AutoCAD 2007 For Dummies E-Book

David Byrnes

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Wissenschaft und neue Technologien
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 590

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2011

Beschreibung

AutoCAD 2007 is a premiere computer-aided designing program that lets you organize the objects you draw, their properties, and their files. It also helps you create great-looking models. But it's not always easy to figure out how to perform these functions, and many users end up missing out on AutoCAD's full potential. AutoCAD 2007 For Dummies will show you how to perform these tasks and more! This hands-on guide lets you discover how to navigate around all the complications and start creating cool drawings in no time. Soon you'll have the tools you need to use DWG, set up drawings, add text, and work with lines, as well as: * Draw a base plate with rectangles and circles * Organize a successful template * Zoom and pan with glass and hand * Use the AutoCAD design center * Navigate through your 3-D drawing projects * Plot layout, lineweights, and colors * Design block definitions * Slice and dice your drawings to create new designs * Create a Web format using AutoCAD This book also features suggestions and tips on how to touch up your creations as well as ways to swap drawing data with other people and programs. Written in a friendly, straightforward tone that doesn't try to overwhelm you, AutoCAD 2007 For Dummies shows you the fun and easy way to draw precise 2-D and 3-D drawings!

Leseprobe

AutoCAD® 2007 For Dummies®

by David Byrnes and Mark Middlebrook

AutoCAD® 2007 For Dummies®

Published byWiley Publishing, Inc.111 River St.Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774www.wiley.com

Copyright © 2006 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

Published simultaneously in Canada

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Library of Congress Control Number: 2006920623

ISBN-13: 978-0-471-78649-8

ISBN-10: 0-471-78649-7

Manufactured in the United States of America

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About the Authors

David Byrnes is one of those grizzled old-timers you’ll find mentioned every so often in AutoCAD 2007 For Dummies. He began his drafting career on the boards in 1979 and discovered computer-assisted doodling shortly thereafter. He first learned AutoCAD with version 1.4, around the time when personal computers switched from steam to diesel power. Dave is based in Vancouver, British Columbia, and has been an AutoCAD consultant and trainer for 15 years. Dave is a contributing editor for Cadalyst magazine and has been a contributing author to ten books on AutoCAD. He teaches AutoCAD and other computer graphics applications at Emily Carr Institute of Art + Design and British Columbia Institute of Technology in Vancouver. Dave has tech edited six AutoCAD For Dummies titles. AutoCAD 2007 For Dummies is his second go-round as coauthor of this title.

Mark Middlebrook used to be an engineer but gave it up when he discovered that he couldn’t handle a real job. Since 1988, he has been principal of Daedalus Consulting, an independent CAD and computer consulting company in Oakland, California. (In case you wondered, Daedalus was the guy in ancient Greek legend who built the labyrinth on Crete. Mark named his company after Daedalus before he realized that few of his clients would be able to pronounce it and even fewer could spell it.) After having made mischief in the CAD world for 17 years, Mark now has embarked on a career in the wine world. He sells and writes about wine for Paul Marcus Wines in Oakland and develops wine-related Web sites for CruForge.

Dedication

From Dave: To Anna and Delia, the two women in my life, who remind me there are other things besides keyboards and mice (and sometimes they have to try REALLY hard).

From Mark: To Puck and Pretzel, two absolute AutoCAD dummies who never cease to inspire and amuse. It was during walks in the woods with them that I originally worked out some of the details of these chapters. I’m pretty sure that Puck could learn AutoCAD, if only he could figure out how to manipulate a mouse. Pretzel, on the other hand, is too interested in squirrels to bother with mice.

Authors’ Acknowledgments

Mark thanks Bud Smith, who initiated this book eight editions ago, brought him in on it along the way, and eventually handed it over to him in toto. Dave in turn thanks Mark for bringing him on board as coauthor, and for asking him to tech edit the book for the last five editions.

Thanks too to two colleagues and friends at Autodesk, Shaan Hurley and Bud Schroeder, who never seem to mind being asked even the dumbest questions.

We both thank Terri Varveris and Tiffany Ma, who shepherded the project through the development process; their enthusiasm and infectious energy have helped make each new edition more than just an obligatory update. It was also a great pleasure to work with project editor Mark Enochs and copy editor Heidi Unger. And by no means least, but someone has to bring up the rear, thanks to Lee Ambrosius for taking on the tech-editing job. Lee’s expertise is well known and respected in the AutoCAD community, and we’re delighted to have him with us.

Publisher’s Acknowledgments

We’re proud of this book; please send us your comments through our online registration form located at www.dummies.com/register/.

Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following:

Acquisitions, Editorial, and Media Development

Project Editor: Mark Enochs

Acquisitions Editors: Terri Varveris, Tiffany Ma

Copy Editor: Heidi Unger

Technical Editor: Lee Ambrosius

Editorial Manager: Leah Cameron

Media Development Coordinator: Laura Atkinson

Media Project Supervisor: Laura Moss

Media Development Manager: Laura VanWinkle

Editorial Assistant: Amanda Foxworth

Cartoons: Rich Tennant (www.the5thwave.com)

Composition Services

Project Coordinator: Michael Kruzil

Layout and Graphics: Andrea Dahl, Denny Hager, Stephanie D. Jumper, Barbara Moore, Heather Ryan, Ron Terry

Proofreaders: Leeann Harney, Jessica Kramer, Mary Lagu

Indexer: Techbooks

Publishing and Editorial for Technology Dummies

Richard Swadley, Vice President and Executive Group Publisher

Andy Cummings, Vice President and Publisher

Mary Bednarek, Executive Acquisitions Director

Mary C. Corder, Editorial Director

Publishing for Consumer Dummies

Diane Graves Steele, Vice President and Publisher

Joyce Pepple, Acquisitions Director

Composition Services

Gerry Fahey, Vice President of Production Services

Debbie Stailey, Director of Composition Services

Contents

Title

Introduction

What’s Not in This Book

Who Are — and Aren’t — You?

How This Book Is Organized

Icons Used in This Book

A Few Conventions — Just in Case

Part I : AutoCAD 101

Chapter 1: Introducing AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT

Why AutoCAD?

