Not long ago, my friend and fellow CAD manager, Adam Black, posted something that got me thinking and became the impetus of this blog post. While mentoring some new users, he realized they didn’t know the spacebar was the same as Enter in AutoCAD. They were using the Enter key all the time.
This spurred a discussion among our peers about what constitutes a power user. The consensus was that keyboard shortcuts are the key to their efficiency. Most of you have probably seen the image below or at least one similar. In addition, we should all know the aliases assigned to letters (L for Line) and what each function key does (or at least the three or four you use all the time.)
But there are plenty of other AutoCAD shortcuts that aren’t as well known. Today, I’m going to list some of my favorites. Maybe you can pick up a few of them and add them to your AutoCAD toolbelt, too.
AutoCAD Shortcuts: The Three Keys for Success
I’m going to focus on three keyboard keys: the Spacebar, the Shift key, and the Control key (CTRL from here on).
Spacebar
I’ve already mentioned this one. The spacebar acts as the Enter key in AutoCAD. If you were one of Adam’s users, imagine how much more efficient you became after learning that one little nugget. Popping the spacebar with your thumb is so much better than taking your eyes off your work to find the Enter key. Not to mention, being faster than a right-click to either select Enter from the menu or ~gasp~ you have a right-click set to Enter. If you do prefer that setting, may I refer you back to my very first Tuesday Tip, explaining how to get the best of both right-click worlds.
Since the spacebar acts like the Enter key, and the Enter key will recall the last command used, the Spacebar does the same thing. Again, a pop of the thumb will get you there.
Finally, the last one in this group is cool. It works in conjunction with Grip editing. Let’s consider the simple Line object; it’s been selected, and an endpoint grip is made hot by selecting it. Pop quiz time!! What is the default action for the grip we just chose? If you said “Stretch,” you’d be correct, and I suspect most of you got it right.
You also might think that’s your only option. Not so fast, my friend. A pop of the Spacebar while your grip is hot will change its action into Move. Pop it again, and you get Rotate. Another pop gives you Scale. Pop it again, and you’ll Mirror. A final pop takes you back to the default of Stretch. This works for all objects, but you might get different actions based on the object type.
Shift Key
The first cool shortcut for the Shift key (by itself – it appears in many combos) is not necessarily AutoCAD specific; it shows up in several graphics programs. Holding the Shift key down will override the current ORTHOMODE setting. So, if Ortho is off, it’s just like taking your eyes off your work, finding the F8 key, moving a hand to press it, and returning to what you were doing with the X and Y axes now constrained.
And yes, if ORTHO is already on, the Shift key overrides it, allowing you to edit or draw in any old direction you want. How much more efficient is that?
Here’s another one you may already know, as I’ve written about it before. Holding the shift key down while selecting objects for the FILLET or CHAMFER commands will temporarily set the Radius or Distance to zero, thus turning it into a quick corner clean-up tool. And you won’t lose your current settings by manually setting them to zero.
CTRL Key
OK, granted – there are a LOT of instances of the CTRL key being used for shortcuts, and you’re probably aware of a lot of them. Here’s a nice list of them (and other things).
That’s a big list, so I’m just going to address a couple of those listed. One is CTRL-A. It’s for select all. Yes, it can be used to select all objects in your drawing, but I like to use it another way.
You know how you double-click on an instance of MTEXT, and the edit box appears. Your job is to enter all new text, but to do so, you have to select all the text first. CTRL-A to the rescue. It’s much better than using your mouse to select it manually. It’s a great shortcut.
Next are Viewports. Have you ever had a viewport that you can’t click on to activate? No doubt it was nested within another viewport. To access it, activate any other viewport in the layout, then use CTRL-R to cycle through them all until you get to the one you can’t access. This is a little gem of a shortcut that not many folks know about.
What about your clipboard functions? Most people stay away from the Ribbon panel for these tools, and the use of CTRL-C (copy), X (cut), and V (paste) are pretty ubiquitous across most applications. But, in AutoCAD, by adding our friend, the Shift key to the C and X will allow you to specify a base point and by adding it to the V, it will paste in your clipboard objects as a block.
This is one of my favorites. Have you ever wanted to edit an attribute, but the Enhanced Attribute Editor is just overkill? Surely there’s a faster way. Yup – just have the CTRL key depressed when double-clicking on the Attribute, and it will highlight similar to Single Line Text for editing.
Have you ever needed to move a palette or toolbar, but the LOCK UI setting prevents it? No need to call up the Status Bar menu to turn off the proper entry—just hold the CTRL key down and put your interface element where you want it.
Finally, we’re returning to the grip editing from the Spacebar section. This one involves those sweet multi-functional grips. You know, the ones that display a menu of commands when you hover over it? Have you ever accidentally selected the grip, making it hot, before making your menu selection? It’s time to hit Escape and start over. Wrong. Just click on the CTRL key to cycle through the menu’s selections. Just remember to watch the Command Line to know what action you’re on.
That’s All Folks
That’s a lot of extra (and quicker) functionality for just three little keys. And I really just scratched the surface with some of my favorites. Incorporating some of these AutoCAD shortcuts into your workflow can help you become a power user in no time.
More Tuesday Tips
Check out our whole Tuesday Tips series for ideas on how to make AutoCAD work for you.
