autocad 2011 User Guide

AutoCAD 2011 for Mac

User's Guide

September 2010

reproduced in any form, by any method, for any purpose.

Certain materials included in this publication are reprinted with the permission of the copyright holder.

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Disclaimer

THIS PUBLICATION AND THE INFORMATION CONTAINED HEREIN IS MADE AVAILABLE BY AUTODESK, INC. "AS IS." AUTODESK, INC. DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE REGARDING THESE MATERIALS.

Published by: Autodesk, Inc. 111 McInnis Parkway San Rafael, CA 94903, USA

Get Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Chapter 1 Find the Information You Need . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Access and Search the Product Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Learn the Product . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

View the Product Readme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Join the Customer Involvement Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Chapter 2 Get Information from Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Obtain General Drawing Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

The User Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Chapter 3 Start a Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Parts of the User Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

The Menu Bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

The Tool Sets Palette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

The Command Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Overview of Using the Command Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Enter Commands on the Command Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Enter System Variables on the Command Line . . . . . . . . . . . 18

iii

Switch Between Dialog Boxes and the Command Line . . . . . . 20

View and Edit Within the Command History . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Work with Shortcut Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Chapter 4 Control the Drawing Area Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Interface Themes and Background Color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Cursors in the Drawing Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Selection Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

The UCS Icon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Viewport Label Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

The ViewCube Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

The Coordinates Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Model Space and Layouts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Chapter 5 Control Status, Layers, Properties, and Content . . . . . . . . . 35

The Status Bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

The Layers Palette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

The Properties Inspector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

The Content Palette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Chapter 6 Customize the Drawing Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

Set Interface Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

Set Up the Drawing Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

Specify the Behavior of Palettes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

Customize Startup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

Start and Save Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Chapter 7 Start a Drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

Overview of Starting a New Drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

Specify Units and Unit Formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

Determine the Units of Measurement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

Set the Unit Format Conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

Use a Drawing Template File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Add Identifying Information to Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

Chapter 8 Open or Save a Drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

Open a Drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

Work with Multiple Open Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

Preview Open Drawings and Layouts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

Switch Between Open Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

Switch Between Layouts in the Current Drawing . . . . . . . . . 66

iv | Contents

Transfer Information between Open Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . 67

Save a Drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

Find a Drawing File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

Specify Search Paths and File Locations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

Chapter 9 Repair, Restore, or Recover Drawing Files . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

Repair a Damaged Drawing File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

Create and Restore Backup Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

Control the Drawing Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

Chapter 10 Change Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

Pan or Zoom a View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

Save and Restore Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

Control the 3D Projection Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

Overview of Parallel and Perspective Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

Define a Perspective Projection (DVIEW) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

Define a Parallel Projection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

Choose Preset 3D Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

Define a 3D View with Coordinate Values or Angles . . . . . . . . 90

Change to a View of the XY Plane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

Shade a Model and Use Edge Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

Use a Visual Style to Display Your Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

Customize a Visual Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

Control Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105

Chapter 11 Use Viewing Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

Specify 3D Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

Overview of 3D Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

Use 3D Navigation Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108

Create a 3D Dynamic View (DVIEW) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

Use ViewCube . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

Overview of ViewCube . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

ViewCube Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

Reorient the View of a Model with ViewCube . . . . . . . . . . 115

Change the UCS with ViewCube . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

Chapter 12 Display Multiple Views in Model Space . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121

Set Model Space Viewports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121

Select and Use the Current Viewport . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124

Save and Restore Model Layout Viewport Arrangements . . . . . . . . 125

Contents | v

Organize Drawings and Layouts . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127

Chapter 13 Create Single-View Drawings (Model Space) . . . . . . . . . . 129

Quick Start for Model Space Drafting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129

Draw, Scale, and Annotate in Model Space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131

Chapter 14 Create Multiple-View Drawing Layouts (Paper Space) . . . . . 137

Quick Start for Layouts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137

Understand the Layout Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139

Work with Model Space and Paper Space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141

Work on the Model Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141

Work on a Named Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142

Access Model Space from a Layout Viewport . . . . . . . . . . . 144

Create and Modify Layout Viewports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145

