Beginning AutoCAD 2018. Cheryl R. Shrock
A wheel mouse has two or more buttons and a small wheel between the two topside buttons. The default functions for the two top buttons and the Wheel are as follows:
Left Hand button is for input and can’t be reprogrammed.
Right Hand button is for Enter or the Shortcut Menu.
The Wheel may be used to Zoom and Pan or Zoom and display the Object Snap Menu. You will learn more about this later.
The following describes how to select the Wheel functions. After you understand the functions, you may choose to change the setting.
To change the setting you must use the MBUTTONPAN variable.
MBUTTONPAN setting 1: (Factory setting)
| ZOOM | Rotate the wheel forward to zoom in. Rotate the wheel backward to zoom out. |
| ZOOM EXTENTS | Double click the wheel to view entire drawing. |
| PAN | Press the wheel and drag the mouse to move the drawing on the screen. |
MBUTTONPAN setting 0:
| ZOOM | Rotate the wheel forward to zoom in. Rotate the wheel backward to zoom out. |
| OBJECT SNAP | Object Snap Menu will appear when you press the wheel. |
To change the setting:
1. Type: mbuttonpan <enter>.
2. Enter 0 or 1 and then press <enter>.
LESSONS
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
After completing this lesson, you will be able to:
1. Start AutoCAD program.
2. Understand AutoCAD workspaces.
3. Recognize all of the features in the AutoCAD Window.
4. Understand what the keyboard Function keys are used for.
To Start AutoCAD use one of the 2 methods below.
(Be patient it may take a few minutes to load. It is a large program)
1. Select Start / All Programs / Autodesk / AutoCAD 2018
or
Double click on the AutoCAD 2018 desktop shortcut icon.
2. The “START” page should appear.
Note: Your computer should be connected to the internet.
The START page contains two sliding content pages called LEARN and CREATE.
CREATE: The Create page (shown below) is displayed by default and allows you to start a New drawing, Open an existing drawing or template, Explore sample drawings, view Recent documents or access Online Services.
You can access the LEARN page by clicking on LEARN at the bottom of the page or on the left-hand side of the page.
You can start a new drawing using the default template by clicking on the Start Drawing tool, or you can access a list of available templates by clicking on the Templates down
Note: The last template you use will become the new default template and is highlighted in the template drop-down list.
Click on the Start Drawing tool to open the default template and to open the main AutoCAD drawing workspace.
Note: If your screen does not appear as shown below go to the Intro section of this Workbook and follow the steps for configuring AutoCAD to match the Workbook configuration.
The following pages will describe each area and element.
While you probably would like to jump ahead to start drawing, please be patient and go through the rest of this lesson. It is very important that you understand and are familiar with AutoCAD’s interface.
The AutoCAD Application Window default workspace Drafting & Annotation, is shown below.
Important: I have changed my 2D background color to white for this Workbook. Yours may be another color.
AutoCAD comes with Dark and Light color themes. I have changed to the Light theme, this is just for clarity. You may choose the Light theme if you wish.
You may change the color of many areas using: Options / Display tab / Colors button
If the remainder of your screen does not appear as shown below go to the Intro section of this Workbook and follow the steps for configuring AutoCAD to match the Workbook configuration.
A description of each area is shown on the following pages.
Application Window Descriptions
Workspace
Workspaces control the display of Ribbons, Tabs, Menus, Toolbars, and Palettes. AutoCAD gives you the option of deciding how you would like them displayed.
When you use a workspace, only the Menus, Toolbars, and Palettes that are relevant to a task are displayed. For example if you selected the 3D Modeling workspace only 3D Menus, Toolbars and Palettes would be displayed.
There are 3 preset workspaces.
Drafting & Annotation (shown on the previous page)
This workspace is the default display. It displays the necessary Ribbons, Tabs, Menus, Tools and Palettes for 2D drafting. We will be using this workspace for all lessons within this Workbook.
3D Basics
This 3D Basics workspace provides a simple workspace with the most basic Tools for creating and visualizing 3D Models.
3D Modeling
The 3D Modeling workspace provides