This week we will take a simple look at rotating objects. This one is not as long and thought provoking as last weeks episode………..

The Basics to AutoCAD
Part 5

By now you should be fairly confident in drawing lines, circles and ellipses. You should be able to move them around your model space at will and you should be able to set up your AutoCAD Interface for your ease of finding the icons we need to use. If you are not quite there yet don’t panic, just go back through the tutorials and move to the next one only when you are ready. There is no rush to complete, unless you have a target!

Time To Turn Around……………..

So we have learnt how to draw some objects in constrained positions, i.e. a circle with its centre at 0,0. What we are going to discuss today is rotation, or as AutoCAD likes to call it ROTATE. Below is a diagram that maybe familiar to you from our “co-ordinates” lesson. We will be using this diagram to show how Rotate works.

I will try and keep this as simple as possible, if I can.
Right then, I have drawn four lines, the blue ones, labelled A, B, C and D.
LINE A; from its end point, where the X and Y axis cross, is at an angle of 36˚ from the X-axis in

the positive direction. It is rotated about its end point. AutoCAD by default sets the X-axis as 0˚,

this can be changed but I would suggest it is left well alone.
The red lines indicate the positive directions that all four lines have been rotated around their end
points.

LINE B; from its end point is rotated about that point 160˚.

LINE C; from its end point it is rotated 180˚ + 68˚ = 248˚. The 180˚ comes from LINE C being below the X-axis. The 68˚ comes from the angle, in a positive direction, from that axis. These two values are then added together to give us the 248˚.

LINE D; this is rotated about its end point 180˚ + 145˚ = 325˚. Well we know where the 180˚ comes from, see LINE C. the 145˚ comes from the angle the line is away from the 180˚ point of the X-axis, i.e. 180˚ -35˚ = 145˚.

Ok so we have determined the angles, in the positive direction, at which the four lines have been drawn, by simple math. Now let’s look at the negative direction!

This is basically worked as an opposite of the positive direction because the lines are below the X-axis; look at LINE C and LINE D.

LINE C; is rotated about its end point -35˚.

LINE D; is rotated about its end point -112˚. (180˚ - 68˚ = 112˚).

Read through these two or three times to get a better idea of how the angles work. When we start rotating objects it will become a lot easier to understand, but we must go through the theory part to help you understand.

Let’s rotate it then………

Right then here we go, let’s do it…………

OK open AutoCAD as normal. Hopefully you have set up your interface as instructed in the last tutorial. If you haven’t, then go back and do that now.

First things first, make sure the ORTHO and OSNAP buttons are turned ON.

Now draw a line from left to right across your screen, the length and position is not a concern just yet. Select the ROTATE icon button from your toolbar menu on the left; MODIFY toolbar, 7^th icon down, a circle with an arrow on it.

Your cursor turns into a small square. With the cursor, select the line by left clicking on it. If it is selected it should be shown as dotted. Now right click your mouse. Your cursor crosshairs return. By moving the crosshairs close to the left hand end of the line we can select its end point when the little orange box appears. When it does, left click your mouse. We have now told AutoCAD the point about where we want to rotate our line.

If you move your mouse in a circle around the left hand end of the line you will see a representation of the line being rotated into three positions as you go. As we have our ORTHO button on, we are constraining AutoCAD to the X and Y axis directions. So, go down and turn off the ORTHO button by left clicking on it. Now go back and if you still have the line selected move in a circle again around the left hand end we selected. Now the line should be permanently attached to your crosshairs and you should be able to move it round and round and round and round and rou…. I’m getting dizzy now.

OK, left click where ever you want. There is your line rotated about its left hand end point.

To rotate the line from its other end just go through the same procedure but select the right hand end of the line. As a little test, see if you can rotate your line about its centre!

How good was that?

Now let’s do some rotating using some values.

First make sure your ORTHO button is turned off and your OSNAP button is turned on.

Draw a triangle with these line values, (0,0) enter, (45,0) enter, (45,45) enter, (0,0) enter and press enter again. You should have an equilateral triangle on screen. What we are going to do is change one of the existing angles from 45˚ to 30˚.

