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FBE AutoCAD Page
Stephen Peter, S.Peter@unsw.edu.au

This tutorial has been prepared for students at the Faculty of the Built Environment studying AutoCAD. It has been placed on the Web to facilitate access by those students and because I believe others may find the material of use!

Note that throughout this document I am using the character "" to symbolise the [Enter] and [spacebar] keys.

Stephen Peter, 17 July 2000 (7 October 1998).
Introduction
In this first tutorial you will learn how to start AutoCAD, save a drawing, and a range of common drawing commands.
Starting AutoCAD
Alternatively, click on the AutoCAD icon in the "icon tray" at the bottom of the (Windows 95/98/NT) screen. Note that these instructions are specific to the FBE. Start AutoCAD by clicking on the Windows Start button (bottom left), then move the mouse to Programs then CAD and Modelling then "AutoCAD Architectural Desktop 2" and click on AutoCAD Architectural Desktop 2. A dialog giving various startup options will be displayed. Select the second option: "Start from Scratch" and click OK.
Despite command line interfaces being considered totally archaic the command area in AutoCAD is absolutely vital! One of the key things I'm trying to "get you to do" in these tutorials is to watch the command area! Using AutoCAD is like a conversation and AutoCAD's half of the conversation comes from the text in the command area...

 Once AutoCAD has loaded, move the mouse around until you see a crosshair cursor. The AutoCAD window has a number of important features:
  1. The standard Windows drop-down menus.
  2. The standard Windows toolbar below the menus, it includes: File-New, File-Open, File-Save, Print and "Find and Replace"(!!).
  3. In addition to the standard toolbar there will be a number of AutoCAD specific toolbars: Object Properties, Draw and Modify (there may be others...?).
  4. The graphics area - that's the area where you draw - note the scroll bars and the axis label.
  5. View Tabs - these 'tabs' give access to different view of the current drawing. The "model" tab should be selected at present.
  6. The command area - this small window (by default) has space for three lines of text - this is where you type commands.
  7. The status area, at the bottom of the AutoCAD window, this includes the current cursor position.

Figure 1       AutoCAD R14 screen.
Command Entry
  Typically there are three ways of giving a command!
Not all commands are on the Menus and/or toolbars!
  1. Type the command using the keyboard - the command is displayed in the command area.
  2. Select the command from a menu.
  3. Select the command's icon from a toolbar.
This means : type the text (qsave) and then press the Enter key (or the space-bar). When I want you to type a command in the command area the AutoCAD command will be written like:
        type: QSAVE
This means : click on the 'File' menu and then 'Save' (which should be one of the items on the 'File' menu). When I want you to select a command from a menu, it will look like:
        select File - Save
AutoCAD also supports common shortcuts like Ctrl-S for Save!! When I want you to pick a command from a toolbar, I'll write:
        select Save
Here I'm trying to cover all the bases by giving you the command to type, the menu options and showing you what the toolbar icon looks like! Despite all of the above, I'll probably use a combination of the above like:
        select File - Save (or type QSAVE)
Draw a Rectangle
Select Rectangle (or type rectang), then type:
The text typed is displayed in the command area at the bottom of AutoCAD's window.         15,15
      415,315         these are absolute cartesian coordinates
Hopefully AutoCAD drew a rectangle, which fits comfortably in the AutoCAD graphics area!? If you can't see the rectanlge, type z [space] a [space] (zoom all) - this instructs AutoCAD to redraw the view, "zooming out" to show all the graphics on the drawing.
Saving a Drawing

Note that if you type SAVE , you actually get "Save As"!!

The quickest way to save is to press Ctrl-S - this is the same as "qsave".		 Select the Save icon from the standard toolbar. The drawing has not been saved before, so AutoCAD will display the SAVE AS dialog box, select the appropriate Drive and Directory (for example: S:\arch\u1234567), type the drawing name (for example TUT1), and then select "OK".
Draw some Lines
Instead of LINE, you can also type: L this is an "alias" - which is a short-cut.


