AutoCAD 2011 and AutoCAD LT 2011 no experience required

AutoCAD 2011 and AutoCAD LT 2011 ® ® No Experience Required AutoCAD 2011 and AutoCAD LT 2011 ® ® No Experience Required D onnie Glad felter Senior Acquisitions Editor: Willem Knibbe Development Editor: Jim Compton Technical Editor: Melanie Perry Production Editor: Christine O’Connor Copy Editor: Kathy Grider-Carlyle Editorial Manager: Pete Gaughan Production Manager: Tim Tate Vice President and Executive Group Publisher: Richard Swadley Vice President and Publisher: Neil Edde Book Designer: Franz Baumhackl Compositor: James D Kramer, Happenstance Type-O-Rama Proofreader: Nancy Bell Indexer: Nancy Guenther Project Coordinator, Cover: Lynsey Stanford Cover Designer: Ryan Sneed Cover Image: © istockphoto.com/Palto Copyright © 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana Published simultaneously in Canada ISBN: 978-0-470-60216-4 No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, 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 Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748-6011, fax (201) 748-6008, or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: The publisher and the author make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this work and specifically disclaim all warranties, including without limitation warranties of fitness for a particular purpose No warranty may be created or extended by sales or promotional materials The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for every situation This work is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other professional services If professional assistance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought Neither the publisher nor the author shall be liable for damages arising herefrom The fact that an organization or Web site is referred to in this work as a citation and/or a potential source of further information does not mean that the author or the publisher endorses the information the organization or Web site may provide or recommendations it may make Further, readers should be aware that Internet Web sites listed in this work may have changed or disappeared between when this work was written and when it is read For general information on our other products and services or to obtain technical support, please contact our Customer Care Department within the U.S at (877) 762-2974, outside the U.S at (317) 572-3993 or fax (317) 572-4002 Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic books Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Gladfelter, Donnie, 1982AutoCAD 2011 and AutoCAD LT 2011 : no experience required / Donnie Gladfelter — 1st ed p cm ISBN-13: 978-0-470-60216-4 (pbk.) ISBN-10: 0-470-60216-3 (pbk.) ISBN: 978-0-470-90142-7 (ebk) ISBN: 978-0-470-90144-1 (ebk) ISBN: 978-0-470-90143-4 (ebk) Computer graphics AutoCAD I Title T385.G573 2010 620’.00420285536—dc22 2010013507 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 registered trademarks of Autodesk, Inc All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners Wiley Publishing, Inc is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book 10 Dear Reader, Thank you for choosing AutoCAD 2011 and AutoCAD LT 2011: No Experience Required 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 consistently 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 technical 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 To Helen, who became my lovely wife on June 19, 2010 A c k n ow l e d g m e n t s In more ways than I can explain, it feels like yesterday when I was getting my start in the CAD industry as an entry-level CAD technician That was more than a decade ago, and since then I’ve had the profound privilege of giving back to the CAD community through my blog (www.TheCADGeek.com) and through the hundreds of professionals I’ve trained While there’s certainly no way for me to thank each one individually; without each boss, teacher, project manager, and even each user I’ve supported, there’s absolutely no way this book would have been possible Big or small, each of them has made a valuable contribution to building my career into what it has become today Ironically, a structure’s ultimate strength is determined by what isn’t seen—the foundation For me, that was built by some of the most passionate educators I’ve ever known: Walter Spain and Johnnie Collie of Hermitage High School and Hermitage Technical Center in Henrico County, Virginia Their passion is what both inspired and empowered me to learn everything I could about the