478 Part II ✦ Drawing in Two Dimensions Table 16-1 (continued) Command Usable with Multilines Command Usable with Multilines COPY yes ROTATE yes EXPLODE yes SCALE yes EXTEND yes STRETCH yes FILLET no TRIM yes You can use grips to stretch, move, copy, mirror, and rotate multilines. To edit multilines, you use the MLEDIT command. To start MLEDIT, double-click the multiline (or choose Modify ➪ Object ➪ Multiline) to open the Multilines Edit Tools dialog box, shown in Figure 16-35. Figure 16-35: The Multilines Edit Tools dialog box. This dialog box enables you to edit multiline intersections and corners. You can also add or delete a vertex. Click one of the images, and its name appears at the bottom of the dialog box. The first column manages crossing intersections. To edit a crossing intersection, choose one of the tiles in the first column and click OK. The command prompts you to pick a first multi- line and then a second multiline. MLEDIT always cuts the first multiline that you pick. The second one may be cut if it is called for by the edit type. Although the command prompts you to pick two multilines, they can actually be two parts of the same multiline. The second column manages T-shaped intersections. To edit a crossing intersection, choose one of the tiles in the second column and click OK. The command prompts you to pick a first multiline and then a second multiline. MLEDIT always cuts the first multiline that you pick. Note 23_788864 ch16.qxp 5/22/06 7:17 PM Page 478 479 Chapter 16 ✦ Drawing Complex Objects The second one may be cut if it is called for by the edit type and depending on the shape of the multiline. The third column manages corners and vertices. The top tile creates a corner. The second tile adds a vertex, and the third deletes a vertex. Choose the edit that you want and click OK. The command prompts you to select a multiline. Be careful — you must pick the point where you want to add or delete the vertex. To see the current vertices, pick the multiline with no com- mand active to see the grips. The last column of the dialog box makes cuts through multilines and welds them back together again. Here’s how to use these options: ✦ Use the top tile to make a cut through one element of a multiline. ✦ Use the middle tile to cut through all of the elements of a multiline. In both cases, you get a prompt to select a multiline and then a second point. Be careful—the point that you use to select the multiline is the first point of the cut. For a single cut, the pick point of the multiline also determines which element the com- mand cuts. ✦ Use the bottom tile to remove the cuts. Removing cuts is called welding. For all of these editing tools, you get prompts for further edits. Press Enter to end selection. You can also move vertices using grips with the Stretch option. An old command, TRACE, draws lines with width. Usually you can use polylines or multilines instead to create the same effect. Multiline styles are stored with the drawing, so that they can be updated and viewed, even if the multiline style file containing the multiline definition is not available. Creating Dlines in AutoCAD LT Dlines are the AutoCAD LT equivalent of Multilines. AutoCAD does not include dlines. Dlines (double lines) create line segments and arcs that are individual objects. The double lines and arcs have nicely finished corners and ends. You can specify the width between the lines, off- set the lines from your pick points, and cap the lines with a simple square cap. To create a dline, choose Draw ➪ Double Line. The first prompt, Specify start point or [Break/Caps/Dragline/Snap/Width]:, gives you the following options: ✦ Break: Breaks the dline when it crosses other double lines, single lines, or arcs. ✦ Caps: Places a square cap at the start or end of the double line or at both the start and end. Otherwise, use the None suboption. ✦ Dragline: Offsets the double line from your pick points. A positive value for this option offsets to the right, and a negative value offsets to the left of your pick points. By default, the double line is centered on either side of your pick points. You can also choose to use the Left or Right suboptions to align the left