COMPUTER-AIDED DRAFTING CAD

TOPIC 3: OBJECT TRACING IN CAD

Introduction:
Drawing aids are essential modes and methods of entering data that, once mastered, allow
you to create measured drawings with ease. It is recommend learning all of the drawing aids
because they will make you a more productive draftsperson. Most drawing aids can be toggled on
or off from the application status bar. Additional settings and dialog boxes are accessible by right-
clicking the individual status bar toggles.

Snap and Grids

The most basic drawing aid, Grid, makes the canvas in AutoCAD look like graph paper.
You can adjust the grid’s measured size and the spacing of its major lines to simulate many types
of graph paper. Snap constrains your ability to draw objects so that they automatically start and
end precisely at grid intersections. Grid and Snap are most helpful when used together so that you
can draw objects that snap to the grid.

Figure 7.1 Drafting Setting in Snap and Grid

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Ortho and Polar Tracking

Ortho mode aids in drawing orthogonal (horizontal or vertical) lines. Polar Tracking is
more flexible than Ortho mode, with the ability to constrain lines to increments of a set angle. A
list of common angles—45, 90, 135, 180, and so on—is included on Polar Tracking’s context
menu. The traditional square and a set of triangles from traditional drafting are analogs to Ortho
and Polar Tracking modes in AutoCAD.

Just like Ortho mode, Polar Tracking guarantees that the last line drawn was perfectly
aligned to the set increment; you merely had to move the cursor in the general direction you wanted
to direct the new line. Ortho and Polar Tracking save you from having to type in angles or
coordinate values explicitly or to even think about coordinate systems.

Figure 7.2 Drafting Setting in Polar and Ortho

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Object Snap and Object Snap Tracking

The lines you have drawn thus far are all precisely connected because they were chained
together as they were drawn or their coordinates were known. Aside from these special
circumstances, lines must be connected using object snaps to ensure accuracy.
Object snap tracking is for situations where you want to snap to a point that has a geometric
relationship with two or more snap points. As you’ll see in the following steps, using object snap
tracking saves time when compared with drawing temporary construction lines that must later be
deleted.

Figure 7.2 Drafting Setting in Object Snap

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Using the object snap mode can help the user to automatically select the points of the
particular object or figure they had been doing. The object snap mode can be turned ON/OFF by
pressing F# function key or by using the mouse.

Table 7.1 Object Snap Tool (Modes and Description)

TOOLS DESCRIPTION
Endpoint Snaps to the closet endpoint of an arc, elliptical arc, line,
mline, polyline segment, or ray or the closest corner of a
trace, solid or 3D face.
Midpoint Snaps to the midpoint of an arc, ellipse, elliptical arc, line ,
mline, polylines segment, solid, spline, or xline.
Intersection Snaps to the intersection of an arc, circle, ellipse, elliptical
arc, line, mline, polylines, ray, spline, or xline
Extension Snaps to the extension point of an object.
Apparent Intersection Snaps to the apparent intersection of two object that do not
intersect in 3D space but appear to intersect in the drawing
display
Center Snaps to the center of an arc, circle, ellipse, or elliptical arc,
even a line.
Node Snap to a point of the object
Quadrant Snaps to a quadrant point of an arc, circle, ellipse, elliptical
arc
Insertion Snap to the intersection point of an attribute, a block, a
shape, or text.
Tangent Snap to the tangent of an arc, circle, ellipse, or elliptical arc
Nearest Snaps to the nearest point on an arc, circle, ellipse, elliptical
arc, line, mline, point, polylines, spline, or xline.,
Perpendicular Snaps to an extension in parallel with an object.
Parallel Snap to an extension in parallel with an object.
None Turns off object snap modes
M2P or MTP Mid between two points

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Zoom is a magnification tools that can decrease and increase of the object size in the
drawing area.
Note: It is just a magnification not figure/object pre-scaling.
Table 7.2. Zoom Setting (Command and Description)
COMMAND NAME SHORTCUT KEY DESCRIPTION
ZOOM WINDOW Z (enter) It magnifies the windowed
W (enter) area
ZOOM DYNAMIC Z (enter) Produces a view window
D (enter) which can be zoomed and
panned
ZOOM SCALE Z (enter) It magnifies the drawing based
S (enter) on desired numeric factor
ZOOM CENTER Z (enter) Selecting the point to be
C (enter) displayed at the center while
magnification factor will be
the size of the display
ZOOM OBJECT Z (enter) Magnifies the selected object
O (enter) to the extent of the display
area
ZOOM IN Increases magnification to
----------
100%
ZOMM OUT Decreases the magnification
----------
to 50%
ZOOM ALL Z (enter) Shows all the drawing in the
A (enter) entire display
ZOOM EXTENT Z (enter) Shows all the drawing in the
E (enter) entire display is occupied
PAN REALTIME Right click on the drawing area and Equivalent of scroll buttons
select PAN, right click to exit when and moves the view of the
done
drawing without
magnification effect.
ZOOM REALTIME Z (enter)(enter) Or right click on the Allows zoom-in and out by
drawing area and select zoom, right holding the mouse
click to exit when done
ZOOM PREVIOUS Z (enter) Display the previous
P (enter) magnification

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