4. Setup Workspace

Introduction

Workspace is the area like the drawing sheet where the concept and ideas take shapes. To do so we need a perfect working space, tools and utilities. In this chapter we discuss setting up working space as per our requirements and different other available options.

Following are the steps required to setup a workspace:

1. Set working units(To perform correct measurements)
2. Limits setup(To specify the drawing sheet size)
3. Grid setup(To visualize the size of drawing sheet and measurement)

After following these three steps of workspace settings, you are now able to develop a drawing with accuracy and ease. Now we discuss each setting in detail.

Setting up Units

Unit is required to measure anything. For the purpose of Civil, Architectural and Mechanical we need different units of measurement. For example mechanical drawings require measurement in decimal, but civil and architectural drawings require measurement in feet and inches.

There are two methods to execute commands in AutoCAD i.e. by typing command in command window or select the tool from Ribbon. The most preferred way is to use command window because command options can be selected only from command window.

Method-1

Select Unit Setup from Application Button\Drawing Utilities\Units.

Method-2 (Recommended)

Execute command by typing the command name in command window.

In general AutoCAD commands display command prompts after executing the command but this command displays a following Dialog Box instead of command prompts:

Above dialog box of drawing units display different measurement styles required at the time of drawing, inserting objects and lighting. Drawing units are required to draw objects using Drawing Tools and it requires Length and Angle specification.

Length Specification:  Select type of unit to specify length of any object. Following are the units available for real world applications-

·         Architectural – Architectural formats produce feet and inches display used specially in architectural purpose like building and map design. This format assumes that each drawing unit represents one inch. Format Example: 2’3 1/8” (here single quote(‘) indicate Feet and Double quote(“) indicate Inch)

·         Engineering – This is same as Architectural unit with a difference in fraction part format. Fractions are displayed in decimal in engineering unit. Format example: 2’ 3.6”

·         Decimal - This unit used to represent any real world object. Format Example: 2.3

·         Fractional - This unit format is also representing any real world object. Format Example: 2 1/16

·         Scientific – This unit format is also represent any real world object. Format Example: 2.56E+02. Where E means exponential and represents 10 to the power 2 i.e. (10)².

Note: Precision is the degree of accuracy, we can specify using precision pull down list of length measurement.

Angle Measurement: Here we can specify the angle measurement format. Different available formats are:

Decimal Degree – This is the most common format of Angle measurement measure in metric units. In a complete circle there are three hundred and sixty degrees (360). For Example 3”<45.36 means 3” is the length of object and 45.36 is the angle between object and x-axis. Here fraction part is represented in decimal format in which 1 degree is subdivided into 10/100/1000 levels according to selected precision level. The size of the angle in this case would be forty-five full degrees plus Thirty-six hundredths of an additional degree.  ‘<’ symbol is used to specify Angle parameter.

Deg/Min/Sec – In this format the degree (d) is divided into sixty parts called minutes (‘). These minutes are further divided into sixty parts called seconds (“). The size of an angle could be stated this way: 45 degrees, 20 minutes, 30 seconds. There are symbols that are used when specifying angles using degrees, minutes, and seconds. So, the angle of 45 degrees, 20 minutes, 30 seconds is written like: 45d20’30”.

Grads – In a complete circle there are 400 grads (g). Each quadrant of a circle is assigned a range of 100 grads, which eases recognition of the four quadrants, as well as arithmetic involving perpendicular or opposite angles. For Example 3”<50g means object length is 3 inches and angle specification is 50 grads i.e. 45 degree because one quadrant is of 100 grads.

Radians – Radian(r) is the standard unit of angular measurement in mathematics. For this measurement, consider the unit circle (a circle of radius 1) whose centre is the vertex of the angle. Then the angle cuts off an arc of the circle, and the length of that arc is the radian measure of the angle. The circumference of the entire circle is 2 ( is about 3.14159), so it follows that 360° equals 2 radians. Hence, 1° equals /180 radians and 1 radian equal 180/ degrees. For example 3”<0.7854r means object length is 3 inches and angle is 0.7854 radians i.e. 45 degree (0.7854 x (180/)).

