Datasheet

CHAPTER 1 EXPLORING THE AUTOCAD AND AUTOCAD LT INTERFACE

Saving Your Preferred Workspace

You may find that you prefer a specific arrangement of toolbars that you’d like to be able to recall

at will. You can rearrange the toolbars and then save the arrangement as a named workspace. Doing

so can be useful if you must share your AutoCAD workstation with someone else who prefers their

own AutoCAD window layout or if you want to set up different arrangements for different types

of work. For example, you might want to save the current AutoCAD window layout with the Tool

palettes out of the way, while someone else prefers the default AutoCAD setup. To save the current

setup under a new name, do the following:

1. In the Workspaces toolbar, click in the drop-down list, and select Save Current As to open

the Save Workspace dialog box.

2. Enter My Custom Layout in the text box, and click Save. The current arrangement of

AutoCAD components is saved under the name My Custom Layout.

3. To recall a workspace, select the name of the saved workspace from the drop-down list in the

Workspaces toolbar.

You may have noticed a house icon in the Workspaces toolbar. This is the My Workspace tool,

which offers a quick way to restore your favorite workspace. You can customize the My Workspace

tool to recall any AutoCAD window layout you like. You’ll learn more about creating and custom-

izing workspaces in Chapter 26.

Working with AutoCAD

Now that you’ve been introduced to the AutoCAD window, you’re ready to try using a few

AutoCAD commands. First, you’ll open a sample file and make a few modifications to it. In the

process, you’ll become familiar with some common methods of operation in AutoCAD.

Opening an Existing File

In this exercise, you’ll get a chance to see and use a typical Select File dialog box. To start, you’ll

open an existing file:

1. From the menu bar, choose File  Close. A message appears, asking whether you want to

save the changes you’ve made to the current drawing. Click No.

Many tools and commands have keyboard shortcuts; shortcuts are one-, two-, or three-letter abbrevia-

tions of a command name. As you become more proficient with AutoCAD, you may find these shortcuts

helpful. As you work through this book, the shortcuts will be identified for your reference.

Finally, if you’re feeling adventurous, you can create your own accelerator keys and keyboard short-

cuts for executing commands by adding them to the AutoCAD support files. Chapter 25 discusses how

to customize menus, toolbars, and keyboard shortcuts.

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