Select the ROTATE icon from the toolbar and then select the diagonal line with your mouse, right click once selected. Then select the end of the line at the bottom left, when the little orange square appears. The line is now attached to your crosshairs as before.

What we want to do is decrease the angle we have at the moment, which is 45˚, to 30˚. So to do this we just type into the command line -15 and press enter. The software does the rest.

OK, I want you to save this drawing with the file name TRIANGLE1. We will use it again in the next lesson. See those two long lines on the top point of the triangle………..we are going to remove the long bits past where they intersect next time.

Back to today.

So what if I want to draw a line 100 units long at an angle of 57˚?

Well this is what you do. For a start let’s begin with a new drawing. Select the LINE icon and draw a line, with your ORTHO on, left to right, 100 units long. Now select your rotate button, select the line and rotate it from the left hand end 57˚ by typing that value into the command line. That’s the easy way………..

Now the more complicated way, but you will need to learn this as you will, at some stage, find the need to draw a line like this.

This is all done on the command line. First though select your line button, type in (0,0) and press enter. Right now it gets a bit more technical. I will explain each command when we have finished, it won’t hurt I promise…….. Now type in @100<57 and press enter, and enter again. There is your 100 unit line at 57˚.

Now the explanation………. See diagram below………….

Ok so now try drawing some lines with different start points, you don’t always need to use (0,0), select the start points at random. Then enter values of your choosing but one thing you must

know, the angle value can only be to a maximum of 360, as there are only 360˚ in a circle. If you do use a value larger than 360 for the angle AutoCAD will start at 0 and keep going round in a circle until it reaches the value you give it. But between you and me, you will never see a value over 360. Remember you need to always use the @ and < symbols and when you want to finish your line either press enter again or right click your mouse.

How did you get on? Here’s one for you…… now that you have tried with positive numbers, try inputting some negative values for both the distance and angle. Try mixing negative and positive values on the same command.

Well that’s all for this time…… next time we will get back to our drawing that we started a couple of weeks ago.

As usual here is the download that goes with the tutorial;

the-basics-to-autocad-pt-5

Tags: rotate

This week we will be looking at your computer screen……. the interface!

The Basics to AutoCAD

Part 4

Before we get too involved with more drawing there is a bit of AutoCAD housekeeping that we need to do. We are going to have a look at the AutoCAD interface that we are working with today. Hopefully by the end of this lesson you will have the basics behind setting your software up for your own comfort. Sorry but this one is a bit long winded.

OK then, open AutoCAD as normal. There are six main areas that we are concerned with,

Model Space (Drawing Space)

Main Menu Ribbon

AutoCAD Toolbars

Paper Space Tabs

Command Line

AutoCAD Tray Settings                  See diagram below……….

Model Space (Drawing Space).

The model space is the real world. What you draw in this space is actual size depending on what units have been set up in the default drawing when AutoCAD opens. We will go into building our own template to open when AutoCAD opens at a later date.

Main Menu Ribbon.

Like any other windows based software AutoCAD has its own drop down menus. From here almost all operations can be accessed and used. I rarely use this method as it can be time consuming and confusing sometimes.

AutoCAD Toolbars.

AutoCAD has its own toolbars which you can use and customise to your heart’s content. We will be looking at these later in this lesson.

Paper Space Tabs.

These tabs take you to your paper space. Don’t worry too much about them just yet as we will be using them later in these tutorials. For now if you click one of the tabs you will see a representation of a sheet of paper, this will become your drawing.

Command Line.

This is where AutoCAD does its business. If you are struggling with something you are drawing, typing a word in this line may help. Try typing circle and see what happens…….don’t forget to press enter. Numerical values are typed into this line to constrict lengths of lines, radii of circles and even directions, which will be covered soon.

AutoCAD Tray Settings.

For the basic user there are only three buttons that we are seriously concerned with here, ORTHO, OSNAP and MODEL. I will deal with these buttons a little later in this tutorial.