Degrees	Radians
90°	/2
60°	/3
45°	/4
30°	/6

Surveyor’s unit – This is the unit for surveyors developing maps and boundaries. It is like a unit of compass. Example format 3”<N 45dE.

Angle Direction: By default positive angle measurement direction is counter-clockwise and negative angle measurement is clockwise. By enabling Clockwise checkbox we are eligible to measure and specify positive angle as clockwise.

                Counter-Clockwise Direction                                                      Clockwise Direction

              

Insertion Scale: This is the unit used to scale the objects inserted from external files. For example blocks (discuss later) and drawing files. Scaling is needed when inserted object measurement unit is mismatched with existing file measurement unit. Select “Unitless” from the pull down list to insert the object without scaling it to match the current drawing unit.

Sample Output: Demonstrate the selected unit formats for length and angle measurement.

Lighting: Select the light intensity measurement unit if you are working in 3D visualization. This setting is only required for 3D users. This pull down gives following options-

·         International

·         American

·         Generic

Direction Button: This button displays the direction control dialog box. Using this dialog box we can change the base line of measurement. By default ‘East’ (X-axis) is the default base line for measurement purpose. Here we can change baseline to North, West, South or any other specified angled base line by picking or typing the angle.

 

 Tip: We only need to change the unit type to Architectural and leave all settings to default to setup units.

Limits Setup

This is done by LIMITS command. This command set the size of drawing sheet and can also restrict the working beyond the set limit.

Note: Angle bracket value is the default value if no value is entered.

Command prompt options:

1)      Specify Lower Left Corner: Type starting point coordinates of drawing sheet which is in general always (0, 0). This is the default coordinate in the command, so press ENTER key to accept lower left corner as (0,0).

2)      Specify Upper Right Corner: Type opposite side coordinates that contain width (x-axis) and length (y-axis) values of a drawing sheet. For example type: 25’0”, 40’0”. Here 25 feet is the width and 40 feet is the length of the plot area. You can ignore to type the inch value if it is 0.

3)      ON: Type ‘ON’ and press Enter key to perform limits checking. When limits checking is ON then we can not specify point outside the limit area to draw any object. Limit command restrict the points specification outside the limit area, so any object that have a point inside the limit area can grow outside the limit area like circle, arc etc.

4)      OFF: Type OFF and press Enter key to turn off limits checking. Now you can draw objects outside the limit area.

GRID setup

Grid is the facility to visualize the drawing area. Dotted grid is the standard grid view to work with AutoCAD but in the AutoCAD 2011 release you can view grids as a graph paper. We recommend the standard dotted grid view to easily recognize 2D objects like line, rectangle etc. Graph paper view of grid line is generally useful in 3D working, where grid provide the reference (base) plan to draw objects.

Grid view also facilitates the user to specify point direct pointing to the screen by visualizing the reference of surrounding grids. Display of  grid and horizontal & vertical space between grid dots can be controlled by the user as per requirement. After specifying the space between grid points we can visually measure the length and width of object by just counting the grid dots between the objects.

Command: GRID

Tool:  (Status Bar)

Command prompt options:

1)      Specify grid spacing(x): Type required horizontal and vertical distance between grid dots. Type x after the value sets the grid spacing to the specified value multiplied by the snap (Cross Hair jump) interval.

2)      ON: Type ON to turn on display of grid dots.

3)      OFF: Type OFF to turn off display of grid dots.

4)      Snap: Type ‘S’ to sets spacing of grid dots same as specified in SNAP command.

5)      Major: Type ‘M’ to specify the frequency of major line in the grid. Major line is the different format line used to visualize large block size. This option is effective only when grid type is set to grid lines not grid dots. You can change grid type from grid setting dialog box discussed later in this topic.

