by Renu Muthoo
I am excited to tell you about the AutoCAD®/ AutoCAD LT® 2016 Fundamentals training guide that is now available from ASCENT. This year we focused on making the content more precise and effective while incorporating all of the changes in the 2016 version of the AutoCAD software.
Some of this year’s changes include:
- The new Start tab is always available in the File Tabs bar and enables you to open the initial Start screen anytime while working in a drawing. This ensures that you always have access to the online training resources, help and what’s new videos, tip of the day, and that you can start a new drawing or open existing drawings. This change is reflected throughout the guide.
- A preview of the selected objects that are to be erased, rotated, or stretched is provided to easily see the effect of the related commands. For erase, the selected objects fade to gray. Similarly, for the Rotate and Stretch commands, the selected original objects fade to gray while the new objects maintain their original properties. The content in Chapter 1 and Chapter 5 of the training guide has been updated to reflect these changes.
- In Chapter 4: Drawing Precision in AutoCAD, a new polyline center object snap tool has been included. This Osnap tool now locates the geometric center (centroid) of a closed polyline of any shape. If the closed polyline contains an arc, the center of the arc can also be located separately from the centroid.
- If a drawing has an overflow menu indicating more hidden layouts, you can still reposition a layout tab to any location even if it is a hidden tab. You can drag a layout tab either to the right or left, which automatically scrolls to show the hidden layouts and then drop the selected layout at the required position.
- In AutoCAD 2016, a smart Dimension command has been provided to add different kinds of dimensions using a single DIM command. The DIM command automatically determines the type of dimension to add based on the object or point selected. You can also use a single DIM command to add various dimensions (linear, aligned, radial, angular etc.) continuously instead of exiting a specific command and then starting a new relevant command. The content and practices of Chapter 19: Adding Dimensions have been updated to incorporate the dimensioning changes.
- In Chapter 11: External References of Part 2 Student Guide, new changes in xref layers have been added. In the Layer Control list, the Xref layers are now shown in gray text. This enables you to clearly distinguish between the layers that reside in the active drawing and the layers that come from referenced drawings. Additionally, you can change the visibility of xref layers through the Layer Control list only.
These changes (along with many others) will ensure that your teaching/learning experience using this training guide is up-to-date and relevant. I hope that you will find all the changes useful.