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AutoCAD LT - 2013
User's Guide
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Autodesk AutoCAD AutoCAD LT - 2013 User's Guide

AutoCAD LT 2013
User's Guide
January 2012
©
2012 Autodesk, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Except as otherwise permitted by Autodesk, Inc., this publication, or parts thereof, may not
be reproduced in any form, by any method, for any purpose.
Certain materials included in this publication are reprinted with the permission of the copyright holder.
Trademarks
All other brand names, product names or trademarks belong to their respective holders.
Disclaimer
THIS PUBLICATION AND THE INFORMATION CONTAINED HEREIN IS MADE AVAILABLE BY AUTODESK, INC. "AS IS." AUTODESK, INC. DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE REGARDING THESE MATERIALS.

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
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
Chapter 13 Render Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 521
Draw 2D Isometric Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 521
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.
1
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.
1
■ 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
6

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.
2
■ 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
7
■ 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
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