Autodesk AutoCAD 2011 for Architects Course

Welcome to AutoCAD 2011 For Architects. In this particular movie we're going to look at what's new in AutoCAD and have a brief introduction into what's new in AutoCAD as well. Then in section 2 we'll move into the new features and start looking at how architects can utilize those new features to draw effectively, efficiently and create professional drawings. So, let's have a look now at AutoCAD 2011. You may notice down here on the Status Bar at the bottom of the screen that I've got words on my Drafting Setting buttons here. That's because I like those words on there and I'm a bit of a traditionalist when it comes to AutoCAD. I like the words on my buttons like older versions of AutoCAD. Secondly, though, I've got it set to words like that so that when I point out a drafting setting to you, you can easily read it on the button. The default setting in AutoCAD is like this. If I right-click on a button and click on Use Icons, you'll see that I've got the Icons there, like so. That's the default setting when you first open up AutoCAD 2011. So if I now right-click on an Icon and click on Use Icons again the words come back on the buttons, which is the setting I personally prefer, but I'm also going to utilize throughout this course to make your life easier so that you know what each button does. So, that's the Icons on the Status Bar at the bottom of the screen. Now, default settings in AutoCAD 2011 are the SNAP and GRID, here on the Drafting settings, are switched on. So when I move around on the screen you'll notice the crosshair is jerky. It's not free-flowing. That's because it's snapping to each square on the grid. Can you see that? Read the coordinates, bottom left corner of the screen and you can see they're moving exactly in increments of 10, which is the default Snap Setting in AutoCAD 2011. It's also the Default GRID setting. Now, if I turn SNAP off and click on it here you'll notice, look, the crosshair is in free-flow and so are the coordinates in the bottom left-hand corner of the screen. Also, that negates the use of the GRID so I can switch the GRID off here as well. So now I'm working with this gray screen, you'll notice, the background is different. Older versions of AutoCAD it was just black or white. This is actually an RGB Default Background where red is 33, green is 40 and blue is 48, hence RGB and that's the color settings. If I right-click on the Shortcut Menu there and go to Options, if I then go to the Display tab here and click on Colors and select Uniform Background in 2D model space, 33, 40, 48. There's the RGB Color. I'll just Cancel that and Cancel the Options dialog. Now, we have some new tools available to us which are especially suitable for architects. We have the View Cube over here. Now at the moment I'm in a Top view looking down on my.--line here. However, if I click on one of the corners of the View Cube like so it then goes into an isometric view, like that. And, as you can see, the crosshairs are now in an Isometric setting. You can see the X and Y there, are the red and the green, and the Zed is the blue. If I move over the UCS Icon there you can see, look, Zed is blue, Y is green, X is red. If I click on the Top section of the View Cube it takes me back to the Top view of my line there. I'm just going to pan that now and bring that back roughly central on the screen. So, that's our View Cube in a 2D drafting environment. Notice the work space at the top currently is 2D Drafting and Annotation. So you can still work in Isometric views and 3D views, even though you're in a 2D Drafting environment. Now, over here on the right we have a new Navigation Bar. I won't go into too much detail here but what you've got there is what they call a Navigation Wheel. We've also got Pan and we've also got Zoom Extents and we've also got Orbits, allowing you to make that move into 3D so you can do 3D Orbits and also the Navigation Wheel allows you to work in 3D as well. We'll look at 3D in a little bit more detail later. Also here you've got what they call the Show Motion, which is an onscreen display and allows you basically to take photo shots of particular episodes in your drawing, allowing you to flick back frame by frame on what you were doing or have done. So, that's your Navigation Bar. That's new in AutoCAD 2011. Now, I'm just going to show you one quick feature here in AutoCAD that is new to AutoCAD 2011 and that is this one here, INFER on the Status Bar. I'm going to switch it on and that will infer what they call Constraints. Now, I've got my Center line here and that's on the Center Layer. If I click on the Down arrow I've also got an Objects Layer. So I click on Objects like so and that changes the current Drafting Layer. I'm going to go to the Draw Panel, click on Circle here, Center Radius and I'm going to hover over the end of the line there, there's the Endpoint Snap, the Object Snap, I click there, drag the circle - it doesn't matter what radius it is at the moment, just do that freehand by dragging and left-clicking. Now, as soon as I place that circle, though, see that.? That's what they call an Inferred Constraint, because I've got the INFER here switched on when I drew the circle. Now if I go to move the line, if I select the line now and I want to move that, so I'll click on Move here on the Modify Panel and I'll pick the Endpoint of the line. I'll mov the line but notice because you've got an Inferred Constraint there on the center of the circle, the circle moves with the line. Extremely useful, isn't it? Now, that Constraint there, if I hover over it like so you can see there, look, I get a funny little sort of symbol appearing. That tells me that that line has got an Inferred Constraint. The circle has also got that Constraint there as well. Can you see that? If I click on the circle there it's also got that Constraint as well. So, that's INFER and Inferred Constraints. That's just a very quick view of one of the tools available in AutoCAD 2011. Let's move now to Section 2 where we can see how architects can utilize the new features in AutoCAD to make themselves more effective and more productive.  

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