Mastering ® AutoCAD 2017 and ® AutoCAD LT 2017 George Omura with Brian Benton Senior Acquisitions Editor: Stephanie McComb Development Editor: Gary Schwartz Technical Editor: Richard Hawley Production Editor: Christine O’Connor Copy Editor: Elizabeth Welch Editorial Manager: Mary Beth Wakefield Production Manager: Kathleen Wisor Executive Editor: Jim Minatel Book Designers: Maureen Forys, Happenstance Type-O-Rama, Judy Fung Proofreader: Kim Wimpsett Indexer: Ted Laux Project Coordinator, Cover: Brent Savage Cover Designer: Wiley Cover Image: Yuriy Bel’ mesov/Shutterstock Copyright © 2016 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana Published simultaneously in Canada ISBN: 978-1-119-24005-1 ISBN: 978-1-119-24006-8 (ebk.) ISBN: 978-1-119-24007-5 (ebk.) 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If this book refers to media such as a CD or DVD that is not included in the version you purchased, you may download this material at http://booksupport.wiley.com. For more information about Wiley prod- ucts, visit www.wiley.com. Library of Congress Control Number: 2016936528 TRADEMARKS: Wiley, the Wiley logo, and the Sybex logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and/or its affiliates, in the United States and other countries, and may not be used without written permission. AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT are regis- tered trademarks of Autodesk, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. is not associ- ated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 To the memory of my dear mother, Shizuko Omura, who was my first and best teacher: 1913–2015. Acknowledgments Many talented and hardworking people gave their best effort to produce Mastering AutoCAD 2017 and AutoCAD LT 2017. I offer my sincerest gratitude to those individuals who helped bring this book to you. Heartfelt thanks go out to the editorial and production teams at Sybex for their efforts. Mary Beth Wakefield managed the project and helped us all make the right connections. Stephanie McComb made sure things got off to a great start and provided support from beginning to end. Gary Schwartz skillfully managed the development process. Richard Hawley did an excellent technical editing job and offered many great suggestions. On the production side, Christine O'Connor kept the production end of things running smoothly, and Liz Welch made sure that I wasn't trying out new uses of the English language. Thanks also go to Denis Cadu, who has always given his support to our efforts over many projects. Jim Quanci always gives his generous and thoughtful assistance to us author types. Thanks to Elinor Actipis for providing help with general Autodesk matters. Finally, thanks go to Melissa D. Schmidt, Shari Nemerovski, and Alison Keller of the AutoCAD Customer Counsel team and everyone at the Autodesk beta team for generously allowing us to have a look at the prerelease software. And a great big thank-you to my family and friends, who have been there for me through thick and thin. About the Authors George Omura is a licensed architect, Autodesk Authorized Author, and CAD specialist with more than 28 years of experience in AutoCAD and over 35 years of experience in architecture. He has worked on design projects rang- ing from resort hotels to metropolitan transit systems. George has written numerous other AutoCAD books for Sybex such as Mastering AutoCAD 2016 and AutoCAD LT 2016. Brian C. Benton is a senior engineering technician, CAD service provider, technical writer, and blogger. He has over 20 years of experience in various design fields (mechanical, structural, civil, survey, marine, environmental) and is well versed in many design software packages (CAD, GIS, and graph- ics). He is Cadalyst magazine’s Tip Patroller, AUGI HotNews production man- ager, and Infinite Skills’ AutoCAD training video author. Contents at a Glance Introduction .......................................................................xxvii Part 1 • The Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Chapter 1 • Exploring the Interface ...........................................3 Chapter 2 • Creating Your First Drawing ..................................... 31 Chapter 3 • Setting Up and Using the Drafting Tools  .......................... 79 Chapter 4 • Organizing Objects with Blocks and Groups ...................... 119 Chapter 5 • Keeping Track of Layers and Blocks  ............................. 149 Part 2 • Mastering Intermediate Skills  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181 Chapter 6 • Editing and Reusing Data to Work Efficiently  ..................... 183 Chapter 7 • Mastering Viewing Tools, Hatches, and External References  ........225 Chapter 8 • Introducing Printing, Plotting, and Layouts....................... 273 Chapter 9 • Adding Text to Drawings .......................................305 Chapter 10 • Using Fields and Tables........................................ 341 Chapter 11 • Using Dimensions ............................................363 Part 3 • Mastering Advanced Skills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .415 Chapter 12 • Using Attributes  ............................................. 417 Chapter 13 • Copying Existing Drawings from Other Sources  .................445 Chapter 14 • Advanced Editing and Organizing  ............................. 473 Chapter 15 • Laying Out Your Printer Output ................................ 517 Chapter 16 • Making “Smart” Drawings with Parametric Tools  ................545 Chapter 17 • Using Dynamic Blocks ........................................565