Autodesk Autocad 2012 User guide

AutoCAD 2012

User's Guide

February 2011

©

reproduced in any form, by any method, for any purpose.

Certain materials included in this publication are reprinted with the permission of the copyright holder.

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Contents

Part 1 Get Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Chapter 1 Find the Information You Need . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Access Help and Other Sources of Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Overview of InfoCenter and Autodesk Exchange . . . . . . . . . . 3

Learn the Product . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

View the Product Readme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Where to Find the AutoCAD Express Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Join the Customer Involvement Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Chapter 2 Get Information from Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Obtain General Drawing Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Count Objects Within a Drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Part 2 The User Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Chapter 3 Tools in the Application Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

The Application Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Search for Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Access Common Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Browse Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

iii

Quick Access Toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

The Ribbon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Overview of the Ribbon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Display and Organize the Ribbon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Customize the Ribbon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Cursors in the Drawing Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Viewport Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

The ViewCube Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

The UCS Icon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Chapter 4 Other Tool Locations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Access the Classic Menu Bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Toolbars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Status Bars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Application Status Bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Drawing Status Bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

Keytips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

The Command Line Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Enter Commands on the Command Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Enter System Variables on the Command Line . . . . . . . . . . . 49

Navigate and Edit Within the Command Window . . . . . . . . . 51

Switch Between Dialog Boxes and the Command Line . . . . . . 53

Dock, Resize, and Hide the Command Window . . . . . . . . . . 55

Shortcut Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Tool Palettes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

Create and Use Tools from Objects and Images . . . . . . . . . . 62

Create and Use Command Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

Change Tool Palette Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

Control Tool Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

Customize Tool Palettes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

Organize Tool Palettes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

Save and Share Tool Palettes and Tool Palette Groups . . . . . . . 82

DesignCenter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

Overview of DesignCenter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

Understand the DesignCenter Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

Access Content with DesignCenter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

Add Content with DesignCenter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

Retrieve Content from the Web with DesignCenter Online . . . . 95

Content Explorer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

Overview of Content Explorer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

Understand the Relationship between Content Explorer and

Content Service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102

Understand the Content Explorer Window . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

Understand How Content Is Indexed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

Understand Watched Folders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112

Manage Content Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

iv | Contents

Basic Searching with Content Explorer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125

Advanced Searching with Content Explorer . . . . . . . . . . . 126

Manage Saved Searches in Content Explorer . . . . . . . . . . . 128

Browse Folders with Content Explorer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131

Filter Results in Content Explorer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132

Sort and Group Results in Content Explorer . . . . . . . . . . . 133

Customize the View in Content Explorer . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135

Perform Tasks with Files in Content Explorer . . . . . . . . . . . 136

Perform Tasks with Objects in Content Explorer . . . . . . . . . 137

Streamline Searches with User-Created Properties in Content

Explorer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139

Troubleshooting Content Explorer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143

Chapter 5 Customize the Drawing Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149

Set Interface Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149

Set Up the Drawing Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149

Set Options for 3D Modeling with Perspective Projection . . . . 158

Switch Between Model and Named Layouts . . . . . . . . . . . 164

Specify Application Fonts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169

Specify the Behavior of Dockable Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . 175

Control the Display of Toolbars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183

Create Task-Based Workspaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189

Save and Restore Interface Settings (Profiles) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193

Customize Startup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195

Play Back an Action Macro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199

Migrate Custom Settings and Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201

Part 3 Start and Save Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203

Chapter 6 Start a Drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205

Overview of Starting a New Drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205

Specify Units and Unit Formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207

Determine the Units of Measurement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207

Set the Unit Format Conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210

Use a Drawing Template File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211

Add Identifying Information to Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214

Specify the Geographic Location of a Drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216

Chapter 7 Open or Save a Drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221

Open a Drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221

Open Part of a Large Drawing (Partial Load) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226

Work with Multiple Open Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228

Preview Open Drawings and Layouts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229

Contents | v

Switch Between Open Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230

Switch Between Layouts in the Current Drawing . . . . . . . . . 234

Transfer Information between Open Drawings . . . . . . . . . . 237

Save a Drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238

Find a Drawing File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244

Specify Search Paths and File Locations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245

Chapter 8 Repair, Restore, or Recover Drawing Files . . . . . . . . . . . . 247

Repair a Damaged Drawing File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247

