AutoCAD 2013 and AutoCAD LT 2013 Essentials E-Book

Scott Onstott

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

Seitenzahl: 388

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2012

Beschreibung

A four-color, task-based guide to AutoCAD This Autodesk Official Training Guide thoroughly covers the fundamentals of AutoCAD 2013 and AutoCAD LT 2013 and teaches you everything you need to become quickly productive with the software. Learn to draw in 2D, shape complex curves, manage objects with layers, organize with blocks and groups, add dimensions and annotation, work with layouts, model in 3D, create realistic renderings, and more. Whether you're an aspiring CAD/CAM professional, preparing for certification, or updating your skills, this is the fast, thorough grounding you need in AutoCAD. * The perfect guide for AutoCAD beginners, this Autodesk Official Training Guide uses approachable real-world exercises to explain AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT * Takes a workflow-based approach and presents AutoCAD tasks, tools, and core functionality in the context of designing a house * Features hands-on tutorials illustrated with full-color screenshots * Covers basic 2D drawing skills, editing entities, working with splines and polylines, using layers and objects, organizing objects with groups and blocks, and using hatch patterns and gradients * Examines working with blocks and cross-references, creating and editing text, dimensioning, using constraints and layouts, printing, editing and importing data, modeling in 3D, and presenting the design AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT Essentials helps AutoCAD newcomers understand the software and gain confidence in their skills.

