Setting up AutoCAD The EE/CAD group has created a number of formats for you to use that have the following built into them:

Transcription

1 Setting up AutoCAD The EE/CAD group has created a number of formats for you to use that have the following built into them: Unit type and precision Drawing limits Snap, Grid, and Ortho settings Layer organization Title blocks, borders, and logos Dimension and text styles Linetypes and lineweights These pre-existing formats are there to make everyone's life easier. PLEASE USE THEM! We have created a set for electrical drawings (wiring, system prints, etc.) and a set strictly for mechanical. The can be found on the network on a machine called FS2 in the following directory: \eecad\autocad downloads Viewing & updating drawing properties You can track your drawings more easily by assigning properties to them. Drawing properties are details that help you identify the drawing, including title, author, subject, and keywords to identify the model or other important information. You can also store hyperlink addresses or directory paths and ten custom properties with your drawings. To define drawing properties From the File menu, choose Drawing Properties. In the Drawing Properties dialog box, enter property information on the following tabs: General tab: Displays the drawing type, location, size, When the drawing was created, last modified and last accessed.. The information is derived from the operating system. All fields are read-only. However, if you access file properties through Windows Explorer, the attributes options are made available by the operating system. 06/17/02 Page 1 of 12

2 Summary tab: You can enter the drawing title, subject, author, keywords, comments, and a hyperlink base. Keywords help you search for drawings sharing a common property. For example, you can add the keyword "Autodesk" to all your drawing files, then search for all drawing files with that key word. For a hyperlink base you can specify an Internet address or a path to a folder on a network drive. Statistics tab: Displays data such as file size and the dates files were created and last modified. You can search for all files created at a certain time, for example, after March 3, 1998, or files last modified yesterday. 06/17/02 Page 2 of 12

3 Custom tab: You can enter up to ten custom properties. Specify the names of the custom fields in the column on the left, and the value for each custom field in the column on the right. NOTE Properties entered in the Drawing Properties dialog box are not associated with the drawing until you save the drawing. Options dialog box Customizes many AutoCAD settings by using options on the nine tabs of the Options dialog box. Select Tools Options to open the Options dialog box. The Files tab of the Options dialog box is where you set the search path AutoCAD uses to find support files such as text fonts, drawings, linetypes, and hatch patterns. Using these options helps improve performance when AutoCAD loads these files. You also can specify the location of temporary files on the Files tab. AutoCAD creates temporary files on disk, and then deletes them when you exit AutoCAD. 06/17/02 Page 3 of 12

4 The Display tab customizes the AutoCAD display. You can change the color and font AutoCAD uses and specify a number of other settings, like cross hair size. The Open and Save tab in the Options dialog box controls settings that relate to opening and saving drawing files. If you turn on the Automatic Save option, AutoCAD saves your drawing at specified time intervals. Drawings are saved to the temporary directory specified as the Automatic Save File Location on the Files tab. 06/17/02 Page 4 of 12

5 Use the Plotting tab in the Options dialog box to set plotting options. You can specify general plotting controls such as the default plotting device, plot styles, and plot style behavior. A plot style is a collection of property settings that can be applied to different objects in the drawing. Use the System tab in the Options dialog box to set the general AutoCAD system settings. After you install AutoCAD, you usually do not need to perform additional configuration tasks for the mouse or digitizer, because AutoCAD uses the current system pointing device. However, you can change the current pointing device and control whether AutoCAD accepts input from a digitizer only or from both a digitizer and a mouse. 06/17/02 Page 5 of 12

6 By using the User Preferences tab in the Options dialog box, you can set up your drawing environment according to the way you work best. You can customize settings for shortcut menus and set display properties for hyperlinks in your drawing. You can also customize what your Right mouse click does, whether it opens a menu bar or acts as the Enter key. The Drafting tab in the Options dialog box contains options that control settings of several AutoCAD drawing aids. For example, AutoSnap helps you locate exact points on an object. AutoTrack helps you draw objects at specific angles or with specific relationships to other objects in the drawing. Aperture Size sets the display size for the aperture. The aperture is the selection tool used when a drawing command is invoked. 06/17/02 Page 6 of 12