6)      aDaptive: Type ‘D’ to change the grid behaviour and grid spacing at the time of Zoom in and Zoom out.

a.      Turn Adaptive behaviour ON[Yes/No]<Yes>: Type ‘Y’ to turn on dynamic behaviour of grid dots spacing at the time of Zoom out. Grid dots spacing adjust automatically to retain on the screen otherwise in case of ‘NO’ , grid dots spacing stick on specified units to display and it will give an error “Grid too dense to display” when zooming out.

b.      Allow subdivision below grid spacing[Yes/No]<No>:  Type ‘Y’ to turn on grid dots display on sublevels at the time of Zoom in. Sublevels means grid within grid. When we zoom in very deep inside the drawing, in general, the main grid dots may be out of screen due to specified grid spacing. In case of sublevels, when we Zoom in, grid dots automatically generated dynamically.

7)      Limits: Type ‘L’ to display ON/OFF grid dots outside the specified limits. Turn on this setting only when you have outlined working area otherwise you cannot visualize your limits using grid dots because entire drawing space is filled with grid dots.

8)      Follow: Changes the grid plane to follow the XY plane of the dynamic UCS.

9)      Aspect: Type ‘A’ to set horizontal and vertical grid dots spacing different.

‘Aspect’ option is not available in Isometric SNAP style. You can also type ‘x’ with the specified value as a multiple of the snap interval.

You can also set all these settings through grid setup dialog box. To do so right click on grid tool (Status Bar), select settings option and this will open the dialog box.

3. New AutoCAD 2011 Workspace Interface

3.1     Introduction

AutoCAD is one of the most popular CAD software. Computer Aided Design(CAD) is the software category for engineering purpose. Most of all engineers and architects use AutoCAD from first stage of development i.e. from concept development to last approval stage.

Before getting started to work on any project, you must first understand and setup AutoCAD drawing environment, Interface and Navigation techniques.

3.2     AutoCAD Interface

New AutoCAD interface is made up of different components organized in Ribbons that provide tools and utilities to complete the task rapidly with accuracy.

1. Title Bar
2. Application Button
3. Quick Access Toolbar
4. Info Centre
5. Ribbon Tabs
6. Ribbon
7. Workspace
8. Crosshairs
9. UCS
10. Layout Bar
11. Command Window
12. Status Bar

3.3     Detailed description of workspace components

3.3.1    1) Title Bar

Display the Application name and File name. Drawing1.DWG is the default file name automatically given to the new file when AutoCAD is open. We can change this file name at the time of file save. DWG stands for drawing and used as extension (File Type) for AutoCAD files.

3.3.2    2) Application Button

This button provides all files and print management commands.

New: Create a new AutoCAD document based on existing template. Template is the preset sheet of some basic required options required to drawing in AutoCAD. The default template is acad.dwt.

Open: open existing AutoCAD Drawing document from disk.

Save: Save drawing in a disk. Only first time this command ask the file name to identify file in disk. You can also specify the file location where to save the file.

Save As: This command same as Save command with a difference that this command always ask the file name in which drawing is saved. This command is used to create duplicate of any drawing file.

Export: Save file in other formats to transfer or view drawing independently without the need of AutoCAD like Acrobat PDF format.

Print: Print(Plot) a drawing on paper through a Printer or Plotter. Plotter is a special printer used to print large drawings. This option also allows page setup to print drawing correctly on paper.

Publish: Same as Print and Export PDF command but allow including more than one drawing files like a batch processing. In case of print to PDF/DWF (write output in a PDF/DWF file) this command dialog box allows to combine their sheet in a single file.

Send: Create a zip file with all necessary configuration files required to transfer and open on any other computer. File is ready with zip and can be sending on E-mail.

Drawing Utilities: Provide tools like Recover damaged files or remove unused objects to create lightweight drawing files etc. These tools discussed later in this book.

