Ever hit F1 in
AutoCAD and opened help when you wanted to hit escape? (Do I even need to ask?!)
Ever wish there was a faster way to access your most used commands?
I recently discovered a feature in AutoCAD that greatly
increases my efficiency with the program, so I thought I’d share. If you’ve
never heard of the CUI, or Customize User Interface command, you’ve been
missing out. There is a wide variety of things that you can do within this
tool, but the biggest one for me is the Keyboard Shortcuts section.
What does the CUI allow you to do? The chief feature of the
CUI is the ability to write your own macros for commands. It also has a way to
get rid of the stupid F1 help shortcut. I’ll cover this one first, then get on
to the fun part.
How to Kill F1
1 - Type CUI and hit enter. This brings up the Customize
User Interface tool.
2 - Expand Keyboard Shortcuts
-Expand
Shortcut Keys. This is where all the magic happens.
3 - Below, in the Command List: search box, type in “cancel”
-Drag
the Cancel command from the search results up into the Shortcut Keys list.
If you want, you can then rename
the command to something that reminds you what it is, such as “F1 Cancel
Command”
4 - On the right, Underneath the Access property there is
a box called “Key(s)”. Click on it, then
click on “…”
-Type
in F1. It may ask if you want to override the previous choice for F1 (which
would be “help”) Hit yes if
prompted.
5 - Hit Apply.
-Bask
in the glory of never being “Helped” ever again.
Okay, now that F1 is taken care of, let’s move on to the
fun stuff. Writing macros is pretty similar to reassigning F1 to use the cancel
command, despite being slightly more complicated. The power of macros is in
saving time by not having to type through commands that require prompts, such
as Extend à
all à
extend chosen objects… or Rotate à
90 à pick origin à ok
To get started with a multi-step command, such as Extend à all, first type in “extend”
in the Command List search bar and drag it into keyboard shortcuts like we did
before. This will get a fresh command to alter as we see fit. From there,
simply edit to “Macro” line in the Command section of the properties.
Here’s a list of my favorite macros:
Print Previous: ^C^C-Plot;No;;Previous Plot;;No;No;Yes
I have this assigned to Shift + Z
Extend All: ^C^C_extend;;
I have this assigned to
Shift + R
Trim all: ^C^C_trim;;
I have this assigned to
Shift +T
Rotate 90 Clockwise: _rotate;\90;
I
have this assigned to Shift +4
Rotate 90 Counter Clockwise: _rotate;\-90;
I have this assigned to Shift
+ 5
Rotate 180 Degrees: _rotate;\180;
I have this assigned to F2
Move Previous: _move;p;;
Assigned
to Shift + M
And then a few that didn’t require any modifications
beyond dragging up into Keyboard Shortcuts and assigning a key, but are really
helpful:
Clip Viewport: ^C^C_vpclip
Assigned
to Control + Shift + F
Explode: (block or polyline) ^C^C_explode
Assigned
to Shift + E
Measure Area: ^C^C_MEASUREGEOM
_area
Assigned
to Shift + A
Move to Paper Space: ^C^C_.PSPACE
Assigned
to Shift + F
Make Current Object’s Layer Current: ^C^C_Laymcur
Assigned
to Control + Shift + Q
Notes:
-
Notice that the macros begin with “^C” , which
is the same as our cancel command? It’s in there twice sometimes to ensure as
clean slate for the command that we want to use.
-
“;” in CAD macro language means “enter”
-
“\” means “wait for user input, then continue
with the macro”
-
Some macros, especially the “Extend All” and “Trim
all” ones took a little bit to overwrite my muscle memory associated with using
that command. Stick with it – I promise that it’s faster!
Happy cadding!
