Users often report that menus (or ribbons) from our products come up missing in AutoCAD.  This has been a problem for many years and isn’t limited to our products (customers with their own custom menus can have the same problem).

Try this procedure to restore the menu(s).

1. Issue the MENULOAD command (do not issue the MENU command).
2. Carefully make sure the PRODUCTNAME is highlighted in the top list (not ACAD, etc).
3. Click the [Unload] button.
4. Choose the [Browse] button.
5. Navigate to the PRODUCTNAME folder and select the menu (CUIx file).
6. Choose the [Load] button.

Also be aware that AutoCAD will only remember roughly 21 pulldown menus.  If you have close to this number of menus and AutoCAD is regularly dropping one, that is the reason.

You can use the keyboard to quickly switch between the layouts in the drawing, simply hold the CTRL key while pressing the Page Up/Page Down buttons, such as CTRL+PAGE DOWN to move to the right of the tabs.

Remembering selection sets is just as easy as points (above).  Use this syntax at the command prompt to remember a selection set.

Command: (setq sset (ssget))

Whenever AutoCAD requests objects to process within a command, simply provide it again with the ! prefixed symbol.

Command: MOVE
Select Objects: !sset

To remember a point (assign it to a variable), use this simple syntax at the command prompt.  This assigns the point you pick to a variable named ‘pnt’.  You can repeat this procedure to store several points with symbols like ‘pt1’, or ‘pointone’.

Command: (setq pnt (getpoint))

Anytime you want to refer to that point within the same drawing session, simply prefix it with an ! at the pick point prompt.

Base Point: !pnt

When you have multiple object snaps turned on that can be in effect for a given object (such as quadrant and center on a circle), you can press the tab key while hovering over the object to change the snap.

These system variables are not documented but are still very useful.

Command: _PKSER  (Returns the AutoCAD serial number)
Command: _VERNUM (Returns details about the installed version)

See a more complete list at ManuSoft’s site.

By default, AutoCAD does not display images (only the border) during most pan/zoom operations .  If you would like to display images in these cases, change the RTDISPLAY system variable to 0.

This little known command has a special purpose.  One case is when you have just created a block definition and want the source objects back.  Using an UNDO would undo the newly created block, the OOPS command brings the object back without undoing the block.

A second (more likely) case is when you simply want to undelete the last object(s) that were erased, without undoing.

We recently received a users drawing and found it to be redrawing and regenerating *extremely* slowly.  After a while we discovered that the VIEWRES was set to 20000 !!!  While there may be instances where you need to bump it up a little, don’t use a higher number than necessary.

Issue the VIEWRES command and answer Yes to the fast zooms, then enter the smallest number that gives smooth circles at most zoom levels.  If you zoom in tight and circles don’t look round simply issue the REGEN command.   You should be able to use 200 to 500 with good results.  This value is stored in the drawing.