AutoCAD Commands List: 86 Essential Commands and Shortcuts, Explained Simply

Every tutorial throws letters at you, L, TR, CO, and carries on as if you already know them. This AutoCAD commands list is the page to keep open beside those tutorials: the commands that matter for 2D drafting, grouped by the job they do, each with its shortcut and one plain line on what it does.

Short Answer: What belongs on an AutoCAD commands list for everyday drafting? The working set is smaller than you fear: about 86 commands cover drawing, editing, layers, blocks, dimensions and printing for 2D work. Learn 15 of them first, LINE, CIRCLE, MOVE, COPY, TRIM and OFFSET among them, and the rest can arrive one drawing at a time, because the same few commands repeat in almost every drawing you will ever make.

Bookmark this page and treat it as your lookup table. Below you will find how commands actually run, the 15 to learn first, the full grouped list, the function keys, fixes for the command problems beginners hit, and how to bend the shortcuts to your own habits.

How to use this AutoCAD commands list

Every command in AutoCAD can be started three ways: click its ribbon icon, type its full name, or type its short alias and press Enter. Typing wins once you know even a handful of aliases, because your hand never leaves the keyboard to go hunting through tabs.

Three habits make the list below much easier to use. First, after typing an alias, glance at the command line at the bottom of the screen: AutoCAD is always telling you the next step there, such as which point or object it wants. Second, press Enter or the spacebar to repeat the last command instead of retyping it. Third, press Esc to cancel a command that has gone wrong; nothing breaks, and you can simply start it again.

Start here: the first 15 commands to learn

If you are new, ignore the big tables for a moment. These 15 commands, in this order, take you from a blank screen to a simple finished drawing, and they are the ones the step-by-step AutoCAD 2D learning timeline is built around.

1. LINE (L) and PLINE (PL): draw straight segments; a polyline keeps connected segments as one object.
2. CIRCLE (C) and RECTANG (REC): the two shapes most drawings are built from.
3. MOVE (M), COPY (CO) and ROTATE (RO): put objects where they belong.
4. OFFSET (O): draw a parallel copy at an exact distance; walls and borders live on this one.
5. TRIM (TR) and EXTEND (EX): tidy lines where they cross or fall short.
6. ERASE (E): deletes; remember that Ctrl+Z forgives almost everything.
7. HATCH (H): fills a closed outline with a pattern or solid fill.
8. LAYER (LA): keeps walls, text and dimensions on separate, switchable sheets.
9. DIMLINEAR (DLI): puts real measurements on the drawing.
10. ZOOM (Z) and PAN (P): move around the drawing without changing it.

Practise these inside one small drawing, a room outline is perfect, before adding more. Speed comes from these becoming automatic, not from knowing two hundred commands vaguely.

Drawing commands: putting geometry on the page

Command	Shortcut	What it does
LINE	L	Draws one straight segment between two points
PLINE	PL	Draws connected segments that stay a single object
CIRCLE	C	Draws a circle from a centre point and a radius or diameter
ARC	A	Draws an arc, most simply through three points
RECTANG	REC	Draws a rectangle from two opposite corners
POLYGON	POL	Draws a regular shape with 3 to 1,024 equal sides
ELLIPSE	EL	Draws an ellipse from its two axes
SPLINE	SPL	Draws a smooth curve through or near picked points
POINT	PO	Places a single point marker
XLINE	XL	Draws a construction line that runs to infinity both ways
RAY	RAY	Draws a construction line that starts at a point and runs one way
DONUT	DO	Draws a thick ring, or a filled dot if the inside diameter is zero
REVCLOUD	REVCLOUD	Draws a revision cloud around changed areas
HATCH	H	Fills a closed outline with a pattern, gradient or solid colour

One of these deserves a warning early: a hatch only works inside a fully closed outline, and a gap too small to see is still a gap. If your fills keep failing, the guide to inserting hatch patterns in AutoCAD walks through the boundary checks that fix it.

