GH TE D MA TE RI AL CHAPTER 1 CO PY RI Getting to Know AutoCAD Opening a new drawing Getting familiar with the AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT graphics windows Modifying the display Displaying and arranging AutoCAD tools
Chapter 1 • Getting to Know AutoCAD our introduction to AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT begins with a tour of the user interfaces of the two programs. In this chapter, you’ll also learn how to use some tools that help you control their appearance and how to find and start commands. For the material covered in this chapter, the two applications are almost identical in appearance. Therefore, as you tour AutoCAD, I’ll point out any differences between AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT.
Starting AutoCAD F I G U R E 1 . 1 : The AutoCAD welcome screen provides access to the New Features Workshop. F I G U R E 1 . 2 : The New Features Workshop dialog box The Customer Involvement Program Nearly all the latest releases of Autodesk products include the opportunity to participate in the customer involvement program (CIP).
Chapter 1 • Getting to Know AutoCAD best meets their customers’ needs. If you haven’t yet agreed or declined to participate, when you first start AutoCAD, the Customer Involvement Program dialog box might prompt you to join. Participation is strictly voluntary, and if you choose to participate, AutoCAD will periodically send a small file to Autodesk containing information such as your software name and version, the commands you use, and your system configuration information.
Starting AutoCAD F I G U R E 1 . 3 : The AutoCAD graphics window using the 2D Drafting & Annotation workspace Tool Palettes ViewCube F I G U R E 1 .
Chapter 1 • Getting to Know AutoCAD If your screen looks like Figure 1.4 or isn’t at all like Figure 1.3, you need to make a few changes: 1. Click the Workspace Switching button in the status bar and choose 2D Drafting & Annotation. Alternately, you can choose Tools ➣ Workspaces ➣ 2D Drafting & Annotation. 2. The 2D Drafting & Annotation workspace may display the tool palettes on the screen. If the palettes are displayed, you need to turn them off for now by clicking the X in the upper-right corner.
Starting AutoCAD F I G U R E 1 . 6 : Selecting the 2D Wireframe visual style 4. Enter plan↵ and then world↵ or click the World option in the pop-up menu if it appears. If dots appear in the drawing area, the grid is turned on. 5. Move the cursor to the left side of the status bar at the bottom of the screen, and click the Grid Display button so it’s in the off (unpushed) position and the dots disappear. Be sure all the other readout buttons except Dynamic Input are in their off (unpushed) positions.
Chapter 1 • Getting to Know AutoCAD Introducing the AutoCAD Graphics Window The title bar and menu bar at the top of the LT screen are identical to those in AutoCAD except that AutoCAD LT appears in the title bar rather than AutoCAD. At the top of the graphics window sit the Ribbon, the Quick Access toolbar to the left, and the InfoCenter and related tools on the right. Quick Access Toolbar The title bar is analogous to the title bar in any Windows program.
I n t ro d u c i n g t h e Au t o CA D G ra p h i c s Wi n d ow commands, it will take on other forms, depending on which step of a command you’re performing. The icon with a double arrow in the lower-left corner of the drawing area is the UCS icon (UCS stands for user coordinate system). It indicates the positive direction for the x- and y-axes. You won’t need it for most of the chapters in this book, so you’ll learn how to turn it off in Chapter 3. Below the drawing area is the Command window.
1 0 Chapter 1 • Getting to Know AutoCAD used in 3D drawings. The Dynamic Input button is an on/off toggle that activates or suppresses the dynamic display of information next to the crosshair cursor when it’s in the drawing area. For now, keep it in the on (pushed) mode. The Show/Hide Lineweight button toggles the display of lineweights (discussed in Chapter 14) in the drawing area.
I n t ro d u c i n g t h e Au t o CA D G ra p h i c s Wi n d ow 1 1 2. Click the Display tab, which is shown in Figure 1.8. Focus on the Window Elements section. If scroll bars are visible on the lower and right edges of the drawing area, the Display Scroll Bars In Drawing Window check box will be selected. F I G U R E 1 . 8 : The Options dialog box open at the Display tab 3. Click the check box to turn off the scroll bars.
1 2 Chapter 1 • Getting to Know AutoCAD F I G U R E 1 . 9 : The Drawing Window Colors dialog box N O T E The screen-captured images in this book are taken from AutoCAD sessions using the Dark Color Scheme. You can set the Color Scheme at the top of the Window Elements area and choose either the Light or Dark scheme. 2. Move to the Color drop-down list, which is in the upper-right corner. If your drawing area background is currently white, a square followed by the word White is displayed.
Wo r k i n g i n t h e C o m m a n d Wi n d o w T I P If you choose a color other than black as the drawing area background color, the color of the crosshair cursor remains the same as it was. To change the crosshair color, in the Drawing Window Colors dialog box, go to the Interface Element list box, and select Crosshairs. Then, select a color from the Color drop-down list. Working in the Command Window Just below the drawing area is the Command window.
1 4 Chapter 1 • Getting to Know AutoCAD Using the Ribbon New to AutoCAD 2009 is the Ribbon, a consolidated location for nearly all the AutoCAD tools in the form of easily recognizable buttons. A set of tabs delineates the different collections of tools by their purposes: creating and editing objects, adding notes and dimensions, sending the drawing to a printer or plotter, and so on. Displaying the Ribbon Tools The Ribbon self-adjusts according to the width of the AutoCAD window.
