This week we will be looking at your computer screen……. the interface!
The Basics to AutoCAD
Part 4
Before we get too involved with more drawing there is a bit of AutoCAD housekeeping that we need to do. We are going to have a look at the AutoCAD interface that we are working with today. Hopefully by the end of this lesson you will have the basics behind setting your software up for your own comfort. Sorry but this one is a bit long winded.
OK then, open AutoCAD as normal. There are six main areas that we are concerned with,
Model Space (Drawing Space)
Main Menu Ribbon
AutoCAD Toolbars
Paper Space Tabs
Command Line
AutoCAD Tray Settings See diagram below……….
Model Space (Drawing Space).
The model space is the real world. What you draw in this space is actual size depending on what units have been set up in the default drawing when AutoCAD opens. We will go into building our own template to open when AutoCAD opens at a later date.
Main Menu Ribbon.
Like any other windows based software AutoCAD has its own drop down menus. From here almost all operations can be accessed and used. I rarely use this method as it can be time consuming and confusing sometimes.
AutoCAD Toolbars.
AutoCAD has its own toolbars which you can use and customise to your heart’s content. We will be looking at these later in this lesson.
Paper Space Tabs.
These tabs take you to your paper space. Don’t worry too much about them just yet as we will be using them later in these tutorials. For now if you click one of the tabs you will see a representation of a sheet of paper, this will become your drawing.
Command Line.
This is where AutoCAD does its business. If you are struggling with something you are drawing, typing a word in this line may help. Try typing circle and see what happens…….don’t forget to press enter. Numerical values are typed into this line to constrict lengths of lines, radii of circles and even directions, which will be covered soon.
AutoCAD Tray Settings.
For the basic user there are only three buttons that we are seriously concerned with here, ORTHO, OSNAP and MODEL. I will deal with these buttons a little later in this tutorial.
Toolbars………….
Around the edge of your Model Space there are some AutoCAD Toolbars. For me they are the easiest way to instruct AutoCAD in how you want to proceed with your drawing. AutoCAD has numerous default toolbars in its system and after years of using the software I have found my four most useful toolbars and made one custom toolbar with a couple of AutoCAD operations on it.
So where do we find these toolbars? Quite simple really………..drag your mouse over to one of the toolbars and click your right button. A drop down menu appears with a list of all the default toolbars that AutoCAD has its system. What we are going to do is open, delete, move and lock some toolbars.
OK then, in this drop down list some toolbars are already ticked. They are the ones we have already been using, DRAW and MODIFY being the two main ones, and then LAYERS, PROPERTIES, STANDARD and STYLES being the other ticked. So in all you should only have these six toolbars ticked. If you have more than these ticked, don’t be scared untick (deselect) them now. If AutoCAD asks is this what you want to do, just say yes.
So now your AutoCAD interface should look something like the diagram below……….
If it’s not quite looking like that then we will not worry about that right now as we are about to open some new toolbars.
Now then, with your mouse on one of your toolbars, right click to open the drop down menu.
There are two toolbars which we will start to use in the next tutorial so we need them. Find the DIMENSION toolbar and left click to select it. It should appear in the model space window. Now go and select the OBJECT SNAP toolbar and that will appear in the window as well. As in the diagram below……………………
As you can tell these toolbars are now directly in your drawing area. So we need to move them. With your mouse click and hold on the coloured bar across the top of a toolbar and drag it. You can now place the toolbar where you wish on your AutoCAD interface. If you drag them to the sides they will attach themselves to the frame of the interface when you release the mouse button. Try it. Once they are attached, two bars appear at the top of the attached tool bar. If you pick these with your left mouse and drag it back into your work area it will bring the toolbar with it.
These two new toolbars, DIMENSION and OBJECT SNAP, will be the ones we will leave on the interface, so we need to dock them.
First we need to move the MODIFY bar. This is the one to the right; drag it onto the work area. Now set up your interface as I have mine. It will be easier for us to go through the rest of the tutorials if we are all working from the same page. See the diagram below…….
All we need to do now is lock them in place. Right click on any toolbar and select LOCK LOCATION and then DOCKED TOOLBARS from the drop down menu. This will lock your toolbars in place and you won’t move them accidentally.
We will go into customisation in greater detail later in the series.
So basically that is toolbars covered, we have the main ones on our interface now and we will have them there all the time. Everytime you open AutoCAD they will be there now.
AutoCAD Tray Settings……….
Finally we are going to have a quick look at the tray settings tabs at the very bottom of your interface.
The two main ones that we will be using are ORTHO and OSNAP. If you want to know more about the other tabs they are comprehensively covered in the help section of your AutoCAD software.
In Ortho mode, when the tab is selected, your cursor movement is constrained to the horizontal or vertical direction (relative to the UCS). Try drawing two diagonal lines with and without the ortho button selected. As you will see when the ortho button is on your direction is constrained. This is, as you will discover, really useful when drawing almost anything.
Osnap is a way of picking points on various objects. Take your cursor to the OSNAP button and right click, then select SETTINGS. The illustration below show what appears………
As you can see there are a few choices to make……….. I usually have the following checked…….
If you select the same boxes then click OK we will be up and running.
Ok let’s see how this all works. With your ORTHO and OSNAP buttons on we will draw a line in the centre of your scene going from left to right. OK, now we will draw another line from the centre of the first line in a northerly direction. Click the line icon and run your mouse over the line you have already drawn. Three things happen, as you move your mouse over the length of the line, a box appears at each end and a triangle appears in the centre. These are the SNAP POINTS that we have constrained AutoCAD to select for us in the OSNAP settings box we had on scene just a minute ago.
Well we want the centre, so when the triangle appears again left click your mouse. You do not need to be directly above the triangle to select it as AutoCAD is constrained to make the selection. Now move your mouse above the line as far as you want and finish the line.
Now what we want to do is draw a circle with a radius the distance between the two ends of the two lines.
Select your circle icon. Your circle centre is going to be one of the ends of the horizontal line. So when you move your mouse near to the one of the horizontal line ends left click when the box appears. This is the centre of your circle. Now move your cursor towards the most northerly point of the vertical line. When the box appears, indicating the end point of the line, left click to accept. Your circle will be drawn automatically with the centre on the end of the horizontal line and the circle itself touching the top of the vertical line at some point.
Again if the circle does not fit on the scene, type z and press enter, then e and press enter.
If you right click on your OSNAP button again you will notice that we have selected more the just end points and mid points. We will be using a lot of them, if not all in the weeks to come.
As you have the basic idea about lines, circles and ellipses, have a go at drawing them using the ORTHO and OSNAP buttons both on and off.
Well that’s it for now. I know there is a lot to take in with this tutorial but these are important items to look at and learn how to use. They will be second nature once you set them up to your own liking. I rarely work without ortho and osnap. And trust me you will find the same thing happening to you soon as well………
Happy drawing for now…………………….
Here are the downloadable bits……..
