Newby questions: How to get started?

[JD Mather]

Ok, this is what I got so far.

I have followed the steps until the commend.

So far the commands spoke for themselves but what does the command do exactly?

 

I said draw 2 lines (one vertical, one horizontal) with one fillet. (once you get more experience you could do all 3 of these entities in one polyline command sequence)

I see 3 lines in your image.

Follow my instructions exactly.

[ReMark]

How is a bracket like this physically made? Is it cut, punched then folded?

[JD Mather]

How is a bracket like this physically made? Is it cut, punched then folded?

 

Are you asking me or the OP?

I think it would depend one whether a few parts or a few thousand are being made. Also depends on whether standard stock profile exists.

If thousands, then punched in flat and folded to finished shape.

[stef_r]

I said draw 2 lines (one vertical, one horizontal) with one fillet. (once you get more experience you could do all 3 of these entities in one polyline command sequence)

I see 3 lines in your image.

Follow my instructions exactly.

 

Sorry but wich part are you talking about? I thought I followed the instructions line by line.

The first part was to draw the L shape.

Little zoom to fit the L shape nice on the screen

"hit F on the keyboard and than enter

Hit R on the keyboard and enter outside fillet radius.

 

Is this were I'm going wrong???

[ReMark]

JDM: What image (post #?) are you referring to?

 

stef_r: Have you made any further progress or are you stuck?

[stef_r]

At the moment I'm stuck, sorry...

 

I'm going home right now and will look at the instructions again this evening.

Although I don't have autoCAD installed at my home PS I can download the 30-day trail of it.

I think I miss a step or something that 'you experience users' assume as naturally that for me isn't so naturally...

[stef_r]

BTW, here's the .dwg file I'm drawing sofar...

Bracket_XT6.dwg

[Dadgad]

BTW, here's the .dwg file I'm drawing sofar...

 

You need to accept the convert to polylines prompt.

 

PEDIT

Select polyline or [Multiple]: m

Select objects: 1 found

Select objects: 1 found, 2 total

Select objects: 1 found, 3 total

Select objects:

Convert Lines, Arcs and Splines to polylines [Yes/No]? y

Enter an option [Close/Open/Join/Width/Fit/Spline/Decurve/Ltype gen/Reverse/Undo]: j

Join Type = Extend

Enter fuzz distance or [Jointype] :

2 segments added to polyline

[ReMark]

Unless I'm missing something it looks like you haven't made much progress at all. I see two lines and an arc. Where's the rest?

 

What were you going to use as a thickness of the piece?

 

Your lines measure 27.5 and 25.5 while the radius of the arc is shown as being 2.5 so my question is, are you drawing this in metric units?

[nestly]

Haven't been following this topic, but perhaps this will help?

 

[stef_r]

Drawing_L_Bracket.dwg

 

Ok, Think I've got it now...

Must pay a bit more attention on the botton stsusbar I guess!

 

Here's my L-shaped bracket in 3D.

Now find a way to create the holes and specify where the holes must come.

[mor424mont]

You may take help from Internet by downloading some video tutorial. And my preference is to go to www.lynda.com for help.

 

Best regards,

mor424mont | high risk merchant account

Edited August 7, 2012 by mor424mont

[ReMark]

To locate the holes you will have to become acquainted with managing your UCS so you may draw your geometry in the correct plane. Typically a circle can be pushed or pulled through a 3D model via the use of the PressPull command.

[JD Mather]

I would not worry about UCS (User Coordinate System) too much for right now on a simple part like you have.

AutoCAD will take care that for you with DUCS (Dynamic UCS) toggled on and off with F6 (default is on).

 

In the upper right of your screen you should see a view cube that you can use to orient your part (don't worry if the names - Top, Front... don't match what you consider to be Top, Front....).

Click on the faces of the view cube and then one of the rotate arrow around the cube to orient your view as needed parallel to the screen.

 

Type Color and enter a color different than what you have been using.

Type L and Enter

Move your mouse over the face where you intend to place hole, but don't click on it. You should see a faint highlight of the boundary of the face (this is DUCS selecting that face to draw on).

Move your mouse to a corner of the part and click on it.

Move your mouse straight over horizonally (you should see a faint dashed tracking line as you move) then type in the distance over that you want to locate your first hole from the edge and hit Enter after typing the distance. Move your mouse down (or up as appropriate) the vertical distance from the corner that you want to place your first hole and type in the distance and hit Enter.

