AutoCAD – Mouse Controls

by John Flanagan

You pick objects with the left mouse button. What else can you do with your mouse?

The following tips will make navigating drawings much easier and faster.

With the Mouse Wheel:

• Tip 1: Double click the wheel to Zoom Extents.

• Tip 2: Hold the wheel down and move the mouse to pan.

• Tip 3: Hold Shift + Wheel (in that order) and you can orbit (for 3D drawings)

• Tip 4: Hold Wheel + Shift (in that order) and you can pan vertically or horizontally as if ORTHO is on.

• Tip 5: Roll the wheel forward and backward and you can zoom in and out respectively. (Extra Tip: Set the zoomfactor variable to control how fast you zoom in and out with the wheel)

With the Left Mouse Button:

• Tip 6: Single click to select objects.

• Tip 7: Shift + Left click to deselect objects.

• Tip 8: Doubleclick to edit objects (Extra Tip: You can customise how the doubleclick edits objects in the CUI)

• Tip 9: Pick one or more objects, and then hold down the left mouse button to drag/move those objects.

With the Right Mouse Button:

• Tip 10: (Depending on Right Click Customization under Options > User Preferences) – Click the right mouse button (or Enter or Spacebar) to bring back the last command.

• Tip11: Click the right mouse button (or Enter or Spacebar) during a command to end the command.

• Tip 12: With objects selected, Right click brings up a pop up menu full of pertinent editing options.