Toolbars………….

Around the edge of your Model Space there are some AutoCAD Toolbars. For me they are the easiest way to instruct AutoCAD in how you want to proceed with your drawing. AutoCAD has numerous default toolbars in its system and after years of using the software I have found my four most useful toolbars and made one custom toolbar with a couple of AutoCAD operations on it.

So where do we find these toolbars? Quite simple really………..drag your mouse over to one of the toolbars and click your right button. A drop down menu appears with a list of all the default toolbars that AutoCAD has its system. What we are going to do is open, delete, move and lock some toolbars.

OK then, in this drop down list some toolbars are already ticked. They are the ones we have already been using, DRAW and MODIFY being the two main ones, and then LAYERS, PROPERTIES, STANDARD and STYLES being the other ticked. So in all you should only have these six toolbars ticked. If you have more than these ticked, don’t be scared untick (deselect) them now. If AutoCAD asks is this what you want to do, just say yes.

So now your AutoCAD interface should look something like the diagram below……….

If it’s not quite looking like that then we will not worry about that right now as we are about to open some new toolbars.

Now then, with your mouse on one of your toolbars, right click to open the drop down menu.

There are two toolbars which we will start to use in the next tutorial so we need them. Find the DIMENSION toolbar and left click to select it. It should appear in the model space window. Now go and select the OBJECT SNAP toolbar and that will appear in the window as well. As in the diagram below……………………

As you can tell these toolbars are now directly in your drawing area. So we need to move them. With your mouse click and hold on the coloured bar across the top of a toolbar and drag it. You can now place the toolbar where you wish on your AutoCAD interface. If you drag them to the sides they will attach themselves to the frame of the interface when you release the mouse button. Try it. Once they are attached, two bars appear at the top of the attached tool bar. If you pick these with your left mouse and drag it back into your work area it will bring the toolbar with it.

These two new toolbars, DIMENSION and OBJECT SNAP, will be the ones we will leave on the interface, so we need to dock them.

First we need to move the MODIFY bar. This is the one to the right; drag it onto the work area. Now set up your interface as I have mine. It will be easier for us to go through the rest of the tutorials if we are all working from the same page. See the diagram below…….

All we need to do now is lock them in place. Right click on any toolbar and select LOCK LOCATION and then DOCKED TOOLBARS from the drop down menu. This will lock your toolbars in place and you won’t move them accidentally.

We will go into customisation in greater detail later in the series.

So basically that is toolbars covered, we have the main ones on our interface now and we will have them there all the time. Everytime you open AutoCAD they will be there now.

AutoCAD Tray Settings……….

Finally we are going to have a quick look at the tray settings tabs at the very bottom of your interface.

The two main ones that we will be using are ORTHO and OSNAP. If you want to know more about the other tabs they are comprehensively covered in the help section of your AutoCAD software.

In Ortho mode, when the tab is selected, your cursor movement is constrained to the horizontal or vertical direction (relative to the UCS). Try drawing two diagonal lines with and without the ortho button selected. As you will see when the ortho button is on your direction is constrained. This is, as you will discover, really useful when drawing almost anything.

Osnap is a way of picking points on various objects. Take your cursor to the OSNAP button and right click, then select SETTINGS. The illustration below show what appears………

As you can see there are a few choices to make……….. I usually have the following checked…….

If you select the same boxes then click OK we will be up and running.

Ok let’s see how this all works. With your ORTHO and OSNAP buttons on we will draw a line in the centre of your scene going from left to right. OK, now we will draw another line from the centre of the first line in a northerly direction. Click the line icon and run your mouse over the line you have already drawn. Three things happen, as you move your mouse over the length of the line, a box appears at each end and a triangle appears in the centre. These are the SNAP POINTS that we have constrained AutoCAD to select for us in the OSNAP settings box we had on scene just a minute ago.

Well we want the centre, so when the triangle appears again left click your mouse. You do not need to be directly above the triangle to select it as AutoCAD is constrained to make the selection. Now move your mouse above the line as far as you want and finish the line.

