Datasheet

19
Chapter 1 ✦ Starting to Draw
For example, to draw a line, you click the Line button on the Draw toolbar. You get some prac-
tice drawing lines in the exercise that follows.
Figure 1-3: Moving the cursor over the Line button displays a tooltip.
If you inadvertently start a command that you don’t want to use, press Esc.
Because you can customize the menus and toolbars to suit your needs, your screen may
appear somewhat different. AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT provide many more toolbars that you
can display when you need them. Some examples of toolbars are Dimension, View, and Zoom.
You learn about these, and more, later in this book.
You can lock the position of toolbars and palettes. On the right side of the status bar, at the
bottom of the screen, is a lock icon. Click this icon to open a menu allowing you to individu-
ally lock floating toolbars, docked toolbars, floating windows (palettes), and docked win-
dows (palettes). You can also choose the All option and lock or unlock all your toolbars and
palettes. Locking these interface components prevents you from moving them inadvertently.
The command line and dynamic input tooltip
At the bottom of the screen, you see a separate window showing approximately three lines of
text. (You can change it to show as many lines as you like by dragging the top edge of the win-
dow up or down.) Notice the word
Command:. This is the command line. All commands can be
executed by typing them on the command line.
Even if you use a menu item or toolbar button to execute a command, you may see a response
on the command line. AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT often provide options that must be typed in
from the keyboard. Text that you type appears on the command line. For example, when you
type coordinates specifying a point, they appear on the command line.
The Dynamic Input tooltip allows you to see the text that you type at the cursor. This tooltip
doesn’t appear until you start typing a command. You can also choose options near the
tooltip. (For more information, see “The Command Line and Dynamic Input” in Chapter 3.)
To see more of the command line, press F2 to open the AutoCAD or AutoCAD LT Text Window.
You can scroll back through previous commands. Press F2 again to close the window. You can
also simply hide the Text window by clicking in the AutoCAD or AutoCAD LT window for easy
access to the Text window later from the Windows taskbar.
The status bar
At the very bottom of the screen is the status bar (refer to Figure 1-2). At the left are the X,Y
coordinates. As you move your mouse, these coordinates change. (If they don’t change, click
them and move your mouse again.) The status bar also contains several buttons that I
explain later in this book.
Tip
Note
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