tools of my trade—namely AutoCAD In addition to those first teachers, I must thank everyone who helped me build on that foundation Those individuals include Stan Hunt, who was my first boss; David Anderson, who helped open the door to me becoming a trainer; Jonathan Jackson, who taught me civil design; along with Mark Farnsworth and Eric Chappell, who helped me become a CAD manager There is likewise a long list of individuals who have contributed to the making of this book This is my first book, and I had little idea of what all went into getting a book published Senior Acquisitions Editor Willem Knibbe not only rallied support for this book within Wiley, but he also made sure my many questions related to the publication process were answered Thank you to Guillermo Cortabarria, Shaan Hurley, and Kate Morrical from Autodesk for demonstrating many of the new capabilities of AutoCAD 2011 and providing me access to software while it was still in development; and thanks to Lynn Allen for her insights and support as a fellow author From the first chapter to the last, I can’t thank the incredible team of editors enough—especially my technical editor Melanie Perry, developmental editor Jim Compton, copy editor Kathy Grider-Carlyle, and production editor Christine O’Connor Melanie is a leader within the CAD community herself, and I very much appreciate her lending both her technical and industry experience as she checked the text and figures for accuracy With stellar precision, Jim made sure every comment was answered; every image was accounted for; and every detail was addressed Christine tracked the production of each figure, and helped make every chapter ready for publication Aside from my editors, there was a small army of professionals at Wiley whose dedication to their craft is apparent as you read through this book I am consistently impressed at the professional product they produce Finally, I want to thank the most important member of the production team, my wife (as of June 19, 2010) Helen She did something much greater than editing chapters or tracking schedules; she was my cheerleader when writer’s block got the best of me, the one who made me laugh daily and provided a shoulder to lean on even after some of the most demanding days in her job teaching at a local school dedicated to children with autism 968 discipline designator • Edit menu discipline designator, in layer name, 245–246 distance, entering, 113 with Architectural units set, 114 DISTANCE command, 76 Distance parameter, 475, 475 distant light, 921 docked palette, 360 document sets, managing in AutoCAD LT, 766 doors, 133–165 in 3D modeling, 842–846, 845, 867–869, 869 bi-fold type, 159–165 block for, 308–320 categories, 317 creating, 133–165 dynamic blocks for, 472 pivot, illustration options, 133 rotating, 138, 139 scaling, 148–150, 149 schedule for, 485–496, 495 sliding glass type, 150–159 swinging type, 133–142 and swings, selecting, 269, 269–272 Doors sheet, for cabin floor plan, 765–767 doorways, cutting openings for, 124–133, 125, 131 7’ opening, 127–128 closet opening, 130–132, 131 exterior opening, 125–126 interior opening, 128–130 double-pitched roof, 284 Drafting Settings dialog box displaying, 81, 81 Dynamic Input tab, 90, 90–91 Object Snap tab, 134, 134, 136, 200, 224, 225, 310–311 Polar Tracking Increment Angle, 235 Polar Tracking tab, 182–183, 183 Snap And Grid tab, 81, 82, 86, 86–87 drag and drop, to share information between drawings, 346–351, 347 Draw menu, 32 ➢ 3D Polyline, 858 Draw palette, 361 Draw panel See Home tab, Draw panel drawing area, 8, 10 background color, Drawing Limits setting, 83–87 drawing modes, buttons to activate, 12–13 Drawing Set Description (.dsd) file, 825, 826 drawing strategy, developing, 172 Drawing Title block, selecting from DesignCenter, 751 drawing units, 95–96 setting up, 74–78 Drawing Units dialog box, 75, 75–78, 78, 347, 660, 661, 661 Drawing Window Colors dialog box, 15–16, 16 drawings adding existing to sheet set, 733–736 Application Menu to open, 26–30 closing, 38 forcing regeneration, 724 with grid and snap, 87–92, 88, 89 multiple, from one file, 243 orientation, changing, 534 plot-style table assignment to, 801–805 saving, 69, 109 scale issues, 551 Sheet Set Manager for creating, 737, 737–740 size setup, 79–87 gridlines, 79–83 steps to clean up, 550 switching between open, 29 title of current, uppercase letters in, 709 DRAWORDER command, 572 driveway, on site plan, 663–669, 664, 665 drop-down menus, 30–32, 31, 76 turning off, 32 DS command, 81 dsd (Drawing