Datasheet

UNDERSTANDING THE AUTOCAD WINDOW

Figure 1.2

The components

of the top of the

AutoCAD window

In the middle is the drawing area where you will do your actual drawing. One difference

between the bottom of Figure 1.1 and what you see on your screen is that the background in the

default AutoCAD drawing area is black. This helps with the visibility of lines on the computer

screen. But in this book, you will see the drawing area background shown in white because in print,

drawings with a white background are easier to see.

At the bottom of the screen is the status bar, which provides information regarding many of the

settings you’ll use in AutoCAD. Just above the status bar is the Command window, which is some-

what unique to AutoCAD. You’ll learn more about the Command window a bit later in this chapter.

Just as you can do in other Windows programs, you can move toolbars and reshape them to

your liking. The default location of the toolbars is in their

docked

position, which just means that

they are merged with the outer edge of the window to save space. You can drag them out into the

drawing area and reshape them if you like, or you can reposition them anywhere in the screen.

When toolbars are moved away from the edge of the window and appear “free floating,” they are

said to be

floating toolbars

, as opposed to docked.

Another unique item in AutoCAD’s window is the set of Tool palettes shown in Figure 1.3.

These palettes let you keep your favorite tools and drawing components in one convenient place

for quick access.

Now let’s look at some important parts of the AutoCAD window. The drawing area, the status

bar, and the Command window work together to give you feedback while you create and edit

your drawing. As you move your cursor over the drawing area, you’ll see the cursor appear as a

crosshair. If you click in the drawing area, a pair of numbers and a selection window appears.

Click again and the rectangle and selection window disappear.

The crosshair lets you point to portions of the drawing area, while the numeric display, known

as the

Dynamic Input display

, tells you your XY coordinate within the drawing area. The selection

window lets you select objects in the drawing area. You’ll learn more about coordinates in AutoCAD

in Chapter 2. You’ll look at selection windows a bit later in this chapter. As you work with AutoCAD

commands, the Dynamic Input display changes to text prompts to aid you in determining what to

do next.

Styles toolbarStandard toolbar

Workspace toolbar Layers toolbar Properties toolbar

Menu bar

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