CHAPTER 3

LEARNING BASIC COMMANDS

LEARNING COMPETENCIES:
1. You will be able to learn basic AutoCAD commands you should be able to make
use of if you are learning how to use AutoCAD

BRIEF INTRODUCTION

We have looked into each of these commands in detail here, and now we would
like to have a global view of all that is needed so far

LESSON PROPER
3.1 LINE Create a line

We have seen a couple of ways you can go to draw a straight line in AutoCAD here.

mention in previous sessions.

Many people fall into this trap. You know how you are drawing a straight line in
Microsoft Paint, You click and hold, move your cursor, and then when you release the
click, you have a straight line? It does not work this way in AutoCAD. In AutoCAD, you
actually have to release the click before moving the mouse, and you have to initiate
the second click to finish drawing the straight line. Confusing?

Here is what I mean. To draw a straight line in AutoCAD:

1. Activate the LINE command

2. Click on the starting (Do not hold your click)
3. move your mouse
4. Click to indicate the ending point (Do not hold the click)
5. Press on the ESC key on your keyboard to end the process

There are very very few actions in AutoCAD that force you to click and hold. As for
now forget about CLICK AND HOLD. We will cover exceptional cases later.

That being said, let us Start.

Drawing a Straight line with a dimension in AutoCAD

We need to talk about the ORTHO mode before anything else here.
The ORTHO mode

The ORTHO mode constrains the cursor to horizontal and vertical movement, which
helps you draw straight horizontal and straight vertical lines easily.
Every time one needs to draw either a vertical or a horizontal straight line, he/she
needs to make sure the ORTHO mode is activated.

The ORTHO icon is located in the Status Bar (Downright corver)

How do you know it is activated or not?

Pay attention to the information box that pops up when you hover over the icon. You
can also use color indicators to know, Blue ORTHOMODE icon for ON and White
ORTHOMODE icon for OFF.

How do you activate the ORTHO mode?

Just click on the icon to toggle it. If it is OFF, it will turn ON and vice versa. Now that
we know what ORTHO is and how to use it, we can move forward.

Let us draw a vertical line of 50 units of length.

1 Click on the LINE icon

2 ick)
3 Activate the ORTHO mode if it is not activated
4 Move the cursor away from the first point in the direction you want the line to have.
Since we are drawing a vertical line, you can only go either upward or downward
5 Type 50 on your keyboard and hit ENTER on your keyboard twice

To draw a horizontal line, just change the direction in step 4 to either left or right.

Practice exercise
Do not mind the annotation, once we learned how to write a text in AutoCAD, and how
to annotate a drawing, you can come back and finish it up. But for now, focus only on
drawing 4 lines to make a square.

Polar tracking
This feature helps track specific angles when you are drawing in AutoCAD. By default,
this is set to 90, 180, 270, 360.

How to access this?

Right-click on the Polar tracking icon like shown on the image below

What can I use this for?

You can use it to draw the following 2D image.
How did we get here?
Remember earlier in this article when we used ORTHO? We were only able to draw
vertical and horizontal lines, now we can also track direction with specific angles. The
process is the same with what we did when drawing the square above, but now we

the square, and use the polar tracking to know you are at 45 degrees before drawing
the 90 unit line.

You can set these tracking angles to be whatever you want. Using the Tracking
settings, you can enter your angle of preference.

3.2 TRIM - Trim objects to meet the edges of other objects

The TRIM command in AutoCAD is one of the most used commands when working in
two dimensions and is by far the first command anyone should learn from the MODIFY
section of the commands in AutoCAD for this simple reason: You are clearly not going
far without the TRIM command. You cannot do much without it.

What does TRIM mean in AutoCAD

TRIMMING in AutoCAD just means that you have some parts of an object or objects,
often lines which you want to get rid of, but you do not want to get rid of the entire
objects. Here is an example where the trimming comes well in handy in AutoCAD.

The following images show an object made of 3 lines, we desire to get rid of parts of
the vertical and the horizontal line. To get to step 3 from step 1 using AutoCAD, we
need to make use of the TRIM command.
Using the TRIM command in AutoCAD

Let us use the example above to show how this can be done using AutoCAD.
Assuming you have already drawn the image we have in step 1.

1. Click on the TRIM icon

2. Select the vertical and horizontal lines and press ENTER on your keyboard
3. Select the two red parts shown on the image in step 2 on the image above.
4. Press ENTER on your keyboard when you are done.

The figure below help you locate the Trim Command.

3.3 CIRCLE - Create a circle

There are lots of different methods to draw a circle in AutoCAD. Depending on what
you will try to accomplish, the methods will vary.

The icon to activate this command is located on the upper left corner of your main
window. To activate the CIRCLE command, simply click on the circle icon.

Drawing a circle in AutoCAD

The most obvious and straightforward method is the following:

1. Click on the CIRCLE icon (shown on the image above)

2. Specify the center of the circle with a click in the drawing area
3. Use your keyboard to write 30 (30 considered to be the radius of the circle) and
press ENTER on your keyboard when you are done.

Here is what the circle will look like

Sometimes the information you have about the circle you want to draw is neither the
center of it nor its radius. This is where comes other option of the CIRCLE command.

Center Diameter

If you are using this option to draw a circle, you will simply need to repeat what we did
earlier with the only difference that at step 3, you will have to enter the value of the
Diameter of the circle instead of its radius.

