New User With A New Question

First I want to thank those who responded to my previous question. I
have managed to complete all 3 views. Now I am in the process of
modifying the drawing. I am going along just fine when I lost the whole
drawing. The drawing is there as if I go to Print Preview I can see it.
But I can not get it on my screen at all. I have scrolled up and down
and left and right without success. Also I am unable to have my pointer
show in the drawing space. I have saved the drawing, closed AutoCad and
then reopened the drawing and the same conditions exist. I am sure this
is caused by something I did but for the life of me I am unable to
determine what that was. This is not covered in my manual.
I am using AutoCad LT 98.
Thanks for any and all help

 

In a previous post mike says...

Mike:

I suspect you may have a stray entity way out in space from your
drawing. Try this:

Type LIST
then choose "Select All Entities"
hit ENTER
you will get a list of the entities in your drawing and their
coordinates.

See if you can determine if there are any items that don't belong.

Also, try to note the coordinates of the items in your 3 views. You
should be able to see only your views by doing a ZoomWindow and typing
the approximate coordinates of the lower left corner and upper right
corner of your 3 views.

If this works then you have a stray entity. To erase the bogus item,
type ERASE, then choose "Outside Window Select". Draw a window around
the items you want to keep, then hit ENTER. This will erase everything,
except the stuff you want. ZOOM Extants should now get you back to your
3 views.

 

I haven't followed the previous thread, but here goes:

Is it possible you are in the "wrong space"? Try typing MSPACE and/or PSPACE
and click on the screen somewhere.

 

OK, at least I see my drawing but I am not functioning correctly.
When I am in Paper Space, I seem to have 2 Grids. The one that is with
my drawing and a second one surrounding the entire drawing. Also I am
unable to select any object. If I put the crosshairs on a line and
click I am asked for the Other Corner. Model Space floating seems to
behave as does Paper Space. Model Space tiled does not show me the
drawing at all. Also the entire work space is surrounded by a
rectangle.
Thanks again Bob & Mike

 

F1. Study Paper Space; Model Space; Tilemode; Floating viewports; and
similar subjects.

For starters, you ought to be doing all your drawing in Model Space (i.e.,
on the "Model" tab) with TILEMODE = 1. Don't worry about Paper Space or
Layouts until you get serious about setting up viewports for plotting. Then,
those topics cited above will be helpful.

As I've attempted to convey before, newsgroup discussions are a poor way to
attempt to learn AutoCAD basics, and a very poor substitute for a good
beginning level book, the HELP system, or even a course at a local Community
College. Otherwise, it's going to be a long, steep haul up the learning
curve.
___

 

In a previous post Paul Turvill says...

Mike:

Paul has given some excellent advice in the paragraph above. See if you
can get into a night course at the local community college or get a book
at the local Barnes & Noble to help you.

 

Try opening your drawing then go to the top toolbar and select VIEW
then ZOOM then click EXTENTS.

 

I am working with a manual titled "AutoCAD LT98 Getting Started Guide".
Like all manuals it tells you how to do things but not how to 'fix'
things when you did them wrong.
Thanks for your help.

 

You are lost, buddy, and need someone to sit next to you and explain the
spaces. We can't guess from your description what your exact situation is,
so can't really offer any help unless we go ONE STEP AT A TIME.
See my comments below in caps:

IF TILEMODE IS SET TO 0, YOU WILL BE ABLE TO SEE PAPERSPACE
AND, IF THERE ARE VIEWPORTS AND THEY ARE ON, MODELSPACE
INSIDE THE PORTS. THE SPACE AROUND AND BETWEEN THE PORTS
IS PAPERSPACE. WATCH THE UCS ICON AS YOU TOGGLE BETWEEN
MSPACE AND PSPACE.

YOU ARE TRYING TO PICK A MODELSPACE ENTITY FROM PAPERSPACE.
ACAD THINKS YOU ARE PICKING AN EMPTY POINT AND IS ASKING FOR
THE SECOND POINT OF A WINDOW OR CROSSING.

