AutoCAD 2014 For Dummies E-Book

Bill Fane

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

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2013

Beschreibung

Find your way around AutoCAD 2014 with this full-color, For Dummies guide!

Put away that pencil and paper and start putting the power of AutoCAD 2014 to work in your CAD projects and designs. From setting up your drawing environment to using text, dimensions, hatching, and more, this guide walks you through AutoCAD basics and provides you with a solid understanding of the latest CAD tools and techniques. You’ll also benefit from the full-color illustrations that mirror exactly what you’ll see on your AutoCAD 2014 screen and highlight the importance of AutoCAD’s Model view, which shows different line weights for printing in different colors.

• Covers the latest AutoCAD features and techniques, including creating a basic layout, navigating the AutoCAD 2014 interface, drawing and editing, working with dimensions, plotting, adding text, using blocks, and more
• Shows you how to make the best use of color in your AutoCAD designs, take advantage of the AutoCAD DesignCenter, and showcase your work to potential clients and customers
• Includes practical advice and guidance on real-world methods and tips used by architects, engineers, and other CAD professionals to create compelling 3D models and detailed technical drawings

 You’ll quickly get up to speed on all AutoCAD has to offer with AutoCAD 2014 For Dummies in your toolbox.

Leseprobe

AutoCAD® 2014 For Dummies®

Published byJohn Wiley & Sons, Inc. 111 River Street Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774

www.wiley.com

Copyright © 2013 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey

Published simultaneously in Canada

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Library of Congress Control Number: 2013935678

ISBN 978-1-118-60397-0 (pbk); ISBN 978-1-118-62786-0 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-65195-7 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-65215-2 (ebk)

Manufactured in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

About the Authors

Bill Fane is a recovering doorknob designer. He was a product engineer and then product engineering manager for Weiser Lock in Vancouver, Canada, for 27 years and holds 12 U.S. patents. He has been using AutoCAD for design work since Version 2.17g (1986) and Inventor since version 1.0 beta (1996). He is a retired professional engineer and an Autodesk Authorized Training Center (ATC) certified instructor.

He began teaching mechanical design in 1996 at the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT) in Vancouver, including such courses as AutoCAD, Mechanical Desktop, Inventor, SolidWorks, machine design, term projects, manufacturing processes, and design procedures. He retired from this position in 2008.

He has lectured on a wide range of AutoCAD and Inventor subjects at Autodesk University since 1995 and at Destination Desktop since 2003. He is the AUGI CAD Camp National Team instructor for the manufacturing track. He has written over 220 “The Learning Curve” columns for CADalyst magazine since 1986 and claims to be a close personal friend of Captain LearnCurve. He also writes software product reviews for CADalyst, Design Product News, and Machine Design. He is an active member of the Vancouver AutoCAD Users Society, “the world’s oldest and most dangerous.”

In his spare time he skis, water-skis, windsurfs, scuba dives, sails a Hobie Cat, rides an off-road motorcycle, drives his ’37 Rolls-Royce limousine or his wife’s ’89 Bentley Turbo R, travels extensively with his wife, and plays with his grandchildren.

David Byrnes is one of those grizzled old-timers you’ll find mentioned every so often in AutoCAD 2014 For Dummies. He began his drafting career on the boards in 1979 and first learned AutoCAD with version 1.4. Dave is based in Vancouver, British Columbia, where he works as a civil/structural drafter. He taught AutoCAD for 15 years at Emily Carr University of Art + Design and British Columbia Institute of Technology in Vancouver. Dave has authored or coauthored over a dozen AutoCAD books and was sole author of this title from AutoCAD 2008 For Dummies to AutoCAD 2012 For Dummies.

Publisher’s Acknowledgments

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AutoCAD 2014 For Dummies®

Visit www.dummies.com/cheatsheet/autocad2014 to view this book's cheat sheet.

