AutoCAD® 2009 & AutoCAD LT® 2009 All-in-One Desk Reference for Dummies®

Chapter 6. Setting Up Drawings

AutoCAD is much more than an electronic sketchpad. Technical drawings — as I'm sure you're aware — need to be accurate, precise, neat enough to be read easily, and standardized. Chapter 7 covers precision drawing techniques. This chapter explains how to set up drawings and introduces a number of ways to ensure standardization — ways that help you draw more efficiently and make all the drawings you create look similar to one another.

Choosing Units of Measurement

In this book, when I discuss units of measurement in AutoCAD, I'm not talking about systems of measurement. It's important to keep those two separate.

Globally speaking, two main systems of measurement are in use today. Imperial or English measurement is based on inches, and metric measure is based on the meter (or metre, if you live outside the United States).

Note

Several releases back, AutoCAD used the measurement units of English and metric. Starting with AutoCAD 2000, the terminology switched from English to Imperial units. Although English and Imperial liquid measurements have some slight differences, these differences are likely not to bother most AutoCAD users who deal in linear and angular measure. For example, a U.S. pint has 16 ounces and a U.K. pint has 20 ounces, but a foot in both countries contains 12 inches. Come to think of it, maybe it would bother the U.K. AutoCAD user who has just ordered a pint of Guinness in the U.S.!

The metric system is being adopted in virtually every country ...