The Importance of Being DWG

Seeing the LT

It’s CAD Heaven with 2007

Chapter 2: Le Tour de AutoCAD 2007

AutoCAD Does Windows

And They’re Off: AutoCAD’s Opening Screen

Keeping Tabs on Palettes

Driving Miss AutoCAD

Fun with F1

Chapter 3: A Lap Around the CAD Track

A Simple Setup

Drawing a (Base) Plate

Get a Closer Look with Zoom and Pan

Modify to Make It Merrier

Follow the Plot

Chapter 4: Setup for Success

A Setup Roadmap

A Template for Success

Making the Most of Model Space

Plotting a Layout in Paper Space

Making Templates Your Own

Part II : Let There Be Lines

Chapter 5: Get Ready to Draw

Drawing and Editing with AutoCAD

Managing Your Properties

Using AutoCAD DesignCenter

Precise-liness Is Next to CAD-liness

Chapter 6: Where to Draw the Line

Introducing the AutoCAD Drawing Commands

The Straight and Narrow: Lines, Polylines, and Polygons

(Throwing) Curves

Scoring Points

Chapter 7: Edit for Credit

Commanding and Selecting

Grab It

Perfecting Selecting

Ready, Get Set, Edit!

Get a Grip

Chapter 8: A Zoom with a View

Zoom and Pan with Glass and Hand

A View by Any Other Name . . .

Looking around in Layout Land

Degenerating and Regenerating

Chapter 9: On a 3D Spree

Which Way Is Up?

Entering the Third Dimension

Go Dashboarding!

Navigating in Three Dimensions

Going into Orbit

Hungry for More?

Part III : If Drawings Could Talk

Chapter 10: Text with Character

Getting Ready to Write

Using the Same Old Line

Saying More in Multiline Text

Gather Round the Tables

Checking Out Your Spelling

Chapter 11: Entering New Dimensions

Discovering New Dimensions

Doing Dimensions with Style(s)

Drawing Dimensions

Editing Dimensions

Pointy-Headed Leaders

Chapter 12: Down the Hatch

Hatch . . . Hatch . . . Hatchoo

Pushing the Boundary (of) Hatch

Editing Hatch Objects

Chapter 13: The Plot Thickens

You Say Printing, I Say Plotting

A Simple Plot

Plotting the Layout of the Land

Plotting Lineweights and Colors

It’s a (Page) Setup!

Continuing the Plot Dialog

Troubles with Plotting

Part IV : Share and Share Alike

Chapter 14: Playing Blocks and Rasteroids

Rocking with Blocks

Going External

Blocks, Xrefs, and Drawing Organization

Mastering the Raster

A DWF Is Just a DWF

Chapter 15: Drawing on the Internet

The Internet and AutoCAD: An Overview

Sending Strategies

Design Web Format — Not Just for the Web

The Drawing Protection Racket

Part V : The Part of Tens

Chapter 16: Ten Ways to Do No Harm

Be Precise

Control Properties by Layer

Know Your Drawing Scale Factor

Know Your Space

Explode with Care

Don’t Cram Your Geometry

Freeze Instead of Erase

Use CAD Standards

Save Drawings Frequently

Back Up Drawings Regularly

Chapter 17: Ten Ways to Swap Drawing Data with Other People and Programs

DWG

DXF

DWF

PDF

WMF

BMP, JPEG, TIFF, and Other Raster Formats

Windows Clipboard

OLE

Screen Capture

TXT and RTF

Introduction

It’s amazing to think that AutoCAD came into being over two decades ago, at a time when most people thought that personal computers weren’t capable of industrial-strength tasks like CAD. (The acronym stands for Computer-Aided Drafting, Computer-Aided Design, or both, depending on whom you talk to.) It’s almost as amazing that, more than 20 years after its birth, AutoCAD remains the king of the microcomputer CAD hill by a tall margin. Many competing CAD programs have come to challenge AutoCAD; many have fallen, and a few are still around. One hears rumblings that the long-term future of CAD may belong to special-purpose, 3D-based software such as the Autodesk Inventor and Revit programs. Whether those rumblings amplify into a roar remains to be seen, but for the present and the near future anyway, AutoCAD is where the CAD action is.

In its evolution, AutoCAD has grown more complex, in part to keep up with the increasing complexity of the design and drafting processes that AutoCAD is intended to serve. It’s not enough just to draw nice-looking lines anymore. If you want to play CAD with the big boys and girls, you need to organize the objects you draw, their properties, and the files where they reside in appropriate ways. You need to coordinate your CAD work with other people in your office who will be working on or making use of the same drawings. You need to be savvy about shipping drawings around via the Internet.

AutoCAD 2007 provides the tools for doing all these things, but it’s not always easy to figure out which hammer to pick up or which nail to bang on first. With this book, you have an excellent chance of creating a presentable, usable, printable, and sharable drawing on your first or second try without putting a T square through your computer screen in frustration.

What’s Not in This Book

Unlike many other For Dummies books, this one does tell you to consult the official software documentation sometimes. AutoCAD is just too big and complicated for a single book to attempt to describe it completely.

AutoCAD is also too big and complicated for us to cover every feature. We don’t address advanced topics like database connectivity, customization, 3D object creation, and programming in the interest of bringing you a book of a reasonable size — one that you’ll read rather than stick on your shelf with those other thousand-page tomes!

Autodesk likes to keep its users (and us authors!) guessing about new features in future versions of the software. For the previous edition of this book, we removed the chapter on 3D in order to make room for a new “A Lap around the CAD Track” chapter. We figured that, really, most people were using AutoCAD for 2D drafting, and anyway, there possibly were (gasp!) better, more modern programs for doing 3D than our beloved 20-plus-year old classic.

Wouldn’t you know it? Autodesk has revamped its 3D features so thoroughly that they’re not only logical and intuitive — they’re downright fun! So with this edition, we restore a mostly all-new 3D chapter. Something had to go to accommodate, so this time we’ve removed the previous edition’s chapter on sheet sets, replacing it with a sidebar in Chapter 13. Of course, now we’re expecting the next version of AutoCAD to revamp the sheet set feature so thoroughly that it’s not only logical and intuitive, it’ll be downright fun. And then we’ll have to find something else to cut!

