In this topic, we will learn about Grid Display, Grid Snap mode, and Ortho mode.

Polar tracking restricts cursor movement to specified angles. PolarSnap restricts cursor movement to specified increments along a polar angle.

To specify an object snap at a prompt for a point, you can do one of the following: Press Shift and right-click to display the Object Snap shortcut menu. Right-click and choose an object snap from the Snap Overrides submenu. Click an object snap button on the Object Snap toolbar.

The units are used to represent the dimensions in AutoCAD. The units are categorized into length, angle, insertion scale, and lighting.

A workspace is the basic user interface that includes those controls, commands, and palettes you need for your architectural process.

Start the Line command by clicking the Line button on the Draw panel on the Ribbon, or by entering L and then pressing Enter. Draw line segments by picking several random points. Terminate the command by pressing Enter, Esc, or the spacebar. Press Enter or the spacebar to repeat the Line command.

To Draw a Polyline

1. Click PLINE.

2. Specify the first point of the polyline.

3. Specify the endpoint of the first segment.

4. Continue specifying segments as needed. Polylines can be composed of straight lines or arcs. ...

5. Press Enter to end the command or choose Close Shape to close the polyline to its original start point.

Creates a smooth curve that passes through or near a set of fit points, or that is defined by the vertices in a control frame. SPLINE creates curves called nonuniform rational B-splines (NURBS), referred to as splines for simplicity. Splines are defined either with fit points, or with control vertices.

Creates a construction line of infinite length.

Xlines are useful for creating construction and reference lines, and for trimming boundaries.

Point

Specifies the location of the infinite line using two points through which it passes.

The xline is created through the specified point.

Hor

Creates a horizontal xline passing through a specified point.

The xline is created parallel to the X axis.

Ver

Creates a vertical xline passing through a specified point.

The xline is created parallel to the Y axis.

Ang

Creates an xline at a specified angle.

Angle of Xline

Specifies the angle at which to place the line.

Reference

Specifies the angle from a selected reference line. The angle is measured counterclockwise from the reference line.

Bisect

Creates an xline that passes through the selected angle vertex and bisects the angle between the first and second line.

The xline lies in the plane determined by the three points.

Offset

Creates an xline parallel to another object.

Offset Distance

Specifies the distance the xline is offset from the selected object.

Through

Creates an xline offset from a line and passing through a specified point.

Creates a circle

Center Point

Creates a circle based on a center point and a radius or diameter value.

Radius

Enter a value, or specify a point.

Diameter

Enter a value, or specify a second point.

3P (Three Points)

Creates a circle based on three points on the circumference.

Tan, Tan, Tan

Creates a circle tangent to three objects.

2P (Two Points)

Creates a circle based on two endpoints of the diameter.

TTR (Tangent, Tangent, Radius)

Creates a circle with a specified radius and tangent to two objects.

Sometimes more than one circle matches the specified criteria. The program draws the circle of the specified radius whose tangent points are closest to the selected points.

Menu: Draw > Arc.

To create an arc, you can specify combinations of center, endpoint, start point, radius, angle, chord length, and direction values. Arcs are drawn in a counterclockwise direction by default. Hold down the Ctrl key as you drag to draw in a clockwise direction.

1. Click Home tab > Draw panel > Rectangle.

2. Specify the first corner of the rectangle.

3. Specify the other corner of the rectangle.

Creates an equilateral closed polyline.

Type "POL"  press Enter

You specify the number of sides of the polygon and whether it is inscribed or circumscribed.

The following prompts are displayed.

Number of sides

Specifies the number of sides in the polygon (3-1024).

The AutoCAD ELlipse command provides a straightforward way to draw an ellipse: You specify the two endpoints of one of its axes and then specify an endpoint on the other axis. ... You can then either enter the length of the other axis or specify that a rotation around the major axis defines the ellipse.

The Hatch command in AutoCAD is used to fill patterns inside an enclosed area. The patterns are hatched, gradient, and solid fill. The gradient patterns are defined as a smooth transition between two colors. There are several hatch patterns available in AutoCAD.

