in the current drawing The right side of the dialog box repre-sents the entire list of materials provided by AutoCAD

In the Current Drawing section, you can:

✦ Click Save As to save the list of materials in the current drawing in an mlifile

✦ Click Purge to delete all the materials in the list from the drawing

In the Current Library section, you can:

✦ Click Save to save changes to the entire library list in the MLI file in the current folder

✦ Click Save As to save the entire current library list in a new MLI file in anylocation

✦ Click Open to open a different library list and use its materials

Importing and previewing materials

To add existing materials to your drawing, follow these steps:

1 Choose a material from the Current Library list on the right side of the

dialog box

2 Click Import.

3 Choose the material from the Current Drawing list.

4 From the Preview drop-down list, choose the preview type of either Cube or

Sphere, based on whether the object you want to use the material for is flat

or curved

5 Click Preview to see a sample of the material.

6 Repeat Steps 1 through 5 until you have all the materials you want.

7 Click OK.

If you don’t find the exact material you want, import the closest one you can find

You can then create a new material based on that material The next sectionexplains how to edit existing materials

You can choose a range of materials by holding down Shift and clicking the first andlast materials in the range You can choose any nonconsecutive materials by holdingdown Ctrl and clicking the materials you want

If you don’t like a material that you have imported, highlight it and click Delete

Use the Export option to save materials you have created in the drawing to thematerials library file When you click OK to close the Materials Library dialog box,AutoCAD asks you if you want to save the changes you have made to the materialslibrary file Saving the changes updates the file

The drawing used in the following Step-by-Step exercise on importing materials,ab25-3.dwg, is in the Results folder of the AutoCAD 2004 Bible CD-ROM

Step-by-Step: Importing Materials

1 If you have ab25-03.dwgopen from the previous exercise, use it Otherwise,open it from your AutoCAD Bible folder (if you did the exercise) or the

Resultsfolder of the CD-ROM

2 Save the file as ab25-04.dwgin your AutoCAD Biblefolder If the Rendertoolbar is not open, right-click any toolbar and choose Render

3. Choose Materials Library from the Render toolbar Hold down Ctrl, andscroll as necessary to choose Beige Plastic, Green Glass, Light Wood Tile,Pink Marble, Stitched Pattern, White Matte, Wood Med Ash, Wood White Ash,and Yellow Plastic Click Import

4 From the left list, choose Pink Marble Choose Cube from the Preview

drop-down list and click Preview to see the result Do the same with Stitched Pattern

5 Preview Green Glass with the Sphere.

6 Click OK Save your drawing If you are continuing to the next Step-by-Step

exercise, keep the drawing open

On the CD-ROM Tip

Creating your own materials

After you import materials from the materials library, you can modify them tocreate your own materials Choose Materials from the Render toolbar to openthe Materials dialog box, shown in Figure 25-19

Notice that you can click Materials Library in this dialog box to open the MaterialsLibrary dialog box You can therefore use the Materials dialog box to manage theentire process of importing, creating, and attaching materials You can previewimported materials in this dialog box as well

Figure 25-19: The Materials dialog box

When you create a new material, you have three choices:

✦ You can modify an existing material

✦ You can duplicate an existing material and then make modifications to thecopy, leaving the original material intact

✦ You can start from scratch and create an entirely new material

The dialog box that AutoCAD opens when you choose one of the preceding optionsdepends on what you choose from the drop-down list below the New button Youhave four choices: standard, marble, granite, and wood

✦ Standard creates a standard material

✦ Marble creates a material that mimics marble In this dialog box you specifyturbulence and sharpness of the veins as well as the scale of the veins to theentire object of marble

✦ Granite creates a material that mimics granite In this dialog box you can ify up to four colors and their sharpness (distinctness) as well as the scale ofthe texture relative to the entire granite object.

spec-✦ Wood creates a material that mimics wood In this dialog box you specify thelight/dark ratio of the grain, the ring density and width, and the scale of therings relative to the entire wood object

When you choose a method of creating a new material, whether by modifying,duplicating, or creating from scratch, AutoCAD opens the dialog box appropriate

to the material you have chosen Figure 25-20 shows the New Standard Material dialog box

Figure 25-20: The New Standard Material dialog box

Unless you are modifying an existing material, you first give the material a name inthe Material Name text box

You use this dialog box by choosing the attributes listed on the left side one by oneand then specifying the values for each attribute from the choices on the right

Color/Pattern

The color is the basic color of the object The reflection of light off the object(called diffuse reflection) is determined by this color You set the color in the Color section of the dialog box, using one of four methods:

✦ Choose By ACI (AutoCAD Color Index) This option enables you to set thecolor to the color of the object in the drawing You must uncheck this tochoose one of the three other methods

✦ Choose RGB from the Color System drop-down list to specify the color usingthe red-green-blue system These are the three primary light colors For eachcolor you can type in a value from 0 to 1 or use the slider bars When all threeare set to 1, you get white light.

✦ Choose HLS from the Color System drop-down list to specify the color usingthe hue, lightness, and saturation system Hue is the color; lightness — orbrightness — is the amount of white the color contains; saturation is theamount of black the color contains

✦ Click the color swatch to open the Windows Color dialog box, letting youspecify a color using either the RGB or the HLS system

In addition to setting the color, you set the value The value affects the surface finish and interacts with the reflection value For example, AutoCAD recommendsusing a color value of 0.7 and a reflection value of 0.3 for a dull finish and reversingthe values for a shiny finish You can type a value or use the slider bar If you choose

a bitmap (raster) file, the color becomes a pattern See the sidebar on “Mapping”for more information

Ambient

The Ambient color and value affect the color reflected by ambient light Rememberthat you set the amount of ambient light when you created lights You can click the Lock check box in the Color section of the dialog box to lock the ambient andreflection colors to the main color (You cannot use Lock if you checked By ACI asthe color.)

