CAD DRAWING – PART II

Learning Objectives:

After completing this lesson, you will be able to:

1. Organize drawings with layers with LAYER command.
2. Create texts and tables using TEXT and TABLE commands.
3. Hatch drawings using HATCH command.
4. Insert and create blocks using BLOCK command.

Organizing Drawing with Layers

Layers
Organize your drawing by assigning objects to layers.

When a drawing becomes visually complex, you can hide the objects that you currently do not
need to see.

In the drawing below, the doors and electrical wiring were temporarily hidden by turning off their
layers.
You gain this level of control by organizing the objects in your drawing on layers that are
associated with a specific function or a purpose. It might be helpful to think of layers as clear
plastic sheets:

With layers, you can

¾ Associate objects by their function or location
¾ Display or hide all related objects in a single operation
¾ Enforce linetype, color, and other property standards for each layer

Important: Resist the temptation to create everything on one layer. Layers are the most important
organizing feature available in AutoCAD drawings.

Layer Controls

To see how a drawing is organized, use the LAYER command to open the Layer Properties
Manager. You can either enter LAYER or LA in the Command window, or you can click the
Layer Properties tool on the ribbon.
Here's what the Layer Properties Manager displays in this drawing.

As you can see in the illustration, layer 10 WALLS is the current layer. All new objects are
automatically placed on that layer. In the list of layers, the green check next to layer 10 WALLS
confirms that it is the current layer.

In the column labeled On, notice that the light bulb icons for two layers are dark. These layers
were turned off to hide the doors and electrical wiring in the floor plan.

Notice that each layer name starts with a two-digit number. This convention makes it easy to
control the order of the layers because their order does not depend on the alphabet.

Tip: For complex drawings, you might want to consider a more elaborate layer naming standard.
For example, layer names could begin with 3 digits followed by a naming code that accommodates
multiple floors in a building, project numbers, sets of survey and property data, and so on.

Practical Recommendations
¾ Layer 0 is the default layer that exists in all drawings and has some esoteric properties.
Instead of using this layer, it's best to create your own layers with meaningful names.
¾ Any drawing that contains at least one dimension object automatically includes a reserved
layer named Defpoints.
¾ Create a layer for behind-the-scenes construction geometry, reference geometry, and notes
that you usually do not need to see or print.
 ¾ Create a layer for layout viewports. Information about layout viewports is covered in the
Layouts topic.
¾ Create a layer for all hatches and fills. This lets you to turn them all on or off in one action.

Layer Settings
The following are the most commonly used layer settings in the Layer Properties Manager. You
click the icon to turn the setting on and off.
¾ Turn off layers. You turn off layers to reduce the visual complexity of your drawing while
you work.

¾ Freeze layers. You freeze layers that you do not need to access for a while. Freezing layers
is similar to turning them off, but improves performance in very large drawings.

¾ Lock layers. You lock layers when you want to prevent accidental changes to the objects
on those layers. Also, the objects on locked layers appear faded, which helps reduce the
visual complexity of your drawing, but still lets you see the objects faintly.

¾ Set default properties. You set the default properties for each layer, including color,
linetype, lineweight, and transparency. New objects that you create will use these
properties unless you override them. Overriding layer properties is explained later in this
topic.

Controls in the Layer Properties Manager

To create a new layer, click the button shown and enter the name of the new layer. To make a
different layer the current one, click the layer and then click the indicated button.

Quick Access to Layer Settings

The Layer Properties Manager takes up a lot of space, and you don't always need to access all the
options. For quick access to the most common layer controls, use the controls on the ribbon. When
no objects are selected, the Layers panel on the Home tab displays the name of the current layer
as shown here.
Occasionally, check to make sure that the objects you create will be on the correct layer. It's easy
to forget to do this, but it's also easy to set. Click the drop-down arrow to display a list of layers,
and then click a layer on the list to make it the current layer. You can also click on any icon in the
list to change its setting.

