Mastering AutoCAD ® 2011 and AutoCAD LT ® 2011 621974ffirs.indd 1 4/26/10 12:55:44 PM 621974ffirs.indd 2 4/26/10 12:55:45 PM Mastering AutoCAD ® 2011 and AutoCAD LT ® 2011 George Omura 621974ffirs.indd 3 4/26/10 12:55:47 PM Senior Acquisitions Editor: Willem Knibbe Development Editor: Denise Santoro Lincoln Technical Editor: Jon McFarland Production Editor: Rachel McConlogue Copy Editor: Judy Flynn Editorial Manager: Pete Gaughan Production Manager: Tim Tate Vice President and Executive Group Publisher: Richard Swadley Vice President and Publisher: Neil Edde Media Associate Project Manager: Jenny Swisher Media Associate Producer: Doug Kuhn Media Quality Assurance: Josh Frank Book Designers: Maureen Forys and Judy Fung Compositor: Craig Woods, Happenstance Type-O-Rama Proofreader: Publication Services, Inc. Indexer: Ted Laux Project Coordinator, Cover: Lynsey Stanford Cover Designer: Ryan Sneed Cover Image: © Ashley Jouhar/Cultura/Getty Images Copyright © 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana Published simultaneously in Canada ISBN: 978-0-470-62197-4 No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechan- ical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 646-8600. 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Mastering AutoCAD 2011 and AutoCAD LT 2011 / George Omura. 1st ed. p. cm. ISBN-13: 978-0-470-62197-4 (pbk.) ISBN-10: 0-470-62197-4 (pbk.) ISBN: 978-0-470-89098-1 (ebk) ISBN: 978-0-470-89099-8 (ebk) ISBN: 978-0-470-89091-2 (ebk) 1. Computer graphics. 2. AutoCAD. I. Title. T385.O482754 2010 620’.00420285536 dc22 2010013500 TRADEMARKS: Wiley, the Wiley logo, and the Sybex logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and/or its affiliates, in the United States and other countries, and may not be used without written permission. AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT are reg- istered trademarks of Autodesk, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Wiley Publishing, Inc., is not associ- ated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 621974ffirs.indd 4 4/26/10 12:55:47 PM Dear Reader, Thank you for choosing Mastering AutoCAD 2011 and AutoCAD LT 2011. This book is part of a family of premium-quality Sybex books, all of which are written by outstanding authors who combine practical experience with a gift for teaching. Sybex was founded in 1976. More than 30 years later, we’re still committed to producing con- sistently exceptional books. With each of our titles, we’re working hard to set a new standard for the industry. From the paper we print on to the authors we work with, our goal is to bring you the best books available. I hope you see all that reflected in these pages. I’d be very interested to hear your comments and get your feedback on how we’re doing. Feel free to let me know what you think about this or any other Sybex book by sending me an email at nedde@wiley.com. If you think you’ve found a tech- nical error in this book, please visit http://sybex.custhelp.com. Customer feedback is critical to our efforts at Sybex. Best regards, Neil Edde Vice President and Publisher Sybex, an Imprint of Wiley 621974ffirs.indd 5 4/26/10 12:55:47 PM To my brothers, Mas and Jim, and my sisters, Akiko and June. You have always been a source of inspiration for me. —G.O. 621974ffirs.indd 6 4/26/10 12:55:47 PM Acknowledgments Many talented and hardworking folks gave their best effort to produce Mastering AutoCAD 2011 and AutoCAD LT 2011. I offer my sincerest gratitude to those people who helped bring this book to you. Heartfelt thanks go to the editorial and production teams at Sybex for their efforts. Willem Knibbe, as always, made sure things got off to a great start and was always there for support. Denise Santoro Lincoln kept a watchful eye on the progress of the book. Jon McFarland did an excellent