basic_gui

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Jefferson Lab AutoCAD 2000 Series Level I- Graphical UserInterface

Understanding the Graphical User InterfaceWhen you start AutoCAD, the AutoCAD window opens. The window is your design work space. It

contains elements that you use to create your designs and to receive information about them. The followingillustration shows the main parts of the AutoCAD window.

Menu Bar- Contains the default AutoCAD menus. Menus are defined by menu files that you can modify

or design on your own.

Standard Toolbar- Contains frequently used buttons such as Redraw, Undo, and Zoom, as well as

Microsoft Office standard buttons such as Open, Save, Print, and Spell. Buttons with small black triangles

in the lower-right corner have flyouts containing tools that invoke commands related to the first tool shown.Click and hold down the first button to display the flyout.

Object Properties Toolbar- Sets object properties such as color, linetype, and lineweight and manages

layers.

Draw and Modify Toolbars- Provide access to common draw and modify commands. The Draw and

Modify toolbars are displayed when you start AutoCAD. These toolbars are docked on the left side of the

window. You can easily move toolbars and turn them on and off.

Drawing Area- Displays drawings. The drawing area size varies, depending on the size of the AutoCAD

window and on the number of other elements (such as toolbars and dialog boxes) that are displayed.

Crosshairs cursor- Identifies pick and drawing points within the drawing area. Use the crosshairs, which

are controlled by your pointing device, to locate points and select and draw objects.

User Coordinate System (UCS) Icon- Shows the orientation of the drawing. AutoCAD drawings aresuperimposed on an invisible grid, or coordinate system. Coordinate systems are based on X, Y, and (for3D) Z coordinates. AutoCAD has a fixed world coordinate system (WCS) and a movable user coordinate

system (UCS). To help you visualize the UCS location and orientation, a UCS icon is displayed in the

lower-left corner of the drawing area

Model Tab/ Layout Tabs- Switch your drawing between model (drawing) space and paper (layout) space.

You generally create your designs in model space, and then create layouts to plot and print your drawing inpaper space.

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The Command Window

The command window displays prompts and messages. In AutoCAD, you start commands in one of three

ways:

Choose an item from a menu or a shortcut menu.Click a button on a toolbar.Enter the command on the command line.

However, even if you choose commands from menus and toolbars, AutoCAD may display command

prompts and the command history in a command window. You can resize the window vertically by

selecting the splitter bar with your pointing device and dragging it up or down. The splitter bar is located onthe top edge of the command window when the window is docked at the bottom of the AutoCAD window

and on the bottom edge when it's docked at the top.

The Status bar

Displays the cursor coordinates in the lower-left corner. The status bar also contains buttons that you can

use to turn on common drawing aids. These include, from left to right, Snap (Snap mode), Grid (drawinggrid), Ortho (Ortho mode), Polar (polar tracking), Osnap (object snaps), Otrack (object snap tracking), Lwt

(lineweight display), and Model (model and paper space toggle).

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The MouseWith a two-button mouse, the left button is the pick button used to specify points on the screen. The right

button either displays a shortcut menu or is equivalent to pressing ENTER, depending on your pointer

location and the right-click settings. Pressing SHIFT and right-clicking displays the Object Snap shortcutmenu. With a three-button mouse, the middle button either activates real-time panning or displays the

Object Snap shortcut menu, depending on the current value of the MBUTTONPAN system variable.

The Object Snap, Hot Grips, and OLE shortcut menus are always turned on. However, you can control thedisplay of the Default, Edit, and Command shortcut menus. When you turn off these menus, right-clicking

in the drawing area is the same as pressing ENTER. By default, all three menu types are turned on.

To turn off shortcut menus in the drawing area

From the Tools menu, choose Options.

In the Options dialog box, choose the User Preferences tab.

Under Windows Standard Behavior, clear Shortcut Menus in Drawing Area.

To control Default, Edit, and Command shortcut menus individually, select Shortcut Menus in

Drawing Area, and then choose Right-Click Customization.

In the Right-Click Customization dialog box under Default Mode or Edit Mode, select one of thefollowing options to control what happens when you right-click in the drawing area and no

command is in progress.

Repeat Last Command: Repeats the last command. Selecting this option turns off the Default andEdit shortcut menus.

Right-clicking is the same as pressing ENTER.Shortcut Menu: Displays the Default or Edit shortcut menu.

Under Command Mode, select one of the following options to determine what happens when you

right-click in the drawing area while a command is in progress:

Enter: Turns off the Command shortcut menu. Right-clicking is the same as pressing ENTER.

Shortcut Menu: Always Enabled: Displays the Command shortcut menu.Shortcut Menu: Enabled When Command Options Are Present: Displays the Command

shortcut menu only when options are currently available in the command line prompt. In a

command prompt, options are enclosed in square brackets. If no options are available, right-

clicking is the same as pressing ENTER.

