Hi people and welcome to this complete tutorial
for beginners in Autocad First of all I need to mention that this tutorial
exists divided in 6 parts The playlist that you can see here.
Click on the card above if you prefer to watch it on that way.
By the way in the description of the video you can find the full list of contents, so
it's going to be easy to access to the topic that you want to watch. this video is intended for learners that are
using the software for the first time and even I'm using the version "Autocad 2020"
I will conduct the lesson in a way that if you have a different version
it will not be a problem for you to understand at the end of this tutorial you will get the
knowledge to draw most types of drawings in 2D and solve your tasks easier if you are
an architecture or engineering student for example this is the AutoCAD default display
which consists in different areas above at the left, you find the application
icon this is the menu where I can open a new document
open a file or do operations regarding saving or exporting the main part at the top is called the ribbon there you find the majority of tools you will
need during the program right above you can find these tabs
which group the buttons in different categories for example the current one is the Home tab
which has the most used icons if you switch to the insert tab
I find icons related to this category inside a specific tab the icons are sub grouped
in panels for example in there in the Home tab the first panel have the icons
which can perform drawing actions in the second panel they are related to
modifying objects and on the third panel are the annotation
icons additionally when you click in a panel
that has an arrow facing down it shows extra icons which are used less often when a panel has a diagonal arrow at the right I can access to the settings
window of this category now let's show you how to use tools in AutoCAD for example imagine I want to draw a line
as you may guess I can click on the icon here I go to the workspace
I click for the first point and then where
I want the second point I click again, simple I'm going to repeat the
process but this time I want you to pay attention to this the command bar this shows the operations that are taking place during the project
I will show you I click again in the line icon and you can
notice here "LINE specify first point" the first word which appears in capitals is
the command name in this case LINE then that's the prompt sentence
which tells me what I should do next though I click here to specify the first point then it asks to specify next point
click again as you see I just draw a line
but it keeps asking for specifying another point it would draw a new line
as I don't want it I can press escape to exit the line command in conclusion to perform any action in
AutoCAD I can type its command name for example
I type line and press ENTER and I can draw a line then press the button escape
to leave the command now I want to draw a circle
I can click in its icon or type the command name which is circle additionally each command has a shortcut
called "alias" so I don't need to type its full name for example L is the shortcut
for the command line and C is th shortcut for circle during this tutorial
each time I introduce a new command I make an annotation at the left part of the
screen showing the command name the alias and its location on the ribbon this way of inserting commands makes AutoCAD easy to switch from different
versions if for any reason I'm going to a computer
that has AutoCAD 2007 which had a different display than this one I can still work with no problems because
the command names and their shortcuts are the same of course some functions
were not available at that time but almost all the basics didn't change the same applies to the version in Mac even AutoCAD 2020 there has a different
display the icons are in different places you can just type the command
names and don't need to worry to find them out on the screen now before
proceeding I want to tell you that in this video you can access to the topic
that you desire to learn as I have alist of contents in the description
of the video just click on the time there
maybe this can be useful for you you can enable the subtitles by clicking here for me it's easier to understand
with them especially the parts that require a lot of attention
how to use the mouse in the workspace having a mouse is very important for working in AutoCAD as it's much more
comfortable than using just the touchpad especially for zooming or moving the
workspace area let's see the functions of the mouse buttons here I attached
this image to help you mouse wheel with the mouse wheel I can zoom the workspace
it's very simple if I scroll up
I zoom in if i scroll down i zoom out the zooming
always applies to the exact location of the pointer
for example in this situation if you want to zoom these objects I need to move the pointer over them
scroll up and you notice they are filling all the screen
simple to move the workspace area
press and hold the wheel when you see this hand
you can move around left button clicking with the left button I can select
objects like this circle if I want to select the circle and the line I can click first in
one then in the second without pressing the control key unlike other programs but now imagine you have a bunch of objects to select it could take a long
time to select them all for that reason if I click in an empty space a selection
area opens this allows me to select more than one object however this is
important there are two kinds of selection if I open the area to the
right the color is blue if I open to the left the area appears in
green color what's the difference? when I open to the right blue color I have
to cover the entire object to select it if I would open to the left
green color it's enough if I only cover one part also you can understand if the
object is going to be selected when you see it turning bold now the right button the right button
opens this panel with several options you can choose but when you select an
object and right-click you can access for example to its properties I click
it's a long list over here I'm going to close it however there is a compact
version of properties "quick properties" which contains the most important features for this line you can see the
object type line color layer line type and length by the way in the quick properties of this
circle some of the
topics didn't pop up for the line as they are more relevant for circles like
the diameter radius or area in this chapter I'm going to teach you to
draw lines properly the line is probably the most basic tool and
the one you will use most of the time before I showed how to draw a line but without any specified
length or direction I mean if it's horizontal vertical or if
it makes an angle with the x axis for example that's exactly what you will
learn the next few minutes draw a horizontal line to draw a
horizontal line I need to activate first the command line
I can click on the icon there or type the command name as you remember from the first chapter or
I can simply type "L" it's the alias for line and press ENTER I click anywhere on the
workspace for the start point then I drag the cursor to the right and you can notice this dashed green line with this label saying polar and zero degrees if I
click right now the line becomes completely horizontal this happens
because I have the polar tracking turned on this icon located in the status bar the polar tracking allows the cursor snapping to certain angles by default
these angles are set for 0º. 90º, 180º and 270º degrees making the lines vertical and horizontal now look what would happen if the polar
tracking is off click on the icon it's disabled now then I'm going to draw the
line again type L press ENTER click for placing the start point then as
I'm trying to draw a horizontal line I realize that the dashed green line is
not there that means when I click even the line looks horizontal there will
always be a slight deviation so I strongly suggest you to use the polar