Create and Restore Backup Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250

Recover from a System Failure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252

Chapter 9 Maintain Standards in Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257

Overview of CAD Standards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257

Define Standards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260

Check Drawings for Standards Violations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262

Translate Layer Names and Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270

Part 4 Control the Drawing Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273

Chapter 10 Change Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275

Pan or Zoom a View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275

Save and Restore Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280

Control the 3D Projection Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284

Overview of Parallel and Perspective Views . . . . . . . . . . . . 284

Define a Perspective Projection (DVIEW) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286

Define a Parallel Projection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288

Choose Preset 3D Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290

Define a 3D View with Coordinate Values or Angles . . . . . . . 291

Change to a View of the XY Plane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293

Shade a Model and Use Edge Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294

Use a Visual Style to Display Your Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294

Customize a Visual Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299

Control Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314

Chapter 11 Use Viewing Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323

Specify 3D Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323

Overview of 3D Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323

Use 3D Navigation Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325

Walk and Fly Through a Drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328

Create a 3D Dynamic View (DVIEW) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332

Use ViewCube . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334

Overview of ViewCube . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334

vi | Contents

ViewCube Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 338

Reorient the View of a Model with ViewCube . . . . . . . . . . 339

Change the UCS with ViewCube . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347

Navigate with SteeringWheels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 350

Overview of SteeringWheels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 350

Wheel Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354

Navigation Wheels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 356

Navigation Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 363

Define and Change Views with ShowMotion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 380

Overview of ShowMotion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 380

Create and Modify Shots and Shot Sequences . . . . . . . . . . 383

Play Back a Shot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 387

Define a 3D View with a Camera . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 389

Overview of Cameras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 389

Create a Camera . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 390

Change Camera Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 392

Create Preview Animations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 396

Create Motion Path Animations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400

Control a Camera Motion Path . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400

Specify Motion Path Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 402

Record a Motion Path Animation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 403

Use Navigation Bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 404

Available Navigation Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 404

Reposition and Reorient the Navigation Bar . . . . . . . . . . . 406

Control the Display of Navigation Tools on the Navigation

Bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 408

Use 3Dconnexion 3D mouse to Navigate Views . . . . . . . . . 409

Chapter 12 Display Multiple Views in Model Space . . . . . . . . . . . . . 413

Set Model Space Viewports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 413

Select and Use the Current Viewport . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 416

Save and Restore Model Layout Viewport Arrangements . . . . . . . . 418

Part 5 Organize Drawings and Layouts . . . . . . . . . . . . . 421

Chapter 13 Create Single-View Drawings (Model Space) . . . . . . . . . . 423

Quick Start for Model Space Drafting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 423

Draw, Scale, and Annotate in Model Space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 425

Chapter 14 Create Multiple-View Drawing Layouts (Paper Space) . . . . . 431

Quick Start for Layouts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 431

Understand the Layout Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 433

Work with Model Space and Paper Space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 435

Contents | vii

Work in Model Space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 436

Work on a Named Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 437

Access Model Space from a Layout Viewport . . . . . . . . . . . 440

Export a Layout to Model Space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 443

Create and Modify Layout Viewports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 446

Control Views in Layout Viewports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 450

Scale Views in Layout Viewports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 450

Control Visibility in Layout Viewports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 453

Scale Linetypes in Layout Viewports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 459

Align Views in Layout Viewports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 460

Rotate Views in Layout Viewports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 463

Reuse Layouts and Layout Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 466

Chapter 15 Work with Sheets in a Sheet Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 471

Quick Start for Sheet Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 471

Understand the Sheet Set Manager Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 473

Create and Manage a Sheet Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 476

Create a Sheet Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 476

Organize a Sheet Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 479

Create and Modify Sheets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 482

Include Information with Sheets and Sheet Sets . . . . . . . . . 491

Publish, Transmit, and Archive Sheet Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 495

Use Sheet Sets in a Team . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 500

Part 6 Create and Modify Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 505

Chapter 16 Control the Properties of Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 507

Work with Object Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 507

Overview of Object Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 507

Display and Change the Properties of Objects . . . . . . . . . . 509

Copy Properties Between Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 513

Work with Layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 514

Overview of Layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 514

Use Layers to Manage Complexity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 516

Create and Name Layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 522

Change Layer Settings and Layer Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . 525

Override Layer Properties in Viewports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 529

Filter and Sort the List of Layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 536