This book focuses on AutoCAD 2007 and addresses its slightly less-capable, much lower-cost sibling, AutoCAD LT 2007. We do occasionally mention differences with previous versions, going back to the highly popular AutoCAD Release 14, so that everyone has some context and upgraders can more readily understand the differences. We also mention the important differences between full AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT, so that you’ll know what you — or your LT-using colleagues — are missing. This book does not cover the discipline-specific features in AutoCAD-based products such as Autodesk Architectural Desktop, except for some general discussion in Chapter 1, but most of the information in this book applies to the general-purpose AutoCAD features in the AutoCAD 2007–based versions of those programs as well.

Who Are — and Aren’t — You?

AutoCAD has a large, loyal, and dedicated group of long-time users. This book is not for the sort of people who have been using AutoCAD for a decade, who plan their vacation time around Autodesk University, or who consider 1,000-page-plus technical tomes about AutoCAD as pleasure reading. This book is for people who want to get going quickly with AutoCAD, but who also know the importance of developing proper CAD techniques from the beginning.

However, you do need to have some idea of how to use your computer system before tackling AutoCAD — and this book. You need to have a computer system with AutoCAD or AutoCAD LT (preferably the 2007 version). A printer or plotter and a connection to the Internet will be big helps, too.

You also need to know how to use Windows to copy and delete files, create a folder, and find a file. You need to know how to use a mouse to select (highlight) or to choose (activate) commands, how to close a window, and how to minimize and maximize windows. Make sure that you’re familiar with the basics of your operating system before you start with AutoCAD.

How This Book Is Organized

Appearances can be deceptive. For example, if you saw the apparently random piles of stuff that covered the authors’ desks while they were writing this book, you might wonder how they could possibly organize a paragraph, let alone an entire book. But each of us (given some concerted thought) knows exactly where to put our hands on that list of new dimension variables, or that bag of 1/2" binder clips, or the rest of that bagel and cream cheese we started at coffee break.

We hope you’ll find that the book also reflects some concerted thought about how to present AutoCAD in a way that’s both easy-to-dip-into and smoothly-flowing-from-beginning-to-end.

The organization of this book into parts — collections of related chapters — is one of the most important, uh, parts of this book. You really can get to know AutoCAD one piece at a time, and each part represents a group of closely related topics. The order of parts also says something about priority; yes, you have our permission to ignore the stuff in later parts until you’ve mastered most of the stuff in the early ones. This kind of building-block approach can be especially valuable in a program as powerful as AutoCAD.

The following sections describe the parts that the book breaks down into.

Part I: AutoCAD 101

Need to know your way around the AutoCAD screen? Why does AutoCAD even exist, anyway? What are all the different AutoCAD-based products that Autodesk sells, and should you be using one of them — for example, AutoCAD LT — instead of AutoCAD? Is everything so slooow because it’s supposed to be slow, or do you have too wimpy a machine to use this wonder of modern-day computing? And why do you have to do this stuff in the first place?

Part I answers all these questions — and more. This part also includes what may seem like a great deal of excruciating detail about setting up a new drawing in AutoCAD. But what’s even more excruciating is to do your setup work incorrectly and then feel as though AutoCAD is fighting you every step of the way. With a little drawing setup work done in advance, it won’t.

Part II: Let There Be Lines

In this part, it’s time for some essential concepts, including object properties and CAD precision techniques. We know that you’re raring to make some drawings, but if you don’t get a handle on this stuff early on, you’ll be terminally confused when you try to draw and edit objects. If you want to make drawings that look good, plot good, and are good, read this stuff!

After the concepts preamble, the bulk of this part covers the trio of activities that you’ll probably spend most of your time in AutoCAD doing: drawing objects, editing them, and zooming and panning to see them better on the screen. These are the things that you do in order to create the geometry — that is, the CAD representations of the objects in the real world that you’re designing. This part of the book ends by explaining how to navigate around in an AutoCAD 3D model, and how to change its visual appearance on-screen. By the end of Part II, you should be pretty good at geometry, even if your ninth-grade math teacher told you otherwise.

Part III: If Drawings Could Talk

CAD drawings do not live on lines alone — most of them require quite a bit of text, dimensioning, and hatching in order to make the design intent clear to the poor chump who has to build your amazing creation. (Whoever said “a picture is worth a thousand words” must not have counted up the number of words on the average architectural drawing!) This part shows you how to add these essential features to your drawings.

After you’ve gussied up your drawing with text, dimensions, and hatching, you’ll probably want to create a snapshot of it to show off to your client, contractor, or grandma. Normal people call this process printing, but CAD people call it plotting. Whatever you decide to call it, we show you how to do it.

Part IV: Share and Share Alike

A good CAD user, like a good kindergartner, plays well with others. AutoCAD encourages this behavior with a host of drawing- and data-sharing features. Blocks, external reference files, and raster images encourage reuse of parts of drawings, entire drawings, and bitmap image files. AutoCAD’s Internet features enable sharing of drawings well beyond your hard disk and local network.

The drawing and data-sharing features in AutoCAD take you way beyond old-style, pencil-and-paper design and drafting. After you’ve discovered how to apply the techniques in this part, you’ll be well on your way to full CAD-nerdhood (you may want to warn your family beforehand).

Part V: The Part of Tens

This part contains guidelines that minimize your chances of really messing up drawings (your own or others’) and techniques for swapping drawings with other people and accessing them from other computer programs. There’s a lot of meat packed into these two chapters — juicy tidbits from years of drafting, experimentation, and fist-shaking at things that don’t work right — not to mention years of compulsive list-making. We hope that you find that these lists help you get on the right track quickly and stay there.

Icons Used in This Book

This icon tells you that herein lies a pointed insight that can save you time and trouble as you use AutoCAD. In many cases, tip paragraphs act as a funnel on AutoCAD’s impressive but sometimes overwhelming flexibility: After telling you all the ways that you can do something, we tell you the way that you should do it in most cases.

The Technical Stuff icon points out places where we delve a little more deeply into AutoCAD’s inner workings or point out something that most people don’t need to know about most of the time. These paragraphs definitely are not required reading the first time through, so if you come to one of them at a time when you’ve reached your techie detail threshold, feel free to skip over it.

This icon tells you how to stay out of trouble when living a little close to the edge. Failure to heed its message may have unpleasant consequences for you and your drawing — or maybe for both of you.

There’s a lot to remember when you’re using AutoCAD, so we’ve remembered to remind you about some of those things that you should be remembering. These paragraphs usually refer to a crucial point earlier in the chapter or in a previous chapter. So if you’re reading sequentially, a remember paragraph serves as a friendly reminder. If you’re not reading sequentially, this kind of paragraph may help you realize that you need to review a central concept or technique before proceeding.