A gradient fill creates a smooth transition between one or two colors. When the ribbon is active, the Hatch Creation contextual tab is displayed.

Creates regions or polylines from enclosed areas. The Boundary Creation dialog box is displayed. If you enter -BOUNDARY at the Command prompt, options are displayed.

To make the point simply type PO press enter and then click at a point on the drawing area or specify the coordinates of the point where you want to make the point. By default, the point will appear as a single dot in the drawing area and you can take reference of these points to make your drawing.

To Insert Points That Divide an Object Into Equal Intervals

1. Click Home tab Draw panel Point drop-down Divide.

2. Select a line, circle, ellipse, polyline, arc, or spline.

3. Enter the number of intervals. A point is placed between each interval.

Creates point objects or blocks at measured intervals along the length or perimeter of an object.

The resulting points or blocks are always located on the selected object and their orientation is determined by the XY plane of the UCS.

Use PTYPE to set the style and size of all point objects in a drawing.

Converts objects that enclose an area into a 2D region object.

Regions are 2D areas that you create from closed planar loops of objects. Valid objects include polylines, lines, circular arcs, circles, elliptical arcs, ellipses, and splines. Each closed loop is converted into a separate region. All crossing intersections and self-intersecting curves are rejected.

Creates a polygonal area that masks underlying objects with the current background color. The wipeout area is bounded by a frame that you can turn on or off. You can also choose to display the frame on screen and have it hidden for plotting.

Draws a three-dimensional polyline with straight segments. Although the 3D Polyline command does not have as many options as the Polyline command, you can apply editing changes, such as splining, with the Edit Polyline command after the three-dimensional polyline is drawn.

Creates a 2D spiral or 3D spring.

Use a helix as a sweep path for the SWEEP command to create springs, threads, and circular stairways.

Creates a filled circle or a wide ring. A donut consists of two arc polylines that are joined end-to-end to create a circular shape. The width of the polylines is determined by the specified inside and outside diameters.

To create a simple revision cloud type REVCLOUD on the command line and press enter. Click at rectangular from the command line options and then click at two points in the drawing to make the rectangle.

Type M or Move on the command line or command prompt and press Enter. Select the object to move, through a small square cursor.

Move Command

1. Select objects. We need to select the objects.

2. Specify the base point. ...

3. Specify the point to place a moving object. ...

4. Displacement.

Copies objects a specified distance in a specified direction.

With the COPYMODE system variable, you can control whether multiple copies are created automatically.

The Stretch command in AutoCAD is used to stretch the portion of the object partially enclosed by the polygon selection or window selection. The objects selected individually or completely enclosed by the window selection cannot be stretched. Those objects are rather moved such as ellipses, blocks, and circles.

The rotate command is used to rotate the object by an absolute angle. It turns objects through the specified point.

The specified point is the base point, and the rotation is performed from that point.

The rotation of objects can be performed by randomly dragging the cursor and also by the specified angle.

1. Type RO or rotate in the command line or command prompt and press Enter.

2. Select the object. Here, we will rotate the full object, so the whole object will be selected.

3. Press Enter.

4. Specify the base point

5. Drag the cursor clockwise to rotate the object.

6. We can drag the cursor at the point according to the requirements.

7. Drag the cursor counter-clockwise (or anti-clockwise) to rotate the object.

The mirror command in AutoCAD is used to create a copy (mirror copy) of the selected object. We can also delete the source object after mirroring the object. The objects that represent the same as the half of their object can be mirrored across a center line to create the other half of the object.

Enlarges or reduces selected objects, keeping the proportions of the object the same after scaling.

To scale an object, specify a base point and a scale factor. The base point acts as the center of the scaling operation and remains stationary. A scale factor greater than 1 enlarges the object. A scale factor between 0 and 1 shrinks the object.

The easiest way to trim objects in AutoCAD 2016 is to use the “Trim” command located on the Modify panel.

1. First, select the objects you want to trim. You can click on them individually or you can left-click and drag to group the objects.

2. Right-click on the blank space to finalize the selection.

3. Left click on the lines to trim them. Right-click or enter to finalize the trimming.

Note that you can only trim the lines that intersect. The best tip for deleting unwanted lines would be to use the “Erase” command, which is also located on the Modify panel.

