PRACTICAL NO:3

Objective: To learn the modify toolbar.

The Move command

To move drawings in AutoCAD, you can use the Move command from the Modify
panel of the Home tab, or you can use its command, M:

In this case, we will use the Move tool to move the circle from one of the vertices of the triangle
shown in the previous diagram down to the other:
1. Select the Move tool from the Modify panel and then click on the circle from the drawing
area and press Enter.
2. Now, click on the center of the circle. This center will become the base point from where
the circle will be picked.
3. Now, click on the lower-right vertex of the triangle. The circle will be moved to its new
location.
Copy Command

To copy the circle on all three vertices, you can use the Copy tool from the Modify panel of
the Home tab, or you can use its command, CO:
1. Click on the Copy command from the Modify panel and then click on the circle that you
want to copy from the drawing area and press Enter.
2. Now, once again, click on the center of the circle and that will become the base point of your
selection.
3. Click on the other two vertices of the triangle to paste the circle there. To end the command,
press Enter again. The final drawing after copying the circles on all three vertices.

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The Rotate command
As the name suggests, the Rotate command can be used to rotate an object about a point. In
this case, I will use a door symbol to explain the command, which is shown here: Figure

The Rotate command rotates the selected object from its base point and you can rotate the
object from its original angle or also by using a reference angle. In the following sections, we
will discuss all the methods for using Rotate commands. Let's start with the simple rotate
feature.

To rotate this door with respect to its original angle, we will perform the following
steps:
1. Select the Rotate command from the Modify panel or use its command, ROTATE.
2. The command line will prompt you to select the objects. Click on the door to select it and
press Enter.
3. Now, the command line will prompt you to specify the base point. Click on the lower-left
corner of the door as the base point. The base point will become the pivot point of the rotation
and it will remain fixed; the door will rotate about that point.

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4. Now, the command line will prompt you to specify the angle of rotation. Type 30 and press
Enter.
The door will rotate to an angle of 30 degrees, with respect to the current angle of 0 degrees,
and the final door should look like this:

The Trim command

Using the Trim command, you can remove parts of a drawing up to its intersection point or
vertex. To explain this command properly, I will use the diagram shown here:

Here, we have three lines, A, B, and C, intersected by two arcs. We will trim the lines and arcs
with respect to one another in the following examples:
1. Select the Trim command from the Modify panel or use its command, TR.
2. Hover your cursor over the A, B, or C lines on the right side of the red arc.
You will notice that the color of the line will fade up to the red arc, indicating the part that will
be trimmed.
3. Click the line and it will be trimmed up to the red arc.
In this case, if you click another line or arc, it will be trimmed up to the next available
boundaries. This is the default way that the trim command works in the 2021 version of
AutoCAD.

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The Extend command
The Extend command works in a completely opposite way. It extends the drawing up to the
selected boundary. The workflow of the extend command is also the same and in this case, you
also need a boundary that another geometry will extend to:
To explain the extend command, I will use this diagram shown in the preceding figure. Here,
we will extend the lines up to the next boundaries using different extend options:
1. Type EX and press Enter, or click on the Extend tool from the Modify panel to start the
extend command.
2. Simply click on the line you want to extend. In this example, click on the A line and it will
extend up to the green arc.
3. Click on the A line again and it will again extend up to the red arc this time. If you click on
the A line a third time, it will have no effect as there is no further boundary to extend the line.
The Mirror command
Using the Mirror command, you can make a mirror image of a drawing object in AutoCAD.
To explain this command, I will use the drawing shown here:
Here, we have a door on the right side of the wall and we need to add another door on the left
side of the wall with an exact distance. In the following example, we will mirror the existing
door about mid-wall to get the second door using the Mirror command:
1. Select the Mirror command from the Modify panel or use its command alias, MI.
Figure 3.60: The Mirror command in the Modify panel
2. Now, the command line will prompt you to select the object. Click on the green door symbol
to select it and press enter.
3. Now, the command line will prompt you to specify the mirroring line. This will be a
reference line that the mirror image will be made around. Click on the midpoint of the wall and
then again on another point right above it, Now, the command line will prompt you to specify
whether you want to erase the source object. The source object is the door symbol we used to
make the mirror image.
If you select Yes, the original door symbol will be erased but its mirrored copy will be retained.
If you select No, both the door symbols will be retained. The default option, in this case, is
No, which is shown in the angle bracket. Simply press Enter; the default value will be selected
and you will get a mirror image of the door symbol:

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The Offset command
The Offset command lets you make an offset copy of an object at the distance you
specify:

In the following example, I will explain this command using the preceding drawing. This
drawing is made with a single polyline and there are no breaks in its boundary.
In the following example, we will offset the polyline to make another copy at the offset
distance:
1. Select the Offset command from the Modify panel, as in the following screenshot, or use its
command alias, O:
2. Now, the command line will prompt you to specify the offset distance. Type the distance
that you want and press Enter. In this case, I am using an offset distance of 5 units.
3. Now, click on the boundary of the polyline to select it and you will notice that an offset copy
will appear on your cursor. If you hover your cursor outside the shape, the offset copy will be
made outside and if you click inside, the offset will be added inside the drawing:
The Scale command
This command lets you scale a drawing up or down or, in other words, you can use the Scale
command to make a drawing larger or smaller. You can select the Scale command from the
Modify panel, as in the following screenshot, or you can also use its command alias, SC:
Figure 3.67: The Scale command in the Modify panel For the Scale command, I will use this
window symbol, where the length of the AB line is 10 units:

