Computer Engineering Technique

First Stage

Intro to AutoCAD
Presented by Omer W. Taha
 What is engineering drawing

An engineering drawing, a type

of technical drawing, which is
used to fully and clearly define
requirements for engineered
items with scales.

Engineering drawing example

 Conceptual Sketches

When any idea comes in

your mind, you draw a
simple or rough drawing of
the object without using any
drawing instruments or tolls
and this is called a
conceptual sketch.
Importance of Engineering Drawings

• Helps as a reference to workers, technicians or

architects.

• Easy to understand : Since a picture is easiest method

than thousand words, a technical drawing is a much
more effective tool for engineers than a written plan.

• Engineering drawings is used in all engineering fields,

including, but not limited to, computer engineering,
civil engineering, electrical engineering, mechanical
engineering and architecture.
Sketch Vs Engineering drawing

• Sketch: made without drafting tools... Just

pencil and paper. Scale is approximate, not
accurate, but the sketch should still look like
the object.
• Engineering Drawing: Made with drafting
tools... Ruler, set squares, protractor and
compass. Scale should be accurate and the
drawing carefully made.
What is AutoCAD?
AutoCAD, part of the Autodesk software suite, is the industry standard for Computer Aided Design (CAD) software.
Capable of both 2D and 3D drafting (or measured drawing), AutoCAD is a powerful tool for creating and managing
sets of drawings for design and construction.

Intro to AutoCAD |
| Page 6
Starting AutoCAD
When you open AutoCAD, you’ll be met with the Start Tab, which allows you to access various templates and tutorials.
For our purposes, the standard blank template will do, so simply click Start Drawing.

Intro to AutoCAD | DUSPViz | Spring

2016 | Page 7
Starting AutoCAD (cont.)
Now we have a blank file called Drawing1. Notice that we can still see our Start Tab next to Drawing 1. We can
create a new tab (and therefore a new drawing) by clicking the “ + ” button next to the Drawing1 tab. Next, we’ll
save our new drawing.

Intro to AutoCAD | DUSPViz | Spring

2016 | Page 8
Saving a File
Let’s save our drawing and give it a better name. Click on the AutoCAD Icon Button in the top left to open the main menu.
Click Save and navigate through the file structure to your preferred location. Let’s call our file “My Drawing.dwg” (.dwg is
the standard AutoCAD drawing filetype). Note, you can select different filetypes from the dropdown menu in the save
window, including older versions of AutoCAD drawings.

Intro to AutoCAD | DUSPViz | Spring

2016 | Page 9
 Basi c Menu

Ribbon

Drawing Selecti on Tabs

View
Selecti on Command Prompt
Tabs Setti ngs Panel

The Workspace
Now let’s look at the workspace - there’s a lot going on here! The Basic Menu lets you open new files, save, and print.
The Ribbon, which is a newer menu type for AutoCAD, contains buttons for drawing, modifying, annotating, and
managing your work. the Drawing Selection Tabs let you cycle through open drawings. The View Selection Tabs switch
between
later). TheModel SpacePrompt
Command and Layout/Paper Space
lets you type (we’ll
in text go over this
commands. The Settings Panel adjusts global settings for our drawings.

Intro to AutoCAD | DUSPViz | Spring

2016 | Page 10
Using the Mouse and Keyboard
To zoom in/out with the mouse, use the scroll wheel. To pan, click and drag the scroll wheel. To select, left click once to
start a selection rectangle, then left click again at the opposite corner to finish the selection rectangle. Notice that if you
create a rectangle to the left of your original click, it will be green; if you create it to the right, it will be blue. The green
rectangle selects
only selects itemsanything it interstects
located entirely withinwhereas the blue
the rectangle. To end a command on the keyboard, hit Enter, Escape, or
Spacebar.

