Navigating and selecting in AutoCAD: A Comprehensive Guide for Mechanical Engineers

Welcome back to the AutoCAD Essentials for Mechanical Engineers series! This blog will introduce you to advanced navigation commands such as steering wheels, zoom, pan, and other techniques that will help you seamlessly interact with your drawings. Additionally, we will dive into the various ways to select objects effectively using commands like box selection, fence selection, and polygon selection. 

So, let’s jump into the essential tools for this week. 

Steering Wheels: A Powerful Navigation Tool in AutoCAD 

AutoCAD’s steering wheel is a unique and versatile tool, particularly useful for working with complex models and 3D CAD drawings. This tool offers several navigation options that allow you to move through your model like a drone, enabling a more intuitive exploration of the workspace. 

Invoking Steering Wheels 

To activate the steering wheel, navigate to the View menu and select Steering Wheels. Once activated, you’ll see a floating wheel on the screen, which contains multiple navigation tools like zoom, pan, orbit, and more. 

Types of Steering Wheels 

AutoCAD offers different variants of steering wheels, allowing you to customize the experience based on your project needs: 

• Full Navigation Wheel: This option provides all the navigation tools, including zoom, pan, orbit, and more. 
• Mini Object Wheel: A compact version of the navigation wheel, useful for 2D CAD drawings or focusing on smaller parts of the drawing. 
• Tour Building Wheel: Primarily used for 3D drawings and architectural walkthroughs, this wheel allows you to "walk" through your model and adjust the camera angle. 

Navigating with Steering Wheels 

For instance, in a mechanical AutoCAD drawing, if you want to zoom in on a particular object such as an M8 bolt, you can use the Zoom function in the steering wheel by holding the left mouse button and dragging the mouse. Similarly, the Pan tool helps you move across the drawing without altering the zoom level, making it ideal for large drawings where you need to maintain focus on certain sections. 

The Orbit command, mostly used in AutoCAD 3D, lets you rotate the model, giving you a dynamic view of your design. While orbiting isn’t as essential for 2D drafting, it becomes invaluable when dealing with 3D CAD models. 

Customizing Steering Wheels 

You can also adjust the steering wheel settings to fit your preferences. For example, you can modify the wheel opacity to make it more or less visible depending on the background of your drawing. You can also enable features like incremental zoom, which increases the zoom level by 25% with each click instead of manually dragging the zoom tool. 

The steering wheel is a fantastic tool for both beginners and advanced users, especially when navigating large-scale or complex drawings.  

Zoom Commands: Efficiently Navigating Large Drawings 

In AutoCAD, the zoom command is fundamental for precision work, especially when dealing with mechanical drawings that require exact measurements. 

Hands-On Example: Drawing a Rectangular Plate 

Let’s practice using the zoom commands by creating a rectangular plate with dimensions of 300 mm x 200 mm. Add four M8 holes at the corners and apply a 5 mm fillet to the edges. 

1. Set Units and Limits: Ensure your units are in millimeters and that your drawing limits are set to 594 mm x 420 mm (A2 size). 
2. Draw the Rectangle: Use the rectangle command to draw the plate. Now, use Zoom All to see the entire drawing. 
3. Add M8 Holes: Zoom into each corner of the rectangle using the Zoom Center command to place the M8 holes with a diameter of 8 mm. 
4. Apply Fillets: Zoom into the corners and apply a 5 mm fillet using the Zoom Window to ensure accuracy. 
5. The Zoom commands ensure precision, which is critical in mechanical engineering drawings. 

Selection Techniques: Choosing Objects with Accuracy 

AutoCAD offers several selection techniques to help you focus on specific parts of your drawing. Accurate selection is crucial when working on intricate AutoCAD mechanical engineering projects. 

Box Selection 

• Window Selection: Click and drag from left to right to select objects entirely within the box. The selection area turns blue. 
• Crossing Selection: Click and drag from right to left to select objects that the box touches. The selection area turns green. 

Fence Selection 

The fence selection method lets you draw a freeform line across multiple objects, selecting everything it touches. This is particularly useful in complex drawings where not all objects fit neatly into a rectangle. 

Polygon Selection 

• W-Polygon: Select objects by drawing a polygon around them. 
• C-Polygon: Select objects by drawing a crossing polygon. 

These selection methods help manage large projects and ensure that you only modify the parts of the drawing that you intend to. 

Donuts and Solids: 2D Drafting Fundamentals 

Let’s explore two 2D drafting tools that are invaluable for mechanical engineers: donuts and solids. 

Donut Command 

The donut command allows you to create a filled circle, often used to represent objects like washers or bolt holes in mechanical drawings. 

• Inner Diameter: Specify the inner diameter, e.g., 50 mm. 
• Outer Diameter: Set the outer diameter, e.g., 100 mm. 
• Positioning: Place the donut at the desired location. 

The donut command is especially useful in AutoCAD mechanical drawings, where precise representation of components like bolts or washers is essential. 

Solid Command 

The solid command creates filled polygons. You can use it to generate triangles, quadrilaterals, or other shapes. This tool is excellent for representing solid sections in 2D AutoCAD drawings. 

For instance, if you need to represent a filled triangular bracket in a mechanical part, the solid command lets you define the three vertices, and AutoCAD fills the interior.  

Conclusion 

In this session, we’ve covered essential navigation and selection techniques in AutoCAD that will significantly improve your efficiency when working on 2D mechanical drawings. Tools like the steering wheel, zoom, and pan help you effortlessly navigate large and complex drawings. Meanwhile, mastering selection techniques like box, fence, and polygon selections will ensure that you focus only on the areas that matter. 

We’ve also introduced you to donuts and solids, two 2D drafting commands that are highly useful in mechanical engineering. These tools help you accurately represent components like washers, bolts, and filled sections in your designs. 

By incorporating these techniques into your workflow, you’ll be well on your way to mastering AutoCAD for mechanical engineering applications. Keep practicing, and we’ll see you in the next session! 

This blog is part of our ongoing AutoCAD Design Series. If you missed the previous posts, check them out here. 

Would you like to have a more interactive experience going through the AutoCAD essentials? 

Skill-Lync has released a FREE comprehensive course covering AutoCAD Essentials for Mechanical Engineers in detail! Check it out here.

If you’re looking to go deeper into AutoCAD Essentials check out Skill-Lync’s AutoCAD certification course.   

Check out our hands-on course today and add AutoCAD to your list of skills!  

Let’s get #IndustryReady together, one skill at a time! 

Start Course Now