Building Construction & Graphics

AutoCAD

EDITING COMMANDS

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Editing commands

figure: A window selection box, drawn from left to right selects objects that
ar2e completely within the window
Editing commands
 You can press the Shift key in combination with any of
the three standard selection modes — single object, window
box, and crossing box — to remove already selected objects
from the selection set. This feature is especially useful when
you’re building a selection set in a crowded drawing; you can
select a big batch of objects by using Window or Crossing,
and then hold down the Shift key while selecting to remove the
objects that you want to exclude from the editing operation.

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Editing commands
The Big three: Move, Copy, and Stretch:
Base points and displacements:
The MOVE, COPY, and STRETCH commands all
require that you specify how far and in what direction
you want the objects moved, copied, or stretched.
MOVE COMMAND:
The procedure to use move command is stated as:
1. Press Esc to make sure that no command is active and
no objects are selected.
2. Click the Move button on the Modify toolbar.
3. Select one or more objects.
4. Press Enter when you’re finished selecting objects.
5. Specify a base point by clicking a point or typing
coordinates. (Specify a base point somewhere on or near
the object(s) that you’re moving. You can use an object
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snap mode to choose a point exactly on one of the
objects.)
Editing commands
MOVE COMMAND:
6. Specify the second point by clicking a
point or typing coordinates (These are common
precision techniques for specifying the second point:
 use an object snap mode to pick a second point
exactly on another object in the drawing.
 Type a relative or polar coordinate. For example,
if you type @6,2, AutoCAD moves the objects
6 units to the right and 2 units up. If you type
@3<45, AutoCAD moves the objects 3 units at
an angle of 45 degrees.)

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Editing commands
COPY COMMAND:
• The COPY command works almost identically to the MOVE
command, except that AutoCAD leaves the selected
objects in place and moves new copies of them to the new
location. The COPY command creates multiple copies by
default. If you want only one copy, press Enter after placing
it in the drawing.
• The COPY command includes an Undo option with which
you can roll back multiple copies within a single COPY
operation.
• Copy between drawings: You can’t copy objects from
one drawing to another with the COPY command. Instead,
you use the COPYCLIP command, together with its
companion command, PASTECLIP.

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Editing commands
STRETCH COMMAND:
The STRETCH command is superficially similar to COPY and
MOVE; it has the same inscrutable base point and
displacement prompts, and it shifts objects — or parts of
objects — to other locations in the drawing

FIGURE: using a cross selection window to

select object for stretching 7
Editing commands
STRETCH COMMAND:
 STRETCH can make lines longer or shorter, depending on
your crossing selection box and displacement vector. In other
words, the STRETCH command really combines stretching and
compressing.
 You usually want to turn on ortho or polar tracking mode
before stretching. Otherwise, you’ll end up stretching objects in
strange directions.

FIGURE: Strange stretching phenomena

Editing commands
STRETCH COMMAND:
The following steps describe how to stretch lines:
1. Draw some lines in an arrangement similar to the dark lines
shown in Figure
2. Press Esc to make sure that no command is active and no
objects are selected.
3. Click the Stretch button on the Modify toolbar.
4. Specify a crossing selection box that encloses some, but not
all, endpoints of the lines.
5. Press Enter to end object selection.
6. Specify a base point by object snapping to a point on an
existing object or by typing absolute X,Y coordinates.
7. Toggle ortho mode on and then off by clicking the ORTHO
button on the status bar; try moving the crosshairs around
first with ortho mode on and then with it off to see the
difference.
8. Toggle ortho mode on and then specify the second point —
usually by using direct distance entry, object snapping to a 9
point on an existing object, or typing relative X,Y
Editing commands
STRETCH COMMAND: The following figure shows
the procedure of stretching

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Editing commands
ROTATE COMMAND:
The ROTATE command swings one or more objects around a
point that you specify. Follow these steps to use the ROTATE
command:
1. Press Esc to make sure that no command is active and no
objects are selected.
2. Click the Rotate button on the Modify toolbar.
3. Select one or more objects and then press Enter to end object
selection.
4. Specify a base point by clicking a point or typing coordinates.
5. Specify a rotation angle by typing an angle measurement and
pressing Enter, or just press Enter to accept the default value
shown in angle brackets. (After you specify the rotation angle by
typing or picking, AutoCAD rotates the objects into their new
position. The ROTATE command’s copy option makes a rotated
copy while leaving the source object in place).