Intro to AutoCAD | DUSPViz | Spring

Drawing a Line
Let’s zoom into the part of our xref that says LINE. To draw a line, type “line” (or “l”). Click once to start the line, release,
then click again to end it. AutoCAD will assume you want to continue drawing lines and will start another (unconnected)
line at the end of our previous one. To exit the command, hit Enter, Escape, or Spacebar. We can also be more specfic
whenthe
after we first
draw our (try
click lines by entering
starting a line,the
andlength
typingofinthe - then hit Enter). We can also specifiy the angle and absoluet
line
“4”
start/end coordinates.

Intro to AutoCAD | DUSPViz | Spring

Drawing an Arc
Pan over to the ARC section. To draw an arc, type “arc” (or “a”). Click once for the start point, click again for the
second point, and click one last time to end the arc. As is the case with most AutoCAD commands, the command
prompt will offer different options as we draw. After our first click, the prompt says “Specify second point of arc or
[Center End]”.
letters), we canBy typinghow
change in “center”
we wantorto“end” (orour
define their
arcunderlined
as we’re
drawing it.
Intro to AutoCAD | DUSPViz | Spring
2016 | Page 13
Drawing a Polyline
Unlike a line, the segments of a polyline are connected to make one complete object. Polylines can also have arced
segments. To start, type “polyline” (or “pl”). Each click of the mouse will add a new segment point. If we want to add an
arced segment, type “a” and then hit Enter. Unlike in the Arc command, we only need to click the start and end of each
arc segment - the arcs will automatically be tangent to the previous segment. To switch back to line segements, type
“l” and hit Enter.
Intro to AutoCAD | DUSPViz | Spring
2016 | Page 15
Drawing a Rectangle
Type “rectangle” (or “rec”) to begin. Click to start our first point. We could click again to set our opposite corner and
complete our rectangle, but instead, let’s type “d” for dimensions after our first click. Now type in the length
(horizontal) we want (let’s say 3), hit Enter, and do the same for the width (vertical).

Intro to AutoCAD | DUSPViz | Spring

2016 | Page 15
Drawing a Circle
Type “circle” (or “c”) to begin. Click to start in the center of the circle. As you move the mouse away from that center,
type in “1.5” to specify the radius; hit Enter. As you can see from the command prompt, there are also other ways to
draw a circle - 3-point, 2-point, and Tangent-Tangent-Radius.

Intro to AutoCAD | DUSPViz | Spring

2016 | Page 16
Typing Text
There are two ways to enter text in AutoCAD: “text” is an older method that takes on some strange properties when you
try to edit it. Multi- line text (or “mtext”) will seem much more familiar if you’ve ever typed into a text box. We’ll be using
mtext. To begin, type “mtext”, select our first corner, and select our opposite corner. You’ll see that the Ribbon changes
to bringnot
inches, up text modifications
points!). likemodified
After you’ve font, color,
theand
textsize (in see fit, you can exit the text box by clicking outside of it or
as you
hitting Escape.

Intro to AutoCAD | DUSPViz | Spring

Dimensions
We often need to illustrate measurements on our drawings. To dimension the line from our xref, type “dimension” (or
“dim”). Then click one end of the line to set the first point, and click the other end of the line to set the second. As we
move the mouse away from the line, our dimension gets further from it. Note that the dimension orientation will change
based on how
dimension you move
is parallel theline
to the mouse.
and hit Enter.
Let’s makeYousure
can the
change the dimension’s properties (e.g. text size, arrow type) in the
Properties Panel.

Intro to AutoCAD | DUSPViz | Spring

Mirror
Start by Ncopying the shape from our xref. Then type “mirror” (or “mi”). Select our Ncopied rectangle and hit Enter.
Click two points to draw the line around which our object will be mirrored (note: the line can be at any angle). After
clicking the second point, the command prompt will ask whether we want to erase source objects (the default is No).
Hit Enter to accept the default and keep the original shape in addition to our mirrored copy.