Reconcile New Layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 542

Use New Layer Notification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 543

Work with Layer States . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 547

Work with Colors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 555

Set the Current Color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 555

Change the Color of an Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 558

viii | Contents

Use Color Books . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 561

Work with Linetypes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 563

Overview of Linetypes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 564

Load Linetypes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 565

Set the Current Linetype . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 568

Change the Linetype of an Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 569

Control Linetype Scale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 571

Display Linetypes on Short Segments and Polylines . . . . . . . 573

Control Lineweights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 574

Overview of Lineweights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 575

Display Lineweights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 577

Set the Current Lineweight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 579

Change the Lineweight of an Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 581

Control the Display Properties of Certain Objects . . . . . . . . . . . 582

Control the Display of Polylines, Hatches, Gradient Fills,

Lineweights, and Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 582

Control the Transparency of Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 586

Control How Overlapping Objects Are Displayed . . . . . . . . . 587

Control the Display of Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 589

Chapter 17 Use Precision Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 591

Work with the User Coordinate System (UCS) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 591

Overview of the User Coordinate System (UCS) . . . . . . . . . 591

Control the User Coordinate System (UCS) . . . . . . . . . . . . 594

Work with Named UCS Definitions and Preset

Orientations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 596

Assign UCS Definitions to Viewports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 599

Use the Dynamic UCS with Solid Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . 601

Control the Display of the User Coordinate System Icon . . . . . 603

Enter Coordinates to Specify Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 606

Overview of Coordinate Entry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 606

Enter 2D Coordinates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 609

Enter 3D Coordinates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 614

Use Dynamic Input . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 619

Snap to Locations on Objects (Object Snaps) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 626

Use Object Snaps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 626

The Object Snap Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 630

Set Visual Aids for Object Snaps (AutoSnap) . . . . . . . . . . . 631

Override Object Snap Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 633

Restrict Cursor Movement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 635

Adjust Grid and Grid Snap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 635

Use Orthogonal Locking (Ortho Mode) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 642

Use Polar Tracking and PolarSnap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 643

Lock an Angle for One Point (Angle) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 648

Combine or Offset Points and Coordinates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 648

Combine Coordinate Values (Coordinate Filters) . . . . . . . . . 648

Contents | ix

Track to Points on Objects (Object Snap Tracking) . . . . . . . . 651

Track to Offset Point Locations (Tracking) . . . . . . . . . . . . 654

Specify Distances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 655

Enter Direct Distances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 655

Offset from Temporary Reference Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . 657

Specify Intervals on Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 657

Extract Geometric Information from Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 662

Obtain Distances, Angles, and Point Locations . . . . . . . . . . 663

Obtain Area and Mass Properties Information . . . . . . . . . . 664

Use a Calculator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 670

Use the QuickCalc Calculator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 670

Use the Command Prompt Calculator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 687

Chapter 18 Create Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 691

Draw Linear Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 691

Draw Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 691

Draw Polylines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 693

Draw Rectangles and Polygons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 698

Draw Multiline Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 701

Draw Freehand Sketches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 705

Draw Curved Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 706

Draw Arcs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 707

Draw Circles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 712

Draw Polyline Arcs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 714

Draw Donuts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 719

Draw Ellipses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 721

Draw Splines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 723

Draw Helixes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 728

Draw Construction and Reference Geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 730

Draw Reference Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 730

Draw Construction Lines (and Rays) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 731

Create and Combine Areas (Regions) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 733

Create Revision Clouds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 738

Chapter 19 Select and Modify Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 741

Select Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 741

Select Objects Individually . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 741

Select Multiple Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 744

Prevent Objects from Being Selected . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 747

Select Objects by Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 749

Customize Object Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 753

Group Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 759

Correct Mistakes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 766

Erase Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 769

Cut, Copy, and Paste with the Clipboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 772

x | Contents

Modify Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 775

Choose a Method to Modify Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 776

Modify Objects Using Grips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 777

Move or Rotate Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 787

Copy, Array, Offset, or Mirror Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 796

Change the Size and Shape of Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 821

Fillet, Chamfer, Break, or Join Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 832

Disassociate Compound Objects (Explode) . . . . . . . . . . . . 845

Modify Polylines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 846

Modify Splines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 853

Modify Helixes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 858

Modify Multilines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 860

Chapter 20 Add Constraints to Geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 865

