AutoCAD 2019 Essential Training- Basic

The ribbon and Status Bas

Ribbons

Status bar

By clicking the most right corner you can customized the status bar.

OSNAP
Running Osnap options

 Midpoint
 End point
 Center
 Intersection
 Extension

Try to keep the dynamic input option always on.

OTRACK (Object Snap Tracking)
It allows to trace the objects such as if we take the cursor on one midpoint then second midpoint it will
start showing the object tracking such as mentioned below.

So your object snaps allow you to work accurately, snapping to exact points on objects. And your Otrack,
your object snap tracking, allows you to pick a combination of those snaps to draw accurately between
points, and for example, to find the center of the rectangle.

POLAR and ORTHO

Polar tracking allow us to track the objects in a particular angels if required. It allow us to set default
angels for the lines which we wish to draw.
Use of Polylines and Arc:

It is all one element.

Spline

Text Styles

How to setup an appropriate text style?

Single line text (TEXT) and multiline text (MTEXT)

Single Line text:

 Type in command window-Text

 Give height “50” and angel “0” degree.
 If you press one time enter it will make new line in text and both lines are independent from
each other.
Multi Line Text

Dimension styles
Dimensioning simple designs
Make sure you have scale 1:1 when you are going to calculate the dimensions of any given
drawing.

Adding a Simple Table

Open the layer properties and add new layer called table.

Double click in title and it will pop up new window to add the name of Title. Press Tab and it will
take you to the next line.
Creating a simple title block

 Make new layer called “title block”. Make it current layer.

 Make also another layer called “title block text”
 Make a rectangular and give dimensions 420mm, 297mm page setup of A3 size page.
 Give offset command and put 15mm offset size from the edge of the page
 Copy the page by right click and using base point in model tab. ( In the clip board tab)
 Go in layout1. There is default view port inside. Delete it and paste the copied page setup by
giving 0, 0 coordinates.
 Click on page setup manager, make new page setup called it A3-Landscape settings and do the
following settings.


Adding new layouts and scaled viewports
 Rename the layout tab to A3 Landscape tab.
 Create a new layer called “viewport” in the A3-Landscape layout. We are going to make
scaled view port in the A3-Landscape layout tab.
 Make this “viewport layer” as current layer.
 Now bring the drawing from model tab into layout tab.
 Click on the layout in Ribbon and go in rectangular layout

How to turn off the grid inside the viewport?

Double click inside the drawing it will give you status bar. Just turn off the grid from there.
As you can see on right bottom we have different scaling factor. Open this and change into
1:5. Now in order to adjust the drawing use “Pan”. Don’t use zoom!!!
Using annotative scaling

Now you can see that dimensions are not visible clearly in the drawing. So we use annotative
scaling to adjust the dimensions. You can see that view port is currently set to 1:5 scale.

 Go in model tab. Delete the rectangular page setup. We don’t need it as we already copied
that one in our viewport tab.
 We have to make the dimension style as Annotative. We go in dimension style. Click on
the Training layout. Go in “fit” tab and just click in Annotative tab.
 Select the dimensions which we already placed. Right click and you will see these
dimensions are not Annotative. Make them Annotative.
Select the same scale as (1:5) selected in view port. Go back in view port and you can see that
dimensions are now updated.

 You can see that text in view port is still big. How to change the size
 Go back into model table copy the text in clip board. Delete the text and paste the text in
view port outside the page setup. Right click the text and change the height from 50mm
to 5mm. Bring this text back in the view port page setup.

 Do the same exercise with the Notes and Table. Change the height this time 3.5mm
 Adjust the able column in model tab fist. Then copy the table but don’t delete first. Go
in view port tab. Paste the table in view port and then go back in model tab to delete the
table.
Using workspaces

Click on above highlighted place and select workspace then drafting & Annotative.
You can also save as the work space as highlighted above.

Navigation Bar

You can turn on or turn off the navigation bar by typing in command window Navbar. Using the Orbit
you can view the drawing in 2D / 3D.

The shortcut menu

You can also record your actions in Autocad for training purpose.
Setting drawing units

Converting drawing units

If you have a drawing which has different drawing units. How you will convert these units?

This drawing is showing that one side of rectangular is 4 ft 0 inch.

So if I want to change the drawing units. I have to scale the drawing as per conversion etc

1 inch is equal to 25.4mm. So we scale the drawing 25.4 and then change the units into mm.

Change the units now into mm.

1219.20mm is equal to 4 ft. or 48 Inches.

