AutoCAD: Secrets Every User Should Know

Chapter 1 – AutoCAD Productivity

Design Standards

• Draw Everything Actual Size– Plans, Details, Even Long

Parts

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Design Standards

• Draw Existing Structures “as- built,” Not “as-designed”

• Draw Mechanical Parts at MMC– Maximum Material Condition– 2D, 3D, AutoCAD, or any other

• Use Logical Increments– Whole numbers, if possible– Match material sized

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AutoCAD Best Practices

• Use the Help System

• Use Blocks Whenever Possible– Reduce file size– Update more efficiently– Maintain standards

• Don’t Override Dimensions– Use annotation tools 6X <>– Don't explode dimensions

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AutoCAD Best Practices

• Use Logical Layer Names– AIA standards– Office standards based on fields– Layer states/filters/wildcards

• Set Properties BYLAYER– Don't set entity color/linetype– Turn off Properties toolbar

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AutoCAD Best Practices

• Use Drawing Tools– osnaps, otrack, tt, polar– m2p, par, per, ext

• Plot From Layouts1. Geometry in Model Space

2. Set up a layout

3. Add annotations in viewports

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AutoCAD Best Practices

• Draw Perfectly – Somebody will assume you did– Quicker than drawing by eye

• Set Text Height to 0– Auto-scaling in dimensions– Scale to Paper Space– Spacetrans– Use for different heights

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AutoCAD Best Practices

• Don't Use the Name “Standard” – Text, dimension, table– Defaults are wrong– May conflict for XRefs

• Be Cautious with REFEDIT– Editing XRef– Prevent with XEDIT

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AutoCAD Best Practices

• Caution Moving or Renaming Files– Hyperlinks– XRefs– Images– Support files– Templates

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AutoCAD Best Practices

• Control Imperial and Metric– MEASUREMENT

• 0 for Imperial• 1 for metric

– ACAD.lin vs. ACADISO.lin– ADAD.pap vs. ACADISO.pat– Plot scale– Limits– Default dimstyle (both are wrong)

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AutoCAD Best Practices

• Learn to Use QSELECT

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AutoCAD Best Practices

• Create Tool Palettes

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Feature Review (All Releases)

• Drawing Efficiency - patterns– Command-line commands

• Add a minus -LA or -LAYER

– Array at an angle

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Feature Review (All Releases)

• Drawing Efficiency - patterns– Polar array– Do as little work as possible

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Feature Review (All Releases)

• Drawing Efficiency – BOUNDARY

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Feature Review (All Releases)

• Drawing Efficiency – REGION and SUBTRACT

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Feature Review (All Releases)

• Drawing Efficiency – Supplemental angles – Relative polar tracking

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Feature Review (All Releases)

• Drawing Efficiency – FILLET and CIRCLE TTR

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Feature Review (All Releases)

• Text Justification– TL, TC, TR, ML, MC, MR, BL, BC, BR?

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Feature Review (All Releases)

• Quick Complex Area – BOUNDARY -->Region– SUBTRACT

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Feature Review (All Releases)

• Four Save Commands – SAVE

• Default name and path stay the same

– SAVEAS• Default name and path change

– QSAVE• Saves only to default name and path

– WBLOCK• Saves part of a drawing

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Feature Review (All Releases)

• Quick complex "linetype" – MEASURE or DIVIDE

• Block option

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Feature Review (All Releases)

• RENAME with Wildcards

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Feature Review (All Releases)

• Some Great Express Tools– TXT2MTXT– FLATTEN– MKSHP and MKLTYPE– DIMRESSOC– DIMEX and DIMIN– SYSVDLG

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Feature Review (All Releases)

• One More Great Express Tool– OVERKILL

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Feature Review (All Releases)

• Drawing Efficiency – FILLET and CIRCLE TTR

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