AutoCAD Does Windows (and Office)

If you’re already familiar with the Microsoft Office 2007 suite, you may recognize
some program features, such as the Ribbon and the Application Menu,
which you use for choosing commands or changing system settings. But even
if AutoCAD’s new look does seem a little familiar in places, many aspects of
the program’s appearance — and some of the ways in which you work with
it — are quite different from other Windows programs. Depending on the
workspace you’ve chosen to use, you can, in many cases, tell the program
what to do in at least five ways — pick a toolbar button, pick from a pulldown
menu, pick a tool button from a Ribbon panel, type on the keyboard, or
pick from a right-click menu — none of which is necessarily the best method
to use for every task.
Slick as they are, Ribbon panels and browsing through the Application Menu
aren’t always the most efficient way of doing things. When you want to get real
work done, you need to combine the Ribbon panels with other methods —
especially entering options with the keyboard or choosing them from the rightclick
menus.

• And They’re Off: AutoCAD’s Opening Screens

In addition to the 2D Drafting & Annotation workspace, there are a few additional
preconfigured workspaces available from the Workspace Switching
button. You can also create an “initial setup” based on the industry you work
in, and the content you want to see on the Ribbon. You can create an Initial
Setup Workspace by clicking Initial Setup on the User Preferences tab of the
Options dialog box.

However, because there are so many possible permutations of the Initial
Setup Workspace, let alone the 3D Modeling and AutoCAD Classic flavors,
for most of this book (the exception is Part V on 3D modeling) I’m going to
be sticking with the out-of-the-box 2D Drafting & Annotation workspace (the
exception is Part V, which deals with 3D modeling), and I recommend you do
the same as you read along.
A workspace is a collection of menus, palettes, toolbars, and/or Ribbon panels
tailored for specific tasks, such as 3D modeling or 2D drafting.
After you switch, AutoCAD remembers which workspace you last used and
opens in that one. Four standard workspaces are created when you install
AutoCAD 2011 (only two come with AutoCAD LT 2011):

2D Drafting & Annotation: This workspace (as shown in Figure 2-1) is
configured for a 2D drafting environment, with Ribbon tabs and panels
optimized for technical drawing in two dimensions.
3D Basics: This workspace is designed to help you get your feet wet with
3D modeling in AutoCAD 2011. It leaves out the Solid, Surface, and Mesh
object creation tabs, and provides simplified panels in the other tabs. I
cover modeling in 3D in Part V of this book, and there I use (and recommend
that you do the same) the full 3D Modeling workspace Ribbon.
This workspace isn’t included in AutoCAD LT because LT doesn’t do 3D.
3D Modeling: This Ribbon-based workspace is configured for a 3D modeling
environment, with navigation, visualization, and modeling tools
suitable for working in 3D. This workspace isn’t included in AutoCAD LT,
either.
AutoCAD Classic: This workspace is configured for a 2D drafting environment,
with toolbars and tool palette arrangements similar to those
in AutoCAD 2008 and earlier. In AutoCAD LT this workspace is called
AutoCAD LT Classic.