1 – Introduction to AutoCAD

The term CAD (Computer Aided Design) applies to a wide range of programs
that allow th user to created drawings, plans, and designs electronically. AutoCAD is
one such program and it main claim to fame is that it is relatively easy to use, it is
very comprehensive in its ability to create 2D and some 3D drawings, and it is very
popular. Seventy percent of the CAD users in the world use AutoCAD.

I Starting AutoCAD

You can start AutoCAD by either double clicking on the program Icon on the
desktop or by clicking on the program name in the Start menu.
The program will start and after a minute or so should display a screen similar
to the one shown below. The dialog box in the middle will aid you in getting started
at either creating a new drawing or continuing your work on a drawing that is not
finished.

“A” Icon

If you are continuing work on a drawing, click on the “A” icon in the extreme
upper left corner of the window and Open->Drawing. A “Select File” dialog box will
open allowing you to select the drawing file you want to open.

II The Initial Screen

AutoCAD has a very versatile user interface that allows you to control the
program in several different ways. At the top of the window is a row of menus.
Clicking on the Home, Insert, or Annotate causes another selection of menus to
appear. This new selection of commands is frequently called a Ribbon or a
Dashboard. You can operate the program by clicking on the icons in these menus.
Another method of using the program is typing in the command names. This
is frequently faster than using drop down menus for frequently used commands
because you do not have to search for the correct menu or icon. You just type in the
command name. For the most part, we will use this approach in this series of

Introduction to AutoCAD – R Greenlee Page |1

tutorials. The commands that you type will appear at the bottom of the of the
AutoCAD window.

III The LINE Command

Now that you have started AutoCAD and configured tool bars you want, you
are ready to start learning to use the program. We will start with relatively simple
commands and eventually, in later lessons, look at some of the more complex things
that AutoCAD can do. The first command we will look at drawing straight lines. At
the keyboard, type:

line

and press the ENTER key. You can use either upper or lower case when you type in
AutoCAD commands.
The program will respond with:

Specify First Point:

Each line has a beginning and ending point and the program wants you to
specify the beginning point of the line. You enter the beginning point by either typing
the point coordinates at the keyboard or by clicking the mouse on a location of the
screen where you want the line to begin. It is certainly much simpler to click with the
mouse than it is to type in coordinates but engineering drawings are drawn precisely
to scale and for the most part we will have to enter coordinates from the keyboard.
When you type a coordinate, enter the X or horizontal coordinate first
followed by a comma and the Y or vertical coordinate. You cannot enter a space
between the two coordinates. AutoCAD interprets a space as the ENTER key and
assumes that you have finished entering the coordinates.
For Example, you could type:

Specify First Point: 3.5,6

The 3.5 coordinate is the X or

horizontal coordinate and the 6 is the
vertical coordinate.
After you enter the
coordinates, press the enter key. The
enter key tells the program that you
have entered the first coordinate and
are ready to enter the coordinates for
the next which will be the end of the
line. The program responds by displaying:

To Point:

If you want a horizontal line that is 5 units long, you enter the coordinates
@5,0 which is shown below.
To Point: @5,0 5.0

The @ sign tells the program

this coordinate is measured from the 3.5,6 Line Drawn 8.5,6
last coordinate entered. In other

Introduction to AutoCAD – R Greenlee Page |2

words, it says place the end if the line 5 units horizontally from the beginning point
and 0 units vertically. The line drawn is shown above.
Using the @ sign to specify relative coordinates is easier than specifying
absolute coordinates without the @ sign. The first point we drew had an absolute
coordinate of 3.5,6 and the second point had an absolute coordinate of 8.5,6 since it is
displaced 5 units horizontally from the first point.
We will continue with this to create the object shown on the right. It has lines,
an arc, and a circle. We have drawn the first and we will continue drawing the rest of
the lines.
As a shortcut, you can start the LINE command by typing L instead of the
entire word LINE. Many AutoCAD commands can be abbreviated to just the first
letter of the command.

IV Continue Drawing the 2.0

Ø2.0
Object

We can continue drawing the

object shown on the right by adding 4.0
more lines. If the line command is
2.0
still operating, press ENTER to end it. First Line
We will start it again to draw the
remaining lines. 3.5,6 5.0 8.5,6
You can draw the remaining
lines by typing:

line
Specify First Point: 8.5,6 {these are the coordinates of the end
of the first line we drew}
To Point: @-2,2
To Point @2,2
To Point @-5,0
To point {Press ENTER without entering
coordinates. This will end the line
command}

When you have finished

3.5,10
entering all of the coordinates, you
should have the object shown on the
right.

4.0
V Erasing Objects
2.0
First Line
AutoCAD calls lines, circles,
arcs and other things that you draw
objects. You can erase any of these 3.5,6 5.0 8.5,6
objects by typing the command:

ERASE

The program will respond with:

Introduction to AutoCAD – R Greenlee Page |3

 Select Objects:

You select the objects (lines, arcs, circles, etc.) in several different ways. The
easiest way is to click on the object you want to erase. When you do, the object is
redrawn as a dashed line. This shows the object has been selected for deletion. Click
on all of the objects that you want to erase then press the ENTER key to terminate the
command and erase the objects.
AutoCAD commands frequently have command modifiers that change the
way the command works. For the ERASE command, you can type:

ERASE ALL

and AutoCAD selects all of the objects in the drawing for erasure. The word ALL
modifies the way command works.
Another option is:

ERASE W

The W stands for window which allows you to select the objects by drawing a
box around them. First click above and to the right of the objects that you want to
erase. When you do, the mouse pointer changes to an elastic box with one corner
fixed at the place where you clicked. Move the mouse until the box completely
covers the information you want selected and click the mouse button again. All of the
objects inside the box will be selected for erasure. Press the ENTER key to erase the
objects.
You can type E to start the ERASE command.