Table of Contents

Introduction

About This Book

Foolish Assumptions

Using the command line

Using aliases

Icons Used in This Book

Beyond the Book

Where to Go from Here

Part I: Getting Started with AutoCAD 2014

Chapter 1: Introducing AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT

Checking Out What AutoCAD Can Do for You

Opening AutoCAD

Drawing in AutoCAD

Understanding Pixels and Vectors

The Cartesian Coordinate System

The Importance of Being DWG

Chapter 2: The Grand Tour of AutoCAD 2014

Looking at AutoCAD’s Drawing Screen

InfoCenter and Quick Access toolbar

Making choices from the Application Menu

Unraveling the Ribbon

Getting with the Program

Looking for Mr. Status Bar

Using Dynamic Input

Let your fingers do the talking: The command line

The key(board) to AutoCAD success

Keeping tabs on palettes

Down the main stretch: The drawing area

Fun with F1

Chapter 3: A Lap around the CAD Track

A Simple Setup

Drawing a (Base) Plate

Taking a Closer Look with Zoom and Pan

Modifying to Make It Merrier

Crossing your hatches

Now that’s a stretch

Following the Plot

Plotting the drawing

Today’s layer forecast: Freezing

Chapter 4: Setup for Success

A Setup Roadmap

Choosing your units

Weighing up your scales

Thinking about paper

Defending your border

A Template for Success

Making the Most of Model Space

Setting your units

Making the drawing area snap-py (and grid-dy)

Setting linetype and dimension scales

Entering drawing properties

Making Templates Your Own

Chapter 5: A Zoom with a View

Zooming and Panning with Glass and Hand

The wheel deal

Navigating a drawing

Zooming, Zooming, Zooming

A View by Any Other Name . . .

Degenerating and Regenerating

Part II: Let There Be Lines

Chapter 6: Along the Straight and Narrow

Drawing for Success

Introducing the Straight-Line Drawing Commands

Drawing Lines and Polylines

Toeing the line

Connecting the lines with polyline

Squaring Off with Rectangles

Choosing Sides with POLygon

Chapter 7: Dangerous Curves Ahead

(Throwing) Curves

Going Full Circle

Arc-y-ology

Solar Ellipses

Splines: The Sketchy, Sinuous Curves

Donuts: The Circles with a Difference

Revision Clouds on the Horizon

Scoring Points

Chapter 8: Preciseliness Is Next to CADliness

Controlling Precision

Understanding the AutoCAD Coordinate Systems

Keyboard capers: Coordinate input

Introducing user coordinate systems

Drawing by numbers

Grabbing an Object and Making It Snappy

Grabbing points with object snap overrides

Running with object snaps

Other Practical Precision Procedures

Chapter 9: Manage Your Properties

Using Properties with Objects

Using the ByLayer approach

Changing properties

Working with Layers

Accumulating properties

Creating new layers

Manipulating layers

Scaling an object’s linetype

Using Named Objects

Using AutoCAD DesignCenter

Chapter 10: Grabbing Onto Object Selection

Commanding and Selecting

Command-first editing

Selection-first editing

Direct-object manipulation

Choosing an editing style

Selecting Objects

One-by-one selection

Selection boxes left and right

Perfecting Selecting

AutoCAD Groupies

Object Selection: Now You See It . . .

Chapter 11: Edit for Credit

Assembling Your AutoCAD Toolkit

The Big Three: Move, COpy, and Stretch

Base points and displacements

Move

COpy

Copy between drawings

Stretch

More Manipulations

Mirror, mirror on the monitor

ROtate

SCale

-ARray

Offset

Slicing, Dicing, and Splicing

TRim and EXtend

BReak

Fillet, CHAmfer, and BLEND

Join

Other editing commands

Getting a Grip

When Editing Goes Bad

Chapter 12: Planning for Paper

Setting Up a Layout in Paper Space

Will that be tabs or buttons?

Viewing layouts Quick(View)ly

Creating a Layout

Using the Create Layout Wizard

Creating a view(port) to draw in

Working with Layouts

Copying and changing layouts

Locking the viewport

Switching between layouts

Keeping track of where you’re at

About Paper Space Layouts and Plotting

Part III: If Drawings Could Talk

Chapter 13: Text with Character

Getting Ready to Write

Creating Simply Stylish Text

Font follies

Get in style

Taking Your Text to New Heights

Plotted text height

Calculating non-annotative AutoCAD text height

Entering Text

Using the Same Old Line

Saying More in Multiline Text

Making it with mText

mText dons a mask

Insert Field

Doing a number on your mText lists

Line up in columns — now!

