Hi there, welcome! Let's see quickly how to build and manage 2D projects
with AutoCAD 2015!
Leave feedbacks to correct any mistakes you find in this video.
When you work in 2D, you have different kinds of objects you can draw.
The Circles, Ellipses and Arcs are drawn once per time. You have to press
Enter key to enable these tools again to draw another object.
The Line is a straight segment. But unless you press Escape key, you will
go on drawing segments sharing one same node. You may build a polygon in
this way, but if you analyze it, the different segments stay independent.
Very differently goes when using the Polyline. This works just like the
Line, but if you create a polygon using a polyline, all the segments are
managed at the same time. This is indeed a unique object, rather than
before with the Line tool. Moreover, you can't convert a straight segment
into an arc directly. And, to modify your polygon made with the Line tool,
you need to use the Modify section on top, since you have to edit more
objects at the same time. The polyline doesn't have this problem. The
object is unique, so any editing is applied on the whole polyline. You will
still need the Move tool to move the polyline around.
Plus, you can hover the intermediate nodes and use Convert to Arc to
transform a side into an arc pretty fast.
Actually the Rectangle and the Polygon tools do create a polyline, with a
shape of a rectangle or the desired polygon. In fact, you can still find
the intermediate blue nodes there too.
You can edit a polyline keeping some sides fixed. Hold Shift down and click
on the nodes you don't want to move between each other. Then just stretch
one of these.
A polyline can be decomposed. For example you can extract the single
segments from a polygon made. Select the whole object and press the letter
E, and choose EXPLODE command. You can find it in Modify section too. In
this way the polyline will be transformed into its smaller parts, such as
single independent segments and arcs.
Let's see now some common tools used in 2D projects. The Offset tool is
used everytime you need to create a line that goes parallel with
another one.
For example, let's create the letter D. Select the object and click on
Offset in Modify section. Set the distance and then, in the end, accept
with Enter key. A new object will be created with the same shape, but such
that the distance between this and the previous object is kept constant.
Another great tools are the Fillet and the Chamfer ones. These are used to
connect segments separated. Just select the two segments, and watch
the preview.
What if you want to fill up this letter D? You can add filled areas using
the Hatch tool. This is located right below the Ellipse tool. A new window,
called Hatch Creation appears, containing all you need to fill enclosed
areas. The Hatch tool is very simple. All you need to do is to click inside
the area you want to fill up. If you ever mistake, remember to use the undo
button in the top left corner. Of course, this is going to work if AutoCAD
finds closed boundaries, otherwise a warning appears in a dialog box, and
nothing will be done.
When you finish with the Hatch tool, just press Enter key. The Hatch
Creation window will be closed.
The Hatch tool adds patterns inside any closed boundary, composed by any
kind of objects. What counts mostly is the first boundary met. So if you
need to cover what is over a certain boundary, you have to click on and on
where needed. These patterns are objects themselves indeed, that you can
move through their central point, and edit freely using the other
blue nodes.
Remember that, each time you use the Hatch Tool, a single unified pattern
object is created, and this is moved and edited altogether. To create
single patterns, all independent, you may need to activate the Hatch Tool
for each single pattern. So you need to activate the Hatch tool, create the
pattern, and then press Enter to exit. Then to press Enter again to
reactivate the Hatch tool for the next pattern, and so on.
Mind that, if you move the pattern, it will be pretty hard to replace it on
the object it was covering. The Move tool deassociates the pattern from
the object permamently, which means that the pattern and the boundaries do
become independent. If you want to make the pattern associated again, just
remove the old one and use the Hatch tool on the boundaries again.
As long as the pattern is associated to a boundary, this will be adapted
everytime the boundary changes. This happens if the pattern is kept
Associative. In case you lost the boundaries, but you still have the
pattern, simply select it and go to Recreate in Boundaries section on top.
Select Polyline and press Enter twice. AutoCAD will replace a polyline that
fully covers the whole pattern selected.
To delete the pattern, just select it and press Delete or CTRL+X, as with a
normal object. The pattern is fully customizable. Just select it, and the
Hatch Creation window will appear. Use Pattern to change the way the object
has to appear. As you can see, there are patterns for the roof, the walls,
anything to design a house. In Properties section you can fully edit it:
you can add Transparency, change the orientation, the pattern scale, color
and its background. Make sure to put things the easiest way possible. If
you choose a very small scale, your computer may be slowed down.
You have three main kinds of covers: the plain solid color, the pattern,
but also the gradients. Choose the colors and the kind of gradient on the
left. All gradients are recognized through the GR letters in front of names.
To further edit your pattern or gradient, you can click on the small white
arrow next to Options.
What about text and annotations? These are all listed in the Annotation
section. You can create text clicking on the A button. Then click and drag
to create the text area, that will contain text. The down arrow indicates
where the text spreads when you make new lines.
Once done, set the text style before typing in. On top you have the Text
Editor, that contains all you need to rule text. In Style choose the text
style. Type 50 or 100 to see text properly, and press Enter key to apply.
Below, through Mask, can add a background color, placed right below the
written text. In Formatting choose the font, the color, make text italic,
bold or underlined. You can try Paragraph and Insert on your own.
When you finish, press Escape key and click on Yes in the dialog box.
When the text is done, you can manage it easily. The blue squared node is
used to move the text. The blue arrows to identify and modify the text
area. Mind that, if the text area is too small, you may change the text
distribution itself. If you want to edit text, just select it, right-click
and go to Mtext edit... Or simply double-click on it. This opens the Text
Editor again, and so you can change the text as seen.
Text is managed as any other object, using the Modify section on top.
If you want to write text that has an inclination, you can do it fast
without using the Rotate tool everytime. Below the A button, select Single
Line. Click once to set where the text has to start. Type the text size
inside the command box. And then set the angle of inclination respect to X
axis, the horizontal direction. You can do this typing this angle, or
simply fixing the direction using the dashed segment that your mouse
creates with the starting point. Then type the text inside. There is no
text area, so you can type there or elsewhere, just click outside.
When you are done, just click outside and press Escape key. The text will
have the fixed inclination decided.
This text doesn't have any text area, so you will have just a blue node to
move it around.
Thanks for watching this video! Check out the following one to see how
to design 3D projects with AutoCAD 2015!