Identify the different basic interface of AutoCAD application.

Enumerate the uses and function of each tool.

Use appropriate command for specific tasks.
In the old days, the only way that engineers and architects could illustrate their ideas was if they drew them out by
hand. These days, pen and paper have been replaced by computers and design software like AutoCAD.

is a computer-aided design software developed by the company Autodesk (hence the name AutoCAD). It
allows you to draw and edit digital 2D and 3D designs more quickly and easily than you could by your hand. With
AutoCAD, you can easily change and manipulate designs and ideas. Nowadays, it is a helpful software in our life so
it better to learn about it.

This module covers how to prepare students learn to draw a complete set of architectural working drawings. This
module provides an avenue to answer the following question:

• Why do we need to study AutoCAD user interface, drawing command and setting?

DEEPEN YOUR UNDERSTANDING

is legendary software in the world of

It has completed 38 years by the 2020. 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. I
welcome you to learn AutoCAD using this module as it provides step- by-step
examples to learn various commands and techniques.
1. Why do we need to
To start AutoCAD, double-click the AutoCAD icon on your Desktop. Alternatively, click study AutoCAD user
Start >AutoCAD > AutoCAD, as shown. interface, drawing
command and
setting?
When you double-click the AutoCAD icon on the desktop, the initial screen of AutoCAD will get displayed, as shown.

Click on the Start Drawing under Get Started area of the initial screen to open a drawing file. The drawing file consists of a
drawing window, ribbon, menu bar, toolbars, command line, and other screen components, depending on the workspace that
you have selected.
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.

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.

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

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

Drawing window is the blank space located below the file tabs. You can draw objects and create 3D graphics in the
drawing window. The top left corner of the drawing window has In-Canvas Controls. Using these controls, you can set the
orientation and display style of the model.

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

The command line is located below the drawing 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
invoke commands very easily and increases your productivity.

Also, the command line displays the current state of the drawing. It displays various prompts while working with any
command. These prompts are series of steps needed to successfully execute a command. For example, when you invoke
the LINE command, the command line displays a prompt, “Specify the first point”. You need to click in the drawing window
to specify the first point of the line.After specifying the first point, the prompt, “Specify next point or [Undo]:” appears. Now,
you need to specify the next point of the line. It is recommended that you should always have a look at the command line to
know the next step while executing a command.
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. To display the missing buttons on the status bar, click on the Customization button available at the bottom
right corner and select the options from the menu. The buttons available on the status bar are briefly discussed in
the following section.

By default, this button is hidden. You can make it visible by

selecting it from the Customization menu. It displays the
drawing coordinates when you move the pointer in the
graphics window. You can turn OFF this button by clicking
over it.

It is used to turn the Grid display ON or OFF. You can set

the spacing between the grid lines by right clicking on this
button and selecting the Settings option. You can use grid
lines along with the Snap Mode to draw objects easily and
accurately.

The Snap mode forces the cursor to align only with the
Grid points. When you turn ON this button, the cursor will
be able to select only the Grid points.

This button is used to automatically create constraints

when you draw objects in the drawing window. Constraints
are logical operations which control the shape of a
drawing. You can turn it ON or OFF by clicking on it.
It is used to turn the Ortho Mode ON or OFF. When the
Ortho Mode is ON, only horizontal or vertical lines can be
drawn.
This button is used to turn ON or OFF the Polar Tracking.
When the Polar Tracking is turned ON, you can draw lines
easily at regular angular increments, such as 5, 10, 15, 18,
23, 30, 45, or 90 degrees. You will notice that a trace line is
displayed when the cursor is at a particular angular
increment. You can set the angular
increment by right-clicking on this button and selecting
the required angle.

This button is used to switch between planes while

drawing isometric views.

This button is used to turn ON or OFF the Object Snap

Tracking mode. When this mode is turned ON, you can
easily select points by using the trace lines originating
from the key points.
This button is used to turn ON or OFF the Object Snap mode.
When this mode is turned ON, you
can easily select the key points of objects such as endpoints,
midpoint, and center point and so on.
This button is used to turn ON or OFF the lineweight. Line
weight is the thickness of objects. You can set the
thickness of objects by specifying the lineweight. If the
Lineweight is turned OFF, the objects are displayed with
the
default thickness.
This button is used to turn ON or OFF the 3D Object Snap.
The 3D Object Snap is used to select the key points of 3D
objects.
This button is used to turn ON or OFF the Dynamic UCS.
When the Dynamic UCS is turned ON, you can dynamically
draw and create objects on any face of a 3D Model.