Modifying mText

Turning On Annotative Objects

Gather ’Round the Tables

Tables have style, too

Creating and editing tables

Take Me to Your Leader

Electing a leader

Multi options for multileaders

Chapter 14: Entering New Dimensions

Adding Dimensions to a Drawing

A Field Guide to Dimensions

Using the quick dimension commands

Opening the Dimension toolbar

Where, oh where, do my dimensions go?

The Latest Styles in Dimensioning

Creating dimension styles

Adjusting style settings

Changing styles

Scaling Dimensions for Output

Editing Dimensions

Editing dimension geometry

Editing dimension text

Controlling and editing dimension associativity

Chapter 15: Down the Hatch!

Creating a Hatch

Using the Hatches Tab

Scaling Hatches

Scaling the easy way

Annotative versus non-annotative

Pushing the Boundary (of) Hatch

Adding style

Hatching from scratch

Editing Hatch Objects

Chapter 16: The Plot Thickens

You Say “Printing,” We Say “Plotting”

The Plot Quickens

Plotting success in 16 steps

Getting with the system

Configuring your printer

Preview one, two

Instead of fit, scale it

Plotting the Layout of the Land

Plotting Lineweights and Colors

Plotting with style

Plotting through thick and thin

Plotting in color

It’s a (Page) Setup!

Continuing the Plot Dialog

The Plot Sickens

Part IV: Advancing with AutoCAD

Chapter 17: The ABCs of Blocks

Rocking with Blocks

Creating Block Definitions

Inserting Blocks

Attributes: Fill-in-the-Blank Blocks

Creating attribute definitions

Defining blocks that contain attribute definitions

Inserting blocks that contain attribute definitions

Editing attribute values

Extracting data

Exploding Blocks

Purging Unused Block Definitions

Chapter 18: Everything from Arrays to Xrefs

Arraying Associatively

Comparing the old and new ARray commands

Hip, hip, array!

Associatively editing

Going External

Becoming attached to your xrefs

Layer-palooza

Creating and editing an external reference file

Forging an xref path

Managing xrefs

Blocks, Xrefs, and Drawing Organization

Mastering the Raster

Attaching a raster image

Maintaining your image

You Say PDF, We Say DWF

Theme and Variations: Dynamic Blocks

Now you see it

Lights! Parameters!! Actions!!!

Manipulating dynamic blocks

Chapter 19: Call the Parametrics!

Maintaining Design Intent

Defining terms

Forget about drawing with precision!

Constrain yourself

Understanding Geometric Constraints

Applying a little more constraint

Using inferred constraints

AutoConstrain yourself!

Understanding Dimensional Constraints

Practice a little constraint

Making your drawing even smarter

Using the Parameters Manager

Dimensions or constraints? Have it both ways!

Chapter 20: Drawing on the Internet

The Internet and AutoCAD: An Overview

You send me

Send it with eTransmit

Rapid eTransmit

FTP for you and me

Bad reception?

Help from the Reference Manager

Design Web Format — Not Just for the Web

All about DWF and DWFx

Autodesk Design Review 2014

The Drawing Protection Racket

Autodesk Weather Forecast: Increasing Cloud

Free AutoCAD!

Going once, going twice, going 123D

Your head planted firmly in the cloud

Cloudy with a Shower of DWGs: AutoCAD 360

The optional extras

Sharing and collaborating

Part V: On a 3D Spree

Chapter 21: It’s a 3D World After All

Understanding 3D Digital Models

Tools of the 3D Trade

Warp speed ahead

Entering the third dimension

Untying the Ribbon and opening some palettes

Modeling from Above

Using 3D coordinate input

Using point filters

Object snaps and object snap tracking

Changing Planes

Displaying the UCS icon

Adjusting the UCS

Navigating the 3D Waters

Orbit à go-go

Taking a spin around the cube

Grabbing the SteeringWheels

Visualizing 3D Objects

Chapter 22: From Drawings to Models

Is 3D for Me?

