Hi, I'm John Walker, president of Autodesk Incorporated. We put together this tape to help you get started. The thought of you as you learn and come to master AutoCAD, you'll find it delivers the power of a million dollar CAD system on your computer. Before we dig into the package, I'd first like to thank you for choosing AutoCAD.

You spent your hard earned money on the product of our labors and we take this very seriously. We're privileged by your choice of AutoCAD, a key tool you use in your work, since you will be investing your valuable time and learning AutoCAD and applying it to your job. We're going to do everything we can to provide you with the best possible product. We consider your choice of AutoCAD as the beginning of a working partnership because AutoCAD isn't an unchanging product like a drafting machine.

Since we introduced AutoCAD in 1982, we've continued to update it and add new capabilities. We're putting more than 20 man years of work into AutoCAD every year. When you send in the license acknowledgement, you're opening a two way channel of communication with us. We'll be letting you know about new products updates and new hardware support. We'll be listening to your reactions and suggestions and helping you with any problems you may have with AutoCAD. We're in this for the long run.

We're here when you need us.

I'd like to introduce Bill Manser. Bill is manager of product support. When you call with a question about AutoCAD, Bill's group answers your question.

Autodesk is committed to supporting our products. We train our authorized dealers in how to install AutoCAD, how to set up the hardware you use and how to answer the questions many users have in getting started with the package. But the ultimate responsibility for supporting this package is with us and we welcome this task. First of all, let me ask you to do something very important right now. If your dealer is not already taking care of it, please get the license acknowledgement from the package, fill it in and put it into your pile to be mailed.

It is really very important to us and to you if you don't send in the card, there is no way we can let you know about updates to the package. Support of new hardware or any bugs we find which we will fix for free. But most important, unless your license acknowledgement is on file in our database, we can not provide support. We weren't bombarded with junk mail. We don't sell our mailing lists. So please stop this tape.

Fill in the card and then resume the tape. Thank you. When we receive your card, we will be mailing you a confirmation that you a registered auto card user in the form of a free subscription to final draft. Our information letter to auto card users. In addition, we will send you a full sized lexan template and a bonus. This which contains numerous Lisp routines and several new drawings. If you have a question about auto can ask your dealer first.

Your dealer is our frontline support for the product and can often help you better than we can at the end of a telephone line. If you do, it can help you. He will give you our product support. No. Our lines are up from 6:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Pacific Time. We get the most calls between 9:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. So if you call outside these hours, you're less likely to have to wait. If you're having a problem with the package, look at appendix F and a manual.

It tells you what information we need to run down a problem. If you find it necessary to call us. Don't forget to ask for product support and have your cell number ready as it is a requirement for support. As another source of information, Autodesk is online with opening of the Autodesk Forum on CompuServe Information Service. As the world leader in computer aided design CAD, Autodesk is also the only card company on copy serve. The form is intended to open up the communication related to Autodesk between all parties.

Active participation by all form users is the best way for us to reach that goal. You can find information about AutoCAD products, third party software, marketing, news, education and training and our international users. You can become a copy server member and be part of the largest Autodesk users group in the world. Just call 800 8 4 8 8 9 9 0 and join once you're a member. Simply type go a desk. Thank you, Bill. Next, I'd like to introduce Maury Layton and Maury is director of quality assurance at Autodesk.

Maury's department is responsible for testing all of our products, tracking user problems and resolving all reported problems. When you're dealing with a program as large as auto kid, quality is an ongoing concern. Users can run into problems with the package. Some of these problems or misunderstandings of how to use the package and we strive to update our manuals to prevent them. Some problems arise in getting hardware to work with auto kin. That's why we have a laboratory here in Sausalito with all of the computers and most of the peripheral hardware listed in your installation guide.

And we test on an ongoing basis. We have a trained group continually checking the integrity of the product before it goes out to you and analyzing the products that are returned to help assure that the package you receive will be perfect. Sometimes the disks in your package are unreadable because of some sort of magnetic or physical damage. Occasionally they may even be packaged incorrectly. Finally, there are software bugs. Yes, there are bugs in your copy of AutoCAD. There are also bugs and all the other software you on.

