Introduction

In this first tutorial you will learn how to start AutoCAD, save a drawing, and a range of common drawing commands.

Starting AutoCAD
Alternatively, click on the AutoCAD icon in the "icon tray" at the bottom of the (Windows 95/98/NT) screen. Note that these instructions are specific to the FBE.

Start AutoCAD by clicking on the Windows Start button (bottom left), then move the mouse to Programs then CAD and Modelling then "AutoCAD Architectural Desktop 2" and click on AutoCAD Architectural Desktop 2. A dialog giving various startup options will be displayed. Select the second option: "Start from Scratch" and click OK. Once AutoCAD has loaded, move the mouse around until you see a crosshair cursor. The AutoCAD window has a number of important features: 1. The standard Windows drop-down menus. 2. The standard Windows toolbar below the menus, it includes: File-New, File-Open, File-Save, Print and "Find and Replace"(!!). 3. In addition to the standard toolbar there will be a number of AutoCAD specific toolbars: Object Properties, Draw and Modify (there may be others...?). 4. The graphics area - that's the area where you draw note the scroll bars and the axis label. 5. View Tabs - these 'tabs' give access to different view of the current drawing. The "model" tab should be selected at present. 6. The command area - this small window (by default) has space for three lines of text - this is where you type commands. 7. The status area, at the bottom of the AutoCAD window, this includes the current cursor position.

Despite command line interfaces being considered totally archaic the command area in AutoCAD is absolutely vital! One of the key things I'm trying to "get you to do" in these tutorials is to watch the command area! Using AutoCAD is like a conversation and AutoCAD's half of the conversation comes from the text in the command area...

Figure 1

AutoCAD R14 screen.

Command Entry
Typically there are three ways of giving a command! 1. Type the command using the keyboard - the command is displayed in the command area. 2. Select the command from a menu. 3. Select the command's icon from a toolbar.

Not all commands are on the Menus and/or toolbars!

This means : type the text (qsave) When I want you to type a command in the command area and then press the Enter key (or the the AutoCAD command will be written like:

space-bar).

type: QSAVE When I want you to select a command from a menu, it will

This means : click on the 'File' menu look like: and then 'Save' (which should be one of the items on the 'File' menu). select File - Save

AutoCAD also supports common When I want you to pick a command from a toolbar, I'll shortcuts like Ctrl-S for Save!! write:

select Save
Here I'm trying to cover all the bases by giving you the command to type, the menu options and showing you what the toolbar icon looks Despite all of the above, I'll probably use a combination of like! the above like:

select File - Save (or type QSAVE )

Draw a Rectangle
Select Rectangle (or type rectang ), then type:
The text typed is displayed in the command area at the bottom of AutoCAD's window. 15,15 415,315

these are absolute cartesian coordinates

Hopefully AutoCAD drew a rectangle, which fits comfortably in the AutoCAD graphics area!? If you can't see the rectanlge, type z [space] a [space] (zoom all) - this instructs AutoCAD to redraw the view, "zooming out" to show all the graphics on the drawing.

Saving a Drawing
Select the Save icon from the standard toolbar. The drawing
Note that if you type SAVE , you has not been saved before, so AutoCAD will display the actually get "Save As"!! SAVE AS dialog box, select the appropriate Drive and

Directory (for example: S:\arch\u1234567), type the The quickest way to save is to press Ctrl-S - this is the same as "qsave". drawing name (for example TUT1), and then select "OK".

Draw some Lines

Instead of LINE, you can also type: We will now draw some more graphics and then save and L this is an "alias" - which is a exit AutoCAD. short-cut. Type LINE

Move the crosshair to near the bottom-left of the rectangle

The exact positions of these lines is and click the left mouse button, then move the crosshair to not important. the top-right of the rectangle and again click the left mouse

button.
Remember this! If you press after Press to terminate the command, and then press you finish a command, the command is re-issued. re-start the command!

again to

Draw a line from the top-left to the bottom-right of the rectangle, and then press to end the command.
This will save the drawing and exit Now type: AutoCAD - don't PANIC! QUIT

You will be prompted to save the changes you've made click OK.

Starting AutoCAD with an Existing Drawing

Please note that this To load a drawing, either click on the "Your Account" icon icon is specific to the or start Windows Explorer and select the appropriate Drive FBE's Labs at UNSW.

and Directory. Once Explorer is showing the correct directory then double-click on your drawing.

If you can't find your drawing (in Windows Explorer) then press F5 (function key 5), this tells Explorer to update the directory display; if you still can't find your drawing then perhaps you saved the drawing in some other directory - load AutoCAD and then select the File menu, at the bottom of the File menu is a list of recently opened drawings, select your drawing from the list.

Coordinate Systems
When specifying positions you can use Cartesian or Polar Coordinates. Cartesian coordinates are simply a X value, a comma, and a Y value, for example: 100,100. Polar coordinates are a Distance followed by a < symbol and an angle, for example: 10<25. Angles are measured in degrees, with 0 = East and 90 = North. Any of these numbers can have decimal values.

AutoCAD is a three dimensional CAD system, so you can enter XYZ values instead of the XY values shown here.

The positions specified above are "absolute coordinates", because they specify a particular position. AutoCAD can also Consider relative coordinates use "relative coordinates" to specify a position relative to simply as distances! the current position, for example: @5.6,-3.4 and @16.32<62.

Draw a "Diamond"
The "polyline" used below is used to create a sequence of joined line segments, which become one object. Using the This should draw a "diamond" (a "line" command each line segment is a separate object. rotated rectangle) shape. Select Polyline (or type: pline ) and then type: 215,15 absolute cartesian coordinate If you make a mistake, you can undo @212<45 relative polar coordinate the last line segment by typing: u
. "c" means "close" the shape. @212<135 @212<225 c

Snap Modes
A simple way to turn Object Snap ON or OFF, is to click on "OSNAP" in the status Area. To see the various snap options "right-click" on "OSNAP" (in the status area) and select "Settings...".

It is often useful to be able to draw something from (for example) the end of another shape. AutoCAD has a large selection of "snap modes" for this purpose. The most commonly used snap modes are "Endpoint" (which snaps to the end of the selected graphics entity) and "Intersection" (which snaps to the intersection of two graphics entities).

To get AutoCAD to display the The object snap modes can either be typed or they can be Object Snap Modes toolbar, select "Toolbars" from the "View" menu selected from the standard toolbar or from the snap and then select "Object Snap". toolbar: To display the "Drafting Settings" dialog, click on the "horse-shoe" shaped icon on the end of the Object Snap Toolbar.