job of ensuring that I didn’t make any glaring mistakes and offered suggestions based on his own writing experience. On the production side, Rachel McConlogue kept the workflow going and answered my dumb questions during the review process, and Judy Flynn made sure I wasn’t trying out new uses of the English language. At Autodesk, special thanks go to Diane Li for taking the time from her busy schedule to write the foreword. Thanks for the kind words. Thanks also go to Denis Cadu, who has always given his steadfast support of my efforts over many projects. Jim Quanci always gives his gen- erous and thoughtful assistance to us author types—I’d be lost without your help, Jim. Thanks to Barbara Vezos and J.C. Malitzke for the thorough and quick review. Finally, as always, a big thanks to Shaan Hurley, Lisa Crounse and the Autodesk beta team for generously allowing us to have a look at the prerelease software. And, a great big thank you to my family and friends, who have been there for me through thick and thin. 621974ffirs.indd 7 4/26/10 12:55:47 PM About the Author George Omura is a licensed architect, Autodesk Authorized Author, and CAD specialist with more than 20 years of experience in AutoCAD and over 30 years of experience in architecture. He has worked on design projects ranging from resort hotels to metropolitan transit systems. George has written numerous other AutoCAD books for Sybex, including Introducing AutoCAD 2010, Mastering AutoCAD 2010 and AutoCAD LT 2010, and Introducing AutoCAD 2009. 621974ffirs.indd 8 4/26/10 12:55:47 PM Contents at a Glance Foreword xxix Introduction xxxi Part 1 • The Basics 1 Chapter 1 • Exploring the AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT Interface 3 Chapter 2 • Creating Your First Drawing 27 Chapter 3 • Setting Up and Using AutoCAD’s Drafting Tools 73 Chapter 4 • Organizing Objects with Blocks and Groups 111 Chapter 5 • Keeping Track of Layers and Blocks 139 Part 2 • Mastering Intermediate Skills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169 Chapter 6 • Editing and Reusing Data to Work Efficiently 171 Chapter 7 • Mastering Viewing Tools, Hatches, and External References 209 Chapter 8 • Introducing Printing, Plotting, and Layouts 255 Chapter 9 • Understanding Plot Styles 285 Chapter 10 • Adding Text to Drawings 309 Chapter 11 • Using Fields and Tables 343 Chapter 12 • Using Dimensions 363 Part 3 • Mastering Advanced Skills 407 Chapter 13 • Using Attributes 409 Chapter 14 • Copying Existing Drawings into AutoCAD 435 Chapter 15 • Advanced Editing and Organizing 455 Chapter 16 • Laying Out Your Printer Output 495 Chapter 17 • Making “Smart” Drawings with Parametric Tools 519 621974ffirs.indd 9 4/26/10 12:55:47 PM x | Contents at a GlanCe Chapter 18 • Using Dynamic Blocks 539 Chapter 19 • Drawing Curves 571 Chapter 20 • Getting and Exchanging Data from Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 601 Part 4 • 3D Modeling and Imaging 629 Chapter 21 • Creating 3D Drawings 631 Chapter 22 • Using Advanced 3D Features 675 Chapter 23 • Rendering 3D Drawings 729 Chapter 24 • Editing and Visualizing 3D Solids 797 Chapter 25 • Exploring 3D Mesh and Surface Modeling 837 Part 5 • Customization and Integration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 883 Chapter 26 • Using the Express Tools 885 Chapter 27 • Exploring AutoLISP 913 Chapter 28 • Customizing Toolbars, Menus, Linetypes, and Hatch Patterns . . . . . . 937 Chapter 29 • Managing and Sharing Your Drawings 975 Chapter 30 • Keeping a Project Organized with Sheet Sets 1017 Appendices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1059 Appendix A • The Bottom Line 1061 Appendix B • Installing and Setting Up AutoCAD 1089 Appendix C • Hardware and Software Tips 1117 Appendix D • System Variables and Dimension Styles 1137 Appendix E • About the Companion DVD 1155 Appendix F • The AutoCAD 2011 Certification Exams 1159 Index 1165 621974ffirs.indd 10 4/26/10 12:55:48 PM [...]