Toolbar Line Drawing Method:
1. Pick the Line icon from the Toolbar.
2. Prompt at the bottom of the screen will now read: "LINE From point:"
3. Enter the "From point"
which is the first end point of the line you want to draw by either of
the following two methods:
a. Enter point manually by "pointing," that is, by locating the crosshairs where you want the point to be and by clicking the "Pick" button on your mouse. The pick button is the left button on the mouse. The approximate location for the point picked can be read from the screen coordinates on the upper right corner of the display monitor screen. If you need to be more specific about a location and have another object to "grab onto," you can use the "OSNAP" functions to snap to an ENDpoint, an INTERsection of two lines, the CENter of an arc or circle, etc. To bring up the OSNAP Cursor menu while in the line command to permit picking a specific point, simply hold the <shift> key down and simultaneously click the right button on the mouse.b. Type the exact location of the point in "ABSOLUTE Cartesian coordinates," X dimension first, then Y dimension, and then Z dimension (if it is other than 0). Absolute means that the coordinates are always referenced to the "origin" or 0,0 point of the drawing.
Example: to enter a point located at 10 feet to the right of the origin of the drawing (0,0 point), and 90 feet six inches above the origin, type in after the "LINE From Point:" statement: 10',90'6 <RET>
4. Enter the "To point"
which is the other end point of the line by any of these 4 methods:
a. Enter point manually by "pointing," that is, by locating the crosshairs where you want the point to be and by clicking the "Pick" (top yellow) button on your mouse. If you need to be more specific about a location and have another object to "grab onto," you can use the "OSNAP" functions to snap to an ENDpoint, an INTERsection of two lines, the CENter of an arc or circle, etc. To bring up the OSNAP menu while in the line command to permit picking a specific point, simply hold down the <SHIFT> key and simultaneously click the right button on the mouse.b. Type the exact location of the point in "ABSOLUTE Cartesian coordinates," X dimension first, then Y dimension, and then Z dimension (if it is other than 0). Absolute means that the coordinates are always referenced to the "origin" or 0,0 point of the drawing.
c. Enter point in "RELATIVE Cartesian coordinates," X dimension first, then Y dimension, then Z dimension (if it is other than 0). "Relative" means at some positive or negative distance from, or relative to, the last point entered. This method is a short cut for entering the second and subsequent points on a line without having to know the actual absolute Cartesian coordinates of each point.
Example: to enter a point located at 25 feet four inches to the right of the last point entered and six feet below it, type in after the "LINE From point:" statement: @25'4,6' <RET>
d. Enter point in "RELATIVE Polar coordinates," distance first then angle. Relative means at some positive distance from or relative to the last point entered, and this distance is measured at some positive or negative angle from the base angle (horizontal to the right of the origin). This method is a shorter cut for entering the second and subsequent points on a line without having to know the actual absolute or even the relative Cartesian coordinates of each point.
AutoCAD standard angles
are as follows:
0: to right of point
90: above point
180: to left of point
270: below point
Any angle is possible between 0 and 360 degrees, and negative angles are also allowed.
Example: to enter a point 35 feet directly above the last point entered, type in after the "line From point:" statement: @35'<90 <RET>
You will notice that every
time you pick a point in response to the "To point:" statement on the Command
prompt line, AutoCAD will always assume you want to pick another point
and continue the drawing of the line from the last point, and will again
prompt you with the "To point:" statement. If you want to end your line
when you are through drawing it, simply type the <RET> key on your keyboard,
the right button on the mouse, the right button on a mouse, or the button
on the barrel of a stylus.
OTHER METHODS OF DRAWING LINES
Pull Down Menu Line Drawing
Method:
2. Pick "Line" from Draw menu.
3. Follow from step 3 as listed above.
Keyboard Line Drawing
method:
2. Follow from step 3 as listed above.
Neat Tricks with Lines
1. If you want to start drawing another line from a new point after finishing the first series of lines, simply type the <RET> key on your keyboard, the right button on the mouse. This will always repeat the last command used (which was LINE), and will prompt you with a "line From point:" statement.
2. If you made a mistake and want to start the next new line from the point you left off with the last line, simply type another <RET> key on your keyboard, the right button on the mouse (or pick the word "continue" from the On-screen LINE menu) in response to the "LINE From point:" statement. This is called the "continue" function and will automatically select the "LINE From point" of your new line as the last point you entered on the last line.
3. If you have drawn 3 sides of a closed rectangle and you want to draw the fourth, instead of using any of the methods described above, simply type:C<RET>. This will automatically close your rectangle with a line drawn from the current crosshair position to the first "From point." This works the same for closing any polygon of any number of sides.
4. If you want to draw only perfectly horizontal or vertical lines, turn the ORTHO function on by double-clicking on the word ORTHO on the Status Line at the bottom of the screen (or by typing the <F8> key, or hold the <Ctrl> key down and type the letter O (i.e., ^O)).
5. If you made a mistake with one or more of the last line segment locations, typeU <RET> (or pick the "undo" word on the LINE on-screen sub-menu) and you can walk backwards one segment at a time and erase them without having to manually erase the incorrect lines and start over again. Then just start from the last undone segment and continue with the remainder of the line group.
6. If you want to draw an orthogonal four sided rectangle (that is, one whose sides are vertical and horizontal), rather than drawing four lines, use the Rectangle command from the Toolbar, as follows:
a. Pick the "Rectangle" icon from the Toolbar.
b. Pick or enter coordinates of the lower left corner of the rectangle.
c. Pick or enter coordinates of the upper right corner of the rectangle
Note that a rectangle that is created with the Rectangle command does not consist of four lines but instead is a "polyline" (a series of connected lines which have been grouped by AutoCAD into a single entity). If you want the rectangle to be made up of lines, simply "explode" the rectangle with the AutoCAD "Explode" command. To do this, pick the Dynamite stick icon on the Toolbar and then pick the rectangle to explode.