Draw Fast

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Here are 33 very brief tips that I give to freshly baked AutoCAD-draftsmans, and in which, oddly enough, many cool specialists find something new. Almost all tips are fully suitable for working in all clones of AutoCAD, including BricsCAD.

1.   Try all the AutoCAD commands. Before you is a powerful tool, and you do not know even a hundredth of its capabilities. You need to know at least the capabilities of all the commands that are on the screen of the unconfigured AutoCAD. And know all their options. And be sure to try to apply. A lot of superfluous, but a lot of useful accelerators. Use 5 primitive commands and not look for ways to speed up - it's sabotage! Especially with hourly pay ...

2.   Use the most difficult commands. I mean those that do a lot of work at once. For example, do not use the line to draw a rectangle - there is a REC command that reduces the number of clicks by almost 4 times.

3.   Select with a frame. Do not click on each object. Click mouse on space and drag the frame. The frame from left to right (blue) will select only what is inside the frame. The right-to-left frame (green) will additionally select everything that intersects the frame. The command works great when you need to lengthen / crop many lines. In this case, only trimmed tails must be crossed by the frame. And in AutoCAD, the frame can select sub-objects (edges and faces of solids). Just keep Ctrl pressed. In BricsCAD, selecting all surfaces works a little differently. There you need to start selecting objects with a frame and only when the frame appears on the screen, click once Ctrl. BricsCAD will then switch to surface selection mode. After that, you can pull the frame to the desired position.

4.   Change the properties of many objects at once. The properties panel (Ctrl+1) allows you to change the color / layer / style, etc. many objects at once. For example, you can frame a bunch of different objects on a sheet, select only MText objects in the title bar in the property bar. The properties of all texts in the frame are displayed. Now you can, for example, change the font height (Text Height property). If the value of a property is written *VARIES* - it means that objects with different values ​​of this property (different font heights for texts) are in the selection. No one bothers to make them the same. The A>V>C> Properties Palette also works similarly, but it still shows the sums of lengths / volumes of all objects and allows you to quickly enter data from the list of the most recently used options.

6.   Use the keyboard. You have 101 buttons in front of you, and you are still torturing the mouse.

• Spacebar - in AutoCAD fully repeats Enter functions, but is located directly under the thumb of the left hand. It is much more convenient.
• Spacebar - causes the last command to be repeated. And it completes any input. It turns out that most of the work of the left hand is to continuously tap on the spacebar. Train!
• Enter - when AutoCAD asks for a point, you can just press Enter and the last coordinates of the last drawn shape will be inserted.
• Up arrow - show the previous command. You can scroll through everything that was previously called since the opening of drawing and all that remains is to click Enter.
• @ - lazy modern engineers have already forgotten that you can drive all the commands into the command line. But sometimes you need to specify the absolute coordinates. For this, it is most convenient to enter them on the command line. And the coordinates relative to the previous point are entered on the command line with @. When you enter coordinates through the Dynamic Input boxes, AutoCAD inserts @ itself into the command line.
• , - a comma allows you to switch between the windows of coordinates (Dynamic Input) just like Tab, but you can’t enter the third Z coordinate for flat shapes with a tab, and you can use a comma. (In fairness, we can mention that the window for the Z coordinate can be turned on once and for all, there is such a setting)
• Tab - among other things, when drawing lines and other modifications, it allows you to switch between the Dynamic Input windows and choose a convenient way to set a new size.
• Shift + Middle Mouse Button (it’s the same mouse wheel) - rotation of the model. Unlike the Orbit command, you can twist the model with this combination during the execution of the command. Selected objects are not reset. Only selected objects are displayed during rotation - it is convenient for checking that everything that is needed and nothing more is selected. In a large drawing, it is necessary to select only the necessary part before rotation; otherwise, wait for it to freeze.
• Shift + Right Mouse Button - select a snap (see below)
• Ctrl + Left Mouse Button - selection of a part of an object. For example, only a “clicked” segment is selected at a polyline, a solid only has one face or one edge (depending on where to click). This is exactly what editing solid takes place - select the part via Ctrl and move it where necessary.
• F2 - expand the command line to see the latest messages of the program and plugins.
• Ctrl+F2 - opens the window with the command line messages.
• F3 - turns on and off all the bindings at once. Convenient for placing texts and plotting splines.
• Shift+F4 - 3D-solid face selection mode.
• F8 - includes orthogonal movements. Especially useful in 2D wireframe mode when Gizmo doesn't work. But it’s more convenient to turn it on only at the time of orthogonal movements and turn it off immediately.
• Ctrl+2 - opens the Design Center. With its help it is convenient to drag blocks, sheets, layers from other files
• Ctrl+8 - calculator. More convenient than external calculators. you can insert the measured size directly into the calculator, and the calculation result directly into the command line of the AutoCAD
• Ctrl+0 - Real Pro Mode! No panels. A clean screen for modeling and a command line for entering all the commands from the keyboard.
• Ctrl+Shift+C - copy to the buffer with the base point, so then paste it exactly where you need it.
• Ctrl+Shift+V - paste from the buffer with the creation of an anonymous block. I do not recommend using it. the block will have not only an obscure name and a terrible anchor point, but many commands will refuse to work with it. It’s better to spend a little more time, but make a block with a distinct name.
• Ctrl+S - save
• Ctrl+P - print
• Ctrl+N - open a new clean file
• Ctrl+Tab - switch to the next open drawing. And Shift+Ctrl+Tab is the previous one.
• Ctrl+Enter - line feed in multi-line fields or exit text editing.

