Chapter 2

Creating Your First Drawing

This chapter examines some of the basic functions of the AutoCAD® software. You’ll get a chance to practice with the drawing editor by building a simple drawing to use in later exercises. You’ll learn how to give input to AutoCAD, interpret prompts, and get help when you need it. This chapter also covers the use of coordinate systems to give AutoCAD exact measurements for objects. You’ll see how to select objects you’ve drawn and how to specify base points for moving and copying.

If you’re not a beginning AutoCAD user, you may want to move on to the more complex material in Chapter 3, “Setting Up and Using the Drafting Tools.” You can use the files supplied at the book’s web page (www.sybex.com/go/masteringautocad2014) to continue the tutorials at that point.

Beginning in this chapter, we’ll be using a setup that displays a white drawing background instead of the dark gray background you see on your screen. We do this to keep the figures legible in the printed version of this book, but the difference should not hinder your understanding of the figures. If you like, you can set up your screen with a white background by following the instructions in Appendix B, “Installing and Setting Up AutoCAD,” in the section “Set Up AutoCAD with a White Background.”

In this chapter, you will learn to:

• Specify distances with coordinates
• Interpret the cursor modes and understand prompts
• Select objects and edit with grips
• Use dynamic input
• Display data in a text window
• Display the properties of an object
• Get help

Getting to Know the Home Tab’s Draw and Modify Panels

Your first task in learning how to draw in AutoCAD software is simply to draw a line. Since AutoCAD is designed as a precision drawing tool, you’ll be introduced to methods that allow you to input exact distances. But before you begin drawing, take a moment to familiarize yourself with the features you’ll be using more than any other to create objects with AutoCAD: the Draw and Modify panels. Try these steps:

Figure 2-1 The Select Template dialog box

Figure 2-2 The Draw panel

In most cases, you’ll be able to guess what each tool does by looking at its icon. The icon with an arc, for instance, indicates that the tool draws arcs; the one with the ellipse signifies that the tool draws ellipses; and so on. If you hover over the tool, you’ll see the tool tip name and the keyboard command associated with the tool. Hold the cursor for a bit longer and a cue card that gives a brief explanation of how to use the tool appears.

You see several tools in the Home tab’s Draw and Modify panels. In Chapter 1, you saw that if you click the arrow in a panel’s title bar, the panel expands to reveal more tools (see Figure 2-3). Once you’ve selected a tool from the expanded Draw or Modify panel, the expanded panel closes. If you want to keep the expanded panel open, click the pushpin icon at the left end of the expanded panel’s title bar.

Figure 2-3 The Home tab’s Draw and Modify panel tools

Starting Your First Drawing

In Chapter 1, you looked at a preexisting sample drawing. This time, you’ll begin to draw your own drawing by creating a door that will be used in later exercises. First, though, you must learn how to tell AutoCAD what you want, and even more importantly, you must understand what AutoCAD wants from you.

You’ll start by opening a new drawing and setting the size of the work area, known as the drawing limits. These limits aren’t fixed in any way, and you aren’t forced to stay within the bounds of the drawing limits unless the Limits command’s ON/OFF option is turned on. But limits can help to establish a starting area from which you can expand your drawing.

You currently have a new blank file, but it’s a little difficult to tell the size of your drawing area. Let’s set up the work area so you have a better idea of the space with which you’re working:

In the last step, the All option of the Zoom command uses the limits you set up in steps 2 and 3 to determine the display area. In a drawing that contains objects, the Zoom tool’s All option displays the limits plus the area occupied by the objects in the drawing if they happen to fall outside the limits. Now give your file a unique name:

Now you can start to explore the drawing process. To begin a drawing, follow these steps:

Specify first point:

Specify next point or [Undo]:

Figure 2-4 A rubber-banding line

The Undo and Redo tools in the Quick Access toolbar offer Undo and Redo drop-down lists from which you can select the exact command you want to undo or redo. See the sidebar “Getting Out of Trouble” later in this chapter for more information.

You’ve just drawn, and then undrawn, a line of an arbitrary length. The Line command is still active. Two onscreen clues tell you that you’re in the middle of a command. If you don’t see the words Type a Command in the Command window, a command is still active. Also, the cursor is the plain crosshair without the box at its intersection.

From now on, we’ll refer to the crosshair cursor without the small box as the Point Selection mode of the cursor. If you look ahead to Figure 2-5, you’ll see all the modes of the drawing cursor.

