Tab, Don't Type
Instead of typing the full name of a command at the command line or Dynamic Input window, you can enter the first letter (or letters), then press the Tab key cycle through all of the commands that begin with that letter or letters. Press Shift + Tab to cycle in reverse alphabetical order.

Aerial Act
The DSVIEWER command opens AutoCAD’s Aerial View window. The Aerial View is similar to Zoom Dynamic (discussed last time), but with more features. It lets you pan and zoom, and you can leave it open for immediate access any time you’re working with a large or detailed drawing

To launch the Aerial View window, select Aerial View from the View menu, or type Dsviewer at the command line. The window remains inactive while you work in your drawing. Click anywhere in the window to activate it. Your entire drawing appears in the box, along with a heavy black rectangle that indicates the current view. There is also a lighter black rectangle (initially the same size as the current view). When the lighter rectangle has an X, it means you can pan. Use your mouse to move this rectangle to the desired area of your drawing.

Caption: Aerial View with pan underway. Note how the drawing reflects the location of the rectangle.

Position the rectangle over the area of the drawing you want to zoom in to. Click your mouse button to switch to zoom mode, indicated by an arrow. Move your mouse to resize the rectangle so it covers the area you want to view.

Caption: Zoom rectangle in Aerial View.

Right-click or press Esc to set the new view and return to your drawing.

The Aerial View window also features a menu and toolbar. The first two toolbar buttons let you quickly zoom in and zoom out. Each click on these tools changes the view by a factor of 2.

Note that when the entire drawing appears in the Aerial View window, the Zoom Out button won’t work. Likewise, when the current view fills the window, Zoom In isn’t available. The third one--Global--shows the entire drawing and the current view.

The Options menu provides some additional functionality.

Caption: Aerial View options.

When Auto Viewport is on, the model space of the current viewport automatically displays when multiple viewports are displayed. When it’s off, the Aerial View window does not update to match the current viewport.

When Dynamic Update is on, AutoCAD will update the Aerial View window while you edit the drawing. When off, the Aerial View window won’t update until you click in it.

When Realtime Zoom is on, AutoCAD updates the drawing area in real time when you zoom with the Aerial View window.

Terminate View Transitions
AutoCAD 2006 introduced view transitions, or animation, which basically makes the drawing view slide along smoothly when you pan, zoom, and rotate your view. If you don’t like this effect or find that it slows you down when navigating a large drawing, you can adjust it or turn it off completely.

You can use the View Transitions dialog box to adjust settings. Type Vtoptions at the command line to display this dialog box.

Caption: View Transitions dialog box.

Uncheck the top three items to eliminate the view transitions. Use the bottom two sliders to control how long a transition lasts and minimum number of frames per second.

You can also access these settings directly through system variables. VTENABLE controls the first three options in the dialog box. You can set a value from 0 through 7 to achieve the results shown in the following table. The default setting is 3.

The VTDURATION system variable sets the duration of a view transition, in milliseconds.

The VTFPS system variable sets the minimum speed of a view transition, in frames per second.

Stack Your Superscripts
To create a superscript in mtext, you can type a caret (^) after the text you want to superscript. You can include spaces in the text. Use Shift + 6 to enter the caret symbol. Then highlight the caret and text. Click on the Stack button in the Mtext Editor, or right-click and select Stack from the shortcut menu that appears. Basically, you’re making the caret the denominator of the fraction that is stacked.

Caption: Place caret after text and highlight (above). Then press the Stack button (the fraction one) to get the results below.

For a subscript, place the caret before the text (make it the numerator of the fraction).

Caption: Place caret before text and highlight (above). Pressing Stack produces the results below.

Terminate Transparency