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Case Study- a design for an outdoor teaching area
In this module, we will focus on those commands used to place primitive elements in a drawing - the
RECTANGLE, LINE, ARC, POINT, CIRCLE, ELLIPSE, POLYGON,
HATCH, PLINE (polyline).
We will begin by setting up a small
site - an enclosed rectangular area such as might be created adjacent to
a classroom. The partly completed drawing is shown in the figure below.
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Design for a small courtyard, 10 meters by 10
meters. The brief was to establish an enclosed courtyard next to
a conventional classroom such that it was suitable suitable for
outdoor teaching. |
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Click
here to play a movie which
shows how the various editing commands are used in a
GardenCAD design.
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Create a rectangular site
The units in GardenCAD are reported in millimeters. To create a site 10
meters by 10 meters, we need to use the RECTANGLE command, but type the
pair of Cartesian coordinates for the bottom left of the rectangle as
0,0 (zero in the X and zero in the Y direction) and the other corner as
a pair of Cartesian coordinates 10000 10000.
RECTANGLE <ENTER>
0,0 <ENTER>
10000,1000 <ENTER>
ZOOM, Extents.
It often helps to set up a grid when you are
designing. a grid does not constrain your creativity or stifle you in
any way, but allows you to draft with precision very easily.
Right click and activate the drafting
aids and set the snap value to 500 units as shown in the figure below.
Leave the major step size at 10.
(This means that we will have a grid of 500 mm with
large steps every 2.5 meters.)
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Setting the grid to
500 mm. |
The grid can be made to sit behind
the entities or in front of the design.
Make sure that snap to grid is on as
well as show grid.
Now it is possible with a few clicks of the mouse to
set out some interesting shapes. Remember that part of the brief was to
use shapes which could be used in a class on geometry!
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Click
here to play a movie which
shows how the snap and grid commands can be used to create some
interesting shapes. |
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Creating a design
using snap a grid. |
Please review your knowledge of the material in this
module before progressing to the next stage. If you are taking this
course by CD-ROM based learning, click the back button on your browser.
If you are taking this course by broadband earning, click the Resources
link at the top of the page.
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