Preview the User Interface: AutoCAD 2013 for Mac

After startup, you’re presented with a drawing window and a number of palettes. These make
up the user interface. The drawing window contains the drawing area,
which is the largest component of the user interface. This is where you create and modify
objects to represent your design. In the upper-left corner of the drawing area
are the Viewport label menus. Here you control the number of viewports, toggle the display
of the ViewCube tool, select a named or preset view, or select a visual style. Just above
the Viewport label menus are the buttons to close, minimize, or maximize the drawing window.
The ViewCube tool located in the upper-right corner of the drawing area allows you to rotate
the view of your drawing to see it from a different viewpoint.
To the left of the drawing window is the Tool Sets palette. The Tool Sets palette organizes
commands and tools into tool sets like Drafting, Annotation, and Modeling. Click the Tool Set
button to select a different tool set. For example, the Drafting tool set contains
tools used to create basic and complex 2D objects, such as circles, rectangles, ellipses,
and hatch, while the Modeling tool set contains tools for creating and modifying 3D solids
and surfaces. Some of the icons on the tool set have a flyout
indicator. Click and hold the icon to display related commands.
Tools are organized into tool groups. An arrow appears next to a tool group if additional
tools are available. Click the arrow to display the entire tool group. To keep the tool group
expanded, click the lock icon. At the top of the screen is the menu bar.
The AutoCAD menu, displayed in bold, contains options specific to the application. The menus
to the right are used to perform tasks related to the current drawing.
To the right of the drawing window are the Layers and Properties Inspector palettes.
All palettes can be opened or closed from the Tools or Window menu.
On any palette, click the button in the upper-right corner to collapse all palettes to an icon
state. Each icon represents one of the open palettes; clicking on the icon displays the
associated palette. To show as palettes, right-click and select Show as Palettes.
In the upper-left corner of each palette are buttons to collapse or expand the palette.
You can also double-click on the title bar. Click the Close button to close the palette.
In the lower-left corner of the drawing area is the UCS icon, which displays the positive
directions of the X, Y, and Z axis. The coordinate of the crosshair cursor is displayed in the
lower-right corner of the current viewport. Below the drawing window is the command line.
Use the command line to start a command and provide input for the current command. Press
Enter after typing a command name or input. Dynamic input, which is enabled by default,
displays command prompts and input next to the cursor.
To the right of the command line is the status bar. The status bar displays layout and view
tools, common drafting aids, and annotation scaling tools.
Click the disclosure triangle on the right side of the status bar to access the 3D status
bar. Here you’ll find 3D object selection and manipulation tools and common lighting
tools.