Draw an Arc
Select Arc (or type ARC ), then select the midpoint snap mode (or type: MID ) and select the left side of the bottom of the "diamond" polyline you drew before. Then use the midpoint snap to enter points on the right side at the bottom and then the top of the polyline (see figure 2).

Figure 2

Arc construction.

Finally...
Lastly, I want you to draw a rectangle in the diamond shape, Draw the rectangle by selecting from the draw toolbar (or type another diamond inside that rectangle, a circle inside that rectang ) diamond and a horizontal and vertical line also inside the last diamond (see figure 3)! Each shape should touch the Midpoints of the previous shape...
Alternatively select the circle icon HINT: To draw the circle, select Draw - Circle - 2 Points and and then type 2p then pick the then (using midpoint snap) pick opposite sides of the inner points. diamond. If you use the MIDpoint Snap Mode for each point(!), you should be able to draw the shapes without much trouble. If you make a mistake, press "Esc" (the "escape" key, located at the top-left of the keyboard). Then type U (the undo comand).

Figure 3

Finished Tutorial 1 drawing.

Finishing up
That's all for tutorial one! Save your drawing (press Ctrl-S) and then exit AutoCAD (select File - Exit). Remember to log off before leaving.

Introduction
The drawing used for this tutorial comes from Clark R. and M.Pause, "Precedents in Architecture", VNR 1985, page 135.

In this tutorial you will learn how to edit graphics(!) and about setting model space limits. You will draw a simple plan based on Frank Lloyd Wright's 1956 (New York) Guggenheim Museum. Please note that the dimensions used in this tutorial are neither accurate nor correct! I don't have access to an accurately dimensioned drawing of the building so I've guessed the dimensions...

Starting AutoCAD
Start AutoCAD, and then move the cursor to the bottom left On my computer, the bottom-left of the screen, you will note the coordinates (on the status coordinate was 0,0,0 and the top- line) go down to near 0,0. In the version I am using the right coordinate was 514,296,0. drawing limits are set to the size (in millimetres) of an A3 sheet of paper (420,297).

Setting the Limits and Units

It is normal when using AutoCAD to draw objects full size,

so it's usually necessary to reset the drawing limits to (about) the size of the object being drawn (or in the case of a building the building's site). Type:
Alternatively, select Format Drawing Limits and then type the numbers shown. limits 0,0 This sets the drawing "size" to 50x50 metres.

Next we need to get rid of the 4 decimal points! Select "Format - Units...", AutoCAD will display the "Drawing Units" dialog. Make sure Decimal is selected in the Units section and Decimal Degrees in the Angles section, then in If the coordinates in the status area didn't change to no decimal places, Unit's Precision, click on the down arrow beside "0.0000" move the mouse! and select "0", and finally select "OK".
Zoom All Zoom Window Z is the alias (shortcut) for ZOOM. Remember that [space] is the same as .

This sets the "model space" dimensions. To reset the drawing view to the whole of the (empty) drawing, select the zoom-all icon, which is hiding under the zoom-window icon (on the standard toolbar) - hold the button down and then rest of the zoom toolbar is displayed (or type: Z [space] A [space] ). Move the cursor around now and note that the coordinates are now bigger numbers!

Let the Drawing Begin!!

This shows us the "drawing area".

Firstly draw a rectangle from 0,0 to 50000,50000, you should remember how to do that from the first tutorial!

Then draw a circle, centred at 30000,24000 with a 6000 Circle "C" is the alias for CIRCLE. radius. Select circle (or type: C ), then type:
30000,24000 6000 Centre snap the circle centre the circle radius

Next you will draw another circle, with the same centre, but with a 9500 radius. Press: to "recall" the last command. To get AutoCAD to display the Select the centre snap mode (or type: CEN ), then pick the Object Snap Modes toolbar, select "Toolbars" from the "View" menu first circle (NOT the centre of the circle), then type:
and then select "Object Snap". 9500 the circle radius

Draw the Building "Wing"

Hopefully you remember how!!

Next draw a rectangle from the centre of the circles to 39500,33500. Once you have done that draw another rectangle to the right 1500x9500.

Hint: use a relative coordinate @1500,9500. of the last, start at 39500,24000 and make the rectangle

You might find the following section easier if you turn object snapping ON (make sure "OSNAP" is IN in the status area). Endpoint Snap Midpoint Snap

Now you will draw an arc on the end of the last rectangle (see figure 1). Select Draw - Arc - Start-Center-End, then select the Endpoint snap mode (or type: END ) and select the bottom-right of the last rectangle. For the centre point of the Arc, select the Midpoint Snap Mode (or type: MID ) and select the middle of the right edge of the last rectangle. For the end of the Arc, select the Endpoint Snap Mode and select the top-right of the rectangle.

Figure 1

Showing the location of the ARC.

Save the drawing

Save

Save the drawing: select the save icon (or type: QSAVE ), if you are prompted for a drawing name, select the appropriate Drive and Directory and type a drawing name (for example: TUT2) and select "OK".

Copy & Rotate the Building Wing

Now we want to copy & rotate the two rectangles and the arc (3 times), AutoCAD provides the array command to achieve this. Select Modify - Array, AutoCAD will prompt for the objects to be selected: click below and to the left of the bottom-left corner of the left rectangle and then move the mouse until the selection rectangle encloses the two rectangles and the arc - then click the mouse button (3 objects should be selected). Then press to end the selection process.

The array command is used to copy one or more objects in either a rectangular or circular pattern and when a circular pattern is used the objects can be rotated; it can be an incredibly powerful command.

AutoCAD will then prompt for the type of Arrary Centre snap After selecting the Centre snap rectangular or polar, type: P for polar. Then use the Centre mode, pick the circle NOT the snap mode to select the centre of the circles. Then type:

centre!

the number of items (including the exisiting item) accept 360 degrees accept "rotate as copied"

Figure 2

Drawing with all four building "wings" in place.

Exploding Objects!
For convenience, in the following section, I'll talk of the "top-right wing" and the "bottom- right wing". By the "top-right wing" I mean the first rectangles and arc that you drew, and the "bottom-right wing" is the rectangles and arc in the bottom-right corner!! Explode Be aware that explode does not appear to do anything! It doesn't say - "yes, I've done that" and the display doesn't change, but AutoCAD will dispaly an error message if it failed to explode the objects.

