Autodesk AutoCAD LT 2011 manual

1 Confidential – Subject to Non ‐ disclosure A greement Au to C A D LT 2011 P r e view Guide AutoCAD LT ® software is a leader in 2D drafting produ ctiv ity and data reliabilit y. Now , new features in AutoCAD LT 2011 bring you more options for precise control of your 2D drawings. Improve t he appearance of your drawings with transpare nt obje[...]

2 Confidential – Subject to Non ‐ disclosure A greement Table of Contents Us er Interface ............................................................................................................................................... 3 Drawing Window ...............................................................................................[...]

3 Confidential – Subject to Non ‐ disclosure A greement User Interface AutoCAD LT 2011 offers a variety of user interface enhancements that enable you to design with great er ease and efficiency. Drawi ng Window The drawing w indow has been updat ed in AutoCA D LT 2011 to display a dark gray backgro und in modelspace. Yo u can easily modify the[...]

4 Confidential – Subject to Non ‐ disclosure A greement The Ribbon A new pull - down menu ha s been added to the ribbon cycle butto n at the end of the list of tabs . You can minim ize the ribbon to panel buttons, tabs, or panel titles. Figure 2 . Ribbon cycle o ptions When you min imize the ribbo n to panel buttons, la rge icons appear for eac[...]

5 Confidential – Subject to Non ‐ disclosure A greement On the View ribbon tab, the Windows pa nel includes new User Inter face and Toolbar controls t hat enable you to easily toggle the display of the Navigation Bar, the Text Window, and toolbars . T he status bar con trols, altho ugh no longer on t he Windows panel, are still easily accessibl[...]

6 Confidential – Subject to Non ‐ disclosure A greement Figur e 7 . Ribbon Fold pa nel -- Def ault or Floating Figure 8 . Ribbon Fo ld panel -- M aximum Figure 9 . Ribbon Fo ld panel -- M inimum Quick Acc ess Toolb ar The Quick Access toolbar di splay s the name of the curr ent workspac e. You can ea sily select a differen t workspace and acces[...]

7 Confidential – Subject to Non ‐ disclosure A greement Navig ation AutoCA D LT 2011 inclu des a new Navigation Bar wit h the freque ntly used nav igation tools Autodesk® SteeringWheels®, Pan, and Zoom. It replaces the navigation tools that w ere previously accessible on the status bar. You can c o ntrol the display of the Navigation Bar for [...]

8 Confidential – Subject to Non ‐ disclosure A greement Objec t Visibil ity AutoCA D LT 2011 inclu des new tools that enable you to control object visibility independent f rom layer visibility. The Object Visibility tools are acc essible from the right - click menu wh en objects are selected as well as wh en no objec ts are sel ected. When you [...]

9 Confidential – Subject to Non ‐ disclosure A greement Figure 15 . End object isolation The OBJEC TISOLATION MODE system variable c ontrols wheth er isolated /hidden objects persis t between drawing sessions. A light - b ulb icon on the status bar indicates whether obj ect isolation i s active in th e drawing. Figure 16 . Object Isolation Stat[...]

10 Confidential – Subject to Non ‐ disclosure A greement A Setting s option (acc essible when you ent er SELECTSI MILAR at th e command lin e) enables y ou to specify which properties to filter. If only the Layer property is enabled when you select a circle, for example, A utoCAD L T automaticall y selects all circles on the same la yer as the [...]

11 Confidential – Subject to Non ‐ disclosure A greement E asily select overlapping o bject s using the new sel ection cycling functionality. You can enable selection cycling fr om a contr ol on the statu s bar. When you try t o select an object that overlaps other objects , AutoCAD LT displays a list o f all the overlappi ng objec ts. As you p[...]

12 Confidential – Subject to Non ‐ disclosure A greement Documen t Transparenc y AutoCA D LT 2011 inclu des a new transpare ncy property t hat enables you to apply transpa rency to objec ts and layers i n the same way you app ly colors , linetypes, and li neweights. Figure 21 . Transparent Objects You can set transparency b y layer, by block, o[...]

13 Confidential – Subject to Non ‐ disclosure A greement You can set transparency for individual objects just like color and linetype. Setting a transparenc y value for an individual object ove rrides the layer tran sparency s etting for th at object. You can a ccess object transparency from a numb er o f places: the Proper ties palette, Quick [...]

