A.

)A BRIEF HISTORY OF CAD

The beginnings of CAD can be traced to the year 1957, when Dr. Patrick J. Hanratty developed PRONTO, the
first commercial numerical-control programming system. In 1960, Ivan Sutherland MIT's Lincoln Laboratory
created SKETCHPAD, which demonstrated the basic principles and feasibility of computer technical drawing.
Computer-aided design (CAD) is the use of computer systems (or workstations) to aid in the creation,
modification, analysis, or optimization of a design. With CAD, basic geometry could easily be generated,
multiplied, edited, scaled and otherwise manipulated with great speed and accuracy. Work that traditionally
required the collective collaboration of scores of manual draftsmen over a significant period of time could now
be conducted by a handful of individuals within a fraction of the time and across remote locations thanks to
the internet, thus increasing efficiency and productivity beyond measure.
Today, with the availability of software such as Auto CAD, Revit and Solidworks, CAD serves as an indispensible
arm of all major engineering industries extensively used in many applications including automotive,
shipbuilding, and aerospace industries, industrial and architectural design, prosthetics, and many more. The
modern CAD era has been marked by improvements in modeling, incorporation of analysis, and management
of the products we create, from conception and engineering to manufacturing, sales, and maintenance (what
has become known as PLM, product lifecycle management).

B.)BASIC COMPUTER OPERATIONS

Input: Information and programs are entered into the computer through Input devices such as the keyboard,
disks, or through other computers via network connections or modems connected to the Internet. The input
device also retrieves information off disks.

Output: Output Devices displays information on the screen (monitor) or the printer and sends information to
other computers. They also display messages about what errors may have occurred and brings up message or
dialog box asking for more information to be input. The output device also saves information on the disk for
future use.

Processing: The CPU or central processing unit is sometimes called the Control Unit and directs the operation
of the input and output devices. The Coprocessor or the Arithmetic-Logic Unit does arithmetic and
comparisons. The memory or RAM temporarily stores information (files and programs) while you are using or
working on them. The BIOS or basic input/output system controls the dialogue between the various devices.
Keyboard Layout and Data Entry

ENTER or RETURN – Moves the cursor down one line and to the left margin. Enter also process commands
such as choosing an option in a dialog (message) boxes and submitting a form.

DEL or DELETE – Deletes the character at cursor and/or characters to the right of the cursor and all highlighted
(or selected) text.

BKSP or BACKSPACE – Deletes the character to the left of cursor and all hightlighted text.
SPACE BAR – Moves the cursor one space at a time to the right SHIFT KEY – Use the shift keys to type capital
letters and to type the upper character on keys with two characters on them

CAPS LOCK – Locks the keyboard so it types capital letters (a light goes on when caps lock is on)

TAB – Moves the cursor five spaces to the right (number of spaces are usually adjustable). Tab moves to the
next field in a form or table (Shift-Tab for previous field).

ESC or ESCAPE - Cancels a menu or dialog box

ARROW KEYS – Moves the cursor around document without changing text FUNCTION KEYS or F KEYS – Access
commands by themselves or in combination with the three command keys; CTRL, SHIFT, and ALT

C.)STARTUP DIALOG BOX

When you start AutoCAD, the Startup dialog box is displayed. The dialog box provides you with four ways
to start a drawing. You can
Open an existing drawing
Start a drawing from scratch
Start a drawing based on a template
Use wizards to help you set up your drawing
The Startup dialog box is displayed when you first start AutoCAD. Whenever you start a new drawing
during your AutoCAD session, the Create New Drawing dialog box is displayed. After you use AutoCAD
for a while, you may want to turn off display of these dialog boxes. If you turn them off, choosing File
New automatically creates a new drawing based on your last Start from Scratch selection (English or
metric). Choosing File Open displays the Select File dialog box, where you can select AutoCAD drawings
and templates.
If you turn this dialog box off, you can turn it back on by doing the following: Go to the Tools menu pull
down and select Options. In the Options window, click on the System tab. Under General options, click on
the check box next to Show Startup Dialog.
In the Startup dialog box, choose one of the following:
Open a Drawing: Opens a drawing you select from a list of the four most recently opened drawings.
Also, displays the Browse button if you choose to look for another file.
Start from Scratch: Opens a new drawing based on the measurement system you choose—English
(inches) or metric (millimeters).
Use a Template: Opens a new drawing based on a template you select from a list. The list displays
template files (.dwt extension) that exist in the drawing template file location as specified in the Options
dialog box (see OPTIONS). Also, displays the Browse button if you choose to look for another file.
Template files store all the settings for a drawing and can also include predefined layers, dimension styles,
and views.
Use a Wizard: Opens a new drawing that you set up using either the Quick Setup wizard or the
Advanced Setup wizard.
AutoCAD setup wizards start with the same settings used when you start a drawing from scratch, that is,
English or metric, then customize other settings depending on the wizard you choose.
The Quick Setup wizard sets the drawing units and drawing area. Choices for drawing units include
Decimal, Engineering, Architectural, Fractional, and Scientific. You also specify the width and length of
the drawing area to establish the drawing boundary, or limits. The area within the limits is the final plotted
sheet size.
With the Advanced Setup wizard, you can specify the same settings as the Quick Setup wizard (drawing
units and drawing area), and you can specify several angle settings, including the angle of measurement,
the direction of the zero angle, and the direction in which AutoCAD measures angles from the zero angle.
D.)AUTOCAD WINDOW
This will be a short tutorial just to introduce you in your first steps on how to use AutoCAD, specifically, you´ll
know of what is available in the AutoCAD main window.

