Auto Cad Book1

8/6/2019 Auto Cad Book1

1/44

Part 4

FORMS OF DESIGN

We will now see some basic geometric shapes such as "primitive"

and other drawing tools.

Rectangle

Click on the "rectangle" to activate it, then we put the two opposite corners of arectangle that will be created automatically. Therefore provides the first corner of therectangle on the canvas, then moving the mouse from one side you'll see a rectangle formwith respect to the fixed point. It remains now to establish the second summit, as opposedto the first, by clicking again on a desired point in the drawing.Once inserted, the first and second corner of the rectangle, the command is alreadyconcluded, it is not necessary to press Enter or right mouse button to exit, as in the case ofthe line.

Let's now a very useful feature, click the rectangle command to activate it again and thenclick on the screen to set the first corner of the rectangle.Now with the keyboard, type the following @ symbol , you'll see the writing on thecommand line, type the following 200,100Then you wrote "@ 200,100", the @ symbol indicates to consider as reference the firstvertex we have set for the rectangle, the numbers written below, separated by a comma(must be a comma not a point) indicate units in X and Y.Now press 'Enter' will create a rectangle of this size (200x100 on the side) and thecommand is complete.Again, the comments are submitted to type after establishing the first point of therectangle:@ value for the X axis , value for the Y axisWhere the value for the X and Y enter numbers to the desired size.

Circle

The "Circe" command allows us to create this shape in various ways,activating this command, AutoCAD is asking us to insert a point corresponding to the centerof the figure, we then click the left mouse button on the screen in a random, or if necessaryusing the "snap to object" to refer to other objects already .After that, you must enter a numerical value that will determine the "radius" of our circle.For example, type 50 and confirm with "enter" key or the right mouse button.At this point we have created the circle and the command is completed.

Now repeat the command and determine the center of the circle again, but before puttingthe new range we look at the "command line".As you can see the program writes: "Specify radius of circle or [Diameter]:".The words in brackets [Diameter] provides the option to enter the diameter of the circleinstead of the radius.To use this option we have to type the letter in the word in brackets is written in capitalletters, in this case is the "D".Now instead of typing the number of the radius, write the letter d, and then hit enter, nowon the "command line" appears:"Specify diameter of circle :", that specify the diameter of the circle.The number showed between signs < > is the last value entered to create a circle and since


2/44

we first posted a radius of 50 corresponding diameter is 100, then the program will displaythis value.Now if you hit "enter" without entering other values, we will create a circle exactly thesame, but if we type again 50 and then hit "enter", we will create a circle of 50 diameterunits, so it will be half the size of the one done previously.

We can create a circle in three other ways, look the "command line" after activating thecommand, we see that Autocad suggests:"_circle Specify center point for circle or [3P/2P/Ttr (tan tan radius )]:".

In addition to entering the center of the circle, in square brackets are three other options[3P/2P/Ttr].

3P = circle through three points.Writing this option and then pressing enter, we should put three points in the drawing forwhich will create a circle.For example, having three segments in space, you can create a circle that is tangent to eachof these.

Example:

2P = circle between two points.After entering this option we can put on the screen between the two points which willcreate the circle.These two points can be vertices (endpoints) of two lines .

Example:

- Click the circle command

- Type "3P" and then press "enter"

- Insert the three points using snap "tangent"

on each of the three lines .


- Type "2P" and then press "enter"

- Insert the two points using snap "endpoint"

on vetrex of two lines.


3/44

Ttr = tangent, tangent, radius.Having two converging segments, this command allows us to create a circle that is tangentto these and having a radius determined by us.

Example:

These last three examples described maybe useful but generally used lessfrequently than normal circle: center, radius ".

Of the three probably the most used can be "2P" two points.

Arc

If we cut a circle between two lines that cross the circle, the part that remains is an arch.

In Autocad an arc is a curved line of a certain radius, passing through three points.By activating the command "arc" In fact, the program will ask how the basic method, toadd three points on the screen, which correspond to the starting point at the intermediateand the final bow.

As we have seen for the circle, once you activate the command, the "command line" showinformation about the execution, plus other options in square brackets [] that allow you todraw an arc along many different sequences and reference points, in adding to the one


- Type "t" and press "enter"

- Click on the two converging lines (in this casedoes not matter to enable the snap tangent,

because it is already part of the command)

- Type the desired radius and press enter.Under the fixed radius the circle can be drawn out

of the segments, but will remain in projectiontangent to them.


4/44


5/44

for the number of sides that make up the figure to be allocated at the beginning of thecommand.

We see now the second possibility, that the [Edge] in which we will draw a hexagon thathas the side of "50" units.

Activate the command , type 6, and then press Enter key, then type "e" and then again

Enter.Now the program prompts you to insert the first point on the screen of one side of thefigure ( the "ortho" must be active, otherwise press "F8") and then the second which is thelength of the side.Instead of the second point, as already proven with the line, type 50 and hit enter.So we will have created a hexagon with sides of 50 units.

The control polygon is slightly more elaborate than others, as always, the trick to run it wellis by follow the directions on the "command line".

Ellipse

To construct an ellipse we're going to fix the vertices or "endpoints" of the two virtual axes

for which passes this geometric figure.Pressing the control to then we put three points on the screen.The first two determine the length of the first objective, which could be either the major orminor axis of the ellipse.The third point that will put on the screen will set up a summit of the second axis, whichwill be sufficient to complete the ellipse and the command is entered, see fig. 1.

fig. 1 fig. 2

Again using the object snap points we can set up the points of the ellipse on endpoints ofdesign lines which we are working, for example if we draw first two axes of the measurewe are interested, it will sufficent to construct the ellipse at the endpoint of them and wewill have the figure with width and length determined by us.