Set Description) file, 825, 826 dst files, 728 dwf files, 785, 817 vs .dwfx files, 828–829 as external reference, 670 plotting to, 699, 781 publishing to, 828 DWFx ePlot (XPS Compatible) pc3 plotter, 781 dwfx files, 785, 816, 817 vs .dwf files, 828–829 plotting to, 781 publishing to, 828 dwg files, 29 converting blocks to, 360 Standard text style as default, 372 for tool palette tools, 584 dwt files, 40, 417 dynamic blocks, 320, 472–485 adjustable parameters, 321 adjusting, 764 icons, 361 inserting, 480–485 name change, 480 parameters for, 473–474, 474 Properties palette for fine-tuning, 477–480 resizing, 484, 484 Dynamic Input button, 13, 13 Dynamic Input feature, 11, 17, 42, 42, 51, 90–92, 103 determining status, 134 and relative coordinates, 48 Dynamic UCS button, 13, 13 Dynamic UCS mode, 856, 857 E easting location, 632 EATTEDIT command, 466 eaves lines, 284–289 Edge Mesh tool, 906 Edit Attributes dialog box, 460, 460, 464, 466, 723 Edit Drawing Scales dialog box, 719 Edit Hyperlink dialog box, 424, 426 Edit Layer State dialog box, 304 Edit menu, 31 E D I T P O LY L I N E c o m m a n d • f r a c t i o n s EDIT POLYLINE command, 105–107, 106 Join option, 227 Edit Reference In-Place tool, 750–751 Edit Scale List dialog box, 774, 775 elevations, 102, 505, 550 decks in, 521–533 front deck, 521–524, 522, 523, 524 mirroring, 532, 532–533, 533 railing posts, 525, 525, 526 east, 548 front and back, 541–550, 542–545, 547 hatch patterns, 590 hatch preview on roof, 560 interior, 552 layers for, 520–521, 521, 546 layout adjustments, 770, 772 north elevation, 534–535 rear, 549 south elevation, 506–533, 519 construction lines to project points, 510–513 creating, 507, 507 hatches, 557–573, 560, 565 lines for heights, 509, 509–510 revising, 536–541, 537 stairs, 527, 527–530, 528, 529 stairway, deck, posts and railings, 531 supports and foundation, 530–531, 531 trimming lines, 515–519, 517, 518 Elevations sheet file, 768–770 ELLIPSE command (EL), 229–231, 233 END command, 136 ending commands, Esc key for, 128 Endpoint osnap, 136 Engineering units, 95, 240 Enhanced Attribute Editor dialog box, 449, 449, 466 Enter key, to exit commands, 43 Equal geometric constraint, 217 ERASE command (E), 45, 51–52 erasing lines, 51–52 Esc key, to cancel commands, 57, 132 exercises See practice exercises exiting commands, 43 Expanded Plot dialog box, 794–796 EXPLODE command, 104, 112 for blocks, 343 for polylines, 405 exporting layer states, 305 Express menu, 32 ➢ Text, ➢ Convert Text to Mtext, 418 Express Tools tab on ribbon, expanded Tools panel, Make Linetype tool, 261 EXTEND command (E), 64–65, 65 errors with, 132 for interior openings in wall, 129, 129–130 tips for using, 519–520 extending lines, 64–65, 65 extension line, 596, 598 exterior walls, standard thickness, 103 External Reference tab on ribbon, 682–683, 683 external references (xrefs), 242, 657, 670–679 attachment vs overlay, 674–676 balloon message indicating change, 680, 680 binding, 694–695 detaching from host, 696 image files as, 686–690, 689 layers and, 681, 818 modifying drawing, 679–690 as current drawing, 679–681 within host drawing, 682–686 moving and rotating, 678, 678 nested, 696 path types for, 673, 692–693 for plan sheets, 741 for sheet generation, 760 uses, 690, 691 External References palette, 670–674, 681, 687, 819 Attach DWG button, 670, 671 attaching image from, 687 opening, 722 EXTRUDE command, 852, 853, 907, 907 Extrude tool, 908 F F keys, 34 Favorites tool, 10, 10, 10 feature control frame, 611 Fence method, for selecting objects, 66 Field dialog box, 424, 425, 435, 461, 462, 465 field of view, for camera, 917 File menu, 31 file names, U.S National CAD Standard for, 94 files See also drawings converting to previous formats, 29 displaying thumbnails, 27, 28 opening, 28 rendering to, 940–943 saving, 69, 92–94 FILLET command (F), 111, 111, 116, 116, 285, 516 drawing shapes with, 58–62, 60, 61 for kitchen counter, 205–207 nonzero radius setting, 206 vs OFFSET command (O), 62 Polyline option, 235 selecting objects for, 59 fills, 555 Find and Replace dialog box, 434, 435 finding blocks in drawing, 322–324 floating palette, 360 floating Ribbon, 20 floating viewports, 763 floor plan See cabin, floor plan folders, creating, 93 fonts, 372 for dimensions, 601 preview, 413 recommendations, 414 foot sign (‘), 84, 113 Format menu, 32 ➢ Text Style, 371 formatting, removing from text, 436 formulas in tables, 493–496 foundation concrete hatch, 562–563, 564 in elevations, 530–531, 531 Fractional units, 95 fractions, 433 969 freezing layers • Home tab on ribbon 970 freezing layers, 310 Full Path, for external reference, 673 function keys, 34 furniture layout drawing, xrefs for, 690, 691 G garage addition, dimensions for, 651 gasket, 239, 240, 240–241 Geographic Location - Define Geographic Location dialog box, 922, 923 Geographic Location dialog box, 923, 924 geographical information system (GIS) software, 471 geometric constraints, 211–212, 212, 214–217 Geometric Tolerance dialog box, 612, 613 geometric tolerancing, 611 ghosted line, 105, 263 glazing, 329, 330 global illumination, 928, 929 Google Earth, 923 gradients, 555, 561 for rendering, 930 Select Color dialog box for, 570 for shading, 568–573, 570, 572 Grads unit, for angles, 96 graphics window, 4, See also user interface (UI) green cross, for temporary tracking point, 177 grid attributes for, 440–450 finishing, 399, 399–400, 401 STRETCH command for symbols, 448, 449 text in, 392–400 Grid Display button, 9, 12, 12, 104 gridlines, 79–83 after zooming out, 82 display adjustment when zooming, 85 drawing with, 87–92 turning off, gripper, 861, 862, 863 grips, 107, 263, 265, 268, 514 for annotative text, 384–385 for copying objects, 512–513, 513 for detecting block, 322–323 to move endpoints, 288, 289 to stretch offset line, 508 GROUP command, 331 groups, 331–332 H handrail, 190, 190 HATCH command (H), 456, 558, 567 Hatch Creation tab on ribbon, 558, 558 Boundaries panel, Pick Points button, 559 Close Hatch Creation button, 563 Pattern panel, 560–561 Properties panel, 574 hatches, 555, 560–562 creating multiple entities, 564 creating palette for, 584–586, 585 in floor plan, 573–579 for floors, 576–579, 577, 579, 580 modifying shape, 580–581, 581 origin of, 575–576 for pop-out wall, 566, 567 solid-fill, 566–568, 568 for south elevation, 557–573, 560 turning off layer with, 569 for wall, 564–565, 565 Hatches palette, 361 headers, 281–283, 283 height of letters for dimensions, 601 guidelines, 413 setting, 369–370, 372 Helix tool, 905, 905 help from InfoCenter, 10 online, tooltips, for Ribbon tools, 22, 22 Help button, 10, 10 Help menu, 31 HIDE command, and paperspace objects, 795 Home folder, for DesignCenter, 357 Home tab on ribbon, 22 Annotation panel, Manage Text Style, 371, 371 Block panel, Create button, 330 Draw panel, 41 Circle tool, 213–214 Circle tool, 2-Point option, 395 Circle tool, fly-out menu, 213 Ellipse button, 229 Hatch button, 558 Line button, 53, 87, 282 Polyline button, 108, 405 Rectangle button, 136, 186, 208 Layers panel, 247, 247, 279, 744 Freeze tool, 282 Layer drop-down list, 281 Layer On tool, 280 Layer State drop-down list, Manage Layer States, 676, 677 LayerWalk button, 294 Make Object’s Layer Current, 293 Off tool, 569 Thaw All Layers tool, 294 Turn All Layers On, 350 Modeling panel Polysolid tool, 840 primitives on, 903, 903 Modify panel, 21 3D Align tool, 891 3D Move tool, 847–849, 849 Array, 191 Copy tool, 22, 188, 189 Edit Polyline, 104, 104, 109, 227, 408 Erase, 45, 45 Explode, 343 Extend tool, 64, 64, 119, 515 Extend tool, Trim, 66 Fillet button, 59, 111, 285, 516 Fillet button, Multiple option, 286, 287 Join tool, 536 Lengthen tool, 394 Move, 385 Offset button, 55, 110, 285 pinning open, 23, 23 Scale button, 188–189, 189 Stretch tool, 580 Trim, 390 Horizontal constraint tool • kmz files Properties panel, 247, 247 List button, 323 Solid Editing panel Slice button, 894 Subtract button, 850 Utilities panel Measure button, 457 Point Style, 451 View panel, 3D Navigation, 837, 837 Horizontal constraint tool, 2Points, 215, 215 horizontal dimensions, 614–621, 615 host drawing attaching xref permanently, 694–695 modifying xref within, 682–686 HSV (Hue, Saturation, and Value) color model, 250, 254 hyperlink, adding, 424–426 I icons, 64 image, adding to drawing, 686–690, 689 image maps, 937 IMAGEFRAME variable, 689 Imperial Letter page size, 706 sizing and positioning title block for, 706, 706, 707 Imperial units, 73 implied intersection, 543 implied windowing, 276 Import Layouts As Sheets dialog box, 733 Import Page Setups dialog box, 805, 805 importing layer states, 305 text, 434, 435 in-place xref editing, 686 Increment Angle, for polar angle, 182 indexing, 696 Infer Constraints button, 12, 12, 12, 12, 212 InfoCenter, 6, 10, 10 information sharing between drawings, 346–364 copying objects, 349–351 dragging and dropping, 346–351, 347 inserting drawing into another, 359–360 with WBLOCK command, 358–359 Initial Setup dialog box, 24, 24–25, 25, 833, 834–836 Initial Setup workspace, INSERT command, 309, 912 Insert dialog box, 315, 315, 460, 