Here is the updated list for 2012 versions of AutoCAD and the various products that use it as a platform.

Here is the new list:  AutoCAD Keyboard Shortcuts-2012

An added bonus – the last page lists discontinued shortcuts from prior versions.

Thanks so much to Heidi Hewitt who helped me with this update.

Over the years many have comments and provided additional shortcuts.  You can see the old post with the many comments with these links:

2008 Keyboard Shortcuts

2008 Keyboard Shortcuts – old PDF (2008)

If you are not on Windows 7 yet – it may be time to move. If you are not on a 64bit system yet – it may be time to move.  If you have not loaded up your system with RAM – time to slam some more in there.  Older OS’s and 32bit will still work, but the demands of the software keep increasing.  RAM is always a welcome addition and is an inexpensive upgrade for most.

Here are the AutoCAD 2012 32bit requirements for AutoCAD:

• Microsoft® Windows® 7 Enterprise, Ultimate, Professional, or Home Premium (compare Windows 7 versions); Microsoft® Windows Vista® Enterprise, Business, Ultimate, or Home Premium (SP2 or later) (compare Windows Vista versions); or Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional or Home edition (SP3 or later)
• For Windows Vista or Windows 7: Intel® Pentium® 4 or AMD Athlon® dual-core processor, 3.0 GHz or higher with SSE2 technology; for Windows XP: Intel Pentium 4 or AMD Athlon dual-core processor, 1.6 GHz or higher with SSE2 technology
• 2 GB RAM
• 2 GB free disk space for installation
• 1,024 x 768 display resolution with true color
• Microsoft® Internet Explorer® 7.0 or later
• Install from download or DVD

And the 64bit requirements:

• Microsoft Windows 7 Enterprise, Ultimate, Professional, or Home Premium (compare Windows 7 versions); Microsoft Windows Vista Enterprise, Business, Ultimate, or Home Premium (SP2 or later) (compare Windows Vista versions); or Microsoft Windows XP Professional (SP2 or later)
• AMD Athlon 64 with SSE2 technology, AMD Opteron® processor with SSE2 technology, Intel® Xeon® processor with Intel EM64T support and SSE2 technology, or Intel Pentium 4 with Intel EM64T support and SSE2 technology
• 2 GB RAM
• 2 GB free space for installation
• 1,024 x 768 display resolution with true color
• Internet Explorer 7.0 or later
• Install from download or DVD

If you are going to delve heavily into the 3D side of things:

• Intel Pentium 4 processor or AMD Athlon, 3 GHz or greater; or Intel or AMD dual-core processor, 2 GHz or greater
• 2 GB RAM or more
• 2 GB hard disk space available in addition to free space required for installation
• 1,280 x 1,024 true color video display adapter 128 MB or greater, Pixel Shader 3.0 or greater, Microsoft® Direct3D®-capable workstation-class graphics card

My personal recommendations for any new machine:

64bit – Windows 7 – 8 gigs of RAM (or more) – Kick up the GPU strength also

Ever use Unicode – I have not… but…

When entering text, you can create special characters, including the degree symbol, plus/minus tolerance symbol, and the diameter symbol, by entering the following Unicode character strings:

\U+00B0 = Degrees symbol (°)

\U+00B1 = Tolerance symbol (±)

\U+2205 = Diameter symbol

Better yet – Use %% – this is a more standard way of enter special characters

In addition to using Unicode characters for entering special characters, you can also overscore text, underscore text, or insert a special character by including control information in the text string. Use a pair of percent signs to introduce each control sequence.

You can use this control code with standard AutoCAD text fonts and Adobe PostScript fonts:

%%nnn – Draws character number nnn.

NOTE: You can use these control codes with standard AutoCAD text fonts only:

%%o – Toggles overscoring on and off.

%%u – Toggles underscoring on and off.

%%d – Draws degrees symbol (°).

%%p – Draws plus/minus tolerance symbol (±).

%%c – Draws circle diameter dimensioning symbol .

What if I want the % sign???

%%% – Draws a single percent sign (%). This is valid for the TEXT command only.

Overscoring and underscoring can be in effect at the same time. Both turn off automatically at the end of the text string.

You can use the %%nnn control sequence to display special characters using the PostScript fonts.

You can also get most of these off the MTEXT menu now.

