AutoCAD TM 2.0 EXERCISE 1 - Sonic.net · 2001-04-01 · AutoCAD® Architectural DesktopTM 2.0 -...

AutoCAD® Architectural DesktopTM 2.0 - Development Guide

EXERCISE 1Creating a Foundation Plan and getting an overview of how this program functions.

Contents:Getting set up to start this exercise ---- Making appropriate ADT Settings to begin a project from AutoCAD R14 format ---- Designing a custom Wall Style ---- Adding a custom Wall Style toyour drawing ---- Viewing your ADT work in 3D and Shading it ---- Using a Space Object to create a concrete slab ---- Adding and Annotating a Column Grid ---- Annotating your Work ----Preparing your first ADT drawing for Printing

1Getting set up to start this exercise

.1-1ex Foundation Plan

In this excercise you will start with an AutoCAD R14file that has an Xref of a 2D drawing, a paperspaceLayout, a titleblock, border and Viewport set for 1/4"= 1'-0" printing. This exercise will guide you,step-by-step, through the process of building aFoundation Plan in Architectural Desktop over anexisting AutoCAD R14 2D drawing. The exerciseattempts to introduce both basic and complexelements of Architectural Desktop so the studentcan get a sense of how ADT works.

The main guide in this series will provide supporting information and extensiveexplanations of why some of the steps have been taken on this exercise. Forsupporting information and more in-depth material, refer back to the main guide.

In this exercise, you will learn how to:

Create a custom Wall Style for a perimeter retainingwall.Create a custom Wall Style for column footings.Create a Space and use it for a concrete slab.Create a Structural GridAutomatically Annotate a Grid.Automatically Dimension a Grid.Use DesignCenter to Add basic annotations.

To follow this exercise: Create a New project Folder on your computer.

Download the followingfiles to your new project folder:

Download Description

ADT_demo_foundation_finished.dwg

CompletedSample toreverseengineer,etc.

ADT_ex_foundation.dwgExerciseBase Sheet -required

e_1_pln.dwg2D R14 Xreffile -required

project_titleblock.dwgLayout XrefTitleblock -not requiredbut helpful.

project_style_standards.dwgLayerStandard -notrequired.

ADT - Development Guide - Exercise 1 - Foundation Plan

file:///C|/FrontPage Webs/Content/archidigm/classr...ise/architectural_desktop_ex_1_foundation_plan.htm (1 of 15) [3/10/2001 12:14:25 PM]

Troubledownloading,try this Zipset.Complete setof exercisefiles Zipped

Load Architectural Desktop 2.0 and open"ADT_ex_foundation.dwg".

To assist you in getting through this exercise, thereis also a completed version of the exercise that youcan open: "ADT_demo_foundation_finished.dwg". Itnever hurts to work with something that has whatyou want; it's not cheating, it's learning.

Illustrated to the right and above, right, are what youwill get if you open the completed exercise file.

2Making appropriate ADT Settings to begin a project from

AutoCAD R14 format

2-1ex Foundation Plan

With "ADT_ex_foundation.dwg" now open, youshould find that it contains two Xref's; one is thebase AutoCAD R14 (or older) 2D drawing of themezzanine level of an existing building and the otherXref is the project_titleblock which has been insertedinto paperspace (now called a Layout - see 24x36tab on drawing file).

This drawing has not been set up for ADT, sothough you may be able to create ADT objects inthis file, they will not necessarily be the right size oron the right layers.

1. From the Desktop pull-down menu, select LayerManagement > and cascade over to LayerManager... (illustrated to the right, top). On theLayer Manager dialogue box, pick on the Layer KeyStyles button (second from the left). On the LayerKey Styles dialogue box, pick on the Import/Exportbutton to open the Import/Export dialogue box. Onthe Import/Export dialogue box, pick on the Open...dialogue box and on the File to Import Fromdialogue box, go to the current project folder wecreated for this exercise (the one you downloadedthe exercise files in to). In the current project folder,look for a file named"project_style_standards.dwg" and Open it.

Back on the Import/Export dialogue box, you shouldnow see the "ARCHIdigm Example" External File



name. Highllight this file name and pick on the<<<Import button to bring it into the CurrentDrawing.

Close all remaining dialogue boxes

2. From the Desktop pull-down menu, selectDrawing Setup... and pick on the Layer tab.

On the "Layer Key Style:" drop-down list, youshould now see the "ARCHIdigm Example" option. Select this layer key style and pick the Apply button.