Unlike many companies that look at your purchase as a done deal, we remain committed to fixing bugs, solving problems and keeping you up to date looking your AutoCAD package. You'll find a bug report for we may be the only company that calls it that. If you have a problem, go to your dealer. If he is unable to help, you can call Bill Mansour's group and explain the problem to a product support analyst who will be glad to fill out a bug report form if that's what you've run into.

Or you can fill it out yourself and mail it to us. Attention, bug report. Remember, we want you to use auto. We'd rather know about a problem you're having with AutoCAD and fix it than have you be frustrated by a product that isn't working for you. I'll be back at the end of the tape to explain how to fill out the form if you have a problem. Thank you, Maury. As I said, we're committed to keeping AutoCAD out in front of every new release of AutoCAD.

Its capabilities to aid you in your work. Eric Lyons is director of product management at Autodesk. Eric's department is responsible for the overall design of AutoCAD. Eric's group decides what AutoCAD does and what new features are added. Eric AutoCAD started out as a very basic two dimensional drafting program. Today, more and more people are comparing it with mainframe and mini computer based CAD systems and finding AutoCAD superior. We've worked very hard to make this happen. But a lot of the credit rests with users like yourself.

Since 1982, we've implemented over 300 new capabilities and AutoCAD is a direct response to user requests. Our request list is our development agenda. When we say we're a market driven, are we really mean? Is that we're working for you? If you find you need to do something that AutoCAD doesn't do, let us know by sending me a letter. Maybe there's a way to do it already. And we can tell you possibly you've found something we've overlooked and ought to be working on.

We succeed only by continuing to meet your needs. Talk to us. Unlike almost every other microcomputer CAD package, AutoCAD was designed to be an open architecture package. This means that from the start we provided all the information needed for others to build products based on AutoCAD. We knew we couldn't solve every problem, so we encouraged and supported others to develop products to solve them. David KALISH is head of the AutoCAD applications program. Autodesk publishes an applications catalog which lists over 250 products that work with AutoCAD.

This catalog is available through your authorized auto dealer. These programs range from generic tablet menus to sophisticated analysis post processors and cover a wide range of application areas such as architectural engineering, civil engineering, electrical engineering and even theatrical lighting. If you develop a program you want to sell to other AutoCAD users, we may be able to help you. If you buy one of the products in the catalog. Let us know what you think of it in the back of the catalog or forms to list products you develop and forms designed for comments on products that you buy.

Autodesk Applications program has mobilized hundreds of companies and thousands of creative individuals to create applications to solve problems. Our applications program is integral to Autodesk service to you. Check it out. Autodesk is built on the strength of our dealers. Dick Cunio is head of Dealer Operations. Your local authorized auto card dealer is the key player in you working with us. Your dealer is local, has been trained in the use of AutoCAD and works with us to keep you up to date.

The use of local dealers for both sales and installation of AutoCAD enables you to have local representation for the successful installation of our product. Successful installations are a number one objective at Autodesk, and it is the reason that our local dealers are required to attend technical training classes annually. We firmly believe that strong ties of communication between Autodesk, the local dealer, and you will ensure the best utilization of the AutoCAD product. If your dealer falls short of providing the support you need, please let us know.

Also, if your dealer has been particularly helpful, we would like to know that too. As you work with AutoCAD, you'll probably find your doing fascinating things with it. Many users have contacted us with their innovative applications of our product and we've worked with them in joint promotions. Sandy Bolton is the head of our marketing communications effort. Sandy, our customers have found sunken treasure with AutoCAD. They've designed theatrical lighting for the Jackson tour. They're designing bobsleds for the 1988 Olympics contact lenses, North Sea oil rigs, stained glass windows, movie cameras, firehose nozzles, elevators and even sailing ships for the America's Cup.

Behind every aftercare drawing is a story. We're here to tell those stories. When you do something with AutoCAD, let us know. We may be able to tell your story and help encourage your business. In our promotions, your application doesn't have to be exotic either. Our commitment is to the designers of the nuts and bolts that make up the real world, whether you design a gear, a house, a chip or a map. We're interested in what you're doing.