This button is used to turn ON or OFF the Dynamic Input

mode. When this mode is turned ON, a dynamic input box is
attached to the cursor 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.
This button is used to turn ON or OFF the transparency of
an object. You can set the transparency using the
Layer PropertiesManager.

This button is used to display some important properties

of a selected object. If this tool is active then after
selecting any object; its properties with get displayed
automatically.
This button is used to turn ON or OFF the Selection Cycling.
Selection Cycling is very useful while selecting overlapped
objects. With the selection cycling turned ON, a list of
objectswill be displayed when you click on an
overlapped object.

This button is used to turn the Annotation Monitor ON or

OFF. The Annotation Monitor checks whether the
annotations are attached to their respective objects. When
an annotation is not attached to any object, it displays
an error message.

This button is used switch between the Model space

and Paper space. Model space is used to create
drawings and Paper space is used to printdrawings.

This button is used to control the size of annotative

objects. Annotative objects are dimensions, texts, notes
and other objects which can be sized as per the drawing
scale.
This button is used to display annotative objects that are
not created in the current scale.
This button changes the annotation scale of objects.

This button is used to change the workspace.

This button is used to improve the graphics performance

by employing the processor on yourgraphics card.

This button is used to Hide or Isolate objects in adrawing. If

you hide an object, it will be hidden and all the other
objects in the drawing will be visible. If you isolate an
object, the other objects in the drawing will be hidden
and the selected object will be visible.

This button is used to hide the ribbon and toolbars from

the window. This will increase the drawing area and
provides more space to work ondrawings.
 DRAWING TIME

Label the parts of AutoCAD User Interface.

CHECK YOUR UNDERSTANDING

Encircle the letter of the best answer.

What are the two different color schemes in AutoCAD?
Black and White
Dark and Light
Blue and Red
Dark and White

The following are the various shortcut menus that can help you access tools and options very easily and quickly,
except .
Edit Shortcut Menu
Edit Menu
Default Menu
Grip Shortcut Menu
Where is Application Menu icon located in AutoCAD?
Top left corner of the window
Below the ribbon
Right side of the Quick Access Toolbar
Below the file tabs

It is the blank space located below the file tabs.

Drawing Space
Drawing File
Drawing Window
Tool Palette

This is located at the top left corner of the window. It consists of commonly used commands such as New, Save,
Open, Save As, and so on.
Quick Access Bar
File Tab
Drawing Window
Status Bar

It contains various menus such as File, Edit, View, Insert, Format, Tools, Draw, Dimensions, Modify, and so on.
Status Bar
Menu Bar
Navigation Bar
Command Bar

What CAD means for?

Computer Aid Design
Computer Aided Design
Computer Admin Design
Computer Agent Design

The Navigation Bar contains the following navigation tools, except .

Steering wheel
Pan
Slow motion
Zoom

The following are the workspaces available in AutoCAD, except .

Drafting & Annotation
3D Basics
3D Modeling
2D Basics

It displays the current state of the drawing and it is located below the drawing window.
Status Bar
Navigation Bar
Command Line
Drawing Window
 REFERENCES

AutoCAD 2014 and AutoCAD LT 2014 Essentials: Autodesk Official Press. (2021). O’Reilly Online Learning.
https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/autocad-2014- and/9781118755730/c03.html#h1-575093c03-0001

AutoCAD 2021 Beginners Guide (8th ed.). (2020). [E-book]. CADFolks.

AutoCAD Display - Javatpoint. (2021). Retrieved 22 August 2021, from https://www.javatpoint.com/autocad-display

: Mr. Jefrey C. Mendoza

Mrs. Timmy Anne A. Lopez-Garcia
Mrs. Sheryl R. Abanador
Mrs. Angelica B. Olarte

: Mr. Jefrey C. Mendoza

Mrs. Timmy Anne A. Lopez-Garcia