Now pick on the Scale tab of the Drawing Setupdialogue box.



3. On the Scale tab of the Drawing Setupdialogue box change the Drawing Scale to 1/4" =1'-0".

You can check the Units tab to see if you want tomake any personal preference changes there butbasically we have changed the most importantfeatures for starting work. Later we can work onsome of the Display tab items.

Summation:By importing a Layer Key, you are basically learninghow to use your own standard for how you wantyour layers to be named and colored; plus settingsfor layer lineweights and linetypes. The ADT objectsthat you will now use in this exercise should only usethe basic eight colors from AutoCAD's color index. The default Layer Key in ADT will utilize numerouscolors from the AutoCAD color index often creatinghavoc in offices where there is a definitive colorstandard.

You can read more about the Layer Manager andLayer Keys in Part 1 of the Architectural DesktopGuide.

3Designing a custom Wall Style




Now we are ready to begin the process of creatingthe foundation plan for this example project. Theonly problem is that Architectural Desktop does notcome with a Wall Style that fits the needs of thisparticular project, so we will have to learn how tocreate a Wall Style that creates the type of wall weneed.

Since a concrete retaining wall is a little morecomplex than a simple rectangular shape, we haveto define the different "Components" our wall ismade up of.

From the Design pull-down menu, select Walls >and cascade down to Wall Styles...

On the Wall Styles dialogue box, pick on the New...button and type in a New Name: for our customretaining Wall Style. In this example, right, I usedthe name: "6' retaining wall". Feel free to use anyname you want and any dimensional proportions.

Hit the OK button to get out of the Name dialoguebox.

On the Wall Styles dialogue box, select the newWall Style we just created and pick on the Edit...button to activate the Wall Style Propertiesdialogue box illustrated to the right.

On the Wall Styles Properties dialogue box, pickon the Components tab and notice that you haveone default component. All walls have to have atleast one component that defines how wide the wallis (or, in other words, how far apart the double linesare in plan view).

Pick on the number "1" under the "Index" column.

Name: text field you can type in a name for theportion (component) of the concrete retaining wallthat we want to define first. In the illustration to theright, I use the name, "stemwall" for the upperportion of a two part wall ( like a giant upside down T).

Priority: text field you can specify a larger numberthan 1 to reduce this wall in "clean-up" rank should itever encounter another type of Wall Style. This partis not critical on this particular exercise but issomething you should know about.

Edge Offset: change the values on the Edge Offsetdialogue box to a very simple and easy tocomprehend system by making the value equal zero( 0 ). This means that the stem wall will be drawn ata baseline out from zero ( a number easy toremember ).

Width: change this value on the Width dialogue boxto 8" (or any other value that meets your desires forthe wall portion of your concrete retaining wall).

Top Elevation Offset: since this wall should simplego as high as we specify when we draw it, weshould specify that we don't want any offset from thetop: 0" from Wall Top .

Bottom Elevation Offset: since we are planning onbuilding a concrete retaining wall that has a base orspread footing we don't need the stemwall portion tomerge into the base. So, set the Bottom ElevationOffset to a thickness equal to the thickness of your



concrete base (as discussed below). In theillustration to the right, I show Bottom ElevationOffset as 1' from Wall Bottom.

After making the changes, described above, to thefirst wall component, pick on the Add button and gothrough the same steps to build the footing portion ofyour concrete retaining wall.

Index: 2

Name: footing

Priority: 20 ( optional )

Edge Offset... -1'-8" Use this value to offset or pushout the base of the concrete. It could be more orless depending on how much you want around theexterior of the building.

Width... 6'-0" Use this value for the actual basewidth. A regular residential perimeter footing wouldnot be this wide but since this exercise is about aretaining wall, it should be quite wide.

Top elevation Offset: 1'-0" from Wall Bottom. Sincewe are now working with the base of our wall, thiscomponent should be limited as to how high it willgo. By setting the Top value 12" from Wall Bottom,the thickness of the base is now limited to 1'-0".

Bottom Elevation Offset: 0" from Wall Bottom. This is the same as with the stemwall value and justassures us that this wall will begin at the groundlevel or 0 of the Z-axis.

After setting the appropriate values for the two WallComponents as described above, you can move onto the appearance controls for this new wall.

Pick on Display Props tab of the Wall StyleProperties dialogue box and set the displaypull-down menu to Plan ( it should already be set ). On the Property Source column, pick and highlightthe Wall Style source ( not the System Defaultsource ). Now, pick on the Attach Override...button at the bottom of the Display Props tab andpick on the Edit Display Props... button.

