SETUP & BASICS

1. Keyboard Shortcuts 

2. Autosave 

3. Quick Access Toolbar 

4. Right-click 

5. Layers 

6. Draw Order 

1. Keyboard Shortcuts

Take advantage of AutoCAD-specific keyboard shortcuts to save you valuable time. You can even create or modify the existing shortcuts.

1. Click Manage tab > Customization panel > User Interface, or type CUI into the command line. 

2. In the Customize tab, Customizations In pane, click the plus sign (+) next to the Keyboard Shortcuts node to expand it. 

3. Click the plus sign (+) next to the Shortcut Keys. 

•  To create a shortcut key, in the Command List pane, drag a command to the Shortcut Keys node in the Customizations In pane. 
• To modify a shortcut key, select a shortcut key from under the Shortcut Keys node.

BONUS: Not to be confused with command aliases, which are abbreviations of commands used in the command line. Edit or create aliases by going to the Express Tools tab of the Ribbon and clicking on the Command Aliases tool.

2. Autosave

Set your Autosave setting to 5 minutes (or 2 or 3 minutes!), and manually save often with the QSAVE command or Ctrl+S shortcut.

Automatic save files are backup files created automatically by the Autosave feature. Set the number of minutes between automatic saves in the Open and Save tab in the Options dialog box or by using the SAVETIME command. Automatic saves are only done if a drawing has been modified after the last save. QSAVE, SAVE, and SAVEAS will delete the current .sv$ file – the Autosave file only remains if the application closes unexpectedly.

Find the location of your autosave files by going to the Files tab in the Options dialog box and inspecting the Automatic Save File Location folder in the hierarchy, or by using the SAVEFILEPATH command. Once you find the file, change the file extension from .sv$ to .dwg to open.

BONUS: If you don’t see any file extensions when looking for your Autosave file, you’ll need to turn them on. Do so by checking the File Name Extensions box in the Show/Hide panel of the View tab.

3. Quick Access Toolbar

Keep your most frequently used tools in the Quick Access Toolbar (QAT) right at the top of your screen. Customize the QAT by clicking the small, pull-down control button on the right. You can check and un-check the commands you want quick access to.

Here, you can also change where the Quick Access Toolbar docks, or even turn on the old-style Menu Bar. You can also drag the elements within the Quick Access Toolbar to change the order in which they appear.

BONUS: For a fast way to add a Ribbon command to the Quick Access toolbar, right-click any command icon on the Ribbon, and then select Add to Quick Access Toolbar from the popup menu. Similarly, right-click on any Quick Access Toolbar item to remove it.

4. Right-Click

Right-click to access contextual popup menus, a productivity enhancement favorite. Since the menus are contextual, you get commands that are specific to what’s selected.

If you’re someone who uses a mouse right-click as ENTER, you can still have the best of both worlds. It’s easy using this time sensitive right-click feature. To turn it on, simply call up the Options dialog box, go to the User Preferences tab, and then select the Right-Click Customization button. You’ll get a second dialog box that contains the control for time-sensitive right-clicks.

When enabled, right-click will still function as you prefer, with a single, quick click working as ENTER, but now, by holding down the mouse button just a little longer – a quarter of a second by default – you’ll get the contextual popup menu instead.

5. Layers

Resist the temptation to create everything on one layer. Organize your drawings by assigning objects to layers that are associated with a specific function or purpose, for example, walls on one layer and doors on another layer.

With layers, you can: 

• Associate objects by their function or location 
• Display or hide all related objects in a single operation 
• Specify linetype, color, line weight, and other standards for each layer

To see how a drawing is organized, use the LAYER command to open the Layer Properties Manager. You can either enter LAYER or LA in the Command window, or you can click the Layer Properties tool on the Home tab of the Ribbon.

BONUS: Got lots of Xrefs and therefore lots of layers? Increase the MAXSORT variable (from its default of 1000) so all your layers can sort correctly

6. Draw Order 

Control how objects overlap and the order in which they’re displayed with the Draw Order command. Set up your Draw Order with “Bring Annotations to Front” and “Send Hatch to Back”. 

In the Home tab of the Ribbon, click the Modify panel drop-down list, and select Draw Order (or use the DRAWORDER command). Choose one of the displayed options, select the objects you want to modify, and press Enter.

In general, you will want to display and plot annotation objects in front of other objects, and hatches and fills behind. Wipeout objects are intended to provide a blank area for adding text without modifying the objects underneath.

NOTE: You can control the draw order of overlapping objects only within the same space: model space or paper space.