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Autodesk AutoCAD 2010: Basic 2D Concepts Tutorials
Converting to a Drawing Template (DWT) / DWG File Management
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Subtitles of the Movie (Autodesk AutoCAD 2010: Basic 2D Concepts / Converting to a Drawing Template (DWT) / DWG File Management)
OK. I've got AutoCAD open, but I haven't got any drawings open right now. The reason for that is I'm going to open up a new drawing, a new project drawing in this case, from the Template that we've just created. So, I got to the Quick Access Toolbar here, I click on the New Icon, and that will bring up the Create New Drawing dialog box. Now, I've got that Startup Dialog Box set up so that every time I click on New it comes up on the screen, and that's using what they call the Startup System Variable in AutoCAD. Now, instead of using the default Start from Scratch option, where I select either Imperial, or Metric, I'm going to this Icon here: Use a Template. Now because we've already created an A3 ISO Drawing Template here, I can select it now and when I click on OK that will open up a brand new drawing now, you'll notice Drawing4 up here, .dwg, I'll just pan that slightly so the Title Block fits the screen, and you'll see that I've got a blank drawing ready to go. Now in our Template, what I did leave behind was the building line in the Modelspace. That was purely Ð so there it is in the Modelspace Ð so that we've got these here. So you can see I've deliberately left that object in the Model tab there so that we've got something in the Viewport as a point of reference. Now, I'm not going to work on this drawing. What I'm going to do is I'm going to start looking towards File Management. So what I would need to do now is, I need to do a Save As. I'm not going to do a Save because that will save the file as Drawing4.dwg, here. I go to the Application Menu here, I click on the down arrow and I go to Save As, like so. Now I've already saved a drawing in this particular Project Drawings file. Now, this file, or as Windows calls them, Folders, is where you're going to start utilizing your File Management skills, and it's a very simple skill to have. Basically, be organized, be methodical. So, I've already got Drawing001 in there, so what I need to do is I need to save that drawing as the next drawing in the sequence, so I would save this drawing, for example, as 002 in the box there. I would make sure that the File of type is correct; in this case it's a 2007 dwg, and then what I would do is I would click on Save. That then saves that drawing as that filename, so notice now I've got: C Documents Ð that's the file path Ð but you can see the 002.dwg. Now, if I just do a Quick Save, by hitting this Icon here on the Quick Access Toolbar that will save back, but notice the AutoCAD Title Bar just shows the filename now because it knows where it is. Now, this is great because I can see the drawing name now, and I'm working with my File Management. I now know that I'm in the second drawing of my group of project drawings. Now wouldn't it be lovely, though, instead of having to go and find these drawings on a server, on a computer, on a portable hard drive, buried in a whole big pile of Windows Folders somewhere, wouldn't it be nice if you could just set it up so that AutoCAD looks in that folder every time? Well, it can be done. It's very easy. I'm going to go here to Open now on the Quick Access Toolbar. I click on Open and as you can see there I'm in my Project Drawings Folder and there are my two drawings. I'm going to go up one level here. So, see this little Icon here? Up one level? I click there, and that takes me up a level. There is my Project Drawings Folder. You can see the other drawings here that are being worked with on the AutoCAD 2010 Basic 2D Concepts Course. But what I'm going to do now is move this Project Drawings Folder path into here, and this is where I can basically put any Folder, any Web Site, any FTP Site that I may need to work with this project. So what I do is I left-click here on Project Drawings and I drag over here. See the little Plus sign? I release the mouse button and there's my Project Drawings Folder. Now, what I really love about this is when I click on that now, watch what happens. It takes me straight to my Project Drawings Folder. It remembers the path. So it doesn't matter now, no matter when I open up AutoCAD or open up a drawing now, what will happen is it will take me to that Project Drawings Folder. So watch. If I now Cancel that, cancel that Open Command; would I like to save the changes I've made to the Places List? Yes, please. Because that remembers my Project Drawings Folder. I close the 002 drawing like so, and what I do now is when I go to open here on the Quick Access Toolbar, I click here now, it's already there anyway because it was the default from when we did it last, but if I click there now you'll see that goes straight to my Project Drawings Folder. If I click now on Datasets, which is a different location, you'll see there that there's nothing there at the moment; it can't find anything. But if I go back here, that one works. The reason there's a White Folder there is because that one, obviously, the files have been removed from that Folder. So, as you can see there: File Management. Utilize the tools in AutoCAD but also just be organized and methodical with your drawing naming conventions and where you store your drawings.
Tutorial Information
| Course: | Autodesk AutoCAD 2010: Basic 2D Concepts |
| Author: | Shaun Bryant |
| SKU: | 34013 |
| ISBN: | 1-935320-56-4 |
| Release Date: | 2009-07-03 |
| Duration: | 7.5 hrs / 107 lessons |
| Work Files: |
Yes |
| Captions: | No |
| Compatibility: |
Vista/XP/2000, OS X, Linux QuickTime 7, Flash 8 |
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