Datasheet
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Chapter 1 Arranging the AutoCAD User Interface
Item drop-down list). Could this be more obscure? I (Lynn) personally find this frustrating
because I like the font of the tooltips to be larger than that on my tool palettes.
After you’re finished tweaking the appear-
ance of the Windows UI, select the Themes
tab of the Display Properties dialog box (if you
have one), and save a theme. Should anything
change, this will make it easy to recall all your
customizations with one click at a later date.
Prepare for AutoCAD Launch
5, 4, 3, 2, 1… Startup switches are options you can add to the shortcut(s) that launch AutoCAD.
They allow you to boot up AutoCAD with some preexisting conditions in place. Startup
shortcuts are usually placed on the desktop. In the old days (pre–AutoCAD 2000), startup
switches were more commonly used, because they set the default folder — something that’s
handled with a system variable now.
See “Folders: To Remember or Forget?” in Chapter 8.
Startup switches are still useful, giving you the ability to select a particular script,
template, configuration folder, view name, support folder, user profile, workspace, and
more — to start with AutoCAD. Look up “startup switches” in AutoCAD Help for all
the options.
Using Startup Switches
To see how startup switches are used, let’s disable the splash screen that appears when Auto-
CAD launches (in AutoCAD 2007, it’s a transparent green box). That splash screen not only
slows you down, but it can be downright annoying after a while:
1. Create a shortcut for launching AutoCAD, if you don’t already have one on your desktop.
Use Windows Explorer to locate
C:\Program Files\AutoCAD 2007\acad.exe (the file that
launches AutoCAD), right-click, and choose Send To
➔ Desktop (create shortcut).
2. Get back to your desktop by minimizing everything (press Windows key+M, or tediously
minimize the windows one at a time). Right-click the shortcut to
acad.exe on the desk-
top, and choose Properties.
3. Place the cursor at the end of the text in the Target text box, and type /nologo. All
startup switches are added to the end of the target line and immediately follow a forward
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