AutoCAD 2000: The Complete Reference

David S. Cohn

Osborne / McGraw-Hill Berkeley New York St. Louis San Francisco

Auckland Bogota Hamburg London Madrid Mexico City Milan Montreal New Delhi Panama City

Paris Säo Paulo Singapore Sydney Tokyo Toronto

Contents Acknowledgments xiii Introduction xv

AutoCAD Basics

1 Getting Started with AutoCAD 3 Starting AutoCAD 4 Understanding the AutoCAD Interface 6 Selecting Commands 24 Correcting Mistakes 30 Getting Online Help 31 Opening Existing Drawings 32 Working with Multiple Drawings 35 Using Partial Open and Partial Load 37 Saving Your Work 38 Exiting from AutoCAD 42

2 Drawing Basics 45 Starting a New Drawing 46 Setting Up a Drawing 57 Using Grid and Snap 74 Using Polar Snap 78 Using Ortho Mode 79 Using Object Snaps 79

3 Creating Simple 2-D Objects 101 Drawing Lines 102 Drawing Circles 104 Drawing Ares 106 Drawing Ellipses 112

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viii A u t o C A D 2 0 0 0 : The C o m p l e t e R e f e r e n c e

Creating Point Objects 115 Drawing Construction Lines 116 Creating Freehand Sketches 119

4 Creating More Complex 2-D Objects 123 Drawing Rectangles 124 Drawing Polygons 126 Drawing Multilines 129 Drawing Polylines 138 Drawing Spline Curves 146 Drawing Donuts 151 Creating Solid-Füled Areas 153 Creating Regions 154

5 Viewing Your Drawing 163 Redrawing and Regenerating a Drawing 164 Moving Around Within a Drawing 165 Changing the Magnification of Your Drawing 167 Using the Aerial View 177 Using Named Views 180 Using Multiple Viewports 184 Controlling Visual Elements 191

6 Working with Coordinates 197 Using Cartesian Coordinate Systems 198 Using Two-Dimensional Coordinates 201 Using Three-Dimensional Coordinates 205 Using Point Filters and Tracking 208 Defining User Coordinate Systems 210

7 Modifying Objects 223 Selecting Objects 224 Erasing Objects 245 Duplicating Objects 245 Rearranging Objects 261 Resizing Objects 267 Breaking Objects 279

• ifTillM Moving Beyond the Basics

8 Organizing Drawing Information 283 Organizing Information on Layers 284 Working with Linetypes 306

9 Getting Drawing Information 321 Specifying Measurements and Divisions 322 Calculating Areas 327

C o n t e n t s

Calculating Distances and Angles 331 Displaying Information About Your Drawing 332

10 Editing Complex Objects 337 Grouping Objects 33g Editing Polylines 344 Editing Multilines 353 Editing Splines 3^g Exploding Objects 3 6 4

Chamfering and Filleting Objects 364

1 1 Changing Properties 373 Changing Object Properties 374 Using the Properties Window 3g2 Matching Object Properties 3gg Renaming Objects and Elements 391

12 Adding Cross Hatching 393 Adding Hatch Objects 394 Modifying Hatch Objects 4 ^ Creating Custom Hatch Patterns 415

13 Working with Text 421 Creating Line Text 422 Creating Paragraph Text 429 Inserting Text from Outside of AutoCAD 442 Working with Text Styles 443 Editing and Changing Text 45I Finding and Replacing Any Kind of Text 454 Checking Spelling 4 5 6

Using the Express Text Tools 459

14 Dimensioning Your Drawing 471 Understanding Dimensioning Concepts 472 Creating Dimensions 475 Dimensioning Multiple Objects 4g9 Editing Dimensions 492 Creating Leaders and Annotations 500 Understanding Dimension Styles and Variables 507 Managing Dimension Styles 526 Adding Geometrie Tolerances 539

15 Working with Blocks, Attributes, and External References 537

Working with Blocks 53g Working with Attributes 553 Working with External References 573 Editing References in Place 597