Reflection

The reflection setting affects highlights created by light that shines on the object

To create a shiny object, you can use a reflection value of 0.7 with a color value of0.3 Shiny objects often create a white highlight — for this effect, set the color towhite by setting red, green, and blue to 1 You can also choose a bitmap file to cre-ate a reflection map See the sidebar on “Mapping” for more information

Roughness

Roughness has no color setting — you only set a value A rough surface producessmaller highlights Use a lower value to create smaller highlights If you chose azero value for reflection, the roughness setting is not used

Transparency

The transparency setting enables you to create transparent or translucent materials.You set the value from 0 to 1 Higher values mean greater transparency Using trans-parency increases rendering time You can choose a bitmap to create an opacity map.See the sidebar on “Mapping” for more information

AutoCAD lets you project a 2D image onto the surface of a 3D object This is called

map-ping You must use the Photo Real or Photo Raytrace rendering types to render with pings The 2D images are bitmap (raster) files that can be in several file formats, such asTGA, BMP, TIF, and JPEG AutoCAD provides a large number of TGA files To locate them,choose Tools ➪ Options and click the Files tab Double-click Texture Maps Search Path.(You need to do a full or custom installation of AutoCAD to get all the texture maps.) Youcan actually place up to four bitmaps onto an object When you create a material, you canadd bitmaps to the Color/Pattern, Reflection, Transparency, and Bump Map characteristics

map-of a material

Four kinds of maps correspond to the four characteristics:

✦Texture maps place a pattern of colors onto the object When you include a bitmap

in the Color/Pattern definition, you turn a plain color into a pattern

✦Reflection maps place a scene on the surface of a reflective object, in the same waythat you can see yourself reflected in a pool of water Add a bitmap to the Reflectiondefinition

✦Opacity maps mimic areas of opacity and transparency Add a bitmap to theTransparency definition

✦Bump maps create the effect of varying heights Choose Bump Maps and choose

a bitmap file

AutoCAD comes with a number of materials that include maps In the Materials Library log box, check out the Bumpywhite stone and Checker textures, for example As theirnames make clear, the first material is a bump map and the second a texture map Importand preview them to see how they look Using these materials saves you the task of speci-fying a bitmap file

dia-Bitmap Blend determines how much the bitmap is used The values range from zero (0)

to 1 For example, a 1.0 value for a bump map gives you the full value of the bumps Alower value creates lower bumps

Choose Adjust Bitmap to open the Adjust Material Bitmap Placement dialog box Here youset the offset of the origin of the bitmap and the scale The scale is the number of times thebitmap fits onto the object If you are unfamiliar with the bitmap, you’ll need to experiment

You can try various options and click Preview to see the results Bitmapping uses U and Vaxes, which are like X and Y axes but can have any direction and origin Click MaintainAspect Ratio to keep the U and V scales equal

By default, bitmaps are tiled, which means that if the scale is less than 1, AutoCAD repeatsthe pattern to cover the entire object You can also crop, which creates a decal effect — thepattern is placed just once on the object

Refraction only applies to Photo Raytrace rendering when you have a transparent(or translucent) material Refraction is the bending of a light wave when it passesthrough an object to an object of another density A higher value increases therefraction

Bump Map

Bump maps create the effect of varying heights on the surface of the object — inother words, bumps You use the bottom part of the dialog box to choose the bumpmap and for bump map settings See the sidebar “Mapping” for more informationabout bump maps

As you complete the dialog box, you can press Preview and see the result as a sphere

or cube at any time When you like the results you see with Preview, click OK

The drawing used in the following Step-by-Step exercise on creating materials,ab25-4.dwg, is in the Results folder of the AutoCAD 2004 Bible CD-ROM

Step-by-Step: Creating Materials

1 If you have ab25-04.dwgopen from the previous exercise, use it Otherwise,open it from your AutoCAD Bible folder (if you did the exercise) or the Resultsfolder of the CD-ROM

2 Save the file as ab25-05.dwgin your AutoCAD Biblefolder If the Rendertoolbar is not open, right-click any toolbar and choose Render

3 Choose Materials from the Render toolbar The materials that were imported

in the previous Step-by-Step exercise are listed on the left Choose YellowPlastic and click Duplicate

4 In the Material Name text box of the New Standard Material dialog box, type Yellow Cheese.

5 With Color/Pattern selected from the Attributes section of the dialog box,

click the color swatch to the right of the Color System drop-down list In theColor dialog box, click the Index Color tab and pick the yellow box Click OK

6 Choose Ambient from the Attributes section Click Lock in the Color section.

The color changes to the same yellow as the Color/Pattern swatch

7 Choose Reflection Change the value to 0.10 because cheese isn’t very shiny.

Click Lock here as well

8 Choose Roughness Change the value to 0.75.

You can omit transparency because its default value is zero (0) Refraction isirrelevant without a transparency setting

On the CD-ROM

9 Omit this step and Step 10 if you don’t have a full installation or a custom

installation that includes textures Preview the yellow cheese on a cube

Choose Bump Map from the Attributes section Choose Find File at the bottomright of the dialog box In the Bitmap File dialog box, the Texturesfoldershould be current (If not, find the Texturesfolder inside the main AutoCADfolder and double-click.) Change the Files of Type drop-down list to *.tga.Choose bmps.tgaand click Open Change the Bitmap Blend to 30 ClickPreview again to see the difference Note that the bumps are too big

10 Click Adjust Bitmap In the Adjust Bitmap Material Placement dialog box,

check Maintain Aspect Ratio Change the scale to 2 and click Preview usingthe cube The bumps are smaller now Click OK three times to return to yourdrawing

11 Save your drawing.

Attaching materials

After you import, create, and modify the materials you need, you can attach them

to objects AutoCAD lets you attach materials by object, layer, or color To attachany material, follow these steps:

1 Choose Materials from the Render toolbar.

2 Choose the material from the list of materials.

3 Use one of these methods to attach the material:

• Click Attach to attach a material by selecting the object or objects

AutoCAD temporarily returns you to your drawing and prompts you

to select objects

• Click By ACI (AutoCAD Color Index) to attach a material by its color inthe drawing AutoCAD opens the Attach by AutoCAD Color Index dialogbox, which lets you choose a color, or colors, by their numbers

• Click By Layer to attach a material by layer AutoCAD opens the Attach

by Layer dialog box, which lets you choose a layer or layers

Attaching materials by layer can be a very efficient method It requires some ning in advance For example, if you have a block that is a chair, and if you create

plan-it so that the legs are on one layer and the seat and back are on a second layer,then you can easily attach a wood-like material to the legs and a decorative pat-tern to the seat and back

You can assign a material to an object, to its layer, and to its color, which wouldmean that the object has three materials AutoCAD gives priority to direct attach-ments by object, then to attachments by color, and finally to attachments by layer

Tip

The drawing used in the following Step-by-Step exercise on attaching materials,ab20-b.dwg, is in the Drawings folder of the AutoCAD 2004 Bible CD-ROM.

