Keyboard ALT + g to toggle grid overlay
AutoCAD shortcuts & hotkey guide
Work faster and more efficiently by using the AutoCAD shortcuts below. You can find a downloadable list of shortcuts and commands in the AutoCAD Keyboard Shortcuts PDF.
One-key shortcuts
Below, you'll find the AutoCAD one-key shortcuts. Click the image for a larger view.
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Toggles and screen management
Below, you'll find an abbreviated list of commands that can be used in AutoCAD.
Toggle General Features
| Ctrl+G | Toggle Grid |
| Ctrl+E | Cycle isometric planes |
| Ctrl+F | Toggle running object snaps |
| Ctrl+H | Toggle Pick Style |
| Ctrl+Shift+H | Toggle Hide pallets |
| Ctrl+I | Toggle Coords |
| Ctrl+Shift+I | Toggle Infer Constraints |
Manage Screen
| Ctrl+0 (zero) | Clean Screen |
| Ctrl+1 | Property Palette |
| Ctrl+2 | Design Centre Palette |
| Ctrl+3 | Tool Palette |
| Ctrl+4 | Sheet Set Palette |
| Ctrl+6 | DBConnect Manager |
| Ctrl+7 | Mark-up Set Manager Palette |
| Ctrl+8 | Quick Calc |
| Ctrl+9 | Command Line |
Manage Drawings
| Ctrl+N | New drawing |
| Ctrl+S | Save drawing |
| Ctrl+O | Open drawing |
| Ctrl+P | Plot dialogue box |
| Ctrl+Tab | Switch to next |
| Ctrl+Shift+Tab | Switch to previous drawing |
| Ctrl+Page Up | Switch to previous tab in current drawing |
| Ctrl+Page Down | Switch to next tab in current drawing |
| Ctrl+Q | Exit |
| Ctrl+Shift+S | Save drawing as |
Toggle Drawing Modes
| F1 | Display Help |
| F2 | Toggle text screen |
| F3 | Toggle object snap mode |
| F4 | Toggle 3DOsnap |
| F5 | Toggle Isoplane |
| F6 | Toggle Dynamic UCS |
| F7 | Toggle grid mode |
| F8 | Toggle ortho mode |
| F9 | Toggle snap mode |
| F10 | Toggle polar mode |
| F11 | Toggle object snap tracking |
| F12 | Toggle dynamic input mode |
Manage Workflow
| Ctrl+A | Select all objects |
| Ctrl+C | Copy object |
| Ctrl+K | Insert hyperlink |
| Ctrl+X | Cut object |
| Ctrl+V | Paste object |
| Ctrl+Shift+C | Copy to clipboard with base point |
| Ctrl+Shift+V | Paste data as block |
| Ctrl+Z | Undo last action |
| Ctrl+Y | Redo last action |
| Ctrl+[ | Cancel current command (or ctrl+\) |
| ESC | Cancel current command |
A, B, C
A
| A | ARC/Creates an arc |
| ADC | ADCENTER/Manages and inserts content such as blocks, xrefs and hatch patterns |
| AA | AREA/Calculates the area and perimeter of objects or defined areas |
| AL | ALIGN/Aligns objects with other objects in 2D and 3D |
| AP | APPLOAD/Load application |
| AR | ARRAY/Creates multiple copies of objects in a pattern |
| ARR | ACTRECORD/Starts the Action Recorder |
| ARM | ACTUSERMESSAGE/Inserts a user message into an action macro |
| ARU | ACTUSERINPUT/Pauses for user input in an action macro |
| ARS | ACTSTOP/Stops the Action Recorder and provides the option of saving the recorded actions to an action macro file |
| ATI | ATTIPEDIT/Changes the textual content of an attribute within a block |
| ATT | ATTDEF/Redefines a block and updates associated attributes |
| ATE | ATTEDIT/Changes attribute information in a block |
B
| B | BLOCK/Creates a block definition from selected objects |
| BC | BCLOSE/Closes the Block Editor |
| BE | BEDIT/Opens the block definition in the Block Editor |
| BH | HATCH/Fills an enclosed area or selected objects with a hatch pattern, solid fill or gradient fill |
| BO | BOUNDARY/Creates a region or a polyline from an enclosed area |
| BR | BREAK/Breaks the selected object between two points |
| BS | BSAVE/Saves the current block definition |
| BVS | BVSTATE/Creates, sets or deletes a visibility state in a dynamic block |
C
| C | CIRCLE/Creates a circle |
| CAM | CAMERA/Sets a camera and target location to create and save a 3D perspective view of objects |
