VectorWorks User Interface

Bars

• Menu bar: Contains pull-down menus that access the VectorWorks commands.
  
• View bar: Contains buttons and pull-down menus that control the view in various ways.
  
• Tool bar: Displays the various modes of the active tool. The bar also displays mode information and accesses the tool preferences, if any.
  
• Data bar: Displays information such as X and Y data, length, and angle depending on the tool and on the action being performed.
  
• Message bar: Displays tool explanations, undo messages, minor alerts, and a progress bar (when applicable).
  

Palettes

• Basic palette: Includes all the 2D and 3D tools needed for the creation and editing of the basic drawing objects.
  
• Tool sets palette: Includes the advanced tools for the different functionality in VectorWorks products, it varies from product to the other; the displayed here is the Designer palette.
  
• Object Info palette: Displays the properties of the selected object(s).
  
• Navigation palette: Displays the structure of the active document, including its Classes, Design Layers, Sheet Layers, Viewports, Saved Views, and References.
  
• Attributes palette: Contains a selection of colors, fills, pens, and other object attributes.
  
• Constraints palette: Contains the SmartCursor (or snapping) controls that can be toggled on or off. 
  
• Resource Browser: Accesses the various resources in the file (gradient fills, hatch patterns, image fills, record formats, scripts and script palettes, symbols and symbol folders, worksheets, textures, and backgrounds) both inside the active document and in external documents (that are part of the VectorWorks library or a personal library).
  
• Visualization: Accesses all lights and cameras in the file, this palette is available only when RenderWorks is running.
  

Document Body

• Drawing area: This is the open portion in the middle of the window where drawings are created; it includes both the print area and the space that surrounds it.
  
• Print area: Within the drawing area, a gray border defines the print area, if shown. Only the objects that are included within the print area are printed. The print area is divided into pages; each page equals a physical sheet of paper to be printed. 
  

Windows and Macintosh

There is a small difference in the behavior in the application windows under Windows and under the Mac OS X, under the Windows environment the application is running in a single main window where all of the sub items are inside it and the palettes are part of it (in a configuration known as MDI window), this allows most of the palettes to dock at the corners of the window.

But under the Macintosh environment there is no such thing as a main window for the application, this gives a slightly lower ability to use the palettes (not being able to dock them to the document window), but gives a slightly higher ability to use multi-monitor configuration.