Step-by-Step: Attaching Materials

1 Open ab25-b.dwgfrom the CD-ROM

2 Save the file as ab25-06.dwgin your AutoCAD Biblefolder If the Rendertoolbar is not open, right-click any toolbar and choose Render This is thesame drawing used earlier in the chapter, but all the materials have beenimported and modified, and some materials have been attached to objects.Also, the table and chairs have been separated into appropriate layers

3 Choose Materials from the Render toolbar Click By Layer In the Attach by

Layer dialog box, choose PINK MARBLEfrom the Select a Material list Choose

TABLE_TOPfrom the Select Layer list Click Attach The PINK MARBLEmaterialappears next to the TABLE_TOPlayer

4 Choose STITCHED PATTERNfrom the left list and CUSHIONSfrom the right listand click Attach In the same way, attach WOOD-WHITE ASHto the LEGSlayer.Click OK

5 In the Materials dialog box, choose GREEN GLASSand click Attach AutoCADfinds the bowl, which has already been attached to the GREEN GLASS materialand displays the Gathering objects 1 found Select objects toattach “GREEN GLASS” to: prompt Select the plate on the table and pressEnter to return to the dialog box

6 Click OK to return to your drawing.

7 Save your drawing Keep it open if you are continuing to the next Step-by-Step

exercise

Using Backgrounds

AutoCAD offers some sophisticated features for adding backgrounds to your dering For example, you can place a picture of the sky in the background You canalso add landscape features such as trees and bushes This section covers thebasics of backgrounds You have a choice of four types of backgrounds:

ren-✦ Solid places a solid color in the background You might use solid black for a

night scene

✦ Gradient creates a background of up to three colors in a graded blend.

✦ Image places an image in the background (for example, an image of the sky).

✦ Merge lets you combine your rendering with the image you currently have on

your screen

On the CD-ROM

To create a background, choose Background from the Render toolbar to openthe Background dialog box, shown in Figure 25-21.

If you choose Solid, you can use the current AutoCAD background (usually white

or black) or define a color using the same color controls you use for lights andmaterials, explained earlier in this chapter If you choose Gradient, you set separatetop, middle, and bottom colors Click the color swatch of the color you want to workwith to set its color Then use the horizon setting to determine the center of the gra-dient The height determines, in percentage form, where the second color starts

For example, 33 percent would create three equal levels of color If you want onlytwo colors, set the height to zero (0) Use Rotation to rotate the gradient

Figure 25-21: The Background dialog box

If you choose Image, use the Image section to specify a file If you did a full tion (or a custom installation including textures), you have a number of tgafiles

installa-to choose from in the \Texturessubfolder of AutoCAD Of course, you can useyour own files You can use the following file types:

The drawing used in the following Step-by-Step exercise on adding a background,ab25-6.dwg, is in the Results folder of the AutoCAD 2004 Bible CD-ROM Thegraphic file, sky.gif, which you may or may not need, is in the Drawings folder

of the CD-ROM See the instructions in the exercise

Step-by-Step: Adding a Background

1 If you have ab25-06.dwgopen, use it Otherwise, open it from your AutoCADBiblefolder if you did the previous exercise or from the Resultsfolder ofthe CD-ROM

2 Save the file as ab25-07.dwgin your AutoCAD Biblefolder

3 If you did a full AutoCAD installation or a custom installation including the

textures, choose Background from the Render toolbar If not, find sky.gif

on the CD-ROM and copy it to AutoCAD’s \Supportsubfolder Then chooseBackground from the Render toolbar

4 Choose Image at the top of the Background dialog box.

5 In the Image section, choose Find File.

6 Open the Texturesfolder (to locate this folder, choose Tools ➪ Options, clickthe Files tab, and double-click the Texture Maps Search Path) and choose sky.tga(make sure the Files of Type drop-down list box says *.tga) or choose

sky.giffrom AutoCAD’s \Supportsubfolder Click Open

On the CD-ROM

Foggy landscapes

The landscape commands enable you to create and edit landscapes AutoCAD comes with

a small library of trees, bushes, people, and a DO NOT ENTER road sign Choose LandscapeNew from the Render toolbar, choose an item, and preview it When you find one that youlike, set the geometry Single Face results in quicker rendering than Crossing Faces but isless realistic Choose View Aligned if you want the object to always face the viewer, like atree You might uncheck this for the road sign — you don’t want the sign to face the viewerfrom both directions Set the height (usually in inches) and click Position to place it in yourdrawing

Note: When you place the landscape object, it appears as a triangle or a rectangle You

don’t see the object until you render the view Choose Landscape Edit to edit the teristics of an existing landscape object Choose Landscape Library to edit, delete, and addlandscape objects

charac-Choose Fog from the Render toolbar to open the Fog/Depth Cue dialog box Fog is used togive a sense of distance because objects in the distance often do not appear to be as clear

as those close up Choose Enable Fog to turn fog on You set the color, near and far tances (where the fog starts and ends), and near and far percentages of fog (how much fogthere should be at the near and far distances)

dis-7 Click Preview AutoCAD displays the file.

