Datasheet

UNDERSTANDING THE AUTOCAD WINDOW
17
Closing and Opening Toolbars
Many experienced AutoCAD users prefer to start commands through the keyboard rather than
through the toolbars. That way, they can remove the toolbars from the screen to maximize the area
available for drawing.
If at some point, you find you prefer to remove the toolbars entirely, you can do so easily. Or you
can remove and recall toolbars as needed. The next steps show you how.
1. Click and drag the Draw toolbar from its position at the left of the AutoCAD window to a
point near the center of the drawing area. Remember to click and drag the grab bars at the
top of the toolbar.
2. Click the Close button in the upper-right corner of the Draw floating toolbar. This is the
small square button with the X in it. The toolbar disappears.
3. To recover the Draw toolbar, right-click the border or grab bar of any toolbar—but not a tool-
bar button. A shortcut menu of toolbars appears.
4. Locate and select Draw in the shortcut menu. The Draw toolbar reappears.
5. Click and drag the Draw toolbar back to its docked position in the far-left side of the
AutoCAD window.
TIP If you do not want the toolbar to dock but instead want it to appear “floating” near the border
of the AutoCAD window, you can press the Ctrl key before you click and drag the toolbar into posi-
tion. This prevents toolbars from automatically falling into a docked position.
AutoCAD remembers your toolbar arrangement between sessions. When you exit and then
reopen AutoCAD later, the AutoCAD window appears just as you left it.
Understanding the Command, Tool, and Option Relationship
One of AutoCAD’s greatest assets is its ability to adjust to your way of doing things. If you prefer using tool-
bars, you can gain access to nearly all AutoCAD functions through toolbars. If you prefer using options
from the menu bar, again, you can perform most of what you need through them. Hardcore users know
how to use the command line and know nearly all the commands by heart.
The AutoCAD commands are really at the heart of its operations. Menu bar options and toolbar tools are
really just different ways to invoke AutoCAD commands. When you click a toolbar tool or a menu
option, you are really initiating a command through AutoCAD’s menu system, sometimes with prede-
termined options already selected. In fact, if you watch the command line as you click a menu option or
toolbar tool, you’ll see that the messages in the Command window are the same regardless of where the
command is invoked.
For this reason, I’ll often intermix the terms tool, option, and command, because at a practical level,
they are really all the same. Just be aware that menu options and toolbar tools invoke commands.
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