Figure 2-5 The drawing cursor’s modes

Specifying Exact Distances with Coordinates

Next, you’ll continue with the Line command to draw a plan view (an overhead view) of a door, to no particular scale. This will give you some practice in drawing objects to exact distances. Later, you’ll resize the drawing for use in future exercises. The door will be 3 units long and 0.15 units thick. For metric users, the door will be 9 units long and 0.5 units thick. To specify these exact distances in AutoCAD, you can use either relative polar coordinates or Cartesian coordinates.

Getting Out of Trouble

Beginners and experts alike are bound to make a few mistakes. Before you get too far into the exercise, here are some powerful but easy-to-use tools to help you recover from accidents:

Backspace If you make a typing error, press the Backspace key to back up to your error and then retype your command or response. The Backspace key is in the upper-right corner of the main keyboard area.

Escape (Esc) This is perhaps the single most important key on your keyboard. When you need to exit a command or a dialog box quickly without making changes, press the Esc key in the upper-left corner of your keyboard. In most cases, you need to press Esc only once, although it won’t hurt to press it twice. (Press Esc before editing with grips or issuing commands through the keyboard.)

U If you accidentally change something in the drawing and want to reverse that change, click the Undo tool in the Quick Access toolbar (the left-pointing curved arrow). You can also type 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 being issued. If you need to, you can undo everything back to the beginning of an editing session. You can also select the exact command to back up to by using the Undo drop-down list in the Quick Access toolbar.

You can open the Undo drop-down list by clicking the down-pointing arrow found to the right of the Undo tool.

Undo If you want more control over the way Undo works, you can use the Undo command, which allows you to “bookmark” places in your editing session that you can “undo” to. Type Undo↵ and you’ll see the Enter the number of operations to undo or [Auto/Control/BEgin/End/Mark/Back] <1>: prompt. You can enter a number indicating the number of steps you want to undo. Use the Mark option to bookmark a location; then use Back to undo your work to that bookmark. You can use Begin and End to mark the beginning and end of a set of operations that will be undone all at once. Control offers options to control the behavior of the Undo command. Auto is an option that is on by default and causes AutoCAD to undo the action of the whole command rather than the individual actions within a command.

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) in the Quick Access toolbar, or you can type Redo↵. You can redo several operations that you may have undone with the Undo command. You can also select the exact command to redo to by using the Redo drop-down list in the Quick Access toolbar.

Oops If you’ve deleted something and gone on to use other commands, you can restore the last deleted object or objects by using the Oops command. Oops enables you to restore the last deleted set of objects without having to undo a series of commands.

The Imperial and metric distances aren’t equivalent in the exercises in this chapter. For example, 3 units in the Imperial-based drawing aren’t equal to 9 metric units. These distances are arbitrary and based on how they appear in the figures in this chapter.

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Specifying Polar Coordinates

To enter the exact distance of 3 (or 9 metric) units to the right of the last point you selected, do the following:

Figure 2-6 Notice that the rubber-banding line now starts from the last point selected. This indicates that you can continue to add more line segments.

The “at” sign (@) you entered tells AutoCAD that the coordinate you’re specifying is from the last point you selected. The 3 (or 9 metric) is the distance, and the less-than symbol (<) tells AutoCAD that you’re designating the angle at which the line is to be drawn. The last part is the value for the angle, which in this case is 0 for 0°. This is how to use polar coordinates to communicate distances and directions to AutoCAD.

If you’re accustomed to a different method for describing directions, you can set AutoCAD to use a vertical direction or downward direction as 0°. See Chapter 3 for details.

Angles are given based on the system shown in Figure 2-7, in which 0° is a horizontal direction from left to right, 90° is straight up, 180° is horizontal from right to left, and so on. You can specify degrees, minutes, and seconds of arc if you want to be that exact. You can also specify angles using negative values, which would mirror the direction about the x-axis. For example, a minus 45° angle would point in the direction shown as 315° in Figure 2-7. We’ll discuss angle formats in more detail in Chapter 3.

Figure 2-7 AutoCAD default system for specifying angles

Specifying Relative Cartesian Coordinates

For the next line segment, let’s try another method for specifying exact distances:

Figure 2-8 These three sides of the door were drawn by using the Line tool. Points are specified by using either relative Cartesian or polar coordinates.

Figure 2-9 Positive and negative Cartesian coordinate directions

Figure 2-10 Distance and direction input for the door. Distances for metric users are shown in brackets.

To finish drawing a series of lines without closing them, you can press Esc, ↵, or the spacebar.

Interpreting the Cursor Modes and Understanding Prompts

The key to working with AutoCAD successfully is understanding the way it interacts with you. The following sections will help you become familiar with some of the ways AutoCAD prompts you for input. Understanding the format of the messages in the Command window and recognizing other events on the screen will help you learn the program more easily.