Getting Your 3D Bearings

Creating a better 3D template

Seeing the world from new viewpoints

From Drawing to Modeling in 3D

Drawing basic 3D objects

Gaining a solid foundation

Drawing solid primitives

Adding the Third Dimension to 2D Objects

Adding thickness to a 2D object

Extruding open and closed objects

Pressing and pulling closed boundaries

Lofting open and closed objects

Sweeping open and closed objects along a path

Revolving open or closed objects around an axis

Modifying 3D Objects

Selecting subobjects

Working with gizmos

More 3D variants of 2D commands

Editing solids

Chapter 23: It’s Showtime!

Get the 2D Out of Here!

A different point of view

Additional 3D tricks

AutoCAD’s top model

Visualizing the Digital World

Adding Lighting

Default lighting

User-defined lights

Sunlight

Creating and Applying Materials

Defining a Background

Rendering a 3D Model

Part VI: The Part of Tens

Chapter 24: Ten AutoCAD Resources

Autodesk Feedback Community

Autodesk Discussion Groups

Autodesk’s Own Bloggers

Autodesk University

The Autodesk Channel on YouTube

The World Wide (CAD) Web

Your Local Authorized Training Center

Your Local User Group

AUGI

Books

Chapter 25: Ten System Variables to Make Your AutoCAD Life Easier

APERTURE

DIMASSOC

MENUBAR

MIRRTEXT

OSNAPZ

PICKBOX

REMEMBERFOLDERS

ROLLOVERTIPS

TOOLTIPS

VISRETAIN

And the Bonus Round

Chapter 26: Ten AutoCAD Secrets

Sheet Sets

Custom Tool Palettes

Ribbon Customization

Macro Recorder

Programming Languages

Vertical Versions

Language Packs

Dynamic Blocks

Data Extraction and Linking

Cheat Sheet

Introduction

Welcome to the wonderful world of AutoCAD and to the fame and fortune that awaits you (would we lie to you?) as an AutoCAD user.

Believe it or not, AutoCAD is 30 years old, having been born in December 1982, 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.) What’s equally scary is that many of today’s hotshot AutoCAD users, and most of the readers of this book, weren’t even born when the program first hit the street and the grizzled old-timers writing these words began using it.

AutoCAD remains the king of the microcomputer CAD hill by a tall margin, making it one of the longest-lived computer programs ever. It’s conceivable that the long-term future of CAD may belong to special-purpose, 3D-based software such as the Autodesk Inventor and Revit programs, or to specialized market-specific variations built on top of AutoCAD. At any rate, AutoCAD’s DWG file format is the de facto standard, so AutoCAD will be where the CAD action is for the foreseeable future.

You may have heard that AutoCAD is complex and difficult to learn and use. Well, it has been our observation that the easier any software is to learn and use, the sooner you bump up against its limitations. A car with no accelerator, one forward gear, no steering, and no brakes would be easy to use until you reached a hill, a curve, or a stop sign or you needed to back out of a parking space.

Yes, AutoCAD is complex, but that’s the secret to its success. Some claim that few people use more than 10 percent of AutoCAD’s capabilities. Closer analysis reveals that most people use the same basic 5 percent and everyone else uses a different 5 percent after that. The trick is to find your 5 percent, the sweet spot that suits your particular industry. If you follow our advice, we think you will find that using AutoCAD is as simple and intuitive as driving a car.

It should also be perfectly clear that if your career path has put you in a position where you need to know how to use AutoCAD, you’re no dummy!

About This Book

Unlike many other For Dummies books, this one often tells you to consult the official software documentation. AutoCAD is just too big and powerful for a single book to attempt to describe it completely. The book that ultimately covers everyAutoCAD topic would need a forklift to move it. Literally. They stopped shipping paper instruction manuals with the software somewhere around 1995, when the full documentation package grew to about a dozen volumes and more than 30 pounds.

