what's new autocad 2010_segment_1

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ATP244Whats new in AutoCAD 2010

Segment 1

Date: April 6, 2009

Instructor: Kenneth LearyLevel: All LevelsCategory: AutoCAD 2010

Web: www.AUGI.com


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Introduction

Its April, the flowers are blooming, birds are chirping, and spring is in the air. It must be time for the

next version of AutoCAD to be released. This year, the good folks at Autodesk have done their best toput together another version that tempts the wallets of even the stingiest user.

I dont know how many of you are Star Trek fans, but there has always been a belief among many ofthe fans that the even numbered movies were better than the odd numbered ones. Ive yet to meet aperson that would pick Star Trek V: The Final Frontier as their favorite over the very popular Star Trek II:The Wrath of Khan. Im not asking everyone to don some Spock ears and speak Klingon with me, Imsimply illustrating the point because, oddly enough, that same theory seems to hold true with AutoCAD.Theres no comparison between Release 13 and the much-lauded Release 14. Some old schoolAutoCAD users like myself still long forthe heady days of Release 12.

Well, AutoDesk has done nothing toprove the even number theory wrong.AutoCAD 2009 made huge changes inthe user interface, with the introductionof the menu ribbon and a completelyrevised the look and feel of theprogram. It was also slower, amemory hog and had more than itsshare of glitches.

Once again, the even numberedrelease has a lot great new commands

and time saving tools to offer and its amore stable program to boot. In thiscourse, were going to cover the newcommands, the improved commands,and the ones that have beencompletely over hauled.

Parametric modeling

The biggest and initially the most intimidating new feature in AutoCAD 2010 is Parametric Modeling.You may be surprised to find that there is no actual Parametric command. Thats because its thename for a new set of tools that allow you to create geometric relationships between objects or restrict

the dimensional properties of objects. The two different types of tools are referred to as geometric anddimensional constraints. That doesnt sound that complicated now does it?

Well before you panic and pull out the old dictionary that you used to use to decipher what DennisMiller said on Monday night football, relax. Well go through the tools and their usage in plain Englishand before you know it, youll see that its really not complicated at all.


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All of the constraint settings and display options are handled by the Constraint settings dialog box. Youcan open it with the CONSTRAINTSETTINGS command. Well refer back to this command as wecover the different constraint functions and commands.

Another important feature that is used with the constraints are the Constraint Bars, these show whichconstraints are applied to drawing objects. The CONSTRAINTBAR command effects how theconstraint bars are displayed. When constraint bars are displayed, you can pass the cursor over aconstraint to view the constraint name and the objects that it affects. You can also control the displayof constraint bars with this command or use the Show, Show All, and Hide All options on the Geometricpanel of the Parametric ribbon tab.

There is a new Tab on the menu ribbon for the parametric modeling tools called the Parametrictab.This tab is broken down into three panels, each with a different set of tools that you would use for thedifferent constraint functions. Lets look at each separately.

Geometric ConstraintsThe first panel on the left side of the Parametric tab is for the tools that create and modify geometricconstraints. These are the relationships that are applied between two objects, points on objects, orbetween a single object and the coordinate system. In simple terms it works like an object snap thatstays persistent throughout your design.

The middle sub panel on the Geometric constraints panel contains the commandsthat you will use to apply the constraints to objects in your drawings. These can beaccessed from this location on the ribbon or with the GEOMCONSTRAINT command.There are twelve to choose from, well cover each of them.

Coincident - Constrains two points on two objectstogether. A constraint point on an object can be madecoincident with an object or a constraint point on anotherobject. When the cursor hovers over the constrainedpoint, the constraint bar to the right is shown.


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Colinear Constrains two or more linesegments to lie along the same line.Regardless of how the original line is movedor rotated, the Colinear line will move tomatch the new location.

Concentric - Constrains two circles to the same centerpoint. This also works for arcs and ellipses. The result is

the same as that of a coincident constraint applied to thecenter points of the curves. Moving one of the circles willmove the other with it, much like a block.

Fix - Locks a point or curve in position. The fixed point canbe on an object, or a point in relation to an object, like acenter point of a circle for example. This command may bea let down for those people who thought it might fixsomething in the drawings that doesnt seem to work theway they wanted it to.

ParallelConstrains two lines or polylines to be Parallel to eachother. When one is modified the other will move to match it.