YOU REALLY GOT TO GET THE "LINGO" DOWN BEFORE WE WILL BE
ABLE TO DO MUCH MORE. (WE CAN'T SEE YOUR SCREEN.)

WHO MADE THIS DRAWING?

 

I forgot the one step at a time part. See below.....

Do this:

TILEMODE>0>
then
PSPACE>
then
-LAYER>ON>*>THAW>*>>
then
Zoom>Extents>

Now you should see all of the ports out there. (They can overlap, which gets
tricky.)

Now,

MSPACE>

Cursor should jump to the 'active' port, UCSICON will change.

You can now pick, zoom, pan in the active port only.

Now click inside another port, similar behavior.

Now,

PSPACE>

Now you can only pan, zoom, pick, draw, etc in paperspace.

Now,

TILEMODE>1>

Paperspace is not visible, only model. if your screen is split
into "tiled ports", click in one port to make it active. Zoom, etc.

To get rid of tiled ports, if any,

-VPORTS>SI>

Zoom, pan etc.

TILEMODE>0>

See paperspace, right? Now,

MSPACE>

Pan, zoom in the active port. Click in another port to make it active.
Zoom, pan etc.

Does that help?

 

That is NOT a BOOK. It is a simplistic *guide* for someone who is already
familiar with CAD software, and who probably has some previous training in
drafting and/or engineering graphics. Judging from your questions, you need
a lot more guidance than you can get from the Getting Started Guide. Get a
more comprehensive book. Take a community college course. At the very LEAST,
learn how to use the built-in HELP system.
___

 

In theory you are right, I should take a course. But let me tell you of
my past expierences with courses and teachers.
I had a background in computer programming, all of it on main frame
computers. A couple of years I thought I would like to try and do some
programming on my PC. So off I went to my local college and enrolled in
a Visual Basic, VB, course. Part of the course was come up with an idea
for a program, get approval of the idea and then write the program to
accomplish it. It did not have to be anything complex. I decided to
develop an interactive tic tac toe game. Every thing was fine until I
ran into some kind of a problem which I brought to the instructor for
help. I soon found out that the instructoe had only learned VB the
prior term and had no depth in the subject at all. I never had my
problem solved. In 2002 I moved and noticed that the community college
inmy new area also had a course in VB. I then enrolled there. I soon
found out that this instructor was at the same level of knowledge as
the prior one.
Being a senior it does not cost me much to enroll in these courses but
they did leave me with a feeling of disappointment with our
'educational' system.
I will look into an ACad course but this time I want to interview the
instructor before I waste my time.
Once again thanks to you all.

 

I learned AutoCAD at a technical school. But, the instructor was
relatively new to AutoCAD (it was just starting to be taught in tech
schools at the time). There was some instruction from the teacher, but
much of it was self-taught by reading through the extensive manuals
that came with the program at the time.

But, those days are long gone. No sofware comes with quality manuals
anymore. Perhaps a good compromise is a 6-week or even a 1-day getting
started kind of class. And then buying a good 3rd party book or two,
and reading over it.

 

Sad but true.

 

net>:
Distribution:

Bob Morrison wrote <<See if you can get into a night course at
the local community college or get a book at the local Barnes & Noble
to help you.>>

In the San Francisco Bay area of California, I see course listings
for AutoCAD, I think from at least some of the following schools:
University Of California extension service, San Francisco State
University, and the local community colleges. Such courses tend to
run several days, and cost several hundred dollars.

Over the years, I have bought several books on CAD for myself and
others. At the local Barnes & Noble, I once made the mistake of
buying a book written for nitwits. The book was extremely limited,
highly biased, and, in my opinion, worded in a rather ridiculous
manner. I don't recommend it even for a starter.

I highly recommend the book "AutoCAD [insert year] and AutoCAD LT
[insert year]". My edition (year 2004) was written by George Omura,
and was published by SYBEX in San Francisco. I bought it at the
local Fry's Electronics store. 1166 numbered pages. $48.

Dick Alvarez
alvarez at alumni dot caltech dot edu