The following listing was developed and corroborated by our team for the 2013, 2014 and 2015 versions of AutoCAD in English. We also prepared a series of GIFs to visualize some of the trickier ones.

When you’ve finished reading, we would love to know what your favorite commands are (including those that we didn’t include). We will use your input to help us update the article!

APPLOAD

Defines which applications to load when starting / opening AutoCAD. Very useful if AutoCAD and your computer don’t get along so well.

AREA

Calculates the area and perimeter of a defined object or a surface that you select vertex by vertex, according to the metric units defined in settings.

BACKGROUND

Choose a background image for the work area. It can be a single color (Solid), a gradual color (Gradient) or an image (Image) from your computer.

BMPOUT

Generates a bitmap image (.bmp format) after selecting a series of objects, surfaces, or regions.

BOX

Creates a 3D box, defining height, width and depth.

BURST

Explodes a block or an object, but keeps its attributes intact after exploding it. Highly recommended.

CHSPACE

Moves objects from the layout to the model, and vice versa. The best part is that the objects are scaled automatically in the new space.

CLOSEALL

Closes all open AutoCAD windows. If there are changes to any of your files that you haven’t saved yet, you will be asked if you want to save them. Unlike QUIT, you won’t exit AutoCAD with this command, just return to Start.

COLOR

Choose a layer color for future objects, lines and surfaces.

DIMALIGNED

Creates a dimension aligned with an axis / line.

DIMANGULAR

Creates a dimension aligned with an arc or circle.

DIMBASELINE

Creates a linear, angular or coordinate dimension, starting from a baseline of an earlier dimension.

DIMRADIUS

Creates a radius dimension for circles and arcs. Not to be confused with DIMANGULAR and DIMBASELINE.

DIMTEDIT

Edits the text location of existing dimensions.

EDGESURF

Creates a three-dimensional polygonal mesh.

EXPLODE

Breaks up an object or block into each of its individual components. Before using, make sure you’re on the right layer.

ID

Displays the coordinates of any point on the worksheet.

LIGHT

Manage lights and lighting effects on 3D models. You will most likely be prompted to change the viewport, or turn off the default lighting.

LINETYPE

Create, organize, and select line types.

MATLIB

Import and export materials from and to a library.

MLINE

Creates multiple parallel lines.

MLEDIT

Edit multiple parallel lines.

MULTIPLE

Repeats the next command until you cancel (Esc)

MVSETUP

Sets up the layout of a drawing.

OOPS

Restores the most recently deleted items. Its advantage over U is that you can use it after using BLOCK (or WBLOCK, export selected items to a new .DWG file), because those commands can delete selected objects after creating a block.

Unfortunately, you can’t use OOPS after PURGE.

OVERKILL

Cleans up your drawings. It goes over your entire model and deletes any duplicate or overlapping items. An incredible help for those who are obsessed with order and clarity in planimetry.

PAGESETUP

Specifies the page layout, plus the plotting device, paper size, and other settings for each new layout.

PFACE

Creates a 3D mesh vertex by vertex.

PREVIEW

Shows how the drawing will look when printed or sent to a plotter. Before you do this, you need to have configured the layout of the page (PAGESTEUP).

PURGE

Remove unused objects in the drawing you are working on, through a series of filters: blocks, layers, materials, thickness of lines, texts, among others.

QDIM

Quickly creates a dimension, after selecting objects.

QLEADER

Quickly creates a leader, and a leader annotation.

QSAVE

Autosave the file. Very useful when AutoCAD stops working and you’ve gone hours without saving any work. If you haven’t named the file yet, it’s the same as SAVEAS.

QSELECT

Quickly select objects according to a list of available filters: colors, line type and layers, among others.

RECOVER

Recovers a damaged file.

RENDER

Creates a render of the model you’re working on.

REVOLVE

Creates revolved solids (3D) by rotating 2D objects around a user-defined axis.

RULESURF

Creates a surface that joins two curves previously defined by the user.

SAVEALL

Automatically saves all drawings you are working on.

SHOWMAT

Displays a set of information for a selected object, including line thickness, color, dimensions, radius, and area.

SKETCH

Create a series of freehand drawing segments.

SPELL

Checks the spelling in texts using the language settings from your operating system, not AutoCAD.

SUBTRACT

Creates a region from a solid, surface, or region by subtraction.

TABLET

Calibrates and configures a tablet or Wacom.

TIME

Displays a statistics table of the file you are working on: creation date, last update, and edit time. If you’re interrupted, you can activate / deactivate the stopwatch.

U

The same as Ctrl + Z, undoes the most recent operation.

UNDEFINE

Deletes an AutoCAD command, even this one. If you want to reverse your decision, REDEFINE.

VPORTS

Manages AutoCad windows for 2D and 3D models.

XLINE

Creates an infinite line.

3DSOUT

Export a file compatible with 3D Studio (.3ds format).