Autodesk 057A1-05A111-1001 - AutoCAD LT 2009, AutoCAD LT 2009 Getting Started Manual
Getting Started
January 2008
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Contents
Make the Transition from Paper to CAD . . . . . . . . .1
Draw to Scale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Lay Out Your Drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Organize Drawing Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Establish Drafting Standards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Draw Efficiently . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Draw Accurately . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
View Your Drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Create Dimensions and Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Modify Your Drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Chapter 1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Why You Should Use this Guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Tutorials and Command Access . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Get Additional Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Chapter 2 Work with Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Use the Mouse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Cancel a Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Start a Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Undo or Redo Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Chapter 3 Change Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Zoom to Magnify a View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Pan to Reposition a View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Chapter 4 Drawing Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Start a Drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Plan the Drawing Units and Scale . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Understand Models and Layouts . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Organize Drawings with Layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Tutorial: Tour a Drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Chapter 5 Draw Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Object Properties Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Draw Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Draw Circles and Arcs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Chapter 6 Precision Drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Set Grid and Snap Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Draw with Coordinates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Snap to Precise Points on Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Object Snap Descriptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Specify Angles and Distances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Chapter 7 Make Modifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Select Objects to Edit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Erase, Extend, and Trim Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Duplicate Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Move and Rotate Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Fillet Corners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Use Editing Aids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .109
Analyze Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .111
Chapter 8 Add Symbols and Hatches . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Overview of Blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .116
Insert Blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .117
Overview of Hatches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .119
Insert Hatches or Solid Fills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .120
Chapter 9 Add Text to a Drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Create and Modify Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .126
Work with Text Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .128
Set Text Size for the Viewport Scaling. . . . . . . . . . . .129
Chapter 10 Add Dimensions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Dimensions Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .134
Create Dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .135
Use Dimensioning Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .138
Create and Modify Dimension Styles . . . . . . . . . . . .140
Modify Dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .142
iv | Contents
Chapter 11 Create Layouts and Plots . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
Work with Layouts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
Choose and Configure Plotters . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
Plot from a Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
Contents | v
vi
Make the Transition from Paper to
CAD
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Draw to Scale
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Draw the object at 1:1 scale in the units you
choose.
When you lay out and plot your drawing, you
can specify any scale.
Drawing scale is something you consider when laying out your drawing. You establish scale
differently in CAD than you do with manual drafting.
With manual drafting, you
must determine the scale of a
view before you start
drawing. This scale compares
the size of the actual object to
the size of the model drawn
on paper.
With AutoCAD and
AutoCAD LT, you first decide
what units of measurement
you will use, and then draw
your model at 1:1 scale.
For example, when you draw a motor part, the
length of one unit might equal one millimeter
or one inch. When you draw a map, one unit
might equal one kilometer or one mile.
This drawing of a mechanical carriage uses
millimeters for the length of one unit. Views of
the part were scaled later to create the layout
for the printed drawing.
Draw to Scale | 3
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Lay Out Your Drawing
You create your basic design, or
model, in a drawing area called model
space.
When you’re ready to print, you can arrange
different views of your model in a layout.
On paper, a layout is constrained by the sheet size you use. In CAD, you are not limited to one
particular layout or sheet size.
When you draft manually, you
first select a sheet, which usually
includes a preprinted border and
title block. Then you determine
the location for views—plans,
elevations, sections, and details.
Finally, you start to draw.
With AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT,
you first draw your design, or
model, in a working environment
called model space. You can then
create a layout for that model in an environment
called paper space.
A layout represents a drawing sheet. It typically
contains a border, title block, dimensions, general
notes, and one or more views of the model
displayed in layout viewports. Layout viewports are
areas, similar to picture frames or windows,
through which you can see your model. You scale
the views in viewports by zooming in or out.
In this drawing of a cottage, layout viewports
display the model in plan and elevation views.
Lay Out Your Drawing | 5
Organize Drawing Information
Turn off layers to hide complex
details as you work.
Display layers when you need
to see all components.
In both manual drafting and CAD, you need a way to organize your drawing content—a method for
separating, sorting, and editing specific drawing data.
With manual drafting, you can separate
information onto individual transparent
overlays. For example, a building plan might
contain separate overlays for its structural,
electrical, and plumbing components.
With AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT, layers are
equivalent to transparent overlays. As with
overlays, you can display, edit, and print layers
separately or in combination.