Alternatively, clicking the [Center] suggested on the command line after you start thecommand, typing the letter "c" and pressing enter, draw the ellipse starting from its centerand then we fix one endpoint of the two axes of the figure, see Fig. 2.

Donut

This command is not present on the toolbar, to activate it we must go and see him with themouse up in the menu "draw".


6/44


7/44

Choosing it opens the following window:

Within this we will choose the look that will have all of the dots in the drawing in which weare working.We may also choose the size of the symbols drawn as points in "absolute units" or "relativeto screen", which means that if we walk away with the zoom and then "regenerating" thedrawing, the symbols of the drawn points will return to the size set.

To draw points will be enough to activate the command and click on one or more pointson the screen.

To exit the command in this case you must press the Esc key on your keyboard.


8/44

Divide and "Measure"

With the command "Divide" we can split a line or a closed figure in "N" equal parts.To divide you do not intend to break the lines and figures remain whole but there will bedrawn over the points as described before.These points, as such, will be represented by point style setting.

Divide command is not present on the toolbar, so we will have to activate it manually bytyping "divide" on the keyboard and then hit Enter.We see that on the command line is written "select object to divide" that is, select theobject to be divided, then select a line or a figure, then appears on the command line:"Enter the number of segments, ie enter the number of segments for which we want todivide the object.For example, insert "4" and hit Enter, the object will be rendered three points that dividethe object into 4 equal parts.At this point the command will be close automatically.If we did not see any change means that we must change the "point style" setting,however, points will be present but not visible and can be selected.

IThe "Measure" command is similar to "divide" but instead of dividing the object into equalparts, it split where it is possible, according to a measure that we determined.To enable this feature, type "measure" on the keyboard followed by Enter.Also this time we are asked to select an object and then appear on the command line:"Specify length of segment" that specify the length of the segment for which the object willbe divided up to where possible.Typing 50 and pressing enter, a line can be split from the vertex nearest to the point wherewe checked, 50 units of its length ..

As you understand these two commands could be useful to draw reference points on theobject on which we can draw lines or other lines or shapes, and then possibly delete them.

Dividing a circle into equal parts such as the inside we will draw a pattern into slices, or

split a wall of a room in a plant, according to the size of the floor tiles to draw, etc..

Polylineand Edit Polyline

The polyline is a line type with which we can draw, but has different characteristics andfunctions more advanced than the normal line that we have already used.

We initiate this command by pressing the Polyline and draw a line with somesegments by clicking repeatedly on the screen with the left mouse button, at random, thendo click with the right to end the polyline.


9/44

The fundamental difference between a line and a polyline drawn in this way is that thepolyline is identified as a single object, in fact, if you click a segment, we see that it ishighlighted and selected the entire polyline while in the case of each normal line segmentsmay be selected independently.Figures such as rectangle, polygon or circle drawn by the relevant commands that we haveseen, therefore, correspond to the closed polylines as they also are identified as individualobjects.

Through the command "edit polyline" , which is on "MODIFY II" toolbar, we can assignto a polyline thickness whereby it will be displayed on the screen.We can smooth the top, transforming it into what is called a "spline" and vice versa,We can turn a normal line to polyline and add it to other segments which have the verticescoincident.We see the first case:

After drawing a polyline segments activate the command "edit polyline" .On the "command line" appears:"Select polyline or [Multiple]Then select the polyline.(Typing "m" for the [Multiple], then press enter, you can select multiple polylines if any).At this point we can choose various options, as indicated on the command line, by typingout their letters of abbreviation.

Then type W for width and press enter.Then type in the value of desired width, eg. 5 and press Enter.The polyline will be expanded, the command however, unlike other will not be concluded, infact on the command line options are still present.To close it, we must press "Enter" or the right mouse button.Instead, type S for spline and press Enter, the vertices of the polyline will be getting acurved spline.Now type D for decurve and Enter, the polyline is as good as before.Pressing Enter again will exit the command.


10/44

If instead we have a series of consecutive segments, or a closed figure, made from thenormal line, with this command you can turn them and put them together in a polyline.

Activate the command and select one of the segments.Since it is not a polyline, AutoCAD asks us if we want convert it (see the command line),press Enter to confirm, at this point all options will appear as before.Now type J to join and select all other segments, or arcs, which have the vertices

coincident, selecting them individually or all together with one or more selection boxes,then press enter twice to exit the command.All selected lines will be merged and turned into one polyline.To do these, lines must have a vertex coincident, ie they must touch, if not even a veryshort, will not be join together..

Let's see how this feature could be useful.Suppose we have the plan of a room, which may be rectangular in shape but also moreelaborate, on which we must draw a false ceiling with a pattern that follows the perimeterof the room.We can start to make the offset of each wall to the inside, but then we should cut or join allthe lines intersect.If, however, join in a polyline walls of the plant as a result we can perform with just a fewof the figures offset concentric and equidistant from the perimeter, without then having to

make other interventions blending.

What we have seen are the options for the polyline used more frequently, especially that forthe "width" and the "join" features.

