The Command Window

Hold down the left mouse button and drag the cursor up by approximately the amount that one or two lines of text would take up, and then release the mouse. You should see more lines of text, but you might have to try this a couple of times to display exactly three lines. When you close the program, the new settings will be saved, and the next time you start up AutoCAD, the Command window will display three lines.

The Command window is where you give information to AutoCAD and where AutoCAD prompts you for the next step in executing a command. It is a good practice to get into the habit of keeping an eye on the Command window as you work on your drawing. Most errors occur when you are not taking a look at it frequently.

Before you begin to draw, take a close look at the menus , toolbars , and keyboard controls.

Drop-Down Menus

The menu bar, just below the title bar (see Figure 1.2 earlier in this chapter), consists of 11 words and an icon. Click any of these to display a drop-down menu. The icon on the left end and the File and Edit menus are included with all Windows -compatible applications, although they are somewhat customized to work with AutoCAD. The menu associated with the icon contains commands to control the appearance and position of the drawing area.

Commands in the File menu are for opening and saving new and existing drawing files, printing, linking on the Internet, exporting files to another application, choosing basic utility options, and exiting the application. The Edit menu contains the Undo and Redo commands, the Cut and Paste tools, and options for creating links between AutoCAD files and other files. The Help menu (the last menu on the right) works like all Windows Help menus and contains a couple of AutoCAD-specific entries as well, including some online resources and a context-sensitive help feature called the Info Palette.

The other eight menus contain the most- often-used AutoCAD commands. You will find that if you can master the logic of how the commands are organized by menu, you can quickly find the command you want. Here is a short description of each of the other AutoCAD drop-down menus:

View   Contains tools for controlling the display of your drawing file.

Insert   Contains commands for placing drawings and images or parts of them inside other drawings.

Format   Contains commands for setting up the general parameters for a new drawing.

Tools   Contains special tools for use while you are working on the current drawing, such as those for finding the length of a line or for running a special macro.

Draw   Contains commands for creating new objects (such as lines or circles) on the screen.

Dimension   Contains commands for dimensioning a drawing.

Modify   Contains commands for changing existing objects in the drawing.

Window   Contains commands for displaying currently open windows and lists currently open drawing files.