Getting to Know AutoCAD - AutoCAD 2011 and AutoCAD LT 2011: No Experience Required - page 32

by menu, you can quickly find the command you want. Here are short descriptions
of the other AutoCAD drop-down menus:
View Contains tools for controlling the display of your drawing file.
insert Contains commands for placing drawings and images or parts of them
inside other drawings.
Format Contains commands for setting up the general parameters for a new
drawing or changing the entities in a current drawing.
tools Contains special tools for use while you're working on the current drawing,
such as those used for finding the length of a line or for running a special macro.
Draw Contains commands for creating new objects (such as lines or circles)
on the screen.
Dimension Contains commands for dimensioning and annotating a drawing.
M o d i f y Contains commands for changing existing objects in the drawing.
Parametric Contains commands for constraining objects or dimensions to spe-
cific values or parameters.
W i n d o w Contains commands for displaying currently open drawing windows
and lists currently open drawing files.
Express Contains a library of productivity tools that cover a wide range of
AutoCAD functions. Express Tools are widely used but aren't officially supported
by Autodesk. They are a part of the default program installation but may be omit-
ted in a custom installation. AutoCAD LT users do not have the option to install
Express Tools.
You can turn off the menu bar by clicking the down arrow on the right end of the
Quick Access toolbar and choosing Hide Menu Bar, or by entering MENUBAR ↵ 0 ↵ .
using the toolbars
The AutoCAD toolbars have essentially been replaced by the Ribbon or other
features, so we'll only touch on them briefly here. Toolbars, like the Ribbon pan-
els, are collections of tools grouped by similar tasks. Like the Ribbon itself, any
toolbar can be displayed or hidden without affecting the others, and they can
all be docked to a side or the top of the drawing area or float freely. To display a
toolbar, first display the menu bar; then choose Tools ➢ Toolbars, click a toolbar
category, and click the toolbar that you want to open (see Figure 1.37).
Take a few minutes to explore the available toolbars, and then close them and hide
the display of the menu bar. You'll touch on a few of the toolbars throughout the
course of this topic, but most of the tools used will be accessed from the Ribbon.