Overview of Constraints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 865

Constrain Objects Geometrically . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 870

Overview of Geometric Constraints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 870

Apply or Remove Geometric Constraints . . . . . . . . . . . . . 872

Display and Verify Geometric Constraints . . . . . . . . . . . . 878

Modify Objects with Geometric Constraints Applied . . . . . . . 882

Infer Geometric Constraints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 885

Constrain Distances and Angles between Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . 888

Overview of Dimensional Constraints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 888

Apply Dimensional Constraints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 892

Control the Display of Dimensional Constraints . . . . . . . . . 897

Modify Objects with Dimensional Constraints Applied . . . . . 899

Constrain a Design with Formulas and Equations . . . . . . . . . . . 903

Overview of Formulas and Equations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 904

Control Geometry with the Parameters Manager . . . . . . . . . 905

Organize Parameters into Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 910

Part 7 Define and Reference Blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 913

Chapter 21 Work with Blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 915

Overview of Blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 915

Insert Blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 917

Work with Dynamic Blocks in Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 922

Overview of Dynamic Blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 922

Work With Action Parameters in Blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 923

Work With Constraint Parameters in Blocks . . . . . . . . . . . 926

Remove Block Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 927

Chapter 22 Create and Modify Blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 929

Contents | xi

Define Blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 929

Create Blocks Within a Drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 929

Create Drawing Files for Use as Blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 931

Control the Color and Linetype Properties in Blocks . . . . . . . 934

Nest Blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 936

Create Block Libraries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 937

Use Tool Palettes to Organize Blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 938

Create Construction Geometry Within a Block . . . . . . . . . . 938

Attach Data to Blocks (Block Attributes) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 939

Overview of Block Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 940

Define Block Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 942

Extract Data from Block Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 946

Extract Block Attribute Data (Advanced) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 947

Modify Blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 953

Modify a Block Definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 953

Modify the Data in Block Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 956

Modify a Block Attribute Definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 957

Disassemble a Block Reference (Explode) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 962

Chapter 23 Add Behaviors to Blocks (Dynamic Blocks) . . . . . . . . . . . 965

Overview of Dynamic Blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 965

Quick Start to Creating Dynamic Blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 966

Create and Edit Dynamic Blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 967

Overview of the Block Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 968

Create Custom Block Authoring Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 970

Test Blocks Within the Block Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 973

Modify Dynamic Block Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 974

Add Constraints to Dynamic Blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 976

Overview of Constraints in Dynamic Blocks . . . . . . . . . . . 976

Define User Parameters in Dynamic Blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . 978

Control Constrained Blocks with the Parameters Manager . . . . 979

Use a Block Properties Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 980

Identify Fully Constrained Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 982

Add Action Parameters to Dynamic Blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 984

Overview of Actions and Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 984

Add Parameters to Dynamic Blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 988

Add Actions to Dynamic Blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 989

Specify Properties for Dynamic Blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1003

Specify Value Sets for Dynamic Blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1008

Specify Distance and Angle Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1011

Specify Grips for Dynamic Blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1011

Control the Visibility of Objects in a Block . . . . . . . . . . . 1017

Part 8 Work with 3D Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1023

xii | Contents

Chapter 24 Create 3D Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1025

Overview of 3D Modeling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1025

Create Solids and Surfaces from Lines and Curves . . . . . . . . . . . 1030

Overview of Creating Solids and Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . 1030

Create a Solid or Surface by Extruding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1034

Create a Solid or Surface by Sweeping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1038

Create a Solid or Surface by Lofting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1042

Create a Solid or Surface by Revolving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1046

Create Solids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1049

Overview of Creating 3D Solids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1049

Create 3D Solid Primitives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1052

Create a Polysolid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1066

Create 3D Solids from Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1068

Combine or Slice 3D Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1073

Check 3D Models for Interferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1078

Create Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1080

Overview of Creating Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1080

Create Procedural Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1086

Create NURBS Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1097

Create Associative Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1103

Create Meshes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1111

Overview of Creating Meshes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1111

Create 3D Mesh Primitives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1116

Construct Meshes from Other Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1136

Create Meshes by Conversion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1143

Create Custom Mesh (Legacy) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1147

Create Wireframe Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1152

Add 3D Thickness to Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1156

Chapter 25 Modify 3D Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1159

Overview of Modifying 3D Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1159