Now we need to erase some of the lines we've drawn. When the rectangle command is used the rectangle that is drawn is a "polyline" which means that all the lines that make up the object are joined together, the lines must be "exploded" before any parts of the rectangle can be erased. Select explode from the modify toolbar (or type X which is the alias for "explode") select both the rectangles in the "topright corner" and then press . If AutoCAD doesn't display any error messages then the explode command worked!

Erasing Objects

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We need to delete some extraneous lines from the drawing...

Erase

Select erase from the modify toolbar (or type: E ). Click on the right edge of the inner rectangle (from the "top-right" corner), and press . AutoCAD should automatically redraw the area around the erased line.

An alternate way to delete is to click on the object to be Now we erase the other line there! deleted and then press the keyboard's "Delete" key. Click on the line in the same place and press "Delete". To test your understanding: explode the two rectangles in the "bottom-right wing" and the erase all the "inner" lines (see figure 3).

Figure 3

Lines to be erased.

Stretching Your Wings

Now you need to stretch the "bottom-left wing" and then remove the inner lines.
Stretch The "C" tells AutoCAD that you want a "crossing" window. The normal selection window selects only those objects wholly within the section window. A crossing selection window selects objects that are wholly or partly within the

Select stretch (or type: S which is the alias for stretch). Type C and then draw a selection window around the arc and through the small rectangle (see figure 4), press to terminate the selection process, click with left mouse button near the selected objects, and type: @-10000,0 (this is the "stretch distance"). If that worked the building wing should stretch 10 metres (to the left).

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selection window. A useful short-cut to know is that if you draw a selection rectangle leftto-right (in the positive X direction) AutoCAD interprets it as a "window" selection; but if you draw the selection rectangle right-to-left AutoCAD interprets it as a "crossing" selection.

Figure 4

Stretch selection rectangle.

Explode both the rectangles in the "bottom-left wing" and erase the vertical lines, except the line from the centre of the circles.

One Last Circle...

Circle Centre snap

The last object to add is a circle inside the arc of the "bottomleft wing". Select circle (or type: C ). Select the Center snap mode (or type: CEN ) and click on the arc; then type 3600 (the circle's radius).

It's always worth saving your work Select save (or press Ctrl-S). regularly!

More Explosions and Deletions....

The drawing is basically complete, all that needs to be done is to change some of the line-types!
Explode AutoCAD should display a message saying that some objects could not be exploded - ignore the message it's simply saying that some of the rectangles have already been exploded. Erase

Select: explode from the modify toolbar (or type X ), select all the rectangles at the centre of the original circles (use a crossing selection window), and then press .

There are 8 lines going to the centre (4 are "covered" by the others). You need to erase 4 of them, select erase from the modify toolbar (or type: E ), then click on each of the four 12

lines and finally press

You should now be able to see the lines that were under the lines you erased!

Changing Line Types

Before changing some of the lines to dashed lines, we need to load the linetype(!). Select Format - Linetype..., then select "Load...". AutoCAD will display a list of linetypes, select "Hidden" (you will need to scroll through the list!), then select "OK", then select "OK" again to dismiss the "Select Linetype" dialog box. Select the 4 lines going to the circle centre and the arcs in the "top- left" and "top-right" wings (see figure 5), then select Modify - Properties..., A dialog with the properties of the selected objects is displayed. Change the Linetype to HIDDEN and the Linetype Scale to 75 and dismiss the dialog. The objects should be redrawn using dashed lines (see figure 5).

Figure 5

Finished form study of Wright's Guggenheim Museum

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Introduction Continued
This church has been selected because it is very symmetrical. Whenever you are drawing anything, look carefully for symmetry and repetition, because CAD systems excel at those things.

In this tutorial you will draw a plan of Brunelleschi's Church of San Maria Degli Angeli (Florence, Italy, 1434-1436), from Clark and Pause's "Precedents in Architecture", page 28; have a look at figure 20 at the end of the tutorial. You will note that the church has eight "bays" and that each bay is itself symmetrical. You will draw half of one bay and then mirror that half to create a whole bay and then copy that to complete the plan... This tutorial introduces a number of AutoCAD construction commands: offset, and mirror, and a number of AutoCAD editing commands: fillet, trim, break, and extend. In case all that isn't enough for you, you will also learn about layers, hatching, and grip editing.

Please note that the dimensions used in this tutorial are neither accurate nor correct! I don't have access to an accurately dimensioned drawing of the building so I've guessed the dimensions...

Setting Limits and Units

You will draw the building in a 50x50m space, but this time, the limits will centre on 0,0! If these seem like particularly perverse drawing limits, it's because they ARE! I'm making sure that you are aware that the limits do not need to start at 0,0. Type:
The coordinates used make the centre of the drawing 0,0 which makes it easy to copy the church "bay" around. limits -25000,-25000 25000,25000

Like in the previous tutorial, we need to get rid of the 4 decimal points: select Format - Units, AutoCAD will display the "Drawing Units" dialog. Make sure Decimal is selected in the Units section and Decimal Degrees in the Angles section, then in Unit's Precision, click on the down arrow beside "0.0000" and select "0", and finally select "OK". Alternatively, type UNITS and then follow the prompts.

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Zoom All

To reset the drawing view to the whole of the drawing, select zoom-all from the standard toolbar (or type: Z [space] A [space]) Now that you've "zoomed out", draw a rectangle using the

Don't forget to do this . . . coordinates from the drawing limits (this will provide a

border for the drawing)! If the Axis label (which is called the "UCS icon") is distracting - I certainly find it so - you can hide it by selecting View - Display - UCS Icon - On.

Layers
Most CAD systems have some kind of overlay concept. AutoCAD uses layers. Layers are used to separate and structure drawings; layers can be turned on and off (for example to vary the amount of detail in a drawing), and can have linetypes associated with them....

Figure 1

The Layer status area (Object Properties toolbar).

When using AutoCAD, the graphics appears on the current layer, so be careful that the current layer is correct. Look near the top-left of the screen: the current layer and it's color is displayed there (see figure 1).
Layers icon The current layer is the layer to which new graphics is added. The properties command (which was introduced in the previous tutorial) cann be used to change a graphics object's layer (or linetype or color).

Select the Layers icon or select Format - Layers..., AutoCAD will display the "Layer Properties Manager" dialog. Click on the "New" button and then type CONST (to change the default "layer1" name to something more meaningful), then click on the "Current" button to make this the current layer. Change the color and then "OK" the dialog box.