... 11 55 11 55 11 56 11 56 11 56 11 56 11 56 11 56 11 57 11 57 11 57 11 57 11 57 11 58 11 58 Appendix F • The AutoCAD 2 011 Certification Exams 11 59 Index 11 65 6 219 74ftoc.indd 28 4/26 /10 12 :32:09 PM Foreword Congratulations! Welcome to AutoCAD 2 011 and to the excellent resource you now have in your hands with Mastering AutoCAD. .. Managing and Sharing Your Drawings Chapter 30: Keeping a Project Organized with Sheet Sets 6 219 74ftoc.indd 26 10 61 1062 10 63 10 63 10 64 10 65 10 66 10 66 10 67 10 68 10 69 10 70 10 71 10 71 1072 10 73 10 73 10 74 10 75 10 77 10 78 10 79 10 80 10 82 10 82 10 83 10 84 10 85 10 86 10 87 4/26 /10 12 :32:08 PM | Contents xxvii Appendix B • Installing and Setting Up AutoCAD ... Percentage to Conserve Disk Space Setting Up AutoCAD Architecture to Act Like Standard AutoCAD 6 219 74ftoc.indd 27 11 17 11 18 11 18 11 18 11 19 11 24 11 26 11 26 11 26 11 27 11 27 11 28 11 28 11 28 11 29 11 29 11 30 11 30 11 30 4/26 /10 12 :32:08 PM xxviii | Contents When Things Go Wrong Starting Up or Opening a File ... 6 219 74flast.indd 30 4/26 /10 12 :47:07 PM Introduction Welcome to Mastering AutoCAD 2 011 and AutoCAD LT 2 011 As many readers have already discovered, this book is a unique blend of tutorial and reference that includes everything you need to get started and stay ahead with AutoCAD With this edition, you get coverage of the latest features of both AutoCAD 2 011 and AutoCAD LT 2 011 , plus the latest information... Finally, if you run into problems using AutoCAD, see the section “When Things Go Wrong” in Appendix C You’ll find a list of the most common issues that users face when first learning AutoCAD AutoCAD 2 011 and AutoCAD LT 2 011 Autodesk has released both AutoCAD 2 011 and AutoCAD LT 2 011 simultaneously Not surprisingly, they’re nearly identical in the way they look and work You can share files between the... 6 219 74ftoc.indd 25 10 17 10 18 10 18 10 19 10 19 10 22 10 25 10 27 10 27 10 28 10 33 10 35 10 36 4/26 /10 12 :32:08 PM xxvi | Contents Customizing Sheet Sets Customizing a Title Block Creating Custom View Labels and Callout Blocks Archiving, Publishing, and eTransmitting... Blocks Understanding the Annotation Scale Grouping Objects 6 219 74ftoc.indd 12 11 1 11 3 11 6 11 7 12 0 12 3 12 3 12 4 12 5 12 7 12 7 13 0 4/26 /10 12 :32:04 PM | Contents xiii Grouping Objects for LT Users Modifying Members... 11 13 Adjusting AutoCAD s 3D Graphics System 11 13 The Adaptive Degradation Group 11 14 The Hardware and Performance Tuning Group 11 14 The Manual Performance Tuning Dialog Box 11 14 Finding Hidden Folders That Contain AutoCAD Files 11 16 Appendix... 11 05 The Selection Tab 11 08 The Profiles Tab 11 10 Configuring the Tablet Menu Area 11 11 Turning On the Noun/Verb Selection Method 11 12 Turning On the Grips Feature 11 13... Keeping Track of Blocks and Layers Getting a Text File List of Layers or Blocks The Bottom Line 13 9 14 0 14 7 15 1 15 3 15 4 16 1 16 2 16 6 16 6 16 7 16 8 Part 2 • Mastering Intermediate Skills 16 9 Chapter 6 • Editing and Reusing Data to Work Efficiently . Mastering AutoCAD ® 2 011 and AutoCAD LT ® 2 011 6 219 74ffirs.indd 1 4/26 /10 12 :55:44 PM 6 219 74ffirs.indd 2 4/26 /10 12 :55:45 PM Mastering AutoCAD ® 2 011 and AutoCAD LT ® 2 011 George Omura 6 219 74ffirs.indd. George. Mastering AutoCAD 2 011 and AutoCAD LT 2 011 / George Omura. 1st ed. p. cm. ISBN -13 : 978-0-470-6 219 7-4 (pbk.) ISBN -10 : 0-470-6 219 7-4 (pbk.) ISBN: 978-0-470-89098 -1 (ebk) ISBN: 978-0-470-89099-8. 11 1 Creating a Symbol 11 1 Understanding the Block Definition Dialog Box 11 3 Inserting a Symbol 11 6 Scaling and Rotating Blocks 11 7 Using an Existing Drawing as a Symbol 12 0 Modifying a Block 12 3 Unblocking