Autodesk 057B1-41A111-1001 - AutoCAD LT 2010, AutoCAD LT 2013 User Manual

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AutoCAD LT 2013

User's Guide

January 2012

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Contents

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

Find the Information You Need . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Access and Search the Product Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Learn the Product . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

View the Product Readme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Join the Customer Involvement Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Join the Customer Involvement Program . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Get Information from Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Obtain General Drawing Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Chapter 2 The User Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Start a Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Parts of the User Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

The Menu Bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

The Tool Sets Palette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

The Command Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Overview of Using the Command Line . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Enter Commands on the Command Line . . . . . . . . . . 11

Enter System Variables on the Command Line . . . . . . . . 13

Switch Between Dialog Boxes and the Command

Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

View and Edit Within the Command History . . . . . . . . 14

Work with Shortcut Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

iii

About Keyboard Shortcuts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Control the Drawing Area Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Interface Themes and Background Color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Interface Themes and Background Color . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Cursors in the Drawing Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Selection Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

The UCS Icon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

The Coordinates Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Model Space and Layouts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Control Status, Layers, Properties, and Content . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

The Status Bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

The Status Bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

The Layers Palette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

The Layers Palette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

The Properties Inspector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

The Content Palette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Customize the Drawing Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Set Interface Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Set Up the Drawing Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Specify the Behavior of Palettes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Performance Tuning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Customize Startup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Chapter 3 Start and Save Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Start a Drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Overview of Starting a New Drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Specify Units and Unit Formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

Determine the Units of Measurement . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

Set the Unit Format Conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Use a Drawing Template File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Add Identifying Information to Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Open or Save a Drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Open a Drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Work with Multiple Open Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

Preview Open Drawings and Layouts . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

Switch Between Open Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Switch Between Layouts in the Current Drawing . . . . . . 45

Transfer Information between Open Drawings . . . . . . . . 45

Save a Drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Find a Drawing File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

Specify Search Paths and File Locations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

Repair, Restore, or Recover Drawing Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Repair a Damaged Drawing File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Create and Restore Backup Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

Recover from a System Failure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

iv | Contents

Chapter 4 Control the Drawing Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

Change Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

Pan or Zoom a View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

Save and Restore Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Control the 3D Projection Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Define a Parallel Projection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Choose Preset 3D Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

Define a 3D View with Coordinate Values or Angles . . . . . 59

Change to a View of the XY Plane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

Hide Lines or Shade 3D Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

Hide Lines in 3D Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

Add Simple Shading to 3D Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

Display Multiple Views in Model Space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

Set Model Space Viewports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

Select and Use the Current Viewport . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

Save and Restore Model Layout Viewport Arrangements . . . . . 65

Chapter 5 Organize Drawings and Layouts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

Create Single-View Drawings (Model Space) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

Quick Start for Model Space Drafting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

Draw, Scale, and Annotate in Model Space . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

Create Multiple-View Drawing Layouts (Paper Space) . . . . . . . . . . 71

Quick Start for Layouts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

Understand the Layout Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

Work with Model Space and Paper Space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

Work in Model Space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

Work on a Named Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

Access Model Space from a Layout Viewport . . . . . . . . . 74

Create and Modify Layout Viewports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

Control Views in Layout Viewports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

Scale Views in Layout Viewports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

Control Visibility in Layout Viewports . . . . . . . . . . . . 78

Scale Linetypes in Layout Viewports . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

Align Views in Layout Viewports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

Rotate Views in Layout Viewports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

Reuse Layouts and Layout Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

Work with Layouts in a Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

Quick Start for Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

Understand the Project Manager Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

Create and Manage a Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

Create a Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

Create and Modify Layouts in a Project . . . . . . . . . . . 89

Work with Views on Layouts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

Organize a Project with Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

Contents | v

Include Information with Projects, Groups, Layouts, and

Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

Publish Layouts and Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93

Use Projects in a Team . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

Use Projects in a Multiple Operating System Environment . . . . 96

Chapter 6 Create and Modify Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

Control the Properties of Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

Work with Object Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

Overview of Object Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

Display and Change the Properties of Objects . . . . . . . 100

Copy Properties Between Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

Work with Layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

Overview of Layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

Use Layers to Manage Complexity . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102

Create and Name Layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105

Change Layer Settings and Layer Properties . . . . . . . . 106

Override Layer Properties in Viewports . . . . . . . . . . . 107

Group and Sort the List of Layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

Reconcile New Layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

Work with Layer States . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

Work with Colors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116

Set the Current Color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116

Change the Color of an Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117

Use Color Books . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118

Work with Linetypes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

Overview of Linetypes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

Load Linetypes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120

Set the Current Linetype . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120

Change the Linetype of an Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121

Control Linetype Scale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122

Display Linetypes on Short Segments and Polylines . . . . 123

Control Lineweights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

Overview of Lineweights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124

Display Lineweights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125

Set the Current Lineweight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126

Change the Lineweight of an Object . . . . . . . . . . . . 126

Control the Display Properties of Certain Objects . . . . . . . . 127

Control the Display of Polylines, Hatches, Gradient Fills,

Lineweights, and Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127

Control the Transparency of Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . 129

Control How Overlapping Objects Are Displayed . . . . . . 129

Control the Display of Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130

Use Precision Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130

Work with the User Coordinate System (UCS) . . . . . . . . . . 130

Overview of the User Coordinate System (UCS) . . . . . . 130

vi | Contents

Control the User Coordinate System (UCS) . . . . . . . . . 131

Work with Named UCS Definitions and Preset

Orientations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132

Control the Display of the User Coordinate System

Icon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132

Enter Coordinates to Specify Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134

Overview of Coordinate Entry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134

Enter 2D Coordinates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135

Enter 3D Coordinates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139

Use Dynamic Input . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144

Snap to Locations on Objects (Object Snaps) . . . . . . . . . . . 146

Use Object Snaps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147

The Object Snap Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148

Set Visual Aids for Object Snaps (AutoSnap) . . . . . . . . 148

Override Object Snap Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149

Restrict Cursor Movement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151

Adjust Grid and Grid Snap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151

Use Orthogonal Locking (Ortho Mode) . . . . . . . . . . . 153

Use Polar Tracking and PolarSnap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154

Lock an Angle for One Point (Angle) . . . . . . . . . . . . 156

Combine or Offset Points and Coordinates . . . . . . . . . . . . 157

Combine Coordinate Values (Coordinate Filters) . . . . . . 157

Track to Points on Objects (Object Snap Tracking) . . . . . 160

Track to Offset Point Locations (Tracking) . . . . . . . . . 162

Specify Distances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162

Enter Direct Distances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162

Offset from Temporary Reference Points . . . . . . . . . . 163

Specify Intervals on Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163

Extract Geometric Information from Objects . . . . . . . . . . . 165

Obtain Distances, Angles, and Point Locations . . . . . . . 165

Obtain Area and Mass Properties Information . . . . . . . 166

Use a Calculator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170

Use the Command Prompt Calculator . . . . . . . . . . . 170

Create Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172

Draw Linear Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172

Draw Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173

Draw Polylines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173

Draw Rectangles and Polygons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175

Draw Freehand Sketches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176

Draw Curved Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177

Draw Arcs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177

Draw Circles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181

Draw Polyline Arcs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182

Draw Donuts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184

Draw Ellipses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185

Draw Splines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186

Contents | vii

Draw Construction and Reference Geometry . . . . . . . . . . . 189

Draw Reference Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190

Draw Construction Lines (and Rays) . . . . . . . . . . . . 190

Create and Combine Areas (Regions) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191

Create Revision Clouds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193

Select and Modify Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194

Select Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194

Select Objects Individually . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195

Select Multiple Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196

Prevent Objects from Being Selected . . . . . . . . . . . . 198

Select Objects by Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198

Customize Object Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199

Group Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201

Correct Mistakes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203

Erase Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204

Cut, Copy, and Paste with the Clipboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205

Modify Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206

Choose a Method to Modify Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . 206

Modify Objects Using Grips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207

Move or Rotate Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211

Copy, Array, Offset, or Mirror Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . 215

Change the Size and Shape of Objects . . . . . . . . . . . 227

Fillet, Chamfer, Break, or Join Objects . . . . . . . . . . . 234

Disassociate Compound Objects (Explode) . . . . . . . . . 242

Modify Polylines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243

Modify Splines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245

Add Constraints to Geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248

Overview of Constraints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248

Constrain Objects Geometrically . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251

Overview of Geometric Constraints . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251

Apply or Remove Geometric Constraints . . . . . . . . . . 252

Display and Verify Geometric Constraints . . . . . . . . . 256

Modify Objects with Geometric Constraints Applied . . . . 257

Constrain Distances and Angles between Objects . . . . . . . . . 259

Overview of Dimensional Constraints . . . . . . . . . . . 259

Control the Display of Dimensional Constraints . . . . . . 261

Modify Objects with Dimensional Constraints

Applied . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261

Constrain a Design with Formulas and Equations . . . . . . . . 263

Overview of Formulas and Equations . . . . . . . . . . . . 263

Control Geometry with Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264

Chapter 7 Define and Reference Blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269

Work with Blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269

Overview of Blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269

Insert Blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271

viii | Contents

Work with Dynamic Blocks in Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273

Overview of Dynamic Blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273

Work With Action Parameters in Blocks . . . . . . . . . . 275

Work With Constraint Parameters in Blocks . . . . . . . . 277

Remove Block Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278

Create and Modify Blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278

Define Blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278

Create Blocks Within a Drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279

Create Drawing Files for Use as Blocks . . . . . . . . . . . 280

Control the Color and Linetype Properties in Blocks . . . . 281

Nest Blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283

Create Block Libraries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284

Attach Data to Blocks (Block Attributes) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285

Overview of Block Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285

Define Block Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287

Extract Block Attribute Data (Advanced) . . . . . . . . . . 289

Modify Blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294

Modify a Block Definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294

Modify the Data in Block Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296

Modify a Block Attribute Definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296

Disassemble a Block Reference (Explode) . . . . . . . . . . 298

Chapter 8 Work with 3D Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299

Create 3D Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299

Create Wireframe Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299

Add 3D Thickness to Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301

Chapter 9 Annotate Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303

Work with Annotations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303

Overview of Annotations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303

Scale Annotations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304

Overview of Scaling Annotations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304

Set Annotation Scale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305

Create Annotative Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306

Display Annotative Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314

Add and Modify Scale Representations . . . . . . . . . . . 315

Set Orientation for Annotations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316

Set Orientation for Annotations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317

Hatches, Fills, and Wipeouts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318

Overview of Hatch Patterns and Fills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318

Specify Hatch and Fill Areas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319

Control the Appearance of Hatches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323

Choose a Hatch Pattern or Fill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323

Control the Hatch Origin Point . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324

Control the Scale of Hatch Patterns . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324

Contents | ix

Set Property Overrides for Hatches and Fills . . . . . . . . 325

Control the Display of Hatch Boundaries . . . . . . . . . . 325

Control the Draw Order of Hatches and Fills . . . . . . . . 326

Modify Hatches and Fills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 326

Modify Hatch Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327

Modify Hatch Alignment, Scale, and Rotation . . . . . . . 327

Reshape a Hatch or Fill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328

Re-create the Boundary of a Hatch or Fill . . . . . . . . . . 329

Create a Blank Area to Cover Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330

Notes and Labels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331

Overview of Notes and Labels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331

Create Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331

Overview of Creating Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331

Create Single-Line Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332

Create Multiline Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334

Create and Edit Columns in Multiline Text . . . . . . . . . 342

Import Text from External Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343

Create Leaders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343

Overview of Leader Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343

Create and Modify Leaders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344

Modify Leaders Using Grips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 346

Work with Leader Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347

Add Content to a Leader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347

Use Fields in Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 350

Insert Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 350

Update Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 351

Work with Text Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353

Overview of Text Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354

Assign Text Fonts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 356

Set Text Height . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361

Set Text Obliquing Angle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 362

Set Horizontal or Vertical Text Orientation . . . . . . . . . 363

Change Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 363

Overview of Changing Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 364

Change Single-Line Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 364

Change Multiline Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 364

Find and Replace Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365

Check Spelling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 366

Format Multiline Text at the Command Prompt . . . . . . . . . 367

Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 370

Create and Modify Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 370

Work with Table Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 372

Add Text and Blocks to Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 373

Use Formulas in Table Cells . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 374

Dimensions and Tolerances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 375

Understand Basic Concepts of Dimensioning . . . . . . . . . . . 375

x | Contents

Overview of Dimensioning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 375

Parts of a Dimension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 376

Associative Dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 377

Use Dimension Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 379

Overview of Dimension Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 379

Compare Dimension Styles and Variables . . . . . . . . . . 379

Control Dimension Geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 380

Control Dimension Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 385

Control Dimension Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 391

Set the Scale for Dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 397

Create Dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 398

Create Linear Dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 398

Create Radial Dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 402

Create Angular Dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 406

Create Ordinate Dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 408

Create Arc Length Dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 410

Modify Existing Dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 410

Modify A Dimension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 411

Apply a New Dimension Style to Existing

Dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 423

Override a Dimension Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 423

Add Geometric Tolerances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 424

Overview of Geometric Tolerances . . . . . . . . . . . . . 424

Material Conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 426

Datum Reference Frames . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 426

Projected Tolerance Zones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 427

Composite Tolerances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 427

Chapter 10 Plot and Publish Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 429