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Draw "Construction" Lines

Line icon

Draw a line from the centre of the building: select then line icon (or type L ), and then type:
0,0 0,-17500 @3000,0

terminate the command

Zoom Window

Before continuing, you should "zoom in" to the lines, select zoom-window (or type Z W ), enclose the lines in the selection rectangle. Select offset from the Modify toolbar (or type [the letter 'o'] O ), and then type: the offset distance select the short horizontal line pick a spot anywhere above the line select the new line pick a spot anywhere above it terminate the command
250

Offset The offset command makes it easy to set up a series of grid line or (drawing) construction lines.

This should produce one vertical and three horizontal lines.

Revisiting Polar Array

Now you will use polar array to copy and rotate some lines. Select array from the modify toolbar (or type
AR ), then select the lines just drawn by Array (under the offset icon) picking a spot below and to the right of the

"corner" and then another spot above and to the left or the "corner" - make sure the selection rectangle crosses the three horizontal lines (and the vertical line). Press to end the selection process, type P (to specify a polar array), type 0,0 (for the centre of the Figure 2 The lines after rotation), 2 (number of items), 22.5 using Array. (angle), Y (rotate the objects).

Editing
Fillet icon

The lines at the bottom represent the outside of the building. To connect these lines select the fillet icon (or type F ), 16

(be careful because it looks like look at the command line area - if the current fillet radius is chamfer). NOT 0 (zero) - then type R 0 (that's a zero). The Fillet command is exceptionally If you had to change the useful. It basically extends two lines radius, press type to until they meet, and optionally, restart the command. inserts a curve where the lines join.

Select the outer of the three sloping lines, and then select the bottom horizontal line. AutoCAD will extend the two lines until they connect to each other.

Figure 3 Fillet.

Next, you will trim the sloping line back to the line from the centre. The trim command is another command that you use very often. The first point you specify selects the "cutting edge", that is, the line to which you are trimming back to. While succeeding selections identify lines to be trimmed.
Trim icon When picking lines to be trimmed, the part of the line that you select is important. In the example in figure 3, if you pick to the left of the first line selected (rather than to the right of it), then the line will be trimmed from the fillet point to the boundary line. In other words, you'll undo the fillet you just did!

Select the trim icon from the Modify toolbar (or type TR ), for the "cutting edge" select a spot near "first point" on Figure 4, press (to end the selection process), select the line to be trimmed ("second point"); and press (to Figure 4 Points to be end the command).
selected for the Trim

Repeat the fillet and trim process for the other two inner lines!

Draw the Floor Pattern

Layers

Before you draw the floor pattern, you'll create a new layer, select the layers icon (or type LA ), create a new layer called FLOOR, and make it the current layer. To draw the horizontal lines of the floor pattern, select line

This line uses absolute & relative (or type L ), and type 0,-6500 @5000,0 and press coords. (Figure 6 shows the finished floor pattern.) again (to end the command). This line will be trimmed

later....

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Offset icon

Select offset (or type OFFSET or just o ), type 625 (the offset distance), select the line just drawn, click below the line to indicate the direction of offset, and press again. Press (to start another offset), type 1375 (offset distance), select the last line created by the offset, click below the line to offset down, and press again to end the command.

Remember that you can restart the Offset this line 625 down! If that worked, you should have last command by pressing two pairs of lines. These lines will form the octagonal pattern This is basically trying to teach you to watch (and interract with) the line, using the following offsets: 500, 750, 500, 4625, 500 prompts that AutoCAD displays in the command area.

in the centre of the building. Continue offsetting the "last"

That's most of the horizontal lines in the plan! Next, you will now draw the rest of the floor pattern. Have a look at figure 16 which shows the completed bay.

Trim icon I'm introducing the "fence" option because it makes it very easy to trim a whole series of lines by simply drawing a line that crosses them. The fence line works like the "crossing window" selection in that the objects that the line crosses are selected.

Firstly, offset the vertical (centre) line 2000 to the right, and then select : trim (or type TR ), pick the vertical line just created press (end the selection process), type F (this tells AutoCAD that you will draw a fence line - see figure 5), draw a fence line like that shown in the figure (it must cross the four lines shown), after you pick the second point of the fence line, press twice (firstly to end the fence line and Figure 5 Trim fence secondly to end the command)! line. The following section uses a number of snap modes. The easiest way to work with snaps is to pre-set them and then let AutoCAD dynamically show which snap it can use... Right-click on "OSNAP" (in the status area at the bottom of AutoCAD's window) and select "Settings...", then turn "Endpoint" and "Midpoint" ON (by clicking on them). It would probably be a good idea to turn OFF any of the other snaps that are ON. Finally, make sure the "OSNAP" button is IN. Select erase from the Modify toolbar (or type E ), select the vertical line used as the "trim guide", press (end the command). Now is a good time to save the drawing, select save (or press Ctrl-S), enter a drawing name if prompted (and don't forget to change the drive & directory if necessary).

Alternatively, display the Object Snap Toolbar. Select View Toolbars... check Object Snap (the toolbar will be displayed) and then click on close.

Erase icon Save icon

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Line icon Endpoint snap mode icon

Now you will draw the line and arc for the floor pattern, select line (or type L ) then, using the Endpoint snap mode (which should automatically be set by moving the cross-hair near the endpoint), select the right edge of the "bottom" trimmed line and (again using the Endpoint snap mode) select the right edge of the line above it, then press (end the command).

Select Draw - Arc - Center-Start-End (do NOT pick the Midpoint snap mode icon The arc should start and end just arc icon) then, using the Midpoint snap mode select the "inside" the ends of the vertical line. middle of the line just drawn, then type @0,-1800 @0,3600 . That should have drawn an arc to the right of the vertical line. Now you will use "break" to remove the part Break icon Break is an extremely useful of the line between the arc's endpoints. Select command that is used often in break (or type BR ), select the vertical line, editing operations. type F (to specify that the next point will be
An alternative way to choose a snap mode is to hold the Ctrl key and click the right mouse button(!) AutoCAD will display a pop-up menu with the snap modes. While we're talking about the mouse ;-), right-clicking in AutoCAD generally causes a context sensitive popup menu to be displayed (showing a selection of the options available "at the moment").

the "first" point of the break), then using the Endpoint snap mode, select the bottom end of the arc, and finally using the Endpoint snap mode again, select the top end of the arc. Now draw a line (using the Endpoint snap) joining the two other trimmed lines (see figure 6). Then trim the remaining four horizontal lines towards the top of the bay, back to the Figure 6 right-hand edge. Lines trimmed
and broken!