Maintain Your Standards

It's critically important either to establish or to conform to a company-wide layer standard. With a
layer standard, drawing organization will be more logical, consistent, compatible, and
maintainable over time and across departments. Layer standards are essential for team projects.
If you create a standard set of layers and save them in a drawing template file, those layers will be
available when you start a new drawing, and you can start working immediately. Additional
information about drawing template files is presented in the Basics topic.
Summary
Layers organize your drawing, enabling you to temporarily suppress the display of unneeded
graphical data. You can also assign default properties such as color and linetype to each layer.

Note: Some experienced AutoCAD users set properties only with layers, while others set
properties independently of layers or in combination with layers. Assigning properties to objects
is covered in the Properties topic.

Reference: AutoCAD User’s Guide: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to AutoCAD/Layers

http://help.autodesk.com/view/ACD/2020/ENU/?guid=GUID-FA005756-B8F5-4A78-988F-
31335A68D77C

Learning Video: Using Layers to Organize Drawings

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNGkSOczABI
HOW TO USE LAYERS
First you select the layer and then you draw the objects.
Always select the layer first and then draw the objects.
It is good “drawing management” to draw related objects on the same layer.
For example, in an architectural drawing, you would select layer “walls” and then draw the floor
plan.
Then you would select the layer “Electrical” and draw the electrical objects.
Then you would select the layer “Plumbing” and draw the plumbing objects.
Each layer can then be controlled independently.
If a layer is Frozen, it is not visible. When you Thaw the layer it becomes visible again.

HOW TO SELECT A LAYER

1. Go to Ribbon = Home tab / Layers panel

2. Select the drop down arrow

3. Highlight the desired layer and press the left mouse button.

The selected layer becomes the “Current” layer. All objects will be located on this layer
until you select a different layer.

HOW TO CONTROL LAYERS

The following controls can be accessed using the Layer drop down arrow .
ON or OFF
If a layer is ON it is visible. If a layer is OFF it is not visible.
Only layers that are ON can be edited or plotted.

FREEZE or THAW
Freeze and Thaw are very similar to On and Off. A Frozen layer is not visible and a Thawed
layer is visible. Only thawed layers can be edited or plotted.

Additionally:
a. Objects on a Frozen layer cannot be accidentally erased
b. When working with large and complex drawings, freezing saves time because frozen layers are
not regenerated when you zoom in and out.

HOW TO LOCK OR UNLOCK LAYERS

Locked layers are visible but cannot be edited.

They are visible so they will be plotted.

To access the following options you must use the Layer Properties Manager.
You may also access the options listed on the previous page within this dialog box.
To open the Layer Properties Manager use one of the following.

Ribbon = Home tab / Layers panel /

or
Keyboard = LA <enter>

HOW TO DELETE AN EXISTING LAYER

1. Highlight the layer name to be deleted.

2. Select the Delete Layer tool.
Or
1. Highlight the layer name to be deleted.
2. Right click and select Delete Layer

Creating Text and Tables

The text you add to your drawing conveys various information. It may be a complex specification,
title block information, or a label.

Single-Line Text
For short, simple entries use single-line text. Each text line is an independent object that you can
relocate, reformat, or otherwise modify.
Multiline Text
For longer entries, or text that requires special formatting, use multiline text. Multiline text
supports:
 ¾ Text wrapping
¾ Formatting individual characters, words, or phrases within a paragraph
¾ Columns
¾ Stacked text
¾ Bullet and numbered lists
¾ Tabs and indents

Note: Text that is included in a dimension or tolerance is created using the dimensioning
commands. You can also create multiline text with leaders.

Text Styles
The text style sets the font, size, oblique angle, orientation, and other text characteristics. When
you insert a text object it uses the current text style.
The Standard text style exists by default in all drawings. You can create and modify text styles as
needed. Once you create a standard set of text styles, you can save the drawing as a template file
(.dwt) that you can use when you start a new drawing.

