Modern AutoCAD includes a full set of basic solid modeling and 3D tools. AutoCAD can co-exist with such products as a 2D drafting tool; in fact, there is a multitude of software products that have been developed by other companies to provide additional functionality to the AutoCAD program. It is so popular and in such widespread use that it has been called the "Microsoft" of the design industry. It is, in some ways, a platform for design functions - some provided by the AutoCAD program and other Autodesk products and other functions coming from additional compatible software.
Like other CAD programs, AutoCAD is fundamentally a vector graphics drawing program. It uses primitive entities -- such as lines, polylines, circles, arcs, and text -- as the foundation for more complex objects. Those objects can be inserted into AutoCad drawings, manipulated, scaled and moved in a variety of ways. AutoCAD's current and recent editions have 3D functionality which allows those objects - entire images, if they have been assembled properly - to rotate and skew as if the image was an object in space.
