Lab 1

Introduction to the AutoCAD and its User Interface

In this Lab you will learn:

 AutoCAD User Interface
 Customizing User Interface

Computer Aided Design:

CAD is an abbreviation for Computer-Aided Design. It is the process used to design and draft
components on your computer. This process includes creating designs and drawings of the
product or system. AutoCAD is a CAD software package developed and marketed by Autodesk
Inc. It can be used to create two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) models of
products. These models can be transferred to other computer programs for further analysis and
testing. In addition, you can convert these computer models into numerical data. This numerical
data can be used in manufacturing equipment such as machining centers, lathes, mills, or rapid
prototyping machines to manufacture the product. AutoCAD is one of the first CAD software
packages. It was introduced in the year 1982. Since that time, it has become the industry leader
among all CAD products. It is the most widely used CAD software. The commands and
concepts introduced by AutoCAD are utilized by other systems. As a student, learning AutoCAD
provides you with a greater advantage as compared to any other CAD software.

AutoCAD:
AutoCAD is legendary software in the world of Computer Aided Designing (CAD). It has
completed 35 years by the 2017. If you are a new user of this software, then the time you spend
on learning this software will be a wise investment. If you have used previous versions of
AutoCAD, you will be able to learn the new enhancements.

Starting AutoCAD 2017

To start AutoCAD 2017, double-click the AutoCAD 2017 icon on your Desktop (or)
click Start > All Programs > Autodesk > AutoCAD 2017 > AutoCAD 2017.
AutoCAD user interface
When you double-click the AutoCAD 2016 icon on the desktop, the AutoCAD 2016 initial screen
will appear.

On the Initial Screen, click Start Drawing to open a new drawing file. The drawing file consists of
a graphics window, ribbon, menu bar, toolbars, command line, and other screen components,
depending on the workspace that you have selected.

Changing the Color Scheme:

AutoCAD 2016 is available in two different color schemes: Dark and Light. You can change the
color scheme by using the Options dialog. Click the right mouse button and select Options
from the shortcut menu. On the Options dialog, click the Display tab and select an option from
the Color Scheme drop-down.
Workspaces in AutoCAD
There are three workspaces available in AutoCAD: Drafting & Annotation, 3D Basics, and 3D
Modeling. By default, the Drafting & Annotation workspace is activated. You can create 2D
drawings in this workspace. You can also activate other workspaces by using the Workspace
drop-down on the top-left corner or the Workspace Switching menu on the lower-right corner
of the window.

Drafting & Annotation Workspace

This workspace has all the tools to create a 2D drawing. It has a ribbon located at the top of the
screen. The ribbon is arranged in a hierarchy of tabs, panels, and tools. Panels such as Draw,
Modify, and Layers consist of tools which are grouped based on their usage. Panels in turn are
grouped into various tabs. For example, the panels such as Draw,
Modify, are Layers are located in the Home tab.
Application Menu
The Application Menu appears when you click on the icon located at the top left corner of the
window. The Application Menu consists of a list of self-explanatory menus. You can see a list
of recently opened documents or a list of currently opened documents by clicking the Recent
Documents and Open Documents buttons, respectively. The Search Bar is used to search for
any command. You can type any keyword in the search bar and find a list of commands related
to it.

Quick Access Toolbar

This is located at the top left corner of the window and helps you to access commands, quickly. It consists
of commonly used commands such as New, Save, Open, Save As, and so on.

File tabs
Files tabs are located below the ribbon. You can switch between different drawing files by using
the file tabs. Also, you can open a new file by using the + button, easily.

Graphics Window
Graphics window is the blank space located below the file tabs. You can draw objects and create 3D
graphics in the graphics window. The top left corner of the graphics window has In-Canvas
Controls. Using these controls, you can set the orientation and display style of the model.
View Cube
The View Cube allows you to navigate in the 3D Modeling and 2D drafting environments. Using the
View Cube, you can set the orientation of the model. For example, you can select the top face of the View
Cube to set the orientation to Top. You can click the corner points to set the view to Isometric.

Navigation Bar
The Navigation Bar contains navigation tools such as Steering wheel, Pan, Zoom, Orbit, and
Show Motion.

Command line
The command line is located below the graphics window. It is very easy to execute a command
using the command line. You can just type the first letter of a command and it lists all the
 commands starting with that letter. This makes you to activate commands very easily and
increases your productivity.