8 Click OK You won’t see the result until you render the drawing.

9 Save your drawing If you are continuing to the next Step-by-Step exercise,

keep the drawing open

Doing the Final Render

You are finally ready to render Preparing to render can be a long process

If you want, you can choose Render Preferences from the Render toolbar first

to open the Rendering Preferences dialog box This dialog box is an exact copy ofthe Render dialog box and lets you preset the rendering settings However, you canalso make all these settings in the Render dialog box

To render, choose Render from the Render toolbar This opens the Render dialogbox, shown in Figure 25-22

Figure 25-22: The Render dialog box

This dialog box has the following components:

✦ From the Rendering Type drop-down list, choose the type of rendering you want

✦ In the Scene to Render box, choose a scene

✦ In the Rendering Procedure section, check one of the options if you want.Query for Selections means that AutoCAD asks you to select objects Use this

to test a rendering on one or more objects Choose Crop Window to choose

a window to render Choose Skip Render Dialog to render immediately withouteven opening the dialog box (the next time) — choose Render Preferences onthe Render toolbar to change this option when you want the Render dialogbox back again

✦ Set the light icon scale Use the drawing scale factor for this

✦ Set the smoothing angle The smoothing angle determines the angle at whichAutoCAD assumes an edge as opposed to a smooth curve The default is

45 degrees A lower angle would result in more edges

✦ In the Rendering Options section, check Smooth Shade to smooth out a edged object AutoCAD blends colors across adjacent faces

multi-✦ Check Apply Materials to use the materials you imported and attached

✦ Check Shadows to generate shadows You can only create shadows with thePhoto Real and Photo Raytrace rendering types

✦ Check Render Cache to save rendering information in a file AutoCAD canreuse this information for subsequent renderings, saving time

✦ Click More Options to open a dialog box that varies with the type of rendering.Usually, you can use the defaults, but you can click Help to get an explanation

of each item

✦ In the Destination section, choose where you want the rendering to appear.The default is Viewport If you have one viewport, the rendering covers theentire drawing area If you are using several viewports, the rendering appears

in the active viewport You can also render to the render window The renderwindow is a regular Microsoft Windows window that lets you copy the render-ing to the clipboard or save the rendering as a bitmap (.bmp) file Finally, youcan save the rendering directly to a file

✦ Use the Sub Sampling drop-down box to set the sampling of pixels thatAutoCAD renders The default is 1:1, which means all the pixels are rendered.You can speed up the rendering by choosing another ratio

✦ The Render dialog box has buttons to take you to the Background andFog/Depth Cue dialog boxes if you decide at the last minute that you want touse these features

When you have finished the settings, click Render to render the drawing

The drawing used in the following Step-by-Step exercise on creating a final

rendering, ab25-7.dwg, is in the Results folder of the AutoCAD 2004 Bible

CD-ROM

On the CD-ROM

Step-by-Step: Creating a Final Rendering

1 If you have ab25-07.dwgopen, use it Otherwise, open it from your AutoCADBiblefolder if you did the previous exercise or from the Resultsfolder ofthe CD-ROM

2 Save the file as ab25-08.dwgin your AutoCAD Biblefolder

3 Choose Lights from the Render toolbar In the Lights box, choose P1 and

click Modify Change the intensity to 200 and click OK twice to return to yourdrawing This is the type of adjustment you often make when doing the finalrendering

4 Choose Render from the Render toolbar.

5 Make sure that Rendering Type is set to Photo Real.

6 Set Scene to Render to MORNING Check Shadows.

7 Click Render Wait until AutoCAD finishes the rendering Look at those

shad-ows! Look at the transparent green bowl with the orange in it Note the skyimage outside the window Okay, so the pink marble is a bit gaudy

8 To get rid of the ugly UCS icon, choose View ➪ Display ➪ UCS Icon ➪ On.

9 The rendering should look like Figure 25-23, only a lot better because you see

it in color on your screen Save your drawing

Figure 25-23: The final rendering with shadows, transparent objects,

and a background

Thanks to Autodesk for the sky.gif file This material has been reprinted with permission from and under the copyright of Autodesk, Inc.

Remember that rendering is a trial-and-error process Don’t expect to get it right thefirst time You can probably see several areas for improvement At this point, youwould go back and tweak the lights, materials, and so on until you were satisfied.

AccuRender is a rendering program that offers additional rendering capabilities.Look for it in \Software\Chap25\AccuRender

Figure 25-24: A statistics listing

of a rendering

Saving rendered images

You can save your rendered images and redisplay them at another time You canalso use saved rendered images in other applications and print them from thoseapplications After rendering to a viewport, choose Tools ➪ Display Image ➪ Save

In the Save Image dialog box, choose the file type bmp, tga, or tif

You can change the size and placement (offset) of the image or accept the defaults.Click OK AutoCAD opens the Image File dialog box so that you can specify a filename After selecting a file, click OK again

On the CD-ROM

After rendering to a render window, choose File ➪ Save from that window’s menuand enter a file name Click OK AutoCAD saves the image as a bmp (bitmap) file.

To redisplay a rendered image, choose Tools ➪ Display Image ➪ View Choose thefile and click Open in the Replay dialog box You have the opportunity to crop theimage or you can accept the original size AutoCAD displays the image Do a regen

to return to your regular drawing display

You can import these saved rendered images back into your drawing Figure 25-25shows three floating viewports One of the views shows the rendered image

See Chapter 27 for detailed instructions on importing images In AutoCAD 2004,you can now plot rendered viewports See Chapter 17

Figure 25-25: You can include your rendered images

in your drawings

Unloading Render

When you render, a Render window may open, minimized

You can now close the Render window by clicking its Close box

Closing the Render window when you are finished rendering frees up memory forother tasks

New

Feature

Cross-Reference

Organizing and Managing

Drawings

Part V is all about how to manage drawings In

Chap-ter 26, I discuss keeping control of your drawings byusing the DesignCenter, the new Tool palettes, and the newCommunication Center, while also setting and maintainingstandards, keeping track of your drawings, handling errorsand crashes, and working with prior AutoCAD releases

Chapter 27 explains how to interface with other applicationsand file formats, including raster (bitmap) images Finally,Chapter 28 covers getting your drawings onto the Internet

In This Part Chapter 26

Keeping Control ofYour Drawings

V

Keeping Control

of Your Drawings

When you create a drawing in AutoCAD, you not only

create objects, you create a complex structure tosupport those objects You create named blocks, layers, lay-outs, text styles, dimension styles, and linetypes to helpdefine those objects You spend a lot of time creating them,too! All of these named drawing components can be reusedand organized for greater efficiency

Having standards for named drawing components, such

as layers and text styles is important for consistency andreadability AutoCAD offers a comprehensive system formaintaining CAD standards Security is also important andAutoCAD 2004 offers new features to help

You also need to keep track of your drawings and make surethat they are accessible Archiving and repair procedures areimportant in any CAD environment