On the Entity Properties dialogue box, pick on theLayer/Color/Linetype tab. Pick and highlight theComponent named Below Cut Plane and set aunique Color and Linetype for this component. Inthe illustration to the right, I have set the color to 3 -Green and the Linetype to DASHED. These settingswill make the base of the concrete retaining wallhave a unique color and be dashed.

You may want to pick and highlight the Hatch 1(stemwall) Component and set the color to thelightest color you use for printing.



On the Hatching tab of the Entity Propertiesdialogue box, pick on the Pattern row for Hatch 1(stemwall) and set the hatch pattern to any that youmight use for concrete. In the illustration to theright, I show that I used AR-CONC and theScale/Spacing value should also be set to 2" +/-.

On the Other tab of the Entity Properties dialoguebox change the Cut Plane Height: text field to aheight that matches that of the concrete retainingwall's base thickness ( I show 12" or 1'-0" becausethat is how thick I made the footing). This value canbe higher up the retaining wall but not lower if youwant it to be green and dashed as per the Below CutPlane values you set above.

OK your way out of all these dialogue boxes and getready to test this work

Summation:Though ADT comes with numerous pre-set WallStyles, "real" world architecture never seems to runout of unique conditions so it becomes very helpfulto know how to build one from scratch or modifythose that come with ADT.

You can learn more about Wall Styles and how toload the numerous pre-set Wall Styles that comewith ADT in Part 2 of this Guide.

4Adding a custom Wall Style to your drawing


Design pull-down menu to Walls > to Add Walls...

Once you have defined a custom Wall Style you canuse the Add Walls dialogue box to make it currentby selecting it on the Style: drop-down list. Illustrated to the right, I show that I have selectedthe "6' retaining wall" Wall Style that we createdabove.

We can ignore a few of the options on this dialoguebox for this example and simply set a Height: valueappropriate for how high you want the retainingwall. I show a Height: value of 2'-0" because I don'tneed the wall to run the full 8' -0" or so at this time, Isimply want enough height to provide the right 2Dand 3D graphic information ( we'll see this later ). Itdoes have to be, at least, a littler higher than thethickness assigned to the base footing.

For Justify:, I show that I have set this value toBaseline because when I draw this wall, I want thezero-of-the-wall to be the point from which the wall isjustified or drawn. Think of it like a series of parallellines; you can choose the outer most right, the innermost left, the dead center or which ever line wasstarted at an Edge Offset value of 0 .

Unfortunately, we have to make one more importantsetting before we can get going with the work ofdrawing this wall. On the Properties button on theAdd Walls dialogue box, illustrated to the right,Architectural Desktop needs to be told that this is anunusually wide wall that requires an unusually wideCleanup Radius. On the Dimensions tab of the WallProperties dialogue box, change the F- CleanupRadius text field to a value that usually equals or



exceeds one-half the widest portion of your wall; i.e,if your wall is 6'-0" wide then the Cleanup Radiusshould be approximately 3'-0" or greater. In theillustration to the right, I show that I have broken thisbasic rule by setting the Cleanup Radius to 2'-6" fora wall that is 6'-0" wide - this works but it is a matterof trial and error - use the rule if in doubt or whenexperiencing strange wall corners/errors.

Pick the OK button

Wow, isn't that a lot of work before simply drawing afew lines?

If you followed my numbers on this exercise, theWall Style was designed to be drawn from left toright if you want the wider portion of the base footingon the inside of the building ( the norm. on retainingwalls ).

I like to use the Endpoint Osnap and then just pickalong the Xref'd drawing as illustrated to the right. For the last leg, between step 10 and step 1, youcan use the Polyline Close button on the Add Walldialogue box.

Note:I have noticed that some old-time AutoCAD usersseem a little thrown off by the fact that the Add Wallsdialogue box has to stay on the screen whiledrawing walls. It is there for a good reason despitethe space it takes up; you can work with the AddWalls dialogue box while drawing thus allowing youto choose Curved or switch Styles on-the-fly.



For the square footing pads, I had to get creativesince there is currently no direct solution for thisproblem in Architectural Desktop. I designed asimple Wall Style with one Component that is 12"thick (Top Elevation Offset is 12" from Wall Bottom)and set some of the other properties just like thosedescribed for the retaining wall above.