Using the Ribbon The Ribbon’s default location is at the top of the screen, but it can be undocked, or floating over the drawing area, or it can be moved to a second monitor or docked on either side of the drawing area. To undock the Ribbon, right-click to the right of the tab names and choose Undock from the pop-up menu. The Ribbon detaches from the top of the drawing area and floats on the screen as shown in Figure 1.11.
1 6 Chapter 1 • Getting to Know AutoCAD exposes the additional tools. Follow these steps to learn how the Ribbon tools work and how they display information. 1. Click the Home tab on the Ribbon to expose the Home tab’s panels. 2. Move the cursor over the Modify panel. The panel and panel title bar change from light gray to white to indicate that that panel has the program’s focus. 3. Pause the cursor over the Explode button to expose the button’s tooltip as shown at the top of Figure 1.12.
Using the Ribbon F I G U R E 1 . 1 3 : The cue card for the Copy tool 6. Click the Modify panel’s title bar to expand the panels and expose all of the Modify tools. 7. Often, you may find yourself returning to the same tool on an expanded Ribbon panel. When that happens, you can pin the panel open by clicking the pushpin-shaped button in the bottom-right corner. When the panel is pinned open, it remains open even when the cursor is not hovering over it. 8.
1 8 Chapter 1 • Getting to Know AutoCAD Using the Menu Browser The Menu Browser has replaced the traditional row of drop-down menus that reside at the top of many programs. The menus now project from the upper-left corner of the AutoCAD Window and cover the drawing area, and any open dialog boxes, only when the Menu Browser is open. 1. Click the large, red A button in the top-left corner of the AutoCAD window to open the Menu Browser. 2. The left pane of the Menu Browser displays the different menus.
Using the Menu Browser 3. Submenus are identified by the pale, right-facing arrows to the left of their names. Click this arrow, or the name of a submenu, to expand it and display the tools. Click in the same location again to collapse the submenu. Opening a Drawing with the Menu Browser The Menu Browser offers a quick method for opening drawings. You can even see a thumbnail preview of the drawings and arrange drawings that you frequently edit so that they are easily accessible. Here’s how: 1.
2 0 Chapter 1 • Getting to Know AutoCAD 3. To open a file that you’ve worked on recently, hover over the Recent Documents option in the lower-left corner of the Menu Browser. This displays the most recent files opened in AutoCAD in the right pane, as shown in Figure 1.15. F I G U R E 1 . 1 5 : Displaying the recent documents in the Menu Browser The Recent Documents list is updated whenever a new drawing is opened.
Using the Menu Browser N O T E AutoCAD 2009 drawing files use the same drawing format as AutoCAD versions 2008 and 2007. This means that the files are compatible between versions without requiring any type of conversion. Switching Between Open Drawings As in many programs, you can have multiple drawing files open in the same session of AutoCAD. Each drawing is stacked behind the drawings in front of it. There are several ways to switch between the open file including using the Menu Browser, as shown here.
2 2 Chapter 1 • Getting to Know AutoCAD Another option for switching between open drawings is to click the Quick View Drawings button in the status bar. This displays thumbnails for the open drawings, and you can click any thumbnail to make that drawing active. Using the Drop-Down Menus If you prefer to use drop-down menus, they’re still available in AutoCAD 2009, although they are turned off by default in the 2D Drafting & Annotation and 3D Modeling workspaces.
U s i n g t h e To o l b a r s The other eight (or nine) menus contain the most frequently used AutoCAD commands. You’ll find that if you master the logic of how the commands are organized by menu, you can quickly find the command you want. Here is a short description of each of the other AutoCAD drop-down menus: View Contains tools for controlling the display of your drawing file. Insert Contains commands for placing drawings and images or parts of them inside other drawings.
2 4 Chapter 1 • Getting to Know AutoCAD click on the Quick Access toolbar, click Toolbars, click a toolbar category, and then click the toolbar that you want to open. LT has only 23 Standard toolbar buttons. It doesn’t have the Sheet Set Manager and Block Editor buttons because LT doesn’t offer these features. Take a few minutes to explore the available toolbars, and then open the Standard toolbar from the AutoCAD or AutoCAD LT category.
U s i n g t h e To o l b a r s 2 5 3. Place the arrow cursor on the button, and hold down the left mouse button. A column of nine buttons opens vertically below the original button (see Figure 1.18). The top button in the column is a duplicate of the button you clicked. This column of buttons is called a toolbar fly-out menu. In this example, you’re working with the Zoom toolbar fly-out menu. F I G U R E 1 . 1 8 : A toolbar fly-out menu 4.
2 6 Chapter 1 • Getting to Know AutoCAD N O T E LT has 27 toolbars compared with AutoCAD’s 38. The additional toolbars in AutoCAD are almost all for 3D and rendering tools. Workspaces You haven’t been directed to make any significant changes to the workspace, but when you do, you can save this setup as a new workspace. Using this feature, you can always return to your preferred layout by activating the saved layout. Follow these steps: 1.
Using the Mouse commands. You can add more or change the existing aliases as you get more familiar with the program. In addition to the alias keys, you can use several of the F keys (function keys) on the top row of the keyboard as two-way or three-way toggles to turn AutoCAD functions on and off. Although buttons on the screen duplicate these functions (Snap, Grid, and so on), it’s sometimes faster to use the F keys.
2 8 Chapter 1 • Getting to Know AutoCAD The next chapter will familiarize you with a few basic commands that will enable you to draw a small diagram. If want to take a break and close AutoCAD, choose File ➣ Exit, and choose not to save the drawing.