Hatch

The "Hatch" command is used to fill the closed figures with patterns of various kinds.The area to be filled can theoretically be of any shape and can be closed off by a polyline ornormal lines, the only rule to follow is that the figures to be filled are perfectly closed,otherwise, the hatch will not be created.In fact with the latest versions of Autocad you can set a tolerance, below which, although afigure to fill was not properly closed the program still managed to create the pattern, but itis good practice to respect the basic rules.For closed figure so I do not mean a geometry independent, such as a single polygon, butalso an area within a design more complex bounded by lines that intersect.We can then fill a drawing of a square, as well as a square area in the drawing of achessboard.An other features to keep in mind, remaining example of the board, is that Autocad tocreate the patterning process all enclosed areas that will be visible in the screen.If we select a picture of the board fully displayed on the screen and wanted to fill a squareof this, when we are going to select, Autocad will prepare all the other losing more time.But once this process is complete and the square is selected, we will now can select more,this time very quickly because all the visible areas have already been pre-processed.If the board so this can benefit us because we want to probably fill half of the net with thesquares, but if we were facing a more complex design and large, such as the drawing of afloor which also contains arcs or circles to his internal, the processing time to fill one partwith the hatch, while it is fully displayed on the screen, might get quite long.It will therefore be convenient to perform a zoom on one or a few parts to be filled beforeapplying the hatch, then fill all the areas concerned in several steps.

Let's see how to implement this command.Draw a closed geometric figure on the screen, circle or rectangle.

Then activating the command "hatch" with the key , the following window will appear:


11/44

This window is divided into several sections:

Type and patternIn this first section, choose what type of patterning we're going to use, clicking on thesmall window next to the word "swatch", where is a preview of the pattern used, it willopen another window on which we will choose the type of pattern to use::


12/44

In this window there are some tables that contain many types of patterns, to select just adouble click on what we want to use.

Angle and scaleIn this section, we will decide if the scale factor and the rotation angle by which the hatchis drawn.Keep in mind that if we use a scale too small compared to the area to be filled, Autocad failsto generate the net, same thing if the scale is too large the screen will not be displayed.You can still enter decimal values (0.1) or hundredths (0.01) and so on.The angle of rotation should be considered counter-clockwise.

Boundaries

With the first two buttons of the "boundaries" select the area to fill:


13/44

"Add: Pick points"After we pressed, click inside the area (or areas) to be filled so that the program developsand highlight the edges *.

* Depending on the areas to be developed that will be present on the screen right now,before you begin processing it can happen that we are asked on the command line if youreally want to continue with the transaction. Then read :Do you really want to do this? The questions by tapping Y followed by Enter to continue to develop the area to fill.

We see the second key:

"Add: Select Objects"After click it, we must select lines or shapes that enclose the area to fill.

Run one of these two commands and selected the area to fill, press "Enter", (or rightclick>enter) to confirm the selection and return to the main window of the command.On this window, click the bottom left button "preview" , and our pattern will display"preview" in the selected area.At this point if you hit enter the patternis confirmed and exits the command, if we want to

make other changes, the scale or angle of rotation, pressing the "Esc" key on your keyboardto go back to the previous window and we can change the settings again.

Summary:

- You start the command "hatch"- Sets the type of texture or pattern, scale and rotation if necessary.- You select the area with "pick points" or "select objects" and press enter to confirm theselection (*)- You press "preview"- You press Enter again to confirm the pattern and exit the command

(*) at this point if instead of "Enter" press the right mouse button, it opens a drop down

menu where, among other items found at the bottom "preview".This is a small shortcut without having to return to the main window of the command.

Then there is the sectionOptions and Hatch origin and clicking the little arrow key at thebottom right, it can expand the main window showing more options.At the moment, left out to not create too much confusion, just add an explanation of the

first flag "Associative" in the "Options".In practice, an "associative" pattern, can be stretched with the "stretch" command, with itsperimeter, while a hatch created by the "associative" removed, it can not be stretchedalong its perimeter, but will remain fixed.

Edit Hatch

If after you create a hatch, above it do a double click with your mouse, you edit it, re-openits input window, and you can again change the parameters.

This is equivalent to using the command "Edit Hatch on "Modify II" toolbar, and thenselect the hatch to change.


14/44

Explode

As you've seen, a hatch is a set of lines and/or points, but once it is created as a singleobject.If you remember the polyline or polygon has a similar feature, as though with segmentsappear as a single object.

If we use the command "explode" and select one or more of the items mentioned andthen "Enter" them explode in the individual component parts, lines and/or points that maybe.This with the textures is not always advisable as it exploded, a hatch can not be edited andmodified, and if we were to cancel it would be inappropriate in terms of time and patience.

Part 5

OBJECT PROPERTIES.

See now the description of the "properties" of objects.For "object propertis" is mean the color, linetype, thickness of lines drawn on Autocad, andending with the Layers.You can operate the controls on these factors through the pull-down menu, on the"properties toolbar" and "layer toolbar", or via the command "properties" and its window.

Color Linetype Line tickhness

We will see these functions individually:

Color

Autocad has a palette of 255 colors that can be assigned individually to each line we create.Draw a random line on the screen and select it with the mouse clicking on them, the linewill be highlighted.Once selected, click on the first screen of the "properties toolbar" to open the drop-downmenu of colors.


15/44

In this menu there are several options:-ByLayer-ByBlock.. Plus the first seven main colors that AutoCAD provides us, finally, the last item whichwhen clicked will open the full palette of colors available ... but we will see shortly.If you now select one of the colors on this drop down, such as the red, line that we selectedwill change color.