Accessing Drawing Components with the DesignCenter

I mention the DesignCenter many times in this book — forexample, in Chapter 11 on layers and Chapter 18 on blocks

In this chapter, I cover the DesignCenter in detail You can usethe DesignCenter to easily drag named drawing components

from one drawing to another You can access this drawing

con-tent from drawings on your hard drive, on a network drive, or

over the Internet You never need to re-create them again

Autodesk calls this mining your design You can even drag

raster images directly into your drawing

Setting standards fordrawings

Organizing yourdrawingsMaintaining securityKeeping track ofreferenced filesHandling errors andcrashes

Managing drawingsfrom prior AutoCADreleases

You can do the following with the DesignCenter:

✦ Browse and insert named drawing components, including blocks, xrefs, ers, text styles, dimension styles, linetypes, and layouts You can also accesscustom objects created by third-party applications that work with AutoCAD

lay-✦ Create shortcuts to drawings and locations that you use most

✦ Search for drawings and named drawing components

✦ Open drawings by dragging them into the drawing area

✦ View and insert raster image files by dragging them into the drawing area

Navigating with the DesignCenter

To open the DesignCenter, choose DesignCenter from the Standard toolbar orchoose Tools ➪ DesignCenter As a shortcut, press Ctrl+2 The DesignCenterappears as shown in Figure 26-1

The DesignCenter has been updated to use the new palette interface — the sameone you see in the Properties palette Four tabs provide access to folders, opendrawings, history, and the new DC Online, where you can find content provided byAutodesk, manufacturers and other users

Figure 26-1: The DesignCenter with the Folders tab displayed

Description Area

Tree view Tree view toggle

PreviewDescription Content area

Preview area

New

Feature

The Folders tab displays a tree view of any location — your hard drive, network, orthe Internet — that you can access This tree view is very similar to WindowsExplorer Click the plus sign next to a drive or folder to display its contents Use thevertical scrollbar to display any location.

A selected drawing displays its named components in the content area on the rightside of the palette You can also click the plus sign next to a drawing to see (in thetree view side) the named components it contains Then click a component type,such as blocks, to see a list of the blocks in the drawing, as shown in Figure 26-1

Click Preview on the DesignCenter toolbar to see a preview in the preview pane ofblocks, drawings, and raster images Click Description to display a description, ifone is saved

After you narrow your search, you may want to click Tree View Toggle to gle off the tree view, hiding the navigation pane By default, the navigationpane displays your desktop, meaning the files and folders on your hard drive andnetwork To narrow down your search, you can click two other tabs from theDesignCenter:

tog-✦ Open Drawings displays currently open drawings

✦ History displays the most recently opened drawings

Finding named components and drawings

What do you do if you don’t know the location of the drawing you want? Supposeyou know the name of the layer, but not which drawing it is in The DesignCenterincludes a Search feature to help you out

Choose Search from the DesignCenter toolbar to open the Search window,shown in Figure 26-2 (You can also right-click in the Content area and chooseSearch.)

Here’s how to use the Search window:

✦ Click the Look for drop-down list to choose what you are looking for You canlook for blocks, dimension styles, drawings, drawings and blocks, hatch pat-tern files, hatch patterns, layers, layouts, linetypes, text styles, and xrefs

✦ Click the In drop-down list to specify the drive you want to look in By defaultthe Search subfolders check box is checked so that AutoCAD searches all fold-ers and subfolders within the drive

✦ Use the tabbed area to specify the name of the components you are lookingfor The tab’s name and content changes depending on what you chose in theLook for drop-down box For example, if you chose Layers, the tab is calledLayers and asks you for the name of the layer If you are looking for drawings,you have three tabs to work with:

• The Drawings tab enables you to choose to look for a drawing by file

name (the default), title, subject, author, or keywords Choose one ofthese options in the In the field(s) drop-down list Then type the text youwant to look for in the Search for the Word(s) text box You can use thewildcards * (to substitute for any number of characters) and ? (to substi-tute for any one character) Specifying a drawing’s title, subject, and key-words is discussed later in this chapter

• The Date Modified tab enables you to search by the last date the file

was saved or modified You can specify a range of dates or look in the

last x days or months.

• The Advanced tab enables you to search for text in drawing

descrip-tions, block names, attribute tags, and attribute values You can alsosearch here by drawing size

✦ When you have created your specifications, click Search Now

Figure 26-2: Use the Search window to locate drawings and drawing

components

See Chapter 18 for information on creating block descriptions when you create ablock The main reason for creating a block description is to display it in theDesignCenter and to be able to use it in a search on the Advanced tab, as justdescribed

Using the Favorites folder

The Favoritesfolder is a Windows convention that helps you to find files that youuse often This folder contains shortcuts to actual files The files remain in theiroriginal locations Choosing a file from the Favoritesfolder has the same effect aschoosing the file from its source location

Cross-Reference

AutoCAD 2004 creates an Autodesksubfolder within the Favoritesfolder, whereyou can store shortcuts to drawings and other files that you use often You can theneasily open the Favoritesfolder and find these files Favoritesis one possibleplace to keep drawings that contain block libraries.

To add a shortcut to Favorites, right-click the drawing (or other file) in theDesignCenter and choose Add to Favorites

If you right-click in the content pane and choose Add to Favorites, AutoCAD adds ashortcut to the entire content of the folder This is great for adding all the items in

a folder at once, but if you do it inadvertently, you could end up with lots of junk

in Favorites To add one item, remember to select it first

To access the drawings in Favorites, click Favorites on the DesignCenter bar You can also right-click the content pane and choose Favorites AutoCADdisplays the Favorites folder in the content pane

tool-To move, copy, or delete shortcuts from Favorites, right-click the Content paneand choose Organize Favorites

Accessing named drawing components

As soon as you have the item you need in the content area, you need to insert itinto your drawing If you used the Search window to locate a file, you can alsoinsert directly from results you get You can either drag the item onto the drawingarea or right-click it and choose an option Sometimes these two methods provideslightly different results In this section, I explain how to insert drawing compo-nents into your drawing

Inserting drawings

You can insert an entire drawing into your drawing Choose the drawing’s folder inthe navigation pane so that the drawing appears in the content area Drag the draw-ing’s icon onto the drawing area AutoCAD prompts you for an insertion point,scale, and rotation angle, using the -INSERT command, which prompts you on thecommand line

