Topics covered in this Lesson:

Keyboard Shortcuts | Custom Toolbars

Concept:
One of the great things about AutoCAD is that it can be easily customized to suit the individual user. By now, you have seen how you can change the osnaps for example, but you can change a lot more than that. This lesson will introduce you to some of the customization options you have.

Keyboard Shortcuts

So far you have been using AutoCAD's default shortcuts. This section will show you how you can create your own to help your productivity. All shortcuts are stored in the acad.pgp file. This file is loaded into AutoCAD every time you start the program. It is usually located in the "C:\Documents and Settings\UserName\Application Data\Autodesk\AutoCAD 2008\R17.1\enu\Support folder". I recommend that you first have a good understanding of AutoCAD before creating shortcuts, as you may get reliant on them and then be forced to use a different computer that doesn't have them.

Navigate to folder and open the file in Notepad. You will see a list of all the shortcuts currently in use. If you scroll down to the bottom, you'll see an area for user defined shortcuts. This is where you need to add yours.

One command that is used in AutoCAD is Match Properties. I have used in a lot of different jobs. To start the command, you can use the icon, type Painter, or the shortcut MA. Icons are slow, Painter is too long, and MA forces you to go from one end of the keyboard to the other. All the methods are slow. Wouldn't it be nice if you could just type one letter to start the command? You can - after you define a shortcut for it.

As the command is used so often, I decided to create a one letter shortcut that is easy to access. I chose "N" as it is close the space bar and not used. Using the format defined in the file you create the shortcut like this:

N, *MATCHPROP (where "N" is the shortcut and *MATCHPROP is the full command)

The last few lines of the pgp file now look like this:

; -- User Defined Command Aliases --
; Make any changes or additions to the default AutoCAD command aliases in
; this section to ensure successful migration of these settings when you
; upgrade to the next version of AutoCAD. If a command alias appears more
; than once in this file, items in the User Defined Command Alias take
; precedence over duplicates that appear earlier in the file.
; **********----------********** ; No xlate ; DO NOT REMOVE

VS, *BVSTATE
N, *MATCHPROP

Add the shortcut and save the file.

Now you need to get the new command into your drawing. Do this you need to re-initialize the pgp file in the current session of AutoCAD. Type REINIT at the command line. This opens a dialog box - check the PGP File checkbox and press OK. Now try the shortcut in your drawing. Try to think of another command that you would like to shorten and add the shortcut. Just make sure that the shortcut you create doesn't replace one already used by AutoCAD. Check it first by typing the shortcut in AutoCAD before adding to your pgp file.

Custom Toolbars

If you have all the tutorials, you'll know that I don't recommend using icons. Still there are sometimes you may want to. Perhaps the command isn't used much, but you want easy access to it. Perhaps you can't create a shortcut for the command. There could be a few reasons, but here is how to create a new toolbar with the icons you want.

Right click on any toolbar and select Customize. This will open a dialog like the one below. Picke the arrows as shown in the image:

This opens up a new section where you can create a new toolbar as shown below and give a name.

Apply and close the dialog box and you'll see your new toolbar : It looks quite boring.

Now you will add icons to your new toolbar. Right-click a toolbar and select Customize again. You'll see all the commands listed. You can now drag and drop an icon from that list to your custom toolbar. For this exercise, look at the list for commands you don't recognize and add them to your toolbar so you can try them out.

Right-Click Customization

You can also control how your mouse works. By default AutoCAD displays a menu when you rightclick outside of a command. To do this, type OP for options and go to the user preferences tab. Select the "Right-Click Customization" button. You'll see this dialog box.

For example, you should find that using right-click as and 'enter' will speed things up. Unless you frequently use the menus, you should switch to this.

These are just a few ways that AutoCAD can be customized. You can create custom hatch patterns and linetypes - even fonts. Other options include programming to automate tedious tasks in VisualLisp, VBA or C++(ARX). As you get more familiar with AutoCAD, look into these options.

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