2 points

This option helps you draw a circle using two endpoints, where the 2 points will belong
to the perimeter of the circle.

To use this

1. Activate the CIRCLE command

2. Select the first point
3. Select the second point
3 points
This works absolutely like the preceding one at the difference that instead of 2 points
you must indicate 3 points.
Tan Tan Radius

This one uses 2 tangents and a radius to draw the circle.

Tan Tan Tan

The tan tan tan uses 3 tangents to draw the circle.

We have just covered all the methods you can use when you want to create a circle in
AutoCAD. Some of these methods might not make sense to you at the moment, but it
is always good to know what the possibilities are, just in case they might come in
handy sometime in the future.

3.4 COPY and MOVE Command - Create a copy of or move an object

Moving and copying are frequently needed action when you work on a CAD project.

It is time to learn how to Move and Copy objects in AutoCAD. Two simple commands,
yet very important.

It is time to learn how to Move and Copy objects in AutoCAD. Two simple commands,
yet very important.

Move an object in AutoCAD

The MOVE command will help change the location of an object in the drawing area.
To use the MOVE command

1. Select the object to move (or objects to move)

2. Click on the icon shown on the image above

3.

4. Move and drop

Notice that when Moving an object, you can activate the ORTHO mode and use the
command area to enter the exact distance you want to move the object with. The
ORTHO mode will ensure you are moving in a straight line.

Example

Step 1

Activate the ORTHO mode to constrains the cursor movement orthogonally

Step 2
Select circles

Step 3

Click on the MOVE icon

Step 4

Select the base point

Step 5

Move your cursor to the right, leave the mouse in that position and Enter 55 and Hit
Enter

Final figure
Copy an object in AutoCAD

The COPY command works similarly to the Move command with the only difference
that it leaves a copy of the original object in its position.

It works as it would in other windows application, and feel free to use the Ctrl+C and
Ctrl+V to copy and paste objects in AutoCAD.

To copy Objects in AutoCAD you need to select them first, and you can as well use
the technique we used above to place the copy at a certain distance and angle from
the original item.

3.5 MIRROR AND ROTATE COMMAND

Here come MIRROR and ROTATE command, two important commands in AutoCAD.
These commands will be a lot useful to you and will constantly help you get stuff done
the right way.

MIRROR
This command will help create a mirrored copy of a selected object.

On the example below I have used the vertical line to illustrate the mirror line.

To use the MIRROR command in AutoCAD

1. Select objects

2. Click on the MIRROR icon

3. Specify the first point of the mirror line

4. Specify the second point of the mirror line

5. Hit Enter

The first point and second point of the mirror line can be the bottom end and the lower
end of the line or Vice Versa.

ROTATE an object in AutoCAD

The ROTATE command will simply help rotate an object.

On the image above you can see how the trapezoidal object has been rotated 120
degrees.

To rotate an object in AutoCAD

1. Select the object to rotate

2. Click on the ROTATE icon

3. Specify the base point

4. Specify the rotation angle (positive angle for anticlockwise rotation and negative
angle for clockwise rotation) and Hit Enter

3.6 ERASE - Delete an object

Erase is the command that allows you to erase objects in AutoCAD. But this command
erases the whole object, not part of it.

To Erase an object in AutoCAD

1. Select the object to erase

2. Click on the ERASE icon (shown on the image above)

An alternative way to use this command is the following

1. Select the object to erase

2. Hit the DEL key of your keyboard

EXERCISES:

In these exercises, you will need a computer with AutoCAD to perform it. Follow
each command given so you can create each object.

The Line Command

Absolute Value Entries

Command: LlNE or L
Specify first point: 0,0
Specify next point or [Undo]: 10,0

Relative Value Entries

Command: LINE or L
Specify first point:2,3
Specify next point or [Undo] :@4,0

To enter an incremental or relative value, type the @ symbol (Shift-2) before the
number. @ means 'from the last point.'

Polar Values Entries

Command: LINE
Specify first point: 3,4
Specify next point or [Undo] :@4<45
TRY THIS!!!!

Exercise 1:

Exercise 2:

The Circle Command

Command: CIRCLE or C
Specify center point for circle or [3P/2P/Ttr (tan tan radius)]: (pick a point or type 0,0)
Specify radius of circle or [Diameter}<l'-
value, for example 4)

Where:

3P = a circle fitted through three points

2P = a circle fitted through two points

Ttr = a circle that is tangent on its diameter to two selected objects indicated with a
specified radius

The ARC Command

Command: ARC or A

Three points
Specify start point of arc or [Center]: (pick point - 1)
Specify second point of arc or [Center/End]: (pick point - 2)
Specify end point of arc: (pick a third point - 3)

Start End Radius

Specify start point of arc or [Center] : (pick 1)
Specify second point of arc or [Center/End]: E
Specify end point of arc: (pick 2)
Specify center point of arc or [Angle/Direction/Radius] :R
Specify radius of arc <0.00>: (pick 3)
REFLECTIONS AND LEARNINGS:

Reflect on ideas and knowledge you have learn from our lesson. In your
notebook, write at least 5 sentences of what you have learned.

ASSESSMENT:

Using all the commands you have learned, try these following objects.

1.

2.
 3.

4.