723 for drawing, 360 Insert dialog box (AutoCAD LT), 210, 211 Insert Layout dialog box, 726 Insert menu, 32 Insert tab on ribbon Attributes panel Define Attributes, 442, 709 Edit Attributes, 467 Block panel Block Editor, 344 Create button, 311, 455, 702 Insert button, 315, 460 Content panel, DesignCenter, 351 Reference panel, External References button, 670 Insert Table dialog box, 489–490, 490 From Object Data In the Drawing (Data Extraction) option, 497, 497 inserting blocks, 315–319, 316 with attributes, 446–448 column break in text, 420, 422 drawing, 359–360 dynamic blocks, 480–485 room information block, 459–462 window block, 332–343 insertion point for adding reference to drawing, 743 for block, 312, 312, 316 grip for block, 322, 322 snap tracking to set, 336–338 for xrefs, 696 Insertion Scale, 77 changing, 661 intensity of color, 255 interior door, blocking and inserting, 317–319 interior elevations, 552 interior walls, standard thickness, 103 International Organization for Standardization (ISO), 561 layering standard, 252 Internet connection for Customer Involvement Program, for existing linetypes, 261 intersection Boolean function, 842 Invisible mode, for attribute values, 453 ISO patterns, 561 italic text, 432 J jambs, 125 Job Already In Progress dialog box, 826, 826 joining lines, 106, 106 jpg files, as external reference, 670 justification of table cell, 492 justification of text, 376, 377, 397–398, 398 Center, 376 Left, 383 justification points, for multiline text, 431, 431 K keyboard, 34 for accessing commands, 172 kitchen, 202–223 counter, 203–207, 205 layout, 203 sink, 220–222, 221, 223 stove and refrigerator, 207–220, 209 stove burners, 213–214 stove details, 210 kml files, 923 kmz files, 923 971 landscape orientation • linetypes 972 L landscape orientation, 794 for printing, 719 large-format plotters, 781, 822–823 las files, 305 layer (default layer), 244 color and linetype of block, 309 for defining blocks, 313 LAYER command starting, 298 unfreezing layer, 375 -LAYER command, for layer management, 440 Layer List box, 248–249 Layer Notification Warning dialog box, 784 Layer Properties Manager, 247–248, 248, 249, 277, 594–595, 852 with assigned color, 255 Auto-Hide button, 262 context menu, Invert Selection, 456 for creating layer, 249 Delete Layer button, 256 green check mark, 261 Layer List box, 252 color in, 256, 256 with layers after binding xref, 695 and linetype, 257, 258 lineweights display in, 811 New Layer button, 251 printer icon, 557 Unreconciled New Layers, 784 Layer Settings dialog box, 278, 278 Layer State - Successful Import dialog box, 595 layer states, 301–303 importing and restoring, 594 Layer States Manager dialog box, 301, 302, 304–305, 818–819, 819 with restore options, 304 Layer Walk tool, 293–296 layers, 242 adding after saving named view, 589 assigning materials to, 935 color assignment, 243, 296 creating, and color assignment, 249–252 current, as drawing tool, 261–262 deleting, 256 displaying list, 281 for elevations, 506, 520–521, 521, 546 and external references, 681 freezing, 277–280, 310 for hatches and fills, 557 turning off, 569 linetype assignment, 257–262 macro creation of, 299–300 names, 252 object assignment to, 262–281 with Quick Properties panel, 267–268 for organization, 242–244, 243 properties of, 248–249, 812 selecting, 456 setting to prevent printing, 557 setting up, 244–256 status of, 278 for text, 369 turning off, 277–280 turning on all, 350 visibility, 243, 277 inside viewports, 744 on plan sheets, 762–763, 763 LayerWalk dialog box, 294, 294 LAYOFF command, 569 LAYON command, 350, 677, 768 Layout tabs, 701 navigating between, 756 layouts, 30, 369–370 adding to Sheet Set Manager, 756 copying, 749–760 minimizing total in drawing, 737 name change, 754 parameters, 716–721 preview, 822 printing with, 818–828 setting up, 741–759 referencing model, 741–743 South Elevation, 769 tasks in, 778 as template, 753–756 without plot-style table assigned, 804 LAYTHW command, 677, 768 leader lines, 637–639, 639 Learning Path link on Welcome screen, Left justification, 383 legal description, 659 LENGTHEN command (LEN), 394 Delta option, 394 lengthening objects, 196–198, 197, 198 less than ([...]