Introduction | |||||||
This church has been selected because it is very symmetrical. Whenever you are drawing anything, look carefully for symmetry and repetition, because CAD systems excel at those things. | In this tutorial you will draw a plan of Brunelleschi's Church of San Maria Degli Angeli (Florence, Italy, 1434-1436), from Clark and Pause's "Precedents in Architecture", page 28; have a look at figure 20 at the end of the tutorial. You will note that the church has eight "bays" and that each bay is itself symmetrical. You will draw half of one bay and then mirror that half to create a whole bay and then copy that to complete the plan... | ||||||
Please note that the dimensions used in this tutorial are neither accurate nor correct! I don't have access to an accurately dimensioned drawing of the building so I've guessed the dimensions... | This tutorial introduces a number of AutoCAD construction commands:
| ||||||
In case all that isn't enough for you, you will also learn about layers, hatching, and grip editing. | |||||||
Setting Limits and Units | |||||||
You will draw the building in a 50x50m space, but this time, the limits will centre on 0,0! If these seem like particularly perverse drawing limits, it's because they ARE! I'm making sure that you are aware that the limits do not need to start at 0,0. Type: | |||||||
The coordinates used make the centre of the drawing 0,0 which makes it easy to copy the church "bay" around. |
| ||||||
Like in the previous tutorial, we need to get rid of the 4 decimal points: select Format - Units, AutoCAD will display the "Drawing Units" dialog. Make sure Decimal is selected in the Units section and Decimal Degrees in the Angles section, then in Unit's Precision, click on the down arrow beside "0.0000" and select "0", and finally select "OK". Alternatively, type UNITS and then follow the prompts. | |||||||
Zoom All | To reset the drawing view to the whole of the drawing, select zoom-all from the standard toolbar (or type: Z [space] A [space] ) | ||||||
Don't forget to do this . . . | Now that you've "zoomed out", draw a rectangle using the coordinates from the drawing limits (this will provide a border for the drawing)! | ||||||
If the Axis label (which is called the "UCS icon") is distracting - I certainly find it so - you can hide it by selecting View - Display - UCS Icon - On. | |||||||
Layers | |||||||
Most CAD systems have some kind of overlay concept. AutoCAD uses layers. Layers are used to separate and structure drawings; layers can be turned on and off (for example to vary the amount of detail in a drawing), and can have linetypes associated with them.... | |||||||
Figure 1 The Layer status area (Object Properties toolbar). | |||||||
When using AutoCAD, the graphics appears on the current layer, so be careful that the current layer is correct. Look near the top-left of the screen: the current layer and it's colour is displayed there (see figure 1). | |||||||
Layers icon The current layer is the layer to which new graphics is added. The properties command (which was introduced in the previous tutorial) cann be used to change a graphics object's layer (or linetype or colour). | Select the Layers icon or select Format - Layers..., AutoCAD will display the "Layer Properties Manager" dialog. Click on the "New" button and then type CONST (to change the default "layer1" name to something more meaningful), then click on the "Current" button to make this the current layer. | ||||||
Change the colour and then "OK" the dialog box. |
Draw "Construction" Lines | |||||||||||||||||
Line icon | Draw a line from the centre of the building: select then line icon (or type L ), and then type: | ||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||
Zoom Window | Before continuing, you should "zoom in" to the lines, select zoom-window (or type Z W ), | ||||||||||||||||
Offset | Select offset from the Modify toolbar (or type [the letter 'o'] O ), | ||||||||||||||||
The offset command makes it easy to set up a series of grid line or (drawing) construction lines. |
| ||||||||||||||||
This should produce one vertical and three horizontal lines. | |||||||||||||||||
Revisiting Polar Array | |||||||||||||||||
Now you will use polar array to copy and rotate some lines. | |||||||||||||||||
Array (under the offset icon) |
| ||||||||||||||||
Editing | |||||||||||||||||
Fillet icon (be careful because it looks like chamfer). The Fillet command is exceptionally useful. It basically extends two lines until they meet, and optionally, inserts a curve where the lines join. | The lines at the bottom represent the outside of the building. To connect these lines select the fillet icon (or type F ), look at the command line area - if the current fillet radius is NOT 0 (zero) - then type R 0 (that's a zero). | ||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||
Next, you will trim the sloping line back to the line from the centre. | |||||||||||||||||
The trim command is another command that you use very often. The first point you specify selects the "cutting edge", that is, the line to which you are trimming back to. While succeeding selections identify lines to be trimmed. | |||||||||||||||||
Trim icon When picking lines to be trimmed, the part of the line that you select is important. In the example in figure 3, if you pick to the left of the first line selected (rather than to the right of it), then the line will be trimmed from the fillet point to the boundary line. In other words, you'll undo the fillet you just did! |
| ||||||||||||||||
Repeat the fillet and trim process for the other two inner lines! |
Draw the Floor Pattern | |||||||||
Layers | Before you draw the floor pattern, you'll create a new layer, select the layers icon (or type LA ), create a new layer called FLOOR, and make it the current layer. | ||||||||
This line uses absolute & relative coords. (Figure 6 shows the finished floor pattern.) | To draw the horizontal lines of the floor pattern, select line (or type L ), and type 0,-6500 @5000,0 and press again (to end the command). This line will be trimmed later.... | ||||||||
