autocad illustrator

8/8/2019 Autocad Illustrator

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DUSP CDD Design Software Workshop

AutoCAD + Adobe Illustrator

This tutorial is aimed at beginners and intermediate level urban designers, with limitedor no prior experience with AutoCAD and Adobe Illustrator. Since both software

packages are commonly used in urban and architectural design practice, the tutorialprovides a brief overview of some basic functionality.

Sept, 2, 2009

Andres Sevtsuk

Contact: [email protected]
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]


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AutoCAD

In order to get you off at a head start, weve prepared a site plan (an actual site inSomerville, MA), which we shall use as the base drawing. We shall modify this basedrawing by designing a new building footprint, modifying the landscaping and enhancingthe drawing with details like shadows, trees etc. We shall then bring the drawing over toAdobe Illustrator for additional enhancements like setting line wights, adding color, etc.However, before getting started on modifying the base drawing in either software, weshall go over some basic functionality in AutoCAD and Illustrator.

AutoCAD basics

Open AutoCAD by:

Start Programs Autodesk AutoCAD2008 AutoCAD2008

1. Explore the interface:

1.ActiveLayerandits

attributes(right):color,

linetypeandlineweight

2.ModelDrawingArea.Youcanadjust

background

color

by

right

clickOptions

Displaypane:Colors

3.Onthetopyoutypicallyseethetoolbars.

Rightclick

at

an

empty

toolbar

area

ACAD

toseeallthetoolbaroptions.Itistypicalto

holdLayers,Properties,andStandard

Annotationalwaysopen.Youcanaddmany

others,andbydraggingthetoolbarsoffthe

toprow,youcanpositionthemoneitherside

ofthescreenorbottom.

4.Cursorwhichalsoprovidessomeinfo

aboutthecurrentdrawingobject.(you

canadjustthesizeby:rightclickinthe

drawingareaOptionscrosshairsize)

5.ThisiswhereAutoCADreturnsinformation.

Forex,ifyoumeasuredistancebetween2

points,thisiswhereyoureadtheanswer.

7.ButtonsforOSNAP(snapto

existingobjectsinthedrawingisa

majorhelp),ORTO(locknewdrawing

toorthogonaldirectionsonly),

OTRACK(helpsdrawingbyextension

linesfrom

existing

objects)

LWT

(displayslayerlineweights),

MODEL(switchbetweenpaperspace

andmodelspace)etc.

6.CommandLine:hereyoucantypein

AutoCADcommands

instead

of

choosing

them

withamouse.Fulllistofcommandsis

availableunder:ToolsCustomizeEdit

ProgramParameters


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2.1. Selecting objects

There are three important things to know about selecting objects with a mouse.1) If you draw a selection box from left to right (picking the first selection box corner

and then moving RIGHT for the second corner), then ONLY the object that fall

FULLY INSIDE the box will be selected.2) If you draw a selection box from right to left (picking the first selection box cornerand then moving LEFT for the second corner), then all of the object that either fallfully inside the box, or are INTERSECTED by the box will be selected.

3) Another useful way to select things is by using the FENCE selection. This allowsyou to draw a selection fence much like a polyline, and all the objects that thefence intersects along the way will be selected. To use this, first type SELECTon the command line, press enter or the space bar, then type FENCE or just F,and draw the selection line. Press enter when done selecting. This is useful if youhave to choose items that are hard to capture with a selection box.

2.2. Layers

Objects can and should be often arranged on different layers. Open the layers menuand see what layers are currently created. Layer 0 is always there by default, youcannot delete it. You can add new layers, and set properties for them, which will applyto all the objects on these layers. When drawing, the objects you create will fall into thecurrent layer. To change the current layer, open the layers menu, select one, andpress current. Alternatively just choose an object of a certain layer in the drawing andclick the yellow current layer icon next to the layers menu button.

Turning layers invisible, frozen or locking them is helpful in managing complex drawingsand creating clean AutoCAD files. Another useful quality is that when we exportdrawings to Illustrator, then Illustrator can recognize AutoCAD layers and maintain theorganizations. We shall see how useful that is later.

Try to be systematic in arranging drawing objects on layers. There are two commonways to go about it- 1) if the drawing is shared by several people, then it can be usefulto separate different types of objects onto separate layers. For example have one layerfor trees, one for buildings, one for text, one for cars, one for pavements and so on. 2) Ifyoure preparing a drawing for printing, then it is often useful to put objects whose linesyou want to print in different line widths, on separate layers, For ex. The objects that the

plan slices trough can be represented with thicker lines, objects that are in thebackground with thinner lines, some less important objects in lighter colors etc.

