Creating a Television Outlet Symbol in AutoCAD: Step-by-Step Guide

In this video, we will work on the television outlet symbol. Let’s go to File, New.

Let’s use our template, then go to File, Save. I’ll save this as television-outlet.

I’ll hit Save, then add my e-symbols layer, E-syms.

Set the color to 61. I’ll make this my current layer and close the Layer Properties.

Press Control+S to save.

Now, in this case, the rectangle is the same size as our voice data outlet: one-quarter inch by one-quarter inch.

However, we know where it is relative to 0,0 because it sits on top of a line that is one-eighth of an inch tall.

The bottom of that line is at 0,0.

Let’s start by drawing the line. I’ll go to Line.

My first point is 0,0. My second point can be drawn using polar, relative, or absolute coordinates. In this case, I’ll use absolute coordinates: 0,1/8. Press ENTER to lock it in.

Press ENTER to confirm I’m done, then Zoom Extents.

Now, let’s check the length of that line using the Quick Measure tool.

When I hover next to the line, the length will appear.

I’ll hit Escape. Now, I want to draw my rectangle.

In this case, it will likely be faster to draw the rectangle somewhere on the screen, then use Move, point-to-point, to place it in the correct location.

I’ll draw my rectangle and start somewhere over here.

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This time, instead of using relative coordinates, I’ll use the Dimensions option.

I can see that it’s the 'D' option here, so I’ll type D, then press ENTER.

Now, it’s asking for the length, width, and quadrant.

The length is 1/4, press ENTER. The width is 1/4, press ENTER.

Now, it’s asking me to specify the other corner point. This is essentially a quadrant based on the first point.

I want to place it in this quadrant, so I click.

Now, my rectangle is drawn, one-quarter inch by one-quarter inch.

To move the rectangle, I want to move it from this midpoint to this endpoint.

That’s a point-to-point move, because the instruction is 'from the midpoint to the endpoint.'

I can see that my object snaps are still active for Endpoint and Midpoint.

So, I’ll go to Move, select the rectangle, press ENTER to lock it in, move from the midpoint to the endpoint, then press Control+S to save.

Now, let’s add the text that says 'TV.'

In this case, the text is one-eighth inch high, and it’s centered in the middle of the rectangle.

While these options can be accomplished with single-line text, we can use multi-line text for more flexibility in the multi-line text editor.

This doesn’t always mean we have to use multiple lines, but single-line text can never contain multiple lines in a single object.

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This is problematic when working with large text such as on a title block or title sheet.

In this case, let’s go to our text dropdown and choose Multi-line Text.

The first thing it asks us to do is specify the bounding box for the text, which differs from Microsoft Word or other text applications.

Since we have an infinite drawing area, AutoCAD requires us to specify where the text will appear, within a box.

In this case, we can use our rectangle as the bounding box.

I’ll choose the top-left corner and the bottom-right corner.

Now, our text can be drawn within this box. The height is currently set to six inches.

We need it to be one-eighth inch. Press ENTER.

Next, we see that the justification is currently set to Top Left.

This is the default in Microsoft Word and other text software.

In this case, we want it to be Middle Center.

Now, we can type 'TV' and click the Close Text Editor button.

Let’s Zoom Extents, then press Control+S to save.

In the next video, we’ll continue with our electrical symbols.