About Creating Command Aliases

A command alias is an abbreviation of a command name, which you can enter at the Command prompt instead of entering the entire command name.

For example, you can enter c instead of circle to start the CIRCLE command.

Note: A command alias is not the same as a keyboard shortcut, which is a combination of keystrokes, such as CTRL+S for SAVE.

The program parameters (PGP) file is used to store command alias definitions. You can change existing command aliases or add new ones by editing acad.pgp (acadlt.pgp in AutoCAD LT) in an ASCII text editor (such as Notepad on Windows or TextEdit on Mac OS). In addition to command aliases, you can also add comment lines to add descriptive information. Start comment lines with a semicolon (;).

A command alias has the following syntax:

abbreviation,*command

abbreviation

Command alias that you enter at the Command prompt.

command

AutoCAD command name being abbreviated.

You must enter an asterisk (*) before the command name to identify the line as a command alias definition.

You can create command aliases that include the special hyphen (-) prefix, such as the following example, to access the version of a command that displays command prompts instead of a dialog box.

-LA, *-LAYER
-CH, *-CHANGE

Note: You cannot use command aliases in script files, and they are not recommended for use in macros used by the user interface.

If you edit the PGP file while the program is running, use the RE-INIT system variable (or RENIT command on Windows only) to reload the revised file. Restarting the program will automatically reload the PGP file.

AutoCorrect Entries and Synonyms

In addition to the loading the aliases found in the acad.pgp (acadlt.pgp in AutoCAD LT) file, the product on Windows and Mac OS also loads the aliases defined in the following two files:

• AutoCorrectUserDB.pgp - Library of suggestions for commonly mistyped commands and system variables. New entries are added automatically over time based on repeatedly mistyping commands and system variables. The Input Search AutoCorrect feature must be enabled with the INPUTSEARCHOPTIONS command. (The Input Search AutoCorrect feature is not available on Mac OS.)
• acadSynonymsGlobalDB.pgp - Library of command synonyms that are installed with the product.

Note: It is not recommended to edit the AutoCorrectUserDB.pgp and acadSynonymsGlobalDB.pgp files directly. Any new command aliases that you want to define should be added to the acad.pgp (acadlt.pgp in AutoCAD LT) file.