At the same time, standard Windows buttons:

• Ctrl+Shift+Esc - program manager. We call to close the frozen AutoCAD.
• Win+L - to lock the computer in order to go pee for a cup of tea. All programs continue to work, but no dwarf will ruin anything on the computer. For those who are in the tank - the Win button is the same button with the Windows logo between Ctrl and Alt that you have never used before. Some people like to press Alt+Ctrl+Del and then Enter.
• Win+D - show Desktop - desktop with all your favorite shortcuts.
• Win+V - Show clipboard history Windows 10. Unfortunately, you can only paste text from the clipboard. AutoCAD objects and pictures are stored in history, but they cannot be inserted.
• Win+Break - a window with the name and configuration of the computer. Press when you ask for help from a remote system administrator, and he asks what is the name of your computer. Break is the last button in the top row after the functional ones. Also known as Pause
• Win+left arrow - Fill the current program with the left half of the current monitor. Similarly with the right arrow. In this way easily place windows to work with two programs at once.
• Win+up arrow - expand the window to full screen. And down - collapse.
• Win+1 - go to the first program from among those that are visible on the taskbar. If there is a fixed shortcut to a program that is not running, it will start. Similar to Win + 2, etc.

7.   Remember the short commands. Press M is faster than looking for Move in the context menu and on the panels.

8. Look at the command line. AutoCAD / BricsCAD are professional programs and are fully managed from the command line (console). Buttons are not really needed. There, all messages about the work of the commands are displayed. You can close the console, but this will ruin the whole idea and equate AutoCAD to children's programs like Inventor. At the command line, you can click on the options of the commands, you can enter the absolute coordinates. Ctrl + F2 will open a separate window for viewing messages and commands.

9. Set up system variables. It is not necessary to search for settings in the _Options dialog. All these and many, many other settings can be done on the command line through system variables. It is enough to enter the beginning of the search word and AutoCAD will tell you which variables and commands contain this word. If you are looking for help on the forums, no one will write to you in what dialogue to look for settings - only through system variables. In BricsCAD, the configuration dialog immediately shows which variable is responsible for the configuration and where it is stored.

10. Is your left hand on your knee? This is a sure sign that a goof is working on the computer! Set up all frequently called commands for the left hand. All interface configuration is through the CUI command. Buttons for quick access are added to the Keyboard Shortcuts section. You can save \ load settings to a CUIX-file in the same place on the Transfer tab.

11. Turn on all the snaps except for the "nearest", but turn them off when arranging the texts. The "nearest" snap - the source of errors - we use it only consciously, by calling from the snap menu.

12. Select the desired snap through Shift + Right Button. And take out the two main ones (endpoint and center) at least for quick lunch, or rather make a quick button under the left hand for the ENDP and CEN commands. Why choose if all the snaps are already included? And then, that in a complex drawing any snaps work, except the necessary one. Especially in three-dimensional. A huge number of modeling errors is connected with the fact that the wrong snap worked.

13. Snap to center CEN is triggered when you hover over an arc, even if the center is far behind the screen. Don’t be afraid that the snap icon is not visible - the snap will still work.

14. Model from a solid. Except in rare cases when a flat layout is really needed, always draw a box or cylinder right away.

15. If you still need to extrude the flat contours to 3d-solids - use not only the good old Extrude, but also smart Presspull, which does not require closing circuits and uses any intersections, including intersections of three-dimensional solids, as contours! Sometimes this intelligence interferes - only in this case it makes sense to use Extrude. Presspull even understands that the circumference on the surface of a solid is a hole blank! That is, for modeling holes, you can do without subtracting solids.

16.  Build assembly by slicing parts from the box:

• The general idea is to draw a box in the size of the entire assembly and cut off parts of the desired thickness from its faces. Read more here.

• Advantage - all internal details will be drawn by themselves, no dimensions need to be calculated. Sketches are not needed. No calculations are needed. It is not necessary to assemble the assembly from the parts.

