Basic AutoCAD Commands

This is the list of some of the most basic AutoCAD commands which every
AutoCAD user should know. These are some of the Draw and Modify commands
which make the very basics of AutoCAD and if you are just starting to learn
AutoCAD then you should know all of these basic commands.

L
It can be used for making simple lines in the drawing.

C
It is the command used for making a circle in AutoCAD.

PL
This command can be used to make a Polyline in your drawing.

REC
This command will make a rectangle in AutoCAD.

POL
This command can be used to make a polygon with minimum of 3 sides and a
maximum of 1024 sides.

ARC
As the name suggests, this command can be used to make an arc in AutoCAD.

ELLIPSE
As the name suggests, this command can be used to make an ellipse with the major
and minor axis.

REG
This command can be used to make a region geometry in AutoCAD.
CO
This command is used to copy object(s) in AutoCAD.

ARRAY
Using this command you can make Rectangular, polar or Path array.

TR
This command is used for trimming a geometry.

OP
Using this command you can open options window which contains most of the
settings of AutoCAD.

SC
This command is used to change the scale of an object.

B
This command is used for creating a block, the properties of the block can be
defined using the block definition window.

I
This command can be used to insert an existing block or a drawing as a block in
AutoCAD.

ST
Using this command you can open text style window which controls properties of
the default AutoCAD text style.

X
This command can be used to explode objects like Polyline to simple lines, an
array or a block to a simple geometry etc.

F
This command can be used to add rounded corners to the sharp edges of the
geometry, these round corners are also called fillets.

CHA
This command can be used to add slant edges to the sharp corners, these slant
edges are also called chamfers.

LA
This command can be used to open layer properties manage palette which is a tool
for creating and managing layers in a drawing.

Keyboard Shortcut Keys

Ctrl + N
You can use this shortcut to open a new drawing a tab in AutoCAD.

Ctrl + S
You can use this keyboard shortcut to save a drawing file.

Ctrl + Shift + S
You can use this keyboard shortcut to save the drawing as a new file, in short, this
is the hotkey for “save as” command.

Ctrl + 0
Clears screen to show only the drawing area and hides palettes and tabs. Press it
again to reset default AutoCAD interface.

Ctrl + 1
Select and object and press Ctrl + 1 to open the properties palette which lists
properties of the object. You can use this palette to modify most of the properties
of the object too. You can also use PR command to open the property palette.

Related: Increase productivity by modifying quick properties in AutoCAD

Ctrl + 2
You can use it to open design center palette which contains many AutoCAD blocks
that can be used directly in your drawing.

Ctrl + 9
You can use this keyboard shortcut to toggle the visibility of the command line. If
for some reason your command line is hidden from the drawing area, then use this
keyboard shortcut to bring it back.
Ctrl + C
Select objects from the drawing area and press Ctrl + C to copy to objects to the
clipboard.

Ctrl + V
To paste the copied objects of the clipboard in the drawing keeping their original
properties, you can use this keyboard shortcut.

Ctrl + Shift + V
To paste the copied objects as a block you can use this keyboard shortcut, the
block thus created will have a random set of characters as is name. You can use
this keyboard shortcut to make blocks quickly without going through the create
block window.

Ctrl + Z
This keyboard shortcut can be used to undo last action in your drawing. You can
press this shortcut key multiple times to undo many actions.

Ctrl + Y
This keyboard shortcut can be used to redo the last undo action which you have
performed.

Ctrl + Tab
You can use this keyboard shortcut to cycle through all open drawing tabs in
AutoCAD.

Status Bar Toggle

The status bar is an important feature of AutoCAD user interface and its tools are
required quite frequently while making or editing your drawing hence they are
available on status bar for easy access. You can activate or deactivate status bar
icons using keyboard shortcuts, commands or by clicking on its respective icon.

In this section, I have listed the most frequently used status bar options along with
their properties and uses.
F7
This status bar tool will toggle the visibility of background grid which is often
visible in your drawing area.

F9
Toggle Snap mode, when snap mode is active AutoCAD cursor will jump to
specific points in the drawing area which is defined in snap mode.

DYNMODE
By default the value of this system variable is set to -3 which keeps it off you
change this system variable to 3 to make dynamic input active. Dynamic input
allows you to add information dynamically on the cursor tooltip.

F8
Toggles Ortho mode on/off. When ortho mode is on you can make lines either
horizontally or vertically only.

F10
Toggles Polar tracking on/off. With polar tracking active you can make lines
inclined to any angle which is defined in the polar tracking increment angle.