Leseprobe

Introduction

Chapter 1: Getting Started

Exploring the AutoCAD 2013 for Windows User Interface

Exploring the Graphical User Interface

Exploring Workspaces

The AutoCAD Ribbon

Setting Drawing Units

Chapter 2: Basic Drawing Skills

Navigating 2D Drawings

Drawing Lines and Rectangles

Drawing Lines

Drawing Rectangles

Canceling, Erasing, and Undoing

Using Coordinate Systems

Using Absolute Coordinates

Using Relative Coordinates

Using Polar Coordinates

Drawing Circles, Arcs, and Polygons

Creating Circles

Creating Arcs

Drawing Polygons

Filleting and Chamfering Lines

Joining Nonparallel Lines

Joining Crossed Lines

Chapter 3: Using Drawing Aids

Grid and Snap

Ortho and Polar Tracking

PolarSnap

Running Object Snaps

From Snap

Object Snap Tracking

Chapter 4: Editing Entities

Creating Selection Sets

Creating a Selection Set at the Select Objects: Prompt

Creating a Selection Set Before Deciding on a Command

Move and Copy

Rotate and Scale

Working with Arrays

Rectangular Arrays

Polar Arrays

Trim and Extend

Lengthen and Stretch

Offset and Mirror

Grip Editing

Chapter 5: Shaping Curves

Drawing and Editing Curved Polylines

Drawing Ellipses

Drawing and Editing Splines

Working with Control Vertices

Working with Fit Points

Blending Between Objects with Splines

Chapter 6: Controlling Object Visibility and Appearance

Changing Object Properties

Setting the Current Layer

Altering the Layer Assignments of Objects

Controlling Layer Visibility

Toggling Layer Status

Isolating Layers

Saving Layer States

Applying Linetype

Assigning Properties by Object or by Layer

Managing Layer Properties

Chapter 7: Organizing Objects

Defining Blocks

Drawing a Chair and Defining It as a Block

Drawing a Door and Defining It as a Block

Inserting Blocks

Editing Blocks

Editing Block Definition Geometry

Assigning Floating Properties

Nesting Blocks

Exploding Blocks

Redefining Blocks

Working with Groups

Chapter 8: Hatching and Gradients

Specifying Hatch Areas

Picking Points to Determine Boundaries

Selecting Objects to Define Boundaries

Associating Hatches with Boundaries

Hatching with Patterns

Specifying Properties

Separating Hatch Areas

Hatching with Gradients

Chapter 9: Working with Blocks and Xrefs

Working with Global Blocks

Writing a Local Block Definition to a File

Inserting a Drawing as a Local Block

Redefining Local Blocks with Global Blocks

Accessing Content Globally

Storing Content on Tool Palettes

Referencing External Drawings and Images

Chapter 10: Creating and Editing Text

Creating Text Styles

Writing Lines of Text

Creating Text to Fit

Justifying Text

Transforming and Creating Text

Writing and Formatting Paragraphs of Text Using MTEXT

Editing Text

Editing Content and Properties

Working with Columns

Chapter 11: Dimensioning

Styling Dimensions

Adding Dimensions

Using Inquiry Commands

Adding Dimension Objects

Adding and Styling Multileaders

Editing Dimensions

Chapter 12: Keeping In Control with Constraints

Working with Geometric Constraints

Applying Dimensional Constraints and Creating User Parameters

Constraining Objects Simultaneously with Geometry and Dimensions

Making Parametric Changes to Constrained Objects

Chapter 13: Working with Layouts and Annotative Objects

Creating Annotative Styles and Objects

Working with Annotative Text

Working with Annotative Dimensions

Creating Layouts

Adjusting Floating Viewports

Working on Layout1

Working on Layout2

Overriding Layer Properties in Layout Viewports

Drawing on Layouts

Chapter 14: Printing and Plotting

Configuring Output Devices

Setting Up a System Printer

Setting Up an AutoCAD Plotter

Creating Plot Style Tables

Using Plot Style Tables

Configuring New Drawings for Named Plot Style Tables

Assigning Plot Styles by Layer or by Object

Plotting in Modelspace

Plotting Layouts in Paperspace

Exporting to an Electronic Format

Chapter 15: Storing, Presenting, and Extracting Data

Defining Attributes and Blocks

Inserting Attributed Blocks

Editing Table Styles and Creating Tables

Using Fields in Table Cells

Editing Table Data

Chapter 16: Navigating 3D Models

Using Visual Styles

Working with Tiled Viewports

Navigating with the ViewCube

Orbiting in 3D

Using Cameras

Navigating with SteeringWheels

Saving Views

Chapter 17: Modeling in 3D

Creating Surface Models

Making Planar Surfaces

Revolving 2D Profile into a 3D Model

Sweeping Out 3D Geometry

Extruding 2D Geometry into 3D

Editing Surface Models

Trimming Surfaces with Other Surfaces

Projecting Edges on Surfaces

Trimming Surfaces with Edges

Creating Solid Models

Extruding Solid Objects

Lofting Solid Objects

Editing Solid Models

Performing Boolean Operations

Editing Solids

Smoothing Meshes

Chapter 18: Presenting and Documenting 3D Design

Assigning Materials

Placing and Adjusting Lights

Adding Artificial Lights

Simulating Natural Light

Creating Renderings

Documenting Models with Drawings

Appendix: Autodesk AutoCAD 2013 Certification

Index

Senior Acquisitions Editor: Willem Knibbe

Development Editor: Gary Scwartz

Technical Editor: Ian le Cheminant

Production Editor: Rebecca Anderson

Copy Editor: Elizabeth Welch

Editorial Manager: Pete Gaughan

Production Manager: Tim Tate

Vice President and Executive Group Publisher: Richard Swadley

Vice President and Publisher: Neil Edde

Book Designer: Happenstance Type-O-Rama

Compositor: Craig W. Johnson, Happenstance Type-O-Rama

Proofreader: James Saturnio, Word One New York

Indexer: Robert Swanson

Project Coordinator, Cover: Katherine Crocker

Cover Designer: Ryan Sneed

Cover Image: © Maciej Noskowski / iStockPhoto

Copyright © 2012 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

Published simultaneously in Canada

ISBN: 978-1-118-24481-4 ISBN: 978-1-118-33327-3 (ebk.) ISBN: 978-1-118-33045-6 (ebk.) ISBN: 978-1-118-33453-9 (ebk.)

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TRADEMARKS: Wiley, the Wiley logo, and the Sybex logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and/or its affiliates, in the United States and other countries, and may not be used without written permission. AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT are registered trademarks of Autodesk, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book.

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Dear Reader,

Thank you for choosing AutoCAD 2013® and AutoCAD LT® 2013 Essentials. This book is part of a family of premium-quality Sybex books, all of which are written by outstanding authors who combine practical experience with a gift for teaching.

Sybex was founded in 1976. More than 30 years later, we’re still committed to producing consistently exceptional books. With each of our titles, we’re working hard to set a new standard for the industry. From the paper we print on, to the authors we work with, our goal is to bring you the best books available.

I hope you see all that reflected in these pages. I’d be very interested to hear your comments and get your feedback on how we’re doing. Feel free to let me know what you think about this or any other Sybex book by sending me an email at [email protected]. If you think you’ve found a technical error in this book, please visit http://sybex.custhelp.com. Customer feedback is critical to our efforts at Sybex.