Control Views in Layout Viewports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147

Scale Views in Layout Viewports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147

Control Visibility in Layout Viewports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149

Scale Linetypes in Layout Viewports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153

Align Views in Layout Viewports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154

Rotate Views in Layout Viewports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155

Reuse Layouts and Layout Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157

Create and Modify Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159

Chapter 15 Control the Properties of Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161

Work with Object Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161

Overview of Object Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161

Display and Change the Properties of Objects . . . . . . . . . . 163

Copy Properties Between Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164

Work with Layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165

Overview of Layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165

Use Layers to Manage Complexity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167

Create and Name Layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169

Change Layer Settings and Layer Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . 171

Override Layer Properties in Viewports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173

Work with Colors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176

Set the Current Color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176

Change the Color of an Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177

Use Color Books . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179

Work with Linetypes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180

Overview of Linetypes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180

Load Linetypes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181

Set the Current Linetype . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182

vi | Contents

Change the Linetype of an Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183

Control Linetype Scale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184

Display Linetypes on Short Segments and Polylines . . . . . . . 185

Control Lineweights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186

Overview of Lineweights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186

Display Lineweights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188

Set the Current Lineweight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189

Change the Lineweight of an Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191

Control the Display Properties of Certain Objects . . . . . . . . . . . 192

Control the Display of Polylines, Hatches, Gradient Fills,

Lineweights, and Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192

Control the Transparency of Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194

Control How Overlapping Objects Are Displayed . . . . . . . . . 196

Control the Display of Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197

Chapter 16 Use Precision Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199

Use Coordinates and Coordinate Systems (UCS) . . . . . . . . . . . . 199

Overview of Coordinate Entry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199

Enter 2D Coordinates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200

Enter 3D Coordinates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205

Understand the User Coordinate System (UCS) . . . . . . . . . . 210

Specify Workplanes in 3D (UCS) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214

Assign User Coordinate System Orientations to Viewports . . . . 219

Control the Display of the User Coordinate System Icon . . . . . 221

Use Dynamic Input . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223

Snap to Locations on Objects (Object Snaps) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226

Use Object Snaps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226

The Object Snap Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229

Set Visual Aids for Object Snaps (AutoSnap) . . . . . . . . . . . 229

Override Object Snap Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230

Restrict Cursor Movement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232

Adjust Grid and Grid Snap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232

Use Orthogonal Locking (Ortho Mode) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237

Use Polar Tracking and PolarSnap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238

Lock an Angle for One Point (Angle) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241

Combine or Offset Points and Coordinates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241

Combine Coordinate Values (Coordinate Filters) . . . . . . . . . 241

Track to Points on Objects (Object Snap Tracking) . . . . . . . . 244

Track to Offset Point Locations (Tracking) . . . . . . . . . . . . 246

Specify Distances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247

Enter Direct Distances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247

Offset from Temporary Reference Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248

Specify Intervals on Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248

Extract Geometric Information from Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252

Obtain Distances, Angles, and Point Locations . . . . . . . . . . 252

Obtain Area and Mass Properties Information . . . . . . . . . . 253

Contents | vii

Use a Calculator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257

Use the Command Prompt Calculator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257

Chapter 17 Draw Geometric Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261

Draw Linear Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261

Draw Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261

Draw Polylines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262

Draw Rectangles and Polygons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265

Draw Multiline Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267

Draw Freehand Sketches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269

Draw Curved Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270

Draw Arcs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270

Draw Circles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274

Draw Polyline Arcs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275

Draw Donuts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279

Draw Ellipses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280

Draw Splines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281

Draw Helixes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285

Draw Construction and Reference Geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286

Draw Reference Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286

Draw Construction Lines (and Rays) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287

Create and Combine Areas (Regions) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289

Create Revision Clouds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291

Chapter 18 Change Existing Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293

Select Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293

Select Objects Individually . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293

Select Multiple Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295

Prevent Objects from Being Selected . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298