VI Oops

If you make a mistake and erase something that you did not want to erase,
type:

OOPS

to undo the last erasure. OOPS always undoes the last erasure even though you have
continued with other commands since the objects were erased.

VII Canceling a Command

If you start a command and do not want to complete it, you can press the Esc
key to cancel the command. For some commands, you may have to press the key
more than once. Keep pressing the Esc key until you see the Command: prompt at
the bottom of the screen.

VIII Drawing Arcs

The ARC command is used to draw arcs. We can use this command to draw
the semicircle on the left side of the object. Enter:

Introduction to AutoCAD – R Greenlee Page |4

 Arc
Specify start point of arc or [Center]: 3.5,10 {The end point
of the last line
we drew}
Specify second point of arc or [Center/End]: c {Enter C to tell
the program we
want to enter
the center point
instead of the
end point of the
arc}
Specify center point of arc: @0,-2 {The center of
the arc is 2
units below the
start point}
Specify end point of arc: @0,-2 {The end of the
arc is 2 units
below the
center}

The completed arc is shown in 2.0

3.5,10
the drawing on the right. Unless
otherwise specified, AutoCAD will
draw arcs in a counterclockwise
(anticlockwise) direction.
Arc 4.0

2.0
First Line

IX Drawing Circles
3.5,6 5.0 8.5,6
Circles are created with the
CIRCLE command. Type:

CIRCLE

at the command prompt and AutoCAD will respond with:

3P/2P/TTR/<Center point>:

There are several different ways you can define a circle. In the computer
response above, the words Center point are surrounded by angle brackets and this
shows you the program is expecting you to enter the coordinates of the center of the
circle. You can either type the coordinates or click with the mouse. The quantity in
angle brackets is always the default selection for a command. The letters
3P/2P/TTR/are options you can use to modify the input required to create a circle.
These options are:

Introduction to AutoCAD – R Greenlee Page |5

 3P Define the circle with 3 non-collinear points.
2P Define the circle with points on either end of the circle diameter.
TTR Define the circle by specifying two other objects that are tangent to
the circle and the radius of the circle.

We can complete the drawing by drawing a circle. The center of the circle is
two units vertically above the beginning point where we started the drawing. The
coordinates for the center of the circle are 3.5,8. The circle has a diameter of 2.0.

circle
Specify center point for circle or [3P/2P/Ttr]: 3.5,8
Specify radius of circle or [Diameter]: d
Specify diameter of circle: 2

The completed object is shown 3.5,10 2.0

in the figure on the right.
Circle

4.0

3.5,8 2.0
First Line

3.5,6 5.0 8.5,6

X Program Help

If you need more information on the various

options for drawing an arc, park the mouse over the icon
and after a few seconds, a help message will pop up. The
help message will stay on the screen for as long as the
mouse is parked over the icon. If you want more help,
you can press the F1 key and AutoCAD will open a web
page where you can look up the command and read a
more in depth description of how it works.

Figure 1 Help message

produced when the mouse is
parked over the arc command.
XI Undoing Mistakes

If you make a mistake with a command you can undo anything it has done by
typing U at the command prompt. The entire effects of the last thing you typed will
be undone and AutoCAD will return to the state it was in prior to the typing.
If you are inside a LINE or other command, you can enter U to undo the last
coordinates entered or the last option selected.
You can undo the last command by holding down the Ctrl key and pressing Z.
Each time you press Z, AutoCAD will remove the last command. If your press Z five
times, it will backup through the last five commands.

Introduction to AutoCAD – R Greenlee Page |6

XII Zooming in on Detail

You enlarge or reduce the size of an object on the screen with the ZOOM
command. At the command prompt type:

ZOOM

and AutoCAD responds with:

[All/Center/Dynamic/Extents/Previous/Scale/Window/Object] <real
time>:

There are many options to the ZOOM command. Some of the more useful are:

All Change the scale so that all of the drawing is shown in the window.

Previous ZOOM to the previous view of the drawing.

Scale Enter a scale factor in the form nX where n is a scaling factor and X is just
the letter X. A number larger than 1 makes the drawing appear larger and
a number smaller than 1 makes the drawing smaller. For example 2
makes the drawing twice as large as it currently is and .5 makes the
drawing half its current size.

Window Allows you to draw a window around the area of the drawing you want to
see enlarged. The window is drawn by selecting opposite diagonal
corners with the mouse.

You can start the ZOOM command by just typing ZOOM or Z at the
command prompt.
A very easy to zoom in or out can be done with the mouse. Move the mouse
till it is near a location you want to remain on the screen. Roll the wheel between the
two mouse buttons forward to make the object larger and roll it backwards (towards
you) to make the object on the screen smaller.
If you zoom in to make the object larger, the object you want to see can zoom
off of the screen if you did not place your mouse close to it before you started
zooming. If it does scroll off of the screen, move your mouse over until it is as close
as you can get to the object, hold down on the wheel, and drag the screen over until
you can see the object you want to see. This operation is called PANNING.

XIII Size of Drawing Area

The drawing area is as large as you need it to be. The usable drawing area
does not just consist of the area that you can see. You can pan around the drawing
area to reveal areas of your drawing that are out of view. You can also ZOOM in and
out to reveal more or less of the drawing area. Because the drawing area is so large, it
is a good idea to indicate the region that you wish to use. This is your drawing size or
limits. This is usually the area that will be printed. You can change your drawing size
using the LIMITS command.
Setting your drawing size type:

limits
Specify lower left corner or [ON/OFF] <0.0000,0.0000>: {Enter the lower left
corner of your limits.

