aspect ratio of drawings

I have AutoCad LT 97 running on Win XP SP3. When I construct a square using rectangle, it is not a square - the base is greater than the height; when I construct a circle, it shows as an ellipse. What do I need to adjust to make a square or circle look like a square or circle on the drawing? They plot as squares and circles, but I can't figure out how to work with them on the drawing? I'm sure it's a simple fix, but I'm too old to find it. Thanks for any help at all.

Aspect ratios are a function of your monitor not AutoCAD well at least since the days of DOS.

Don't you have buttons on the front of your monitor that control the various settings? If not then perhaps your monitor controls these settings via software.

Do you have a CRT or an LCD monitor? By the way, what are you using as a screen resolution (ex. - 800x600 or 1024x764)? Just curious.

This is what you want to adjust.

The monitor ratio could be off, which may be correctable via the monitor controls, or the Windows/Video card resolution may not match the monitor ratio so the desktop, and everything on it is being "stretching" to fit the monitor.

.....or, the view in AutoCAD may be rotated so you're not viewing the XY plane directly from above.

I still have LT97 on a machine somewhere, but I don't remember it's capabilities. If LT 97 has a PLAN command, use it and make sure UCS and PLAN are both set to "World"

ReMark: Thanks for your reply. I have an AOC LCD monitor - screen res = 1280x1028. It does have buttons for monitor control, but pressing them singly, in sequence, simultaneously, or one at a time results in no action at all. One of the buttons looks like it might address the problem, but nothing happens when I press it. I think I would like to get the width-to-height ratio to 1:1 as this would probably make all the icons on the desktop which are supposedly circular but display as ellipses go back to circular. Again thanks for your input. If you can think of anything else I might try - reload driver (2008 version), etc, give me a holler. joewillie

I don't believe that is the proper ration for a LCD monitor. I believe the proper ration is 16:9 depending on the age of your monitor (some are 16:10). CRT's I believe used a ratio of 4:3.

The resolution setting for the video card may not be correct. Set it to the recommended setting for your monitor. The correct one should be tagged with "Recommended". If not, find out the native ratio of the monitor and set the video card setting to it.

That "should" work but with since that version of AutoCAD is so old, it might not.

What model AOC LCD do you have? The buttons should be explained in your monitor's documentation.

What resolution are you using? Example: For an AOC model 2036s monitor the recommended resolution is 1920x1080.

Is this happening in all programs?

joewillie alluded to "desktop icons" being skewed in post #4, so I'm guessing it's a general graphics problem where the display resolution isn't scaling properly with the monitor, rather than a problem with a particular program/application.

You're right, nestly.