You can name layers to help track content, and lock layers so
they can't be altered. Assigning settings such as color, linetype, or
lineweight to layers helps you comply with industry standards.
You can also use layers to organize drawing objects for plotting.
Assigning a plot style to a layer makes all the objects drawn on
that layer plot in a similar manner.
This drawing of a press uses layers to define different linetypes
and colors.
Organize Drawing Information | 7
Establish Drafting Standards
Dimension, text, and linetype
styles can be established in a
template drawing and used for
creating new drawings.
Whether you work as a member of a team or on an individual project, developing standards is a
requirement for efficient communication.
Manual drafting requires meticulous
accuracy in drawing linetypes,
lineweights, text, dimensions, and
more. Standards must be established
in the beginning and applied
consistently.
With AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT, you
can ensure conformity to industry or
company standards by creating styles
that you can apply consistently.
You can create styles for text, dimensions, and
linetypes. A text style, for example, establishes font and
format characteristics such as height, width, and slant.
You can save styles, layers, layouts, title block and
border information, and some command settings in
drawing template files. Using drawing templates helps
you quickly start new drawings that conform to
standards.
This drawing of a roadway plan uses styles to maintain
drafting standards for text, dimensioning, and
linetypes.
Establish Drafting Standards | 9
Draw Efficiently
You can save drafting time by drawing one
half of an item and then mirroring it to create
the other half.
Draw with less effort and revise with more speed: these are two primary reasons you use CAD. You
are provided with a complete set of drawing and editing tools to help eliminate repetitive, timeconsuming drafting tasks.
With manual drafting, you use drawing
tools that include pencils, scales,
compasses, parallel rules, templates, and
erasers. Repetitive drawing and editing
tasks must be done manually.
In AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT, you can
choose from a variety of drawing tools
that create lines, circles, spline curves,
and more.
You can easily move, copy, offset, rotate, and mirror
objects. You can also copy objects between open
drawings.
In this drawing of a trolley, copying and mirroring were
used to create repeated and symmetrical features.
Offsetting was also used to draw parallel lines more
efficiently.
Draw Efficiently | 11
Draw Accurately
The polar tracking feature
displays visual guidelines at
specific angles and can snap
the cursor to an angle.
With object
snaps, when you
place your cursor
here…
you can snap to the
center point
automatically.
Engineering and architectural drawings require a high degree of accuracy. With CAD, you draft more
accurately than with manual methods.
With manual drafting, you must
draw objects carefully to ensure
correct size and alignment. Objects
drawn to scale must be manually
verified and dimensioned.
With AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT,
you can use several methods to
obtain exact dimensions.
The simplest method is to locate
points by snapping to an interval on
a rectangular grid.
Another method is to specify exact coordinates.
Coordinates specify a drawing location by indicating
a point along an X and Y axis or a distance and angle
from another point.
With object snaps, you can snap to locations on
existing objects, such as an endpoint of an arc, the
midpoint of a line, or the center point of a circle.
With polar tracking, you can snap to previously set
angles and specify distances along those angles.
In this drawing of a pumping station, object snaps were
used to ensure that lines connected perfectly. Polar
tracking was used to draw lines at correct angles.
Draw Accurately | 13
View Your Drawing
You can zoom out to see more of your
design, or zoom in to see more detail.
You can pan to shift to another area of your
design.
The power of CAD makes it easy for you to quickly view different parts of your design at different
magnifications.
With manual drafting, the size
and resolution of your drawing
is fixed.
With AutoCAD and AutoCAD
LT, the size and resolution of
your drawing can be changed as
needed.
To do detailed work, you can
increase display size by zooming
in. You can zoom out to display
more of the drawing. To move to another section
of a drawing, you pan the drawing without
changing magnification.
You can zoom and pan to create the best working
conditions. This can be invaluable when working
on large and detailed drawings, such as this
health spa plan.
View Your Drawing | 15
/
Create Dimensions and Text
If you make dimensions associative, you can update the
dimension size and value automatically when you
stretch or scale the dimensioned object.
You can create leader lines with associated text. If you
move the text, the leader is adjusted automatically.
Creating accurate dimensions and consistent, legible text is a time-consuming task for the manual
drafter. CAD provides ways to streamline this task.
With manual drafting, if you
resize any part of the drawing,
you must erase and then
redraw the dimensions.
Changing text can often
involve relettering the whole
drawing.
