Welcome to Day 1!
Today we are talking about the mouse and keyboard
Mouse and Keyboard
Welcome to Day 1 of our 6-Day CAD Learner Series!
Today, we’re covering the foundations of navigating in CAD: mouse, keyboard, plus zoom and pan. These skills are essential, and so we’ll start with this foundation.
Today’s Overview: Keyboard, Mouse & Navigation
- Selection Sets — temporary groups of entities
- Left-Click — select entities, grips, input points
- Middle Mouse Button — hold down to pan around
- Right-Click — shortcut menu for quick actions
- <Enter> — start or repeat the last command
- <ESC> — exit a command or dialog
Navigation with Zoom & Pan
- Hold the middle mouse wheel to pan
- Type Z for Zoom (remember commands are always followed by the <Enter> key)
- Z <Enter> W <Enter> — Zoom Window
- Z <Enter>> P <Enter> — Zoom Previous
- Z <Enter> E <Enter> — Zoom Extents
Special note: Commands are the quickest way to learn CAD because they teach precision, speed, and real CAD fluency. Menus and ribbons may look beginner-friendly, but in reality they slow down the learning process. They encourage extra clicking, waste screen space, and prevent new users from developing the muscle memory that makes CAD second nature.
That said, there are situations where the ribbon or a dialog is necessary — for example, when editing text, setting up dimensions, or choosing a hatch pattern. But for the vast majority of drafting tasks, you’ll work faster and more effectively if you use commands whenever possible.
Work through the video using the spacebar to pause after each step.
- Select a few entities, press Esc, then type M (Move), press Enter, type P (Previous Selection), and move from one point to another.
- Practice using the mouse wheel to pan and zoom.
- Try the Zoom commands: Z <Enter> W <Enter> then Z <Enter> P <Enter> and lastly Z <Enter> E <Enter>
- Use the spacebar to pause the video and follow along step by step.