Activate Multiple Commands with One WORD (Automate AutoCAD!)

Have you ever been stuck in a situation doing the same boring sequence of moves in AutoCAD over and over again? I definitely have! For example, when a client or colleague sends me drawings and I have to clean them up before using them as external references (What is Xref? Why should we use it?). This will include commands like AUDIT, PURGE, and SETBYLAYER.  Often I have to trigger all those commands one after another a dozen times and it is possible to miss one or two from rushing. At this point, it will be great if there was a way to activate multiple commands in AutoCAD at once. Fortunately, there is a way to do just that, and today we will take a closer look at the solution, more accurately how to use Action Recorder.

Create a Macro in AutoCAD (A Command that Activates Multiple Commands in a Sequence.)

To better illustrate how the Action Recorder really works we will create a Macro for cleaning up drawings made by others. The command sequel that we will be using is AUDIT, PURGE, -PURGE (reg apps), SETBYLAYER, ZOOM EXTENDS and QUICK SAVE. The command that will trigger this sequence can be whatever word you like, we will call XRSET. 

  1. Open a generic drawing and go to MANAGE tab and under Action Recorder click on RECORD. The tool can be also be activated with ACTRECORD command.
  2. At this point, AutoCAD starts recording your every move. Now we will start all the commands one by one as we always do.|
    Note: When entering a specific value in a command (in our example “*” for -PURGE) AutoCAD will ask you if you want to use the value that is current at playback or use the current default value.

  3. After recording your commands click on the STOP button that is currently shown on the Action Recorder.

  4. A window will pop up, under Action Macro Command Name type in your command name. We will use XRSET. There is an option to type in a description for your macro. That way others can figure out the multiple commands that will be triggered in the AutoCAD. I recommend leaving when pausing for user input checked and check for inconsistencies and hit OK.

Start-Automating your work right now!

I hope you find this post informative. You can check our other AutoCAD related posts to learn more useful tricks!

 

How useful was this post?

Click on a star to rate it!

Average rating 0 / 5. Vote count: 0

No votes so far! Be the first to rate this post.

We are sorry that this post was not useful for you!

Let us improve this post!

Tell us how we can improve this post?

Leave a Reply

.wp-container-core-social-links-layout-1.wp-container-core-social-links-layout-1{flex-wrap:nowrap;justify-content:flex-start}.wp-container-core-social-links-layout-2.wp-container-core-social-links-layout-2{flex-wrap:nowrap;justify-content:flex-start}