The Hitchhiker's Guide to AutoCAD Basics

Welcome to The Hitchhiker’s Guide to AutoCAD Basics—your guide to the basic 42 commands you need to create 2D drawings using AutoCAD or AutoCAD LT.

This guide is a great place to get started if you just completed your initial training, or to refresh your memory if you use AutoCAD only occasionally. The 42 commands are grouped together according to types of activity, and are arranged to follow a general workflow.

Basics Viewing Geometry Precision Layers Properties Modifying Blocks Layouts Notes and Labels Dimensions Printing

After you finish this guide, you can access the linked Help commands in each topic for more information, or you can return to the guide later to review specific topics. Also, try to find someone who will be able to answer your occasional questions. The product discussion groups (http://forums.autodesk.com/) and Autodesk blogs are good resources.

  1. Basics
    Review the basic AutoCAD controls.
  2. Viewing
    Pan and zoom in a drawing, and control the order of overlapping objects.
  3. Geometry
    Create basic geometric objects such as lines, circles, and hatched areas.
  4. Precision
    Ensure the precision required for your models.
  5. Layers
    Organize your drawing by assigning objects to layers.
  6. Properties
    You can assign properties such as color and linetype to individual objects, or as default properties assigned to layers.
  7. Modifying
    Perform editing operations such as erase, move, and trim on the objects in a drawing.
  8. Blocks
    Insert symbols and details into your drawings from commercial online sources or from your own designs.
  9. Layouts
    Display one or more scaled views of your design on a standard-size drawing sheet called a layout.
  10. Notes and Labels
    Create notes, labels, bubbles, and callouts. Save and restore style settings by name.
  11. Dimensions
    Create several types of dimensions and save dimension settings by name.
  12. Printing
    Output a drawing layout to a printer, a plotter, or a file. Save and restore the printer settings for each layout.