AutoCAD 2006 For Dummies

by Middlebrook, Mark; Byrnes, David

• ISBN13: 9780764589256
• ISBN10: 0764589253
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-05-20
• Publisher: For Dummies

Summary

AutoCAD "X" For Dummies is being updated to reflect the new features in the latest release of AutoCAD.

Author Biography

Mark Middlebrook used to be an engineer but gave it up when he discovered that he couldn’t handle a real job. He is now principal of Daedalus Consulting, an independent CAD and computer consulting company in Oakland, California. (In case you wondered, Daedalus was the guy in ancient Greek legend who built the labyrinth on Crete. Mark named his company after Daedalus before he realized that few of his clients would be able to pronounce it and even fewer spell it.) Mark is also a contributing editor for Cadalyst magazine and Webmaster of markcad.com. When he’s not busy being a cad, Mark sells and writes about wine for Paul Marcus Wines in Oakland. He also teaches literature and philosophy classes at St. Mary’s College of California — hence “Daedalus.” AutoCAD 2006 For Dummies is his eighth book on AutoCAD.

David Byrnes is one of those grizzled old-timers you’ll find mentioned every so often in AutoCAD 2006 For Dummies. He began his drafting career on the boards in 1979 and discovered computer-assisted doodling shortly thereafter. He first learned AutoCAD with version 1.4, around the time when personal computers switched from steam to diesel power. Dave is based in Vancouver, British Columbia, and has been an AutoCAD consultant and trainer for fifteen years. Dave is a contributing editor for Cadalyst magazine and has been a contributing author to ten books on AutoCAD. He teaches AutoCAD and other computer graphics applications at Emily Carr Institute of Art + Design and British Columbia Institute of Technology in Vancouver. Dave has tech edited six AutoCAD For Dummies titles. AutoCAD 2006 For Dummies is his first chance to make his own errors.