tracking whenever you are making precise drawings draw a line with specific length this time I'm going to draw again the horizontal line but with the precise
length of 100 it doesn't matter the units for now as the last command used was "line"
I could press ENTER to revert to the previous one look it turned on again the command I click I move horizontally to the right
now that the line is on the direction I desire I can type 100 and press Enter
easy you just drew a horizontal line with the length
of 100 but be aware
when I type the length I cannot change the direction anymore see I move the mouse
and nothing happens so if it's not on the direction you want you can press
escape now I can make it vertical for example insert the length again and
press ENTER to confirm this I click on the line
right click go to quick properties
and here you have it length 100 orthomode if I want to draw only
orthogonal lines I can click on the icon "ortho mode" "restrict cursor orthogonally" then when I'm drawing a line I can only make it horizontal or vertical this can be useful if I'm at a part of a project where I just need those type of lines
like in the example here now let's draw this line here with 70 of length but with
a 30º angle from the x-axis which you can check looking at the UCS coordinates they are by default located at the left corner of the screen so I draw again a line start point
I type 70 but this time instead of pushing Enter I press a button TAB
the one above the caps lock with this way I locked the length but I can choose the
direction I place the pointer more or less here type 30 and press Enter as you see it's quite simple then look at this different situation the line makes the same angle but in the opposite
direction I do the same as before
type the length then look at this label showing the current angle while I'm
moving the cursor around its increasing until I reach half circle 180
degrees then it decreases as now it's showing the other side angle basically if I'm
below the x-axis and type 30 the angle starts again in the same place but
in a clockwise direction next to the line icon is the polyline a polyline is a
connect sequence of lines created as a single object for example let's draw
this exercise here I click in polyline choose a start point to draw the first
line go up and make sure you have the polar mode switched on type 20
press ENTER then to the right I type 25 press ENTER again and finally
vertically down this is important always click when the polar tracking is on
the screen type 20 again press Enter and escape so if I click in the polyline it
selects the full sequence
as you see although I could use the command line to draw
the same example all the lines would be
considered as separate objects now that you know the basics to draw lines
I want to introduce to you a very important function in AutoCAD object snap this
will allow us to make our drawings with the maximum precision take a look at the
next example let's draw it I can use either line or polyline command I choose polyline I'm going to type its shortcut PL draw the first line then the vertical one as there is no line to continue here I press escape now the third line has to be connected to
this intersection I turn on the command line I move the cursor near the left end of this
line and look at this Green Square appearing here saying endpoint the same happens when I go to the other side
you can see it again if I click right now
the next line starts automatically from that point and it means the three lines are now connected
to each other type 25 and press Enter those squares only appear because the object
snap is active it's this icon at the status bar at the arrow just next I can
see the modes that are currently active you see here "endpoint" which is an
extremity of a line segment now I'm going to introduce you also the midpoint first I'm going to click on it because is
not active then I want to draw a line from the middle
point of this one I activate the command line
as you can see this triangle indicates the midpoint I click now and
the next line starts exactly from there object snap tracking this is a very
useful function and I will explain it with an example because I think it's
easier to understand we have this example here and we want to draw
this line which is located at a distance of 30
from the right I turn on the command line place the cursor on this endpoint drag left slowly so that I see this
label that says extension in this moment if I type 30 the new line starts
with that distance from the end point it's simple and with this we can avoid
drawing extra lines then you just need to draw the remaining objects to connect this line with the rectangle below drag it down until I see this cross here now click
and press escape another way to use object snap tracking
can be when I am drawing this rectangle I can draw an extension line up from this
point until
I intersect a polar tracking of the line I'm making like this so these kind of
things are very interesting to play around now you need to make a bit of
practice to strengthen the knowledge you got in this video for that reason I
prepared these exercises for you you can get them in PDF by clicking on the
link available in the description PART 2 I am going
to explain to you briefly more drawing commands rectangle
a rectangle is in reality a polyline it's just a faster way to draw this kind of
objects as I just need to specify two points I am going to show you the command is this
one specify the first point and then I only need the opposite corner I can
simply click to place it or insert the coordinates regarding the first point
that's where I'm going to do the first blank is for the x axis type 40
then I press tab to switch to the second coordinate this one is for the y axis
type 20 and press ENTER again in fact what I have done was inserting the
length and the width simple however as I still have to take into consideration
the UCS coordinates sometimes the values might be negative let's suppose I
draw another rectangle but with the start point the x coordinates would be
minus 40 click for this start point then type -40 press tab and as the y-coordinates are
positive I type 20 here you have the result circle to insert the circle in AutoCAD I
can click in this icon as I believe you guessed then just follow the prompts to
draw the example here specify center point of the circle I click anywhere then specify radius of circle it is 20 I type that value and press Enter let's do the next now check out this tip
as I want to use again the command circle press Enter the system
automatically reactivates the previous action this is very important to know it
saves time I am going to draw the same circle again now look to the prompt at
the command bar "specify radius of circle or diameter" so instead of typing a
radius I can switch to typing a diameter I do it by clicking on it or simply type
the first letter "d" then press Enter as I'm drawing the same circle the value is
2 times the radius 40 press ENTER again ok this is just one of the several
ways to insert a circle if I click on the arrow below the icon you can see all
these options available that depends the situation that you are drawing ARC an arc is a section of a circle and
like the previous command there is an arrow below the icon with different ways
of specifying points I'm going to draw the arc of this example above and the
best option here is inserting the start point then the center and finally the
end point by default autocad draws the arc in the clockwise direction let's
click on the arrow then find "Start Center End" click on the endpoint of this
line for the start point the centre is the intersection between both
lines and finally the "endpoint" is this one see how the arc is being drawn clockwise modifying objects until this moment I
taught you the most used commands to draw in AutoCAD in this section I will
introduce to you commands that will help you in modifying objects and to be more
effective while drawing I'm going to start with the basic ones to move
an object to a different place for example want to move the small rectangle
to a distance of 60 to the right click on the icon select the rectangle
