Set Up the Drawing Area

You can adjust the color and display schemes used in the application and drawing windows, and control the behavior of general features such as zoom transitions.

Many of the settings are available from shortcut menus and the Options dialog box. Some workspace elements, such as the presence and location of toolbars and palettes, can be specified and saved using the Customize User Interface dialog box.

Some settings affect how you work in the drawing area:

Background Colors (Options dialog box, Display tab). You specify the background colors used in the layout and Model tabs and the color used for prompts and crosshairs.
Color Scheme (Options dialog box, Display tab, Colors). You specify a dark or light color scheme for the overall user interface. The settings affect the window frame background, status bar, title bar, menu browser frame, toolbars, and palettes.
Background Colors (Options dialog box, Display tab, Colors). You specify the background colors used in model space, layouts, and the block editor. Background colors on the Model tab change to indicate whether you are working in a 2D design context, 3D modeling (parallel projection), or 3D modeling (perspective projection).
UCS Icon and Crosshairs Cursor (Options dialog box, 3D Modeling tab). You specify that the 3D display options and labels for the UCS icon can be set in the 3D Modeling tab of the Options dialog box.
Color Assignments for X, Y, and Z (Options dialog box, Display tab, Colors). In 3D views, any interface elements that are associated with the UCS X, Y, and Z axis use special color assignments. The X axis is colored or tinted red, the Y axis is green, and the Z axis is blue. These tints can be turned on or off in the Drawing Window Colors dialog box.
Clean Screen. You can expand the drawing display area to display only the menu bar, status bar, and command window with the clean screen button on the application status bar. Click the button again to restore the previous setup.
View Transitions. You can control whether view transitions are smooth or instantaneous when you pan, zoom, or change from one view to another (VTOPTIONS command). The default is a smooth transition.

Tooltips

Several types of tooltips provide pop-up information for interaction with toolbars, object snaps, and drafting operations.

You can view tooltips in toolbars, the menu browser, the ribbon, and dialog boxes. Initially, a basic tooltip is displayed. If you continue to hover, the tooltip expands to display additional information. You can customize the display and content of a tooltip.

Show Me: Display Tooltips for Commands

See Also

Display Tab (Options Dialog Box) in the Command Reference
User Interface Customization in the Customization Guide
Rollover Tooltips in the Customization Guide
Create Tooltips and Extended Help for Commands in the Customization Guide

Procedure

To set options

To customize the colors of the application window elements

To change the appearance of view transitions

To display hidden message dialogs

To turn tooltips on or off

Quick Reference

Commands

System Variables

APPLYGLOBALOPACITIES

Applies transparency settings to all palettes.

CALCINPUT

Controls whether mathematical expressions and global constants are evaluated in text and numeric entry boxes of windows and dialog boxes.

CLEANSCREENSTATE

Indicates whether the clean screen state is on or off.

CURSORSIZE

Determines the size of the crosshairs as a percentage of the screen size.

DRAGMODE

Controls the way dragged objects are displayed.

EXTNAMES

Sets the parameters for named object names (such as linetypes and layers) stored in definition tables.

GLOBALOPACITY

Controls transparency level for all palettes.

GRIPCOLOR

Controls the color of unselected grips.

GRIPHOT

Controls the color of selected grips.

GRIPS

Controls the display of grips on selected objects.

HELPPREFIX

Sets the file path for the Help system.

INSUNITS

Specifies a drawing-units value for automatic scaling of blocks, images, or xrefs when inserted or attached to a drawing.

INSUNITSDEFSOURCE

Sets source content units value when INSUNITS is set to 0.

INSUNITSDEFTARGET

Sets target drawing units value when INSUNITS is set to 0.

INTELLIGENTUPDATE

Controls the graphics refresh rate.

ISAVEBAK

Improves the speed of incremental saves, especially for large drawings.

ISAVEPERCENT

Determines the amount of wasted space tolerated in a drawing file.

LAYOUTREGENCTL

Specifies how the display list is updated in the Model tab and layout tabs.

LOCALE

Displays a code that indicates the current locale.

LOCALROOTPREFIX

Stores the full path to the root folder where local customizable files were installed.

LOCKUI

Locks the position and size of toolbars and dockable windows such as DesignCenter and the Properties palette.

LOGFILEMODE

Specifies whether the contents of the text window are written to a log file.

LOGFILENAME

Specifies the path and name of the text window log file for the current drawing.

LOGFILEPATH

Specifies the path for the text window log files for all drawings in a session.

MTEXTED

Sets the application for editing multiline text objects.

OLEQUALITY

Sets the default plot quality for OLE objects.

OLESTARTUP

Controls whether the source application of an embedded OLE object loads when plotting.

OSNAPCOORD

Controls whether coordinates entered on the command line will override running object snaps.

PAPERUPDATE

Controls the display of a warning dialog box when attempting to print a layout with a paper size different from the paper size specified by the default for the plotter configuration file.

PALETTEOPAQUE

Controls the display of a warning dialog box when attempting to print a layout with a paper size different from the paper size specified by the default for the plotter configuration file.

PICKADD

Controls whether subsequent selections replace the current selection set or add to it.

PICKAUTO

Controls automatic windowing at the Select Objects prompt.

PICKBOX

Sets the object selection target height, in pixels.

PICKDRAG

Controls the method of drawing a selection window.

PICKFIRST

Controls whether you select objects before (noun-verb selection) or after you issue a command.

PICKSTYLE

Controls the use of group selection and associative hatch selection.

PSTYLEPOLICY

Controls the plot style mode, Color-Dependent or Named, that is used when opening a drawing that was created in a release prior to AutoCAD 2000 or when creating a new drawing from scratch without using a drawing template.

QTEXTMODE

Controls how text is displayed.

RASTERPREVIEW

Controls whether BMP preview images are saved with the drawing.

ROLLOVEROPACITY

Controls the transparency of a palette while the cursor moves over the palette.

ROLLOVERTIPS

Controls the display of rollover tooltips in the application.

SAVEFILE

Stores the current automatic save file name.

SAVEFILEPATH

Specifies the path to the directory for all automatic save files for the current session.