AutoCAD® 2009 & AutoCAD LT® 2009 All-in-One Desk Reference for Dummies®

Chapter 5. Basic Tools

In this chapter, I look at some of AutoCAD's primitive drawing objects. That is not an insult to the cavemen who might still be walking among us; by primitive I mean basic drawing elements such as lines, arcs, and circles. I get to complex drawing objects, such as polylines in Book II, multiline text, tables and dimensions in Book III, and blocks in Book VI.

Note

The purpose of this chapter is to show you how to draw stuff as simply as possible. Remember that the purpose of a CAD drawing is to convey technical information accurately and precisely (and those two words do not mean the same thing!). This chapter shows you how to draw primitives but does not show you the best way to manage and apply object properties. When you create your own drawings, you need to pay attention to precision as well as object properties such as color, linetype, and layer, which all affect the output of the drawing.

Drawing Lines

Lines are the second most-basic object you can create in AutoCAD. Lines are geometrically defined in AutoCAD by two coordinate points that are used as the start and endpoint of the line. The only thing simpler than a line is a point object, which is defined by a single set of coordinate values. (Do not be too concerned about coordinates at this point — I tell all in Chapter 7 of this minibook.)

Lines are the fundamental building blocks of most types of drawing, ...