The IntelliMouse is a two-button mouse with a small wheel between the buttons. The left and right buttons

behave the same as they do on a standard mouse. You can rotate the wheel by discrete values. You can usethe wheel to zoom and pan in your drawing without using any AutoCAD commands.

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Menu Bar- in depthFor any commands not described here, see AutoCAD Help under the Help menu.

Where we could, we tried to show the corresponding toolbar button for the commands discussed.

This is the standard File Menu. The important

things to note are :

Export saves objects to other file formats, like

DXF.

Plotter Manager allows you to change or add a

plotter.

Plot Style Manager allows you to add or

change a plot style. A plot style is a predefined

scheme that defines colors, line widths and

plotting features, like what pen to plot each color

with and dithering.

Plot Preview shows how the drawing will

look when it is printed or plotted:

Plot command opens up the plotting

window where you define what plotter to use,the size of paper to plot on and what plot style touse.

Send faxes or emails the current drawing file.

Drawing Utilities allows you to fix errors,

recover a file orPurge items from your drawing,

like unused text styles, plot styles or layers.

Drawing Properties will display the

creation date, last modified date, total editingtime and various user entered fields.

This is a standard edit menu with the following

exceptions:

Copy with Base Point allows you to specify

what objects to copy, and specify a base pointthat will be used when you paste it in. For

example, say you have a group of lines forming a

square and you want your base point to be thecorner of the square so you can precisely paste it.

Copy Link copies the current view to theClipboard for linking to other OLE applications.

Paste as Block pastes objects from the

Clipboard as a block.

Paste as Hyperlink pastes a hyperlink to the

selected object.

Paste Special inserts data from the Clipboardand controls the format of the data; OLE Links

updates, changes, and cancels existing OLE

links.

Find finds, replaces, selects, or zooms tospecified text.

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Redraw cleans up only the display.

Regen not only cleans up the display, but also

updates the drawing database with the screen

coordinates for all objects in the drawing.

Regen All regenerates the drawing and

refreshes all viewports.

Zoom Realtime zooms in realtime.

Zoom Dynamic displays the generatedportion of the drawing.

Zoom Scale zooms with a specified scalefactor.

Zoom Center displays a window specified

by a center point and height.

Zoom All displays the entire drawing in the

current viewport.

Zoom Extents displays the drawingextents.

Pan Real Time moves the drawing display

in the current viewport.

Pan Point moves the view of the drawing by the

specified distance.

Aerial View opens the Aerial Viewwindow.

Viewports

Named Viewports Displays layoutoptions for named viewports

New Viewports Opens a new viewport

using a specified name

1 Viewport Returns the drawing to a

single viewport view, using the view

from the active viewport2 Viewports Divides the current

viewport in half

3 Viewports Divides the currentviewport into three viewports

4 Viewports Divides the currentviewport into four viewports of equalsize

Polygonal Viewport Creates an

irregularly shaped viewport defined by

specifying points

Object Specifies a closed polyline,ellipse, spline, region, or circle to

convert into a viewport

Join Combines two adjacent viewportsinto one larger viewport

Named Views Creates and restores views

3D Views and 3D Orbit will not be discussedhere.

Hide regenerates a three-dimensional model

with hidden lines suppressed.

Shade and Render commands have to do with

3D modeling.

Display-UCS Icon controls the visibility and

placement of the UCS icon.

Display-Attribute Display controls the visibility

of attributes.

Toolbars Displays, hides, and customizes

toolbars.

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Block inserts a block or another drawing.

External Reference attaches an externalreference to the current drawing.

Raster Image attaches a new image to thecurrent drawing.

Layout creates or inserts a new layout.

3D Studio imports a 3D Studio file.

ACIS File imports an ACIS file.

Drawing Exchange Binary imports specially

coded binary files.

Windows Metafile imports a Windows

metafile.

Encapsulated PostScript inserts an

Encapsulated PostScript file into the currentdrawing.

OLE Object inserts a linked or embeddedobject.

Xref Manager controls external references to

drawing files.

Image Manager inserts images in manyformats into an AutoCAD drawing file.

Hyperlink attaches a hyperlink to a graphical

object or modifies an existing hyperlink.

Layer manages layers and layer properties.

Color sets the color for new objects.

Linetype creates, loads, and sets linetypes.

Lineweight sets the current lineweight,

lineweight display options, and lineweight units.

Text Style creates or modifies named styles andsets the current style for text in your drawing.

Dimension Style creates and modifies

dimension styles.

Plot Style sets the current plot style fornew objects, or the assigned plot style for

selected objects.

Point Style specifies the display style and sizeof point objects.

Multiline Style manages styles for

multiple parallel lines.Units controls coordinate and angle displayformats and determines precision.

Thickness sets the current 3D thickness.

Drawing Limits sets and controls the drawing

boundaries.

