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

Summary

This chapter was about the advanced tools and features of AutoCAD. In this chapter, we learned how to make AutoCAD tables and also use Excel tables right inside AutoCAD. We learned how to add tables as data links and use formulas in tables. We also learned how to add fields in our drawing, which are dynamic pieces of text connected to other drawing properties. These tools will help you make tables natively inside AutoCAD without relying heavily on third-party tools such as Microsoft Excel.

We learned how to make isometric drawings, which are drawings that look like 3D drawings with X, Y, and Z axis values. We also learned how to use these isometric drawing planes and learned about the tools required to make these drawings in 2D model space.

In the next chapter, we will continue to learn about more advanced tools; we will mostly focus on customization-related features of AutoCAD, such as customizing linetypes and the user interface.