Modifying Objects in AutoCAD

Name: Modifying Objects in AutoCAD
Author: Patrick Porter

Begin your design and drafting creation journey with this beginner course

Preview the first lesson free — get full access to all 8 lessons.

Course: On-Demand

Hello, in this chapter we're going to talk about modifying objects in AutoCAD. And in this particular lesson, we are going to discuss selecting objects. So let's get started. Let's create a brand new blank drawing as I have here on my screen. And then we're going to draw some objects for us to select. So I'm going to come over to my home tab and I'm going to place a few circles. I'm gonna come anywhere in my drawing area. And I'm a place my first circle. Now I'm going to repeat that command by just pressing the space bar on my keyboard. And it places me back in the last command I issued, which was the CIRCLE command. And I'm gonna keep doing that and creating more circles, space bar, circles, space bar, circles. Now that we have some objects drawn on our screen, let's get back to talking about the selecting methods in AutoCAD. So, AutoCAD has several different methods for selecting objects. You can select an object by just hovering your mouse over it until it highlights and clicking. Come over here, select another one. and another one. I can keep selecting objects by just hovering clicking. If I want deselect one of the objects that I have selected. Hold down the shift key and click on that object. Come over to this one, hold down the shift key, you'll see a little minus symbol show up next to my cursor. That indicates that I'm in selection removal phase. So while I have the minus symbol displayed or holding down the shift key, I am removing objects from my selection set. To remove all of the objects that have selected, let's press the escape key. Now another faster method for selecting several objects is to drag a window. Now this window selection method is gonna work like this. We're gonna bring our mouse over here a little bit to the left. We're gonna click once and then I'm gonna drag my mouse out to the right and notice as I select and fully get an object within my dragging window, which is this blue window here, it highlights. Objects that are completely inside of your window, indicated by the blue color here will be selected when doing the window selection, I'm gonna to click to continue. And now I have these two objects selected to press the escape key to get out of this command, that was the window selection method. Let me show you the crossing selection method. So right where our cursor is, I'm going to click once and this time, instead of dragging to the right, I'm gonna drag to the left in any direction. And it's selected this one immediately. Now the difference between the crossing and the window selection is a crossing window just has to touch your object or the object can be completely enclosed. And it is indicated by the color green. So as I continue dragging my mouse out, you see it's going to select everything that either touches or crosses or is completely enclosed. You want to just stop here and click, and now all of these objects are selected. Let's press the escape key, let's discuss a new option. It's called the Lasso. Now the Lasso is fairly new to AutoCAd. Okay? within the last several releases, I want to say since 2016 or 2017 version, let's come anywhere in space and let's just click once and click and hold the left mouse button. I'm gonna drag my mouse now out to the right and you see I'm in Lasso selection. So because the color is blue, it's only going to select those objects that are completely enclosed inside of my Lasso. So I'm gonna stop here and I have two objects selected. I'm going to let go of my left mouse button, and that was the Lasso window selection. Let's do that again. Just click the left mouse button, right where I am and hold. And this time I'm gonna drag over to the left in up and notice my color is green. And I mean that Lasso crossing selection where I just have to touch an object. As you see here, I've touch three objects going to let go of the left mouse button. And now I've just selected those objects. Remember at any point, if you want to remove an object that you have selected, you can hold down the shift key, hover your mouse over it and press the left mouse button. And lastly, let's hit the escape key to remove all of our selections and we're going to talk about one more selection method. We're gonna start this last one off with the Lasso collection method, by just clicking and holding down the left mouse button, and let's drag in any direction. So this is the Lasso which we just discussed. But this time I want you to hit the space bar and notice that it cycles your selection methods. So this is called the Fence option. It's gonna be just like the crossing Lasso or anything that is touched by the Fence automatically is selected, when you're done, just release the left mouse button and those objects that were touched by your Fence have been selected. Thank you for watching this lesson on selecting objects with AutoCAD Stay tuned for the next lesson where we will talk about moving and copying objects within AutoCAD.

Beginner Provider : Patrick Porter 8 Lessons · 45m in Arabic, German, English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Urdu, Chinese

Course Description

In this chapter you’ll learn about modifying objects in AutoCAD. You’ll first learn about object selections and the many methods for selecting objects. Once you’ve learned how to select all your objects you will then begin to learn of many of the commands in AutoCAD you can use to manipulate your objects. Erasing objects and undoing/redoing any mistakes will also be explained so that you can achieve desirable results when working with your drawing.

What You'll Learn

Select objects in AutoCAD using the many available selection methods
Move and copy objects within a drawing
Stretch, scale, rotate, and mirror objects
Trim, extend, fillet, and offset objects
Use the array command and grips to manipulate objects
Erase objects and undo, redo, or recover them with OOPS

Key Takeaways

The chapter covers modifying objects in AutoCAD, beginning with object selection and the many methods for selecting objects.
Once objects are selected, learners use a range of AutoCAD commands to manipulate them.
Erasing objects and undoing or redoing mistakes are explained so learners can achieve desirable results when working with a drawing.
Object manipulation commands covered include move, copy, stretch, scale, rotate, mirror, trim, extend, fillet, offsets, and the array command.

Frequently Asked Questions

What will this chapter teach me?

It teaches modifying objects in AutoCAD, including selecting objects with the many available selection methods and using AutoCAD commands to manipulate your objects, as well as erasing, undoing, and redoing changes.

What object-modifying commands are covered?

The lessons cover move and copy, stretch and scale, rotate and mirror, trim, extend and fillet, offsets and the array command, grips, and erasing, undoing, redoing, and OOPS.

Does the course explain how to fix mistakes while drawing?

Yes. Erasing objects and undoing or redoing any mistakes are explained so you can achieve desirable results when working with your drawing, and the lessons also include the OOPS command.

What skills does this course relate to?

It relates to AutoCAD, AutoCAD Civil 3D, AutoCAD Architecture, CAD Programs, Object Diagram, and Object-Modeling Technique.