Datasheet

PANNING AND ZOOMING TO ADJUST YOUR VIEW

Panning and Zooming to Adjust Your View

One of the greatest features of AutoCAD is its ability to draw accurately through a wide range of

scales. For example, you can draw a football field, zoom into a blade of grass, and draw its cell

structure. With such a broad range of views to work with, you need to be familiar with AutoCAD’s

view features. The Zoom and Pan commands are the most frequently used of the view features, so

you’ll want to become familiar with them right away.

Try the following exercise to see how Zoom works.

1. Choose View  Zoom  Window or select Zoom Window from the Standard toolbar.

2. Click the first point indicated in Figure 1.9. You don’t have to be too accurate.

3. Click the second point indicated in Figure 1.9. The area you selected expands to fill the draw-

ing area. Notice that the transition to the zoomed view is smooth. This helps you keep track

of exactly where in the drawing the zoom occurs.

4. Choose View  Pan  Realtime or click the Pan Realtime tool in the Standard toolbar. Notice

that the cursor changes to a hand icon.

5. Click and drag in the drawing area. Notice how the view moves as you drag the cursor.

6. Press Escape to exit the Pan command. You can also right-click and choose Exit from the

shortcut menu.

7. Finally, to get your original view of the overall drawing, choose View  Zoom  Previous

or click the Zoom Previous tool in the Standard toolbar. The view smoothly transitions to the

previous view, allowing you to see clearly where the previous view occurs in relation to the

current one.

If you have a mouse with a scroll wheel, you can use it to zoom in and out of your drawing view.

You can also use it to pan across your drawing. To zoom, scroll the wheel. To pan, click and drag

the wheel.

Figure 1.9

Selecting a Zoom

window

Then click this location.

Click this location first to start the Zoom window.

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