At first view, AutoCAD Window looks a little bit overwhelming, because it contains a lot of drafting and editing
commands, but most important thing to note on how to use AutoCAD is that you don´t need to memorize it,
just need to be aware about its structure. Let´s know it:

This is a typical layout of the AutoCAD window:

It is divided into the following parts:

1.Quick Access Toolbar. As in most WINDOWS® programs, this toolbar includes by default, the basic file-
handling functions (save, open, new), plotting and Undo and Redo commands. Of course it can be customized
to show your most used commands.
2.InfoCenter. When learning how to use AutoCAD, for sure you’ll need to find information about the program,
based on a keyword, question or phrase. InfoCenter allows you to type that word and find a list of related
resources:

3.The Ribbon. The Ribbon is where you´ll find a lot of drafting tools and features, grouped in panels. Also, sets
of related actions panels are grouped in tabs. So you will find, for example, the Insert tab, with panels such as
Block and Reference and Data, among others.

The most prominent feature in the Ribbon, especially for those people looking forward to learn how to use
AutoCAD as fast as possible, is the tool tips.

Each tool in the Ribbon’s panels will offer a tool tip explaining -through a descriptive text and an image- how
to use it. Just move arrow cursor onto any tool and leave it there for a moment: a simple tool tip will appear
below the cursor:
holding the cursor a bit longer over the tool will add even more information: a tutorial image about how to
use selected tool:

In such a case that help shown in the tool tip is not enough to learn how to use AutoCAD tools, note that from
here it is also possible to access to AutoCAD contextual help pressing F1, where for sure you will find detailed
information about selected tool.

Of course there are a lot of important features in the Ribbon, but we´ll explain them in detail on futures
AutoCAD tutorials.
4.Drawing Area (or where the magic begins). Most of AutoCAD window is occupied by the drawing area, as
this is the place where all your drawings will appear.

Note that, when you move cursor within this area, crosshairs appear: this is the drawing cursor, which lets you
picking points in the drawing area.

The L-shaped figure in the lower-left corner of the drawing area is the UCS (User Coordinate System) icon and,
as you think, indicates the X and Y axes in the Cartesian coordinate system.

Below the drawing area you will see: One Model tab which is where all the drawing will be done, usually, to
real scale (1 drawing unit = 1 ft, for example) and one or more Layout tabs (also known as Paper Space) that
are like the sheet of paper where you´ll plot your drawing to scale.

Paper Space is a powerful feature in AutoCAD, being possible to have multiple views (layouts) at different
scales of a drawing created in model space. Moreover, in a simple layout, it is possible to plot several views of
the same drawing on a single sheet of paper, each view having a specific plot scale. This is useful when
showing details in a design.

5.The Command Window (or how AutoCAD communicates with you). An important step knowing how to use
AutoCAD is to understand what the command window is.

Essentially is in Command windows where interactivity with AutoCAD takes place. You can write commands
(each drawing tool has an equivalent keyboard command) to create lines, circles or to erase drawing entities,
among other actions. Also in command window AutoCAD will display responses to your input, displaying all
your previous actions:
6.The Status Bar. Status bar, located at the bottom of the AutoCAD window, gives the drawing cursor location
coordinates in its far left, besides it contains several tools to aid in the drafting process.

E.)BUTTON FUNCTION OF MOUSE

A mouse button is one or more buttons found on the front portion of a computer mouse that allows a
computer user to perform an action. For example, a user may be required to click the mouse button to open a
file, or hold the mouse button down to highlight text.
Mouse button actions
Today, every mouse has at least two mouse buttons, and may have additional buttons found on the side of the
mouse.

Left mouse button

 Default mouse button on most operating systems and programs.
 Used to click, select, or open an object on the computer. For example, you would left-click to open a
link in a browser or double left-click (double-click) to open a program on a Microsoft Windows
operating system.
 Left-clicking and holding down the button while dragging the mouse highlights text.
 In a spreadsheet, clicking a cell with the left mouse button makes it the active cell.
 In a game, the left button is used as the action button. For example, in a shooter game, the left button
is often used to shoot a gun.
Right mouse button
 The right mouse button is used to give additional information, or the properties of a right-clicked item.
For example, if you right-click anything highlighted, you are given a menu that allows you to copy the
highlighted text or another object.

Middle mouse button or wheel button

 Many computer mice with wheels can also use the wheel as a button. Pressing down on the mouse
wheel acts as a button and its action depends on the software installed with the mouse. By default, the
middle button is used to open a link in a browser in a new tab.

Thumb buttons
 For mice with thumb buttons, these buttons can be programmed to perform any action. By default,
these buttons move backward or forward in an Internet browser.

Other buttons
 There are also some computer mice that have more than the buttons listed above. For example, a
gaming mouse can have different buttons that can be programmed to perform any number of actions
in a game.