7 The Selection tab in the Options dialog box controls the AutoCAD selection tools and object selection methods. You can control the size of the AutoCAD pickbox and specify selection modes that you want turned on while you draw. You can use the Profiles tab in the Options dialog box to create and save your drawing environment settings as a profile. If you share your workstation with other users who use the same login name, you can restore your options by making the profile current. You can also create and save profiles to use with different projects. By default, AutoCAD stores your current options in a profile named UNNAMED PROFILE. AutoCAD displays the current profile name, as well as the current drawing name, in the Options dialog box. 06/17/02 Page 7 of 12

8 Drawing Units dialog box Select Format Units to open the Drawing Units dialog box. Every object you draw is measured in units. You determine the value of the units within AutoCAD before you draw. For example, in one drawing, a unit might equal one millimeter of the real-world object. In another drawing, a unit might equal an inch. You can set the unit type and number of decimal places for object lengths and angles. You can also specify the units for blocks and other content you insert from AutoCAD DesignCenter. Drawing unit settings control how AutoCAD interprets your coordinate and angle entries and how it displays coordinates and units in the drawing and in dialog boxes. Setting Drawing Limits The drawing limits are two-dimensional points in the world coordinate system that represent a lower-left limit and an upper-right limit. You cannot impose limits on the Z direction. When you set drawing limits, AutoCAD restricts the coordinates you can enter to within the rectangular area. Drawing limits also determine the area of the drawing that can display grid dots, the area displayed by one of the scale options of ZOOM, and the minimum area displayed by ZOOM All. When plotting a drawing, you can also specify the drawing limits as the area to plot. If you are using the EE/CAD formats, you don't need to worry about setting your drawing limits. They are preset for the format you have chosen. 06/17/02 Page 8 of 12

9 Setting the Grid Select Tools Drafting Settings to open the Drafting settings dialog box. Snap On-Turns Snap mode on or off. You can also turn Snap mode on or off by clicking Snap on the status bar, by pressing F9. Snap- Controls an invisible grid that restricts cursor movement to specified intervals. Snap X Spacing- Specifies the snap spacing in the X direction. The value must be a positive real number. Snap Y Spacing- Specifies the snap spacing in the Y direction. The value must be a positive real number. Angle- Rotates the snap grid by the angle specified. X Base- Specifies an X base coordinate point for the grid. Y Base- Specifies a Y base coordinate point for the grid. Polar Spacing- Controls polar settings. Polar Distance-Sets the snap increment distance when Snap Type is set to Polar Snap Grid On- Turns the grid dots on or off. You can also turn grid dots mode on or off by clicking Grid on the status bar, by pressing F7. Grid- Controls the display of a dot grid that helps you visualize distances. Grid X Spacing- Specifies the dot spacing in the X direction. Grid Y Spacing- Specifies the dot spacing in the Y direction. Snap Type & Style- Controls Snap mode settings. Grid Snap- Sets the snap type to Grid. Rectangular Snap- Sets the snap style to standard Rectangular snap mode. Isometric Snap- Sets the snap style to Isometric snap. Polar Snap- Sets the snap type to Polar. 06/17/02 Page 9 of 12

10 Polar Tracking Controls the AutoTrack settings. Polar Tracking On- Turns polar tracking on and off. You can also turn polar tracking on or off by pressing F10. Polar Angle Settings- Sets the angles used with polar tracking. Increment Angle- Sets the polar increment angle used to display polar tracking alignment paths. You can enter any angle, or select a common angle of 90, 60, 45, 30, 22.5, 18, 15, 10, and 5 degrees from the list. Additional Angles- Makes any additional angles in the list available for polar tracking. New- Adds up to 10 additional polar tracking alignment angles. Delete- Deletes selected additional angles. Object Snap Tracking Settings- Sets options for object snap tracking. Track Orthogonally Only- Displays only orthogonal (horizontal/vertical) object snap tracking paths for acquired object snap points when object snap tracking is on. Track Using All Polar Angle Settings- Permits the cursor to track along any polar angle tracking path for acquired osnap points when object snap tracking is on while specifying points. NOTE Clicking Polar and Otrack on the status bar also turns polar tracking and object snap tracking on and off. Polar Angle Measurement- Sets the basis by which polar tracking alignment angles are measured. Absolute- Bases polar tracking angles on the current user coordinate system (UCS). Relative to Last Segment- Bases polar tracking angles on the last object you created. 06/17/02 Page 10 of 12

