Yeah, that’s the problem with plazas; they all begin to look alike after awhile. The original concept was a bit fancier with multi-level roofs but the owner nixed the idea to save money. Owners are always compromising the purity of our artistic vision.
Oldtimer! I only date back to R14, myself.
BTW, it looks like we have a few pros here so if mnemosyne, Sunspace (or anybody else for that matter) has any questions, then feel free to ask. I’m sure one of us would be happy to help.
I guess I’m the old lady - I learned on Acad 9!!!
(Thanks, NinetyWt!)
repeat after me…keyboard, keyboard, keyboard, keyboard.
(warning: techy stuff ahead…maybe better suited to an Autocad web site than the SDMB)
If you are just starting to learn computer drafting, then you may not know:
It is MUCH much faster to hit a key than to move your mouse all over the screen. If you have the mouse next to the line you want to trim, why move the mouse away from your line, up to a menu, scroll down that menu which blocks your view of the line you just drew, then over to the Osnap menu (which blocks your view again) ,scroll down that menu, pick an item, click OK, and then move the mouse back to where it already was perfectly positioned 15 seconds ago.?
Keep your mouse (and your attention) on the lines you are drawing. Then, while you have the mouse touching the line, hit the T key for trim, M key for move, or the E key for erase,etc. It is much, much more efficient: you keep your attention focused on your design.
Osnaps:
It is far, far easier to use the F-keys at the top of the keyboard than so cycle a bunch of unwanted osnaps till you get the one you need. I leave all the osnaps OFF. When I want to snap an ‘int’ or a ‘cen’ or a ‘per’, I hit the F3, F4, F5 keys .
This guarrantees that I will get only the one osnap that I need.
Try it !!
I WILL be trying those! We are being taught using the mouse, and while I really don’t mind the time it takes (seeing as how we aren’t really doing anything vastly complicated and I’m not being paid for this!) I do get annoyed at a bunch of little things. I’m on my spring break right now, so I might spend time screwing around with it and learning shortcuts. So far I pretty much only use the keyboard to set units and drawing limits, and to enter radii or angles for things I’m drawing.
The one that drives me batty, though, is things like drawing lines. (Using the mouse) I select the “line” option from the toolbar, then draw my line, or maybe several connected ones. But now I want to draw another line, NOT connected. I can’t seem to do that without cancelling entirely, then going back to the bloody toolbar to select line again. I just want the cursor to stay “primed” for drawing a line, but not one that’s connected to what I just did. I suppose keyboard shortcuts will take care of that, but there ought to be a way to do it with the mouse, too!
NinetyWt - I can send you a copy of the 30-day free Civil-3D trial CD we were given. Email or PM me your address and I’ll see about sending it off sometime in the next week or so.
Wow! Thanks for the advice, everyone! (And cool pics!) I’ll have to remember to use the keyboard. 
I’m sure I’ll have more questions, and not only for the instructor…
Just hit the spacebar to repeat a command. No fuss, no muss.
Do you want to come teach my class? Please?
Please dont !! That would only torment me !! 
Hodge: I notice that I constantly use the spacebar to repeat commands. It becomes second nature after a while.
You can learn to write your own shortcut commands (or "hotkeys.) It’s the language of Acad - LISP. I took a class many moons ago from a guy who was a regular contributor to CADalyst magazine.
I had to recreate the ones I used all the time when I started my current job 12 years ago. I couldn’t work without my hotkeys! The only thing I use Acad for anymore is drawing hydraulic schematics.