Whether you’re designing a building layout, detailing a road cross-section, or drafting a site plan, AutoCAD is an essential tool for every civil engineer. Mastering the right commands can save time, increase precision, and boost productivity.
Below is a list of 50 must-know AutoCAD commands
Basic Drawing & Editing
- LINE (L) – Draw straight lines
- POLYLINE (PL) – Draw connected line segments
- CIRCLE (C) – Draw circles
- RECTANGLE (REC) – Draw rectangles
- ARC (A) – Draw arcs
- ELLIPSE (EL) – Draw ellipses
- SPLINE (SPL) – Draw smooth curves
- POINT (PO) – Place a point
- HATCH (H) – Fill closed areas with patterns
- TEXT (T / DT) – Add single or multiline text
Modification Tools
- MOVE (M) – Move objects
- COPY (CO / CP) – Copy objects
- ROTATE (RO) – Rotate objects
- SCALE (SC) – Scale objects
- TRIM (TR) – Trim objects to boundaries
- EXTEND (EX) – Extend objects to boundaries
- OFFSET (O) – Create parallel geometry
- MIRROR (MI) – Mirror objects
- STRETCH (S) – Stretch parts of objects
- LENGTHEN (LEN) – Change object lengths
Object Management
- LAYERS (LA) – Manage layers
- MATCHPROP (MA) – Match object properties
- PROPERTIES (CH) – Modify object properties
- GROUP (G) – Group multiple objects
- UNGROUP (UNG) – Ungroup grouped objects
- BLOCK (B) – Create blocks
- INSERT (I) – Insert blocks
- WBLOCK – Write a block to a separate file
- EXPLODE (X) – Break compound objects into parts
- OVERKILL – Remove overlapping lines (Clean geometry)
Annotation & Dimensioning
- DIM (D / DIMLINEAR) – Add dimensions
- LEADER (LE / MLEADER) – Add leader lines with text
- MTEXT (T) – Multiline text
- TABLE (TB) – Insert tables
- QLEADER – Quick leader command
- TEXTEDIT (TEDIT) – Edit text
- DIMSTYLE (D) – Manage dimension styles
- ANNOTATIVE – Use annotative scaling for text and dimensions
Viewing & Navigation
- ZOOM (Z) – Zoom in/out
- PAN (P) – Move around in the drawing
- REGEN (RE) – Regenerate the display
- U (Undo) – Undo the last command
- REDO (CTRL+Y) – Redo last action
- ISOLATE / HIDEOBJECTS – Hide or isolate objects
- LAYISO / LAYUNISO – Isolate/restore layers
Advanced Tools
- XREF (X) – Attach external references
- PURGE – Clean unused items
- AUDIT – Check the drawing for errors
- OSNAP (F3) – Object snaps for precision
- GRID / SNAP – Control drawing accuracy with grids/snaps
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