AutoCAD 2012 Tips & Tricks

I put together the following sheet for a short class I did the other day.  Do enjoy. 

Polyline Editing Tips

Key-in	Type	What it does:
PEDITACCEPT	Sys. variable <1>	Automatically accepts conversion of lines, arcs and splines when joining a polyline.
REVERSE	command	Allows you to reverse the direction of a line.  This way linetypes with text appear upright when needed.

Text Tips

Key-in	Type	What it does:
TEXTMASK	express tool	Automatically creates a wipeout to block items behind text.
TEXTUNMASK	express tool	Removes same
QTEXT	Sys. Variable or	In drawings with lots of text, it makes text look “blocky” on zooming and panning to improve speed and performance.
TEXTTOFRONT	Command	Forces the draw order of all text to the front
BURST	express tool	Alternative to explode that keeps attribute text at its current value
TEXTSIZE	Drawing setting	Sets the default height for text where the style contains a text height of  0.

Viewport Tips

Key-in	Type	What it does:
MVSETUP	Command	One-stop shop for aligning and rotating multiple viewports.
MVIEW	Command	Creates a new, rectangular paperspace viewport
REA	Command	Stands for regen all.  Best for regen-ing when you have multiple viewports

Misc. Cool Tips

Key-in	Type	What it does:
ADDSELECTED	command	Helps create same object type on the same layer without using an icon. (Also available in the right-click menu for any object)
SELECTSIMILAR	Command	Selects objects that have the same layer and are of the same object type.
Shift + spacebar	Hot key	Cycles through objects that are on top of each other so you don’t need to change draw order on the fly.
Grip + spacebar	Hot key	After you click a grip for a block, you can force a simple move command into rotate, mirror scale or copy by hitting the spacebar.
Tab to cycle commands	Hot key	Key-in the first few letters the command or variable you are looking for.  Hit tab to search for items with those letters.
TASKBAR	Sys Variable <1>	Instead of “stacking up” open files on your Windows task bar, this shows open drawings as an icon.
OVERKILL	Express tool	Cleans up a drawing by removing duplicate lines
SELECTIONANNODISPLAY	Sys variable <0>	Controls if “ghosted” display of annotative text appears.
HATCHTOBACK	Command	Forces the draw order of all hatches  to the back
ZOOMFACTOR	Sys variable <3>to<100>	Controls how “zoomy” your mouse wheel is. 100 is the biggest zoom per turn.
CHSPACE	Command	Forces paperspace objects to model and vice versa.
SETBYLAYER	Command	Forces objects that have properties set that differ from the layer settings to conform.
OOPS	Command	Brings back last deleted object without using undo.