Recent Documents: Display list of recently used documents to open the frequently used files quickly.

Open Documents: Display list of currently open drawing documents.

Options: Huge collection of environment options to set On or Off to work efficiently in AutoCAD. To be discussed later in the book.

Exit AutoCAD: Close AutoCAD Application Window.

3.3.3    3) Quick Access Toolbar

Collection of frequently used tools like New Drawing file, Open, Save, undo, redo etc. We can also add new tools in this toolbar as per our requirements.

3.3.4    4) Info Centre

Tools to search any command or query any question from different help files or online.

3.3.5    5) Ribbon Tabs

This is a customizable group of Ribbons in which multiple related tools are grouped together in panels.

Following is the short description of each ribbon

Home: All the primary tools and utilities to develop a drawing.

Insert: Tools to attach different external objects

Annotate: Collection of all documentation tools

Parametric: Tools to add parameters with two or more objects to follow specific rules like perpendicular to each other, alignment etc.

View: Tools to change current view and viewport settings.

Manage: Tools to customize interface, record macro and to create script in current drawing file.

Output: Tools to plot(print) drawing on paper and to export in any other file format to transfer or view drawing independently without the need of AutoCAD.

Express Tools: Extension of commonly used tools like move/copy/rotate through a single command etc.

 View Tool: ON/OFF Ribbon display to optimize workspace.

3.3.6    6) Ribbon

Ribbon is the group of panels. Panel is the group of related tools. Panels in a Ribbon may vary due to different workspace presets. Following is the view of Home Ribbon in two different presets:

3.3.7    7) Workspace

This is the drawing area used to design working plans.

3.3.8    8) Crosshairs

Crosshairs represents mouse pointer and change shapes within different commands.

3.3.9    9) UCS Icon

UCS stands for Users Coordinates System. This is used as reference plan for drawing. XY plan represents the 2D plan for working in a Top View.

3.3.10 10) Layout Bar

Display existing layouts. By default two layouts are available when we create new drawing file. One is called Model Space i.e. actual working space and second is Paper Space i.e. paper setup for printing purpose.

3.3.11 11) Command Window

This is the most accessible area next to workspace window. In this window we can executes commands by typing and all the time we can select available options from executed command that is not possible from anywhere. Expert users prefer commands by typing in this area rather than search and select from toolbars or Ribbons because if you run commands from Ribbon or Toolbar than you have to select options from command window and also you have to type parameters value in command window. So this is the most useful component in our designing phase.

3.3.12 12) Status Bar

Status bar help to select many handy tools and display current coordinates.

Coordinate System: Display current mouse pointer position as a coordinate in (x,y,z), where

X axis represents Width

Y axis represents Length

Z axis represents Height

Z-axis is used in 3D-Modelling.

Transparent Commands: These commands can be run when we are already within any other drawing command. These commands discussed later.

Button view:

Icon View:

Note: You can switch between button view to Icon view by right clicking on any tool and on/off “use Icon” setting.

Quick Properties: Display properties of object when object is selected.

Button View

Icon View:

 

Model or Paper Space: Switch between actual working space (Model) or Paper space for printing purpose.

Quick View Layouts(): Display all layouts as thumbnails and provide a method to select, print or publish the drawing.

Quick View Drawings(): Display all open drawing files as a thumbnail and provide method to select any open file, open another existing file, create a new file, save file and close a file. This quick view of drawings also displays quick view of layouts available in each drawing.

Navigation Tools: Tools to view drawing workspace as required. These tools discussed later.

Annotation Tools: Tools related to documentation of drawing. These tools discussed later.

Workspace Switching Tool: Tools to change workspace environment according to drawing preferences like drawing in 2D or 3D etc discussed in next topic. This tool is available on two places-

Quick Tools:

Status Bar:

Toolbar & Window position lock/unlock(): Fix the position of toolbar and window when required.

