Chapter 04

Drawing Organization and Inquiry Commands

The ability to electronically manipulate, organize, and obtain information in a drawing far surpasses anything that you could accomplish if you were to use manual methods. To achieve this, you must attain proficiency with entering commands and using the other design methods available. This way, you will see how the software is much more useful than pencil and paper.

In this chapter, you learn how to organize objects in a drawing and how to use layers and linetypes to enhance your design practices. You also learn how to take advantage of the electronic design environment and use tools to obtain geometric information from objects in the drawing.

Objectives

After completing this chapter, you will be able to:

• In this lesson, you will use layers to organize objects in your drawing.
• Identify and change the properties of objects.
• In this lesson, you adjust object properties on several different types of objects. You begin by learning about the Quick Properties panel, how to access it and how to control its visibility and behavior. You then use the Quick Properties panel to quickly change object properties.
• Use the Match Properties command to apply the properties from a source object to destination objects.
• Use the Properties palette to change object properties.
• Use linetypes to distinguish objects in the drawing.
• Use the Inquiry commands (Distance, Radius, Angle, Area, List, and ID) to obtain geometric information from the drawing.