AutoCAD
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2008
User’s Guide
January 2007
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2007 Autodesk, Inc.
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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Contents
Get Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Chapter 1 Get Information from Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Obtain General Drawing Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Count Objects Within a Drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
The User Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Chapter 2 Toolbars, Menus, and The Dashboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Toolbars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Status Bars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
The Application Status Bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
The Drawing Status Bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
The Menu Bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Shortcut Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
The Dashboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Chapter 3 The Command Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Enter Commands on the Command Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Enter System Variables on the Command Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Navigate and Edit Within the Command Window . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
v

Switch Between Dialog Boxes and the Command Line . . . . . . . . . 37
Dock, Resize, and Hide the Command Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Chapter 4 DesignCenter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Overview of DesignCenter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Understand the DesignCenter Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Access Content with DesignCenter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Add Content with DesignCenter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Retrieve Content from the Web with DesignCenter Online . . . . . . . 56
Overview of DesignCenter Online . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Understand DesignCenter Online Content Types . . . . . . . . . 59
Retrieve Content from the Web . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Chapter 5 Customize the Drawing Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Set Interface Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Create Task-Based Workspaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Save and Restore Interface Settings (Profiles) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Customize Startup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Chapter 6 Tool Palettes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Create and Use Tools from Objects and Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Create and Use Command Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Change Tool Palette Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Control Tool Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Customize Tool Palettes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
Organize Tool Palettes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Save and Share Tool Palettes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
Start, Organize, and Save a Drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Chapter 7 Start a Drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Start a Drawing from Scratch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
Use a Wizard to Start a Drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Use a Template File to Start a Drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Specify Units and Unit Formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134

Determine the Units of Measurement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
Set Linear Unit Conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
Set Angular Unit Conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
Add Identifying Information to Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
Chapter 8 Open or Save a Drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
Open a Drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
vi | Contents
Open Part of a Large Drawing (Partial Load) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
Work with Multiple Open Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
Save a Drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
Find a Drawing File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
Specify Search Paths and File Locations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
Chapter 9 Repair, Restore, or Recover Drawing Files . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
Repair a Damaged Drawing File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
Create and Restore Backup Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
Recover from a System Failure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
Chapter 10 Maintain Standards in Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
Overview of CAD Standards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
Define Standards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
Check Drawings for Standards Violations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
Translate Layer Names and Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
Control the Drawing Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
Chapter 11 Change Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
Pan or Zoom a View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
Pan and Zoom with the Aerial View Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
Save and Restore Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
Control the 3D Projection Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
Overview of Parallel and Perspective Views . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
Define a Perspective Projection (DVIEW) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
Define a Parallel Projection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214

Choose Preset 3D Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216
Define a 3D View with Coordinate Values or Angles . . . . . . . 217
Change to a View of the XY Plane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
Shade a Model and Use Edge Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
Use a Visual Style to Display Your Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
Customize a Visual Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
Control Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240
Chapter 12 Use 3D Viewing Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249
Specify 3D Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250
Overview of 3D Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250
Use 3D Navigation Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252
Walk and Fly Through a Drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256
Create a 3D Dynamic View (DVIEW) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260
Define a 3D View with a Camera . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262
Overview of Cameras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262
Contents | vii
Create a Camera . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264
Change Camera Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266
Create Preview Animations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271
Create Motion Path Animations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274
Control a Camera Motion Path . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274
Specify Motion Path Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276
Record a Motion Path Animation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278
Chapter 13 Display Multiple Views in Model Space . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281
Set Model Space Viewports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282
Select and Use the Current Viewport . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285
Save and Restore Model Tab Viewport Arrangements . . . . . . . . . . 287
Choose a Work Process Before You Begin . . . . . . . . . . . . 291
Chapter 14 Create Single-View Drawings (Model Space) . . . . . . . . . . 293
Quick Start for Model Space Drafting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294

