Autodesk Autocad 2017 - Help Required

[Mike N]

Anyone got any knowledge of the above drawing system? I'm currently doing a course which includes Autocad. I've never done it before and it feels very complicated and long-winded. Anyway, we have to do an assignment which includes reproducing elevations and floor plans.

My question is, does anyone know how to access a library of pre-drawn items such as windows, doorways, stair cases etc?

 

[Ghandi's Flip Flops]

I used Autocad for years up to the 2013 version but all versions of AutoCad pretty much stayed the same, just with additional features & gimmicks, and i would expect that to be the same for the 2017 version.

Firstly, what type of building is your assignment for? Is it domestic, commercial or industrial?

The reason i ask, is because the actual drawing of things like doors, windows & stairs is pretty simple once shown, but the actual sizes used vary with each of the above sectors, depending on building regs & industrial standards etc. The hard part is usually identifying which standards/regs are required.

I can give you ball-park figures you could use, and simple ways to draw them but if you provide more info about your assignment i might be able to provide specifics.

 

[andyhinch]

Anyone got any knowledge of the above drawing system? I'm currently doing a course which includes Autocad. I've never done it before and it feels very complicated and long-winded. Anyway, we have to do an assignment which includes reproducing elevations and floor plans.

My question is, does anyone know how to access a library of pre-drawn items such as windows, doorways, stair cases etc?

Who you doing the course with ? I've only used up to 2013 always built my on library up, try spending a night on your pc building one up with the generic shapes then import them and modify dimensions, joint and fixing details to suit.

 

[Mike N]

Thanks for the replies guys. I'm doing a HNC Constuction course at Salford University. The assignment is to reproduce plans for a house. I've done the external elevations but the floor plans are much more complicated. I just thought there must be some 'off-the-shelf' items that would save me having to draw items like toilets and stairs?

 

[talkativesprout]

a google search of autocad file extensions and then windows.dwg brought up a few hits, probably works for the stairs too :)

 

[andyhinch]

Thanks for the replies guys. I'm doing a HNC Constuction course at Salford University. The assignment is to reproduce plans for a house. I've done the external elevations but the floor plans are much more complicated. I just thought there must be some 'off-the-shelf' items that would save me having to draw items like toilets and stairs?

No such thing as a short cut mate having said that I didn't do construction always remember the devils in the detail, no such thing as two the same in the real world.

 

[andyhinch]

Thanks for the replies guys. I'm doing a HNC Constuction course at Salford University. The assignment is to reproduce plans for a house. I've done the external elevations but the floor plans are much more complicated. I just thought there must be some 'off-the-shelf' items that would save me having to draw items like toilets and stairs?

Ps I'll give you a top tip and live by it, I was a principle design engineer for Sellafield so I know a little, never trust an as built drawing or a site sketch until you've checked on site yourself

 

[Ghandi's Flip Flops]

I have used a free Dwg block library like this one in the past, but found there can be a load of disadvantages from doing so, especially if you are only just developing your AutoCad skills.

For starters a lot of the stuff on there is way too ornate, and i wouldn't dream of using them on a 'working' drawing.

Some are 2D views of 3D blocks, and depending on how they were set up, they can cause a load of grief when imported into a '2D' drawing (i.e. may not default to be at 0 in your Z plane) which can cause issues with your Snaps like intersection, end point etc and also when adding dimensions/measuring points at a later point.
Also a lot are attributed blocks so if they needed modifying you'd need to use the block editor etc; a simple Explode to modify would leave a load of text all over the show.

Then you might also have issues with layer names. Years ago when i did my AutoCad assignments we were marked on Layer convention/discipline. It's pretty much guaranteed that any blocks you pull from that site will have their own layering names/set-up so you might have to go through the block and 're-layer' everything to your own conventions (There's easy ways/shortcuts around this. i.e. on the older versions of AutoCad there was a command call 'LAYERWALK' but it changed its name on the newer version and i can't remember what the new command is).

In my view, it might be useful for pulling in stuff like toilets, sinks & furniture but for basic stuff like windows, doors & stairs etc i would just draw them from scratch.

Good luck with your project, and using AutoCad 2017 (i used to love using AutoCad until microsoft got their grubby mits on it, and tried to make it look like all their other Office software)

Just out of curiosity, does AutoCad 2017 have an option to default to the old 'Classic' AutoCad mode?

 

[SkyBlueTX]

Just out of curiosity, does AutoCad 2017 have an option to default to the old 'Classic' AutoCad mode?

Not out of the box, but you can customize the view with the help of some YouTube videos to get a similar look to classic. Seems similar philosophy to Microsoft Office, a once great program that is now a shambles ("If it ain't broke fix it till it is"). I'll be sticking with AutoCAD 2013 until it is no longer supported.

 

[Ghandi's Flip Flops]

Not out of the box, but you can customize the view with the help of some YouTube videos to get a similar look to classic. Seems similar philosophy to Microsoft Office, a once great program that is now a shambles ("If it ain't broke fix it till it is"). I'll be sticking with AutoCAD 2013 until it is no longer supported.

I don't blame you mate.

A place i worked at the time were convinced by reps to upgrade from AutoCad 2008 to 2013, and even with the 'Classic' mode option available it caused absolute carnage.
There was backward compatibility problems with old drawings saved as 2008.dwgs etc and also scripts/routines they'd used for years for certain clients.
95% of the Cadtechs hated it, as they spent most of their day constantly switching between ribbon & classic mode, as they could only find certain Commands/options in one of the modes and not the other.
It was only the younger lads and trainees who seemed okay with it (as they had mostly learned AutoCad on that version) , but as soon as they needed help/direction off the older experienced blokes, the first thing they would do is go into classic mode and confuse the crap out of them.
AutoDesk customer services were an absolute joke, they'd either tell you to get back in touch with their rep/agent or basically advise you you needed a 5 day training course costing £5k a head (and none were available for another 3 months)
And God forbid if you went on the AutoDesk forums to try find a solution; if you criticised AutoDesk products in any way there seemed to be a Cabal of users on there that would jump all over you and infer you were some sort of Neanderthal (or just a thick Cad monkey).

Even 3-4 months down the line it was found that drawing production & output using 2013 was way below what got done using 2008. It was that bad at one point that one project manager went and got a load of old machines out of storage still loaded with 2008 and used those, and another PM asked for his new project to be done on another platform.

But hey ho, thats the price of progress (or when microsoft decide they wanna stick their fingers in the pie)