Rotated Views
Leader landings, components of dimensions, and text objects determine their horizontal and
vertical directions from the UCS axes at the time when they are created. If a view in a drawing is
rotated, you can first use the UCS /View option to set the horizontal and vertical directions relative
to the drawing rather than the rotated view.

HOW TO CREATE TEXT

Create Multiline Text
For longer notes and labels with internal formatting, use multiline text.
1. Click Home tab > Annotation panel > Multiline Text. Find

2. Specify opposite corners of a bounding box to define the width of the multiline text object.
If the ribbon is active, the Text Editor contextual tab displays.

If the ribbon is not active, the Text Formatting toolbar displays.

 Note: The MTEXTTOOLBAR system variable controls the display of the Text Formatting
toolbar.

3. Specify the initial formatting.

¾ To indent the first line of each paragraph, drag the first-line indent slider on the ruler.
To indent the other lines of each paragraph, drag the hanging indent slider.
¾ To set tabs, click the ruler where you want a tab stop.
¾ To change the current text style, select the desired text style from the drop-down list.

4. Enter the text.

Note: While typing, the text may be displayed horizontally and at a legible size.

5. To change individual characters, words, or paragraphs, highlight the text and specify the
formatting changes.
Note: SHX fonts do not support boldface or italics.

6. To save your changes and exit the editor, use one of the following methods:
¾ On the Text Editor ribbon contextual tab, in the Close panel, click Close Text Editor.
¾ Click OK on the Text Formatting toolbar.
¾ Click in the drawing outside the editor.
¾ Press Ctrl+Enter.
Note: Press Esc to exit the editor without saving your changes.

Create Single-line Text

For short, simple notes and labels, use single-line text.

1. Click Home tab > Annotation panel > Single Line Text. Find

2. Specify the insertion point.

If you press ENTER, the program inserts the new text immediately below the last text
object you created, if any.
3. Enter a height or click to specify the height of the text.
Note: If a specific text height is set in the current text style, this prompt is skipped.

4. Enter an angle value or click to specify the rotation angle.

5. Enter the text.

Note: While typing, the text may be displayed horizontally and at a legible size.

6. To create another single-line text, do one of the following:

¾ Press ENTER to start another line of text immediately below.
¾ Click a location for the next text object.

7. Press ENTER on a blank line to end the command.

Tables
A table is a compound object that contains information arranged in rows and columns. Similar to
most spreadsheet applications, the rows and columns can be adjusted with grips, and styles can be
assigned to the table and to selected cells.
The illustration below shows the grips on a table and a selected cell.

Drawings often include tabular information such as a variety of schedules, parts lists, bills of
materials, and price lists. The information itself might be text, graphical blocks, and several types
of numeric data. Cells that contain data might be computationally related to other cells or to
external information such as a spreadsheet or other extracted data.
Creating tables manually from lines and text can be tedious and modifying them can be time-
consuming, but you can easily create a table object simply by specifying the rows and columns
from the Table command. You can also create a table object in AutoCAD by referencing a
Microsoft Excel spreadsheet.

Table and Cell Styles

Use table styles to store the default settings and definitions for the table and its cells. The settings
are similar to what you see in a spreadsheet application. Several cell styles can be saved in a table
style. Each cell style stores settings such as text style, height, color, background fill, and cell
borders. You can create your own cell styles that you can save in your own table styles. You can
also import table styles from other drawings using Autodesk DesignCenter.

Data Links
A data link is information included within an AutoCAD drawing file that establishes a connection
to an external source of information, specifically a Microsoft Excel file or a data extraction (.dxe)
file.

Cells in a table object can be linked to data in specified cells of a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet.
You can choose whether the link is only in one direction or bidirectional, and where the
computations are done.