Specify Settings for Plotting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 429

Save Plot Settings as Named Page Setups . . . . . . . . . . . . . 429

Reuse Named Page Setups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 430

Specify Page Setup Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 431

Select a Printer or Plotter for a Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . 431

Select a Paper Size for a Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 431

Determine the Drawing Orientation of a Layout . . . . . . 432

Set the Plot Area of a Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 432

Adjust the Plot Offset of a Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 433

Set the Plot Scale for a Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 433

Set the Lineweight Scale for a Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . 434

Select a Plot Style Table for a Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . 434

Set Shaded Viewport and Plot Options for a Layout . . . . 434

Named Page Setups with Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 435

Print or Plot Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 435

Overview of Plotting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 435

Use a Page Setup to Specify Plot Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . 437

Contents | xi

Select a Printer or Plotter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 438

Specify the Area to Plot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 438

Set Paper Size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 439

Position the Drawing on the Paper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 439

Specify the Printable Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 439

Set the Position of the Plot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 440

Set Drawing Orientation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 440

Control How Objects Are Plotted . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 441

Set Plot Scale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 441

Set Options for Plotted Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 442

Use Plot Styles to Control Plotted Objects . . . . . . . . . 443

Use Color-Dependent Plot Style Tables . . . . . . . . . . . 445

Use Named Plot Style Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 446

Change Plot Style Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 448

Preview a Plot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 452

Plot Files to Other Formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 452

Plot Adobe PDF Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 452

Publish Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 453

Overview of Publishing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 453

Create a Drawing Set for Publishing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 453

Publish a Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 454

Chapter 11 Share Data Between Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 455

Reference Other Drawing Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 455

Overview of Referenced Drawings (Xrefs) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 455

Attach and Detach Referenced Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . 456

Attach Drawing References (Xrefs) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 456

Nest and Overlay Referenced Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . 458

Set Paths to Referenced Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 459

Detach Referenced Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 461

Update and Archive Referenced Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . 462

Update Referenced Drawing Attachments . . . . . . . . . 462

Archive Drawings That Contain Referenced Drawings

(Bind) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 463

Clip External References and Blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 465

Edit Referenced Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 467

Edit a Referenced Drawing in a Separate Window . . . . . 467

Edit Selected Objects in Referenced Drawings and

Blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 468

Use the Working Set to Edit Referenced Drawings and

Blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 470

Save Back Edited Referenced Drawings and Blocks . . . . . 470

Edit Referenced Drawings and Blocks with Nesting or

Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 472

Resolve Referenced Drawing Errors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 472

Resolve Missing External References . . . . . . . . . . . . 472

xii | Contents

Resolve Circular External References . . . . . . . . . . . . 473

Resolve Name Conflicts in External References . . . . . . . 474

Track External Reference Operations (Log File) . . . . . . . 475

Increase Performance with Large Referenced Drawings . . . . . . 477

Overview of Demand Loading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 477

Unload Xrefs in Large Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 478

Work with Demand Loading in Large Drawings . . . . . . 478

Work with Layer and Spatial Indexes . . . . . . . . . . . . 479

Set Paths for Temporary Xref File Copies . . . . . . . . . . 480

Work with Data in Other Formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 480

Import Other File Formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 480

Convert DXF Files to DWG Format . . . . . . . . . . . . . 481

Attach PDF Files as Underlays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 481

Overview of PDF Underlays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 481

Attach, Scale, and Detach PDF Underlays . . . . . . . . . 482

Work with PDF Underlays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 484

Manage and Publish Drawings Containing PDF Underlays

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 489

Attach Raster Image Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 491

Overview of Raster Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 492

Attach, Scale, and Detach Raster Images . . . . . . . . . . 494

Modify Raster Images and Image Boundaries . . . . . . . . 496

Manage Raster Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 499

Tune Raster Image Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 501

Export Drawings to Other File Formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 503

Export PDF Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 503

Export DXF Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 503

Export Raster Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 504

Use Drawings from Different Versions and Applications . . . . . 504

Work with Drawings in Earlier Releases . . . . . . . . . . . 504

Save Drawings to Previous Drawing File Formats . . . . . . 508

Work with AutoCAD Drawings in AutoCAD LT . . . . . . . 510

Work with Custom and Proxy Objects . . . . . . . . . . . 512

Chapter 12 Collaborate with Others . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 515

Use the Internet for Collaboration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 515

Chapter 13 Render Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 521

Draw 2D Isometric Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 521

Get Started with Internet Access . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 515

Work with Drawing Files over the Internet . . . . . . . . . . . . 516

Open and Save Drawing Files from the Internet . . . . . . 516

Share Drawing Files Internationally . . . . . . . . . . . . . 516

Use AutoCAD WS for Drawing File Collaboration . . . . . 517

Work with Xrefs over the Internet . . . . . . . . . . . . . 518

Contents | xiii

Set Isometric Grid and Snap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 521

Draw Isometric Circles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 522

Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 523

absolute coordinates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 523

acquired point . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 523

acquisition marker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 523

activate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 523

adjacent cell selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 523

alias . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 523

aligned dimension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 523

alpha channel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 524

angular dimension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 524

angular unit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 524

annotational constraint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 524

annotations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 524

annotation scale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 524

annotative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 525

anonymous block . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 525

approximation points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 525

array . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 525

arrowhead . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 525

aspect ratio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 525

associative dimension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 525

associative hatch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 526

attribute definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 526

attribute extraction file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 526

attribute extraction template file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 526

attribute prompt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 526

attribute tag . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 526

attribute value . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 526

axis tripod . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 526

baseline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 526

baseline dimension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 527

base point . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 527

basic tooltip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 527

Bezier curve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 527

bitmap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 527

blips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 527

block . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 527

block definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 527

block definition table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 527

block instance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 528

block reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 528

bounded area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 528

B-spline curve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 528

BYBLOCK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 528

xiv | Contents

BYLAYER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 528

candela . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 528

canvas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 528

category . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 528

cell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 528

cell boundary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 528

cell style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 529

circular external reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 529

CMYK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 529

coincident grip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 529

Color bleed scale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 529

color map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 529

column . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 529

command line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 529

compass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 529

constraint bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 529

constraint point . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 529

constraints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 530

construction plane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 530

continued dimension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 530

control frame . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 530

control point . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 530

coordinate filters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 530

crosshairs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 530

crossing selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 530

CTB file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 530

ctrl-cycle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 531

current drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 531

cursor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 531

cursor menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 531

curve-fit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 531

custom grips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 531

customization (CUIx) file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 531

custom object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 531

decimal degrees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 531

default . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 532

default drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 532

default value . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 532

definition points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 532

definition table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 532

dependent named objects (in xrefs) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 532

dependent symbols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 532

DIESEL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 532

dimensional constraint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 532

dimension line arc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 532

dimension style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 533

Contents | xv

dimension text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 533

dimension variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 533

direct distance entry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 533

drawing area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 533

drawing extents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 533

drawing limits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 533

drawing template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 533

driven constraint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 534

driving dimension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 534

driving property . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 534

DWG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 534

DXF . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 534

dynamic constraint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 534

dynamic dimension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 534

elevation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 534

empty selection set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 535

explode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 535

exploded dimension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 535

extents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 535

external reference (xref) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 535

feature control frame . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 535

fence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 535

field . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 536

fill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 536

filters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 536

fit points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 536

fit tolerance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 536

floating viewports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 536

font . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 536

footcandle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 536

freeze . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 536

general property . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 536

geometric constraint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 536

geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 537

graphics area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 537

grid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 537

grid limits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 537

grip menu options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 537

grip modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 537

grips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 537

Help menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 538

horizontal landing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 538

hot grip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 538

initial environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 538

interface element . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 538

interpolation points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 538

xvi | Contents

island . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 538

ISO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 538

isometric snap style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 538

knot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 538

landing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 539

landing gap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 539

layer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 539

layer index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 539

layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 539

layout viewports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 539

leader tail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 539

limits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 539

line font . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 539

linetype . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 539

lineweight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 540

LL84 coordinate system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 540

main customization file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 540

merge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 540

mirror . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 540

mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 540

model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 540

model space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 540

model viewports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 540

multi-functional grip menu options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 541

multileader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 541

named object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 541

named objects, dependent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 541

named view . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 541

node . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 541

non-associative dimension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 541

noun-verb selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 541

object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 541

ObjectARX (AutoCAD Runtime Extension) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 541

object enabler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 542

Object Snap mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 542

object snap override . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 542

origin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 542

orthogonal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 542

Ortho mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 542

page setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 542

palette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 542

pan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 542

paper space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 542

parametric design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 543

parametric drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 543

PC3 file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 543

Contents | xvii

pick button . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 543

pick-first . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 543

pick-first set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 543

pick points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 543

planar projection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 543

plan view . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 543

pline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 544

plot style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 544

plot style table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 544

PMP file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 544

point . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 544

pointer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 544

point filters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 544

polar array . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 544

Polar Snap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 545

polar tracking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 545

polygon window selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 545

polyline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 545

primary table fragment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 545

primitive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 545

project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 545

prompt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 545

proxy object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 545

QuickView . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 545

rectangular break . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 545

redraw . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 546

reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 546

regenerate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 546

region . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 546

relative coordinates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 546

relax constraints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 546

RGB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 546

row . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 546

rubber-band line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 546

running object snap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 546

scale representation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 547

script file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 547

secondary table fragment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 547

selection set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 547

shortcut keys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 547

shortcut menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 547

snap angle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 547

snap grid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 547

Snap mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 547

snap resolution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 548

spatial index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 548

xviii | Contents

STB file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 548

surface associativity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 548

symbol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 548

symbol library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 548

symbol table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 548

system variable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 548

table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 548

table break . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 548

table style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 549

temporary files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 549

tessellation lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 549

text style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 549

thaw . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 549

thickness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 549

tiled viewports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 549

TILEMODE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 549

tooltip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 550

tracking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 550

transparent command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 550

UCS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 550

UCS definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 550

UCS icon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 550

underconstrained geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 550

up direction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 550

user coordinate system (UCS) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 550

user parameter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 551

UVW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 551

vector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 551

vertex . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 551

view . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 551

view category . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 551

viewpoint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 551

viewport . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 551

viewport configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 552

virtual screen display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 552

WCS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 552

window selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 552

wipeout object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 552

wireframe model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 552

working drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 552

working set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 552

work plane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 552

world coordinates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 552

world coordinate system (WCS) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 552

X,Y,Z point filters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 553

xref . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 553

Contents | xix

zoom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 553

xx | Contents

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.

Access and Search the Product Help

The Help system 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.

If you press Fn-F1 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 LT Help.

The landing page of the Help system is displayed.

■ In a dialog box, click 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 ht-

tp://www.autodesk.com/training or contact your local Autodesk office.

Authorized Training Centers

Autodesk Official Training Courseware

2 | Chapter 1 Get Information

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

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.

e-Learning

Autodesk e-Learning for Autodesk Subscription customers features interactive lessons organized into product catalogs.

Autodesk Developer Network

Consulting

Partner Products and Services

The Autodesk Developer (ADN) program provides support for full-time, professional developers who want to build software based on Autodesk products.

Autodesk Consulting provides services that help set up processes and provide critical training that will help increase productivity so you can capitalize on the power of your products.

Visit the Partner Products & Services page for a list of resources available for your Autodesk product and your industry.

View the Product Readme

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

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

View the product Readme

Join the Customer Involvement Program

If you participate in the Customer Involvement Program (CIP), specific information about how you use AutoCAD LT is forwarded to Autodesk. This information includes what features you use the most, problems that you

Find the Information You Need | 3

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: ht-

tp://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 LT.

Join the Customer Involvement Program

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.

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.

This information includes the following:

■ Amount of time spent in the drawing (TIME)

■ Current drawing and objects settings (PROPERTIES)

4 | Chapter 1 Get Information

This information can help you document a drawing and provides the total amount of time spent in the drawing file.

See also:

Enter System Variables on the Command Line (page 13)

Add Identifying Information to Drawings (page 41)

Extract Geometric Information from Objects (page 165)

Compare Dimension Styles and Variables (page 379)

Get Information from Drawings | 5

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 user interface consists of palettes and bars around the drawing area. Also, several controls are displayed within the drawing area.

■ 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 Reference Manager palette on and off

■ 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.

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.

Many, but not all commands are accessible from the menu bar. Less commonly used commands can be entered at the Command prompt. All available commands are listed in the Help system under Command Reference.

The Tool Sets Palette

The Tool Sets palette provides efficient access to AutoCAD commands.

■ Tool flyouts

■ Tool groups

8 | Chapter 2 The User Interface

■ Tool sets

The size of the icons on the Tool Sets palette can be adjusted by using the Tool Set & Status Bar Icons slider on the Look & Feel tab of the Application Preferences dialog box (OPTIONS command).

Tool Flyouts

Some of the tools on the Tool Sets palette have a flyout indicator.

Click and hold the flyout to display several options for that command.

Tool Groups

The tools on the Tool Sets palette are organized into tool groups. Click the arrow to display the entire tool group, which includes additional commands. To make the tool group stay visible, click the lock icon at the bottom of the tool group.

Start a Command | 9

If you right-click the Tool Sets palette, a menu displays that you can use to turn off any tool groups that you don’t need.