Now what we want to do is draw a circle with a radius the distance between the two ends of the two lines.

Select your circle icon. Your circle centre is going to be one of the ends of the horizontal line. So when you move your mouse near to the one of the horizontal line ends left click when the box appears. This is the centre of your circle. Now move your cursor towards the most northerly point of the vertical line. When the box appears, indicating the end point of the line, left click to accept. Your circle will be drawn automatically with the centre on the end of the horizontal line and the circle itself touching the top of the vertical line at some point.

Again if the circle does not fit on the scene, type z and press enter, then e and press enter.

If you right click on your OSNAP button again you will notice that we have selected more the just end points and mid points. We will be using a lot of them, if not all in the weeks to come.

As you have the basic idea about lines, circles and ellipses, have a go at drawing them using the ORTHO and OSNAP buttons both on and off.

Well that’s it for now. I know there is a lot to take in with this tutorial but these are important items to look at and learn how to use. They will be second nature once you set them up to your own liking. I rarely work without ortho and osnap. And trust me you will find the same thing happening to you soon as well………

Happy drawing for now…………………….

Here are the downloadable bits……..

interface          the-basics-to-autocad-pt-4

Tags: Interface, Toolbar

Well it’s Monday and the start of a new week, so here’s the next tutorial for you……

The Basics to AutoCAD

Part 3

Well I hope you managed to complete the drawing at the end of part 2, we are going to move the circles around this lesson. Should be fun…….. Oh the illustration below is the one from the last part and you should have something similar but without all the numbers, letters and arrows. If not then have another go at drawing it now, remembering to enter all the details onto the command line. If you remembered to save this drawing then open the file from within AutoCAD and let’s get to it………………….

Ok then moving stuff………

As you may have noticed if you have been here from the beginning, none of the circles are where they should be. We are now going to move them; first one at a time and then all together………… should be a laugh.

From the toolbar to the right select the move icon, it looks like a plus sign with little arrows on the points. Then with your mouse select your smallest circle by left clicking on the circle. The circle will change to a dotted line and your curser is still the small box. This is because we have not told AutoCAD anything yet apart from the fact that we want to move the small circle.

But where do we want to move the circle from and to? Well we are going to move it from its present position to somewhere near the WCS (the X,Y thingy bottom left).

Right click your mouse and the cross hairs of the cursor re-appear. Move the cross hair somewhere near to small circle and left click. Now when you move your mouse the small circle will be attached to the cross hair and a line showing from where you have collected it appears. Don’t panic as this will disappear shortly.

Move the cursor, with the circle attached towards the WCS, when you are near to it, left click. There you go, easier than moving house…………

Now select the next size circle and move it so it sits above the small circle you just moved. Continue to move all the circles until they are in a line above each other from smallest at the bottom to largest at the top.

You should have something similar to the illustration above but without the circle radius details.

Ok now we are going to move the circles to a specific point on the drawing. This is done by entering details on the command line. First select the move icon from the toolbar. The command line is asking for Select objects, the part in the brackets will be talked over in another  lesson, select the small circle with your mouse, left click on it, then right click to tell AutoCAD this is the object we want to move.

Now in the command line we are being asked Specify base point or [Displacement], we will specify the centre of the circle by typing center on the command line, press enter.

Here’s a special note for all the British people using these tutorials. AutoCAD is an American piece of software and as some of you may know they spell some words in the English language slightly different to us Brits. So you must remember if you are entering full words into the command line to use the American version of spelling, not the British way.

Ok so now we have used the correct spelling the command line is asking of.

What? I hear you asking…….we have asked for the centre, now we need to show AutoCAD “of” what centre we want. Move the cursor towards the small circle, as you get closer to the circle a small cross hair and a coloured circle appear inside our small circle. This is called the node; we will cover them briefly next time. Once these have appeared left click your mouse, the small circle now moves to the intersection of your mouse cross hair.

The command line is now asking Specify second point. Rather than picking a random point with the mouse, we are going to tell AutoCAD a specific point to put the circle. So type 0,0 and press enter. The circle is now centred on 0,0 and the WCS.

