1.4 Saving and Leaving a Drawing Session


1.4.1 Saving a Drawing to a Local or Network Drive and Leaving the Drawing Session

Now that we've created our drawing, we need to save it. We accomplish this by using one of three commands: Save , Saveas , or Qsave . Each behaves in a similar manner depending on the status of the drawing. That is, each will present the Save Drawing As dialog box if the drawing has not been previously saved. The Qsave command, however, will automatically save the drawing without prompting the user for additional information (provided it has been previously saved and given a name ).

Save and Saveas are available at the command prompt or under the File pull-down menu. Qsave will occur when you pick the Save button on the Standard toolbar.

How you end the drawing depends on whether you wish to end only the current drawing or the entire drawing session. In other words, do you want to close AutoCAD or just close this drawing? To leave the drawing without leaving AutoCAD, use the Close command. To close all drawings that are currently open , without leaving AutoCAD, use the Closeall command. Otherwise, use the Quit command or pick the X button on the right end of the title bar.

These commands are also available both at the command prompt and under the File pull-down menu.

Let's save and exit our drawing.

Do This: 1.4.1.1 Saving Your Drawing Changes

  1. Continue the previous drawing session.

    Tools

    Command Sequence

    Steps

    No Button Available

    Command: saveas

    1. Open the Save Drawing As dialog box. To do this, you must choose one of two approaches: Type saveas at the command prompt, or go to the File pull-down menu and select Save As .

    AutoCAD presents the Save Drawing As dialog box shown in Figure 1.4.1.1.1a.

     

    click to expand
    Figure 1.4.1.1.1a:

    2. Next to the Save in: control box (where you see My Documents ), you'll find a downward-pointing arrow. Pick on that arrow to see a path showing where you're on your hard drive (as indicated). We're going to save the file to the C:\Steps\Lesson01 folder.

    Pick on the computer icon next to (C:) . The list box below changes to show all the folders on the C-drive. (Use this procedure to save your drawing to a network drive as well. Simply pick the letter that designates the drive to which you wish to save your work.)

    Steps Folder

     

    3. In the list box, double-click on the folder identified as Steps . This folder opens and the list box now shows the contents of the Steps folder.

    Lesson01 Folder

     

    4. Double-click on the folder identified as Lesson01 . This folder now opens. Your dialog box should now look like Figure 1.4.1.1.4a.

     

    click to expand
    Figure 1.4.1.1.4a:

    5. Type in the name MyFirstStep in the box next to the words File n ame .

    Don't put the extension on the name; AutoCAD will do that for you.

    6. Notice that the type of file you'll save has been identified in the Files of type: control box. Pick the down arrow to view the different formats available.

    • The two . dwg file types make it possible to save an AutoCAD 2004 drawing so that it may be edited by earlier releases of AutoCAD.

    • The . dwt file is an AutoCAD template (we'll look more at this in a few minutes).

    • . DXF files are binary files (computer programming stuff) used to exchange AutoCAD drawings with other programs.

    • Finally, the . dws files are used as standard files.

    Leave the default AutoCAD 2004 Drawing selected.

     

    7. Pick the S ave button in the lower right corner of the dialog box. AutoCAD saves the drawing and the dialog box closes . Notice that the title and path of the drawing now appear on the title bar.

    Command: quit

    8. Now that your drawing has been saved, you can exit the program. The easiest way to do this is to pick the X button on the right end of the title bar, but you can also enter quit on the command line or select Exit from the File pull-down menu.

    Note  

    Note that leaving a drawing that has been changed, without first saving it, will cause AutoCAD to present a warning box (Figure 1.4.1a). AutoCAD will let you know that you have not saved the drawing and ask if you would like to save it now. If you haven't saved it before, AutoCAD will take you to the Save Drawing As dialog box that you used in Step 1 of the previous exercise.


    Figure 1.4.1a:

1.4.2 Saving a Drawing to an Internet Location

Saving a drawing to an Internet location is simple enough; it simply requires that you enter a web address in the File name text box of the Save Drawing As dialog box. But because of Internet protocols, you can't transfer information from your computer to an http address. You can, however, send your file to an ftp address. For such a slight difference, the significance of this change should not be underestimated. Forgetting to change protocols has driven many an operator into frantic searches for more profound problems, only to wind up feeling foolish when the oversight was discovered .

Once you have entered the correct address and picked the Save button, AutoCAD must stop and ask you for a user ID and password. The nature of the Internet requires these to ensure the integrity of the web site. (Imagine opening a file on your web site only to discover that some unknown villain had overwritten your drawing files with Daffy Duck cartoons.)

Let's save a drawing to an Internet address.

Note  

In order to avoid thousands of stray documents finding their way to our website, you can't actually save your document to the Internet in this exercise. Instead, I will take you to the point where the user ID and password are required, and then we'll cancel the procedure.

Do This: 1.4.2.1 Saving Your Drawing to an Internet Site

  1. Begin an AutoCAD session (double-click on the AutoCAD icon on the desktop).

  2. At the Startup dialog box, pick the Start from Scratch button (use the default Imperial units), and then pick Okay .

    Tools

    Command Sequence

    Steps

    No Button Available

    Command: saveas

    1. Begin by entering the Saveas command as you normally would.

    2. Enter the ftp address to our Internet site ( ftp://ftp.uneedcad.com/2004/MyDrawing.dwg * ).

    Notice that you'll need to include the extension when saving to an Internet site.

    [*]

    click to expand

    3. AutoCAD asks you for the network password. If you had the proper User name and Password , you would enter them here and AutoCAD would save the drawing to the appropriate Internet address. Since we can't save without the password, pick the Cancel button to exit the command.

       

    4. Close your Internet connection. (Note: If you have accessed the Internet through a company network, this may not be possible or practical. Move on to Step 5.)

     

    Command: quit

    5. Exit the drawing without saving.

    [*] This site is given as an example. If you have problems with this one, any ftp site will work.




AutoCAD 2004. One Step at a Time (Part 1)
AutoCAD 2004. One Step at a Time (Part 1)
ISBN: N/A
EAN: N/A
Year: 2003
Pages: 162

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