AutoCAD 2019 - Scroll Wheel Zoom Rate

By Martin Phelps 

This is another question that cropped up during a recent training course. “How can I change the rate of zooming in and out when using the scroll wheel?”

The scroll wheel zoom rate is controlled by the system variable “Zoomfactor” (all one word), the default value is set to 60. The drawing in Figure 1 is displayed using “Zoom Extents”, so the boundary is just visible.

Figure1.

Setting the “Zoomfactor” to a lower value would result in a smaller zoom increment and will have the effect of slower zooms, therefore taking more movement of scroll wheel to “Zoom” in and out. Figure 2 shows the drawing display if the “Zoomfactor” is set to 10. The drawing zoomed out by 1 click of the scroll wheel.

Figure 2.

By setting the “Zoomfactor” to a higher value, this will have the effect of zooming in and out quicker, therefore taking less movement of the scroll wheel. Figure 3 shows the drawing display if the “Zoomfactor” is set to 70, zoomed out from the initial display as shown in Figure 1, rotating 1 click of the scroll wheel.

Figure 3.

Values for “Zoomfactor” can be set between 3 and 100.