| CBAR | CONSTRAINTBAR/A toolbar-like UI element that displays the available geometric constraints on an object |
| CH | PROPERTIES/Controls properties of existing objects |
| CHA | CHAMFER/Bevels the edges of objects |
| CHK | CHECKSTANDARDS/Checks the current drawing for standards violations |
| CLI | COMMANDLINE/Displays the Command Line window |
| COL | COLOUR/Sets the colour for new objects |
| CO | COPY/Copies objects a specified distance in a specified direction |
| CT | CTABLESTYLE/Sets the name of the current table style |
| CUBE | NAVVCUBE/Controls the visibility and display properties of the ViewCube tool |
| CYL | CYLINDER/Creates a 3D solid cylinder |
D, E, F
D
| D | DIMSTYLE/Creates and modifies dimension styles |
| DAN | DIMANGULAR/Creates an angular dimension |
| DAR | DIMARC/Creates an arc length dimension |
| DBA | DIMBASELINE/Creates a linear, angular or ordinate dimension from the baseline of the previous or selected dimension |
| DBC | DBCONNECT/Provides an interface to external database tables |
| DCE | DIMCENTER/Creates the centre mark or the centrelines of circles and arcs |
| DCO | DIMCONTINUE/Creates a dimension that starts from an extension line of a previously created dimension |
| DCON | DIMCONSTRAINT/Applies dimensional constraints to selected objects or points on objects |
| DDA | DIMDISASSOCIATE/Removes associativity from selected dimensions |
| DDI | DIMDIAMETER/Creates a diameter dimension for a circle or an arc |
| DED | DIMEDIT/Edits dimension text and extension lines |
| DI | DIST/Measures the distance and angle between two points |
| DIV | DIVIDE/Creates evenly spaced point objects or blocks along the length or perimeter of an object |
| DJL | DIMJOGLINE/Adds or removes a jog line on a linear or aligned dimension |
| DJO | DIMJOGGED/Creates jogged dimensions for circles and arcs |
| DL | DATALINK/Displays the Data Link dialogue box |
| DLU | DATALINKUPDATE/Updates data to or from an established external data link |
| DO | DONUT/Creates a filled circle or a wide ring |
| DOR | DIMORDINATE/Creates ordinate dimensions |
| DOV | DIMOVERRIDE/Controls overrides of system variables used in selected dimensions |
| DR | DRAWORDER/Changes the draw order of images and other objects |
| DRA | DIMRADIUS/Creates a radius dimension for a circle or an arc |
| DRE | DIMREASSOCIATE/Associates or re-associates selected dimensions to objects or points on objects |
| DRM | DRAWINGRECOVERY/Displays a list of drawing files that can be recovered after a programme or system failure |
| DS | DSETTINGS/Sets grid and snap, polar and object snap tracking, object snap modes, Dynamic Input and Quick Properties |
| DT | TEXT/Creates a single-line text object |
| DV | DVIEW/Defines parallel projection or perspective views by using a camera and target |
| DX | DATAEXTRACTION/Extracts drawing data and merges data from an external source to a data extraction table or external file |
E
| E | ERASE/Removes objects from a drawing |
| ED | DDEDIT/Edits single-line text, dimension text, attribute definitions and feature control frames |
| EL | ELLIPSE/Creates an ellipse or an elliptical arc |
| EPDF | EXPORTPDF/Exports drawing to PDF |
| ER | EXTERNALREFERENCES/Opens the External References palette |
| EX | EXTEND/Extends objects to meet the edges of other objects |
| EXIT | QUIT/Exits the programme |
| EXP | EXPORT/Saves the objects in a drawing to a different file format |
| EXT | EXTRUDE/Extends the dimensions of a 2D object or 3D face into 3D space |
F
| F | FILLET/Rounds and fillets the edges of objects |
| FI | FILTER/Creates a list of requirements that an object must meet to be included in a selection set |