If we still click the dropdown and select the color green, the line will turn this color.We can change its color until it is selected.Pressing the "Esc" key on the keyboard, the line is clear and colors of the menu returns the"BYLAYER".This means that the next line you create will have the color setting BYLAYER.If you act now on the pop colors, while no line is selected, and choose yellow, we willensure that the objects we designs from here on, will be this color.We can then set a base color of our choice with which to draw and if necessary we canchange color to one or more objects at once, as we have just seen, after being selected.

Selecting the last entry in the drop down "select color ..." will open the following window:


16/44

In this window we find the full palette "index color" of Autocad, that we can select with themouse and then click OK to assign to objects.As you will see on this window, each color corresponds to a number, except the first sevenof which also gives AutoCAD the color name.

(Red, yellow, green, cyan, blue, magenta, white).

LineType

With the same way of operation that we saw the color, we can also use different line types,which are selected via the second drop-down menu on the "properties toolbar".

But there is a little variation, the type of line that we used to be "charged", we see:In a new design by opening the drop-down list of line types will find the following items:

-ByLayer-ByBlock-Continuous-Other...

Selecting this last item "other" the following window opens with the default lines ofAutocad:


17/44

In this window, we still see the lines already on the drop-down menu, that is, those that arecurrently loaded.By click on "Load" button on this window, we'll open another window:


18/44

This second window refers to a system file of Autocad(acadiso.lin) on which they plannedthe various types of line.

Using the scroll bar or mouse wheel can scroll through the available line types, hold downthe "Ctrl" key on your keyboard, select a few to load, (usually using the "Hidden" and"Center") and pressing OK then the lines are loaded into our design choices.They should then appear in the first window of lines available, then you still click OK toclose the first window.

Now after selecting one or more lines and objects we can change the linetype trough thedrop-down menu, in the same way that we change the color, that is selecting the type ofline you want.

By choosing the linetype "HIDDEN", selected lines become dashed, but the size of the hatchwill be dependent on two variables or factors of scale.

Ltscale (line type scale)

On Autocad, when we use different line types from the normal continuous line, the size of

the hatch of these depends on the variable "LTSCALE.

This variable defines a scale factor by which all the lines will be drawn in a drawing.

By typing the command "ltscale" on keyboard, and then pressing "Enter", we can modify

the scale factor of all lines, which by default is 1, to increase or decrease the density of the

hatching of the different line types.

At higher values will have a larger hatch, while less values, hatch will be more dense, until

it look like a continuous line, although not as it appears.

We must therefore pay particular attention to this, because if we use a dotted line in a

drawing by a factor of "LTSCALE" too low, the hatch will not be visible.

In addition to the variable LTSCALE, which operates globally on the entire design (then


19/44

each AutoCAD drawing file), you can set a second scaling factor for each line individually.

We can then have two lines or objects with the same kind of dotted line, but scaled

differently.

To change this second scale factor will use the command "properties" that we will see after.

To display the different linetypes, we have to keep in mind the setting of these two values,

in order to design and print properly, according to our needs.

Lineweight

On the third pull-down of properties toolbar, can be set to a thickness for selected lines.

We will then select one or more lines first and then open this box and select the desiredthickness.

The set thickness will be visible on the screen or not, if not press the button with the voiceLWT, including those placed under the command line.

However, I want you left out for now this approach regarding the thickness of the lines, wewill use the "plot style" settings, that I show you later and which assigns differentthickness for each color used to draw.

Layers"

On Autocad, Layers are like levels or sheets, of which we can assign certain parts of adrawing.Through the appropriate command window we can create at will and can set a name, a basecolor, and a kind of linetype.The base Linetype and color howewer it isn't binding, in fact within the same layer you candraw with any color or line available, using the function seen previously.

Let's see the "layers toolbar":


20/44

Clicking the first button on the left of the toolbar: will open the window "layermanager", here below:

On the "Layer Manager", we see at present, only the layer "0".

Above are the three keys that match::-New-layer (to create new layer)-Delete layer [ note: you can not delete layers that are not empty]-Set current (set as the current layer)These same voices in the menu that appears when we right-click inside the window layer(in the biggest right).

We can create multiple layers, but always drawn on one at a time, the current layer.

If we click "new layer" will create a new layer called "Layer1" which will appear in thewindow. Right now if necessary, we can just rename it at will.The following image I created two new layers, the first, layer1 I left as the default, the


21/44

second I renamed as the "floor" (in italian "Pavimento") I assigned the color red and Ichanged the line type in HIDDEN like setting base.

To rename a layer, we have selected in the layer manager and press the "F2" key on yourkeyboard.The layer name will edit it and we can rename it at will.

Pressing "Apply" and "OK" to confirm this setting and close the window layer.The current layer is still "0", it is what we see written in the window of the "layer tooolbar"

This means that the lines we draw will be part of this layer.Clicking on the window of the "layers toolbar" opens a drop down list where we see thelayers in the drawing, then 0, layer1 and floor (Pavimento).

Selecting one of the layers present, such as "floor" (Pavimento), set it as current layer,from then on the lines or objects that we are going to draw belong to this layer and hencewill have the characteristics we have set, red color and line type HIDDEN.


22/44

This at least, if we leave the setting "BYLAYER" for the color and type of line on the"properties toolbar", if we assign a different color or line type, different from those set forthe layer, these will take precedence and will be used to draw.

Displayed the lines depend on the hidden variable LTSCALE.