• Sequencing:

1. Draw the box into the dimensions of the product. You may need a more complex shape if the product is not rectangular.

2. Use the _Slice to cut off external parts. The Slice has options for clipping parallel to the main planes of the projection, you just need to specify the point through which the secant plane passes. And to set this point, use the From snap, select the corner of the part, and set the direction and magnitude of the offset (thickness of the material being cut off). Always save both parts of the cut body (_Both option)

3. When we cut off all the external parts, the design is almost finished. External details can be hidden (_Hideobject command) and continue to cut the remaining solid, if you need any other internal details. In this way flat sheet products can be simulated in seconds without calculating any sizes.

4. Bent surfaces are harder. Here helps the surface shift command (_Solidedit _Face _Offcet )

5. To accelerate peeling from any surface, use the ASL command from the AVC_Slice plugin instead of Slice

17.   Modify 3D-solids by selecting their parts through CTRL. 

For example, when you want to increase the length of the product (even if an holes for fixture has already been made), you can use the method of solid faces moving. Video example is here.

• Select all 3D-solids in assembly and turn off their history in the properties. When the history is turned on, most of the solids modification commands do not work.
• Rotate the view to see the entire assembly and pull it parallel to the view (along the screen)
• Turn on 2D-wireframe mode. It is important!
• Select parts that simply have to be moved but not lengthened. The frame from top to left, down to right, will help you select all the details that fit into the frame at once.
• Move whole parts to a new place:
  • you can include orthogonality (F8)
  • press M and spacebar (Move command)
  • click on space
  • move the mouse in the right direction
  • enter moving distance
  • click spacebar
  • whole parts are moved, with stretched parts we understand separately
• Again, select the stretched part of the assembly with the same frame. But now hold down Ctrl. No solid should be selected, but their parts - faces, edges, vertices. Including it is important to capture the necessary fixture holes with the frame. If you do not enable 2D-wireframe mode, then edges and outer holes are selected instead a faces. In BricsCad, the surface selection mode is turned on a little differently. You must first click on an empty space to start selecting objects with a frame. And after that, click on the CTRL button (but do not hold it down). Then the program will switch to the surface selection mode.
• Call Move again and move the faces and the holes to a new position. In old BricsCAD versions use special command dmMove. Everything is exactly the same as for whole solid. All solids will lengthen, the fixture holes will move to a new place. The assembly lengthened. In fact, one Move command did the work of modifying dozens of solids. It is important that the entire assembly is on screen at the time of the move. Otherwise glitches are sometimes occur.
• Rotate the assembly. Check that no distortion has occurred. AutoCAD sometimes disfigures parts of the solid that did not fall into the selection.
• Did not work out? It happens. Roll back the changes and start over. This is still faster than editing each part separately.
• BricsCad has a much more stable 3d engine and it allows you to drag some parts entirely in one Move command, and stretch others. In AutoCAD, this causes glitches or simply doesn't work.
• In AutoCAD, selecting a box with pressed CTRL leads to the selection of not only surfaces, but also edges and vertices. Sometimes this makes it difficult to resize parts. The edges don't want to move. They should be excluded from the selection. In this case, you need to switch AutoCAD to surface selection mode (Shift + F4) and select with a frame without holding CTRL.

18.  To speed up the extrusion of holes, use the DRI and GAP commands from the AVC Drill plugin .

19.   Check the intersection of the solids - the Interfere command. It is very convenient to look for errors in the model - because real details cannot go inside each other. You just need to blow up all the blocks before the call and ignore the request of the second array of solids.

22.   Freeze the layers . Freezing layers is better than turning them off. Freezing disables the visibility of blocks regardless of which layers the inside of the block is on. Frozen objects are not selected with Ctrl + A (Select All), are not taken into account by the Zoom Extents command (zooming to show all objects, short command Z, E). For those in the tank: turning off layers is a light bulb in front of the layer name, and freezing is the sun / snowflake. And of course everyone knows that if you want, you can freeze layers only for the current viewport, and disabling works immediately everywhere.

23.   Work with a small drawing . When a long modification of the assembly in a large, heavy drawing is ahead, it is more convenient not just to isolate the assembly, but to transfer it to an empty new file. Copy via Ctrl+Shift+C with a convenient base point, create a new drawing Ctrl+Alt+N, paste Ctrl+V at 0-point of coordinate systems, edit and copy back. Saving RAM and a small drawing file dramatically increase the stability of AutoCAD and consequently save the company money, and you will not destroy your brain.

24.   Close unnecessary files and programs. Are you waiting for AutoCAD to learn how to work stably with seven giant files at once? You wait in vain. Never learn. And do not complain to the sysadmin that something is buggy and AutoCAD crashes. You yourself opened a bunch of windows, yourself to blame. A bunch of open programs also do not add stability to Windows. Make it a habit to close all programs at once, as soon as they are no longer needed.