In AutoCAD 2014 For Dummies, we occasionally mention differences from previous releases so that everyone gains some context and so that upgraders can more readily understand the differences; plus, you’re bound to encounter a few of the billions and billions of drawings that were created using older methods. We also mention the important differences between AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT so that you’re aware of the LT-related topics that you (or your colleagues) won’t find in this book: AutoCAD LT has no programming language and is nearly devoid of 3D capabilities.

This book does not cover the discipline-specific features in AutoCAD-based nor vertical market products, such as AutoCAD Electrical or AutoCAD Mechanical, although most of the information in this book applies to the general-purpose features of those programs as well.

Foolish Assumptions

AutoCAD has a large, loyal, dedicated group of longtime users. AutoCAD 2014 For Dummies is not for you if you’ve been using AutoCAD for a decade or more, if you plan your vacation time around Autodesk University, if you use AutoCAD to create wedding invitations, or if you read 1,200-page technical tomes about AutoCAD for pleasure. This book is for you if you want to get going quickly with AutoCAD, and you understand the importance of developing proper CAD techniques from the beginning.

However, you do need to have an 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 2014 version). A printer or plotter and a connection to the Internet are helpful, too.

You also need to know how to use your version of 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. You should be familiar with the basics of your operating system before you start using AutoCAD.

Late in 2010, Autodesk released the first non–Microsoft Windows version of AutoCAD in 20 years. Although AutoCAD for Mac is now available, AutoCAD 2014 For Dummies covers only the Windows version. The two versions are file-compatible, but they differ in many ways in how they look and what they can do. If you have AutoCAD for Mac, you should be able to grasp basic concepts, but you might be better off with a Mac-specific book such as Mastering AutoCAD For Mac, by George Omura and Rick Graham (Sybex Publishing) or What's Inside? AutoCAD for Macintosh, by Ralph Grabowski, available as an e-book at www.upfrontezine.com/wiam.

Here are some conventions that you’ll run across in this book.

Using the command line

Text that we want you to type into the program at the command line, in a dialog box, in a text box, or elsewhere appears in boldface type, like the 0 at the end of the following line.

Specify starting width <0.0000>: 0

Examples of AutoCAD prompts appear in a special typeface, as does any other text in the book that replicates a message, a word, or text that appear onscreen. Sequences of prompts that appear on the AutoCAD command line have a shaded background, like this:

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

When there is a specific action we want you to take at one of these prompts, look for the italic passage at the end of this line, where we want you to press Enter:

Specify ending width <5.0000>: Press Enter

Many figures in this book also show AutoCAD command-line sequences that demonstrate AutoCAD’s prompts and sample responses.

Using aliases

Many AutoCAD commands have aliases — these shortcut versions have fewer letters than their full commands, in case you like to type commands at the AutoCAD command line. In this book, we show aliases in uppercase as part of the command names. To start a command, you have to type only its uppercase letters. For example, to draw a line, type either LINE (the official command for the Line command), or just L (its alias) and then press Enter to execute the command.

Icons Used in This Book

Throughout this book, we point out certain morsels of particularly important or useful information by placing handy little icons in the margin. Naturally, different icons indicate different types of information:

Herein lies a pointed insight that can save you time and trouble as you use AutoCAD. In many cases, Tip information acts as a funnel on AutoCAD’s impressive but sometimes overwhelming flexibility: After telling you many of 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 information that most people don’t need to know most of the time. These paragraphs definitely are not required reading, so if you see one at a point when you’ve reached your techie-detail threshold, feel free to skip it.

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

You have a lot to remember when you’re using AutoCAD, so we’ve remembered to remind you not to forget about some of those things that you should remember.

This icon points to new stuff in AutoCAD 2014 (and, sometimes, in AutoCAD LT 2014). It’s designed mostly for people who are somewhat familiar with an earlier version of AutoCAD and want to be alerted to what’s new or different in this release. New users of AutoCAD who are starting out their CAD working lives with AutoCAD 2014 will also find this information interesting, especially when they can show off their new book-learnin’ to those grizzled AutoCAD veterans in the office who don’t yet know about all the cool new features.

