Coordinate entry in AutoCad 2011?

[kdalzell]

hi,

I am wondering if someone can help me, I have only a small amount of knowledge re AutoCad so please forgive me if my question seems silly. When I try to draw a line at an angle I start by clicking shift and @ and when I take my finger off shift key I find it dissappears from the command ribbon and this comes up Point or option keyword required. I also get what appears to be a small envelope at the curser and then as I take my finger off the shift key it dissappears and thats when message comes up. Has anyone had this problem or have I pushed or changes a setting somewhere and not realised it. Hope someone can help. Regards Kim

[kdalzell]

Hi This is the message I get:

 

Point or option keyword required

 

Tis comes up once I have started by putting in @ it then dissappears so hence the above message.

 

Regards Kim

[ReMark]

Are you trying to draw a line a specific length, at an angle, using direct distance entry?

[kdalzell]

Yes for instance @30000

[JD Mather]

Click the first point and THEN shift@ (actually for the last several releases relative is default).

 

BTW - you might want to give a bit more thought to your future thread titles.

[JD Mather]

...I get what appears to be a small envelope up on the drawing from my last point.

 

Can you post a screen shot - this description vagely jogs a memory but not quite there. A picture (Print Screen) would be worth a thousand words.

[ReMark]

Isn't that "small envelope" the result of pressing the SHIFT key during the execution of the command?

[nestly]

I believe the envelope indicates that a Temporary over-ride is active, in this case holding down activates Ortho.

[rkent]

hi,

I am wondering if someone can help me, I have only a small amount of knowledge re AutoCad so please forgive me if my question seems silly. When I try to draw a line at an angle I start by clicking shift and @ and when I take my finger off shift key I find it dissappears from the command ribbon and this comes up Point or option keyword required. I also get what appears to be a small envelope at the curser and then as I take my finger off the shift key it dissappears and thats when message comes up. Has anyone had this problem or have I pushed or changes a setting somewhere and not realised it. Hope someone can help. Regards Kim

 

Start the line command

pick your starting point, then type

@1

 

You can also

Start the line command,

pick your starting point, then type

pull your cursor away any distance, type in 1, hit enter

[SLW210]

I renamed the thread.

[kdalzell]

Hi the 1st image is when I hold down shift key to start command and the 2nd shot is when I take finger off shift key I am not sure how to upload images so hopefully this worked, regards Kim

[ReMark]

I believe nestly answers this question in post #8 when he refers to a temporary override. Do you normally work with orthomode disabled and resort to using the Shift key instead?

[kdalzell]

No, I have just noticed I have the ortho on and when I put the shift key down it goes off and also object snap also goes off and pushing shift key down and up the polar tracking goes on and off, does this make sense to you.

[ReMark]

Not really and that is only because I rarely if ever use a temporary override.

 

Just what are you trying to do that this is of such importance? I guess I've missed the point of all this having assumed there was some inherent problem with your installation and AutoCAD was not working as expected.

[kdalzell]

All I am trying to do is draw lines at different anles, and just over the last few days when I tried to do this I found I had this problem, asI mentioned in my first post I am a novice although I guess that is easy to see. Can you explain what you mean by tempory overide? Sorry for not understanding and for taking up everyones time, I guess it would be very frustrating to you all

[ReMark]

If I knew the exact length and angle of a line I wanted to draw I would use Direct Distance Entry which is done entirely at the command line by typing in the length and the angle (I think at least two forum members have demonstrated this technique already in previous posts.). For better precision I would go to my UNITS and change the precision for both length and angle.

 

Another option would be to use Polar Tracking. I could probably think of another one or two methods as well. Point is, if you are new to AutoCAD, with no formal training, and trying to learn as you go then I would recommend you stop what you are doing and check out the tutorials here at CADTutor. Then I would suggest that you 1) make use of AutoCAD Help and 2) buy a good after-market AutoCAD book. These two resources will come in handy as you continue down the path to learning AutoCAD.

[ReMark]

Temporary Overrides as explained in your AutoCAD Help file.

 

"Temporary override keys are used to temporarily turn on or off drafting settings. For example, holding down the Shift key toggles the current setting of Ortho mode. The following table shows the Object Snap Override: Endpoint temporary override key properties as they appear in the Properties pane."

 

As an aside, I think renaming this thread as "Coordinate Entry" is incorrect. We have not been discussing how to draw lines using coordinates. We have, however, talked about direct distance entry and the use of temporary overrides.

 

One more source of AutoCAD tutorials can be found here...http://www.we-r-here.com/cad/

[JD Mather]

Ahh, I see. I haven't used Ortho in years since they added Polar tracking, except in very very very rare cases.

Polar Tracking does the same thing as ortho - only more.

[nestly]

1st image is when I hold down shift key to start command and the 2nd shot is when I take finger off shift key

 

Only hold down the key long enough to get the "@" symbol to appear at the command line, do not hold it down continuously while you try to enter the rest of your coordinates

 

 

No, I have just noticed I have the ortho on and when I put the shift key down it goes off and also object snap also goes off and pushing shift key down and up the polar tracking goes on and off, does this make sense to you.

 

Holding the down continously forces AutoCAD to toggle the current ORTHO mode. If Ortho is turned Off, pressing (and holding) toggles Ortho on until you stop holding down . If Ortho is turned On, pressing (and holding) toggles Ortho off until you release

 

Also, ORTHO and POLAR can not be active at the same time, so holding down while POLAR is on temporarily turns POLAR off and ORTHO on. As soon as you release POLAR will activate again.

[kdalzell]

Thank you all for your help, I will do some reading as well as look at some tutorials, I have also taken on board all your suggestions thanks again, Regards Kim from down under in Australia.