Select Objects by Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299

Customize Object Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300

Group Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304

Correct Mistakes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307

Erase Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309

Cut, Copy, and Paste with the Clipboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310

Modify Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311

Choose a Method to Modify Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311

Edit Objects with Grips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313

Move or Rotate Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321

Copy, Offset, or Mirror Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325

Change the Size and Shape of Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337

Fillet, Chamfer, Break, or Join Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344

Modify Complex Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353

Disassociate Compound Objects (Explode) . . . . . . . . . . . . 353

Modify Polylines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 355

viii | Contents

Modify Splines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359

Modify Helixes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 363

Modify Multilines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 364

Chapter 19 Add Constraints to Geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367

Overview of Constraints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367

Constrain Objects Geometrically . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 371

Overview of Geometric Constraints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 371

Apply or Remove Geometric Constraints . . . . . . . . . . . . . 373

Display and Verify Geometric Constraints . . . . . . . . . . . . 379

Modify Objects with Geometric Constraints Applied . . . . . . . 381

Infer Geometric Constraints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 384

Constrain Distances and Angles between Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . 386

Overview of Dimensional Constraints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 386

Apply Dimensional Constraints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 389

Control the Display of Dimensional Constraints . . . . . . . . . 394

Modify Objects with Dimensional Constraints Applied . . . . . 395

Constrain a Design with Formulas and Equations . . . . . . . . . . . 398

Overview of Formulas and Equations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 398

Control Geometry with Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 399

Define and Reference Blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 403

Chapter 20 Work with Blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 405

Overview of Blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 405

Insert Blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 407

Work with Dynamic Blocks in Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 409

Overview of Dynamic Blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 409

Remove Block Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 411

Chapter 21 Create and Modify Blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 413

Define Blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 413

Create Blocks Within a Drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 413

Create Drawing Files for Use as Blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 414

Control the Color and Linetype Properties in Blocks . . . . . . . 416

Nest Blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 418

Create Block Libraries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 419

Attach Data to Blocks (Block Attributes) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 420

Overview of Block Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 420

Define Block Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 423

Extract Data from Block Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 425

Extract Block Attribute Data (Advanced) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 426

Modify Blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 431

Contents | ix

Modify a Block Definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 431

Modify the Data in Block Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 433

Modify a Block Attribute Definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 434

Disassemble a Block Reference (Explode) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 437

Work with 3D Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 439

Chapter 22 Create 3D Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 441

Overview of 3D Modeling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 441

Create Solids and Surfaces from Lines and Curves . . . . . . . . . . . 446

Overview of Creating Solids and Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . 446

Create a Solid or Surface by Extruding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 450

Create a Solid or Surface by Sweeping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 453

Create a Solid or Surface by Lofting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 456

Create a Solid or Surface by Revolving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 459

Create Solids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 461

Overview of Creating 3D Solids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 461

Create 3D Solid Primitives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 465

Create a Polysolid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 475

Create 3D Solids from Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 477

Combine or Slice 3D Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 481

Check 3D Models for Interferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 484

Create Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 485

Overview of Creating Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 486

Create Procedural Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 491

Create NURBS Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 501

Create Associative Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 505

Create Meshes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 511

Overview of Creating Meshes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 511

Create 3D Mesh Primitives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 515

Construct Meshes from Other Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 528

Create Meshes by Conversion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 534

Create Custom Mesh (Legacy) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 537

Create Wireframe Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 542

Add 3D Thickness to Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 544

Chapter 23 Modify 3D Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 547

Overview of Modifying 3D Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 547

Use Gizmos to Modify Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 549

Overview of Using Gizmos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 549

Use the Gizmos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 551

Move 3D Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 554

Rotate 3D Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 556

Scale 3D Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 558

x | Contents

Use Grips to Modify Solids and Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 561

Use 3D Subobject Grips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 561

Cycle Through and Filter Subobjects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 564

Use Grips to Edit 3D Solids and Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . 567

Modify 3D Subobjects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 570

Move, Rotate, and Scale 3D Subobjects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 570

