Your mouse most likely has two buttons and a scroll wheel. You have used the left mouse button to choose menus, commands, and options, and you’ve held it down to drag menus, toolbars, and windows. The left mouse button is the one you’ll be using most often, but you’ll also use the right mouse button.
While drawing, you’ll use the right mouse button for the following three operations:
- To display a menu containing options relevant to the particular step you’re in at the moment
- To use in combination with the Shift or Ctrl key to display a menu containing special drawing aids called object snaps
- To display a menu of toolbars when the pointer is on any icon of a toolbar that is currently open
If you have a three-button mouse, the middle button is usually programmed to display the Object Snap menu, instead of using the right button with the Shift key. If you have a mouse with a scroll wheel, you can use the wheel in several ways to control the view of your drawing. I’ll cover those methods in subsequent chapters.
AutoCAD makes extensive use of toolbars and the right-click menu feature. This makes your mouse an important input tool. The keyboard is necessary for inputting numeric data and text, and it has hot keys and aliases that can speed up your work; however, the mouse is the primary tool for selecting options and controlling toolbars.
How to Control Mouse Wheel Speed
Do you ever feel your mouse wheel is zooming to fast? You can change the ZOOMFACTOR system variable. The default is 60, higher value will increase the zoom speed and lower value will decrease the speed. 3-100 is the valid value.
Tip: Mouse Pointer is not Moving Smoothly by Edwin Prakoso
Do you ever find your mouse pointer not moving smoothly and jumping all around? If you take a good look, the pointer is actually snapping to drawing grids, and jump to the next grid intersection. You probably turn on the grid snap by accident. Press [F9] or turn it off from drafting settings.
Vitamins for the CAD
“I do not mean for drafters to do less work, well, ok I do. The only way to draw faster is to move the mouse less, click less, pick less, and type less. One other tip is to be a two handed drafter. Keep one hand on the keyboard and one on the mouse. Forget toolbars, menus, ribbon, etc. and enter your commands with one hand on the keyboard while positioning your cursor with the other. If you take the time to move the mouse, click, move it again, click, and then start working you have wasted much time. BUT if you move and type at the same time, eventually you will get your work finished sooner.”
- Brian Benton
HAPPY MOUSING!