| FS | FSMODE/Creates a selection set of all objects that touch the selected object |
| FSHOT | FLATSHOT/Creates a 2D representation of all 3D objects based on the current view |
G, H, I
G
| G | GROUP/Creates and manages saved sets of objects called groups |
| GCON | GEOCONSTRAINT/Applies or persists geometric relationships between objects or points on objects |
| GD | GRADIENT/Fills an enclosed area or selected objects with a gradient fill |
| GEO | GEOGRAPHICLOCATION/Specifies the geographic location information for a drawing file |
H
| H | HATCH/Fills an enclosed area or selected objects with a hatch pattern, solid fill or gradient fill |
| HE | HATCHEDIT/Modifies an existing hatch or fill |
| HI | HIDE/Regenerates a 3D wireframe model with hidden lines suppressed |
I
| I | INSERT/Inserts a block or drawing into the current drawing |
| IAD | IMAGEADJUST/Controls the image display of the brightness, contrast and fade values of images |
| IAT | IMAGEATTACH/Inserts a reference to an image file |
| ICL | IMAGECLIP/Crops the display of a selected image to a specified boundary |
| ID | ID/Displays the UCS co-ordinate values of a specified location |
| IM | IMAGE/Displays the External References palette |
| IMP | IMPORT/Imports files of different formats into the current drawing |
| IN | INTERSECT/Creates a 3D solid, surface or 2D region from overlapping solids, surfaces or regions |
| INF | INTERFERE/Creates a temporary 3D solid from the interferences between two sets of selected 3D solids |
| IO | INSERTOBJ/Inserts a linked or embedded object |
J, K, L
J
| J | JOIN/Joins similar objects to form a single, unbroken object |
| JOG | DIMJOGGED/Creates jogged dimensions for circles and arcs |
K
L
| L | LINE/Creates straight line segments |
| LA | LAYER/Manages layers and layer properties |
| LAS | LAYERSTATE/Saves, restores and manages named layer states |
| LE | QLEADER/Creates a leader and leader annotation |
| LEN | LENGTHEN/Changes the length of objects and the included angle of arcs |
| LESS | MESHSMOOTHLESS/Decreases the level of smoothness for mesh objects by one level |
| LI | LIST/Displays property data for selected objects |
| LO | LAYOUT/Creates and modifies drawing layout tabs |
| LT | LINETYPE/Loads, sets and modifies linetypes |
| LTS | LTSCALE/Changes the scale factor of linetypes for all objects in a drawing |
| LW | LWEIGHT/Sets the current lineweight, lineweight display options and lineweight units |
M, N, O
M
| M | MOVE/Moves objects a specified distance in a specified direction |
| MA | MATCHPROP/Applies the properties of a selected object to other objects |
| ME | MEASURE/Joins similar objects to form a single, unbroken object |
| MEA | MEASUREGEOM/Measures the distance, radius, angle, area and volume of selected objects or sequence of points |
| MI | MIRROR/Creates a mirrored copy of selected objects |
| ML | MLINE/Creates multiple parallel lines |
| MLA | MLEADERALIGN/Aligns and spaces selected multileader objects |
| MLC | MLEADERCOLLECT/Organises selected multileaders that contain blocks into rows or columns and displays the result with a single leader |
| MLD | MLEADER/Creates a multileader object |
| MLE | MLEADEREDIT/Adds leader lines to, or removes leader lines from, a multileader object |
| MLS | MLEADERSTYLE/Creates and modifies multileader styles |
| MO | PROPERTIES/Controls properties of existing objects |
| MORE | MESHSMOOTHMORE/Increases the level of smoothness for mesh objects by one level |
| MS | MSPACE/Switches from paper space to a model space viewport |
| MSM | MARK-UP/Opens the Mark-up Set Manager |
| MT | MTEXT/Creates a multi-line text object |