Editing and managing options of scale

From highlighted scale point, you can customize the scale (Metric, imperial or both) as per your
requirements.
Once we have converted the drawing from imperial units to matric units. We shall go into option
command and convert the source units also into millimeters.

So you have to ask your managers if he has already CAD options settings available.

Working with templates (DWT)

As you have saved your all the settings in options and units. You want to save the file as your template
file. Clear the model space and no draw in model.

Go into application menu and use save as DWT file. It will automatically take you into Template folder
where you can save the file as DWT.

Working with the View Cube

You can change the view of drawing any time by clicking on the highlighted points. Left top side of view
cube shows a Home symbol. Just click on it and it will take you back on default settings.

Saving and restoring views

You can save a section of drawing with separate name and when click It will automatically take you to
the desire location.
Points and donuts

In draw panel click on the multiple point command and make an imaginary point section. The use splice
command

Donut inside diameter 250 and outside diameter is 500.

Ellipses
Give the command ellipse. Right side from the center is 1250mm and vertical side from the center is
750mm.

Object Selection
Select the object by using window option and you can still unselect the objects using shift+ click on the
selected object.

Using Stretch and Lengthen

Using lengthen command you can increase the length of the line. Click the lengthen command in draw
ribbon, then right click on model window and select dynamic. Select the line which you want to lengthen
and enter the extended length. For example in our case we use 1500mm.
Using Break and Join

Using break command we can break the line and with join command we can join the two lines.

In case you are not finding a point to connect on the given line then use this command to find the
nearest point to connect.

You apply the break command. Right click to select first point then select end point and it will break the
line.
Using boundaries

Once defined the boundary, we use HATCH command to highlight the boundary area.

For brick works type hatch use size 1mm.

Using Fillet and Chamfer

Fillet command is used to round the sharp corners. Enter the fillet command, right click and put
the radius such as 50mm. Select the first line, then second line to complete the command.
IF you want to do all four corners at once. Give the fillet command, enter radius, right click and
select poly line. Select the one line and it will automatically curve all the corners.
Using chamfer command. Give the first distance 150mm and second distance also 150mm. We
provide the distances as compare to radius in fillet command. Then right click again to make it
multiple. Select the lines one by one to round off the sharp edges of rectangular. You can also do
the same with angle. You can give command, right click select angle, give first distance 150mm
and angle 60 degree then right click and select multiple lines. Finally select the lines to make
them round.

Using Divide and Measure

Divide Creates evenly spaced point objects or blocks along the length or perimeter of an object.
With measure command, we can creates point objects or blocks at measured intervals along the
length or perimeter of an object.
You can see that in measure command third section length is not 1200mm. As it will divide the
available length in 1200mm sections while divide will equally divide the given line in given
sections.

Working with coordinates

Go in utility and select ID point. Click on the object and it will give you coordinates using the
object.
If you want to draw a line from a point in specific “x” and “Y” distance then enter the line
command, give X distance then coma then press y distance. The output coordinates shall be
addition of (from the selected point coordinates) such as given below.

Click on line command and bring the start point on X=2750 and Y= 1700. Then enter the 500, 500
in the distance command and it will exactly draw a line 500+ X coordinates = 3250 and
500+1700=1200 coordinates as given below. These new coordinates are absolute coordinates
relative to the first point.

If you want to start the line from a specific start point coordinates such as X=500 and Y=500 then
enter the line command “l” then enter the coordinates 500, 500 and it will automatically select
the start point of line with x=500 and Y=500 as coordinates as given below.
It will takes me automatically to X=500 and Y=500. Then next procedure will be same as
mentioned above.

Direct distance entry (DDE)

You can add the direct distance entry by first adding the distance and press “Tab” to lock the
distance, then enter the angle.

Text Alignment
Framing text in a title block

Also make sure that your text is 10mm height only.

For Notes layout select the notes layout style text.

Editing dimensions and dimension overrides
Spacing dimensions

This command will adjust the spacing between the dimensions. We can click on the highlighted
command and click the base point. The select the second dimension which we want to shift. Enter
the specific distance from base point which you want to move up. Hit enter and you can see you
dimension will move up.
For example in our example the earlier distance between two measurements was 1462mm.
When I entered the distance 2500 from base point the new dimension spacing will change as
following:
Breaking Dimensions
For example dimensions are coming inside the line and we want to break the line.

Break command is right next to the spacing command in annotative ribbon as highlighted below.

If you undo the removal. Go back to same command select the 1st object, right click to select
remove and click second object. It will automatically undo the command.
Using Continue and Baseline Dimensions

Using multileaders
You can find this command in Annotative ribbon called multileaders.
You can use also another highlighted command called add leaders to add one more numbering
in the circle.