This icon points to new stuff in AutoCAD 2007. It’s mostly designed for those of you who are somewhat familiar with a previous version of AutoCAD and want to be alerted to what’s new in this version. New AutoCAD users starting out their CAD working lives with AutoCAD 2007 will find this stuff interesting, too — especially when they can show off their new book-learnin’ to the grizzled AutoCAD veterans in the office who don’t yet know about all the cool, new features.

This icon highlights differences between AutoCAD LT and AutoCAD. If you’re using AutoCAD LT, you’ll find out what you’re missing compared to “full” AutoCAD. If your friend is using LT, you’ll know where to look to find stuff in AutoCAD to brag about.

A Few Conventions — Just in Case

You can probably figure out for yourself all the information in this section, but here are the details just in case.

Text you type into the program at the command line, in a dialog box, in a text box, and so on appears in boldface type. Examples of AutoCAD prompts appear in a special typeface, as does any other text in the book that echoes a message, a word, or one or more lines of text that actually appear on-screen. Sequences of prompts that appear in the AutoCAD command line area have a shaded background, like so:

Specify lower left corner or [ON/OFF] <0.0000,0.0000>:

(Many of the figures — especially in Chapters 6 and 7 — also show AutoCAD command line sequences that demonstrate AutoCAD’s prompts and example responses.)

Often in this book, you see phrases such as “choose File⇒Save As from the menu bar.” The funny little arrow (⇒) separates the main menu name from the specific command on that menu. In this example, you open the File menu and choose the Save As command. If you know another way to start the same command (in this example, type SAVEAS and press Enter), you’re welcome to do it that way instead.

Many AutoCAD commands have shortcut (fewer-letter) versions for the benefit of those who like to type commands at the AutoCAD command prompt. In this book, we format command names in uppercase letters. If a command has a shortcut, we include the shortcut in parentheses at the first reference to the command so that you become familiar with the shortcuts and can use them if you want to. So when you see an instruction like “run the DIMLINEAR (DLI) command to draw a linear dimension,” it means “for a linear dimension, type DIMLINEAR (or DLI for short) at the command line, and then press the Enter key.”

Part I

AutoCAD 101

In this part . . .

AutoCAD is more than just another application program; it’s a complete environment for drafting and design. So if you’re new to AutoCAD, you need to know several things to get off to a good start — especially how to use the command line area and set up your drawing properly. These key techniques are described in this part of the book.

If you’ve used earlier versions of AutoCAD, you’ll be most interested in the high points of the new release, including some newer interface components. The lowdown on what’s new is here, too.

Chapter 1

Introducing AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT

In This Chapter

Getting the AutoCAD advantage

Using AutoCAD and DWG files

Meeting the AutoCAD product family

Using AutoCAD LT instead of AutoCAD

Upgrading from a previous version

Welcome to the community whose members are the users of one of the weirdest, wackiest, and most wonderful computer programs in the world: AutoCAD. Maybe you’re one of the few remaining holdouts who continues to practice the ancient art of manual drafting with pencil and vellum. Or maybe you’re completely new to drafting and yearn for the wealth and fame (would we lead you on?) of the drafter’s life. Maybe you’re an engineer or architect who needs to catch up with the young CAD hotshots in your office. Or maybe you’re a full-time drafter whose fingers haven’t yet been pried away from your beloved drafting board. Maybe you tried to use AutoCAD a long time ago but gave up in frustration or just got rusty. Or maybe you currently use an older version, such as AutoCAD 2000 or even (if you like antiques) Release 14.

Whatever your current situation or motivation, we hope that you enjoy the process of becoming proficient with AutoCAD. Drawing with AutoCAD is challenging at first, but it’s a challenge worth meeting. CAD rewards those who think creatively about their work and look for ways to do it better. You can always find out more, discover a new trick, or improve the efficiency and quality of your drawing production.

AutoCAD first hit the bricks in the early 1980s, around the same time as the first IBM PCs. It was offered for a bewildering variety of operating systems, including CP/M (ask your granddad about that one!), various flavors of UNIX, and even Apple’s Macintosh. By far, the most popular of those early versions was for MS-DOS (your dad can tell you about that one). Eventually, Autodesk settled on Microsoft Windows as the sole operating system for AutoCAD. AutoCAD 2007 works with Windows XP — Professional, Home, and Tablet PC editions — and Windows 2000.

Because of AutoCAD’s MS-DOS heritage and its emphasis on efficiency for production drafters, it’s not the easiest program to master, but it has gotten easier and more consistent. AutoCAD is pretty well integrated into the Windows environment now, but you still bump into some vestiges of its MS-DOS legacy — especially the command line (that text area lurking at the bottom of the AutoCAD screen — see Chapter 2 for details). But even the command line — oops! command window — has gotten kinder and gentler in AutoCAD 2007. This book guides you around the bumps and minimizes the bruises.

Why AutoCAD?

AutoCAD has been around a long time — since 1982. AutoCAD ushered in the transition from reallyexpensive mainframe and minicomputer CAD systems costing tens of thousands of dollars to merely expensive microcomputer CAD programs costing a few thousand dollars.

AutoCAD is, first and foremost, a program to create technical drawings: drawings in which measurements and precision are important because these kinds of drawings often get used to build something. The drawings you create with AutoCAD must adhere to standards established long ago for hand-drafted drawings. The up-front investment to use AutoCAD is certainly more expensive than the investment needed to use pencil and paper, and the learning curve is much steeper, too. Why bother? The key reasons for using AutoCAD rather than pencil and paper are

Precision: Creating lines, circles, and other shapes of the exactly correct dimensions is easier with AutoCAD than with pencils.

Modifiability: Drawings are much easier to modify on the computer screen than on paper. CAD modifications are a lot cleaner, too.

Efficiency: Creating many kinds of drawings is faster with a CAD program — especially drawings that involve repetition, such as floor plans in a multistory building. But that efficiency takes skill and practice. If you’re an accomplished pencil-and-paper drafter, don’t expect CAD to be faster at first!

Figure 1-1 shows several kinds of drawings in AutoCAD 2007.

Figure 1-1: Cities, houses, little toy trains — what do you want to draw today?

