Everyone wants to finish diagrams faster, without sacrificing quality. A great way to reduce drawing and editing time is to use the program’s two-letter shortcut commands. Nearly every command in the drawing program has an associated two-letter shortcut which you can use to start the command instead of selecting it from a toolbar or pull-down menu. It can really save time when you don’t have to search for a command icon or hunt around on the menus. For example to invoke the Linear Copy command, you can type CO (or of course start it from the menu or toolbar). Most of the two-letter commands are mnemonic in nature, so they are easy to remember, such as ZA for Zoom All or RD for Redraw.

Note: Not every command has a keyboard shortcut. Also, in some cases three-letter commands are used instead of two such as Layer Manager (MGL).

This article contains a complete list of all the keyboard shortcut commands. You can also find the associated two-letter shortcut on the tooltip for each command and on the pull-down menu, next to the command. A tooltip or pull-down menu command will look like this figure. When you put your mouse over the command icon (without clicking), the tooltip is displayed.

Most Commonly Used Shortcut Commands

To help you start memorizing some shortcut commands, you may want to keep a hand written list of your favorite shortcuts near your computer while you’re incorporating them into your work flow.  If you find that you’re using a specific command regularly then find its shortcut and add it to your list. Here is a list of some of the most commonly used shortcut commands. You will save a great deal of time when drawing and editing if you just use these shortcuts.

“Extras”… Commands Not On Toolbars or Menus

There are commands that many people find useful that are not even included in pull-down menus or on the toolbars. These commands can only be accessed by using their two-letter keyboard shortcuts. In the shortcut command list, below, you will find the extra commands at the end of each section under “Extras”.  For example, at the end of the list of Modify (Edit) commands, there is a list of “Extras,” starting with CS for Selection Clear, and LO for Select Last Object.

Complete List of Two-Letter Shortcuts

 Speedbar (Horizontal Row of Buttons along Top of Screen)

_______________file commands

FN, File New

FO, File Open

DS, File Save

_______________ cut, copy, paste

CTRL X, Cut

CTRL C, Copy

CTRL V, Paste

_______________ print

PR, File Print

_______________ undo, redo

OO, Undo

RE, Redo

_______________ properties

PP, Properties (Right Click)

_______________ angle draw commands

O9, Ortho 90 degrees

O4, Ortho 45 degrees

CF, Cursor Free

OT, Angle Trap

_______________ auto snap

AU, Auto Snap

_______________ layer manager

MGL, Layer Manager

_______________ units

UN, Units

_______________ coordinate manual entry

CE, Coordinate Manual Entry

_______________ reset

RV, Reset

_______________ view commands

RD, Regen (Redraw or Refresh)

ZW, Zoom Window

ZA, Zoom All

ZO, Zoom Out

ZI, Zoom In

PA, Pan (Hold down mouse wheel)

_______________ 3D tools

B3, 3D Builder

M3, 3D Viewer

_______________ Learning Center

LR, Learning Center

 

Right click menus

_______________ selection

S1, Selection Bar

ME, Match Entity

_______________ continuous entity controls

PU, Finish

CC, Close Contour

UV, Undo Last Vertex

CX, Explode Continuous Line

_______________ heads up display

CU, Heads-Up Display

Pull-Down Menus

_______________ FILE

FN, File New

FO, File Open

FC, File Close

DS, File Save

FA, File Save As

FM, File Merge

BI, Import Images (bmp, jpg, wmf, png)

BM, Import Satellite Images

VB, Export Images (bmp, jpg, wmf, png)

PR, Print

PT, Print Setup

FX, File Exit

_______________ file extras

FU, Run

_______________EDIT

OO, Undo

RE, Redo

CTRL X, Cut

CTRL C, Copy

CTRL V, Paste

_______________ selection tools

SA, Select All

SB, Select Object

SW, Select Window

SX, Select Crossing

SL, Select Last

SJ, Select Adjoin

SY, Select Layer

IS, Invert Selection

S1, Selection Bar

_______________ copy commands

CO, Copy

AC, Array Copy

RC, Radial Copy

MC, Multi Copy

_______________ general modify commands

MV, Move

MP, Move Point

BR, Break

RO, Rotate

SZ, Scale

SS, Stretch

WS, Window Stretch

MI, Mirror

_______________ trim commands

TR, Trim/Extend

FI, Fillet (Round Corners)

CT, Cutout

IT, Double Line Intersection Clean

LN, Multi-lane Intersection Clean

_______________ offset command

OF, Double It Up

_______________ group commands

GT, Group

GU, UnGroup

_______________ explode

EX, Explode

_______________ edit commands

ED, Edit

ER, Delete (Erase)

MX, Erase Blue Markers

_______________ align common points

AG, Align Common Points

_______________ modify extras

CS, Selection Clear

LO, Select Last Object

CG, Change

AF, Auto Fillet (toggle)