... Displaying and arranging AutoCAD tools 2 Chapter 1 • Getting to Know AutoCAD Starting AutoCAD If you installed AutoCAD using the default settings for the location of the program files, start the program by choosing Start ➢ Programs ➢ Autodesk ➢ AutoCAD 2011 ➢ AutoCAD 2011 or by choosing Start ➢ Programs ➢ Autodesk ➢ AutoCAD LT 2011 ➢ AutoCAD LT 2011, depending on your program (This command path might... program as AutoCAD, with only minor differences You’ll be prompted when those differences, most of which are 3D features, come along This book is directed toward AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT novices—users who know how to use a computer and perform basic file-managing tasks, such as creating new folders and saving and moving files, but who know nothing or little about AutoCAD or LT (as I’ll call AutoCAD LT throughout... the ways in which architects and civil and structural engineers use AutoCAD to increase their efficiency and ability to produce state-of-the-art computerized production drawings and designs Because AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT are so similar, it makes sense to cover the basics of both programs in one book For most of the book, the word AutoCAD stands for both AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT When you come to a section... system and scheme you are using.) You can also find and double-click the AutoCAD 2011 icon or the AutoCAD LT 2011 icon on your desktop N O T E   ​You can also use AutoCAD- based products such as AutoCAD Architecture or AutoCAD Civil 3D to learn the topics covered in this book To use one of these vertical products, choose Start ➢ Programs ➢ Autodesk ➢ AutoCAD Product Name 2011 ➢ AutoCAD Product Name as AutoCAD. .. versions of AutoCAD, you’ll still want to review this chapter to become acquainted with some of the changes from recent years Although the 2011 release does have some subtle user interface improvements, the interfaces are almost identical in AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT Generally speaking, both platforms offer the same 2D drafting experience (The biggest difference is that AutoCAD LT has no 3D capability AutoCAD. .. whereas other elements may not always be viewable We’ll discuss how AutoCAD chooses to configure the user interface shortly At this point, however, your graphics window should look similar to Figure 1.4 Standard AutoCAD Workspaces O AutoCAD provides the following standard workspaces: AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT offer numerous dialog boxes with various combinations of buttons and text boxes You’ll learn... modeling in 3D that are not found in AutoCAD LT These tools are the topic of Chapter 16, “Creating 3D Geometry,” and Chapter 17, “Rendering and Materials.”) With so little separating the two platforms, for most purposes in this book I’ll refer to both interchangeably as AutoCAD unless otherwise specified  Opening a new drawing  Becoming familiar with the AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT Application windows... organization of the AutoCAD user interface, cover a few of the basic commands, and equip you with the tools necessary to set up a new drawing, including the use of a standard such as the National CAD Standard (NCS) to organize your files  Chapters 4 and 5 introduce the basic drawing commands and develop drawing strategies that will help you use commands efficiently  Chapters 6 through 11 work with AutoCAD s... to AutoCAD only, the icon shown here is displayed in the margin to alert you When appropriate, extra information for AutoCAD LT users is provided to give you a workaround or otherwise keep you in step with the tutorial Because AutoCAD LT doesn’t have 3D commands or features, the last two chapters, which are an introduction to drawing in 3D, apply only to AutoCAD But LT users can be assured that LT. .. Learn from This Book? Learning AutoCAD, like learning any complex computer program, requires a significant commitment of time and attention and, to some extent, a tolerance for repetition You must understand new concepts to operate the program and to appreciate its potential as a drafting and design tool However, to become proficient at AutoCAD, you must also use the commands enough times to gain an intuitive ... AutoCAD 2011 and AutoCAD LT 2011 ® ® No Experience Required AutoCAD 2011 and AutoCAD LT 2011 ® ® No Experience Required D onnie Glad felter Senior Acquisitions Editor:... may not be available in electronic books Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Gladfelter, Donnie, 198 2AutoCAD 2011 and AutoCAD LT 2011 : no experience required / Donnie Gladfelter... toward AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT novices—users who know how to use a computer and perform basic file-managing tasks, such as creating new folders and saving and moving files, but who know nothing