Understanding Cursor Modes

As the Command window aids you with messages, the cursor gives you clues about what to do. Figure 2-5 earlier illustrates the various modes of the cursor, and it gives a brief description of the role of each mode. Take a moment to study this figure.

If you’re an experienced AutoCAD user, you may prefer to use the old-style crosshair cursor that crosses the entire screen. Choose Options from the bottom of the Application menu to open the Options dialog box, and then click the Display tab. Set the Crosshair Size option near the bottom right of the dialog box to 100. The cursor then appears as it did in previous versions of AutoCAD. As the option name implies, you can set the crosshair size to any percentage of the screen you want. The default is 5 percent.

Other Ways to Enter Distances

A third method for entering distances is to point in a direction with a rubber-banding line and then enter the distance through the keyboard. For example, to draw a line 3 units long from left to right, click the Line tool on the Home tab’s Draw panel, click a start point, and then move the cursor so the rubber-banding line points to the right at some arbitrary distance. With the cursor pointing in the direction you want, type 3↵. The rubber-banding line becomes a fixed line 3 units long. Using this method, called the Direct Distance method, along with the Ortho mode or Polar Tracking described in Chapter 3, can be a fast way to draw orthogonal lines of specific lengths.

You can also specify an exact angle along with the distance. For example, start the Line command and then pick the first point. Type 3 for the length but don’t press ↵. Press the Tab key instead. The line segment will become fixed at 3 units, and as you move the cursor, the segment will rotate freely around the first point. Next, type an angle in degrees, 30↵ for example, and the line will be drawn at 30 degrees. Or, instead of typing in an angle, just adjust the angle of the line visually until you see the angle you want on the Dynamic Input temporary angle dimension and then click the mouse.

If you watch the temporary dimensions as you press the Tab key, you’ll see that the Tab key lets you move from the length dimension to the angle dimension and back again. You can press the Tab key at any time to shift back and forth between dimensions. A lock appears next to a dimension that you have entered, telling you that the dimension is “locked” until you tab to it again.

You’ll learn more about how to enter values with the Dynamic Input’s temporary dimensions later in this chapter.

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Choosing Command Options

Many commands in AutoCAD offer several options, which are often presented to you in the Command window in the form of a prompt. This section uses the Arc command to illustrate the format of AutoCAD prompts.

Usually, in a floor-plan drawing in the United States, an arc is drawn to indicate the direction of a door swing. Figure 2-11 shows other standard symbols used in architectural-style drawings.

Here, you’ll draw the arc for the door you started in the previous exercise:

Figure 2-11 Samples of standard symbols used in architectural drawings

Figure 2-12 Using the Arc command

This exercise has given you some practice working with AutoCAD Command window prompts and entering keyboard commands—skills you’ll need when you start to use some of the advanced AutoCAD functions.

As you can see, AutoCAD has a distinct structure in its prompt messages. You first issue a command, which in turn offers options in the form of a prompt. Depending on the option you select, you get another set of options or you’re prompted to take some action, such as picking a point, selecting objects, or entering a value.

As you work through the exercises, you’ll become intimately familiar with this routine. After you understand the workings of the Ribbon panels, the Command window prompts, and the dialog boxes, you can almost teach yourself the rest of the program!

Selecting Options from a Context Menu

Now you know that you can select command options by typing them. You can also right-click at any time during a command to open a context menu containing those same options. For example, in step 2 in the previous exercise, you typed C↵ to tell AutoCAD that you wanted to select the center of the arc. Instead of typing, you can also right-click the mouse to open a menu of options applicable to the Arc command at that time.

In addition to the options shown in the Command prompt, the context menu shows you a few more: Enter, Cancel, Pan, and Zoom. The Enter option is the same as pressing ↵. Cancel cancels the current command. Pan and Zoom let you adjust your view as you’re working through the current command.

The menu is context sensitive, so you see only those options that pertain to the command or activity that is currently in progress. Also, when AutoCAD is expecting a point, an object selection, or a numeric value, right-clicking doesn’t display a context menu. Instead, AutoCAD treats a right-click as ↵.

The location of your cursor when you right-click determines the contents of the list of available operations. A right-click in the Command window displays a list of operations you can apply to the command line, such as repeating one of the last several commands you’ve used or copying the most recent history of command activity to the Clipboard.

A right-click in the drawing area when no command is active displays a set of basic options for editing your file, such as the command most recently used, Undo, Redo, Pan, and Zoom to name a few (see Figure 2-13). The Cut, Copy, and Paste commands can be found under the Clipboard option.

If you’re ever in doubt about what to do in AutoCAD, you can right-click to see a list of options. You’ll learn more about these options later in this book. For now, let’s move on to the topic of selecting objects.