Now do the same for all the other five circles, positioning them all at 0,0 and you should end up with something like the illustration below………….

Ok now we are going to move all the circles at the same time to the point of the drawing to the top right…………..gulp!

Select the move icon as normal, then select each circle individually or drag a box over the circles with the left mouse button held down, once they are covered by the box that you make using the mouse, release the button. All the circles should be inside the box, left click and they all become selected in one go. This is the easiest and quickest way to select items that you may need to move that are close together.

Now your circles are selected, they should all be dotted lines, we need to select their centre again, so in the command line type center and press enter. Move the cursor close to the circles and when the small cross hair and little coloured circle appear left click your mouse. All the circles should now be attached to your cursor ready to be put in their new position.

From when you originally draw the shape, we know that the top right hand corner has a reference point of 897,897 so go ahead and type those values into your command line, press enter.

The circles should now be centred on the top right corner of your drawing. If they are then well done, if not, go back and start again, do not pass go and do not collect £200……………..

Save your drawing as lesson pt3 in the same place that you save your first drawing, we may use them both next time.

So now you know how to move objects in drawings. Again, go and have a play and get used to single picking and multi picking items you want to move………………… oh, while you’re at it, try moving some of the lines around as well.

moving       the-basics-to-autocad-pt-3

So that’s part 3 done and dusted.

Next week will be a little in depth as we look at the AutoCAD interface.

Tags: Move

Here we are again with another AutoCAD installment. Hopefully the lines went well, so this time we are talking Circles and Ellipses……..

Enjoy……..

The Basics to AutoCAD

Part 2

So in our first lesson we went over the basic idea of drawing some lines and hopefully you have got that idea mastered. This time we are going for the good old circles and ellipses routine. You know the one where the straight line goes round corners!!!! Well not so much corners just yet. At the end of this lesson we will start to build our drawing that was illustrated in the first lesson, as we will then have some of the components for it.

Round and round we go………..

OK standard routine, open your AutoCAD software as you did before. AutoCAD should open to a default dwg, labelled Drawing1.dwg, if it has not and is asking which template you want to open, select acad.dwt.

Drawing1.dwg should now be open and ready to use in your AutoCAD software.

Here we go then, lets draw some circles.

Click on the circle icon in the left hand toolbar, it’s generally about the seventh one down, a circle with a dot in the centre. With your mouse, left click once anywhere on the screen (this is the circles centre point). Move your mouse in any direction away from that point and left click again (this is the circles radius). That is your circle finished.

How simple was that? Can I go now? Oh there’s more………

The only problem is that you are randomly producing circles in various positions and of varying sizes, depending on where you make those mouse clicks. What we need to do is tell the software the position and size of our circle, and that is simple.

Select the circle icon from the toolbar and click in the drawing space, before you make your second click, just type in 50 and press enter on your keyboard. You have just drawn a circle with a radius of 50 units. Well done.

Let’s just go back a step because we still have not told AutoCAD where we want our circle. Take a look at the command line as we draw our circle. When the circle icon is activated _circle Specify center point for circle or [3P/2P/Ttr (tan tan radius)] is displayed. For the time being the part in the brackets is not of too much concern to us. The first part of this line is, it is asking us for a starting point in our drawing space, like 0,0. In fact that would be a good place to draw our circle, so, on the command line type 0,0 and press enter. Now on the command line Specify radius of circle or [Diameter] is displayed. By default AutoCAD is in radius mode, so just type 50 and press enter on your keyboard.

If you cannot see your circle, on the command line type z, then press enter, type e, press enter. Your circle will appear and fill your drawing space.

You will notice that at the centre of the circle there are two arrows, one pointing north and one east with Y and X respectively. This is the WCS icon, World Co-Ordinate System and is positioned by default at 0,0 by AutoCAD. We will cover the use and need for this in a later tutorial, but for now don’t worry about it.

So there you have it a circle with a radius of 50 units with its centre at 0,0.

Right something for you to try…….