11 Setting the Object snap Object Snap On- Turns running object snaps on and off. The object snaps selected under Object Snap Modes are active while object snap is on. You can turn this command on or off by pressing F3. Object Snap Tracking On- Turns object snap tracking on and off. With object snap tracking the cursor can track along alignment paths based on other object snap points when specifying points in a command. To use object snap tracking, you must turn on one or more object snaps. You can turn this command on or off by pressing F11. Object Snap Modes- Turns on running object snaps. Endpoint- Snaps to the closest endpoint of an arc, elliptical arc, line, multiline, polyline segment, or ray or to the closest corner of a trace, solid, or 3D face. Midpoint- Snaps to the midpoint of an arc, ellipse, elliptical arc, line, multiline, polyline segment, solid, spline, or xline. Center- Snaps to the center of an arc, circle, ellipse, or elliptical arc. Node- Snaps to a point object. Quadrant- Snaps to a quadrant point of an arc, circle, ellipse, or elliptical arc. Intersection- Snaps to the intersection of an arc, circle, ellipse, elliptical arc, line, multiline, polyline, ray, spline, or xline. Intersection snaps to the edges of regions and curves, but does not snap to the edges or corners of 3D solids. Extension- Causes a temporary extension line to display when you pass the cursor over the endpoint of objects, so you can draw objects to and from points on the extension line. Insertion- Snaps to the insertion point of an attribute, a block, a shape, or text. Perpendicular- Snaps to a point perpendicular to an arc, circle, ellipse, elliptical arc, line, multiline, polyline, ray, solid, spline, or xline. Tangent- Snaps to the tangent of an arc, circle, ellipse, or elliptical arc. Nearest- Snaps to the nearest point on an arc, circle, ellipse, elliptical arc, line, multiline, point, polyline, spline, or xline. Apparent Intersection- snaps to the apparent intersection of two objects (arc, circle, ellipse, elliptical arc, line, multiline, polyline, ray, spline, or xline) that do not intersect in 3D space but may appear to intersect in the drawing display. Parallel- Draws a vector parallel to another object whenever AutoCAD prompts you for the second point of a vector. After specifying the first point of a vector, if you move the cursor over a straight line segment of another object, AutoCAD acquires the point. When the path of the object you create is parallel to the line segment, AutoCAD displays an alignment path, which you can use to create the parallel object. 06/17/02 Page 11 of 12

12 Coordinates A Cartesian coordinate system has three axes: X, Y, and Z. When you enter coordinate values, you indicate a point's distance (in units) and its direction (+ or ) along the X, Y, and Z axes relative to the coordinate system origin (0,0,0) or relative to the previous point. Usually, when you begin a new drawing in AutoCAD, you are automatically in the world coordinate system (WCS); the X axis is horizontal, the Y axis is vertical, and the Z axis is perpendicular to the XY plane. In addition to the WCS, you can define a movable user coordinate system (UCS) with a different origin and axes in different directions. You define a UCS in terms of the WCS. You can use a template with a UCS to start a drawing that does not use the WCS. Polar coordinate systems use a distance and an angle to locate a point. When you enter polar coordinate values, you indicate a point's distance from the origin or from the previous point and its angle along the XY plane of the current coordinate system. To enter an absolute X,Y coordinate, specify a point by entering its X and Y values in the format X,Y. Use absolute X,Y coordinates when you know the precise X and Y values of the location of the point. Use relative X,Y coordinates when you know the position of a point in relation to the previous point. For example, to locate a point relative to 2,1, precede the next coordinate with symbol. Displaying Coordinates of the Current Cursor Location AutoCAD displays the current cursor location as a coordinate on the status bar at the bottom of the AutoCAD window. There are three types of coordinate display available: Dynamic display: Updates the coordinate values as you move the cursor. Static display: Updates the coordinate values only when you specify a point. Distance and angle: Updates the coordinate values as you move the cursor and displays the values in the format distance<angle. This option is available only when you draw lines or other objects that prompt you for more than one point. When you edit objects, you can cycle through the three types of coordinate display by pressing F6 or CTRL+D. You can also right-click the coordinate display on the status bar to access the display options from a shortcut menu, or you can set the COORDS system variable to 0 for static display, 1 for dynamic absolute display, or 2 for distance and angle display. To find the coordinate of a point on an existing object (for example, midpoint, intersection), use the ID command. To ensure precision, use object snaps to select the point on the object. To find coordinates for all the key points on an existing object, use the LIST command or select the object using grips. Grips are small boxes that appear at strategic locations on objects, such as endpoints and midpoints. When the cursor snaps to a grip, the coordinate display shows its coordinate. 06/17/02 Page 12 of 12