Modify Faces on 3D Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 573

Modify Edges on 3D Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 575

Modify Vertices on 3D Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 579

Work with Complex 3D Solids and Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 581

Display Original Forms of Composite Solids . . . . . . . . . . . 582

Modify Composite Solids and Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 583

Shell and Remove Redundancies in 3D Objects . . . . . . . . . . 585

Press or Pull Bounded Areas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 587

Add Edges and Faces to Solids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 588

Modify Properties of 3D Solid, Surface, and Mesh . . . . . . . . . . . 590

Modify Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 594

Overview of Modifying Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 594

Trim and Untrim Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 596

Extend a Surface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 598

Fillet a Surface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 599

Edit NURBS Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 600

Analyze Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 602

Modify Mesh Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 610

Overview of Modifying Meshes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 610

Change Mesh Smoothness Levels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 615

Refine Mesh Objects or Subobjects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 619

Add Creases to Mesh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 621

Modify Mesh Faces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 622

Create and Close Mesh Gaps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 626

Tips for Working with Mesh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 627

Chapter 24 Create Sections and 2D Drawings from 3D Models . . . . . . . 635

Work with Sections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 635

Overview of Section Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 635

Create Section Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 637

Modify a Section View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 640

Save and Publish Section Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 647

Create a Flattened View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 650

Annotate Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 653

Chapter 25 Work with Annotations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 655

Overview of Annotations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 655

Contents | xi

Scale Annotations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 656

Overview of Scaling Annotations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 657

Set Annotation Scale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 658

Create Annotative Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 660

Display Annotative Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 670

Add and Modify Scale Representations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 671

Set Orientation for Annotations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 673

Chapter 26 Hatches, Fills, and Wipeouts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 675

Overview of Hatch Patterns and Fills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 675

Specify Hatch and Fill Areas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 680

Control the Appearance of Hatches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 684

Choose a Hatch Pattern or Fill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 685

Control the Hatch Origin Point . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 689

Control the Scale of Hatch Patterns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 691

Set Property Overrides for Hatches and Fills . . . . . . . . . . . 692

Control the Display of Hatch Boundaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . 694

Control the Draw Order of Hatches and Fills . . . . . . . . . . . 696

Modify Hatches and Fills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 697

Modify Hatch Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 697

Modify Hatch Alignment, Scale, and Rotation . . . . . . . . . . 698

Reshape a Hatch or Fill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 699

Re-create the Boundary of a Hatch or Fill . . . . . . . . . . . . . 701

Create a Blank Area to Cover Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 702

Chapter 27 Notes and Labels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 705

Overview of Notes and Labels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 705

Create Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 706

Overview of Creating Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 706

Create Single-Line Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 708

Create Multiline Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 711

Create and Edit Columns in Multiline Text . . . . . . . . . . . . 722

Import Text from External Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 723

Create Leaders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 723

Overview of Leader Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 724

Create and Modify Leaders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 725

Work with Leader Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 728

Add Content to a Leader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 729

Use Fields in Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 732

Insert Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 733

Update Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 735

Use Hyperlinks in Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 736

Work with Text Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 738

Overview of Text Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 738

Assign Text Fonts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 740

xii | Contents

Set Text Height . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 746

Set Text Obliquing Angle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 747

Set Horizontal or Vertical Text Orientation . . . . . . . . . . . . 748

Change Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 749

Overview of Changing Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 749

Change Single-Line Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 750

Change Multiline Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 751

Find and Replace Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 753

Check Spelling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 754

Chapter 28 Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 757

Create and Modify Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 757

Work with Table Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 760

Add Text and Blocks to Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 762

Use Formulas in Table Cells . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 764

Chapter 29 Dimensions and Tolerances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 767

Understand Basic Concepts of Dimensioning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 767

Overview of Dimensioning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 767

Parts of a Dimension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 769

Associative Dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 771

Use Dimension Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 773

Overview of Dimension Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 773

Compare Dimension Styles and Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . 774

