The tips were written with AutoCAD 2007 and 2008. Some of them might not be compatible with earlier versions.

General

Zoom [Z]: right-click and choose zoom then left-click and move your mouse up to zoom in and down to zoom out

Distance [DIST]: Measuring distances and angles

Undo [U] / Oops [OOPS]: Restores the last erased selection

Copy [CP]

Autocad text window [F2]

Retrieve the coordinate of a location [ID]: Lists the coordinates of the specified point and stores it as the last point. You may then draw points relative to this reference by typing @ in front of the relative coordinates.

Properties palette: Double-click any object

Copy / Paste between windows:

• Select the points to copy
• CTRL+C
• Right-click in other window > Paste to Original Coordinates

Drawing

Coordinates:

• absolute rectangular: x,y
• relative rectangular: @x,y
• relative polar: @distance<angle

Object snapping: Shift-Rightclick to get the object snapping menu

Line [line]: You can specify the coordinates of the line extremities in the command line. Hit the Escape key to terminate the line drawing

Point [point]: Choose the point format in Format > Point Style. If you want to draw a point with coordinates relative to another point, you need to identify that other point first with the ID command

Text [dtext]

Draw points with regular spacing [measure]: Choose a line and the spacing between the points and Autocad draws them automatically. Starts at the endpoint closest to the point you chose to select the object

Midpoint between two points [point > mtp]: After typing point, type mtp then choose two points

3D

Cylindrical coordinates: (@)distance<angle,distance
where the first distance is in the XY plane and the second distance is along the Z axis. You need to turn off dynamic input (DYN button in the bottom of the Autocad window) in order to type cylindrical coordinates. Dynamic inputs were introduced either in Autocad 2006 or in Autocad 2007.

Change view
If the predefined views (View > 3D Views >) don’t cover your needs, use the VPOINT command with the Rotate argument.
You are asked for the angle from the X Axis and then the angle from the XY plane. These two angles define the point that you will be looking at your drawing from. If you want to know the orientation of a part, line, etc. use the DIST command.

Layout / Plotting
Tools > Wizards > Create Layout…

Once the layout is created, double-click inside the viewport then you can zoom, pan and show layers the same way as you do in model view. When you’re finished, simply double-click outside the viewport.

When you plot a layout view, you get on the paper what you see on the screen.

Settings

Angles: Format > Units
Lets you choose the number of decimals and the rotation direction (trigonometric by default – check the Clockwise box else)
The Direction button lets you define the 0 degrees direction

AutoLISP

Loading AutoLISP file
Tools > AutoLISP > Load application…

Or:

(load “filename_without_extension”)

Make sure the file is located in a folder in the search path:

Tools > Options > Files, choose the first item in the list ‘Support File Search Path’, press ‘Add…’ then ‘Browse…’ and point to the folder where you stored your AutoLISP file.

Open Visual LISP (VLISP)
VLISP is an IDE to write and debug AutoLISP scripts.

Quick Reference
3DPOLY: Polyline (3D)

ATTSYNC: Updates all instances of a specified block with the current attributes defined for the block. To update all blocks, answer ‘Name’ then ‘*’

LAYER: Layer Manager

LIMITS: Drawing Limits

PLINE: Polyline (2D)

PURGE: Remove unused objects (layers, blocks, etc.)

REGEN: update the display of existing objects (points, etc.)

DXF editing
Add a layer
Locate the following text:

0
TABLE
2
LAYER

A few lines below there is the following text:

AcDbSymbolTable

Under the group code 70, increase the value by 1 unit, e.g. if you find:

70
4

change it to

70
5

Copy the text starting with:

0
LAYER

until just above the next similar text and paste it right below itself. Under the LAYER keyword, find the group code 5 and replace the handle value below with a value that is not used by another layer. Change the layer name under group code 2. The color code is found under group code 62.