Modify commands: fixing and reusing what you drew

Command	Shortcut	What it does
MOVE	M	Moves selected objects by a distance and direction
COPY	CO	Duplicates objects, once or repeatedly
ROTATE	RO	Turns objects around a base point by an angle
SCALE	SC	Enlarges or shrinks objects by a factor or by reference
MIRROR	MI	Flips objects into a mirror image across a line
OFFSET	O	Makes a twin of an object, running parallel at a distance you set
TRIM	TR	Cuts objects back to where they meet other objects
EXTEND	EX	Lengthens objects until they meet other objects
FILLET	F	Rounds the corner where two objects meet
CHAMFER	CHA	Replaces a corner with a straight angled edge
ARRAY	AR	Copies objects into rows and columns, a circle pattern or along a path
STRETCH	S	Pulls part of a drawing longer or shorter with a crossing selection
ERASE	E	Deletes selected objects
EXPLODE	X	Breaks a block or polyline into its separate pieces
BREAK	BR	Splits one object into two at a chosen point
JOIN	J	Merges touching lines and arcs into one object
PEDIT	PE	Edits a polyline: joins segments, changes width, smooths it
LENGTHEN	LEN	Changes an object’s length by an amount, a percentage or to a total
ALIGN	AL	Moves, rotates and optionally scales objects to line up with other geometry
DIVIDE	DIV	Places markers along an object split into a set number of equal parts
MEASURE	ME	Places markers along an object at a set spacing

SCALE hides the most useful trick on this page. Its Reference option sizes an object to match something already drawn, which is how you fix drawings that arrive at the wrong size; the guide to scaling with two reference points in AutoCAD shows that method step by step.

Layers, properties and drawing setup commands

Command	Shortcut	What it does
LAYER	LA	Opens the Layer Properties Manager, the control centre for layers
LAYISO	LAYISO	Hides or locks every layer except the ones you pick
LAYOFF	LAYOFF	Switches off the layer of the object you click
LAYON	LAYON	Switches every layer in the drawing back on
LAYFRZ	LAYFRZ	Freezes the layer of the object you click, hiding it completely
LAYTHW	LAYTHW	Thaws all frozen layers
LAYLOCK	LAYLOCK	Locks the layer of the object you click so it cannot be edited
LAYUNLOCK	LAYUNLOCK	Unlocks the layer of the object you click
MATCHPROP	MA	Paints the properties of one object, its layer, colour and linetype, onto others
PROPERTIES	PR	Opens the Properties palette for the selected objects (also Ctrl+1)
PURGE	PU	Removes unused blocks, layers and styles so the file stays lean
UNITS	UN	Sets the drawing’s measurement units and precision

UNITS looks dull and saves more drawings than any command here, because a file drawn in inches and one drawn in millimetres only misbehave when they meet. If your pasted objects arrive strangely sized, the guide to changing units in AutoCAD explains the fix.

Block commands: reusable parts

Command	Shortcut	What it does
BLOCK	B	Turns selected objects into one named, reusable block
INSERT	I	Places a copy of a block into the drawing
WBLOCK	W	Saves selected objects or a block out as its own drawing file
BEDIT	BE	Opens a block in the Block Editor so you can change every copy at once
ATTDEF	ATT	Adds a fill-in text label, an attribute, to a block definition

Blocks are where a drawing stops being lines and starts being a system: draw a door once, insert it forty times, edit it once and all forty update. The full workflow, from first block to keeping a library, is in the guide to making a block in AutoCAD.

Text, dimension and annotation commands

Command	Shortcut	What it does
MTEXT	T	Creates a paragraph-style text block with formatting
TEXT	DT	Creates a single line of text; fine for short labels
STYLE	ST	Creates and edits text styles: font, height and effects
DIMSTYLE	D	Creates and edits dimension styles: arrows, text size, spacing
DIM	DIM	The smart dimension tool: reads the object and picks the right type
DIMLINEAR	DLI	Dimensions a straight horizontal or vertical distance
DIMALIGNED	DAL	Dimensions along the angle of a slanted object
DIMANGULAR	DAN	Dimensions the angle between two lines
DIMRADIUS	DRA	Dimensions the radius of a circle or arc
DIMDIAMETER	DDI	Dimensions the diameter of a circle or arc
DIMCONTINUE	DCO	Chains dimensions end to end from the previous one
DIMBASELINE	DBA	Stacks dimensions that all measure from one starting point
MLEADER	MLD	Draws a label with an arrow pointing at the thing it names
TABLE	TB	Inserts a table for schedules and parts lists

A quiet trap hides here: DIMSTYLE (D) controls how every dimension looks, so set it up once, at the start, instead of repairing the appearance of fifty dimensions later.