Reference:
https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/autocad/learn-
explore/caas/CloudHelp/cloudhelp/2019/ENU/AutoCAD-Core/files/GUID-831E41E7-04EB-
44DE-BEC8-F6A3A992DA61-htm.html

Learning Video: Creating Table

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnxTsixEfhA

HOW TO CREATE TABLES

With this method, you use the Table command to specify the number of rows and columns, stretch
and resize the columns, rows, or the entire table. If you use layout tabs for annotation, create your
table directly on a layout tab. The scaling is automatic. If you use model space for annotation, you
will need to scale the table. Tables do not support annotative scaling.

1. Enter TABLE at the Command prompt.

2. In the Insert Table dialog box, enter 4 columns and 3 data rows. Specify a location for the
table.
 By default, there are three styles of cells that appear when you use the Standard table style:

3. Click outside the table, and then select it on an edge to display its grips

4. To change the size and shape of the table, click the dark blue triangular grips. You can
click the square grips to adjust the width of the columns. You can also use object snap
tracking to align the grips to existing geometry.

Tip: To adjust the width of the columns, it's often best to turn off object snaps [F3] first.

At this point, you could explode the table to convert it into simple lines. This is not a best
practice, but is still much faster than creating the lines from scratch. Instead, let's take this
table further.

Adding Information to a Table

1. Click into each cell and enter the text as shown.
2. Next, click and drag to select all nine data cells, and choose Bottom-Right from the
Alignment button on the ribbon.

3. In the same way, click and drag to select the three cells under Price/Unit. Right-click,
choose Data Format, and then choose Currency.

4. Do the same for the data cells under the Quantity and Price headers. For the cells under
Quantity, choose Whole Number, and for the cells under Price, choose Currency again.
 The term, headers, is used in Excel rather than headings, so we will continue this standard.

5. Enter the values in each cell as shown below.

If you assigned the data format as Currency, the $ symbol will appear automatically. The
$0.00 entries are needed as placeholders for the format. If the values for the currency
columns don't display the $ symbol, right click and then choose Data Format to change the
cell data format to Currency.

6. In the first cell under Price (D3), enter =B3*C3. The cells are automatically multiplied

7. Similarly, in cell D4, enter =B4*C4.

8. Next, in cell D5 enter =SUM(D3:D4).

The colon between D3 and D4 indicates a range of cells between D3 and D4 inclusive.

9. Finally, for some color, click within the Title cell, right-click, and click Background Fill.
Choose a background color for the title of the table.

HATCH Command
1. Select the HATCH tool above or input H.

2. Select the boundaries of the hatch. Use the tools highlighted below for the options on choosing
the boundaries. The default setting is Pick Points where the internal points of the boundaries
 are chosen. Select option lets you select the boundaries such as edges. Remove deselects the
chosen boundaries.

3. Choose the desired pattern from the predefined set.

4. Other hatch options are also available such as Gradient and Solid.
5. For patterns, it is important to choose the scale of the hatch for better visualization.

6. Confirm when the desired pattern and scale are selected.

Working with Blocks

In AutoCAD, a block is a collection of objects that are combined into a single named object.

These blocks can vary from different drawings such as symbols, realistic representation or a title
block.

Upon clicking the insert block, a window will popup where you need to browse the block or
drawing file.
When inserting a block, the block will be at your cursor. This is called the insertion point. By
default, this is the origin point (0,0) of the block. The block can be moved or rotated by the grip
shown below.

Creating a Block Definition

Note: This block definition would be limited to the current drawing.

1. Name the block appropriately.
2. Select the objects to be made into a block.
3. Specify the insertion point of the block.

This is useful for parts of the drawing that need to be repeated or copied for the entire drawing.
Example: chairs for a house drawing. Note: blocks can be exploded if changes are to be made.

Reference: AutoCAD User’s Guide

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/autocad/getting-
started/caas/CloudHelp/cloudhelp/2015/ENU/AutoCAD-Core/files/GUID-2DA2ADA1-C8CC-
4E61-9598-06580FFD3544-htm.html