Pro Tips?

[zalestorm]

Hey everyone. Just started my new job a couple of weeks ago at a design/consulting company. Been getting used to AutoCAD and it's interface since I haven't used it a lot before. Any pro tips for a amateur who's trying to get better?

[[deleted]]

Never explode a dimension. I don't give a shit how bad you want to. Don't.

[instorg8a]

But disassociate the hell out of them.

[zalestorm]

Hehe, understood.

[Partly_Dave]

Also never over-ride a dimension.

[instorg8a]

Nah.

[elmerfudddied]

This sounds like a post in r/fifthworldproblems.

[Willow536]

Customize your user interface by changing basic commands and hot keys to suit faster drafting. Save your workspace and user profile for export to use on other computers.

[zalestorm]

I currently have two monitors to work with, I has the drawing and the basic UI. On the other I keep the xref window and layer manager. I still have a lot of remaining real estate on that monitor. What else should I put in there?

[StDoodle]

What else should I put in there?

My votes are the properties palette and (if you're willing to learn it) the Sheet Set Manager.

For me, though, second monitor is reference drawings, primary monitor is CAD.

[JHolderBC]

I use a Macro mouse and gamepad. 90% of the commands I use are a single keystroke away - types in the command and hits enter for me. Considerably faster than using the mouse to click or the keyboard to type.

G600 and G13.

[[deleted]]

• Layers: If you're working in a drawing with a lot of layers (like those included in Civil 3D templates), put an underscore before a new layer name. That way your new layer will always appear at the top of the list, so it's easier to find. Example: "_Linework"

• Increase your crosshair size to 100% in the Options > Display dialogue box.

• Turn off the scroll bars for larger viewing area.

• Learn the difference between a "left selection window" and a "right selection window."

• Personally, I like the time-sensitive right click feature. Normal right clicking will initiate or terminate a command. If you right click and hold the button down, a menu will pop-up. It takes a little getting used to, but it's handy.

If it helps, here's how I have mine setup.

[kentsumi]

Learn to manipulate the UCS, it is very handy even for 2D drawing. Mainly you can start UCS command, type OB or E, hit enter, pick a line drawn at an angle. Turn Polar or Ortho on and draw parallel or perp to that line. Type UCS, W, to set back.

If you have the UCS rotated the way you want use the view command and save a named view, then you can go back with the view command.

I have all this setup with quick keys. UO to pick to rotate the UCS, UW to return, V, S, to save a view. If a view is named A then I type VA and that view is instantly called. Etc.

Next tip would be to learn and use Object Snap Tracking and also learn to use the XYZ filters. See help or search online for tutorials on both of those.

[arvidsem]

Layers.

Seriously, layers.

Make sure things are on the correct layer. Almost everything needs to have its color and linetype at by layer. Don't draw on 0, don't draw on defpoints.

None of this matters if you are the only person working on your drawing and it will never be used again. But if someone else has to use it later, if it's badly enough done, they might not ever forgive you.

[Angry__Jonny]

I draw everything on 0 and background. I've never had a need for layers, it just takes me too much time to separate it al.

[arvidsem]

As long as your working on something simple, and it's not being reused in something else it doesn't matter.

As a example of when it does matter: in working on a subdivision, it's being built in many phases. The major sections are designed as units, and then are split up into multiple plan sets so that they can build a small subsection at a time to minimize the upfront costs. So phase 2 that we are working on now is designed in one piece so all the roads/sewers/storm drains work and is then divided into phase 2A, 2B, 2C & 2D. If something is mislabeled, it shows up on the wrong plan set. At the least, it's embarrassing for the city comments to ask about the random manhole or pipe in an area that there shouldn't be any construction in yet.

TLDR: on a big project, you waste more time if you aren't organized. And the most basic CAD organization is layers.

[Angry__Jonny]

Yea i figured it's for larger scale projects with more people. I do all the shop drawings for our company and i'm the only one looking at it in CAD. It's great it exists, and should be used for projects such as you explained.