Attention now: Doing the same operation, by selecting a layer in the down special, but afterselecting one or more objects in the drawing, we will change the layer are member of theseobjects, but in this case, when press Esc to deselect it, we see that the layer currentremains 0.Then we assigned the layer "floor"(Pavimento) to selected objects, but we continue to drawin the layer 0.

In summary, we can create different layers and give it different names, colors and type oflines.We can set object colors to your liking or leave it as setting on the layer manager"BYLAYER".

We can assign to different line type, or leave it as setting on the layer manager "BYLAYER".

As you may have noticed, both on the layer drop-down menu and in the layer-managerwindow, there are other symbols for each layer: a light bulb, a kind of sun, and a padlock.Are the controls, ON / OFF, FREEZE, LOCK.Both from the drop-down list of layers and from the layer-manager window, can act onthese functions.

The first ON / OFF, allows you to set visible or not, the various layers present , then if youopen the drop-down menu and you click the "bulb" of layer "floor" you set it off, so objectsthat are part of the design of this layer will disappear.Repeating the operation reactivate the layer, the design reappears on the screen.

The FREEZE function is equivalent to say that first described, at least as regards this course.You have to keep in mind that a layer set to "off" can remain as the current layer, then wecan draw with it.If we draw a line using a layer off, will not appear on the screen, since the layer is disabled,but will be drawn and we will turn visible, resetting the layer ON.Unlike a layer off with the FREEZE function can not be used as the current layer, thuspreventing you can continue drawing in it.

The LOCK function instead, when enabled will lock the layer concerned, which remainvisible on the screen, but should prevent edit or delete the parts that are already drawn onthis layer.Also in this case, It will be maintain the current layer "locked", and continue to drawobjects inside which, however, once created it will be immediately blocked and no longereditable until they turn off the lock.


23/44

In practice the layer is uded to subdividing drwings to some parts, such as plant design of aroom can be divided into several layers of walls, floors, furniture, false ceiling etc.. turningoff or locking, if necessary, the layer on which we must not work or that we should not see.

Although you can create a vast amount of layers. ... And many do, (you will realize if youhappen to work on drawings made by others), you should not overdo it and kept to theminimum necessary to maintain order as much as possible in the design and not to losecontrol of what we're doing.It will be very easy indeed if not, end up with parts of the design scattered to many layerswhere they should not be, and have to wasting time to fix it up.You will see that this happens even working with only two layers, if you are not careful.A good technical drawing could be featured in a single layer, merely using different colorsfor different objects like walls, floors, furnishings, etc.

Properties

The "Properties" is on the "standard toolbar":

Clicking this button will activate a kind of vertical toolbar that contains a window wherethey are given much information.We see it in the following image:


24/44

This window can be moved from either side of the screen and clicking the arrow at thebottom, under words "properties", open and close the side window with information aboutobjects.In fact, if we select an object and then we go on this window, we will show a range ofinformation that is precisely the "properties" to the object that we have selected.

As you see above are the entries for the color, layer and linetype.Clicking on the value of these items can also change from here in the same way that we sawin previous chapters.

The fourth item are "Linetype scale" , where we can put a numerical scale factor for thetype of line used.This scale value entered here, however, is relative to each selected object and isindependent of the value set in the variable "LTSCALE", or rather acts in addition to this.

To close the Properties window, just click again on the command or the X at the top ofthe relative window.

Match Properties"


25/44

The "match properties" is on the "standard toolbar":

With this command you can copy the properties of an object, such as layer, color andlinetype, to others.By activating the command we are asked to select the source object.Then select a line of our design.We have now to select one or more target objects, we can do that by clicking on individualobjects, or even making a selection window that encompasses the elements that concernus.At the time of their selection, the target objects are applied to the properties of the source,then change color, but also the layer of belonging and the line style.If we copy the properties from one text to another, is also affected the height of the text.

Parte 6

ADDING TEXT AND DIMENSIONS

Text Style

Let us now turn to the addition of the text on our illustration.In this case we use the "text toolbar", on which commands are needed:

The first command to be examined is the "Text Style"Activating this command opens the Text Style window:


26/44

In AutoCAD, we can create in a drawing different text styles and for every text style youcan set a "font" of writing and other characteristics, in particular the height of thecharacter.

On top of this window find the Style Name area where there are already created a textstyle called "Standard", in the dropdown menu.If we click on "New" button, will open another window, where we're going to type thename of the new style of text that we are creating, for example, "style1", then press "ok"we see that the "style1" is added to the drop-down menu above.

We can now set the characteristics of this style in the Font area.

Here you can find under "Font Name" another drop-down menu with the available fonts,open the menu and choose what interests, ie. "Arial"

We will see in the Preview area, an example of the character chosen.

Once you select the dropdown "font name" you can browse the selection with the arrowskeys of the keyboard.The characters with the extension (Shx) belong to autocad and are more simple inappearance, consisting of lines and can be exploded.Those with the symbolTTfonts are called "true type" and are part of windows, betterquality and full color.Some of the available characters are composed of symbols.

Still on Font area, find "Font Style" (regular, italic, bold) and again at the side where thereis another box, set the height of the text.Once this is done press button "Apply" to make the current text style created and thenpress "Close" to close the window.

Once you set the text style of writing we are ready to enter the drawing.To do this we have two different text commands on the toolbar.

Single line text


27/44

With the command "single line text" insert some text on a single line, the height ofthis text will be the one set in the "Text Style" settings, or, if we left this value to zero,Autocad will ask to enter a height of text value for each text that we will create.The heights of the text we will use, will be of proper proportion to the design that we createand especially respect to the scale factor with which we will print it.