Introduction to AutoCAD – R Greenlee Page |7

 Usually this should
always remain 0,0.}
Specify upper right corner <420.0000,297.0000>: {Enter the
coordinates for the
upper right corner of
the drawing area you
want to use. You can
use the mouse to
select the upper
right corner of the
limits.}

XIV Specifying the Units for the Drawing

The units (i.e. inches, millimeters, feet) used to

draw objects in the drawing area can be selected using
the UNITS command. Type UNITS then press enter.
The following dialog box will appear allowing you to
select the units and the number of decimals displayed
in the commands.

XV Shortcuts

AutoCAD has many short cuts that make the work easier. One very useful
one is pressing the ENTER key to repeat the last command.

XVI Saving Your Work

Periodically, you should save your work. You can do this by clicking on the
“A” icon then selecting “Save” with your mouse. You can also save your work by
typing Ctrl S (holding down the Ctrl key and pressing the S key.)
The first time you do this, AutoCAD produces a dialog box that allows you to
select the file folder where you want the files saved and the name you want to use for
the drawing. The next time you use the command, AutoCAD saves the file at the
same location using the same name.

Introduction to AutoCAD – R Greenlee Page |8

XVII Plotting

You can plot the drawings you have made

by clicking on the “A” icon then selecting print.
This creates the dialog box shown on the right.
Select the printer or plotter you are going
to use then define the plotting area. If you set
limits for the area you want to plot select Limits
in the “What to plot:” pull down menu. If you
did not define the limits, you can use Extents.
The Extents will plot selection will plot
everything you have drawn.
We are not plotting scaled drawings at
this time so mark the “Fit to paper” box. This
will stretch or shrink the drawing so that it fits on the paper.
Before you click on OK to plot the drawing, it is always a good idea to
“Preview” to drawing. Click on this button to see what the drawing will look like on
your sheet of paper. If it looks ok, you can click on the printer button in the preview
screen. If it does not look ok, click on the circle with an X in it. This will return to
the plot Model dialog box so you can make changes that will hopefully produce the
plot you want. After you have made changes, be sure to preview it again to make sure
it is working correctly.

XVIII Ending the Program

You terminate the program by clicking on “A” then “Exit AutoCAD” in the
lower right corner of the pull down menu. The program asks you if you want to save
the changes you have made to the drawing. You should click on the “Yes” button to
save the changes.

Introduction to AutoCAD – R Greenlee Page |9

Problems

Introduction to AutoCAD – R Greenlee P a g e | 10

2 – Orthographic Drawings

Orthographic drawings are a very

common style of drawing and are easily
created with AutoCAD. In this exercise, we
will use AutoCAD to draw the front, top, and
right side views of the object shown at the
right. We will start with a third angle view
then try some first angle views in the
exercises. The dimensions of the object are
shown at the right and we will make our
AutoCAD drawing dimensionally correct.
Unlike some of our previous drawings, we
will use coordinates to draw the lines instead of simply clicking with the mouse.
In the last assignment, you drew solid lines but sometimes you need dashed or
dotted lines. AutoCAD has the ability to draw many different types of lines but the
line type or style must be loaded before they can be used. The line types are loaded
with the commands:

LINETYPE

This brings up the line type dialog box Load

shown on the right. Click on the LOAD Button
button to bring up a selection of line types
that can be loaded. The dialog box is shown
on the right.
Search through the file and click on
the HIDDEN2 line type. We will use this
line type to draw hidden lines in our
orthographic or multi-view drawings.
You can highlight several line types
by holding down the CTRL key while you
Hidden
click on the names. Once you have selected
Line
the HIDDEN2 name, click on the OK button.
We could load many other lines types but this
is the only one we will need for this drawing.
Now click on the LAYER PROPERTIES button shown in the figure shown
on the right.
This button creates the layers
management dialog box shown at the top of
the next page.

Manage
Layers

Orthographic Drawings in AutoCAD – R Greenlee Page |1

 Current Locked
Color Line
Layer
Weight

Create New
Layer

Layer Line
Name On/Off Frozen
Type

Lines, circles, and arcs belong to layers and each layer determines how the
lines, circles, and arcs will be drawn. The layer controls the color, line type, line
weight and several other attributes for the layer. These attributes are:

Layer Name The name used for the layer. Each layer has a
unique name.

On/Off If on the lines can be seen and if off they cannot

be seen if it is on it can be seen.

Frozen This attribute is very similar to On/Off. If a

layer is frozen, it cannot be seen.

Locked The lines in the layer cannot be deleted or

modified.

Color Determines the color of the lines when they are

displayed.

Line Type Determines which line type is used to draw lines

in this layer. They can be solid or dashed in
many different ways.

Line Weight This attribute controls how thick the line is when
it is drawn on the screen and plotted. The
varying thickness on the screen can be turned on
and off using a button at the bottom of the main
window.

Create New Layer This button creates a new layer. After it is

created you can change the attributes so that it
meets your needs.

Current Layer Click on one of the existing layers then click on

the Current Layer check mark. All lines drawn
from this point on will be in the layer marked as
the Current Layer. This will remain in effect
until the current layer is changed again.

This dialog box allows you to create new layers and define their attributes.
Click on the Create New Layer button and create layers with the names: OBJ, PROJ,

Orthographic Drawings in AutoCAD – R Greenlee Page |2

HIDE, FOLD, and CENTER. Click on the color for the projection layer and change
its color. This will make it easier to distinguish projection lines form object lines.
You can choose a different color for each layer if you desire.
In this exercise, we will create several new layers. They are:

OBJ This layer is used for line that make up the objects we are
drawing.

HIDE This layer is used for hidden lines.