Table of Contents

Introduction	1	(1)
What's Not in This Book	1	(1)
Who Are --- and Aren't --- You?	2	(1)
How This Book Is Organized	3	(2)
Part I: AutoCAD 101	3	(1)
Part II: Let There Be Lines	4	(1)
Part III: If Drawings Could Talk	4	(1)
Part IV: Share and Share Alike	4	(1)
Part V: The Part of Tens	5	(1)
Icons Used in This Book	5	(1)
A Few Conventions --- Just in Case	6	(1)
Part I: AutoCAD 101	7	(94)
Introducing AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT	9	(8)
Why AutoCAD?	10	(1)
The Importance of Being DWG	11	(2)
Seeing the LT	13	(1)
Getting Your Kicks with 2006	14	(3)
Le Tour de AutoCAD 2006	17	(28)
AutoCAD Does Windows	18	(1)
And They're Off: AutoCAD's Opening Screen	19	(17)
Those well-washed Windows	20	(4)
Looking for Mr. Status Bar	24	(3)
A smoother ride: Dynamic input	27	(1)
Let your fingers do the talking: The command line area	28	(1)
The key(board) to AutoCAD success	29	(5)
Down the main stretch: The drawing area	34	(2)
Keeping Tabs on Palettes	36	(2)
Driving Miss AutoCAD	38	(3)
Under the hood: System variables	38	(3)
Chrome and gloss: Dialog boxes	41	(1)
Fun with F1	41	(4)
A Lap around the CAD Track	45	(24)
A Simple Setup	46	(3)
Drawing a (Base) Plate	49	(7)
Rectangles on the right layers	50	(3)
Circling your plate	53	(1)
Place your polygon	54	(2)
Get a Closer Look with Zoom and Pan	56	(2)
Modify to Make It Merrier	58	(6)
Hooray for array	58	(2)
Stretch out	60	(3)
Cross your hatches	63	(1)
Follow the Plot	64	(5)
Setup for Success	69	(32)
A Setup Roadmap	70	(10)
Choosing your units	72	(2)
Weighing your scales	74	(2)
Thinking about paper	76	(3)
Defending your border	79	(1)
All system variables go	80	(1)
A Template for Success	80	(3)
Making the Most of Model Space	83	(9)
Setting your units	83	(2)
Telling your drawing its limits	85	(2)
Making the drawing area snap-py (and grid-dy)	87	(2)
Setting linetype and dimension scales	89	(2)
Entering drawing properties	91	(1)
Plotting a Layout in Paper Space	92	(6)
Creating a layout	92	(3)
Copying and changing layouts	95	(2)
Lost in paper space	97	(1)
Making Templates Your Own	98	(3)
Part II: Let There Be Lines	101	(110)
Get Ready to Draw	103	(28)
Drawing and Editing with AutoCAD	103	(1)
Managing Your Properties	104	(12)
Putting it on a layer	105	(2)
Accumulating properties	107	(3)
Creating new layers	110	(6)
Using AutoCAD DesignCenter	116	(4)
Named objects	116	(1)
Getting (Design) Centered	117	(1)
Copying layers between drawings	118	(2)
Precise-liness Is Next to CAD-liness	120	(11)
Keyboard capers: Coordinate entry	122	(2)
Grab an object and make it snappy	124	(4)
Other precision practices	128	(3)
Where to Draw the Line	131	(28)
Introducing the AutoCAD Drawing Commands	132	(2)
The Straight and Narrow: Lines, Polylines, and Polygons	134	(11)
Toe the line	135	(1)
Connect the lines with polyline	136	(6)
Square off with rectangle	142	(1)
Choose your sides with polygon	143	(2)
(Throwing) Curves	145	(10)
Going full circle	145	(2)
Arc-y-ology	147	(2)
Ellipses (S. Grant?)	149	(1)
Splines: The sketchy, sinuous curyes	150	(2)
Donuts: The circles with a difference	152	(1)
Revision clouds on the horizon	153	(2)
Scoring Points	155	(4)
Edit for Credit	159	(40)
Commanding and Selecting	159	(2)
Command-first editing	160	(1)
Selection-first editing	160	(1)
Choosing an editing style	160	(1)
Grab It	161	(3)
One-by-one selection	161	(1)
Selection boxes left and right	162	(2)
Perfecting Selecting	164	(3)
Ready, Get Set, Edit!	167	(21)
The big three: Move, Copy, and Stretch	169	(8)
More manipulations	177	(5)
Slicing, dicing, and splicing	182	(6)
Get a Grip	188	(11)
About grips	188	(1)
A gripping example	189	(3)
Move it!	192	(1)
Copy, or a kinder, gentler Move	193	(1)
A warm-up Stretch	194	(5)
A Zoom with a View	199	(12)
Zoom and Pan with Glass and Hand	199	(4)
Out of the frying pan	201	(1)
Time to zoom	202	(1)
A View by Any Other Name	203	(2)
Looking Around in Layout Land	205	(3)
Degenerating and Regenerating	208	(3)
Part III: If Drawings Could Talk	211	(90)
Text with Character	213	(26)
Getting Ready to Write	214	(7)
Simply stylish text	214	(3)
Taking your text to new heights	217	(3)
One line or two?	220	(1)
Your text will be justified	221	(1)
Using the Same Old Line	221	(3)
Saying More in Multiline Text	224	(8)
Making it with mText	224	(3)