Let us know. With the return of your license agreement, Autodesk will send you a quarterly copy of Final Draft, a newsletter containing tips, stories, ideas and anecdotes on how others are using AutoCAD. When you own AutoCAD, you join forces with thousands of people just like yourself through newsletters, user groups and active networking. You can draw on a lot of experience. We encourage you to take advantage of the opportunity. Autodesk Software Engineering Department is responsible for the development, maintenance and documentation of AutoCAD.

Duff Kurland of Software Engineering will lead you through the AutoCAD Manual Duff along with the disks containing the AutoCAD software. You should find a large AutoCAD reference manual and several smaller manuals, including an installation guide and auto list programmers reference for eighty-three versions and a short tutorial. The large manual is a reference guide detailing all the features of AutoCAD, including all features of the advanced drafting extension or ADC packages. The optional features are clearly marked in the text, so if you don't have the ATC packages, you can easily skip these sections while reading the manual.

We find that most users purchase the ATC packages, so we've avoided printing separate manuals for them. When you first received the auto CAD software, we suggest that you scan through the reference manual, but don't pay much attention to details yet. Use this scan to familiarize yourself with the organization of the manual and with the general methods of interfacing with AutoCAD. Then you can go back and pick up the details. The reference manual is thick and detailed, but don't be intimidated by it.

You don't need to master everything in the manual to get started with AutoCAD. The short tutorial we've supplied will help you do that after you finish listening to this tape. The tutorials should be your next step. Let's take a quick look at the installation guide. As you can see, it's written with your specific computer in mind. Chapter 1 lists the equipment required to run AutoCAD. Be sure you have the proper equipment before trying to use AutoCAD to activate some of oughtto cards.

features. You'll use special function keys on your keyboard. AutoCAD runs on a multitude of computers and they've all got different names and locations for their special function keys. Therefore, in the main reference manual we neatly avoid referring to these keys by name. We simply talk about their functions in AutoCAD. For instance, we may say press the fast cursor key to activate some feature of AutoCAD. No doubt your computer doesn't have a button labeled fast cursor. So Chapter 2 of the installation guide will tell you which key on your keyboard has been assigned to this function in AutoCAD.

Chapter 2 also lists any hardware specific exceptions to the information in the main reference manual. Chapter 3 describes the contents of the AutoCAD released discs and the steps to follow to install AutoCAD on your computer. The remaining chapters list the video displays. digitizes Plodders and printer plodders supported by AutoCAD on your computer. Read the sections for the devices you have and be sure to follow the instructions to obtain the proper switch settings and cabling. Most problems with AutoCAD are due to improper wiring or switch settings.

Let's leaf through the reference manual now to get acquainted with its organization rather than present the features in alphabetical order. We've group them into functional areas and attempt to present these areas in a logical fashion as much as possible. Each chapter builds upon the concepts and techniques described in the previous chapters. Chapter one presents a general outline of AutoCAD capabilities and introduces some concepts and terminology that you'll encounter throughout the manual. And while using AutoCAD, whether or not you've used a CAD system before.

Please read this chapter to ensure that you and AutoCAD are speaking the same language. Chapter two begins to dig into the nuts and bolts of AutoCAD. Here we describe how to start up AutoCAD and how to select a task from its main menu to perform such operations as creating a new drawing, editing an existing drawing and plotting and drawing each of the tasks as outlined in this chapter. The bulk of Chapter 2 describes how you issue commands, enter coordinates and parameters and select objects for editing.

Using the keyboard, you're pointing device and various menus. You'll also find a brief summary of all AutoCAD commands here. Now let's turn to Chapter 3 of the reference manual. Beginning in this chapter, we describe in detail all of the commands known by auto cats during editor. This chapter discusses some basic commands, including help and the commands for saving your drawing and returning to the main menu. Chapter 4 describes all the commands for drawing objects such as lines, arcs, circles and text.

Text can be drawn at any angle with any height and in a number of different fonts when you come back to read for details. Read this chapter carefully and study the examples. Once you've drawn something, you may want to move it. Copy it. Erase it. Make a mirror image of it or mangle it in some other way. The editing commands described in chapter five. Let you do all these things. This chapter also describes some inquiry commands that let you ask AutoCAD to display information about objects in your drawing.