Give it a try and see if you can figure it out. Use theretaining wall example as a guide. If you can't get it,cheat and open the finished version of this exerciseto reverse engineer it. You can do this by going toWall Styles and use the Edit... button on the "4' SQColm FTG"

Summation:Adding a Wall in ADT is usually a simple matter of drawing it like a regular line butsometimes there are other matters to consider since this object carries with itnumerous bits of information; from basic formatting issues to 3D geometry. If youbegin to experience problems with objects in ADT, you have to consider the"properties" of the object as a possible cause of the problems. You can read moreabout Wall Properties and drawing problems under Section 5 of Part 2 in this Guide

5Viewing your ADT work in 3D and Shading it


After working for a bit in Architectural Desktop yousimply have to see the work as it really looks so let'sswitch the View orientation by using AutoCAD'sView toolbar. Pick on any of the 4 isometric viewsto get a view similar to the one in the illustration tothe right.

By default, you will get a 2D Wireframe image whichcan often be difficult to read due to all of the 3D linesso this is where Shading comes in.

From the View pull-down menu, pick on Shade >and cascade down to Gouraud Shaded. I select thisone because it just happens to be my personalfavorite but you should play with the other choiceson this list to see if you have a personal favorite.

Note: When you Shade, you will need to set theShademode back to 2D Wireframe in order to workin "normal" mode; otherwise you won't see the workas it will look when printed on paper. You canalways type "shademode" to get to this command,followed by "2D" for the Wireframe setting. Youshould also note that the UCS icon is different whenyou are working in Shaded mode.

Use the Top button on the View toolbar to set thisdrawing back to plan view or you can type "plan" <enter> followed by "w" for World on the commandline.

6Using a Space Object to create a concrete slab




One of the things that will quickly become obvious toany architect or architectural designer is thatArchitectural Desktop is missing a number of keyobjects for normal modeling or constructiondocumentation.

In the case of a concrete slab, you will not find anytools or commands that will guide you to the solutionunless you have a quick sense of problem solvingwith limited tools. My solution is to use a type ofobject designed for helping in the design phase of aproject called a Space.

First, trace the inside edge of the stemwall with aPline ( polyline ) as illustrated to the right.

From the Concept pull-down menu, pick SpacePlanning > and cascade down to Convert toSpaces. Pick the last pline just created.

Once you have selected the closed pline slabperimeter just created, the Space Propertiesdialogue box should automatically pop up.

On the Space Properties dialogue box, illustrated tothe right, pick on the Dimensions tab and set B -Space Height, D - Ceiling Boundary Thicknessand E - Height of Space Above Ceiling Boundayto zero ( 0" ). Set C - Floor Boundary Thicknessto the value you want for the concrete slab insidethis foundation plan - I show 6".

Pick the OK button.

Congratulations, you have just achieved somethingthis program was not really set up to do yet and youcan use this trick for many problems includingFloors, Decks, Mezzanines and Bridges.

You

should see brown 45 degree cross-hatching withinthe foundation plan now. View it in isometric and trythe shade command again as described in section 5,above.


file:///C|/FrontPage Webs/Content/archidigm/class...se/architectural_desktop_ex_1_foundation_plan.htm (10 of 15) [3/10/2001 12:14:25 PM]

Summation:Since ADT is relatively young in terms ofdevelopment cycles ( 2.0 ), there are bound to besome problems when it comes to solving specificarchitectural needs. In this example, we used aSpace Object to compensate for the lack of a SlabObject or more advanced forms of dealing withfoundation designs. As with all CAD programscreative problem solving is a big part of using ADT.

You can read more about Space Objects in Part 11of this Guide.

7Adding and Annotating a Column Grid


From the Design pull-down menu, pick Grids > andcascade over to Add Column Grid...

You might notice that a Grid object is automaticallydisplaying on your screen based on some defaultvalues ( or those used last ), but we will have a bit ofwork to do in order to make the grid as irregular asthat of this example building.

On the Add Column Grid dialogue box, make surethe Shape is set to Rectangular; then, check theSpecify on Screen check box.

Use the Endpoint or intersection Snap to get thelower left ( 1 ) wall for the Insertion Point and theupper right ( 2 ) wall as the New Size ( or second )point - as illustrated to the right. If you mess up onthe snap points, you can adjust it later. For thissecond point, you can use Otrack to track twoendpoints off of the wall corners or you can try tofind the virtual intersection with apparent intersectionOsnap.

