Drawing Tools

[Openantics]

I have a line (not a polyline) that i need to extend by dragging one end to an arbitrary location but must conserve the orientation of the line. I then have to drag the other end point in the opposite location to a location that I pick (ie, not a cad feature, but by human eye)

 

POLAR works good in that i know the angle, but the line is allowed to be drawn wherever, and i need to focus on precisely where i extend the line too and not that the angle is changing.

 

TIA!

[Jack_O'neill]

Maybe I don't entirely understand what you are doing, but if you know where the endpoints are supposed to be, why not just draw the line from the first point to the second point and have done?

[tzframpton]

Would temporarily rotating the UCS around the Z axis be of benefit? This way you realign the drawing model to the angle of the line, so your POLAR or ORTHO will be realigned as well.

[Openantics]

Jack: sort of. I know the approximate "area" where the new endpoints (ep) should be, so I have to drag each current ep to the desired area while conserving the orientation of the given line exactly like drawing with the ORTHO tool.

 

StykFacE - good idea. unfortunaely i have many, many of these lines to extend and this seem technique requires 2-extra steps. Of course it will work for now! Question: can you explain further how to do this? I can determine the angle of the line, but how do i apply this roation value?

[tzframpton]

I give a step by step in this recent thread: http://www.cadtutor.net/forum/showthread.php?62550-Rotating-UCS-Icon-Coordinate-System

[Jack_O'neill]

Well, another thing you could do is to draw a construction line at each end, extend to them and then erase the construction lines. In the sketch below, the red lines represent the construction lines, the blue line is the one you wanted to extend. Give the construction lines a layer of their own, then when you are done, you can freeze all the other layers and erase them all at once.

[Openantics]

StykeFacE - that worked great - thank you!

 

Jack - the EXTEND function works well too, thank you.

 

I have inc both ideas, as now i need to extend lines into 'general areas' that i pick (SykeFacE) and specific points (Jack) which i can draw a construction line through - nice.

 

Still surprised there is no drawing tool that works like ORTHO for odd angle lines or a command to constrict to a set angle?

 

much thanks.

[tzframpton]

There's a LENGTHEN command, but it's outdated IMHO. I'm sure there's a LISP routine running around somewhere that does what you want.

[rkent]

I have a line (not a polyline) that i need to extend by dragging one end to an arbitrary location but must conserve the orientation of the line. I then have to drag the other end point in the opposite location to a location that I pick (ie, not a cad feature, but by human eye)

 

POLAR works good in that i know the angle, but the line is allowed to be drawn wherever, and i need to focus on precisely where i extend the line too and not that the angle is changing.

 

TIA!

 

I know in 2012, with DYN on, pick the line, pick the end grip, choose Lengthen, drag the line longer or shorter, I assume this works in 2011 as well.

[tzframpton]

I know in 2012, with DYN on, pick the line, pick the end grip, choose Lengthen, drag the line longer or shorter, I assume this works in 2011 as well.

Actually, you're right. You don't even need DYN on.

 

It works great actually. Here's the command and options:

Command: [b][color=red]LENGTHEN[/color][/b]
Select an object or [DElta/Percent/Total/DYnamic]: [b][color=red]DY[/color][/b]
[b][color=red]*SELECT LINE*[/color][/b]

 

I officially retract my previous statement regarding the LENGTHEN command being outdated. The DYnamic option is excellent.

[rkent]

Actually, you're right. You don't even need DYN on.

 

It works great actually. Here's the command and options:

Command: [b][color=red]LENGTHEN[/color][/b]
Select an object or [DElta/Percent/Total/DYnamic]: [b][color=red]DY[/color][/b]
[b][color=red]*SELECT LINE*[/color][/b]

 

I officially retract my previous statement regarding the LENGTHEN command being outdated. The DYnamic option is excellent.

 

Yes, you can use the Lengthen command, DY, select line.

 

Or you can pick the line, pick the grip, hit ctrl once, pull to lengthen. With DYN on.

[tzframpton]

Or you can pick the line, pick the grip, hit ctrl once, pull to lengthen. With DYN on.

Hmmm... not working for me. Wonder what I'm doing wrong.

[rkent]

Actually DYN does not have to be on. If you hoover over the grip a selection box will show on screen, pick lengthen and go OR pick the line, pick the grip, hit CTRL, go.

 

Maybe MULTIGRIPFUNCTION needs to be set to 3 ?

[tzframpton]

Is this with Vanilla AutoCAD? There's no such thing as "Lengthen" for me. And Ctrl just extends a new line segment, and in no way says oriented with the angle of the line when you move the mouse.

[rkent]

Mechanical, see profile below avatar

[tzframpton]

Ah, just tested it in AutoCAD 2012 and it's there. So it's not in 2011.

[SLW210]

Lengthen works here on AutoCAD 2011.

[rkent]

I thought it was just for 2012, see my first post. Glad you found it.

 

SLW210 - We are talking about the lengthen option at a grip, this was added in 2012.

[tzframpton]

Hmmm, must be a setting or variable that's off. Tried both Vanilla 2011 and 2012.

[SLW210]

Never mind then I was talking about Lengthen command with the DYn option.