autocad 2008 autocad lt 2008 no experience required - phần 5 pptx

FIGURE 7.39: (Continued) 5. Highlight Cabin07c.dwg, and click Open. The Load dialog box closes, and you are returned to your drawing. Now the left side of the DesignCenter lists your drawings in the Training Data folder and Cabin07c.dwg is highlighted; the right side of the DesignCenter shows the types of objects in Cabin07c.dwg that are available to be copied into the current drawing—in this case, Drawing4.dwg (see the left of Figure 7.40). 6. On the left side once again, click the + symbol to the left of Cabin07c.dwg. The list of named objects in the right panel now appears below Cabin07c.dwg in the tree view on the left. Click the Layers icon on the left side. The list of layers in Cabin07c.dwg appears in the panel on the right (see the right of Figure 7.40). 7. Click the Views button above the right window of the DesignCenter (the button on the far right). Choose List in the menu that opens. This changes the view of layers displayed into a list. 8. Use the Shift and Ctrl keys to help you select all the layers except 0, Balcony, Fixtures, and Walls (see Figure 7.41). Chapter 7 • Combining Objects into Blocks268 26531ch07.qxd 4/3/07 12:52 PM Page 268 FIGURE 7.40: The DesignCenter displaying the files in the Training Data folder on the left and accessible objects on the right (left) and types of accessible objects on the left (right) FIGURE 7.41: The DesignCenter with the layers to grab highlighted 9. Right-click somewhere on the highlighted layers in the right window, and choose Add Layers from the shortcut menu. 10. Open the Layer Control drop-down list on the Object Properties tool- bar. It now displays all the layers of the Cabin07c.dwg drawing, including those you just transferred to the Drawing4.dwg drawing. Now let’s see how this process works when you want to get a block from another drawing: 1. On the left side of the DesignCenter, click Blocks in the list under the Cabin07c.dwg drawing. On the right side, the list of blocks in that drawing appears (see the left of Figure 7.42). Sharing Information Between Drawings 269 ǡ If you prefer drag- ging and dropping, click and hold the left mouse button, drag the cursor onto the drawing, and then release. 26531ch07.qxd 4/3/07 12:52 PM Page 269 2. Click door3_0 in the right panel, and then click the Preview button at the top of the DesignCenter. A picture of the block appears in the lower-right corner of the DesignCenter (see the right of Figure 7.42). You can resize the preview pane vertically. FIGURE 7.42: The DesignCenter with Blocks selected (left) and with the door3_0 block selected and preview on (right) 3. Open the Layer Control list, and make Doors the current layer. 4. Dock the DesignCenter on the left side of the drawing area if it’s not already there, and then zoom in to the front door area of the drawing (see Figure 7.43). The Endpoint osnap should be running. FIGURE 7.43: Zoomed in to the front door area with the DesignCenter docked Chapter 7 • Combining Objects into Blocks270 26531ch07.qxd 4/3/07 12:52 PM Page 270 5. In the DesignCenter, click and drag door3_0 from the list to the drawing. As the cursor comes onto the drawing, the door3_0 block appears. Use the Endpoint osnap to locate the block at the opening, as you did earlier in this chapter (see Figure 7.44). 6. Click the Close icon in the upper-right corner of the DesignCenter to close it. 7. Keep your new drawing open in case you want to use it in the first few practice exercises at the end of this chapter. Otherwise, close it without saving it. FIGURE 7.44: Dragging the door3_0 block into Drawing1 from the DesignCenter By doing this insertion, door3_0 block is now a part of your new drawing, and you can reinsert it in that drawing without the DesignCenter. At the top of the DesignCenter window, the buttons on the left are tools for nav- igating through drives and folders to find the files you need to access; the buttons on the right give you options for viewing the named objects in the window. Sharing Information Between Drawings 271 ǡ You can also right- click and drag a block from the DesignCenter into the current drawing. If you do this, a shortcut menu appears. Click Insert Block. This opens the Insert dialog box, and you can com- plete the insertion procedure. 