TOOLBARS

Today let’s talk about TWO horizontal bars below the Menu Bar – Standard Toolbar and Object Properties Bar and TWO vertical Floating Toolbars.

Standard Toolbar

It is obvious from the name that this is the most common standardized toolbar any Windows application has and AutoCAD is no exception. There are some tasks and operations with any computer file those are so routine and inevitable that they are almost universal. These include File Handling Options like – New, Open, Save, Plot, etc. Quick editing commands like Undo and Redo. What AutoCAD Standard Toolbar has different are the commands like –

• Match Properties – Where you can match physical properties of the source and new object.
• Block Editor - with which you can edit BLOCKs in place.
• Viewing commands like Zoom, Pan and alike.
• Properties, Designcenter, Sheet Set Manager, Markup Set Manager and QuickCalc for calculations.
• Format toolbar with Text Style, Dimension Style and Table Style settings.

Object Properties Toolbar

This is AutoCAD-specific Toolbar which is divided FIVE distinct parts – each for managing a specific property. Although properties like Color, Linetype, Lineweight, etc could be assigned, changed and managed individually for all the objects in the drawing, IT IS NOT AT ALL RECOMMENDED unless absolutely and exceptionally required. Why I say so is because AutoCAD provides a phenomenal and intelligent concept of LAYER from where any and all physical properties of the objects in the drawing could and should be controlled. This not only facilitates the drawing assembly but also makes the drawing organized, structured and smart providing administrative governing of drawing in view of efficiency, analysis and management. The Five parts of the object properties toolbar are

• Layer – The foremost and major element in any drawing about which we will learn in detail like, it’s structure, components, behavior and effect as whole, in due course.
• Color – This Tab offers the control of Color of objects in the drawing.
• Linetype – From here user can assign, change or manage the Linetype of any object.
• Lineweight – Useful for setting the lineweights of the objects in the drawing.
• Plotstyle - This instructs AutoCAD about the Plot settings like color or mono, what lineweights to plot, etc.

Floating / Docked Toolbars

These are the additional toolbars that can be adjusted as per the requirement and convenience of the user. Although AutoCAD has enough toolbars to fill up the entire screen it is neither recommended to turn on all the toolbars nor would it be workable. For this reason AutoCAD, by default, makes available TWO basic toolbars, one at each side of the screen – Draw and Modify. As their names suggest, these are the toolbars those hold the maximum no. of frequently used commands.

There could be more toolbars turned on in place of / in addition to these toolbars according to the stage and purpose of the session. For e.g. –

• If the session is started for analysis you might want to turn on the Inquiry toolbar OR
• If you are working with 3D modeling, consider turning on 3D Commands or UCS toolbar

Tomorrow we will try to understand the Drafting Settings.
Stay Tuned...!