X A u t o C A D 2 0 0 0 : The C o m p l e t e R e f e r e n c e

16 Managing Content with AutoCAD DesignCenter 605 Understanding the DesignCenter Interface 606 Using AutoCAD DesignCenter 614 Retrieving Frequently Used Content 619

17 Creating a Layout to Plot 623 Using Paper Space and Model Space 624 Creating Layouts 632 Working with Layouts 645 Using Layout Templates 650 Creating Floating Viewports 655 Controlling Visibility in Floating Viewports 664 Editing in Floating Viewports 671 Creating Nonrectangular Viewports 680

18 Plotting Your Drawing 685 Understanding Plotting 686 Plotting a Drawing 689 Using Plot Styles 697 Using the Batch Plot Utility 723

IJTill l l Becomirtg an Experf

19 Drawing in Three Dimensions 735 Viewing Objects in Three Dimensions 736 Manipulating 3-D Views Interactively 742 Creating Three-Dimensional Objects 759

20 Editing in Three Dimensions 791 Rotating in Three Dimensions 792 Arraying in Three Dimensions 795 Mirroring in Three Dimensions 800 Aligning Objects in Three Dimensions 802 Editing Three-Dimensional Mesh Objects 805

2 1 Editing Three-Dimensional Solids 809 Chamfering Solids 810 Filleting Solids 813 Sectioning Solids 815 Slicing Solids 819 Editing Solids 820 Representing Solids Using SOLPROF, SOLVIEW,

and SOLDRAW 841

22 Creating Three-Dimensional Images 851 Creating Hidden-Line Images 852 Creating Shaded Images 855 Creating Rendered Images 858

C o n t e n t s xi

23 Using Raster Images 905 Attaching Raster Images 906 Managing Raster Images 912 Modifying Raster Images 920 Clipping Raster Images 925

24 Working with Other Applications 931 Saving and Viewing Slides 932 Working with Other File Formats 936 Working with Other Applications 943

25 Web-Enabling AutoCAD Drawings 963 How AutoCAD Interfaces with the Web 964 Opening and Saving Files from the Internet 966 Working with Hyperlinks 971 Creating DWF Files 980

26 Leveraging the Internet 989 Sending AutoCAD Drawings via E-Mail 990 Accessing the Internet from Within AutoCAD 991 Using the WHIP! Viewer 993 Publishing AutoCAD Drawings on the Internet 1009 Embedding DWF Files in Other Microsoft Office Applications 1020

27 Working with External Databases 1025 Understanding Database Connectivity 1026 Connecting to External Databases 1028 Using the dbConnect Manager 1034 Viewing Table Data from Within AutoCAD 1035 Working with Table Data 1041 Creating Links to Graphical Objects 1043 Creating Labels IO55 Working with the Query Editor 1063 Using Link Select to Create Selection Sets 1074

28 Customizing AutoCAD Without Programming 1077 Creating Command Aliases 1078 Customizing Toolbars 1083 Modifying Menüs IO95

29 Some Programming Required 1107 Creating Scripts H09 Introduction to AutoLISP 1115 Introduction to ActiveX Automation 1132

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E5ÜB Appendixes

A AutoCAD Command Reference 1151 Type 1152 Toolbar/Toolbar Name 1152 Menü 1152 Description 1152

B System Variable Reference 1155 Changing System Variables 1156 Displaying System Variables 1156 Listing System Variables 1159 AutoCAD 2000 System Variables 1160

C Installation and Configuration 1161 System Requirements 1162 Installing AutoCAD 1164 Starting AutoCAD 1171 Adding Components 1174 Configuring AutoCAD 1175

D Migrating to AutoCAD 2000 1205 Batch Drawing Converter 1206 AutoLISP Compatibility Analyzer 1209 Menü and Toolbar Porter 1211 Command Alias (PGP) Porter 1213 Color to Named Tools 1215 Network Deployment Tool 1215 Serial Number Harvester 1216 ScriptPro Utility 1217 Compatibility Information 1222

E FileTypes 1223

F Glossary 1225

G What's on the Companion CD 1227

Index 1239