Best regards,

Neil Edde

Vice President and Publisher

Sybex, an Imprint of Wiley

to Jenn and Merlin

Acknowledgments

A team of people has been instrumental in making this book you are holding in your hands or reading on screen a reality. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the professional team at Sybex (an imprint of Wiley) for all their hard work.

It has been a pleasure working with my acquisitions editor, Willem Knibbe; developmental editor, Gary Schwartz; technical editor, Ian le Cheminant; and members of the editorial staff, including Pete Gaughan, Connor O’Brien, and Jenni Housh.

About the Author

Scott Onstott has published seven books with Sybex prior to the present title: AutoCAD® 2012 and AutoCAD LT® 2012 Essentials, Adobe® Photoshop® CS6 Essentials, Enhancing Architectural Drawings and Models with Photoshop, AutoCAD®: Professional Tips and Techniques (with Lynn Allen), Enhancing CAD Drawings with Photoshop, Mastering Autodesk® Architectural Desktop 2006, and Autodesk® VIZ 2005 (with George Omura). Scott has worked on some 20 other technical books as contributing author, reviser, compilation editor, and/or technical editor.

Scott has a bachelor’s degree in architecture from University of California, Berkeley, and is a former university instructor who now serves as a consultant, independent video producer, and contributor to popular industry websites. You can contact the author through his website at www.scottonstott.com.

Introduction

The staying power of AutoCAD® is legendary in the ever-changing software industry, having been around for 31 years by 2013. You can rest assured that spending your time learning AutoCAD will be a wise investment, and the skills you obtain in this book will be useful for years to come.

I wish to welcome you in beginning the process of learning AutoCAD. It will give you great satisfaction to learn such a complex program and use it to design and document whatever you dream up. You’ll find step-by-step tutorials that reveal a wide variety of techniques built on many years of real-world experience.

The first 14 chapters apply to both AutoCAD® 2013 and AutoCAD LT® 2013. AutoCAD LT is Autodesk’s lower-cost version of AutoCAD, and it has reduced capabilities. Chapters 15 through 18 are for full AutoCAD users only as they cover advanced tools not available in AutoCAD LT, including attributes, 3D navigation, 3D modeling, and rendering.

Who Should Read This Book

This book is for students, hobbyists, and professional architects, industrial designers, engineers, builders, landscape architects, or anyone who communicates through technical drawings as part of their work.

If you’re interested in certification for AutoCAD 2013, this book can be a great resource to help you prepare. See www.autodesk.com/certification for more certification information and resources.

What You Will Learn

You’ll gain a solid understanding of the features of AutoCAD in this book. Each chapter features multiple exercises that take you step by step through the many complex procedures of AutoCAD. The goal of performing these steps on your own is to aim for an understanding that you can abstract into skills, which you can apply to many different real-world situations.

While each project presents different obstacles and opportunities, I urge you to focus on the concepts and techniques presented rather than memorizing the specific steps used to achieve the desired result. The actual steps performed may vary in each geometric situation.

The best way to build skills is to perform the steps on your computer exactly as they are presented in the book during your first reading. After you achieve the desired result, start over and experiment using the same techniques on your own project (whether invented or real). After you have practiced, think about how you have achieved the desired result, and try to abstract the steps performed into concepts that you’ll remember. Only then will you begin to own the knowledge and get the most out of this book.

Reader Requirements

You don’t need any previous experience with AutoCAD to use this book. However, you’ll need familiarity with either the Windows or Mac operating system and have the basic skills necessary to use a graphical user interface successfully and to operate a computer confidently.

AutoCAD 2013 or AutoCAD LT 2013 System Requirements

The book is written for both AutoCAD 2013 and AutoCAD LT 2013. The following are system requirements for running either version on the different operating systems in which they are offered. See www.autodesk.com for the most up-to-date requirements.

General Windows System Requirements

Microsoft Windows 7 Enterprise, Ultimate, Professional, or Home Premium

Microsoft Windows Vista Enterprise, Business, or Ultimate (SP1 or later)

Microsoft Windows XP Professional (SP2 or later)

2 GB of RAM

2 GB of free space for installation

1,280 × 1,024 true color video display adapter 128 MB or greater, Microsoft

®

Direct3D

®

-capable workstation-class graphics card; Pixel Shader 3.0 or greater required for 3D modeling

Internet Explorer 7.0 or later

32-Bit AutoCAD 2013 for Windows

For Windows Vista or Windows 7: Intel

®

Pentium

®

4 or AMD Athlon

®

dual-core processor, 3.0 GHz or higher with SSE2 technology

For Windows XP: Intel Pentium 4 or AMD Athlon dual-core processor, 2.0 GHz or higher with SSE2 technology

