Anyone who has worked with AutoCAD knows the importance of being able to work quickly for doing the most amount of work in the least amount of time. While people think that a strong technical ground and understanding for creating designs would suffice for an efficient job, in reality, knowledge about the handy shortcuts is also a must to quickly navigate through the software. Today, we have brought the 30 best AutoCAD quick commands and shortcuts which will save your time and energy while working on AutoCAD. Have a look!
1) CHSPACE
This command allows you to take your objects from layout to the model space and lets you choose a viewport in which you can push the text or objects.
2) BURST
You can explode a block/object using BURST without losing any of its attributes.
3) NCOPY
You can copy linework from a nested object into the current worksheet, which is especially useful for importing XREF linework into current drawings.
4) OOPS
As the name suggests, OOPS deletes your mistake no matter how far back you made it. You can forgo using CTRL-Z, as with OOPS, you can undo your last erase command without affecting any work done since then.
5) FILEDIA
If you are sick of working on those black command lines, just set FILEDIA value to 1 which will open the dialog boxes in AutoCAD and perform the same function as the command lines.
6) APPLOAD
APPLOAD gives you the option of setting an application to load along with AutoCAD.
7) R / REDRAW
This command lets you refresh your drawing in the viewport.
8) DIMBASELINE
Make a dimension starting from the baseline of earlier dimensions that can be either linear, angular or coordinate.
9) ID
The Viewpoint coordinates throughout the worksheet.
10) Autoscale Setting
Change the default scale factor by changing the Auxiliary scale factor to Plot Scale or Dimscale.
11) OVERKILL
If you are a drawing perfectionist, you can delete all those pesky duplicate or overlapping items using OVERKILL.
12) QDIM
Select objects and use QDIM for Quick Dimension Creation.
13) RECOVER
This command attempts to recover a damaged file.
14) Default NO PLOT Layer
Adding notes in a drawing can be a hassle, but you can add a layer called DEFPOINTS which allows you to scribble and draw anything in model and paper space but won’t be plotted.
15) TORIENT
Makes your text more presentable by orienting it to a specified angle or the autodetected most precise angle. It can also work on Block Attributes.
16) RULESURF
This command enables you to create an auto-generated surface between two predefined curves.
17) Importing Block Definitions
To save your definitions for a later reference, click on INSERT command and after selecting the file, press the ESC key at the first prompt.
18) SPELL
This command builds on the stereotype that engineers can’t spell. So, you can use this spell check to rectify all language errors.
17) XCLIP
Trim a block’s visible area via its boundary line by using the command XCLIP and then setting or drawing the boundary.
18) U
This command is another way to “undo,” saves you the “bother” of clicking CTRL+Z.
19) MATLIB
Use this to import and export materials from/to a library.
20) BOX
Rather than searching for the icon, just type BOX and creates a 3D rectangle after defining its height, depth, and width.
21) COLOR
It pops up the option of choosing the layer color for future objects/lines/blocks.
22) DIMALIGNED
‘Dimaligned’ aligns your dimensions with an axis or a line.
23) LIGHT
This command makes your 3D model all flashy by modifying the lighting effects.
24) MLEDIT
It enables the user to edit multiple parallel lines in one go.
25) PAGESETUP
You can change the dimensions of your plot paper size and set up your paper in paper space using ‘PAGESETUP.’
26) SKETCH
It enables you to create freehand drawing lines. This command is particularly useful when used with a drawing pen, but a mouse also does the trick.
27) TIME
It displays all properties of your current DWG file such as the creation date, last update, and edit times.
28) 3DSOUT
It exports a compatible file with 3D Studio [.3ds].
29) SAVEALL & CLOSEALL
This one is my favorite! Just enter these magic words, and you can hit the end of your workday with two extra seconds to spare!
30) One Key Shortcut
You can learn all of the one-key AutoCAD shortcuts here on the Autodesk website!
We would appreciate your feedback in the comments’ section below!
One of the best articles of this type on web. Thanks for sharing these productive tricks and tips.
Nice Work