Changing the linetype scale ( LT Scale)

As you can have doted lines in the drawing. You want to change the doted line scale. You can do it easily
by clicking the line. Then right click,
Using the layer tools
Sometimes, if you are working in one layer and you are working on a certain object. You want to make
this object layer as current layer. How you can do it?
You can click the object, go in highlighted area and select make it as ‘current’ layer.

Working with layer states

I can save the whole layer states with one specific name. For example, I am working in layer and I want to
save the state of the layer. I shall go into the layer properties, go in layer state manager as Highlighted.
Give the name of current state of the layers such as ‘Existing layer properties.

Now restore it, go back to the model tab and open the little pin up. You can see the current layer state is
‘existing layer properties.

To check how does it works, please select any current object, open the layer and change the color. Come
back and you will see that that will be ‘unsaved
Select new layer state and give new name such as Hinged color changed.

Using groups
Select on the group command in the Home tab and select the objects which you want to group
together. Then right click and name the groups.
You can also ungroup the objects as highlighted by clicking the group manager.

Creating and inserting a block

When you create the blocks please make sure that you select the zero layer. The reason for selecting the
zero layer as blocks created in this layer will automatically adjust the other layer settings.

For example I create the block in Cm units with diameter 6.3cm as given below named it ‘ Nut’

Remember that this block is created in 0 layer. So when you changed the layer such as Nut and also
change the units for example centimeter to millimeter. Insert the block inside the layer. It will
automatically adjust its scale in millimeters. But remember, we have to retake the dimensions on the
object. Remove the old dimensions inside the block by using BE, BS and BC commands

Wblock command is used to save all the blocks in a separate dwg file and whenever required we can call
this file in the working model space.
Creating a simple block with attributes
First make sure that everything in the drawing is in layer zero.

Go into insert tab in the Ribbon. Define Attributes command. It will open a new dialog box. Apply the tag
name. You are not allowing to give spaces in the Tag names.

The second attributes which we shall create is invisible attribute. When we place this attribute in the
drawing. It will not visible to us.
Now first change the layer to Sop and create a new block called SOP.
Give the value of the attributes in the tag option and it will update the actual value in the
drawing. Please note that as we defined SOP_Number attribute as invisible that’s why its value
not visible on model drawing.
You can double click the attribute value to make enhancement in the values, if required.

Designing a table

 Enter the command ‘table style’ in the command window. Or Go in annotative command to
open the table style.
 Click on new and gave name such as Training.
 Fill color, Alignment middle center, Format keep it general, but it can be an angel, currency, text,
percentage etc as given below.
 Type shall be label
 Horizontal and verticals margins leave 1.5 each
 Make text style new as given below Verdana
Make in borders everything by layer. Now that’s finish title now go in header.
Make in borders everything by layer. Now that’s finish header now go in Data.
Make in borders everything by layer. Click ok and make it current style.

Now go back in annotative command and go back to table. Try to draw out the table and it will show you
exactly similar type of settings as we did above table style. Still at any time you can go back to standard
table style if you want.
Adding fields to a table

Working with XREFs

You can add files on host files when you work with different departments and everyone has its own layout.
The best thing in Xrefs files is they don’t takes much size. Approximately 10% of actual file size.

You can see that there is not only dwg file ‘ Xrefs’ there but also another reference file called property
line attached to the host dwg file. These two files are sitting in the same folder and known as relative file
path. The Autocad will look field reference files as highlighted in yellow. This is actually a ‘Paper clip ‘to
your host drawing.

Attaching and overlaying XREFs

Go in the Insert tab and reference drawing. Open the external reference pallet. Right click on reference
file and you can simply de-attached this drawing if you want.
In order to attach the file. Go in insert and attach the file. It will pop-up new window. Select the file which
you want to attach with current file. It will open again a new window.

The difference between two type of attachments is with Attachment. Our xref file (let say file-1) will stick
with host file (let say file 02) and if you attach the host file with another file (let say file 03). Both files (01
& 02) shall attached with the new file (03).

Overlay reference type: property line file ( xref file 01) shall not show-up.

Relative path means both drawings are in same folder. Full path means you might look in different
locations for the host drawing. The preferred method is relative path.
Altering and clipping XREFs
Editing XREFs
You can still edit the xref file such as propertyline by going in tool bar, open the dwg file in a separate
window as we do normally and it will allow you to edit the xref file. First you shall explode the xref file,
make physical changes in the drawing, save the drawing. Autocad will give me a reminder to reload the
xref file.
Click on the blue warning sign and it will automatically reload the file.