Control Dimension Geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 775

Control Dimension Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 783

Control Dimension Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 792

Set the Scale for Dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 801

Create Dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 803

Create Linear Dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 803

Create Radial Dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 809

Create Angular Dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 814

Create Ordinate Dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 816

Create Arc Length Dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 818

Modify Existing Dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 819

Modify A Dimension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 819

Apply a New Dimension Style to Existing Dimensions . . . . . . 827

Override a Dimension Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 828

Modify Dimension Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 830

Modify Dimension Geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 832

Change Dimension Associativity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 835

Add Geometric Tolerances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 837

Overview of Geometric Tolerances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 837

Material Conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 839

Datum Reference Frames . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 840

Contents | xiii

Projected Tolerance Zones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 840

Composite Tolerances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 841

Plot and Publish Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 843

Chapter 30 Specify Settings for Plotting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 845

Save Plot Settings as Named Page Setups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 845

Reuse Named Page Setups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 846

Specify Page Setup Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 848

Select a Printer or Plotter for a Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 848

Select a Paper Size for a Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 848

Determine the Drawing Orientation of a Layout . . . . . . . . . 849

Set the Plot Area of a Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 850

Adjust the Plot Offset of a Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 851

Set the Plot Scale for a Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 852

Set the Lineweight Scale for a Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 853

Select a Plot Style Table for a Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 853

Set Shaded Viewport and Plot Options for a Layout . . . . . . . 854

Chapter 31 Print or Plot Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 857

Overview of Plotting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 857

Use a Page Setup to Specify Plot Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 860

Select a Printer or Plotter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 860

Specify the Area to Plot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 861

Set Paper Size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 862

Position the Drawing on the Paper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 863

Specify the Printable Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 863

Set the Position of the Plot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 864

Set Drawing Orientation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 864

Control How Objects Are Plotted . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 865

Set Plot Scale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 865

Set Shaded Viewport Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 867

Set Options for Plotted Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 870

Use Plot Styles to Control Plotted Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . 871

Use Color-Dependent Plot Style Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 874

Use Named Plot Style Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 875

Preview a Plot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 876

Plot Files to Other Formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 877

Plot Adobe PDF Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 877

Share Data Between Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 879

Chapter 32 Reference Other Drawing Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 881

xiv | Contents

Overview of Referenced Drawings (Xrefs) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 881

Attach and Detach Referenced Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 883

Attach Drawing References (Xrefs) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 883

Nest and Overlay Referenced Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 886

Set Paths to Referenced Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 888

Detach Referenced Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 889

Update and Archive Referenced Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 890

Update Referenced Drawing Attachments . . . . . . . . . . . . 890

Archive Drawings That Contain Referenced Drawings

(Bind) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 892

Clip External References and Blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 894

Edit Referenced Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 897

Edit a Referenced Drawing in a Separate Window . . . . . . . . 897

Resolve Referenced Drawing Errors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 898

Resolve Missing External References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 898

Resolve Circular External References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 899

Resolve Name Conflicts in External References . . . . . . . . . . 900

Track External Reference Operations (Log File) . . . . . . . . . . 901

Increase Performance with Large Referenced Drawings . . . . . . . . . 904

Overview of Demand Loading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 904

Unload Xrefs in Large Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 905

Set Paths for Temporary Xref File Copies . . . . . . . . . . . . . 905

Chapter 33 Work with Data in Other Formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 907

Import Other File Formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 907

Import ACIS SAT Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 907

Convert DXF and DXB Files to DWG Format . . . . . . . . . . . 908

Attach Raster Image Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 908

Overview of Raster Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 908

Attach, Scale, and Detach Raster Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . 910

Modify Raster Images and Image Boundaries . . . . . . . . . . . 913

Manage Raster Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 917

Tune Raster Image Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 920

Export Drawings to Other File Formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 923

Export PDF Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 923

Export DXF Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 923

Export Raster Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 924

Export PostScript Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 925

Export ACIS SAT Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 926

Export Stereolithography STL Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 926

Use Drawings from Different Versions and Applications . . . . . . . . 927

Work with Drawings in Earlier Releases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 928

Save Drawings to Previous Drawing File Formats . . . . . . . . . 931

Work with AutoCAD Drawings in AutoCAD LT . . . . . . . . . . 934

Work with Custom and Proxy Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 937

