Overview

AutoCAD drawings can contain a great deal of information. You can you store text-based information both as labels in the drawing and as hidden written information, and you can also query graphic elements to find distance and area measurements.

This chapter provides information about how you can store and retrieve information about the drawing. You ll find out how to gather information from your drawing when you re measuring an area or looking for a lost file. You will also find information on how to add textual data to help you when you are doing file searches with DesignCenter.

Other topics covered in this chapter include:

• Measuring Areas

• Finding the Coordinate of a Point

• Measuring Distances

• Measuring Angles

• Getting the General Status of the Drawing

• Finding the Time Spent on a Drawing

• Adding Nondrawing Data to Store with Your Drawing

• Finding Text in a Drawing

• Locating and Selecting Named Components

• Finding Missing Support Files

Measuring Areas

One of the first measurement tasks you re likely to need is the area in a drawing. It might be the area of a site plan or the floor space of a commercial building. Before AutoCAD came along, finding the area in a drawing was a tedious and error-ridden job. Now that you are using AutoCAD, you can quickly find areas of all shapes and sizes, and you ll be certain that you have an accurate area calculation.

You can measure an area in several ways. It...