Zoom Window icon

The last floor pattern is at the top of the "bay". You will need to enlarge the view of the centre to be able to see it clearly. Select zoom-window (or type Z W ), enter the selection window (so you can see at least the area shown in Firgure 7).

Polyine icon

Select polyline (or type PL ), and then type 0,-600 @1000,0 ), then using the Endpoint snap mode, pick the righthand end of the top horizontal line below, finally press to end the command.
Intersect snap mode icon

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Now you will use a technique in AutoCAD called "grip-editing". Click on the lines just drawn (they'll become "dashed"), then click on the "joint" point of the lines ("First Pick" in Figure 7), select then Intersect snap mode, click on the position where the horizontal line crosses the bay's righthand edge line ("Second Pick" in Figure 7). AutoCAD should move the selected vertex to the intersection point!

Figure 7 Grip editing positions.

Press the Escape key (ESC) twice to de-select the lines.

Zoom Dynamic
One of the most powerful of the zoom
If you don't like the dynamic zoom options is zoom-dynamic, it allows for command, there's always the scroll zooming and panning at the same time. bars... Type Z D or select the command

from the zoom flyout (flydown?) shown in figure 8. AutoCAD should draw the whole drawing, a green (or purple) rectangle showing the current view and the cursor will turn into a rectangle with a X cross at the centre. If you click with the left mouse button you can resize the zoom window's size (click again to fix the new size). Move the zoom window (the cursor!) over the lower half of "REGEN" can be abbreviated to the "bay" and press . If the arc has turned into a series of "RE"... straight lines then type REGEN to re-generate the view.

Draw the Walls

Before drawing the walls, create a new layer called "WALLS", and set the layer's colour to be something other than white, and make it the current layer.

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Don't forget to offset the line at the The wall is 700 outside the arc "top" of the arc (see figure 9) floor pattern, so we will offset

that pattern. Offset the arc and the vertical lines on either end (to the right) by 700. Notice that the new lines are in the floor layer, you will need to change the lines into the walls layer. Select the lines and arc just created as well as the lines at the bottom (see figure 9) - do this by click first at about the bottomright of the selection rectangle in figure 9 and then the top-left point.

Figure 9 Change properties selections.

This should select everything except the line at the top, pick it now. Having selected the objects, now they'll be changed to the new layer. Go to the layers drop-down list and select "WALLS" (the layer you just created). All the selected objects will change to that layer! Press "Esc" (escape) twice to de-select the objects.
Fillet icon In selecting both these points, it's important where you click on the line! The first point should be in the bottom-half of the line, while the second point should be to the left of the (projected) first line.

Now you will join up the sections of the wall line. Select fillet (or type F ), select the bottom of the short vertical line and then select the horizontal line to the left of the vertical line (see figure 10).
Figure 10 Fillet points.

Now, use fillet on the lines shown in figure 11. Note that the extact position that you pick is not important, but, it is important that you pick to the right (1st point) and below (2nd point) the intersection, the part you pick (at this stage of the fillet command) is the part Figure 11 that AutoCAD will not remove!
Save icon

Second Fillet.

That completes the bottom end of the bay. Have you saved your drawing recently? Now use the scroll bars to move the view so that you can see more of the lines at the "top" - you need to be able to see the top of the arc you drew earlier (see figure 12).

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Offset icon

Select offset (or type o [the letter 'o']), and then type 250 , pick the bottom (of the four lines that extend to the right edge-line), pick a position below the line to indicate the offset direction, press to end then command. Now you will use fillet to clean up the rest of the wall lines. Select fillet (or type F ), pick the short vertical line (see figure 12), and then pick the righthand end of the line just created. Restart the fillet command, pick the outer arc to the right of the vertical, and pick the vertical (at a point above Figure 12 the arc).

Fillet icon

Third Fillet.

Change the horizontal line ("2nd pick" in figure 12) into the WALLS layer.
Extend icon It's necessary to pick to the right of the middle of the line because AutoCAD extends the nearest endpoint to the "boundary edge".

Lastly, you will extend the horizontal line to the right edgeline. Select extend (or type EX ), pick the right edge-line (this is the line you will extend to), press (end the selection process), pick to the right of the middle on the horizontal line, and finally press .

Draw the Passage Between the Bays

Use the scroll bars to bring the bottom into view. To draw the passage-way we will firstly draw its centre line, and then use offset to get the location of the walls.
Line icon Center snap mode icon Offset icon

Select line (or type L ), select the Center snap mode, pick one of the arcs, type @3000,0 (to show the direction of the line), press (to end the command). Offset this line 500 above and below the line - so that you end up with 3 lines, with the original in the middle. Extend the bottom line the the right edge-line!

Intersection snap mode icon Perpendicular snap mode icon

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Figure 13

Bay Bottom!

Trim the bottom line to remove the Erase the top two horizontal lines, and trim the bottom line section to the left of the arc. back to the outer arc. Break icon

Finally, use Break, to remove the arc between the remaing two lines.

Finishing the Walls!

Before hatching the wall areas(!) you will need to close off the walls. Firstly, you'll turn off the CONST layer.
Figure 14 Layers Drop-down list

Click on the layer status area,

These lines are needed because you AutoCAD will display a list of the must close off areas before hatching layers and their status. The first them.

icon controls whether the layer is "on" or "off". Click on this icon beside CONST, the 'light' will go out! Then click on WALLS to close the drop-list. Now draw the lines identified in Figure 15, you may need to use zoom or the scroll bars to get all the Figure 15 Lines to close of hatch areas. lines in the view.

Hatching
Save icon

Before hatching it's often a good idea to save your drawing (select save or press Ctrl-S). Create a new layer, called hatch, and make it current, and then select hatch from the Draw toolbar, make sure the pattern type is "Predefined", and set the patern to AR-SAND, set the scale to 2, select "Pick Points", pick inside the two areas, press to end the selection process, pick "OK". AutoCAD should draw lots of dots, almost filling-in the wall area.

