Default Keyboard Shortcuts in AutoCAD for Mac

According to the official definition of Autodesk – “Shortcut keys (Keyboard Shortcuts) are key combinations that start commands. For example, you can press Ctrl+O to open a file and Ctrl+S to save a file, which is the same as clicking Open and Save on File menu.” I can add that with Keyboard Shortcuts you can control switching of System variables and Drafting Settings (Ortho mode, Osnap mode, etc.)

Unfortunately the online help AutoCAD 2011 for Mac (in contrast to the Help system for Windows version of AutoCAD) currently doesn’t provide information on the default Keyboard Shortcuts. Some of the information on this subject can be found at Autodesk WikiHelp, in the section on AutoCAD for Mac. There, in particular, provides detailed information about the function keys (F1, F2, …) in AutoCAD fo Mac.

In this post, I tried to systematize the information about Default Keyboard Shortcuts in AutoCAD for Mac, that is known to me in table form.

In the table below, there is no information about the function keys (F1, F2, …), you can find it here. In the third column I have tried to indicate the style of keyboard shortcuts (Mac or Windows). CMD – corresponds to the “Command” key on Mac keyboard, CTRL – corresponds to the “Control” key on Mac keyboard, ALT – corresponds to the “Option” key on Mac keyboard.

Shortcut Key	Description	Style
CTRL+[	Cancels the current command and return to the default selection state	Win style
CTRL+\	Cancels the current command and return to the default selection state	Win style
CMD+SIFT+:	Checks for spelling errors in all or part of a drawing	Mac style
ALT+CMD+W	Close all windows (CLOSEALL)
CMD+W	Closes the current drawing	Mac style
CMD+C	Copies selected objects to the Clipboard (COPYCLIP)	Mac style
CTRL+C	Copies selected objects to the Clipboard (COPYCLIP)	Win style
CTRL+X	Copies selected objects to the Clipboard and removes them from the drawing
SHIFT+CTRL+C	Copy with base point (COPYBASE)
CMD+N	Creates a new drawing (NEW)	Mac style
CTRL+N	Creates a new drawing (NEW)	Win style
CMD+X	Cuts selected objects to the Clipboard (CUTCLIP)	Mac style
CTRL+R	Cycles through the viewports on the current layout
SHIFT+CMD+C	Sets the color for new objects (DDCOLOR)
CMD+3	Displays or hides the Command Line window	Mac style
CTRL+9	Displays or hides the Command Line window	Win style
ALT+CMD+M	Minimize All Windows (to the Dock)	Mac style
CMD+M	Minimize Window (to the Dock)	Mac style
CMD+O	Opens an existing drawing (OPEN)	Mac style
CTRL+O	Opens an existing drawing (OPEN)	Win style
CMD+.	Opens and closes Documents and Layouts window (QVIEW)	Mac style
SHIFT+CMD+.	Opens and closes Documents and Layouts window (QVIEW)
CMD+8	Opens and closes Material Browser	Mac style
CMD+E	Opens Export dialog (EXPORT)
CMD+F	Opens Find dialog (FIND)
ALT+CMD+I	Opens or closes Properties Inspector
CMD+5	Opens or closes Properties Inspector	Mac style
CMD+I	Opens or closes Properties Inspector
CTRL+1	Opens or closes Properties Inspector	Win style
CMD+2	Opens or closes the Content palette	Mac style
CTRL+2	Opens or closes the Content palette
CMD+7	Opens or closes the External References palette	Mac style
CMD+4	Opens or closes the Layers palette	Mac style
CMD+6	Opens or closes the Status Bar	Mac style
ALT+CMD+T	Opens or closes the Tool Sets Palette
CMD+1	Opens or closes the Tool Sets Palette	Mac style
CTRL+3	Opens or closes the Tool Sets Palette	Win style
SHIFT+CMD+P	Opens Page Setup dialog	Mac style