Offset icon | Select offset (or type OFFSET or just o ), type 625 (the offset distance), select the line just drawn, click below the line to indicate the direction of offset, and press again. Press (to start another offset), type 1375 (offset distance), select the last line created by the offset, click below the line to offset down, and press again to end the command. | ||||||||
Remember that you can restart the last command by pressing This is basically trying to teach you to watch (and interract with) the prompts that AutoCAD displays in the command area. | Offset this line 625 down! If that worked, you should have two pairs of lines. These lines will form the octagonal pattern in the centre of the building. Continue offsetting the "last" line, using the following offsets:500, 750, 500, 4625, 500 | ||||||||
That's most of the horizontal lines in the plan! Next, you will now draw the rest of the floor pattern. Have a look at figure 16 which shows the completed bay. | |||||||||
Trim icon I'm introducing the "fence" option because it makes it very easy to trim a whole series of lines by simply drawing a line that crosses them. The fence line works like the "crossing window" selection in that the objects that the line crosses are selected. |
| ||||||||
Alternatively, display the Object Snap Toolbar. Select View - Toolbars... check Object Snap (the toolbar will be displayed) and then click on close. | The following section uses a number of snap modes. The easiest way to work with snaps is to pre-set them and then let AutoCAD dynamically show which snap it can use... | ||||||||
Right-click on "OSNAP" (in the status area at the bottom of AutoCAD's window) and select "Settings...", then turn "Endpoint" and "Midpoint" ON (by clicking on them). It would probably be a good idea to turn OFF any of the other snaps that are ON. Finally, make sure the "OSNAP" button is IN. | |||||||||
Erase icon Save icon | Select erase from the Modify toolbar (or type E ), select the vertical line used as the "trim guide", press (end the command). Now is a good time to save the drawing, select save (or press Ctrl-S), enter a drawing name if prompted (and don't forget to change the drive & directory if necessary). | ||||||||
Line icon Endpoint snap mode icon | Now you will draw the line and arc for the floor pattern, select line (or type L ) then, using the Endpoint snap mode (which should automatically be set by moving the cross-hair near the endpoint), select the right edge of the "bottom" trimmed line and (again using the Endpoint snap mode) select the right edge of the line above it, then press (end the command). | ||||||||
Midpoint snap mode icon The arc should start and end just "inside" the ends of the vertical line. | Select Draw - Arc - Center-Start-End (do NOT pick the arc icon) then, using the Midpoint snap mode select the middle of the line just drawn, then type @0,-1800 @0,3600 . That should have drawn an arc to the right of the vertical line. | ||||||||
Break icon Break is an extremely useful command that is used often in editing operations. An alternative way to choose a snap mode is to hold the Ctrl key and click the right mouse button(!) - AutoCAD will display a pop-up menu with the snap modes. While we're talking about the mouse ;-), right-clicking in AutoCAD generally causes a context sensitive popup menu to be displayed (showing a selection of the options available "at the moment"). |
| ||||||||
Zoom Window icon | The last floor pattern is at the top of the "bay". You will need to enlarge the view of the centre to be able to see it clearly. Select zoom-window (or type Z W ), enter the selection window (so you can see at least the area shown in Firgure 7). | ||||||||
Polyine icon Intersect snap mode icon |
| ||||||||
Zoom Dynamic | |||||||||
If you don't like the dynamic zoom command, there's always the scroll bars... |
| ||||||||
"REGEN" can be abbreviated to "RE"... | Move the zoom window (the cursor!) over the lower half of the "bay" and press . If the arc has turned into a series of straight lines then type REGEN to re-generate the view. | ||||||||
Draw the Walls | |||||||||
Before drawing the walls, create a new layer called "WALLS", and set the layer's colour to be something other than white, and make it the current layer. | |||||||||
Don't forget to offset the line at the "top" of the arc (see figure 9) |
| ||||||||
This should select everything except the line at the top, pick it now. Having selected the objects, now they'll be changed to the new layer. Go to the layers drop-down list and select "WALLS" (the layer you just created). All the selected objects will change to that layer! Press "Esc" (escape) twice to de-select the objects. | |||||||||
Fillet icon In selecting both these points, it's important where you click on the line! The first point should be in the bottom-half of the line, while the second point should be to the left of the (projected) first line. |
| ||||||||
| |||||||||
Save icon | That completes the bottom end of the bay. Have you saved your drawing recently? | ||||||||
Now use the scroll bars to move the view so that you can see more of the lines at the "top" - you need to be able to see the top of the arc you drew earlier (see figure 12). | |||||||||
Offset icon | Select offset (or type o [the letter 'o']), and then type 250 , pick the bottom (of the four lines that extend to the right edge-line), pick a position below the line to indicate the offset direction, press to end then command. | ||||||||
Fillet icon |
| ||||||||
Change the horizontal line ("2nd pick" in figure 12) into the WALLS layer. | |||||||||
Extend icon It's necessary to pick to the right of the middle of the line because AutoCAD extends the nearest endpoint to the "boundary edge". | Lastly, you will extend the horizontal line to the right edge-line. Select extend (or type EX ), pick the right edge-line (this is the line you will extend to), press (end the selection process), pick to the right of the middle on the horizontal line, and finally press . |