press enter specify a
point from where I want to move the object then I moved to the right
horizontally and type the distance of 60 press Enter in the following example I want to move
the rectangle to the other box which is located at the same distance from the
corner as here I activate move again I select the object press Enter
but this time the best point it's going to be the corner then I click in the next corner to move it
there this command works in the
same way as the command move I'm going to copy the object to the first
rectangle I use this base point then I can copy it
in this intersection then I realize I can keep copying the object the number
of times I want do you see? it's very nice this and when I'm done I press escape to rotate objects I can use this
command let's see how it works I click on the icon select the objects
press ENTER then I choose a base point where the objects can rotate around it as the polar tracking is on I'm going to rotate them 90 degrees to this side another situation the same objects are
in this position if I try to rotate them back to the position they were before the polar tracking doesn't work this time however I can use a different way if you look to the prompt there is an option
that says reference to use it I can either click on it with the
mouse or type "r" usually the first letter is enough after I can specify a reference
angle or draw a reference line let's draw a reference line I prefer this
click here for the first point then for the second point I choose this end point
finally I can rotate until the polar tracking appears now look at this
polyline with the command offset I can inscribe that polyline inside with a
specific distance that distance is called offset distance and it has a
length of 10 in this example let's do it the icon "offset" is this one click on it
then for specify offset distance I type 10 select the polyline I move the
pointer inside and click there to draw the new polyline by the way if I click
outside the area the new polyline offsets outside the original one the
command offset can also be applied to lines if I have this line and apply
offset to it a new line shows up parallel to the first one now I want to show you a situation that happens to a lot of people I'm going to
draw a rectangle with the command line then I want to offset the lines like
before I type "O" to activate the command specify the distance of 10 and when I
click to offset I realize I can only click on one line at time and the
result is different than when I applied to polylines however I can easily merge lines in a
polyline there is a command for it join I type join or I can still find the icon
on the modify panel here it's very simple select the lines to merge and
press Enter as you see now I have a polyline finally if I do offset again
the result will be identical as my first example command "trim" in AutoCAD we often need
to cut parts of objects we have drawn before for that we can use the command
trim let's check out how it works I'm going to start with a very simple
example we have these lines and I want to erase this segment I click on the
command trim is located there select both lines press Enter then if I drag the pointer over here the screen shows that this part will be
erased the same happens when I move the pointer to the other segments I click on
this one and you see it disappearing it's done to leave the command press
Enter or escape look to the next example this time we have three lines I turn on
trim again select all the objects and then I can erase any segment between an
intersection as you see now suppose I want to erase all this
part of the horizontal line turn on trim the vertical line on the right I don't
need to select just the other two press ENTER and when I'm going to click on
this line it erases everything from the intersection of the lines I have
selected to the right maybe for this situation this didn't make a big
difference but look at this case here I want to delete all this part of the
line if I select everything then I need to erase one by one it takes a long time so it's better to only select the lines I'm going to use like this of course I can
use trim not only for lines it works for other kinds of objects for example I
want to change this drawing to that one I activate "trim" select everything press ENTER and finally click on the
parts to erase extend this command is used to extend lines in the example here
I want to extend this line to intersect the vertical line on the left I am going
to click on the arrow located next to the command trim then I select extend first I have to select not the line that I want to extend but the one where the
extended lines will connect so it's this one press ENTER
then I select a line to extend to extend the line to the left I have to click on the left half in order
to work look if I drag the pointer over the right half nothing happens I go slowly to the left and after passing the middle the extension appears
again I click and press Enter in this example I want to extend all the
vertical lines on both sides I type a X press ENTER select both horizontal lines
press ENTER again to extend the lines up I can open a selection area to cover the
upper part of all vertical lines I click then I do the same for the part below to
extend the lines down when I finish I press ENTER to exit the command of course in this situation there is a faster
proceedment by opening an area
that covers both lines sides thatextends both parts in just one step mirror with this command we can copy
objects symmetrically this is how it looks also when we need to make a
symmetrical drawing we can just draw half of it and then use mirror in order
to complete the process without spending time in drawing let's see how the
command mirror works for these objects click on the icon select everything and
press Enter then the prompt asked me to draw a
mirror line I'm going to insert the first point at a distance of 20 from the
objects I hope the mouse over this endpoint move
right type 20 and press Enter I'm going to draw the line vertically
and you can see everything reflected as a mirror I click for the second point now the prompt sentence says erase source objects I choose no to keep the
original ones notice that all lenthss are kept
including the distance between the objects and the mirror line now
check out these considerations about command mirror it doesn't matter the
length of the mirror line just the direction as you can see if I draw a
long vertical line the result is the same only if I rotate it the objects are
placed differently to make a symmetrical drawing I just need to draw half of it because if I draw a vertical mirror line in
this endpoint the new mirrored
objects connect to the original ones it's simple sometimes I don't want the original objects in the option" array source objects" I choose
yes thats the result editing objects using grips the blue
icons that show up when I select an object are called grips and they allow
me to edit it when I select the line there are three grips if I click in one
at the extremity I can change the position of that point keeping the other end in
the same place if I click on the grip in the middle I can move the line without
changing the length and direction now let's see some editing tips change the
line length by moving one of the ends I'm going to click on this icon I'd rock
left I'm going to type 10 and the line length
increases to 80 of course this also works if I want to make the line shorter click again this time I drag right type 10 and the line returns to its previous
size to type a new length to the line I click on the grip drag left and this
time I press the buttom "tab" and the input switches to the full length I am going
to insert 120 then let's check out how grips work on
polylines the end grips of each line works in identical way I click on this
one to change its position and you can see all the other vertex s don't move of
course this may cause me to deform the polyline now I like the lines the grip
on the middle has a rectangular shape I'm going to click on one and I can move
that full line then the rest of the polyline has to adapt to its new