Draw, Scale, and Annotate in Model Space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295
Chapter 15 Create Multiple-View Drawing Layouts (Paper Space) . . . . . 301
Quick Start for Layouts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302
Understand the Layout Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304
Work with Model Space and Paper Space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307
Work on the Model Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307
Work on a Layout Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309
Access Model Space from a Layout Viewport . . . . . . . . . . . 316
Create and Modify Layout Viewports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319
Control Views in Layout Viewports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323
Scale Views in Layout Viewports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323
Control Visibility in Layout Viewports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 326
Scale Linetypes in Layout Viewports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334
Align Views in Layout Viewports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335
Rotate Views in Layout Viewports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 338
Reuse Layouts and Layout Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341
Chapter 16 Work with Sheets in a Sheet Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345
Quick Start for Sheet Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 346
Understand the Sheet Set Manager Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347
Create and Manage a Sheet Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 350
Create a Sheet Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 351
Organize a Sheet Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 355
Create and Modify Sheets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359
Include Information with Sheets and Sheet Sets . . . . . . . . . 370
viii | Contents
Publish, Transmit, and Archive Sheet Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 373
Use Sheet Sets in a Team . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 379
Create and Modify Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 383
Chapter 17 Control the Properties of Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 385
Overview of Object Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 387

Display and Change the Properties of Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . 388
Copy Properties Between Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393
Work with Layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 394
Overview of Layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 394
Use Layers to Manage Complexity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 396
Create and Name Layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 409
Change Layer Settings and Layer Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . 412
Override Layer Properties in Viewports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 417
Filter and Sort the List of Layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 425
Use New Layer Notification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 432
Work with Layer States . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 437
Work with Colors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 448
Set the Current Color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 448
Change the Color of an Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 451
Use Color Books . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 454
Work with Linetypes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 457
Overview of Linetypes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 457
Load Linetypes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 458
Set the Current Linetype . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 462
Change the Linetype of an Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 464
Control Linetype Scale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 466
Display Linetypes on Short Segments and Polylines . . . . . . . 468
Control Lineweights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 470
Overview of Lineweights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 470
Display Lineweights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 473
Set the Current Lineweight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 475
Change the Lineweight of an Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 477
Control the Display Properties of Certain Objects . . . . . . . . . . . 479
Control the Display of Polylines, Hatches, Gradient Fills,
Lineweights, and Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 479

Control How Overlapping Objects Are Displayed . . . . . . . . . 482
Chapter 18 Use Precision Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 485
Use Coordinates and Coordinate Systems (UCS) . . . . . . . . . . . . 486
Overview of Coordinate Entry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 486
Enter 2D Coordinates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 489
Enter 3D Coordinates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 494
Contents | ix
Understand the User Coordinate System (UCS) . . . . . . . . . . 501
Specify Workplanes in 3D (UCS) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 506
Assign User Coordinate System Orientations to Viewports . . . . 519
Control the Display of the User Coordinate System Icon . . . . . 521
Use Dynamic Input . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 524
Snap to Locations on Objects (Object Snaps) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 531
Use Object Snaps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 532
The Object Snap Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 535
Set Visual Aids for Object Snaps (AutoSnap) . . . . . . . . . . . 536
Override Object Snap Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 538
Restrict Cursor Movement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 542
Adjust Grid and Grid Snap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 542
Use Orthogonal Locking (Ortho Mode) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 549
Use Polar Tracking and PolarSnap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 551
Lock an Angle for One Point (Angle) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 556
Combine or Offset Points and Coordinates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 557
Combine Coordinate Values (Coordinate Filters) . . . . . . . . . 557
Track to Points on Objects (Object Snap Tracking) . . . . . . . . 560
Track to Offset Point Locations (Tracking) . . . . . . . . . . . . 564
Specify Distances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 565
Enter Direct Distances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 566
Offset from Temporary Reference Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . 567
Specify Intervals on Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 568

Extract Geometric Information from Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 574
Obtain Distances, Angles, and Point Locations . . . . . . . . . . 574
Obtain Area and Mass Properties Information . . . . . . . . . . 576
Use a Calculator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 582
Use the QuickCalc Calculator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 582
Use the Command Line Calculator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 602
Chapter 19 Draw Geometric Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 607
Draw Linear Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 608
Draw Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 608
Draw Polylines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 610
Draw Rectangles and Polygons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 615
Draw Multiline Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 618
Draw Freehand Sketches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 622
Draw Curved Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 625
Draw Arcs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 625
Draw Circles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 630
Draw Polyline Arcs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 632
Draw Donuts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 638
Draw Ellipses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 640
Draw Splines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 643
Draw Helixes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 646
Draw Construction and Reference Geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 648
x | Contents
Draw Reference Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 648
Draw Construction Lines (and Rays) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 650
Create and Combine Areas (Regions) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 652
Create Revision Clouds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 657
Chapter 20 Create and Use Blocks (Symbols) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 661
Overview of Blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 662
Create and Store Blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 663