25.   Calculate weight - the MassProp command shows the volume of all selected solids, taking into account all their geometry. Volume is displayed in mm cubic / inch cubic. To convert to meters, 9 characters must be removed (divided by a billion). Then we simply multiply by the average density of materials. For all pieces of wood (pine, chipboard, MDF, plywood), a density of 800 (kg per cubic meter) can be roughly calculated. BricsCAD shows this data in property panel, but do not forget to collapse the mass section, as their calculation is too slow. You can use the AVC_Palette plugin - also shows the mass after measuring solid.

26.   Work with blocks. This saves the file size, because the block is described in the block table only 1 time, and you can add links to it (Block Reference) as many as you like. And the blocks structure the drawing well. Understanding how the blocks work is very important. I will not lie much if I say that any dwg-file consists entirely of blocks. After all, the entire drawing space is also one of the blocks called * Model_Space. The description of the block in the invisible block table is essentially a small drawing with its name, and the Block Reference is an order to AutoCAD to draw this drawing somewhere inside another block. The block has no layer and color, but the Block Reference has it. Due to this, the same block can be inserted into different layers and assign different colors and other properties to its objects. So that the layer of objects also changes along with the link layer for the block - place the objects inside the block on layer 0.

27.   The base point of the block is that unique grip which AutoCAD draws at any Block Reference. Be sure to set a base point in the block creation dialog. But if you still need to rearrange this point, then you must understand that in fact there is no such point in the block. The place where the grip is drawn is simply the origin of the block's internal coordinate system. The entire block drawing is drawn in this internal coordinate system. When inserting a Block Reference, AutoCAD recounts the coordinates of all the objects in the block to move them to the insertion point. So, to rearrange the base point, you need to go to the block editor (BEDIT), select all objects, call the move (M), specify the point that will be the new base and move it to zero coordinates (enter 0,0,0 on the command line). Close the editor and make sure that the grip now appears in the right place. Naturally, in this case, all the drawings in all Block Reference move exactly the same as you moved them in the block. We'll have to select all the Block Reference (quick selection of similar ones by the name of SSO) and move it back. There is another way to draw a grip in another place in the block - in the block editor in the panel of parametric elements there is such an object as a Basepoint (BPARAMETER BASE command). It can be placed anywhere in the block, and it will appear as a grip for moving the Block Reference. You won’t need to move anything anywhere. However, I do not recommend using this option - do not complicate the work of AutoCAD. 

28.   Rename everything - the Rename command is for some reason hidden from users, but it can come in handy for renaming blocks and all other named objects of the AutoCAD. The AVC_Palette plugin contains a A>V>C> Property Palette in which it is easy to rename blocks (an all other objects - for it adds the Name property to the solids and to the lines...)

29.   Use groups. Do not confuse with blocks. Groups are much simpler. This is just a list of simultaneously selectable objects. Objects are still recorded separately in the drawing, but can be selected all together with one click. This is convenient if you do not plan to use this fragment of the drawing many times. You can turn off the group selection of objects at any time (PICKSTYLE 0), change something in the group and turn on the group selection back (PICKSTYLE 1). The switch is on the Home ribbon. This is faster than going to the block editor.

30.   Optimize the contours - in the contours for the CNC and for stretching, you need to avoid gaps, overlapping lines on each other, extra segments. All this optimization is done by the regular Overkill command. And to make a closed loop out of scattered, crisscross lines, the Boundary command will help. Even better is the Outside Loop (OSL) command from the A>V>C> Pro plugin.

31.   Paste from Excel. AutoCAD ignores the insertion of tables and their pieces from text programs and Excel. The simple familiar Ctrl+V does not work. However, there is still a way: use the PasteSpec command and "AutoCAD entries" in its options. This command will create a new AutoCAD table. From it you can already copy cells in batches to other AutoCAD tables. And yet there is the Paste To Table plugin, which allows to avoid unnecessary movements and also allows you to break tables into several sheets (layouts).

32.   Create a template. Set up a clean file as you wish, set up a drawing unit (insunit) and size format, create layers, styles, add frequently used blocks (but not everything!), Create sheets with frame, write down the drawing properties (and write down yourself as the Author). Now save it all as a DWT file - a drawing template. You can create multiple templates. Write the folder with templates in AutoCAD settings, and write the most frequently used template in the settings as a template for the QNew command. Now by pressing the Ctrl+N button or by pressing the "+" in the drawing tabs, this file will be immediately selected, the current layer and all styles will be immediately assigned. And if you need an absolutely clean file without garbage - pay attention that in the dialog for creating a new drawing, the "Open" button has an arrow and there is "Open without a template" metric (millimeter) or imperial (inch) drawing.

33.  Any of the above commands work in the localized version of AutoCAD. Except short commands. And if they don’t work, start the command with an underscore _ You can also write command options in English with an underscore.