Chapter 1 AL Getting to Know AutoCAD RI GH TE D MA TE RI Opening either AutoCAD or AutoCAD LT for the very first time can be an intimidating experience. Faced with such an expansive collection of tools, settings, and more, where do you start? To help you answer that question, this chapter breaks down the many components of the user interface into manageable segments and introduces you to basic operations such as opening drawings.
Chapter 1 • Getting to Know AutoCAD Starting AutoCAD If you installed AutoCAD by using the default settings for the location of the program files, start the program by choosing Start ➢ Programs ➢ Autodesk ➢ AutoCAD 2012 ➢ AutoCAD 2012 or by choosing Start ➢ Programs ➢ Autodesk ➢ AutoCAD LT 2012 ➢ AutoCAD LT 2012, depending on your program. (This command path might vary depending on the Windows operating system and scheme you are using.
Starting AutoCAD F i g u r e 1 . 1 The Autodesk Exchange window featuring a collection of AutoCAD resources F i g u r e 1 .
Chapter 1 • Getting to Know AutoCAD Along the right edge of the Help tab is a list of additional resources. Among these resources is a link to a collection of Getting Started Videos. These Getting Started Videos go beyond the topic of what’s new and instead dig deeper, offering a more comprehensive look at a complete process (see Figure 1.3). Here you can gain a better understanding of topics such as 3D modeling or even take a guided tour of the user interface. F i g u r e 1 .
Starting AutoCAD computer system to help the product programmers and developers design software that best meets your needs. If you haven’t yet agreed or declined to participate, the Customer Involvement Program dialog box (Figure 1.4) might prompt you to join when you first start AutoCAD. F i g u r e 1 .
Chapter 1 • Getting to Know AutoCAD 6 Application Menu Quick Access Toolbar Ribbon tab Ribbon Panel In-canvas Viewport Control Info Center Ribbon View Cube Navigation Bar UCS Icon Command Prompt Coordinate Readout Command Line Window Cursor Status Bar F i g u r e 1 . 5 The AutoCAD Application window’s Drafting & Annotation workspace P AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT offer numerous dialog boxes with various combinations of buttons and text boxes.
Starting AutoCAD Switching the Current Workspace Whether you choose to develop your own custom workspace or just use one that comes with the software, you may switch your current workspace at any time. As you become more comfortable with the software, you’ll likely choose to build a workspace that better matches the way you use AutoCAD. You’ll be using the Drafting & Annotation workspace for the first 15 chapters in this book. In the final two chapters, you’ll switch to the 3D Modeling workspace (Figure 1.
Chapter 1 • Getting to Know AutoCAD F i g u r e 1 . 7 Selecting the Drafting & Annotation workspace The large, dark gray area you see in the middle of the screen is called the drawing area. This infinite canvas is where you’ll create your designs; however, it might need to be adjusted. 2. Using the View Control tool on the in-canvas Viewport controls, select the Top option (see Figure 1.8). F i g u r e 1 .
Introducing the AutoCAD Application Window F i g u r e 1 . 9 Selecting the 2D Wireframe visual style by using in-canvas Viewport controls If the drawing area looks like a sheet of graph paper, it means the grid, a drawing aid that you’ll look at later, is turned on. 4. 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 position (unpushed with a gray, not blue, background) and the gridlines disappear.
Chapter 1 • Getting to Know AutoCAD 10 The title bar and menu bar at the top of the AutoCAD LT screen are identical to those in AutoCAD, except that AutoCAD LT appears in the title bar rather than AutoCAD. The title bar is analogous to the title bar in any Windows program. It contains the program name (AutoCAD or AutoCAD LT) and the title of the current drawing with its path, provided a drawing other than the default Drawing#.dwg is open.
Introducing the AutoCAD Application Window The icon composed of two lines, labeled X and Y, 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. Below the drawing area is the Command Line window, shown in Figure 1.12. F i g u r e 1 . 1 2 The command-line window Most commands can be launched in a few different ways (the Command Line, Ribbon tools, and so on).
Chapter 1 • Getting to Know AutoCAD Grid Display Mimics a piece of graph paper by displaying a series of nonplotting horizontal and vertical lines displayed in the drawing’s background. Ortho Mode Restricts movement of the cursor to 90° intervals: 0°, 90°, and 270° by default. Polar Tracking Frequently used in conjunction with Object Snap Tracking, Polar Tracking is an advanced drawing tool that guides cursor movement to specified increments along a polar angle.