Intro to AutoCAD | DUSPViz | Spring

2016 | Page 19
Copy
Again, using Ncopy, bring in the shape from the xref. Type in “copy” (or “co”), select the object, and hit Enter. Then,
select a base point (let’s use the bottom left corner of the rectangle). Any subsequent mouse clicks will place a copy
of the object using this base point. You can click to create as many copies as needed. To exit the command, hit Enter.

Intro to AutoCAD | DUSPViz | Spring

2016 | Page 20
Rotate
Ncopy the shape below. Type in “rotate” (or “ro”), select the object, and hit Enter. Click to select the base point around
which we’ll rotate (let’s use the midpoint of the right edge. As we move the mouse, the object will freely rotate (though it
will snap to 90-degree angles. The further our mouse is from the base point, the more rotation precision we will have. A
second click will set the rotation. If we want to keep our Ncopied original in addition to our rotated shape, we can type
“c” (for “copy”) prior to our final click.
Intro to AutoCAD | DUSPViz | Spring
2016 | Page 21
Move
Ncopy the shape below. Type in “move” (or “m”), select the object, and hit Enter. Click to select the base point from
which we’ll move (let’s use the bottom left corner). Move the mouse to select the direction of the move. By typing in a
number (say, 3) and hitting Enter, we will move the object that distance from our base point along our dashed move line.

Intro to AutoCAD | DUSPViz | Spring

2016 | Page 22
Scale
Ncopy the shape below. Type in “scale” (or “sc”), select the object, and hit Enter. Click to select the base point from
which we’ll scale (let’s use the bottom left corner). Move the mouse to select the direction of the scale. By typing in a
number (say, 2.5) and hitting Enter, we will scale the object by that factor from our base point along our dashed scale
line. Similar to rotate, we can type “c” prior to typing in our scale factor to keep an unscaled copy of the original.

Intro to AutoCAD | DUSPViz | Spring

2016 | Page 23
Tri
m
Ncopy both of the lines. Type in “trim” (or “tr”). Select the trim object first (this is the edge that will “cut” the other line) -
let’s select the horizontal line. Then hit Enter. Next select the line to be trimmed. Be sure to select the portion that will
be removed. Hit Enter. Note, in both steps, you can select multiple lines. That is, you may want to trim a line at multiple
points using multiple trim lines, or you may want to use a single trim line to snip multiple lines (or both).

Intro to AutoCAD | DUSPViz | Spring

2016 | Page 24
Chamfer
Chamfer connects two lines with an angle. Ncopy both of the lines. Type in “chamfer” (or “cha”). Type “d” for distance to
set the distance from the corner to start the chamfer (let’s use “1”). Hit Enter. Hit Enter again to keep the same
distance for the second line (we could also specify the angle or other settings). Select both lines (you’ll probably need
to do this one at a time). Also, be sure to select the portions of the lines you want to keep. Hit Enter to finish.

Intro to AutoCAD | DUSPViz | Spring

2016 | Page 25
Fillet
Similiar to chamfer, fillet connects two lines with a radius. Ncopy both of the lines. Type in “fillet” (or “f”). Type “r” for
radius to set the radius for our connecting arc (let’s use “1”). Hit Enter. Select both lines (you’ll probably need to do this
one at a time). Also, be sure to select the portions of the lines you want to keep. Hit Enter to finish.

Intro to AutoCAD | DUSPViz | Spring

2016 | Page 26
Join/Explode
Often, you’ll want unconnected objects to be connected and vice versa. To Join these two Ncopied lines, type “join” (or
“j”) and select the lines. Then hit Enter. To explode our newly connected lines (which are now a single polyline), type
“explode,” click on the line, and hit Enter. Explode is also handy for breaking up blocks. Additionally, as objects
become more
example, or less complex,
an exploded they change
polyline becomes twoproperties. For
lines, not two
polylines.
Intro to AutoCAD | DUSPViz | Spring
2016 | Page 27