A character set to "30" who will be 3 mm high when printed in 1:10 scale, must be set to"300" to achieve the same result on a 1:100 scale printing.

Click on the commandOn the command line is: "Specify start point f or text", we then click on the screen to setthe insertion point of the text.Now, if we have not already set in the "Text Style" we are asked to enter the height of thetext:"Specify height" (specify the height of the text)Insert eg. 30 and then hit enter.Now on the command line shows "Specify rotation angle" (specify the angle of rotation oftext line), press enter to leave directly to zero, in order to write horizontally.

At this point we will see a blinking cursor at the point chosen.We can finally write our text with the keyboard and in the meantime use the mouse wheelto adjust the zoom on what we are writing.Upon completion of the written press the enter key, we shall now see that the cursor wrapsto allow us to write a second line, try to write again on the second line of text and thenpress Enter again.The cursor will go back to any chapter on the third line ... press Enter again to exit thecommand.We just created two lines of text ... but then why the command is called single-line text?The answer lies in the fact that the two lines are created as independent objects.We can then independently select and move, scale, change color, etc.. with standardAutoCAD commands, like any other element of the design.

Multi line text

Dives as explained before, the "multiline text" will allow us to write text on multiple lines,but these will be created once by selecting them as a single object.In addition to this the multi-line text has more advanced features of writing, what we see:

Clicking the command on "text toolbar", Autocad prompts us to insert the two cornersof a virtual rectangle, which represents the area in which we will write the text.

We then click on the screen to establish the two points as if you draw a rectangle.Just the fact that, we will see an additional toolbar with a writing area below it, see thefollowing image:


28/44

On this toolbar we have several commands with functions similar to standard wordprocessors, like the Windows WordPad or Microsoft Word, let's see the main ones:In the top left there are three drop-down menu, you can select the first one of the "TextStyle" created.Second, you can choose the font to use (by default that we set in text style, but you canalso use a different one).Go on the third menu and type the height of the text.All of this, we can do it before or after you start writing, but in this case we must rememberto select with mouse the text already written in the text area, otherwise the changes willonly affect the text you write after.We hawe then the three buttons to bold, italic and underlined text setting.Further right is another drop-down with the colors, by which to assign a color to text orpart of this.

If we change the color of the multiline text through this command, then only we can changethis because the changes to the color that eventually we will try to do by "propertiestoolbar" will have no effect.

Still to the right there is the OK button, this button serves to confirm what we have writtenin and exit of command.At the bottom left of the toolbar there are six buttons for text alignment on the virtual areaestablished at the beginning of the command, then left, center and right, and top middleand bottom.In the three windows on the right hand, respectively, we can set the angle of the text in

degrees, then the distance between the letters and the width factor of the same.Just before these last three windows, there is a button with the symbol "@" through thiscommand we can write symbols like the plus and minus , the diameter or so.Clicking this button will open the following menu, on which we will select any symbol to bewritten.Note that each symbol corresponds to a particular sequence of letters, for example, thesymbol of the diameter corresponds to "%% c", which means that if on a line of text inAutocad, write one of these keystrokes, will be written the symbol correspondent.


29/44

Edit text

Once we have created the text, at any time we can change it or add other to the same line.

To do this on the "text toolbar is the following command Edit.After you click the command you are prompted to select the text to change, which will edit

it as when we created and then we can change it.

Alternatively, we can simply double-click the mouse on a text to change, achieving thesame function of the command above.

DRAWING DIMENSIONING

To assign dimensions to a design, there are different "dimension style" to use, based on

what we want to be quoted.We also need to set at least one "dimension style" to define the visualization andmeasurement of dimensions inserted into the drawing.These features may vary depending on the scale factor with which to print the drawing, soas to be sized correctly, or even according to the units we want to represent, eg.centimeters or millimeters.

Let's take a practical example to understand better:We see listed in the following two squares, the first of 3x3 units, the second of 30x30 units.If you print them together on a scale of 1:1 will cause the former is 3 mm x 3 mm and the


30/44

second 30mm x 30mm.The size of the text and arrows of the dimensions may be fine as is.

Now consider the same design, as if the units were centimeters ....If print it still in 1:1 scale, we might indicate (e.g. by writing on a corner) that the design isin 1:10 scale, but about the dimension style, we will leave them like that but consideringthem in cm.We then printed two designs the same, but the second whit indicated "1:10 scale",represents a square of a 3cm x 3cm and a second of 30cm x 30cm

However, if we want to print the second design, with the dimensions representing the mm,we have to set the "dimension style" to consider the size of a unit 10 times, indicating the

first and second square respectively 30x30 and 300x300.

If we really wanted to print it on a scale of 1:1 (ie the truth or full scale) will set up a printscale to 10:1.The design is then printed ten times bigger and with it the appearance of the shares will beten times greater.To bring aspect back to starting, we should go into settings and reduce the dimension stylesettings that affect the appearance of units, size of the text, and arrows.

We can also consider the second square as enlarged detail of the first.In this case the dimensions given should be equal in respect of the same object representedwith two different scale factors.To do this we have two ways:

- Manually change the dimensions of the enlarged detail, after they've been created.

- Create a second "dimension style" where to set the scaling factor smaller (inthis case 0.1) and applies only to the dimensions of the enlarged detail.We shall see shortly how to do this.


31/44

Dimension Toolbar

To draw dimensions on the design we'll use the "dimension toolbar" on which commandsare needed.