Hatch icon

Note that the hatch style we are Finally, you need to erase the three lines you added to close using may appear solid, but it is not! the wall areas so you could hatch them (see figure 15). Use Zooming in will show that hatch is a "sand" pattern. To have the hatch the Layer Controls to turn the "HATCH" layer OFF first. If

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"solid" simply select the SOLID you accidentally pick the wrong thing, type: R (remove) to style instead of "AR-SAND"... remove selections, and then type: A to restart adding

selections. Once you've erased the three lines, turn the "HATCH" layer back ON.
If your mouse has a scroll wheel roll That completes the basic half bay! Use zoom dynamic to view it and see what happens... the whole of the bay and then save your drawing!

Mirror the Half Bay.

Mirror icon

To mirror the section completed, select mirror from the modify toolbar (or type MI ), enclose all the graphics inside the selection rectangle, press (to end the selection process), type 0,0 (the centre of the building will be the start of the mirror line), type @0,-1 (this creates a vertical line as the mirror line, this causes the graphics to be mirrored to the left), type N (don't Figure 16 delete the old objects).

Completed Bay.

Duplicate the Bay

Zoom All icon Array icon AutoCAD will copy the single bay through 360 degrees, giving 8 bays!

Before continuing, select zoom-all (or type Z A ), so you can see the whole drawing. Then select array (or type AR ), use a selection rectangle to select the whole bay, press (end selection process), type P (polar array), type 0,0 (rotation centre), 8 (we want 8 bays!), (go all the way), Y (rotate as you go).

Last Gasps....
Save the drawing

That's basically it, except for the doors! There are a few other details (such as a spiral stair) that we won't draw, but we will draw the entry - this will give you some experience erasing hatching...

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Zoom in on the "eastern" bay (see figure 17). If AutoCAD didn't draw the hatching type REGEN (regenerate is similar to redraw, except that it forces AutoCAD to carefully recalculate the screen view, this means that curves which might to drawn "roughly" after a zoom are redrawn as smooth curves). Erase the 4 hatching Remember that there is one hatch object for each half bay... objects! Figure 17
Line icon

Zoom Window.

You will now draw the centreline of the doorway, select line (or type L ), select the Endpoint snap mode and pick the middle of the inner vertical wall line, then select the Perpendicular snap mode and pick the outer vertical line of the wall (the line to the right of the one just picked). Next, offset the line 1250 "up" and "down" to make a 2500 wide doorway; and erase the centre-line. You will now use trim to take the vertical two lines back to the doorway line. This is done because we want to hatch the wall area again, so can't have any lines "sticking out". Select trim (or type TR ), pick the doorway lines, press (end selections), pick the vertical lines (see figure 18); and press (end the command).

Trim icon

Draw the lines back(!), but as two lines, instead of the four. We could draw the door, but let's not bother! Now you need to draw two lines to It may be necessary to zoom out (or close off the two hatch regions. If the pan) before the hatching becomes visible. hatching is not visible type REGEN . Draw lines (using the Endpoint snap mode) to close off the two hatch sections (figure 19 shows one pair of Figure 19 line ends).
Remember to change the current Now hatch the four areas! layer to "HATCH"...

Lines to join.

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Figure 20

the completed drawing.

The entry has number of stairs and there is another entry on the "western" side but we'll leave that off!
Zoom All icon Save icon

Select Zoom-all (or type Z A ), so you can see the whole drawing (see figure 20). Save your drawing (select Save or press Ctrl-S). Exit AutoCAD and logoff!

Introduction Continued
In this fourth (and final) AutoCAD tutorial you will learn how to plot drawings. In doing this you will learn about paper space and viewports. Let me comment before you begin, that in this tutorial I will be telling you to draw things (as much as possible), rather than explaining how to go about drawing them... read through the text carefully! You will draw a form study of Robert Venturi's "Fire Station The drawing is quite simple, to - Number 4" in Columbus Indiana (1966), from Clark and allow time at the end to cover the Pause's "Precedents in Architecture", page 122. The drawing issues relating to plotting. is quite simple, to allow time at the end to cover the issues relating to plotting. Please note that the dimensions used in this tutorial are neither accurate nor correct! I don't have access to an accurately dimensioned drawing of the building so I've guessed the dimensions... Set the drawing limits from 0,0 to 50000,35000; then set the units (set the number of decimal points to 0) and finally do a

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zoom-all.

Draw the "Construction" Lines

Before you continue, I'd suggest Create a CONST layer, set its colour and make it current. that you display the Object Snap Draw a 18800 x 18800 rectangle (starting somewhere near Toolbar. the bottom-left corner of the screen). Alternatively, you can get a "pop- Draw a Circle, using the MIDpoint snap mode, pick the up" menu of the snap modes by bottom edge of the square, and then using the ENDpoint snap Shift-right clicking!

mode, pick the top-right of the square.

Next you will draw a rectangle to complete the golden rectangle. To do this we can use the bottom-right corner of the square for one corner, but the other corner is more difficult: you will use AutoCAD's point filters to take the x value from the circle and the y value from the original square!
The point filters that I'm introducing here are really useful they often provide a way to "find" positions without having to type in numbers.

Start the rectangle command, then using the ENDpoint snap mode, pick the bottom-right of the square, then type: .X , using the PERpendicular snap mode, pick the circle to the right of the bottom of the square, then type: .Y , using the ENDpoint snap mode, pick the top-right corner of the square. This technique for drawing objects is very useful! Start the line command, then using the ENDpoint snap mode, pick the top-left corner of the square, using the MIDpoint snap mode, pick the right edge of the rectangle, using the ENDpoint snap mode, pick the bottom-left of the square, press to end the command.

Now you will use grip-editing to Pick the last line drawn (near the bottom-left corner), then move the end of the lower line up pick the grip-box on the bottom-left corner (to move that 1800: endpoint), and type: @0,1800 .

The entry will be shown as a circle about mid-way along the bottom of the square. Start the circle command, then select FROM snap mode icon the FROM snap mode, then using the ENDpoint snap mode, The FROM snap mode is really pick the bottom-left corner of the square, then type: useful for specifying objects that are @9800,1400 1400 . Here you are saying that the circle's positioned relative to other objects. centre is to be 9800,1400 from the bottom-left corner! Now, explode the original square and then offset the bottom of the square up 600, and then offset that line 1500 up. Then offset the left of the square 10000 to the right.

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These are the major construction lines that will be used to set-out the plan. Your drawing should look like figure 1. If you haven't saved your drawing yet, then save it now!

Figure 1

The construction lines.

