About SteeringWheels

SteeringWheels, also known as wheels, are tracking menus (that follow your cursor). They combine many of the common navigation tools into a single interface. .

The primary method of interaction with SteeringWheels is to press and drag a wedge.

When you display SteeringWheels the first time, and a 3D view is current, the First Contact balloon for the wheels displays. The First Contact balloon is an introduction to the wheels.

Appearance of Wheels

You can control the appearance of the wheels by switching styles, or adjusting the opacity. Wheels (except the 2D Navigation wheel) are available in two different styles: big and mini.

The size of a wheel controls how large or small the wedges are, and whether labels appear on the wheel. The opacity level controls the visibility of the objects in the model behind the wheel.

Wheel Tooltips, Tool Messages, and Tool Cursor Text

As you move the cursor over each button on a wheel, tooltips display below the wheel. They tell you what action takes place when you click the wedge or button.

Like tooltips, tool messages, and cursor text display when you activate one of the navigation tools on a wheel. Tool messages provide instructions about using the tool. Tool cursor text displays the name of the active navigation tool near the cursor. Disabling tool messages and cursor text affects only the messages that display when using the mini wheels or the big Full Navigation wheel.

Wheel Menu

The Wheel menu contains options to:

The current wheel and program determine which menu items are available on the Wheel menu.

Types of Navigation Wheels

Note: In IDW files, only the 2D Navigation Wheel is available. It is divided into the Pan, Zoom, and Rewind wedges. In DWG views, the ViewCube and all 3D wheels are available in Model view, and only the 2D wheel is available in Layout view. Wheels are unavailable in AutoCAD LT.

2D Navigation Wheel.

Full Navigation Wheel.

Mini Full Navigation Wheel

Mini View Object Wheel

Mini Tour Building Wheel

Basic View Object Wheel

Basic Tour Building Wheel