Math for AutoCAD.

If you work in AutoCAD, you need to know some basic math and a few equations to make you life easier. If you follow these tips, you'll find that your drawings work better, you will save time, and anyone else who works on your drawings will thank you.

Here are a few important tips: 1. Always draw at 1"=1". This is the best rule in the game. Everything works nicely so long as that remains true. It doesn't matter if you are drawing a screw or an airport, you will draw it at full size. You'll want to make sure that the dimensions are set to associative, because if the drawing is the correct size then your dimensions will automatically be the correct dimension, and if they are wrong, do not change them, but rather change your drawing to the correct size. Note: the default value for associative dimensioning is "<>". If you have changed them, simply edit it and type in "<>" and they will reset themselves.
2. Know what scale you will want to plot your drawing at. This is important.
3. Use Paper and Model space. Doing so will allow you to never have to worry about what scale to plot a drawing it.

Example 1: The architect comes over to me and tells me to plot out five sheets. I never worked on these drawings before, so I have no idea what scale they are at. I open the first one, and see a floor plan. I assume it is at 1/8" scale, and try to plot preview it: maybe it fits, maybe not. If not, I try other scales till I find one that works. I then open the next drawing. It's a detail sheet. Its scale could be anything. I try about four different scales before I find one that works. It's been five minutes, the architect is waiting for the drawings, and I've still three more to plot. By the time I'm done plotting, I've wasted 30 minutes.
Example 2: The drawings were done in Paperspace and Modelspace and all I do is open the drawing, and plot with a scale of 1"=1". It's simple quick and easy, with no thinking required. If I wanted to save even more time I would type pt, which is a command I created in the ACAD.LSP file, and open the next drawing. The pt command would simply use the command line version of the plot, set the scale and all other information required by the plot command and maybe even have the open command in it to, so that I would have one less step to do. All told, I've spent about two to three minutes plotting out the drawing. I can get on with my work, and the architect walks away thinking how quick I am.

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