This morning on Twitter, Brian Benton (@bcbenton) asked “In #AutoCAD 2011, when selecting a Polyline, can the "Stretch, Add Convert" box be turned off temporarily?” A few minutes later, he answered his own question (albeit on Facebook): “GRIPMULTIFUNCTIONAL set to 0 or 1.” Rather than leave it there, though, I thought I’d expand on the other options for this particular system variable. GRIPMULTIFUNCTIONAL can actually be set to 0, 1, 2, or 3. (The default is 3.) Access to multi-functional grips is disabled. With this setting, you lose any object-specific grip functions, and can only use the standard Stretch/Move/Rotate/Scale/Mirror. Access multi-functional grips with Ctrl-cycling and the Hot Grip shortcut menu. This means that you have to left-click on a grip first, then either press Ctrl to cycle through the options or right-click to pick one from a shortcut menu. Access multi-functional grips with the dynamic menu and the Hot Grip shortcut menu. With this value, you can either hover over a grip before clicking to see the menu and pick an option, or you can left-click on a grip and then right-click to bring up the shortcut menu. Pressing Ctrl with an active grip has no effect. Access multi-functional grips with Ctrl-cycling, the dynamic menu, and the Hot Grip shortcut menu. Provides the most options for accessing multi-functional options. Hover over a grip to pick from the dynamic menu, left-click a grip and press Ctrl to cycle, or left-click a grip and right-click for a shortcut menu. I’m really not sure why anyone would choose 0 (multi-functional grips are great!) or 2 (leaving Ctrl-cycling on doesn’t really hurt anything, does it?), but you could use 1 if you really don’t like pop-up menus.

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