We will consider the following basic commands for the creation of the dimensions:

y Lineary Alignedy Radiusy Diametery Angulary Dimension style

Linear Dimension

By activating the "linear dimension" , on the command line you are asked to specify thefirst point of extension line:

Specify first extension line origin or :

In practice, (snap on), we need to select the two vertices of a line or an object that wewant to apply a dimension.Clicked the mouse on the first point, then we are immediately prompted to insert thesecond:

Specify second extension line origin:

Added second point we will see the dimension line temporarily following the movements ofthe mouse to be positioned on either side of the line measured.We'll click a third time with the mouse to define the final position of the dimension line andcome out at once by the command.

If after we click the right button will reactivate the last command, to insert anotherdimension to the drawing.

With the command "linear dimension" can be draw dimensions that are only horizontal orvertical, and then measure objects only on its vertical or horizontal projection and howeveraligned with UCS axis (XY).

Aligned Dimension


32/44

With "aligned dimension" , unlike the linear, we can apply dimension to objects or non-orthogonal lines.The process of creating the fee is the same as the "linear dimension", then the commandwill be activated once you click on the two measuring points (remember to use the snap)and then you click on the third to determine the position of the dimension and command isover.

See sample image below:

Radius Dimension

With the "radius" dimension we're going to measure the "radius" of a circle or an arc.Draw a circle of radius 50 after which, activate the dimension "radius".At this point, clicking anywhere on the circle will appear as the dimension in the previouscases and it will follow the mouse movement to determine the final position which may beinside or outside the circle.We will then clicking again to place the dimension and exit the command.The radius value on the dimension, will be preceded by the word "R" to highlight it.

Diameter Dimension

The "diameter" , in a totally equal to the command radius, mark it the diameter of acircle or virtual diameter of an arc.The value of the dimension will be preceded by the symbol .


33/44

Make some tests, by dimensioning a circle with radius and diameter and placing thedimension inside and outside of the circle to see how they are represented.

Angular Dimension

The dimension "angular" need to quote the corners.The process is always similar, having to dimension the angle between two intersectinglines, the command that is activated in this case, ask to select the two lines involved.Then click on the lines to select and how to appear in the previous cases, we see the newangular dimension following the mouse and it can be positioned in the desired position.As you will see by moving the dimension around the lines you can choose to quote theinterior and exterior angles to the lines that intersect like this:

To dimension an angle is not necessary that the intersecting lines touch or cross each otherthrough, if the lines in the sample while maintaining the same slope were interrupted

before intersects, we can still put an angular dimension.

Dimension Style


34/44

We see now the part a bit more complicated, the command "Dimension style" .Through this command we will set the various characteristics of the dimensions, by clickingthe command opens the following window "dimension style manager":

We see written in the upper left corner that the current dimension style is: "ISO-25".In the central window is displayed a preview of the current dimension style, where we seethe features set, color, font, arrows, etc.Usually we'll use one dimension style for each individual design, but we could use evenmore than one, with different characteristics from the first.By using the "New.." and "Modify.." buttons , it will create a new style of dimension ormodify the existing one, in this later case you should first select the current dimension

style, in the left box, and then click the button "Modify..".

For the moment, we opt for the second path, then select the style already current: ISO-25,which will be highlighted in blue in the image above and then click the "Modify.." button.This will open the following window:


35/44

The "Modify Dimension Style" window is composed of seven tables, through which you setthe characteristics of dimension styles.

y Linesy Symbols and Arrowsy Texty Fity Primary Unitsy Alternate Unitsy Tolerances

We will examine the top five.

The table "Lines" , in the abobe image, relates to the lines that make up the dimensions.

A dimension consists of the "Dimension lines" and the "Extension lines".


36/44

Through the first table you are working on these lines, respectively, being able to choosethe color, line type and thickness.Under "suppress" you can choose whether to make invisible the dimension line and one orboth extension lines.

Generally I change only the color of the lines to distinguish the dimension from the rest ofthe drawing..

In the boxes at the bottom right, we set the length of the extension line beyond thedimension line and the distance from the point of origin.

Alternatively, you can turn on a fixed line for the extension and set it in the box below, sothat the extension lines are all equal regardless of the distance that we put the dimensionfrom measured object.

Set these values in a proportionate respect to dimensions and the rest of the design you'reworking on.While we make these changes we will see update the dimension in the preview window, buton the actual dimensions in the drawing, will be applied at the time when we will confirmwith the OKbutton and close the "dimension style" window.

The second table "Symbols and Arrows" operates mainly on the symbols (arrows) at theend of the dimension line, for which we have several options to choose from.

Select the desired symbol from the dropdown list, you can normally use the "Closed filled"or "Architectural tick".


37/44

On the third table "Text" set the Text appearance of the dimension, then:

Text Style: (select a text style that you create for plain text (i.e. the Standard), so ifnecessarywe can set two different characters for the text written on the drawing and thatof dimensions)

Text Color: (set the color of dimension text)Text Height: (set the height of the text. If we have already established a height in the"Text Style", this will be applied to dimensions that using this style of text. Otherwise wecan here set the desired height for the text of the dimensions.


38/44

In the Text placement, set the position of text relative to the dimension line.

Set as image: vertical: Above and Horizontal: CenteredIn this way the text will stand vertically above the dimension line and horizontally centeredon this .In the "Offset from dim line" set the distance of text from the dimension line.

In the Text alignment leave checked the "Aligned with dimension line" so the text will bealigned with the dimension line.

