Tutorial 1: Introduction to AutoCAD, (drawing grid lines and points)

1. How to draw lines

2. How to offset (or copy) lines
3. How to plot points
4. Annotate your drawing
5. Change line colour and style

Opening AutoCAD
● Open AutoCAD 2019 (or any lower version should be alright)
1. How to draw lines?
1.1. Type ‘Line’, press Enter/Return (⏎).

1.2. You will see the option ‘Specify first point’, type the X and Y coordinates of the first point of
the line. To separate between X and Y values use comma (,). Such as if your X and Y values
are 100 and 75 respectively, type 100, 75 and then Press Enter/Return (⏎).

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1.3. Then move the cursor along the X or Y axis (make sure they are parallel to the X or Y axis),
and then type the length of your line and press Enter/Return (⏎). Such as in the example
below I typed 550 along the X axis.

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1.4. You can continue to draw lines by typing the length of the line. Such as in the example
below I continued to draw the line along the Y axis with a length of 600.

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2. How to Offset lines
The ‘Offset’ command allows you to copy lines parallel to any existing lines. To offset lines do
the following actions.

2.1. Type ‘Offset’ and press Enter/Return (⏎)

2.2. Specify the offset distance (type the distance you want your line to be copied and then
press Enter/Return (⏎) (see image below).

2.3. Select the object to offset, and then click on the side you want to offset.

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3. How to Plot Points
To plot or draw points you need to define the display style of the points first. Otherwise points may
appear too small to be visible.

3.1. Define Point Style

Type ‘Ptype’ and press Enter/Return (⏎).
The Point Style window will open, select cross (X) from the style.
Type the ‘Pont Size’ to 10.

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Select ‘Set Size in Absolute Units’ and Click ‘OK’.

3.2. Draw points

To draw points type ‘Point’ and press Enter/Return (⏎).
Type the X and Y coordinates of the point and press Enter/Return (⏎).
The point should be plotted in the typed coordinates. For example, I typed 435 (X), 398 (Y) to plot a
point.

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4. Annotate your drawing
Go to ‘Annotate’ menu

Then select Multiline Text as shown in the image below.

Draw the text window, it should be the location where you want your text to appear (see example
below).

Change text size as shown in the image below, and then click on the text field and type your text (see
image below).

Once you are done with your typing, click outside of the text field/box.

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 4.1. Editing text properties

You may want to edit Properties of your text (size, colouer, etc.).

To edit properties select the text and Right-click, from the Right-click menu select Properties.

In the Properties window you will find a range of parameters which you can edit. Try changing Color
and Text height and see the effect.