AutoCAD 2011 for Mac User's Guide September 2010 © 2010 Autodesk, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Except as otherwise permitted by Autodesk, Inc., this publication, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form, by any method, for any purpose. Certain materials included in this publication are reprinted with the permission of the copyright holder. 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Published by: Autodesk, Inc. 111 McInnis Parkway San Rafael, CA 94903, USA Contents Get Information . 1 Chapter 1 Find the Information You Need . 3 Access and Search the Product Help . 3 Learn the Product . 4 View the Product Readme . 5 Join the Customer Involvement Program . 6 Chapter 2 Get Information from Drawings . 7 Obtain General Drawing Information . 7 The User Interface . 9 Chapter 3 Start a Command . 11 Parts of the User Interface . 11 The Menu Bar . 12 The Tool Sets Palette . 13 The Command Line . 15 Overview of Using the Command Line . 15 Enter Commands on the Command Line . 17 Enter System Variables on the Command Line . 18 iii Switch Between Dialog Boxes and the Command Line . 20 View and Edit Within the Command History . 21 Work with Shortcut Menus . 22 Chapter 4 Control the Drawing Area Interface . 25 Interface Themes and Background Color . 25 Cursors in the Drawing Area . 26 Selection Style . 27 The UCS Icon . 28 Viewport Label Menus . 29 The ViewCube Tool . 30 The Coordinates Display . 31 Model Space and Layouts . 32 Chapter 5 Control Status, Layers, Properties, and Content . 35 The Status Bar . 35 The Layers Palette . 36 The Properties Inspector . 38 The Content Palette . 40 Chapter 6 Customize the Drawing Environment . 43 Set Interface Options . 43 Set Up the Drawing Area . 43 Specify the Behavior of Palettes . 48 Customize Startup . 49 Start and Save Drawings . 51 Chapter 7 Start a Drawing . 53 Overview of Starting a New Drawing . 53 Specify Units and Unit Formats . 54 Determine the Units of Measurement . 54 Set the Unit Format Conventions . 56 Use a Drawing Template File . 58 Add Identifying Information to Drawings . 59 Chapter 8 Open or Save a Drawing . 61 Open a Drawing . 61 Work with Multiple Open Drawings . 64 Preview Open Drawings and Layouts . 64 Switch Between Open Drawings . 65 Switch Between Layouts in the Current Drawing . 66 iv | Contents Transfer Information between Open Drawings . 67 Save a Drawing . 67 Find a Drawing File . 72 Specify Search Paths and File Locations . 73 Chapter 9 Repair, Restore, or Recover Drawing Files . 75 Repair a Damaged Drawing File . 75 Create and Restore Backup Files . 77 Control the Drawing Views . 79 Chapter 10 Change Views . 81 Pan or Zoom a View . 81 Save and Restore Views . 84 Control the 3D Projection Style . 85 Overview of Parallel and Perspective Views . 85 Define a Perspective Projection (DVIEW) . 87 Define a Parallel Projection . 88 Choose Preset 3D Views . 89 Define a 3D View with Coordinate Values or Angles . 90 Change to a View of the XY Plane . 91 Shade a Model and Use Edge Effects . 92 Use a Visual Style to Display Your Model . 92 Customize a Visual Style . 95 Control Performance . 105 Chapter 11 Use Viewing Tools . 107 Specify 3D Views . 107 Overview of 3D Views . 107 Use 3D Navigation Tools . 108 Create a 3D Dynamic View (DVIEW) . 110 Use ViewCube . 111 Overview of ViewCube . 111 ViewCube Menu . 113 Reorient the View of a Model with ViewCube . 115 Change the UCS with ViewCube . 119 Chapter 12 Display Multiple Views in Model Space . 121 Set Model Space Viewports . 121 Select and Use the Current Viewport . 124 Save and Restore Model Layout Viewport Arrangements . 125 Contents | v Organize Drawings and Layouts . 127 Chapter 13 Create Single-View Drawings (Model Space) . 129 Quick Start for Model Space Drafting . 129 Draw, Scale, and Annotate in Model Space . 131 Chapter 14 Create Multiple-View Drawing Layouts (Paper Space) . 137 Quick Start for Layouts . 137 Understand the Layout Process . 139 Work with Model Space and Paper Space . 141 Work on the Model Layout . 141 Work on a Named Layout . 142 Access Model Space from a Layout Viewport . 144 Create and Modify Layout Viewports . 145 Control Views in Layout Viewports . 147 Scale Views in Layout Viewports . 147 Control Visibility in Layout Viewports . 149 Scale Linetypes in Layout Viewports . 153 Align Views in Layout Viewports . 154 Rotate Views in Layout Viewports . 155 Reuse Layouts and Layout Settings . 157 Create and Modify Objects . 159 Chapter 15 Control the Properties of Objects . 161 Work with Object Properties . 161 Overview of Object Properties . 161 Display and Change the Properties of Objects . 163 Copy Properties Between Objects . 164 Work with Layers . 165 Overview of Layers . 165 Use Layers to Manage Complexity . 167 Create and Name Layers . 169 Change Layer Settings and Layer Properties . 171 Override Layer Properties in Viewports . 173 Work with Colors . 176 Set the Current Color . 176 Change the Color of an Object . 177 Use Color Books . 179 Work with Linetypes . ..