Chapter 1

Getting to Know AutoCAD

Opening either AutoCAD or AutoCAD LT for the very first time can be an intimidating experience. Faced with such an expansive collection of tools, settings, and more, where do you start? To help you answer that question, this chapter breaks down the many components of the user interface into manageable segments and introduces you to basic operations such as opening drawings. Even if you’ve used earlier versions of AutoCAD, you’ll still want to review this chapter to become acquainted with some of the changes from recent years.

Although the 2012 release does have some subtle user interface improvements, the AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT interfaces are almost identical. Generally speaking, both platforms offer the same ...

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