LESSON 4-1

AUTOCAD TEMPLATE FILES

LESSON 4-2

OBJECT SNAPS - OSNAPS

LESSON 4-3

LINETYPES IN AUTOCAD

LESSON 4-4

AUTOCAD FILE TYPES

LESSON 4-5

USING AND SETTING GRIPS

LESSON 4-6

AUTOCAD'S INQUIRY TOOLS

LESSON 4-7

EXTERNAL REFERENCE FILES - XREFS

LESSON 4-8

INTRODUCTION TO SYSTEM VARIABLES

LESSON 4-9

TABLES

LESSON 4-10

INTRODUCTION TO SET SHEETS

LESSON 4-11

MODIFYING AND CREATING DIMENSIONS

Notes about these lessons:

Most regular text is in burgundy on these pages. Anything you see on AutoCAD's command line is in blue Courier font. Important terms are usually highlighted in red and will also have hyper links attached. Whenever you see a icon, click on it for more information.

Topics covered in this Lesson:

Linetypes | Linetype Scales | Lineweights

LINETYPES IN AUTOCAD

When you have been drawing in AutoCAD, almost all of the lines have been continuous. This is a particular linetype. Most simple drawings can be drawn with just this one linetype. More advanced drawings will require different linetypes such as center lines, hidden lines, phantom lines and others.

When you first start AutoCAD, only one linetype is available. This is the continuous linetype. AutoCAD has many more available, but only loads in one to start with in order to keep the drawing file size smaller. If you need a different linetype, you must load it into your current drawing. As is usually the case in AutoCAD, there are a few ways to do this.

Invoking the LINETYPE command brings up the Linetype Manager dialog box as shown below.

You'll notice that it is similar to the layer dialog box.

Instead of creating a new linetype (like you would a layer), you will have to LOAD it into your drawing. AutoCAD has many different linetypes that you can load, as well as giving you the option to create your own. (This will not be covered in this lesson.) To load a linetype, press the Load... button that is towards the top-right corner. When you do this, you'll see another dialog box appear (shown above).

Notice that AutoCAD is giving you a choice of different linetypes as defined in the acad.lin file. Scroll through the list to see what options you have available. You'll see the most common ones (hidden, center, etc) as well as some that are only for certain applications. Click on the Hidden linetype and then press OK.

Adding a linetype to your drawing is that easy. Notice that there are three different hidden linetype options: HIDDEN, HIDDEN2, HIDDENX2. All of these are valid linetypes, but as you can see from the samples shown in the right side of the dialog box, they are slightly different. Which one you choose is up to you. Remember one thing though. If you pick HIDDEN2, then you should also pick CENTER2, if you need a center line. This will keep your linetype scale consistent. Only change your linetype scale singly if you have a specific reason to.

Here is an example of 3 different linetypes:

LINETYPE SCALE

Your linetype scale determines how the linetype is displayed and plotted. Depending on your linetype or original area you set up, you may have to change it. This is one more reason, why you should set up your drawing properly from the beginning. If you need to change your linetype scale, type in LTSCALE and try different values to get the look you want. You can also change you linetype scale from the LINETYPE dialog box by changing the value in the Global Scale Factor box.

Note: you can change the linetype scale separately on each object, but this is not recommended as it can be very difficult to keep track of, and therefore lose consistency.

Here is a single linetype (hidden) with 3 different linetype scales applied. Notice that the line with a LTS of .5 has lines and dashes that are 1/2 the size of line above it. The line with a LTS of 5 has lines and dashes that are 5 times longer.

You can change the linetype of an object by changing its properties, or use the droplist of layers on the main drawing screen. This is a simpler, quicker method - just select the object, then pick the linetype from the list.

Linetypes can also be controlled by putting them all one layer and using the ByLayer option.

LINEWEIGHTS

Another property of lines is their lineweight, or how wide they display on the screen and when printed. One common example of a heavier lineweight would be a border around a title block. Some times, you may use a lighter lineweight for hatching. But whatever you use them for, they are powerful display options.

Here are the range of lineweights available (There are more options in between):

The methods for changing the lineweight for objects is similar to the ones for linetypes (above). There is also the option of turning the lineweight display on or off. Just double click on the LWT option of the status bar.

Notice also, that by right-clicking, you can access the Lineweight Settings Dialog box.

The options are quite straightforward, but you also have the option of displaying lineweights or now (Display Lineweight) and changing the default display lineweight.