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Perpendicular - Causes selected lines to lie 90degrees to one another. Perpendicular constraintsare applied between two objects and, unlike thePerpendicular object snap, these lines do not have tobe touching each other when the constraint iscreated.

Horizontal - Causes lines or pairs of points to lieparallel to the Xaxis of the current coordinate system.Be aware when using this constraint that they are set

to the axis in the coordinate system in which theywere created. When another user coordinate systemis active the Constraint bar icon (pictured below) willchange to show that the current axis in not the onethat the constraint was created in.

Vertical - Causes lines or pairsof points to lie parallel to the Yaxis of the current coordinatesystem. Just like theHorizontal constrain these areset to the axis in the coordinatesystem in which they werecreated. When another usercoordinate system is active theConstraint bar icon (pictured

on the right) will change toshow that the current axis innot the one that the constraint was created in.


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Tangent - Constrains two objects to maintaina point of tangency to each other or theirextensions. Tangent constraints are appliedbetween two objects, those objects could be acurve (arc or circle) and a line or anothercurve.

A circle can be made tangent to a line even ifthe circle does not touch the line and a curvecan be tangent to another even if they do notphysically share a point.

Smooth (G2) - Constrains a Spline to

be contiguous and maintain continuitywith another spline, line, arc, orpolyline. When the constraint isapplied the endpoints of the curves towhich you apply the smoothconstraints are made coincident.

When two Splines are selected,they are updated to becontiguous with one another.This function is similar to usingthe JOIN command for polylinesexcept the splines are not joinedto be one object; they onlybehave as if they were oneobject.


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Symmetric -Causes selected objects to becomesymmetrically constrained about a selected line.The function is similar to that of the Mirrorcommand. Unlike other constraints where twoobjects are selected, with a symmetric constraintyou must have an axis around which you willconstrain the objects or points to be symmetrical.

This is referred to as the symmetry line. For lines, thelines angle is made symmetric and not the endpoints.For arcs and circles, the center and radius are madesymmetric not the endpoints of the arc.

Equal - Resizes selected arcs and circles to the sameradius, or selected lines to the same length.

Constraint SettingsThe sub panel on the far right side of the Geometricpanel controls the display of the Constraint Bars. This iswhere you can control the display of constraint bars with theShow, Show All, and Hide All options. These are the samefunctions that are available in the CONSTRAINTBARcommand mentioned earlier.

Showwill display the current constraints that apply to an object when you place your cursor over theobject. It will also highlight the objects affected by the constraints.

Show Allwill turn on all the constraint bars for the objects in the drawing that have constraints appliedto them.

Hide allturns off all of the constraint bars in the drawing.


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Auto Constraints

The sub panel on the left contains the AutoConstraint command. This tool can significantly speed upthe process of adding constraints to objects. AutoConstraintwill add specific constraints to objects that meet certainparameters. For example, applying AutoConstrain to twocircles will apply the appropriate concentric constraint whileapplying AutoConstraint to a rectangle applies the coincident,horizontal, parallel, and perpendicular constraints to maintainthe rectangular shape.

Which constraints are applied automatically can be presetin the constraint settings dialog box. Select the button onthe menu panel or type in CONSTRAINTSETTINGS at the

command prompt and select the AutoConstrainttab.

This dialog will allow you turndetermine which constraints areapplied to an object or a selection setand also gives you the ability tochange the order in which theconstraints are applied.

There are also toggle buttons that canbe used to require that a tangentconstraint will only be applied if the arcand the tangent object share acommon point or if two perpendicularlines intersect before the constraint willbe applied.

Distance and angle tolerances can beapplied to limit the tolerances that areapplied to those values.


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Dimensional Constraints

Dimensional constraints function much like associative

dimensions, only in this case its the object that changes tomatch the dimension and the not the dimension changingto match the object.

Dimensional constraints have a panel on the Parametrictab next to the Geometric constraints. This panel containsseveral commands, which will apply different dimensional constraints.

Linear Linear constraints create a horizontal or verticaldimensional constraint. Select the Linear icon on theDimensional constraint panel or type DIMCONSTRAINT andselect the Linearoption Selecting the pulldown menu on the

lower half of the icon allows you to choose from Linear,horizontal or vertical. Linear switches from vertical tohorizontal dynamically depending on the direction that youmove the dimension line based on the extension line origins.

