Wiley 978-0-4704-3868-8 Datasheet

CHAPTER 1Getting to KnowAutoCADOpening a new drawingGetting familiar with the AutoCAD and AutoCAD LTgraphics windowsModifying the displayDisplayin

FIGURE 1.10: Selecting the 2D Wireframe visual style4. Enter plan↵ and then world↵, or click the World option in the pop-upmenu if it appears, as show

5. Move the cursor to the left side of the status bar at the bottom of thescreen, and click the Grid Display button so it’s in the Off (unpushed)posit

The blank middle section of the screen is called the drawing area. Notice themovable crosshair cursor (see Figure 1.13). The crosshairs on your cursor

Below the Command window is the status bar (see Figure 1.15).FIGURE 1.15: The left side of the status bar (top) and the right side of the status bar(b

FIGURE 1.16: Click the Options button in the Application menu.The Options dialog box (shown in Figure 1.17) opens. It has 10 tabs(LT has only 8) acros

2. Click the Display tab, which is shown in Figure 1.18. Focus on theWindow Elements section. If scroll bars are visible on the lower andright edges o

FIGURE 1.19: The Drawing Window Colors dialog boxNOTEThe screen-captured images in this book are taken from AutoCADsessions using the Dark Color schem

TIPIf you choose a color other than black as the drawing area back-ground color, the color of the crosshair cursor remains the same as it was. Tochang

NOTEOften, you can start AutoCAD commands in a number of ways:from the Ribbon, the Application menu, the Command window, and the menusthat appear when

Collapsing, Moving, and Hiding the RibbonAvailable drawing area is always at a premium, and you can regain some ofit by collapsing the Ribbon. When yo

Your introduction to AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT begins with a tour of theuser interfaces of the two programs. In this chapter, you’ll also learn howto use

If you don’t want the Ribbon at all, you can turn it off by right-clicking to theright of the Ribbon tabs and choosing Close. To turn it on, enter rib

4. After a few seconds of hovering over the Bring To Front button, thetooltip expands to display the extended tooltip (see the bottom of Fig-ure 1.24)

Customizing the RibbonYou can customize each panel of the Ribbon, and you can build your own customtabs and panels to display only the buttons you use

A bar with an up or down arrow at the top or bottom of the right paneindicates that additional tools are available. You can display thesetools by plac

This opens the Select File dialog box, where you can navigate to thedesired drawing file and select it.OPENING NEW FILESYou can open new or existing f

The Recent Documents list is updated whenever a new drawing isopened. Clicking the pushpin icon next to a drawing name in theright pane pins that draw

NOTEAutoCAD 2010 drawing files do not use the same drawing formatas prior AutoCAD versions. This means that the files created in AutoCAD 2010are not c

FIGURE 1.32: Displaying the open drawings in the Application menu 5. Another option for switching between open drawings is to click theQuick View Draw

Using the Drop-Down MenusIf you prefer to use drop-down menus, they’re still available in AutoCAD 2010,although they are turned off by default in the

between AutoCAD files and other files. The Help menu works like most WindowsHelp menus and contains a couple of AutoCAD-specific entries as well, incl

FIGURE 1.1: The first Initial Setup dialog boxFIGURE 1.2: The second Initial Setup dialog boxStarting AutoCAD 34386886c01.qxd 4/23/09 8:44 PM Page

first display the menu bar; then choose Tools ➣ Toolbars, click a toolbar cate-gory, and click the toolbar that you want to open (see Figure 1.36).FIG

When you make changes to the new workspace by adding a toolbar or chang-ing the background color of the drawing area, you can easily update the curren

To use in combination with the Shift or Ctrl key to display a menucontaining special drawing aids called object snapsTo display a menu of toolbars w

ACCESSING THEINITIALSETUPDIALOGBOXESTo access the Initial Setup dialog boxes after the program has started, enterop↵ to open the Options dialog box, c

FIGURE 1.3: The AutoCAD welcome screen provides access to the New Features Workshop.Selecting the Yes radio button on the left side of the dialog box

The Customer Involvement ProgramNearly all the recent releases of Autodesk products include the opportunity toparticipate in a customer involvement pr

Exploring the AutoCAD User InterfaceAfter bypassing the initial dialog boxes that AutoCAD provides, the programopens to display the AutoCAD user inter

FIGURE 1.7: The AutoCAD graphics window using the 3D Modeling workspaceYou’ll be using the 2D Drafting & Annotation workspace for the first 15 cha

FIGURE 1.8: Selecting the 2D Drafting & Annotation workspace2. The 2D Drafting & Annotation workspace may display the toolpalettes on the scre