64-Bit AutoCAD 2013 for Windows

AMD Athlon 64 with SSE2 technology, AMD Opteron

®

processor with SSE2 technology

Intel

®

Xeon

®

processor with Intel EM64T support and SSE2 technology

Intel Pentium 4 with Intel EM64T support and SSE2 technology

64-Bit AutoCAD 2013 for Mac

Apple

®

Mac

®

Pro 4,1 or later; MacBook

®

Pro 5,1 or later (MacBook Pro 6,1 or later recommended); iMac

®

8,1 or later (iMac 11,1 or later recommended); Mac

®

mini 3,1 or later (Mac mini 4,1 or later recommended); MacBook Air

®

2,1 or later; MacBook

®

5,1 or later (MacBook 7,1 or later recommended)

Mac OS

®

X v10.6.4 or later; Mac OS X v10.5.8 or later

64-bit Intel

®

processor

3 GB of RAM (4 GB recommended)

2.5 GB of free disk space for download and installation (3 GB recommended)

All graphics cards on supported hardware

1,280 × 800 display with true color (1,600 × 1,200 with true color recommended)

U.S., U.K., or France keyboard layout

Apple

®

Mouse, Apple Magic Mouse, Magic Trackpad, MacBook

®

Pro Trackpad, or Microsoft

®

-compliant mouse

Mac OS X–compliant printer

What Is Covered in This Book

AutoCAD 2013 and AutoCAD LT 2013 Essentials is organized to provide you with the knowledge needed to master the basics of computer-aided design. The book’s Web page is located at www.sybex.com/go/autocad2013essentials, where you can download the sample files used in each chapter.

Chapter 1: Getting Started You’ll take a tour of the user interface and learn to identify each of its parts by name. Chapter 1 is essential reading as you’ll need to know the difference between workspaces, ribbon tabs, toolbars, panels, palettes, status toggles, and so on to understand the terminology used by your colleagues and in the rest of this book. In addition, you’ll learn about how to match your industry’s standard units to the drawings you’ll be creating.

Chapter 2: Basic Drawing Skills Learn how to navigate a 2D drawing with Zoom and Pan so that you can zero in on areas of interest. You’ll learn how to draw lines, rectangles, circles, arcs, and polygons; how to cancel, erase, and undo; and how to fillet and chamfer lines. In addition, you’ll use two coordinate systems to specify the exact sizes of objects you are drawing.

Chapter 3: Using Drawing Aids Drawing aids are something you’ll want to learn how to use to create measured drawings with ease. The drawing aids covered with step-by-step exercises in this chapter include grid and snap, ortho and polar tracking, PolarSnap, running object snaps, the From snap, and object snap tracking.

Chapter 4: Editing Entities This chapter teaches what you’ll probably be doing most of the time in AutoCAD: editing the basic entities that you’ve drawn to make them conform with your design intent. Editing commands covered include Move, Copy, Rotate, Scale, Array, Trim, Extend, Lengthen, Stretch, Offset, and Mirror. In addition to these commands, you’ll learn an alternative method for editing entities called grip editing.

Chapter 5: Shaping Curves The landscape exercise in this chapter teaches you how to create complex curves with NURBS-based splines, curved polylines, and ellipses. By the end, you’ll be able to shape curves to create almost any curvilinear form imaginable.

Chapter 6: Controlling Object Visibility and Appearance You’ll learn how to hide and reveal objects with properties and layers. Layers are essential to managing the complexity of design, and you’ll use many different layer tools in this chapter’s step-by-step exercises.

Chapter 7: Organizing Objects By combining entities such as lines, polylines, circles, arcs, and text into blocks and/or groups, you can more efficiently manipulate more complex objects such as chairs, mechanical assemblies, trees, or any other organizational designation appropriate to your industry. You’ll learn how to create and work with blocks and groups in this chapter.

Chapter 8: Hatching and Gradients In this chapter, you’ll flood bounded areas with solid fill, hatch patterns, and/or gradients to indicate transitions between materials and to improve the readability of drawings in general.

Chapter 9: Working with Blocks and Xrefs You’ll learn how to access content from other files in the current drawing in this chapter. You’ll also understand the important distinction between inserting and externally referencing content. In addition, you’ll store saved content on tool palettes for simplified reuse.

Chapter 10: Creating and Editing Text The written word is undeniably a part of every drawing. This chapter teaches you how to create both single- and multiline text, how to edit any text, and how to control its appearance through text styles and object properties.