Introducing the AutoCAD Application Window T e x t - B a s e d B u tt o n s o r I c o n s ? Sometimes the status bar icons can be a little cryptic. If you prefer, AutoCAD can display those buttons as text instead of icons. Just right-click on any of the icons and deselect Use Icons.
Chapter 1 • Getting to Know AutoCAD F i g u r e 1 . 1 4 Click the Options button in the Application menu. F i g u r e 1 .
Introducing the AutoCAD Application Window 2. Click the Display tab, which is shown in Figure 1.16. Focus on the Window Elements group. 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 . 1 6 The Options dialog box opened at the Display tab 3. Click the check box to turn off the scroll bars. Don’t click the OK button yet. 4.
Chapter 1 • Getting to Know AutoCAD C h o os i ng Yo u r O w n D r aw i ng A r e a B ac kg ro u n d C o lo r By default, AutoCAD uses a dark gray color for the drawing area. Some users prefer to customize this and several other user interface elements to a color palette of their own liking. As an example, some prefer the contrast ratio of a light background color such as yellow or white over the contrast ratio offered by the darker background color.
Working in the Command - L ine Window C hoosing Your O wn D rawing A rea B ackground C olor (Continued) 4. Click the Color drop-down list, and choose a color of your liking from the list, or choose Select Color to access a larger array of colors. 5. Click Apply & Close, and then OK to save your changes and exit the Options dialog box. The Drawing Window Colors dialog box offers several restore options along its right side.
Chapter 1 • Getting to Know AutoCAD will separate the top two lines of text from the bottom line of text. When you close the program, AutoCAD will save the new settings. The next time you start AutoCAD, the command window will display four lines of text. F i g u r e 1 . 1 7 Resizing the command window The command window is where you give information to AutoCAD and where AutoCAD prompts you for the next step in executing a command.
Using the Ribbon than 1325 pixels. When the width is too narrow to display each panel fully, the panels will begin to collapse first by replacing the panels with a single button bearing the name of the panel. Ribbon Tabs Large Tool Icon (button) Small Tool Icon (button) Collapsed Ribbon Panel Panel F i g u r e 1 .
Chapter 1 • Getting to Know AutoCAD Ribbon Tabs Ribbon tabs offer the highest level of organization; they group Ribbon panels by task. For instance, commands related to plotting (printing) are found on the Output tab, whereas commands related to entering text can be found on the Annotate tab. R ibb o n E n h a n c e m e n t s AutoCAD 2012 introduces several interface and performance enhancements to the Ribbon.
Using the Ribbon R ibb o n E n h a n c e m e n t s (Continued) Insert tab ➢ Block Definition (formerly Attributes) panel T he Attributes panel from AutoCAD 2011 is on the left, replaced by the new Block Definition panel on the right: Displaying the Ribbon Tools The Ribbon’s default location is at the top of the screen, but it can be moved or docked almost anywhere on your screen. Individual panels have several display options built into them as well.
Chapter 1 • Getting to Know AutoCAD Rather than cycling through each display option, you can use the small Down icon to the right of the Minimize Ribbon button to quickly switch between states. A list of available display states (Figure 1.19) will appear after clicking the Down icon. Select the desired visibility to switch directly to it, as opposed to cycling through the other options. F i g u r e 1 .
Using the Ribbon F i g u r e 1 . 2 1 The Ribbon undocked from the top of the drawing area Using the Ribbon Tools Each panel contains tools from a related family of functions. For example, all the common tools for editing objects in the drawing area are consolidated in the Modify panel. When more tools are available than will fit on the panel, an arrow is displayed on the panel’s title bar. Clicking the title bar expands the panel and exposes the additional tools.
Chapter 1 • Getting to Know AutoCAD description of its function, the command line equivalent of clicking the tool, and instructions to press the F1 key to open the AutoCAD Help file to the current tool’s Help page. F i g u r e 1 . 2 2 The tooltip for the Move command 3. After a few seconds of hovering over the Move tool button, the tooltip is replaced with a cue card, as shown in Figure 1.23. Cue cards show the step-by-step implementation of the tool. F i g u r e 1 .
Using the Ribbon 5. 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-left corner. When the panel is pinned open, it remains open even when the cursor is not hovering over it. 6. Click the button again to unpin the panel, and then move the cursor off the panel to collapse it.