position for example I move right type ten and you can notice this line
increases ten of its total length so we reach the end of the second part of
this tutorial now I prepared more exercises for you in
order to practice what you have learned here the link is in the description of
the video after don't miss the third part of this course
as I will keep teaching very important features for beginners set up units
work with layers plot drawing and more PART 3 Until here, I taught you commands to draw
objects and modify them But I haven't mentioned any units for the
dimensions When I was drawing lines, I said: draw a line
with dimension of 50 or 100. I didn't say if it was meters millimeters
inches or feet But I'm going to talk about this now First of all AutoCAD uses adimensional units,
this means that it's up to me to decide What is the unit of a line that has length
of 20, 50 or 100, it's very simple Let's suppose I want to make a project in
millimetres. Thus the unit I usually work with I want to insert a line with 5 millimetres
of length. I Draw the line as usual and when I want to
set up the length, I type 5 Then I'm going to insert the line that measures
1 meter. I Do the same but this time for the length,
I type 1000 because as you may know one meter is
1000 millimeters Let's go to the unit properties window, I
typed "units" and press Enter Here on the length section at the left, you
can choose the format for units of measure If you work in millimeters or meters, you
should use decimal units Instead in some countries is more common to
use inches and feet. In this case engineering or architecture units are more suitable Below you can set the precision in this drawing I consider the units millimeters and I don't
need decimals. So I choose the first option At the angle side, I can choose the units
for angles Most of the time I use decimal degrees But there are others here that could eventually
be more suitable for you The units in insertion scale are used only
when I insert objects or drawings from a different file Usually when we start learning AutoCAD, I
don't need to insert anything external But in my opinion it's better to specify the
unit. I click on millimeters When I finish I click on OK to exit Layers Layers is how AutoCAD organizes objects, for example Have a look in this file here. I have two
floor plans. It's a proposal for converting offices in flats. So instead of having the objects all together,
I decided to organize them in different layers. I am going to click on this icon to open the
layer properties manager Here you can see that I created layers to
group different categories of objects for example I place the windows in one layer, the walls
in another and I did the same for the doors text labels and so on There are also other advantages in using layers I can set up specific colors to distinguish
them Another thing: for easy access I can drag
this window to the left and then I click on this icon to hide it automatically Then I just need to drag over the tab to see
the layers Now I am going to explain to you how we can
work with layers and tell you some considerations new layer If I want to create a new layer, I click on
a blank space on this window with the right button Then I click on new layer. Then I can set
up a name for the new layer, for example "stairs" and if I click on the color for example, I can
change it to the one that I want. I'm going to choose this yellow Under "linetype" I have a continuous line
by default however, if I click on load I can find several line types, dashed lines
or other formats Clicking on this light, I can turn off a layer For example, I'm going to turn off the layer
doors and you can see those objects disappearing from the screen There is also the mode freeze. Even it looks
like it has the same effect as turning it off Freezing a layer releases it from memory You can notice the difference in the performance
when you work with very large drawings Especially freezing layers that contain lots
of 3d objects Now suppose that I want to move these objects
to the layers "stairs" I have to select them, go to the layer tab
and Change to stairs You can see that they changed the color Then I want to draw a new line in a specific
layer First, choose the layer and then I can draw
the line It's simple. Always specify the layer before
drawing, to avoid changing it after Isolate layers to isolate a layer I can click on this icon Then I click on one object of the layer that
I want to isolate This operation locks all the objects inside
the other layers meaning that I cannot edit them Now this is useful for me to modify objects
from this layer "text" For example, I want to move all the text to
the left. I activate the command move Open a selection window to select objects Click for a base point, move left and click
again to restore all layers that were locked before.
I click on the icon right below (unisolate). Layer 0 if I move the pointer over the layer properties You can check here the layer 0. This is the
default layer anytime I start a new file In any project I recommend to keep this layer
without objects You cannot rename it or delete it However, this layer can be useful for creating
blocks, which is what I'm going to explain on the next section of this video Sometimes we draw something that it's easier
if it would be a single unit, for example a door If we want to copy it: I have to select all
the objects that compound the door If we convert all these arches to a block
they act like a single object So I want to convert this door to a block as it's on the floor plan, to be easier to
select it, I'm going to isolate the layer where the objects are located in Click on the icon isolate and click on any
object of the door Press ENTER and the layer doors became isolated Let's use the command "copy" Now it's very easy to select only the door
with a selection area. That's because all the other layers are locked Press enter and I can copy the door outside
the plan Creating a block before creating a block I'm going to move
these objects to the layer zero By doing that I can later move the block to
the layer I desire and it gets its properties I Select the object and I'm going to click
on the icon "create a block" the block definition window appears Here I can set up a base point for the door I choose this corner here Back to the window, I have to write the name
for the block. I named it as "door" When I finish I click on OK So the block is created, if I click on any
part of the door, you can see that this is now a single object Now I'm going to change the block to the layer
that I want and you can see while I'm scrolling here It changes the color to match the new layer However, if I created the block with objects
in another layer, for example "stairs" I'm going to create the block Then I'm going to change the layer of the
block to another one But it keeps the properties of the layer "stairs" The layer 0, on the other hand means that
the objects don't have any layer assigned Check out this example: add doors to the floor
plan as you know, I have my new block here With the command "copy" I can insert them
easily in the floor plan. I just have to click on the end points of these lines a great advantage of using blocks is the ease
of a modifying them. I Go to this button that says edit block Then I choose the block "door". I click on
ok This is the block editor workspace and also
a new tab for editing blocks appeared on the ribbon Here I can make all the changes that I want
to this block. For example. I'm going to draw a circle here Then I close the block editor and save the
changes As you can see, all the block references of
the block door have a circle inside Which can save amounts of time In this section I am going to explain how
you can print in AutoCAD I know there are a lot of people struggling
with this topic as it's a bit complex But I will explain the most important tips
to make it as simple as possible First of all, look at the tabs located here The first one that says "model" is where we
can make all the project This workspace seems to have an infinite area So we can make the drawings that we want.
