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AutoCAD Tutorial | Direct Distance Entry | CADTutor http://www.cadtutor.net/tutorials/autocad/direct-distance-entry.php
1 of 2 1/22/2008 8:24 AM
Home > Tutorials > AutoCAD > Direct Distance Entry
Direct Distance Entry
by David Watson
Introduction
Direct distance entry is one of those AutoCAD features that is often overloo ked. This is rather unfortunate
because it can be extremely useful and an amazing time-saver. Basically, dir ect distance entry enables you to
draw an object, such as a line, by pointing in a particular direction with t he cursor and entering a distance at
the command line.
How does it work?
Say, for example, you wanted to draw a horizontal line with a length of 30 d rawing units. Start the Line
command, Draw Line from the pull-down menu or from the Draw toolbar. When prompted, to specify
the first point for the line, pick a point somewhere on the left side of the drawing area.
You now need to constrain the line to the horizontal. You can do this using Polar Tracking . Use the POLAR
button on the status bar to turn on Polar Tracking. Usually, Polar Tracking is on by default, so you may not
need to do this.
Now, move your cursor to the right of the first pick point.
If you are within a few degrees of the horizontal, you
should see something similar to the illustration on the
right. Hold your cursor in this position and simply enter
30 at the keyboard. When you hit the Return key, a line
segment is drawn, 30 units long and in the direction you
were pointing.
Obviously, you could vary this sequence to get different effects. If you onl y want to draw horizontal or vertical
lines, you could use Ortho rather than Polar Tracking. Or, you could configu re polar tracking to snap to other
angles like 45º or 30º. You might even want to turn both Ortho and Polar Tra cking off and use free angles.
See the Drawing Aids tutorial to learn more about Polar Tracking.
It's also worth pointing out that when Polar Tracking has snapped to an angl e, as in the illustration above, a
Tool Tip is displayed. This Tool Tip displays a relative polar co-ordinate f rom the first pick point to the current
cursor position. The first number is the distance between the two points and it can be quite useful as a
drawing guide since the value updates dynamically. See the Using Co-ordinates tutorial for more information
on polar co-ordinates.
To get a clearer idea how direct distance entry works, follow the worked exa mple below.
A Worked Example
In this exercise, we will use direct distance entry to draw the closed shape shown below using the associated
dimensions.
AutoCAD Tutorial | Direct Distance Entry | CADTutor http://www.cadtutor.net/tutorials/autocad/direct-distance-entry.php
2 of 2 1/22/2008 8:24 AM
1. Check that you have either Polar Tracking or Ortho mode turned on.
2. Start the Polyline command, Draw Polyline from the pull-down menu or from the Draw toolbar.
When prompted to specify the first point, pick a point somewhere
in the lower left quadrant of the drawing area. This will be the
point marked "start" in the illustration.
3.
Now, follow the command sequence below. In each case, point
the cursor in the direction you want the line drawn and enter the
distance for that particular line segment at the keyboard.
4.
Point up
Specify next point or [Arc/Halfwidth/Length/Undo/Width]: 40
Point right
Specify next point or [Arc/Close/Halfwidth/Length/Undo/Width]: 15
Point down
Specify next point or [Arc/Close/Halfwidth/Length/Undo/Width]: 25
Point right
Specify next point or [Arc/Close/Halfwidth/Length/Undo/Width]: 20
Point up
Specify next point or [Arc/Close/Halfwidth/Length/Undo/Width]: 25
Point right
Specify next point or [Arc/Close/Halfwidth/Length/Undo/Width]: 15
Point down
Specify next point or [Arc/Close/Halfwidth/Length/Undo/Width]: 40
You should now be at the point marked "end" on the illustration. All you nee d to do now is enter "C" to
close the polyline and end the command.
Specify next point or [Arc/Close/Halfwidth/Length/Undo/Width]: C
The closed polyline shape you have drawn is located arbitrarily because you just picked a start point
somewhere in the drawing area. If you had wanted to start at a particular lo cation, you could have entered a
co-ordinate value for the start point instead of just picking. See the Using Co-ordinates tutorial for more
information.
Obviously, the exercise above is a very simple example but there are many ci rcumstances where direct
distance entry can be used. It's a very useful tool to add to your AutoCAD s kills toolbox and can help you
towards greater drawing efficiency. If you would like more practice using di rect distance entry, have a go at
the site layout exercise.