| MV | MVIEW/Creates and controls layout viewports |
N
| NORTH | GEOGRAPHICLOCATION/Specifies the geographic location information for a drawing file |
| NSHOT | NEWSHOT/Creates a named view with motion that is played back when viewed with ShowMotion |
| NVIEW | NEWVIEW/Creates a named view with no motion |
O
| O | OFFSET/Creates concentric circles, parallel lines and parallel curves |
| OFFSETSRF | SURFOFFSET/ Creates a parallel surface or solid by setting an offset distance from a surface |
| OP | OPTIONS/Customises the programme settings |
| ORBIT/3DO | 3DORBIT/Rotates the view in 3D space, but constrained to horizontal and vertical orbit only |
| OS | OSNAP/Sets running object snap modes |
P, Q, R
P
| P | PAN/Adds a parameter with grips to a dynamic block definition |
| PA | PASTESPEC/Pastes objects from the Clipboard into the current drawing and controls the format of the data |
| PAR | PARAMETERS/Controls the associative parameters used in the drawing |
| PARAM | BPARAMETER/Adds a parameter with grips to a dynamic block definition |
| PATCH | SURFPATCH/Creates a new surface by fitting a cap over a surface edge that forms a closed loop |
| PCATTACH | POINTCLOUDATTACH/Inserts an indexed point cloud file into the current drawing |
| PE | PEDIT/Edits polylines and 3D polygon meshes |
| PL | PLINE/Creates a 2D polyline |
| PO | POINT/Creates a point object |
| POFF | HIDEPALETTES/Hides currently displayed palettes (including the command line) |
| POL | POLYGON/Creates an equilateral closed polyline |
| PON | SHOWPALETTES/Restores the display of hidden palettes |
| PR | PROPERTIES/Displays Properties palette |
| PRE | PREVIEW/Displays the drawing as it will be plotted |
| PLOT/Plots a drawing to a plotter, printer or file | |
| PS | PSPACE/Switches from a model space viewport to paper space |
| PSOLID | POLYSOLID/Creates a 3D wall-like polysolid |
| PU | PURGE/Removes unused items, such as block definitions and layers, from the drawing |
| PYR | PYRAMID/Creates a 3D solid pyramid |
Q
| QC | QUICKCALC/Opens the QuickCalc calculator |
| QCUI | QUICKCUI/Displays the Customise User Interface Editor in a collapsed state |
| QP | QUICKPROPERTIES/Displays open drawings and layouts in a drawing in preview images |
| Q | QSAVE/Saves the current drawing |
| QVD | QVDRAWING/Displays open drawings and layouts in a drawing using preview images |
| QVDC | QVDRAWINGCLOSE/Closes preview images of open drawings and layouts in a drawing |
| QVL | QVLAYOUT/Displays preview images of model space and layouts in a drawing |
| QVLC | QVLAYOUTCLOSE/Closes preview images of model space and layouts in the current drawing |
R
| R | REDRAW/Refreshes the display in the current viewport |
| RA | REDRAWALL/Refreshes the display in all viewports |
| RC | RENDERCROP/Renders a specified rectangular area, called a crop window, within a viewport |
| RE | REGEN/Regenerates the entire drawing from the current viewport |
| REA | REGENALL/Regenerates the drawing and refreshes all viewports |
| REC | RECTANG/Creates a rectangular polyline |
| REG | REGION/Converts an object that encloses an area into a region object |
| REN | RENAME/Changes the names assigned to items such as layers and dimension styles |
| REV | REVOLVE/Creates a 3D solid or surface by sweeping a 2D object around an axis |
| RO | ROTATE/Rotates objects around a base point |
| RP | RENDERPRESETS/Specifies render presets, reusable rendering parameters, for rendering an image |
| RR | RENDER/Creates a photorealistic or realistically shaded image of a 3D solid or surface model |
| RW | RENDERWIN/Displays the Render window without starting a rendering operation |
S, T, U
S
| S | STRETCH/Stretches objects crossed by a selection window or polygon |