26531ch07.qxd 4/3/07 12:52 PM Page 271 D ESIGN C ENTER O PTIONS Here’s a brief description of the functions of the DesignCenter buttons, from left to right: Load Opens the Load dialog box, which you use to navigate to the drive, folder, or file from which you want to borrow named AutoCAD objects. Back Moves you one step back in your navigation procedure. Forward Moves you one step forward in the navigation procedure that you have been using. Up Moves up one level in the folder/file/named objects tree. Search Opens a Search dialog box in which you can search for a file. Favorites Displays a list of files and folders that you have previously set up. Home Navigates to the DesignCenter folder in the AutoCAD pro- gram.This folder has subfolders of sample files that contain libraries of blocks and other named objects to import through the DesignCenter. Tree View Toggle Opens or shuts the left panel that displays the logical tree of folders, files, and unnamed objects. Preview Opens or shuts a preview window at the bottom of the right palette window. When you highlight a drawing or block in the palette win- dow, a preview appears.You can resize the preview pane. Description Displays or hides a previously written description of a block or drawing.You can resize the description pane. Views Controls how the items in the palette window are displayed.There are four choices: Large Icons, Small Icons, List, and Details. Using Other Ways to Share Information Between Drawings You can transfer information between drawings in several other ways. You’ll look at three of them. First, you can use the Wblock command to take a portion of a drawing and create a new drawing file from the selected objects. Second, you can insert any . dwg drawing file into any other drawing file. Finally, you can create palettes of blocks that can be accessed for any drawing. Chapter 7 • Combining Objects into Blocks272 26531ch07.qxd 4/3/07 12:52 PM Page 272 Using the Wblock Command To perform a Wblock operation, you create a new file and then tell AutoCAD which elements of the current drawing you want in the new file. Let’s say you want to create a new .dwg file for the bathroom of the cabin. Here are the steps: 1. Open Cabin07c.dwg, and then pan to see the bathroom. Enter w↵ to open the Write Block dialog box. 2. At the top, under Source, click the Objects radio button (see Fig- ure 7.45). FIGURE 7.45: The Write Block dialog box 3. In the middle portion, the Base Point and Objects areas are similar to those for creating a block. For the Base Point, the default is 0,0. Click the Pick Point button, and in the drawing, pick the point at the inside left corner of the bathroom. For the Objects, click Select Objects, use a window to select everything you want to include, and then press ↵. Click the Retain radio button in this area so that the selected objects aren’t deleted from the current drawing. 4. In the Destination area, enter a filename—say, bath—for the new drawing, and choose a folder in which to save it. 5. In the Insert Units drop-down list, select Inches, in case the new drawing is used in a drawing that has units other than Architectural. 6. Click OK. A preview widow briefly appears, the command ends, and the selected material is now a new drawing file located in the folder that you specified. 7. Close the Cabin07c.dwg drawing without saving any changes. Sharing Information Between Drawings 273 ǡ When you select with a crossing window here, you’ll get more than you need, but you can clean up the new drawing later. 26531ch07.qxd 4/3/07 12:52 PM Page 273 You can use the Wblock command in three ways. They appear as radio buttons at the top of the Write Block dialog box. Here’s a brief description of each: Block To make a drawing file out of a block that’s defined in the current draw- ing, select the name of the block from the drop-down list at the top, and then fol- low the procedure in steps 4 through 6 in the preceding exercise. When you follow this procedure, the objects in the new drawing are no longer a block. Wblocking a block has the effect of exploding it. Entire Drawing Click this button to purge a drawing of unwanted objects such as layers that have no objects on them and block definitions that have no refer- ences in the drawing. You aren’t prompted to select anything except the infor- mation called for in the preceding steps 4 through 6. You can keep the same drawing name or enter a new one. A preferable way to accomplish the same task is to use the Purge command. Enter purge↵ to open the Purge dialog box, and select which features to purge. Objects You select which objects to use to create a new file, as in the preceding steps 1 through 6. Inserting a Drawing into a Drawing When you insert a drawing into another drawing, it comes in as a block. You use the same Insert Block command that you use to insert blocks, in a slightly different way. For example, say you have Wblocked a portion of Cabin07c.dwg and made a new file called bath.dwg (see the preceding section). Now you want to insert bath.dwg into a drawing that you’ll call DrawingC.dwg. Use this procedure: 1. Make DrawingC.dwg current. 