or right line with your pick points. ✦ Snap: Ends a double line whenever you use an object snap. ✦ Width: Specifies the distance between the double lines. Note 23_788864 ch16.qxp 5/22/06 7:17 PM Page 479 480 Part II ✦ Drawing in Two Dimensions After you specify the first point, the prompt expands to give you three more options: ✦ Arc: Creates double arcs using this option. (You can’t easily do this in AutoCAD!) You have suboptions that are similar to the ARC command options, including a Line option to return to drawing lines segments. ✦ CLose: Draws a double line from the last point back to the first point. ✦ Undo: Undoes the last line segment or arc. Because dlines are individual lines and arcs, there are no special editing tools and they are easy to edit. Using the SKETCH Command The SKETCH command enables you to draw freehand. Freehand drawing is useful for contour lines in architectural or civil engineering drawings, for illustrative effects, and for when you’re feeling artistic. Although you may get best results if you have a digitizer and a stylus pen, you can sketch with a mouse or puck as well. Figure 16-36 shows some contour lines created with SKETCH. AutoCAD LT does not offer the Sketch feature. Figure 16-36: Contour lines drawn with SKETCH. Sketch can create lines or polylines. Polylines are probably easier to work with if you need to edit the sketch later; you can use the PEDIT command. To specify whether SKETCH creates lines or polylines, set the SKPOLY system variable. A value of zero creates lines, and a value of one creates polylines. Start the SKETCH command by typing sketch ↵. The command places you in a special sketch mode and displays a special menu on the command line: 23_788864 ch16.qxp 5/22/06 7:17 PM Page 480 481 Chapter 16 ✦ Drawing Complex Objects Record increment <0.1000>: Press Enter or type a new increment. Sketch. Pen eXit Quit Record Erase Connect Type the record increment, which is the length of the line or polyline segment that you want to create. If the increment is too big, small movements do not create a segment at all, and the sketch line appears jagged instead of smooth. However, you need to take into account the scale of your drawing and your zoom factor. You should also turn off ORTHO and SNAP if they’re on. The pick button is equivalent to typing p, and toggles the pen up and down. Follow these steps to start sketching: 1. Place the cursor where you want to start drawing. 2. Press the pick button. The prompt responds with the <Pen down> message. You can now draw. 3. Without holding down the pick button, move the mouse or stylus to create the shape that you want. SKETCH creates a temporary green line. 4. After you finish, click the pick button again to see the <Pen up> message. 5. Move the mouse to the starting point of your next line or polyline. Continue in this manner until you finish sketching. 6. Type r to record the sketch. The prompt tells you what you created. The sketch changes to the color of the current layer and becomes permanent, as shown in this example: 4 polylines with 238 edges recorded. 7. Type x to exit Sketch mode. Here are the other options: ✦ Quit: Quits Sketch mode without saving your sketch. The temporary line disappears. ✦ Erase: Erases temporary lines. ✦ Connect: Enables you to continue drawing from the end of the last sketch. Use this when the pen is up. Type c and move to the endpoint of the last temporary sketch. ✦ . (Period): Enables you to draw straight line segments from the endpoint of the last sketch. While the pen is up, type a period to add a line segment from the last endpoint to your current cursor position. The drawing used in the following exercise on sketching, ab16-h.dwg, is in the Drawings folder on the CD-ROM. STEPS: Sketching 1. Open ab16-h.dwg from your CD-ROM. 2. Save the file as ab16-08.dwg in your AutoCAD Bible folder. It shows the front elevation of a house. You’ll add the sketched path and contours, as shown in Figure 16-37. 3. Type skpoly ↵. Set SKPOLY to 1 and press Enter. On the CD-ROM 23_788864 ch16.qxp 5/22/06 7:17 PM Page 481 482 Part II ✦ Drawing in Two Dimensions 4. Type sketch ↵. At the Record increment <0'-0">: prompt, type 1 ↵ to set the record increment to 1". 