Drafting & Detailing
Overview of Annotative Scaling
This article’s purpose is to guide you through the process of properly placing and editing annotative text and dimensions in your drawings and paper space. A video has been included at the end of the article to provide further insights and ...
How to Configure Your AutoCAD Drawing Templates in Toolbox
The video below demonstrates the process of configuring AutoCAD drawing templates and customizing the title block in Toolbox.
About Regions
Regions are 2D enclosed areas that have physical properties such as centroids or centers of mass. You can combine existing regions into a single, complex region. Regions can be used for: Extracting design information Applying hatching and shading ...
About Finding Area and Mass Properties Information
You can obtain the area, perimeter, and mass properties of selected objects or from a sequence of points. Use Commands to Calculate Area With the MEASUREGEOM and AREA commands, you can specify a series of points or select an object to find the ...
About Finding Distances, Angles, and Point Locations
You can extract geometric information from point locations on objects in a drawing. With each of these commands, it's a good idea to zoom into the area close enough to resolve any closely spaced or potentially overlapping objects. Measure Objects ...
About Moving, Rotating, and Scaling Faces on 3D Solids and Surfaces
You can select and modify faces of 3D solids and surfaces. Modify the Location, Rotation, and Size of Faces on 3D Solids and Surfaces Cube with Top Face Moved, Rotated, and Scaled Use the MOVE, ROTATE, and SCALE commands to modify faces, just as you ...
About Using Grips to Edit 3D Objects
Use grips to change the size and shape of 3D solids and surfaces. The method you use to manipulate the 3D solid or surface depends on the type of object and the method used to create it. For mesh objects, only the center grip is displayed. However, ...
About Selecting Subobjects
Select faces, edges, and vertices on 3D objects. Subobject Selection Methods A subobject is a face, edge or vertex of a 3D solid, surface, or mesh object. You can control which subobjects you select in several ways: Set subobject filters. Available ...
About Modifying Vertices on 3D Objects
You can select and modify 3D object vertices. Move, Rotate, Scale, or Drag the Vertices of 3D Solids and Surface Wedge with Two Vertices Moved You can modify the form of a 3D solid or surface by modifying one or more vertices. Use grips and gizmos, ...
About Modifying Edges on 3D Objects
You can select and modify edges on a 3D solid or surface. Move, Rotate, and Scale Edges Move, rotate, and scale the edges on 3D solids and surfaces using grips, gizmos, and commands. Cubes with edges moved, rotated, and scaled. You can use MOVE, ...
About Pressing or Pulling Areas, Objects, and Faces
Get visual feedback as you extrude closed objects and areas, and offset or extrude 3D solid faces. The program responds differently, depending on the type of object or subobject you select to press or pull. Closed objects or bounded areas create 3D ...
To Work with Pressing or Pulling Bounded Areas or Objects
How to create holes and objects by pressing and pulling. For best results, set your drawing to an isometric view before doing a press or pull operation. Push a Hole into a 3D Solid Create a circle or other closed shape on the surface of a 3D solid ...
About Plotting
Understanding terms and concepts that relate to plotting makes your first plotting experience in the program easier. What is the Difference Between Printing and Plotting? The terms printing and plotting can be used interchangeably for CAD output. ...
About Adding 3D Thickness to 2D Objects
Use the thickness property to give objects a 3D appearance. The 3D thickness of an object is the distance that the object is extended above or below its location in 3D. Positive thickness extends upward in the positive Z direction; negative ...
About Creating 3D Wireframe Models
A 3D wireframe model is an edge or skeletal representation of a real-world object. 3D wireframe models consist of points, lines, arcs, circles, and other curves that define the edges or centerlines of objects. You can use a 3D wireframe model to: ...
About Constructing Meshes from other Objects
Create meshes by filling the space between other objects such as lines and arcs. You can use a variety of methods to create several types of mesh objects whose edges are defined by other objects. Mesh types include ruled, tabulated, revolved, and ...
About Creating Meshes by Conversion
Convert solids, surfaces, and legacy mesh types to mesh objects. You can use the MESHSMOOTH command to convert certain objects to mesh objects. Convert 3D solids, surface, and legacy mesh objects to the enhanced mesh object in order to take ...
About Creating 3D Meshes
A mesh model consists of vertices, edges, and faces that use polygonal representation, including triangles and quadrilaterals, to define a 3D shape. Unlike solid models, mesh has no mass properties. However, as with 3D solids, you can create ...
About Modifying Block Definitions
You can modify a block definition using several methods. Modify a Block Definition There are several methods for redefining a block definition. The method you choose depends on whether you want to make changes in the current drawing only or in a ...
About Inserting Blocks
Save time and control the drawing size by inserting references to a set of objects that have been combined to form a block. Sources of Block Definitions You can insert blocks from these sources: Blocks defined in the current drawing. Other drawing ...