Measuring, view and file commands

Command	Shortcut	What it does
DIST	DI	Reports the distance and angle between two points
AREA	AA	Reports the area and perimeter of an outline or object
LIST	LI	Lists everything known about selected objects in a text window
ID	ID	Reports the exact coordinates of a picked point
ZOOM	Z	Changes how much of the drawing fills the screen; E jumps to everything
PAN	P	Slides the view across the drawing without zooming
REGEN	RE	Redraws the display cleanly when curves look rough or objects look stale
QSAVE	Q	Saves the drawing as it is (Ctrl+S does the same)
SAVEAS	SAVEAS	Saves the drawing under a new name or file type
PLOT	PLOT	Opens the print dialog for paper or PDF output (also Ctrl+P)
AUDIT	AUDIT	Checks the drawing file for errors and can fix what it finds
PURGE	PU	Already listed above with layers; it earns its place here too as file first aid

That is the full working set: 86 commands appear in the tables above, and an honest secret comes with it. Nobody memorises all 86 before drawing. You memorise the first 15, and the others attach themselves to real problems as those problems appear in your drawings.

Function keys and Ctrl shortcuts

Two more sets of keys sit around the commands themselves. The F-keys toggle the drafting aids that keep drawings accurate, and getting them by feel matters as much as any command. Autodesk’s official AutoCAD shortcuts guide is the reference these tables follow.

Key	Aid it toggles
F1	Help
F2	Text window showing command history
F3	Object snap (snapping to endpoints, centres and similar points)
F7	Grid display
F8	Ortho (movement locked to horizontal and vertical)
F9	Snap mode (cursor moves in fixed steps)
F10	Polar tracking (movement guided at set angles)
F11	Object snap tracking (alignment paths from snap points)
F12	Dynamic input (dimensions and prompts beside the cursor)

Shortcut	Action
Ctrl+S	Save
Ctrl+O	Open a drawing
Ctrl+N	Start a new drawing
Ctrl+P	Plot
Ctrl+Z	Undo
Ctrl+Y	Redo
Ctrl+A	Select everything
Ctrl+C / Ctrl+V	Copy and paste objects
Ctrl+1	Properties palette
Ctrl+9	Command line, shown or hidden
Ctrl+0	Clean screen (hides the interface for maximum drawing space)
Esc	Cancel the current command

It is not working: command problems beginners actually hit

AutoCAD says “unknown command”

Nine times out of ten this is spelling. Aliases are exact, so typing PLINE works and typing POLYLINE as one casual word also works, but a near-miss like TRIMX gets you the error. Type the first two or three letters slowly and watch the suggestion list that appears above the command line; clicking the right suggestion also teaches you the correct spelling for next time. If the spelling is right and it still fails, the command may not exist in your version: AutoCAD LT, for instance, contains no 3D modelling or AutoLISP commands at all.

TRIM and EXTEND behave differently than in the tutorial

If you learned from an older video, this one is real and it is not your fault. Since AutoCAD 2021, TRIM and EXTEND start in a quick mode where everything on screen counts as a cutting edge, so one click trims against whatever is nearest. To return to the older way, where you choose the cutting edges first, start the command, type MODE, press Enter, and choose Standard. Both modes are fine; confusion only arrives when the video and your screen disagree.

Nothing seems to happen after you press Enter

The command is almost certainly waiting for you. Look at the command line: it will say something like “Select objects” or “Specify first corner”, which means the tool started fine and is asking for its input. Beginners often press Esc here and lose a command that was working. Read the prompt, do what it asks, and press Enter when it asks for the next thing. Turning dynamic input on with F12 also brings these prompts to your cursor, where they are harder to miss.

Your shortcut does something different at work or college

Aliases can be customised, and offices do customise them, so CO might not mean COPY on a shared machine. This is a feature being used as intended, not a fault. The fix for your own machine is in the next section; on a shared machine, type full command names, which nobody remaps.

Make the shortcuts yours: customising aliases

Every alias lives in a plain text file called acad.pgp, and the format could not be simpler: the alias, a comma, an asterisk, then the command, one per line. If your fingers insist that C should copy instead of drawing circles, that file is where the change goes.

