before we get started into our training
sessions I wanted to have you work with
a small project that will incorporate
some of the basic functions of AutoCAD
don't worry about understanding
everything here or anything really this
project is meant as a sort of icebreaker
like an activity at an opening of a
party to help guests get to know one
another so that they can enjoy
themselves more will start AutoCAD if
you haven't already
now press the f8 button
the command-line down here should say
ortho on if it doesn't press the f8
button again until it says ortho on this
setting forces lines to be drawn
horizontally or vertically now let's
start the rectangle command that's right
up here if you don't see that box click
this arrow and pick rectangle
when I say pick I mean a left click if
you need to right click I'll say right
click
we're going to pick our first point and
you can pick anywhere it doesn't matter
right now pick a point and we're going
to make this rectangle 50 units wide by
30 units tall so how do I do that well
as you move your mouse around you'll see
it's asking for a second point for our
rectangle we see the dynamic box there
as I move it to the right what's
highlighted in blue on my screen says
ten point zero eight nine nine if I go
to the left it says four point two five
seven eight well that's my horizontal
distance for my rectangle I want that to
be five zero or 50 units I'll press the
tab key and it takes us to the other box
I want that to be 30 units so type in 30
and press Enter
now double click on your scroll wheel
that will perform what's called a zoom
extents it zooms all the way out so that
you can see everything in your file that
you've drawn
you can use your scroll wheel on your
mouse if you scroll up back and forth
you zoom in and you can zoom out you're
not changing the file in any way you're
just changing the way you're viewing it
hold the scroll wheel you can pan around
again you're not changing your drawing
any here just changing on how you're
looking at it now we're going to use the
offset command
come up here click on the ribbon click
offset
type in
five it's a decimal point then the
number five press ENTER pick anywhere on
the rectangle left click and move your
cursor the crosshairs to the inside you
should get a little preview of what
you're going to do or copying that line
work and offsetting it or making a
parallel copy of five units away click
with the left click somewhere inside
there and I'll press the Escape key the
Escape key will cancel a command you're
going to find out that you're going to
use it quite a bit now let's open up the
tool palettes press ctrl + 3 at the same
time
is a pallet they are very useful and
there are many different ones that we
can use click on the architectural tab
this will bring up a set of blocks
blocks are sets of line work that are
grouped together to act as one unit you
can use them many times copy them rotate
them and just copy and copy and copy so
in cases like this we want to pick a
door block go up to the door imperial
click it once
may have to wait a few seconds
and then click again now if it comes in
really big like this that means we have
a problem with scale some of our units
are not set up correctly but that's okay
for what we're trying to do so we're
going to use the scale command start it
up right here in the ribbon click the
door
press Enter
point anywhere near the door
then put in one
/ 12
press Enter
and the problem is the drawing we're
using here was set to feet and the block
for the door was set to inches and so
AutoCAD automatically scaled it it's our
fault not Auto cats that's okay then
we're going to move this door we're
going to put it somewhere on the wall
type in the letter M for move now you
can see that the command is right up
here you can use that command or you can
type commands in on the keyboard across
the command line either way works fine
press Enter
and then pick the door you can just pick
it with your mouse if you miss and you
get a little window that looks like this
thing that's okay move it to the bottom
and to the left of where you picked
originally so that you get this green
background with the dashed lines and
then cross that window across the door
that's called a crossing selection
window click again so you've picked it
press Enter
in these letters
a and D this is for an end point snap
press enter this will grab an end point
of an object that's what we want to do
we want to grab the end point of this
line for the door
left click
now press the f8 button again
that will turn off our ortho setting
otherwise we were locked into just
moving either left right or straight up
and down with your scroll wheel scroll
out till you can see a rectangle and
then scroll in
now type in in E a that's another snap
point
it's called near press enter
and now just go somewhere on this bottom
line and so that you see that little
green hourglass looking glyph that's the
nearest glyph then left click we've put
a door in here quite simple now we're
going to use what's called the trim
command so come up here select trim and
pick down here to the left on the bottom
of that door now move up to the right so
that that blue area encloses the entire
door so it's all inside this is called a
selection window to the bottom left is
called a crossing window this is a
selection window everything inside here
will be picked now left click
pick here
press Enter
on the walls click here and click here
zoom in
- click here again we've just trimmed
our wall right-click and then press
Enter
so you've just drawn a wall for a
building and put a door into it now it
doesn't seem real fancy but these types
of things are what you're going to be
doing over and over again
let's put some text in here
click on this big black a the text
command right here in the ribbon
pick a point
to the right and down just eyeball it
how I've shown you here we can adjust
all of this later
left click again and type in
garage when you're done
somewhere around outside of this area
this is the text editor you can see the
ribbon changed it's called the
contextual ribbon tab it changes based
on the context of the commands you're
doing it brings up a temporary ribbon
tool so that you can have the tools
available for what you're doing click
outside see it goes away and now we have
our text but it's kind of small
select it again just pick somewhere
arbitrarily up here cross across the
bottom
pick again we've selected that
scale button
zoom in
click right below it
and now drag your mouse up until you can
see it we're making things bigger with
the scale command there you go
let's go back to
a little tool pilot here click on the
vehicle's Imperial
pick in here again
again use the scale command
pick what looks like part of this car
press enter
down here left click it
and then type in again 1/12 enter
we just put in a car select the car a
see if you zoom in this blue box and
this blue triangle click the blue
triangle and let's go with the sports
car top we have different options this
is called a dynamic block this block has
some preset designs to it and you can
change it on the fly right now we're set
up to a side view of a sports car but if
I click sports car top it changes to the
top view of a sports car zoom out and
press the Escape key
command-click move
select the car left-click it press Enter
pick a point anywhere
move it up a little bit
as you can see here most of these Auto
commands have a series of events that
have to happen you start the command
whatever it is and then you pick your
first point type in m ID for midpoint
press enter and we're going to pick down
here zoom in with your scroll wheel and
get that green triangle you see a green
triangle that's a midpoint glyph that's
a no snap it's snapping right to the
middle of that line left-click
in
up here type in P er that's an O snap
for perpendicular press Enter
we're going to zoom in a little you can
even pan
see that little right angle looking
symbol for the glyph that's for a
perpendicular
oh snap glyph left click press Enter or
escape to finish your command and you
just drew a line
so these are just some of the basic
tools that you're going to learn how to
use you're going to learn how to draw
some lines use different shapes like our
rectangle offset them copy them trim
them insert other objects into your
drawing and draw a line draw two lines
you can even draw some circles for
whatever they need to be it seems a
little overwhelming right now with all
of the buttons and all the panels that
are up on the screen I understand that
we're going to break it down and look at
one thing at a time and then we're going
to show you how to apply them to a
project and we're going to slowly build
on that project more and more until we
work on their final project when you
make a design drawing for a small movie
theater