Draw the Walls

Create a new layer called WALLS, set it's colour and make it current. Use Zoom Window to enlarge view of the plan. The walls will be drawn using the polyline command so that you can set the thickness of the lines after drawing them. But before drawing the walls, you will set a running-snap! The reason for drawing construction lines in the first place is to make it easier to draw the walls. To make it even easier, you will tell AutoCAD to automatically snap to line intersections, this saves you from having to specify the snap mode for every point (though you still need to set the snap mode when you want to use another snap mode or none). Select running-snap from the Object Snap toolbar (or type: OSNAP ), then select "Intersection" from the dialog box and Be careful not to pick "insertion". select "OK" to dismiss the dialog box.
Running-snap icon

Figure 2

Path of exterior walls.

Polyline icon Note that the arc should be part of shown in figure 2, then type: ARC (the next segment of the the polyline. polyline will be an arc), type: SECOND this specifies you

Start the polyline command and pick the first five points

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NEArest snap mode icon

will enter a "second" (& third) point, using the NEArest snap mode, pick the 6th point, then pick the 7th point to end the arc. Now type: LINE (to go back to drawing straight-lines), pick the 8th point, and finally press to end the command. Having demonstrated the running snap, let's now turn it OFF! Select running-snap again (or type: OSNAP ), select the "Clear All" button (below the various snap options), and then select "OK". Turn the CONST layer OFF. Now you will change the width of the external wall to make it a thick line - the wall was drawn using polyline to demonstrate polyline editing! Did you turn the CONST layer OFF?

Many AutoCAD commands have 1 Select Modify - Object - Polyline (or type: PE ), pick the or 2 letter abbrieviatons! PE is external wall polyline. Spend a moment having a look at the short for PEDIT.

various editing options - you can even fit a curved (spline) line to the polyline. Type: WIDTH (or simply: W ), then type: 250 , this is the new line-width. Press to end the command. Turn the CONST layer ON.

Paper Space
Venturi's building is quite In these tutorials, you have been drawing in what's called interesting, but we don't have time MODEL SPACE. The significance of this is that you use to draw the whole plan -- and cover real-world sizes. When plotting, you can either specify a plotting....

scale factor to plot the drawing at a particular scale or you can use PAPER SPACE. During the following step your drawing will disappear, dont panic...

During this step your drawing will Double-click on "TILE" (on the status area at the bottom of disappear, don't panic... the screen), the "TILE" should become greyed-out. "Tile" on the status area: Alternatively, type: TILEMODE 0 . When this setting is

ON, AutoCAD displays multiple viewports beside each Note that instead of typing other, this allows you to have two views (of different parts) "tilemode" you can type "ti". of the same drawing on the screen. When the setting is OFF, AutoCAD displays multiple viewports, but the viewports are allowed to overlap each other; also viewports can be moved, erased or resized like "normal" graphics! Turning tilemode OFF, also changes the "MODEL" space setting (next to

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"TILE) to "PAPER", indicating that you are now in "PAPER SPACE"! The advantage of paper space is that you can have numerous drawings (or views of the one drawing), each at a different scale; and you can draw text using "paper heights" rather than world heights.

Set the Paper Space Limits

The plotter being used (at the Built Environments CADLab at UNSW) is a "HP DesignJet 200 Ink Jet Printer", this plotter has 17mm left and right margins and 5mm top and bottom margins, this is critical! When you lay-out your drawing you must remember that you cant draw on this part of the page! My solution is to set the drawing limits to the area of the page that can be drawn on (the "plotable area"), and then draw a border equidistant from each of the paper edges.

Now we set the limits again! This time for the paper. If you aren't sure of a printer's margins do a test plot with diagonal lines that would go to the paper's edge and then measure the margins!

Don't forget to do a zoom-all after A landscape oriented A3 sheet is 420x297mm, this leaves a setting the limits. plotable area of 386x287mm. Set the limits to 0,0 to 386,287.

Create a layer called FRAME, set it's colour and make it current. Draw a rectangle 20mm in from the edges of the A3 sheet; because of the plotters 17 & 5mm margins, draw the rectangle from 3,15 to 383,272, see figure 3. The rectangle is used to position "viewports" and then its layer can be turned OFF before plotting (if desired).

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If you can't see the rectangle, select zoom-all.

Figure 3

A3 sheet with limits and 20mm border shown.

Create a Viewport
If you want to change to size of the viewport to make it cover more of the "paper", use grip-editing to resize the viewport. You could use snap modes to "snap" the viewport to the drawing border.

Once in paper space you can create a number of views of your drawing, with each a different scale! But for this tutorial, you will create just one viewport; select View Floating Viewports - 1 Viewport (or type: MVIEW ), pick a point towards the bottom-left of the drawing (the exact position doesnt matter at the moment), and then pick a point towards the top-right of the drawing. AutoCAD should show a view of your drawing! This view is at no particular scale.

Return to Model Space

Double-click on "PAPER" on the status area or select View Model Space (Floating) (or type: MSPACE ), the "PAPER" on the status area will change to "MODEL". Move the cursor Notice that if you move the mouse around inside the viewport and you will see the normal crosscursor outside the viewport it changes back to an arrow! hair cursor appear. Usually, you want to have the view at a particular scale but sometimes you simply want a particular part of the drawing to plot and you don't care what it's scale is. Select zoom-window (or type: Z ), enclose the entry circle in a selection rectangle, type: REGEN - this should force

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AutoCAD to recalculate the circle (and therefore display it better). If your drawing is like mine you will see that AutoCAD has made a mess of the line widths of the polyline around the arc...
Zoom-previous icon

Select zoom-previous (or type: Z P ), this is a particularly useful zoom option, because it's very common to zoom in on a detail and then want to zoom back out. Of course, you could use zoom-in and zoom-out, or zoomdynamic if youre panning as well as zooming.

Setting the View Scale

To set the viewport to a particular scale, you need to express the scale, relative to the paper. If you want the view at 1:100 Zoom-scale icon you use a scale factor of 1/100 (or 0.01). Select zoom-scale from the zoom flyout (or type : Z S ), then type: You could also type 0.01xp. 1/100xp ), this will produce a view at 1:100, the "xp" means "multiplied by the paper". Select pan (or type: P ), Pan icon and drag the view until the "golden rectangle" is centred within the viewport, then press .

Paper Space Revisited

You may need to re-size the Return to paper space by double-click on "MODEL" on the viewport to get the building fitting status area or select View - Paper Space (or type: PS this comfortably on the page - if you haven't already snapped the is short for "PSPACE"). viewport to the border.

