CHITKARA SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING AND

TECHNOLOGY Lab Manual

CHITKARA UNIVERSITY CAMPUS HIMUDA Education Hub,
Plot No. 3 & 4Kalujhanda, Barotiwala Distt. Solan - 174 103
Himachal Pradesh
Practical Experiment Instructions Sheet
Exp. Title Starting a New Drawing EXP. NO. 4
CG Lab Semester-1st/2nd Page No.
1 of 5

Aim: To study the procedures for starting a new drawing, setting limit and saving a
drawing.

4.1 Starting a New Drawing: A new drawing can be started using any of the
following options:

(a) Application Menu : New>Drawing

(b) Command : NEW or QNEW
(c) Quick Access Tool Bar : New
(d) Menu Bar : New>Drawing

The select dialog box as shown below will be displayed after invoking the New tool using
any of the above options.

Figure 4.1: The Select Template Dialog Box

4.1.1. Open Using a Template: To open a new drawing using a default template select
the template and click on the open button at the bottom of the select template dialog box.
4.1.2. Open With No Template: To open a new drawing without using any of the
templates choose the down arrow on the right of the open button and select the Open with no
template- Metric or Open with no template-Imperial option from the flyout.
4.1.3. Starting a New Drawing Using Create New Drawing Dialog Box: The other
 CHITKARA SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING AND
TECHNOLOGY Lab Manual
CHITKARA UNIVERSITY CAMPUS HIMUDA Education Hub,
Plot No. 3 & 4Kalujhanda, Barotiwala Distt. Solan - 174 103
Himachal Pradesh
Practical Experiment Instructions Sheet
Exp. Title Starting a New Drawing EXP. NO. 4
CG Lab Semester-1st/2nd Page No.
2 of 5

method of staring a new drawing is by using the Create New Drawing Dialog Box. This
dialog box is not displayed by default. To invoke the display of this dialog box the command
STARTUP has to be entered in the command line and then enter 1 as the new value for this
system variable. The other possible value of this system variable is 0. When the STARTUP
system variable is set to 1 the Create New Drawing Dialog Box as shown below will be
displayed whenever the user invokes the NEW tool.

Use a Template

Use a Wizard

Start from Scratch

Figure 4.2: The Create New Drawing dialog box

The Create New Drawing dialog box provides three different options. These are:

4.1.3.1. Start from Scratch: This button provides the user with the options to start a new drawing
that contains the default AutoCAD setup for Imperial (Feet and Inches) or Metric drawings.

4.1.3.2. Use a Template: Choosing this option allows the user to start a new drawing
using any of the available template files in AutoCAD. When a template file is used to start a
new file, then the new drawing will have all the drawing parameters such as units, limits and
other settings as specified in the template file.
4.1.3.3. Use a Wizard: The Use a Wizard option allows the user to set the
initial drawing settings before actually starting the drawing. The wizard provides the user
with two options. These are:
4.1.3.3.1. Quick Setup: In Quick set the user can specify the units and limits of the
work area.
 CHITKARA SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING AND
TECHNOLOGY Lab Manual
CHITKARA UNIVERSITY CAMPUS HIMUDA Education Hub,
Plot No. 3 & 4Kalujhanda, Barotiwala Distt. Solan - 174 103
Himachal Pradesh
Practical Experiment Instructions Sheet
Exp. Title Starting a New Drawing EXP. NO. 4
CG Lab st nd Page No.
Semester-1 /2
3 of 5

Figure 4.3: The Units page of the Figure 4.4: The Area page of the
Quick Setup Wizard Quick Setup Wizard

4.1.3.3.2. Advanced Setup: The Advanced Setup allows the user to preselect the
parameters of a new drawing such as the units and precision for displaying the units after
decimal of linear and angular measurement, type and direction of angular measurements,
approximate area desired for the drawing.

Figure 4.5: The Units page of the Figure 4.6: The Angel page of the
Advanced Setup Wizard Advanced Setup Wizard
 CHITKARA SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING AND
TECHNOLOGY Lab Manual
CHITKARA UNIVERSITY CAMPUS HIMUDA Education Hub,
Plot No. 3 & 4Kalujhanda, Barotiwala Distt. Solan - 174 103
Himachal Pradesh
Practical Experiment Instructions Sheet
Exp. Title Starting a New Drawing EXP. NO. 4
CG Lab Semester-1st/2nd Page No.
4 of 5

Figure 4.7: The Angel Measure page of Figure 4.8: The Angel Direction page of
the Advanced Setup Wizard the Advanced Setup Wizard

Figure 4.9: The Area Page of the Advanced Setup Wizard

4.2. Setting the Limits of a Drawing: In AutoCAD, limits represent the drawing area and it
is endless. Therefore, it is essential to define the drawing area before starting the drawing.
The limits of the drawing area are usually determined by the following factors.

(a) The actual size of drawing.

(b) The space needed for adding dimensions and other necessary details.
(c) The space between various views so that the drawing does not look cluttered.
(d) The space for the border and title block if any.

4.2.1. Setting the Limits when Starting a Drawing Using a template or No Template: The
command sequence for setting limits when starting a drawing using a template or no template
is as follows.

AutoCAD menu utilities loaded.

Command: Limits
Reset Model space limits:
Specify lower left corner or [ON/OFF] <0.0000, 0.0000>: (Do not change this setting)
Specify upper right corner <420.0000 ,297.0000>: Enter the required coordinates of the
upper left corner as determined after considering the points mentioned in Para 4.2 above.
 CHITKARA SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING AND
TECHNOLOGY Lab Manual
CHITKARA UNIVERSITY CAMPUS HIMUDA Education Hub,
Plot No. 3 & 4Kalujhanda, Barotiwala Distt. Solan - 174 103
Himachal Pradesh
Practical Experiment Instructions Sheet
Exp. Title Starting a New Drawing EXP. NO. 4
CG Lab Semester-1st/2nd Page No.
5 of 5

Command: z
ZOOM
Specify corner of window, enter a scale factor (nX or nXP), or
[All/Center/Dynamic/Extents/Previous/Scale/Window/Object] <real time>: All
Regenerating model.

Note: When not using the wizards to start a drawing, units and precision of length and angel
measurement and direction of angel measurement can be to checked and set using the
command UNITS.

4.2.2. Setting the Limits when Starting a Drawing Using Create New Drawing Dialog
Box: When starting a drawing using the create new drawing dialog box enter the required
paper size (i.e. upper right corner coordinates as calculated considering the factors mentioned
in Para 4.2 above) in the Area Page (Refer Fig 4.4 & Fig 4.9 above) of the Quick Setup or
Advanced Setup Wizard. Then enter the command ZOOM followed by ALL in the
command line.

Note: Whenever the drawing limits are reset, the display area does not change
automatically. Use the ALL option of the ZOOM command to change the display area to
the new dimension.

4.3. Saving a Drawing: QSAVE, SAVEAS and SAVE commands allows the user to
save his/her work. When the user selects SAVE tool from the Quick Access Toolbar or the
Application Menu, the QSAVE command is invoked. If the current drawing is unnamed and
the drawing is being saved for the first time during the present session, the SAVEAS
command will be invoked and Save Drawing As dialog will appear on the screen where the
user can enter the file name. The save Drawing As dialog box will also be displayed when the
Save As tool from the Application Menu or Quick Access Toolbar is selected. The Save
command is the most rarely used command and can be invoked only from the command line
by entering SAVE at the command prompt