5. At the Sketch. Pen eXit Quit Record Erase Connect. prompt, move the cursor to 1 in Figure 16-37. Click the pick button to put the pen down and draw the first line of the path. Click the pick button to put the pen up. 6. Use the same technique to draw the other lines in Figure 16-37. If you make a mistake, type q ↵ to quit and then start again. 7. After you’re done, type r to record the lines. 8. Type x to end the SKETCH command. 9. Save your drawing. Figure 16-37: A sketched path and contours. Digitizing Drawings with the TABLET Command In Chapter 3, I explained that you can use a digitizer to execute commands. One important use for a digitizer is to copy paper drawings into your drawing. Many companies have used this technique to copy old drawings that were drafted by hand so that they could be edited electronically. Digitizing can also be used to copy artwork and logos into a drawing. To digitize a paper drawing, you use a special digitizing mode that turns the entire digitizer into a drawing tablet. To start the TABLET command, choose Tools ➪ Tablet and choose one of the options. If you’ve been using the digitizer to execute commands, you need to reconfigure it to elimi- nate the command areas and enlarge the drawing area. Use the Configure option of the TABLET command and reconfigure the digitizer for 0 tablet menus. Respecify the screen pointing area so that the fixed screen pointing area covers the entire digitizing area. 1 23_788864 ch16.qxp 5/22/06 7:17 PM Page 482 483 Chapter 16 ✦ Drawing Complex Objects Attach the paper drawing securely to the digitizer so that it won’t move as you work. To set up the digitizing mode, start the TABLET command and choose the Calibrate option. The option prompts you to pick two points on the paper drawing and specify which coordi- nates they represent. To do this you need to mark two points on the paper drawing; take out a ruler and measure their distance. If the drawing has a title block, two corners of the title block are distinctive points to mark and measure. If the drawing is drawn to a scale — and it probably is—the coordinates you type should be the distance in real life, not the measure- ment. In other words, if the two horizontal points are 1 inch apart and 1 inch represents 48 inches (a scale of 1=48), you could enter 0,0 for the first point and 48,0 for the second point. However, it is usually useful to choose points over a wider area of your drawing. You can cali- brate more than two points if you want. If your drawing is distorted or uses a perspective view that you want to straighten out, you can calibrate additional points and choose either Affine or Projective calibration to account for the distortion. Affine calibration requires at least three points and scales the X and Y axes separately. Projective calibration requires at least four points and stretches the coordinates to adjust for the perspective view. You can provide up to 31 calibration points. After you finish specifying calibration points and coordinates, press Enter. Now your entire tablet can be used only for picking points. You can press F12 to use a menu or toolbar and press F12 again to return to picking points, or type commands on the command line. You can turn Tablet mode on and off by starting the TABLET command and choosing the On and Off options. Tablet calibration settings are lost when you close the drawing session. Choose the command that you need and pick points along the paper drawing. After you’re done, turn off Tablet mode and do any necessary editing and cleanup. In this exercise, you practice digitizing drawings. If you have a digitizer, you can try this exer- cise. Otherwise, skip it. STEPS: Digitizing Drawings 1. Start a new drawing using acad.dwt or acadlt.dwt as your template. 2. Save the file as ab16-09.dwg in your AutoCAD Bible folder. This is a sheet metal tem- plate as shown in Figure 16-38. 3. Make a photocopy of Figure 16-38 and tape it to the active area of your digitizer. 4. Choose Tools➪ Tablet ➪ Calibrate. Follow the prompts: Digitize point #1: Pick 1 in Figure 16-38. Enter coordinates for point #1: 0,0 ↵ Digitize point #2: Pick 2 in Figure 16-38. Enter coordinates for point #2: 7,5 ↵ Digitize point #3 (or RETURN to end): ↵ 5. Type tablet ↵ and on ↵. 