AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT Essentials is a unique learning resource that features concise, straightforward explanations and real-world, hands-on exercises and tutorials to teach new users the software's core features and functions. Each chapter opens with a quick discussion of concepts and learning goals and then briskly moves into an approachable hands-on exercise that readers can follow to gain confidence using the software. Each chapter features compelling full-color screenshots to illustrate tutorial steps, and chapters conclude with a related and more open-ended project to further reinforce the chapter's lessons. Readers can download starting and ending files for the exercises and additional learning tutorials so that they can start anywhere in the book and compare their results with the pro's. Based on reader and instructor feedback, this edition includes more manufacturing and landscape examples.
AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT Essentials first introduces users to the software's interface and foundational concepts. Following a workflow-based approach that mirrors how projects progress in the real world, the book then guides readers through basic 2D drawing skills, editing entities, working with splines and polylines, using layers and objects, organizing objects with groups and blocks, using hatch patterns and gradients, working with blocks and cross-references, creating and editing text, dimensioning, using constraints and layouts, printing, editing and importing data, modeling in 3D, and presenting the design. Based on the very real-world task of designing a house, the hands-on exercises in AutoCAD Essentials will get all users up to speed on the program's core functionality so they can quickly become productive with the software. The full-color book also features dataset downloads so readers can jump in anywhere as well as compare their work to the pro's, and there is content to help users prepare for Autodesk's growing AutoCAD certification program. New pedagogical elements include a stronger emphasis on skills rather than tools, starting and ending files for every single exercise, and more clearly defined exercises that better separate the step-by-step instructions from the "why" discussion.