| TC | SCALE/Enlarges or reduces selected objects, keeping the proportions of the object the same after scaling |
| SCR | SCRIPT / Executes a sequence of commands from a script file |
| SEC | SECTION/Uses the intersection of a plane and solids, surfaces or mesh to create a region |
| SET | SETVAR/Lists or changes the values of system variables |
| SHA | SHADEMODE/Starts the VSCURRENT command |
| SL | SLICE/Creates new 3D solids and surfaces by slicing or dividing, existing objects |
| SN | SNAP/Restricts cursor movement to specified intervals |
| SO | SOLID/Creates solid-filled triangles and quadrilaterals |
| SP | SPELL/Checks spelling in a drawing |
| SPE | SPLINEDIT/Edits a spline or spline-fit polyline |
| SPL | SPLINE/Creates a smooth curve that passes through or near specified points |
| SPLANE | SECTIONPLANE/Creates a section object that acts as a cutting plane through 3D objects |
| SPLAY | SEQUENCEPLAY/Plays named views in one category |
| SPLIT | MESHSPLIT/Splits a mesh face into two faces |
| SSM | SHEETSET/Opens the Sheet Set Manager |
| TS | STYLE/Creates, modifies or specifies text styles |
| STA | STANDARDS/Manages the association of standards files with drawings |
| SU | SUBTRACT/Combines selected 3D solids, surfaces or 2D regions by subtraction |
T
| T | MTEXT/Creates a multi-line text object |
| TA | TEXTALIGN/Aligns multiple text objects vertically, horizontally or obliquely |
| TB | TABLE/Creates an empty table object |
| TED | TEXTEDIT/Edits a dimensional constraint, dimension or text object |
| TH | THICKNESS/Sets the default 3D thickness property when creating 2D geometric objects |
| TI | TILEMODE/Controls whether paper space can be accessed |
| TOL | TOLERANCE/Creates geometric tolerances contained in a feature control frame |
| TOR | TORUS/Creates a doughnut-shaped 3D solid |
| TP | TOOLPALETTES/Opens the Tool Palettes window |
| TR | TRIM/Trims objects to meet the edges of other objects |
| ST | TABLESTYLE/Creates, modifies or specifies table styles |
U
| UC | UCSMAN/Manages defined user co-ordinate systems. |
| UN | UNITS/Controls co-ordinate and angle display formats and precision. |
| UNHIDE/UNISOLATE | UNISOLATEOBJECTS/Displays objects previously hidden with the ISOLATEOBJECTS or HIDEOBJECTS command. |
| UNI | UNION/Unions two solid or two region objects. |
V, W, X
V
| V | VIEW/Saves and restores named views, camera views, layout views and preset views. |
| VGO | VIEWGO/Restores a named view. |
| VP | VPOINT/Sets the 3D viewing direction. |
| VPLAY | VIEWPLAY/Plays the animation associated to a named view. |
| VS | VSCURRENT/Sets the visual style in the current viewport. |
| VSM | VISUALSTYLES/Creates and modifies visual styles and applies a visual style to a viewport. |
W
| W | WBLOCK/Writes objects or a block to a new drawing file. |
| WE | WEDGE/Creates a 3D solid wedge. |
| WHEEL | NAVSWHEEL/Displays a wheel that contains a collection of view navigation tools. |
X
| X | EXPLODE/Breaks a compound object into its component objects. |
| XA | XATTACH/Inserts a DWG file as an external reference (xref). |
| XB | XBIND/Binds one or more definitions of named objects in an xref to the current drawing. |
| XC | XCLIP/Crops the display of a selected external reference or block reference to a specified boundary. |
| XL | XLINE/Creates a line of infinite length. |
| XR | XREF/Starts the EXTERNALREFERENCES command. |
Y - Z
Y
Z
| Z | ZOOM/Increases or decreases the magnification of the view in the current viewport. |
| ZEBRA | ANALYSISZEBRA/Projects stripes onto a 3D model to analyse surface continuity. |
| ZIP | ETRANSMIT/Creates a self-extracting or zipped transmittal package. |