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In the following example, we will learn how to change the scale of the window symbol shown
in the preceding figure using different scale factors:
1. Start the Scale command, then select the complete drawing that you want to scale, and press
the Enter key.
2. AutoCAD will now prompt you to select the base point. While scaling an object, the base
point remains fixed, so in this case, let's click on the A point of the window symbol for the base
point.
3. Now, you need to specify the scale factor that will ultimately decide the final size of the
selected drawing. A scale factor between 0 and 1 will decrease the size of the object and a scale
factor greater than 1 will increase the size of the object. As an example, a scale factor of 0.5
will make the drawing half the size and a scale factor of 2 will make the drawing twice
the size. Similarly, for decreasing the size by one fourth, you need to use a scale factor of 0.25
and for making it four times larger, the scale factor will be 4.
4. In this case, let's type 2 for the scale factor and then press Enter.

The Chamfer command

Using the Chamfer command, you can add chamfers or slant lines along the edges of
intersecting lines. An example of a chamfer is shown in the following figure. Here, a chamfer
is applied to the C vertex of the rectangle:

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You can start the Chamfer command from the expanded Chamfer flyout in the Modify panel
of the Home tab, as in the following screenshot, or you can also use its command alias.
To explain the Chamfer command, once again I will use a simple rectangle with a length of
10 units and a height of 5 units made with a polyline. In the following example, we will learn
how to create chamfers on the vertices of this rectangle:
1. Start the Chamfer command from the Modify panel or using its command alias, CHA. Now,
the command line will prompt you with many options.
The Chamfer command with all its subcommands on the command line
2. You need to specify the chamfer distance before you can apply it to the vertices of the
rectangle. To specify the chamfer distance, select the Distance subcommand from the
command line or type D and press Enter to select the Distance subcommand.
3. Now, type the first distance value—in this case, I am using 2 units—and then press Enter.
Now, type the second distance value—I am using 1 unit—and then press Enter again.
4. Now, the command line will prompt you to select the first line for the
chamfer. Click on the longer line of the rectangle and then click on the adjacent shorter line of
the rectangle.
5. In this case, the red dotted line on the C vertex is the first chamfer distance of 2 units and
the green line is the second chamfer distance of 1 unit. While making the chamfer, we selected
the CD line first and then BC, so the first distance became 2 units and the second distance 1
unit, but you could have clicked on BC first to make it the first distance of 2 units and CD next
to make it the second distance. So, the order of selection of the chamfer lines decides the
chamfer distance.

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Here, we selected unequal chamfer distances, but you can also select equal chamferdistances
to make uniform chamfers or you can use a distance and angle value for the chamfer, which is
explained in the next section.
The Stretch command
I saved this command for last as it is a little different from all the commands we have discussed
so far. Using this command, you can stretch the drawing in any direction without changing the
rest of the drawing. You can start this command from the Modify panel of the Home tab or
you can also use its command alias, STRETCH:

I will explain this command using the drawing shown in the following figure. This drawing is
made with a simple line and arc tool, but you can also make it with a polyline and it won't affect
the workflow in any way:

Now, let's consider a scenario where we want to increase the gap made by points D, E, F, and
G. To make this kind of very specific change, you can use the stretch command, as in the
following example:
1. Start the Stretch command and now the command line will prompt you to select objects.
2. In this case, you don't simply select the objects. Rather, you need to do it in a very specific
way. You can see a specific instruction about selecting the object by expanding the command
line.
3. When you expand it, you will notice that the command line prompts you to select the object
using the crossing window or crossing polygon. So, in this case, we will select the object using
the crossing window.
To make the crossing window, click above the C point and let go of your cursor. Then, move
your mouse to the left so that you get a green window with dotted boundaries, which is the
crossing window, and make the selection .
As you can see, we are not selecting the entire object. Rather, we are only making the crossing
window up to the gap that we want to stretch. Once you have this kind of window, click again
to make the selection and then press the Enter key.
6. Now, the command line will prompt you to specify a base point. Click on B and now move
your cursor to the right. You will notice that now the gap will increase along with your cursor.

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7. Click again on another point or type the gap length up to which you want to increase the gap
and you will have a new drawing where only the specified gap is changed.

10 MCQS

1. What you cannot create from the command Offset

A. Vertical straight

B. Concentric circles

C. Three parallel lines

D. Parallel arcs

2. Shortcut for Trim command is,

A. T
B. TI
C. X
D. TR

3. The shortcut used to save a drawing in AutoCAD,

A. CTRL + S
B. SHIFT + S
C. ALT + S
D. CTRL + ALT + S

4. Print scale 1:100 means that,

A. A 3 cm corresponds to a meter
B. The draft is 100 times less expensive than the original
C. A measure corresponds to 100 cm
D. None of the above

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5. The extension for AutoCAD drawing file is,
A. DWG
B. DWT
C. DWF
D. DXF

6. An inclined angle can be produced using which command.

A. >
B. @
C. #
D. <

7. An open area can be filled with which of the following gradient:

A. Gap
B. Tolerance
C. Transparency
D. Open

8. The hatch pattern used to fil a closed area,

A. ANSI31
B. SOLID
C. ANGLE
D. Filled area can't be made with hatch command

9. Fillet command can be used to obtain_________?

A. Sharp corners
B. Round corners
C. Both of the above
D. None of the above

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10. A polar array creates new objects____?
A. In a grid pattern
B. In a straight line
C. In a circular pattern
D. All of the above

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
A B A B A D B B C C

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