Datasheet
12 Chapter 1: Getting Familiar with AutoCAD
controls (see Figure 1.7). These controls disappear when you are not pointing inside the
panel, but they reappear when you hover over the panel with your cursor.
Tooltips appear when you hover over the
controls, and they describe what each control
does. The last control, Toggle Orientation, is
a little misleading because it controls the dis-
play of the title bar.
Getting Familiar with the Drawing Area
As you might imagine, the drawing area in the middle of the AutoCAD window is the
space where you’ll be spending a lot of time. It pays to get a feel for how it behaves early
on. As your introduction to the drawing area, try the following exercise:
1. Move the cursor around in the drawing area. As you move the cursor, notice that the
coordinate readout in the status bar gives the X and Y coordinates and adds the Z
coordinate.
2. Click in the middle of the drawing area. You have just selected a point. Move the cur-
sor, and a rectangle follows. This is a selection window; if any objects appear in the
drawing area, you can select them for editing. A coordinate display appears at the
cursor, showing your coordinates in an X, Y format. Also notice the words Specify
opposite corner in the Dynamic Input display. This tells you that you have started a
selection window and you need to select the opposite corner for the window.
3. Move the cursor a bit in any direction; then click again. Notice that the selection
window disappears. Had there been objects within the selection window, they would
be selected. This is similar to the way the cursor behaves on the Windows Desktop;
however, in Windows, you have to drag the cursor to create a selection window.
4. Try selecting several more points in the drawing area. Notice that as you click, you
alternately start and end a selection window.
As you click the drawing area, you might notice that, depending on whether you click
to the right or to the left of the preceding point, the selection window displays a different
color. If you click from left to right, the selection window appears blue. From right to left,
it’s green. These colors indicate a different mode of selection, which you’ll learn about in
Chapter 4.
If you right-click, a shortcut menu appears. Just as with most other Windows applica-
tions, a right-click frequently opens a menu that contains options that are context sensi-
tive. This means that the contents of the shortcut menu depend on where you right-click
as well as on the command that is active at the time of your right-click. You’ll learn more
about these options as you progress through the book. For now, if you happen to open
this menu by accident, press the Esc key to close it.
Figure 1.7
A Ribbon panel in
its floating appear-
ance, showing its
controls
Close Panel
Toggle Orientation
Options
Send to Ribbon
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