Figure 2-13 A set of basic options

How We’ll Show Command Options

As mentioned earlier, the options in the command line are shown with a slightly darker background color so you can easily determine the name of the options (see Figure 2-14).

Figure 2-14 The Angle and chord Length options are separated by a gray background.

Unfortunately, it’s a bit more difficult to show the options in the same way in this book, so from now on, when we show the command options, we’ll use a forward slash mark to separate the options. For example, in the Arc command options discussed earlier, you saw this command prompt:

 Specify end point of arc or [Angle chord Length]

We’ll show it like this, using the / symbol to separate the command options:

Specify end point of arc or [Angle/chord Length]

Without the / symbol, you might confuse the option names as Angle chord and Length, or you may even think that there are three options named Angle, chord, and Length. Those of you familiar with older versions of AutoCAD will recognize this use of the / symbol as the way AutoCAD used to separate command options in the command line.

Selecting Objects

In AutoCAD, you can select objects in many ways. The following sections cover two ways: The first covers object-selection methods unique to AutoCAD, and the second covers the more common selection method used in most popular graphics programs, the Noun/Verb method. Because these two methods play a major role in working with AutoCAD, it’s a good idea to familiarize yourself with them early on.

If you need to select objects by their characteristics rather than by their location, see Chapter 15, “Advanced Editing and Organizing,” which describes the Quick Select and Object Selection Filters tools. These tools let you easily select a set of objects based on their properties, including object type, color, layer assignment, and so on.

Selecting Objects in AutoCAD

With many AutoCAD commands, you’ll see the Select objects: prompt. Along with this prompt, the cursor changes from crosshairs to the Object Selection cursor (look back at Figure 2-5). Whenever you see the Select objects: prompt and the square Pickbox cursor, you have several options while making your selection. Often, as you select objects on the screen, you’ll change your mind about a selection or accidentally select an object you don’t want. Let’s look at most of the selection options available in AutoCAD and learn what to do when you make the wrong selection.

Before you continue, you’ll turn off two features that, although extremely useful, can be confusing to new users. These features are called Running Osnaps and Osnap Tracking. You’ll get a chance to explore these features in depth later in this book, but for now follow these steps to turn them off:

Now, let’s see how to select an object in AutoCAD:

Figure 2-15 Select the lines of the door and they become highlighted.

Specify first corner:

Figure 2-16 Selecting the door in a selection window

Now you’ve seen how the selection process works in AutoCAD—but you’re in the middle of the Move command. The next section discusses the prompt that’s on your screen and describes how to enter base points and displacement distances.

Providing Base Points

When you move or copy objects, AutoCAD prompts you for a base point, which is a difficult concept to grasp. AutoCAD must be told specifically from where and to where the move occurs. The base point is the exact location from which you determine the distance and direction of the move. After the base point is determined, you can tell AutoCAD where to move the object in relation to that point.

Follow these steps to practice using base points:

Figure 2-17 The Object Snap options

Figure 2-18 Using the Point Selection cursor and osnap marker

As you can see, the osnap options let you select specific points on an object. You used Endpoint and Intersection in this exercise, but other options are available. Chapter 3 discusses some of the other osnap options. You may have also noticed that the osnap marker is different for each of the options you used. You’ll learn more about osnaps in Chapter 3. Now let’s continue with our look at point selection.

You may have noticed the statement Use first point as displacement in the prompt in step 6 of the preceding exercise. This means that if you press ↵ instead of clicking a point, the object will move a distance based on the coordinates of the point you selected as a base point. If, for example, the point you click for the base point is at coordinate 2,4, the object will move 2 units in the x-axis and 4 units in the y-axis.

Figure 2-19 Moving the rectangle to its new position using the Endpoint osnap

Controlling the Status Bar Display

Toward the right of the status bar, you’ll see a down-pointing arrow. This arrow opens a menu that controls the display of the status bar. You use this menu to turn the items in the status bar on or off. A check mark by an item indicates that it’s currently on. If for some reason you don’t see all the buttons mentioned in the previous exercise, check this menu to make sure all the status bar options are turned on. For the items in the left half of the status bar, choose Status Toggles from the menu. Note that AutoCAD LT doesn’t have an Otrack option in the status bar.

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If you want to specify an exact distance and direction by typing a value, select any point on the screen as a base point. As an alternative, you can type @ followed by ↵ at the base point prompt; then, enter the second point’s location in relative coordinates. Remember that @ means the last point selected. In the next exercise, you’ll try moving the entire door an exact distance of 1 unit at a 45° angle. Metric users will move the door 3 units at a 45° angle. Here are the steps:

Figure 2-20 The highlighted door and the base point just to the left of the door. Note that the base point doesn’t need to be on the object that you’re moving.

