Lesson #3
EGR-110, Burgener, September 11th, 2000

Administrative notes and announcements:

Please turn off your monitors and computers at the end of class. I keep forgetting to ask you to do this, and it takes a while for me to do it to all the computers. If you don't know how, save your drawing/s and files to your floppy, close all the applications you've got open (AutoCAD, Notepad, IE, etc), then click on the taskbar: Start>Shutdown, and check Shut down. It takes a minute or two. Eventually it'll say "You may now shut down your computer" or something similar. Turn off the computer first (for good measure) and then the monitor. Thanks.

Also, don't let me forget (again) to give you some recycled floppies. I've reformatted enough for each to take 2 or 3.

Turn in at the start of class: Handout page 27, the missing lines orthographic "complete the views" puzzle page.

Returned: I returned handout page D-1 and D-2 that were handed in the previous class.

New Commands students should know AFTER this lesson:
LIMITS - p12 of your textbook, and irp165 of your Instant Reference book. The LIMITS command controls how big the GRID matrix is. You specify the lower left corner (always leave it 0,0), and the upper right corner. The GRID will fill the space between these corners. Either type LIMITS, or use the pulldown menu Format>Drawing Limits.
UNITS, UN – irp344 This tells AutoCAD what units of measurement you want to work in. You can set them for decimal, architectural (feet and inches) or other styles. Either type UNITS, or use the pull-down menu Format>Units.
LAYER, LA – irp154 Layers are like sheet of transparency, on which you place your drawing lines, arc, circles, text, .... One layer should be for each different category. For example, a layer might be for the surveyors lines for your new building, another for the foundation, another for the walls, another for the electrical... Each layer SHOULD have assigned to it a special color and linetype. This way, all you have to do to "dim" the foundation lines of your drawing is to turn the Foundation layer to gray colored dotted lines. Always keep the color and linetype for your lines "Bylayer" to maintain this productivity. Use the white "sheets of paper" icon near the far left of the Object Properties toolbar.
BREAK, BR - p17,18 irp36 Break allows you to "erase" just a portion of a line or circle. The BREAK command is often use with Object snaps. It's very handy, if you learn to use the "First" option of the command.
SNAP - p19 irp274 The SNAP command allows you to set a matric of "magnets" on your drawing. For example, you might set the SNAP to one unit, if you want all the lines of your drawing to be incriments of an inch. Toggle SNAP on and off as necessary with the button on the status bar. The more you use AutoCAD, the less you'll use SNAP, though. To set SNAP, you can type SNAP, or simply right-click on the SNAP button on the taskbar.
GRID - p19 irp126 Until now, you've simply left the GRID OFF. Now you can learn how to adjust the spacing of the GRID dots, within the LIMITS that you set. The GRID dots might be spaced every 1/4 inch, or every yard, depending on what you're drawing. Use the GRID dots as a guide to help you estimate lengths and directions. Like SNAP above, you'll use GRID less as you gain experience with AutoCAD. To set GRID, you can type GRID, or simply right-click on the GRID button on the taskbar.
DTEXT or DT - p23 irp100 This command allows fast and simple text. Unfortunately AutoCAD took away the icon for DTEXT, so now you have to type DT and hit Enter.
DDEDIT or ED – irp54 This command allows for quick spelling changes. Notice after you correct your wording or spelling at one text item, it continues to wait for you to select another text item to edit. To complete the command, hit Enter.
Properties Icon irp234 at far upper right of your screen, near the right end of the Object Properties Toolbar. With this icon (button) you can not only change the spelling of text (as you learned above with DDEDIT), but you can change the layer on which a line or piece of text resides, and several other properties of the object.
MTEXT, T, or MT- irp185 This command allows you to make "paragraph text" complete with word wrapping, much like a word processor. In my opinion, it's a bit complex for just simple one or two line text objects. I prefer to use DTEXT for simple text lines, but you can use MTEXT if you prefer.

The below commands are from pages 110 to 111, and are on the SMILEY handout step by step tutorial.
ROTATE, RO
MOVE, M
SCALE, SC - Allows you to enlarge one or several objects together into a bigger size. By using a scale factor of 2, you can double the size of a group of lines, arcs, circles, text, etc.
MIRROR, MI
COPY, CP, CO p151
FILLET, F p143 The FILLET command lets you place an arc to "round off" the corner where two lines meet. You must first hit R to adjust the Radius of the arc you're going to place. It's handy to force two non-intersecting lines to touch, if you leave the Radius setting at zero.
EXTEND, EX p144 This command allows you to force lines or arcs to grow longer, until they touch the "boundary" you specify. You must specify the boundary (target) first, and then select what you want to grow.

Class work practice
For the time being, keep the taskbar buttons: POLAR, OSNAP, and LWT toggled OFF. You may now toggle on and off SNAP, GRID, and ORTHO. Always leave the far right button set for MODEL, though.

Students were given some time to work the 2D "clock" or "Lincoln welder" looking object in class.  2D commands required for the object were LIMITS, UNITS, GRID, SNAP, absolute relative and polar coordinates, object snaps, DTEXT and MTEXT, BREAK, ERASE, and DDEDIT.  See the list of commands at the top of this webpage, for the textbook pages that may be helpful in learning these and other commands.


Students were given time to work the SMILEY handout for practice.

Contrary to earlier lesson outlines, SMILEY and CLOCK-thing will not be collected.

Due next week: Nothing ! Suggest you begin work on the assignment due in 2 weeks.

Due in 2 more weeks: Due on Sept 25th: drawings on page Page 158, FIG. 6-1-C, the Rocker Arm, AND Page 221, FIG. 7-3-G, the Gasket, in the same AutoCAD file. Begin by drawing each full-scale. You’ll find the Gasket will be very small compared to the Rocker Arm. When the Gasket is complete, SCALE is up to make it 25 times larger. Once this is done, it’ll be about the same size as the top and front views of the Rocker Arm. Use several layers with linetypes (see Week #4 lesson plan). Only the border (see below) should be on layer zero.

On layer zero, place a rectangle around both problems, starting at 0,0 for the lower left corner and extending to 500,375 absolute coordinate. On magenta layer Text, in the lower right corner of the border, place in 10 unit high text, your name, the date, EGR-110-40 and the name of your drawing file.

Your drawing file will be collected at the start of class on Sept 25th .
p158-221a.gif Partially complete homework
Heads up for the next class-(later)