KNOW YOUR PGP's
You know that you type "a" and autoCAD runs the arc command. You type in an "L" and autoCAD runs the line command. Did you ever wonder why this happens? These keyboard shortcuts are actually aliases. They are setup in a file called the acad.pgp file. The acad.pgp file is found in the support directory of autocad. This file can be opened up with notepad, wordpad, editpad or basically any ascii file editor.
There are two main parts of the file. The [Operating System Commands] and the [AutoCAD Command Aliases].
The OSC (operating system commands) area was for DOS commands in Rev12 but with Rev13 and above you can have it invoke any of the windows tools as well as DOS Commands. The format of the OSC area will look simular to this:
Dir, Dir, 0,*File specification:,
Edit, Start edit, 0,*File to edit:,
Explorer, Start explorer, 0,,
The first thing listed is the alias, then the command to be executed, the 0 is the memory for this task, then the prompt that the user will see and the return code. Easy stuff right =o) This section of the PGP file I usually don't mess with too much. The next one is the important one for your need for speed.
The [AutoCAD Command Aliases] area. This is the area that sets up your regular aliases, ie. a for arc - l for line..etc. The format for the pgp file is easy. The file structure looks like this:
A, *Arc
Aa, *Area
Aad, *Aseadmin
Aex, *Aseexport
Al, *Align
The first part is the aliases and the second part (behind the *) is the command that will be executed. So for the first line the alias is "A" and the command is?.. Yes you got it "arc." Now if there were any of these that you didn't like change them to your preferences. I usually change "c" from circle to copy ,"x" from exlpode to extend and "te" to be Dtext. That's just the way I like it. AutoCAD is supposed to work the way you like it to. You should print out your PGP file so that you can familarize yourself with them. There might be aliases that you didn't even know existed.
After you change your PGP file and saved it you now need to have your drawing reflect these changes. So now you must type in "reinit" and a dialoge box will pop up. Select the pgp option and hit okay. Now you're set and you have all the aliases you ever wanted.
NOTE: You will want to save your original acad.pgp file under another name before you start dinking with it so that you can restore the original incase you messed it.
Email: Junglejimy@yahoo.com