Chapter 11: Dimensioning You’ll learn how to annotate drawings with specific measurements known as dimensions in this chapter. In addition to learning how to control measurements’ appearance with dimension styles, you’ll create linear, aligned, angular, and radius dimension objects.

Chapter 12: Keeping in Control with Constraints This chapter teaches you how to add geometric and dimensional constraints to objects so that their ultimate form is controlled by mathematical formulas. The formulas in the examples are as simple as adding two dimensions or calculating the diameter of a circle from its radius.

Chapter 13: Working with Layouts and Annotative Objects AutoCAD has two environments, which you’ll learn about in this chapter on layouts: modelspace and paperspace. You’ll create floating viewports to display the contents of modelspace in the paperspace of a layout. In addition, you’ll create annotative styles and objects that always display the proper height no matter which viewport or annotation scale is selected.

Chapter 14: Printing and Plotting From plotter drivers to plot style tables and page setups, you’ll learn the intricacies of creating printed output to scale in AutoCAD. You’ll plot in both modelspace and paperspace, and you will even create electronic output that can be shared on the Internet.

Chapter 15: Storing, Presenting, and Extracting Data Attributes, fields, and tables are the subjects of this chapter on managing data. You’ll learn how to embed nongraphical data in blocks, how to link to that data dynamically in text fields, and finally how to display and format this same data in an organized fashion in spreadsheet-like tables.

Chapter 16: Navigating 3D Models In this chapter, you’ll learn how to change your point of view while working on 3D models using the ViewCube, the Orbit tool, and SteeringWheel technology. In addition, you’ll compose and save perspective views with cameras to help you visualize 3D models with added realism.

Chapter 17: Modeling in 3D You’ll learn the basics of surface, solid, and mesh modeling in this chapter by building the 3D geometry you navigated in the previous chapter. Each 3D toolset has its strengths and limitations, and you’ll learn to use tools in each category to get the job done.

Chapter 18: Presenting and Documenting 3D Design By assigning realistic materials, inserting artificial and natural light sources, and rendering the scene, you’ll create realistic computer-generated imagery in this chapter. By approaching the final render in a series of ever more realistic test renders, you’ll hone in on photorealistic output in stages. You’ll also learn how to project 2D plans, sections, and detail drawings from a model so that you can dimension and document 3D designs.

Appendix: Autodesk AutoCAD 2013 Certification The appendix contains information about how to prepare for Autodesk certification exams using this book. The tables point you to the chapters where you’ll find specific examples giving you practical experience with the topics covered in the exams.

The Essentials Series

The Essentials series from Sybex provides outstanding instruction for readers who are just beginning to develop their professional skills. Every Essentials book includes these features:

Skill-based instruction with chapters organized around projects rather than abstract concepts or subjects.

Suggestions for additional exercises at the end of each chapter, where you can practice and extend your skills.

Digital files (via download) so that you can work through the project tutorials yourself. Please check the book’s web page at

www.sybex.com/go/autocad2013essentials

for these companion downloads.

The certification margin icon will alert you to passages that are especially relevant to AutoCAD 2013 certification. See the certification appendix and www.autodesk.com/certification for more information and resources.

Chapter 1

Getting Started

As you begin this book on AutoCAD, I’m reminded of a quote by Chinese philosopher Lao-Tzu: “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” In much the same way, learning AutoCAD is something anyone can do by taking it one step at a time. And I promise that AutoCAD is much easier than walking a thousand miles!

By buying this book, you have already taken the first step in this journey. When you finish, you will have a solid understanding of AutoCAD.

Exploring the AutoCAD 2013 for Windows User interface

Setting drawing units

Exploring the AutoCAD 2013 for Windows User Interface

Autodesk has recently released new versions of AutoCAD, including AutoCAD 2013 and AutoCAD LT 2013. The two Windows versions look nearly identical and function in almost the same way. The main difference between them is that AutoCAD LT doesn’t support automation and some of the advanced 3D functions. The Mac version looks a bit different than its Windows cousins, but it functions nearly identically to AutoCAD for Windows, albeit with a slightly reduced set of features. Although this book was written using AutoCAD 2013 running on Windows XP Professional, you can use it to learn any of the current versions of AutoCAD.

AutoCAD for Mac has a user interface that is customized to the Mac experience. Although the Mac user interface is not covered in this book, its commands and capabilities are similar to those in AutoCAD for Windows.