Rename changes the names of named objects.

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Spelling checks spelling in a drawing.

Quick Select quickly creates selection sets

based on filtering criteria.

Display Order the commands under this

selection allow you to push to the top or back

selected items. This works well if you have

objects on top of each other.

Inquiry the command under this selection

allows you to do things like measure distance,

calculate area and display drawing statistics.

Properties controls properties of existing

objects.

AutoCAD DesignCenter runs AutoCAD

DesignCenter.

DbConnect provides an AutoCAD

interface to external database tables.

Load Application loads and unloads

applications and defines which applications to

load at startup.

Run Script executes a sequence of commandsfrom a script.

Macro loads, runs or creates VBA macros.

AutoLISP loads or creates an AutoLISP

application.

Display Image allows you to view and save

different types of images, like bmp and tiff.

Named UCS manages defined user coordinate

systems.

Orthographic UCS allows you to specify

different orientations for your UCS.

Move UCS moves the defined UCS.

New UCS defines a new UCS in various ways.

Wizards help you create plot styles or add

plotters.

Drafting Settings specifies settings for Snapmode, grid, and polar and object snap tracking.

Tablet configures or turns on/off the tablet

interface.

Customize Menus loads partial menu files.Options customizes the AutoCAD settings.

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Line creates straight line segments.

Ray creates a semi-infinite line.

Construction Line creates an infinite line.

Multiline creates multiple parallel lines.

Polyline creates two-dimensional

polylines.

3D Polyline creates a polyline withstraight continuous linetype line segments in

three-dimensional space.

Polygon creates an equilateral closed

polyline.

Rectangle draws a rectangular polyline.

Arc creates an arc in a variety of ways. The

default is three points.

Circle creates a circle in a variety of ways.

The default is center, diameter.

Donut draws filled circles and rings.

Spline creates a quadratic or cubic spline(NURBS) curve.

Ellipse creates an ellipse in a few different

ways.

Blockcreates a block definition from

objects you select.

Point creates single or multiple points.

Hatch fills an enclosed area or selected

objects with a hatch pattern.

Boundary creates a region or a polylinefrom an enclosed area.

Region creates a region object from aselection set of existing objects.

Text creates single or multi line text.

Surfaces creates 2D and 3D surfaces.Solids creates a 3D solid.

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QDIM quickly create dimension

arrangements.

Linear creates linear dimensions.

Aligned creates an aligned linear

dimension.

Ordinate creates ordinate dimensions.

Radius creates radius dimensions forcircles and arcs.

Diameter creates a diameter dimension forcircles and arcs.

Angular creates an angular dimension.

Baseline creates a linear, angular, orordinate dimension from the baseline of the

previous dimension or a selected dimension.

Continue creates a linear, angular, or

ordinate dimension from the second extension

line of the previous dimension or a selected

dimension.

Leader quickly creates a leader and leader

annotation.

Tolerance creates geometric tolerances.

Center Mark creates a center mark forcircles and arcs.

Oblique makes the extension lines of linear

dimensions oblique.

Align Text-

Home Moves dimension text back to

its default position.

Angle Rotates dimension text to an

angle.

Left Left justifies dimension text.

Center Centers dimension text.

Right Right justifies dimension text.

Style creates and modifies dimensionstyles.

Override overrides dimension system

variables.

Update updates dimensions so they use themost current dimension style settings.

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Properties controls properties of existingobjects.

Match Properties copies the propertiesfrom one object to one or more objects.

Object manipulates xrefs and images.

Clip creates clipping boundaries for images,xrefs or a viewport.

Hatch modifies an existing hatch object.

Polyline edits polylines and three-dimensional polygon meshes.

Spline edits a spline object.

Multiline edits multiple parallel lines.

Attribute edits or changes an attribute.

Text edits text and attribute definitions.

In-place Xref and Block Edit tools for editingxrefs or blocks in place.

Erase removes objects from a drawing.

Copy duplicates the objects you select.

Mirror creates a mirror image copy of

objects.

Offset creates concentric circles, parallellines, and parallel curves.

Array creates multiple copies of objects in

a pattern.

Move displaces objects a specified distance

in a specified direction.

Rotate moves objects about a base point.

Scale enlarges or reduces objects equally inthe X, Y, and Z directions.

Stretch moves or stretches objects.

Lengthen lengthens an object.

Trim trims objects at a cutting edgedefined by other objects.

Extend extends an object to meet another

object.

Break erases parts of objects or splits anobject in two.

Chamfer bevels the edges of objects.

Fillet rounds and fillets the edges ofobjects.

3D Operation contains editing tools for 3Dobjects.

Solids Editing contains editing tools for solids.

Explode breaks a compound object into itscomponent objects.

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Tool Bars- in depth

Standard Toolbar

Object Properties Toolbar

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Draw and Modify Toolbars

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