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AutoCAD 2015 and AutoCAD LT 2015 Bible

The most comprehensive AutoCAD book around!

Clean your screen with AutoCAD’s Clean Screen feature

A viewer asked:

I have lost my menus such as draw, render, etc. Everything that would allow me to copy, move, trim etc. I don’t have anything that will allow me to enter commands. Also my menu bar ie. file, window, help. The command line at the bottom of the drawing is also gone.

Since […]

Draw a circle centered in a rectangle

It’s common to need to place a circle in the middle of a rectangle, especially in mechanical drawings. It’s easy to do using object snap tracking.

Object snap tracking tracks the coordinates on object snaps and for this task, you need to track the midpoint of the rectangle’s sides. Here are the steps:

Make sure […]

Automate the creation of details and sections on a layout

The VIEWBASE command, new for AutoCAD 2012, automates the process of creating 2D views of 3D models. This command creates 2D view objects, which are a little like viewports, but actually a completely separate type of object. In fact, when you display a layout, the first thing you do is delete the default viewport and […]

Tutorial-How to display the area of an enclosed figure

Suppose that you would like to insert a label that displays the area of an enclosed figure. While the AREA command can show you the area, it doesn’t create a label in your drawing. If you insert the area at the end of a leader, that area doesn’t change if your object changes in size.

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Tutorials: How to Copy Objects Between Drawings

Updated with AutoCAD 2017

Copying objects from one drawing to another is a common task. You can use the Windows Clipboard and the drag-and-drop methods.

When working with 2 drawings open, choose View tab> Windows panel> Tile Vertically (or Horizontally) to view both drawings at the same time.

Note 1 : You can use these […]

Display lost toolbars in AutoCAD

Sometimes people have trouble displaying a toolbar that isn’t visible, or a toolbar seems to disappear for no apparent reason. Here are some tips for displaying toolbars.

1st method

The easiest way to display a toolbar is to right-click any visible toolbar. This displays the list of all your toolbars, as you see here […]

Rotate One Object to Match Another

Sometimes you need to rotate a block or object to match the angle of an existing object. Here’s one way to accomplish that, using the Reference option of the ROTATE command.

In this example, you want to rotate the desk to match the rotation of the end wall. Follow these steps:

Start the ROTATE […]

Create a circle with a width

There are various reasons that you might need to create a circular object with a specific width, such as matching cable widths, or showing cross sections. I’ve come up with 4 ways to go about this. The right one for you will depend on your needs.

Fit a polygon

An excellent method uses the POLYGON […]

Move objects between model and paper space

Let’s say that you add some text in your drawing, but then decide that the text should really be in a Notes box in your title block.

Or, you add some text in your title block and then think, “No, it should be part of the drawing.”

You can move objects from model space to […]

Tutorial: Automate tasks with a script file

A script is a macro, a list of commands that you can run all at once, and as many times as necessary, allowing you to automate tasks that would take a long time if you did them manually. Using Scripts in Autocad can be very powerful and you can run them on objects in one […]