Draw these circles with these following details inputting the data onto the command line………..

Don’t forget to start each circle by activating the circle icon from the toolbar……..

45,80              radius 25

60,50              radius 23

75,80              radius 25

90,50              radius 23

105,80            radius 23

75,80              radius 23

45,80              radius 23

105,80            radius 25

90,50              radius 25

60,50              radius 25…  if you can’t see the drawing type z, press enter, type e, press enter.

Well what do you see? It should look something like the Olympic rings??!!?? If not have another go, there is no substitute for practice.

But what if I’m only given the diameter of a circle? Hmmm I thought you would ask that. Simple really, the radius of a circle is always half that of its diameter, so whatever the value of your diameter, your radius will be half that value.

AutoCAD can also draw your circle if you give it the diameter value. If we go back to drawing our normal circle, we first specify its centre point, then in the command line AutoCAD asks for Specify radius of circle or [Diameter]. Rather than enter a numerical value just type d and press enter. This is now telling AutoCAD to draw our circle to a diameter value we are about to give it. Get the idea? Try doing the exercise with the details for the rings but rather than radius values use them as diameter values. Don’t forget type d and enter before you enter your numerical values. See what happens.

Ok so that’s the basic principle for drawing circles. How about a squashed one, an ellipse? Well believe it or not they are almost as easy.

Firstly an ellipse is basically a squashed circle as I just said, it is made up from two main constraints, its axis. There is always one long axis and one short one. AutoCAD draws an ellipse by using the values of these two axis.

Select the ellipse icon, usually a couple of icons below the circle icon. Left click in the drawing space this gives you the end of your first axis. Move the mouse away to another random point and left click again, this gives you the end of that same axis. You will notice that now you have defined the length of the first axis the ellipse is shown by AutoCAD, but as you move your mouse around it changes size. Left click again, anywhere away from your last position. This defines the length of the second axis, although you may notice it is only half the width of the ellipse that you are defining. There is nothing wrong with that it’s just the way AutoCAD draws ellipses.

And there you have it, a squashed circle!!! Have a play with drawing them freehand for now and get used to how AutoCAD draws an ellipse.

OK this is all well and good but Mr. Brookes is back asking for an ellipse as part of a design he needs. He has given us its finished size of 350 units by 225 units. To produce an ellipse to exact sizes we need to use the good old command line. So let’s get started.

Select the ellipse icon from the toolbar. Note the instruction in the command line, it/s asking for a start point for one of our axis, Specify axis endpoint of ellipse or [Arc/Center]. Again for now we are not interested in the detail within the brackets. Click anywhere in the drawing space of the AutoCAD window. Once you have done that another command appears Specify other endpoint of axis, now rather than just picking any point we have a definite size to work to. Let’s use the larger size for the length of this axis, type 350 in the command line and press enter. Your ellipse now comes into view on the screen and if you move your mouse around without clicking you will see it changing shape and size in one direction only. That is because we have restricted one axis to a definite length.

OK now on the command line the next request is Specify distance to other axis or [Rotation]. Again we will ignore the detail in the brackets for now. This command is asking for our second size, but be careful here. Before we enter any values read the line again, Specify distance to other axis. AutoCAD is asking for a distance from the edge of the ellipse to the centre of the ellipse. If you move your mouse around a little you will see a line from the curser to the centre of the ellipse. So the finished size we have been given of 225 needs to be halved and entered, type 112.5 and press enter. And there you have it an ellipse to the exact size requested from Mr. Brookes.

Have a practise by selecting your own random sizes and see what happens. As I said ellipses are as easy as circles but just a little more involved when you have the exact sizes.

Well now you know how to draw lines, circles and ellipses. As promised we are going to start our drawing now. Below is an illustration for beginning our drawing. Just go and enter all the values via the command lines as you have done previously. For the time being it does not matter where the circles are placed, we will be moving them at a later date.

When you have completed the drawing to this stage you will need to save it ready for next time. Just save the file as you would any other file on your computer. From the file drop down list select save as, in the Save Drawing As window select a location where you want to save the drawing or make a new folder at a location of your choice.