If you right-click the drawing, you can choose to insert the drawing as a block orattach it as an xref

Opening drawings

You can open a drawing using the DesignCenter Display the drawing in the contentpane, right-click it, and choose Open in Application Window AutoCAD opens thedrawing, keeping your current drawing open as well

Caution

Inserting blocks

In Chapter 5, I explain that you can use the Units dialog box (chooseFormat ➪ Units) to set a unit, such as inches, for automatically scaling drawingswhen they are inserted from the DesignCenter

You can insert blocks in two ways:

✦ If you drag the block’s icon onto the drawing area, AutoCAD uses Autoscaling,which compares the current drawing’s units with those of the block andscales the block appropriately, using the value set in the Units dialog box.AutoCAD uses default scale and rotation

✦ If you double-click the block’s icon or right-click it and choose Insert Block,AutoCAD opens the Insert dialog box where you can specify the insertionpoint, scale, and rotation

Inserting raster images

A raster image is a bitmap graphic file You can insert raster images directly intoyour drawing — they don’t have to be within an AutoCAD drawing

See Chapter 27 for more information on raster images, including determiningwhich type of files you can import, attaching images, clipping images, and control-ling how they are displayed

To attach a raster image, drag its icon onto the drawing area AutoCAD prompts youfor an insertion point, scale, and rotation angle on the command line

Knowing the appropriate scale of an image before inserting it is often hard Whenyou move the cursor at the Specify scale factor or [Unit] <1>:prompt, you can see a bounding box that will help you visualize the resulting size

Tip Cross-

Reference

AutoCAD does not check for duplicate layer names If you try to insert a layer withthe same name as a layer in your current drawing, you see a message: Layer(s)added Duplicate definitions will be ignored.You should check forduplicate layer names before trying to insert layers from the DesignCenter.

Inserting content from DC Online

The new DC Online tab provides access to online resources, including standardparts and manufacturers’ information Figure 26-3 shows the outline of the DCOnline content To insert any content, select it and drag it into your drawing Followthe prompts for insertion point and so on

Figure 26-3: The DC Online tab of the DesignCenter offers a large

selection of content that you can drag into your drawing

Controlling the DesignCenter display

The DesignCenter provides several controls that help you manage its display

A great feature of the DesignCenter is the preview pane Click Preview on theDesignCenter toolbar to open this pane Then select the item in the contentpane You may or may not see a preview of a block (The new Block Definition dia-log box specifically lets you create a preview icon.) Usually, you will see a preview

of drawings and raster images No previews exist for layers, linetypes, text styles,and so on

If you saved a description with a block, select the block in the content paneand click Description on the DesignCenter toolbar to see the description.

To set the view, choose Views from the DesignCenter toolbar The drop-downarrow lets you choose from four types of displays: large icons, small icons, list,and details You can only see details for drawings and other files — AutoCAD dis-plays their size and type

If you make changes in the structure of a folder while the DesignCenter is open, forexample by deleting a drawing using Windows Explorer, right-click the navigation orcontent pane and choose Refresh AutoCAD re-reads the data and refreshes the list

To dock the DesignCenter, right-click the title bar and choose Allow Docking Thendrag the DesignCenter window to the left or right of your AutoCAD window Tocollapse the DesignCenter down to its title bar when you’re not using it, right-clickthe title bar and choose Auto-hide; whenever you move the mouse cursor off theDesignCenter it collapses Just move the cursor back onto the title bar to expand itagain Sometimes the DesignCenter docks when you are trying to drag it past theAutoCAD application window To avoid unwanted docking, either uncheck AllowDocking on its title bar or press Ctrl as you drag

The drawings used in the following Step-by-Step exercise on using theDesignCenter, ab26-a.dwg and ab26-b.dwg, are in the Drawings folder of the

AutoCAD 2004 BibleCD-ROM

Step-by-Step: Using the DesignCenter

1 Open ab26a-dwgfrom the CD-ROM

2 Save the file as ab26-01.dwgin your AutoCAD Biblefolder This drawingneeds an updated set of layers and a title block It is shown in Figure 26-4

3. Choose DesignCenter from the Standard toolbar If the navigation pane isnot displayed, click Tree View Toggle on the DesignCenter toolbar

4 In the navigation pane, locate ab26-b.dwgon the CD-ROM Click its plus sign

5 Choose Blocks The ansi_dblock appears in the content pane Double-click

ansi_d Uncheck any Specify Onscreen check boxes and click OK

6 Do a Zoom Extents.

7 In the navigation pane, click Layers for ab26-b.dwg

8 In the content pane, click the first layer, press and hold Shift, and click the last

layer to select all the layers Drag them onto the drawing area AutoCADimports the layers

9 Save your drawing.

On the CD-ROM Tip

Figure 26-4: This drawing needs updated layers

and a title block

Thanks to Vladimir Sevastyanov of Ukraine for this drawing of

a gyrating swivel that feeds oil to an uncoiling machine used

in the cold rolling of metal.

Accessing Drawing Content with Tool Palettes

The Tool Palette is a tabbed window that contains drawings, blocks or hatches

AutoCAD provides three tabs with sample content Each tab is considered a rate tool palette within the Tool Palettes window Figure 26-5 shows the ToolPalettes window that comes with AutoCAD To open the Tool Palette, choose ToolPalettes on the Standard toolbar or press Ctrl+3

sepa-The Tool Palettes window is a new feature in AutoCAD 2004, designed to makeinserting often-used blocks and hatches easier and quicker

Tools palettes are meant to be customized with your own content You can easilycreate new tabs with your own blocks After you create the tab, you can drag theblocks into your drawing Each block (or hatch) is called a tool

The three types of tool palettes are:

✦ Drawing: Contains drawings that are inserted as blocks You cannot change

the name of the block

✦ Block: Contains blocks You can change the name of the block.

✦ Hatch: Contains hatch patterns.