3. Drawing with lines

2.1 Make sure the Draw and Modify toolbars are open. If not you can open them byright-clicking in an empty toolbar areaACAD Draw, Modify. Move these toolbars tosomewhere in the top or side docking area.


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3.1 Explore the Draw toolbar:

Polyline Rectangle

ConstructionLine Polygon

Hatch Text

Polyline (command shortcut pl): A Polyline is probably the most common drawing toolin AutoCAD. A polyline is a set of line- or arc segments, held together in a continuouschain. Multiple segments of a Polyline all form a single object together (as opposed to aLine tool, where each segment is a separate object). Arc and Spline (command

shortcuts a and spl):can be useful too for curves, but you can actually get all theirfunctionality with a Polyline instead as well.

Try drawing the following Polyline:

Choose the Polyline tool (or type pl and press enter) click the 5 first vertexes afterthe fifth vertex observe the command line. It offers the following options:Specify next point or Arc/Close/Halfwidth/Length/Undo/Width]:

Notice that theArc/Close/Halfwidth/Length/Undo/Widthoptions have capital firstletters. These signal to you that you can just press one of the capital letters (e.g. A) totell AutoCAD that you would now like to continue with an Arc.Press A draw the next 2 Polyline points, now the Polyline continues with arcs.Now note the command line options again (while drawing an arc into the polyline):[Angle/CEnter/CLose/Direction/Halfwidth/Line/Radius/Second pt/Undo/Width]:


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If you choose Line by pressing L, the following polyline segments turn into straightlines again and stay like that unless you change them again.

ORTO: AutoCAD offers a convenient option for drawing exactly orthogonal lines. At thevery bottom of the screen, one of the buttons is called ORTO. If you press it down, then

the lines you draw will be constrained to orthogonal or 45 degree angles. The shortcutfor turning this on or off is F8. Try turning it on and off and drawing some polylines.

Undo: At any point while drawing a polyline with multiple vertexes, you can also go toEdit Undo to delete the last vertex. This is very useful when you mess up some pointsand want to redraw them. Instead of navigating to EditUndo with the mouse, you canalso just type u.

Close: At any time while drawing a polyline you can press c to close and finish thepolyline.

Specific Length: if you need to draw a polyline segment to a precise length, which isoften the case, then choose a starting point, move the mouse in the desired direction ofthe next point, and type in the desired length for the Polyline segment on the commandline. Before you do that make sure you know what your drawing units are: FormatUnits: insertion scale. In the following exercise the units are inches.

Distance: to verify how long some segment on an existing drawing is, type di fordistance on the command line, and then select a start and end point in the drawing.Observe the result in the command line.

There are a few more very useful functions on the Drawing toolbar:

Construction Line (command shortcut xl): makes an infinitely long line that can behelpful as a drawing axis or alignment boundary. Typically keep these on a separatelayer.Polygon (command shortcut pol): makes an equilateral polygons with any desiredamount of sides. Try making a hexagon with 6 sides. Follow the directions AutoCADgives you on the Command Line when using the tool.Rectangle (command shortcut rec): This allows you to make rectangle shapedpolylines of desired size. Whether click two corner points, or click the first and enternumeric X and Y dimensions on the command line.Hatch (command shortcut h): Enables you to create a hatch inside an area closed bylines or polylines. Select hatch (or type h), pick a closed polyline, and press enter orright click. You can set the hatch properties in the dialog box.Text (command shortcut t): This allows you to enter texts at desired places, and setthe properties of the text object.

It often occurs that you need to change something on a polyline youve already drawn.For instance, you need to move some of its vertexes, join the polyline with some otherpolylines, give the line a certain width etc. This is what the Edit Polyline (command


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shortcut: pedit or pe) command is ideal for. Type pedit, choose a polyline and seethe editing options on the command line:Enter an option [Close/Join/Width/Edit vertex/Fit/Spline/Decurve/Ltype

If you type E, then you go into edit vertex mode. This allows you to move aroundexisting vertexes and add new ones. You can move between vertexes by pressing nfor next, or p for previous. C is for close which allows you to close off existingpolylines.

Another way for modifying polyline, which is sometimes simpler, is to just select thepolyline, grab one of its vertexes with the mouse, and drag it to another location. If youhold down Shift when selecting a vertex, then you can also select multiple vertexes formodification.

Edit multiple polylines (command shortcut: mpedit): this allows you to choose a setof polylines at once and edit them all together. After selecting the set of lines, arcs orpolylines, AutoCAD asks if you want to convert them into polylines, Reply yes Y on thecommand line and continue. See the options that are offered. This is, for instance, agood way to join a series of lines together into one polyline.

Edit Text (command shortcut ed): This allows you to edit existing text objects.

3.2. Explore the Modify Toolbar

The next important toolbar is Modify, which allows you to transform existing objects.

From left to rightErase (shortcut e):lets you choose and erase objects. You can use the same selectionbox technique as explained above to erase several objects at once. You can also usethe fence FCopy (shortcut cp): Choose tool, select base point, and drag copies of it aroundMirror (shortcut mi): Creates a mirror copy of an object. Need to specify an axis.Offset (shortcut o): Offsets an object border to a given distance. Works with all typesof objects (lines, circles, polylines, splines, etc)Array (shortcut ar): creates either rectangular or circular array of objects. Specify basepoint, and X, Y distances.

Move (shortcut m): Move objects, need to specify a base point.Rotate (shortcut ro): Rotates objects, need to specify a base point. The tool alsoallows you to create a copy when rotating, or rotating according to a reference.Specify rotation angle or [Copy/Reference] :In the latter case press R,specify a base point, then a first axis point, and then the second axis point where youwant the first axis point to rotate.Scale (shortcut sc): Scales objects. You need to specify a base point. You can eitherdrag the size with the mouse or enter a numeric value.


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Stretch (shortcut s): Stretches selected vertexes of an object to where you want them.Trim (shortcut tr): When two lines (objects) cross each other, you can cut off one withthe other. First select the cutting object, then press enter or right click, lastly select theobjects to be cut.Extend (shortcut ex): Extends lines or polylines to a desired object. First select the

object to which you want the extension to reach, press enter or right click, then selectthe object to extend.Break at point: Makes a tiny gap at the chosen location in the object and thereby addstwo new vertexes.Join (shortcut j): Joins two selected lines into one if they share a common vertex. Ifyou join lines to polylines, or arcs, then it is often simpler to just use Edit Polyline(pedit), which works for all of them.Fillet (shortcut f): creates a round corner connection between two straight lines. Youcan input a desired radius.Explode (shortcut x): Explodes a polyline into individual segment objects.

3.3 Snapping objects

To Osnap in AutoCAD (object snap) means to connect a vertex of the object youredrawing to some other object in a desired way. This allows you to do very preciseconnections between lines. For example, you can set the starting point of one lineprecisely at the end point of another, or as a matter of fact, any point on the otherobject. If you want to use osnapping, then turn on OSNAP at the bottom of the screen,or press F3.

If you hold down Shift, and right click on the drawing canvas, then the snap menuappear. You can use this while youre in the process of drawing an object to snapprecisely to a desired part of an object. Also at the bottom of this menu you see OsnapOptions. Here you can choose which osnap properties you want active all the time.Nearest for example means that osnap snaps to on a reference object anywhere youpoint, not necessarily a corner, or midpoint etc, but just on the object.


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Exercise 1: Designing a site plan in AutoCAD

1. Download and openhttp://web.mit.edu/asevtsuk/Public/CDD_design_sftware_workshop/plan.dwg

2. Explore the drawing; see what layers it has, by either opening the layer drop downmenu, or the Layer Properties Manager.

LayerPropertiesManager LayerDropdownmenu

CurrentLayer

3. Create a new layer, called My_siteplan in the Layer Properties Manager. Make thisthe current layer, by selecting it, and then pressing the Set Current. Click OK.

NewLayer

SetCurrent

4. In the middle of the drawing there is a red hatched area. This is the boundary whereyou should design a new building footprint for the site plan. You should draw your planon the new My_siteplan layer. Feel free to turn off the layer site_boundary that hasthe red area if it bothers you.
http://web.mit.edu/asevtsuk/Public/CDD_design_sftware_workshop/plan.dwghttp://web.mit.edu/asevtsuk/Public/CDD_design_sftware_workshop/plan.dwghttp://web.mit.edu/asevtsuk/Public/CDD_design_sftware_workshop/plan.dwg


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5. Draw any shape of a building footprint you think is appropriate for this site plan. As anexample Ive providing one plan below, but youre free to design any shape you like. Tryto make use of the polyline features, and end up with a single closed polyline.

6. Try to take advantage of construction lines and snapping in order to align yourbuilding sensibly with the surrounding context. For instance, you can use the edge ofthe opening towards Mystic Ave as a guideline for alignment, as shown below. Dont

worry about the design too much, just do something quick so we can move on.


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When done with the building footprint, change the layer of the new footprint polylinefrom My_siteplan to the existing site_bldng_outlines. Make sure the the LWT buttonat the very bottom of the screen is turned on to display the correct line weights.

7. Add a shadow to the house. Having shadows on a plan is very useful for

understanding the third dimension how high the buildings are- from a two-dimensionalplan drawing.

Follow the example of other buildings in the drawing and use the shadows layer fordrawing the shadow. We shall assume that your building is 240 inches tall. If the sunfalls at a 45 degree vertical angle, then the length of the shadow must also be 240inches. This is a typical assumption The horizontal angle of the shadow should justfollow the same direction as all the other shadows.

To help you get that precise angle, Ive drawn a shadow edge line that is 240 in long,and placed it right next to the Mystic Ave text. Move or copy it to your building, placing

the line at all the vertexes on the shadow side of the building footprint you drew (asshown below).

Finally, create a closed polyline (pl) that ties together the end points of the shadowlines on one side, and the building wall on the other, and fill it with a solid hatch (h).Then delete the shadow construction lines and make sure the new shadow is on theshadow layer.

Send the gray shadow behind all the other lines by selecting the shadow line and hatch,and then, on the top of the screen, going to Tools Display order send to back.

8.Try to add four new parking spaces for the building. Use the layer Roads for theparking spaces. You may put them wherever you want near the building. See anexample on the previous drawing. Here you can make use of the copy (cp), offset (o)


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or rotate (r) tools to make the parking spaces as large as the others on the drawing.You can also try using the trim (tr) and extend (ex) tools.

At the end, make sure all the new parking space lines are on the Roads layer, orchange them to the Roads layer if they are not (by activating them with a selection, and

then choosing the Roads layer from the dropdown). Another way to change objectlayers is to use the match properties tool (shortcut ma). This allows you to pick anobject that is already on the roads layer, and transfer the same properties to anotherobject.

Match properties tool.

9. Next, try placing some trees around the house by copying (shortcut cp) the treesfrom the surrounding area. You can try the scale tool (sc) to resize the trees. Makesure the trees remain on the trees layer.

10. When done, save the drawing with a new name on the Desktop.


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Adobe Illustrator

Open Adobe Illustrator from Start program Files Adobe Adobe Illustrator CS4(not CS3, which will not automatically recognize AutoCAD layers).

In Illustrator open the site plan drawing you saved from AutoCAD. When the dxf/dwgDialog Box opens, choose original size for the Artwork Scale. This keeps the drawingin the same unit measurements as it was in AutoCAD.

The drawing should appear rather large, so we need to zoom out to see it all. You canzoom in or our in Illustrator with holding down the Ctrl key and pressing or +respectively. You can also use the zoom tool from the toolbar on the right (Holdingdown Alt while using the zoom tool enables to zoom out rather than in). You should seesomething like the image below.

1. Lets first study the interface of Adobe Illustrator.

4.Basicpropertiesofcurrently

selected drawingobjects:colors,

size,fontetc.2.Menusforobjectproperties

1.Toolsthatcovermostof

Illustratorcapabilities.Layers

6.Artboard

(Currentprint

page

size)

3.Objectfillcolorand

objectlinecolor

5.DrawingArea


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2. Tools : The Illustrator tools allow you to create new or manipulate existing drawingobjects. Lets look at a few essentials one by one:

Selectiontool(V),selectthewholeobjectincludingitssubobjectsDirectselectiontool(A),selectsthesubobjectsorpartsofalargerobject(e.g.vertexes,sidesetc)

Pentool(P),drawspaths(similartoAutoCADpolylines)byclickingindividualpoints.Ifyouclickapointandholddownthemouse,youcancreatecurvaturesforeachpoint.Apathhastwocolors thefillandthelinecolor

Type tool(T),createstext,verticaltext,curvedtextalongalineetc.Ifthetooliconhasalittleblackcornerontheright,thenitcontainsmoresuboptions.

Line tool(\),createstext,verticaltext,curvedtextalongalineetc.Ifthetooliconhasalittleblackcornerontheright,thenitcontainsmoresuboptions.

Rectangle tool(M),createsrectangles,roundedcornerrectangles,circles,ellipses,polygonsetc.

Eraser(ShiftE)&Scissors(C)allowsyoutoslicethroughexistingobjectsandsplittheminparts(likeTriminAutoCAD).

Rotate(R)&Reflect(O)rotateormirrorexistingobjects.

Scale(S)rescaleexistingobjects.

FreeTransform(E)allowsyoutodoseveraltransformationwithonetool rotate,stretch.

Gradienttool(G)allowsyoutofillobjectswithgradientcolors.Eyedroppertool(I)allowsyoutocopypropertiesofoneobjectontoothers(likematchpropertiesinAutoCAD).

Artboardtool(Shift+O)allowsyoutosetthesizeoftheArtboard(paperifyouprint)Handtool(H)allowsyoutopusharoundthedrawingtonavigate.Youcansimplyholddownthespacekeyanddragthe

mouse

while

in

the

process

of

using

some

other

tool.

Zoomtool(Z)allowsyoutozoominandout(holdAltforzoomingout).Reverselineandfillcolors


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2. Menus for object properties:

StrokeMenu,allowsyoutosetlinewidthsandstyles.

TransperancyMenu,allowsyoutocontrolthetransparencyofthe

LayersMenu,allthecontrolsformanipulatinglayers.

3. Selecting objects

Generally you can just use the Selection and Direct selection tools. However, if youneed to select a whole set of objects with similar properties (e.g. all that have the samecolor, or belong to the same layer etc) then you can select one single object, and then

go to Select Same or Select Object menus. For example, select same filland stroke will select all the objects in the drawing that have the same line color, linewidth, and fill color as the reference object. Select objectAll on same layers willselect all the objects that belong to the same layer as the reference object.


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Exercise 2: Enhance an AutoCAD drawing in Adobe Illustrator

1. First, lets set the drawing units to inches. Go to Edit Preferences Units &Display Performance. Under General use the dropdown menu and choose inches.Click OK. Now the drawing units, page size and other general measurements are

displayed in inches.

2. Now set the Artboard size to A1. A1 is a rather common size for printing out plans. Itmeasures 23.4 33.1 inches. Select the Artboard Tool, and in the properties on the topof the screen set W (Width): 33.1 and H(Height): to 23.4 inches. That should resize theArtboard into an A1 size, as shown below. To deselect everything, choose the SelectionTool and click in an empty area on the drawing.

3. Rescale the whole drawing to fit inside the A1 Artboard. Go to Select All (or pressCtrl+A). When all objects appear selected, pick the Selection Tool, grab the tiny white

rectangle in the upper left corner of the entire selected object collection, and drag torescale the objects. Press down Shift and Alt at the same time for the scale to workuniformly on all sides. Try to scale down the drawing so it all fits neatly inside theArtboard. You can use the Direct Selection tool to move the corner point of the drawingprecisely to the corner point of the Artboard. You will end up with your drawing insidethe Artboard.


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4. Now with the drawing scale in place, we shall set the line and fill properties for somelayers. Layer 0 just contains the drawing border and we can turn it off by clicking on theeye icon in the layer list next to Layer 0. The Text layer does not require line widthssince it only contains text objects that do not have border lines. Lets do the trees first.

4.1 Select one tree in the drawing. Then go to Select

Object

All on same layers.This should select all the objects on the trees layer in the drawing.

4.2 When all trees are selected, open the Stroke menu on the left. Open the drop-downlist next to Weight, and choose 0.25 points. This makes all tree outlines 0.25 pointswide.

4.3 Now, keeping all the trees selected, lets pick a fill color and an outline color for thetrees (at the bottom of the tools on the left). Try picking a black outline and some greeninfill. You can also select individual trees and provide them slightly different shades ofgreens to create some variety.

4.4 Finally, with all the trees still selected, lets give this layer a transparency. If youhappen to lose the selection at some point, just repeat step 4.2. Then open theTransparency menu on the left, and type 50 inside the Opacity box. This sets all treessemitransparent.

4.5 Now lets fix the shadows. Repeat step 4.2 with some shadow object. Under theStroke menu, type 0 for the Weights, so that shadows will have no edge outlines.


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Then, with all shadows still selected, change the shadow fill color to light gray. Finally inthe Layers menu on the right, make sure the shadow layer is at the bottom of the stack.Unlike AutoCAD, the order of layers in the Layer menu has great importance in AdobeIllustrator layers that are above others in the stack, are also displayed above others inthe drawing. We want the shadows to be the bottom layer.

You can also see in the layer stack that you can lock or hide layers much like inautoCAD to make the drawing process easier. If you have a long stack of layers, onetrick you can use is to hold down the Alt key and then selecting a layer. This will turn allother layers except the one selected, on or off.

4.6 Lets now make the building outlines thicker. You should generally consideraccentuating the most important information in the drawing with thicker lines. Since thisis a site plan and weve designed new building footprints, well accentuate them. Repeatstep 4.2 with building outlines give them a Stroke weight 3, and an outline color black.No infill color is needed.

4.7 Change the stroke Weight of all objects of the Roads layer to 0.25 and outline colorto dark gray (do not add any infill color, elsesee what happens). Also change all thetext objects to black. The end result should resemble the following:

This drawing can now be printed or saved as a PDF. It is the size of an A1 page.

autocad illustrator

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