Contents | xv

Collaborate with Others . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 941

Chapter 34 Use the Internet for Collaboration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 943

Get Started with Internet Access . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 943

Work with Drawing Files over the Internet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 944

Open and Save Drawing Files from the Internet . . . . . . . . . 944

Share Drawing Files Internationally . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 945

Access Buzzsaw for Project Collaboration . . . . . . . . . . . . . 947

Work with Xrefs over the Internet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 948

Render Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 949

Chapter 35 Draw 2D Isometric Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 951

Set Isometric Grid and Snap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 951

Draw Isometric Circles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 953

Chapter 36 Add Lighting to Your Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 955

Overview of Lighting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 955

Standard and Photometric Lighting Workflow . . . . . . . . . . . . . 958

Illuminate a Scene . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 960

Guidelines for Lighting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 960

Use Point Lights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 962

Use Spotlights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 965

Use Weblights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 967

Use Distant Lights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 976

Assigning a Shape to a Light . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 977

Adjust and Manipulate Lights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 978

Control the Display of Lights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 978

Adjust Light Placement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 979

Control Light Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 982

Incorporate Luminaire Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 987

Chapter 37 Materials and Textures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 989

Overview of Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 989

Browse Material Library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 990

Chapter 38 Render 3D Objects for Realism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 993

Overview of Rendering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 993

Prepare a Model for Rendering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 994

Understand Face Normals and Hidden Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . 994

Minimize Intersecting and Coplanar Faces . . . . . . . . . . . . 996

xvi | Contents

Balance Mesh Density for Smooth Geometry . . . . . . . . . . . 998

Set Up the Renderer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1001

Control the Rendering Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1001

Basics of Rendering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1002

Render Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1002

Save and Redisplay Rendered Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1003

Save a Rendered Image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1003

Redisplay a Rendered Image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1004

Use Models with Other Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1005

Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1007

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1035

Contents | xvii

xviii

Get Information

Find the Information You Need

There are various ways to find information about how to use this program, and multiple resources are available.

This program is a powerful application with tools that help you work with a high level of efficiency and productivity. You install this software with the Installation wizard that starts automatically when you insert the product media.

This application is often intuitive, but when you do need to look something up, you can save time and avoid frustration if you use the Help system to find information. The Help system is organized in a structured design that makes information easy to locate.

Access and Search the Product Help

The Help system in AutoCAD for Mac uses a Web browser and is available online and offline.

You can access the Help system by doing one of the following:

■ Press Fn-F1 or Cmd-/.

If you press Fn-F1 or Cmd-/ when a command is active, the appropriate help topic is opened in the Web browser. Otherwise, the landing page of the Help system is displayed.

■ On the Mac OS menu bar, click Help ➤ AutoCAD for Mac Help.

The landing page of the Help system is displayed.

■ In a dialog box, help the Help or ‘?’ button.

The help topic related to the dialog box is opened in the Web browser.

Navigate Help

Each page of the help system is divided into four main areas:

■ Header - Contains the navigation links to the Home page along with links

that represent the path to the current topic. Along with navigation links, the Search text box is also located in the header.

■ Left Side - Along the left side of a page is the table of contents that allow

you to navigate in the current guide. You can also find links sections on the current page as well as related topics in the documentation set. When on the Home page, the left side contains a listing of the guides in the current documentation set.

■ Middle - The middle of the page contains the content for the current topic.

When on the Home page, the middle of the page contains links to the main topics in the selected guide in the documentation set from the left side.

■ Right Side - The right side of the page contains links that are related to

the current topic. These links come from Autodesk.com and are available only when using the online version of the Help system.

Search Help

In the upper-right corner of each page is a Search text box. Enter a text string to search on, and click the Search button or press Enter to begin the search. The results of the search are displayed on a new page. The left side of the results page lists the books that a search result was found in, while the right side displays the results for the selected book. Click a book from the left side to see additional serach results, or click a link from the search results to open the associated topic.

Learn the Product

For the latest information about Autodesk training, visit http://www.autodesk.com/training or contact your local Autodesk office.