CENTER This layer is used for centerlines.

PROJ This layer is used for lines that project from one view to the
next. They aid in the placement and size of the views.

FOLD Orthographic views are created by projecting views to the faces

of a projection box. The lines in this layer represent the edges
of that box.

For the HIDE layer, click on the Line Type and select hidden from the list of
loaded line types. This is the line type we added when we loaded line types in a
previous step. We did not have to load the line types during that step, we can load
them now. Click on the line type for the CENTER layer and in the line type dialog
box click on the LOAD button. Now search for CENTER2 in the line types, click on
it then click on OK to load the line type also. You can now select it for the CENTER
layer.
The lines drawn in each layer can have different weights. Click on the line
weight for the OBJ layer and set the line weight to 0.3 mm. When you have finished
that, click on the line weight for FOLD and set the line weight to 0.5 mm. We will
use different line weights for the object lines and for the folding lines between views.
All other layers will use the DEFAULT line weight which is the thinnest line the
graphics device can produce. @0,1.4
@-1.2,0
@0,.8

We are going to start drawing lines in @-2,0

the OBJ (object) layer so click on the OBJ
name to highlight it then click on the green
check mark at the top of the dialog box that Start here 1,1 @3.2,0
selects the current layer. Once you have
selected the OBJ layer, click on the X in the
extreme upper left corner of the dialog box to dismiss the dialog box.
Now we can start drawing the object. We will start with the Front view.
Either type LINE or click on the line button at the top left of the Now use the LINE
command to first draw the front view of the object.

LINE
From point: 1,1 {Start the drawing here for convenience}
To point: @3.2,0
To point: @0,.8
To point: @-2,0
To point: @0,1.4
To point: @-1.2,0

Orthographic Drawings in AutoCAD – R Greenlee Page |3

To point: C
{Close the
outline of the object} Absolute
Coordinate
Next, draw the circle that represents 1.6, 2.2
the hole through the object. Note that you
started the drawing at coordinates 1,1 so the
center of the circle must be biased by these
coordinates. That puts the center at 1.6, 2.2.

CIRCLE
3P/2P/TTR/<Center Point>: 1.6,2.2
Diameter/<Radius>: D
Diameter: 1

The finished drawing with the circle is shown above. This is the front view of
the object.
We set the OBJ layer lines to a line weight of 0.3 mm but you will probably
notice that they are not being drawn any heavier than any other line. We need to turn
that feature on. At the bottom left of the screen, you will see a number of buttons
which are shown in the figure below. These buttons help us control the drawing
process.

Polar Object
Tracking Snap

Snap Grid Ortho Line

Mode Display Mode Weight

Click on the “Line Weight” button to turn on the display of heaver lines.

ORTHO Mode

Drawing perfectly horizontal and vertical lines with the mouse is very
difficult, but AutoCAD can assist you. At the very bottom of the AutoCAD window
is a small icon shown above called ORTHO. ORTHO is an AutoCAD setting. When
ORTHO is on, you can only draw vertical and horizontal lines with the mouse and
when ORTHO is off, you can draw lines in any direction. You turn ORTHO on and
off by clicking on the ORTHO icon at the bottom of the window or by typing the
ORTHO command. When you click on the icon, the background of the icon changes
colors indicating the ORTHO setting is on. You can turn the setting on and off while
you are in the LINE or other commands by just clicking on the icon.
The ORTHO setting does not affect lines drawn by entering coordinates.

Orthographic Drawings in AutoCAD – R Greenlee Page |4

 We will start the additions by drawing the folding lines. Folding lines
represent the corners of the projection box used to view orthographic drawings.
Switch to the FOLD layer by clicking on the Layer Manage button or by typing
LAYER then selecting FOLD as the current layer. These folding lines are horizontal
and vertical and you can force AutoCAD to draw only horizontally or vertical lines by
typing the ORTHO command as shown below or by clicking on the ORTHO MODE
button at the bottom of the screen. You must do this before you draw the folding lines.

ORTHO
ON/OFF/<off>: ON {Turn the ORTHO setting on so we can only draw
horizontal and vertical lines}

Draw the folding lines with the LINE command. Visually select a starting
place for the folding lines. You could locate the lines with coordinates but that is not
really necessary.

LINE
From point: {Click on an appropriate
point to draw the
horizontal folding line}
To point: {Move the mouse to the
right and extend the
folding line out as far as
you think will be
necessary. The Ortho
Mode is on so the line is
horizontal.}

Repeat the process and draw the

vertical folding line. After you have drawn this
line you are ready to draw projection lines. These projection lines will help us
position and control the size of the top and right side views. The projection lines are
used in much the same way as they are when drafting orthographic drawings.
The projection lines are either horizontal or vertical so the ORTHO ON setting
you are current using is appropriate. The projection lines must start at the corners of
the front view. You could use coordinates to place the lines in this position, but that
would be difficult to do. AutoCAD provides a simpler method called OSNAP tools.
AutoCAD OSNAP tools allow you to use the coordinates of specific points in
the drawing as the coordinates of lines, circles, etc. that you are creating. To use the
OSNAP tools, type:

OSNAP

This creates the dialog box shown

on the right. It is used to determine
which things the program will snap points
to. For example, if the intersection on the
left side of the dialog box is marked, the
program will look for intersecting lines.
If the mouse passes over one of these
intersections, the pointer will hesitate and
the program will draw a small box
indicating it has found an intersection. If
you click with the mouse to start a line,

Orthographic Drawings in AutoCAD – R Greenlee Page |5

arc, circle or any other entity, it will start at the intersection. The dialog box on the
right is used to select the things the program will snap to. Mark Endpoint, Center,
Intersection, and Extension then click on OK at the bottom of the dialog box.
Switch to the PROJ layer by typing:

