AutoCAD2002 stuff

AutoCAD stuff

To all,

Since I signed into the CCED group I've been wandering lost a bit, so
if this posting doesn't work out correctly I apologize ahead of time.
If all goes well this note should appear in the postings and there
should be a Zip file named ACADstuff.zip available.

A little background information: I wrote this material up some years
back with AutoCAD Release 10 for classes that I was teaching at that
time. It was not intended as stand alone material - there was a
drafting book and a series of lectures that I gave to go with the
material. The original material was not written in MS Word so when I
tried to update the material over the holidays I was not able to bring
in my old files, so I've had to work from bits of hardcopy that I had
on hand and from memory. (I'm teaching at a different school now and I
don't have easy access to the hardcopy material I had at the other
school.)

The zip file - there are six compressed files: 3D_ASSYDWG.doc, which
goes over a couple of different methods of making assembly drawings;
3D_AutoCAD2002.doc, which is an outline of a 9 weeks class segment for
my first year students in 3D; 3D_WalkthruDlx.doc, which is a
walkthrough exercise going through five different drawings in detail;
3D_SolWlkThru.doc, which is a walkthrough exercise doing a couple of
solids models (not as detailed as the previous walkthrough);
FileConv.doc, which outlines some file conversions in AutoCAD; and
AdvDim&Tol.doc, which covers how to do toleranced dimensions in
AutoCAD and some related issues. Once again, this material wasn't
initially intended to be stand-alone. The book mentioned in the
material is a college level engineering drawing book - I've seen
better, but not in recent years. Of course the Machinery's Handbook -
I keep one in the classroom (and two at home - one in the toolbox and
one in the computer room) for reference.

The question was presented to me about if it would be sensible to
study 2D before 3D - the obvious answer may not be correct. When I
came to the school where I am currently teaching (last year), the
students from the year before could do some interesting 3D drawings,
but had very few skills in 2D. If you are working with CAM you may not
have much need for the 2D drawing features. The only things you would
need to know would be the basic drawing and editing commands and how
to do geometric constructions. Those of you who are already proficient
in manual drafting should have little trouble in learning how to do
the same things in AutoCAD.

AutoCAD has a habit of changing their menus around, but if you learn
to type in the commands at the prompt line you can avoid the menus.
You can pick locations on the screen with a mouse freehand and, by
holding down the <Shift> button and pressing the right mouse button,
use selections from a menu that will give you OSNAPs like ENDPoint,
MIDpoint, CENter, TANgent, and QUAdrant.

You can type in addresses as well:
· Absolute addressing: Xlocation,Ylocation (and Zlocation if
3D)
· Relative addressing: @Xdistance,Ydistance (and Zdistance if
3D)
· Polar addressing: @Radialdistance<AngleinXYplane
· Spherical addressing(3D):
@Radialdistance<AngleXYplane<Angleelev
· Cylindrical addressing(3D):
@Radialdistance<AngleXYplane<Height

Here's a list of commands that will get you started:
· Line - draws lines from point to point (addresses, OSNAPs, or
freehand), if ORTHO is turned on lines will tend to run horizontal or
vertical
· Circle - draws circles, default is Center-Radius, you can draw
others by selecting options, if you select center, then enter D you
will be prompted for diameter, 3P lets you make a circle through 3
points, 2P lets you make a circle through 2 points (diameter)
· TRIM - lets you cut a drawing entity back to an intersecting
point with another entity, select the cutting entity first then select
the entity to be cut
· EXTEND - lets you extend an entity (usually a line) to another
entity, select the boundary first then the entity to be extended
· BREAK - if you need to cut an entity in two without an
intersection
· Erase - erase/delete entity
· DTEXT - use this command for text, much easier to get what you
expect than the other options, to finish the command hit <Enter> on a
null line
· ORTHO - when on, makes default directions vertical or
horizontal, can be overridden by addressing or OSNAP, can be turned
on/off with <F8> or the button at bottom of screen
· <Esc> - to cancel any command, if you are deep in something,
like dimensioning, you may need to <Esc> more than once.
· U - undo (don't use UNDO, it can undo your entire drawing)

An item to remember: If you press <spacebar> anytime other than when
you are in a text command AutoCAD will interpret it as <Enter>.

Looking at this message, list mom may be unhappy with the length, if
so let me know and I'll pass the info a different way.

Oh, and one parting comment (from my son when I pulled a servo motor
with a busted encoder out of a dumpster) "Quit complaining, it's
free."

Ivan