AutoCAD Tips

Here you’ll find all of my tips listed by category. If you can’t find what you want here, use the Search box on this page.

Drawing

• Combine or subtract 2D shapes to create custom shapes
• Working with linetype scales
• Label the scale of individual viewports
• Create objects with transparency in your AutoCAD drawing
• Keep blocks accessible so you can insert them in any drawing–Part IV: A block library
• Create a block in AutoCAD
• Draw a circle centered in a rectangle
• Create a circle with a width
• 101 interesting Technical Drawing Exercises to improve your practical skills FAST
• AutoCAD Tutorial: Create a rectangle with an adjustable corner
• How to create multicolored lines in AutoCAD
• Add a solid fill to a closed object
• Using the Geometric Center object snap
• Guest Post: Draw a circle with radius tangent to two objects
• Draw a donut (yum!) in AutoCAD
• Know when unwanted layers creep into your drawing with layer notification
• Autodesk 360 is a new cloud-based workflow for AutoCAD drawings
• How to automatically display the plotting scale on your AutoCAD drawing
• Get a head start with a customized template
• Cover it up with the WIPEOUT command
• How to break walls to insert a door
• Choose a useful point style in AutoCAD
• A different way to create an ellipse or oval
• Create a circle tangent to a line
• Create views in your AutoCAD drawing
• Control the shape of objects when you edit them – Keep an equilateral triangle equilateral
• Create shapes to insert over and over
• Tutorial: Create a custom command for AutoCAD using AutoLISP
• Insert a block in AutoCAD
• Keep blocks accessible so you can insert them in any drawing–Part III: Content Explorer
• Keep blocks accessible so you can insert them in any drawing–Part II: DesignCenter
• Keep blocks accessible so you can insert them in any drawing–Part I: Tool Palettes
• Measure almost anything with the MEASUREGEOM command
• Make hatching in AutoCAD easy
• Fillets–another approach using AutoLISP
• Tutorial: Create cool curves with splines in AutoCAD
• Repeat an AutoCAD command automatically
• Switching among open AutoCAD drawings
• Keep your own styles, layers & blocks at the top of the list
• Manage embedded shapes (islands) when hatching in AutoCAD
• AutoCAD tutorial: Attach an xref
• Autofill AutoCAD table data like you do in Excel
• Dynamic blocks in AutoCAD–When and why?
• Another way to align a rectangle with a line on the fly–using AutoLISP
• How to create a quick polar array with the ROTATE command’s Copy option
• Align a rectangle with a line on the fly
• Tutorial: How to create a gradient fill
• Access related files with search paths
• Chain dynamic blocks in AutoCAD
• Create a table on the fly from Excel data
• Use Dynamic Input, or not
• Speed up your display for more productivity in AutoCAD
• Get notification when layers are added to your drawing—or not
• Avoid drawing temporary construction lines
• Make dimensions look orderly by aligning them
• Spacebar Shortcuts
• AutoCAD Tutorial: Create a dynamic block of a door
• Find the midpoint between two points, the center of a triangle, and other unusual points
• Use tool palettes to save and place user-defined hatch patterns
• Quickly find out how many insertions of a block are in your AutoCAD drawing
• Marking revisions with a revision cloud
• Working with Blocks: The BASE command, the Basepoint option, and the Basepoint parameter
• Tips for working with layers
• AutoCAD Tutorial: Use parametric constraints to constrain models
• AutoCAD tutorial: Save and use layer states to streamline your work
• Create a rectangle with an adjustable corner, Part 2: Using a dynamic block
• Tips on viewing your drawing
• AutoCAD Tutorial: Create regions for mix-it-up, 2D/3D flexibility
• Create a polyline from the boundary of existing objects
• Find coordinates
• Use the Shift key as a shortcut
• AutoCAD tutorial: Create a simple sheet set
• How to rotate the crosshairs and other techniques for drawing at an angle
• Tutorial: Create attributes
• Temporarily override object snap settings
• Use the Dashboard to display a related tool palette
• Select a block before a writeblock or edit
• Control the display of tooltips
• Repeat previous commands
• Pre-specify an angle
• Draw minor and clockwise arcs
• Customize Polar Tracking Angles
• Toggling the display of grips within blocks
• Creating exponents using stacked text
• Getting back the R14 full-screen cursor
• Easy hatching
• Ending the LINE command quickly
• Tutorial: Use fields for titleblock text
• Open a drawing to a named view
• Keyboard shortcuts
• Flip objects with dynamic blocks
• Find coordinates
• Draw with tiled viewports
• Divide up a polyline or spline
• Control hatch origin
• AutoCAD Tutorial: Calculate scale and sheet size
• All the ways to open a drawing
• Align a block to other objects with a dynamic block Alignment parameter

