TABLE OF CONTENTS Before you can start to use AutoCAD 2007's new capabilities, you'll need to become familiar with the basics. If you are completely new to AutoCAD, you'll want to read this first chapter carefully. It introduces you to many of AutoCAD's basic operations, such as opening and closing files, getting a close-up look at part of a drawing, and changing a drawing. If you are familiar with earlier versions of AutoCAD, you will want to review this chapter anyway to get acquainted with features you haven't already used.
Autodesk has recently changed its AutoCAD update strategy to release new versions on a yearly basis. Part of this strategy is to introduce new items that are focused on a particular category of features. This latest version, AutoCAD 2007, includes several new features focused on 3D modeling. In fact, with these new 3D modeling features, AutoCAD has something of a split personality. The familiar and reliable 2D drawing features are still there, but AutoCAD's 3D feature set has changed so extensively that using them almost makes AutoCAD feel like an entirely different program.
You'll get a chance to explore these new 3D features in Part 4 of this book, but for now, let's get started with some...