On the File name line give the drawing the name lesson pt2, and be sure that in the Files of type line AutoCAD 2000/LT2000 Drawing [*.dwg] is selected from the drop down tab. By saving back to this version of AutoCAD, if you need to send your drawings out to other people the possibilities are they will be able to open this file. Click Save.

If you want to get a bit more adventurous in the Files of type line, you could use AutoCAD 2000/LT2000 DXF [*.dxf]. This is a Data Exchange File and is used by a lot of other applications similar to AutoCAD.

Some graphic design software can read dxf files as well, like Adobe Illustrator and CorelDraw.

Well that’s it for this time round, get it…………. Round……….circles, ellipses………. Never mind. Go and practise your circles, ellipses and lines from before. Hopefully we’ll get you moving and turning stuff next time…………

Here are your downloads to go with this tutorial………

circles      ellipse      the-basics-to-autocad-pt-2

Don’t forget if you have any questions contact us through the blog.

Tags: circle, ellipse

After two weeks of talking about it finally the first of our “The Basics of AutoCAD” tutorials is here.

Hopefully every week we will be posting “idiot” proof tutorials for you. they come with a zipped PDF download and sometimes with a movie.

we have tried to keep them as short and as simple as we can so that you have time to take in all the information and then the chance to go away and practice at your own leisure.

Enjoy…………

The Basics to AutoCAD

Part 1

Over the next few weeks, months, years……. Oh however long it takes. I hope to help with the basic questions and answers about learning to draw in AutoCAD. These tutorials will be posted as often as I can physically produce them and I will try and keep them idiot proof for the total beginner.

What I will be aiming at in our first series of tutorials will be to draw the layout shown below and print it on a piece of A4 paper, on your home printer, and to scale!!!! Sound good? Trust me it should not take too long to get into the whole swing of it……..

Good luck and happy drawing……..

Let’s Draw Some Lines…….

First things first, open your AutoCAD software from your desktop icon or your start menu as you would any other programme. AutoCAD should open to a default dwg, labelled Drawing1.dwg, if it has not and is asking which template you want to open, select acad.dwt. Later in these tutorials we will show you how to set up opening your own default template automatically when AutoCAD opens.

Drawing1.dwg should now be open and ready to use in your AutoCAD software.

Ok then let’s draw some lines……..

The quickest and easiest way is simply to click on the line icon to the top left of the AutoCAD drawing space, then with your mouse, left click once anywhere on the screen (line start point). Move your mouse in any direction away from the original point and left click again (line end point).  Now right click and select enter from the drop down list. That is your line finished.

How easy was that?

Now, let’s be more accurate, Mr. Brookes has asked for a line 100 units long. First we need to remove the line you have just drawn. Select the erase icon, it looks like a pencil eraser to the right of the screen, then select the line, by left clicking your mouse on the line, then a right click to erase it.

Now we need to draw our 100 unit long line. Notice at the bottom of the window a Command Line, this is where we will draw our 100 unit line. First select the line icon as before, now instead of clicking in the drawing window, click on the command line. You should notice a command there _line Specify first point: A cursor begins to flash, it is waiting for information. The information we are going to give it is the start point of our line. Type in 0,0 and press enter on your keyboard. Another command should appear, Specify next point or (Undo). Well we need to give the line it’s next point so type in 100,0 and press enter, this is our end point. Again the command line has asked for another point but we do not need to give one as our 100 unit line is drawn, so just press enter again and your line is complete.

Your line will either be really small or too large for the screen at the minute, so we need to get it to fit in the drawing space. For now in the command line type z, enter and then e, enter. Your line should be horizontal across the centre of your drawing space.

Ok now you get the basic idea behind drawing a line, as freehand or by specific size. Mess around with these ideas a little bit just to get used to the AutoCAD interface.