6. Type line ↵. Note Note 23_788864 ch16.qxp 5/22/06 7:17 PM Page 483 484 Part II ✦ Drawing in Two Dimensions 7. In Figure16-38, pick 3 with the digitizer, then 4, and then each line endpoint in turn, counterclockwise around the figure. 8. After you reach 5, do not digitize point 1 again. Instead, type c ↵ to close the figure exactly. 9. Type tablet ↵. Type off ↵ to return the digitizer to Screen Pointing mode. 10. Save your drawing. Figure 16-38: An unfolded sheet-metal template. Summary Several types of complex objects add greatly to the capabilities of AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT. In this chapter, you read about: ✦ Using polylines to combine lines, segments, and arcs of any width into one object ✦ Utilizing splines to mathematically calculate curves, fit to points that you specify ✦ Using regions, which are two-dimensional surfaces ✦ Creating regions or polylines from complex areas by using the BOUNDARY command ✦ Filling in an area with lines, a solid fill, or a gradient with hatches 2 3 4 5 1 23_788864 ch16.qxp 5/22/06 7:17 PM Page 484 485 Chapter 16 ✦ Drawing Complex Objects ✦ Drawing complex parallel lines at one time with multilines (AutoCAD only), and draw- ing double lines with AutoCAD LT ✦ Drawing freehand by using the SKETCH command, creating either lines or polylines (AutoCAD only) ✦ Using a digitizer in Tablet mode, when you need to copy a paper drawing into AutoCAD In the next chapter, I explain how to lay out and plot a drawing. ✦✦✦ 23_788864 ch16.qxp 5/22/06 7:17 PM Page 485 23_788864 ch16.qxp 5/22/06 7:17 PM Page 486 17 17 CHAPTER Plotting and Printing Your Drawing M ost drawing jobs are not complete until you see the final result on paper. Traditionally, drawings are plotted on a plotter. However, you can also print a drawing on a regular computer printer. Many printers and plotters can handle a wide range of drawing sizes and paper types. In this chapter, I explain the process of preparing a drawing for plotting, including laying it out in paper space, more properly known as a layout. Finally, I cover the actual process of creating a plot. Preparing a Drawing for Plotting or Printing When you complete your drawing, you often have some details to fin- ish. If you didn’t start with a title block, you may need to insert one. Even if you have a title block, you may need to complete some of its annotation, such as the date that you completed the drawing. If the drawing has layers that you don’t want to appear on paper, you should set their layer state to Frozen, Off, or Not Plottable. Many architectural and mechanical drawings show several views of the model. Now is the time to check that the views are pleasingly laid out, with enough space between them for dimensions and annotation. Doing a draft plot You may want to do a draft plot, either to check the drawing itself or to be sure that it will print out properly. Although you can preview the plot, sometimes the results are not what you want, and it pays to test the plot on inexpensive paper before plotting on expensive vel- lum. Draft plots for checking purposes can often be done on a printer. Some companies have wide-format inkjet printers that accept 17×22- inch paper and are used exclusively for check plots. Even if the final plot will be all in black, a color printer is a good choice for draft plots because you can easily check the layer scheme. ✦✦✦✦ In This Chapter Preparing a drawing for plotting or printing Creating a layout in paper space Working with plot styles Plotting a drawing ✦✦✦✦ 24_788864 ch17.qxp 5/22/06 7:20 PM Page 487 [...]