How Blocks Are Stored and Referenced . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 663
Create Blocks Within a Drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 665
Create Drawing Files for Use as Blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 667
Control the Color and Linetype Properties in Blocks . . . . . . . 670
Nest Blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 674
Create Block Libraries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 675
Use Tool Palettes to Organize Blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 677
Remove Block Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 678
Add Dynamic Behavior to Blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 679
Quick Start to Creating Dynamic Blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . 680
Overview of Dynamic Blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 681
Use the Block Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 685
Add Dynamic Elements to Blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 699
Save a Block in the Block Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 786
Insert Blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 788
Work with Dynamic Blocks in Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 793
Attach Data to Blocks (Block Attributes) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 797
Overview of Block Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 797
Define Block Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 800
Extract Data from Block Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 805
Extract Block Attribute Data (Advanced) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 807
Modify Blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 814
Modify a Block Definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 814
Change the Color and Linetype in a Block . . . . . . . . . . . . 817
Modify the Data in Block Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 820
Modify a Block Attribute Definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 822
Disassemble a Block Reference (Explode) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 827
Chapter 21 Change Existing Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 831
Select Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 832
Select Objects Individually . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 832

Select Multiple Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 835
Prevent Objects from Being Selected . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 839
Filter Selection Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 841
Customize Object Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 845
Group Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 852
Correct Mistakes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 858
Contents | xi
Erase Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 861
Use Windows Cut, Copy, and Paste . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 865
Modify Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 868
Choose a Method to Modify Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 869
Move or Rotate Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 870
Copy, Offset, or Mirror Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 880
Change the Size and Shape of Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 894
Fillet, Chamfer, Break, or Join Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 905
Use Grips to Edit Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 919
Modify Complex Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 932
Disassociate Compound Objects (Explode) . . . . . . . . . . . . 933
Modify or Join Polylines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 934
Modify Splines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 940
Modify Helixes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 943
Modify Multilines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 945
Work with 3D Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 949
Chapter 22 Create 3D Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 951
Overview of 3D Modeling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 952
Create 3D Solids and Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 954
Overview of Creating 3D Solids and Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . 954
Create 3D Solid Primitives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 957
Create a Polysolid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 972
Create Solids and Surfaces from Lines and Curves . . . . . . . . 975

Create Solids and Surfaces from Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 990
Create Solids from Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 993
Create Composite Solids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 995
Create Solids by Slicing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 998
Check for Interferences within a Solid Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1001
Create Meshes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1003
Create Wireframe Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1014
Add 3D Thickness to Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1017
Chapter 23 Modify 3D Solids and Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1021
Manipulate 3D Solids and Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1022
Manipulate Individual Solids and Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . 1022
Work with Composite Solids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1026
Select and Modify 3D Subobjects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1031
Select 3D Subobjects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1031
Move, Rotate, and Scale Subobjects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1034
Modify Faces on 3D Solids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1037
Modify Edges on 3D Solids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1042
Modify Vertices on 3D Solids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1048
xii | Contents
Press or Pull Bounded Areas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1051
Use Grip Tools to Modify Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1053
Understand Grip Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1053
Use the Move Grip Tool to Modify Objects . . . . . . . . . . . 1056
Use the Rotate Grip Tool to Modify Objects . . . . . . . . . . . 1060
Add Edges and Faces to Solids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1063
Separate 3D Solids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1064
Shell 3D Solids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1065
Clean and Check 3D Solids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1067
Chapter 24 Create Sections and 2D Drawings from 3D Models . . . . . . 1069
Section 3D Solids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1070

Work with Section Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1071
Overview of Section Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1071
Create Section Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1074
Set Section Object States . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1077
Use Section Object Grips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1079
Access Section Object Shortcut Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1080
Change Section Object Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1082
Associate Section Objects with Views and Cameras . . . . . . . 1084
Publish Section Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1085
Save Section Object as Tool Palette Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1087
Add Jogs to a Section . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1088
Live Sectioning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1090
Understand Live Sectioning Behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1091
Generate 2D and 3D Sections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1093
Create a Flattened View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1095
Annotate Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1099
Chapter 25 Work with Annotations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1101
Overview of Annotations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1102
Scale Annotations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1102
Overview of Scaling Annotations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1103
Set Annotation Scale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1104
Create Annotative Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1106
Display Annotative Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1129
Add and Modify Scale Representations . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1131
Set Orientation for Annotations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1134
Chapter 26 Hatches, Fills, and Wipeouts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1137
Overview of Hatch Patterns and Fills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1138
Define Hatch Boundaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1146
Overview of Hatch Boundaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1146
Contents | xiii

