6 tips for making the most of AutoCAD

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24 words to help you make the most of AutoCAD. AutoCAD, developed by AUTODESK, is widely used in industries such as construction, electronics, and machinery. Through years of CAD teaching and work, the author has found that many CAD users have not mastered some basic skills, often facing issues such as low drawing efficiency and insufficient precision. Therefore, the author has summarized several experiences and tips for using CAD software, in the hope of providing some help to everyone. 　　1. Save frequently This is a principle that every designer must keep in mind; sudden power outages or system crashes can cause your work and ideas to disappear without a trace. In AutoCAD, we can also have CAD save files automatically: click “Tools→Options” to bring up the “Options” dialog box, go to the “File” tab, set the “AutoSave Path,” and then on the “Open and Save” tab, set up automatic saving along with the interval between saves. 　　Note: Do not set the time interval too short, as this will waste system resources; 5 minutes is generally sufficient. 　　2. Pay close attention to the prompts. AutoCAD is a user-friendly software, with guidance provided for each step of the operation. Even if you’ve never used a certain command before, you can complete it by following the instructions step by step. The height of the prompt line area in AutoCAD software should generally be two to three lines, so that all the prompts for each step can be seen clearly. 　　Benefits of reading more prompts: You can learn *commands that you have never used before, as well as *multiple ways to use the same command. 　　3. Make use of commands wisely Commands can be considered as shortcut keys. AutoCAD offers many shortcuts that make it easier for us to use, and the same command often has several ways of being executed, such as by clicking on a menu item, clicking on a tool icon, entering a keyboard command, pressing Enter, or using the space bar to repeat the command. Many people think that using tool icons is faster, but in fact, entering commands via the keyboard is the fastest way. We must remember the commonly used commands. Such as line “L”, polyline “PL”, copy “CO, CP”, delete “E”, move “M”, list “LIST”, mirror “MI”, etc. There is a simple way to memorize keyboard commands: when you click on a menu or icon, the full keyboard command for that command will appear in the command line. We can try typing the first one or two letters of the full command name, which is usually the abbreviation for that command. 　　4. Good habits Developing good drawing habits will **improve** the portability and readability of the work. The good habits mentioned by the author are: ① Use PLINE for drawing instead of LINE, as a PLINE is an object that makes it convenient for selection or further modification later on. 　　②Make good use of the LAYER function by assigning different types of objects to separate layers, so as to facilitate organized processing later on. 　　③Make flexible use of the GROUP and BLOCK functions to select all objects in the same group at once, so as to avoid missing any part of them during editing. 　　④Common drawing boundaries, dimensions, annotation styles, text styles, etc. should be prepared as templates for quick retrieval. 　　⑤Do not easily dissolve the filling styles, annotations, etc. generated by the system, as this will be helpful for your future editing. 　　⑥Try not to use fonts other than the system’s default ones, to prevent garbled text when transferring to other computers. 　　⑦Model space is used only for drawing, while paper space is used only to place the drawing frame. 　　5. Precise drawing While precise drawing is also an important requirement in other graphic design software such as Photoshop and 3DSMAX, it is particularly crucial in AutoCAD. In CAD, all objects are drawn strictly according to the dimensions specified by the designer, even if those dimensions are arbitrary. Some friends ignore the dimensions when creating drawings, which results in incorrect dimensions in the annotations; they then try to fix these annotations by making changes to them. This is strictly prohibited, as the drawing no longer has an accurate scale of dimensions, and it will not automatically adjust itself in response to your edits. Accurate drawing is very important for us to make annotations, print outputs, import and export images, and share them with others in the future. Based on my experience, we need to pay attention to the following points: ① When drawing, strictly follow a 1:1 scale, and adjust the scale only when printing the final output. 　　②Make flexible use of the point-clicking function; don’t think that just because you have good eyesight you can easily click on the endpoints of a line – that’s not possible. 　　③This closed line must be closed using the CLOSE command. 　　④For the known length, we can enter it directly using the keyboard. 　　⑤Make flexible use of orthogonal modes, grids, and snapping. 　　6. Draw with heart. This tip is meant for all those who work in design. Only by drawing with care can we create accurate, standard-compliant, and beautiful drawings; only then will our work be more readily recognized and our efficiency truly improved. 　　Using AutoCAD software isn’t difficult at all; as long as you remember the \"24-word secret\" mentioned above and practice regularly, your CAD skills will definitely improve significantly in a short period of time.