1
KHALID MAHMUD
, 2
AUTOCAD
Autocad notes
Drawing a line with a dimension in AutoCAD
We need to talk about the ORTHO mode before anything else here.
The ORTHO mode
The ORTHO mode constrains the cursor to horizontal and vertical movement, which
helps you draw straight horizontal and straight vertical line easily.
Every time I need to draw an either vertical or horizontal straight line, I will make sure the
ORTHO mode is activated.
The ORTHO icon is located in the Status Bar
How do you know it is activated or not?
Pay attention to the information box that pops up when you hover on the icon. You can
also use colors to know, Blue ORTHOMODE icon for ON and
White ORTHOMODE icon for OFF.
, 3
AUTOCAD
How do you activate the ORTHO mode?
Just click on the icon to toggle it. If it was OFF before your click, it would turn ON and
vise versa
Now that we know what ORTHO is and how to operate it, we need to make use of it.
Vertical line of 50 units of length.
To draw a line with 50 units:
1 – Click on the LINE icon
, 4
AUTOCAD
2 – Click one time in the drawing area (Don’t hold your click)
3 – Activate the ORTHO mode if it is not activated
4 – Move the cursor away from the first point in the direction your want the line to have.
Since we are drawing a vertical line, you can only go either upward or downward
5 – Type 50 on your keyboard and hit ENTER
To draw an horizontal line, just change the direction in step 4 to either left or right.
Practice exercise
Using what you have just learned, you must be able to complete the following exercise.
I don’t expect you to be able to draw the figure with dimensions, it is only there for
information purpose.
Polar tracking
This feature helps track specific angles when you are drawing in AutoCAD. By default
this is set to 90, 180, 270, 360.
How to access this?
Right click on the Polar tracking icon like shown on the image below
KHALID MAHMUD
, 2
AUTOCAD
Autocad notes
Drawing a line with a dimension in AutoCAD
We need to talk about the ORTHO mode before anything else here.
The ORTHO mode
The ORTHO mode constrains the cursor to horizontal and vertical movement, which
helps you draw straight horizontal and straight vertical line easily.
Every time I need to draw an either vertical or horizontal straight line, I will make sure the
ORTHO mode is activated.
The ORTHO icon is located in the Status Bar
How do you know it is activated or not?
Pay attention to the information box that pops up when you hover on the icon. You can
also use colors to know, Blue ORTHOMODE icon for ON and
White ORTHOMODE icon for OFF.
, 3
AUTOCAD
How do you activate the ORTHO mode?
Just click on the icon to toggle it. If it was OFF before your click, it would turn ON and
vise versa
Now that we know what ORTHO is and how to operate it, we need to make use of it.
Vertical line of 50 units of length.
To draw a line with 50 units:
1 – Click on the LINE icon
, 4
AUTOCAD
2 – Click one time in the drawing area (Don’t hold your click)
3 – Activate the ORTHO mode if it is not activated
4 – Move the cursor away from the first point in the direction your want the line to have.
Since we are drawing a vertical line, you can only go either upward or downward
5 – Type 50 on your keyboard and hit ENTER
To draw an horizontal line, just change the direction in step 4 to either left or right.
Practice exercise
Using what you have just learned, you must be able to complete the following exercise.
I don’t expect you to be able to draw the figure with dimensions, it is only there for
information purpose.
Polar tracking
This feature helps track specific angles when you are drawing in AutoCAD. By default
this is set to 90, 180, 270, 360.
How to access this?
Right click on the Polar tracking icon like shown on the image below
