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Daily AutoCAD
-book 9
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"AutoCAD 2008 MULTILINE"
By Erhan Toker
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This document is compiled from the articles of the www.dailyautocad.com, which is copyrighted property of Talia Cad Software Ltd..
Copyright 1994-2006 Talia Cad Software Ltd.
MLINE command, which is available since AutoCAD 13, has
come so far until AutoCAD 2008 after some minor changes. By
using MLINE command, we can create entities that are made
up of one or more multiple parallel lines. They can represent
walls, roads, isolation etc. MLINE lines act as one single entity.


Fig.1

A typical MLINE entity is shown in Fig. 1. The one on top is
created by using the STANDARD style and the one on bottom
is created by using the style that I prepared specially for
`AutoCAD Gnlg. As you can see, we can create a new style
and change the colors and line types by this way. In this first
article of this series, we show how to create a standard MLINE
entity. In MLINE entities, you must define an offset distance
for each parallel line. For STANDARD style, these values are
+0.5 and -0.5 as shown in Fig. 2.


Fig.2

This approach is very clever, because a dimension which is 1.0
in total can easily be scaled. Now, lets draw a MLINE entity
and have a look at what this means.
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Copyright 1994-2006 Talia Cad Software Ltd.
Command : MLINE
Current settings: Justification = Top, Scale = 20.00, Style = STANDARD
Specify start point or [Justification/Scale/STyle]:

When we enter the command, we get the MLINE drawing
window. Justification is selected as top, scale is selected as 20
and style is selected as STANDARD. Justification is given
according to drawing in clock vise direction. And the scale will
be the multiplier of offset value that we set as shown in Fig. 2.
Thus, line spacing will be 20 units for STANDARD style. After
this stage, everything works just like typical line command. You
can select the points and complete your drawing.


Fig.3

You can see a closed drawing in Fig. 3. Thus, you can end the
drawing by using C ( Close ) option.

EDIT
As you know, MLINE is a special drawing entity. Due to the fact
that AutoDESK has specially created this entity, we cannot use
the standard editing commands for this entity. For those who
are interested in the subject, let me explain how this is done.
These two lines are connected to each other by using `hard
pointers. By this way, AutoCAD perceives these entities
(multiple lines that are drawn at once) as one single entity. For
this reason, we cannot use some editing commands ( FILLET,
CHAMFER, BREAK etc. ) on MLINE entities. Instead, there is
another tool named as `Multiline Edit Tools inside AutoCAD
(Fig. 1).


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Fig.1

You can access to this window by using MLEDIT command or by
simply double-clicking on an MLINE entity. All the figures that
you can see here are pretty clear. Just, you have to select what
you would like to do from here and follow the instructions from
the command line. Here, we are going to go over the most
popular three one of them.


Fig.2

What we do in Fig. 2 is called `open cross. When you select
two intersecting MLINE entities, intersection line in between
them are being erased. Even though each one of the lines are
divided into two different parts, they continue acting like one
single entity.
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This document is compiled from the articles of the www.dailyautocad.com, which is copyrighted property of Talia Cad Software Ltd..
Copyright 1994-2006 Talia Cad Software Ltd.

Fig.3

In Fig. 3, you can see the `Corner joint operation. Even after
the corner joining operations is done on MLINE entities, they
continue acting like one single entity. Thus, principle is this:
whatever it is before editing operation, it is same as then after
editing operation.


Fig.4

And in Fig. 4, you can see how to open a hole on MLINE entity (
Cut All ). Before opening the hole, prepare aligned aiding lines.
Plase try all other option in MLEDIT dialogue box for getting
experience.
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This document is compiled from the articles of the www.dailyautocad.com, which is copyrighted property of Talia Cad Software Ltd..
Copyright 1994-2006 Talia Cad Software Ltd.
STYLE
In the last article of our series about MLINE, we will learn about
how to create an MLINE style. I believe that you must have got
used to styles in AutoCAD. For this reason, there is no need to
inform you to create a new name. In order to edit MLINE style,
we are using MLSTYLE command.


Fig.1
Due to the fact that MLINE styles can be stored in an external
file just like in line type styles, `Load. and `Save. buttons
has also been added to the control window. But, we will just
use the `New. button to create a new style at the moment.

Fig.2
After giving a style name, we proceed to the real important
window. In this window, all necessary editing is being made
(Fig. 3).
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This document is compiled from the articles of the www.dailyautocad.com, which is copyrighted property of Talia Cad Software Ltd..
Copyright 1994-2006 Talia Cad Software Ltd.

Fig.3
In the left side, there are methods that show how the starting
and end parts are being closed. If you want to close by using
arc or lines, you can select the relevant parts. Lets have a look
at the possible options (Fig. 4).

Fig.4
We have the line settings on the right side. We can add any
number of lines that we would like to. Lets have a look at the
details (Fig. 5).
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This document is compiled from the articles of the www.dailyautocad.com, which is copyrighted property of Talia Cad Software Ltd..
Copyright 1994-2006 Talia Cad Software Ltd.

Fig.5
First of all, lets add any number of lines that we would like to
add by using `Add button. Then, we will select each of the
elements and we are making the changes on them in the
bottom part. `Offset values will effect the drawing as shown in
Fig. 6 below.

Fig.6
Set the `Offset value as 0.0 for the line that you want to be in
the middle. If you can set the difference between the
outermost lines as 1.0, then the scale values that you give
while drawing MLINE will directly correspond to thickness
values. Take care to set your `Offset values according to this
principle. There it is, your new style is ready to be used.