Starting a Drawing

Starting a new drawing in AutoCAD is a little different from other programs, so let's create a new file to see how it's done:

1. Choose File è Close to close the current file. When the message box appears asking you to save changes, click No. Notice that the toolbars disappear and that the AutoCAD drawing window appears blank when no drawings are open.

2. Choose File è New to open the Select Template dialog box.

3. Select the acad.dwt template file, and then click Open to open a blank drawing window.

4. To give your new file a unique name, choose File è Save As to open the Save Drawing As dialog box.

5. Enter My First Drawing. As you type, the name appears in the File Name text box. Notice that the file will be saved in the My Documents folder by default.

6. Click Save. You now have a file called My First Drawing.dwg, located in the My Documents folder. Of course, your drawing doesn't contain anything yet. You'll take care of that next.

The acad.dwt template file you selected in step 3 is really just an AutoCAD drawing file that has been set up with standard settings. AutoCAD uses those settings to create a new file. As you saw in the Select Template dialog box, you can choose from several such templates.

The new file you just created shows a drawing area roughly 75 units wide by 45 units high. The units can be inches, meters, or millimeters. You determine what the units are equivalent to through the Drawing Units dialog box, which you will learn about in Chapter 2.

The drawing area you're presented with initially is your workspace, although you're not limited to the 75-by-45-unit area in any way. No visual clues indicate the size of the area, so to check the area size for yourself, move the crosshair cursor to the upper-right corner of the screen, and observe the value in the coordinate readout in the lower-left corner of the AutoCAD window. This is the standard AutoCAD default drawing area for new drawings using the acad.dwt drawing template.

The coordinate readout won't show exactly 75 units by 45 units, because the proportions of your drawing area are not likely to be exactly 7.5 by 4.5. Factors such as the size and resolution of your display and the shape of the AutoCAD window affect the dimensions of the drawing area.

Next, try drawing a couple of objects just to get comfortable with drawing in AutoCAD. In the following exercise, you'll draw a rectangle; then you'll add a circle:

1. Click the Rectangle tool in the 2D Draw control panel. Remember that you can use the ToolTips to help you locate a tool. You can also choose Draw è Rectangle from the menu bar.

   

2. Click a point in the lower left of the drawing area, as shown in Figure 1.9. Don't worry about the exact location. You're just practicing right now. After clicking, notice that one corner of the rectangle follows the cursor.

3. Click a point in the upper right of the drawing area, as shown in Figure 1.9. Again, it's not important if you don't pick the exact location. The rectangle is now in place.

Figure 1.9: Drawing a circle

Now add a circle to the drawing:

1. Click the Circle tool in the 2D Draw control panel.

2. Click the location shown in Figure 1.9 to place the center of the circle. Now as you move the cursor, a circle appears whose radius follows the location of the cursor.

   

3. Click another point as shown in Figure 1.9 to "fix" the circle's radius in place. If you prefer, you can enter an exact radius value for a circle instead of clicking another point to "fix" the circle radius.

You now have a circle and a rectangle. As you can see, you create objects by placing key points of their geometry within the drawing area. For the rectangle, it was two corners; for the circle, it was the center and a location on the perimeter.

Once you've placed objects in the drawing, you can edit them using a variety of tools. In later chapters, you'll learn more about those editing tools. In the following section, you'll learn how to get around in your drawing.

WHEN YOU NEED TO UNDO

Recently AutoCAD User Group International (AUGI) conducted a survey to identify the most commonly used features in AutoCAD. The group found that the Undo feature and the Esc key were at the top of the list. Everyone makes mistakes, and it would be impossible to get any work done if it weren't for these two features. But Undo and the Esc key are just two of a set of features you can use to reverse something you have done. If you find you've done something unintentionally, you can use the following options to get out of trouble:

• Backspace If you make a typing error, press the Backspace key to back up to your error, and then reenter your command or response.

• Esc When you need to quickly exit a command or a dialog box without making changes, just press the Esc key in the upper-left corner of your keyboard.

• U↲ If you accidentally change something in the drawing and want to reverse that change, click the Undo tool (the left-pointing curved arrow) in the Standard toolbar. You can also enter U↲ at the command prompt. Each time you do this, AutoCAD undoes one operation at a time, in reverse order. The last command performed is undone first, then the next-to-last command, and so on. The prompt displays the name of the command being undone, and the drawing reverts to its state prior to that command. If you need to, you can undo everything back to the beginning of an editing session.

• Undo If you decide that you want to back up a few steps of an operation you just performed, you can use the Undo tool (the left-pointing curved arrow) on the Standard toolbar. Each click of the Undo tool steps you back one operation. In AutoCAD 2008, you can also select the exact command to undo by using the Undo drop-down list. You can open the Undo drop-down list by clicking the downward-pointing arrow to the right of the Undo tool.

  

• Redo If you accidentally undo one too many commands, you can redo the last undone command by clicking the Redo tool (the right-pointing curved arrow) on the Standard toolbar. Or enter R↲. In AutoCAD 2008, Redo allows you to redo several operations that you might have undone with the Undo command. You can also select the exact command to redo by using the Redo drop-down list. To open the Redo drop-down list, click the downward-pointing arrow to the right of the Redo tool.