LAYER
{Make projection lines the current
layer}

Next use the LINE command to draw

projection lines from the front view into both Draw
the top and right side view (remember, you these
are drawing a third angle projection.) You lines
repeat this sequence of commands and draw
both vertical and horizontal projection lines.
These lines are easy to draw because
AutoCAD automatically finds the corners of
the object and with ORTHO on you only
have to draw with the mouse. When you
have finished drawing these lines you can Lines to
draw both horizontal and vertical projection extend
lines from the center of the circle.
You have not finished with the
projection lines. You need to draw projection
lines from the extreme edges of the circle into
both the top and right views of the object. Boundaries
You can do this by first extending the
projection lines starting at the center of the
circle through the other side of the circle then projecting the intersection points of
these lines and the circle to the other two views. Start with the EXTEND command.

EXTEND
Select boundary edge(s)... {Click on the left side and bottom
of the object. Press Return after
you have selected the two
edges}
Select objects to extend: {Click on the two lines starting at
the center of the circle. After
extending these two lines press
Return}

Now that you have extended these two

lines, project the lines from their intersection
with the circle to the other two views. Repeat Draw these
this operation to extend the projection lines lines
into both the top and right views.
Once you have finished with these
lines, draw a 45 degree line extending from
the intersection of the two folding lines.
AutoCAD can draw using X-Y (Cartesian
coordinates) or polar coordinates. We will
use polar coordinates to create this line. Polar coordinates consist of a length and an
angle. The length is entered first followed by a < symbol then an angle. The <
symbol separates the length from the angle and tells AutoCAD that you are entering a

Orthographic Drawings in AutoCAD – R Greenlee Page |6

polar coordinate. The angle is specified in
degrees measured from the horizontal axis. A @6<45
positive number is an anticlockwise
(counterclockwise) rotation and a negative
Start Point
number is a clockwise rotation. If you
precede the length with a @ sign, the last
point will be used for the origin of the polar
coordinate.

Enter:
Line
Specify first point: {click at the intersection of the folding lines}
Specify next point: @6<45 {Create a line that is 6 long at an angle of 45 degrees from
horizontal}
Specify next point: {End line command}
Cutting
You are now ready to draw the top Edges
view. Use the LAYER command to change
the current drawing layer back to OBJ and
then draw a horizontal line with the mouse.
This line represents the front of the object in Draw
the top view. This line should extend beyond Line
both the left most and right most vertical
projection lines. ORTHO is set to on so it
should be rather simple to draw this line with the mouse. The vertical placement of
the line is not important but the line should be as far from the top-front folding line as
the front view is.
You can use the TRIM command to trim the line you have just drawn so that it
has the proper length.

TRIM
Select cutting edge(s) ... {Click on the left and right projection lines. We
will trim the object line to these two lines. Press
Return after clicking on the two lines.}
Select objects to trim: {Click on the left and right ends of the line we
want to trim. It will be trimmed to the proper
length.}

Now draw the rest of the top view. Start at the

right end of the line you just trimmed and
draw around the top view, moving in a
counter clockwise direction.

LINEFrom point: {Click on the right end Line after

of the line you just trimming
trimmed}
To point: @0,.4
To point: @-1.2,0
To point: @0,1
To point: @1.2,0
To point: @0,.4

Orthographic Drawings in AutoCAD – R Greenlee Page |7

To point: @-3.2,0
To point: {Click on the left end of the
first line drawn to complete
the outline of the object.
Press return to end the
command.}

Next, add the vertical line defining the right

edge of the rectangle containing the hole. 1 – Click here
LINE
From point: {1 - Click on the
intersection of the
projection line and
the front edge of the
object.}
To point: {2 - Click on the 2 – Click here
intersection of the
projection line and
the back edge of the
object.}

You should now have the drawing shown in the

figure at the right.

The top view is not complete but we

will leave it for now to project lines from the
top to right side view and draw the right side
view. Switch the layer to the PROJ layer and
project horizontal lines from the top view to Create these
beyond the 45 degree line to the right. This is lines
shown in the figure at the bottom of the page.
The projection lines have no specific length so
you can draw them with the mouse and
ORTHO set to ON.

After drawing these projection lines,

extend them down to the right side view by
starting lines at the intersection of the 45
degree line and the horizontal projection
Draw these
lines from the top view. Here again, you
lines
can draw these projection lines with the
mouse because their length is not important.
The ORTHO ON setting forces the lines to
be vertical.

Orthographic Drawings in AutoCAD – R Greenlee Page |8

 Your drawing should look like the one
at the bottom of the previous page. It is
getting cluttered with projection lines but
these will aid you in drawing the right view
and when you are finished, you can turn them
off so that they do not show in our final plot. Right View
The next step is to draw the right
view. You could do this with coordinates but
it is easier to use the projection lines and let
AutoCAD compute the coordinates at the
intersections of the projection lines. Just draw
by clicking with the mouse at the intersection
of the projection lines.
You are almost finished. The only
things left to draw are a hidden line in the New
front view that shows the notch that is Projection
prominent on the right side of the top view Line
and the center lines for the hole. We will draw
the hidden line in the front view first. New
Switch the layer back to PROJ and Hidden
draw a projection line from the inside of the Line
notch in the top view down to the front view.
Next switch to the HIDE layer and
draw the hidden lines in the front view
showing notch. The drawing should look like
the one shown on the right. Hidden
After you have finished drawing the Lines
hidden lines in the front view, draw the
hidden lines for the hole in both the top and
right side views.

The only things missing are center

lines for the hole. Change the layer to 1 – Near
Projection
CENTER and draw the lines in the top and
Line
right side views using the following sequence
of commands.