2. Start the Insert command. 3. In the Insert dialog box, click the Browse button, and then navigate to the folder containing bath.dwg. 4. Open that folder, highlight bath.dwg, and then click Open to return to the Insert dialog box. The drawing file that you selected is now dis- played in the Name drop-down list. At this point, a copy of bath.dwg has been converted to a block definition in DrawingC.dwg. 5. Set the insertion parameters, and then click OK. 6. Finish the insertion procedure as if you were inserting a block. Chapter 7 • Combining Objects into Blocks274 26531ch07.qxd 4/3/07 12:52 PM Page 274 You transfer blocks between drawings by dragging and dropping or by using the DesignCenter. You can also convert them into .dwg files by using the Wblock command, and you can insert them back into other .dwg files as blocks by using the Insert command. They become disassociated when they leave the drawing and can be inserted as a block when they enter another drawing. Exploring AutoCAD’s Palettes AutoCAD provides a tool called palettes to make blocks and other features imme- diately accessible for any drawing. You’ll now take a brief look at the sample palettes that come with AutoCAD and see how to manage them on the screen: 1. Open the Cabin07c.dwg drawing, and use Zoom to Extents. Then, use Zoom Realtime to zoom out a little. 2. If palettes aren’t already visible in the drawing area, choose Tools ➣ Palettes ➣ Tool Palettes to display the palettes (see Figure 7.46). You can also open the tool palettes by clicking the Tool Palettes button in the Standard toolbar or by using the Ctrl+3 shortcut keys. They can be floating or docked on either side of the drawing area, and the navi- gation bar can be on the left or right side. FIGURE 7.46: The tool palettes displayed on the screen Sharing Information Between Drawings 275 26531ch07.qxd 4/3/07 12:52 PM Page 275 Your palettes might appear different from those shown in a couple of ways. The ones shown here are positioned on the right side but aren’t docked there. Yours might be transparent, showing your drawing beneath them, or your palettes might be hidden and show only the title bar. In Figure 7.46, several tabs are on the left side, indicating the available palettes. On the right side is the palette title bar with control icons at the top and bottom. On each palette is its content. The Hatches sample palette has hatch patterns and fills (discussed in Chapter 11), and the Draw and Modify palettes contain commands from the Draw and Modify toolbars, respectively. 3. Click the Architectural tab to display its content on the palette. Its tab might be abbreviated to read Arch…. Notice the scroll bar next to the title bar. This appears when there is more content than the palette can show. The palettes eclipse part of the right side of the drawing; if you make the palettes transparent, you can see the drawing underneath them. FIGURE 7.47: The tool palettes with the Architectural tab active 4. Move the cursor to the title bar. Right-click, and choose Transparency from the shortcut menu to open the Transparency dialog box (see Figure 7.48). Here you can toggle transparency on and off and adjust the degree of transparency for the palettes. Chapter 7 • Combining Objects into Blocks276 26531ch07.qxd 4/3/07 12:52 PM Page 276 W ARNING AutoCAD might display a notification dialog box, rather than the Transparency dialog box, if your video driver and operating system combination is unable to display palette transparency. FIGURE 7.48: The Transparency dialog box 5. Be sure the Turn Off Window Transparency check box is not selected, and be sure the Transparency Level slider is at mid-position or on the More side. Click OK. Now the drawing is visible through the palettes (see Figure 7.49). FIGURE 7.49: The palettes in transparent mode Sharing Information Between Drawings 277 26531ch07.qxd 4/3/07 12:52 PM Page 277 [...]