The fourth table "Fit", is used to determine how the dimension should behave whenbetween extension line there isn't enough space to hold all the text and the arrows ofdimension.

Leave everything set as we find, see the following image.


39/44

The fifth table "Primary Units" is the most important:


40/44

As we see in the image is done separately on the "Linear dimensions" and "Angular

dimensions" to the left and right of the table.In both cases we have to set:

Unit format: (unit of measure used by dimension)

Set through the drop-down menu on "Decimal" and "Decimal Degrees"(decimal units).Precision: (number of decimal places to display on the quote)Select the number of decimal places according to the precision necessary for the dimensionof what we are drawing.Eg if the design of masonry may not be necessary to see the millimeters, while in other

types of technical drawing can be important even tenths of a millimeter.In general, however, may be fine set at "0.00", ie to two decimal places.

For the linear dimensions also set the following values:

Round off: (with "round off" can cause dimensions to measure with the approximation thatwe set in this field)


41/44

If we set the decimal values such as 0.5, dimensions shall be rounded to this value, so nomatter how many decimal places we have to set the "Precision", the dimensions neglectthem and give us a "distorted" measure approximate to 0.5 decimal places.

If we put dimensions in "cm" with a "Round off" to 0.5 we will have dimension values withan accuracy of half a centimeter at a time.If instead we set the share to 0.1 will be more accurate in approximating one millimeter ata time.If we consider the same dimensions in "mm", in the first case we have (0.5) to an accuracyof half a millimeter and in the second case (0.1) to the tenth of a millimeter.

Measurement scale

Scale factor: (this is the scale factor applied to dimensions)

For example, setting this value to 0.1, the value of the dimensions will be equal to one tenthof the measured value.

As already mentioned in the introduction of dimensions, can be useful if in a drawing weuse two different dimension styles, one for the basic design and one for the magnifieddetails.If we have a design within a particular magnified tenfold, the value of the dimension of thisobject will be ten times higher than the dimension of the basic model.By using another dimension style with a "scale factor" set in this case 0.1, the detailsenlarged obtaining values equal to the basic model.If necessary we will use different colors for text or lines of two dimension styles todifferentiate them.

ero suppression:

The boxes "Leading" and "Trailing" placed under the heading zero suppression serve, ifselected, to remove the zero (if present), early (Leading) and end (Trailing) from dimensionwith decimals.

A dimension of 0.57 value will be shown with .57 (Leading selected)A dimension of 3.60 value will be shown with 3.6 (Trailing selected)

We can set independently the "zero suppression" for linear dimensions and angles.

_____________________________________________________________

When are done settings click "OK" to close down the window and then the "Close" button inthe dialog "Dimension style manager" to close this one.Here, if dimensions are already on the drawing should be automatically updated to reflectthe new settings entered.

If we have dimension belonging to different dimension styles, will update only thosebelonging to the style changed.


42/44

Each new dimension to insert, always belongs to the current dimension style.

With the command "dimension unpdate" , find on the dimension toolbar, we canupdate any existing dimension in the current dimension style.

To create a new dimension style, re-enable the command "Dimension Style"

On the "Dimension Style Manager" click on "New ..." button.

The following dialog:

In this window you can type up a name for your new dimension style "New Style Name:"The new style will resume settings from one already exists, select the second menu "Startwith:"On the last drop down "Use for" leave "All dimensions".Click on "Continue" and will enter the window where we will change the style settings, as

we have seen before.When you've finished, click OK and the new parameter style is created and appears with thechosen name in the list with the others present.

Now all that remains is to make it "current" by clicking on "Set Current" and close thewindow, to use it.


43/44

Dimension Update

Click on "Dimension update" , then select the dimension concerned and then press theright button or Enter to confirm the change.The selected dimensions will be updated at the current dimension style and the commandwill automatically closed.

This feature is useful if we go to work on an existing design and create a new dimensionstyle alternative to the one already there.

Dimension Edit

After creating a dimension, we can also manually change its value.

To do that still use the command "Edit Text" on the "text toolbar", practically thesame that is used to modify the normal text.After clicking on the command and select the interest dimension, will activate the "textformatting" (change text) similarly to how we have already seen for "multiline text".At this point the real value of the dimension will be highlighted, we need to erase it, as if itwere normal text, and replace it by writing the desired value.Then press the OK button of the editing window to complete the command.The dimension now indicate a value different from the reality, if we wanted to restore it toshow real measure, use the same command but this time instead of the text, type symobols"minor and major", that is this: Typing these symbols on the keyboard, the dimension will return to showing the actualvalue measured.Press the OK button again to confirm and exit the Edit command.

Distance

The "Distance" control , is located in the "inquiry"toolbar:

and serves to measure the distance between two points.

We can use it when we want to know a distance without having to put a dimension.On the command, you have to click (with the snap on), up two points between which wewant to measure the distance.The command is now concluded and in the command line is the measured distance,alongside the written: Distance = xxx.xxxxWe must be careful because in addition to the linear distance there are also returned othervalues, Delta X, Delta Y, and so on.What interests us is the value in the "Distance".It may not be visible as it returns different values are occupied two or three lines of thecommand line, so since the distance is first value written, it happens that remains outsidethe command line.In this case, you just click the scroll arrows, at right to command line, to scroll the text untilyou see the value "Distance".


44/44

We can also press the "F2" key on keyboard, to open the text window of AutoCAD, thiswindow shows us in full all that is written on the command line, then read the bottom of thescreen, the value "Distance".

Auto Cad Book1

Documents