(it is very important that your mouse stays horizontal or vertical from the position that you are typing your distance from)

Then create a circle (of correct radius or diameter) at the end of the line.

 

Repeate for all other holes (on correct faces). (don't worry about actually creating the holes or the slots just yet - get these circle locations) For some reason it takes beginners a while to get used to this DUCS, tracking and direct distance entry of locations, but once you get it down it is so trivially easy you will wonder why it was ever difficult. Hopefully you pick up the technique within minutes.

 

Attach your file here of what you have completed to this point.

[stef_r]

Ok, this went a bit better then the first step(s)

 

I'm used to draw on grid lines with a specified distance between them.

Like, use a grid of 1mm, I draw a line of 15mm and manually counting the grid lines until I've got the right distance.

But this seemds to be a far more easy and faster way!

 

Here's the drawing I have so far.

It has two mounting holes to attach it to the frame, and three holes to mount a LED on it. (The large hole if for pulling the wires of the LED through.)

Drawing_L_Bracket2.dwg

[Dadgad]

Congratulations, looks like you are making some headway.

 

Using DYNAMIC UCS and DYNAMIC ENTRY is much easier and faster than having to snap to the grid.

Mine is permanently turned off, just see no use for it in my work.

Presumably by now you have discovered your ORTHOGONAL on/off toggle in your status bar.

It looks to me like you are a prime candidate for a very brief study of the PRESSPULL command, with

which you will very quickly press all of your cirles through the solid to create your holes.

I would suggest changing to an isometric perspective before you do (NE isometric) as it makes

it much easier to see what is going on while you are modeling.

 

You remember that nice video that nestly made for you, right?

Then say no more, say no more.

[ReMark]

Turn GRID off. You do not need it for what you are doing. Anyways, what would you do if the center of a circle fell off the grid? Not draw it?

[JD Mather]

I'm used to draw on grid lines with a specified distance between them.

 

Like the others stated - I turn grid off. Turned it off in my second CAD class back in '87 of the last century. Laughed as the teacher kept using grid counting like a second grader. Use direct distance entry or offset and trim/extend to establish locations. I haven't counted dots since 2nd grade.

 

Type presspull (one word just like that, there is a workspace with all of these commands on icons - you might be ready to investigate that workspace. Look for an icon that looks like a gear in the upper left or lower right corner of the screen. Click the down arrow and select 3D (only do this if you feel comfortable and as you do it you should also see the technique to get back to where you were - pay attention to all options).

 

I missed a step - be sure to click on one of the corners of the viewcube or Shift turn middle mouse wheel to rotate your model where you can see all circles clearly.

 

Now after typing presspull and hitting Enter move your mouse into one of the circles. Pause briefly and then click the mouse inside the circle as though circle and then move the mouse through the part like a drill bit. Go well past the part to make sure your drill bit goes all the way through and then click on the screen. Don't worry about typing in an exact distance for the drill - just go past the part to go all the way through.

 

Repeat for each hole.

 

Attach your part here and I (or someone) will then explain how to get the slots (you might be able to figure this out yourself now).

 

Once we get all of the holes we get to the really fun part - creating the 2D drawing the easy way.

 

[Dadgad]

Like the others stated - I turn grid off. Turned it off in my second CAD class back in '87 of the last century. Laughed as the teacher kept using grid counting like a second grader. Use direct distance entry or offset I haven't counted dots since 2nd grade.

Attach your part here and I (or someone) will then explain how to get the slots (you might be able to figure this out yourself now).

 

Once we get all of the holes we get to the really fun part - creating the 2D drawing the easy way.

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]35824[/ATTACH]

 

Very well said JD!

 

nestly's video shows how to make the slots, should you need your memory refreshed.

[stef_r]

Very well said JD!

 

nestly's video shows how to make the slots, should you need your memory refreshed.

 

Drawing_L_Bracket3.dwg

 

Here's my 'beatifull' 3D bracket with holes.

I thank Nestly's for his awesome video, but unfortunally I still have some trouble with the [trim] command. That's why I still have a big round hole in middle instead of a wider slot. But that's something I will work on to get that fixed :-)

(I select the TRIM command and then start selecting the lines as in the video. But after that I get stuck; think I have to put in some kind of command if I look to the statusbar below...)

 

Anyway, this is not a very big issue; a hole is as good as a slot and maybe easier / cheaper to fabricate, but it sure would be nice knowing how to draw it.

 

If I turn this in a 2D drawing, can I automatically put all the right meassurements with it, or do I still have to do that by hand, one by one?