- •Contents
- •Contents at a Glance
- •Acknowledgments
- •Preface
- •Is This Book for You?
- •How This Book Is Organized
- •How to Use This Book
- •Doing the Exercises
- •Conventions Used in This Book
- •What the Icons Mean
- •About the CD-ROM
- •Other Information
- •Contacting the Author
- •Foreword
- •Credits
- •About the Author
- •Summary
- •AutoCAD’s Advantages
- •Comparing AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT
- •Starting AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT
- •Creating a New Drawing
- •Using the AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT Interface
- •Creating a New Folder
- •Using the Interface
- •Saving a Drawing
- •Closing a Drawing and Exiting from AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT
- •Summary
- •Creating a New Drawing from a Template
- •Working with Templates
- •Opening a Drawing with Default Settings
- •Opening an Existing Drawing
- •Using an Existing Drawing as a Prototype
- •Saving a Drawing Under a New Name
- •Summary
- •The Command Line and Dynamic Input
- •Command Techniques
- •Of Mice and Pucks
- •Getting Help
- •Summary
- •Typing Coordinates
- •Displaying Coordinates
- •Picking Coordinates on the Screen
- •Overriding Coordinate Settings
- •Locating Points
- •Summary
- •Choosing Unit Types
- •Drawing Limits
- •Understanding Scales
- •Creating a Title Block
- •Specifying Common Setup Options
- •Customizing with the MVSETUP Command
- •Using the Setup Wizards
- •Summary
- •Using the LINE Command
- •Drawing Rectangles
- •Drawing Polygons
- •Creating Construction Lines
- •Creating Rays
- •Summary
- •Drawing Circles
- •Drawing Arcs
- •Creating Ellipses and Elliptical Arcs
- •Making Donuts
- •Placing Points
- •Summary
- •Panning
- •Using the ZOOM Command
- •Using Aerial View
- •Saving Named Views
- •Working with Tiled Viewports
- •Using Snap Rotation
- •Understanding User Coordinate Systems
- •Creating Isometric Drawings
- •Summary
- •Editing a Drawing
- •Selecting Objects
- •Summary
- •Copying and Moving Objects
- •Resizing Commands
- •Using Construction Commands
- •Creating a Revision Cloud
- •Hiding Objects with a Wipeout
- •Double-Clicking to Edit Objects
- •Grips
- •Editing with the Properties Palette
- •Selection Filters
- •Groups
- •Summary
- •Working with Layers
- •Changing Object Color, Linetype, and Lineweight
- •Working with Linetype Scales
- •Importing Layers and Linetypes from Other Drawings
- •Matching Properties
- •Summary
- •Drawing-Level Information
- •Object-Level Information
- •Measurement Commands
- •AutoCAD’s Calculator
- •Summary
- •Creating Single-Line Text
- •Understanding Text Styles
- •Creating Multiline Text
- •Creating Tables
- •Inserting Fields
- •Managing Text
- •Finding Text in Your Drawing
- •Checking Your Spelling
- •Customizing the spelling dictionary
- •Summary
- •Working with Dimensions
- •Drawing Linear Dimensions
- •Drawing Aligned Dimensions
- •Creating Baseline and Continued Dimensions
- •Dimensioning Arcs and Circles
- •Dimensioning Angles
- •Creating Ordinate Dimensions
- •Drawing Leaders
- •Using Quick Dimension
- •Editing Dimensions
- •Summary
- •Understanding Dimension Styles
- •Defining a New Dimension Style
- •Changing Dimension Styles
- •Creating Geometric Tolerances
- •Summary
- •Creating and Editing Polylines
- •Drawing and Editing Splines
- •Creating Regions
- •Creating Boundaries
- •Creating Hatches
- •Creating and Editing Multilines
- •Creating Dlines
- •Using the SKETCH Command
- •Digitizing Drawings with the TABLET Command
- •Summary
- •Preparing a Drawing for Plotting or Printing
- •Creating a Layout in Paper Space
- •Working with Plot Styles
- •Plotting a Drawing
- •Summary
- •Combining Objects into Blocks
- •Inserting Blocks and Files into Drawings
- •Managing Blocks
- •Creating and Using Dynamic Blocks
- •Using Windows Features
- •Working with Attributes
- •Summary
- •Understanding External References
- •Editing an Xref within Your Drawing
- •Controlling Xref Display
- •Managing Xrefs
- •Summary
- •Preparing for Database Connectivity
- •Connecting to Your Database
- •Linking Data to Drawing Objects
- •Creating Labels
- •Querying with the Query Editor
- •Working with Query Files
- •Summary
- •Working with 3D Coordinates
- •Using Elevation and Thickness
- •Working with the User Coordinate System
- •Summary
- •Working with the Standard Viewpoints
- •Using DDVPOINT
- •Working with the Tripod and Compass
- •Displaying a Quick Plan View
- •Shading Your Drawing
- •Using 3D Orbit
- •Using Tiled Viewports