Use Gizmos to Modify Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1161

Overview of Using Gizmos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1161

Use the Gizmos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1163

Move 3D Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1167

Rotate 3D Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1170

Scale 3D Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1172

Use Grips to Modify Solids and Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1176

Use 3D Subobject Grips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1176

Cycle Through and Filter Subobjects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1179

Use Grips to Edit 3D Solids and Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1183

Modify 3D Subobjects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1186

Move, Rotate, and Scale 3D Subobjects . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1186

Modify Faces on 3D Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1189

Modify Edges on 3D Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1193

Contents | xiii

Modify Vertices on 3D Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1200

Work with Complex 3D Solids and Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1202

Display Original Forms of Composite Solids . . . . . . . . . . . 1203

Modify Composite Solids and Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1205

Shell and Remove Redundancies in 3D Objects . . . . . . . . . 1207

Press or Pull Bounded Areas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1210

Add Facets to Faces on Solids and Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . 1212

Modify the Properties of 3D Solids, Surfaces, and Meshes . . . . . . . 1213

Modify Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1218

Overview of Modifying Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1218

Trim and Untrim Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1220

Extend a Surface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1223

Fillet a Surface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1224

Edit NURBS Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1225

Analyze Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1228

Modify Mesh Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1238

Overview of Modifying Meshes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1238

Change Mesh Smoothness Levels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1243

Refine Mesh Objects or Subobjects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1248

Add Creases to Mesh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1250

Modify Mesh Faces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1253

Create and Close Mesh Gaps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1258

Tips for Working with Mesh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1261

Modify 3D Solids and Surfaces Using Inventor Fusion . . . . . . . . 1268

Chapter 26 Create Sections and Drawings from 3D Models . . . . . . . . 1269

Create Drawings from 3D Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1269

Create Drawings from AutoCAD and Inventor 3D Models . . . 1269

Create Drawings from Other 3D CAD Models . . . . . . . . . . 1295

Work with Sections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1296

Overview of Section Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1296

Create Section Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1298

Modify a Section View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1303

Save and Publish Section Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1312

Create a Flattened View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1317

Part 9 Annotate Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1321

Chapter 27 Work with Annotations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1323

Overview of Annotations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1323

Scale Annotations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1324

Overview of Scaling Annotations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1325

Set Annotation Scale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1327

Create Annotative Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1329

xiv | Contents

Display Annotative Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1351

Add and Modify Scale Representations . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1353

Set Orientation for Annotations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1356

Chapter 28 Hatches, Fills, and Wipeouts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1359

Overview of Hatch Patterns and Fills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1359

Specify Hatch and Fill Areas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1367

Control the Appearance of Hatches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1372

Choose a Hatch Pattern or Fill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1372

Control the Hatch Origin Point . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1378

Control the Scale of Hatch Patterns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1381

Set Property Overrides for Hatches and Fills . . . . . . . . . . . 1383

Control the Display of Hatch Boundaries . . . . . . . . . . . . 1386

Control the Draw Order of Hatches and Fills . . . . . . . . . . 1389

Modify Hatches and Fills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1389

Modify Hatch Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1389

Modify Hatch Alignment, Scale, and Rotation . . . . . . . . . . 1391

Reshape a Hatch or Fill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1392

Re-create the Boundary of a Hatch or Fill . . . . . . . . . . . . 1394

Create a Blank Area to Cover Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1395

Chapter 29 Notes and Labels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1399

Overview of Notes and Labels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1399

Create Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1402

Overview of Creating Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1402

Create Single-Line Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1406

Create Multiline Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1410

Create and Edit Columns in Multiline Text . . . . . . . . . . . 1434

Import Text from External Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1438

Create Leaders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1439

Overview of Leader Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1439

Create and Modify Leaders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1441

Modify Leaders Using Grips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1449

Work with Leader Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1451

Add Content to a Leader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1454

Use Fields in Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1458

Insert Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1458

Update Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1464

Use Hyperlinks in Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1467

Work with Text Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1469

Overview of Text Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1469

Assign Text Fonts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1472

Set Text Height . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1479

Set Text Obliquing Angle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1481

Set Horizontal or Vertical Text Orientation . . . . . . . . . . . 1482

Contents | xv

Change Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1483

Overview of Changing Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1483

Change Single-Line Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1484

Change Multiline Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1486

Find and Replace Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1489

Change Text Scale and Justification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1491