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Editing commands
SCALE COMMAND:
It merely uniformly scales one or more objects up or down by a
factor that you specify. Here’s how it works:
1. Press Esc to make sure that no command is active and
no objects are selected.
2. Click the Scale button on the Modify toolbar.
3. Select one or more objects and then press Enter to end
object selection.
4. Specify a base point by picking a point or typing
coordinates.
5. Type a scale factor and press Enter.
 Just like the ROTATE command, the SCALE command
also has a copy option with which you can make enlarged
or reduced duplicates of selected objects without altering
the source objects. And both the SCALE and ROTATE
commands remember the last scale factor or rotation angle
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entered throughout the drawing session.
Editing commands
ARRAY COMMAND:
The ARRAY command is like a supercharged COPY: You use
it to create a rectangular grid of objects at regular X and Y
spacings or a polar wheel of objects at a regular angular
spacing. For example, you can use rectangular arrays to
populate an auditorium with chairs or a polar array to draw
bicycle spokes.
The following is the procedure to use array command
1. Press Esc to make sure that no command is active and no
objects are selected.
2. Click the Array button on the Modify toolbar.
3. Click the Select Objects button and then select one or more
objects. Press Enter to end object selection and return to the
Array dialog box.
4. Make sure that the Rectangular Array radio button is
selected.
5. Fill in the five text boxes: Rows, Columns, Row Offset, 13
Column Offset, and Angle Of Array.
Editing commands
ARRAY COMMAND:
6. Click the Preview button.
7. Click the Accept button if you’re satisfied with the array or the
Modify button if you want to change the array parameters.

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Editing commands
SLICING & SPLICING COMMAND:
The commands in this section — TRIM (TR), EXTEND (EX),
BREAK (BR), FILLET (F), CHAMFER (CHA), and JOIN (J) —
are useful for shortening and lengthening objects, for breaking
them in two, and for putting them back together again.
Trim and Extend:
TRIM and EXTEND are the twin commands for making lines,
polylines, and arcs shorter and longer. The two commands and
their prompts are almost identical, so the following steps cover
both. We show the prompts for the TRIM command; the
EXTEND prompts are similar:
1. Click the Trim or Extend button on the Modify toolbar.
2. Press Enter to select all drawing objects to act as the knife
for trimming objects or the wall to which objects will be
extended, or select individual objects by picking them. Press
Enter to end object selection.
3. Select a single object to trim or extend. Choose the portion
of the object that you want AutoCAD to trim away or the end 15

of the object that’s closer to the extend-to boundary.

Editing commands
TRIM & EXTEND COMMAND:
TRIM and EXTEND normally allow you to select only one
object at a time for trimming or extending. An exception is that
you can type F and press Enter to use the Fence object
selection mode. Fence is useful for trimming or extending
a large group of objects in one fell swoop.

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Editing commands
CHAMFER & FILLET:
Whereas TRIM, EXTEND, and BREAK alter one object at a
time, the FILLET and CHAMFER commands require a pair of
objects. FILLET creates a curved corner between two lines,
whereas CHAMFER creates an angled, straight corner. (In
case you wonder

FIGURE: Cleaning up those corners with fillet & chamfer

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Editing commands
Chamfer & fillet:
The following steps describe how to use the FILLET command. The
CHAMFER command works similarly except that, instead of specifying
a fillet radius, you specify either two chamfer distances or a chamfer
length and angle.
1. Click the Fillet button on the Modify toolbar.
2. 2. Type R and press Enter to set the fillet radius.
3. 3. Type a fillet radius and press Enter.
4. 4. Select the first line of the pair that you want to fillet.
5. 5. Select the second line of the pair that you want to fillet.
Note:
 You can fillet two lines and specify a radius of zero to make them
meet at a point. If you have lots of lines to fillet, whether with a
zero or nonzero radius, use the FILLET command’s Multiple option
to speed the process.
 Holding down the Shift key before picking the second line
automatically gives you a clean intersection, the same as if you’d
explicitly set the fillet radius to 0. The CHAMFER command has
the same Shift-select option. 18