Asleep at the Wheel

In my years of training I have found that AutoCAD users use the ZOOM and PAN command more than any other command in AutoCAD. The reason for this is they are always searching for things to edit in their drawing. There are a few things that you can do to optimize your performance that allows you to zoom around your drawing without ever entering an AutoCAD ZOOM command.

Settings that effect your mouse performance are:
• ZOOMFACTOR
• MBUTTONPAN
• ZOOMWHEEL

ZOOMFACTOR
You can adjust the zoom percentage by adjusting this value. The initial value is set to 10. You can enter an integer value between 3 and 100. The figure represents the change in zoom level for each increment of wheel rotation. As an example with the value set to 10, each increment of the turn of the wheel changes the zoom level by 10%.

MBUTTONPAN
This system variable toggles the Pan functionality of the wheel. The MBUTTONPAN must be set to one (1) so that when you depress the wheel it will activate the PAN command. When MBUTTONPAN is set to zero (0) you’ll get the Object Snap popup menu.

ZOOMWHEEL
ZOOMWHEEL toggles the direction of transparent zoom operations when you scroll the middle mouse wheel. When set to zero (0), scrolling the wheel forward zooms in; scrolling the wheel backwards zooms out. Set to one (1) , scrolling the wheel forward zooms out; scrolling the wheel backwards zooms in. (You can mess with your co-workers head by changing this value. I do not endorse such actions!)

In Conclusion:
You can Zoom and Pan using the wheel. Roll the wheel away from you to zoom in; roll the wheel towards you to zoom out. When you zoom in and out, AutoCAD zooms in and out around the location of the cursor. Press the wheel down and move the mouse to pan. Double-click on the wheel to zoom extents.

For you gamers, hold the CTRL button on the keyboard while you hold down the wheel and move the mouse to use another mode of panning called Joystick Pan.
Now you are Wheel smart! Take care and thanks for viewing my Blog!
Later
Bob