The exact positions of these lines is not important.		 We will now draw some more graphics and then save and exit AutoCAD.
Type LINE
Move the crosshair to near the bottom-left of the rectangle and click the left mouse button, then move the crosshair to the top-right of the rectangle and again click the left mouse button.
Remember this! If you press after you finish a command, the command is re-issued. Press to terminate the command, and then press again to re-start the command!
Draw a line from the top-left to the bottom-right of the rectangle, and then press to end the command.
This will save the drawing and exit AutoCAD - don't PANIC! Now type:
        QUIT
You will be prompted to save the changes you've made - click OK.
Starting AutoCAD with an Existing Drawing
Please note that this icon is specific to the FBE's Labs at UNSW. To load a drawing, either click on the "Your Account" icon or start Windows Explorer and select the appropriate Drive and Directory. Once Explorer is showing the correct directory then double-click on your drawing.
If you can't find your drawing (in Windows Explorer) then press F5 (function key 5), this tells Explorer to update the directory display; if you still can't find your drawing then perhaps you saved the drawing in some other directory - load AutoCAD and then select the File menu, at the bottom of the File menu is a list of recently opened drawings, select your drawing from the list.
Coordinate Systems
AutoCAD is a three dimensional CAD system, so you can enter XYZ values instead of the XY values shown here. When specifying positions you can use Cartesian or Polar Coordinates. Cartesian coordinates are simply a X value, a comma, and a Y value, for example: 100,100. Polar coordinates are a Distance followed by a < symbol and an angle, for example: 10<25. Angles are measured in degrees, with 0 = East and 90 = North. Any of these numbers can have decimal values.
Consider relative coordinates simply as distances! The positions specified above are "absolute coordinates", because they specify a particular position. AutoCAD can also use "relative coordinates" to specify a position relative to the current position, for example: @5.6,-3.4 and @16.32<62.
Draw a "Diamond"
This should draw a "diamond" (a rotated rectangle) shape.


If you make a mistake, you can undo the last line segment by typing: u.

"c" means "close" the shape.		 The "polyline" used below is used to create a sequence of joined line segments, which become one object. Using the "line" command each line segment is a separate object.
Select Polyline (or type: pline ) and then type:
        215,15         absolute cartesian coordinate
@212<45 relative polar coordinate
@212<135
@212<225
c
Snap Modes
A simple way to turn Object Snap ON or OFF, is to click on "OSNAP" in the status Area. To see the various snap options "right-click" on "OSNAP" (in the status area) and select "Settings...". It is often useful to be able to draw something from (for example) the end of another shape. AutoCAD has a large selection of "snap modes" for this purpose. The most commonly used snap modes are "Endpoint" (which snaps to the end of the selected graphics entity) and "Intersection" (which snaps to the intersection of two graphics entities).
To get AutoCAD to display the Object Snap Modes toolbar, select "Toolbars" from the "View" menu and then select "Object Snap". The object snap modes can either be typed or they can be selected from the standard toolbar or from the snap toolbar:
To display the "Drafting Settings" dialog, click on the "horse-shoe" shaped icon on the end of the Object Snap Toolbar.
Draw an Arc

Select Arc (or type ARC ), then select the midpoint snap mode (or type: MID ) and select the left side of the bottom of the "diamond" polyline you drew before. Then use the midpoint snap to enter points on the right side at the bottom and then the top of the polyline (see figure 2).

Figure 2         Arc construction.
Finally...
Draw the rectangle by selecting from the draw toolbar (or type rectang ) Lastly, I want you to draw a rectangle in the diamond shape, another diamond inside that rectangle, a circle inside that diamond and a horizontal and vertical line also inside the last diamond (see figure 3)! Each shape should touch the Midpoints of the previous shape...
Alternatively select the circle icon and then type 2p then pick the points. HINT: To draw the circle, select Draw - Circle - 2 Points and then (using midpoint snap) pick opposite sides of the inner diamond.
If you use the MIDpoint Snap Mode for each point(!), you should be able to draw the shapes without much trouble.

If you make a mistake, press "Esc" (the "escape" key, located at the top-left of the keyboard). Then type U (the undo comand).
Figure 3         Finished Tutorial 1 drawing.
Finishing up
That's all for tutorial one! Save your drawing (press Ctrl-S) and then exit AutoCAD (select File - Exit).

Remember to log off before leaving.
FBE AutoCAD Page Tutorial 2
Last Update : 17 July 2000
Major Revision : 17 July 2000
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Email : s.peter@unsw.edu.au