Tool Sets

Click the Tool Sets button to display a list of alternate sets of commands based on your current tasks. For example, clicking the Annotation tool set replaces the commands in the Tool Sets palette with commands associated with dimensioning.

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

TIP Use the Customize dialog box to customize any tool set, or create your own tool sets.

The Command Line

The Command Line provides a fast way to enter commands and system variables directly using the keyboard.

Overview of Using the Command Line

The Command Line is not displayed by default, but when initially displayed it is positioned along the bottom of the screen.

10 | Chapter 2 The User Interface

Using the keyboard, you can enter the following in the Command Line:

■ A command or command abbreviation called a command alias

■ The capitalized letters of an option for a command

■ A setting called a system variable that controls how the program operates

by default

Many advanced users prefer this method for speed. Also, the Command Line displays prompts and error messages.

Cmd-3 turns the Command Line on and off.

Enter Commands on the Command Line

You can enter a command by using the keyboard. Some commands also have abbreviated names called command aliases.

To enter a command by using the keyboard, type the full command name or its command alias in the input area of the Command Line, and then press Enter or Spacebar. The Command Line includes several controls.

Start a Command | 11

NOTE When Dynamic Input is turned on and is set to display dynamic prompts,

you can enter commands and options in tooltips near the cursor. Dynamic Input can be turned on an off from the status bar.

Display Valid Commands and System Variables

By default, AutoCAD automatically completes the name of a command or system variable as you type it. Additionally, a list of valid choices is displayed from which you can choose. Use the AUTOCOMPLETE command to control which automatic features that you want to use.

If the automatic completion feature turned off, you can type a letter on the command line and press TAB to cycle through all the commands and system variables that begin with that letter. Press Enter or Spacebar to start the command or system variable.

Enter Alternate Names of Commands

Some commands also have alternate names. For example, instead of entering circle to start the CIRCLE command, you can enter c. Command aliases are defined in the acadlt.pgp file.

To define your own command aliases, see Create Command Aliases in the Customization Guide.

Specify Command Options

When you enter a command in the Command Line, you see either a set of options, a dialog box, or a palette. To specify an option displayed in the Command line, enter the capitalized letters for the option. For example, when you enter circle, the following prompt is displayed:

Specify center point for circle or [3P/2P/Ttr (tan tan radius)]:

You can specify the center point for the circle either by entering X,Y coordinate values, or by using the pointing device to click a point in the drawing area.

To choose a different option, enter the letters capitalized in one of the options in the brackets. You can enter uppercase or lowercase letters. For example, to choose the three-point option (3P), enter 3p.

Repeat and Cancel Commands

You can repeat the previous command by pressing Enter or Spacebar.

12 | Chapter 2 The User Interface

To repeat a recently used command, right-click in the Command Line or click the drop-down arrow to the left of the command input area. This action displays a shortcut menu with a list of recently used commands.

You can also repeat a recently used command by cycling through the commands with Up Arrow and Down Arrow keys, and then pressing Enter.

To cancel any command in progress, press Esc.

See also:

Use Dynamic Input (page 144)

Create Command Aliases

Enter System Variables on the Command Line

System variables are settings that control how certain commands work.

Sometimes you use a system variable in order to change a setting. At other times you use a system variable to display the current status.

With system variables, you can

■ Turn on or turn off features. For example, the GRIDMODE system variable

turns the grid display on and off when you change the value.

■ Control the operation of a command. For example, the HPASSOC syatem

variable controls whether hatch patterns are associative by default.

■ Retrieve stored information about the current drawing and about the

program configuration. For example, CDATE is a read-only system variable that stores the current date in decimal format. You can display the values of read-only system variables, but you cannot change them.

Usually system variables are accessible from dialog boxes. You can change their values either in a dialog box, directly in the Command Line, or automatically in a script.

Enter System Variables on the Command Line

To change the setting of a system variable

1 In the Command Line, enter the system variable name. For example,

enter pickadd to change the style for selecting objects, whether selecting

Start a Command | 13

objects automatically replaces the current selection set, or whether they are added to the current selection set.

2 If necessary, press Fn-F1 to view the documentation for that system

variable.

3 Enter the setting that you want to use. In the example of PICKADD,

enter 0, 1, or 2 to determine how you select multiple objects.

Switch Between Dialog Boxes and the Command Line

You can display prompts on the command line instead of using a dialog box, or switch back again. This option is useful primarily when using scripts.

Some functions are available both in the Command Line and in a dialog box. In many cases, you can enter a hyphen before a command to suppress the dialog box and display prompts in the Command Line instead.

For example, entering layer on the command line displays the Layers palette. Entering -layer on the command line displays the equivalent Command Line options.

Suppressing a dialog box is useful for familiar operation with earlier versions of the program, and for using script files. There may be slight differences between the options in the dialog box and those available in the Command Line.

These system variables also affect the display of dialog boxes:

■ ATTDIA controls whether the INSERT command uses a dialog box for

entering block attribute values.

■ EXPERT controls whether certain warning dialog boxes are displayed.

■ FILEDIA controls the display of dialog boxes used with commands that

read and write files. For example, if FILEDIA is set to 1, SAVEAS displays the Save Drawing As dialog box. If FILEDIA is set to 0, SAVEAS displays prompts on the command line. The procedures in this documentation assume that FILEDIA is set to 1. Even when FILEDIA is set to 0, you can display a file dialog box by entering a tilde (~) at the first prompt.

FILEDIA and EXPERT are useful when you use scripts to run commands.

View and Edit Within the Command History

You can copy text from the Command History to repeat commands.

14 | Chapter 2 The User Interface

You can expand and collapse the Command History in the Command Line using the indicated control.

Within the Command History, use the Up Arrow and Down Arrow keys, the scroll bar, or other scrolling method to locate and then highlight previously entered commands, system variables, and text.

By default, pressing Cmd-C copies highlighted text to the Clipboard. Pressing Cmd-V pastes text from the Clipboard to the Command Line.

To copy all the text in the Command History to the Clipboard, right-click and select Copy History from the shortcut menu, or enter the COPYHIST command. To save commands automatically to a log file starting with the next command, enter the LOGFILEON command.

Work with Shortcut Menus

Display a shortcut menu for quick access to commands that are relevant to your current activity.

Shortcut menus can be used to:

■ Display the controls for a user-interface element such as a palette or the

status bar

■ Control the command in progress, including command options, object

snaps, and canceling

■ Display a list of recent input or repeat the last command entered

■ Cut, copy, and paste from the Clipboard

■ Display a dialog box, such as Drafting Settings or Preferences

■ Undo the last command entered

In the Application Preferences dialog box (the OPTIONS command), you can customize right-click behavior to be time sensitive, so that a quick right-click acts the same as pressing Enter, and a longer right-click displays a shortcut menu.

Start a Command | 15

About Keyboard Shortcuts

Keyboard shortcuts allow for quick access to drafting aids, file management commands, and the Clipboard.

The shortcut keys that AutoCAD LT supports are:

DescriptionKeyboard Shortcut

Fn-F1

Fn-F2

Fn-F5

Cmd-2

Launches the default Web browser and displays the Landing page or a specific Help topic based on the current context of the program.

Expands or collapses the display of the Command Window.

Toggles object snap mode on and off.Fn-F3

Toggles isoplane mode between top, right, and left isometric planes.

Toggles grid display on and off.Fn-F7 or Control-E

Toggles ortho mode on and off.Fn-F8 or Cmd-L or Shift-Cmd-O

Opens or closes the Tool Sets palette.Cmd-1

Opens or closes the Content palette on and off.

Shows or hides the Command Window.Cmd-3

Cmd-5 or Cmd-I

16 | Chapter 2 The User Interface

Opens or closes the Layers palette.Cmd-4

Opens or closes the Properties Inspector palette.

DescriptionKeyboard Shortcut

Cmd-6

Cmd-7

Cmd-C or Control-C

Cmd-I

Toggles the display of the status bar on and off.

Opens or closes the Reference Manager palette.

Toggles CleanScreen on and off.Cmd-0 or Shift-Cmd-F

Selects all objects in the current layout.Cmd-A or Control-A

Toggles grid snap mode on and off.Cmd-B or Control-B

Copies the selected objects to the Clipboard.

Displays the Find and Replace dialog box.Cmd-F

Groups the selected objects.Cmd-G

Opens or closes the Properties Inspector palette.

Toggles ortho mode on and off.Cmd-L or Control-L

Cmd-N or Control-N

Cmd-O or Control-O

Cmd-P or Control-P

Minimizes the current drawing window.Cmd-M

Displays the Select Template dialog box. Select a template to create a new drawing.

Displays the Select File dialog box. Select a drawing file to open.

Displays the Print dialog box, and creates a hard copy or PDF file of the current layout.

Closes the program.Cmd-Q or Control-Q

Start a Command | 17

DescriptionKeyboard Shortcut

Regenerates the current viewport.Cmd-R

Cmd-S or Control-S

Cmd-V or Control-V

Cmd-X or Control-X

Cmd-,

Saves the current drawing. If the drawing has not been saved yet, the Save Drawing As dialog box is displayed.

Toggles polar tracking on and off.Cmd-U or Control-U

Pastes the contents of the Clipboard to the current layout.

Closes the current drawing.Cmd-W

Removes the selected from the drawing and adds them to the Clipboard.

Reverses the most recent undo.Cmd-Y or Control-Y

Undoes the most recent action.Cmd-Z or Control-Z

Zooms the drawing out by .5 times.Cmd- -

Zooms the drawing in by 2 times.Cmd- +

Displays the Application Preferences dialog box.

Shift-Cmd-C

18 | Chapter 2 The User Interface

Displays the Quick View dialog box.Cmd-.

Toggles group selection mode on and off.Shift-Cmd-A

Displays the Color Palette. Select a new color to make it the current color for new objects.

Toggles Dynamic Input mode on and off.Shift-Cmd-D

DescriptionKeyboard Shortcut

Toggles CleanScreen mode on and off.Shift-Cmd-F

Ungroups the selected group.Shift-Cmd-G

Toggles the display of all palettes on or off.Shift-Cmd-H

Toggles ortho mode on and off.Shift-Cmd-O or Control-L

Displays the Page Setup Manager.Shift-Cmd-P

Shift-Cmd-R

Control-C

Regenerates all viewports in the current layout.

Displays the Save Drawing As dialog box.Shift-Cmd-S

Toggles object snap tracking on and off.Shift-Cmd-T

Reverses the most recent undo.Shift-Cmd-Z

Displays the Check Spelling dialog box.Shift-Cmd-;

Selects all objects in the current layout.Control-A

Toggles grid snap mode on and off.Control-B

Copies the selected objects to the Clipboard.

Toggles grid display on and off.Control-E

Toggles object snap mode on and off.Control-F

Toggles grid display on and off.Control-G

Toggles PICKSTYLE on and off.Control-H

Start a Command | 19

DescriptionKeyboard Shortcut

Toggles the coordinates display mode.Control-I

Repeats the previous command.Control-J

Toggles ortho mode on and off.Control-L

Repeats the previous command.Control-M

Control-N

Control-O

Control-P

Control-S

Control-V

Control-X

Displays the Select Template dialog box. Select a template to create a new drawing.

Displays the Select File dialog box. Select a drawing file to open.

Displays the Print dialog box, and creates a hard copy or PDF file of the current layout.

Closes the program.Control-Q

Saves the current drawing. If the drawing has not been saved yet, the Save Drawing As dialog box is displayed.

Toggles polar tracking on and off.Control-U

Pastes the contents of the Clipboard to the current layout.

Removes the selected from the drawing and adds them to the Clipboard.

20 | Chapter 2 The User Interface

Reverses the most recent undo.Control-Y

Undoes the most recent action.Control-Z

DescriptionKeyboard Shortcut

Control-Arrow Left

Control-Arrow Right

Control-Arrow Up

Control-Arrow Down

Shift-Control-C

Nudges the selected objects to the left in the drawing area.

Nudges the selected objects to the right in the drawing area.

Nudges the selected objects up in the drawing area.

Nudges the selected objects down in the drawing area.

Toggles group selection mode on and off.Shift-Control-A

Toggles grid snap mode on and off.Shift-Control-B

Copies the selected objects to the Clipboard with a specified base point.

Toggles object snap mode on and off.Shift-Control-F

Toggles grid display on and off.Shift-Control-G

Delete

Repeats the previous command.Shift-Control-J

Repeats the previous command.Shift-Control-M

Toggles ortho mode on and off.Shift-Control-O

Displays the Save Drawing As dialog box.Shift-Control-S

Toggles polar tracking on and off.Shift-Control-U

Removes the selected objects from the drawing.

Start a Command | 21

Control the Drawing Area Interface

The drawing area includes several tools and controls for viewing and drawing operations. You can adjust the display of these interface elements.

Interface Themes and Background Color

Many options are provided for customizing the look and feel of the product, including the color of the icons and the background color of the drawing area.

The default color of the icons and palettes are dark gray. If you prefer, you can change this theme to a light color.

The default background color of the drawing area is a medium gray, which is optimum for displaying objects with different colors. Nevertheless, some people prefer a white or a black background color depending on their tasks and preferences.