-----Authorized Training Centers

4 | Chapter 1 Find the Information You Need

More than 1,200 ATC sites are available worldwide to meet your needs for discipline-specific, locally based training.

Autodesk Official Training Courseware

Autodesk Official Training Courseware (AOTC) is technical training material developed by

-----

Autodesk. You can purchase AOTC from your local reseller or distributor, or you can order it online from the Autodesk Store.

Autodesk e-Learning for Autodesk Subscription

-----e-Learning

customers features interactive lessons organized into product catalogs.

The Autodesk Developer (ADN) program provides support for full-time, professional developers who

-----Autodesk Developer Network want to build software based on Autodesk

products.

Autodesk Consulting provides services that help set up processes and provide critical training that

-----Consulting will help increase productivity so you can

capitalize on the power of your products.

View the Product Readme

You can find late-breaking information about this software in the Readme.

It is suggested that you read through the Readme for information about recommended hardware, updated installation instructions, and known software problems.

■ View the Readme

Visit the Partner Products & Services page for a

-----Partner Products and Services

list of resources available for your Autodesk product and your industry.

View the Product Readme | 5

Join the Customer Involvement Program

You are invited to help guide the direction of Autodesk design software.

If you participate in the Customer Involvement Program (CIP), specific information about how you use AutoCAD for Mac is forwarded to Autodesk. This information includes what features you use the most, problems that you encounter, and other information helpful to the future direction of the product.

See the following links for more information.

■ Learn more about the Autodesk Customer Involvement Program:

http://www.autodesk.com/cip

■ Read the Autodesk Privacy Statement: http://www.autodesk.com/cipprivacy

When you join, you will be able to view reports that can help you optimize your use of AutoCAD for Mac.

To turn the CIP on or off

1 On the menu bar, click Help ➤ Customer Involvement Program.

2 In the Customer Involvement Program dialog box, choose whether you

want to start or stop participating.

3 Click OK.

6 | Chapter 1 Find the Information You Need

Get Information from Drawings

You can retrieve general information from a drawing including identifying information and the number of objects that it contains.

There are types of information stored in a drawing that are not specific to objects within the drawing, but provide useful information to help you understand the behavior of the drawing, the settings of system variables, the number of objects, descriptive information, and so on.

Obtain General Drawing Information

You can retrieve general information about the drawing file and its settings.

This information includes the following:

■ Custom descriptive information about the drawing (DWGPROPS)

■ General drawing settings (STATUS)

■ Amount of time spent in the drawing (TIME)

This information can help you document a drawing, displays a variety of drawing settings such as the total number of objects in the drawing, and total amount of time spent in the drawing file.

The User Interface

Start a Command

Use the menu bar, Tool Sets palette, and Command Line to access many frequently used commands.

Parts of the User Interface

The default user interface displays palettes and bars around the drawing area. Also, several controls are displayed within the drawing area.

The Search field displays at the top of the application menu. Search results can include menu commands, basic tooltips, and command prompt text strings. You can enter a search term in any language.

■ Cmd-1 turns the Tool Sets palette on and off

■ Cmd-2 turns the Content Libraries palette on and off

■ Cmd-3 turns the Command Line on and off

■ Cmd-4 turns the Layers palette on and off

■ Cmd-5 turns the Properties Inspector on and off

■ Cmd-6 turns the Status bar on and off

■ Cmd-7 turns the References Manager palette on and off

■ Cmd-8 turns the Materials Browser palette on and off

■ Cmd-9 is not assigned

■ Cmd-0 turns all palettes and bars on and off

You can dock palettes by dragging them to the edge of your screen until a blue line appears, and then dropping them into place. You can also undock them by dragging and dropping.

Quick Reference

Commands

CUI

Manages the customized user interface elements in the product.

OPTIONS

Customizes the program settings.

The Menu Bar

The menu bar contains common commands organized into logical categories.

Use the menu bar when learning the product, or browsing for a command.

12 | Chapter 3 Start a Command

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