Datasheet

32
Chapter 1 Arranging the AutoCAD User Interface
The mnemonic, or way to remember it, is RGB =X YZ — red represents the X axis, green
for Y, and blue for Z. The UCS icon is fatter and has conical arrowheads on the axis tips by
default, but observe that it follows the same hard and fast color-coding rules.
You might choose to label the axes on the crosshairs (in Options), but once you get
the color mnemonic, doing so will be overkill. Before closing the 3D Modeling tab of the
Options dialog, select Show Z Field For Pointer Input. This option is helpful if you ever want
to key in Z coordinates on screen using dynamic input, but point input must also be enabled
in Drafting Settings.
As the Wheel Turns
Tell us that you have a wheel on your mouse. If you don’t, what are you thinking? Go out and
buy a wheeled mouse ASAP — have a bake sale or a carwash, whatever it takes! The mouse
wheel is one of the best productivity boosters. A few important system variables control the
behavior of the mouse wheel:
MBUTTONPAN MBUTTONPAN is the system variable that controls whether the middle buttons pans
or displays the object snap menu (which isn’t quite as useful). Panning with the wheel button
is so intuitive that most of us take it for granted. It’s on by default, but if someone turns it
off, you’ll probably go crazy — so, this tip will make your day. Set
MBUTTONPAN to 1 for pan-
ning, and set it to 0 to display the object snap menu. There’s no need to use the scroll bars
on the screen or key in PAN anymore when
MBUTTONPAN is on — just use the wheel button.
Those of you who still have an ancient three-button mouse will prefer setting
MBUTTONPAN to
0, because you won’t be able to pan anyway.
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