About Blocks
Blocks are compound objects that are commonly used for symbols, parts, detail views, and title blocks. A block is one or more objects combined to create a single object. The following are some examples of blocks inserted into drawings. Using blocks ...
About Defining Blocks
You can create blocks by associating objects and giving them a name or by creating a drawing to be used as a block. Block Definitions Whenever you create a block or insert a drawing as a block, all of the block information in the block definition, ...
About Modifying the Position, Scale, or Rotation of an Underlay
You specify an underlay's position, scale, or rotation when you attach an underlay file. You can also modify these settings later during the drafting process. By default, the insertion point of a file is 0, 0, 0, its scale factor is 1, and its ...
About Unloading Underlay Files
To improve performance, you can unload underlays from a drawing file. When you do not need an underlay in the current drawing session, you can improve performance by temporarily unloading it. Unloaded underlays are not displayed or plotted. ...
About Detaching Underlay Files
Underlays that are no longer needed can be detached from a drawing file. When you detach an underlay, all instances of the underlay are removed from the drawing, and the linking path to the file is removed. To hide the display of an underlay ...
About Attaching Files as Underlays
You can attach a DWF, DWFx, DGN, or PDF file as an underlay to a drawing file. You can reference and place underlay files in drawing files the same way as you do raster image files; they are not actually part of the drawing file. Like raster files, ...
About Underlays
You can underlay and snap to 2D geometry stored in DWF, DWFx, DGN, and PDF files. Underlays are similar to attached raster images in that they provide visual content but also support object snapping and clipping. Unlike external references, ...
How to Check Spelling in Drawings
Click Annotate tab > Text panel > Check Spelling. In the Check Spelling dialog box, under Where to check, select an option. To include block attributes, dimension text, and external references: Click Settings. In the Check Spelling Settings dialog ...
Understanding the Blocks Palette
Blocks can be inserted into a drawing with the Blocks Palette, the Tool Palettes window, or Design Center, depending on which of these tools best suits the user's needs. This article focuses on the Blocks Palette. To access the Blocks Palette, enter ...
About Publishing, Transmitting, and Archiving Sheet Sets
This brief article regards specific aspects of working with Sheet Sets, Publishing, Transmitting, and Archiving. For more information regarding the functionalities found in the Sheet Set Manager, see Overview: Sheet Set Manager – AutoCAD and About ...
About Page Setups and the Sheet Creation Template
This brief article regards a specific aspect of working with Sheet Sets, Page Setups, and the Sheet Creation Template. For more information regarding the functionalities found in the Sheet Set Manager, see Overview: Sheet Set Manager – AutoCAD and ...
Using Sheet Sets in a Networked Environment
The associations and information that define a sheet set are stored in a sheet set data (DST) file. The first time you create a new sheet set, the default sheet set storage folder, AutoCAD Sheet Sets, is created in the default location: your My ...
About Sheet Sets in AutoCAD
You can manage multiple drawings as sheet sets with the Sheet Set Manager: A sheet is a selected layout from a drawing file. You can import a layout from any drawing into a sheet set as a numbered sheet. A sheet set is an organized and named ...
Overview: Sheet Set Manager - AutoCAD
The Sheet List tab displays an ordered list of sheets. You can organize these sheets under headings, called subsets, that you create. List of Options This tab has the following buttons: Publish to DWF Publishes selected sheets or a sheet set to a ...
Custom Hatches for Section Drawings
Toolbox provides users the ability to assign a hatch pattern to materials for 2D section drawings. To improve the flexibility of this feature, we have added the ability to attach a hatch pattern of your choice to each material. This hatch pattern ...
Adding a Custom Drawing Template to Toolbox
Find the location of your existing drawing template that you want to use in Toolbox. If you are using AutoCAD Standard, enter "Options" at the command prompt. Click the Files tab, expand Template Settings > Drawing Template File Location, and note ...
Understanding Annotative Dimensions
Understanding Annotative Dimensions Annotative dimensions can be an enormous time saver. Annotative dimensions allow you to use a single dimension and apply one or more scales to it. The correct scale will be used when the scale is set for the ...
Product Prompts Drafting Tab
Product Prompts Drafting Tab Many of the drawing instructions for products can be modified through the Product Prompts. To modify, click on the Product Prompts icon and select a product. Click to access the Drafting tab. Item Number Controls – Allows ...
Drawing Tools
Drawing Tools To access the Drawing Tools, click on the Draw tab, and then select the Drawing Tools tab. The Drawing Tools interface has three tabs on the right side: Common Commands, Common Text, Common Blocks. Common Commands Tab The Common ...
Drawing Sections
Drawing Sections To draw sections of products, click on the Draw Product Sections icon and select a product. The Product Sections window will allow you to select which type of section to draw and set up specific options for how the section will be ...
Next page