Landscape Architecture Resource

In a previous post I showed you a list of helpful autocad shortcut commands and suggested learning these as a great way to increase your drafting speed. To take it one step further, you can create custom shortcut commands by editing the acad.pgp file, which lists the command shortcuts (aliases).

To access acad.pgp, go to the
Tools menu,
click Customize » Edit Program Parameters (acad.pgp).

It's a good idea to backup acad.pgp in case you make a mistake or want to rollback to the original settings for any reason.

One of the things that's always bothered my about cad is having to type "pl" for the "polyline" command. The P and L keys are way over on the right side of the keyboard, which means either taking my right hand off of the mouse or looking down while my left hand dive-bombs the keys. Same trouble with the "distance" command and typing "dis".

So I set Q = Polyline command and D = Distance command in my acad.pgp file to make cad a little more friendly and a little faster. I can now draw polylines just by typing 'P' [space] and measure distances by typing 'D' [space] with my left hand only. I don't have to look down or or take my hand off of the mouse. Hey, when you draw 1000 polylines in a day, it adds up!

Also see:
all AutoCAD posts
why you need to learn AutoCAD