Acknowledgments

Iwould like to offer special thanks to Tom Heine, my acquisitions editor, who was very supportive throughout the writing of this book.

A huge thank-you goes to Jade Williams, whose infinite organizing power kept the book on track. Jade kept up with a seemingly infinite number of versions of text documents and images, coordinating the writing, editing, and production of the entire book.

Kudos to Darren Young, an Autodesk Registered Developer (www.mcwi.com), for his extremely knowledgeable and thorough technical editing. Darren’s comments improved the book throughout. My thanks also to Lee Ambrosius, an AutoCAD consultant (www.hyperpics.com), the highly knowledgeable technical editor for the AutoCAD LT material in this book.

Chapters 34–37 contain contributions by Jerry Coley and the development team at Perceptual Engineering, Inc., an Autodesk Registered Developer, including Stephen S. Green, Estenio R. Gimenez, and William McArthur (www.perceptual-eng.com).

I also thank Elizabeth Kuball for her precise and careful editing of this very technical book and all the people at Wiley who helped with the production of this book and its CD-ROM.

Thanks to Wayne Hodgins, Strategic Futurist and Director of Worldwide Learning Strategies, for writing the Foreword for this book. I also want to express my great appreciation to the members of Autodesk’s beta and product teams who were very supportive throughout the alpha and beta period. For all their hard work and brilliance, they have earned some homemade cookies and a free copy of this book. Shaan (the great) Hurley, Traci Van Patten, Misha Belilovskiy, Eric Stover, Bud Shroeder, Kurt Chase, Wayne Fisher, Cynde Hargrave, Heidi Hewitt, Shawn Gilmour, and many others.

Leonid Nemirovsky created two AutoLISP routines for managing single-line text (on the CD-ROM) at my request. Many people contributed drawings and software for this book. I’d like to thank all of them. They have helped make this book the most comprehensive book on AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT available.

Finally, I would like to thank my husband, Evan, and two kids, Yeshayah and Eliyah, who helped out around the house while I was writing, writing, and writing (and who wanted to see their names in print). Without their support, I could not have completed this book.

Contents at a Glance

Foreword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xix

Part I: AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	. . . . 1
Chapter 1: Starting to Draw . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	. . . . . 3
Chapter 2: Opening a Drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	. . . . 21
Chapter 3: Using Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	. . . . 29
Chapter 4: Specifying Coordinates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	. . . . 49
Chapter 5: Setting Up a Drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	. . . . 81
Part II: Drawing in Two Dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	. . . 95
Chapter 6: Drawing Simple Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	. . . . 97
Chapter 7: Drawing Curves and Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	. . . . 107
Chapter 8: Viewing Your Drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	. . . . 123
Chapter 9: Editing Your Drawing: Basic Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	. . . . 155
Chapter 10: Editing Your Drawing: Advanced Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	. . . . 181
Chapter 11: Organizing Drawings with Layers, Colors, Linetypes, and Lineweights	. . . . 237
Chapter 12: Getting Information from Your Drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	. . . . 275
Chapter 13: Creating Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	. . . . 295
Chapter 14: Drawing Dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	. . . . 339
Chapter 15: Creating Dimension Styles and Tolerances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	. . . . 377
Chapter 16: Drawing Complex Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	. . . . 411
Chapter 17: Plotting and Printing Your Drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	. . . . 453
Part III: Working with Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	. . 485
Chapter 18: Working with Blocks and Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	. . . . 487
Chapter 19: Referencing Other Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	. . . . 533
Chapter 20: Working with External Databases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	. . . . 555
Part IV: Drawing in Three Dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	. . . 591

Chapter 21: Specifying 3D Coordinates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 593 Chapter 22: Viewing 3D Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 617

Chapter 23: Creating 3D Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 657 Chapter 24: Creating Solids and Editing in 3D . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 693 Chapter 25: Rendering in 3D . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 745

Part V: Organizing and Managing Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	777
Chapter 26: Keeping Control of Your Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	779
Chapter 27: Working with Other Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	837
Chapter 28: Getting on the Internet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	861
Part VI: Customizing AutoCAD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	887

Chapter 29: Customizing Commands, Toolbars, and Tool Palettes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 889 Chapter 30: Creating Macros and Slide Shows with Script Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 909 Chapter 31: Creating Your Own Linetypes and Hatch Patterns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 921 Chapter 32: Creating Shapes and Fonts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 933 Chapter 33: Customizing Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 945

Part VII: Programming AutoCAD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	983
Chapter 34: Understanding AutoLISP and Visual LISP Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	. 985
Chapter 35: Exploring AutoLISP Further . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	1003
Chapter 36: Exploring Advanced AutoLISP Topics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	1029
Chapter 37: Programming with Visual Basic for Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	1047
Part VIII: Appendixes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	1077

Appendix A: Installing and Configuring AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1079 Appendix B: What’s on the CD-ROM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1103

Bonus Chapters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . On the CD-ROM

Chapter 1: Command and System-Variable Changes

Chapter 2: AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT Resources

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1113 End-User License Agreement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1159