Status Bar
Status Bar is located at the bottom of the AutoCAD window. It contains many buttons which help you
to create a drawing very easily. You can turn ON or OFF these buttons just by clicking on them.
Some buttons are hidden by default. You can display more buttons on the status bar by clicking the
Customization button at the bottom right corner and selecting the options from the menu. The
buttons available on the status bar are briefly discussed in the following section.

Button Description
This button is hidden by default. You can show it by using the
Customization menu. It displays the drawing coordinates
when you move the pointer in the graphics window. You can
Coordinates turn OFF this button by clicking on it.
The Snap mode aligns pointer only with the Grid points. When
Snap Mode (F9) you turn ON this button, the pointer will be able to select only
the Grid points.
It turns the Grid display ON or OFF. You can set the spacing
between the grid lines by clicking the drown arrow next to the
Grid Display (F7) Snap Mode button and selecting the Snap Settings option.
You can use grid lines along with the Snap Mode to draw
objects easily and accurately.
It turns the Ortho Mode ON or OFF. When the Ortho Mode is
Ortho Mode (F8) ON, only horizontal or vertical lines can be drawn.
This icon turns ON or OFF the Polar Tracking. When the Polar
Polar Tracking (F10) Tracking is turned ON, you can draw lines easily at regular
 angular increments, such as 30, 45, or90 degrees. You will
notice that a trace line is displayed when the pointer is at a
particular angular increment. You can set the angular
increment by clicking the down arrow next to this button and
selecting the required angle.
This icon is used to switch between planes while drawing
isometric views. The grid lines are also Isometric Drafting
Drafting displayed if the Grid Mode is turned ON. The orientation of the
grid lines change based on the selected isoplane option.
This icon turns ON or OFF the Object Snap mode. When this
Object Snap (F3) mode is turned ON, you can easily select the key points of
objects such as endpoints, midpoint, and center point and so
on.
This icon turns ON or OFF the 3D Object Snap. The 3D Object
3D Object Snap (F4) Snap is used to select the key points of 3D objects.
This icon is used to turn ON or OFF the Object Snap Tracking
Object Snap Tracking (F11) mode. When this mode is turned ON, you can easily select
points by using the trace lines originating from the key points.
This icon turns ON/OFF the Dynamic UCS. When the Dynamic
Dynamic UCS (F6) UCS is turned ON, you can draw and create objects on any
face of a 3D Model, dynamically.
This icon turns ON or OFF the Dynamic Input mode. When this
Dynamic Input (F12) mode is turned ON, a dynamic input box is attached to the
pointer along with a prompt. You can directly enter a value in
the dynamic input box. You can use Dynamic Input in place of
command line.

Model or Paper This icon switches between the Model space and Paper space.
Space Model space is used to create drawings and Paper space is
used to print drawings.
This icon controls the size of annotative objects. Annotative
Annotation Scale objects are dimensions, texts, notes and other objects which
can be sized as per the drawing scale.

Workspace This icon changes the workspace.

Switching
This icon locks the toolbars, panel, tool palettes and other User
Lock UI Interface elements at their current position.

Menu Bar
Menu Bar is not displayed by default. However, you can display the Menu Bar in other workspaces by
clicking on the down-arrow located at the right side of the Quick Access Toolbar and selecting the
Show Menu Bar option. The Menu Bar is located at the top of the window just below the title bar. It
contains various menus such as File, Edit, View, Insert, Format, Tools, Draw, Dimensions, Modify,
and so on. Clicking on any of the word on the Menu Bar displays a menu. The menu contains various
tools and options. There are also sub-options available on the menu. These sub-options are
displayed if you click on an option with an arrow. If you click on an option with (…), a dialog will
appear.
Dialogs and Palettes
Dialogs and Palettes are part of AutoCAD user interface. Using a dialog or a palette, you can
easily specify many settings and options at time. Examples of dialogs and palettes are a shown
below.

Starting a new drawing

You can start an AutoCAD document by using the Get Started
section or by using the Select template dialog. Get Started
Section on the Initial Screen To start a new drawing, click
Create at the bottom of the initial screen, and then select a
template from Get Started > Templates drop-down.
The Select Template dialog
To start a new drawing, click the New button on anyone of the following:
Quick Access Toolbar Application Menu The Select Template dialog appears when you
click the New button. In this dialog, select the acad.dwt (inch units) or acadiso.dwt (metric
units) template for creating a 2D drawing. Select the acad3D.dwt or acadiso3D.dwt template
for creating 3D models.

Help
Press F1 or type a keyword in the Search bar located at the top right corner of
the window to get help for any topic. On the Autodesk AutoCAD 2017 –Help
window, click the Find option next to the topic; an animated arrow appears on
the window showing the tool location.