AutoCAD Release 2000

Tutorial 2: AutoCAD commands

This exercise is meant to give you practice on some basic skills in AutoCAD. Try to follow the instructions as you practice one after another. 1. Using the POLYGON Command
You will draw a hexagon inscribed in a circle of radius 10 cm. i. Start or create a new drawing from Scratch, set it to metric setting. ii. In the Draw menu, select Polygon. iii. type 6 as the number of sides, and press ENTER key iv. pick any point on the screen to be center of the polygon Figure 1 v. type I for inscribed in the circle, and press ENTER key vi. type 10 as the radius of your hexagon, and press ENTER or RETURN key. [Note that at every step there are some instructions or information at the command line. Make sure each step you take is in response to it]

2. Using the ZOOM command

You will use the ZOOM command to enlarge the polygon view so that you can easily develop inside. i. Select Zoom from the View menu, and choose Window. ii. Pick a point above the hexagon to the left at P1 as the first corner. See figure 2. iii. Pick another point below the hexagon to the right side at P2 as the other zoom corner. The figure is now magnified in view. Remember that this doesnt change its dimensional size.
P1

P2 Figure 2

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3. Using the LINE command

Use the LINE command to draw diagonals into the hexagon youve drawn above i. Try to practice drawing some diagonal lines from one corner to the opposite, as in figure 3. Select a convenient command from the Draw menu to enable you draw the lines. Use Object Snap tools to pick the exact points needed. ii. To return to the previous drawing view, use Zoom, Previous from the View menu.
Figure 3

4. Using the SCALE command.

You will use the SCALE command to enlarge the size of your polygon. i. Select Scale from the Modify menu. ii. Select the hexagon, [You can type All at the prompt to select all objects on graphics editor] and Press Enter to end the selection of objects. iii. Pick any point P to the left side of the figure to act as the P Base point iv. Type 2.0 at the command line prompt to be the Scale factor, and then press Enter. Figure 3 The figure is enlarged to double the original size.

5. Using the COPY command

You will use the COPY command to produce another copy of your object i. Select Copy from the Edit menu. ii. Select the hexagon by windowing method, press ENTER key. iii. Select Paste from Edit menu. iv. Move the graphics cursor to your right hand side at about 2 cm. in front of your object, and click. You now have two hexagons, one being a copy of the other.

6. Using MOVE command

i. ii. iii. iv. Select Move from the Modify menu. Use windowing method to select the copy of the hexagon (the one to your right hand side). Press Enter to complete the select objects command. Pick any point about 1 cm. in front of the polygon (to your right hand side) to mark your Base point or displacement.

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v. Move the graphics cursor down wards (the polygon moves following your graphics cursor movement) at about 1 cm vi. Click at any point to mark your second point of displacement. The hexagon moves to a new position. It means you control the movement with the direction you pick.
Figure 6

7. Using ERASE command.

You will use the ERASE command to remove unwanted entities from your drawing. The resulting figure i. Select Erase, from the Modify menu. ii. Pick the diagonals of the copy you made in section No.5 above (they become selected as you pick). iii. Right-click to effect the erase command. The lines are erased. you remain with a hexagon without the diagonals. iv. Repeat the process to erase the hexagon.

8. Using REDRAW command to clear the screen or refresh the display.

i. Select Redraw from the View menu. ii. The REDRAW command removes blips that appear whenever you pick points with the graphics cursor.

9. Using CHAMFER command to trim lines

You can use Chamfer command to trim two intersecting lines, and extend two straight lines to intersection their point. Drawing an object for exercise i. Select Rectangle from the Draw menu. ii. Draw two rectangles to form a cross to look like the figure 5 below. Trimming the object using the CHAMFER command i. The objects you have drawn are polylines (many lines treated as a single entity), to be able to modify you need to EXPLODE them first. ii. Type Explode and Press Enter. iii. Select the two objects, and press ENTER. iv. Select Chamfer from the modify menu. v. Type d press ENTER, type 0 to specify the chamfer distance to be 0. Press Enter, Enter vi. Select Chamfer from Modify. Pick at P1 and P2. The two lines become trimmed. vii. Press Enter to resume the Chamfer command. viii. Pick at P3 and P4. The resulting figure should be an inverted L beam, as seen in figure 6 below. ix. The remaining vertical and horizontal lines can be erased using the ERASE command.
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P3

Figure 5

P4

P2 P1

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10.Using TRIM command

Trim lets you trim some objects so that they end precisely at a cutting edge (or edges) defined by one or more other objects. a) Draw a figure for exercise Use same procedure as in section 8 above to draw another cross beam for practice and explode them. P5 P6

T2

P3

b) Trimming the object using the TRIM command

T3 T4

T1

P2

P4 P1 i. Select Trim from the Modify menu. ii. Pick lines through P2 and P3, to select them as Figure 7 Cutting edges. iii. Press Enter (or press RETURN key) to end the process of selecting cutting edges iv. Pick points T1 and T3 to select objects to be trimmed. v. Press Enter to end the trim command. Two middle vertical lines are erased (trimmed). You will now need to trim the remaining horizontal middle lines: vi. Press Enter to restart the TRIM command, vii. Pick lines through P1 and P4, to select them as Cutting edges. viii. Press Enter (or press RETURN key) to end the process of selecting cutting edges ix. Pick point T4 to select objects to be trimmed. x. Press Enter to end the trim command. The lower middle horizontal line has been trimmed. xi. Complete the trimming process to trim (erase) the upper middle horizontal line. This should results into a hollow cross-beam as shown in figure 8 above.

Figure 8

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11.

For More Practice

1. Try to trim the same cross beam in section 8 and 9 to result into figures 9 - 11 shown below:

Figure 11 Figure 10 Figure 9

2. Use the appropriate DRAWING tools to draw the figure similar to figure 12 below and then apply the TRIM command to result into figure 13.

Figure 12

Figure 13

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