ISODRAFT
Using this toggle you can activate the isometric drawing plane in AutoCAD. You
can select from Isoplane Left, Isoplane Top and Isoplane Right. You can also
toggle between different isoplanes using F5 function key. The default value of
ISODRAFT option is orthographic.

More about making isometric drawing using this tool here: How to make isometric
drawing in AutoCAD
F11
Toggles Object snap tracking on/off. Using this option you can track snap points of
geometries like center, midpoint, endpoint etc and make geometries with their
reference.

F3
One the most important status bar toggles. This function key activates/deactivates
object snap option, when object snap is active you will be able to snap your cursor
to some exact points in the geometry like End, center, quadrant, tangent etc. This
option allows you to make precise AutoCAD drawings.

LWDISPLAY
This system variable toggles the visibility of lineweight in a drawing. The default
value of this system variable is OFF which keeps the lineweight display off you
can change its value to ON to keep lineweight visible in the drawing area.

TRANSPARENCYDISPLAY
Just like lineweight this status variable allows you to toggle the visibility of
transparency of an object. You change the value of this system variable to 1 to
make transparency visible or 0 if you want to make it invisible.

SELECTIONCYCLING
Using this system variable you can select overlapping objects very easily. When
the value of this system variable is set to 2, an overlapping icon and a menu
containing a list of overlapping objects appear and you can select the required
object from this list.

If you set the value of this system variable to 1, only the overlap icon appears not
the menu. You can turn this off by changing the value of this system variable to 0.

F6
Dynamic UCS can be activated or deactivated using this function key. Using
dynamic UCS you can make geometries directly of the face or another 3D object
irrespective of the position of UCS. You can also toggle dynamic UCS using
UCSDETECT system variable, the values of this system variable can be 1 for ON
and 0 for OFF.

GRAPHICSCONFIG
Using this status bar option you can open Graphics configuration window which is
used to change settings related to display and graphics properties of AutoCAD.
You can also use 3DCONFIG for opening the graphics performance window.

General Commands

These are some of the commands which can be frequently used in your drawing
workflow to improve your overall efficiency. You might be familiar with many of
these commands but there are also some commands which are really helpful still
they remain largely unused.

BCOUNT
This command is useful for counting the number of blocks in your drawing. It
reports the number of each instance of block used in the drawing along with its
name. To count the block it should be visible in the drawing area.

TXTEXP
Using this command you can convert single line as well as multiline text into
geometries.

XLINE (XL)
Using this command you can make infinite lines starting from the point of
selection. When you trim or break this infinite line to a finite length it becomes a
simple line geometry.

POINT (PO)
This command makes a single point geometry in the drawing. To modify the type
of point created by this command you can use PTYPE command and choose the

desired point type from Point Style window.

REVCLOUD
Using this command you can make a revision cloud geometry by freehand
sketching.

SKETCH
You can make a freehand sketch using this command. You can use Line, Polyline
or Spline as the object type for making this freehand sketch.

MULTIPLE
If you want to repeat any command without pressing enter key then use
MULTIPLE command. To cancel repetition of command press ESC key.

NCOPY
Use this command to copy nested objects from a block or Xref without exploding
them.

‘CAL
Using this subcommand you can perform calculations directly on the AutoCAD
command line even when you are in the middle of a command. You can start
this subcommand by entering „CAL (don‟t forget to add an apostrophe before
CAL) while running any other command.

To know more about this subcommand refer the related article.

Related: Six tips to make you more productive in AutoCAD

BURST
Explodes the block containing attributes retaining the attribute setting and its layer
definition. This is especially helpful if you want to retain the text of attribute after
exploding the block.

SP
Using this command you can check the spelling of selected text and correct the
spellings from Check Spelling window.

ARCTEXT
This command can be used to write arc aligned text in AutoCAD. You can use this
command to even write text aligned to a circle. More about this command can be
found in this related article.

Related: How to curve text in AutoCAD, along Arc and Circle

OOPS
This command can be used to restore the last deleted object in your drawing. After
deleting an object if you made many other changes in the drawing and realized that
you might need to restore the deleted object then simply type OOPS and press
enter.

CHSPACE
This command can be used to change the space of an object from model space to
paper space and vice versa. See the animated image shown below for reference.

DIVIDE
You can use this command to divide any 2D geometry into many equal parts. At
each point of division, a point geometry will be added on the 2D curve. More about
this command can be found in this related article.

Related: Divide AutoCAD objects into equal parts

RENAME
If you need to rename any named object like layer, block or linetype simply use
this command to rename it. More about this command can be found in this related
article.