But of course the larger the file the slower the computer gets The tabs named "layout" are used for printing.
I'm going to layout 1 Here there is a paper with a specific size
and these drawings is what will be printed To print properly we should specify the paper
size that we need I am going to click here with the right button
and then click on page setup manager In this window I choose layout 1 and click
on modify So here you have the page setup First we should choose the printer by clicking
on this tab If we want to save a page in PDF, there are
several options here Regarding the file size and print quality. I usually use this one "DWG to PDF" To change the paper size. I have to click
on this tab. For this case, I want a for this one On "drawing orientation" I choose between
landscape and portrait Finally click OK and close to save changes Now that we have the paper size we have to
decide what we want to print on the paper Under layouts tab, there are two spaces: paper
and model space. We can switch between them Currently we are in the paper space, if I
apply zoom or move it works for the paper Notice this rectangle here where I have the
drawings. It's a viewport and it's like an access to the project. I am going to double click inside and it switches
to the model space now if I zoom in The paper doesn't move just the objects that I drew as well, if I draw a line here, it will appear
exactly in the same place in the model tab Change the size of the viewport. I'm Going to click on model to switch to the paper
space again at this moment I can select the viewport, then with the grips,
I can modify it to cover the entire paper Double-click to go to the model space Now I can zoom in the drawing or put a specific
scale for the paper It's here: I specified for example 1 per 100 When I finish I am able to print the drawing. Click here with the right button and this
time I click on plot Continue to plot a single sheet here I can
click on OK to print or in this case to export the file as a PDF Some printing tips Hide the viewport when I plot a file, the viewport appears by
default on the paper If you want to hide it
follow the next steps Go to the layer properties manager and create
a new layer just for the viewport Switch to the paper mode click on the viewport and move it to its own
layer Then go again to the layer properties and
freeze the layer You can see that it's not appearing anymore So, if you save as a PDF or print the file
right now, the viewport is not visible Have different colors on the viewport the default AutoCAD workspace uses a dark Background. The reason is to be better for
the eyes when working for several hours Because of that it's common to use light colors
in our project The problem is when we switch to the layout
mode, The colors can be too light for a white paper For example, the doors are a bit hard to see Don't worry. It's possible to set up different
colors for printing First, you have to double click on the viewport
to switch to the model space Go to the layer properties and you can see
this column with the label VP color If your version is not located next to the
color tab. Look at the right end of this table Then I'm going to change the color for the
layer doors Click here And put this one for example Now it's much better Insert text I am going to explain to you quickly to insert
text in AutoCAD it's not hard and there are two types of text
single line and Multi-line text I will start with single line text first We insert the start point then this line specifies our text height I Can either click or specify a distance I'm going to type 100 press ENTER and then I choose the direction If I want to type horizontal text, I need
a horizontal line Now I can write anything and when I finish I click in a different place
to write another text Or if I don't want more I can just press Enter
or escape Now let's see the multi-line text Activate the command Choose the first point and I specify a selection
area To fit the text in but just the horizontal
length the height of the rectangle doesn't matter Then I can write the text Unlike the single text, this time a temporary
tab for editing text appears on the ribbon Here I have options for editing a paragraph
and much more If I want to change the height I need to select
the text and change it here as You know, this is very simple to write text
in AutoCAD PART 4
in this part I am going to teach how to scale objects how to attach an image to the drawing
and apply a scale in order to have the real dimensions how to import a PDF file
and is especially useful when the file was previously created within AutoCAD how to stretch objects
and how to fill enclosed areas with the command hatch
of course, as always I like to share some tips with you along with the explanations let's start scale objects let's learn how we can
scale objects this command is not hard but you should understand it well if you
want to use it properly to turn on the command scale click on the icon it's
this one select the objects I want to scale in this case I want to scale the
figure on the right choose this base point now there are several modes to
scale objects the one by default is to insert a scale factor I am going to type "2"
and the lengths of all these lines changed to double size okay I'm going to repeat the process but
this time I want to shrink the objects to half size I type "SC" to activate the
command again select the objects but now I don't select the dimension line for the scale factor I insert 0.5 and
the lines were converted to half of the length that they used to have previously
looked at this dimension and was updated even it was unselected scale with the
reference now I'm going to show to you how to insert the scale with the
reference I turn on again the command scale and select the objects select the
base point looking to the command bar it says specify scale factor or these
options copy and reference I'm going to use the shortcut R to use the reference
and what I need to do here is draw a reference line and type the new lengths
for it so it's very simple I click for the first point and then I click for the
second point finally I type the new length which is 55 and press ENTER to
confirm it use scale to import a PDF or attach an
image in AutoCAD it's possible to insert an image to use as a background of a
project for example images from Google Earth can be used to draw site plans to
attach an image file I go to the insert tab at the ribbon click on "attach" and
select an image from my computer I choose this one in this window I can set
few options here it's important that I take on specify on
screen the insertion point otherwise the image is inserted on the coordinates
which are specified here okay except if it's exactly what you want I click on OK
and now I click for placing the image and for the scale factor I'll leave it
for now press Enter so what happens here most of the time
that we insert an image it's not scaled properly for example I have a reference
between these two points which is approximately 206.17 meters if I use
the distance command I type the I press Enter I can notice that the distance
here is a bit longer than what it should no problem I can use scale with
reference I turn on the command scale select the image by clicking on the
border if I click inside the image it doesn't work change the mode to reference and then I
draw the line between those two points I will try to make it as accurate as
