Datasheet

UNDERSTANDING THE AUTOCAD WINDOW
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2.
Move the highlight cursor slowly down the list of menu items. As you highlight each item,
notice that a description of the item appears in the status bar at the bottom of the AutoCAD
window. These descriptions help you choose the menu option you need. At the end of the
description, you’ll see a single word in capital letters. This is the keyboard command equiv-
alent to the highlighted option in the menu or toolbar. You can actually type these keyboard
commands to start the tool or menu item that you are pointing to. You don’t have to mem-
orize these command names, but knowing them will help you later if you want to customize
AutoCAD.
3.
Some of the menu items won’t show anything in the status bar, but will have triangular
pointers to their right. This means the menu option has additional choices. For instance,
highlight the Zoom item, and you’ll see another set of options appear to the right of the
menu. This second set of options is called a cascading menu . Whenever you see a menu item
with the triangular pointer, you know that it opens a cascading menu with a more detailed
set of options.
Opening Dialog Boxes
You might have noticed that other drop-down menu options are followed by an ellipsis ( ).
This indicates that the option displays a dialog box, as the following exercise demonstrates:
1. Move the highlight cursor to the Tools option in the menu bar.
2. Click the Options item at the bottom of the menu to open the Options dialog box.
The Options dialog box is like the Preferences dialog box in other programs. Here you can find
most of the general AutoCAD settings that affect its behavior. Numerous settings are divided into
tabs across the top of the dialog box. The Options dialog box is one of many dialog boxes available
through the menu bar.
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