Editing

• The Power of “QUICK SELECT” (QSELECT)
• Combine or subtract 2D shapes to create custom shapes
• Working with linetype scales
• Rename named objects–blocks, dimension styles, layers, and more
• Keep blocks accessible so you can insert them in any drawing–Part IV: A block library
• What is your favorite AutoCad Block Naming Convention?
• Breaking a line into two in AutoCad
• Use Quick Select to select objects in your AutoCAD drawing
• Tutorials: How to Copy Objects Between Drawings
• Rotate One Object to Match Another
• Move objects between model and paper space
• Slim down your drawings with the PURGE command
• Update: Convert text to Mtext and back
• AutoCAD 2016 – 30 releases young and still going strong – Part 2
• AutoCAD 2016 – 30 releases young and still going strong – Part 1
• Customize how the multi-functional grip menu works
• Old AutoCAD drawings? It’s time to update them!
• Edit block attribute properties with BATTMAN
• Editing the value of a block attribute
• Use and control multifunctional grips for faster editing
• Know when unwanted layers creep into your drawing with layer notification
• Batch check multiple AutoCAD drawings against a standards file
• Autodesk 360 is a new cloud-based workflow for AutoCAD drawings
• Use a Standards file to bring an AutoCAD drawing into line
• Fix old, messy AutoCAD drawings
• How to undo almost anything in AutoCAD
• Reverse a polyline in AutoCAD
• How to break walls to insert a door
• A different way to create an ellipse or oval
• Create views in your AutoCAD drawing
• Hyperlink to views in your drawing
• Control the shape of objects when you edit them – Keep an equilateral triangle equilateral
• Select similar objects and apply an editing command to them
• Move an object the same displacement as previously by pressing Enter 3 times
• Keep blocks accessible so you can insert them in any drawing–Part III: Content Explorer
• Keep blocks accessible so you can insert them in any drawing–Part II: DesignCenter
• Moving objects in front of — or behind — other objects: DRAWORDER
• Move block attributes in an AutoCAD drawing
• Fillets–another approach using AutoLISP
• Reduce mouse-clicks and increase productivity using AutoLISP
• Squeeze or stretch single-line text to fit in a space with TEXTFIT
• Select objects: prompt secrets
• Avoid reselecting objects in editing commands that go wrong
• Draw fast, accurate revision clouds
• Dynamic blocks in AutoCAD–When and why?
• How to trim objects quickly
• How to merge layers in AutoCAD–move objects to another layer and delete the merged layer
• Use Dynamic Input, or not
• Using hyperlinks
• Match properties
• Stretch a circle with grips and specify the radius or change in radius
• Easily hide and isolate objects in AutoCAD 2011
• Tips for working with layers
• The flexible CHANGE command
• Tips on viewing your drawing
• Precisely scale an object when you know before and after dimensions
• How to control what you see by clipping xrefs and blocks
• Replace one block with another
• Remove duplicate and overlapping objects
• Break objects quickly in AutoCAD
• Tutorial：Use groups for flexibility
• Tutorial: Create a page setup for plotting
• Use the DXF format to edit drawings
• XPlode a block
• AutoCAD tutorial: Create a cell style for a table
• AutoCAD tutorial: Extract attributes
• Tutorial: Override a dimension
• Add formulas to a table
• Change the scale of blocks and hatches in tool palettes
• AutoCAD tutorial: Create a complex selection filter
• Properties palette: Work smarter by undoing changes within the palette
• Use all of your selection options
• Another Break Objects Quickly AutoLISP routine
• Extend lines to make corners with chamfer
• Write blocks to save them as separate files
• Dealing with gaps
• Temporarily override OSNAP, ORTHO, and other drafting settings
• Substitute one block for another
• Zoom to objects
• Close an arc to make a circle or ellipse; connect splines
• Return to previous view in pan or zoom realtime, or in 3D Orbit
• Copy as you stretch, move, rotate, or scale & create multiple leader arrows
• Setting a system variable on the tool palette
• Redefining a block without losing your insertion point
• Joining Two Lines Into One
• Drag and drop moving and copying
• Tutorials：Convert text to Mtext and vice versa
• Divide up a polyline or spline