If AutoCAD is waiting for a command, you can repeat the last command used by pressing the spacebar or pressing ↵. You can also right-click in the drawing area and select the option at the top of the list. If you right-click the Command window, a context menu offers the most recent commands.

This exercise illustrates that the base point doesn’t have to be on the object you’re manipulating; it can be virtually anywhere on your drawing. You also saw how to reselect a group of objects that were selected previously without having to duplicate the selection process.

Using Noun/Verb Selection

Nearly all graphics programs today allow the Noun/Verb method for selecting objects. This method requires you to select objects before you issue a command to edit them—that is, you identify the “noun” (the object you want to work on) before the “verb” (the action you want to perform on it). The following exercises show you how to use the Noun/Verb method in AutoCAD.

You’ve seen that when AutoCAD is waiting for a command, it displays the crosshair cursor with the small square. As mentioned, this square is a pickbox superimposed on the cursor. It indicates that you can select objects even while the Command prompt appears at the bottom of the screen and no command is currently active. The square momentarily disappears when you’re in a command that asks you to select points.

Other Selection Options

There are several other selection options you haven’t tried yet. You’ll see how these options work in exercises later in this book. Or, if you’re adventurous, try them now on your own. To use these options, type their keyboard abbreviations (shown in brackets in the following list) at any Select objects: prompt:

Add [A↵] Switches from Remove mode to the Add mode. See the description for Remove later in this sidebar.

All [ALL↵] Selects all the objects in a drawing except those in frozen or locked layers. (See Chapter 5, “Keeping Track of Layers and Blocks,” for information on layers.)

Box [B↵] Forces the standard selection window so a left-to-right selection uses a standard window and a right-to-left selection uses a crossing window.

Crossing [C↵] Similar to the Window selection option (described later in this sidebar) but selects anything that is entirely within or crosses through the window that you define.

Crossing Polygon [CP↵] Acts exactly like Window Polygon (described later in this sidebar), but, like the Crossing selection option, selects anything that crosses through a polygon boundary.

Fence [F↵] Selects objects that are crossed by a temporary line called a fence. This operation is like using a line to cross out the objects you want to select. After you invoke this option, you can then pick points, as when you’re drawing a series of line segments. After you finish drawing the fence, press ↵, and then go on to select other objects or press ↵ again to finish your selection.

Group [G↵] Allows you to select a group by name.

Last [L↵] Selects the last object you created.

Multiple [M↵] Lets you select several objects first before AutoCAD highlights them. In a large file, selecting objects individually can cause AutoCAD to pause after each selection while it locates and highlights each object. The Multiple option can speed things up by letting you first select all the objects quickly and then highlight them all by pressing ↵. This has no menu equivalent.

Previous [P↵] Selects the last object or set of objects that was edited or changed.

Remove [R↵] Switches to a selection mode whereby the objects you click are removed from the selection set.

Subobject [SUm] Allows selection of faces, edges, and vertices of 3D solid objects. This can also be accomplished by pressing the Ctrl key while picking.

Object [Om] Ends selecting by Subobject and restores normal behavior.

Undo [Um] Removes the most recently added object from the selection set.

Window [W↵] Forces a standard window selection. This option is useful when your drawing area is too crowded to use the Autoselect feature to place a window around a set of objects. (See the Auto entry later in this sidebar.) It prevents you from accidentally selecting an object with a single pick when you’re placing your window.

Window Polygon [WP↵] Lets you select objects by enclosing them in an irregularly shaped polygon boundary. When you use this option, you see the First polygon point: prompt. You then pick points to define the polygon boundary. As you pick points, the Specify endpoint of line or [Undo]: prompt appears. Select as many points as you need to define the boundary. You can undo boundary line segments as you go by pressing U↵. With the boundary defined, press ↵. The bounded objects are highlighted and the Select objects: prompt returns, allowing you to use more selection options.

The following two selection options are also available but are seldom used. They’re intended for use in creating custom menu options or custom tools:

Auto [AU↵] Forces the standard automatic window or crossing window when a point is picked and no object is found. (See the section “Using Autoselect” later in this chapter.) A standard window is produced when the two window corners are picked from left to right. A crossing window is produced when the two corners are picked from right to left. After this option is selected, it remains active for the duration of the current command. Auto is intended for use on systems on which the Autoselect feature has been turned off.

Single [SI↵] Forces the current command to select only a single object. If you use this option, you can pick a single object and the current command acts on that object as if you had pressed ↵ immediately after selecting it. This has no menu equivalent.

