AutoCAD User Interface PDF

I. Familiarizing with the User Interface When AutoCAD starts for the first time it will show you the start screen as shown in the image on the left. This screen is also called the start screen, and it has the template box on the left shown in red box as well as a list of recently...

I. Familiarizing with the User Interface When AutoCAD starts for the first time it will show you the start screen as shown in the image on the left. This screen is also called the start screen, and it has the template box on the left shown in red box as well as a list of recently opened drawings on the next columns. To launch the drawing area simply click on the big start box marked in the red box. The AutoCAD interface will open. On the top left of this interface, you will see AutoCAD 2018 Logo which is also a drop-down menu called application menu. This menu contains many frequently used tools like open, save and print. On the right of that application button, you will see quick access toolbar which again has some frequently used tools. Below the quick access toolbar, you will see AutoCAD ribbon with many tabs which are grouped in different categories like Home, Insert and Annotate. These tabs are further grouped into panels which contain commands of a similar category. For example, Home tab has all commands related to drawing features grouped into Draw panel, Modification of drawing related features are grouped into Modify panel and so on. You can remove these tabs or panels, and you can also bring more tabs and panel in the interface which are hidden by default. To add/remove tabs right-click in the empty area of any tab and select Show Tabs then the name of the tab from the right contextual menu. You can activate any tab by clicking on its name and then all the panels of that will show upon the top. Here also you can right-click in the empty area of the tab and then select Show Panels and name of the panel to activate and deactivate it as shown in the image below. Below this ribbon area, you will see file tabs with the name of open drawing. By default, you will see the start and drawing 1 tab as shown in the image below The large canvas area with a grid overlay is the most obvious feature of AutoCAD interface and it is the place where all the magic happens. This drawing area will be used to create your drawings and make modifications to it. The drawing area has view cube on the top right side and a navigation bar with Navigation-related tools under View Cube. On the bottom of this drawing area, you will see the command line or the command bar which will show currently active command, its subcommands and history of all the commands entered so far. On the bottom left of drawing area you will see UCS icon with X and Y axis visible in 2D space and if you are in 3D space X, Y and Z axis will be visible. Below drawing area, you will see the status bar which has layout tabs and status bar toggles which are very important tools, and they will help you in making drawings precisely.  Understanding Mouse Operations To use AutoCAD effectively you need to use a 3-button mouse with left, right button, and a middle mouse wheel with the button. Although you can use other navigation devices also and that depends completely on your preference. The standard windows mouse operations are used in AutoCAD interface also. You can left click to select any object or tool and right click to open a context- sensitive menu also called contextual menu. The contents of this menu will depend on the place where you click on the AutoCAD interface. If you press and hold middle mouse wheel and then move your mouse you will be able to pan your entire drawing in the AutoCAD drawing area. By rotating the mouse wheel, you can zoom in or zoom out different parts of the drawing. The place where you place your cursor will become center of zoom for the drawing. II. Understanding Coordinate System Understanding coordinate system is essential to understanding the way AutoCAD works. In AutoCAD, you can assign length, angles as well as coordinate values to make the required geometries. Primarily there are two types of the coordinate system which we will use to make geometries in AutoCAD and they are Cartesian and Polar. Cartesian Coordinates AutoCAD follows simple Cartesian coordinate system which is a graphical method of assigning coordinates to a point in space. The simple 3D space has three coordinates namely X, Y and Z which are mutually perpendicular to each other as shown in the image below. In these cases, the point of intersection of the three mutually perpendicular axes is origin represented as (0,0,0). The position of any point in 3D space can be specified using these three axes which are represented with Red, Green, and Blue axes here. But for 2D space, we only need to use X and Y axes to define the position of any point. In 2D space the simple X,Y coordinate system is used and any point in 2D space can be defined using these two coordinates only. Take the example of the image shown below. Here the origin is mentioned as 0,0 which is also the point of intersection of the X and Y Axes represented by red and green axes respectively. The point A (7,8) is at 7 units from the origin along the X-axis and at 8 units along the Y-axis. Similarly, the point B (-6,3) is at 6 units along the negative side of X-axis and at 3 unit along the positive side of Y- axis. In case of point C (4,-5) the distance from the positive side of X-axis is 4 units and its distance along the negative side of Y-axis is 5 units. Polar Coordinates Using polar coordinates, we can also represent points in the 2D space but in this case, one polar distance and an angle with respect to X-axis are required instead of X and Y coordinate value. To explain it clearly, I will use the example shown below. In this case, point B is represented with (8