Text & Dimensions

• Quick Access to Dimensioning: The “DIM” Command
• Label the scale of individual viewports
• Easily import text and dimension styles from other drawings
• Create stylish leaders with a multileader style
• How to Easily Find and Replace Multiple Text in AutoCAD
• Move objects between model and paper space
• AutoCAD 2016 – 30 releases young and still going strong – Part 2
• Batch check multiple AutoCAD drawings against a standards file
• Insert data from an Excel worksheet
• Use a Standards file to bring an AutoCAD drawing into line
• Fix old, messy AutoCAD drawings
• Editing text with DDEDIT
• Change the line spacing of Mtext
• Dimensioning basics, Part IV: Create accurate baseline and continued dimensions
• Dimensioning basics, Part III: Create accurate dimensions for angles
• Dimensioning basics, Part II: Create accurate dimensions for circles and arcs
• Dimensioning basics, Part I: Create an accurate linear dimension
• Moving objects in front of — or behind — other objects: DRAWORDER
• Measure almost anything with the MEASUREGEOM command
• Move block attributes in an AutoCAD drawing
• Defining alternate dimension units in AutoCAD
• Change the font of a text style using AutoLISP
• Keep your own styles, layers & blocks at the top of the list
• Understanding how dimensions are associated with objects
• How to create a text style for a dimension
• Use DIMEDIT to edit a dimension
• Create a table on the fly from Excel data
• Speed up your display for more productivity in AutoCAD
• Specifying and changing line spacing
• Tutorial: Create attributes
• Create text in columns
• Which font to use?
• Tutorials：Dimension in paper space
• Tutorial: Create an architectural dimension style
• Tutorial: Automate annotation scaling with annotative objects
• The many ways to import text
• Changing the MText string to your login name
• Quickly format dimensions
• How to print a list of text styles
• How to print a list of dimension styles
• Precisely control the size of OLE text and objects
• Place a dimension a fixed distance from an object
• Secret mtext options: Remove formatting, combine paragraphs, change case
• Let AutoCAD do the math
• How to format fractions
• Automatically follow a linear dimension with a continued dimension
• Dimensions and associativity
• Dimension an arc length
• Creating fields that update automatically (for 2000-2004)
• Create invisible supporting notes
• Create a dimension style on the fly
• Tutorial: Use fields for titleblock text
• MTEXT-how to get a better clue of text size

3D

• 3D tutorial: Draw a fancy square glass bottle cap in AutoCAD
• Automate the creation of details and sections on a layout
• Creating models for 3D printing
• Viewing 3D objects with Isometric View in AutoCAD
• Tutorial: Create a 3D model
• 3D AutoCAD Tutorial: Create a 3D piston
• Making an animated walkthrough video in AutoCAD
• 3D video tutorial: Create a 3D wheel with cylinders
• AutoCAD 2016 – 30 releases young and still going strong – Part 3
• Guest Tutorial: Make a 3D speaker in AutoCAD
• Change the color of almost any AutoCAD screen feature
• Create a custom UCS (User Coordinate System) in AutoCAD
• Use spherical coordinates in 3D AutoCAD drawings
• Use cylindrical coordinates in 3D AutoCAD drawings
• Use AutoCAD’s VIEWBASE command to create 2D views of your 3D model
• Tutorial: Create cool curves with splines in AutoCAD
• How to cut out a groove to fit a tongue in a 3D model with the INTERFERE command
• 3D viewing tips for AutoCAD
• Switch to plan view when you change the UCS
• Create 3D shapes with the 3D command
• Tips on viewing your drawing
• AutoCAD Tutorial: Create regions for mix-it-up, 2D/3D flexibility
• Tutorial: Draw a 3D threaded bolt – video tutorial
• Using 3D orbit for one object
• Use dynamic UCS to speed up 3D drawing
• Tutorial: Draw a 3D threaded bolt
• Tutorial: Create a visual style
• Tutorial: Create a custom visual style in AutoCAD
• Tutorial: Convert a 3D solid to a 3-view 2D drawing in model space
• Transparently enter 3D Orbit in 2007
• How to separate solids
• Do objects with thickness have tops and bottoms?
• Create contours from elevation points
• Converting 3D drawings into 2D drawings
• Convert a 3D solid to a 2D drawing with a hidden view
• Carve a solid with a surface
• AutoCAD tutorial: Draw 3D walls with polysolids
• AutoCAD Tutorial: Create a mesh solid jar
• 3D Tutorial: Draw a glass

Presentation

• Track the time you spend on a drawing
• Create objects with transparency in your AutoCAD drawing
• Create mass output with the PUBLISH command
• AutoCAD 2016 – 30 releases young and still going strong – Part 2
• Plot to a scale from model space
• Batch check multiple AutoCAD drawings against a standards file
• Hyperlink to views in your drawing
• Using hyperlinks

