WASLAStudent Chapter AutoCAD 2005 Keyboard Shortcuts ARC AREA BLOCK BHATCH BREAK CIRCLE COPY DIMSTYLE DISTANCE

DIVIDE ERASE EXTEND EXTRUDE FILLET GROUP HATCH EDIT IMAGE LINE LAYER LINETYPE A AA B BH or H BR C CO D DI DIV E EX EXT F G HE IM L LA LT MOVE MATCHPROP MIRROR MTEXT OFFSET OPTIONS PEDIT PLINE PROPERTIES PURGE REGENALL ROTATE SCALE SPELLCHECK STYLE (text) TABLE TRIM UNITS EXPLODE M MA MI MT or T O OP PE PL PR PU REA RO SC SP ST TB TR UN X

Setting Up A New Drawing There are several methods to setting up a successful drawing in AutoCAD 2005. The procedure can easily be altered to fit personal preference. Opening a new drawing: Upon starting AutoCAD 2005, you are prompted to select a template The default option should read acad.dwt Click open to begin drawing

Setting the drawing units: In the top menu bar, select Format > Units or type the shortcut UN It is highly recommended you select either Architectural or Decimal for your drawing units If you select Architectural, change the Drag-and-drop scale to Inches If you select Decimal, change the Drag-and-drop scale to Unitless
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WASLAStudent Chapter When drawing in Architectural units, any increment entered is automatically considered inches. To specify feet, make sure to type the foot symbol after the number o Example If you enter 4 , the computer reads 4 inches If you enter 4 , the computer reads 4 feet For extended dimensions such as [ four feet - three and a half inches ] use the following syntax 43-1/2 or 43.5 When drawing in Decimal units, any increment entered does not have a specified value o If you enter 4, the computer reads 4 units These units could be inches, feet, miles, etc o So, if you draw with Decimal units, make sure your primary units remain consistent throughout the drawing If your drawing is large, consider the unit to be feet, yards, or any other unit of measurement If you are making a detail, consider using inches as your primary unit o Example If your made up primary unit is inches You enter 20, the computer reads 20 units (inches) o 20 inches is equivalent to 1-8 You enter 5.5, the computer reads 5.5 units (inches) o 5.5 inches is equivalent to 5-1/2 If your made up primary unit is feet You enter 2, the computer reads 2 units (feet) o 2 units is equivalent to 2-0 You enter 1.5 units. The computer reads 1.5 units (feet) o 1.5 units is equivalent to 1-6 When you being drawing the plan or detail, make sure you draw everything to real world standards o If the detail calls for a 6 inch riser, make sure the CAD drawing says it is 6 inches o If the sidewalk is 5 feet wide, double check to make sure it reads 5 feet wide

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WASLAStudent Chapter Text and Dimension Styles Text and dimension styles are a great way to maintain consistency throughout a drawing and provide reliable results. If modified, everything connected to the style will automatically be updated. This time saving technique is important to increase efficient use of the program. Creating a new text style: In the top menu bar, select Format > Text Style or type the shortcut ST Click the New button and name the new style whatever you want Click OK, you should now see your new style in the dropdown on the left You can now begin to change the attributes of the style, including the font type, height, and other features Youll see a preview of the new style in the lower right corner window When finished, click Apply in the upper right to finalize the style

To use your new style, click the text tool on the main toolbar, or type the shortcuts MT or T Select the location of the text on the screen and left-click Before entering any text, make sure the dropdown menu in the upper left corner of the window matches the name of your newly created text style

Creating a new dimension style: In the top menu bar, select Format > Dimension Style or type the shortcut D Click the New button and name the new style whatever you want o Leave the other fields to their default values After selecting the Continue button, a new box will appear that allows you to modify your new style Select the Lines and Arrows tab in the upper left corner of the window

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WASLAStudent Chapter o Here you will find many options for your dimension style including spacing, colors, lineweights, and symbology o It is best if you experiment with the values to find something that suits your taste It is highly recommended that you change the Arrowheads to the Architectural tick setting o The changing values will be visible in the preview window

Next, select the Text tab in the upper part of the window o The first step is to change the Text style dropdown to match your predefined text style o Then, in the Text Alignment option on the right, click the button labeled Aligned with dimension line. This is done to keep the numbers centered over the dimension line o Other values within this tab can altered to fit personal preference The final part of the dimension style is the Primary Units tab o Make sure the Unit format (Architectural or Decimal) matches your drawing units setup previously o Other values within this tab can altered to fit personal preference When you are finished altering the dimension style, click OK on the bottom right You should now see your new style underneath the predefined Standard style It is very important to click on your new style and then select the Set Current button o This sets any later dimensions to match your newly created style To change any values, highlight your style and click the Modify button Click Close to finish editing your dimension style and return to the drawing

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WASLAStudent Chapter Printing and Scaling The first step in preparing your drawing for print is setting up viewports in paper space. This allows you to change the printed scale of the drawing and also offers flexibility of paper sizes and layout orientation. Setting up the paper space: In your drawing, youll find three tabs in the lower left corner of the screen. These include Model, Layout1, and Layout2 o Almost everything you draw in AutoCAD will be done in the model tab, also referred to as model space Model space typically has the black background o The other tabs are mainly for layout and printing purposes Click the tab Layout1 o Upon first selecting this tab, you should see a white picture with a box in the middle o This screen is what is known as paper space o The box you see is called a viewport, it looks into your model space to view what you have already drawn Right-click the Layout1 tab and then select Page Setup Manager o In the Page Setup Manager, click the Modify button o Youll see a screen that includes many options for printing your final drawing This is similar in operation to many other graphics programs o Select the desired printer/plotter from the dropdown menu o Next choose your intended paper size from the dropdown menu In many cases, the default letter size is sufficient Some printers allow you to enter a custom page size if required o On the right side of the window, choose Portrait or Landscape to match your desired orientation o The other options in this box can be left at their default values o Click OK when you are finished with these options o Click Close to exit from the Page Setup Manager You may or may not see any changes depending on what settings you altered

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WASLAStudent Chapter Changing the drawing scale: Double clicking inside the viewport allows you to pan around your drawing you created in model space o Upon double-clicking in the viewport, a thick black line appears around the viewport to indicate it is selected o Double-clicking inside the viewport again will center your drawing To change the printed scale of the drawing, you will need to open the Viewports toolbar o Right-click on any unused gray space of the toolbar at the top o Select ACAD and then select Viewports towards the bottom of the list With the new toolbar visible, we can begin to change the scale to fit the paper size First, double-click within the viewport to activate it

Next, in the Viewports toolbar, enter your desired scale in the text field (the one with the existing numbers) - Enter the scale the same way you would write it on paper o 1=1 o 1/8=1 Keep changing the value until you find a suitable scale that fits your model to the desired paper size Being careful not to zoom in or out of the model, double-click outside the viewport to exit the scaling mode o The viewport itself can be scaled or moved to fit the page layout Change the text and dimension styles to alter the size of the elements o Some of the text or dimensions might be really small, so simply go back and modify the styles the same way we did before

Printing the page: Still within model space, we will want to preview our page before sending it off to the printer Click the Print Preview button located on the main toolbar at the top of the page o This gives us an exact preview of what the printed drawing will look like

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WASLAStudent Chapter o Once the preview displays, pan and zoom around to get a better look at your drawing o When finished, right click and select Exit to return to paper space or Plot to send it to the printer You can return at any time to model space to continue drawing or make changes by clicking on the tab in the lower left corner of the program

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