To extend objects, select the objects to be extended individually, press and drag to start a freehand selection path, or pick two empty locations to specify a crossing Fence. All objects automatically act as boundary edges.

The fillet command is used to create rounded edges between the adjacent lines and faces in 2D and 3D.

It is also used to connect two tangent arcs in 2D.

The steps to implement fillet are:

1. Select the Fillet command from the ribbon panel,
   Or
   Type F on the command line or command prompt and press Enter.

2. Select the first object.

3. Type R or Radius.

4. Press Enter.

5. Specify the radius of the Fillet and press Enter.

6. Select the second object.

Type CHA or chamfer on the command line or command prompt and press Enter. Type A or Angle on the command line. Press Enter. Specify the length of Chamfer on the first line and press Enter.

Creates a spline in the gap between two selected lines or curves.

Select each object near an endpoint. The shape of the resulting spline depends on the specified continuity. The lengths of the selected objects remain unchanged.

Valid objects include lines, arcs, elliptical arcs, helixes, open polylines, and open splines.

To Create a Rectangular Array

1. Click Home TAB modify panel Rectangular Array.

2. Select the objects to array and press Enter.

   A default rectangular array is displayed.

3. On the array preview, drag the grips to adjust the spacing and number of rows and columns.

   You can also modify values on the Array context ribbon.

To Add Levels to an Array

1. Select one of the items in the array.

2. In Array context ribbon Levels panel Levels.

3. Enter the number of levels.

Create a Path Array

The easiest way to work with path arrays is to create them and then use the tools on the contextual ribbon tab or the Properties palette to make adjustments.

1. Click Home tab Modify panel Path Array.

2. Select the objects to array and press Enter.

3. Select an object such as a line, polyline, 3D polyline, spline, helix, arc, circle, or ellipse to serve as a path for the array.

4. Specify a method for distributing the objects along the path:

   • To evenly distribute the items along the entire length of the path, click Properties panel Divide on the contextual ribbon tab.

   • To distribute the objects at specific intervals, click Properties panel Measure.

5. Move the cursor along the path to make adjustments.

6. Press Enter to complete the array.

Create a Polar Array

1. Click Home tab Modify panel Polar Array.

2. Select the objects to array.

3. Specify a center point.

   A preview array is displayed.

4. Enter i (Items) and enter the number of objects to array.

5. Enter a (Angle) and enter the angle to fill.

   You can also drag the arrow grips to adjust the fill angle.

Removes objects from a drawing.

You can erase selected objects from the drawing. This method does not move objects to the Clipboard, where they can then be pasted to another location.

If you are working with 3D objects, you can also erase subobjects such as faces, meshes, and vertices. (Not applicable to AutoCAD LT.)

Instead of selecting objects to erase, you can enter an option, such as L to erase the last object drawn, p to erase the previous selection set, or ALL to erase all objects.

You can also enter? to get a list of all options.

Breaks a compound object into its component objects.

Explodes a compound object when you want to modify its components separately. Objects that can be exploded include blocks, polylines, and regions, among others.

The color, linetype, and lineweight of any exploded object might change. Other results differ depending on the type of compound object you're exploding.

To explode objects and change their properties at the same time, use XPLODE.

Creates concentric circles, parallel lines, and parallel curves.

You can offset an object at a specified distance or through a point. After you offset objects, you can trim and extend them as an efficient method to create drawings containing many parallel lines and curves.

Changes the length of objects and the included angle of arcs.

You can specify changes as a percentage, an increment, or as a final length or angle. LENGTHEN is an alternative to using TRIM or EXTEND.

Breaks the selected object between two points.

You can create a gap between two specified points on an object, breaking it into two objects. If the points are off of an object, they are automatically projected onto the object. BREAK is often used to create space for a block or text.

To Break an object at a point in relation to the “End point” of the line, select the “Break at Point” command and select the object to break in this case a horizontal line. Hover over the end of the line, but do not select it, this “End point” will be used as the “Tracking point”.

Joins the endpoints of linear and curved objects to create a single object.

