Civil & Env. Engineering
Computer Lab
Tutorial 1 - Starting AutoCAD
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Command Entry
These three ways of giving a command are most common:
  1. Type the command using the keyboard.

  2. Select the command from the screen menu (AutoCAD for DOS/Unix)
    or
    select the command's icon from a toolbar (AutoCAD for Windows).

  3. Select the command from a pull-down menu.
There are a large number of commands (200+) which provide access to the facilities of the Drawing Editor, but many of these commands are very specific and rarely used. These Tutorials cover most of the commonly-used ones.

There are a number of ways of entering a command (just for the record):

  1. Typing on the keyboard. Simply type in the command word and press the space bar or the RETURN key.
  2. Using the screen menu. To pick an item from the screen menu, simply move the mouse until the required item is highlighted, and then press the pick (left) button.
  3. Using the pull-down menus. Move the cursor to the required pull-down menu, until it is highlighted, and press the pick button. Move the pointing device again until the desired item is highlighted and again press the pick button.
  4. Using the floating menus. It works the very similar way as the pull-down menus.
  5. Using the toolbars. Move the cursor to the toolbar and pick a desired icon.
  6. Using a tablet menu. This is for your general information only! Some workstations are equipped with digitising tablets accompanied by a tablet overlay, on which are printed a wide range of AutoCAD commands. To select an item, simply move the hand-held puck until its cross-hairs (in its perspex viewing window) are positioned over the required item, and then press the pick button (on the puck).

But, only three types of Command Entries are typical and they are discussed below.

To remove a pull-down menu (without selecting an item), move the cursor away from the menu and click the left mouse button. Pull-down Menu Command Entry
Move the cursor to the pull-down menus and highlight the menu that you wish to pull down. When you press the pick button, that menu will appear on the screen. The menu items are either commands or pointers to further sub- menus. Move the pointing device again until the desired item is highlighted and again press the pick button. Once a command is selected, it is entered into the Command line and executed.

This type of Command Entry is rarely used.

The standard AutoCAD screen menu actually represents a range of available operations that can be picked by the user. This screen standard menu is the one set up by Autodesk. However users can customise the menu to suit their own needs or preferences.

The best way to gain confidence in the use of AutoCAD is to explore the screen menus and experiment with the menu items. Feel free to do that when you get onto the machine: don't worry, you cannot do any harm by experimenting (I hope).

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It is possible to drag the toolbars to any part of the screen. 		Screen Menu / Toolbar Command Entry
While the screen menu is available in DOS/Unix version of AutoCAD, the toolbars are common for Win versions of AutoCAD. However, it is possible to accustom Win AutoCAD to DOS-like AutoCAD .

To give a command using the screen menu - move the mouse until the required item is highlighted, and then press the pick (left) button.

Notice that there are three types of items included in the screen menu (referring AutoCAD for DOS):

  • pointers to sub-menus - these are displayed in all uppercase characters (not terminated by a colon ":") and cause a corresponding sub-menu to be called up;
  • command words - these are displayed in uppercase characters terminated by ":" and cause the corresponding command to be entered at the "Command:" prompt as if it had been typed (including the RETURN key);
  • command options - these are displayed in lower or mixed case and only appear when specific commands have been selected - they represent command options (relevant to that command) that can be picked rather than typed at the keyboard - command option menus are often displayed automatically when a command is issued from some other source.
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Giving a command by means of the toolbars is a bit easier - move the cursor to the toolbar and pick a desired icon.

According to the advanced users this is certainly the fastest way of drawing!
(Excluding the use of a tablet menu.)

To simplify command entry through the keyboard, AutoCAD permits the user to establish aliases, which are used most commonly as abbreviated forms of major commands. This is a customisation option which is set up outside AutoCAD and is therefore installation-specific. AutoCAD, as shipped from the vendor, has a number of aliases defined in this way in order to illustrate the concept. Some examples will "crop up" in the tutorials.

Note that some of the commands have the particular feature that they can be executed during the data entry mode of other commands (as well as at the command prompt). These are referred to as transparent commands. They can be used whenever AutoCAD is expecting non-text input and are entered by prefixing the command name with an apostrophe ('). 		Typing On The Keyboard Command Entry
Typing on the keyboard, should be the preferred way of entering a command. There are at least two good reasons for that:
  1. The first reason is very simple - no matter what Screen Layout of the AutoCAD you come across, only typing in the command words is always unique (even in foreign language AutoCAD!). Otherwise, Command Entry may differ significantly, depending on the release of AutoCAD or operating system that AutoCAD is running inside.

  2. The second reason is that not all commands are on the Menus and not all commands are on toolbars!
When making Typing On The Keyboard Command Entry a very simple, cyclical process is followed. In the most general case, this involves first forcing AutoCAD into a state where it can accept a command (referred to as Command mode):
  • check that AutoCAD is in Command mode (signified by the prompt "Command:" on the left) - if not, hold down the Ctrl key on the keyboard and press C to cancel the current operation and go back to command (or in AutoCAD for Win95/NT just hit the Esc key);

  • enter a command - by typing in the command word. If a mistake is made use the delete key to delete characters already typed. This activates Data Entry mode and AutoCAD will prompt for information needed to complete the command;

  • enter data required by AutoCAD; - AutoCAD will carry out the operation required by the command, update the displayed drawing and return to Command mode.
Presenting a Command Entry
Note that throughout this document the character "" is used to symbolise the [Enter] and [spacebar] keys and the Right mouse button. All three mentioned Command Entries are tried to be covered in the Tutorials (where available) by giving the command to type or select from the screen menu, showing what the toolbar icon looks like or by giving the menu options! Just like displayed below.
Typing On The Keyboard Command Entry will be presented like:
        type: QSAVE
Toolbar   /   Screen Menu   Command Entry will be presented like:
        select save         /         select FILE - Qsave:
Pull-down Menu Command Entry will be presented like:
        select File - Save
.

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