Check Spelling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1493

Use an Alternate Text Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1497

Overview of Using an Alternate Text Editor . . . . . . . . . . . 1497

Format Multiline Text in an Alternate Text Editor . . . . . . . . 1498

Chapter 30 Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1503

Create and Modify Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1503

Link a Table to External Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1507

Work with Table Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1511

Add Text and Blocks to Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1514

Use Formulas in Table Cells . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1518

Chapter 31 Dimensions and Tolerances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1523

Understand Basic Concepts of Dimensioning . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1523

Overview of Dimensioning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1523

Parts of a Dimension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1526

Associative Dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1527

Use Dimension Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1530

Overview of Dimension Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1530

Compare Dimension Styles and Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . 1531

Control Dimension Geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1533

Control Dimension Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1543

Control Dimension Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1554

Set the Scale for Dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1567

Create Dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1570

Create Linear Dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1570

Create Radial Dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1579

Create Angular Dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1586

Create Ordinate Dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1589

Create Arc Length Dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1591

Modify Existing Dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1592

Modify A Dimension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1592

Apply a New Dimension Style to Existing Dimensions . . . . . 1617

Override a Dimension Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1618

Add Geometric Tolerances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1621

Overview of Geometric Tolerances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1621

Material Conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1623

Datum Reference Frames . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1624

Projected Tolerance Zones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1625

xvi | Contents

Composite Tolerances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1625

Part 10 Plot and Publish Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1627

Chapter 32 Specify Settings for Plotting and Publishing . . . . . . . . . . 1629

Save Plot Settings as Named Page Setups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1629

Reuse Named Page Setups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1632

Specify Page Setup Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1635

Select a Printer or Plotter for a Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1636

Select a Paper Size for a Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1637

Determine the Drawing Orientation of a Layout . . . . . . . . 1642

Set the Plot Area of a Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1643

Adjust the Plot Offset of a Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1644

Set the Plot Scale for a Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1646

Set the Lineweight Scale for a Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1648

Select a Plot Style Table for a Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1649

Set Shaded Viewport and Plot Options for a Layout . . . . . . . 1651

Other Ways to Create Page Setups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1653

Use the Layout Wizard to Specify Page Setups . . . . . . . . . . 1653

Import PCP or PC2 Settings into a Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . 1654

Use Named Page Setups with Sheet Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1655

Chapter 33 Print or Plot Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1659

Overview of Plotting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1659

Use a Page Setup to Specify Plot Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1664

Select a Printer or Plotter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1666

Specify the Area to Plot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1667

Set Paper Size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1668

Position the Drawing on the Paper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1672

Specify the Printable Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1672

Set the Position of the Plot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1673

Set Drawing Orientation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1674

Control How Objects Are Plotted . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1674

Set Plot Scale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1674

Set Shaded Viewport Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1677

Set Options for Plotted Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1681

Use Plot Styles to Control Plotted Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . 1685

Use Color-Dependent Plot Style Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1694

Use Named Plot Style Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1695

Change Plot Style Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1702

Preview a Plot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1714

Plot Files to Other Formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1715

Plot DWF Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1716

Plot DWFx Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1717

Contents | xvii

Plot to DXB File Formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1718

Plot to Raster File Formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1719

Plot Adobe PDF Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1721

Plot Adobe PostScript Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1723

Create Plot Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1724

Chapter 34 Publish Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1727

Overview of Publishing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1727

Create and Modify a Drawing Set for Publishing . . . . . . . . . . . 1730

Create a Paper or Plot File Drawing Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1734

Publish an Electronic Drawing Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1737

Publish a Sheet Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1742

Republish a Drawing Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1750

View Electronic Drawing Sets with Autodesk Design Review . . . . . 1751

Set Publish Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1753

Publish 3D DWF Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1758

Print 3D Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1766

Part 11 Share Data Between Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1769

Chapter 35 Reference Other Drawing Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1771

Overview of Referenced Drawings (Xrefs) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1771

Attach and Detach Referenced Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1774

Attach Drawing References (Xrefs) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1774

Nest and Overlay Referenced Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1780

Set Paths to Referenced Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1782

Detach Referenced Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1787

Update and Archive Referenced Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1788

Update Referenced Drawing Attachments . . . . . . . . . . . . 1788

Archive Drawings That Contain Referenced Drawings

(Bind) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1791

Clip External References and Blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1793

