Basic Operation Controls

The Status Bar is located at the bottom right portion of the window. The settings contained in the Status Bar affect the way you draw and work within your drawings. The Status Bar is displayed as follows by default.

Items typed in ALL CAPS are also commands that can be typed in the command line.

1. Model/Paper Space Toggle – Clicking on this will toggle between the model space and paper space.
   
2. GRIDMODE – Toggles the grid display in the drawing.
   
3. SNAPMODE – Allows you to set settings for snapping to the grid.
   
4. ORTHOMODE – While drawing with ORTHOMODE turned on, you will only be able to draw at 0° and 90° increments.
   
5. Polar Tracking – Polar tracking allows you to specify increments of angles for drawing, moving, etc.
   
6. ISODRAFT – Changes the grid and User Coordinate System (UCS) to an isometric view.
   
7. AUTOSNAP – Allows you to track (using ORTHOMODE or Polar Tracking) from snap points.
   
8. OSNAP – Contains reference points that can be used for quicker selection (Endpoint, Midpoint, Perpendicular, etc.).
   
9. Show Annotative Objects – When turned on, this will display all annotative objects within a drawing despite the current drawing scale. With it turned off, it will only display the objects using the current scale.
   
10. Add Scales to Annotative Objects – When turned on, this will automatically add the drawing scale to all annotative objects if the drawing scale changes.
    
11. Current Drawing Scale – This contains a menu for changing the scale of the drawing.
    
12. Workspace Switching – A workspace is an organization of how the AutoCAD interface is setup. Switching between workspaces will change the appearance of AutoCAD.
    
13. ANNOMONITOR – This setting will display a yellow warning badge for all non-associative dimensions.
    
14. Isolate/Hide Objects – This option will allow you to isolate or hide selected objects.
    
15. CLEANSCREEN – This setting will expand the AutoCAD window to use the full screen – the Windows taskbar will not be visible with this on.
    
16. Customization – Displays a list of settings that can be visible in the Status Bar.

When working within a drawing, AutoCAD allows layers to be set up to help organize your drawings visually. Layers can be set up to have unique colors, line weights, line types, and can be set to print or not. Layers will typically have a name that describes how it is used. For example, the 2D_CABINETDOOR layer is used for drawing doors; the 2D_WALL layer is used for drawing walls.

In AutoCAD, creating a window selection is different than most other programs. For a standard rectangular window selection, two clicks are required. Clicking and dragging will allow a lasso selection (unique shape). Window selections are directional as well. After clicking to start the window, moving the mouse to the right will create the “select window,” requiring an entire object to be selected. Moving the mouse to the left will create the “select crossing” window, which will grab all objects that touch the window.

When working in a 3D drawing, you may find that the wireframe visual style can become busy and confusing. AutoCAD has a selection of visual styles to help make viewing and working in a drawing easier. To change the visual style, click on the menu located in the top left corner of the drawing area. Cycle through the different visual styles to see how they affect 3D objects.

AutoCAD contains two spaces to work within: Model Space and Paper Space. Model space is the main drawing area and can be accessed by clicking on the MODEL tab in the bottom left corner of the window. The additional tabs are layouts (or sheets/pages). Clicking on a layout will display the sheet. In a layout, you can toggle between model space and paper space as long as a viewport is being used. Activating model space will allow you to move the drawing around so you can set the view you wish to have associated with that particular layout. Activating paper space will allow you to work at the sheet level only, leaving the model as it was drawn.

Viewports are used in a layout tab and can be set up to display different areas of the drawing (model space). Multiple viewports can be created in a layout, so different views can be set up on the same sheet.