Military Institute of Science and Technology

Department of Electrical Electronic and Communication Engineering

EECE – 222: Electrical Service Design & CAD Laboratory

Experiment – 1: Introduction to service design and AutoCAD

Objectives:

 To become familiar with the 2D drawing interface of AutoCAD 2018

 To learn about basic tools and text commands.

Introduction:
Developed and distributed by Autodesk, AutoCAD is a specialized computer-aided
design (CAD) and drafting software program. Professionals from a variety of fields,
including architects, graphic designers, project managers, and engineers, use it commercially
across a broad spectrum of sectors. The time needed for design drafting can be greatly
decreased with the aid of AutoCAD when compared to hand drawing, and any revisions to
the drawing can be made rapidly without having to redo the entire design. This software may
be used to draw both 2D and 3D buildings. Electrical engineers have access to a wide range
of additional software tools for designing electrical systems and lines. These programs,
however, lack AutoCAD's effectiveness and professionalism. With AutoCAD, extremely
accurate measurements for drawings may be guaranteed.

Procedure:

Installing the software:

The setup files and installation instructions will be provided during the first lab.
However, if you missed class or are having trouble installing it, you can also contact your
teachers or fellow students for assistance later.

2D user interface:

 From the desktop of your computer, open the AutoCAD 2018 application.
 Clicking "start drawing" once the program opens and it will take you to the program's
default screen.

You can find most of the equipment you'll need for the course right here. prior to using the
equipment, you should become familiar with the various tool bars shown in the
accompanying illustration:

 Draw Toolbar: All tools that are required for drawing such as line, circle, arc,
rectangle, etc. can be found here.
 Modify Toolbar: Tools such as copy, move, stretch, reflect, rotate, etc. that are
required to modify a drawn segment can be found in this toolbar.
 Command Bar: This bar shows the activated command. It can also be used to select
a tool by typing its shortcut command.

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  Line Properties Toolbar: This toolbar can be accessed to change the color, line-type
and line-weight of a drawing tool.
 Drafting Settings: Supplementary settings used for easy drawing. Details will be
discussed in next experiment.

• The background color of the drawing is in black by default. The color can be changed in the
following way: Right click on the screen Options Display Tab Colors.

• Change between 3D and 2D drawing: Tools Workspace select between “3D Modeling” and
“AutoCAD Classic”.

Modify Tool Bar

Layer settings Line Properties

Draw Tool Bar

View Cube

Drafting settings
Axis Command Bar

Fig 1.1

Step 1. Format Tools:

Before starting to draw in AutoCAD, certain features must be setup at first according to the
requirements of the drawing in terms of measurement and style. These features can be
accessed from “Format” in the Drop-down Menu Bar.

Units:

• Go to the Units tool from Format Units or type “un” in the command line and press “Enter”.
• The “Drawing Units” dialogue box will open as shown in Fig. 1.2.

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 Fig. 1.2: Drawing Units

• Select and set the

 type - Architectural
 precision – 0’-0” of the length and angle measurements that will be used in your
drawing.
 Units to scale inserted content – Inches.
• AutoCAD allows you to control the direction in which angular units are measured and the
position of the start angle. AutoCAD starts with the zero angle at the 3 o’clock position (East)
with angles increasing in an anti-clockwise direction. The zero-angle position can be changed
by going to “Directions” and selecting the Base angle. Check the “Clockwise” box if you
want angles to be measured in the clockwise direction.

Canvas Dimensions:

 Type ‘LIMITS’ and then press enter two times.

 Then type 1000’ then press Tab.
 And again type 1000’ and press enter.
 Now type ‘z’ and press enter.
 Lastly type ‘a’ and press enter.

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Step 2. Various Drafting Settings:
GRID:

• Click on “GRID” tab or press F7 to enable/disable grid points on the drawing window.

If grid points are not visible after selection, right click on the “GRID” tab and select
“Settings”. The “Drafting Settings” window will open. On the “Snap and Grid” tab, check the
“Display grid beyond Limits” box. Grid spacing can also be set from this window.

POLAR and ORTHO:

The POLAR and ORTHO tabs can be selected alternatively. Press F8 for ORTHO or F10 for
POLAR.

a) ORTHO:

In ORTHO mode, only horizontal or vertical lines can be drawn.