CMD+,	Opens Program Preferences	Mac style
CMD+/	Opens the Help window	Mac style
F1	Opens the Help window
CMD+V	Pastes objects from the Clipboard into the current drawing (PASTECLIP)	Mac style
CTRL+V	Pastes objects from the Clipboard into the current drawing (PASTECLIP)	Win style
CMD+P	Plots the current drawing (PRINT)	Mac style
CTRL+P	Plots the current drawing (PRINT)	Win style
CMD+Q	Quits AutoCAD (QUIT)	Mac style
CTRL+Q	Quits AutoCAD (QUIT)	Win style
SHIFT+CMD+R	REGENALL	Mac style
CMD+R	Regenerates the entire drawing from the drawing database (REGEN)
Delete	Removes objects from a drawing (ERASE)
SHIFT+CMD+Z	Reverses the effects of the previous UNDO or U command (REDO)
CMD+Y	Reverses the effects of the previous UNDO or U command (REDO)	Mac style
CTRL+Y	Reverses the effects of the previous UNDO or U command (REDO)	Win style
CMD+Z	Reverses the most recent action (U)	Mac style
CTRL+Z	Reverses the most recent action (U)	Win style
SHIFT+CMD+S	Saves a copy of the current drawing under a new file name	Mac style
SHIFT+CTRL+S	Saves a copy of the current drawing under a new file name	Win style
CMD+S	Saves the current drawing (QSAVE)	Mac style
CTRL+S	Saves the current drawing (QSAVE)	Win style
CMD+A	Selects all the objects in drawing that are not locked or frozen (SELECT ALL)	Mac style
CTRL+A	Selects all the objects in drawing that are not locked or frozen (SELECT ALL)	Win style
SHIFT+F1	Turns off all subobject filters with CTRL+click (SUBOBJSELECTIONMODE=0)
SHIFT+F2	Selects only vertices with CTRL+click (SUBOBJSELECTIONMODE=1)
SHIFT+F3	Selects only edges with CTRL+click (SUBOBJSELECTIONMODE=2)
SHIFT+F4	Selects only faces with CTRL+click (SUBOBJSELECTIONMODE=3)
SHIFT+F5	Selects only history subobjects with CTRL+click (SUBOBJSELECTIONMODE=4)
SHIFT+CMD+D	Toggle Dynamic Input	Mac style
CMD+D	Toggle Dynamic UCS	Mac style
CTRL+D	Toggle Dynamic UCS	Win style
SHIFT+CTRL+D	Toggle Dynamic UCS
CMD+G	Toggle Grid (=F7)	Mac style
CTRL+E	Toggle Grid (=F7)
CTRL+G	Toggle Grid (=F7)	Win style
SHIFT+CTRL+G	Toggle Grid (=F7)
SHIFT+CMD+I	Toggle Infer Constraints ON or OFF
CTRL+F	Toggle Object Snap Mode (=F3)
SHIFT+CTRL+F	Toggle Object Snap Mode (=F3)
SHIFT+CMD+T	Toggle Object Snap Tracking Mode
CMD+L	Toggle Ortho (=F8)
CTRL+L	Toggle Ortho (=F8)	Win style
SHIFT+CMD+O	Toggle Ortho (=F8)	Mac style
SHIFT+CTRL+O	Toggle Ortho (=F8)
CMD+U	Toggle Polar Mode	Mac style
CTRL+U	Toggle Polar Mode
CMD+B	Toggle Snap Mode	Mac style
CTRL+B	Toggle Snap Mode	Win style
SHIFT+CTRL+B	Toggle Snap Mode
CMD+0	Toggles clean screen mode ON or OFF	Mac style
CTRL+0	Toggles clean screen mode ON or OFF	Win style
SHIFT+CMD+A	Toggles Group selection mode	Mac style
SHIFT+CTRL+A	Toggles Group selection mode	Win style
CTRL+H	Toggles Group selection mode via PICKSTYLE (0 or 1)
SHIFT+CTRL+I	Toggles Infer Constraints
CTRL+W	Toggles Selection Cycling
SHIFT+ALT+CMD+W	Toggles Selection Cycling
SHIFT+CTRL+W	Toggles Selection Cycling
CTRL+I	Toggles the Coordinates display (COORDS = 0, 1, 2)
SHIFT+CMD+H (or TAB key)	Toggles the palettes state on or off
CMD+”-“	Zooms to decrease the magnification of the current view by a factor of 2	Mac style
CMD+”+”	Zooms to increase the magnification of the current view by a factor of 2	Mac style

Edit: added new shortcut:

CMD+~

Switching between open dawings

Mac style

As you can see – lot of commands have duplicates Keyboard Shortcuts for Mac and Windows style. Apparently developers provided this for ease the transition from Windows to Mac version.