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In addition to Noun/Verb selection, AutoCAD offers selection options that let you use familiar GUI techniques. See Appendix B to learn how you can control object-selection methods. This appendix also describes how to change the size of the Standard cursor.

Try moving objects by first selecting them and then using the Move command:

Specify second point or
<use first point as displacement>:

If this exercise doesn’t work as described here, chances are that the Noun/Verb setting has been turned off on your copy of AutoCAD. To turn on the Noun/Verb setting, choose Options from the Application menu to open the Options dialog box and then click the Selection tab. In the Selection Modes group, place a check mark in the check box next to the Noun/Verb Selection option and click OK.

In this exercise, you picked the arc before issuing the Move command. Then, when you clicked the Move tool, you didn’t see the Select objects: prompt. Instead, AutoCAD assumed you wanted to move the arc that you selected and went directly to the Specify base point or [Displacement] <Displacement>: prompt.

Using Autoselect

Next you’ll move the rest of the door in the same direction by using the Autoselect feature:

The two selection windows you’ve just seen—the blue solid one and the dotted green one—represent a standard window and a crossing window. If you use a standard window, anything completely within the window is selected. If you use a crossing window, anything that crosses through the window is selected. These two types of windows start automatically when you click any blank portion of the drawing area with a Standard cursor or a Point Selection cursor, hence the name Autoselect.

Next, you’ll select objects with an automatic crossing window:

Figure 2-21 The dotted window (first image) indicates a crossing selection; the solid window (second image) indicates a standard selection window.

Figure 2-22 The door enclosed by a crossing window

You’ll find that, in most cases, the Autoselect standard and crossing windows are all you need when selecting objects. They really save you time, so you’ll want to become familiar with these features.

Before continuing, click the Save tool in the Quick Access toolbar to save the Door.dwg file. You won’t want to save the changes you make in the next section, so saving now stores the current condition of the file on your hard disk for safekeeping.

Restrictions on Noun/Verb Object Selection

For many of the modifying or construction-oriented commands, the Noun/Verb selection method is inappropriate because, for those commands, you must select more than one set of objects. You’ll know whether a command accepts the Noun/Verb selection method right away. Commands that don’t accept the Noun/Verb selection method clear the selection and then ask you to select an object or set of objects.

If you’d like to take a break, now is a good time to do so. If you want, exit AutoCAD, and return to this point in the exercise later. When you return, start AutoCAD and open the Door.dwg file.

Editing with Grips

Earlier, when you selected the door, grips appeared at the endpoints, center points, and midpoints of the lines and arcs. You can use grips to make direct changes to the shape of objects or to move and copy them quickly.

If you didn’t see grips on the door in the previous exercise, your version of AutoCAD may have the Grips feature turned off. To turn them on, refer to the information on grips in Appendix B.

So far, you’ve seen how operations in AutoCAD have a discrete beginning and ending. For example, to draw an arc, you first issue the Arc command and then go through a series of operations, including answering prompts and picking points. When you’re finished, you have an arc and AutoCAD is ready for the next command.

The Grips feature, on the other hand, plays by a different set of rules. Grips offer a small yet powerful set of editing functions that don’t conform to the lockstep command/prompt/input routine you’ve seen so far. As you work through the following exercises, it’s helpful to think of grips as a subset of the standard method of operation in AutoCAD.

To practice using the Grips feature, you’ll make some temporary modifications to the door drawing.

Stretching Lines by Using Grips

In this exercise, you’ll stretch one corner of the door by grabbing the grip points of two lines:

Figure 2-23 Stretching lines by using hot grips. The first image shows the rectangle’s corner being stretched upward. The next image shows the new location of the corner at the top of the arc.

**STRETCH**
Specify stretch point or [Base point/Copy/Undo/eXit]:

Here you saw that a command called Stretch is issued by clicking a grip point. As you’ll see in these next steps, a handful of other hot-grip commands are also available:

Figure 2-24 A list of grip-edit options

In this exercise, you saw that you can select a base point other than the hot grip. You also saw how you can specify relative coordinates to move or copy a hot grip. Finally, you saw that with grips selected on an object, right-clicking the mouse opens a context menu that contains grip edit options.

Moving and Rotating with Grips

As you’ve just seen, the Grips feature is an alternative method for editing your drawings. You’ve already seen how you can stretch endpoints, but you can do much more with grips. The next exercise demonstrates some other options. You’ll start by undoing the modifications you made in the preceding exercise:

**MOVE**
Specify move point or [Base point/Copy/Undo/eXit]

**ROTATE**
Specify rotation angle or [Base point/Copy/Undo/Reference/eXit]:

Figure 2-25 Rotating and copying the door by using a hot grip. Notice that more than one object is affected by the grip edit, even though only one grip is hot.