New

Feature

Figure 26-5: The standard Tool Palettes has

three tabs

Creating a new tool palette

When you create a new tool palette, you add a tab to the Tool Palette window Theeasiest way to create a new tool palette is from the DesignCenter, discussed in theprevious section of this chapter When you use this method, you simultaneouslycreate not only the tool palette, but also its contents To create a new tool palette:

1 Open the DesignCenter (choose DesignCenter from the Standard toolbar).

2 In the tree view or content area, navigate to a folder, drawing file, block icon,

or hatch icon

3 Right-click the item and choose Create Tool Palette.

• If you select a folder, choose Create Tool Palette of Blocks

• If you select a hatch file (*.pat), choose Create Tool Palette of HatchPatterns

AutoCAD works for a few seconds and then creates the new tool palette tab, playing each drawing, block, or hatch on the tab:

dis-✦ If you chose a folder, the tab includes all drawing files in the folder

✦ If you chose a drawing file, the tab includes all blocks in the drawing

✦ If you chose a block icon, the tab includes the block

✦ If you chose a hatch icon, the tab includes all hatches in the patfile (SeeChapter 31 for more information about creating hatch patterns in patfiles.)

To create an empty tool palette, right-click in the Tool Palette window and chooseNew Tool Palette A label appears so that you can name the tool palette Type thename and press Enter.

You can also create a new, empty tool palette by using the Customize dialog box

See Chapter 29 for details

Adding content to a tool palette

After you create a tool palette, you can add drawings, blocks, or hatches to it,depending on the type of tool palette you have created The most common method

is to use the DesignCenter:

1 Open the DesignCenter (choose DesignCenter from the Standard toolbar).

2 In the tree view or content area, navigate to a drawing, block, or hatch.

3 Drag the item onto the tool palette, as shown in Figure 26-6.

Figure 26-6: Dragging a drawing from the DesignCenter to a tool palette

You can also move or copy a tool (drawing, block, or hatch) from one tool palette

to another Follow these steps:

1 Display the tool palette (tab) that contains the item you want to move.

2 Right-click the item and choose Cut (to move it) or Copy (to copy it).

This drawing

is being dragged here

Cross-Reference

3 Display the tool palette (tab) where you want to place the item.

4 Right-click any blank area on the tab and choose Paste.

You can use this method to consolidate tabs or re-organize the tools on a tab

Setting tool properties

Each tool on a tool palette has properties that you can set The properties varyslightly depending on whether the tool is a hatch, drawing, or block The propertiesspecify how that tool is inserted into a drawing By using properties, you canensure that any drawing, block, or hatch is inserted with the proper scale, color,and so on To set the properties of a tool, right-click it and choose Properties toopen the Tool Properties dialog box Figure 26-7 shows the Tool Properties dialogbox for a block tool and a hatch tool

Figure 26-7: The Tool Properties dialog box for a block and a hatch pattern

The top of the Tool Properties dialog box displays the name of the drawing, block,

or hatch and a description, if one has been saved The middle section of the dialogbox contains Insert or Pattern properties and the bottom of the dialog box displaysGeneral properties:

✦ Insert properties: Defines how a block or drawing is inserted — scale,

rota-tion, and whether or not the item is exploded when inserted (For informationabout inserting blocks, see Chapter 18.)

✦ Pattern properties: Defines how a hatch pattern is inserted — angle, scale,

spacing, ISO pen width, and whether or not the hatch pattern is doubled (Forinformation about inserting hatch patterns, see Chapter 16.)

✦ General properties: Defines drawing properties that are used for the item —

layer, color, linetype, lineweight, and plot style These properties are applied

to the item, overriding the current drawing settings

The General properties all default to Use Current Change the General propertieswhen you want an item to always have a particular color or layer, for example

To specify any property, click the right column for that property Either type a newvalue or choose from the drop-down list After you’re done, click OK to close theTool Properties dialog box

Moving, deleting, and renaming tools and tool palettes

You can change the order of both tool palettes (tabs) in the Tool Palette windowand of tools on a palette

✦ To move a tool on a palette, drag the tool A horizontal cursor appears toshow you where the tool will go

✦ To move a palette, right-click the tab itself and choose Move Up or Move Down

To delete a tool palette, right-click the palette and choose Delete Tool Palette Awarning message is displayed, explaining that you cannot recover the deleted toolpalette unless you export it to a file To delete a tool on a tool palette, right-click thetool and choose Delete Tool Here, too, you need to confirm the deletion when awarning message appears

To export a tool palette, you save it to a file You can then share tool palettes withothers You import and export tool palettes on the Tool Palettes tab on theCustomize dialog box See Chapter 29 for details

To rename a tool palette, right-click the palette and choose Rename Tool Palette

To rename a tool, right-click the tool and choose Rename In both situations, type

a new name and press Enter

Updating tools

If a drawing, block, or hatch changes, its icon does not automatically change tomatch In this situation, the icon will not accurately represent its tool To update

an icon, use one of the following methods:

✦ Right-click the tool and choose Properties Click the Source File (or PatternName) item and use the Ellipsis button to choose any other file, block, orhatch pattern, and then immediately choose the correct item again Thisupdates the icon for the tool

✦ Delete the tool and re-insert it using the DesignCenter

If you move the source file for a tool, you need to update the tool with the newlocation:

1 Right-click the tool and choose Properties.

2 In the Tool Properties dialog box, use the Ellipsis button to choose the file

again

3 Click OK.

Setting tool palette options

To work most comfortably with the Tool Palette window, you can adjust its displayoptions Right-click any empty area on the tool palette (except the tab itself) andchoose from the following options:

✦ Allow Docking: Enables you to dock the tool palette on the left or right side

of the AutoCAD drawing area

✦ Auto-hide: Collapses the tool palette to just its title bar when the mouse

cur-sor is off the Tool Palette window Pass the mouse curcur-sor back over the titlebar to expand the tool palette again You can store the collapsed tool paletteoutside the AutoCAD application window (if it is not fully maximized)

✦ Transparency: Opens the Transparency dialog box, shown in Figure 26-8.