possible now it should be correct ah and I want
to share a tip with you always try to use a long reference line because if
instead my reference was a short distance after scaling the image tends
to be less accurate to import a PDF file I can click on the
icon also located on the Search tab here I'm going to choose the file of the
exercises then the window that opens has a bit more complex options than for
attaching images actually this is a very useful function because if I insert a
PDF that was previously created in AutoCAD I can recover all the layers and
the objects as this PDF has two pages first I need to click on the one that I
want to import on "PDF data to import" I tick on vector
geometry to import the lines, polylines circles, arcs and so on if I tick on true
type text text created with the font that has this symbol will be
automatically recognized as text in AutoCAD most fonts available are "true type"
so usually this is not a problem here the option below I tick on it if I have
raster images attached in this case there aren't so I keep it unselected
then on the right panel I take on the first option use PDF layers on the panel
below you can find more options to add but for now let's click on OK and I am
going to insert the file on the project nice now if I go to the layer properties
I can see that new layers were created from the PDF and due to the fact that I
made this drawing in AutoCAD the layers are the same from the original DWG file I'm going to check out how the objects look like and you can see here polylines
among other objects also look how the text was recognized if the text was not
on a true type font it would be splitted in very small lines and arcs which
wouldn't be so interesting however not everything is perfect the dimension
lines are not recognized neither block references which means I
have to create them again but in general insert a PDF can be very useful just be
aware it's only available in the versions after AutoCAD 2017 stretch objects sometimes in AutoCAD we
need to stretch figures let's learn how it works first it's important to have in
mind that this operation doesn't work for blocks as you can see here I have
only lines and polylines let's do it I am going to click on the command stretch
it's this icon here then I have to select the part to actually stretch so I
open the selection from the right just until here
then I specified this base point as you can see I'm extending and moving objects to this side and as the
dimension line was in the selection it is also readjusting now I can click to
place the objects exactly how it's on the screen however it's without any kind
of precision or type a distance to extend if I type 800 actually I add that
value to the original length of 600 and the total is 1400 the way that the objects stretch depend only on the selection even I select a
different base point the result is the same let's repeat this again and this time I
want to change the selection to cover also this line I press Enter and you can see the object stretching
differently now I want to try to stretch vertically
I select the objects press ENTER and Oh it's not as I was expecting but I select
all the objects why does the why does this happen when I was doing the
selection I kept these sides outside of the selection area and even everything
was selected because the external rectangle is a polyline a single object
the really important thing here is what actually I am covering with the
area "Hatch" filling inVclosed areas in this
section I will be talking about a drawing tool which is used to fill
enclosed areas it's the command Hatch but first I am
going to create a new layer in this file let's check out if you remember how to
do it I go to the properties manager click with the right button in new layer
I name it a simply "Hatch" then I'm going to choose a color for it
for example this kind of pink okay now I'm going to turn on the command hatch
it's located here at a drawing panel wait a few seconds if you want to read
the description of this tool sometimes it can be interesting then to apply a
hatch click on it and I have to click inside an enclosed area it can be any of
these rectangles I click to fill this one ah it's in a white colour I forgot to
change the layer yes when you create a new layer
you still need to set it as the current layer before you draw the objects in
otherwise it will not work go to the layer tab and click on hide hmm now I see this message appearing the current layer will be turned off what
do you want to do for any reason this bulb is switched off and if I draw objects on
that layer they will not be visible click to turn it on I'm going to repeat
the process click on the comment hatch and fill that area now it's on the correct layer
press ENTER to confirm them by dragging the mouse over
you can see that it's a hatch object now I will show you another way to use hatch
I click again here and then instead of pressing enter I
feel a different area right away what happened is that both areas are now a
single object Hatch editor above a new tab appeared at a ribbon specialized
for editing hatches I'm going to show you briefly the functions here I'm going to
click on this button at this panel and you can see a lot of patterns to use
here the first one "solid" is the simplest one it fills the area with just one
colour I choose for example this now let's have a look at the options at the
side and these controls I change the scale
look how is the effect on the angle tab above I can rotate the
pattern finally on Hatch transparency I add a
transparent effect to the objects I want to mention one thing when I first
tried to change the scale by clicking on the controls I realized that these
values didn't change a lot even if I type a number with decimals it shows just zero when this happens it means that I should go to the unit
properties type UN and press Enter and in this tab I need to set decimals
for example two decimal cases then it should work fine PART 5 In this part we will focus on the command
array and in the tools at the utilities panel. Let’s start. Rectangular Array
With the command array we can copy objects arranged in Pattern. There are 3 different
modes (Rectangular array, Polar array and Path Array). I start with Rectangular array,
and for that I just need to click on the button (that’s the mode set by default).
I am going to select these objects and press enter. So, an array was generated and a special
tab on the ribbon has appeared. Now I can edit this pattern as I wish.
Here, I can set the number of columns and rows. If I decrease the no. of columns from
4 to 3, the last column is suppressed as you can see on the screen.
The “Array Creation” I find it very intuitive. I think it’s easy to understand the options
here (while looking to these little drawings). The distance between is the distance from
the origin to the beginning of the next element. The distance total is from the origin to where
the last element starts. simple. I am going to change the distance between
rows: to 200, and look how the pattern moves. Of course the Total distance was updated in
order to match the new distance between lines. To exit the “array mode” I press escape;
Now If I want to confirm the distances; I can use the measure tool (or command distance)
I type “DI” and press enter; Notice that the vertical lenth between two elements matches.