It slices, it dices . . .	227	(2)
Doing a number on your mText Lists	229	(3)
Modifying mText	232	(1)
Gather 'Round the Tables	232	(4)
Tables have style, too	233	(1)
Creating and editing tables	234	(2)
Checking Out Your Spelling	236	(3)
Entering New Dimensions	239	(26)
Discovering New Dimensions	241	(4)
Anatomy of a dimension	241	(2)
A field guide to dimensions	243	(1)
Dimension associativity	244	(1)
Pulling out your dimension tools	244	(1)
Doing Dimensions with Style(s)	245	(8)
Borrowing existing dimension styles	245	(1)
Creating and managing dimension styles	246	(3)
Adjusting style settings	249	(4)
Drawing Dimensions	253	(5)
Lining up some linear dimensions	254	(2)
Drawing other kinds of dimensions	256	(1)
Trans-spatial dimensioning	257	(1)
Editing Dimensions	258	(2)
Editing dimension geometry	258	(1)
Editing dimension text	259	(1)
Controlling and editing dimension associativity	259	(1)
Pointy-Headed Leaders	260	(5)
Down the Hatch	265	(10)
Hatch . . . Hatch . . . Hatchoo	266	(2)
Pushing the Boundary (of) Hatch	268	(6)
Hatch from scratch	269	(1)
Getting it right: Hatch angle and scale	270	(2)
Do fence me in: Defining hatch boundaries	272	(1)
Hatching that knows its place	273	(1)
Have palette, will hatch	274	(1)
Editing Hatch Objects	274	(1)
The Plot Thickens	275	(26)
You Say Printing, I Say Plotting	275	(3)
Get with the system	276	(1)
Configure it out	277	(1)
A Simple Plot	278	(6)
Plotting success in 16 steps	278	(4)
Preview one, two	282	(1)
Instead of fit, scale it	283	(1)
Plotting the Layout of the Land	284	(3)
About paper space layouts and plotting	284	(1)
The path to paper space layout plotting success	285	(2)
Plotting Lineweights and Colors	287	(8)
Plotting with style	287	(4)
Plotting through thick and thin	291	(3)
Plotting in color	294	(1)
It's a (Page) Setup!	295	(2)
Continuing the Plot Dialog	297	(2)
Troubles with Plotting	299	(2)
Part IV: Share and Share Alike	301	(78)
Playing Blocks and Rasteroids	303	(32)
Rocking with Blocks	304	(21)
Creating block definitions	306	(4)
Inserting blocks	310	(2)
Attributes: Fill-in-the-blank blocks	312	(5)
Exploding blocks	317	(1)
Theme and variations: Dynamic blocks	318	(7)
Going External	325	(6)
Becoming attached to your xrefs	326	(2)
Layer-palooza	328	(1)
Creating and editing an external reference file	328	(1)
Forging an xref path	328	(2)
Managing xrefs	330	(1)
Blocks, Xrefs, and Drawing Organization	331	(1)
Mastering the Raster	332	(3)
Attaching an image	333	(1)
Managing your image	334	(1)
Sheet Sets without Regrets	335	(16)
Taming Sheet Sets	336	(2)
Using an Existing Sheet Set	338	(1)
The Sheet Set Setup	339	(2)
Getting Your Sheets Together	341	(6)
Adding existing sheets to a set	341	(1)
Sheet subsets	342	(1)
Creating new sheets for a set	343	(1)
Assembling sheet views from resource drawings	344	(3)
Making an Automatic Sheet List	347	(4)
CAD Standards Rule	351	(10)
Why CAD Standards?	352	(1)
Which CAD Standards?	353	(2)
What Needs to Be Standardized?	355	(3)
Plotting	355	(1)
Layers	356	(1)
Other stuff	357	(1)
Cool Standards Tools	358	(3)
Drawing on the Internet	361	(18)
The Internet and AutoCAD: An Overview	362	(2)
Sending Strategies	364	(7)
Send it with ETRANSMIT	365	(1)
Rapid eTransmit	366	(2)
Transmitting multiple drawings	368	(1)
FTP for you and me	368	(1)
Bad reception?	369	(1)
Help from the Reference Manager	370	(1)
Drawing Web Format --- Not Just for the Web	371	(6)
All about DWF	372	(1)
ePlot, not replot	372	(1)
Making DWFs with ePlot	373	(2)
Making DWFs (or Plots) with Publish	375	(1)
Hand-y objects	376	(1)
Autodesk DWF Viewer	377	(1)
The Drawing Protection Racket	377	(2)
Part V: The Part of Tens	379	(16)
Ten Ways to Do No Harm	381	(4)
Be Precise	381	(1)
Control Properties by Layer	381	(1)
Know Your Drawing Scale Factor	382	(1)
Know Your Space	382	(1)
Explode with Care	382	(1)
Don't Cram Your Geometry	382	(1)
Freeze Instead of Erase	383	(1)
Use CAD Standards	383	(1)
Save Drawings Regularly	383	(1)
Back Up Drawings Regularly	384	(1)
Ten Ways to Swap Drawing Data with Other People and Programs	385	(10)
DWG	386	(2)
DXF	388	(1)
DWF	388	(1)
PDF	388	(1)
WMF	389	(1)
BMP, JPEG, TIFF, and Other Raster Formats	390	(1)
Windows Clipboard	391	(1)
OLE	391	(2)
Screen Capture	393	(1)
TXT and RTF	394	(1)
Index	395