... a set of complex rules, some of which are beyond the scope of this book For a more in-depth discussion on blocks, see Mastering AutoCAD 2008 and AutoCAD LT 2008 by George Omura (Wiley, 2007) If You Would Like More Practice Here are some suggestions that will give you some practice in working with blocks, drag-and-drop procedures, and the DesignCenter: Ǡ Make blocks out of any of the fixtures in the... your drawing AutoCAD offers two types of text objects: single-line and multiline Single-line text makes a distinct object of each line of text, whether the line is one letter or many words This type of text is useful for titles of drawings, titles of views within a drawing, room labels, and schedules You use multiline text for dimensions, tables, and longer notes With multiline text, AutoCAD treats... Figure 8.2 for a moment, and note that the Standard text style has a height of 0 '-0 " When the current text style has a height set to 0, you’re prompted to enter a height each time you begin to place single-line text in the drawing The default height will be 3⁄16" (or 0.20 for decimal units and 2 .5 for metric) Multiline text will use the default height of 3⁄16" unless you change it Now that you have two new... moment and noting the sizes of the building components represented in the drawing You can estimate that the room label text should be about half as high as the front step is deep, or 1 foot T A B L E 8 1 : Standard Scales and Their Corresponding Ratios Scale True Scale Factor 1" = 1 '-0 " 12 1 ⁄2" = 1 '-0 " 24 1 ⁄4" = 1 '-0 " 48 1 ⁄8" = 1 '-0 " 96 1 ⁄16" = 1 '-0 " 192 Defining a Text Style for Room Labels Now that... start placing and modifying single-line text in the cabin drawing Finally, you’ll look at the methods for creating and controlling multiline text as it’s used for notes and tables If you work in a non-AEC profession or trade, be assured that the features presented in this chapter will apply directly to your work The basic principles of working with text in AutoCAD and LT “cross the curriculum” (an educational... Point Filters menu 8 Hold down the Shift key, and right-click to open a menu of osnap options next to where the cursor was just positioned 9 Choose Intersection, and pick the intersection of the guideline and the offset line 2 653 1ch08.qxd 3/30/07 6:06 PM Page 289 U s i n g S i n g l e - L i n e Te x t 10 For the rotation, press ↵ to accept the default angle of 0°, or enter 0↵ if 0° is not the default A... box The Height setting is highlighted at the default of 0 '-0 " 7 Enter 12, and then press Tab again A height of 1 '-0 " replaces the default height ǡ By default, all new dwg files have the Standard text style as the current text style ǡ A font is a collection of text characters and symbols that all share a characteristic style of design and proportion 2 653 1ch08.qxd 3/30/07 2 8 6 6:06 PM Page 286 C h a... broken around the room labels T I P The multiline text objects have a mask feature that creates an envelope over and around the text that hides the objects behind it Unlike the breaking-lines approach, the masked objects reappear when you move the text Masking is not supported for single-line text, but the Text Mask utility is available in the Express Tools 2 9 5 2 653 1ch08.qxd 3/30/07 2 9 6 6:06 PM Page... handy tool or a big frustration Are You Experienced? Now you can… 0 create blocks out of existing objects in your drawing 0 insert blocks into your drawing 0 vary the size and rotation of blocks as they are inserted 0 detect blocks in a drawing 0 use point filters to locate an insertion point 0 revise a block 0 drag and drop objects from one drawing to another 0 use AutoCAD s DesignCenter 0 use the Wblock...2 653 1ch07.qxd 4/3/07 2 7 8 12 :52 PM Page 278 Chapter 7 • Combining Objects into Blocks 6 Put the cursor back on the palettes’ title bar Right-click, and choose Transparency from the shortcut menu to open the Transparency dialog box again Select the Turn Off Window Transparency check box, and then click OK 7 Right-click the palettes’ title bar, and choose Auto-Hide from the shortcut . and AutoCAD s DesignCenter. Blocks follow a set of complex rules, some of which are beyond the scope of this book. For a more in-depth dis- cussion on blocks, see Mastering AutoCAD 2008 and AutoCAD. single-line text in the cabin drawing. Finally, you’ll look at the methods for creating and controlling multiline text as it’s used for notes and tables. If you work in a non-AEC profes- sion. 1&apos ;-0 " 12 1 ⁄2" = 1&apos ;-0 " 24 1 ⁄4" = 1&apos ;-0 " 48 1 ⁄8" = 1&apos ;-0 " 96 1 ⁄16" = 1&apos ;-0 " 192 Defining a Text Style for Room Labels Now that