See also:

Set Up the Drawing Area (page 32)

Interface Themes and Background Color

To change the color of the user interface between dark and light

1 On the menu bar, click AutoCAD LT 2013, and then Preferences.

2 In the Application Preferences dialog box, left column, click Look & Feel.

3 Under Interface Theme, click in the Themes box, and click either Dark

or Light.

4 Click OK.

To change the background color of the drawing area in Model space

1 On the menu bar, click AutoCAD LT 2013, and then Preferences.

2 In the Application Preferences dialog box, left column, click Look & Feel.

3 Under Interface Theme, click in the Model box, and then click a color,

or click Select Color.

The default dark gray background color has an RGB value of 33,40,48.

22 | Chapter 2 The User Interface

4 If you clicked Select Color, the Color Palette dialog box is displayed. At

the top of the dialog box, click either Index Color, True Color, or Color Books, and then make your color selection. Click OK to exit the Color Palette dialog box.

5 Click OK.

Cursors in the Drawing Area

In the drawing area, the appearance of the cursor changes depending on what you are doing.

■ If you are prompted to specify a point location, the cursor appears as

crosshairs

■ If you are prompted to select an object, the cursor changes to a small square

called a pickbox

■ When you are not in a command, the cursor appears as a combination of

the crosshairs and pickbox cursors

■ If you are prompted to enter text, the cursor appears as a vertical bar

In the following illustrations, these cursors are displayed in order.

You can change the size of the crosshairs and pickbox cursors in the Application Preferences dialog box by clicking Cursor & Selection (the OPTIONS command).

Selection Style

Selecting objects conforms to a selection style that is common to most Mac applications.

Use click and drag to specify a rectangular selection area. Drag to the left for a crossing selection, or drag to the right for a window selection.

Each time you select one or more objects, it automatically clears the previous selection. To add objects to the previous selection, hold Shift as you select them.

Control the Drawing Area Interface | 23

You can change the behavior of object selection in the Application Preferences dialog box by clicking Cursor & Selection (the OPTIONS command).

See also:

Select Multiple Objects (page 196)

The UCS Icon

The drawing area displays an icon representing the XY axis of a rectangular coordinate system called the User Coordinate System, or UCS.

You can move or rotate the UCS icon with the UCS command, or by clicking and dragging the icon using the grips that are displayed. The UCS is useful because it controls features that include

■ The angular orientation that defines horizontal and vertical

■ The alignment and angle of the grid, and hatch patterns

■ The origin and orientation for 2D and 3D coordinate entry

You can change the appearance of the UCS icon with the UCSICON command, Properties option. With this command, you can also control whether the UCS icon is visible.

See also:

Overview of the User Coordinate System (UCS) (page 130)

Control the Display of the User Coordinate System Icon (page 132)

24 | Chapter 2 The User Interface

The Coordinates Display

The coordinates display is located in the lower-right corner of the active viewport and displays the current location of the crosshair cursor in the drawing area.

The display of the coordinates in the active viewport can be toggled in the Units & Guides tab (Application Preferences dialog box).

Along with the coordinates displayed in the active viewport, you can also get the current location of the crosshair cursor in a tooltip near the cursor when dynamic input is turned on. For more information about dynamic input, see

Use Dynamic Input (page 144).

See also:

Use Dynamic Input (page 144)

Overview of Coordinate Entry

Model Space and Layouts

There are two working environments, or spaces, in which you can work, model space and paper space layouts.

■ Model space is used to create 2D drawings

■ Paper space is used create layouts for plotting

While you can plot from model space, layouts are more convenient for scaling views, changing the location of views, and controlling the area and settings used in plotting.

To switch between model space and a layout, click the drop-down near the left side of the status bar.

Control the Drawing Area Interface | 25

See also:

Quick Start for Layouts (page 71)

Control Status, Layers, Properties, and Content

Use the Status bar, Layers palette, Properties Inspector, and Content palette to change which drafting aids are enabled, modify the layers in the current drawing, the properties of the current drawing or selected objects, and insert blocks or hatch patterns from custom content libraries.

The Status Bar

The Status bar includes buttons that turn on and off various features.

For example, this is where you can conveniently turn on and off the grid display, grid snap, object snap, dynamic input, and so on. The status bar also includes controls to display lineweights and object transparency. Several controls relate to the annotation scaling feature.

26 | Chapter 2 The User Interface

One of the most important controls on the status bar, highlighted in the illustration, changes the drawing area between model space and paper space layouts.

The size of the icons and controls on the status bar can be adjusted by using the Tool Set & Status Bar Icons slider on the Look & Feel tab of the Application Preferences dialog box (OPTIONS command).

Cmd-6 turns the status bar on and off.

The Status Bar

To control the display of buttons on the status bar

1 Right-click any empty area of the status bar.

2 In the status bar menu, click Display, and then any flyout.

3 Click any button name in the flyout to change whether it is displayed

or hidden.

The Layers Palette

The Layers palette is used to display and manage layers and layer groups.

The disclosure triangle in the Layers palette expands and compresses the Layers palette to display either

■ All layers and layer groups in a matrix of information, or

■ The current layer only

Control Status, Layers, Properties, and Content | 27

Cmd-4 turns the Layers palette on and off.

Display All Layers and Layer Properties

The layers and layer properties in a drawing can be displayed as a matrix, similar to a spreadsheet. Each row contains a layer and each column represents a layer property. Right-click the column header in the Layers list to control which layer properties are displayed.

When undocked in this format, the Layers palette can display all layer information simultaneously at the cost of taking up space on the screen. Docking the Layers palette reduces the space it takes up, but you might have to scroll left and right to see all the properties.

Display the Current Layer Only

Under normal working conditions, the compressed format that displays only the name of the current layer is adequate and recommended.

Review Layer Properties

The Properties Inspector palette can be used to display all the properties of either the current layer, or a selected layer as a vertical list. To switch from displaying object properties, click the Layer Properties tab at the top of the Properties Inspector palette.

Display Layer Groups

Layer groups are displayed in the Layer list and allow you to group layers together by what they represent in the drawing or similar layer properties. Grouping layers together allows you to change the layer status of all the layers in the group, and to access the current state or function of layers in the drawing through the use of dynamic layer groups. Dynamic layer groups automatically maintain a listing of all the layers that meet a specific set of rules or criteria. There are four automatic dynamic layer groups that the Layer list supports and they are:

■ All Used Layers. Lists all the layers that are currently being used in the

drawing.

■ Xref. Lists all the attached external references (xrefs) as nested layer groups,

and each layer group contains the layers of the corresponding xref.

■ Viewport Overrides. Lists all the layers that have viewport overrides

assigned to them in the current viewport.

28 | Chapter 2 The User Interface

■ Unreconciled Layers. Lists all the layers that have been recently added

to the drawing and need to be reconciled.

Use Display Settings in the lower-right corner of the Layers palette to control the display of layer groups in the Layer list. You can also determine which automatic dynamic layer groups should be displayed and where in the Layer list that layer groups should be listed.

See also:

Work with Layers (page 101)

The Layers Palette

To create a new layer

1 If necessary, click the Show Layer List disclosure triangle to expand the

Layers palette.

2 At the bottom-left corner of the palette, click the Create Layer button

which looks like a stack of papers.

3 Enter the name of the new layer in the highlighted text area, and then

press Enter.

To change the current layer

1 On the Layers palette, click the Layer drop-down.

2 Click the layer that you want to make the current layer.

There are several alternative methods. In the expanded Layers palette, you can right-click a layer to display a menu, or you can double-click on the layer name.

To filter the list of layers

1 If necessary, click the disclosure triangle to expand the Layers palette.

2 Enter one of more characters in the Search area at the bottom of the

palette.

Only the layers with the characters that you entered are displayed in the Layers palette. Wildcards are not available.

Control Status, Layers, Properties, and Content | 29

3 It is recommended that you delete the text in the Search area when you

are done.

You can click the magnifying glass icon to display and choose from a list of previous searches.

The Properties Inspector

With the Properties Inspector, you can display and change the settings and properties for objects and for layers.

You can perform the following actions:

■ Specify the current default properties assigned to all new objects

■ View and change the properties of one or more selected objects

■ Specify the default properties of the current layer

The key to controlling the information that appears in the Properties Inspector is choosing either the Object/Current tab, or the Layer Properties tab in the top-left corner of the palette.

For object properties, clicking either the Essentials button or the All button controls the number of properties displayed.

Object/Current Properties Tab

The Properties Inspector with the Object/Current button clicked can complete one of three actions depending on what is selected.

■ With no objects selected, it displays the default properties to be used for

all new objects. You can change these defaults by clicking a property in the palette, and specifying a different value.

30 | Chapter 2 The User Interface

■ With one object selected, it displays the properties for that object only,

and you can change any of its properties.

■ With more than one object selected, it can either display only the common

properties shared by the objects, or all the properties. Any property that you change is applied to all the selected objects.

Layer Properties Tab

The Properties Inspector provides an efficient way of displaying the properties and settings associated with the current layer, or a layer that you select in the Layers palette.

Cmd-5 turns the Properties Inspector on and off.

See also:

Overview of Object Properties (page 99)

The Content Palette

The Content palette allows you to access and manage content libraries.

From the Content palette you can

■ Create custom content libraries to organize frequently used blocks

■ Add and remove blocks from the Favorites library or a custom library

■ Insert blocks from the current drawing, Favorites library, or a custom library

Content Libraries

Libraries are used to help organize and access the blocks that you frequently use. By default, there is no content available in the Content palette. Custom libraries are created and managed using the Manage Content Libraries dialog box. You add content to a library by referencing a saved DWG or DXF file, or block contained in a saved DWG file.

After content has been added to a library, you can

■ Insert a block into a drawing (see -INSERT)

■ Add a block to or remove it from the Favorites library

■ Search for a block in a library

Control Status, Layers, Properties, and Content | 31

WARNING If a drawing being referenced by Favorites or a custom library is moved, the reference is maintained but the associated block cannot be inserted into a drawing.

See also:

Insert Blocks (page 271)

Customize the Drawing Environment

Many elements of the working environment can be customized to fit your needs.

You can change many window and drawing environment settings in the Application Preferences dialog box. For example, you can change how often a drawing is automatically saved to a temporary file, and you can link the program to folders containing files you use frequently.

Set Interface Options

You can adjust the application interface and drawing area to match the way you work.

Set Up the Drawing Area

You can adjust the color and display schemes used in the application and drawing windows, and control the behavior of general features such as grip editing behavior.

Many of the settings are available from shortcut menus and the Application Preferences dialog box.

Some user interface elements, such as the presence and location of menu items and palettes, can be specified and saved using the Customize dialog box.

Some settings affect how you work in the drawing area:

■ Color Scheme (Application Preferences dialog box, Look & Feel

tab). You specify a dark or light color theme for the overall user interface. The settings affect the window frame background, status bar, title bar, and palettes.

32 | Chapter 2 The User Interface

■ Background Colors (Application Preferences dialog box, Look

& Feel tab). You specify the background colors used in the Model and named layouts.

■ UCS Icon Style, Size, and Color (UCS Icon dialog box). You can

control the appearance of the UCS icon in model space and paper space.

■ Clean Screen. You can expand the drawing area to display only the menu

bar with the Clean Screen button on the status bar. Press Ctrl-0 to restore the previous setup.

Tooltips

Several types of tooltips provide pop-up information for interaction with toolbars, object snaps, and drafting operations.

Tooltips are displayed for tools on the Tool Sets and other palettes in the user interface. Hover the cursor over the control to display the tooltip.

See also:

User Interface Customization in the Customization Guide

Specify the Behavior of Palettes

Palettes, such as Tool Set, status bar, and Reference Manager can be docked, displayed as icons, or floated.

Settings for these and other options are often changed on a shortcut menu, available by right-clicking the title bar of the palette.

■ Resize. Drag an edge of the palette to change its size. If one or more

palettes are docked, dragging one of the palettes adjusts the size of the other docked palettes.

■ Collapse to Icons. You can collapse the display of all palettes, except

command line and status bar, to a set of icons that are displayed along the left or right side of the screen. Click an icon to temporarily display the associated palette. (PALETTEICONON command)

■ Show as Palettes. Expands all palettes that are currently collapsed as

icons. The palettes are returned to their previous size and location. (PALETTEICONOFF command)

You can hide all the palettes at once with HIDEPALETTES and turn on all hidden palettes with SHOWPALETTES.

Customize the Drawing Environment | 33

NOTE

If a palette has been turned back on manually and moved, it is not affected by SHOWPALETTES.

The placement of palettes can be changed by dragging them on screen. You can control the location a palette is docked by dragging it to the edge of the screen and dropping it when you see a blue bar. You can also drag and drop palettes on a palette that is already docked.

Use RESETPALETTES to return all palettes to their default placement.

Performance Tuning

Performance tuning examines your graphics card and display driver and determines whether to use software or hardware implementation for features that support both.

Features that cannot work properly on your system are turned off. Some features may work but not be recommended for use with your graphics card or 3D graphics display driver. Enable these features at your own risk. For information on the options available, see -3DCONFIG.

