Scribd
Upload
17 views5 pages

Lesson 11. Aligned & Rotate

Lesson 11. Aligned & Rotate

Uploaded by

Amer Gonzales
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
17 views5 pages

Lesson 11. Aligned & Rotate

Lesson 11. Aligned & Rotate

Uploaded by

Amer Gonzales
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 5

LESSON 11.

ALIGNED & ROTATE

Topics covered in this Lesson:


Working with real world examples

This tutorial will give you some drawing practice using real world examples. You will be asked to
draw the sample drawing using some techniques you haven't been shown yet. This lesson requires
you to have Adobe's Acrobat reader for PDF files. Here I'm using an example of someone who has
to measure and draw a room.

Example 1 - Loading Dock


This is a real example from when I worked preparing 'as-built' CAD drawings. These drawings are
used by designers who need to know the existing dimensions of the building that will be remodeled.
When you are doing a survey and measuring rooms, it goes quickly as long as you have nice
rectangle walls which the contractors built perfectly square, and you don't have to deal with angles or
other problems. This example will deal with drawing a room that has angles. Below is the room you
will be drawing, notice that some of the walls are at an angle, and you don't know those angles.

Here is the drawing with all the dimensions on it (print it out if you can). Imagine that you have just
sketched out all the measurements and you need to draw it now. How do you start? The best way to
start is to draw what you can - in this case, you can draw the horizontal and vertical lines easily. Next
draw the lines for the angles lines, but draw them horizontal and vertical as well (as shown below):
Now you should have all the lines drawn, and the door blocks inserted or drawn in. Make sure that
everything is on the correct layer.
Finally you will adjust the 'soon to be angled lines' using the Align command.

Make sure your OSnaps are turned on or your drawing will become a mess rather quickly.

Command Keystroke Icon Location Result

Home > Modify > Aligns (and scales) selected objects to specific
ALIGN ALIGN
Align points.

This command requires that you follow the command line prompts carefully. Start the command and
use the input shown below. You are selecting source points (where it starts) and destination points
(where it will end up). Choose the endpoints nearest the text.
Command: ALIGN
Select objects: <SELECT BOTTOM AND RIGHT SIDE LINES>
Specify opposite corner: 28 found
Select objects: <ENTER>
Specify first source point: <1S>
Specify first destination point: <1D>
Specify second source point: <2S>
Specify second destination point: <2D>
Specify third source point or <continue>: <ENTER>
Scale objects based on alignment points? [Yes/No] <N>: N
Just so you know, the 3rd source point is used in 3D drawing.

If everything went correctly, your lines should be very close, but not touching. Zoom in if you can't
see this. In the real world, your lines won't usually line up 'exactly'. When that happens, you'll need
to re-check your measurements, and correct the lines (but in some cases, close will work - it all
depends upon your tolerances for the project). Also, if you have drawn your lines to specific lengths,
you don't want to scale them.
But what if you have an older version of AutoCAD LT. Prior to AutoCAD LT 2015, it doesn't have the
align command. You're screwed, right? Not really - you can use the ROTATE command. This is
the same rotate command you used in Level 1 and it works in all versions of AutoCAD.

Undo the align command so that your lines are back to horizontal and vertical.

Here's how you can use the rotate command to to rotate objects at an angle you don't know. Once
again, follow the command line prompts carefully. What you need to do is tell AutoCAD what the
existing angle is (Reference angle) and what the new angle is.

Command: ROTATE
Current positive angle in UCS: ANGDIR=counterclockwise
ANGBASE=0.0000
Select objects: <SELECT OBJECTS> Specify opposite corner: 28
found
Select objects: <ENTER>
Specify base point: <1R>
Specify rotation angle or [Copy/Reference] <329.8507>: R
Specify the reference angle <0.0000>: <1R> Specify second
point: <2R>
Specify the new angle or [Points] <0.0000>: <N>
Both commands work well and quickly. Which one you use depend on the situation. If your lines are
connected like they were in this example, the Rotate command works fine. If they aren't then the
align command works easier. Personally, I use the Align command each time for consistency.
To clean up the walls, use the FILLET command with a Zero radius.

Extra Practice:
For this exercise, you will draw a room and place it into another drawing. Then you align the room to
the existing walls. This is a common of collaborating on a drawing. A project manager might have
the complete floor plan and delegate smaller areas to be drawn. Once the smaller area is complete,
it needs to be inserted into the master drawing.

This can be done a few ways. You can copy and past the objects into the master drawing (good for
small drawings). You can WBLOCK out the drawing objects and then insert them as a block. Finally,
you use the smaller drawing as an External Reference (XREF) - this is covered in a later tutorial. For
now, just use the copy and past method to complete this exercise.

Complete this floor plan drawing: ALIGN EXERCISE (PDF file)

When you are done, download and open the MASTER FILE (DWG)

With both drawings open, use the Windows Copy (CTRL+C) to copy the objects you drew to the
clipboard. Then switch to the Master Drawing and paste them into the drawing (CTRL+V). Place
them somewhere near the walls in the Master Drawing.

Finally use the ALIGN command to line the room your drew to the walls in the Master Drawing and
you are done. Check out the video below if you need help with this.

You might also like