Little Known CAD Commands That Rock, Part 4

Each month in the Little Known CAD Commands That Rock series, I highlight some underused commands that I think have some pretty cool uses. Last month I talked about TSPACEINVADERS, Override Glyphs in Civil 3D, and dealing with Overlapping Viewports. In Part 4 of this series, I am going to discuss a few commands and settings that I think can be useful in all AutoCAD-based software.

Command #11: BCOUNT

The first command that I will discuss is called BCOUNT. This command stands for “Block Count” and will give you an on-screen report of all the blocks that have been inserted and are currently in your drawing. Keep in mind that this command only reports on blocks that are currently present in the drawing. It does not include blocks that have been erased and not purged out. Check out the video below to see how to use this command.

Command #12: SNAPANG

The next topic I will discuss is SNAPANG. This is the command (or setting) that allows you to set the angle of your crosshairs in AutoCAD. There are a couple of different ways you can use this command covered in the video below.

Command #13: M2P

The next topic I will discuss is M2P which is basically an OSNAP setting for midway between two points. What does that mean? It can be used to get the midpoint that is calculated between the endpoints of two lines, for example. Check out the video below to see how to use this command.

Command #14: EXTRIM

The last topic I will discuss is the EXTRIM command. This routine allows for a single object to be selected as the cutting plane. Then you choose the side to trim. This command is considerably faster than selecting all the objects that you want to be trimmed. Check out the video below to see how to use this command.

So that’s it for part 4 of this series. Be sure to check back for the upcoming installments of this series as I will continue to discuss more commands that you might find useful.