1. Find the file by typing (findfile “acad.pgp”) at the command line, brackets and quotes included; AutoCAD prints its location.
2. Make a copy of the original before touching anything.
3. Open it in a text editor, change the aliases you want, and save.
4. Back in AutoCAD, run REINIT, tick PGP File, and click OK so the new aliases load without restarting.

In full AutoCAD, the ALIASEDIT command opens a small window for the same job, which is kinder than editing raw text. Either way, customise sparingly: every alias you move away from the standard is one you will fumble on somebody else’s computer.

What this AutoCAD commands list leaves out, on purpose

AutoCAD contains hundreds of commands once the 3D tools, the industry toolsets and the system variables are counted, and no working drafter uses most of them. This list deliberately covers the 2D drafting core, the commands behind almost every floor plan, fabrication drawing and site layout, and leaves out 3D modelling, rendering and programming commands entirely.

It also means the list travels well: everything above works in current versions of AutoCAD and, with the exception of the customisation extras noted in the answers below the article, in AutoCAD LT as well. If you later move into 3D or AutoLISP, those are new lists to learn then, not gaps in this one.

Five habits that make the commands stick

1. Learn in drawing order. Commands memorise themselves when they solve today’s problem: draw something real, and add the one command that drawing needs.
2. Type, do not click. The ribbon is a safety net, not a workflow. Forcing the alias for a week is what turns it into muscle memory.
3. Keep this page open beside the drawing for the first month, and close it for one drawing a week to find out what actually stuck.
4. Say the alias as you type it. Silly, and it works: hearing “T-R” while trimming is one more hook for memory to hang on.
5. Protect your work with QSAVE. Saving is a command habit, not an afterthought; a crash five minutes after your last save is the most expensive lesson in AutoCAD.

None of this requires talent for memorising. It requires one drawing at a time, which is the way everyone who looks fast in AutoCAD actually got fast.

For more guidance, you can watch this video: AutoCAD Tutorial for Beginners.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the most important AutoCAD commands for beginners?

Start with LINE (L), CIRCLE (C), PLINE (PL), RECTANG (REC), MOVE (M), COPY (CO), OFFSET (O), TRIM (TR), EXTEND (EX), ERASE (E), HATCH (H), LAYER (LA) and ZOOM (Z). These fifteen or so commands draw and fix almost every simple 2D drawing, and everything else builds on them.

Where can I find a complete AutoCAD commands list?

This page covers the 86 commands used in everyday 2D drafting, grouped by task with their shortcuts. AutoCAD itself contains hundreds more, including 3D and toolset commands; Autodesk publishes the full official shortcuts guide, which is linked from this article.

What is the difference between a command and a shortcut in AutoCAD?

The command is the full instruction, such as CIRCLE or TRIM. The shortcut, called an alias, is the short version you type, such as C or TR, followed by Enter. Both start the same tool; the alias just saves keystrokes, which is why experienced users type instead of hunting through the ribbon.

Can I change the command shortcuts in AutoCAD?

Yes. Aliases live in a small text file called acad.pgp. Edit the alias next to a command, save the file, then run REINIT and tick PGD File so AutoCAD reloads it. In full AutoCAD, the ALIASEDIT command opens a friendlier editor for the same file. Keep a backup of the original first.

What do the F1 to F12 keys do in AutoCAD?

They toggle drafting aids. The ones you will touch daily are F3 for object snap, F7 for the grid, F8 for ortho, F10 for polar tracking and F12 for dynamic input. F1 opens help and F2 shows the command history window. Pressing a key again switches its aid back off.

Why does AutoCAD say unknown command when I type a command?

Usually it is a spelling slip, because AutoCAD expects the exact command name or a known alias. It can also mean the command does not exist in your version: AutoCAD LT, for example, has no 3D or AutoLISP commands. Check the spelling first, then check whether your version includes the tool.

Do these commands work in AutoCAD LT?

Almost all of them do. Every drawing, editing, layer, block and dimension command on this list works in LT the same way as in full AutoCAD. The exceptions on this page are only the customisation extras: LT cannot run AutoLISP, and the ALIASEDIT editor is a full-version tool.