All basic AutoCAD courses begin with a focus on familiarizing trainees with the software interface, including the screen layout and the various menu items needed for basic operations while designing. At this stage, one gets acquainted with simple skills such as creating new drawings, opening the saved ones and most importantly, working with existing template drawings or creating their own. The exploration of the most useful AutoCAD features is of paramount importance at this level.
An AutoCAD course at this level aims at training in the use of the drawing workspace while drawing various basic shapes such as lines, circles, arcs, rectangles, polygons and polylines. Appreciating the use of drafting settings, ORTHO, object snaps, polar tracking, object tracking and coordinate entry systems (i.e. absolute, relative and polar) as well as any other drawing tool are also covered. Skills in editing, usage of layers, display and viewing, organizing and querying, annotation and other manipulations of AutoCAD objects should be attained.
Basic AutoCAD courses are not complete without the coverage of the wide range of dimension tools which help users to render precise measurements to their drawings. The dimensioning process is automated and is quickly done using a standard style, but users learn how to create new styles or modify the standard one. The uses of various commands available in AutoCAD's four categories of dimensions, which include linear, ordinate, radial and angular, are also important skills for trainees to acquire. Since dimensioning in AutoCAD is quite broad, only the uses of the most common commands are covered at a basic level.
After creating drawings in the model space, training focuses on plotting or setting up printouts of the drawings in a layout with all the details such as dimensions, notes and title blocks complete. Training for concepts and techniques of plotting in basic AutoCAD courses covers the establishment of scale factors, locking of viewpoints, plotting of drawings, plot settings and previews, as well as page setups.