AutoCAD terms

F1

Help

F2

Text screen, tells you the previous commands

F3

Osnap

F7

Grid

F8

Ortho (forces lines to be straight, vertical or horizontal)

F9

Snap

F12

Turns off the bar next to the cursor

Undo

U enter

Offset

Creates a parallel copy of a selected object

First two things to do once logging on

Type options and remove the shortcut menu, then dock the command line

User interface

The entire screen

Graphics area

The portion with the grid

Pull down menu

Home, insert, etc

Command line

Current state of the drawing activities (conversation with autocad)

Status bar

Bottom right portion with the symbols

Blue box

Only selects if the object is entirely in the box

Green box

Selects everything it touches

Interactive method of coordinate entry

Pick a point on the screen

Absolute method of coordinate entry

Enter the cartesian coordinates (x,y)

Relative rectangular method of coordinate entry

Type @ x,y

Relative polar method of coordinate entry

Type @ distance < angle

Move

Hit the move button, use selection box, left click once, then left click again

Trim

Scissors button and click on the areas you want gone

Running Osnap

Go to midpoints as well

Regular Osnap

Only goes to endpoints

Decimal inches

23.2 in

Architectural inches

Feet and inches (4’ 6”)

Engineering inches

Feet and decimal (4.5 feet)

.dwg

Extension of a drawing file

.bak

Backup file extension

.plt

Extension of a plot file

.dwt

Extension of a drawing template file

Hot grip

Red=edit

Cold grip

Blue=move

Selection set

Whatever has grips currently

Fillet

Creates a corner between 2 lines/objects

Rectangular Array

Used to create copies for rows and columns

Polar Array

Copies items in a circular motion

Path Array

Copies items following a path

Polyline

Connected sequence of lines/arcs

PEDIT

Type this to edit a polyline, w=width, j=join

Explode

Command used to break down complex objects into many components/segments

LIST

Type this to find info on an object

DIST

Type this to find the distance of a line from one point to another

NEA

Goes to the nearest spsot

PER

Perpendicular

Default

The value maintained by the computer until you change it

Draw

Tool palette that creates objects

Polar array

Rotates and copies an object

Layers

AutoCAD organization

Layer properties

Where you can add new layers

Features/symbols of layers

Lightbulb, sun, snowflake, lock, unlock

Lightbulb off

Makes the layer invisible but still accessible (so it can be erased)

Freeze (snowflake)

Makes the layer invisible and inaccessible

Lock

Makes the layer visible but inaccessible

Current layer

Where everything you draw lands, you have to move objects to their layer manually

LTSCALE

Type this to change the scale of the linetype, can make the spaces of a noncontinuous line longer

To only change the scale of one object

Select object, click on the little arrow by the properties box and change the number

F10

Polar tracking

F11

Osnap tracking

F12

Dynamic input

Repeat last command

Enter, right mouse button and space bar

Decimal

Default style of units

Left mouse button

For selecting objects

Cartesian coordinates

Any location in the drawing

Cartesian coordinate display

To see the current location of the cursor

PEDIT

To turn an object into a polyline or to edit a polyline

Current layer

Active drawing layer

Defpoints layer

Created when you make the first dimension, shows the space that is the offset from origin (don’t draw anything on this layer)

BLOCK

Type this to make a drawing a block

WBLOCK

Means “write block”, makes the block into a .dwg file

TTR (tangent, tangent, radius)

Circle tangent to two lines

Solid window

Blue, object must be completely inside

Crossing window

Green, only has to touch part of the object

Purge

Lets you delete linetypes after they have been loaded in

Radius of zero in fillet

Makes a sharp corner

Erase + crossing window

Tells you how many objects are selected

Chamfer

Makes a beveled edge

UOS

Unless otherwise specified

TYP

Typical

Info included in a titleblock

Logo, client info, drafter name, project name, page name, revision block, scale, date, page number