Datasheet

between AutoCAD files and other files. The Help menu works like most Windows
Help menus and contains a couple of AutoCAD-specific entries as well, including
some online resources and a link to the New Features Workshop.
The other eight (or ten) 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 are short
descriptions 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.
Format Contains commands for setting up the general parameters for a new
drawing or changing the entities in a current drawing.
Tools Contains special tools for use while you’re working on the current draw-
ing, such as those used for finding the length of a line or for running a special
macro.
Draw Contains commands for creating new objects (such as lines or circles) on
the screen.
Dimension Contains commands for dimensioning and annotating a drawing.
Modify Contains commands for changing existing objects in the drawing.
Parametric Contains commands for constraining objects or dimensions to spe-
cific values or parameters.
Window Contains commands for displaying currently open drawing windows
and lists currently open drawing files.
Express Contains a library of productivity tools that cover a wide range of Auto-
CAD functions. Express Tools are widely used but unsupported directly by
Autodesk. They might or might not be installed on your computer.
You can turn off the menu bar by clicking the down arrow on the right end of the
Quick Access toolbar and choosing Hide Menu Bar, or by entering menubar↵ 0↵.
Using the Toolbars
The AutoCAD toolbars have essentially been replaced by the Ribbon or other fea-
tures, so I’ll only touch on them briefly here. Toolbars, like the Ribbon panels,
are collections of tools grouped by similar tasks. Like the Ribbon itself, any tool-
bar can be displayed or hidden without affecting the others, and they can all be
docked to a side or the top of the drawing area or float freely. To display a toolbar,
Using the Toolbars 29
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