With AutoCAD and AutoCAD
LT, you create associative
dimensions and text on the
layout in paper space.
Associative dimensions are
tied to the underlying model.
Changes to the model automatically update the
dimension values.
Standard types of dimensions include linear,
radial, ordinate, angular, baseline, and more.
You can easily revise the content, font, size,
spacing, and rotation of text in dimensions and
notes.
In this detail drawing of a gutter, the text,
leaders, and dimensions describe the required
hardware.
Create Dimensions and Text | 17
Modify Your Drawing
Once you draw something, you can easily copy it without
having to re-create it.
Revisions are a part of any drawing project. Whether you work on paper or with CAD, you will need
to modify your drawing in some way.
On paper, you must erase and redraw to make revisions to your drawing manually.
CAD eliminates tedious manual editing by providing a variety of editing tools. If
you need to copy all or part of an object, you don’t have to redraw it. If you need
to remove an object, you can erase it with a few clicks of the mouse. And if you
make an error, you can quickly undo your actions.
Once you draw an object, you never need to redraw it. You can modify existing
objects by mirroring, rotating, scaling, stretching, trimming, and more. You can
also change object properties, such as linetype, lineweight, color, and layer, at any
time.
These before-and-after drawings show some typical edits to a house elevation. The revision cloud
feature is used to mark areas of change.
Modify Your Drawing | 19
20
Introduction
Why You Should Use this Guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Tutorials and Command Access. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Get Additional Information. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23
Why You Should Use this Guide
Menu Browser
This Getting Started guide provides an introduction to the most commonly used features of both
AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT. Use it to learn the basic features so you can begin working quickly.
Because you are provided with a rich set of features, there are often many ways of accomplishing a
task. This guide focuses on the following:
■ What do you need to know to get started?
■ What is the recommended method for using the features presented?
After you become more familiar with the features, you will find your own ways of working efficiently
based on the type of work that you do.
Tutorials and Command Access
There are severals ways you can access commands in AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT. They can be
accessed through the command line, the ribbon, toolbars, palettes, and the Menu Browser.
Because the ribbon might have been customized, and some commands are not accessible from the
ribbon, the tutorials in this guide usually direct you to access commands through the Menu Browser.
22 | Chapter 1 Introduction
NOTE All screen shots and dialog boxes in this guide display AutoCAD LT in the title bar. For the
2 Enter a
keyword
3 Double-click to
view a topic
4 Click to display a concept
related to the selected topic
5 Click to list
procedures related to
the selected topic
6 Click to list
commands related to
the selected topic
1 Click the
Index tab
explanations and tutorials in the Getting Started guide, there is no difference whether you use AutoCAD
or AutoCAD LT. The features presented are identical.
Get Additional Information
Additional resources are available when you need more information. From the Help menu, you can
access the following resources:
■ Help provides procedures, conceptual information, and command descriptions. You can also
press F1 at the Command prompt, in a dialog box, or at a prompt within a command to display
Help information.
■ New Features Workshop provides a series of overviews about new features.
■ Additional Resources provides several options for additional help from the Web.
Access Related Topics in the Help System
Keyword references are displayed at the end of most Getting Started topics. For example, the
following information indicates that you can find concepts, procedures, commands, and system
variables related to the LINE command by entering line in the Index tab of the Help window.
LINE
Try it: Locate a Help topic using a keyword
■ Start AutoCAD or AutoCAD LT and press the F1 key. Then follow the steps in the illustration.
Get Additional Information | 23
Tutorial: Use the Help System
In this tutorial, you will use the Help system to find information about how to start a drawing with
a template file and how to create a layout.
NOTE It is important to learn how to use the Help system effectively. The Help system can provide
answers to save you from needless frustration.
1 Start AutoCAD or AutoCAD LT and press F1 to display the Help window.
2 In the left pane of the Help window, click the Contents tab if necessary to display the table of
contents. Then click the plus sign (+) next to User’s Guide.
The User’s Guide expands to display a list of chapters.
3 In the left pane, click directly on the title, Start, Organize, and Save a Drawing. The right pane of
the Help window displays links to several topics, with descriptions for each one.
4 In the right pane, click Start a Drawing. Then click Use a Template File to Start a Drawing.
You have navigated to a destination topic in the Help system. Notice that the table of contents
in the left pane displays the topic structure for easy navigation.
24 | Chapter 1 Introduction
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