2 – Near
Projection
Line

LINE
From point: NEAR
Of: {1 - Click on the projection line extending through the
center of the hole in the top view. Click where you
want the centerline to start}
To point: NEAR

Orthographic Drawings in AutoCAD – R Greenlee Page |9

Of: {2 - Click on the other end of the centerline}

Repeat the process for drawing the centerline in the right side view.

Next, we will draw the center lines for the hole in the front view. It is difficult
to draw the crossing type of center lines with two lines. The dashes usually do not line
up correctly and the center lines will not look right. These types of center lines are
best drawn using AutoCAD commands designed specifically to draw circle centers.
Click on the Annotate tab at the top left of the AutoCAD window then on the
Dimensions pull down under the dimension section of the ribbon. You should see a
pull down menu like the one shown below.

Circle Center
Button

Click on the Circle Center Button then click on the circle in the front view.
That will put a small cross in the center of the circle. If the cross is too small or too
big, you can adjust its size with the DIMCEN command. DIMCEN sets the size of the
plus that is drawn at the center of the circle. It should be large enough to see but not
so large that it dominates the center of the circle. Later on, we will use this circle
center for dimensioning our drawings.

dimcen
Enter new value for DIMCEN <0.0000>: .1

The DIMCEN command will not change the size of the plus after it is drawn.
If you draw the plus and it is not the right size, delete it, change the DIMCEN size, and
redraw it. Repeat this until it looks reasonable.

We are getting close to the end. We have drawn all three views and it is time
to turn off the display of the projection and folding lines. They are no longer needed.
Use the following method:

1. Type LAYER to start the layer command

2. Set the current layer to the OBJ layer.
3. Click on the light bulb next the PROJ layer name.
4. Click on the light bulb next to the FOLD layer name.
5. Click on the X in the upper left of the layer dialog box to dismiss the
layer box.

You will be left with drawing shown below.

Orthographic Drawings in AutoCAD – R Greenlee P a g e | 10

 If the dashes on the center lines and
hidden lines do not seem appropriate, you
can change their length with the LTSCALE
command. This command sets a scale
factor for the dashes used in non-
continuous lines.
You can change the scale with the
commands:

LTSCALE
New scale factor <1.0000> 0.5 {Changing the line type scale to 0.5
makes the dash length ½ its current
size. A factor smaller than one
reduces the size of the dashes and a
factor greater than one increases the
size. You can experiment with
different sizes until the line types
look correct.}

Through at last !!!!!!!

Orthographic Drawings in AutoCAD – R Greenlee P a g e | 11

3 – More Orthographic Drawings

In Chapter 2 we looked at
drawing third angle orthographic
drawings. We used projection lines to
aid in the drawing the TOP and
RIGHT views. In this chapter, we will
draw first angle drawings using
projection lines to assist in drawing all
of the views. Our intent is to use the
projection lines as fully as possible in
order to eliminate the use of
coordinates.
We are illustrating the
techniques used here with first angle
projections. The same techniques can
be used just as well with third angle projections.
First and third angle projections only differ in the placement of the views.
This difference is shown in the diagram below.

First Angle Projection Third Angle Projection

Right Front Top

View View View

Top Front Right

View View View

Creating Layers

Before we start, you must create layers for the drawing. We are going to use
the same layers that you created last time. They are:

Name Linetype Weight

OBJ Continuous 0.3
HIDE HIDDEN2 Default
PROJ Continuous Default
CENTER CENTER2 Default
FOLD Continuous Default

You may choose any color you want for the lines. Remember that it is
frequently better to have a different color for the projection lines than for the other
lines in the drawing. This makes it much easier to distinguish projection lines from
other types of lines.

More Orthographic Drawings – R Greenlee Page |1

Starting the Drawing

Now that you have created all of the layers, switch to the OBJ layer. We will
start by drawing the bottom edge of the object on the left side of the pictorial shown
above. This first line is horizontal and 200 mm long. Type:

Line
Specify first point: 10,10 {Actually we could start the line anywhere and you
could use the line icon and select a starting
location with the mouse}
Specify next point: @200,0 {The line is horizontal and 200 units long}
Specify next point: {Press enter to end the command}

More than likely, you are not seeing all of the line. Some of it may have
disappeared off the screen or the line may not be visible at all. This is not a problem.
You can always bring the line back onto the screen with the command:

zoom
Specify corner of window: all {We tell AutoCAD we want to see everything
we have drawn. It will rescale the window so
that everything appears}
Regenerating model {This message indicates that AutoCAD had
to create a new viewing range to display the
picture.}

At this point, the line should appear on the screen. It may extend across the
entire screen so that you cannot see the end points. If this is the case, place the mouse
pointer on the line and roll the wheel towards you to make the line smaller. Continue
rolling the wheel towards you until the line is a small as it can be. This is the limit of
the AutoCAD regeneration range. To see the line even smaller, you must regenerate
the drawing again. Enter the command:

regen
Regenerating model {AutoCAD creates a new viewing range}

Now you can roll the wheel and make the line appear even shorter. You are
not actually changing the length of the line. The line is still 200 mm long. The only
thing you are changing is how AutoCAD displays the line. You can always
regenerate a drawing if you run into a limit while trying to make it larger or smaller
on the screen.