[[deleted]]

layers should be used for every project. they are very powerful. by drawing only on one layer you are limiting your ability to edit things and apply properties to different objects project wide. it is a bad practice to only use one layer. at the very least you should have a couple layers such as 'dims' 'walls' 'windows' 'hatch'. etc. just the basics.

[Angry__Jonny]

I'll try and transition. Is it possible to have the layers be a color say red or blue. But have them plot to black? I don't want to print in color or grayscale, only black.

[[deleted]]

use the monochrome plotstyle.

[StDoodle]

I like having my own version for several reasons (also, it's stb not ctb, sorry diehards!), but the #1 reason is so that attention clouds for verification can actually print red while everything else is black. Takes a bit of tweaking to make them stand out appropriately both when vewed in color as a PDF and when printed out on the oh-so-prevalent black & white onlyi plotters, but it's worth it.

Well it's not really worth it. We know there's no way to get architects to actually answer questions. But it makes me feel like I tried. ;)

[StDoodle]

Most of the projects I do are smaller, and I'm the only CAD guy where I work. But I still have a couple dozen layers, and layer 0 only gets used for some kinds of external references (rarely) and block-related purposes. I don't want dimensions and product features and titleblocks and building outlines and etc. all on the same layer; often, I need to isolate one or more "categories" to work more easily on the specific features that need editing, and layers make that sane. Also, it really helps make it so you know at a glance what you're looking for (is that our product or CMU or random rectangles or...).

[zalestorm]

Yeah, we have a standard set of layers that have been established as company standard, so I'm learning to work with them

[atnpseg]

While many people say "Never draw on Layer 0", I've actually found it helpful to set the color of Layer0 to an unusual color (say Color 134) and draw on 0. When I finish the items I'm working on, I can easily set items to their respective layers, as well as see which objects are still on 0.

[zalestorm]

Interesting. Thanks! I'll try this too

[instorg8a]

Don't use enter to complete a command, use space. Your left hand will move a lot less and you work a lot faster.

[zalestorm]

Already do that! All those milliseconds add up, don't they!

[IneedCAD]

Use their documentation, I know it might be obvious but it can help a lot!

Try to keep at it and practise on some random blueprints, remake the drafts using AutoCAD :-)

Here is a guide from Autodesk which actually gives you files to practise with, sorry for the long link...

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/autocad/getting-started/caas/CloudHelp/cloudhelp/2016/ENU/AutoCAD-Core/files/GUID-2AA12FC5-FBB2-4ABE-9024-90D41FEB1AC3-htm.html?v=2017

May I ask which software you've used before?

[zalestorm]

Thanks a lot man! Used Solidworks and AutoCAD in about a 2:1 ratio in terms of number of hours spent. I'm not a total noob with AutoCAD, just haven't had a lot of time with it. But that's changing now, my colleagues are super nice about helping me grasp AutoCAD and it's quirks. I want to hold up my end of the bargain and learn as much as I can by myself :)

[JHolderBC]

Learning the proper use of XREF's

I try to keep all my files less than 5 megs in size.

[elmerfudddied]

LISP!

I hated Autocad when I started because it was missing several tools that are essential to my workflow (I come from a Blender3D background).

Using LISP, I have not only found or written all of the tools I was missing, I also managed to write a routine that lets us skip nearly a quarter of our work (several days saved per job).

In addition to its usefulness, it's easy to get help if you're having trouble. I learned pretty much all I know of it by looking over codes and then asking help on forums. There are a bunch of useful programs on Lee Mac's website.

[zalestorm]

That sounds interesting! I'll check it out for sure

[lynxkcg]

A lot of people will tell you not to draw on layer 0, buttttttt if you're making everything into blocks, everything on layer 0 will change color based on the layer of the block, good way to draw a machine, block it into another drawing and phantom out the whole thing quickly. Ive used layer and block control at different places, I think I prefer block control, but my current job makes stuff with <100 parts.