Moving/Rotating Objects

[manchmal2]

I am working on a drawing that will eventually be used to cut a piece of plastic with a water cutter. The end result will be a cylindrical piece with slots cut into the cylinder radially. There are 200 of these slots.

 

So far I have created two co-centric circles on a different layer as reference. The radius of the bigger circle is the radius of the smaller circle + the length of the slot I need. I have also added 200 points along each of the circles for reference; these points represent the midpoints of the short-edges on the rectangles.

 

I am having problems getting the rectangles to the the position on the circle that I want. Is there any way in AutoCAD to specify the positions of the midpoints of the short-edges on the rectangles?

 

I am new to AutoCAD and do not know the best way to create this piece so if anyone has any suggestions as to how to do this, please let me know.

 

Thanks!

[Strix]

so is this something you're attempting in 2D or 3D?

[Strix]

right - if I'm following this right...

 

you have two circles on the screen?

 

You don't need the points (and how did you mark those?)

 

Give this a go:

Set your OSNAPS so you have QUADRANT and MIDPOINT available

 

Draw your rectangle to it's specific size (and to be orientated at the 12 o'clock mark) by whichever method you find easiest

 

Pick up your rectangle by it's midpoint on the lower short side, and move to the '12' position on your smaller rectangle

 

Select the ARRAY command

 

choose settings to suit - polar, start point, angle = 360, number of items = 200 etc

 

does that work for you?

[manchmal2]

Thanks Strix!

 

That did work. At least for the drawing; now I have to see if I did it right so the water cutter can understand.

 

To answer some of your questions: My drawing just has to be 2D although the piece will be 3D. I created all the points using the "Measure" or "Divide" commands, although per your recommendation I erased all of these.

 

One last question: I need to create a .dxf file for the water cutter, which I see under the save options, but what kind of file is that? Will it automatically know the "zero" position and will it know which layer I want cut and which were just for reference?

[eldon]

To give you a bit of encouragement, you could have done it with DIVIDE using a block of the rectangle. The trick there is to get the block the right way round.

 

As usual in AutoCad there are several ways of doing things and you end up with the same result.

[Strix]

Thanks Strix!

 

That did work. At least for the drawing; now I have to see if I did it right so the water cutter can understand.

 

To answer some of your questions: My drawing just has to be 2D although the piece will be 3D. I created all the points using the "Measure" or "Divide" commands, although per your recommendation I erased all of these.

 

One last question: I need to create a .dxf file for the water cutter, which I see under the save options, but what kind of file is that? Will it automatically know the "zero" position and will it know which layer I want cut and which were just for reference?

you're welcome

 

now you're out of my depth :wink:

 

I'd suggest a new thread with a more appropriate title for the next stage (and link back to this one), but post it somewhere more appropriate such as 'design software' or 'catch all' - you're really beyond 'beginner' stage with this bit!