Datasheet

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CHAPTER 1 EXPLORING THE AUTOCAD AND AUTOCAD LT INTERFACE
Here’s an exercise to let you practice with the drop-down menus and get acquainted with the
way you issue AutoCAD commands:
1.
Click View in the menu bar. The list of items that appears includes the commands and set-
tings that let you control the way AutoCAD displays your drawings. Don’t worry if you
don’t understand them yet; you’ll get to know them in later chapters.
WARNING
LT users won’t see the Render option in the View menu.
2.
Move the highlight cursor slowly down the list of menu items. As you highlight each item,
notice that a description of it appears in the status bar at the bottom of the AutoCAD win-
dow. These descriptions help you choose the menu option you need.
TIP
If you look carefully at the command descriptions in the status bar, you’ll see an odd word at the
end. This is the keyboard command equivalent to the highlighted option in the menu or toolbar.
You can type these keyboard commands to start the tool or menu item that you’re pointing to. You
don’t have to memorize these command names, but knowing them will be helpful to you later if
you want to customize AutoCAD.
3.
Some of the menu items have triangular pointers to their right. This means the command has
additional choices. For instance, highlight the Zoom item, and another set of options appears
to the right. This second set of options is called a cascading menu. Whenever you see a drop-
down menu item with the triangular pointer, you know that this item opens a cascading
menu offering a more detailed set of options.
4.
Other drop-down menu options are followed by an ellipsis (…). This indicates that the
option displays a dialog box. For instance, move the highlight cursor to the Tools option in
the menu bar.
TIP
If you prefer, you can click and drag the highlight cursor over the drop-down menu to select
an option.
3738x.book Page 10 Monday, June 25, 2007 11:37 PM