Chapter 3. Controlling the AutoCAD 2002 Drawing Environment

In Chapter 2, “Starting a Drawing in AutoCAD 2002,” you learned how to control drawing settings using the Today page, the Drawing Units dialog box, and Drafting Settings dialog box. In addition to the features controlled by these dialog boxes, AutoCAD also allows you to control many other features through its Options dialog box (formerly known as the Preferences dialog box in Release 14). Through the Options dialog box, you control where AutoCAD searches for and saves files, how its display appears, as well as certain drafting features including AutoSnap, AutoTracking, and object selection methods.

This chapter covers the following topics:

• Defining support paths

• Controlling AutoCAD’s display

• Configuring plotters

• Setting user preferences

• Defining profiles

In this chapter, you review the Options dialog box, and work through exercises that help you master its many powerful features.