Starting and Organizing a Project | ||||
I'm not referring to being a Project Manager in this tutorial, but organizing a project in AutoCAD takes a standard approach. Consider drawing a room a 'project', or a floor. On your first day of the job given a project and asked to draw it. What you draw will depend upon the 'Scope of Work' This example will assume that you've been put in a small room and told to draw it. The first thing you want to do is set up your drawing. There are a few basic steps to approaching EVERY drawing you do in CAD.
AutoCAD also has a large number of templates to get you started. You can find these through the New Drawing dialog box. Once your drawing is set up, think about how you will actually draw it. You should start with the most basic components first. Remember that it is just like building a structure. Start with the foundation and add more detail as you go. Look at the outer walls and start there. Then add more details such as the door openings, doors, windows, etc. Finish up with the details that are on the scope of work - fire extinguishers, outlets, etc. Be careful with your measurements, because if you make a mistake at the start, it will cause BIG problems later on as you continue through the drawing. A general rule I use is to draw like I would build it. This basic approach will at least give you a starting point for any project in any discipline. Just like in Previous Lessons, start AutoCAD and a new drawing by using the menu option File > New. You will see a dialog box open that asks you to select a template drawing to use. In these examples you will use AutoCAD's default template. This will give you the chance to practice creating and using layers. Have a look at the types of objects in the drawing example and create layers for each. The first two projects are designed using imperial, architectural units (i.e.: 3'-6") as opposed to the decimal measurements you used in the previous level. If your template is not set to Architectural units, you can do this by using the DDUNITS command and set "Length > Type" to Architectural.
Computer Room Example This is the drawing that you will be duplicating. Start a new drawing and create the layers that you need. You should have 4 layers. Where to start: Here is the room you will be drawing. Imagine that you just walked in the door at the top right, have a look around...
You'll see two more doors, and some parts of the wall sticking out - where the columns are. Imagine that you have to measure it, and draw it. You're ready to start drawing now. As mentioned above, start with the outside and work your way in. If you are drawing the first project, you can easily draw the walls (using DDE), then offset them by the thickness of the wall. From there, it's just a matter of inserting the door openings. I usually do that by offsetting lines, then trimming away what I don't need. For the doors themselves, just draw a rectangle and rotate it (later on you will learn about blocks for this). So with just a few commands, you can draw this room - all the commands you learned in Level 1. Of course, there are many ways to draw the same project. Click here to see one way to draw doors if you're not sure what to do for them. Once you have drawn the basic plan, dimension it (refer to Lesson 1-8). From the "Computer Room" plan you will be adding computers and other accessories to the desks later in the course, so save the file when you are done.
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