AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT All-in-One Desk Reference for Dummies

819 Pages·2006·16.883 MB·English

by  David Byrnes, Lee Ambrosius

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AutoCAD &
®
AutoCAD LT
®
ALL-IN-ONE DESK REFERENCE
FOR
DUMmIES
‰
by Lee Ambrosius and David Byrnes
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01_752606 ffirs.qxp 6/28/06 7:56 PM Page i
AutoCAD &
®
AutoCAD LT
®
ALL-IN-ONE DESK REFERENCE
FOR
DUMmIES
‰
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01_752606 ffirs.qxp 6/28/06 7:56 PM Page iii
AutoCAD &
®
AutoCAD LT
®
ALL-IN-ONE DESK REFERENCE
FOR
DUMmIES
‰
by Lee Ambrosius and David Byrnes
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AutoCAD®& AutoCAD LT®All-in-One Desk Reference For Dummies®
Published by
Wiley Publishing, Inc.
111 River Street
Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774
www.wiley.com
Copyright © 2006 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana
Published simultaneously in Canada
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or
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dress are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the United
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Library of Congress Control Number: 2006920621
ISBN-13: 978-0-471--75260-8
ISBN-10: 0-471-75260-6
Manufactured in the United States of America
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About the Authors
Lee Ambrosiuswas a resident of a cubicle farm for about eight years. One
day he decided that he wanted to do something different, so he went into
business for himself. In 2005, Lee decided to venture off into the CAD indus-
try as an independent consultant and programmer as the owner of HyperPics,
LLC in De Pere, Wisconsin, and on the Web at www.hyperpics.com. He has
been using AutoCAD since 1994, when he was first exposed to Release 12 for
DOS, and has been customizing and programming AutoCAD since 1996. Lee
has been an AutoCAD consultant and trainer for 10 years and is both an
Autodesk Authorized Author and an Autodesk Authorized Developer.
During his past 10 years in the CAD industry, Lee has authored a variety
of works that include articles for CAD magazines and white papers for
Autodesk. He has also been a contributing author for a few AutoCAD books.
Lee has done technical editing for the two most recent editions of AutoCAD
For Dummiesand the three most recent editions of AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT
Bible. AutoCAD & AutoCAD LT All-in-One Desk Reference For Dummiesis his
first venture into coauthoring a book.
David Byrnes began his drafting career on the boards in 1979 and discovered
computer-assisted doodling shortly thereafter. He first learned AutoCAD with
version 1.4, around the time when personal computers switched from steam
to diesel power. Dave is based in Vancouver, Canada, and has been an
AutoCAD consultant and trainer for fifteen years. Dave is an AutoCAD
Authorized Author, a contributing editor for Cadalystmagazine, and has been
a contributing author to ten books on AutoCAD. Dave teaches AutoCAD and
other computer graphics applications at Emily Carr Institute of Art + Design
and British Columbia Institute of Technology in Vancouver. Dave has tech
edited six editions of AutoCAD For Dummiesand is coauthor of AutoCAD 2007
For Dummies.
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Dedication
From Lee: To Kristina, Isaac, Amber, and Chloe; my wife and lovely kids for
hanging in there during the long hours I was working on this book. I also can’t
forget everyone else who has had some influence on my career, through both
the good and the bad.
From Dave: To Anna and Delia, the two women in my life, who remind me
there are other things besides keyboards and mice (and sometimes they have
to try REALLY hard).
Authors’ Acknowledgments
Lee Ambrosius: I have to give a special thanks to the great folks at Wiley for
being supportive through this entire project and giving me this opportunity.
Next, I want to thank David for letting me be a coauthor on this project.
Moving up from technical editor to coauthor was a big step — thanks for
giving me the chance. The next two people were very inspirational on this
project and helped keep things moving along: Colleen Totz Diamond and
Tiffany Franklin. I think we made it.
Thanks to Shaan Hurley, Bud Schroeder, Kelly Miller, and the other great pro-
fessionals at Autodesk for taking the time to answer questions as they came
up during this project. Last, but not least, thanks to our technical editor,
Mark Douglas. Mark is most definitely not a stranger to AutoCAD; he is blazing
his own trail in the CAD community as a respected individual who is always
willing to help out a fellow user in need.
David Byrnes: Thanks to Mark Middlebrook for bringing me aboard the
Dummies train and for collaborating on the initial proposal and table of con-
tents for this book. Thanks, also, to Lee Ambrosius for joining up in the book’s
darkest days and for picking up more and more of the project as time went on.
Thanks, too, to colleagues and friends at Autodesk — Shaan Hurley,
Nate Bartley, and Bud Schroeder — who never seem to mind being asked
even the dumbest questions.
At Wiley, thanks to Terri Varveris, who got the project off the ground, and
Tiffany Ma, who shepherded it through with enthusiasm and an unbelievably
awesome degree of patience. It was also a great pleasure to work with project
editor, Colleen Totz Diamond, who deserves medals for patience and diplomacy!
And by no means last (someone has to bring up the rear), thanks to
Mark Douglas for taking on the tech editing job. Mark’s expertise and enthusi-
asm are well known and respected in the AutoCAD community, and we’re
delighted to have him with us.