What's the most obscure, least known command that you know and will share?

[CADDmanVA]

How about...
PREFERENCES, REINIT, and XLOAD "AME"

[eldridge]

Those are new to me too. I'm going to print out the thread and try them all though.

I saw that you remember R.10 It seems a long time ago. I learned on R9 & R10. Took 12 or 13 disketts to load the program and that's pretty close to all the hard drives would hold. I had to back up to more disketts. I think I even loaded it off a set of 5 of the what were they 5x5 floppies?

[SRBalliet]

Minsert, I have never used it in a real project, but I think its neat.

[lpseifert]

If you use Fields in your titleblocks, the Express tool Propulate is handy to transfer Drawing Properties between dwgs.

[eldridge]

If you use Fields in your titleblocks, the Express tool Propulate is handy to transfer Drawing Properties between dwgs.

Good Morning!
I have played with fields a bit but never really had the time to invest to see what I can do with them.
I have been the only CAD person in a chemical plant for 17 years. Being the only one here who does what I do, I have missed out on allot of the sharing that goes on in offices between co-workers. Augi and all of you are helping me catch up on some of it. The next issue would be trying to find time to try all of this! I was a contractor here for 15.5 years, last year they hired me ... as an employee I was able to go to training (company paid). I took 7 classes. There is allot of commands here that weren't covered in the classes. (Good stuff!!). Thanks again!

[jaberwok]

If you use Fields in your titleblocks, the Express tool Propulate is handy to transfer Drawing Properties between dwgs.

POPULATE perhaps?

[lpseifert]

POPULATE perhaps?

I thought it was a typo when someone suggested it to me, but PROPULATE it is.

[robert.1.hall72202]

I thought it was a typo when someone suggested it to me, but PROPULATE it is.

Hmmmm.....did not find it in the index. What does it do?

I think object snap overides are fairly obscure. I am the only person
in a an office of 25 that uses them. Overides are a quick way to
keep running object snaps from grabbing the wrong point.

[lpseifert]

Hmmmm.....did not find it in the index. What does it do?

A synopsis from Express tools' Help:

Allows quick, automated population of the Drawing Properties dialog data fields. This data is seen when using the DWGPROPS command or when viewing the properties of a .DWG file though the Windows Explorer, outside of AutoCAD. Drawing Property data can be updated, listed or removed from the current drawing or a subdirectory of drawings.
Using a predefined template, PROPULATE can fill in Drawing Properties data in entire directories of drawings. The information that can be applied includes literal strings, attribute values extracted from specified attributed blocks and lists of attached xrefs, images and fonts. Example: You have a whole project directory full of drawings that use the same attributed title block. Using PROPULATE and a customized template you can have the attribute values from each title block in each drawing extracted and added to that drawing's Drawing Properties dialog. PROPULATE can also insert (into the comment field) a list of the xrefs, images and fonts used by each drawing.

more detail can be found in ET Help under File Tools > Categories

[jpaulsen]

Here are some commands and features that I use a lot. They may be obscure; then again maybe not.

Obscure commands:

AECDWGSETUP - I think this is only found in the verticals (LDT, C3D, ADT). You can use it to change the units of the drawings which in turn changes the display type of the annotation scales from architectural (inches) to civil (feet). This also effects the display of the plot and viewport scales.

-CH - This oldy but goody was already mentioned. I use it to "change" the rotation of blocks and text by dragging to a new angle instead of having to type an angle in properties. I also use it to change the radius of circles.

CHSPACE - Changes objects from model to paper space or vice versa.

New commands and variables for 2008:

SETBYLAYER - Changes object properties to bylayer.

MSLTSCALE - Scales linetypes displayed on the model tab by the annotation scale.

New features for 2007/2008:

Major enhancements to modeling and visualization
Anchor dockable windows
Annotation scaling
Customizable dashboard
Drag and drop layout tabs
Layer (color, linetype, etc.) settings per viewport
Paragraph formatting and columns in Mtext

To clarify some of the previous suggestions:

PROPULATE and TCIRCLE are Express commands and can be found in the Express help.

PROPULATE sounds good if you use the file properties in windows. We have found it much more flexible to use custom properties in the Sheet Set Manager in conjunction with fields in our title blocks.

Here are a couple of links to help you find new commands in each version.
http://www.hyperpics.com/commands/
http://www.hyperpics.com/system_variables/