Page 9 - Engineering drawing from first principles using AutoCAD

2 Engineering drawinq /1"0111 first principles

applied to useful engineering topics. Both areas of work are progressive so eventually you
will possess CAD and valuable engineering draughting experience and be sufficiently
skilled to take your place in a modern drawing office. It is also a vital part of the study that
you appreciate the reason for the position of every line and possess the ability to edit
freely any section of your drawing. A big part of a draughtman's work is to implement
modifications and changes to drawings which often result from improvements in design
and production techniques.

Initial preparations

I must make the assumption that a software program, for example AutoCAD LT, has been
installed on a computer and is ready for your studies, so take a comfortable seat in front of
the keyboard, switch on and select the icon on the Windows Program Manager (Figure
1.1).
Double click with the left-hand mouse button over the icon and the screen display shown
in Figure 1.2 appears under a central heading of AutoCAD LT - UNNAMED.
Please note that all the following operations are initiated by clicking the left-hand mouse
button. Immediately beneath the heading is the pull-down menu line which starts with
File, then Edit, Draw, View, Assist, Construct, Modify, Settings and Help. Click over each
of them in turn and note the various optional functions that are available to appreciate
the scope of the program, but please be assured that you can make rapid progress with
only a few commands.
The next line includes the Toolbar which can be personalised to suit your own method of

Figure 1.1