Subtitles of the Movie

We're now going to look at some of the more AutoCAD specific interface tools. Now I've already mentioned the Layout Tabs and the Model Tab but let's just reiterate those very quickly, their very important so that you can move between Layout and Model. In Model you do all of your drafting and your design and you normally do it full size. In the Layout Tabs you show your plotting output. So what we're going to do here, let's go look at the status bar. At the moment they're set to icons here, there's the Model and if I click there that will take me to a Layout Tab, if I right click over those again Shortcut Menu on the right click and I select Display Layout in Model Tabs, it now shows me the Tabs here. If I click on this little icon here shows me the whole list, it goes to the beginning of the list there and I've got Model Tab, Layout Tab, Layout Tab. Again if I right click on Tabs and on the Shortcut Menu select Hide Layout in Model Tabs they're now back on the status bar here. I can also utilize Quick View Layouts here, there's Model, Layout 1, Layout 2. Again I am reiterating what was discussed in the previous exercise but I can close that now and I go back to Model here by clicking on this button here, that'll take me back to the Model Space. Now my personal preference is I like the Tabs and I always have done so I'm going to right click here and on Shortcut Menu select Display Layout and Model Tabs so that their here at the bottom of the drawing. There's Layout 1, Layout 2 and back to Model again. Now the next thing we're going to look at is the Layer List, now the Layer List itself at the moment will not be occupied with any layers because I have default drawing open. So what I could do here is I could go and open up a drawing and bring that into AutoCAD and it will show me all the layers. But what I want to show you is also the Layer Properties Manager that works with the Layer List. So let's go and create a new layer in AutoCAD first. Layers Panel here on the Home Tab, it's this icon here Layer Properties Manager and at the moment we have the default layer of 0 and that is it because we've started a new blank drawing. If I click on New Layer here I've got a default name of Layer 1, I'm going to call it Outline like so and press Enter. I'm going to change the color so I can distinguish it from Layer 0 and I'm going to make it red, color 10. I'm then going to close the Layer Properties Manager but now because I've created that new layer if I go to the Layers Panel again here and click on the Layer List I've now got Outline as a layer. So if I click on the word Outline there, makes it the current drafting layer. So let's go to the Line Command now and I can draw on that layer. So if I click there, click there, as you can see it's on the red outline layer. If I come down here what I'll do a little bit of Object Snap Tracking here, drag that down to there and there's my end section and I'm just going to draw away here, just randomly drawing lines like so. They're not straight but I what I've done is those lines are on the Outline Layer rather then the 0 layer. So that is your Layer List it's like a Pull Down Menu but what it allows you to do is select a layer that you want to set as the current drafting layer and draw in this particular case lines. Let's have a look at Tool Palettes now. Tool Palettes simplify the task of adding predefined design content such as AutoCAD Blocks. Now to actually bring Tool Palettes into the drawing area you need to have the Tool Palettes Window open but what I'm first going to show you is how many Tool Palettes are available in AutoCAD. If we go to the Tools Tab here and then go to Customization, this panel here and click on Tool Palettes the Dialog Box appears and shows you all of the Tool Palettes in the left hand list. All of these are available by default in AutoCAD, they come with AutoCAD and you can use them to your heart's content. I'm going to close that now and what I'm going to do now is bring up the Tool Palettes Window this is available on the View Tab and you have a Palettes Panel. You'll notice you have Tool Palettes, a Properties Palette, a Sheet Set Manager Palette. You've also got options for the Command Line, Quick Calc, External References, Layer Properties and so on. So you'll notice there's repetition, Layer Properties is also available on the Layers Panel on the Home Tab. We need the Tool Palettes Window though, so I'm going to click on Tool Palettes here and there's our Tool Palettes Window there. So what I can do here, I can bring in predefined blocks for example. So let's bring in a toilet a metric toilet and we're designing let's say a bathroom for a house. So there's our toilet there, I bring it in, its an AutoCAD Block when I click on it its also dynamic and it has a flip action, so if I click on the Flip there as you can see clicking on the little blue arrow you'll see the handle on the system swapping sides. Simple things like that are very important when you're designing a house. It may be that you have a door opening near that toilet so you need to make sure that the handle is on a specific side on the system. Because that toilet is selected at the moment, if I now hit the Delete Key on the keyboard it will delete it for me. So that's our Tool Palette Window. So now let's have a look now at the Info Center. I'm going to close the Tool Palettes Window here by clicking on the Cross. The Info Center is here at the top of the screen. I can type in a keyword or phrase and search and if I click on the Down Arrow here I can go to all search locations or AutoCAD Help, Autodesk online on the Internet. I can even add search locations if I wish. I've also got here the Communications Center and also favorites as well, so I can specify favorites if I wish as well. If I click here on the Communication Center as you can see that is now live and requires an Internet connection. But as you can see there's E-learning lessons available to you, not just here but also on the Communication Center as well. if I close that by clicking on the Cross and I click on My Favorites here I have My Favorites to display right now but I can add them at any time. So I can close that as well, again by clicking on the Cross. So that's your Info Center available in AutoCAD. The Command Window is available down here at the bottom of the screen, that's your Command Prompt Window, again what you can do here though is it can be moved around, it can be docked just like a toolbar. I never move it, I always leave it at the bottom of the screen. Some people like it at the top of the screen. But the one thing that you can do if you need to see more of it is press the F2 Key like we did when we looked at keyboard inputs, the F2 Key extends it and as you can see there it shows me exactly what I've done in this particular drawing session. So I've done lots of different things as I scroll up and to close it I either click on the Cross here or press the F2 key again. So that's your Command Window. Now the Help Menu is available by pressing the F1 key, so let's press F1 and again this is specific to AutoCAD because obviously its AutoCAD Help and its designed in a specific way to allow you to use AutoCAD. So you've got resources on the web, you've got Help Files such as the Users Guide if I click there it tells me all about information, the User Interface for example, the ribbon, the Command Window. So again once I've listened to this particular exercise this particular tutorial I can go and look in the AutoCAD Help Screens if I need to. I'm going to close that now just by clicking on the Cross there and I'm now back into my AutoCAD drawing ready to start work.