Edit Referenced Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1797

Edit a Referenced Drawing in a Separate Window . . . . . . . . 1797

Edit Selected Objects in Referenced Drawings and Blocks . . . . 1799

Use the Working Set to Edit Referenced Drawings and

Blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1802

Save Back Edited Referenced Drawings and Blocks . . . . . . . 1804

Edit Referenced Drawings and Blocks with Nesting, OLE, or

Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1806

Resolve Referenced Drawing Errors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1808

Resolve Missing External References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1808

Resolve Circular External References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1809

Resolve Name Conflicts in External References . . . . . . . . . 1810

xviii | Contents

Track External Reference Operations (Log File) . . . . . . . . . 1812

Increase Performance with Large Referenced Drawings . . . . . . . . 1815

Overview of Demand Loading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1815

Unload Xrefs in Large Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1816

Work with Demand Loading in Large Drawings . . . . . . . . . 1816

Work with Layer and Spatial Indexes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1818

Set Paths for Temporary Xref File Copies . . . . . . . . . . . . 1820

Chapter 36 Link and Embed Data (OLE) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1823

Overview of Object Linking and Embedding . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1823

Import OLE Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1826

Overview of Importing OLE Objects into Drawings . . . . . . . 1826

Link OLE Objects in Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1827

Embed OLE Objects in Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1830

Export OLE Objects from Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1833

Edit OLE Objects in Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1835

Chapter 37 Work with Data in Other Formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1839

Convert Drawing File Formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1839

Understand the Effect of Format Changes . . . . . . . . . . . . 1841

Save Conversion Settings for Later Use . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1846

Save Lists of Files for Batch Conversions . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1848

Import Other File Formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1849

Import Autodesk 3ds MAX Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1849

Import FBX Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1850

Import 3D Point Cloud Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1851

Import ACIS SAT Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1856

Convert DXF and DXB Files to DWG Format . . . . . . . . . . 1856

Import MicroStation DGN Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1857

Import IGES Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1864

Import STEP Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1866

Import Pro/ENGINEER Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1868

Import Rhino Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1870

Import CATIA Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1871

Import SolidWorks Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1874

Import JT Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1876

Import UGS NX Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1878

Import Parasolid Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1880

Insert WMF Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1882

Attach Files as Underlays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1884

Overview of Underlays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1884

Attach, Scale, and Detach Underlays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1885

Work with Underlays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1895

Manage and Publish Drawings Containing Underlays . . . . . 1909

Attach Raster Image Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1916

Contents | xix

Overview of Raster Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1916

Attach, Scale, and Detach Raster Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1919

Modify Raster Images and Image Boundaries . . . . . . . . . . 1923

Manage Raster Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1929

Tune Raster Image Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1935

Export Drawings to Other File Formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1938

Export DWF and DWFx Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1938

Export PDF Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1940

Export DXF Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1941

Export FBX Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1942

Export MicroStation DGN Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1944

Export IGES files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1946

Export WMF Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1948

Export Raster Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1949

Export PostScript Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1951

Export ACIS SAT Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1952

Export Stereolithography STL Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1953

Use Drawings from Different Versions and Applications . . . . . . . 1954

Work with Drawings in Earlier Releases . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1954

Save Drawings to Previous Drawing File Formats . . . . . . . . 1960

Work with AutoCAD Drawings in AutoCAD LT . . . . . . . . . 1963

Work with Custom and Proxy Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1966

Chapter 38 Extract Data from Drawings and Spreadsheets . . . . . . . . 1969

Overview of Data Extraction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1969

Extract Data Using the Data Extraction Wizard . . . . . . . . . . . . 1971

Start the Data Extraction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1974

Select the Source for a Data Extraction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1975

Select Objects for Data Extraction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1977

Organize and Refine the Extracted Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1980

Use Table Styles for Data Extraction Tables . . . . . . . . . . . 1986

Link an Excel Spreadsheet to Access Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1987

Output Extracted Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1991

Update Extracted Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1994

Overview of Updating Extracted Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1994

Update Extracted Data Manually . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1995

Update Data Extraction Table Automatically . . . . . . . . . . 1997

Modify a Data Extraction Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1999

Detach a Data Extraction Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2002

Chapter 39 Access External Databases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2003

Overview of Using External Databases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2003

Access a Database from Within Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2005

Configure a Database for Use with Drawing Files . . . . . . . . 2005

View Data in a Database Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2008

xx | Contents

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