AutoCAD Prank – Snap On With No Limits – Muhahahaha!

AutoCAD has tons of settings. It so many that it’s easy to play tricks on your fellow CAD users.  Here’s one that I would like to share with you.  It involves changing the Limits and turning on the Snap feature.

Figure on left drawn with Snap Mode on.
On the right are the Snap Mode  control settings

Snap Mode (not Osnaps) is a feature in AutoCAD that allows for quick drawing.  It locks your cursor/crosshairs into a defined grid.  It is similar to drawing on graph paper (the old fashion way - with pencils even!) but only being allowed to draw to points on the graph where the rows and columns are.  Your endpoints, center points, and vertices can only be picked with your cursor if they are on the grid.  It constrains your mouse movement.  Look at it as a matrix of dots defined by columns and rows each set (by you) to a defined distance.  You can set up a grid system to any distance.  If you set the Snap Grid to One (1) then the distance between rows and columns will be one unit.  This will allow you to quickly draw lines that are one unit long.  You don’t have to type in distances or coordinate points.  However, if you need a line (or any drawing object) that is off the grid, you can manually override it by typing in the appropriate distance or coordinate point.

Quick Tip - Set Your Limits

Here is another Quick-Tip from CAD-a-Blog on using AutoCAD.

If you work with the GRID on set your limits. This will define the area where your grid will be shown. If you want to work in a small area of a drawing, set your limits there to display your grid. It is a better practice to set the limits to cover your entire drawing area and not a small portion.

Another reason to use limits is to help control the area covered inside your file. If limits are set, and LIMIT CHECKING is turned on, then you will not be allowed to select points outside of the limits area. This will help to prevent accidental insertion to points far away from your desired working area.