AutoCAD Freestyle

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Draw professional-looking 2D layouts, landscape designs, and floor plans—it’s better than a hand sketch any day.

Start drawing right away with simple 2D drawing tools in AutoCAD Freestyle.

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No Training Required

Community Gallery
Browse drawings created by users like you. View popular drawings or post your own directly from AutoCAD Freestyle.

Featured Examples

No training is required to use AutoCAD Freestyle, but there are resources if you need help.

How Do You Install AutoCAD

1.     Run the Setup Application
Internet Explorer
A window will open asking if you want to run or save the file. Click “Run.”
Firefox
Click “Save File” and choose the location where you want it saved (typically your desktop). When the download is complete, run the setup file by double-clicking the file on the Firefox Download Manager window or from the location where you saved it.

2.     Accept the Software Agreement
Finish the download and installation by accepting the Autodesk® software licensing agreement. You must stay online during the software download, which can take 5 to 30 minutes, depending on your Internet connection. If your connection is disrupted, the download will pick up where it left off when you restart the installation.

3.     Launch Now
Click “Launch Now” to start using AutoCAD Freestyle software—no training required.

Layers

You can organize the objects your draw on layers.

What are layers?

Layers help you organize your drawing by grouping similar drawing elements such as walls, landscaping, and furniture on the same layer. Later, if you want to hide specific objects in a drawing, you can turn off the layers they are on. This practice is especially useful for complex drawings that contain many overlapping objects—or for showing design alternatives. You can turn a layer off, preview all the objects it contains, and rename it.

What are sub-layers?

Sub-layers are groups of similar object types such as lines and shapes, text, fill, and pictures. Sub-layers are created automatically when you create that object type. For example, when you add fill to a closed area, a new Fill sub-layer is created. Sub-layer types include text, content, dimensions, lines and shapes, and pictures. Like layers, you can turn a sub-layer on or off and preview all objects that it contains. However, you cannot rename sub-layers.

In the following drawing, different object types are organized with layers.

The name of each layer and sub-layer is displayed in the Layers palette. In this example, the default layer names (Layer 1, Layer 2) have been renamed to be more descriptive (Background, House).

In the following drawing, the Background layer was turned off:

To further simplify a drawing, you can turn off all layers except for the Lines & Shapes sub-layers:

You can create and name up to 10 layers. In the Layers palette, you can also do the following:

Fills

Add color or patterns to closed shapes.

With the fill tool, you can

• Add solid colors, gradients, or pattern fills to closed shapes.

• Preview which areas can be filled before you add the fill.

After the fill has been added, you can make it transparent or change its draw order to send it behind overlapping fill. To remove fill, select it and press Delete.

Line Properties

You can change the properties of a line before or after you draw it.

What are line properties?

The lines and shapes you draw have the following properties:

How do I set the properties of new lines?

       • Before you draw, use the line properties tools to set line properties. New lines have the properties you select.

How do I change linetype?

1.     Select the object.

2.     From the linetype drop-down list, click a new linetype.

How do I change lineweight?

1.     Select the object.

2.     From the lineweight drop-down list, click a new lineweight.

How do I change line color?

1.     Select the object.

2.     Click Line Color.

3.     From the line color drop-down list, click a color swatch.  

Transparency

You can change the opacity of line or fills.

You can make lines and fills more transparent by decreasing the opacity value, which can be set in the toolbar. This property allows certain objects to "show through" objects that are drawn over them. In the following illustration, the green square is hidden when the opacity of the purple square is 100%. The square is revealed more and more as the opacity of the purple square is decreased.

How do I change the transparency of objects?

1.     Select a line, shape, or fill.

2.     In the tools area, drag the opacity slider left or right.

Draw Order

Change the draw order to expose objects that are hidden by other objects.

When you draw overlapping objects, some objects are drawn over, or on top of, other objects. This might cause some objects to be hidden. You can make hidden objects visible by changing their draw order. You cause an object to display in front of other objects (with Bring to Front) or to display behind other objects (with Send to Back).

How do I change the draw order of objects?

1.     Right-click the object that is hiding the other object.

2.     In the shortcut menu, click Draw Order > Send to Back.