AutoCAD for intermediate users

Turn geometry into a professional drawing: layers and properties, object snaps, dimensions, text, blocks, hatching, external references, templates, layouts and plotting.

12 lessons · about 3.6 hours · free

Organising and annotating drawings

1. 1. Layers: organising a drawing

   Layers are how a CAD drawing stays organised: every wall, door, dimension and piece of furniture belongs to a layer that controls how it looks, whether it shows, and whether it prints.

   • • Create and name layers to a consistent standard
   • • Set layer colour, linetype and lineweight
   • • Know the difference between off, freeze and lock

   20 min

2. 2. Object properties and Match Properties

   Every object has properties — layer, colour, linetype, lineweight, size. Learn to read and change them, copy them between objects, and select objects by property.

   • • Edit object properties in the Properties palette
   • • Fix linetypes that show as continuous
   • • Copy properties with MATCHPROP

   15 min

3. 3. Object snaps and tracking

   Object snaps lock the cursor onto exact points of existing objects — ends, middles, centres, intersections. They are the single most important habit for accurate drafting.

   • • Turn on the right running object snaps
   • • Use one-off snaps and the From option
   • • Find points with object snap tracking

   18 min

4. 4. Dimensions and dimension styles

   Dimensions tell the builder exactly how big things are. Learn how dimensions are built, how to place them quickly, and how to set up a dimension style that prints correctly at any scale.

   • • Name the parts of a dimension
   • • Place linear, aligned, angular, radial, continued and baseline dimensions
   • • Create a dimension style for architectural drawings

   22 min

5. 5. Text and text styles

   Drawings carry a lot of words — room names, notes, specifications. Learn the two text commands, how text styles keep everything consistent, and what height text should be.

   • • Choose between MTEXT and single-line TEXT
   • • Create and use text styles
   • • Pick correct text heights for printed sheets

   15 min

6. 6. Annotation scale and leaders

   Annotation is everything that explains the geometry. Annotative scaling makes text, dimensions and symbols print at the right size at any scale, and multileaders point notes at what they describe.

   • • Understand annotative objects and annotation scale
   • • Show one annotation at more than one scale
   • • Create a multileader style and add leader notes

   18 min

7. 7. Blocks: reusable symbols

   A block is a named group of objects you draw once and place many times — doors, windows, furniture, symbols, title blocks. Edit the definition and every copy updates.

   • • Create blocks with sensible insertion points
   • • Insert, rotate and scale blocks
   • • Edit blocks with BEDIT and redefine them

   22 min

8. 8. Hatching and fills

   Hatches fill areas with patterns to show materials — concrete, insulation, brick — or to highlight zones. Learn to create clean, associative hatches at the right scale.

   • • Create hatches by picking points and by selecting objects
   • • Set pattern, scale and angle
   • • Understand islands and associativity

   15 min

9. 9. External references (xrefs)

   External references link other drawings into yours without copying them. Teams use them so everyone works from the same up-to-date base plans, survey and grids.

   • • Attach DWG files as external references
   • • Choose between attach and overlay
   • • Reload, unload, clip and fade xrefs

   18 min

10. 10. Drawing templates

    A template is a blank drawing with all your settings ready — units, layers, styles and sheets. Build one once and every new drawing starts consistent.

    • • Decide what belongs in a template
    • • Save a DWT and set it as the default
    • • Import standards from existing drawings

    15 min

11. 11. Layouts and viewports

    Layouts are the sheets you print. You arrange scaled windows — viewports — onto a sheet with a title block. This is where a full-size drawing becomes a 1:100 plan.

    • • Explain model space and paper space
    • • Create a layout with a title block
    • • Create viewports and set exact scales

    20 min

12. 12. Plotting and printing to PDF

    Plotting turns layouts into paper or PDF. With a good page setup and plot style, every sheet comes out at the right scale with crisp, correctly weighted lines.

    • • Plot a layout to PDF at 1:1
    • • Understand plot style tables (CTB and STB)
    • • Save and reuse page setups

    18 min