10 Productivity Tips for Everyday Cadding

AutoCAD has been around for a long time. Yet simply using AutoCAD every day does not necessarily make you more productive. You may not realize it, but old habits, bad habits, and  inefficient commands and techniques may be robbing you of productivity.
                                                       - Matt Murphy (4DTechnologies/CADLearning)

1. EXPLORER

I thought this command was for Internet Explorer, but it’s not. I was surprised when I type this command EXPLORER, presto it was access to the libraries e.g. documents, videos, pictures, and music.

2. NOTEPAD

Type “notepad”(without the quotes) into the command line. It will prompt: File to edit. Now if you don’t know which file you want to edit just type the *. Bingo, notepad is already in front of your screen.

3. PAINTBRUSH

Create and edit drawings or images in an instant. Type “PB” or PBRUSH. AutoCAD will open its application. Even your recent edited images you can explore it.

4. START

This command defines which application to start. Just type the START command. A prompt state “application to start”. Example for Excel just types EXCEL, for word is WINWORD and snipping tool, SNIPPINGTOOL. You can use the acad.pgp file to define a new AutoCAD command that runs an external command to start your application. 

5. SPACEBAR

      Did you know that you can:

• stretch
• move
• rotate
• scale
• mirror
• add vertex
• remove vertex
• convert line segment into an arc 

Without even typing on the keyboard and by just picking a grip. Yes, depending on where your base point is (base grip). You can cycle through these commands while on grip mode by pressing SPACE bar.

6. COPY+ARRAY COMBO

7.  ZOOMFACTOR

To adjust the zoom percentage, change the value of the ZOOMFACTOR system variable. The initial value of ZOOMFACTOR is 10. You can enter an integer value for ZOOMFACTOR in the range 3–100. The value you enter represents the percentage change in zoom level for each increment of wheel rotation. For example, when ZOOMFACTOR is set to 10, each increment of wheel rotation changes the zoom level by 10percent.

8. MBUTTONPAN 
To ensure the pan feature works when you depress the wheel, make sure the MBUTTONPAN system variable is set to one (1). When MBUTTONPAN is set to zero (0), you’ll get the Object Snap popup menu.

9. Command aliases 
Fewer clicks and picks are one way to productivity, but what about eliminating the number of
keystrokes you execute? Rather than typing the entire command name, you can use
abbreviations called command aliases. Many AutoCAD commands are already programmed for three or fewer keystrokes.

10.More keys to control: Love or Hate It?

People either love or hate control keys, but control freaks usually have their house in order. The importance of control keys is indicated by the presence of two of them on the keyboard! The following is a list of Control Keys defined in Windows and in AutoCAD.

CTRL+TAB     Cycles through open drawings – forwards 
CTRL+SHIFT+TAB   Cycles through open drawings – backwards 
CTRL+1    Properties 
CTRL+2    AutoCAD DesignCenter 
CTRL+3    Tool Palette Window 
CTRL+6    dbConnect 
CTRL+0    Cleanscreen 
CTRL+A    Select all 
CTRL+SHIFT+A  Toggles Group* 
CTRL+B    Toggles Snap 
CTRL+C    Copy to Clipboard 
CTRL+D    Toggles coordinate display 
CTRL+E    Cycles through isometric planes 
CTRL+F    Toggles running Object Snap 
CTRL+G    Toggles Grid 
*CTRL+H    Toggles Group  
CTRL+J    Executes last command 
CTRL+K    Insert hyperlink 
CTRL+L    Toggles Ortho on/off 
CTRL+T    Toggles Tablet mode 

The Hitchhiker's Guide to AutoCAD

Your guide to the basic 42 commands you need to create 2D drawings using modern AutoCAD or AutoCAD LT. 

This guide is a great place to get started if you just completed your initial training, or to refresh your memory if you only use AutoCAD occasionally. As you can see from the illustration, the 42 commands are grouped together according to types of activity. In addition, these groups are arranged sequentially to follow a typical workflow. 

After you finish this guide, you can access the linked Help commands in each topic for more information, or you can return to the guide later to review specific topics. Also, try to find someone who will be able to answer your occasional questions. The product discussion groups (http://forums.autodesk.com/) and Autodesk blogs are good resources. 

Basics 
Review the basic ways to control AutoCAD. 

Viewing 
Pan and zoom in a drawing, and control the order of overlapping objects. 

Geometry 
Create basic geometric objects such as lines, circles, and solid-filled areas. 

Precision 
AutoCAD provides several features to ensure the precision required for your models. 

Layers and Properties 
Organize your drawing by assigning objects to layers, and by assigning properties such as color and linetype to objects. 

Modifying 
Perform editing operations such as erase, move, and trim on the objects in a drawing. 

Blocks 
Insert symbols and details into your drawings from commercial online sources or from your own designs. 

Layouts 
Display one or more scaled views of your design on a standard-size drawing sheet called a layout. 

Notes and Labels 
Create notes, labels, bubbles, and callouts. Save and restore style settings by name. 

Dimensions 
Create several types of dimensions and save dimension settings by name. 

Printing 
Save and restore the printer settings for each layout. Output a drawing layout to a printer, a plotter, or a file. 

Download the The Hitchhiker's Guide to AutoCAD Basics in PDF format. Click HERE

Source: autodesk.com

Cad Tip of the Day

XREF or External Reference

Xref is the most useful command from AutoCAD. If you are going to use the software for work
or you are looking to advance further, you will need to know how to use the xref command. It is
absolutely necessary. And I will show you why.

Xref is used to cross reference plans and objects because you want to minimize repetitions,
maximize consistency, save time and increase productivity.

Now, let us become more practical here. Let us assume you have three drawings. I will call them
sheet 1, sheet 2 and sheet 3 (see images below)

Sheet 1 shows a rectangle. But it could be anything else. The two other sheets have circles, etc., 

but they both have one thing in common : a rectangle. So instead of drawing that rectangle twice, 

it would be wise to draw it once and xref it to both drawings. Some of you might think: What if I 

draw it once and then copy it to each drawing? 

 If you copy the drawing you will have to copy it again if you want to make changes to that 

rectangle. Let us say you want to make it larger or want to chamfer the edges. Do you want to 

copy again? Or do you want to just change the xref and that is it. 

The idea here is to reduce steps and time by drawing anything in common once. And that is 

when the xref comes in handy. 

here are two types of xrefs: Overlay and Attachment. 

Overlay: only brings what you draw inside that xref sheet. No other dependent. In other words: if 

you were to look at a tree diagram, it only goes one level deep (see image above on the left). 

Attachment xrefs bring unlimited dependent xrefs and levels (see image above on the right). 

Steps: 

    1.  Type XREF at the command line to bring the dialogue box. 

    2.  Right click and select Attach DWG. 

    3.  Browse for the drawing you want to xref. 

    4.  Select Open. 

    5.  Pick Overlay or Attachment. 

    6.  For the path, choose Full path for this tutorial. 

    7.  For insertion point, scale and rotation: leave them unchecked for this tutorial. 

    8.  Click OK and close the dialogue box. 

Your xref drawing should be inserted inside the current drawing like the above image.

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Cad Tip Of the Day