Why choose AutoCAD? AutoCAD is just the starting point of a whole industry of software products designed to work with AutoCAD. Autodesk has helped this process along immensely by designing a series of programming interfaces to AutoCAD that other companies — and Autodesk itself — have used to extend the application. Some of the add-on products have become such winners that Autodesk acquired them and incorporated them into its own products. When you compare all the resources — including the add-ons, extensions, training courses, books, and so on — AutoCAD doesn’t have much PC CAD competition.

The Importance of Being DWG

To take full advantage of AutoCAD in your work environment, you need to be aware of the DWG file format, the format in which AutoCAD saves drawings.

In some cases, an older version of AutoCAD can’t open a DWG file that’s been saved by a newer version of AutoCAD.

A newer version of AutoCAD can always open files saved by an older version.

Some previous versions of AutoCAD can open files saved by the subsequent one or two versions. For example, AutoCAD 2004 can open DWG files saved by AutoCAD 2006. That’s because Autodesk didn’t change the DWG file format between AutoCAD 2004 and AutoCAD 2006. However, the drawing file format did change with AutoCAD 2007, so drawings created in the current version must be saved in an older format to be openable in AutoCAD 2006 and earlier.

You can use the Save As option in newer versions to save the file to some older DWG formats. In fact, AutoCAD 2007 will save as far back as AutoCAD Release 14, which was released in 1997!

Table 1-1 shows which versions (described later in this chapter) use which DWG file formats.

Working with AutoCAD is easier when your co-workers and colleagues in other companies all use the same version of AutoCAD and AutoCAD-related tools. That way, your DWG files, add-on tools, and even the details of your CAD knowledge can be mixed and matched among your workgroup and partners. In the real world, you may work with people — at least in other companies — who use AutoCAD versions as old as Release 14.

Many programs claim to be DWG compatible — that is, capable of converting data to and from AutoCAD’s DWG format. But achieving this compatibility is a difficult thing to do well. Even a small error in file conversion can have results ranging in severity from annoying to appalling. If you exchange DWG files with people who use other CAD programs, be prepared to spend time finding and fixing translation problems. This is even more of an issue when there’s a new DWG format, as there is for AutoCAD 2007.

AutoCAD-based applications

Autodesk has expanded AutoCAD into a whole product line of programs with AutoCAD as a base and specialized, discipline-specific add-ons built on top and included as one complete product. As an AutoCAD 2007 user, you’ll be looking for the 2007-compatible versions of these tools, which should appear a few months after AutoCAD 2007 ships. These discipline- specific flavors of AutoCAD include Autodesk Architectural Desktop, Autodesk Building Systems (Mechanical, Electrical, and Plumb-ing), AutoCAD Mechanical, Autodesk Map 3D, Autodesk Land Desktop, Autodesk Survey, and Autodesk Civil 3D.

To make matters even more confusing, Autodesk also offers two flavors of Autodesk Revit (Revit Building and Revit Structure) and Autodesk Inventor, software applications that compete with Architectural Desktop and Mechanical, respectively. Revit and Inventor are not based on AutoCAD; they sacrifice AutoCAD compatibility in favor of a more fundamental design- and 3D-oriented approach to CAD. Whether they ultimately replace the traditional AutoCAD-based applications remains to be seen. While many architectural firms have not made the leap to Revit, their mechanically-oriented colleagues do seem to be favoring Inventor over Mechanical Desktop.

In addition to the products from Autodesk, thousands of AutoCAD add-on products — both discipline-specific and general-purpose — are available from other software developers. These companion products are sometimes called third-party applications. Visit http://partnerproducts.autodesk.com for more information about what’s available.

Seeing the LT

AutoCAD LT is one of the best deals around, a shining example of the old 8 0/20 rule: roughly 80 percent of the capabilities of AutoCAD for roughly 20 percent of the money. (Actually, with recent price creep, it’s now more like a 7 5/25 rule!) Like AutoCAD, AutoCAD LT runs on mainstream Windows computers and doesn’t require any additional hardware devices. With AutoCAD LT, you can be a player in the world of AutoCAD, the world’s leading CAD program, for a comparatively low starting cost.

AutoCAD LT is a very close cousin to AutoCAD. Autodesk creates AutoCAD LT by starting with the AutoCAD program, taking out a few features to justify charging a lower price, adding a couple of features to enhance ease of use versus full AutoCAD, and testing the result. As a result, AutoCAD LT looks and works much like AutoCAD. The drawing screen and menus of the two programs are nearly identical. (LT is missing a few commands from the AutoCAD menus.)

In fact, the major difference between the programs has nothing to do with the programs themselves. The major difference is that AutoCAD LT lacks support for several customization and programming languages that are used to develop AutoCAD add-ons. So almost none of the add-on programs or utilities offered by Autodesk and others are available to LT users.

AutoCAD LT also has only limited 3D support. You can view and edit 3D objects in AutoCAD LT, so you can work with drawings created in AutoCAD that contain 3D objects. However, you cannot create true 3D objects in LT.

The lack of 3D object creation in LT is not as big a negative for many users as you may think. Despite a lot of hype from the computer press and CAD vendors (including Autodesk), 3D CAD remains a relatively specialized activity. The majority of people use CAD programs to create 2D drawings. It’s going to be interesting to see if AutoCAD 2007’s new 3D capabilities change anything.

Although you may hear claims that AutoCAD LT is easier to master and use than AutoCAD, the truth is that they’re about equally difficult or easy, depending on your NQ (nerd quotient). The LT learning curve doesn’t differ significantly from that of AutoCAD. AutoCAD was originally designed for maximum power and then modified somewhat to improve ease of use. AutoCAD LT shares this same heritage.

Fortunately, the minimal differences between LT and AutoCAD mean that after you have climbed that learning curve, you’ll have the same great view. You’ll have almost the full range of AutoCAD’s 2D drafting tools, and you’ll be able to exchange DWG files with AutoCAD users without data loss.

This book covers AutoCAD 2007, but almost all the information in it applies to AutoCAD LT 2007 as well. The icon that you see at the left of this paragraph highlights significant differences.

It’s CAD Heaven with 2007

If you’re upgrading from AutoCAD 2006 or another recent version and you work mostly or entirely in 2D, you’re probably already current with system requirements. If you want to use AutoCAD 2007’s new and enhanced 3D features productively, however, it may be time for some new wheels, as we describe next.

