Drawing Arcs, Rectangles, Ellipses, Regular

Polygon and Circles

A report prepared by
Widyan Abdulghaeb Naser

Supervised by
Lect. Moayad Aljbori
 Introduction
One of the most important design and drawing tool is the Auto
desk AutoCAD design software that helps any designing persons with
their different specialist according to the huge services provided by the
AutoCAD user interface.

 Drawing Basic Shapes using AutoCAD

1. Drawing an arc
To create an arc, you can specify combinations of center, endpoint,
start point, radius, angle, chord length, and direction values, as shown in
Fig (1). Arcs are drawn in a counterclockwise direction by default. Hold
down the Ctrl key as you drag to draw in a clockwise direction [1].

Figure (1) AutoCAD user interface show drawing arc

2. Drawing Rectangle
In this section, a rectangular polyline from the specified rectangle
parameters such as (length, width, rotation) is explained, as shown in Fig.
(2) [1].

Figure (2) AutoCAD user interface for drawing a rectangle

The following parameters are used to draw a rectangle [1], [2]:

First Corner Point: Specifies a corner point of the rectangle.
Other Corner Point: Creates a rectangle using the specified points as
diagonally opposite corners.
Area: Creates a rectangle using the area and either a length or a width.
Dimensions: Creates a rectangle using length and width values.
Rotation: Creates a rectangle at a specified rotation angle.
Thickness: Specifies the thickness of the rectangle.
Width: Specifies the polyline width of the rectangle to be drawn.
3. Drawing Ellipse
The first two points of the ellipse determine the location and length of
the first axis. The third point determines the distance between the center
of the ellipse and the end point of the second axis, as shown in Fig (3) [2].

Figure (3) AutoCAD user interface appears drawing an ellipse

Axis Endpoint: Defines the first axis by its two endpoints. The angle of
the first axis determines the angle of the ellipse. The first axis can define
either the major or the minor axis of the ellipse.
Distance to Other Axis: Defines the second axis using the distance from
the midpoint of the first axis to the endpoint of the second axis.
Rotation: Creates the ellipse by appearing to rotate a circle about the first
axis. Move the crosshairs around the center of the ellipse and click. If you
enter a value, the higher the value, the greater the eccentricity of the
ellipse. Entering 0 defines a circular ellipse.
4. Drawing Regular Polygon
The number of sides of the polygon and whether it is inscribed or
circumscribed is specified, as shown in Fig (4).

Figure (4) User interface of drawing a polygon in AutoCAD.

The following prompts are displayed [1]:
Number of sides: Specifies the number of sides in the polygon (3-1024).
Center of polygon: Specifies the location of the center of the polygon and
whether the new object is inscribed or circumscribed.
Inscribed in circle: Specifying the radius with your pointing device
determines the rotation and size of the polygon. Specifying the radius
with a value draws the bottom edge of the polygon at the current snap
rotation angle, as shown in Fig (5) (a).
Circumscribed about circle: Specifying the radius with your pointing
device determines the rotation and size of the polygon. Specifying the
radius with a value draws the bottom edge of the polygon at the current
snap rotation angle, as shown in Fig (5) (b).
 (a) (b)
Figure (5) a polygon (a) inscribed in circle and (b) circumscribed about
circle

5. Drawing Circle
In AutoCAD Circle command is used to draw a circle, as shown in Fig
(6). You can create circles in several ways. First method is Center, Radius.
Second method is Center, Diameter. Third method is 2-Point. Forth
method is 3-Point. Fifth method is Tan, Tan, Radius and sixth method is
Tan, Tan, Tan. The default method to draw a circle is to specify the center
point and the radius of circle [2].

Figure (6) AutoCAD user interface for drawing a circle

 References
[1] http://help.autodesk.com/view/ACD/2017/ENU/
[2] https://cadin360.com/autocad-tutorial-pdf/