AutoCAD® 2010 For Dummies®

Chapter 2. Le Tour de AutoCAD 2010

In This Chapter

• Touring the AutoCAD 2010 screens

• Comparing the new and the classic looks

• Browsing AutoCAD's menus

• Going bar hopping: title bars, the menu bar, toolbars, and the status bar

• Unraveling the Ribbon

• Practicing with palettes

• Discovering the drawing area

• Using online help

AutoCAD 2010 is a fully fledged and thoroughly up-to-date member of the Windows world, but if you skipped AutoCAD 2009, or you're using Windows XP, or you've yet to kick the tires of the Microsoft Office 2007 suite, you may not recognize much in AutoCAD's newest release. But the title bar says "AutoCAD 2010," so you must be in the right place!

Like the rest of the book, this chapter is written for someone who has used other Windows programs but has little or no experience with AutoCAD. If you are experienced with recent releases of AutoCAD, some of this chapter may be old hat (even if it does look different). Here and throughout the rest of the book, I show you how to do things with AutoCAD's implementation of Microsoft's Fluent User Interface (or FUI for short). In the "Going for that classic look" sidebar later in this chapter, I show you how to make the new version look a lot like an old one.

Note

The very first time you launch AutoCAD 2010, a new Initial Setup routine asks you to specify the industry you work in, whether you want to include 3D or drawing management tools (not in AutoCAD LT), and which template you want to use to start new drawings. AutoCAD then creates a new ...