You should know the following before you upgrade from any older AutoCAD release:

Wash those old Windows: AutoCAD 2007 does not support older versions of Windows, such as Windows NT, 98, and Me. You must use Windows XP (Professional, Home, or Tablet PC) or Windows 2000, all patched with the latest service packs.

DWG file compatibility: The previous three releases shared a common DWG file format, but AutoCAD 2007 uses a new format. You have to use File⇒Save As to create DWG files for users of AutoCAD 2006 and earlier versions as far back as Release 14. (If you need to go even further back, you can save to the Release 12 DXF format — see Chapter 17 for instructions.)

Application compatibility: If you use third-party applications with a previous version of AutoCAD, they may not work with AutoCAD 2007. AutoCAD 2004, 2005, and 2006 applications, including those developed with the ARX (AutoCAD Runtime eXtension) and VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) programming interfaces, work with AutoCAD 2007; but older ARX and VBA applications don’t work.

Many LSP (AutoLISP) programs written for the last several versions of AutoCAD work with AutoCAD 2007.

Increased computer system requirements: For AutoCAD 2007, Autodesk recommends an 800 MHz Pentium III or better processor, at least 512MB of RAM, 1024 x 768 or higher display resolution with True Color graphics, 750MB of available hard disk space, an Internet connection, and Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 with Service Pack 1 or later.

Additional requirements for working in 3D: AutoCAD recommends a 3 GHz processor; 2GB of RAM; a workstation-class, OpenGL-capable graphics card with at least 128 MB of memory; and an additional 2GB of hard disk space beyond the 750 MB required for installation.

We find even the recommended system requirements on the minimal side. For example, Mark works at a screen resolution of 1280 x 1024, and Dave works at 1600 x 1200. The figures in this book were shot at a resolution of 1024 x 768, and as you can see, things can get pretty crowded at that resolution. We also think 512MB of RAM is on the low side for productive work — get at least a gigabyte.

Even though AutoCAD 2007 comes out a mere year after AutoCAD 2006, it sports some substantial and impressive new features, mainly in 3D modeling. Because AutoCAD 2007 For Dummies is designed as an introductory text, we don’t cover every in and out of 3D, but we do present some basics. Of course, 3D isn’t all that’s new — how would they get you to upgrade if you work only in 2D? Among the worthy new or improved features are

Save As: As we already mentioned, you can save a DWG all the way back to Release 14. This is a welcome change from the previous policy of letting users save back to only the two previous releases.

DWF Underlay: Similar to external references (see Chapter 14) with the added benefit of eliminating many of the bottlenecks involved with xrefs. Team workers will be very happy!

If you’re coming from AutoCAD 2005 or even earlier, you may have overlooked some new features introduced in AutoCAD 2006; these were the big changes in that version, and all have been tweaked in AutoCAD 2007:

Dynamic input: You can almost forget about the command window — command line. In addition to the command line, AutoCAD 2007 features a heads-up interface that displays command names, options, prompts, and values right next to the crosshairs. (See Chapter 2.)

Improved object selection: AutoCAD provides more positive feedback than ever before with its rollover highlighting feature. (See Chapter 7.)

Dynamic blocks: You no longer need separate blocks for every door or window size in your drawings. Now you can insert a single block definition and choose its configuration as you insert it. (See Chapter 14.)

If you have any interest at all in updating your AutoCAD skills by venturing into the third dimension, now is the time and AutoCAD 2007 is your version. Even if you’re not interested in 3D, there are enough refinements to make upgrading worth your while. That’s especially the case if you’re an LT user, since many of the full-version-only Express Tools have been incorporated into the core program and so are available in LT, too.

No Express service?

If your menu bar doesn’t include the Express menu (it’s the third item from the right in Figure 1-1), you should consider installing the Express Tools from your AutoCAD CD (AutoCAD LT does not include or support the Express Tools).

When you first install AutoCAD 2007, you choose between a Typical or a Custom installation. If you choose Typical, the next screen asks if you want to install the Express Tools. If you choose a Custom installation, in the next screen make sure to check the Express Tools item in the list of components. If you do not install the Express Tools during initial setup, you will have to rerun AutoCAD 2007’s installation routine. If you haven’t installed AutoCAD yet, we strongly recommend that you choose the Typical installation option — or, at least, make sure the Express Tools box is checked during a Custom installation.

Chapter 2

Le Tour de AutoCAD 2007

In This Chapter

Touring the AutoCAD 2007 screens

Going bar hopping: title bars, the menu bar, toolbars, and the status bar

Dynamically inputting and commanding the command line

Discovering the drawing area

Making the most of Model and Layout tabs

Practicing with palettes

Setting system variables and dealing with dialog boxes

Using online help

AutoCAD 2007 is a full-fledged citizen of the Windows world, with toolbars, dialog boxes, right-click menus, a multiple-document interface, and all the other trappings of a real Windows program. And it’s becoming more and more Windows-like with each release. One of the last weird but essential holdovers from the DOS days is the AutoCAD command line. The command line area is still there (and wouldn’t you know it, officially it’s now known as the command window), but in AutoCAD 2007, you’ll be less reliant on this “look down here — now look up here” method of interacting with the program.

AutoCAD 2007, like the fanciest Detroit iron, bristles with heads-up display features. The dynamic input system puts much of the command line information right under your nose (or at least under your crosshairs). And recently entered data is just a right-click away.

Like the rest of the book, this chapter is written for someone who has used other Windows programs but has little or no experience with AutoCAD. If you are experienced with recent versions of AutoCAD, some of this chapter will be old hat for you — although you may get a shock when you open AutoCAD 2007 for the first time, especially if you choose to enter the 3D Modeling workspace the first time you start the program.

Most of the new features in AutoCAD 2007 are for creating and viewing objects in three dimensions. In the previous edition of this book, we actually removed the 3D chapter on the grounds that AutoCAD’s 3D abilities were pretty clunky to use, and people who did 3D design were probably using other software programs anyway. Times change, and so has AutoCAD. The 3D engine has been completely rebuilt, stroked, polished, and tuned to the extent that we now think 3D is a useable feature. We introduce you to AutoCAD’s 3D viewing and navigation tools in Chapter 9. In this chapter, we focus on 2D drafting which, after all, is still what the great majority of AutoCAD users do with the software.

