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

Working with dimensions

Dimensions are probably the most important kind of annotation you will add to your drawing. Using dimensions, you can specify the actual size of features and their specifications that can be later used for manufacturing or construction. There are lots of dimension tools available in AutoCAD, which makes adding dimensions a breeze, and we will look at most of these tools. The Dimension tools are in the Annotation panel of the Home tab and in the Dimension panel of the Annotate tab, as shown in the following screenshot. For our example, we will mostly use dimension tools from the Annotation panel of the Home tab:

Figure 6.45: Dimension tools

The preceding screenshot shows the Dimension tools in the Annotation panel of the Home tab and the Dimensions panel of the Annotate tab.

Just like text, the properties of dimensions are also defined by their style, which is called the dimension style. We will start by making our own dimension style...