For the New Cell size, simply move your cursor to apoint approximately 1/3 up from the bottom and 1/4of the length from the left ( as illustrated to the right (3 ) ). You should see a Grid automatically formingbased upon the point where your cursor is at; thisdistance from the origin (insertion point) is used toevenly divide the Grid producing a 6 x 3 cell grid -you should see these numbers in the gray Divide bynumber fields.

For Rotation, make sure the angle is set to zero ( 0) and hit <enter>.

If you want to center the exterior edge Gridlines onthe walls, I use Grips to stretch the grid-lines up,down, left and right by half the width of thestemwalls: in this exercise: 4".

To make the final adjustments on the gridlines pickon the Grid object, right-click on your mouse,select X Axis > and cascade down to LayoutMode. On the command line, set the Layout Modeto "Manual" . This modification will allow you tofreely Grip edit the Vertical gridlines by stretchingthem.

Now use Grips to stretch the vertical gridlines to thecenterline of specific structural columns in theexample drawing - see example screen capture afew steps down from here or look at the completeddrawing file.



Repeat this process for the Y Axis Gridlines.

Pick on the Grid Object, right-click on our mouseand select Column Grid Labeling...

On the Column Grid Labeling dialogue box:

Check the Automatically Calculate Values forLabels check box.

Select the Ascending radio button.

Type a capitol letter "A" for the top field under theNumber column.

Check the Top check box.

Set the Extension of these gridlines to 10'-0" awayfrom the Grid object.

Check the Generate New Bubbles On Exit just soyou will get any changes automatically should youcome back and play with these settings.



For the Y-labeling of this exercise, we will run anumerical set of numbers on the Left side startingwith one at the top. To do this, you will need to:

Check the Automatically Calculate Values forLabels check box.

Select the Descending radio button.

Type the number "4" for the top field under theNumber column.

Check the Left check box.

Set the Extension of these gridlines to 10'-0" awayfrom the Grid object.

Check the Generate New Bubbles On Exit just soyou will get any changes automatically should youcome back and play with these settings.

Here's what it should look like.

Summation:Using the Grid routine in ADT demonstrates a bitabout how ADT objects differ in use and control fromcommon AutoCAD objects. Adjusting to new waysof working can be frustrating but the efforts a wellworth the return; as we discovered when weautomatically annotated the Grid. Not only was itautomatically annotated, but changes are as easierthan the original labeling setup.

You can read more about Grids and Grid labeling inPart 7 of this Guide.

8Annotating your work


The Automatic Grid Dimension routine will utilize thecurrent Dimension Style, so before you use thisroutine, you might want to set up a basic DimensionStyle for this drawing - use your offices standard andset it for 1/4" = 1'-0" ( 1:48 ) printing scale.

If you just run this routine without setting aDimension Style, you will get the default "Standard"so it may not look very good; but it will work.

Pick on the Grid Object, right-click on our mouseand select Dimensions under the Y Axis option. After you select Dimensions, you may have to wait aminute before seeing the completed work - seeillustration to the right.



For other forms of annotation, you can use theDocumentation pull-down menu to select thecategory of annotation and symbol type.

Selecting a category off the Documentation menuinvokes the DesignCenter and automatically takesyou to a folder under Architectural Desktop thatholds block-like objects ready for drag-n-dropinsertion into your drawing.

Summation:Currently there are numerous Annotation andSymbol features but you may find the libraries a littleshort on variety and variation. The most difficult partof this area in ADT is getting old office standards setup to work as these new autolayering objects.

You can read more about Annotating your drawingsin Part 6 (Symbols) and Part 9 (DesignCenter) ofthis Guide.

9Preparing Your First ADT drawing for Printing


After you have inserted a variety of annotationsymbols, pick on the 24x36 tab at the bottom ofyour drawing and you should see a drawing similarto the illustration to the right.

Notice that the drawing looks just like it has beendone in AutoCAD 14 or older version; 2D andeverything. You can turn off the Space object layerso you don't see the hatch patter across the wholeslab area.

This drawing has a viewport set up with a 1:48 zoomscale factor and the titleblock is based on an Xref file( "project_titleblock.dwg" ).

You could easily create another Layout based onthis one and set the view up for Isometric inside theviewport; thus utilizing ADT's 3D capabilities forpresentation work and construction documentation



AutoCAD TM 2.0 EXERCISE 1 - Sonic.net · 2001-04-01 · AutoCAD® Architectural DesktopTM 2.0 -...

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Transcript of AutoCAD TM 2.0 EXERCISE 1 - Sonic.net · 2001-04-01 · AutoCAD® Architectural DesktopTM 2.0 -...