Graphics Caching

Graphics cache files are created and maintained to optimize performance and increase the regeneration speed of objects with complex geometry such as 3D solids, non-mesh surfaces, and regions. These cache files persist between drawing sessions and are saved in /Users/<user name>/Library/Application Support/Autodesk/local/<product name>/<release>/<language>/GraphicsCache. The maximum number of these cache files are limited in number and total size by the CACHEMAXFILES and CACHEMAXTOTALSIZE system variables. If the limits are exceeded, the oldest cache files are automatically deleted.

NOTE If you ever need to delete the graphics cache files, you can temporarily set CACHEMAXFILES or CACHEMAXTOTALSIZE to 0.

Customize Startup

Command line switches can be used to control how the program is started from the Terminal window or a shell script.

34 | Chapter 2 The User Interface

You can use command line switches to specify several options when you start the program. For example, you can run a script or start with a specified drawing template.

Command line switches are parameters you can use to create custom shell scripts to start AutoCAD LT in a specific way. Valid switches are listed in the following table.

Script name-b

Template file name-t

Designates a script to run after you start the program (b stands for batch process). Scripts can be used to set up drawing parameters in a new drawing file.

Creates a new drawing based on a template or prototype drawing.

The syntax for using command line switches is

pathname/AutoCAD LT [drawingname] [-switchname]

When using a switch option, you must follow the switch with a space and then the name of a file. For example, the following entry starts the program from a folder named AutoCAD LT 2013with the drawing template arch1.dwt and executes a script file startup.scr.

/Applications/Autodesk/AutoCAD LT 2013/AutoCAD LT

2013.app/Contents/MacOS/AutoCAD LT -t /templates/arch1.dwt

-b startup.scr

Customize the Drawing Environment | 35

Start and Save Drawings

Start a Drawing

All drawings start from either a default drawing template file or a custom drawing template file that you create. Drawing template files store default settings, styles, and additional data.

Overview of Starting a New Drawing

Before you start to draw, you need to decide what system of drawing units that you will use in the drawing, and then choose a drawing template file appropriate for those drawing units.

Choose Drawing Units

A drawing unit can equal one inch, one millimeter, or any other system of measurement. For more information about drawing units, see Determine the

Units of Measurement (page 38).

Choose a Drawing Template File

When you start a new drawing, AutoCAD LT accesses a drawing template file to determine many default settings such as unit precision, dimension styles, layer names, a title block, and other settings. Many of the settings are based on whether the drawing template file is intended for use with a drawing created in inches, feet, millimeters, centimeters, or other unit of measurement.

Customize a Drawing Template File

By customizing your own drawing template file, you save yourself a lot of work changing settings, and you also ensure that the settings are standardized.

You can create several drawing template files for different projects, and you can choose one when you click New.

Specify Units and Unit Formats

Before you start to draw, you decide on the units of measurement to be used in the drawing, and set the format, precision, and other conventions to be used in coordinates and distances.

Determine the Units of Measurement

Before you start to draw, you must decide what one drawing unit represents based on what you plan to draw. You can convert a drawing between systems of measurement by scaling it.

Every object you create is measured in drawing units. Before you start to draw, you must decide what one drawing unit will represent based on what you plan to draw. Then you create your drawing at actual size with that convention.

For example, the objects in the illustration might represent two buildings that are each 125 feet long, or a section of a mechanical part that is measured in millimeters.

Convert Drawing Units

If you start a drawing in one system of measurement (imperial or metric) and then want to switch to the other system, use SCALE to scale the model geometry by the appropriate conversion factor to obtain correct distances and dimensions.

38 | Chapter 3 Start and Save Drawings

For example, to convert a drawing created in inches to centimeters, you scale the model geometry by a factor of 2.54. To convert from centimeters to inches, the scale factor is 1/2.54 or about 0.3937.

See also:

Set the Scale for Dimensions (page 397)

Set the Unit Format Conventions

You can set the format and the number of decimal places to be used when you enter and display linear and angular units.

Set Linear Units

You can choose from several common conventions to represent the format and the precision of linear distances and coordinates displayed in the Properties Inspector palette, dynamic input, the status bar, and other locations.

For example, here are three variations of dynamic input.

Set Angular Units

You can specify that positive values of angles are measured either clockwise or counterclockwise, and the direction of angle 0 (usually East or North). You can enter angles using grads, radians, or surveyor's units or using degrees, minutes, and seconds.

If you use surveyor's angles when specifying polar coordinates, indicate whether the surveyor's angles are in the north, south, east, or west direction. For example, to enter the relative coordinates for a property line that is 72 feet, 8 inches long with a bearing of 45 degrees north, 20 minutes, 6 seconds east, enter @72'8"<n45d20'6"e.

Start a Drawing | 39

Understand Rounding and Precision

When you specify the display precision of units, the values for coordinates and distances are rounded off. However, the internal precision of coordinates and distances is always maintained regardless of the display precision.

For example, if you set the display precision of decimal-format units to 1 (or

0.0), the display of coordinates is rounded to one place after the decimal point. Thus, the coordinates 0.000,1.375 are displayed as 0.0,1.4, but the internal precision is still maintained.

Use a Drawing Template File

A drawing template file provides consistency in the drawings that you create by maintaining your standard styles and settings.

Select a Drawing Template File

A set of drawing template files is installed with AutoCAD LT. Many of them are provided either for imperial or for metric units, and some are optimized for 3D modeling. All drawing template files have a .dwt file extension.

While these drawing templates provide a quick way to start a new drawing, it is best to create drawing templates specific to your company and the type of drawings you create.

Create a Drawing Template File

When you need to create several drawings that use the same conventions and default settings, you can save time by creating or customizing a drawing template file instead of specifying the conventions and default settings each time you start. Conventions and settings commonly stored in template files include

■ Unit format and precision (page 38)

■ Title blocks and borders (page 271)

■ Layer names (page 102)

■ Snap and Grid spacing (page 151)

■ Text styles (page 353)

■ Dimension styles (page 379)

■ Multileader styles (page 347)

40 | Chapter 3 Start and Save Drawings

■ Linetypes (page 119)

■ Lineweights (page 123)

■ Layouts (page 71)

■ Page setups (page 431)

By default, drawing template files are stored in the template folder, where they are easily accessible. You can use the Application Preferences dialog box to set a default for both the template folder and the drawing template file.

Add Identifying Information to Drawings

You can keep track of your drawings more easily if you add keywords or other information to them.

Use Finder

Finder can be used to location drawing files. For example, you can search for all files created on a certain date, or for files you modified yesterday.

Display Properties in Fields

You can assign any of the drawing properties to a field in a text object. For more information about fields, see Use Fields in Text (page 350).

Open or Save a Drawing

You can use several methods to find and open drawings, even damaged drawings. You can save and backup drawings automatically.

Open a Drawing

You open drawings to work on them just as you do with other applications. In addition, you can choose from several alternative methods.

To open a drawing, you can

■ Use Open on the File menu to display the Select File dialog box. If the

FILEDIA system variable is set to 0, the Command prompt version displays instead of a file navigation dialog box.

Open or Save a Drawing | 41

■ Double-click a drawing in Finder to launch AutoCAD LT

and open the drawing. If the program is already running, the drawing opens in the current session.

■ Drag a drawing from Finder onto the AutoCAD LT icon in the Dock.

If you drop a drawing anywhere outside the drawing area—for example, the command line or the blank space next to the toolbars— the drawing is opened. However, if you drag a single drawing into the drawing area of an open drawing, the new drawing is not opened but inserted as a block reference.

■ Use the Project Manager to locate and open the drawings in a project data

(DST) file.

Work on Drawings During Loading

You can work on drawings before they are fully open. This is useful when you work on large drawings and you want to begin working immediately. To take advantage of this capability, three conditions are required.

■ The drawing must have been saved in paper space.

■ The INDEXCTL system variable must be set to a non-zero value.

When these conditions are met, you can create or modify visible objects, pan or zoom, turn off or freeze layers, and any other operation that does not require displaying objects not visible when the drawing was last saved.

NOTE

The Quick View feature will not be fully functional during loading under these conditions.

Resolve Missing References

As you open a drawing, you are notified (messages and task dialog boxes) when a reference cannot be located. From the References - Unresolved Reference Files task dialog box, click Update the Location of the Referenced Files to open the Reference Manager palette to make changes to missing external references.

42 | Chapter 3 Start and Save Drawings

The following table outlines some of the references that might be missing and describes how to handle them.

DescriptionMissing Reference Types

External references

Shapes

Missing external references are the result of AutoCAD LT not being able to resolve the last known location of an xref, raster image, or underlay. To resolve a missing external reference, locate the file and update its location using the Reference Manager palette. For information about resolving missing referenced files, see

■ Resolve Missing External References (page 472)

■ Attach Raster Image Files (page 491)

■ Attach Files as Underlays (page 481)

Missing shape files are often the result of custom shapes being used in a linetype. Browse to the missing linetype file, or place the shape file in the folder with the drawing or one of the support paths defined in the Application Preferences dialog box.

Work with Large Objects

AutoCAD LT 2010 supports object size limits greater than those available in previous releases. With increased object size limits you can create larger and more complex models. Using increased object size limits can result in compatibility issues with legacy drawing file formats (AutoCAD LT 2007 and earlier).

When working with drawings that you might need to exchange with others using AutoCAD LT 2009 and earlier, set the LARGEOBJECTSUPPORT system variable to 0. Setting LARGEOBJECTSUPPORT to 0 warns you when a drawing contains large objects that cannot be opened by a release of the program prior to AutoCAD LT 2010.

Recover Defective Drawing Files

In some circumstances, it is possible that a drawing file becomes defective. This can result from hardware problems or transmission errors. If a drawing

Open or Save a Drawing | 43

file is corrupt, you might be able to recover it. See Repair, Restore, or Recover

Drawing Files (page 50).

Change the Default Drawing Folder

Each time you start AutoCAD LT, the Documents folder is the default path in each standard file selection dialog box.

Alternatively, you can start AutoCAD LT in the current folder from the Terminal window. Set REMEMBERFOLDERS to 0 and then start AutoCAD LT from the current folder.

See also:

Work with Layouts in a Project (page 84)

Open and Save Drawing Files from the Internet (page 516)

Work with Multiple Open Drawings

You can preview and switch between open drawings and layouts in a drawing and transfer information between open drawings.

Preview Open Drawings and Layouts

With QuickView, you can easily preview and switch between open drawings and layouts in an open drawing.

The Show Drawings & Layouts button on the status bar allows you to do the following:

■ Open drawings. All open drawings are displayed along the left side of

the QuickView dialog box. Double-click a drawing thumbnail to switch to the corresponding drawing file, or right-click a drawing thumbnail to display a list of available options. For more information, see Switch Between

Open Drawings (page 45)

■ Layouts in an open drawing. Displays the Model layout and named

layouts in the current drawing or the selected drawing when there is more than one drawing open. Double-click a layout thumbnail to switch to the corresponding layout and drawing file, or right-click a layout thumbnail to display a list of available options. For more information, see Switch

Between Layouts in the Current Drawing (page 45)

44 | Chapter 3 Start and Save Drawings

Switch Between Open Drawings

Switch between open drawings.

You can use one of the following methods to switch between open drawings:

■ On the menu bar, click the Window menu and choose a drawing from the

bottom of the menu.

■ In the Mac OS Dock, right-click the AutoCAD LT icon and choose a drawing

from the top of the menu.

■ In the Mac OS Dock, right side, click the thumbnail that represents the

open drawing.

■ On the status bar, click the Show Drawings & Layouts button. In the

QuickView dialog box, click the drawing thumbnail along the left side.

■ On the status bar, click the Drawings & Layouts pop-up menu and choose

a drawing from the top of the menu.

Switch Between Layouts in the Current Drawing

Switch between the model space and layouts in the current drawing.

You can use one of the following methods to switch between layouts in the current drawing:

■ On the status bar, click the Show Drawings & Layouts button. In the

QuickView dialog box, click the layout thumbnail on the right side.

■ On the status bar, click the Drawings & Layouts pop-up menu and choose

a layout from the middle section of the menu.

■ At the Command prompt, enter ctab and press Enter. When prompted

for a new value, enter model or the name of a layout in the drawing and press Enter.

Transfer Information between Open Drawings

You can easily transfer information between drawings that are open in a single session.

When you open multiple drawings in a single session, you can

■ Reference other drawings.

■ Insert blocks between open drawings (CONTENT) command.

Open or Save a Drawing | 45

■ Copy and paste between drawings.

■ Use object snaps and the Copy with Basepoint (COPYBASE) command to

ensure accurate placement.

Save a Drawing

You save drawing files for later use just as you do with other applications. You can also set up automatic saving and backup files and save only selected objects.

When you work on a drawing, you should save it frequently. Saving protects you from losing work in the event of a power failure or other unexpected event. If you want to create a new version of a drawing without affecting the original drawing, you can save it under another name.

The file extension for drawing files is .dwg, and unless you change the default file format in which drawings are saved, drawings are saved in the latest drawing file format. This format is optimized for file compression and for use on a network.

The character limit for a DWG file name (including its path) is 256 characters.

NOTE If the FILEDIA system variable is set to 0, the Command prompt version displays instead of a file navigation dialog box.

