AutoCAD Interface Overview

The Ribbon InfoCenter

Maximize the area available for work
using a compact interface that contains
many of the same tools and controls
available in toolbars and dialog boxes.
The ribbon can be displayed horizontally
across the top of the drawing window,
vertically to the left or right of the
drawing window, or as a floating palette.
Search for information through keywords
or phrases, display the Communication
Center panel for product updates and
announcements, or display the Favorites
panel to access saved topics. You can also
receive information from RSS feeds to
which you subscribe, or feeds published
by your CAD manager.

Action Recorder
Automate repetitive drafting and editing
tasks by recording action macros. Use
most of the commands and user interface
elements that are available in AutoCAD to
create your action macro and then save
it. You can find the Action Recorder on the
ribbon's Tools tab.
Tool Palettes
Organize, share, and place tools that are
dragged from your drawing onto a tool
palette or are provided from third-party
developers. Change the properties of any
tool on a tool palette and organize tool
palettes into groups.

Quick Access Toolbar

Store commands that you frequently
access in AutoCAD. By default, you can The Command Prompt
access New, Open, Save, Plot, Undo, and
Execute a command by entering the full
Redo from the Quick Access toolbar. Add
command name or command alias at the
commands to the Quick Access toolbar
command prompt and pressing ENTER or
using the shortcut menus of all
SPACEBAR. When Dynamic Input is on
commands on the ribbon, menu browser,
and is set to display dynamic prompts,
and toolbars.
you can enter many commands in tooltips
that are displayed near the cursor.

ViewCube
Display visual feedback of the current
orientation of a model, or adjust a
Viewports
model's viewpoint. Restore the previous
Display multiple views of the same
view, or click and drag over the Rewind
drawing, each with different visual styles.
wedge to scroll through the navigation
Add or remove viewports using the
history to restore a previous view. You
VPORTS command, or from the ribbon on
can access the ViewCube from the
the View tab in the Viewports panel.
drawing status bar.

The Menu Browser

Browse all of the classic drop-down menus available in
AutoCAD, or perform a real-time search of the menus, menu ShowMotion
actions, tooltips, command prompt text strings, and tags. Use Access named views that are organized into categories of
the menu browser to browse for recent documents, currently animated sequences within the current drawing. You can
open documents, and commands recently executed from the access ShowMotion from the drawing status bar.
menu browser.
Status Bar
SteeringWheels
View the coordinate values of your cursor, and access
Access 2D and 3D navigation tools such as pan, zoom, orbit, several buttons for turning drawing tools on and off, as
rewind, and walk from a single interface. Start the well as many display tools used to scale annotations.
navigation tools by clicking a wedge or by clicking and
dragging the cursor over a wedge. You can access
SteeringWheels from the drawing status bar.