AutoCAD: Secrets Every User Should Know

Introduction vii

Chapter 1 AutoCAD Productivity 1

Design Standards 2

AutoCAD Best Practices 5

Feature Review (All Releases) 12

Chapter 2 Managing Your System 41

Managing Files 42

Managing AutoCAD 45

Directories 60

Why DOS Isn’t Dead Yet 62

External Commands and Command Aliases 68

Chapter 3 Customizing the AutoCAD Interface 73

Tool Palettes (All Releases) 74

The Customizable User Interface (CUI) 83

Linetypes (All Releases) 97

Chapter 4 Applying Graphics Standards 105

Dimensions 106

Dimensioning Rules 130

Text Styles 133

Linetypes and Weights 135

Applying Standards 143

Chapter 5 Symbols, Tables, and Fields 155

Blocks 156

Dynamic Blocks 165

Symbol Libraries 167

Assigning and Extracting Attributes 172

XRefs: External References 182

Fields and Tables 189

Chapter 6 Plotting 195

Model Space, Paper Space, and Layouts 196

What to Put Where 212

Plotting a Layout 220

AutoCAD Graphics in Other Applications 243

Chapter 7 AutoCAD Scripts 247

Characteristics of Scripts 248

Writing and Running Scripts 248

Updating Thousands of Drawings 258

Chapter 8 AutoLISP by Example: Getting Started 273

Background 274

Writing AutoLISP Programs 275

AutoLISP Examples 282

Automatic Loading 306

Chapter 9 AutoLISP by Example: Getting Better 311

Debugging Techniques 312

Error Handling 325

Annotation 328

Selection Sets and Entity Manipulation 331

IF Function 342

Repeat Function 348

WHILE Function 351

COND, INITGET, GETKWORD 354

Text and String Manipulation 357

Getting to DOS with AutoLISP 360

Chapter 10 3D For Everyone 365

Overview 366

Managing Coordinate Systems 369

Creating a Model 373

Using Existing 2D Geometry 395

Final Suggestions 409

Chapter 11 AutoCAD Puzzlers 411

The Puzzlers 412

The Solutions 421

Index 435