Save Part of a Drawing File

If you want to create a new drawing file from part of an existing drawing, you use the WBLOCK command. With the command, you can select objects or specify a block definition in your current drawing and save them to a new drawing file. You can also save a description with the new drawing.

Save to a Different Type of Drawing File

You can save a drawing to an earlier version of the drawing format (DWG) or drawing interchange format (DXF), or save a drawing as a template file. Choose the format in the Save Drawing As dialog box.

Save with Visual Fidelity for Annotative Objects

When working with annotative objects, this option allows you to maintain visual fidelity for these objects when they are viewed in AutoCAD LT 2007

46 | Chapter 3 Start and Save Drawings

and earlier releases. Visual fidelity is controlled by the SAVEFIDELITY system variable.

If you work primarily in model space, it is recommended that you turn off visual fidelity (set SAVEFIDELITY to 0). However, if you need to exchange drawings with other users, and layout fidelity is most important, then visual fidelity should be turned on (set SAVEFIDELITY to 1).

NOTE

The SAVEFIDELITY system variable does not effect saving a drawing to the AutoCAD LT 2010 drawing or DXF file formats.

Annotative objects may have multiple scale representation. When visual fidelity is on, annotative objects are decomposed and scale representations are saved (in an anonymous block) to separate layers, which are named based on their original layer and appended with a number. If you explode the block in AutoCAD LT 2007 or earlier releases, and then open the drawing in AutoCAD LT 2008 or later releases, each scale representation becomes a separate annotative object, each with one annotation scale. It is not recommended that you edit or create objects on these layers when working with a drawing created in AutoCAD LT 2008 and later releases in AutoCAD LT 2007 and earlier releases.

When this option is not selected, a single model space representation is displayed on the Model layout. More annotation objects may be displayed on the Model layout depending on the ANNOALLVISIBLE setting. Also, more objects may be displayed in paper space viewports at different sizes than in AutoCAD LT 2008 and later releases.

Reduce the Time Required to Save a Drawing File

You can reduce the time required to save a drawing file if you specify incremental saves rather than full saves. An incremental save updates only those portions of the saved drawing file that you changed.

When you use incremental saves, drawing files will contain a percentage of potentially wasted space. This percentage increases after each incremental save until it reaches a specified maximum, at which time a full save is performed instead. You can set the incremental save percentage in the Open and Save tab of the Options dialog box or by setting the value of the system variable ISAVEPERCENT. If you set the value of ISAVEPERCENT to 0, all saves are full saves.

To reduce the size of drawing files, it is recommended that you perform a full save (with ISAVEPERCENT set to 0) before transmitting or archiving a drawing.

Open or Save a Drawing | 47

Work Internationally

If you share drawing files with companies in other countries and regions, the drawing file names might contain characters that are not used in other languages.

If a drawing file is created in a different language version of the operating system, the following will occur:

■ If support for the language is installed, the file name characters are visible

in Finder.

■ If support for the language is not installed, the file name characters appear

as a series of boxes in Finder.

In either case, you will be able to open the drawing file beginning with AutoCAD LT 2007 because the product is Unicode-compliant.

NOTE

If you share drawing files with companies using earlier releases of the product, you can avoid file name issues for Asian languages and languages that use accented characters. In those circumstances, do not use high ASCII values, or values of 80 hexadecimal and above, when creating a file name.

Maintain Compatibility with Large Object Limits

Drawings saved to a legacy drawing file format (AutoCAD LT 2007 or earlier) do not support objects greater than 256MB. With the AutoCAD LT 2010 drawing file format, these limitations have been removed allowing you to save objects that are greater in size.

When saving to a legacy drawing file format (AutoCAD LT 2007 or earlier), the drawing cannot contain large objects; there might be compatibility issues with trying to open the drawing. The LARGEOBJECTSUPPORT system variable controls the large object size limits used and the warning messages displayed when a drawing is saved.

The following explains how object size limits for drawings is determined:

■ Drawing files cannot exceed an internal size limit of 4GB. This size is based

on the total size of all objects in a drawing when uncompressed. Since a drawing file is normally compressed, the final size of a saved drawing file on disk will vary based on the size and number of objects in a drawing.

■ Each individual object in a drawing cannot exceed an uncompressed size

limit of 256MB. For example, a mesh object, when saved to a file and

48 | Chapter 3 Start and Save Drawings

compressed, might be 75MB in size while the same object when uncompressed might be 257MB.

In these situations, the drawing cannot be saved to an AutoCAD LT 2007 or earlier file format until the issues are resolved. You can resolve the size limits by breaking the drawing or objects up into several drawings or objects.

See also:

Save Drawings to Previous Drawing File Formats (page 508)

Work with Drawings in Earlier Releases (page 504)

Export Drawings to Other File Formats (page 503)

Create Drawing Files for Use as Blocks (page 280)

Add Identifying Information to Drawings (page 41)

Create and Restore Backup Files (page 52)

Share Drawing Files Internationally (page 516)

Open and Save Drawing Files from the Internet (page 516)

Find a Drawing File

You can search for a drawing using name, location, and date filters.

■ Use Searchlight in Finder to search for drawings using name, location, and

date filters.

■ Use the Select File dialog box for the OPEN command to display drawing

file previews. When the RASTERPREVIEW system variable is on, a raster preview image is automatically generated and stored with the drawing when you save it.

See also:

Add Identifying Information to Drawings (page 41)

Specify Search Paths and File Locations

You can set the search path to drawing support files such as text fonts, drawings, linetypes, and hatch patterns. You also can specify the location of temporary files, which is important when working in a network environment.

Open or Save a Drawing | 49

The Application tab (Application Preferences dialog box) is where you set the search path that is used by the program to find drawing support files such as text fonts, drawings, linetypes, and hatch patterns. The MYDOCUMENTSPREFIX system variable stores the location of the Documents folder for the current user.

The working search path for drawing support files lists paths that are valid and exist in the current system folder structure (including system network mapping). Using these options helps improve performance when these files are loaded.

Using the Application tab (Application Preferences dialog box), you can also specify the location of temporary files. Temporary files are created on disk, and then deleted when you exit the program. The temporary folder is set to the location that the operating system uses. If you plan to run this program from a write-protected folder (for example, if you work on a network or open files on a CD), specify a different location for your temporary files.

The temporary folder that you specify must not be write-protected, and the drive containing the folder should have sufficient disk space for the temporary files. It is recommended that you manually delete the files from this folder on a regular basis to ensure sufficient space is provided for temporary files. If not enough space is available for temporary files, you may experience errors or instability in the program.

If you want to use a file that contains custom interface elements, specify it in the Customization Files item on the Application tab (Application Preferences dialog box). The default customization file is acadlt.cuix.

Repair, Restore, or Recover Drawing Files

If a drawing file is damaged or if your program terminates unexpectedly, you can recover some or all of the data by using commands to find and correct errors, or by reverting to a backup file.

Repair a Damaged Drawing File

If a drawing file is damaged, you can recover some or all of the data by using commands to find and correct errors.

50 | Chapter 3 Start and Save Drawings

Repair and Recovery

When an error occurs, diagnostic information is recorded in the aclt.err file, which you can use to report a problem.

A drawing file is marked as damaged if corrupted data is detected, or if you request that the drawing be saved after a program failure. If the damage is minor, sometimes you can repair the drawing simply by opening it. A recovery notification is displayed while opening drawing files that are damaged and need recovery. You can

■ RECOVER. Performs an audit on, and attempts to open, any drawing file.

■ AUDIT. Finds and corrects errors in the current drawing.

■ RECOVERAUTO. Controls the display of recovery notifications before or

after opening a damaged drawing file.

Example: Auditing Files

Auditing a file generates a description of problems with a drawing file and recommendations for correcting them. As you start the audit, you specify whether you want the program to try to fix the problems it encounters. The report is similar to the following example:

Auditing Header DXF NAME Current Value Validation Default PDMODE 990 - 2040 UCSFOLLOW 811 or 0 Error found in auditing header variables 4 Blocks audited Pass 1 4 objects audited Pass 2 4 objects audited Total errors found 2 fixed 2

If you chose not to correct the errors, the last statement changes to

Total errors found 2 fixed 0.

The output from a recovery audit is written to an audit log (ADT) file if the AUDITCTL system variable is set to 1 (On).

Recovery does not necessarily preserve the high-level consistency of the drawing file. The program extracts as much material as it can from the damaged file.

See also:

Create and Restore Backup Files (page 52)

Repair, Restore, or Recover Drawing Files | 51

Create and Restore Backup Files

Backup files help ensure the safety of your drawing data. If a problem occurs, you can restore a drawing backup file.

Computer hardware problems, power failures or surges, user mistakes, or software problems can cause errors in a drawing. By saving your work frequently, you can ensure a minimum of lost data if your system fails for any reason. If a problem occurs, you can restore a drawing backup file.

Use Backup Files

In the Application tab (Application Preferences dialog box), you can specify that backup files are created when you save drawings. If you do, each time you save a drawing, the previous version of your drawing is saved to a file with the same name and a .bak file extension. The backup file is located in the same folder as the drawing file.

You can revert to your backup version by renaming the .bak file in Finder to a file with a .dwg extension. You may want to copy it to a different folder to avoid overwriting your original file.

Save Your Drawing Automatically at Specified Intervals

If you turn the automatic save option on, your drawing is saved at specified time intervals. By default, files saved automatically are temporarily assigned the name filename_a_b_nnnn.sv$.

■ Filename is the current drawing name.

■ a is the number of open instances of the same drawing file in the same

work session.

■ b is the number of open instances of the same drawing in different work

sessions.

■ nnnn is a random number.

These temporary files are automatically deleted when a drawing closes normally. In the event of a program failure or a power failure, these files are not deleted.

To recover a previous version of your drawing from the automatically saved file, rename the file using a .dwg extension in place of the .sv$ extension before you close the program.

52 | Chapter 3 Start and Save Drawings

See also:

Recover from a System Failure (page 53)

Recover from a System Failure

A hardware problem, power failure, or software problem can cause this program to terminate unexpectedly. If this happens, you can restore the drawing files that were open.

Resolve Drawing Files

After a program or system failure, the Files Recovered dialog box opens the next time you start AutoCAD LT. The Files Recovered dialog box displays a list of all drawing files that were open, including the following drawing file types:

■ Drawing files (DWG)

■ Drawing template files (DWT)

NOTE Unsaved drawings that are open at the time of an unexpected failure are not tracked by the Files Recovered dialog box. Be sure to save your work after you begin, and regularly thereafter.

For each drawing, you can open and choose from the following files if they exist:

■ DrawingFileName.dwg

■ DrawingFileName.bak

■ DrawingFileName_a_b_nnnn.sv$

NOTE The drawing, backup, and recover files are listed in the order of their time stamps—the time when they were last saved.

If you close the Files Recovered dialog box before resolving all affected drawings, you can re-open the dialog box at a later time with the DRAWINGRECOVERY command.

Send an Error Report Automatically to Autodesk

If the program encounters a problem and closes unexpectedly, you can send an error report to help Autodesk diagnose problems with the software. The error report includes information about the state of your system at the time

Repair, Restore, or Recover Drawing Files | 53

the error occurred. You can also add other information, such as what you were doing at the time of the error. The REPORTERROR system variable controls whether the error-reporting feature is available.

54 | Chapter 3 Start and Save Drawings

Control the Drawing Views

Change Views

You can magnify the details in your drawing for a closer view or shift the view to a different part of the drawing. If you save views by name, you can restore them later.

See also:

Rotate Views in Layout Viewports (page 82)

Pan or Zoom a View

You can pan to reposition the view in the drawing area or zoom to change magnification.

With the Realtime option of PAN, you pan dynamically by moving your pointing device. Like panning with a camera, PAN does not change the location or magnification of objects on your drawing; it changes only the view.

You can change the magnification of a view by zooming in and out, which is similar to zooming in and out with a camera. ZOOM does not change the absolute size of objects in the drawing; it changes only the magnification of the view.

When you work with minute parts in your drawing, you may need to zoom out frequently to see an overview of your work. Use ZOOM Previous to return quickly to the prior view.

The options described here are the options most commonly used.

Zoom to Magnify a Specified Rectangular Area

You can quickly zoom on a rectangular area of your drawing by specifying two diagonal corners of the area you are interested in.

The lower-left corner of the area you specify becomes the lower-left corner of the new display. The shape of the zoom area you specify does not correspond exactly to the new view, which must fit the shape of the viewport.

Zoom in Real Time

With the Realtime option, you zoom dynamically by moving your pointing device up or down. By right-clicking, you can display a shortcut menu with additional viewing options.

Zoom to Magnify One or More Objects

ZOOM Objects displays a view with the largest possible magnification that includes all of the objects you selected.

Zoom to View All Objects in the Drawing

ZOOM Extents displays a view with the largest possible magnification that includes all of the objects in the drawing. This view includes objects on layers that are turned off but does not include objects on frozen layers.

56 | Chapter 4 Control the Drawing Views

ZOOM All displays either the user-defined grid limits or the drawing extents, whichever view is larger.

See also:

Scale Views in Layout Viewports (page 77)

Save and Restore Views

When you save specific views by name, you can restore them for layout and plotting or when you need to refer to specific details.

