Posts by Steven Robinson31

Kenneth Green6 said:Urgent help needed... does anyone know how to scale everything up, like an entire drawing? I have a square measuring 650x563, but I need to increase both the object and everything within it to 6500x5630.

The SCALE command might be what you're looking for.

Edward Peterson70 said:Quick side note so I don't start a whole new thread: is there an AutoCAD version available for Linux?

As far as I know, the answer is no. There isn't even a direct, reliable alternative out there. If I recall correctly, there was once a version of MicroStation—maybe MicroStation 95 or something similar—but I wouldn't recommend trying to get any actual work done using that.
What you could try is running an older version of AutoCAD that doesn't rely on .NET through a Windows emulator, such as AutoCAD 2000. However, in my opinion, your best bet is simply to run a virtual machine with Windows installed and run your CAD software from there. It'll be much more stable than any other workaround.

wiredorca3 said:Does anyone have a link to some tutorials (or anything similar) for this software? I'm a total beginner when it comes to AutoCAD in general, and I've never used any of the older versions before.

Hmm... if you're just starting out, you might actually be better off picking up an older version. It isn't necessarily because it's "easier," but rather because there isn't much training material or tutorials specifically for the 2009 edition. The interface change was massive—probably the biggest jump since moving from R14 to the 2000 version. When you're learning, it's really important that what you see in a tutorial matches what's on your screen; otherwise, you're going to struggle quite a bit.
I'd suggest trying to find an older version, and you should be able to find plenty of tutorials online just by searching Google. If you want books, I would definitely recommend the AutoCAD Bible or Mastering AutoCAD. However, if you prefer reading in something other than English, you might check sites like http://www.amazon.com, http://www.barnesandnoble.com, or http://www.books.com.
Enjoy 🙂

Try working from the Layout tab instead of the Model space; if you try to do this from the Model, you're going to have a much harder time. Just as a quick guide:
- switch over to the Layout tab
- configure your paper size and printer settings (right-click the Layout tab name -> Page Setup Manager)
- make sure you set your units to inches and pick a standard scale (like 1:1), otherwise trying to manage those margins in inches will be a total headache

What you see there is exactly how your sheet will look once it hits the printer. That dashed line represents the physical printable area of your printer, while the solid line marks your viewport—basically the window looking back into your Model. Stretch that viewport frame to where you want your drawing to sit within the margins, but just make sure you don't extend it past that dashed line, because the printer physically won't be able to reach anything outside of it. Once that's set, you're good to go; just right-click the Layout tab and select "Plot."

That’s just my take on it, but I believe that covers the essentials.

It’s not a massive file at all... which is great. You'll notice the interface is virtually identical to AutoCAD, and honestly, it feels like it even offers more options.

Given everything you've listed, your best bet is probably http://www.zwcad.org/. It covers all those requirements and then some, though the main drawback is the download size. I can't recall the exact file size since it’s been a while since I used it, but I doubt it’s small enough to pull down on an old-school dial-up connection.
Regarding other CAD software, I highly doubt there's anything else that fits all those criteria while remaining lightweight enough for a quick download.
That said, as a student, you can pretty much grab almost any version of AutoCAD from http://students.autodesk.com/ provided your university is in their database, which I assume it is. Just keep in mind this is a student edition intended strictly for learning purposes, so printing is disabled and includes a watermark.

No problem at all

First, head over to your layout tab. Set up your printer and select your preferred paper size and type (right-click the layout tab, then select "Page Setup Manager," then "Modify") and create a single viewport if you don't already have one using the -vports command.
Once that's set, you should see your entire drawing within that viewport, similar to how it looks when you run a zoom extents in Model Space. To enter Model Space from the layout, you can either double-click anywhere inside the viewport or simply click the "PAPER" button at the bottom of the screen. From there, you can navigate the model however you like—zooming, panning, etc. To get back out to the layout, just double-click an area outside the viewport or hit the "MODEL" button at the bottom.

Now, here is how you handle the dview command. Enter Model Space through your layout and type dview into the command line, hitting Enter twice. You'll be presented with several options; type "TW" and hit Enter. The system will then prompt you for the rotation angle. By default, this angle is absolute (counterclockwise) with zero facing East. Once you’ve entered your desired angle and hit Enter twice, switch back to the layout. Your drawing should now be rotated by that specific angle, and you're all set.

You can handle this through the layout without any issues by using the dview command (just a quick tip: you’ll need to switch from the layout back into model space for the command to actually trigger)