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CADTutor provides the best free tutorials and articles for AutoCAD, 3ds Max and associated applications along with a friendly community forum. If you need to learn AutoCAD, or you want to be more productive, you're in the right place. See our tip of the day to start learning right now!
Free Tutorials and More…
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.
Tutorials of the Moment
Recently viewed tutorials
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Object Snap
A tutorial giving an overview of all the AutoCAD object snaps (osnaps) with some worked examples. The tutorial also covers the use of temporary tracking points and object snap tracking. Format: Text/Image
Last visited: less than one minute ago
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3D Tree Exercise
The object behind this exercise is twofold. Firstly it is to give you practice with some of the 3D techniques which you have discovered in the tutorials or to introduce you to them if you haven't seen them before. Secondly it is to demonstrate a reasonably simple method for constructing a convincing 3D tree. Format: Text/Image
Last visited: 1 minute ago
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Animating Materials: Water
Just about everything in the Brycean world can be animated, including materials. This tutorial shows you how to simulate ripples on the surface of a standard Bryce water material by modifying the offset and rotation of the texture component of the material. Format: Text/Image
Last visited: 3 minutes ago
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Transforming Objects
Transforming objects means changing the position, size or number of an object without altering the integrity of the geometry itself. MAX offers a host of transformation tools to do these tasks. This tutorial gets you started. Format: Text/Image
Last visited: 3 minutes ago
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Multi/Sub-Object materials
A Multi/Sub-Object material is a container for a number of sub-materials. This type of material is used when you need to assign different materials to different parts of an object and is used in infrastructure and environment projects mainly for objects such as benches, tables, lamposts, buildings etc. This tutorial works through a number of examples. Format: Text/Image
Last visited: 8 minutes ago
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Stage 10: Add Play Equipment, Vehicles and People
Finally, Quickscape Model Objects dialog is used to add play equipment, cars and vans and Quickscape Image Objects dialog is used to add people. This brings the scene to life and further adds to the sense of scale for the design. Format: Text/Image
Last visited: 8 minutes ago
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
‘Sign Language’
From: AutoCAD Productivity Articles #136
Originally published: October 2014

For the last few versions we have seen icons next to the cursor for Geometric Constraints (left) and Selection Cycling (right), as well as the little icon for a Locked layer and the Match Properties paintbrush.
Those icons are displayed when the related feature is enabled.
Cursor Badges
But AutoCAD 2015 now has included a ‘cursor badge’ for several editing commands, such as Rotate and Erase (see figures below), along with Measure and even the Window and Crossing selection direction badges.

Some of you, however, may prefer not to see the new badges beside the cursor. If so, set the variable CURSORBADGE to <1>, which will disable all badges.
See all the articles published in October 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
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21st – 27th September 2026
This week's image is by Dorian
Software used: AutoCAD 2008
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Last Week's Image
Last week's image is by helraiser81
Software used: 3ds Max and V-Ray
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Two Weeks Ago
This image is by papagyi
Software used: 3ds Max and V-Ray
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Three Weeks Ago
This image is by CADken
Software used: SketchUp and AutoCAD 2010
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
Oops is your friend
Most AutoCAD users know about the undo command, which allows you to step back through the command sequence. This is useful if you make a mistake and need to retrace your steps. But what if you deleted something a while back and in the meantime you did some useful stuff that you don't want to lose in order to recover your deleted stuff. Oops to the rescue!
The oops command recovers the last deleted selection set, without undoing everything in-between. It can also be used to recover objects removed after using block or wblock.
Missed a Tip?
Did you miss yesterday's tip? Maybe you forgot to drop by or maybe you don't visit over the weekend. If so, you can now see all the tips published during the past week. Also, if you have a tip you'd like to share with us, you can post it on our forum and if we like it, we'll publish it here.