COMP111 (COMPUTER AIDED DRAFTING) programs to appeal to different

professions.
Chapter 1 (Introduction of AutoCAD)
 In the last 5 years, Autodesk has also
1.1 CAD Release History Timeline created mobile and cloud-based apps,
 The computer-aided design landscape including AutoCAD 360, Fusion 360,
has been shifting and evolving for past and A360 Viewer.
60 years and will continue for 60 more.
Lesson 2
 In 1957, or more than 60 years ago, the
“Father of CAD,” Dr. Patrick Hanratty The basics of AutoCAD and User Interface
created the first numerical control
A. Basics
system, which would later become
 After you launch AutoCAD, click the
Computer Aided Design or CAD.
Start Drawing button to begin a new
 CAD designs revolutionized the
drawing. AutoCAD includes a standard
engineering, architecture and
tabbed ribbon across the top of the
manufacturing landscape.
drawing area. You can access nearly all
software.
the commands presented in this guide
 Pencil and paper would remain the
from the Home tab.
primary way “draftsman” would create
 The Quick Access Toolbar
designs for another 30 years.
o shown below includes familiar
1.2 CAD Software
commands such as New, Open,
 AutoCAD is a computer supported
Save, Print, Undo, and so on,
design and drafting software which
there are several user interface
developed and published by Autodesk.
that can be use in this
It is used for 2d design, 3d design,
computer aided drafting
drafting and photo realistic rendering.
software.
 Many Architects, Civil engineers,
 The Command Window
Mechanical and Interior Designers use
o normally docked at the bottom
AutoCAD for their designs purpose and
of the application window. The
floor plans.
Command window displays
 The company behind AutoCAD,
prompts, options, and
Autodesk was founded in 1982 by John
messages.
Walker. He and the other 15 co-
 The Mouse
founders intended to develop five
o Most people use a mouse as
different desktop automation
applications, hoping that one of the their pointing device, but other
applications would take off. devices have equivalent
controls.
 Before AutoCAD, commercial CAD
programs in the 70s ran on mainframe  New Drawings
computers or minicomputers, with each o You can easily conform to
user working at a separate graphics industry or company standards
terminal. by specifying settings for text,
 They launched AutoCAD at the COMDEX dimensions, line types, and
trade show in Las Vegas as the first CAD several other features.
program in the world to run on a PC. By - For imperial drawings that
March 1986, only four years after it was assume yournunits are
introduced, AutoCAD had become the inches, use acad.dwt or
most widely used design application acadlt.dwt.
worldwide, a position it still holds - For metric units that
today. assume your units are
millimeters, use
 In its 35 years, AutoCAD has grown
acadiso.dwt or
substantially. there has been 31
acadltiso.dwt.
versions since the first release in
December 1982! Over the years,  Create Your Own Drawing Template
Autodesk added new features and File
 o You can save any drawing o Right next to the At the top of
(.dwg) file as a drawing the UI, in the title bar area, is
template (.dwt) file. the Quick Access Toolbar, or
o You can also open any existing QAT.
drawing template file, modify it, o But like most other UI
and then save it again, with a elements, you can customize
different filename if needed. this to meet your desires.
 Units Below is the stock QAT,
o When you first start a drawing, highlighted to show its position.
you need to decide what the  Ribbon
length of one unit represents— o The ribbon is a UI tool that first
an inch, a foot, a centimeter, a appeared in AutoCAD 2009.
kilometer, or some other unit of o It contains various commands
length. organized into tabs and panels.
 Unit Display Settings It can be heavily customized by
o After you decide what unit of administrators and end users.
length that you want to use, the Contextual tabs are very
UNITS command lets you powerful, they appear with
control several unit display panels of commands and
settings including the following: options relating to whatever
Format (or Type). task is at hand and/or whatever
 Model Scale entity type is selected.
o Always create your models at  In-Editor elements
full size (1:1 scale). The term o There are a few elements you
model refers to the geometry of may find inside the drawing
your design. A drawing includes editor, and are shown in their
the model geometry along with default location in the image
the views, notes, dimensions, below.
callouts, tables, and the title o The visibility of each of these
block displayed in the layout. can be controlled by the user.
 Recommendations The viewport controls are in
o To open Help with information the upper left corner, and allow
about the command in you to change the view and
progress, simply press F1. visual style.
o To repeat the previous o The View cube is in the upper
command, press Enter or the right, from which you can
Spacebar. To see various change the view and UCS. Just
options, select an object and below that is the Nav Bar, that
right-click, or right-click a user gives you controls for zooming,
interface element. panning, orbiting, and more.
o To cancel a command in Lastly, in the lower left hand
progress or if you ever feel corner, is the UCS icon, which
stuck, press Esc. can tell you at a glance if you
are in WCS, and/or the general
AutoCAD User Interface Elements orientation of the UCS.
 Application Menu  Status Bar
o The first thing you might see o Moving to the bottom of the
after launching AutoCAD is the application, you will find the
Application Menu, in the far Status Bar. Since AutoCAD
upper left corner. In AutoCAD, 2015, the status bar contains
it’s generally contains a big red icons only. By default several
“A”. icons are not enabled, so you
 Quick Access Toolbar (QAT) might want to turn them on.
 o Below is a stock status bar, input focus. Drop-down menus
along with the control icon on are not enabled by default.
the far right, expanded to show
An example of a drop-down menu can be
you the other available icons.
found below:
 File Tabs
o File tabs provide access to all  Toolbars
open documents in a minimal o These are flat panels that
amount of space. Each open contain buttons and or drop-
document has its own tab. Left- down lists. Each button
click on a tab to make it contains an icon and a macro to
current, and right-click on a tab perform a command or macro.
to 12 access more options, such Toolbars can be floating or
as Save and Close. docked.
 Layout Tabs  Command Line
o Layout tabs provide access to o The command line is a palette
Model Space and each Layout where you can type in
in a given document. Left-click command names and/or
on a tab to make it current, and command responses, and the
right-click on a tab to access view the history of both.
more options such as Print,  Palettes
Move, or Rename. o There are various palettes
o By default, Layout Tabs are available in AutoCAD. Palettes
oriented at the bottom of the are special windows that can
editor window and if the docked, floating and made to
command line is docked, below collapse when not in use.
that – in the status bar area. o Most palettes support
 Shortcut Menu transparency (with proper
o By default, with no command hardware support) to allow
active, if you right- click in the them to remain on screen
drawing editor, you will get the during AutoCAD commands.
Shortcut Menu. This pop-up  Tool Palette
menu contains recent o Tool Palettes contain buttons to
commands, and other common insert blocks, execute
commands. You can customize commands, create hatches, just
this menu, like most other UI to name a few items. Users are
items. free to customize the content.
o If there is a command active, a
different menu may appear CAD TERMINOLOGIES
when you right-click. This alias
behavior is controlled by the
SHORTCUTMENU system A shortcut for a command entered at the
variable. Command prompt. For example, CP is an alias
 Drop-Down Menus for COPY, and Z is an alias for ZOOM.
o Drop-down, or pull-down
menus have been around since arrowhead
almost the beginning of The symbol at the end of a dimension line
AutoCAD, long before Windows showing where a dimension begins or ends.
was a platform.
o These commands support baseline
macros and even autolisp
An imaginary line on which text characters
statements. The menu
appear to rest. Individual characters can
disappears when a command is
selected and/or the menu loses have descenders that drop below the baseline.
See also baseline dimension.
block The 2D environment in which you create layout
viewports and place title blocks for
A generic term for one or more objects that are
combined to create a single object. plotting. Multiple layouts can be created for
each drawing.
Commonly used for either block definition or
block reference. (BLOCK) See also block origin

