Book Image

Practical Autodesk AutoCAD 2023 and AutoCAD LT 2023 - Second Edition

By : Jaiprakash Pandey, Yasser Shoukry
Book Image

Practical Autodesk AutoCAD 2023 and AutoCAD LT 2023 - Second Edition

By: Jaiprakash Pandey, Yasser Shoukry

Overview of this book

AutoCAD is one of the most versatile software applications for architectural and engineering designs and the most popular computer-aided design (CAD) platform for 2D drafting and 3D modeling. This hands-on 2nd edition guide will take you through everything you need to know to make the most out of this powerful tool, from a simple tour of the user interface to using advanced tools. Starting with basic drawing shapes and functions, you'll get to grips with the fundamentals of CAD designs. You’ll then learn about effective drawing management using layers, dynamic blocks, and groups, and discover how to add annotations and plots like a professional. As you progress, the book will show you how to convert your 2D drawings into 3D models and shapes. You’ll also discover advanced features, such as isometric drawings, drawing utilities for managing and recovering complex files, quantity surveying, and multidisciplinary drawing files using xRefs. Finally, you’ll focus on rendering and visualizing your designs in AutoCAD. By the end of this book, you’ll have developed a solid understanding of CAD principles and be able to work with AutoCAD software confidently to build impressive 2D and 3D creations.
Table of Contents (21 chapters)
1
Part 1: Introduction and 2D Drafting
6
Part 2: Customization, Collaboration, and Using Reusable Content
12
Part 3: 3D Modeling

Managing object properties

In AutoCAD, you can change properties such as color, lineweight (related to the thickness of a line), linetype, and transparency. These properties are required to display drawing types properly. As an example, obscured lines are generally shown using the hidden line linetype, and construction lines generally have transparency added to them so that they look less prominent than the actual drawing. In the sample drawing shown here, the hidden lines are shown by the dashed linetype, and the center line has transparency added to it:

Figure 5.1: Center and dashed lines with transparency

In this section, we will learn how to add these properties to different AutoCAD objects. The properties of an object can be changed from the Properties panel of the Home tab, as shown in the following figure:

Figure 5.2: The Properties panel of the Home tab

To begin, I will use the following drawing to describe the changes in properties...