BasicCAD Review - Fundamentals &

Basic Drawing Commands

Last Updated: 04/01/01 11:13 PM

Week 2

More Fundamentals:

Function keys: F1=Help, F2=Text Window, F5=Isoplane toggle, F6=Coordinates on/off, F7= Grid on/off, F8= Ortho on/off, F9= Snap on/off

Opening Files: Search

Saving drawings: Drawing files: The file containing your precious work.  Make duplicate copies.  Take one home with you.  As with any computer work, BACK-UP YOUR DATA since the machine will crash at some point.   There are a couple of features to help in the recovery... Autosave: set savetime between 10-30 minutes in Tools>Preferences, depending on how much work you are willing to lose.  An autosave file has an extension is usually called AUTO1.SV$ and usually can be found in C:\windows\temp -- exceptions abound... Back-up files: have an extension of .BAK and are saved with the drawing file each time you command a save (not autosave).  They are duplicates of the drawing with a different extension.

On-Line help: demonstration

Aerial View: Bird's eye view of your drawing.  Very handy for larger drawings.  Can slow the machine.

Zooming review: realtime, window, dynamic, center, previous, all, extents.

Draw Toolbar

Line: more line tricks

Pline: (polyline) Go through the options.  Very powerful.

Xline: construction lines

Circle: Explore 3P/2P/TTR options

Arc: Explore various options

Polygon: Various sided objects

Rectangle: Use relative coordinates to create desired shapes.  Notice that the object created is a polyline.

Spline: Creating and editing.  Different that splined polyline.

Ellipse: Explore options.

Point: Point styles

Modify Toolbar

Erase:

Copy: single and multiple

Mirror: create mirror images of things

Move:

Rotate: reference

Array: polar and rectangular

Scale:

Lengthen:

Trim:

Extend:

Break:

Chamfer: Distance, other options

Explode: What to explode, implications of exploding

Object Snaps

Use buttons on OSNAP toolbar, Shift/Right-click to pull up a menu, or type the following at the command line followed by RETURN:

Shift>Right-click: menu

Endpoint: end

Intersection: int

Insertion: ins

Quadrant: qua

Midpoint: mid

Perpendicular: per

Apparent Intersection: app

Center: cen

Node: (snap to a point): nod

Tangent: tan

Nearest: nea

From

None: non

Units

DDUNITS: (Format>Units...) Change units of drawing from decimal feet to "architectural" inches.  Review syntax: 2'4" or 2'4-1/2" or 2'4.5" or 28.5" or 28-1/2".  Review precision and its implications.

Working with Blocks

WBLOCK: Command line entry. Give file a name and location to save.  Do not enter a block name.  Select objects.  Select insertion point.

DDINSERT: (or Insert>Block...) Click File.  Browse to select block you want to insert.  Click for insertion point.  Follow instructions in command line (if you want to scale it 1 to 1, do not enter a scale factor, just hit return)

Reading: Frey, Skill 3 and 4

Syllabus