Horizontal places horizontal constraint,regardless of the angle of the object andVertical does the same in the verticaldirection. When a new dimensionalconstraint is created it is given a uniqueidentifier by AutoCAD. These identifierscan be changed in the parameter manager,which well cover later.

Aligned Aligned dimensional constraints are much like the aligned dimensions in that they align withthe angle of the object that they constrain. Selectthe aligned icon on the Dimensional constraintpanel or type DIMCONSTRAINT and select theAlignedoption. At the command prompt theoptions Object, Point & line, and 2Linesappear.Objectwill allow you to add the aligned constraintto an object without picking constraint points. Point& linewill select a constraint point and the closestpoint on a line to that point. 2linesis handy in thatit will select two lines and make the second parallelto the first and maintain the distance between thetwo lines.


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Radial This is not a constraint that involvestires, it controls the radius of an arc or circle.

Diameter Like the Radial constraint, thisconstrains the diameter of an arc or a circle.

Angular Angular constraints control the anglebetween two line or polyline segments, the angleswept out by an arc or a polyline arc segment, or the

angle between three points on different objects. Ifthe angle is greater than 360 degrees or is anegative number, the number displayed is based onthe units in the drawing. For example, in decimaldegrees, 390 degrees would display as a 30-degreeangle.

Form This constrain commands serves two purposes, first it will convert associative dimensions intoa constraint or it can specify whether a constraint it dynamic or annotational. These will most likelyraise two questions, why is it called Formand not Convertand what are dynamic or annotationalconstraints?

There is one answer for both questions, although its a complicated answer. There are three forms ofdimensional constraints; dynamic, annotational and reference. This command determines which formthe Dimensional constraint will take on. Lets look further into what purpose the three forms ofconstraints server.


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Dynamic constraints are the default form of dimensional constraints. These are best for normalparametric drawing and design tasks as they function much like a construction line would. They caneasily be turned on or off globally in the drawing using the DYNCONSTRAINTDISPLAY command.They display using a fixed, predefined dimension style. They position the text information of theconstraint automatically, and provide triangle grips with which you can change the value of adimensional constraint and they do not display when the drawing is plotted.

Annotational constraints are useful when you want dimensional constraints to have more of thecharacteristics of typical dimensions. They can be placed on layers, which is not an option available toDynamic constraints. They are displayed using the current dimension style. They can be modifiedusing grips provide grips similar to those used on dimensions. They are also displayed when thedrawing is plotted.

After plotting, you can use the Properties palette to convert annotational constraints back to dynamicconstraints.

Reference constraints are driven by the geometry and are strictly for informational purposes. Thismeans that it does not control the associated geometry, but rather reports a measurement similar to adimension object. Dynamic and AnnotationalConstraints can both be converted intoreference constraints.

Reference constraints will always display thetext information in parentheses and cannot bemodified. Like an associative dimension, itwill follow the constrained geometry anddisplay the new information for that object orobjects.

Managing Constraints

The final panel on the Parametric menu tab is the Manage panel. This panelhas only two commands, Delete constraints and the Parameters manager.

A constraint can be deleted at any time by simply selecting the individualconstraint and selecting ERASE or hitting the delete key. Delete constraintswill delete all of the constraints associated with the selected object at one

time.


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The Parameters Manageris a palette that displays the constraints in a drawing and all of theassociative variables (dimensional constraint variables and user-defined variables).

The Parameters Manager palettedisplays three columns, by default.You can also right click and usethe shortcut menu to add twocolumns for Description and Type.

The Name column displays thename that AutoCAD generated forthe dimensional constraint. Thisname can be changed tosomething more user friendly.

The Expression column displays

the real number or the equation forthe expression, for example,d1+d2 or 390 degrees.

The Value column shows thenumber that will be displayed on the dimensional constraint. For example, it would show the distancebetween d1+d2 or 30 degrees.

Description and Type, if displayed, will show user comments added to the constraints and dimensionalconstraint type respectively.

Conclusion of Segment 1

Hopefully this segment helped clear up the mystery behind Parametric modeling. While it all may seemintimidating, after experimenting with it you might be surprised at how easy it is to use the newcommands. In the next segment well look at some more new commands and some of the ones thathave been completely overhauled.

Remember that this material is only a portion of the class, support is always available online in theprivate course forum. I encourage you to visit the course forum and ask any questions that you mayhave about this segment or simply join in the discussion. The ATP Mantra is: the only stupid question isthe one you dont ask. Thanks again for attending this course!

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