- [Instructor] We're starting a new chapter now
in our AutoCAD essential training course
and we're going to be taking a look
at the AutoCAD user interface.
We're going to jump into it in a bit more depth now
and go through individual pieces of functionality
within the user interface.
We're in the Interface.dwg file.
As you can see, it's a 2D floor plan.
You can see the chairs, the desks, the grid lines
the dimensions, the walls, the doors, et cetera.
And we're going to be utilizing
this type of drawing
all the way through this particular course as well.
Unless we jump into a different type of drawing
for a different workflow or methodology.
So we're in the Interface.dwg file.
And the first thing we're going to look at
is the application menu.
Now, Autodesk have an application menu
in every single one of their products.
It's located in the top left corner
of the application screen.
So if we go over
to the top left corner, you can see an A, CAD.
AutoCAD.
There's our red AutoCAD application menu icon
that we click on.
And there's our application menu.
Now, this is as it says on the tin,
really, an application menu.
So what it allows you to do is work within your application.
So, if I start working down the list on the left
I can open up a New drawing or a new Sheet Set.
We don't actually cover
sheet sets in this particular course.
There is a separate course in the library for that,
but I can open a file.
I can Open a file from a Sheet Set perhaps,
or from the AutoCAD Web & Mobile folders.
Again, we'll touch on that later in the course.
I can Save.
I can also Save As.
I can save to different types files within AutoCAD.
You can see there's various ones there listed.
The majority of the time
we'll be working with the Drawing file here,
the DWG.
I can import files into AutoCAD.
I can export files out of AutoCAD as well.
And you can see
they've all got their relevant little icons as well.
You'll notice that
if I'm exporting out as something like a DWF file,
you've got the A and the little DWF underneath.
I can Publish as well.
You'll notice I can Send to 3D Print Services there,
I mentioned that in the introduction.
So if I've got a 3D model in AutoCAD,
I can send solid objects and watertight meshes
to a 3D Print Service
and they'll send me an object back.
I can design an object in AutoCAD
and actually get an real, real life object back.
I can also Print my drawing.
So I might want to print my 2D floor plan
that you can see on the screen.
I can also Batch Plot
and plot multiple drawings if I want to too.
There's also various Drawing Utilities available to you
within AutoCAD well.
Tools such as Units and Auditing your drawings.
Checking the Status of your files
and recovering damaged files as well.
I can also close the Current Drawing if I want to
or close all currently open drawings
if I've got more than one drawing open
in my AutoCAD drafting session.
So there's lots of different tools there already.
You'll notice as well though,
I've got an Ordered List here
and at the moment it's looking at my Recent Documents.
If I go over and just go to Open Documents,
you can see that we've only got the Interface.dwg file open.
If I click back on the Recent Documents though,
I've got various documents available that I've worked on.
So I can look at those by Ordered List or Access Date
or I can go to by Size.
And I can also use by Type as well.
I'm just going to go back there to my Ordered List
'cause I like my Ordered List.
I can also look at them in different formats.
I can look at them as Small images
or perhaps even Large images,
which gives me an indication
of what the drawing looks like by way of a thumbnail.
I'll go back to my Small icons.
I prefer that list like that.
Now you'll notice there, there's my interface drawing.
If I hover there on that pin,
I can click there
and I can actually click on that pin
and pin that open on the list
because this only shows me my most recently used documents
that will now stay at the top of the list
and won't go away until I unpin it,
like so.
So it's really quite useful.
And the other thing I can do from the application menu
is click on Options
and that will open up the Options dialogue box here
as well in AutoCAD.
Now there's lots of different things going on
in the Options dialogue box.
We do cover it later a little bit,
but it's all your settings that you use within AutoCAD.
I'm not going to make any changes
so I'll just click on Cancel there.
And we're now back in AutoCAD,
ready to start drafting if we need to.