definition and block reference. The point where coordinate axes intersect. For
example, the origin of a Cartesian
command line
coordinate system is where the X, Y, and Z axes
A text area reserved for keyboard input,
meet at 0,0,0.
prompts, and messages.
Ortho mode
crosshairs
A setting that limits pointing device input to
A type of cursor consisting of two lines that
horizontal or vertical directions relative to
intersect.
the current snap angle and user coordinate
degree
system. See also snap angle and user
A mathematical property of a curve or a surface
coordinate system
that indicates the type of polynomial
page setup
equation being used. For example, equations of
degree 1 are linear, degree 2 are A collection of plot device and other settings
that affect the appearance and format of
quadratic, and degree 3 are cubic.
the final output. These settings can be modified
drawing area
and applied to other layouts.
The area in which your drawings are displayed
palette
and modified.
A Windows-specific, user interface element that
font
can be either docked, anchored, or
A character set, made up of letters, numbers,
floating in the drawing area. Dockable windows
punctuation marks, and symbols of a
include the command line, status bar,
distinctive proportion and design.
Properties palette, and so on.
frame
plot style
An individual, static image in an animated
An object property that specifies a set of
sequence. See also motion path.
overrides for color, dithering, gray scale, pen
freeze
assignments, screening, linetype, lineweight,
A setting that suppresses the display of objects endstyles, joinstyles, and fill styles. Plot
on selected layers. Objects on frozen
styles are applied at plot time.
layers are not displayed, regenerated, or
point
plotted. Freezing layers shortens regenerating
1. A location in 3D space specified by X, Y, and Z
time. (LAYER) See also thaw.
coordinate values.
grid
2. An object consisting of a single coordinate
An area covered with regularly spaced dots or location. (POINT)
lines to aid drawing. The grid spacing is
relative coordinates
adjustable. The grid is never plotted. (GRID) See
Coordinates specified in relation to previous
also grid limits.
coordinates.
layout
ribbon A drawing used for manufacturing or building
purposes.
For products that run under the Windows
operating system, a palette that displays zoom

buttons and controls used for both 2D drawing To reduce or increase the apparent
and annotation and 3D modeling, magnification of the drawing area. (ZOOM)

viewing, and rendering. (RIBBON) See also

row (table)

A horizontally adjacent table cell selection

is one cell in height.

snap angle

The angle that the snap grid is rotated.

snap grid

An invisible grid that locks the cursor into a

the X and Y directions. The snap grid does not

which is controlled separately by GRID. (SNAP)

toolbar

Part of the interface containing icons that

products that run under the Windows operating

tooltip

A small box of text that identifies or explains an

cursor hovers near or over it.

tracking

A method for determining a point relative to

UCS

See user coordinate system (UCS).

A named and saved UCS location and

origin and X, Y, and Z axes. Create and save as

working drawing