14 Confidential – Subject to Non ‐ disclosure A greement Prior to AutoCAD LT 2011, i mages had a setting, also called “transparency,” that controlled whether the backgro und of a bitona l image was clear o r opaque. This prop erty has been rena med to “ba ckground transpar ency” to distinguish it from the new “t ransparency” propert[...]

15 Confidential – Subject to Non ‐ disclosure A greement You can also see the result of each click as you pick p o ints or objects in the dra wing. Keep in mind that even though it looks as tho ugh a hatch was created as you clicked, it will not actually be a separate objec t unle ss you h ave the “Cr eate Separ ate Hatches ” option on. Fig[...]

16 Confidential – Subject to Non ‐ disclosure A greement Other ha tch grip behav ior has not changed, except t hat “stretch” is now the default ac tion for t he secondary or middle grips on a non - associative hatch. Figure 30 . Stretch hat ch boundary Hatches now support a background colo r in additio n to line color. T his enables you to [...]

17 Confidential – Subject to Non ‐ disclosure A greement The comm and HATCHTOBACK ha s been introduc ed in respo nse to an item o n the AUGI wishlist. S imilar to TEXTT OFRONT, HATC HTOBACK sends hatc hes underneath a ll other obj ects in the drawing. “Send Hatches to Back” is available on the M odify panel of the Home t ab under the Draw O[...]

18 Confidential – Subject to Non ‐ disclosure A greement Polyli nes Polyli ne objects i n AutoCAD LT 2011 now have extra grips to ma ke editing them easier than ever. In addition to the familiar primary g rips located at the end of each polyline s egment, there are now secondar y grips locat ed at the midpoint of ea ch segment. These grips , li[...]

19 Confidential – Subject to Non ‐ disclosure A greement Splines Splines have been updated in Au to CAD LT 2011 to pro vide more flexibility and control. You can d efine a spline using fit points or co ntro l vertices (CV). CV splines are more appropriate if you will be using them with 3D NU RBS (non - uniform rational b - spline) surfaces. Fig[...]

20 Confidential – Subject to Non ‐ disclosure A greement Easily switch metho ds, add and remov e points, or edi t endpoint tangencies using intui tive grip menu s. Figure 38 . Spline gr ip menus The SPL INEDIT command also has several new opt ions, including i mprove d Edit Vertex o ptions. You can now easily add “kinks” or s harp corners t[...]

21 Confidential – Subject to Non ‐ disclosure A greement External R eferences The selecti on of e x ternall y referenced files has been enhanced in A utoCAD LT 20 11 . When y ou select a refere nce object in t he drawing (xrefs, i mages, DWF TM , DGN, PDF, data ext raction ta bles), the corresponding reference is selected in the External Refere[...]

22 Confidential – Subject to Non ‐ disclosure A greement Figure 41 . User Prefer ence tab of the Options dia log The Default Scale List dialo g box is similar to the existing Edit Scale Lis t dialog, wh ich edits the scales i n the drawing. However, the Default Scale List dialog box includes additi onal controls for you to specify if the defaul[...]

23 Confidential – Subject to Non ‐ disclosure A greement When you reset the scales list in a drawing, you are pr om pted to selec t Metric scales, Imperial scales, or both. T he default cho ice is governe d by the MEASUREMENT variable in the drawing. When you c reate a new drawing without specifying a te mplate, A uto C AD LT adds metric or imp[...]

24 Confidential – Subject to Non ‐ disclosure A greement Text Alignment i n Lin ety pes AutoCAD LT 2011 now ma kes it possible to maintain linetype readability in any orientation. Figure 45 . Alignm ent of text in a linety pe The line types inc luded with Auto CAD LT 2011 behave this way by default . To update you r own custom linety pes, you n[...]

25 Confidential – Subject to Non ‐ disclosure A greement New to AutoCAD LT 2011 There are a few featur es in AutoCAD LT 2011 that will be familiar to long - time Au toCAD users, but that have been un availab le in AutoCAD LT unti l now. • Gradient hatches are now supported, and ca n be found in the pa ttern list o n the Hatch Creatio n and Ha[...]

26 Confidential – Subject to Non ‐ disclosure A greement Online Help System AutoCA D LT 2011 inclu des web - based hel p , which you can launc h from the Help ico n on the InfoC enter. Figure 48 . Online hel p syste m A cont rol on the System t ab of the Options dialog box allo ws you to disa ble the online hel p. Doing so displays a local vers[...]