Chapter 1 • Getting to Know AutoCAD 26 Using the Application Menu The Application menu contains the tools for opening, saving, and printing (plotting) your drawings, similar to the options found under the File drop-down menu in AutoCAD and many other programs. When the Application menu is open, the menus for these tools project from the upper-left corner of the AutoCAD window and cover the drawing area and any open dialog boxes. 1. Click the Application Menu button to open the Application menu.
Using the Application Menu Opening a Drawing with the Application Menu The Application menu 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 they are easily accessible. Here’s how: 1. To open a new AutoCAD file from the Application menu, choose New ➢ Drawing, as shown in Figure 1.28. F i g u r e 1 .
Chapter 1 • Getting to Know AutoCAD 3. To open a file that you’ve worked on recently, click the Recent Documents button at the top of the Application menu’s left pane. This displays the most recent files opened in AutoCAD in the right pane, as shown in Figure 1.30. F i g u r e 1 . 3 0 Displaying the recent documents in the Application menu 4.
Using the Application Menu O pen i ng N e w Fi l es You can open new or existing files by using the New or Open button in the Quick Access toolbar. Existing drawings can also be opened by dragging them from a Windows Explorer window to the AutoCAD title bar. N O T E A utoCAD 2012 uses the AutoCAD 2010 drawing (DWG) file format. This means that the files created in AutoCAD 2012 are compatible only with AutoCAD 2010, AutoCAD 2011, and AutoCAD 2012.
Chapter 1 • Getting to Know AutoCAD G e tti n g t h e M ost O u t o f t h e R ec e n t D o c u m e n t s L i st The Application menu offers many time-saving tips. Here are two of the best ways to use the Recent Documents list: Access Frequently Used Drawings For drawings you access on a regular basis, and would like to remain on the Recent Documents list, click the pushpin that displays next to its name. This will “pin” that drawing to the Recent Documents list until you unpin it.
Using the Drop-Down Menus 3. Click on any drawing to bring it to the front of the AutoCAD window. 4. You can change the way AutoCAD displays the list of open drawings by clicking the icon near the top of the right pane and choosing one of four sizes of icons or thumbnail images to represent the open drawings. Another option for switching between open drawings is to click the Quick View Drawings button in the status bar.
Chapter 1 • Getting to Know AutoCAD F i g u r e 1 . 3 4 Turning on the menu bar The left end of the menu bar, just below the title bar (see Figure 1.35), consists of an icon and 13 menus (11 if you don’t have the Express Tools installed or are using LT). Click any of these to display a drop-down menu. The icon and the File and Edit menus are included with all Windows-compliant applications, although they are somewhat customized to work with AutoCAD.
U s i n g t h e To o l b a r s toolbar 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. Although the Ribbon has largely filled the role toolbars once played inside the software, some tools are still found only on toolbars. For this reason, some opt to build a hybrid workspace utilizing both toolbars and the Ribbon in tandem.
Chapter 1 • Getting to Know AutoCAD Object Snap toolbar F i g u r e 1 . 3 7 The Object Snap toolbar docked to the Application window Take a few minutes to explore the available toolbars, and then close all but the Object Snap toolbar and hide the display of the menu bar. Saving Workspaces At the start of this chapter, you learned how workspaces can dramatically change the overall appearance of AutoCAD.
Using the Keyboard F i g u r e 1 . 3 8 The Save Workspace dialog box 2. Type AutoCAD NER as the name for the workspace and click Save. The dialog box closes, and you are returned to your workspace. Until you change it or select a different workspace, the AutoCAD NER workspace setup will remain as it is now. When you make changes to a workspace by adding a toolbar or changing the background color of the drawing area, you can easily update the current workspace to accommodate those changes.
Chapter 1 • Getting to Know AutoCAD of keeping your left hand on the keyboard and your right hand on the mouse if you’re right-handed, or the other way around if you’re left-handed. Using the Mouse Your mouse most likely has two buttons and a scroll wheel. So far in this chapter, you have used the left mouse button to choose menus, commands, and options, and you’ve held it down to drag the Ribbon. The left mouse button is the one you’ll be using most often, but you’ll also use the right mouse button.
A r e Yo u E x p e r i e n c e d ? Are You Experienced? Now you can… EErecognize the elements of the AutoCAD Application window EEunderstand how the command-line window works and why it’s important EEstart commands from the Ribbon EEstart commands from the command line EEuse the Application menu EEdisplay the drop-down menus EEopen and control the positioning of toolbars EEsave a workspace of your screen setup in AutoCAD 37