FR, Fillet Radius

CH, Chamfer

C0, Chamfer Distance

DX, Clear

PU, Pen Up (Finish)

EL, Erase Last

FT, Fit Scale

MT, Match Tool

_______________ modify shortcuts (quick selection)

WS, Window Stretch

WE, Window Erase

OE, Object Erase

WM, Window Move

OM, Object Move

WC, Window Copy

OC, Object Copy

WT, Window Rotate

DT, Drawing Rotate

WG, Window Change

DG, Drawing Change

WZ, Window Scale

DZ, Drawing Scale

 

 DRAW

_______________ point

PO, Point

_______________ lines

LS, Single Line

LC, Continuous Line

LD, Double Line

AW, Arrow

_______________ curve

CV, Curve

_______________ polygons

R2, 2 Point Rectangle

R3, 3 Point Rectangle

PC, Center Regular Polygon

PS, Side Regular Polygon

_______________ circles

C2, 2 Point Circle

C3, 3 Point Circle

CD, Diameter Circle

EP, Ellipse

_______________ arcs

A3, 3 Point Arc

A2, 2 Point Arc

AM, 3 Point Arc

AX, Arc Tangent

_______________ symbol commands

MGY, Symbol Manager

YC, Symbol Create

YX, Symbol Explode

_______________ ez tools

EZL, Easy Lines

IW, Easy Intersection

EZS, Easy Street

EZB, Bodies (Old Body Poser)

T3, Templates

HA, Texture/Hatch

_______________ layer manager

MGL, Layer Manager

_______________ forms

EZO, Scaled Borders

_______________ draw extras

DB, Double Line Settings

EA, Elliptical Arc

BS, Bezier Single

BC, Bezier Continuous

IP, Irregular Polygon

DC, Construction Points

DH, Symbol Handle Points

DV, Curve Tangent Points

_______________ symbol extras

IR, Symbol Dynamic Rotate

IZ, Symbol Dynamic Scale

YL, Symbol Last

YR, Symbol Replace

YV, Symbol Remove

IR, Dynamic Rotate

IZ, Dynamic Scale

_______________ hatch/fill extras

HB, Hatch Boundary

HD, Seed Hatch

HT, Hatch Settings

HS, Hatch Selected

FS, Fill Selected

FB, Fill Boundary

FD, Seed Fill

WH, Window Hatch

WF, Window Fill

 

VIEW

_______________

RD, Redraw

ZA, Zoom All

ZW, Zoom Window

ZI, Zoom In

ZO, Zoom Out

ZP, Zoom Previous

PA, Zoom Pan

ZN, Zoom View

NV, Name View

TF, Bring to Front

TB, Send to Back

NI, Night Vision

_______________ view extras

ZB, Birds Eye

ZS, Zoom Selected

BA, Backward Redraw

RW, Regen Area

 

SNAPS

_______________

AU, Auto Snap

OT, Angle Trap

SC, Snap Closest

SO, Snap Object

SM, Snap Midpoint

SI, Snap Intersection

SP, Snap Perpendicular

ST, Snap Tangent

SN, Snap Center

_______________ angle draw commands

OR, Ortho Mode

OA, Ortho Angle

CF, Cursor Free

OT, Angle Trap

_______________ grid commands

GR, Grid Display

SG, Snap Grid

GS, Grid Size

GO, Grid Origin

_______________ snaps extras

QS, Quick Search

NP, Snap Nearest

S2, Snap 2 Midpoints

SQ, Snap Quadrant

LP, Snap Last Point

TK, Track

_______________ coordinate commands

MO, Absolute Coordinates

MR, Relative Coordinates

MB, Basepoint Coordinates

BP, Set Base Point

 

TEXT & DIMENSIONS

_______________ text commands

QL, Text

B4, Bubble Labels

AW, Arrow

_______________ dimension commands

QD, Dimension

OL, Object Length

DA, Dimension Angle

DR, Dimension Radius

_______________ measure commands

MD, Measure Distance & Angles

MA, Measure Area

_______________ text and dimension extras

TL, Text Line

TE, Text Editor

LE, Leader

LA, Load ASCII

DD, Dimension Diameter

DO, Dimension Ordinate

AR, Arrow Flip

PF, Proximity Fixed OFF

UTILITIES

UN, Units

CE, Coordinate Manual Entry

MGL, Layer Manager

OI, Object Info

RV, Reset to Factory Defaults

 

_______________ utilities extras

YD, Layer Display

YH, Layer Hide

AL, All Layer Edit

NL, Snap Layer

PD, Pack Data

 

RECON-ANIMATE

MD, Measure Distance

Q1, Add KEP

KP, Lock Symbol to Path

AN, Animate

 

3D

M3, 3D

B3, 3D Builder

WV, Wall Evidence

S3, Snapshot Manager

ATO, Auto Surface

EZU, Easy Surface

AE, Ground Level Adjust

 

HELP

LR, Learning Center