As well as the horizontal one. Grips in an Array object
Whenever I select an array you can see these dynamic grips (the blue buttons here), which
I use then to modify this array. For example, if I click on this one on the second row.
(Imagine the numbering of columns and rows in this way). I can change the vertical distance
between 2 objects. For that, I simply type the new length. To change the horizontal length,
on the other hand, click on this one. If I click on the grip at the last row, I
can add more. For example I click to have 4 rows in total. Or… If I click on this
side, it’s the number of columns that I can change.
The grip on the opposite corner I can change both rows or solids by dragging the mouse.
Basically these operations can also be performed on the Array tab, but sometimes it is just
more practical. Another useful thing in Array is changing
the basepoint. I click on this icon; set the new point, for example on the corner and....
The grips moved with the base point but they perform exactly the same actions. Let’s make a Polar array.
I am going to draw a small circle with its center located at the boundary of this big
one. On this side. Great. Now I can click on the command polar array. It’s this one
here Basically, what I want to have this object
displayed around. I click on it; then the “center point of array” is going to be
the center of the bigger circle. It’s done, by default, the program sets 6 circles around
by default. So the Array tab for “polar array” is
a bit different, specially the panel “items”. On the first parameter: I set the number of
Items, in this case I have 18. ...and… they cover all the circumference because I have
360º for the fill parameter. In “between” I specify the angle between
2 items and in this case it is 20º. If I try to change the angle to 30º, it doesn’t
work. Because it won’t fit 18 items with that spacement.
Let’s try 15, and what happened here? In order to keep 18 items, the angle on fill,
was updated, now it is just 255. Grips on polar array and tips
The small square on the original item allows me to change the radius of the array. I am
going to set for example 50, and this is how it looks like.
The grip on the center can be used to change the position of the Array.
On the other hand, if I click on this little arrow, I change the angle between two items.
Let’s suppose I want 6 items. The angle to have them distributed equally is 60º.
However, it is possible to increase a bit that angle, but the last and first item will
stay closer than the others. Path Array
The 3rd Array mode available in Autocad is Path Array. We can copy objects along a line
or curve. Let’s see how it is. First, I am going to draw a spline, which
is a smooth curve. I click on the command located here “spline fit”. I can draw
a curve by specifying some points (On spline fit, the curve crosses exactly the points
that I insert). When I finish, I press enter. (pressing “escape” instead, cancels the
command). Next, I draw a rectangle on the first endpoint
of the spline. Now let’s use the Path array. I click on the icon: Select the object to
copy; press enter; and then I select my path. So… I have made it, however probably I want
to edit the spacement, position or rotation. At the command bar you can easily check out
that there are several options to edit. Let’s analyse some of them.
Base point. The base point will be exactly at the start
of the path. I click on the option, then, I change , for example, the basepoint to the
opposite corner and that is the result… the objects moved, but without rotating. Tangent direction.
This one is useful if I want, for example,to have one of the rectangle edges, tangent with
the curve. I am going to click on the button “tangent
direction”. Then, just specify two points, and the objects will rotate. Great, but now
suppose that I want the path to cross the center of the objects. I am going to use the
option “base point” again and click on the center of the rectangles, (ahh it is not
snapping to the center point!!). If this happens to you, it means that you
should turn on the mode geometrical center in Object Snap. Now it is going to appear,
I need to hoove the boundary first and click on the center to specify it as the new Base
point. Array tab on the ribbon.
The tab on the ribbon has, is now specific for path arrays (specially the first panel).
I can change here easily the spacing between, total spacing and number of items. I think
the best way to absorb these things is to simply practice. You can play around with
all these options and after a while, it will be easy for you! Explode objects.
Once I create an array, all the group is consider a single object. Now imagine that I want to
get rid of the Array. It doesn’t work with just select it and press delete, it erases
the whole thing. What I need here is the command explode. It basically returns a compound object
to its original components. It is very easy to use this. I turn on Explode, select the
array press enter, and as you see, all these are now separate polylines. Then I can manipulate
the objects as my preference. Consequently, I can explode the polyline in
separate lines. It’s also possible to explode a Block reference,
into its original objects at the moment when I created it. Or a Hatch. But I can’t apply
this on some objects, like text. Other ways to use explode is on Blocks Hatches and other kinds of objects But some of then, don't work, like text Utilities Panel
Let’s talk about the utilities panel, and I am going to start with the measure tool.
There are several ways of measuring as you can see here. I start showing you the first
one: quick measure, which is the one set by default when you click on this button for
the first time. When I move the mouse over the objects, some
dimensions appear on the screen and the yellow lines measure vertical and horizontal distances
between the closer objects. On the other hand if I try to check the dimensions in a circle,
at the first time, it looks a bit confusing all these values here, but they just show
the radius of the circle they indicate. For example, 100 is the radius of the bigger circle.
As well as 15, is the radius of the small circle. (the yellow lines don’t measure
anything here, don’t care about them). Honestly, this Quick Measure it is not my
favorite. Because even it’s true that we can have a lot of information at the same
time, it can be a bit confusing. But of course, that’s a just a personal taste.
The icon distance, I use it a lot as I find it very intuitive. It simply measures the
linear distance between two points. Another one which is very easy to use is “Radius”,
I only need to click on a circle to check it out. Measure an Angle
This one is simple, I can select two lines to measure the angle between them. Or, I can
check out the angle of an arc by clicking on it.
Now let’s go to where I was before, I want to focus on something. When I select the objects
to measure the angle, this menu appears where I can choose from different types of measures.
I am going to click for example in “area”, with this I can measure the area of the triangle.