Related: How to rename named objects in AutoCAD

BREAK
This command can be used to break 2D geometries at one or two points. It is
helpful if you want to break a curve at the point of intersection with other curve or
if you want to create a gap by breaking a part of the geometry.

TIME
Using this command you can find a lot of information about your drawing like the
date when the drawing was created and total editing time consumed on the
drawing.

QSELECT
This command can be used to make the selection from your drawing with filters.
As an example, you can use quick select to make a selection set containing all
circles of the drawing with the radius of a particular value.

DI
It can be used to find the distance between two points in the drawing.
COPYBASE
Using this command you can copy any object using a base point.

PASTECLIP
You can paste the copied objects from clipboard to your drawing using this
command. If you use COPYBASE to copy the objects then you will be able to
paste it in the same or another drawing with the selected base point.

LIST
Using this command you can find lots of properties of an object like the layer they
are on, area, length or radius, perimeter or circumference and a lot more. To use
this command simply type LIST on the command line then press enter and select
the object from drawing area about which you want to know and press enter again.

DIM
This command was introduced in AutoCAD 2016 version and it can be used to
make most of the dimensions like Linear, aligned, radius, diameter and baseline.
To access this command you can use DIM command or select the DIM tool from
dimensions panel of Annotate tab.

TOLERANCE
If you want to add a feature control frame representing tolerance related
information in your drawing then you can use this command.
SCALETEXT
Using this command you can change the scale of existing Text or Mtext object in
the drawing. To use this command type SCALETEXT on the command line press
enter and select the text from drawing area and press Enter again.

Now select “Existing” option from the command line and then select “scale factor”
option and then type the scale in which you want to convert the text height and
press enter. When the scale of these text entities are changed the base point will
remain fixed.

BASE
Using this command you can change the base point of a drawing without changing
its origin. This is especially helpful in the situation where you want to insert the
drawing into another as a Xref. By default, AutoCAD takes origin as the base point
which can be modified using this command without changing the origin.

DWGPREFIX
If you have a drawing open in AutoCAD and you don‟t know the location where it
is saved you can simply type DWGPREFIX command to look it. This command
can be used to quickly find the location of Xref‟s attached in the drawing.

TJUST
Using this command you can change the text justification of Text and Mtext
elements in the drawing.

UNITS
Using this command you can set the drawing units and other settings like the
precision of linear and angular dimensions and default rotation angle.

ML
Using this command you can make a multiline geometry which contains multiple
parallel lines.
TINSERT
You can insert a block or a drawing as a block in the table using this command.
You can also fit the block in the table cell and also justify its location automatically
with TINSERT dialogue box. I have made a simple table by importing blocks of
design center as shown in the image below.

MIRRTEXT
By default, AutoCAD does not mirror text in the drawing but if you want to mirror
the text of your drawing then change the value of MIRRTEXT system variable to
1.

AREA
As the name suggests this command can be used to find the area of closed or open
shapes in the AutoCAD drawing. To know more about finding the area in
AutoCAD drawings refer to this related article.

Related: How to find area in AutoCAD drawings, here are three different ways

TORIENT
Using this command you can reorient text entities in a best readable position. In
image A below the text is oriented at different angles and in some of the situations,
the text is not properly readable. Whereas in image B below TORIENT command
has been used to make the text readable for all angles.

ID
This command can be used to find the coordinate values of a point in AutoCAD
drawing.

MINSERT
Using this command you can insert existing blocks of a drawing as a rectangular
array component. An array added using MINSERT command can‟t be exploded.

BOUNDARY
Using this command you can extract closed boundaries from any enclosed area.
This boundary can be used to find the area of the enclosed region or for many other
applications. In the image below the boundary of the area mentioned as A has been
extracted as a polyline using BOUNDARY command.

DIMROTATED
This command can be used to make a dimension line inclined to a particular angle
with respect to the positive side of the X-axis. In the example shown below the
dimensions are made with DIMROTATED command.

BREAKLINE
You can use this tool to make a Breakline symbol on a line. Type BREAKLINE on
the command line and press enter then click on scale option of the command line
and apply an appropriate scale to the breakline.

Select the starting and end points of the breakline then click at any point on the line
to specify the location of breakline or directly press enter to place it exactly at the
center of the line.

TXT2MTXT
Using this command you can convert a text object into a Mtext object and you can
also combine multiple separate Mtext objects into a single Mtext unit.

SAVEALL
As the name suggests this command can be used to save all of the open drawings
in AutoCAD window.