The Hitchhiker's Guide to AutoCAD

Your guide to the basic 42 commands you need to create 2D drawings using modern AutoCAD or AutoCAD LT. 

This guide is a great place to get started if you just completed your initial training, or to refresh your memory if you only use AutoCAD occasionally. As you can see from the illustration, the 42 commands are grouped together according to types of activity. In addition, these groups are arranged sequentially to follow a typical workflow. 

After you finish this guide, you can access the linked Help commands in each topic for more information, or you can return to the guide later to review specific topics. Also, try to find someone who will be able to answer your occasional questions. The product discussion groups (http://forums.autodesk.com/) and Autodesk blogs are good resources. 

Basics 
Review the basic ways to control AutoCAD. 

Viewing 
Pan and zoom in a drawing, and control the order of overlapping objects. 

Geometry 
Create basic geometric objects such as lines, circles, and solid-filled areas. 

Precision 
AutoCAD provides several features to ensure the precision required for your models. 

Layers and Properties 
Organize your drawing by assigning objects to layers, and by assigning properties such as color and linetype to objects. 

Modifying 
Perform editing operations such as erase, move, and trim on the objects in a drawing. 

Blocks 
Insert symbols and details into your drawings from commercial online sources or from your own designs. 

Layouts 
Display one or more scaled views of your design on a standard-size drawing sheet called a layout. 

Notes and Labels 
Create notes, labels, bubbles, and callouts. Save and restore style settings by name. 

Dimensions 
Create several types of dimensions and save dimension settings by name. 

Printing 
Save and restore the printer settings for each layout. Output a drawing layout to a printer, a plotter, or a file. 

Download the The Hitchhiker's Guide to AutoCAD Basics in PDF format. Click HERE

Source: autodesk.com

Toggle Ribbon in AutoCAD

Ribbon started in AutoCAD 2009, a consolidated location for nearly all the AutoCAD tools in the form of easily recognizable buttons. A set of tabs delineates the different collections of tools by their purposes: creating and editing objects, adding notes and dimensions, sending the drawing to a printer or plotter, and so on.

Do you know how to toggle the ribbon? Is there a shortcut for this? Yes it’s hidden =) some cad user it’s their secret, Nah.

Here’s the tip:
1. If you’re using MENUBAR, turn it off like a switch (another smiley), type MENUBAR in your command line and set to 0 (zero).

2. Press ALT. The *KeyTips are displayed over each feature that is available in the current view. See image below.

3. Next to express tools tab, a two triangles and filleted rectangle. As displayed x2 is for minimize to panel titles, press alt x2 to go back in normal ribbon while x3 is to expand the options available for displaying ribbon.

* “KeyTips” from Microsoft word function using the ALT.

How to Email and Publish an AutoCAD DWF file

In this tutorial, we will see a simple step to just How to Email and Publish an AutoCAD DWF file. One easy way is to export a DWF format using EXPORTDWF command and simply attached your DWF file to your email. Alternative way is clicking the icon red letter A, press the Export and choose DWF.

By this time is a step how to email and publish a DWF file in one process. The workflow is simple.

1) Pick a DWG file, right click and choose Publish and Email options. DWG file automatically open.

2) Under Specify a DWF file dialog, type the file name of DWF file and click the “Select” for saving.

3) The next surprise is your default email you are using, with the attachment of DWF file. If your client has no viewer. There is a note inclusion in that email. “To view the attached DWF file, download the free Autodesk Design Review from <http://www.autodesk.com/designreview>DWF and Autodesk Design Review - the ideal way to accurately share designs with your team!”

DWF file is as easy to navigate and much lighter than a PDF. A DWG in PDF file format with layers information it might be inconvenience. If you experience to open a PDF file with layer information it takes to slow the image or the content of the PDF.

Any ideas? Please free to comment, love to welcome to hear your sides.

CAD Tip Of The Day: How to reconcile layers

How to reconcile layers

In this tutorial, we will see a simple step to just How to reconcile layers. Although it has nothing to do but sometimes we ignore this. Likewise our drawing has too many layers especially if we have Xref or external reference drawings. We still purge and audit, and it still appears in the lower right corner in your AutoCAD screen. See image below the yellow triangle with an exclamation point.

Here is the flow:

1. Type” LA” without the quotes in your command line, under the layer properties manager, choose unreconciled new layers; in the middle column choose any layer with blue color highlight.

2. Then Ctrl+A, right click and choose reconcile layer.

You will notice, the Unreconciled layers are compressed and under filter column all went to All Used Layers.