AutoCAD Does Windows

Finding your way around AutoCAD 2007 can be an odd experience. You recognize from other Windows applications much of the appearance and workings of the program, such as its toolbars and pull-down menus, which you use for entering commands or changing system settings. But other aspects of the program’s appearance — and some of the ways in which you work with it — are quite different from other Windows programs. You can, in many cases, tell the program what to do in at least four ways — pick a toolbar icon, pick from a pull-down menu, type at the keyboard, or pick from a right-click menu — none of which is necessarily the best method to use for every task.

Profiling your display

The illustrations and descriptions in this chapter and throughout the book show the default configuration of AutoCAD — that is, the way the screen looks if you use the standard version of AutoCAD (not a flavored version such as Architectural Desktop) and haven’t messed with the display settings. You can change the appearance of the screen with settings on the Display tab of the Options dialog box (choose Tools⇒Options⇒Display) and by dragging toolbars and other screen components.

The main change we’ve made is to configure the drawing area background to be white instead of black, because the figures in the book show up better that way. You may want to set a white background on your own system or stay with the default black background — it’s your choice, and there’s no right or wrong. Some of AutoCAD’s colors show up better on a white background, and some are better on a black one.

If you’re using a flavored version of AutoCAD, or if someone has already changed your configuration or added a third-party program to your setup, your screen may look different from the figures in this book. You can restore the default configuration — including display settings — with the Reset button on the Options dialog box’s Profiles tab. (AutoCAD LT doesn’t include the Profiles feature, so LT users are out of luck here.) But before you click the Reset button, consider whether the modified configuration may be useful to someone in the future — like you! If so, first click the Add To List button to create a new profile. Enter a name for the new profile, such as AutoCAD default. Then select the new profile that you created, click the Set Current button to make it the current profile, and finally click the Reset button. In the future, you can switch between your modified and default configurations with the Set Current button.

As with other Windows programs, the menus at the top of the AutoCAD screen enable you to access most of the program’s functions and are the easiest-to-remember method of issuing commands. When you want to get real work done, you need to combine the pull-down menus with other methods — especially entering options at the keyboard or choosing them from the right-click menus. We show you how throughout this book.

And They’re Off: AutoCAD’s Opening Screen

By default, when you start an AutoCAD 2007 session, a dialog box (see Figure 2-1) asks in which of the two standard workspaces you want to start your drawing session:

3D Modeling: Opens a new drawing file configured for a 3D modeling environment with navigation, visualization, and modeling tools suitable for working in 3D.

AutoCAD Classic: Opens a new drawing configured for a 2D drafting environment, with drafting and drawing management tools suitable for working in 2D.

Figure 2-1: Will that be 2D or 3D? Make your choice here.

A workspace is a collection of menus, palettes, and toolbars tailored for specific tasks, such as 3D modeling or 2D drafting. AutoCAD 2007 includes two workspaces for just those purposes, called 3D Modeling and AutoCAD Classic, and you can easily create additional workspaces to suit your requirements. For more information, look up “workspace” in the online help system.

In this chapter we’re going to focus on drawing rather than modeling — we’ll look at visualizing and navigating in 3D space in Chapter 9.

If you don’t see the Workstations dialog box shown in Figure 2-1, it means that you or someone who uses your computer checked that little box that says Don’t Show Me This Again down there in the lower-left corner. If you want to restore the Workstations dialog box, choose Tools⇒Options, and on the Systems tab, General Options area, check the box beside Show All Warning Messages. Then click OK.

The Workstations dialog box appears only when you start an AutoCAD session — it’s not there if AutoCAD is already open. If that’s the case and you want to switch between 2D drafting and 3D modeling, follow these steps:

1.Choose Tools⇒Workspaces⇒AutoCAD Classic.

Assuming the 3D Modeling workspace is current, a bunch of toolbars and palettes open and close. You end up with the Tool Palettes and the Sheet Set Manager displayed at the left and right sides of the screen. (Don’t worry about what those are for right now — we’ll get to them in later chapters.)

2.Choose File⇒New or open a 2D AutoCAD drawing file.

If you choose to start a new file, the Select Template dialog box opens. Choose acad.dwt if you want to work in imperial units, or acadiso.dwt, if you want to work in metric.

To switch back from 3D modeling to a 2D drafting environment, reverse the procedure as follows:

3.Choose Tools⇒Workspaces ⇒3D Modeling.

After more whizzing and whirring, AutoCAD closes Sheet Set Manager and opens the Modeling tab of the Tool Palettes and the Dashboard (we discuss these features in Chapter 9).

4.Choose File⇒New or open a 3D AutoCAD model file.

If you choose to start a new file, the Select Template dialog box opens. Choose acad3d.dwt if you want to work in imperial units, or acadiso3d. dwt, if you want to work in metric.

For the remainder of this chapter (and nearly all the rest of the book), we focus on 2D drafting, by far the easier way of getting your feet wet with AutoCAD.

After you switch to the AutoCAD Classic workspace, AutoCAD displays its old familiar 2D interface, as shown in Figure 2-2. You can close the Sheet Set Manager and Tool Palettes for now — we describe how to turn them back on and how to use them later in this chapter.

Figure 2-2: Heads Up! The AutoCAD 2007 screen and AutoCAD Classic workspace.

If you have a previous version of AutoCAD on your computer, AutoCAD 2007 displays a Migrate Settings dialog box the first time you run the program. Unless you’re a competent AutoCAD user who is reading this book to find out about the new features, we recommend that you click Cancel and start fresh. If you later decide you want to migrate your custom settings, you can do so by choosing Start⇒All Programs⇒Autodesk⇒AutoCAD 2007⇒Migrate Custom Settings and then choosing the installed version from which you want to migrate settings. Be warned, however, that doing so will overwrite any new customization you’ve added to AutoCAD 2007.

Those well-washed Windows

As shown in Figure 2-2, much of the AutoCAD screen is standard Windows fare — title bars, a menu bar, toolbars, and a status bar.

A hierarchy of title bars

Like most Windows programs, AutoCAD has a title bar at the top of its program window that reminds you which program you’re in (not that you’d ever mistake the AutoCAD window for, say, Microsoft Word!).

At the right side of the title bar is the standard set of three Windows control buttons: Minimize, Maximize/Restore, and Close.