You’ve seen how the Move command is duplicated in a modified way as a hot-grip command. Other hot-grip commands (Stretch, Rotate, Scale, and Mirror) have similar counterparts in the standard set of AutoCAD commands. You’ll see how those work in Chapter 12, “Using Dimensions,” and Chapter 14, “Copying Existing Drawings from Other Sources.”

After you complete any operation by using grips, the objects are still highlighted with their grips active. To clear the grip selection, press the Esc key.

In this exercise, you saw how hot-grip options appear in a context menu. Several other options are available in that menu, including Exit, Base Point, Copy, and Undo.

You can access many of these grip-edit options by pressing the spacebar or ↵ while a grip is selected. With each press, the next option becomes active. The options then repeat if you continue to press ↵. The Ctrl key acts as a shortcut to the Copy option. You have to use it only once; then, each time you click a point, a copy is made.

Scaling with Grips

Grips can be used to scale an object graphically to fit between two other objects. For example, a door can be scaled to fit within a door frame. Place the door so that its hinge side is at the door frame and the door is oriented properly for the frame. With the door selected, click the grip at the hinge side. Right-click and select Scale. Type R↵ or select Reference from the command line, and then click the grip at the hinge again. Click the grip at the end of the arc representing the door swing. Finally, click the opposite side of the door frame.

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Understanding Dynamic Input

You’ve seen how AutoCAD displays a lot of information at the cursor through its Dynamic Input display. In this section, you’ll now get a chance to explore the Dynamic Input display through grip editing.

You’ll start by going back to the original version of the Door.dwg drawing that you saved earlier:

Figure 2-26 Hovering over a grip

Here you saw the basic methods for using the Dynamic Input display. You can hover over an object’s grip to display its dimensions along with a grip menu. The menu appears for many but not all grips, and the contents of the menu depend on the object selected. Click the grip and, if available, the dimensions can be edited directly through the keyboard. In this example, you were able to change the radius of the arc to an exact value by selecting the Radius option from the grip menu and then entering a value. Depending on the grip you click, you can change a dimension through direct keyboard input. For example, if you want to change the degrees the arc covers instead of its radius, you can hover over the arrow grip at either end of the arc and select Lengthen. The dimensions that appear can then be edited to increase or decrease the length of the arc without affecting its radius.

Next, try Dynamic Input display on a line:

Figure 2-27 Selecting a line on the door

Figure 2-28 The overall length dimension and the change in length dimension

Figure 2-29 The line locked at a new length

Figure 2-30 The line’s new length and orientation

You can see that the Dynamic Input display lets you enter specific dimensions for the selected object, making possible precise changes in an object’s size. You can also choose Lengthen from the grip menu if you just want to change the length of the line.

You can also use the Dynamic Input display while using other grip-editing features. Try the following exercise to see how the Dynamic Input display works while moving objects:

Figure 2-31 The Dynamic Input display

As you can see from these exercises, the Dynamic Input display adds some helpful methods for editing objects. To summarize, here is a rundown of the basic Dynamic Input display features:

• You can quickly check the dimensions of an object by selecting it and then hovering over a grip.
• You can alter an object’s dimensions by entering values into the highlighted dimensions of the Dynamic Input display.
• To highlight a different dimension, press the Tab key.
• To accept any changes you’ve made using the Dynamic Input display, click the mouse at a location away from the grip you’re editing. You can also press ↵ or the spacebar.

Not all grips offer dimensions that can be edited. If you click the midpoint grip on the line, for example, you won’t see the dimensions of the line, although you’ll see the Command prompt and you’ll be able to enter a new coordinate for the midpoint.

As you’ve seen in the arc and line examples, each object offers a different set of dimensions. If you like the way the Dynamic Input display works, you can experiment on other types of objects. AutoCAD offers a number of settings that let you control the behavior of the Dynamic Input display. You’ll learn about those settings in Appendix B.

Displaying Data in a Text Window

You may have noticed that as you work in AutoCAD, the activity displayed in the Command window scrolls up. Sometimes, it’s helpful to view information that has scrolled past the view shown in the Command window. For example, you can review the command activity from your session to check input values or to recall other data-entry information. Try the following exercise to see how the Text Window works:

You can set the number of lines that AutoCAD retains by using the Options dialog box, or you can have AutoCAD record the AutoCAD Text Window information in a text file.

When you have more than one document open, the AutoCAD Command window displays a listing for the drawing that is currently active.

