36
AutoCAD and Its Applications—Basics
The
Design Feed
palette appears by default when you first launch AutoCAD. See fi
Figure 1-4. Use the
Design Feed
palette to share messages and images with others,
such as design team members, vendors, and clients, using your Autodesk 360 account.
Autodesk 360 is an online service that provides cloud computing resources for file fi
management and certain computer processing functions, such as 3D rendering. You
can use Autodesk 360 to store fi les and system settings, access files fi from a mobile fi
device, and support file collaboration. Pick the fi
Close
button on the
Design Feed
palette
to close the palette until you are ready to use Autodesk 360 and the
Design Feed
palette.
Palettes contain tool buttons, fl youts, drop-down lists, and many other features, fl
such as list boxes and scroll bars. Unlike dialog boxes, you do not need to close
palettes in order to use other commands and work on the drawing. As with the ribbon,
panels divide some palettes into groups of commands. Large palettes are divided into
separate pages or windows, which you commonly access using tabs.
To display a palette, pick a palette button from the
Palettes
panel in the
View
ribbon tab. You can also display most palettes using palette-specific access tech- fi
niques. For example, to access the
Properties
palette, pick the arrow in the lower-right
corner of the
Properties
panel in the
Home
ribbon tab; double-click on most objects
in the drawing window; select an object, right-click, and select Properties; or type
PROPERTIES
and press [Enter].
When you display a palette for the first time, it is often in a floating fi state, although fl
you can dock some palettes. Right-click on the palette title bar or pick the
Properties
button to select from a list of undocked palette control options. The
Auto-hide
option
allows the palette to minimize when the cursor is away from the palette, conserving
drawing space. Deselect the
Allow Docking
palette property or menu option to disable
the ability to dock palettes. The
Properties
button or shortcut menu on some palettes
includes other functions, such as the
Transparency…
option. Use the
Transparency…
option to make the palette transparent in order to view drawing geometry behind the
palette. See Figure 1-15.
PROFESSIONAL S N A TIP P P P R OF R O FE S SS I O NA NA AL T I P P P TI P
Resize a floating palette using the resizing arrows that appear when fl
you move the cursor over the edge. Then pick the
Auto-hide
button to
have quick access to the palette while displaying the largest possible
drawing area.
NEW
AutoCAD AutoCAD A Au o o
list box: A framed
area that contains
a list of items or
options from which
to select.
scroll bar: A bar
tipped with arrow
buttons used to
scroll through a
list of options or
information.
Figure 1-14.
Right-click options for displaying and organizing ribbon elements.
Selection Result
Show Related Tool
Palette Group
Displays tool palette groups customized to associate with a
ribbon tab.
Tool Palette Group
Allows you to select which related tool palette groups to show.
Show Tabs Allows you to choose which tabs to display; also available by
ri ri ht- gh gh t- lick cl cl ic ki ki ng ng o o n n a a panel pa ne l l.
Show Sh ow P P anels an el s Allows Al lo ws y y ou ou t t o o select se le ct w w hich hi ch p p anels an el s to to d d isplay; is pl ay ; also al so a a vailable va il ab le b b y y
right-clicking on a panel.
Show Panel Titles
Uncheck to hide panel titles.
Undock Changes the ribbon to a floating state. Double-click the ribbon title
bar or drag and drop to dock the floating ribbon.
Close Closes the ribbon. Use the
RIBBON
command to redisplay the ribbon.