AutoCAD ACU key terms

A reusable starting file that already contains settings such as units, layers, dimension styles, and title blocks. Beginning a new drawing from one keeps standards consistent across a project or office.

The unbounded drafting area where geometry is created at full real-world size. Content drawn here is later shown on sheets through viewports instead of being drawn at paper size.

Settings that define the measurement system, insertion scale, and displayed precision for lengths and angles. They affect how coordinates and distances are interpreted, not how large objects actually are.

A precision aid that makes the cursor jump to exact geometric points on existing objects, such as endpoints, midpoints, centers, and intersections, so new geometry connects accurately.

A drafting aid that restricts cursor movement to preset angle increments and shows a temporary alignment line. It helps draw straight segments at exact angles without typing coordinates.

A feature that shows command prompts, coordinate boxes, and dimension fields next to the cursor while drawing. Values can be typed directly into those boxes instead of the command line.

A command that scans the current drawing for structural errors and can repair them. Running it before delivery helps prevent crashes and corrupted files when others open the drawing.

A small square handle shown on a selected object at key points. Clicking and dragging a grip edits the object directly, and its menu offers extra options such as stretch or add vertex.

A modify command that removes portions of objects crossing a chosen cutting edge. Only the parts on the side you select are erased, while the rest of the object stays intact.

A modify command that lengthens objects until they meet a chosen boundary edge. It is the complement of trimming and works on lines, arcs, polylines, and similar objects.

A modify command that creates a parallel copy of an object at a specified distance or through a picked point. It is commonly used for walls, pathways, and concentric shapes.

A command that produces multiple copies of objects arranged in a rectangular grid, around a center point, or along a path, with controllable spacing, item counts, and angles.

A modify command that moves selected vertices of an object while leaving the rest in place. It requires a crossing selection, so only the points inside the window are affected.

A command that breaks a compound object such as a block, polyline, or dimension into its individual component objects. Exploding a block permanently loses the block reference and its attributes.

A named collection of objects that behaves as a single entity when inserted, copied, or moved. Blocks keep repeated content consistent and reduce the size of drawing files.

A selection method created by dragging from right to left, shown as a green shaded rectangle. It selects every object that lies inside the window or crosses its boundary.

A dialog for building a selection set by filtering on object type and property values, such as all circles on a named layer. It is useful for editing many similar objects at once.

A named category that groups objects and controls their visibility, color, linetype, and lineweight. Layers let you organize a drawing so related content can be shown, hidden, or locked together.

A palette that lists every layer in the drawing and lets you create, rename, delete, and set properties such as color, linetype, lineweight, freeze status, and lock status.

A property setting that makes an object take its color, linetype, or lineweight from the layer it sits on. Changing that layer property then updates every object set this way.

A drawing-wide factor that stretches or shrinks the dash pattern of non-continuous linetypes. It controls how dashes and gaps appear in model space and on plotted sheets.

The plotted thickness assigned to an object or layer, measured in millimeters. On screen it can be shown or hidden, but it is the value that controls how heavy lines look when printed.

A panel that displays and edits the settings of selected objects, such as color, layer, linetype, and geometry. It also reports the object type and any object-specific values.

A command that copies property settings from a source object to one or more destination objects. You choose which properties transfer, such as layer, color, or dimension style.

A window on a layout that displays model space geometry at a chosen scale and orientation. Each viewport can be scaled, locked, and have layers frozen independently of the others.

Text, dimensions, hatches, or blocks given an annotative property so they display at a consistent paper size across different viewport scales. They carry a list of supported scales.

The scale assigned to a viewport or model space view that tells annotative objects how large to display. It is set separately from the plotted scale but usually matches it.

A named collection of settings that controls how dimensions look, including arrowheads, text height, extension line gaps, and measurement precision. Every dimension uses one.

A dimension linked to the objects it measures, so its value and position update when the geometry changes. Non-associative dimensions keep their original measurement regardless of later edits.

An annotation object that combines an arrowhead, a leader line, and text or a block at the end. Styles let you standardize arrow type, landing length, and text format.

A placeholder text value that updates automatically, such as a date, file name, or object property. Fields are inserted inside text, dimensions, or tables instead of being typed.

A repeating set of lines, dots, or shapes used to fill a closed area and indicate material or function. Patterns can be predefined, user-defined, or custom.

The closed path that defines where a hatch fills. It can be built from existing objects or detected automatically around a point picked inside an enclosed area.

A setting that links a hatch to its boundary objects so the fill updates when the boundary changes shape. Non-associative hatches stay fixed regardless of later edits to the boundary.

A hatching option that decides how closed areas lying inside the outer boundary are treated, such as being filled, left empty, or merged with the surrounding fill.

A file that maps drawing colors or named styles to plotted properties such as lineweight, screening, and color. Color-dependent and named tables are the two supported types.

The ratio between the size of objects on paper and their size in the drawing, written as paper units to drawing units. Choosing the wrong scale makes output too large or too small.

The portion of the drawing sent to the plotter, chosen as the whole layout, the drawing extents, the drawing limits, or a picked window.