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

Chapter 2. Modifying Objects

Most of the work you do in any CAD drawing file involves modifying existing objects. You may need to move objects from one part of the drawing to another, or you may need to copy them from one part of a drawing to another, or even from one drawing to another. "Draw once, reuse as much as possible" should be your mantra when you work in AutoCAD.

Of course, before you can edit an object, you have to tell AutoCAD which object you want to work with. Sounds simple enough, but you can select objects by using a bewildering number of methods. AutoCAD's Options dialog box is the place to begin setting your choices for object selection, and that's where I start in this chapter.

Setting Selection Options

Before I get to the actual selecting and then editing of objects, I need to briefly explain the options on the Selection tab of the Options dialog box (see Figure 2-1).

The six settings in the lower-left corner determine how you select objects:

• Noun/verb selection: When checked (the default) allows you to select objects for editing before you start an editing command. See "Object selection modes" later in this chapter for more information.

• Use Shift to add to selection: When not checked (the default), selecting items one after another adds them to the selection set; to remove items from the selection set, hold down the Shift key and select them. When checked, press the Shift key to add objects to the selection set; clicking a selected object removes it from the set. ...