OK, lets you draw images with much more detail and complexity than can be viewed all at once on your computer screen. In Chapter 6, you'll learn about the pan and zoom commands that let you move the drawing around on the screen and magnify whatever portion you want to work on in detail. Using the view command, you can assign names to particular views and restore them to the screen quickly. Chapter 7 introduces the concepts of laywers, line types and colors using the commands described here.

You can group the objects in your drawing into layers, layers so like transparent overlays used in manual drafting, except that you can have thousands of layers with names you choose. Each layer can be assigned to particular color and a dot dash line type, and you can control the visibility of objects on a layer by layer basis. Any combination of layers can be visible at the same time. Please check your installation guide to see how AutoCAD colors are displayed on your equipment.

Now let's proceed to Chapter 8 of the reference manual. This chapter is titled Drawing AIDS and covers several features that help you draw very easily and precisely with AutoCAD. For instance, the ortho command assist you in drawing horizontal and vertical lines. The snap and grid commands led you enter coordinates using a digitizer without worrying about the resolution of the digitizer or of the display screen. You can setup whatever grid spacing your work requires and every point you pick will snap over to the nearest point on the grid.

You've defined. If your arcade is equipped with the eighty-two package, you can even snap to geometric properties of existing objects and you're drawing using this feature, you can draw a line from the center of a circle to the intersection of two arcs or from the end point of one line to the midpoint of another line. Moving on to chapters 9, 10 and 11, you'll discover how to collect objects that you've drawn and form compound objects from them called blocks using blocks, you can create a library of drawing parts that you can then insert in other drawings wherever you need them.

You'll also learn about attributes which are text items that you can attach to blocks each time you insert a block that has attributes attached autocad. We'll ask for the attribute values for that block. Typical attributes might be manufacturer model number material and price. You can extract these attributes from the drawing and supply them to another program to produce a bill of materials or perform analysis pertinent to your work. Dimensioned and cross-hatching are also described in this portion of the manual. The dimensioned and commands let you add dimensioned annotations to your drawing easily.

Linear distances, diameters, radii and angles can all be measured and annotated by auto cad with just a little help from you. The hatch command lets you cross hatch regions of your drawing using custom patterns or selections from a standard pattern library. The reference manual describes a few miscellaneous but nonetheless important special features of AutoCAD, including automatic scripts and slideshows. Another topic is the variables and expressions feature of the eighty-three package. This feature lets you define variables to hold numbers, text strings or coordinates, and it's just part of auto list described in greater detail in the separate auto list programmer's reference.

If you have programming experience, you can use auto list to add custom commands to auto cab. If you're not a programmer, you can ignore this feature, but it's nice to know it's there. Onto Chapter 12, this chapter is titled Pointing Device Features because it digitising tablet, mouse or other pointing devices required in order to make use of the features described here. For instance, Chapter 12 tells you how to use a digitising tablet to copy existing paper drawings and how to set aside portions of the tablet or the extra buttons on your pointing device for use with menus using tablet or button menus.

You can submit a whole series of AutoCAD commands by pressing a single button when you're drawing is complete. You'll want a hard copy of it. AutoCAD can produce a hard copy on a pen plotter or a printer plotter, and chapter 13 tells you how to do it. The details of hooking up your plotter to your computer are left to the AutoCAD installation guide. Chapter 14 of the reference manual introduces 3D Level 1, a feature of the eighty-three package, 3D level one lets you create view and plot three dimensional visualizations of your drawings, allowing you to assign an elevation and thickness to each object in your drawing.

If you like, you can use the hide command to eliminate those portions of objects that are hidden by other objects closer to your viewpoint. Most of auto cards two dimensional features continue to operate while you're in 3D mode. You can even draw or edit in 3D. After Chapter 14 come appendices a through H. Appendix A describes the standard libraries of line types, text fonts and cross pattern supplied with AutoCAD. And Appendix B tells you how to customize AutoCAD by creating your own libraries and menus.

The remaining appendices contain a description of auto cards, drawing interchange file format, some general configuration notes, upgrading and problem reporting procedures. A brief history of changes and enhancements and a command summary. Last but not least is the index. It's rather extensive and should assist you in locating any topic discussed in the manual. Well, we've reached the end of our tour of the auto manuals. I hope the ride has been pleasant. Please watch your step getting off the bus.

