In interactive mode, you work with menus and dialog boxes to drive the Mechanical APDL program. You have easy access to Mechanical APDL graphics capabilities, online help, and other tools, such as wizards.

The standard Mechanical APDL GUI is the default. This layout shows the Utility Menu, Standard Toolbar, Input Window, Toolbar, Main Menu, Graphics Window, Status Area, and Output Window. You can resize the toolbars, the overall size of the GUI, the font, and the color. For more information on these components and how to customize them, see Customizing Mechanical APDL and the GUI.