Understanding Coordinates Display?

[bibi]

hello

 

New to Autocad. I just use the software as a hobby & enjoy reading my book. Best as I can explain. I am drawing a line / line command. Using a coordinate display as a guide drawing a line segment from 2.5, 1.5 to .5

 

A couple of questions . I am not sure where I should be actually seeing these coordinates. Are they displayed at command line. Or are they displayed at tool tip. If I look at command line and move the cursor I see my coordinates changing. But not seeing the coordinates I am trying to draw the line with. What should I do?

 

Lastly. If I am going about this correctly why am I not seeing these coordinate's display. By using the drawing area and the cursor how can I plot these points. Is there a technique in doing so. Any advise?

[JD Mather]

hello

 

New to Autocad. I just use the software as a hobby & enjoy reading my book. Best as I can explain. I am drawing a line / line command. Using a coordinate display as a guide drawing a line segment from 2.5, 1.5 to .5

 

What should I do?

 

L

Enter

type 2.5,1.5 Enter

#.5

#11

#.5

You can set your machine to avoid the # symbol entries.

[rkent]

hello

 

New to Autocad. I just use the software as a hobby & enjoy reading my book. Best as I can explain. I am drawing a line / line command. Using a coordinate display as a guide drawing a line segment from 2.5, 1.5 to .5

 

A couple of questions . I am not sure where I should be actually seeing these coordinates. Are they displayed at command line. Or are they displayed at tool tip. If I look at command line and move the cursor I see my coordinates changing. But not seeing the coordinates I am trying to draw the line with. What should I do?

 

Lastly. If I am going about this correctly why am I not seeing these coordinate's display. By using the drawing area and the cursor how can I plot these points. Is there a technique in doing so. Any advise?

 

You should see them in the lower left but unless you have SNAP turned on I wouldn't try to draw with that and expect much accuracy. For this example, set Ortho on, pull your cursor in the direction desired and enter the value. Also, with DYNamic input on you can enter the value, TAB, enter angle, hit enter, etc.

[JD Mather]

You should see them in the lower left ....

 

Forget you ever saw those. As indicated by rkent - don't use them.

[Patrick Hughes]

I won't go so far as to say forget you ever saw them - they can serve as a visual indicator to help you determine proximity. You might also want to know that you can cycle through the various coordinate types: Polar (as shown), or Rectangular (0.0, 0.0,) with F6 (at least that's what it is in R14)

[bibi]

hi Mr. Kent & Mr. Mather

 

Thanks for the help showing me the proper method to plot with coordinates. It really takes some of the mystery out of using the software.

[JD Mather]

I should add that I never use coordinate entry except for Civil drawings. (but most books start out this way)

Direct distance entry and offset trim/extend are much much faster.