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The Tutorials section provides over 100 original tutorials for AutoCAD, 3ds Max and other design applications. Michael’s Corner is an archive of productivity articles that brings you the best AutoCAD tips and tricks. Our Forum is a lively community where AutoCAD users can ask questions and get answers. The Downloads area provides free AutoCAD blocks, free AutoLISP routines and free images.
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CADTutor Tutorials
Our tutorials are comprehensive but straightforward introductions to AutoCAD and related software. They are designed to help beginners get to grips with design workflows as quickly as possible. There are over 100 to choose from, some text/image based and others in video format. Whatever stage you are at in your learning, you should find a tutorial to help.
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CADTutor Forums
Our forum is a vibrant community of experts and beginners. The main focus is helping beginners get to grips with AutoCAD and to help more advanced users become more productive. The AutoLISP forum is one of the busiest out there, providing expert advice for busy professionals.
AutoCAD Productivity
Layer Previous
From: AutoCAD Productivity Articles #132
Originally published: February 2014
Layers are the lifeblood in AutoCAD, and efficient management thereof is the key to your own quality of life; specifically, your sanity.
The Layer Previous button can be a real time saver and is, at its core, a Layer-specific ‘Undo’.
How to Use Layer Previous
Open a drawing, then make a new layer [MC_FEB2014], give it a color and make it current; this will be our testing layer.
Change the Color of any other layer in the current drawing, but don't make that layer current.
On our test layer, draw a small rectangle somewhere.
Click Layer Previous and the rectangle remains, but the color of the layer you changed is restored.
Freeze several existing layers, then Rotate the rectangle.
Click Layer Previous and the previously frozen layers are thawed… but the rectangle is still rotated!
See all the articles published in February 2014
Michael's Corner
Between 2003 and 2016, Michael Beall (and one or two guests) wrote almost 600 articles for CADTutor. The focus of these articles is AutoCAD productivity, and although some of them are now more than a few years old, most remain relevant to current versions of AutoCAD. The article above is just one example. Check out Michael's Corner for a full listing.
Image of the Week
Gallery of Work
Over the years, our forum members have contributed hundreds of images, showcasing their amazing work. The images above are just a small selection that demonstrate the wide range of project types our community is involved with. Take a look at our gallery to see all the images published in the last 12 months.
Tip of the Day
AutoCAD 2007 - Where's my old XREF Manager?
A lot of people using AutoCAD 2007 and above don't like the new XREF Manager, so here's a simple way to get the old one back.
AutoCAD 2007 introduced a new way to manage XREFs and to bring up the "old" XREF Manager, you have to type CLASSICXREF at the command line. Well, if you want things back the way they were and use the classic XREF Manager as the default from the keyboard and from the menu, a few adjustments will get you there…
First, go to
. This command opens the ACAD.PGP file in Notepad. This is where all the keyboard shortcuts are defined.Next, scroll down until you see XR (or use ), change the value from *XREF to *CLASSICXREF and save ( ). Close Notepad and return to AutoCAD. Enter the command REINIT, check the "PGP File" checkbox and click "OK". That fixes the keyboard so that next time you type XR, you'll see the old manager and not the new one.
To change your Menu, type CUI at the command line. In the "Customizations in All CUI Files" pane of the "Custom User Interface" dialogue, go to and click on it once to highlight it.
Now, in the "Properties" pane, change the "Macro" setting from ^C^C_externalreferences
to ^C^C_classicxref
, click "OK" to save the changes and you're done.
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