Figure 2-32 The expanded AutoCAD Command window showing the data displayed by the List tool

Displaying the Properties of an Object

While we’re on the subject of displaying information, you’ll want to know about the Properties palette. In the preceding exercise, you saw how the List command showed some information regarding the properties of an object, such as the location of an arc’s center and endpoints. You can also double-click an object to display the Quick Properties palette that shows other basic information about the object. (You might accidentally display the Quick Properties palette from time to time!) The Properties palette provides a more complete view of an object’s properties with the additional feature of allowing you to make changes to those properties. The Properties palette is so useful, you may want to consider leaving it open all the time.

To see what the Properties palette is for, try the following exercise:

Figure 2-33 Object Properties palette

In many cases, you can open the Properties palette by double-clicking an object. Some objects, however, display a dialog box to allow you to edit them.

Another feature related to the Properties palette is the Quick Properties tool and palette. If you turn on Quick Properties by clicking the Quick Properties tool in the status bar, you’ll see the Quick Properties palette whenever you select an object or set of objects (Figure 2-34).

Figure 2-34 The Quick Properties palette

The Quick Properties palette lets you control just a few properties of an object (color, layer, and linetype). When turned on, it pops up every time you select an object, so you may want to limit its use to those times when you are adjusting the color, layer, and linetype of objects in your drawing.

Using Rotate Reference to Align Objects

You can use the Rotate command’s Reference option to align a set of objects graphically to another object. For example, suppose you want to rotate a set of circles inside a hexagon to align with the corner of the hexagon.

To do this, you can use the Reference option as follows:

1. Start the Rotate command, and select the circles.

2. At the Specify base point: prompt, use the Center osnap to select the center of the hexagon as represented by the central circle. Once you do this, the objects rotate around the selected point as you move your cursor.

3. At the Specify rotation angle or [Copy/Reference]: prompt, enter R↵.

4. At the Specify the reference angle <0>: prompt, use the Center osnap to select the center of the hexagon again. You can also enter @↵ since the last point you selected was the center.

5. At the Specify second point: prompt, use the Center osnap to select the center of one of the circles you want to align with the hexagon. Now, as you move the cursor, the circle whose center you selected is aligned with the cursor angle.

6. At the Specify the new angle or [Points]: prompt, use the Endpoint osnap to select one of the corners of the hexagon. The circles align with the corners.

You can also use grips to align objects. Here’s how: Select the object or set of objects and then click a grip. The grip you select becomes the rotation point, so select this first grip carefully. Right-click and select Rotate. Type R↵ and select the grip you just selected and another point to determine the reference angle. Finally, select the new angle for the object or set of objects. If you want to rotate about a point other than the first grip, use the Grip Base right-click option.

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Getting Help

Eventually, you’ll find yourself somewhere without documentation and you’ll have a question about an AutoCAD feature. AutoCAD provides an online help facility that gives you information on nearly any topic related to AutoCAD. Here’s how to find help:

Figure 2-35 The AutoCAD Help window

You also have the Search and Favorites tab in the left column. The Search tab is currently selected. Enter a question in the search input box and the space below the input box fills with links to search results. Click on a link and detailed information appears in the right panel. At the top of the right panel, you can click the Add To Favorites icon to save the link under Favorites.

Using the InfoCenter

If you want to find information about a topic based on a keyword, you can use the InfoCenter in the upper-right corner of the AutoCAD window. Follow these steps:

Figure 2-36 The AutoCAD Help window showing information on the Change command

You can use Boolean AND, OR, NEAR, and NOT in conjunction with other keywords to help filter your searches, just as in a typical search engine that you might use in your web browser.

Exploring the AutoCAD 2014 Welcome Screen

You’ve probably noticed the AutoCAD 2014 Welcome Screen when AutoCAD starts up and were wondering what it offers. The Welcome Screen (see Figure 2-37) connects you with resources that can enhance your AutoCAD experience.

Figure 2-37 The AutoCAD 2014 Welcome window

The Welcome Screen offers links to videos and tutorials that will help you learn about the new features in AutoCAD 2014. If you have a problem with AutoCAD, you can click the Online Resources link, which opens the AutoCAD Service & Support website. Autodesk Exchange is a website that offers plug-ins to AutoCAD, many of which are free. Autodesk 360 is a site that enables you to store and share documents.

You will need to create an account for Autodesk Exchange and Autodesk 360. You can do so by using the Sign In text box just to the right of the search text box in the AutoCAD InfoCenter.

Finding Additional Sources of Help

The InfoCenter is the main online source for reference material, but you can also find answers to your questions through the other options in the InfoCenter’s Help flyout menu. You can open this menu by clicking the arrowhead next to the InfoCenter Help tool. Here is a brief description of them:

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