Combines a series of finite linear and open curved objects at their common endpoints to create a single 2D or 3D object. The type of object that results depends on the types of objects selected, the type of object selected first, and whether the objects are coplanar.

Note: Construction lines, rays, and closed objects cannot be joined.

The TEXT command can be used to add multiple lines of text, yet each text object is added as a separate object. Often, you want to add multiple lines of text as a single object.

You can use single-line text to create one or more lines of text, where each text line is an independent object that you can move, format, or otherwise modify. Right-click in the text box to select options on the shortcut menu. While you are in the TEXT command:

• Click elsewhere in a drawing to start a new set of rows of single-line text

• Press Tab or Shift+Tab to move forward and back between the sets of single-line text

• Press Alt and click a text object to edit a set of text lines

Once you leave the TEXT command, these actions are no longer available.

When you hover over an object for dimensioning, the DIMENSION (or DIM) command automatically previews a suitable dimension type to use. Select objects, lines, or points to dimension and click anywhere in the drawing area to draw the dimension.

The MLEADER command in AutoCAD is used to create leader objects. It includes an arrowhead, a leader line or curve, and a horizontal landing. It also consists of a block or multiline text object. It creates a line, which connects it to the dimensioning text.

The table command in AutoCAD is used to insert the table containing rows and columns. We can resize the rows and columns, and can also stretch the entire table. We can insert the appropriate data in rows and columns according to the requirements.

If you enter -LAYER at the Command prompt, options are displayed. Use layers to control the visibility of objects and to assign properties such as color and linetype. Objects on a layer normally assume the properties of that layer. However, you can override any layer property of an object.

Creates a block definition from selected objects.

The Block Definition dialog box is displayed.

If you enter -BLOCK at the Command prompt, options are displayed.

You create a block definition by selecting objects, specifying an insertion point, and giving it a name.

Controls properties of existing objects.

The Properties palette is displayed and lists the properties of the selected objects.

When more than one object is selected, only those properties common to all selected objects are displayed.

When no objects are selected, only the current settings of general properties are displayed.

There are several general properties common to all objects. All other object properties are specific to the type of object.

1. Click Home tab > Properties panel > Match Properties.

2. Select the object from which you want to copy properties.

3. If you want to specify which properties are copied, enter s (Settings). In the Property Settings dialog box, clear the properties that you do not want copied, and click OK.

4. Select the objects to which you want to copy the properties and press Enter.

Creates and manages saved sets of objects called groups.

If you enter -GROUP at the Command prompt, options are displayed.

Groups provide an easy way to combine drawing objects that you need to manipulate as a unit. By default, selecting any member of a group selects all the objects in that group, and you can move, copy, rotate, and modify groups just as you can modify individual objects.

Customizes the program settings.

The Options dialog box is displayed.

List of Options

At the top of the Options Dialog box, the following are displayed:

Current Profile

(Not available in AutoCAD LT.)

Displays the name of the current profile above the tabs. To set the current profile, create a new profile, or edit an existing profile, use the Profiles tab. (CPROFILE system variable)

Drawing Icon

When displayed next to an option, it signifies that the option is saved with the drawing, and affects only the current drawing.

Options saved in the registry are not displayed with a drawing file icon, and affects all drawings in a work session. Options that are saved in the registry are saved in the current profile.

Current Drawing

Displays the name of the current drawing above the tabs. (DWGNAME system variable)

Select objects by clicking them or by using a window or crossing method.

• To specify a rectangular selection area, click and release the mouse button, move the cursor, and click again.

• To create a lasso selection, click, drag, and release the mouse button.

1. Do one of the following:

   • Select individual objects by clicking them.

   • Drag from left to right to select all objects that are entirely enclosed in the selection rectangle or lasso (window selection).

   • Drag from right to left to select all objects that are crossed by the selection rectangle or lasso (crossing selection).

2. Press Enter to end object selection.

Deselect objects by pressing shift and then clicking individual objects, or dragging across multiple objects. Press Esc to deselect all objects.

Note: When using lasso selection, you can press Spacebar to cycle between the Window, Crossing, and Fence object selection modes.