Welcome to a new AutoCAD online tutorial. This time we will learn how to use a powerful AutoCAD tool, the design center. To do that, we will use this drawing that you can see right now on your screen. It is a very simple architectural house plan. This drawing has been created using some layers where the architectural elements have been arranged. several blocks have also been used to represent different objects like furniture, plumbing fixtures, doors, planting and some other elements.

So let's start studying the design center. To open the design center, let's go to the View tab. We're going to find here the palettes panel where we will locate the design center icon. We can enter this command either through its icon or entering the DC alias using the keyboard. Let's do it this way. After pressing the Enter key, we will be introduced to the design center palette.

Let us anchor it to the left side of the screen to study all its components. Basically, the Design Center is a browser that will allow us to use information from a group of files that are part of a default library in AutoCAD. We will also be able to use and share information among different open drawings during a working session. We will find three tabs in the Design Center The first tab is called folders. It is open right now. And here we can see the AutoCAD 2020 folder.

Inside of it, we will go to another folder called sample. We're going to unfold it by pressing this little cross on the left side. And now we're going to unfold another folder called n us. Here we're going to find the design center folder. We're going to unfold it and we will see a set of drawings that are part of the AutoCAD default library. We will be able to use information from these drawings in our projects.

The second tab is called Open drawings. Right now we have opened only the file we are using for this tutorial. We will study Later how to share information among several open drawings during a working session. Finally, we have this third tab showing us a history where we will be able to appreciate all our activity during a working session. Let's start by learning how to use the information found in these files from the design center. In order to insert it into our projects, we will go to the design center folder, and this time we will select a file called home space planner.

We're going to display it and we're going to see a list of different items such as blocks, dimension styles, layers, layouts, line types, multi leader styles, Table Styles, text styles and other elements Select the block section. We are going to click here and in this column on the right side now we can see the blocks found in this file. We are going to insert this blog called Red Queen into our project. Before we do that, we will make sure first that we are working on the right layer. We are going to select the furniture layer and turn it into the current layer. Now we have to make an adjustment in the insertion scale units because all these blocks in the design center have been designed in millimeters.

In this project, we are working in meters, so we have to make the corresponding adjustment. To do that, let's go to the AutoCAD main button. Then we must select the drawing utilities and look for the unit's command. After clicking on it, a dialog box is open where we can see that the default insertion scale units are millimeters. We're going to turn these units into meters. Let's click now on the OK button and now we will no longer have problems inserting the design center blocks.

Let's pick this block. Here we have a preview of this block. Now we just drag it clicking and pressing on it, and then we can drop it within our working area. Here we can see how In fact, the desired block has been inserted into our project. let's locate our new block in this room. We must rotate it With an angle of 90 degrees now we're going to move it.

We're going to take it by this midpoint on this side and we're going to place it over here. Let's use another block now. This time we are going to use a file called kitchens. Let's display it and now we will select the blocks here. We will pick this blog called refrigerator to door top. We must repeat the same process.

We must drag the block and drop it into our project. We're going to rotate it 90 degrees and we're going to place it over here. Let's select now one more block from the Design Center. We will switch to the sanitary fixtures layer in our project and we will look here for another file. This time let's use this one called house designer. We're going to select the blocks and we will use this toilet top block.

Let's drag it into our drawing and drop it over here. Now let's move it to place it in the right position. So, as we can see, it is very simple to use blocks from the design center to insert them into our projects. Now we are going to learn how to share information between two drawings to do so We are going to use the file for our tutorial and then create a new drawing. Let's go to the AutoCAD main button and create a new drawing. We are going to use the default template.

This way we have created a new drawing. Let's move to the design center and look for the open drawings tab. We will notice the file corresponding to our tutorial and also the new file we have created. If we go to the block section, we will see that there are no blocks in our new file. Likewise, if we go to the layers section, we will only find the layers zero, which is generated by default. It is very simple to share information between two open drawings.

As an example, let's assume that we want to Take a few blocks from our project into the new drawing. To do that, we must go to the design center and look for the block section in our project. We will select for instance, this kitchen block, we must drag it to the new drawing and then drop it. And this is how we insert it into our new file. Let's drag another block, for instance, the column block, we just need to select it and then bring it into our new drawing. We're going to pick another block, let's say this one called exterior door.

