In the previous lessons you have been having fun learning most of the basic commands that AutoCAD offers and you have been using our drawings that include preset layers, text styles, drawing settings etc. But now it is time to get down to the serious business of setting up your own drawing from scratch .

Starting from scratch means you will need to set or create the following:

Items 1 through 4 you have learned in previous lessons

1. Drawing Units (Lesson 4)

2. Snap and Grid (Lesson 2)

3. Create Text styles (Lesson 25)

4. Create Dimension Styles (Lesson 16)

Items 5 through 9 will be learned in this lesson

1. Create new layers and load linetypes.

2. Create a Layout for plotting.

3. Create a Floating Viewport in the Layout.

4. Create a Page Setup to save plot settings.

5. Plot the drawing from Paper space.

After reading pages 26-3 through 26-18 start Exercise 26A and work your way through to 26D. When you have completed Exercise 26D you will have created a master drawing named, My Decimal Setup . This master drawing will have everything set, created and prepared, ready to use each time you want to create a drawing using decimal units and to be plotted on an 11 x 17 inch sheet.

This means, for future drawings you merely open My Decimal Setup and start drawing. No time consuming setups.