AutoCAD Tutorial | Direct Distance Entry | CADTutor http://www.cadtutor.net/tutorials/autocad/direct-distance-entry.php
1 of 2 1/22/2008 8:24 AM
Home > Tutorials > AutoCAD > Direct Distance Entry
Direct Distance Entry
by David Watson
Introduction
Direct distance entry is one of those AutoCAD features that is often overloo ked. This is rather unfortunate
because it can be extremely useful and an amazing time-saver. Basically, dir ect distance entry enables you to
draw an object, such as a line, by pointing in a particular direction with t he cursor and entering a distance at
the command line.
How does it work?
Say, for example, you wanted to draw a horizontal line with a length of 30 d rawing units. Start the Line
command, Draw Line from the pull-down menu or from the Draw toolbar. When prompted, to specify
the first point for the line, pick a point somewhere on the left side of the drawing area.
You now need to constrain the line to the horizontal. You can do this using Polar Tracking . Use the POLAR
button on the status bar to turn on Polar Tracking. Usually, Polar Tracking is on by default, so you may not
need to do this.
Now, move your cursor to the right of the first pick point.
If you are within a few degrees of the horizontal, you
should see something similar to the illustration on the
right. Hold your cursor in this position and simply enter
30 at the keyboard. When you hit the Return key, a line
segment is drawn, 30 units long and in the direction you
were pointing.
Obviously, you could vary this sequence to get different effects. If you onl y want to draw horizontal or vertical
lines, you could use Ortho rather than Polar Tracking. Or, you could configu re polar tracking to snap to other
angles like 45º or 30º. You might even want to turn both Ortho and Polar Tra cking off and use free angles.
See the Drawing Aids tutorial to learn more about Polar Tracking.
It's also worth pointing out that when Polar Tracking has snapped to an angl e, as in the illustration above, a
Tool Tip is displayed. This Tool Tip displays a relative polar co-ordinate f rom the first pick point to the current
cursor position. The first number is the distance between the two points and it can be quite useful as a
drawing guide since the value updates dynamically. See the Using Co-ordinates tutorial for more information
on polar co-ordinates.
To get a clearer idea how direct distance entry works, follow the worked exa mple below.
A Worked Example
In this exercise, we will use direct distance entry to draw the closed shape shown below using the associated
dimensions.
AutoCAD Tutorial | Direct Distance Entry | CADTutor http://www.cadtutor.net/tutorials/autocad/direct-distance-entry.php
2 of 2 1/22/2008 8:24 AM
1. Check that you have either Polar Tracking or Ortho mode turned on.
2. Start the Polyline command, Draw Polyline from the pull-down menu or from the Draw toolbar.
When prompted to specify the first point, pick a point somewhere
in the lower left quadrant of the drawing area. This will be the
point marked "start" in the illustration.
3.
Now, follow the command sequence below. In each case, point
the cursor in the direction you want the line drawn and enter the
distance for that particular line segment at the keyboard.
4.
Point up
Specify next point or [Arc/Halfwidth/Length/Undo/Width]: 40
Point right
Specify next point or [Arc/Close/Halfwidth/Length/Undo/Width]: 15
Point down
Specify next point or [Arc/Close/Halfwidth/Length/Undo/Width]: 25
Point right
Specify next point or [Arc/Close/Halfwidth/Length/Undo/Width]: 20
Point up
Specify next point or [Arc/Close/Halfwidth/Length/Undo/Width]: 25
Point right
Specify next point or [Arc/Close/Halfwidth/Length/Undo/Width]: 15
Point down
Specify next point or [Arc/Close/Halfwidth/Length/Undo/Width]: 40
You should now be at the point marked "end" on the illustration. All you nee d to do now is enter "C" to
close the polyline and end the command.
Specify next point or [Arc/Close/Halfwidth/Length/Undo/Width]: C
The closed polyline shape you have drawn is located arbitrarily because you just picked a start point
somewhere in the drawing area. If you had wanted to start at a particular lo cation, you could have entered a
co-ordinate value for the start point instead of just picking. See the Using Co-ordinates tutorial for more
information.
Obviously, the exercise above is a very simple example but there are many ci rcumstances where direct
distance entry can be used. It's a very useful tool to add to your AutoCAD s kills toolbox and can help you
towards greater drawing efficiency. If you would like more practice using di rect distance entry, have a go at
the site layout exercise.
Generally AutoCAD software is mostly useful for civil engineering students to draw various kinds of designing 3D and 2D objects which is useful for final presentation.
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