Education and training are an important part of the Autodesk commitment. We all benefit when high quality CAD training is made readily available to professionals and students. Joe Okie is manager of education programs.

Joe, although AutoCAD is easy to use, a growing number of channels are available to increase your knowledge about AutoCAD and related products, particularly in the area of training and learning materials. If you'd like to have Hands-On training, you'll be glad to know that Autodesk presently has more than 70 authorized training centers around the country where you can get intensive instruction on auto kids features and commands. Training usually last two to five days depending on the center, and costs range from 250 to six hundred dollars.

Beginning and advanced courses are available at most centers for the training center nearest you call 800 4 4 3 0 1 0 0 ext 500. Autodesk, in cooperation with State Departments of Vocational Education, is supporting C&D teacher training programs during the summer of 1986 in 43 states. Teachers desiring information about these programs should contact their State Department or Autodesk Education Department. In addition to new textbooks have recently been announced by publishers and more under-development available currently are applying AutoCAD by Terry Waller's, which is published by Benton and McKnight Publishing Company Peoria, Illinois.

The second is stepping into CADD by Mark Miracle, published by new writers publishing company Thousand Oaks, California. New Writers also publishes a new edition of Inside AutoCAD. Applying AutoCAD and stepping into can both have accompanying teacher manuals to assist a classroom teacher through management and teaching problems. New training centers and learning materials are becoming available monthly. Please consult your local authorized AutoCAD dealer for updated information before I turn you back over tomorrow.

I just like to sum up our commitment to you. We started Autodesk with almost no money, no reputation and no products. We had only a large pool of talent willingness to work hard and large years. We listened to our users. We solve problems. We take personal responsibility for what we do. We've bet our company on the intelligence of our users in choosing AutoCAD. You've joined tens of thousands of other designers and honoring us with your confidence. You've become part of the largest community of CAD users on the planet.

Welcome. From now on, we're working for you. This is Murray Leighton. And here again to tell you a little more about our bug forum and how to make it as useful as possible so that we can determine the cause of any problem you may have and fix it. The back of the bug forum has some guidelines for filling it out. But let's go over some of the highlights. Now we can begin by looking at the form it says Autodesk gink bug at the top.

We ask for your full address and telephone so we can reach you if we need more information. And so we can tell you about fixes and work arounds. Problems are often the side effects of unusual hardware and software combinations and receiving as full a picture as possible about the system you're using so that we can attempt to recreate your problem is our only direction for fixing it. That's also why we appreciate it. When you send us bug examples on diskettes and plots and scripts, it makes it so much easier and faster to recreate, isolate and ultimately fix the problems.

If you find errors or unclear sections in the AutoCAD manual or if you have suggestions for improving them, the bug form is also a good way to tell us in the upper right hand corner of the bug form, fill in the product name. In this case, AutoCAD along with a version, serial number and Aidi level. Getting this data, especially all the letters and numbers of the version is critical for problem isolation. The easiest way for you to get all this information is to simply start AutoCAD and look at the first few lines.

Print it out on your screen. It's all right there. If something is preventing you from running AutoCAD altogether, the information is also printed on the disks that came with your package. The computer making model, for example, IBM 80 or Zeenat Z100, lets us know what AutoCAD machine version you're using. If you're not sure how much memory you have on your machine, the DOS command check disk spelled C H.K. DSK will tell you not only about your disk storage, but also the amount of memory on your computer.

Tell us both the total memory number and the available memory number. It's important to know whether you're running a color or a monochrome display screen and at what resolution. Since these things often cause different effects, you'll also notice little boxes in the plotter and printer fields to tell whether they're hooked up to serial or parallel ports, since they can cause different symptoms when describing a problem. It's always easier for us to understand it if you list a sequence of commands that cause it.

For example, telling us line from 0 0 to 1 million 1 million Zoonie causes my screen to go blank is more helpful than telling us a very long diagonal line causes an error. Finally, I'd like to mention that Appendix F of the AutoCAD user reference has a section on discussing problems and bug reporting. Remember, if you need some help with any of this, just call products, support people. Well, thank you for buying our product. We hope that this tape has helped you and that you'll be able to start using AutoCAD effectively right away.

Remember to do that. Your next step in getting going is to follow the tutorial. How to get started in AutoCAD without reading the manual.