5 AutoCAD Tips + Tricks
This month we will be sharing content emphasizing ways to use summer to develop yourself. If you are a professional, summertime may not be the same, so we hope you can still utilize these while juggling everything else! We understand it may be difficult to juggle life, friends, and honing one’s craft, so please plan out your goals to avoid burning out!To get more news about 2d drafting, you can visit shine news official website.
1. Shortcuts + Customization
One of the greatest hacks for any software, and the first thing to accomplish is learning the shortcuts! This isn’t new for anyone, but what if I said you could customize the shortcuts in AutoCAD even further? I recently learned this trick and thought, ‘if I knew this sooner, how much time I could have saved!’ How how do you set up your own shortcuts? When you open up AutoCAD, you’d want to click on the “Manage” tab, then click on “Edit Aliases,” and this window should pop up!
2. Interface Customization
Just like shortcut customization, interface customization is the next best thing to get situated with. The first thing I always do when I’m opening a new software, “How do I switch this to black or dark scheme?” Luckily, it’s effortless. Type “Settings” in the command bar, and a window will pop up, which will give you multiple options to adjust the display, drafting, or user preferences settings. Take the time to explore those options and adjust to your liking! In addition, there are other ways to customize your interface, and I’ll break down some things in the image below!
3. Blocks
Looking back, I want to facepalm myself because I could have made changes so quickly utilizing blocks in AutoCAD! Blocks basically allow you to edit multiple instances of the same block at once. There are two effortless ways to access it; option 1, under the “Home” ribbon, you can go over to the block tab to create or insert any blocks. Option 2, under the “Insert” ribbon, there’s a bigger block tab that can help you learn what the image stands for, but either option will get you to the same result! Ideally, you’d want to create the object first using any tools under the option and modify tab. Once you’ve done that, select the lines, then click the “Create Block” button. This window should pop up!
4. xRefs or xReferences
Another great hack in AutoCAD is learning how to operate xRefs; they are essentially any viable file that can be placed into the drawing to use as a reference, like PDFs, JPGs, or other DWGs. This could be extremely helpful if you were making an addition to other projects, or your project has specific site conditions you’d want to display! This is also a great practice in professional settings for several reasons. First, it allows multiple people to work on different files and still reference each others’ work. Second, it keeps each file clutter-free, lightweight, and focused on the relevant parts of the project. Third, it allows you to swap out versions/iterations by replacing xRefs quickly. Here’s how you can bring one in:
5. Sheet Layout + Viewport Control
Let’s say you want to export a drawing without certain features but don’t want to waste time to recreate it or copy multiple views causing your file to slow down. What do you do? Sheets and viewport control is your best friend! Now I never really used this feature until I got into the office, but still, I’m sure it will save you some time too! Assuming that you have a drawing in AutoCAD and it’s situated near the origin (0,0) in the model space, here are the steps you can do to maximize your efficiency in exporting views.
This is a rather advanced technique in AutoCAD, so there’s a lot of playing around with this last one. However, if you learn this sooner, especially with the iterative process of school and work, it can save you a lot of time and headaches.