Using Grips can allow you to avoid construction geometry and create designs faster.
Like a good friend, AutoCAD’s grips are always there when you need them. They are important because they let you manipulate objects quickly and easily. How much you can do with grips might surprise you.
Grips are the small squares that appear on objects when you select them (with no command active). The grips are blue by default and turn pinkish when you hover over them. When you select a grip, it turns red and becomes hot (in AutoCAD speak). This visual clue shows that the grip is in an editable state.
The default grip mode is Stretch. Here, you can take the end of a line and change its position. Like most commands in AutoCAD, you perform the operation with a click and a click, not a click and drag.
When the selected grip is in a position where stretching is not possible, AutoCAD moves the point. For example, when you are stretching the midpoint of a line or the center of a circle, or when you are working with blocks.
To select multiple grips, press and hold Shift when making your selections. When working with multiple grips, AutoCAD keeps the shape of the objects intact.
As you hover over a grip, AutoCAD supplies options for manipulating the point (and object). This menu is specific to the object and only appears on grips with multiple options. For example, hovering over the endpoint of a line supplies Stretch and Lengthen, whereas for a polyline, it supplies features for working with the vertex.
If you want to see more on polylines, including using grips with polylines, check out Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Making and Using Polylines in AutoCAD.
Dynamic Input gives users real-time feedback and input alternatives while they are sketching and editing. It shows coordinates, command prompts, and dimension input in the drawing area. Dynamic Input complements grips by displaying relevant information and prompts. This real-time feedback helps you accurately manipulate the object.
While hovering over a grip, Dynamic Input displays dimensions about the size of the object. After making the grip hot, use the prompts to adjust the size of the object. Pressing Tab while using Dynamic Input toggles between the prompts. Press Enter when you want to accept your change.
Where did those grips go? AutoCAD does not display grips for objects on locked layers. By default, AutoCAD also limits grip display for performance. If you select a lot of objects, the grips will not display.
When selecting multiple objects that share coincident grips, you can edit these objects using grips; however, you will not have access to the objects—or grip-specific options.
Grip Features
One of the best features of using grips is how easy it is to switch modes. After making a grip hot, press Enter or the Spacebar to cycle through the available grip modes. This means you can quickly toggle between stretch, move, rotate, scale, and mirror. This requires no commands to start; it is just ready to go after you select objects.
Of course, if you do not want to set down the coffee cup in your mouse-free hand, you can alternatively right-click and pick the desired option from the menu.
Regardless of the option, the selected grip becomes the base point in most instances. There are exceptions, for example, when selecting the quadrant grip of a circle (or an ellipse). AutoCAD resizes the circle by the radius from the center of the circle and not from the selected grip.
Now the grip you make hot may not always be your desired base point. This is why AutoCAD allows you to adjust the base point on the fly. After you select the objects, make the grip hot, and activate the desired grip mode, right-click and, from the menu, select Base Point. Then select where you’d like to move the base point. It does not need to be another grip but can be any point in the drawing or on an object.
The base point supplies more control and precision during editing operations. It allows you to define a specific point as the center of transformation:
- With Rotation, the base point is the pivot, the center of rotation. The object rotates around this base point as you drag the object(s) to the desired angle.
- The base point with scale is the fixed reference, the point around which the object scales. The object resizes proportionally from this point as you move the grip.
- When Mirroring, use the base point option to set the basis for the mirror axis.
- For Moving, the base point is the point from which the objects move.
Tip: The keyboard shortcut is B for Base Point.
To duplicate as you manipulate objects, invoke Copy. This option remains active, meaning AutoCAD continues to create new instances as you pick points in the drawing. And Copy is available with any grip mode. You can move and copy, rotate and copy, scale and copy, and even mirror and copy.
The keyboard shortcut is C for Copy. You can also hold Ctrl until you have picked the first point. When you continue to hold Ctrl, AutoCAD arrays the objects, maintaining equal distances between each new instance.
With Other 2D Objects
Grips are available for just about all 2D objects. This includes lines, circles, arcs and polylines.
With associative hatching, one grip appears with options to adjust its origin, scale, and angle. With non-associative hatching, you can use the grips to adjust the hatch’s boundary. The boundary behaves like a polyline, including converting segments to arcs or lines.
The grips on text depend on the type of text (DText or MText) and the justification. Use grips to adjust the text’s position and its margins.
Grips are the main method for adjusting dynamic blocks. Depending on the block’s configuration, you can use the grips to adjust sizes, flip (mirror) the block, and pick from preconfigured variations.
With grips and splines, you can perform editing operations. This makes it easy to change the shape and position. This includes:
- Editing Vertices: adjusting positions or adding and removing points
- Adjusting Curvature: controlling the curvature of a spline by dragging the control points
- Changing Modes: converting between fit points and control vertices
- Tangency: massaging the tangency at the spline ends
When manipulating 2D objects from a 3D view, the object adjusts on the plane on which it was created, not on the plane of the current user coordinate system.
Grips also work with 3D objects. We are focusing on 2D objects in this article. Grips allow you to perform various operations specific to solid, surface, and mesh modeling. For example, using the grips on the faces and edges of objects to directly manipulate the shape and size of the solid.
AutoCAD Options
There are choices in Options to manage Grips. This includes turning off grips (if you decide they are not for you) and the Size and Color.
Enable Show Grips within Blocks for AutoCAD to show the grips on the objects contained within the block.
Tooltips can get annoying. If the grip tips become annoying, disable them with Show Grip Tips. This also applies to the pop-up menu (Dynamic grip menu) that appears when you hover over a grip. I like this menu, but it isn’t for everyone.
To allow cycling behavior, use the Ctrl key to cycle through grips options. This is intended for multifunctional grips, like those found on polylines. Use this as an alternative to the grip menu.
Displaying grips on a large number of objects can significantly affect performance. Use Object selection to limit the display of grips and to manage the grip display on selected objects. For example, with the default of 100, AutoCAD displays grips when you select up to 100 objects. But when you select 101 or more objects, AutoCAD no longer displays grips.
This limit is not on the number of grips but rather on the number of objects selected. Also, the limit does not apply when you add objects to the current selection set.
Summary
Using grips to edit your drawings boosts efficiency. It streamlines editing and eliminates repeating commands, letting you quickly update your drawings.
