Archaeological Redrawing of Plans

On this page, you will find all necessary information to do archaeological redrawings with the software AutoCAD. The information is divided into different chapters, as we sequentially progress. Each chapter is available as a wiki article to read or as a video to watch and go along. Both formats cover exactly the same topics, so you can choose which format suits you the best. The video will be available at the end of each chapter.

	Preperations: Download and install AutoCAD for free AutoCAD is free for students and in order to work from home, you'll need your own copy of AutoCAD to download. Here is how.
	Chapter 1: Introduction into the unit system In this chapter, we will learn the basics of the software and create our own correctly sized excavation grid, that we will need the upcoming lessons.
	Chapter 2: Referencing, Layers and Drawing In this chapter, we will learn how to insert a reference drawing into our scaled ACAD file and how to redraw what we see on that reference. We'll also learn about line-types and some tricks in redrawing.
	Chapter 3: Hatching and Labelling Today, we will finish our drawing and make it print-ready. For that, we will learn how to fill our redrawing with colours and transparencies. We will also label everything in that drawing by inserting another reference drawing showing the heights in that trench.
	Chapter 4: Introduction into ACAD 3D In this chapter, we will learn the basics of the 3D aspect of ACAD. So start, we'll only use three tools to create a very simple temple.
	Chapter 5: Advanced Techniques In this chapter we'll learn to use some advanced techniques in order to build a simple column and to use the texture and render engine of ACAD.
	Chapter 6: Advanced Tools & Boolean Operators In this last chapter on ACAD 3D we'll learn some further tools and techniques in order to get familiar with the possibilities.