When the tool palette is transparent, you can see the drawing through it Youcan specify the amount of transparency or turn it off

Figure 26-8: The Transparency dialog box

Transparency is only available when hardware acceleration is off (which it is bydefault) Hardware acceleration is governed by your computer’s video card andhelps to speed up the display If you want to use the transparency feature, you canuse software acceleration instead (and see if it affects your display speed) ChooseTools ➪ Options and click the System tab In the Current 3D Graphics Display sec-tion, click Properties In the Acceleration section, choose Software Click Apply &Close and then click OK to close the Options dialog box Also, transparency is onlyavailable when the palette is not docked and is not available if you are usingWindows NT

Note

✦ View Options: Opens the View Options dialog box, shown in Figure 26-9 You

can change the size and layout of the tool icons on a tool palette Use theslider to change the size of the icons Choose from the following displaystyles:

• Icon only: You see the icon displaying the drawing, block, or hatch, but

Figure 26-9: The View Options dialog box

If you have docking enabled, but want to drag the Tool Palettes window withoutdocking it, press Ctrl as you drag

Using a tool palette

Inserting a tool from a tool palette is as simple as dragging the tool onto the ing area Drag hatch patterns inside any enclosed shape The tool is inserted usingthe properties specified in the Tool Properties dialog box (discussed previously inthis section)

draw-If you want the flexibility to insert a block or hatch with more than one setting, youcan insert more than one copy of the item onto a tool palette For example, you can

Tip

place two copies of a hatch pattern on a tool palette and set their properties to ferent spacing You would then rename the tools to make the differences clear, forexample, lightning1and lightning 2.

dif-The drawings used in the following Step-by-Step exercise on creating and using atool palette, ab26-c.dwg and ab26-d.dwg, are in the Drawings folder of the

AutoCAD 2004 BibleCD-ROM

Step-by-Step: Creating and Using a Tool Palette

1 Open ab26-c-dwgfrom the CD-ROM

2 Save the file as ab26-02.dwgin your AutoCAD Biblefolder This drawingneeds some blocks and a hatch pattern inserted It is shown in Figure 26-10

3 Choose Tools ➪ Tool Palettes Window.

4 Choose DesignCenter from the Standard toolbar In the DesignCenter’s Folder

List, navigate to the Drawing folder of your CD-ROM and click the plus sign tothe left of ab26-d.dwg Click the Blocks item to display the two blocks (post

and post-structural) in the content area on the right side of theDesignCenter

Figure 26-10: This back porch needs some columns, which are blocks, as well as

6 From the content area of the DesignCenter, drag each of the blocks to the new

tool palette An icon appears on the tool palette for each block

7 In the Folder List of the DesignCenter, navigate to acad.pat, which containshatch patterns Click acad.patto display the hatch patterns in the contentarea

By default, acad.pat is in \Documents and Settings\[user name]\

Application Data\Autodesk\AutoCAD 2004\R16.0\enu\Support ever, your location may be different, depending on your operating system and cus-tomization To find the location of acad.pat, choose Tools ➪ Options and clickthe Files tab Double-click the first item, Support File Search Path, to display thelocation of the support files

How-8 Drag User Defined, one of the hatch patterns near the end of the list, to the

tool palette (This hatch pattern is equivalent to choosing User Defined as theHatch Type in the Boundary Hatch and Fill dialog box See Chapter 16 fordetails.) The tool palette now has three items on it

9 Right-click the User Defined hatch icon and choose Properties to open the

Tool Properties dialog box You want to specify settings so that this hatch tern will look like scored concrete for the porch floor

pat-10 In the Tool Properties dialog box, make the following changes and then

click OK:

• For the Angle, type 45.

• For the Spacing, type 2' (or 24).

• Click the Double item and then the arrow at the right side of the row

Choose Yes from the drop-down list

• Click the Layer item and choose FLOOR from the drop-down list (Youmay have to drag the bottom edge of the dialog box down to see thelayer item.)

11 Drag the User Definedhatch icon to 1in Figure 26-10 Then do the same for

2and 3 These areas are hatched, as shown in Figure 26-11

12 Choose Zoom Window from the Zoom flyout on the Standard toolbar and

zoom into the central area of the drawing so that you can still see the doubledoors at the bottom and the steps at the top

13 Click the posticon At the Specify insertion point:prompt, pick 4inFigure 26-10 Click the post-structuralicon At the prompt, pick the upper-right corner of the post block, as shown in Figure 26-11

14 Click the posticon At the prompt, pick 5in Figure 26-10 Use the same nique to place the post-structuralicon at the upper-right corner of thepost block (The posts would then need to be spaced and mirrored to theother side of the porch, but these tasks are not necessary for this exercise.)

tech-Note

15 Right-click the tool palette’s title bar If Allow Docking is checked, click Allow

Docking to uncheck this item If Auto-hide is not checked, click Auto-hide toenable this feature Move the mouse off the tool palette It collapses to its titlebar Move the tool palette to the right side of your screen

16 If you are working on someone else’s computer, you should delete the tool

palette Move the cursor over the palette to display it Right-click any blankarea and choose Delete Tool Palette Click Yes to confirm the deletion

17 Save your drawing It should look like Figure 26-11.

Figure 26-11: The drawing now has hatches and blocks inserted from the tool

palette

Setting Standards for Drawings

One person rarely has complete control over a drawing You may xref in otherdrawings, or others may xref in your drawings Several people may work on onedrawing You may send a drawing to a client who may work on it as well More andmore, working in AutoCAD is becoming a collaborative effort — and it can get out

of control

One way to get in control is to set standards for drawings — and issue those dards so that everyone involved has access to them If you don’t have agreed-uponstandards, you not only waste time changing layers, text styles, and so on, but yourdrawings get very complicated You should set standards for the following:

stan-✦ Drawing names and property summaries

✦ Blocks, including names, layers, and insertion points

✦ Layers, including uses, names, colors, linetypes, and lineweights

✦ Text styles, including uses, names, and properties

✦ Dimension styles and tolerances, if any

If you use coded names, such as 97GR134.dwg, you may want to keep a list of thedrawing names with a description of the drawing next to it A key that explains thecoding system helps as well

Using symbol libraries

One aspect of setting and maintaining standards is the use of a symbol (block)library A symbol library is simply a drawing file containing blocks AutoCAD 2004comes with several sample symbol libraries that you can drag into your currentdrawing using the Tool Palettes window Of course, as explained earlier in this chap-ter, you will want to create your own

See Chapter 18 for information on using the DesignCenter specifically for blocksand for a discussion of creating your own symbol libraries

Using the CAD Standards tools

The CAD Standards tools facilitate the process of checking drawings against dards You can check the following in a drawing: