AutoCAD 101-01:What is AutoCAD?

AutoCAD as defined in wikipedia.com is a suite of CAD software products for 2- and 3-dimensional design and drafting, developed and sold by Autodesk, Inc... The original concept of AutoCAD in the 1980s was to promote customization and feature extensibility, and that's what made it especially appealing to customers. Most contemporary CAD products at that time offered little if any customization capability and most were far more expensive. AutoCAD is also one of the first CAD programs to run on a Personal Computer, while most CAD software at the time ran on dedicated workstations or a graphics terminal connected to a Mainframe Computer such as a VAX.

AutoCAD's native file format, DWG, and to a lesser extent, its interchange file format, DXF, have become common standards for interchange of CAD data. AutoCAD in later years has adopted another file format known as DWF. These files allow selected DWG drawings to be compiled to one file. This allows distribution of the drawings to those without AutoCAD or similar packages. It also protects the drawings from manipulation by others as the drawings are rasterized inside the DWF file. DWF files can be viewed with a free program from Autodesk called "DWF Viewer" — this program allows users to both view and print DWF files. Another advantage of DWF files is that a large number of drawings can be compiled to a single DWF and be of a very small to reasonable file size for electronic distribution. In 2006, Autodesk estimated the number of active DWG files to be in excess of one billion. In the past, Autodesk has estimated the total number of DWG files in existence to be more than three billion.

Billions of engineers and architects use AutoCAD to convey designs and proposals efficiently and accurately.

This the introductory segment of a series of posts I will be doing from time to time on AutoCAD software to give you tips and tricks to help you better understand its inner working and to get the most out of your software.

Questions are welcome and will be entertained, of course I will not profess to know everything about AutoCAD but I am sure together we will slowly master it together.

The AutoCAD software has been my ally for years and has become part of my daily work and I hope to help you on your queries regarding this remarkable software.