... ab17-a dwg and ab-17-a-blk.dwg, are in the Drawings folder on the CD-ROM STEPS: Laying Out a Drawing in Paper Space 1 Open ab17-a.dwg from your CD-ROM 2 Save the file as ab1 7-0 2.dwg in your AutoCAD Bible folder 3 If you do not have tabs displayed at the bottom of the drawing area, right-click the Model button on the status bar and choose Display Layout and Model Tabs Click the Layout1 tab Right-click the... saved in AutoCAD 2000 /AutoCAD LT 2000 or later format Moreover, the template that you use to open a new drawing must be set to use named plot styles AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT come with a template called acad -Named Plot Styles.dwt (aclt -Named Plot Styles.dwt) that you can use, or you can create your own template Caution If you have color-dependent plot styles for existing pre AutoCAD 2000 /AutoCAD LT 2000... script file to open and save all of your existing drawings as AutoCAD 2007 or AutoCAD LT 2007 drawings, and only then change the mode to named plot styles Chapter 30 explains how to create script files 50 7 24_788864 ch17.qxp 50 8 5/ 22/06 7:20 PM Page 50 8 Part II ✦ Drawing in Two Dimensions You can convert color-dependent plot style tables to named plot-style tables using the CONVERTCTB command You can then... 1 in Figure 1 7-1 3 (In AutoCAD LT, your prompt will look slightly different.) At the Specify opposite corner: prompt, choose 2 24_788864 ch17.qxp 5/ 22/06 7:20 PM Page 50 5 Chapter 17 ✦ Plotting and Printing Your Drawing 1 5 2 6 3 4 Figure 1 7-1 3: The title block inserted into paper space 13 Click the right mouse button and then choose Repeat 1 Viewport At the prompt, choose 3 in Figure 1 7-1 3 At the next... command and choose 5 and 6 You now see the drawing in the three viewports 14 Click the border of the top-left viewport Press Ctrl+1 to open the Properties palette Choose Custom Scale from the Properties palette Type 4 ↵ Press Esc to deselect the top-left viewport 15 Select the top-right viewport and set its custom scale to 4 Deselect the top-right viewport 16 Select the bottom viewport Choose Standard... Name screen, type a name for the plot-style table file Click Next 50 9 24_788864 ch17.qxp 51 0 5/ 22/06 7:20 PM Page 51 0 Part II ✦ Drawing in Two Dimensions 5 On the Finish screen, an option labeled Use this plot style table for new and preAutoCAD 2007 drawings may be available If it is, then check this option to attach the plot-style table to all new drawings by default You don’t have to use the plot styles,... Options and clicking the Plot and Publish tab Click the Plot Style Table Settings button In the Plot Style Tables Settings dialog box, choose either Use Color Dependent Plot Styles or Use Named Plot Styles In the same location, you can set the following: ✦ Default plot-style table (the default is acad.stb or acadlt.stb for named and acad.ctb or acadlt.ctb for color-dependent plot styles) ✦ Default plot... the CD-ROM The drawing used in the following exercise on creating a paper space layout with the Layout Wizard, ab17-a.dwg, is in the Drawings folder on the CD-ROM 24_788864 ch17.qxp 5/ 22/06 7:20 PM Page 493 Chapter 17 ✦ Plotting and Printing Your Drawing STEPS: Creating a Paper Space Layout with the Layout Wizard 1 Open ab17-a.dwg from your CD-ROM 2 Save the file as ab1 7-0 1.dwg in your AutoCAD Bible. .. dimensioned at 1 unit, although it is zoomed in to a 1/2 scale 20 Click the Layer Control drop-down arrow and change the current layer to Text Click the Layer Control drop-down arrow again Click the icon in the second column (Freeze or Thaw in ALL Viewports) next to the Np layer Click the top of the drop-down list to close it 50 5 24_788864 ch17.qxp 50 6 5/ 22/06 7:20 PM Page 50 6 Part II ✦ Drawing in... command to convert the drawing so that it uses named plot styles You can also use the CONVERTPSTYLES command to convert a drawing from using named plot styles to color-dependent plot styles Creating a plot-style table Each named plot-style table comes with a default plot style called Normal By default, the plot style for each layer is Normal Figure 1 7-1 5 shows the Normal plot style, shown in a plot-style . at one time with multilines (AutoCAD only), and draw- ing double lines with AutoCAD LT ✦ Drawing freehand by using the SKETCH command, creating either lines or polylines (AutoCAD only) ✦ Using. viewed, even if the multiline style file containing the multiline definition is not available. Creating Dlines in AutoCAD LT Dlines are the AutoCAD LT equivalent of Multilines. AutoCAD does not include. copy, mirror, and rotate multilines. To edit multilines, you use the MLEDIT command. To start MLEDIT, double-click the multiline (or choose Modify ➪ Object ➪ Multiline) to open the Multilines Edit