- •Defining a Perspective View
- •Laying Out 3D Drawings
- •Summary
- •Drawing Surfaces with 3DFACE
- •Drawing Surfaces with PFACE
- •Creating Polygon Meshes with 3DMESH
- •Drawing Standard 3D Shapes
- •Drawing a Revolved Surface
- •Drawing an Extruded Surface
- •Drawing Ruled Surfaces
- •Drawing Edge Surfaces
- •Summary
- •Drawing Standard Shapes
- •Creating Extruded Solids
- •Drawing Revolved Solids
- •Creating Complex Solids
- •Sectioning and Slicing Solids
- •Using Editing Commands in 3D
- •Editing Solids
- •Listing Solid Properties
- •Summary
- •Understanding Rendering
- •Creating Lights
- •Creating Scenes
- •Working with Materials
- •Using Backgrounds
- •Doing the Final Render
- •Summary
- •Accessing Drawing Components with the DesignCenter
- •Accessing Drawing Content with Tool Palettes
- •Setting Standards for Drawings
- •Organizing Your Drawings
- •Working with Sheet Sets
- •Maintaining Security
- •Keeping Track of Referenced Files
- •Handling Errors and Crashes
- •Managing Drawings from Prior Releases
- •Summary
- •Importing and Exporting Other File Formats
- •Working with Raster Images
- •Pasting, Linking, and Embedding Objects
- •Summary
- •Sending Drawings
- •Opening Drawings from the Web
- •Creating Object Hyperlinks
- •Publishing Drawings
- •Summary
- •Working with Customizable Files
- •Creating Keyboard Shortcuts for Commands
- •Customizing Toolbars
- •Customizing Tool Palettes
- •Summary
- •Creating Macros with Script Files
- •Creating Slide Shows
- •Creating Slide Libraries
- •Summary
- •Creating Linetypes
- •Creating Hatch Patterns
- •Summary
- •Creating Shapes
- •Creating Fonts
- •Summary
- •Working with the Customization File
- •Customizing a Menu
- •Summary
- •Introducing Visual LISP
- •Getting Help in Visual LISP
- •Working with AutoLISP Expressions
- •Using AutoLISP on the Command Line
- •Creating AutoLISP Files
- •Summary
- •Creating Variables
- •Working with AutoCAD Commands
- •Working with Lists
- •Setting Conditions
- •Managing Drawing Objects
- •Getting Input from the User
- •Putting on the Finishing Touches
- •Summary
- •Understanding Local and Global Variables
- •Working with Visual LISP ActiveX Functions
- •Debugging Code
- •Summary
- •Starting to Work with VBA
- •Writing VBA Code
- •Getting User Input
- •Creating Dialog Boxes
- •Modifying Objects
- •Debugging and Trapping Errors
- •Moving to Advanced Programming
- •Summary
- •A Final Word
- •Installing AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT
- •Configuring and Using Workspaces
- •Configuring AutoCAD
- •Starting AutoCAD Your Way
- •Configuring a Plotter
- •Discovering AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT
- •Accessing Technical Support
- •Autodesk User Groups
- •Internet Resources
- •System Requirements
- •Using the CD-ROM with Microsoft Windows
- •What’s on the CD-ROM
- •Troubleshooting
- •Index
914 Part V Organizing and Managing Drawings
10.Choose Edit Paste Special again. Choose Paste Link. Now you can paste only in your spreadsheet’s format. Click OK. Pick an insertion point. Pick the lower-right corner of the spreadsheet and drag its handle down and to the right to enlarge the table.
11.Note that the first row of data has a “P” in the Pur/Made column. Return to your spreadsheet and change cell F2 (which now says P) to M, and press Enter. Go back to your drawing and note that the P has changed to an M. Because the data are linked, any changes made to the spreadsheet are updated in your drawing.
12.Save your drawing. Close your spreadsheet program without saving the change that you made.
Summary
In this chapter, you read about the following:
Importing and exporting other file formats, including both vector and bitmap (raster) formats
Working with DXF files
Managing images and controlling their display
Pasting, linking, and embedding objects into your drawing
The next chapter discusses how to integrate AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT with the Internet.
|
|
|
Getting on the Internet
AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT offer many ways to integrate your drawings with the Internet. You can open drawings from a Web site,
hyperlink objects to anywhere on the Web, and publish drawings in DWF format on a Web site. You can use the Autodesk DWF viewer to view DWF files. When you access a Web site (perhaps your company’s intranet), you can find blocks or other data, and drag them into your drawing. This chapter covers all of the ways to connect your drawings with the Internet.
