Datasheet

8 Chapter 1: Getting Familiar with AutoCAD
The Properties palette shown on the left and the AutoCAD tool palettes shown on the
right of Figure 1.4 might not appear in your AutoCAD window by default, but you can
open the tool palettes by clicking the View tab in the Ribbon and selecting Tool Palettes
from the Palettes panel.
The drawing area, the status bar, and the
command line work together to give you feed-
back while you create and edit your drawing.
As you move your cursor over the drawing area,
you’ll see the cursor appear as a crosshair cursor.
If you click the drawing area, a pair of numbers
and a selection window appear. Click again, and
the selection window disappears.
With the crosshair cursor, you can point to
portions of the drawing area, and the numeric display, known as the Dynamic Input dis-
play, tells you your XY coordinate within the drawing area. The selection window lets you
select objects in the drawing area. You’ll learn more about coordinates in AutoCAD in
Chapter 2, and you’ll look at selection windows a bit later in this chapter.
If you don’t see the Dynamic Input display, go to the status bar at the bottom of the
AutoCAD window, and click the Dynamic Input tool.
Figure 1.4
The Properties
palette (at left) and
the tool palettes (at
right)
Properties palette
Tool palettes
Tool palettes
View tab
60609c01.indd 8 3/19/08 6:12:42 PM