AutoCAD® 2009 For Dummies®

Chapter 7. Preciseliness Is Next to CADliness

In This Chapter

• Typing coordinates at the keyboard

• Snapping to object features

• Using other precision drawing and editing techniques

Drawing precision is vital to good CAD drafting practice, even more than for manual drafting. (Accuracy, of course, is vital to both types of drafting — if you're sketchy on the difference between accuracy and precision, look ahead to the "CAD precision versus accuracy" sidebar later in this chapter.) If you think CAD managers get a little tense when you assign properties directly to objects instead of ByLayer, wait until you see them lay into someone (I sincerely hope it's not you!) who doesn't use precision techniques when creating drawings in AutoCAD.

Controlling Your Precision

In AutoCAD, lack of precision makes later editing, hatching, and dimensioning tasks much more difficult and time consuming. Keep these facts in mind:

• Small errors in precision in the early stages of creating or editing a drawing often have a big effect on productivity and precision later.

• Drawings may guide manufacturing and construction projects; drawing data may drive automatic manufacturing machinery. Huge amounts of money and even lives can ride on a drawing's precision.

In recognition of these facts, a passion for precision permeates the profession. Permanently. Precision is one of the characteristics that separates CAD from ordinary illustration-type drawing work. The sooner you get fussy about precision in AutoCAD, the happier everyone ...