Sending Drawings
You can instantly send your drawings to others on your team or to your clients, by either faxing or e-mailing them, just as you fax and e-mail other documents. You can fax a drawing if the recipient doesn’t have AutoCAD or AutoCAD LT and wants to quickly see the drawing on paper. (Later in this chapter, I explain how someone can use Autodesk DWF Viewer to view AutoCAD or AutoCAD LT drawings.)
Use e-mail if the recipient has AutoCAD or AutoCAD LT and may need to edit the drawing. You can also send a drawing to an FTP site. Another option is to create a PDF file from the drawing and e-mail the PDF file.
Using eTransmit
The eTransmit feature packs together all associated files with your drawing so that you can e-mail it to colleagues, clients, customers, and so on. To start a transmission, choose File eTransmit. The Create Transmittal dialog box opens, as shown in Figure 28-1, with the Files Tree tab on top.
You can write a note to the recipient in the Notes section. The content of the Notes section becomes part of the transmittal report, a separate file that is included in the EXE or ZIP file. If you send an e-mail message, the note becomes the body of the message.
28C H A P T E R
In This Chapter
Faxing and e-mailing drawings
Opening drawings from the Web
Creating
object hyperlinks
Publishing drawings on the World Wide Web
Creating DWF files
Viewing DWF files
916 Part V Organizing and Managing Drawings
Figure 28-1: The Create Transmittal dialog box enables you to create a transmittal file that you can attach to an e-mail message. The transmittal file contains a drawing, along with its associated files.
Specifying transmittal settings
If you have a saved transmittal setting, choose it from the Select a Transmittal Setup box and click OK. Otherwise, click Transmittal Settings to open the Transmittal Setups dialog box, which lists saved setups. To create a new setup, click New, name the setup, and click Continue. To modify an existing setup, select the setup and click Modify. In both cases, you end up in the Modify Transmittal Setup dialog box, as shown in Figure 28-2.
Figure 28-2: Use the Modify Transmittal Setup dialog box to specify how to structure your transmittal.
Chapter 28 Getting on the Internet 917
From the Transmittal Package Type drop-down list, choose one of the following types of transmittals:
Folder (set of files): Creates a folder that includes all of the files in the transmittal. The files are not compressed.
Self-extracting executable (*.exe): Creates a compressed EXE file. Recipients can double-click the file to decompress and extract the files.
Caution |
Some people won’t open EXE files for fear of computer viruses, so you might need to notify |
|
your recipient in advance that you’re sending the EXE file. Also, some e-mail programs block |
|
EXE attachments. |
Zip (*.zip): Creates a compressed ZIP file. Recipients need WinZip, or a similar decompression application.
|
From the File Format drop-down list, you can choose to save files in earlier release formats if |
|
you want. From the Transmittal File Folder drop-down list, choose a location to save the trans- |
|
mittal files, or click Browse to specify another location. You can leave this item blank to save |
|
the files in the same folder as the first drawing on the list in the Create Transmittal dialog box. |
|
If you’re transmitting a sheet set (AutoCAD only), the transmittal file goes in the same file as |
|
the drawing set data (DST) file. |
|
If you create an EXE or ZIP file, you can use the Transmittal File Name drop-down list to |
|
choose how you want to name the file. You can choose to be prompted for a file name, |
|
have eTransmit assign a name and overwrite any existing file with that name, or have |
|
eTransmit assign a name and increment the file name (add a number) to avoid over |
|
writing an existing file. |
Tip |
Because you often don’t need the transmittal file after you’ve sent it (you already have all of |
|
the files), you can put it in the Windows\Temp file or another location where you place files |
|
that you’ll delete. |
At the bottom of the dialog box are several Transmittal Options:
Choose one of the following folder structure options:
•The Use Organized Folder Structure option creates a hierarchical folder structure based on the structure of the files in the transmittal package. You can specify the root folder for this structure. When the recipient opens the transmittal package, all of these folders are created.
•The Place All Files in One Folder option puts all of the files in one folder that the recipient specifies.
•The Keep Files and Folders As Is option retains the exact paths of the existing files and folders.
The Include Fonts check box includes the AutoCAD fonts in the transmittal. If your drawing only uses fonts included in a normal installation of AutoCAD or AutoCAD LT, you can probably assume that your recipients have them. TrueType fonts aren’t included because they’re proprietary.
The Send E-mail with Transmittal check box opens your e-mail program and creates a new message with the files as attachments, and the notes as the body of the message. Using this feature makes sending your drawings very easy.