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A simple, yet powerful, productivity tool for AutoCAD is called the “pgp” file.

You can access it by going to Tools—>Customize—>Edit Program Parameters (acad.pgp)

It’s a text file containing user-defined keyboard shortcuts for any AutoCAD command you want to use. It comes with some default shortcuts but you are free to change them, or add to them.

The syntax is pretty simple and self explanatory; just copy an existing line and adapt as appropriate.

When setting up a new version of AutoCAD or moving to a different computer around the office, i always customise my pgp file before doing anything else.

If you haven’t done it before, i suggest you take one hour to think about how you work and the commands you use a lot.

Next, you have to think about your physical position, relative to the keyboard, so you can pick the best shortcuts for you. Do you use your mouse a lot?

If you are like me and use it a lot, a good trick is to keep the shortcuts in the left side of the keyboard, so you can have your left hand on the keyboard and your right hand on your mouse.

My most used shorcuts include only one letter, such as “a”, ”c” and so on. 

The next level includes shorcuts with two of the same letters, such as “aa”, “cc” and so on.

Then, i go up to three of the same letters, such as “aaa”.

I find it easier to type two of the same letter, such as “aa”, than “ae” for example, but it’s a personal choice. Do what works for you

Additional resources:

Improved productivity in AutoCAD from cadmonkey.com at http://www.cadmonkey.com/tut4.htm

Very often, when using the hatch pattern “dots” in AutoCAD, you can be met with the “hatch spacing too dense” error message. It’s infuriating!

The options are to either select a less dense scale for the hatch or to split the hatch area in two smaller areas, hatching each of them separately.

Well, there is no need to compromise on the scale you want or to do any extra work!

You can fix this if you type the following in the command line:

(setenv “MaxHatch” “10000000″)

MaxHatch is an environment variable that determines the maximum number of entities in a hatch area. In the case of the “dots” hatch, if you use a small scale, you will have many dots. If you reach the maximum allowed by your setting, you will get the “hatch spacing too dense” error message.

Luckily, you are able to change the value of this environment variable. Set it to 10000000 and you’ll be sorted

Additional resources:

AutoCAD 2004 customization tutorial: environment variables http://www.caddigest.com/subjects/autocad/tutorials/select/parsai_environment_variables.htm

Working with environment variables through AutoLISP http://hyperpics.blogs.com/beyond_the_ui/2005/12/working_with_en.html 

Using AutoCAD for urban design and traffic engineering schemes, i often find myself creating hatch pattern for different types of paving.

 The pavements in England are often paved with yorkstone paving, with a width of 600mm and alternate lengths of 900mm and 750mm at the kerb line (and lengths of 900mm all the way to the back of the footway).

Here’s what you should add at the end of both your acad.pat and acadiso.pat files. These files are located either in your Program Files/AutoCAD/support folder or in your Documents & Settings/your username/Application Data/Autodesk/AutoCAD/R/enu/support folder.

*YORKSTONE, 600×900 150 bond
90, 0,0, 0,0.6
0, 0,0, 0,0.9, 0.6,-0.6
0, 0.6,0.75, 0,0.9, 0.6,-0.6

Here’s what it looks like:

Additional resources:

“Control hatch origin” http://www.ellenfinkelstein.com/autocadtips/AutoCAD_tips_control_hatch_origin.html

“Different flag paving patterns” http://www.acheson-glover.com/community/flag-paving-patterns.asp