Again, we must drag it and drop it into the new drawing. Doing this we have inserted information from our existing project to the new drawing We will notice that if we open the Layer Properties manager, we will find that not only the blocks were inserted, but also the corresponding layers. Let's go again to the design center, and this time we will select the layers for our tutorial. Let's select for instance, the walls layer, the text layer and the windows layer and we will drag them into our new drawing and then drop them. If we go now to the layer properties manager, we will find that those layers have also been inserted into our new drawing. Finally, we are going to study how we can share information from the design center to other previously existing files.

We're going to open a file from a previous project This project is called 180 house. After opening it, we will see that this project appears among the open drawings in the design center. Let's take one of the blocks in our tutorial and insert it into our existing project. We are going to select for instance, this blog called exterior door just in the same way as we have been doing. Now we just drag it and drop it into the project. We can share not only blocks between different drawings, but also layers, textiles, dimension styles, and other elements.

In this case, in our tutorial, we have a dimension style called general dimensions. In this drawing we have opened if we go to the animation tab, we can see that we have some dimension styles, like this one called 180 house dimension style and the default dimension styles. We're going to take this dimension style called general dimensions and then insert it into this project, we must simply drag it and drop it into the drawing. We are going to find that the new dimension style appears among the drawings dimension styles list. We're going to do the same with a text style. For instance, let's select this style called titles.

We can see here in this project we have opened the different existing text styles, like a style called 180, house text style, and the default text styles. We are going to drag the text style called titles, which is found in this file. Let's drag it and drop it into our project. We're going to find that the text style called titles has been inserted into our new project. As you can see, it is very easy to share information between different drawings using the design center. We've been studying how to share information among multiple drawings in AutoCAD.

As you can see, when we create a drawing, this tab appears with the name of the file. And when we place the cursor near the tab, we can see the thumbnails of model space and the different layouts that we have created for this drawing up here. We can also find here a button with a small cross that will allow us to create a new Drawing, we're going to select it and a new drawing is generated. Now let's go to the View tab, we will find a panel called interface, and we will notice that a tool called file tabs is active. When this tool is selected, we can see the tabs showing us the different files that are open. This will allow us to select very easily the file that we want to work on at any specific time.

Let's go back to the Home tab in our project and we will see here that there is a panel called clipboard where we can find the classic windows tools have cut, copy and paste. We we're going to learn that in AutoCAD there are some options of these options. means that are typical of this program. Let's assume that we would like to copy an element found in this drawing to our new drawing. Let's select the copy command here, we could use the keyboard shortcut with a well known Ctrl C option. This time we're going to do it through this icon.

Now we select the objects that we want to copy. Let's press the Enter key and move to the new drawing. Here we will select the paste command, we can use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl V, we will see that we can paste the object anywhere on the screen. let's paste it it over here in this way we've already copied the item. Something interesting that happens when you copy and paste elements from one drawing to another is that the new drawing will inherit all the properties of this drawing that we are pasting. For example, if we go here to the layers properties manager, we will see that the furniture layer was copied, which is the layer where these elements are located in the original drawing.

Let's go back to the project file and select the copy command again. But this time we're going to copy this block. We select it, press the Enter key and go to the new drawing. We want to show you Now a new paste option, which is paste to original coordinates. With this tool, we will not only paste the object but also paste it to the same location that it has in the original file. Let's select it, and as you can see, the object was pasted to the same location as it has in the original drawing.

There is another option that we want to show you, which is the following. We will copy these elements here in this space of the living room, the seats and the table. As you can see, these objects are not part of a block. Let's select them and then press the enter key. Now let's go to the new drawing. There is an option within the paste commands called paste as block.

This tool will allow us to paste the objects we have selected and turn them into a block. Let's select it and paste the living room furniture. Now, as we move the cursor closer to these objects, we will notice that they have become a block. This is a very convenient option when you want to copy and paste elements from one drawing to another. Let's study now another option offered by the copy and paste commands. We must enter this one using the keyboard.

It's called copy from a base point. Let's enter it by typing its name, copy base and Press the enter key. Let's say we want to copy this desktop that you see here, but we will also instruct the program to do so from a base point. We're going to select this end point. Let's click here, select the objects, press the Enter key and let's go now to the new drawing. We are going to select the paste tool and we will see that not only will the elements be pasted, but they will be pasted from the base point that we selected.

This is a very useful option when you want to paste an item in a precise location. As you can see, these are very interesting tools that AutoCAD offers us to enjoy among various drawings, we have learned that the Design Center is a very powerful tool that we can use to share information among different files that we are working on in AutoCAD. This is the conclusion of this short tutorial, where we have studied how to use the Design Center in AutoCAD. We hope that this material may be useful to you in your work. We are looking forward to meeting with you again in a new AutoCAD online tutorial.