1. Just Enough AutoCAD Chapter 11 Gathering Information Measuring Areas Finding the Coordinate of a Point Measuring Distances Measuring Angles Getting the General Status of the Drawing Finding the Time Spent on a Drawing Adding Nondrawing Data to Store with Your Drawing Finding Text in a drawing Locating and Selecting Named Components Finding Missing Support Files

2. Just Enough AutoCAD Chapter 11 Finding areas is a common task. You can find the area of a polygon using the Area command (Tools > Inquiry > Area). With Area, you must select the vertexes of a polygon sequentially.

3. Just Enough AutoCAD Chapter 11 If you have an irregular shape, the best way to find it’s area is to use the Hatch tool, then use the Properties palette to find the area of the hatch. One advantage to hatch is that by default, it will exclude any islands enclosed in the area like the circles in this drawing.

4. Just Enough AutoCAD Chapter 11 If you need to find the distance between objects, use the Distance command (Tools > Inquiry > Distance). Use osnaps to get accurate measurements. If you just need to find the exact coordinates of a point, use the ID Point option.

5. Just Enough AutoCAD Chapter 11 Another common piece of information you will frequently want to find is the angle between lines. The easiest way to do this is to place an angular dimension in the drawing (Dimension > Angular).

6. Just Enough AutoCAD Chapter 11 You can obtain general statistics about the current file using the Status command (Tools > Inquiry > Status).

7. Just Enough AutoCAD Chapter 11 The Time command (Tools > Inquiry > Time) will give you information about the time spent editing on the current drawing.

8. Just Enough AutoCAD Chapter 11 If you want to include data with a drawing that isn’t part of the drawing itself, you can use the Drawing Properties dialog box (File > Drawing Properties).

9. Just Enough AutoCAD Chapter 11 To find text in a drawing, you can use the Find and Replace dialog box (Edit > Find).

10. Just Enough AutoCAD Chapter 11 If you need to find objects by their properties, the Quick Select dialog box can come in handy (Tools > Quick Select). Quick Select will help you find objects by color, layer, coordinate or other feature.

11. Just Enough AutoCAD Chapter 11 One common problem you may encounter is a lost external reference. You’ll know a file has a missing Xref when you see the missing Xref icon in the lower left corner of the AutoCAD window. Of course, the biggest clue will be large portions of your drawing that are missing. You’ll also see a text message in the drawing showing the name and location of the missing file.

12. Just Enough AutoCAD Chapter 11 To reestablish a connection with a missing Xref, first locate the Xref file on your computer. Next, open the External Reference palette by clicking Insert > External Reference. At the bottom of the palette, locate the Found At option and click the browse button to the far right. Browse to the location of the found Xref file and select it.