Control the Hatching in Islands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1148
Define Hatch Boundaries in Large Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . 1150
Create Unbounded Hatches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1152
Choose Hatch Patterns and Solid Fills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1154
Create Solid-Filled Areas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1154
Create Gradient-Filled Areas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1158
Use Predefined Hatch Patterns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1161
Create User-Defined Hatch Patterns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1163
Modify Hatches and Solid-Filled Areas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1164
Create a Blank Area to Cover Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1169
Chapter 27 Notes and Labels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1171
Overview of Notes and Labels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1172
Create Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1173
Overview of Creating Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1173
Create Single-Line Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1175
Create Multiline Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1179
Create and Edit Columns in Multiline Text . . . . . . . . . . . 1203
Import Text from External Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1208
Create Leaders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1210
Overview of Leader Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1210
Create and Modify Leaders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1212
Work with Leader Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1218
Add Content to a Leader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1221
Use Fields in Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1225
Insert Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1225
Update Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1231
Use Hyperlinks in Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1235
Work with Text Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1237
Overview of Text Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1238
Assign Text Fonts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1240

Set Text Height . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1249
Set Text Obliquing Angle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1251
Set Horizontal or Vertical Text Orientation . . . . . . . . . . . 1252
Change Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1254
Overview of Changing Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1254
Change Single-Line Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1255
Change Multiline Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1257
Change Text Scale and Justification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1262
Check Spelling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1264
Use an Alternate Text Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1268
Overview of Using an Alternate Text Editor . . . . . . . . . . . 1268
Format Multiline Text in an Alternate Text Editor . . . . . . . . 1269
Chapter 28 Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1275
xiv | Contents
Create and Modify Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1276
Link a Table to External Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1286
Work with Table Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1291
Add Text and Blocks to Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1298
Use Formulas in Table Cells . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1305
Chapter 29 Dimensions and Tolerances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1315
Understand Basic Concepts of Dimensioning . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1316
Overview of Dimensioning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1316
Parts of a Dimension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1318
Associative Dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1320
Use Dimension Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1323
Overview of Dimension Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1323
Compare Dimension Styles and Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . 1325
Control Dimension Geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1327
Control Dimension Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1338
Control Dimension Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1350

Set the Scale for Dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1362
Create Dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1365
Create Linear Dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1366
Create Radial Dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1376
Create Angular Dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1382
Create Ordinate Dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1385
Create Arc Length Dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1387
Modify Existing Dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1389
Apply a New Dimension Style to Existing Dimensions . . . . . 1389
Override a Dimension Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1391
Modify A Dimension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1394
Modify Dimension Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1409
Modify Dimension Geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1414
Change Dimension Associativity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1418
Add Geometric Tolerances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1421
Overview of Geometric Tolerances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1421
Material Conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1424
Datum Reference Frames . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1425
Projected Tolerance Zones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1426
Composite Tolerances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1427
Plot and Publish Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1431
Chapter 30 Prepare Drawings for Plotting and Publishing . . . . . . . . 1433
Quick Start to Preparing Drawings for Plotting and Publishing . . . . 1434
Specify Page Setup Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1435
Overview of Page Setup Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1435
Contents | xv
Select a Printer or Plotter for a Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1437
Select a Paper Size for a Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1439
Set the Plot Area of a Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1444
Adjust the Plot Offset of a Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1446

Set the Plot Scale for a Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1448
Set the Lineweight Scale for a Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1450
Select a Plot Style Table for a Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1451
Set Shaded Viewport and Plot Options for a Layout . . . . . . . 1454
Determine the Drawing Orientation of a Layout . . . . . . . . 1457
Use the Layout Wizard to Specify Layout Settings . . . . . . . . . . . 1458
Import PCP or PC2 Settings into a Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1460
Create and Use Named Page Setups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1461
Use Named Page Setups with Sheet Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1466
Chapter 31 Plot Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1469
Quick Start to Plotting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1470
Overview of Plotting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1471
Use a Page Setup to Specify Plot Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1476
Select a Printer or Plotter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1478
Specify the Area to Plot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1480
Set Paper Size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1481
Position the Drawing on the Paper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1485
Specify the Printable Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1485
Set the Position of the Plot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1486
Set Drawing Orientation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1487
Control How Objects Are Plotted . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1488
Set Plot Scale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1488
Set Shaded Viewport Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1492
Set Options for Plotted Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1496
Use Plot Styles to Control Plotted Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . 1501
Use Color-Dependent Plot Style Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1511
Use Named Plot Style Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1513
Change Plot Style Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1522
Preview a Plot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1536
Plot Files to Other Formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1538

