Tips and Tricks

Got a tip or trick that could help other users of AutoCAD?

Share it with others on this page, it is quick and simple.

Download the AutoCAD 2011 Tips and Tricks booklet by Lynn Allen

Display buttons instead of icons on your status bar (created by Exmateria)

Did you know you can display buttons instead of icons on your status bar? Give it a try and right click the status bar...

OOPS... Undo the Last Erased Objects (created by LAmbrosius)

The OOPS command is a commonly forgotten command. OOPS allows you to restore the objects that you erased during the most recent use of the ERASE command without undoing all of the most recent commands.

For example, if you erased an object and then added some objects and dimensions you can restore the erased object by using the OOPS command. This keeps the objects and dimensions you added in the drawing.

Switching between Single and Multiple Copy Modes

The COPY command allows you to create single or multiple copies of the objects you select. By default, COPY continues to create copies of the objects you select until the command ends. If you are one of those users that usually creates multiple copies of objects on a regular basis, you might want to set the COPYMODE system variable to 1. COPYMODE when set to 1 creates a single copy of the selected objects, and when set to 0 multiple copy mode is enabled .

You can draw an object on a frozen layer! Yes you can! (created by Exmateria)

You can draw an object on a frozen layer if you use a command icon in the tool palette. The layer associated wih the command will be thawed the time needed to use the command.

Change all entities to the Bylayer color (created by Exmateria)

When you need to change all entities to the Bylayer color, you can use the LAYTRANS command, load the same drawing as the current drawing in the target field and click in the options to assign the layers to the same layers names in the target. This will convert all colors, even those in blocks, to Bylayer.

See the invisible (created by Exmateria)

To see empty text, you can turn on QTEXT variable, empty texts will appear as empty rectangles.

Did you know zero lineweight prints at the printer device's finest? (created by Exmateria)

This is a good way to be sure your linestrokes will be always the finest possible, and this, independantly of the printing device.

Change the zoom factor used when zooming in or out with the mouse wheel.

The ZOOMFACTOR system variable controls the zoom factor/rate that is used when you scroll the mouse wheel forward or backwards. The greater the number, the greater the change to the display. You can set ZOOMFACTOR to a value of 3 to 100; default is 60.

Change the direction to zoom in and out with the mouse wheel.

The ZOOMWHEEL system variable is used to control the direction in which you scroll the mouse wheel to zoom in or out. If you set ZOOMWHEEL to 0 (default), scrolling the mouse wheel forward zooms in and backwards zooms out. Setting ZOOMWHEEL to 1 inverts the directions you need to scroll in, backwards zooms in and forward zooms out.