Many seasoned and experienced AutoCAD users find it helpful to use the keyboard to enter commands instead of the toolbar icons. One could argue that the keyboard is more efficient. But rather than typing in full commands, keyboard shortcuts are used, where only one, two, or perhaps three characters can stand for standard commands. Such keyboard shortcuts are known as Command Aliases.
Examples of some of the standard shortcuts are Z for Zoom, E for Erase, and C for Circle.
These are simple command shortcuts, not to be confused with keyboard macros. For example, ZE would be a macro containing the Zoom command and E (for Extents) as an option. Whereas using standard keyboard shortcuts, you would need to enter Z, hit <Enter> and then E and hit <Enter>.
Often you can hit the spacebar instead of hitting <Enter>, which I find more convenient.
Note: Macros are covered in other blogs on this site and not discussed here.
The acad.pgp file
These keyboard shortcuts (or Command Aliases) are controlled by an external file named “acad.pgp”. (PGP stands for ProGram Programable file.) You can edit it to add your own shortcuts, or modify or eliminate existing entries.
My pet peeve is that out of the box, C is for Circle, and CO and CP are for Copy. Now I don’t know about you, but I spend a lot more time copying objects working in AutoCAD than I do drawing circles (even including copying circles!). So I tend to modify my acad.pgp file to have C stand for Copy, and add CI to be Circle. I leave CP and CO as additional shortcuts for Copy.
This is how it’s done:
To find where the acad.pgp file is located, in AutoCAD type (findfile “acad.pgp”) directly into the command line to display the exact file path. The default path is C:\Users\LOGINNAME\AppData\Roaming\Autodesk\C3D 2027\enu\Support.
Copy the path into Windows File Explorer. Or from the Windows Run screen (accessible through the <Windows> <R> shortcut, type %Appdata% to access the Roaming folder, as shown.
Once you find that folder and the acad.pgp file, I recommend you make a copy of the file. I usually call it acad-pgp.ori (the ori extension simply means original). Then you can edit the acad.pgp file with your standard text editor like Notepad.
Near the beginning of the file is a section where you can invoke external programs from the AutoCAD command line.
In effect, you can use the (findfile “acad.pgp”) tip described above, copy the result onto the clipboard, type Notepad, and paste the result to edit the acad.pgp file directly from AutoCAD, as shown! (Remember to make a copy of the original acad.pgp file.)
At the very bottom of the acad.pgp file is a section for user defined entries. This is nice because for any duplicates within the file, the last entries will be used. So for my pet peeve example above, I do not need to edit an existing shortcut, I can simply add two lines at the bottom of the file as shown, so that C will now be for Copy and CI for Circle.
Final thoughts
Keyboard entries of standard AutoCAD commands are efficient. Keyboard shortcuts are even more efficient. Customizing your keyboard shortcuts can boost your efficiency even more. Such keyboard shortcuts are managed in the acad.pgp file.
Not only is this file convenient to alter or add your own keyboard shortcuts, but for a geek like me, it is also interesting to see what other keyboard shortcuts there are, external programs that can be invoked, or even study the history of commands that have been retired. These are all contained in the acad.pgp file.
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