Plot DWF Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1539
Plot to DXB File Formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1540
Plot to Raster File Formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1542
Plot Adobe PDF Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1544
Plot Adobe PostScript Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1546
Create Plot Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1548
Chapter 32 Publish Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1551
Quick Start to Publishing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1552
Overview of Publishing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1553
xvi | Contents
Create and Modify a Drawing Set for Publishing . . . . . . . . . . . 1556
Create a Paper or Plot File Drawing Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1563
Publish an Electronic Drawing Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1566
Publish a Sheet Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1570
Republish a Drawing Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1577
View a Published Electronic Drawing Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1578
Set Publish Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1580
3D DWF Publishing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1588
Configure a DWF6 Driver (Advanced) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1595
Overview of Creating or Modifying a DWF6 Configuration
File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1596
Set the DWF File Resolution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1599
Set the DWF File Compression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1602
Set Font Handling for the DWF File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1603
Edit Pen Patterns for the DWF File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1606
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1609
Contents | xvii
xviii
Get Information
In this part

■ Get Information from
Drawings
1
2
Get Information from
Drawings
In this chapter
You can retrieve general information from a drawing including
identifying information and the number of objects that it
contains.
■ Obtain General Drawing
Information
■ Count Objects Within a
Drawing
There are types of information stored in a drawing that are
not specific to objects within the drawing, but provide useful
information to help you understand the behavior of the
drawing, the settings of system variables, the the number of
objects, descriptive information, and so on.
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Obtain General Drawing Information
You can retrieve general information about the drawing file and its settings.
This information includes the following:
■ Custom descriptive information about the drawing (DWGPROPS)
■ General drawing settings (STATUS)
■ Amount of time spent in the drawing (TIME)
This information can help you document a drawing, displays a variety of
drawing settings such as the total number of objects in the drawing and the
amount of free space on your disk drive, and the total amount of time spent

in the drawing file.
See also:
■ Enter System Variables on the Command Line (page 32)
■ Add Identifying Information to Drawings (page 142)
■ Extract Geometric Information from Objects (page 574)
■ Compare Dimension Styles and Variables (page 1325)
Quick Reference
Commands
DWGPROPS
Sets and displays the properties of the current drawing
SETVAR
Lists or changes the values of system variables
STATUS
Displays drawing statistics, modes, and extents
TIME
Displays the date and time statistics of a drawing
4 | Chapter 1 Get Information from Drawings
System Variables
CDATE
Stores the current date and time in decimal format
DATE
Stores the current date and time in Modified Julian Date format
SAVENAME
Utilities
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Command Modifiers
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Count Objects Within a Drawing
You can count objects within a drawing using the QSELECT command.
The QSELECT command displays the Quick Select dialog box, which allows

you to create a selection set based on the filtering criteria. You can filter
selection sets by property such as color or linetype, and by object type.
Creating a selection set based on the filtering criteria in the Quick Select dialog
box, allows you to count specified types of objects within a drawing.
To count specified types of objects in a drawing
1 Click Tools menu ➤ Quick Select.
2 In the Quick Select dialog box, do one of the following:
■ In the Apply To List, select Entire Drawing.
■ Click the Select Objects button to select a group of objects. Press
ENTER. In the Apply To list, select Current selection.
3 In the Object Type list, select the type of object you want to count.
4 In the Properties list, select a property that belongs to the type of objects
you want to count.
Count Objects Within a Drawing | 5
5 In the Operator list, select = Equals.
6 In the Value list, select the property value of the type of objects you want
to count.
7 Click OK.
The number of objects displays on the command line.
qselect
End any active commands, right-click in the drawing area, and choose Quick
Select.
Quick Reference
Commands
QSELECT
Creates a selection set based on filtering criteria
System Variables
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Utilities
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Command Modifiers
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6 | Chapter 1 Get Information from Drawings
The User Interface
In this part
■ Toolbars, Menus, and The
Dashboard
■ The Command Window
■ DesignCenter
■ Customize the Drawing
Environment
■ Tool Palettes
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