Projection Lines

We are going to start

drawing projection lines.
These lines extend from the First Line
line we have drawn in the
FRONT view down to the TOP
view of the object and over to
the RIGHT view. Press down

More Orthographic Drawings – R Greenlee Page |2

on the mouse wheel and drag the line to the top of the screen. When you have
finished drawing the line and moving it to the top of the screen, your drawing should
resemble the one shown above.
Make sure that ORTHO is on. You can do that with the ORTHO command.

ortho
Enter mode [ON/OFF] <OFF>: on

You can turn ORTHO on by with the

command illustrated above or by
clicking on the ORTHO icon at the
bottom of the AutoCAD window. We
want ORTHO on because we are
going to draw vertical and horizontal ORTHO OSNAP
projection lines. Icon Icon

Make sure that object snap is turned on. We want to draw lines with the
mouse by snapping to endpoints, intersections, centers, and other features of lines that
have been drawn. OSNAP can be turned on by clicking on the icon in the bottom left
of the AutoCAD window. OSNAP is on when the button is highlighted. The icon is
shown in the figure on the right.

Horizontal Line

Start
Horizontal
Vertical Line Line

Switch to the PROJ layer and draw a vertical line extending down from the
left end of the line you have already drawn. Draw a horizontal line extending from
the right end of the line as shown in the drawing above.
The horizontal projection lines should be long enough to extend through the
RIGHT view and the vertical lines should be long enough to extend through the TOP
view.
The FRONT view of the object
we are drawing is shown below. Ø50 10

Notice that it has several features that

will project to the TOP and RIGHT 50

views. We can quickly create

120
projection lines for these features by
75
copying the projection lines we have
already created. We will copy the 30

lines with the OFFSET command.

50 50
The OFFSET command copies 100
200
a projection line and at the same time

More Orthographic Drawings – R Greenlee Page |3

offsets the new line a specified distance from the original. You can use this command
to quickly draw both horizontal and vertical projection lines.
We start with the horizontal lines. These lines project to the RIGHT view.
The first projection line will be at the top of the object. It is offset 120 mm from the
bottom line that we have already drawn.

Enter:

offset
Specify offset distance: 120 {Offset distance to top of the object}
Select object to offset: {1 - Click on the horizontal projection line}
Specify point on side to offset: {2 - Click somewhere above the horizontal
projection line. This will create the new line
above the existing line}
Select object to offset: {Press Enter to end the command}

The results are shown below.

New Line Created 2 – Click here for Offset Side

1 – Click on Line to Offset

The other horizontal projection lines can be easily created using the OFFSET
command. The diagram below shows the offset distances for new lines. Use this
diagram to create the remaining horizontal projection lines. The dimensions show the
offset distance between the existing projection line and the new projection line you
are creating.

10 Top Projection Line

50

75

30 Original Projection Line

More Orthographic Drawings – R Greenlee Page |4

 Next, we create the vertical projection
lines. We start by extending the vertical
projection line that we have already drawn to
1
top horizontal projection line. This extends
the projection line through the FRONT view
so that it can be used to draw lines and other
features in the FRONT view. Enter the
following command.

extend 2
Select boundary edges ...

Select objects: 1 found {1 – Click on the top horizontal projection line}

Select objects: {Press Enter to end the selection}
Select object to extend: {2 – Click on the vertical projection line}
Select object to extend: {Press Enter to end the command}

Now you can offset the vertical projection line to create all of the other
vertical projection lines. Use the diagram below to assist in creating these lines.

New Projection Lines

50 50
100
200

First Vertical Projection Line

Creating the FRONT View

The FRONT can be created now. Switch to the OBJ layer and use the LINE
command to draw around the FRONT view. Each corner of the object is at an
intersection of a horizontal and vertical projection line so the entire outline of the
object can be created by clicking.
The object contains rounds and fillets but do not worry about those at this
time. We will create them later. For
now, just draw the view with sharp
corners. When you have finished, you
should have a drawing similar to the
one shown on the right.

Creating Folding Lines New Lines

We can now create the folding

lines which separate the FRONT view

More Orthographic Drawings – R Greenlee Page |5

from the TOP and RIGHT side views. Switch
to the FOLD layer and draw the lines with the
mouse. They should extend a little farther
than the horizontal and vertical projection
lines. Your drawing should look like the one
shown at the right.
The folding lines in the drawing are
drawn with a heavy line weight. Your lines
might be thinner depending upon how you
defined them in the FOLD layer. The
thickness of the lines is not important because
we will not display them in the final drawing.

The 45 degree line separating the TOP

and RIGHT views can be created with the
following commands. 45 Degree Line

line
Specify first point: {1 - Click at the intersection of the two
folding lines}
Specify next point: @300<-135 {Angles are measured from the horizontal
axis with positive values in an
anticlockwise direction and negative
values in a clockwise direction.}
Specify next point: {Press Enter to end the command}

The folding lines with the 45 degree line are shown in the drawing on the
right.

First Line in Top View

More Orthographic Drawings – R Greenlee Page |6

 TOP View Line
Creating the TOP View

Start theTOP view by switching to the

OBJ layer then drawing a horizontal line
below the horizontal folding line. This line Remove Ends
represents the back of the object.
Draw the line with the mouse and
extend it beyond the left and right vertical Cutting Edges
projection lines as shown in the drawing on
the right.
Use the TRIM command to trim off the ends of the line that extend beyond the
right and left projection lines. The projection lines can be used as the cutting edges
for the TRIM command.
The commands for trimming the line are shown on the next page.
trim
Select cutting edges ...
Select objects: 1 found {Click on the right most projection line}
Select objects: 1 found {Click on the left most projection line}
Select objects: {No more cutting edges – press Enter}
Select object to trim: {Click on the right end of the TOP view line}
Select object to trim: {Click on the left end of the TOP view line}
Select object to trim: {Press Enter to end the command}

The OFFSET command can be

used to create the other horizontal 20

lines in the TOP view. The offset

distances are shown in the figure on
40 80
the right.