Click the icon in the ‘Drafting Settings Bar’ or press F8 to turn on ortho mode. Do the same
to turn it off.

b) POLAR:

In POLAR mode, lines can be drawn freely at any angle. While drawing the line, you can
track angles after a fixed increment of 90⁰ (by default) or any other given values. You can
also track other specific angles of your choice for convenience in drawing.

** You can change from POLAR mode to ORTHO mode temporarily by holding down
“Shift”.

OSNAP:

• Enter 'OS' in the command bar or click the icon in the 'Drafting Settings Bar' as indicated in
the figure. Then select all the options.

Here you can select the points that will be indicated in a drawn line by AutoCAD to help you
connect other lines to it. If all options are deselected, no points will be indicated and user will
have to use their visible capability to identify the endpoints, center points, intersections, etc.

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or

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Step 3. Draw Toolbar:
This toolbar contains all tools required to draw shapes in your drawing. The tools can be
selected in one of the three ways:

• Select the tool from “Draw” in the drop-down menu bar on the top.
• Click on the desired tool icon from the Draw Toolbar on the left.
• Type the shortcut command in the command line and press “Enter”.

Line (L + Enter)
Press ‘L’ then ‘Enter’ or click on the icon in the fig.
• By picking two points:
 Click at any point to select the starting point.
 Click at any other point to select the end point.
 Press “Esc” to exit.

• By direct distance entry:

 Specify first point by clicking at any point.
 Type length of the line.
 Press “Tab”.
 Type angle of the line with the x-axis.
 Press “Enter”.

Rectangle (REC + Enter)

type ‘REC’ then ‘Enter’ or click on the icon in the fig.

• By picking two corner points:

 Click at any point to specify first corner point.
 Click again at any other point to specify second corner point.

• By direct length entry:

 Specify first corner point (click at any point).

 Input length along X (type length of the rectangle).

 Press “Tab”.

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  Input width along Y (type width of the rectangle).
 Press “Enter”.

Circle (C + Enter)
Press ‘C’ then ‘Enter’ or click on the icon in the fig.
• By radius entry:
 Specify center point (click at any point). You can also specify center point by x and y
coordinate inputs: type x coordinate, press comma, type y coordinate, press “Enter”.
 Input radius of the circle (type radius of the circle or click at a desired point).
 Press “Enter”.

• By diameter entry:
 Specify center point.
 Type “d”.
 Press “Enter”.
 Input diameter of the circle (type diameter of the circle or click at a desired point).
 Press “Enter”.

Step 4. Erasing:

 Erasing:

 Simply move your mouse over the lines you wish to get rid of select them and press
the 'delete' key on your keyboard.

 Or you can use the ‘Erase’ tool on the modify panel.

 Simply select the eraser tool and observe how the pointer transforms from
crosshairs to a little square. this is known as a pickbox. It appears when AutoCAD
is ready for you to pick items on the screen.

 Place the pickbox on one of the lines, and click that line when it’s
highlighted. The line glows blue to indicate that it is selected.

 After selecting all the lines press enter to erase them

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Some useful information:

How to save a file:

• Click “File” from drop down menu bar and select “Save as” OR press “Ctrl+S”.

• Select drive to save.

• Rename file name only (keep .dwg as extension).

• Select “Save”.

How to plot a file (save drawing as pdf):

• Click “File” from drop down menu bar and select “Plot” OR press “Ctrl+P”.

• In the Printer/plotter section, select “DWG to PDF.pc3” in “Name”.

• Select desired paper size.

• Check “Fit to paper” and “Center to plot”.

• Select “Window” from “Plot area” and select the area in the drawing you want to
plot.

• Click “Preview” to observe the drawing to be plotted.

• Press “Esc” to exit preview.

• Select “Ok” to confirm and save at a desired location.

Important control keys:

• Ctrl+A = select all

• Ctrl+N = opens dialogue box to create new drawing

• Esc = cancel command

• Ctrl+Z = undo

• Ctrl+Y = redo

• Ctrl+S = open save dialogue box

• Ctrl+P = open plot dialogue box

• F1 = help
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