LESSON 4-1

LESSON 4-1	AUTOCAD TEMPLATE FILES
LESSON 4-2	USING OSNAPS IN AUTOCAD
LESSON 4-3	LINETYPES AND LINETYPE SCALE
LESSON 4-4	AUTOCAD FILE FORMATS
LESSON 4-5	GRIP EDITING
LESSON 4-6	AUTOCAD'S INQUIRY TOOLS
LESSON 4-7	XREF'S (EXTERNAL REFERENCES)
LESSON 4-8	SYSTEM VARIABLES
LESSON 4-9	TABLES
LESSON 4-10	INTRODUCTION TO SHEET SETS
LESSON 4-11	MODIFYING AND CREATING DIMENSIONS
LESSON 4-11a	TYPES OF DIMENSIONS
LESSON 4-12	INTRODUCTION TO CUSTOMIZING AUTOCAD

Topics covered in this Lesson:

Template files | Creating Templates

Whether you know it not, you have already used templates to begin a new drawing. AutoCAD uses a template every time it starts up. If you do not designate your own template, AutoCAD will use a default one. A template is a drawing file that includes some of the following settings: Unit type and precision (DDRMODES) Drawing limits (LIMITS) Snap, Grid, and Ortho settings (Status Bar) Layer organization (LA) Title blocks (Tutorial) Dimension and text styles (DDIM, ST) Linetypes (LT) Common blocks (Tutorial) In most cases, you do not want to set these things every time you begin a drawing. By having a template with all of these parameters pre-set, you can work more efficiently, faster and consistently. There is no difference between a template file (DWT) and regular DWG other than the extension. Most CAD businesses use a company-wide template that is updated from time to time. Occasionally, you will use a client's template. When you start a project, you will be told which template you are to use. Creating a Template To create a template drawing, you first have to set up any parameters that you feel you would need (see the list above) in a regular drawing. Once you have this, you can save your drawing as a template. Do to this, press CTRL+SHIFT+S to get the ‘Save As' option. You will see this dialog box: You have to change the ‘Files of type' setting from a DWG file to a DWT (template) file. Once you've changed this, make sure you save it in the folder where you can load it later. To use the template for a new drawing, type NEW to start a new file and select the template you want.