Text
Select Format - Text Style, in the top section of the dialog select "New", click on OK (to accept the default name) then choose a font from the Font Name drop-down list - choose a true-type font (look for the TT icon), for example Arial, set the Height to 10, select "Apply" then select "Close". Create a TEXT layer, set it's color and make it current. Make sure you're in Paper Space, then select text (or type:

Text icon The Text command can also be used MT which is short for MTEXT), you will now enter two to add text in MODEL SPACE, but points that will define the "boundary" of the text area. When the height of the text must be the you to type a paragraph of text, AutoCAD will wrap the text

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text height x the plot scale, for to fit inside the boundary! Pick a position below the bottomexample if you want the text 5mm left corner of the building, and a second point near the right high and the drawing at scale edge of the 20mm border try to make sure there's enough 1:100, the height must be 500.

height for the text...

Depending on the way AutoCAD is configured, you may enter the text into a dialog box or the word processor. This section assumes you are using the "Multiline Text Editor" dialog box.

Type: Robert Venturis Mothers Fire Station #4! You can change the properties of the text (within the dialog box) by selecting the property that you want to alter: select "Mother's" then select the color drop-down list (it should show "ByLayer" at present), select a color, then click on "OK" to dismiss the dialog box. This text is obviously wrong.

Properties icon

Select properties, pick the text and press , AutoCAD will display the Modify MText dialog, take a moment to look at the various options available... Click on the "Full Editor..." button (beside the text), highlight "Mother's" (include the space after the word), press the "Delete" key, select "OK" twice - to dismiss the Editor and then the Modify dialog.

You can also use Grip Editing to change the text area! then the text again, then increase the Width (try adding 10 for

If the text has wrapped onto 2 lines, select properties and each letter on the second line), then dismiss the dialog.

If necessary, move the text so that it is better centred under the "Golden Rectangle".

Figure 4

The Completed Drawing.

Creating the Plot File

Before plotting, turn OFF the FRAME layer - this is optional,

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but if your viewport and your 20mm border are not the same, then youll have a mess!
Print icon

Select print or select File - Print (or type: PLOT ), the Plot Configuration dialogue box will be displayed. This complicated dialog box has six areas:

Device and Default Information Pen Parameters Additional Parameters Paper Size and Orientation Scale, Rotation, and Origin Plot Preview

The plotting instructions here are specific to UNSW - if you're plotting elsewhere you will need to ask your "local expert" (and if that's you then read throught the AutoCAD and printer manuals and make some test plots)!

The "Device and Default Information" section will show the currently selected output device, if it doesn't list the DJ200 then click on the button and select "HPGL2 - DJ200" from the list of devices. In the "Additional Parameters" section, make sure "Limits" and "Plot to File" are selected. Then click on "Filename", change the Drive to Q: (the print queue), if your drawing name is not distinct the you should change the plot filename to something unique (and short), finally click on "Save" - this saves the filename it doesn't do the plot! In the "Paper Size and Orientation" section make sure "MM" is selected, if the plot area is not equal to your limits (386 x 287) then select "Size..." and choose the correct paper size or type the dimensions as a USER size. In the Scale section, set the scale to 1 = 1 and make sure "Scaled to fit" is not selected. Its usually a good idea to do a preview! In the "Plot Preview" section, select "Full" and then click on "Preview". The preview should show the drawing! When you are ready, press to return to the plot dialog. Click on the "OK" button near the bottom of the Plot Configuration dialog box. AutoCAD will then create the plot file (which should only take a moment because your drawing is very simple). The plot file will be "tut4.plt" or whatever your drawing is called, with the ".plt" extension.

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Note that the "paper" in the preview is in fact the drawing's limits, which were set to the area of the paper that the plotter can draw on!

If something looks wrong with the preview, check that all the settings are correct and if they are, then cancel the plot and check that your limits are correct. If you still can't work out what's wrong talk to assistant!

Figure 5

Plot Preview.

That's all folks! Save the drawing and exit AutoCAD!

Plotting
In addition to this text, refer to Jim Plotting this tutorial is strictly optional. But, hopefully at Plume's "Notes on using the HP least one drawing will be plotted from each group. This will Designjet 200 iInk Jet Ploter".

allow you the opportunity to see it done!

Each plot costs $1.00, using your UNICARD photocopy card. The dj200 plotter is located in Lab 3 (Rm 3034), the ON/OFF switch is on the bottom-left of the front. If the lights on the right are dark then turn the plotter ON. Go to the computer beside the plotter and follow the instructions there! Take the paper from the cupboard to the left of the plotter and carefully load the paper into the plotter: hold the sheet with its short edge facing the front of the plotter, the right edge of the paper must be between the dotted lines and exactly straight. Carefully push the paper up into the plotter until the plotter grabs the sheet. If the paper is not straight the Error and Load Media lights will blink, press Form Feed, remove the sheet and try again. If the paper is loaded correctly the Ready light will come on. When the plot is complete, carefully remove the paper from

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the plotter and leave for one minute to dry.

Conclusion
These tutorials have given you the basics of (2 dimensional) drawing using AutoCAD, I hope that this knowledge serves you well and that you continue to increase your knowledge and understanding of AutoCAD (and CAD in general). The first tutorial introduced AutoCAD and got you to focus on the interaction on the command line between you and the program. In addition, you used toolbars to select drawing commands and learnt a bit about snap modes. The second tutorial introducing "real" coordinates; and then focused on editing, using the array command to copy and rotate graphics objects, using explode and erase to modify, and then changing linetypes. Tutorial three is the longest and most difficult. It (like the second tutorial) focused on editing, using offset, array and mirror, in addition to fillet, trim, break and extend. It also introduced the concept of layers which is vital to a proper understanding of CAD. Finally, tutorial four introduced the concepts of model & paper space, viewports, plotting and text. These tutorials cover most of the basics of architectural drawing in AutoCAD, but there is much that is not covered: dimensioning and 3D, for starters (!). If youre asking where do I go from here? - that's great read up on the concepts of CAD and AutoCAD. There are numerous books available on the topic and more appearing all the time. Keep away from books that seem to be thousands of pages long, you hopefully have access to the AutoCAD manuals, use them as reference materials, if necessary. Look instead for books that give you things not covered in the manuals! By reading books that cover how CAD can or should be implemented or managed in an office, I think you'll learn more about CAD related issues than you'll learn from a thousand pages of reference manual.

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