Datasheet

CHAPTER 1 EXPLORING THE AUTOCAD AND AUTOCAD LT INTERFACE

4. Let’s see what can be done with these two files. Click in the window with the clip drawing

to make it active.

5. Choose View  Zoom  All to get an overall view of the drawing.

6. Click the 2D version of the clip at the bottom of the drawing to select it. A series of squares

and arrows appears on the drawing. These are called grips, and you’ll learn more about them

in the next chapter.

7. Click and hold the mouse button on the selected object, but avoid clicking any of the blue

squares. Also avoid dragging the object. You’ll see a small rectangle appear next to the cursor.

8. While still holding the left mouse button, drag the cursor to the new file window. When you

see the clip appear in the new drawing window, release the mouse button. You’ve just copied

part of a drawing from one file to another.

9. This ends the exercises for this chapter. Save the file and then exit AutoCAD.

NOTE You can also use the standard Windows Copy and Paste options (Edit  Copy and Edit 

Paste from the menu bar) to copy objects from one window to the other.

Now you’ve had two files open at once. You can have as many files open as you want, as long

as your computer has adequate memory to accommodate them. You can control the individual

document windows as you would any window, using the Window drop-down menu or the win-

dow control buttons in the upper-right corner of the document window.

Adding a Predrawn Symbol with the Tool Palette

In the preceding exercise, you saw how you can easily copy an object from one file to another by

using a click-and-drag method. AutoCAD offers a Tool Palettes window that lets you click and

drag predrawn objects into your drawing.

3738x.book Page 24 Monday, June 25, 2007 11:37 PM