Each drawing window within the AutoCAD program window has its own title bar. You use the control buttons on a drawing window’s title bar to minimize, maximize/restore, or close that drawing, instead of the entire AutoCAD program.

As in other Windows programs, if you maximize a drawing’s window, it expands to fill the entire drawing area. (AutoCAD 2007 starts with the drawing maximized in this way.) As shown in Figure 2-2, the drawing’s control buttons move onto the menu bar, below the control buttons for the AutoCAD program window; the drawing’s name appears in the AutoCAD title bar. To unmaximize (restore) the drawing so that you can see any other drawings that you have open, click the lower Restore button. The result is as shown in Figure 2-3: a separate title bar for each drawing with the name and controls for that drawing.

Figure 2-3: The AutoCAD screen with the drawing window restored.

Hot-wiring the menu bar

Some standard tips and tricks for Windows are especially useful in AutoCAD. Control-key shortcuts for the most popular functions — Ctrl+S to save, Ctrl+O to open a file, and Ctrl+P to print — work the same way in AutoCAD as in most other Windows programs. Use them!

Also worth exploring are the Alt-key shortcuts, which are available for all menu choices, not just the most popular ones. To fly around the menus, just press and hold the Alt key and then press the letters on your keyboard that correspond to the underlined letters on the menu bar and in the menu choices. To bring up the SAVEAS command, for example, just press and hold the Alt key, press F for File, and then press A for Save As.

Making choices from the menu bar

The menu bar contains the names of all the primary menus in your version of AutoCAD. As with any program that’s new to you, it’s worth spending a few minutes perusing the menus in order to familiarize yourself with the commands and their arrangement. (If your menu bar doesn’t include the Express menu — and note that AutoCAD LT does not include the Express menu — see the end of Chapter 1 for installation instructions.)

Cruising the toolbars

As in other Windows programs, the toolbars in AutoCAD provide rapid access to the most commonly used AutoCAD commands. AutoCAD 2007 ships with toolbars in this default arrangement (as shown in Figure 2-4):

Standard toolbar: Located just below the menu bar. You find file management and other common Windows functions here, plus some specialized AutoCAD stuff such as zooming and panning.

Styles toolbar: To the right of the Standard toolbar. Used for selecting and formatting AutoCAD’s text, dimension, and table styles. Chapters 10 and 11 cover these features.

Workspaces toolbar: Below the Standard toolbar. Used to switch between or manage workspaces. AutoCAD Classic is the default 2D workspace we use throughout this book (except for Chapter 9).

Layers toolbar: To the right of the Workspaces toolbar. Includes commands and a drop-down list for manipulating layers, which are AutoCAD’s fundamental tools for organizing and formatting objects. Chapter 5 contains the layer lowdown.

Properties toolbar: To the right of the Layers toolbar. Used for formatting AutoCAD object properties, such as colors, linetypes, and lineweights. See Chapter 5 when you’re ready to play with AutoCAD’s object properties.

Draw toolbar: Vertically down the left edge of the screen. Includes the most commonly used commands from the Draw menu. Chapter 6 covers most of the items on this toolbar.

Modify toolbar: Vertically down the right edge of the screen. Includes the most commonly used commands from the Modify menu. Chapter 7 shows you how to use almost everything on this toolbar.

Draw Order toolbar: Vertically below the Modify toolbar. Offers commands for controlling which objects appear on top of which other objects. If you need this kind of flexibility, look up “DRAWORDER command” in the AutoCAD online help system.

You can rearrange, open, and close toolbars as in other Windows programs.

To move a toolbar, point to its border (the double-line control handle at the leading edge of the toolbar is the easiest part to grab), click, and drag.

To open or close toolbars, right-click any toolbar button and choose from the list of available toolbars, as shown in Figure 2-4.

The AutoCAD screen in Figure 2-4 shows the default toolbar arrangement, which works fine for most people. Feel free to close the Draw Order toolbar; you aren’t likely to use its features frequently. You may want to turn on a couple of additional toolbars, such as Object Snap and Dimension, as you discover and make use of additional features. Throughout this book, we point out when a particular toolbar may be useful.

If you’re not satisfied with just rearranging the stock AutoCAD toolbars, you can customize their contents or even create new ones. The procedures are beyond the scope of this book; they involve bouncing among the Interfaces, Commands, Toolbars, and Properties areas in the Customize User Interface dialog box in not entirely intuitive ways. Resist slicing and dicing the stock AutoCAD toolbars until you’re at least somewhat familiar with them. If you want to get creative thereafter, check out this book’s companion volume, AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT All-In-One Desk Reference For Dummies.

AutoCAD toolbar buttons provide tooltips, those short descriptions that appear in little text boxes when you pause the crosshairs over a toolbar button. A longer description of the icon’s function appears in the status bar at the bottom of the screen.

Figure 2-4: A toolbar tasting.

Looking for Mr. Status Bar

The status bar (see Figure 2-5) appears at the bottom of the AutoCAD screen. The status bar displays and allows you to change several important settings that affect how you draw and edit in the current drawing. Some of these settings won’t make complete sense until you’ve used the AutoCAD commands that they influence, but here’s a brief description, with pointers to detailed descriptions elsewhere in this book of how to use each setting:

Coordinates of the crosshairs: The coordinates’ readout displays the current X,Y,Z location of the crosshairs in the drawing area, with respect to the origin point (whose coordinates are 0,0,0). Chapter 5 describes AutoCAD’s coordinate conventions and how to use this area of the status bar.

Figure 2-5: Status (bar) check.

If the coordinates in the lower-left corner of the screen are grayed out, coordinate tracking is turned off. Click the coordinates so that they appear in dark numbers that change when you move the crosshairs in the drawing area.

If dynamic input is enabled, the tooltip at the crosshairs also displays the current X,Y,Z location of the crosshairs. This constantly active display is not affected by changes to coordinate tracking in the status bar.

SNAP, GRID, and ORTHO mode buttons: These three buttons control three of AutoCAD’s tools for ensuring precision drawing and editing:

• Snap constrains the crosshairs to regularly spaced hot spots, enabling you to draw objects a fixed distance apart more easily.

• Grid displays a series of regularly spaced dots, which serve as a distance reference.

• Ortho constrains the crosshairs to horizontal and vertical movement, which makes drawing orthogonal (straight horizontal and vertical) lines easy.