2011-05-25

AutoCAD 2012 - Command Completion

Hi, my name is Melanie... and I'm a Command Line junkie.

In my defense, I started using AutoCAD for classes in high school, release 10, so typing commands in was the fast way to draft then.

The problem, of course, is that the human brain can sometimes stall a bit.

From release 2006 through 2011, your answer to a little brain stall would be to type the first character(s) of a command name and then hit the TAB key to cycle through them all, until you saw the one you wanted.

AutoCAD 2012 makes this command search a little bit easier by introducing AUTOCOMPLETE. Typing in the Command Line window or the Dynamic Input prompt has gotten quick and easy with this little beauty.
Granted, I probably do not need this feature too often because I've forgotten a command name, but, it will save me a few seconds of typing per day.

By comparison, what work I've done in Visual Studio has benefited greatly from the autocomplete feature, because I'm not very familiar with the ins-and-outs yet (free version here).

Of course, with AutoCAD, what's a new feature without some settings, eh? Depending on your level of use and personal preferences, you might want to tweak some of these.

To access the options, you can Right + Click in the command line window or type AUTOCOMPLETE.



The options, as explained in AutoCAD Help files:
  • Append - Controls whether commands and system variables are automatically completed as you type.
     
  • List - Controls whether a list of valid commands and system variables is displayed as you type.
     
  • Icon - Controls whether the corresponding icon for a command is displayed in the list. The same icon is used for all system variables.
     
  • System variables - Controls whether system variables are also included with the Append and List features.
     
  • Delay - Sets a time delay in seconds before the Append and List features take effect.
     
  • On - Enables the operation of the AUTOCOMPLETE features that are currently turned on.
     
  • Off - Suppresses the operation of AUTOCOMPLETE features without changing their settings.
You can see Heidi Hewett demo this feature in this short YouTube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8hgnurpPBM

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