Hardware Acceleration (): This tool display a following list of choice-

·         Adaptive Degradation: Controls whether adaptive degradation is on or off. With adaptive degradation on, if performance goes below the specified level, effects are disabled or reduced in a certain order until performance returns to an acceptable level.

·         Hardware Acceleration & Performance Tuning:  Specifies hardware settings and performance tuning. The performance tuner reads your system and decides whether to use software or hardware implementation for features that support both. Features that work with your system are turned on, and features that cannot work with your system are turned off. A log file displays the results. You can make manual changes.

Isolate Objects (): This tool display a following list of choice-

Isolate Objects: This option gives the facility to work on only selected object. Using this option you can select any object and press ENTER key to hide all other objects.

Hide Objects: This option hides the selected object that is not required at this time. Using this option you can select object and press ENTER key to hide selected object.

Note: To add more objects in the option select “Isolate Additional Objects” and to cancel the effect of both commands select “End Object Isolation” from the list.

Clear Screen(): Help to get valuable screen space when required by hiding Ribbon Tab and even Taskbar of Operating System. Provide the full screen space for viewing and working.

3.4     Multiple Environment Flavours of AutoCAD Workspace

As you see in the bottom right corner of the interface, “2D Drafting & Annotation” interface is selected.

There are different preset environment flavours designed to target the different types of projects or designers. Click on 2D Drafting & Annotation button to view and change workspace.

 

1) 2D Drafting & Annotation: This is the standard workspace to work with AutoCAD. Provide set of tools to work in two dimensional (2D) environments.

This is the most common interface for AutoCAD users like Civil engineers, Architects, Draftsman, Mechanical engineers, Electrical engineers because every concept starts from 2D and after that extending into next level if required.

2) 3D Basics:

3) 3D Modelling: 3d modelling tool set provide the 3d tools handy to create 3-Dimensional plans and objects. These tools are hidden in 2D working environment. After drawing the concept in 2D, you can switch into 3D modelling interface to work smoothly in 3D.

4) AutoCAD Classic: For a new AutoCAD user, new ribbon interface is very easy to understand and operate the commands, but for previous versions AutoCAD experts they may feel uneasy with this new interface. To maintain the old look and feel this preset provides all the commands in old classic pattern.

5) Save Current As: If you make some changes in existing workspace environment then you can save these changes with a new name to create a new preset. This name is added into preset list to be used later on.

For Example, 2D Drafting & Annotation is the most common toolset, but if you need additional tool palate always handy with your workspace, then following is the procedure to save your current settings as a new preset.

·         Click on Workspace switching button

·         Select “Save Current As” option

·         Give the new name for the workspace settings.

Now your 2D workspace setting with additional tool palates saved with a new name and display in the preset list.

6) Workspace Settings: Display a dialog box to change workspace switching tools options.

My Workspace: set default workspace for “My Workspace” tool. This is the tool that can be added into any toolbar like Quick Access Toolbar to quickly access your favourite workspace preset.

TIP: Follow the procedure to add “My Workspace” tool in a Quick Access Toolbar
* Right click on Quick Access Toolbar
* Select “Customize Quick Access toolbar”
* Select “My Workspace” from command list and then Drag and Drop into Quick Access Toolbar.

This will add “My Workspace” tool into the toolbar and now you can switch to your favourite workspace by just clicking the tool.

You can also use this procedure anywhere in AutoCAD to Add new command as a tool and this is called Customization.

Menu Display: ON/OFF preset name to display in workspace switching pull down list.

Move Up: Move up selected preset in Menu Display list

Move Down: Move down selected preset in Menu Display list

Add Separator: Add separator to create group of presets

Save changes to workspace: ON/OFF automatic saving of workspace changes

7) Customize: Huge collection of AutoCAD commands organized in Ribbons, menu and Toolbars as a tool. From here you can add any command as a tool in toolbar by drag and drop method. We will discuss this topic later.