A named view created with the VIEW command consists of a specific magnification, position, and orientation. In each drawing session, you can restore up to 10 previous views displayed in each viewport using ZOOM Previous.

Named views are saved with a drawing and can be used any time. When you are composing a layout, you can restore a named view to a viewport on the layout.

Change Views | 57

Save a View

When you name and save a view, the following settings are saved:

■ Magnification, center point, and view direction

■ View category that you assign to the view (optional)

■ The location of the view (the Model or a specific named layout)

■ Layer visibility in the drawing at the time the view is saved

■ User coordinate system

Restore a Named View

You can use named views to do the following:

■ Restore a view that you use frequently while working in model space.

■ Restore a view on a layout that is zoomed into an area of interest on the

layout.

■ With multiple model or layout viewports, restore a different view in each

one.

Control the 3D Projection Style

You can view both parallel and perspective projection of a 3D model.

Define a Parallel Projection

You can define a parallel projection.

To determine the point or angle in model space, you can

■ Enter a coordinate or angles that represent your viewing location in 3D.

■ Change to a view of the XY plane of the current UCS, a saved UCS, or the

WCS.

Viewing in 3D is available only in model space. If you are working in paper space, you cannot use 3D viewing commands such as VPOINT or PLAN to define paper space views. The view in paper space is always a plan view. Use the PERSPECTIVE system variable to turn off perspective views in drawings created in AutoCAD.

58 | Chapter 4 Control the Drawing Views

Choose Preset 3D Views

You can select predefined standard orthographic and isometric views by name or description.

A quick way to set a view is to choose one of the predefined 3D views. You can select predefined standard orthographic and isometric views by name or description. These views represent commonly used options: Top, Bottom, Front, Left, Right, and Back. In addition, you can set views from isometric options: SW (southwest) Isometric, SE (southeast) Isometric, NE (northeast) Isometric, and NW (northwest) Isometric.

To understand how the isometric views work, imagine you are looking down at the top of a box. If you move toward the lower-left corner of the box, you are viewing the box from the SW Isometric View. If you move toward the upper-right corner of the box, you are viewing it from NE Isometric View.

Define a 3D View with Coordinate Values or Angles

You can define a viewing direction by entering the coordinate values of a point or the measures of two angles of rotation.

This point represents your position in 3D space as you view the model while looking toward the origin (0,0,0). Viewpoint coordinate values are relative to the world coordinate system unless you change the WORLDVIEW system variable. The conventions for defining standard views differ between architectural (AEC) and mechanical design. In AEC design, the perpendicular view of the XY plane is the top or plan view; in mechanical design, the perpendicular view of the XY plane is the front view.

The following illustration shows a view defined by two angles relative to the X axis and the XY plane of the WCS.

Change Views | 59

Change to a View of the XY Plane

You can change the current viewpoint to a plan view of the current UCS, a previously saved UCS, or the WCS.

A plan view is a view aimed toward the origin (0,0,0) from a point on the positive Z axis. This results in a view of the XY plane.

You can restore the view and coordinate system that is the default for most drawings by setting the UCS orientation to World and then setting the 3D view to Plan View.

Hide Lines or Shade 3D Objects

You can create a hidden-line representation or a simple shaded picture of the objects displayed in the current viewport.

Hide Lines in 3D Objects

Suppress the display of objects—partly or entirely—that are located behind other objects in three-dimensional views.

You can create a hidden-line representation of the objects displayed in the current viewport. Hidden-line representations suppress lines, edges, and other

60 | Chapter 4 Control the Drawing Views

objects—partly or entirely—that are located behind the following types of objects:

■ Objects with nonzero thickness

■ Circles

■ Two-dimensional solids

■ Wide polylines

■ Surfaces and 3D solids (when viewing models created in AutoCAD)

The illustration below was created with lines that were extruded by giving them a nonzero thickness.

Objects on layers that are turned off but not frozen can also hide other objects.

You can adjust how hidden lines are displayed by changing the settings in the Hidden Line Settings dialog box.

Display Views with Hidden Lines Removed

For viewing, you can temporarily suppress hidden lines with HIDE.

HIDE suppresses all hidden lines in a view. When the view is regenerated, all objects are displayed normally.

See also:

Set Options for Plotted Objects (page 442)

Add Simple Shading to 3D Objects

Generate a simple shaded picture of the objects displayed in the current viewport.

Change Views | 61

You can create a simple shaded picture of the objects displayed in the current viewport. Shading fills certain objects with a solid color and removes the display of lines that are located behind the shaded objects. Each object is shaded using its current color.

In any view, you can shade the following types of objects:

■ Objects with non-zero 3D thickness

■ Circles

■ Solid-filled polygons

■ Wide polylines

■ Surfaces and 3D solids (when viewing models created in AutoCAD)

Choose Shading Options

On systems that display fewer than 256 colors, SHADE produces an image that removes hidden lines and displays the faces in their original color with no lighting effect.

You have four shading options:

■ 256 Color. Creates shaded faces with no edge highlighting. You need a

256-color display to see the full effect of this option.

■ 256 Color Edge Highlight. Creates shaded faces with edges highlighted

in the background color. You need a 256-color display with the program's standard 256-color map to see the full effect of this option.

■ 16 Color Hidden Line. Simulates a hidden-line display. The faces of

polygons are painted in the background color, and the color of visible edges is determined by the color of the object. You can use any kind of monitor, including monochrome.

■ 16 Color Filled. Draws faces in their original color but does not shade

them. The program hides hidden lines and traces visible edges in the background color. You can use this setting on any kind of monitor.

NOTE

The SHADE command produces only flat shading.

62 | Chapter 4 Control the Drawing Views

Display Multiple Views in Model Space

To see several views at the same time, you can split the drawing area of the Model layout into separate viewing areas called model space viewports. You can save arrangements of model space viewports for reuse at any time.

See also:

Work with Model Space and Paper Space (page 72)

Create and Modify Layout Viewports (page 75)

Set Model Space Viewports

On the Model layout, you can split the drawing area into one or more adjacent rectangular views known as model space viewports.

Viewports are areas that display different views of your model. As you work on the Model layout, you can split the drawing area into one or more adjacent rectangular views known as model space viewports. In large or complex drawings, displaying different views reduces the time needed to zoom or pan in a single view. Also, errors you might miss in one view may be apparent in the others.

Viewports created on the Model layout completely fill the drawing area and do not overlap. As you make changes in one viewport, the others are updated simultaneously. Three model space viewports are shown in the illustration.

Display Multiple Views in Model Space | 63

You can also create viewports on a named (paper space) layout. You use those viewports, called layout viewports, to arrange the views of your drawing on a sheet. You can move and resize layout viewports. By using layout viewports, you have more control over the display; for example, you can freeze certain layers in one layout viewport without affecting the others. For more information about layouts and layout viewports, see Create Multiple-View

Drawing Layouts (Paper Space) (page 71).

Use Model Space Viewports

With model space viewports, you can do the following:

■ Pan; zoom; set Snap, Grid, and UCS icon modes; and restore named views.

■ Draw from one viewport to another when executing a command.

■ Name a viewport arrangement so that you can reuse it on the Model layout

or insert it on a named layout.

Split and Join Model Space Viewports

The illustrations below show several default model space viewport configurations.

You can easily modify model space viewports by splitting and joining them. If you want to join two viewports, they must share a common edge of the same length.

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Select and Use the Current Viewport

When you use multiple viewports, one of them is the current viewport, which accepts cursor input and view commands.

When a viewport is current, the cursor is displayed as crosshairs rather than an arrow, and the viewport boundary is highlighted. You can change the current viewport at any time except when a View command is in progress.

To make a viewport the current viewport, you click inside it or press Ctrl-R to cycle through the existing viewports.

To draw a line using two model space viewports, you start the line in the current viewport, make another viewport current by clicking within it, and then specify the endpoint of the line in the second viewport. In a large drawing, you can use this method to draw a line from a detail in one corner to a detail in a distant corner.

Save and Restore Model Layout Viewport Arrangements

Arrangements of model viewports can be saved and restored by name.

You do not have to set up viewports and views every time you need them. With VPORTS, viewport arrangements can be saved and later restored by name. Settings that are saved with viewport arrangements include

■ The number and position of viewports

Display Multiple Views in Model Space | 65

■ The views that the viewports contain

■ The grid and snap settings for each viewport

■ The UCS icon display setting for each viewport

You can list, restore, and delete the available viewport arrangements. A viewport arrangement saved on the Model layout can be inserted on a named layout.

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Organize Drawings and Layouts

Create Single-View Drawings (Model Space)

To create a two dimensional drawing that has one view, you can create the drawing and its annotation entirely in model space. This is the traditional method for creating drawings with AutoCAD LT.

With this method, you create the building, mechanical part, or geographic area that you want to represent at full scale (1:1), but you create the text, dimensions, and the title block of the drawing at a scale to match the intended plot scale.

Quick Start for Model Space Drafting

The process of creating and plotting a drawing file in model space is very different from the process used in manual drafting.

In AutoCAD LT, there are two distinct working environments that are represented by Model and named layouts.

If you are going to create a two-dimensional drawing that has one view, you can create both the model and its annotation entirely in model space, not using a layout. This is the traditional method for creating drawings with AutoCAD LT. This method is simple but has several limitations, including

■ It is suitable for 2D drawings only

■ It does not support multiple views and view-dependent layer settings

■ Scaling the annotation and title block requires computation unless you use

objects.

With this method, you always draw geometric objects at full scale (1:1) and text, dimensions, and other annotation at a scale that will appear at the correct size when you output the drawing.

For information about using annotative objects and scaling annotations automatically, see Scale Annotations (page 304).

See also:

Create Multiple-View Drawing Layouts (Paper Space) (page 71)

Draw, Scale, and Annotate in Model Space

If you draw and plot from model space, you must determine and apply a scale factor to annotate objects before you plot.

You can draw and plot entirely from model space. This method is useful primarily for two-dimensional drawings that have a single view. With this method, you use the following process:

■ Determine the unit of measurement (drawing units) for the drawing.

■ Specify the display style for the drawing unit.

■ Calculate and set the scale for dimensions, annotations, and blocks.

■ Draw at full scale (1:1) in model space.

■ Create the annotation and insert the blocks in model space.

■ Print the drawing at the predetermined scale.

You can also use objects if you want to scale annotations automatically. For information about using annotative objects and scaling annotations automatically, see Scale Annotations (page 304).

Determine the Unit of Measurement

Before you begin drawing in model space, you determine the unit of measurement (drawing units) that you plan to use. You decide what each unit on the screen represents, such as an inch, a millimeter, a kilometer, or some other unit of measurement. For example, if you are drawing a motor part, you might decide that one drawing unit equals a millimeter. If you are drawing a map, you might decide that one unit equals a kilometer.

68 | Chapter 5 Organize Drawings and Layouts

Specify the Display Style of Drawing Units

Once you have determined a drawing unit for the drawing, you need to specify the style for displaying the drawing unit, which includes the unit type and precision. For example, a value of 14.5 can be displayed as 14.500, 14-1/2, or 1'2-1/2".

Specify the display style of drawing units with the UNITS command. The default drawing unit type is decimal.

Set the Scale for Annotations and Blocks

Before you draw, you should set the scale for dimensions, annotations, and blocks in your drawings. Scaling these elements beforehand ensures that they are at the correct size when you plot the final drawing.

You should enter the scale for the following objects:

■ Text. Set the text height as you create text or by setting a fixed text height

in the text style (STYLE).

■ Dimensions. Set the dimension scale in a dimension style (DIMSTYLE)

or with the DIMSCALE system variable.

■ Linetypes. Set the scale for noncontinuous linetypes with the CELTSCALE

and LTSCALE system variables.

■ Hatch patterns. Set the scale for hatch patterns while creating the hatch

(HATCH), before creating the hatch object with the HPSCALE system variable, or edit the hatch after it has been created.

■ Blocks.Specify the insertion scale for blocks either as you insert them, or

set an insertion scale in the Insert Block dialog box (INSERT).

The system variables used for inserting blocks are INSUNITS, INSUNITSDEFSOURCE, and INSUNITSDEFTARGET. This also applies to the border and title block of the drawing.

You can also use objects if you want to scale annotations automatically. For information about using annotative objects and scaling annotations automatically, see Scale Annotations (page 304).

Determine the Scale Factor for Plotting

To plot your drawing from the Model layout, you calculate the exact scale factor by converting the drawing scale to a ratio of 1:n. This ratio compares plotted units to drawing units that represent the actual size of the objects you are drawing.

Create Single-View Drawings (Model Space) | 69

For example, if you plan to plot at a scale of 1/4 inch = 1 foot, you would calculate the scale factor 48 as follows:

1/4" = 12"

1 = 12 x 4

1 (plotted unit) = 48 (drawing units)

Using the same calculation, the scale factor for 1 centimeter = 1 meter is 100, and the scale factor for 1 inch = 20 feet is 240.

Sample Scale Ratios

The sample architectural scale ratios in the table can be used to calculate text sizes in model space.

