Discovering AutoCAD 2024

Mark Dix first worked with AutoCAD as a programmer in 1985. The following year he began collaborating with Paul Riley to create AutoCAD training material, combining Paul's background in industrial design with his own background in writing and curriculum development. Mark received an M.A.T. from Cornell University and an M.S. degree from the University of Massachusetts. Paul Riley was an early advocate for exposing students to the advantages of learning AutoCAD for career advancement. Paul holds a B.S. in Education and an M.S. in Computer Technology with a career that has included teaching at public high school, private college, public university, and technology companies in the Boston area. Lee Ambrosius has held many different roles in the industry and has a wide range of experience with AutoCAD. He started using AutoCAD in 1994, even before he began his professional career as a drafter in 1996. Along with being a drafter, Lee loosely held the position of CAD manager and later CAD systems analyst as his career pushed into software programming. As Lee's career matured, he began writing articles for Autodesk User Group International (AUGI) newsletters and publications, working on more than a dozen published AutoCAD books, instructing classes at a local community college, and even presenting at Autodesk University (AU) over the course of 18 consecutive years. Lee is actively involved with AutoCAD today, and he's still sharing his knowledge almost 30 years after drawing his first line object in the AutoCAD drawing window. He spends most of his days taking the complexities out of learning AutoCAD by breaking down workflows into basic learning lessons—the same approach used in his books.  When not writing about AutoCAD, Lees spends his time running, playing arcade games, and enjoying his family (wife, three children, and the “fur” babies who really run the house) in Northeastern Wisconsin.

Part One          Basic Two-Dimensional Entities

Chapter 1        Lines and Essential Tools       

Chapter 2        Circles and Drawing Aids       

Chapter 3        Layers, Colors, and Linetypes

Chapter 4        Templates, Copies, and Arrays           

Chapter 5        Arcs and Polar Arrays 

Chapter 6        Object Snaps and Resized Objects     

Part Two          Text, Dimensions, and Other Complex Entities

Chapter 7        Text    

Chapter 8        Dimensions    

Chapter 9        Polylines         

Chapter 10      Blocks, Attributes, and External References  

Part Three       Isometric Drawing and Three-Dimensional Modeling

Chapter 11      Isometric Drawing     

Chapter 12      3D Modeling  

Chapter 13      More Modeling Techniques and Commands 

Appendix A     Drawing Projects        

Appendix B      Creating Custom Ribbon Panels        

Appendix C      Menus, Macros, and the CUI

Appendix D and Glossary are available online at peachpit.com/Discoverautocad2024.