Click on Other to get even more…

Specify Plot Offset Relative To

Specifies whether the offset of the plot area is from the lower-left corner of the printable area or from the edge of the paper (PLOTOFFSET system variable).  Depending on your plotter you may have to fiddle with these setting.

Printable Area
Specifies that the plot offset is relative to the printable area.

Edge of Paper
Specifies that the plot offset is relative to the edge of the paper.

Plot Stamp Settings

Opens the Plot Stamp dialog box.  So much here that it will need to be another post at some  point.

NOTE:  Most people don’t use this plotstamp any longer. They use RTEXT with Diesel or more recently – FIELDS.

Plot Style Table Settings

Opens the Plot Style Table Settings dialog box.

The first option is to either leave the Paper Space size as set int he drawing or to set it to the plotter sizes.  I keep it as the Drawing defines it.  I may use the plot device if I get files from others.  You will get a warning if the system cannot plot at the Paper size selected for that plotter, but you can turn that off by setting PAPERUPDATE to 0 (zero).

System printer spool alerts let you turn on notifications.  You can set it yo tell you everything and also log it to telling you nothing and logging nothing.  You can keep it turned on,but I would turn off the logging unless you are having trouble or need to track plots.  Most people get annoyed with alerts and turn it off altogether.

OLE plot quality – determines the quality of plotted OLE objects. The options are Monochrome, Low Graphics, High Graphics, and Automatically Select. Not much use for this if you are not using OLE embeds.

Use OLE Application When Plotting OLE Objects

Launches the application used to create the OLE object when plotting a drawing with OLE objects. You can use this option to optimize the quality of plotted OLE objects. This setting is saved in the drawing. IF you are getting bad plots then you may want to turn this on.

Hide System Printer

By default AutoCAD shows you every last plotter that it can find. If you are on a network, then the list can get long. You can shorten it a little by clicking this box. It controls whether Windows system printers are displayed in the Plot and Page Setup dialog boxes. It does not hide Windows system printers that have been configured using the Add-a-Plotter wizard.

You can also control the size of the list of devices in the Plot and Page Setup dialog boxes by moving a device’s PC3 file out of the Plotters folder and its sub-folders. I am not sure if it still does it, but prior releases check every plotter in the list to see if they are still good to go. If it takes you a long time to open the plot dialog – look to see how many devices it find. Get the list as short as possible.

Now we move into the area of Plotting and Publishing.

Here you can set the default settings for new files, Plot to file settings, Auto Publish and Background processing options.  General Plot options are set related to drivers, plot style tables, output devices and more.

This one box can save you so many headaches if you get it right.

You can set the default output device from the drop down list of available devices.  This really only effects drawing that have not been opened or saved in 2000 format and beyond.  This dialog will find any PCS files or setups found on your search path or default system printers.

You could set the next radio button to allow AutoCAD to use the last successful plot setting override what is in the file.

The Add or Configure Plotters button takes you to the new plotter setup process.

Lastly – the Plot to file location can be set.  Make sure you know where these files are being created. You could change this to the Desktop.  I would avoid a network location.

Turn both of these on.

There are two options here:

Plotting - setting this one to on by checking the box will enable background processing for the PLOT command.

Publishing - setting this one to on by checking the box will enable background processing for the PUBLISH command.

When background plotting is enabled, an icon will display in the lower right corner of AutoCAD.

There are options that are enabled when you right click on the icon.  Right-click any of the plot and publish icons in the tray on the right side of the status bar. The icon changes depending on what is happening in the background.

A plot or publish job is currently being processed in the background

A plotting details report is available. No errors and warnings occurred.

A plotting details report is available. Errors and warnings occurred.

When your process is running you might see a dialog box like below.

When the process is complete – you will be notified – mine obviously had troubles

Plot and publish log file – turn it off – you most likely will never need this.

If you did create a log it would include:

• Job ID
• Job name
• Sheet set name
• Category name
• Date and time started and completed
• Sheet name
• Full file path
• Selected layout name
• Page setup name
• Named page setup path
• Device name
• Paper size name
• Final status

If you do create a file – it will be located in the location set on the Files tab of the Dialog box.

You can save one big giant file that is appended to as you create new plots – or check the other box and get one file per process job.  (Not one per file, but one per job)

It creates a CSV file that can be opened in Excel.

Here is an example (not in Excel)