New Lines Created

The vertical lines in the view

can be drawn with the mouse by
clicking on the intersection of the
projection lines and the horizontal
lines we have just created. The
completed view is shown on the right.

Lines Created

More Orthographic Drawings – R Greenlee Page |7

Creating the RIGHT View

The RIGHT view is easily created by

projecting horizontal lines from the TOP view
to 45 degree folding line. From here the lines
are projected up to the TOP view. This is
very similar to the work you did in Chapter 2
of this tutorial. After you have completed
these projections, your drawing should look
like the one on the right.
Remember to switch to the PROJ layer before drawing more projection lines.

You can now create the lines in the

TOP view. Switch back to the OBJ layer and
draw the lines with the mouse. The
completed TOP view is shown on the right.

Hole in the FRONT View

The hole in the FRONT view can be

drawn by adding a circle in the view. It has a
diameter of 50 mm. There is a projection line
crossing at the center of the circle so it is very
easy locate the center with the mouse.
After the circle is drawn, extend
projection lines from the top and bottom to
the RIGHT view and from the right and left to
the TOP view. The drawing with these
projection lines is shown on the right.

The next step is to draw the hidden

lines produced by the hole (circle) in the
FRONT view. Switch to the HIDE layer and
draw the hidden lines in each of these views.
While you are at it, draw the hidden line just
above the base in the FRONT view also.
Hidden Lines

More Orthographic Drawings – R Greenlee Page |8

 The holes in the RIGHT and TOP views should have centerlines. These
centerlines should extend beyond the outside edge of the views. We will use the
projection lines going through the centers of the holes and the near attribute to place
the centerlines on these projection lines and to start and end the centerlines beyond the
edges of the object.
You must switch the current layer to CENTER before drawing the centerlines.

1 – Beginning of Centerline

2 – End of Centerline

line
Specify first point: near {Use near to put the point on the projection line}
To {1 - Click on the projection line where you want the
centerline to begin}
Specify next point: near {Use near for the end point of the centerline}
To {2 - Click on the projection line where you want the
centerline to end}
Specify next point: {Press Enter to end the command}

When you have finished the centerline in the RIGHT view, continue on and
draw the centerline in the TOP view using the same technique.

Adjusting the Linetype

We have completed most of the drawing, it is time for us to turn off the
projection and folding lines. Click on the layer control box and then click on the light
bulb icons for the PROJ and FOLD layers to turn them off. Your picture should look
something like the one shown on the
right.
Frequently when we use
different linetypes, the dashes do not
show. The reason may be that the
scale of the drawing is such that the
entire line is only one dash long or it
may be that the dashes are so small
they run together. The picture shows
this latter case. The dashes are too
small and they run together. We can
correct that with the LTSCALE
command.

More Orthographic Drawings – R Greenlee Page |9

 ltscale
Enter new linetype scale factor <1.0000>: 30

In this case, we are entering a scale

factor of 30. This factor makes the dashes 30
times longer than they were originally. That
will work for this drawing but it will not work
for all drawings. If the dashes are not
showing, or if they are too small, try entering
a scaling larger than 1. You might have to try
several different scaling factors to get the
linetypes to appear correctly. If the dashes are
too large, enter a scaling factor smaller than 1.
The corrected picture is shown on the right.

At this point, we do not have

centerlines for the hole in the FRONT view.
These should be drawn by placing a small +
in the center of the circle. In the previous
lesson, we used the “center mark” icon to
create this +. The menu showing this icon is
shown in the picture on the right. Center Mark
Click on the “center mark” icon and
then click on the circle in the FRONT view.
You may notice that the center mark is far too
small or that nothing happened at all. We need to change the size of the center mark
and this can be done with the DIMSCALE command. The DIMSCALE command
changes the scale factor for dimensions. Enter the command:

dimscale
Enter new value for DIMSCALE <1.0000>: 30

In this case we are making the

dimensions 30 times larger than they
currently are. You will have to redraw the
center mark. It is not dynamic so once it is
drawn; its size will not change even
though you change the dimension scaling
factor.
The center mark is shown in the
drawing on the right.

More Orthographic Drawings – R Greenlee P a g e | 10

Adding Fillets

The drawing is complete except for fillets and rounds in some of the corners.
We could add those with the arc command but there is a much easier method.
AutoCAD has a FILLET command that makes creating fillets and rounds a snap.

2 4

Enter the command:

fillet
Current settings: Mode=TRIM,Radius=0.0 {The radius is zero which is too
small}
Select first object or
[Undo/Radius/Trim/Multiple]: r {Enter “r” to change the radius
of the fillet}
Specify fillet radius <0.0000>: 10 {The new radius is 10}
Select first object: {1 – Click on line}
Select second object: {2 – Click on line}

Command: {Press Enter to start the fillet command again}

FILLET
Current settings: Mode=TRIM,Radius=10.0
Select first object: {3 – Click on line}
Select second object: {4 – Click on line}

The FRONT view with the two new fillets is shown above.

More Orthographic Drawings – R Greenlee P a g e | 11

 The right side of the FRONT
view also has a fillet on the front
surface but not on the back. We can 2
again use the FILLET command to 1
create this fillet but this time we will
not have the program trim the lines.
Enter:

fillet
Current settings: Mode=TRIM,Radius=10.0
Select first object or
[Undo/Radius/Trim/Multiple]: t {We want to change how the
lines are trimmed after inserting
the fillet}
Enter Trim mode option
[Trim/No trim] <Trim>: n {Turn off trimming}
Select first object: {1 – Click on line}
Select second object: {2 – Click on Line}

The figure above shows the locations for references to line 1 and 2.

This completes our work. The finished drawing is shown below.

More Orthographic Drawings – R Greenlee P a g e | 12