Troubleshooting

• Rename named objects–blocks, dimension styles, layers, and more
• Reduce file size and eliminate unwanted drawing settings with the WBLOCK command
• Slim down your drawings with the PURGE command
• Find drawings by specifying drawing properties
• AutoCAD 2016 – 30 releases young and still going strong – Part 3
• Old AutoCAD drawings? It’s time to update them!
• Batch check multiple AutoCAD drawings against a standards file
• Fix problems with the way AutoCAD looks (the user interface)
• Get a list of all the objects in your drawing with DBLIST
• Keep track of what you’ve done with COPYHIST
• Troubleshooting problem drawings
• How to stay up to date with AutoCAD
• Select all instances of a block
• Get lots of information about your drawing–all in one place–with this command
• Find all named objects in a drawing
• Organize files in Windows to mimic the Today file listing
• Find where xrefs are hosted

Customization

• How to use Chat GPT to create AutoCad lisp
• Do you know that you can adjust setting of your mouse’s wheel to zoom quickly and efficiently?
• Display lost toolbars in AutoCAD
• Tutorial: Automate tasks with a script file
• Customize how the multi-functional grip menu works
• Add a new tab to the AutoCAD ribbon
• Change the color of almost any AutoCAD screen feature
• Fix old, messy AutoCAD drawings
• Get a head start with a customized template
• How to get rid of the Welcome window and grid when you start AutoCAD
• Create a custom command and add a keyboard shortcut for a real time saver
• Create shapes to insert over and over
• Easily share tool palettes with colleagues
• Tutorial: Create a custom command for AutoCAD using AutoLISP
• Keep blocks accessible so you can insert them in any drawing–Part I: Tool Palettes
• Ditch dialog boxes with the command-line form of commands
• Open AutoCAD with a specific template
• Get rid of the default grid in AutoCAD
• How to lock AutoCAD’s user interface
• Reduce mouse-clicks and increase productivity using AutoLISP
• Change the font of a text style using AutoLISP
• Understanding how dimensions are associated with objects
• How to load an AutoLISP program
• Another way to align a rectangle with a line on the fly–using AutoLISP
• Access related files with search paths
• “AutoCAD Block Best Practices,” an e-book by Edwin Prakoso
• Create a custom keyboard shortcut
• Productivity boost ideas
• Tutorial: Create a command alias (keyboard shortcut)
• Extract data from objects in AutoCAD 2008 and later
• Tutorial: Use fields to automatically label dynamic blocks
• Record macros with the Action Recorder
• How do I get all my AutoLISP routines to load themselves?
• Tutorial: Create a custom workspace in AutoCAD 2006 and later
• Tutorial: Create a custom command
• Search for templates in multiple folders
• Quickly Find Files in Support File Search Path
• Tutorial: Create a custom simple linetype
• Tutorial: Use fields for titleblock text
• Use the command line to launch programs
• Tutorial: Add a button to the ribbon in AutoCAD
• Switch between Imperial and metric measurements
• Speed up your work with command aliases
• See current settings on the status bar
• Options you should change
• Manage the user interface–the ribbon and the menu bar
• Loading AutoLISP programs quickly
• Creating Custom Toolbar Buttons
• Creating custom hatch patterns
• Create a shortcut to a template and workspace
• Create a custom toolbar in AutoCAD 2006 or later
• Convert slide libraries/image tile menus and tablet menus to tool palettes
• Changing the Multiple options of AutoCAD commands (or sometimes you feel like a multiple option, sometimes you don’t)
• Add commands to tool palettes from the CUI dialog box in AutoCAD 2007
• Tutorial: Create a custom visual style in AutoCAD
• Work faster with AutoCAD keyboard shortcuts
• MTEXT-how to get a better clue of text size

Layers

• Working with linetype scales
• Rename named objects–blocks, dimension styles, layers, and more
• Slim down your drawings with the PURGE command
• Know when unwanted layers creep into your drawing with layer notification
• Batch check multiple AutoCAD drawings against a standards file
• Create layer overrides to create plot variations
• Use a Standards file to bring an AutoCAD drawing into line
• Maintain standards by returning objects to ByLayer settings
• Get your layers in line with the layer translator
• Make an object’s layer the current layer
• Use layers from existing drawings so you don’t have to recreate them
• Keep your own styles, layers & blocks at the top of the list
• Tips for working with layers
• AutoCAD tutorial: Save and use layer states to streamline your work
• Manage layers with LAYWALK
• Tutorial: Filter the layer list
• Make a layer current — for sure
• On which layers should you create blocks?
• Print or share a list of layers
• Working faster with layers