The Co-Ordinate System;

Ok so you have just drawn a line……. And it was 100 units in length. Everything that you draw in AutoCAD is exact, no matter how small or large. Your model space is as big as you want it to be and is the “real world”. Your paper space, which we will pick up on later, is a window into that “real world”. The co-ordinate system helps you position your drawing in the places you require.

An X, Y co-ordinate system is the plane on which you will begin to draw 2D drawings in AutoCAD, this is called the World Co-Ordinate System or WCS in AutoCAD. 3D drawings use a third axis “Z”, but we will not involve ourselves with this at this stage. Below is a simple diagram showing how the X, Y system works….

AutoCAD uses this X, Y system to determine the positions of any lines that are drawn within it. Any single line that you draw has two points, a start point and an end point. As shown in the diagram above there are two points, (3,2) the start point and (11,8) the end point of our line. There is also (0,0) this is the origin point and all other references (3,2) and (11,8) are relative to this point.

99% of the time there will be no indication of where the Origin is. A line is then drawn with an end point relative to its start point.

Many times when you build a drawing it will be in the positive X,Y area (upper right). Many times will occur when you will need to add to your drawing parts that you have forgotten to include, or that you will be asked to include at a later stage. These additional features may then take you into the negative areas of the co-ordinate system. So you may come across points with references like (-4,8) or (-3,-7). This is only natural when you venture across the line!!!

Ok that’s all there is for now. Like I said short and sweet, but there is more than enough for you to practise with here. For a start try drawing lines freehand, even try giving lines X and Y values. Try those negative values as well and see what happens.

Until next time have fun drawing your lines…………………..

View the video tutorial to this lesson…
PART ONE    PART TWO

Download this lesson as a PDF file (requires Acrobat reader) AutoCAD basics Part One

Tags: AutoCAD, Basic AutoCAD, Line, Tutorial

As promised we will be posting AutoCAD Tutorials for the new user.

Trust us, when we say basic, we mean it! We have even made some short videos to go with each tutorial, so you can what and read.

Come back on Thursday for our first tutorial, How to draw a line! How basic is that!

Here at 33 Squared Ltd, along with other services, we offer a complete CAD service and over the past few months the dilemma of different software has arisen on many an occasion.

AutoCAD, SolidWorks, Rhino, Bryce, 3DS Max, CAD/CAM and the like have all raised their heads. One thing we have found that is native to all the software we have encountered thus far is the good old DXF file format.

Data Exchange Files do exactly what they say on the tin. As long as you save back to a resonable software issue, for example AutoCAD 2000 or 2000LT if you use AutoCAD, then 90% of all other software will be able to read and open your DXF file.

Get your FREE advert listed with 33 Squared.

·         A full web page dedicated to your website, business or services. You decide.

·         Contact details.

·         Email address details.

·         Map directions.

·         Unlimited text.

·         Up to 10 photos.

·         Your company Logo.

How long is it free for?
We are offering this service for free over August and September.

Do I have to pay for my advert after this time?
No. Because you are helping us, we will give you a year’s free advertising.

Is there a contract or any commitment?
No. At the end of your free year if your want to withdraw your advert, we will oblige without hesitation.

How much will it be to advertise?
There will be a standard fee of £90 per year for your advert.
We will also offer each category a TOP SPOT POSITION that will guarantee your listing comes first in our search pages. This will be an extra £80 per year but is limited to one per category.

Okay, how do I sign up?
Simple, just contact us via the contact form and we will email you the instructions to sign up.

Tags: advert, Free advertising, online advertising

Starting in August, 33 Squared will begin a series of tutourials aimed at the novice AutoCAD user. If you know nothing about AutoCAD then this is the place to be. Every week we will by posting new tutourials, absolutely free, starting with the very basics like drawing lines and circles taking you through to hopefully plotting a drawing on your own printer at home on A4 paper. We look forward to seeing you here every week  beginning in early August.

MPS (Membrane Pressing Services Ltd) last week released their new web site.
MPS came to 33 Squared to re design their existing web site which needed an up to date look. We gave the site a back end client management system with the facility to load new and used machinery that MPS sell meaning they now have the tools to sell their machines on line.

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