Onstott - AutoCAD 2017 and AutoCAD LT 2017 Essentials

Scott Onstott

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Copyright 2016 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana
Published simultaneously in Canada
ISBN: 978-1-119-24333-5
ISBN: 978-1-119-24335-9 (ebk.)
ISBN: 978-1-119-24334-2 (ebk.)
Manufactured in the United States of America

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Many people have been instrumental in making this book you are holding in your hands or reading onscreen a reality. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the professional team at Sybex (an imprint of Wiley) for all their hard work. It has been a pleasure working with my acquisitions editor, Stephanie McComb; developmental editor, Kathryn Duggan; and members of the editorial staff.

Scott Onstott has published 12 books with Sybex prior to this one: AutoCAD 2016 and AutoCAD LT 2016 Essentials, AutoCAD 2015 and AutoCAD LT 2015 Essentials, AutoCAD 2014 and AutoCAD LT 2014 Essentials, AutoCAD 2013 and AutoCAD LT 2013 Essentials, AutoCAD 2012 and AutoCAD LT 2012 Essentials, Adobe Photoshop CS6 Essentials, Enhancing Architectural Drawings and Models with Photoshop, AutoCAD: Professional Tips and Techniques (with Lynn Allen), Enhancing CAD Drawings with Photoshop, Mastering Autodesk VIZ 2007 (with George Omura and Jon McFarland), Mastering Autodesk Architectural Desktop 2006, and Autodesk VIZ 2005 (with George Omura). Scott has worked on 20 other Sybex books as contributing author, reviser, compilation editor, or technical editor.

He also wrote, narrated, and produced the Secrets in Plain Sight film series (volumes 1 and 2) and seven related books including Tripartite, Anthology: Secrets in Plain Sight, Geometra: Coloring Book, Secrets in Plain Sight: Leonardo da Vinci, The Divine Proportion, Quantification: Illustrations from the Creator of Secrets in Plain Sight, and Taking Measure: Explorations in Number, Architecture, and Consciousness.

Scott has a bachelors degree in architecture from the University of California Berkeley and is a former university instructor who now serves as a consultant and independent video producer. You can contact the author through his website at www.scottonstott.com or www.secretsinplainsight.com.

The staying power of the AutoCAD program is legendary in the ever-changing software industry, having been around for 35 years by the 2017 release. You can rest assured that spending your time learning AutoCAD will be a wise investment, and the skills you obtain in this book will be useful for years to come.

I welcome you in beginning the process of learning AutoCAD. It will give you great satisfaction to learn such a complex program and use it to design and document whatever you dream up. Youll find step-by-step tutorials that reveal a wide variety of techniques built on many years of real-world experience.

The first 14 chapters apply to both AutoCAD 2017 and AutoCAD LT 2017. AutoCAD LT is Autodesks lower-cost version of AutoCAD, and it has reduced capabilities. Chapters 15 through 18 are for full AutoCAD users only, because they cover advanced tools not available in AutoCAD LT, including attributes, 3D navigation, 3D modeling, and rendering.

This book is for students, hobbyists, professional architects, industrial designers, engineers, builders, landscape architects, or anyone who communicates through technical drawings as part of their work.

If youre interested in certification for AutoCAD 2017, this book can be a great resource to help you prepare. See www.autodesk.com/certification for more certification information and resources. This book also features an appendix that can help you focus your studies on the skills you will need for the certification exams.