Editing XREFs in place

AutoCAD 2017 Training/ Intermediate Level
Array and Array classic Command

In “Home “tab and we have different type of arrays such as

1. Rectangular Array
2. Path Array
3. Polar Array

Rectangular Array normal command

Select Rectangular array come and click on the purple rectangular box and it hit ENTER. It will pop up
mode options and ask us how many “Rows and Columns “we need.
Note: You can pick the grids as indicated in blue arrows to add/remove the rows/ columns from the array.
There all arrays are in one group. You can use “Explode” command to ungroup all the rectangular.

Rectangular Array Classic Command (Old Method )

Type “Array Classic” in command window and hit Enter.

In Portrait mounting, define the gap between the two modules such as 0.02 m and then select the
column offset complete 0.992+0.02 m
Polar Array

Select the Object and then base point and hit Enter. It will draw a polar array and again we can add the
number of objects.
You can also move the whole object from one place to another such as

Polar Array Classic Command (Old Method)

Again type same command “Array Classic” and hit enter. It will open again pan window. Select Polar
array
Using Fields in MTXT
If I have mentioned the area of rectangular and circle in fields the best thing is if I change the area of
both objects, it will automatically update in the field text. You shall have all the functions as multi line
text such as BOLD, Height etc. but it will also has ability to automatically update the values.

If you double click on the text, it is Verdana by layer. Highlight the text xxxx and go into Fields tab.
Select the field category as “Object” then pick the object such as rectangular in our case and it will give
us all the properties of the object.

Do the same for the circle. You can also change the layer color from yellow to any dark color to clearly see
the highlighted field. Now change the shape of both object and see that area of both objects remain same.
Now you have two options either save the drawing (Shifts+s) or give command Regen. Now when you will
see it automatically change the area.
Freezing layers in the current viewport

Copy the object in viewport and click on the outer blue line.

Double click on left object and it will allow you to edit the port. Go in layers and you can freeze/thaw the
Dimensions or Hatch in current viewport without effecting the original object in Model space.
Using WBLOCK to edit and replace blocks
This topic explains about

1. How to save the blocks as separate .dwg file

2. How to make changes in all blocks by just make change in original blocks and again insert it in
the mother file.
First make nine identical blocks using array and explode command in mother file called Wblock.dwg. Using
Wblock command to create one block and save it as a child workstation.dwg file. Open workstation.dwg
fine and make some change in the block such as use fillet command to round the corners.

Now when we insert child block in mother file called Wblock.dwg it will ask to redefine the blocks in the
mothed file.
Once accepted, it will change the edge corners of all the blocks in the file.

Using Design Center with AutoCAD blocks

Design Center is a bit like a sort of Windows Explorer for AutoCAD. It allows you to drill down into the
data inside the drawing, and take that information across perhaps into another drawing.
I now go to the view tab on the ribbon, like so, and the Design Center is just there on the pallets panel, it's
that little icon there, Design Center. Now, I'm not going to open it just yet.

Open up a new blank drawing, it's completely blank. If I jump into the home tab now, and go to the layer
properties, as you can see there, we've only got the one layer, layer zero right there.
Can I take all of this information across into my new drawing? Well, of course you can, and it's very, very
easy to do. If I go back to the view tab now on the ribbon, and I open up Design Center here as highlighted
above.
Now, find, in the EN-US folder, all the Design Center sample drawings. I'm not going to use that folders
tab, I'm going to go to the open drawings tab.

If I went to blocks there, there is my little workstation block, which is that when there. You literally drag
and drop the block from Using DESIGNCenter.dwg to Drawing1 file, it's that easy.
You can also drag and drop all the other parameters such as layers, layouts, text styles and dimension
etc in new drawing.

Using measure to obtain accurate drawing information

Osnap settings: Don’t turn on all the settings at once only use the following points as first

 End point
 Mid-point
 Center
 Intersection
 Extension

Go in utility to open the dimensions to take the distance. Once completed, the distance is stored in the
command line. Click on the highlighted arrow to open the distance. Copy it and you can save this to
excel file.

Create a separate area with POLYLINE.

1. Press polyline then select first point

2. Click second point then right click and select arc.
3. Again right click and select second point then select mid-point of the arc following the “4” point.
4. After fourth point right click to select “Line” and complete the area and right click to make it
close.
Add and subtract the area

 Select the area to measure from measurement window.

 Right click and select add area first in the command window.
 Select the first are and right click and select enter
 Then select subtract and object from command window and click on second area which you
want to subtract.

