What to Expect

Mastering AutoCAD 2005 and AutoCAD LT 2005 is divided into five parts , each representing a milestone in your progress toward becoming an expert AutoCAD user . Here is a description of those parts and what they will show you.

Part 1: The Basics

As with any major endeavor, you must begin by tackling small, manageable tasks . In this first part, you will become familiar with the way AutoCAD looks and feels. Chapter 1, "This Is AutoCAD," shows you how to get around in AutoCAD. In Chapter 2, "Creating Your First Drawing," you will learn how to start and exit the program and how to respond to AutoCAD commands. Chapter 3, "Learning the Tools of the Trade," tells you how to set up a work area, edit objects, and lay out a drawing. In Chapter 4, "Organizing Your Work," you will explore some tools unique to CAD: symbols, blocks, and layers . As you are introduced to AutoCAD, you will also get a chance to make some drawings that you can use later in the book and perhaps even in future projects of your own.

Part 2: Building on the Basics

After you have the basics down, you will begin to explore some of AutoCAD's more subtle qualities. Chapter 5, "Editing for Productivity," tells you how to reuse drawing setup information and parts of an existing drawing. In Chapter 6, "Enhancing Your Drawing Skills," you will learn how to assemble and edit a large drawing file. Chapter 7, "Printing, Plotting, and Layouts," shows you how to get your drawing onto hard copy. Chapter 8, "Adding Text to Drawings," tells you how to annotate your drawing and edit your notes. Chapter 9, "Using Dimensions," gives you practice in using automatic dimensioning (another unique CAD capability), which has been enhanced in AutoCAD 2005 with the true associative dimensioning feature. Along the way, I will be giving you tips on editing and how to solve problems you might encounter as you begin to use AutoCAD for more complex tasks.

Part 3: Becoming an Expert

At this point, you will be on the verge of becoming a real AutoCAD expert. Part III is designed to help you polish your existing skills and give you a few new ones. Chapter 10, "Attributes ”Storing Data with Graphics," tells you how to attach information to drawing objects and how to export that information to database and spreadsheet files. In Chapter 11, "Copying Pre-existing Drawings into AutoCAD," you will learn techniques for transferring paper drawings to AutoCAD. In Chapter 12, "Power Editing," you will complete the apartment building tutorial. During this process you will learn how to integrate what you've learned so far and gain some tips on working in groups. Chapter 13, "Drawing Curves and Solid Fills," gives you an in-depth look at some special drawing objects, such as splines and fitted curves. In Chapter 14, "Getting and Exchanging Data from Drawings," you will practice getting information about a drawing and learn how AutoCAD can interact with other applications, such as spreadsheets and desktop-publishing programs. You'll also learn how to copy and paste data. If you need to link your drawing data to a database, the companion CD contains "Working With External Databases," a chapter that focuses on AutoCAD's dbConnect Manager. dbConnect offers a way to link objects and text in a drawing to a database manager so you can keep track of anything from assembly parts to equipment in a floor plan.

Part 4: 3D Modeling and Imaging

Although 2D drafting is AutoCAD's workhorse application, AutoCAD's 3D capabilities give you a chance to expand your ideas and look at them in a new light. Chapter 15, "Introducing 3D," covers AutoCAD's basic features for creating three-dimensional drawings. Chapter 16, "Using Advanced 3D Features," introduces you to some of the program's more powerful 3D capabilities. Chapter 17, "Rendering and Animating 3D Drawings," shows how you can use AutoCAD to produce lifelike views of your 3D drawings. Chapter 18, "Mastering 3D Solids," is a guided tour of AutoCAD 2005's solid-modeling feature. On the CD, you'll find "Architectural Solid Modeling," which takes you deeper into the world of 3D solid modeling as you model a classic building to learn the finer points of AutoCAD 3D. "Advanced Surface Modeling," also on the CD, shows you how to make full use of AutoCAD's surface modeling tools to create more complex, free-form shapes .

Part 5: Customization and Integration

One of AutoCAD's greatest strengths is its openness to customization. Chapter 19, "Introduction to Customization," gives you a gentle introduction to the world of AutoCAD customization. You'll learn how to load and use existing Express tools that expand AutoCAD's functionality, and you'll be introduced to AutoLISP as a tool to create macros. Chapter 20, "Integrating AutoCAD into Your Projects and Organization," shows you how to customize menus , toolbars , line types, and hatch patterns. Chapter 21, "Managing and Sharing Your Drawings," shows you how to adapt AutoCAD to your own work style. You'll learn about the tools that help you exchange drawings with others and how to secure your drawings to prevent tampering. Chapter 22, "Keeping a Project Organized with Sheet Sets," shows you how to use the new Sheet Set Manager to simplify your file management. By using the Sheet Set Manager, you will be able to automate some of the more tedious drawing coordination tasks.

If you're really serious about customization, you'll want to take a look at additional bonus chapters on the CD that offer in-depth coverage of customization topics. "Exploring VBA" covers the basic concepts of Visual Basic Automation for AutoCAD. Visual Basic lets you build custom applications that work with AutoCAD and other Windows programs. Two more chapters about VBA and ActiveX are also on the CD.

The Appendices

Finally, this book has three appendices. Appendix A, "Installing and Setting Up AutoCAD," contains an installation and configuration tutorial. If AutoCAD is not already installed on your system, you should follow this tutorial before starting Chapter 1. Appendix B, "Hardware and Software Tips," offers information on hardware related to AutoCAD. It also provides tips on improving AutoCAD's performance and troubleshooting and provides more detailed information on setting up AutoCAD's plotting feature. Appendix C, "System and Dimension Variables," provides a reference to system and dimension variables , as well as detailed information regarding dimension style settings.