The Probert Encyclopaedia of Science & Technology

AUTOCAD

AutoCAD Release 10 is a two and three-dimensional computer aided drafting and design system. The product lets you define screens and optional pull-down menus and create parts libraries by drawing them, so the system can be geared to a specific requirement. The product is a general-purpose system suitable for a wide variety of applications including architectural and landscape drawings; drafting for mechanical, electrical, chemical, structural, and civil engineering; and printed circuit design. Drawing and editing features include move, copy, modify, dimension, scale, mirror, hatch, rotate, fill, and erase objects in a drawing. Repetitive patterns such as brick walls, memory arrays, or office components can be generated automatically. Colours and an unlimited number of layers may be used, allowing selective viewing or plotting of drawings as if on transparent overlays. The full bi-directional zoom facility allows you to work at any level of detail.

The ratio between the largest and smallest objects in a drawing can be over a trillion to one. An alignment grid can be displayed. Distances and areas can be calculated and displayed. Three-dimensional drawing capability, AutoCAD's most notable feature, lets you represent an object so it can be seen from any angle. AutoCAD Release 10 also features associative dimensioning, which automatically updates the dimensions of a drawing whenever an object is scaled, stretched, or rotated. Release 10 allows you to construct objects in CAD much as you would build a structure. The approach is modular; that is, each piece of the final drawing is created as a separate object. To build an office building, you define the plane for the front of the building, move to that plane or a view of that plane to draw, then move to the side defining a new plane, and soon until a complete two or three-dimensional structure stands. An analogy to drafting does not work because a drafting table cannot be situated in a three-dimensional plane.

AutoCAD Release 10 supports the Intel Above Board, which increases the speed at which large, complex drawings can be created and edited. It supports the Initial Graphics Exchange Standard (ICES, Version 2.0) for both input and output, so translations can be made between AutoCAD Release 10 and other systems supporting IGES. You can transfer AutoCAD Release 10 drawing files among four operating systems: PC or MS DOS, Sun UNIX, DEC VMS, and Apollo AEGIS.
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