AutoCAD LT-One Step at a Time with Cdrom
Authors: Timothy Sean Sykes
Venue:  (2000)

From the Book:PREFACE: Preface Why I Wrote This Book Some years ago I took my first AutoCAD course. I had been drafting for almost ten years at the time, but I saw that the drawing board would eventually give way to the computer. So I dug deep into the shallow recesses of a draftsman's wallet and came up with the $300 I needed to take the course. A year or so later, still on the board, I was designing piping systems for one of the big petrochemical companies in Houston. There was one computer on the job, but nobody knew how to use it. I dedicated my lunches and evenings to exploring that old 286often messing it up badly and having to call the computer support folks to come fix it. After a few months of this, my immediate supervisor was transferred to an AutoCAD project. He was lost in the computer world, and I was the only one he knew who could turn one on. So he asked for me to follow him. I was excited by the prospect-until I learned that I was to be in charge of five CAD stations on the new project! Then I was a bit nervous (okay, terrified). I did what any closet teacher would doI went right out and bought a book! For the next several weeks, I managed to stay exactly 12 hours ahead of the rest of my crew. That is, (it seemed miraculous) what I read one evening was what I was asked about the next day! So my reputation as a guru was established. Later, the questions became more difficult, and I had to buy another book (AutoLISP). But, by the grace of God, I am still staying 12 hours ahead of my students. So, why am I a guru? Simply because I was the guy who bought (and read) a book. Why this book?Myhope in writing this book has been to create something that is friendly rather than egghead academic. My intent is to teach my students (and readers) how to make a living using AutoCADessentially to answer the questions that I faced that first year as a guru and in the years since as an instructor. I will not cover every nook and cranny of this marvelous tool; as I said, I have designed it to help you make a living, not as an encyclopedia. Follow the book carefully and you can function as a CAD operator anywhere. Who Should Use This Book I have written this book for draftsmen who know the basics of computer operation. Simply put, this means that I make no attempt to teach drafting here. But you should remember that AutoCAD is a drafting tool! Therefore, you should have some education or background in drafting, or at least in reading blueprints, before attempting to learn AutoCAD. For more on the basics of drafting, I highly recommend Frederick E. Giesecke's Technical Drafting (Prentice Hall). Now in its eleventh edition, it has been the basic drafting text of choice at least since I studied the subject more than 20 years ago. Likewise, I do not attempt to instruct the user on how to use Windows or any other computer operating system. However, you should be familiar with a computer and its operating system before attempting to master any complex software like AutoCAD. If you are not comfortable with Windows, please precede your AutoCAD attempts with an appropriate computer ops course. If there are no courses available or convenient, I suggest picking up a copy of Microsoft's Windows 95 98 or 2000 Step by Step. All of Microsoft's Step by Step books are remarkably good course materialsimple to follow and easy to understand. People have asked me lately who my target audience is. I find the question a bit confusing since the training is the same regardless of whom is being trained. I have designed this text to stand alone or as classroom guide. Therefore, anyone can use itfrom high school students through college or professional development instructors. How to Use This Book Each lesson follows that old saw I learned back in "teacher school": Tell 'em what you're gonna tell 'em; tell 'em; tell 'em what you told 'em. So we begin each lesson with a set of goals stated simply as Following this lesson, you will: This page gives you some idea of what you will cover in the lesson. Next, we cover the material. This occurs in three steps. First we discuss a topic-generally a command or procedure. This discussion includes the purpose of the command or procedure and a sample and explanation of either the command sequence or the dialog box. Refer to this section to answer questions concerning what a command or option does. Second we have a guided exercise called Do This: These exercises act as an instructor telling you what to do one step at a time. The exercises are generally divided into three columns. The Steps column tells you what to do. The Command Sequence column shows you what to do. The Tools column generally gives you a button or drop-down box option to the keyboard approach shown in the Command Sequence column. Refer to this section to answer questions concerning how to do something. Last we have an independent project (or several). This occurs in the Exercises section at the end of each lesson. Here you find a project that you must do on your own. Setup information will be provided, but you must refer to previous lessons as needed to complete the project independently. Throughout the lesson, you will find colored inserts that provide additional information or tricks to help in your understanding of the topic. After covering the material, there is an Extra Steps section in each lesson. These are full of added features, tidbits of knowledge, or suggestions for further study. The tell 'em what you told 'em part (found in the What Have We Learned? section) does just that. In this section, I also try to give you some idea of what will come next. I finish each lesson with some review questions to reinforce what we have covered. Because of the number of graphics involved in all of the AutoCAD 2000: One Step at a Time books, tracking them became quite a challenge. Here is what I did. Each graphic begins with the word Fig. to identify it as a graphic. bears the number of the section or exercise in which it resides (i.e., 14.2.1). Graphics in a stepped exercise are identified by the number of the step with which they are associated. may contain a letter after the numbering (a, b, c, etc.) if there are more than one of them-this helps identify each graphic associated with a specific step. Graphics not in a stepped exercise conclude with a letter to track them within a particular section of the book. Style Notes I have followed several conventions in creating this text. Understanding them will make it easier to follow: Throughout the text: I use italics for emphasis and to indicate the names of files I use bold to indicate AutoCAD prompts, buttons and names of buttons, system variables, and dialog box tabs I use bold and italics to indicate AutoCAD command names, hotkeys, and user input I CAPITALIZE names of dialog boxes and pull-down menus I use bullets and graduated indention to organize explanations of command options Art I wrote this text to be the most visual book on the market. Whenever possible, I tried to illustrate how to create drawings through generous use of detailed screen shots, and actual drawings. In teaching, I have found that my students really appreciate a visual approach to learning. This text contains over 1800 graphics! Supplements Each book comes with its own free CD-ROM that contains multimedia tutorials and drawing files. Students or users may utilize this CD-ROM on single machines, or instructors are free to install it on a network. We are also supporting the text with the Sykes website... The ACM Portal is published by the Association for Computing Machinery. Copyright © 2010 ACM, Inc. Terms of Usage Privacy Policy Code of Ethics Contact Us Useful downloads: Adobe Acrobat QuickTime Windows Media Player Real Player