I was working on a big office plan in Phoenix and the client asked for a last minute change to the HVAC layout.

I had to redo a bunch of ductwork lines by hand. My lead drafter saw me and showed me how to use the 'offset' command with a specific distance instead of redrawing everything. I'd been doing it the slow way for years. It cut my rework time from like an hour to maybe ten minutes. What's one simple command or trick in your CAD software that saved you a ton of time?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_ray1mo ago

Ever use the stretch command with a crossing window? @josephs26 is right about those little wins, I nearly cried when I found out I could move a whole building grid at once instead of each line.

josephs261mo ago

The copy command with a multiple paste option is another one. I used to copy something, place it, then hit copy again for the next spot. Setting a base point and then just typing in 'M' after the first placement lets you drop copies everywhere without going back to the menu. It's a tiny thing but it adds up over a whole drawing set.

michael_wood3212d ago

Man, that reminds me of something that happened to my buddy Dave at his old job. He was copy-pasting like a hundred light fixtures one by one and losing his mind. A senior guy walked by, saw him doing it, and showed him the 'M' trick. Dave told me he felt like an idiot but also like a whole new world opened up. He said it saved him like an hour on that one drawing set.