Scale factorScale

To plot text size at

Set drawing text size to

30 cm3 mm1001 cm = 1 m

12"1/8"961/8" = 1'-0"

8"1/8"643/16" = 1'-0"

6"1/8"481/4" = 1'-0"

4"1/8"323/8" = 1'-0"

3"1/8"241/2" = 1'-0"

2"1/8"163/4" = 1'-0"

1.5"1/8"121" = 1'-0"

1.0"1/8"81 1/2" = 1'-0"

If you are working in metric units, you might have a sheet size of 210 x 297 mm (A4 size) and a scale factor of 20. You calculate grid limits as follows:

210 x 20 = 4200 mm

70 | Chapter 5 Organize Drawings and Layouts

297 x 20 = 5900 mm

See also:

Specify Units and Unit Formats (page 38)

Create Multiple-View Drawing Layouts (Paper Space)

Paper space is a sheet layout environment where you can specify the size of your sheet, add a title block, display multiple views of your model, and create dimensions and notes for your drawing.

Quick Start for Layouts

There are two distinct working environments, or “spaces,” in which you can create objects in a drawing.

Typically, a model composed of geometric objects is created in a three-dimensional space called model space. A final layout of specific views and annotations of this model is created in a two-dimensional space called paper space.

Working in model space, you draw a model of your subject at 1:1 scale. Working on a named layout, you create one or more layout viewports, dimensions, notes, and a title block to represent a drawing sheet.

Each layout viewport is like a picture frame containing a “photograph” of the model in model space. Each layout viewport contains a view that displays the model at the scale and orientation that you specify. You can also specify which layers are visible in each layout viewport.

After you finish arranging the layout, you turn off the layer that contains the layout viewport objects. The views are still visible, and you can plot the layout without displaying the viewport boundaries.

Understand the Layout Process

When you use a named layout to prepare your drawing for output, you follow a series of steps in a process.

Create Multiple-View Drawing Layouts (Paper Space) | 71

You design the subject of your drawing in model space and prepare it for output on a named layout in paper space. A drawing always has at least one named layout.

Before you can use a layout, it must be initialized. A layout does not contain any page setup information before it is initialized. Once initialized, layouts can be drawn upon and output.

Process Summary

When you prepare a layout, you typically step through the following process:

■ Create a model of your subject in model space.

■ Initialize a named layout.

■ Specify layout page settings such as output device, paper size, drawing

area, output scale, and drawing orientation.

■ Insert a title block into the layout (unless you have started with a drawing

template that already has a title block).

■ Create a new layer to be used for layout viewports.

■ Create layout viewports and position them on the layout.

■ Set the orientation, scale, and layer visibility of the view in each layout

viewport.

■ Add dimensions and annotate in the layout as needed.

■ Turn off the layer containing the layout viewports.

■ Output your layout.

You can also use annotative objects if you want to annotate your drawing in model space and scale the annotations automatically. For information about using annotative objects and scaling annotations automatically, see Scale

Annotations (page 304).

Work with Model Space and Paper Space

There are several benefits to switching between model space and paper space to perform certain tasks. Use model space for creating and editing your model. Use paper space for composing your drawing sheet and defining views.

72 | Chapter 5 Organize Drawings and Layouts

Work in Model Space

By default, you start working in a limitless drawing area called model space. In model space, you draw, view, and edit your model.

You first decide whether one unit represents one millimeter, one centimeter, one inch, one foot, or whatever unit is most convenient or customary in your business. You then create your model at 1:1 scale.

In model space, you can view and edit model space objects. The crosshairs cursor is active over the entire drawing area.

In model space, you can also define named views that you display in layout viewports on a layout.

Work on a Named Layout

Named layouts access an area called paper space. In paper space, you place your title block, create layout viewports to display views, dimension your drawing, and add notes.

In paper space, one unit represents the actual distance on a sheet of paper. The units will be in either millimeters or inches, depending on how you configure your page setup.

On a named layout, you can view and edit paper space objects, such as layout viewports and title blocks. You can also move an object (such as a leader or a title block) from model space to paper space (or vice versa). The crosshairs cursor is active over the entire layout area.

Create Additional Named Layouts

By default, a new drawing starts with two named layouts, named Layout1 and Layout2. If you use a drawing template or open an existing drawing, the layouts in your drawing may be named differently.

You can create a new layout using one of the following methods:

■ Add a new layout with no settings and then specify the settings in the

Page Setup Manager.

■ Copy a layout and its settings from the current drawing file.

■ Import a layout from an existing drawing template (DWT) file or drawing

(DWG) file.

Create Multiple-View Drawing Layouts (Paper Space) | 73

Access Model Space from a Layout Viewport

You can access model space from a layout viewport to edit objects, to freeze and thaw layers, and to adjust the view.

After creating viewport objects, you can access model space from a layout viewport to perform the following tasks:

■ Create and modify objects in model space inside the layout viewport.

■ Pan the view inside the layout viewport and change layer visibility.

The method you use to access model space depends on what you plan to do.

Create and Modify Objects in a Layout Viewport

If you plan to create or modify objects, use the Maximize Viewport button on the status bar to make the layout viewport fill the application window. The center point and the layer visibility settings of the layout viewport are retained, and the surrounding objects are displayed.

You can pan and zoom while you are working in model space, but when you restore the viewport to return to paper space, the position and scale of the objects in the layout viewport are restored.

NOTE If you use PLOT while a viewport is maximized, the layout is restored before the Print dialog box is displayed. If you save and close the drawing while a viewport is maximized, the drawing opens with the named layout restored.

If you choose to switch to the default model space to make changes, the layer visibility settings are the settings for the drawing as a whole, not the settings for that particular layout viewport. Also, the view is not centered or magnified the same way it is in the layout viewport.

Adjust the View in a Layout Viewport

If you plan to pan the view and change the visibility of layers, double-click within a layout viewport to access model space. The viewport border becomes thicker, and the crosshairs cursor is visible in the current viewport only. All active viewports in the layout remain visible while you work. You can freeze and thaw layers in the current viewport in the Layers palette, and you can pan the view. To return to paper space, double-click an empty area on the layout outside a viewport. The changes you made are displayed in the viewport.

74 | Chapter 5 Organize Drawings and Layouts

If you set the scale in the layout viewport before you access model space, you can lock the scale to prevent changes. When the scale is locked, you cannot use ZOOM while you work in model space.

Create and Modify Layout Viewports

You can create a single layout viewport that fits the entire layout or create multiple layout viewports in the layout. Once you create the viewports, you can change their size, their properties, and also scale and move them as needed.

NOTE

It is important to create layout viewports on their own layer. When you are ready to output your drawing, you can turn off the layer and output the layout without the boundaries of the layout viewports.

With MVIEW, you have several options for creating one or more layout viewports. You can also use COPY and ARRAY to create multiple layout viewports.

Create Nonrectangular Layout Viewports

You can create a new viewport with nonrectangular boundaries by converting an object drawn in paper space into a layout viewport.

Create Multiple-View Drawing Layouts (Paper Space) | 75

You can use the MVIEW command to create nonrectangular viewports.

■ With the Object option, you can select a closed object, such as a circle or

closed polyline created in paper space, to convert into a layout viewport. The object that defines the viewport boundary is associated with the viewport after the viewport is created

■ With the Polygonal option, you can create a nonrectangular layout

viewport by specifying points. The prompts are the same as the prompts for creating a polyline

NOTE When you want to suppress the display of the boundary of a layout viewport, you should turn off the layer of the nonrectangular viewport instead of freezing it. If the layer of a nonrectangular layout viewport is frozen, the viewport is not clipped correctly.

Redefine Layout Viewport Boundaries

You can redefine the boundary of a layout viewport by using the VPCLIP command. You can either select an existing object to designate as the new boundary, or specify the points of a new boundary. The new boundary does not clip the old boundary, it redefines it.

A nonrectangular viewport consists of two objects: the viewport itself and the clipping boundary. You can make changes to the viewport, the clipping boundary, or both.

NOTE In the Properties Inspector, the default selection for a nonrectangular viewport is Viewport. This is because you are more likely to change the properties of the viewport than of the clipping boundary.

Resize Layout Viewports

If you want to change the shape or size of a layout viewport, you can use grips to edit the vertices just as you edit any object with grips.

Control Views in Layout Viewports

When you create a layout, you can add layout viewports that act as windows into model space. In each layout viewport, you can control the view that is displayed.

76 | Chapter 5 Organize Drawings and Layouts

Scale Views in Layout Viewports

To scale each displayed view in output accurately, set the scale of each view relative to paper space.

You can change the view scale of the viewport using

■ The Properties Inspector

■ The XP option of the ZOOM command

■ The Viewports Scale on the status bar

NOTE You can modify the list of scales that are displayed in all view and print scale lists with SCALELISTEDIT. After you add a new scale to the default scale list, you can use the Reset button in the Edit Drawing Scales dialog box to add the new scale to your drawing.

When you work in a layout, the scale factor of a view in a layout viewport represents a ratio between the actual size of the model displayed in the viewport and the size of the layout. The ratio is determined by dividing the paper space units by the model space units. For example, for a quarter-scale drawing, the ratio would be a scale factor of one paper space unit to four model space units, or 1:4.

Scaling or stretching the layout viewport border does not change the scale of the view within the viewport.

When creating a new drawing based on a template, the scales in the template are used in the new drawing. The scales in the user profile are not imported.

Lock the Scale of Layout Viewports

Once you set the viewport scale, you cannot zoom within a viewport without changing the viewport scale. By locking the viewport scale first, you can zoom in to view different levels of detail in your viewport without altering the viewport scale.

Scale locking locks the scale that you set for the selected viewport. Once the scale is locked, you can continue to modify the geometry in the viewport without affecting the viewport scale. If you turn a viewport's scale locking on, most of the viewing commands, such as VPOINT, PLAN, and VIEW, no longer function in that viewport.

Create Multiple-View Drawing Layouts (Paper Space) | 77

NOTE Viewport scale locking is also available for nonrectangular viewports. To lock a nonrectangular viewport, you must perform an extra step in the Properties Inspector to select the viewport object rather than the viewport clipping boundary.

Annotative Objects and Scaling

Annotative objects are defined at a paper height instead of a model size and assigned one or more scales. These objects are scaled based on the current annotation scale setting and automatically displayed at the correct size in the layout or when plotted. The annotation scale controls the size of the annotative objects relative to the model geometry in the drawing.

You can specify the default list of scales available for layout viewports, page layouts, and printing in Default Scale List dialog box.

For more information about annotation scaling, see Scale Annotations (page

304).

Control Visibility in Layout Viewports

You can control the visibility of objects in layout viewports using several methods. These methods are useful for emphasizing or hiding different elements of a drawing, and for reducing screen regeneration time.

See also:

Display Annotative Objects (page 314)

Freeze Specified Layers in a Layout Viewport

A major benefit to using layout viewports is that you can selectively freeze layers in each layout viewport. You can also specify default visibility settings for new viewports and for new layers. As a result, you can view different objects in each layout viewport.

You can freeze or thaw layers in current and future layout viewports without affecting other viewports. Frozen layers are invisible. They are not regenerated or plotted. In the illustration, the layer showing terrain has been frozen in one viewport.

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Thawing the layer restores visibility. The easiest way to freeze or thaw layers in the current viewport is to use the Layers palette.

In the Layers palette, on the right side, use the column labeled VP Freeze to freeze one or more layers in the current layout viewport. To display the VP Freeze column, you must be on a layout. Specify the current layout viewport by double-clicking anywhere within its borders.

Freeze or Thaw Layers Automatically in New Layout Viewports

You can set visibility defaults for specific layers in all new layout viewports. For example, you can restrict the display of dimensions by freezing the DIMENSIONS layer in all new viewports. If you create a viewport that requires dimensions, you can override the default setting by changing the setting in the current viewport. Changing the default for new viewports does not affect existing viewports.

Create New Layers That Are Frozen in All Layout Viewports

You can create new layers that are frozen in all existing and new layout viewports. Then you can thaw the layers in the viewports you specify. This is a shortcut for creating a new layer that is visible only in a single viewport.

Screen Objects in Layout Viewports

Screening refers to applying less ink to an object when it is plotted. The object appears dimmer on the screen and output to paper. Screening can be used to help differentiate objects in a drawing without changing the objects' color properties.

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To assign a screening value to an object, you must assign a plot style to the object, and then define the screening value in that plot style.

You can assign a screening value from 0 to 100. The default setting, 100, means no screening is applied, and the object is displayed with normal ink intensity. A screening value of 0 means the object contains no ink and is thus invisible in that viewport.

See also:

Set Options for Plotted Objects (page 442)

Turn Layout Viewports On or Off

You can save time by turning some layout viewports off or by limiting the number of active viewports.

Displaying a large number of active layout viewports can affect your system's performance as the content of each layout viewport regenerates. You can save time by turning some layout viewports off or by limiting the number of active viewports. The following illustration shows the effects of turning off two layout viewports.

New layout viewports are turned on by default. If you turn off the layout viewports you aren't using, you can copy layout viewports without waiting for each one to regenerate.

If you don't want to plot a layout viewport, you can turn the layout viewport off.

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Autodesk 057B1-41A111-1001 - AutoCAD LT 2010, AutoCAD LT 2013 User Manual

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