Using layer properties for layer management

Building the blocks in layers is easy to make changes in the entire drawing.

How to make blocks in by layer by color?

When you want to make a block please make sure to create in a new layer from layer properties. To do
so, first click the layer properties, make new layer and give name to the layer and double click on it to
make it current layer. Now make the block inside this layer and this block will be declared as block by layer
and by color.

Using the new centerline commands

Using these commands to define center lines between two objects or center point of a circle.

Using DIMREASSOCIATE to maintain dimension accuracy

This way you can change the geometry of the drawing keeping the shape same such as look at the below
diagram and we can change the dimensions of the drawing easily.
You shall click on the poly line and press shift. Click on first point and then second point and start
dragging the lines on right. You can also give specific dimension number.

In order to update the dimensions, please give command dimreassociate. Select the first dimension point
and click on second dimension point and click enter it will automatically update the dimensions.
Using the QAT to set up a customized workspace
Works spaces available in Autocad

 Drafting and Annotation

 3D Basic
 3D Modeling
 Drafting and migration from one Autocad version to another version.

We can also save our current work space too. You can also change workspace from 2D to 3D.

You can save your workspace such as

So this will always keep your settings of work space.

Using markup tools to create a revision schedule

Using markup tool you can review the commented drawings from your seniors or team leaders.

How to open design review DWF drawings in Auto cad?

 Open first a blank drawing.

 Go in view tab in autocad and open markup tool manager.
 Open the DWF drawing as highlighted below.
Utilizing named views to manage the Model tab

Click on Top and view manager.

Press ok and make another model view such as Lounge. Now back to the drawing and click on customize
drawing. It will automatically take you to the Lounge and Bath room.

Using the AutoCAD calculator to your advantage

You can use this area calculator to understand how much of the total percentage is being cut from the
disk. You can save any value in the memory store area and use it later. You can use the same method to
calculate the total area of the plot and area covered by the modules.

Using Quick Select to speed up the selection process

This allow us to quickly select the group objects and make changes as required.
Now if you want to change the radius of all the circles from 35 to 20. Just make it here as highlighted
and all circles radius will be change. You can also do that value <35 or equal to 35.
Using layer settings for effective layer control
You can freeze the layers, you can lock the layers and can make changes in the color and in line type etc.
We can use LayerP command to undo the settings in layer. You can also turn on the notifications when
new layer import into the drawing through the block.

Layer identifications

 Green mean this is current layer

 Blue means this layer is using somewhere in the drawing
 Gray layer means not use in the drawing

Setting AutoCAD point styles

How to set point style?
Type command Ptype to open the point style or go in utilities and open point style. Make the point
setting 5% of the screen.

Setting multiple point objects

 Setup the point style at 5% of screen.

 Make sure that Object snap settings are on

As in normal command after one click command is finished and we have to press enter to repeat the
command but with multiple point object command we can keep using the command multiple times.

Using the MEASURE command with points

 By using this command we can place the points on equal distance on a single line and it is easy
for us to measure any length of line.
 We can use it if we want to divide a line on equal distance too.
 First make sure we are in the point layer.
 Select suitable point size in the utility
 Select the measure from draw tab as highlighted below.
 Click on left point and give the equal distance length such as 500 and click enter.
 It will automatically divide the whole line in equal distance of 500mm
 Command Shortcut

S.No Command Shortcut Comment

1 Block B Create the Block
2 Insert Block I Insert Block
3 Block Edit BE Edit in the existing block
4 Block Save BS Save the block
5 Block Close BC Close the block after changes.
6 Polyline pline Start drafting polyline.
7 Spline Spline Irregular curve create by using spline command.
8 Text Text To write single line text
9 Multi Line Text Mtext Multi Line text writing in the drawing especially some notes.
10 Rectangular Rec To draw a rectangular. Give the size of rectangular too such as
420,297 page setup of A3 size paper.
11 Offset Offset Offset command used to Offset the objects. Create object mirror
after certain period of time.
12 Navigation Bar Navbar Turn on or off the navigation bar in model tap
13 Units Units To open drawing unit settings
14 Scale Sc Scale the existing drawing.
15 Option Op All the settings in the drawing.
16 Donets Do Make the points in the drawings.
17 Window WP Selection of objects in model window through window polygone
Polygone command
18 Break Br Break between two point
19 Fillet Fillet Round the corners. Normally after entering the radius (50mm)
right click and select poly line. Click on one line to complete the
command
20 Chamfer Chamfer Make the sharp edges like distance corners.