by Dennis Collin
Using the mouse in AutoCAD may sometimes not reflect how the mouse works with other used programs and there is often a desire to make things work in a more similar way. For example, the scroll wheel behaviour for zooming in and out from a drawing, panning or pop-up menu behaviour.
To change the zoom direction set the ZOOMWHEEL variable to configure the Zoom behaviour. The default setting is “0”, set the value to “1”, to reverse the zoom function.
With a setting of 0, Roll the wheel forward to zoom in; roll the wheel backwards to zoom out. With a setting of 1, Roll the wheel forward to zoom out; roll the wheel backwards to zoom in.
Another common question is the issue that the zooming process using the mouse wheel is not smooth enough.
This can be addressed with the ZOOMFACTOR variable, the default setting is 60, reduce the value for a smoother transition between zooms. Start at 30 and adjust if necessary, to suit.
The scroll wheel should also perform a pan function when pressed. However, if that does not work or you would rather access an alternative menu instead, access the MBUTTONPAN variable. The default setting is 1 which performs as a pan function when pressed. Setting to 0 (Zero) supports the action defined in the customisation file which could be a return key press or alternate pop-up menu.