Getting a feel for the tools

For those who are completely new to the software.

Examine where you are

You'll note a grey portrait-oriented (taller than it's wide) rectangle. This is your drawing area, and it corresponds to the size of a standard Letter-size sheet of paper (8.5" x 11").

Zoom out and in a little

Roll the middle-button on your mouse, or – if you don't have one – click the Zoom tool at the top of the window, while pressing the option / alt key on your keyboard.

Try drawing a few things.

To your left there should be a palette called Basic, which is the Basic Tools Palette, containing the most common graphic objects and operations.
Try creating a few objects, by clicking on a tool – e.g., the Single Line tool [1] – then clicking somewhere within the drawing area to start [2], dragging to pull out the line, and clicking to mark the endpoint [3].
This is known as Click-click drawing, and it is the first default in the VectorWorks Preferences dialog (menu Tools > Options)
Then try drawing a rectangle, a circle, an ellipse, etc. By default, rectangles are formed by the diagonal within them; circles by their radius, ellipses by first one axis, then the other.

The 2D Selection tool: resizing an object

Like most software apps, VectorWorks is deaf and blind, and non-telepathic. To attract its attention to a particular object, we must select it, which means clicking on it with the 2D Selection Tool, which is the first tool in the Basic Tools palette.
Since it's so fundamental, there is a single-key keyboard shortcut to it: x.
Notice that when we select an object, it becomes highlighted in pulsating orange, and with one or more tiny blue squares, which are its selection handles. Clicking and dragging on any of these squares will resize the object manually.

The 2D Selection tool: moving an object

To move an object by a particular corner rather than resize it, you must hover with the cursor near a selection handle, but not actually on it. The cursor then turns into a "Greek cross", indicating that the software understands that you wish to move the object by that corner – typically for snapping purposes to another significant point.

Anchor handles and resizing through Obj Info palette

Every object has an "anchor" handle – one that stays put if and when the object's size is changed through the Obj Info palette. By default, this is the top left handle, but you can nominate any of the eight boundary handles as anchor, or its centre…
This will come in handy later when changing objects' sizes in a controlled manner.