This icon highlights text that shows the differences between AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT. If you’re using AutoCAD LT, you’ll find out what you’re missing compared to the full version of AutoCAD. If your friend is using AutoCAD LT, you’ll know where to look to find features in AutoCAD to brag about.

Beyond the Book

We have written a lot of extra content that you won’t find in this book. Go online to find

AutoCAD drawings that you can use in conjunction with this book at

www.dummies.com/go/autocad2014fd

The drawings are posted to the website in Zip format; just download and unzip them and they're ready to open in AutoCAD. The Zip files, which are named according to chapter, contain one or more drawing files. For example, afd03.zip contains the versions of the drawing in Chapter 3. Note that not all chapters have associated drawing files.

Online articles covering additional topics at

www.dummies.com/extras/autocad2014

Here you’ll find out how to create a custom profile, discover the differences between AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT, amid other details to aid you in your AutoCAD journey.

The Cheat Sheet for this book is at

www.dummies.com/cheatsheet/autocad2014

Here you’ll find a roadmap to setting up your drawings and keyboard shortcuts.

Updates to this book, if we have any, are at

www.dummies.com/go/autocad2014fdupdates

Where to Go from Here

If you’re reading this Introduction, you’re like us — you like to read. (The cut-to-the-chase people tend to flip to the index right away and look up what they need to know at that instant.) If you’re a total AutoCAD newbie, you can read this book in order, from front to back; it follows a straightforward route from setting up the drawing environment to outputting your masterworks on hard copy to sharing your work with others.

If you’re an experienced user, you’ll probably be an index-flipper who looks for the missing information needed to complete a specific task. You can probably find the index on your own, but we encourage you to browse through this book anyway, with a highlighter or sticky notes in hand, so that you can find those particularly important places when you need them again. If you’re competent in most areas of AutoCAD and you’re familiar with the previous version, look for the New In 2014 icons in the margins to find out about the latest features that you never realized you can’t live without.

Whichever route you choose, we hope that you enjoy your time with AutoCAD 2014 For Dummies. A-a-and, you’re off!

Part I

Getting Started with AutoCAD 2014

Visit http://www.dummies.com for more great For Dummies content online.

In this part . . .

Find your way around the AutoCAD screen, and see where the tools you use most often, like the Ribbon, graphic screen, and command line, are at.

Discover the half-dozen commands that account for much of your AutoCAD activities.

See the big picture — start to finish — how to start a drawing to printing it.

Correctly set up AutoCAD and create templates to have drawing success.

Navigate through your drawing by panning and zooming.

1

Introducing AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT

In This Chapter

Determining what AutoCAD can do for you

Opening AutoCAD

Creating your first drawing in AutoCAD

The complete picture

The difference between pixels and vectors

Comprehending the Cartesian Coordinate System

The DWG file format

This chapter helps ease you into using AutoCAD to create engineering drawings and how to get started. Although it’s not uncommon to feel overwhelmed the first time you see AutoCAD, rest assured that you don’t need to learn all of the controls that you see in the default environment to be an efficient user of the program.

After a brief introduction of the program, we show you just how easy it can be to use AutoCAD with an exercise. The exercise is followed up with some key concepts that you should understand when using AutoCAD, including how it differs from most other computer applications.

When you’re starting out with AutoCAD, heed this quote from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: Don’t panic!

Checking Out What AutoCAD Can Do for You

AutoCAD is, first and foremost, a program for creating two-dimensional technical drawings — in which measurements and precision are important because these kinds of drawings are often used to build something. And AutoCAD’s 3D capabilities have grown by leaps and bounds over the past several releases, with 3D modeling becoming a common way to check designs before they’re drafted.

The upfront investment to use AutoCAD (not only your money if you paid for it, but your time to learn it) is certainly more expensive than the investment needed to use pencil and paper, and the learning curve is much steeper, too. But this book is here to help you with that learning curve.

Whether you’re choosing to use AutoCAD for your computer-aided drafting (CAD) needs or the software was foisted upon you, you’ll appreciate these attributes, which make the program easier to use than the pencil and paper you may have used in the past: