Commands for Setting the Drawing Environment

These commands may be used at any time, but are mainly called upon more during the beginning of the Drawing process.

·    Units: Specific the display format and precision. This command dictates whether units are displayed as decimals or as a fraction, as well as how many decimal places the number will go. Also specifies how angle will be represented, either as decimal degrees, radians, etc, as well as how angle will be measured, i.e clockwise vs. counterclockwise.

·      Limits: Sets limits to the boundary and size of the current drawing. The user must specify the lower left hand corner and the upper right hand corner. This setting may be turned on or off when on, point may not be specified outside the currently set limits.

·   Qtext: Quick text may be turned on or off, like the limits command. When switched on, text is displayed in rectangles, showing the extent of the text. When off, just the text is displayed, without the rectangle.

·   Viewres: performs two functions: first, it lets the user disable fast zoom, which makes sense when conforming a more modern version of AutoCAD to an earlier one that lacks the fast zoom capability. Second, viewres allow the user to control the smoothness and speed of circles and arcs drawn in the display. The user does this by choosing the number of sides circles will have. It is recommended this value be set at 2000.                        

·    Blipmode: Blip are small crosses use to mark screen positions the user has pointed to. They can be useful reference points, but too many of them can crowd the screen, making it difficult for the use to see. Engaging Blipmode allows the small crosses to stay up in the wake of the pointer, and turning it off makes them disappear. Blips are not part of the final drawing and are removed when the drawing is compete.

·   Fill: when this command is engaged, solids traces, wide polylines, and donuts that are drawn are then filled in with color, as opposed to just being outlines. This command does not affect the drawing’ plotted output, and, when using this command, there is a traded off between regeneration time and the image’s quality.

Status:  this command simply lists, on the text screen, the current drawing environment, the modes, and statuses that are engaged for this drawing.