I just need to click on all the vertices and press enter and end. Then, you can see in
this box the area and the perimeter. But, how could I measure the area of a circle
since it doesn’t have corners. I click on the icon, then at the command bar I can switch
to Object, I type “o” and press enter. Finally I just select the circle. Quick select.
On the utilities panel, you can find other tools at the small icons at the right. The
first one above is: “quick select” -> if I click there, I open this window where I
can select objects by using filters. For example, I can specify a type of object; or select
by color. Now I will select all the objects with color Cyan. Click on OK; and here it
is. This is the only one in this color. Other options can be, select all the objects of
a specific layer, or you select by linetype, you can explore the options here
If I click on this icon I select all the objects in the workspace, except the ones that are
frozen or on locked layers. The button below is the quick calculator.
Actually It is a kind scientific calculator. we can do from basic calculations, to a bit
more complex ones. PART 6
The final part! Dimension Lines Now I am going to teach you how to draw dimension lines. This is a classic feature for annotation in
your drawings. In this figure you can see the dimension lines
indicating its distances. To draw dimension lines, there is a panel
on the home tab here, or if we go to the Annotation tab, we can have all the tools. So, There are several types of dimension lines,
whose you can find them by clicking on this arrow. Let’s start with the most common one (linear
dimension). To insert a dimension line I just click on
two points, then I click again to put the dimension line on the place that I want. Great, even it seems quite simple; this is
a quite complex feature in Autocad and we usually have to set up some settings. Sometimes the dimension lines are not proportional
with the sizes of the objects that they measure. Let’s open the “dimension properties manager”,
by clicking on this little arrow. Here we need to choose the dimension style
that we want to edit. I select “standard”, which is the current
one and I click on modify. Now there are loads of options here, but for
a beginner the most importantare the size of the text and arrows,as well as the units. Go to “symbols and arrows” tab. -> look
for arrow size and put the value that seems convenient. Then, the size of the text can be changed
in the Text tab. As you see both sizes have a height of “2”. To want to confirm this, I can always measure
the distance here. On the “primary units” tab, I can edit
the unit format; the number of decimals (let’s change it to 2); and I can add a prefix or
a suffix; for example, suppose the units here are in meters, I can type the symbol “m”
on suffix to appear after the values. In this way. Other types of dimension lines:
As I showed in the beginning, there are more types of dimension lines to use in Autocad,
depending on what we want to measure. For example, let’s measure using the linear
dimension, the distance between this point and this one. As you see, it is measuring either the horizontal
distance, or the vertical if I move the pointer this way. Aligned dimension
But this is all fine because I can insert an aligned dimension. With this option, I can measure objects that
are not located in the cartesian axes. Angular dimension
Now I am going to click on the Angular dimension. This one is still simple to use, I can measure
an angle by clicking in two lines that intersect each other. The angle itself, I can place in any of the
4 sides of the intersection plane. Radius
To measure the radius of a circle, first I am going to draw one here. Then, I choose the option to measure the radius,
and just click on the circle. I click again to place the dimension line. In this tutorial I want to show you also the
“arc length”. I can measure the distance of an arc. And, yes. This only works on arcs; if I try to measure
the perimeter of a circle, nothing happens! Apart from those styles, there is the automated
dimension, which is this icon here. It detects automatically what is the most
suitable type of dimension in each situation. For example if I hoove this line, this square
appears. I can click on it and I will place the dimension
of the length of this line. I can do the same for the other lines. For measuring an angle, I have to choose the
option angular and then I can place it like I did previously. In a circle, the automated dimension, places
the diameter by default. However, I can change to place the radius
instead. Tips and peculiarities
Dimlayer On this tab at the panel dimensions, I set
the layer where I want the dimension lines in. I chose the layer “dimensions” as I created
it specially for it. However, I am going to switch to the home
tab, the current layer is “lines” and if I draw a dimension line, it goes automatically
to the dimension layer. (which is great for the organization of the
file). Snaps on arrows. In some versions of Autocad (like the one
I am using) the system snaps to the endpoints, midpoints, geometrical centers on the arrow
shape. And this is a bit annoying because usually
I only want to snap to the end of the dimension line (this point). Honestly I haven’t figured out yet if there
is a way to get rid of those snaps (if anyone knows, is welcome to post a comment on this
video (it would help a lot of people). However, I am going to share with you a good
way to deal with this. On “lines” tab (at the dimension style
manager); click on the first arrowhead (and as you can see, in this list there are plenty
of them to use; but for now I click on “none”), automatically the second arrowhead is updated
to match the first one. The result is this. It is easier to snap to the endpoint. Additionally the distances “extend beyond
dimension lines” and “offset from origin” are these ones that I show on the drawing. Put “zero” for both, and it is even better. Now I can only snap to the dimension line
end and to the intersection with the line below. Basically, you can make all your projects
with these settings, and just edit the style according to your preferences when you finish. The dimensions will be all updated. ----------------------------- Choose style of dimension line before drawing. whenever we draw a dimension line, we should
make sure that the desired dimension style is active. For example, I am going to switch to “annotative”,
and as you see, the settings there are different. Another thing, what I have been teaching during
this tutorial are the standard dimensions. All the sizes that we set on the Dimension
style manager are according to the workspace. The annotative dimensions are the styles which
are represented with this icon here. The sizes that we set, are according to the
real size of the dimension lines on the paper that we print. I will skip the annotative dimensions on this
tutorial, but if you are curious, Click on the card that is appearing now. So we have reached the end of this tutorial.
Now you have to practice the knowledge that you got here but of course
there is a lot more to learn in Autocad have a look in the channel CAD in Black and
check out the playlists there maybe you find something that suits you. Thank you very much for watching and see you
next time!
