AutoCAD Tips & Tutorials

Temporarily override OSNAP, ORTHO, and other drafting settings

You're drawing merrily along and you want to draw a line to a point, but you have OSNAP on, so the line keeps on snapping to the nearest endpoint. That's not what you want! So you turn off OSNAP, but for the next line segment, you need it on again. So you turn it on.

There's an easier way; you can use a temporary override. Temporary overrides are keyboard shortcuts that you press and hold to override a setting such as OSNAP, ORTHO, and more. Sometimes they're a little awkward to use (you may feel as if you need an extra finger or two), but they're so useful, you won't mind.

Note that the overrides all use Shift and most have two, one for the left Shift key and one for the right key. Most people, having the mouse in their right hand, will use the first set with the left Shift key. But those of you who put your mouse in your left hand need not feel left out!

Here they are.

• OSNAP on/off: Shift+A; Shift + '
• ORTHO on/off: Shift
• Object snap tracking on/off: Shift+Q; Shift+]
• OSNAP and object snap tracking on/off: Shift+D; Shift+L (turns them both on or off)
• Endpoint OSNAP: Shift+E; Shift+P
• Midpoint OSNAP: Shift+V; Shift+M
• Center OSNAP: Shift+C; Shift+,

There's one more. Instead of working with OSNAP on and toggling it off temporarily, you could work with it off and toggle it on. The override above doesn't do that. Instead, use Shift+S; Shift+;

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