Drafting Tips

This area of the New York CADD Web site will provide you with tips and procedures that will reduce your time spent drafting and help you improve the appearance, clarity and accuracy of your engineering drawings.

Dimensioning Tips

• To reduce drawing clutter, dimension an object only once in an appropriate location.
   

• Avoid placing dimension origination points inside the model view so that extension lines do not cross lines such as those representing the object, center lines, and other graphics.
   

• Extension lines should not touch the object being dimensioned. They should start about 1/16 inch from the object and extend about 1/8 inch past the dimension line.
   

• When a dimension between two centers is shown, the center lines can be continued to serve as extension lines extending about 1/8 inch past the dimension lines. In this instance you will want to suppress both extension lines.
   

• Extension lines should not be broken where they cross each other. When space is restricted and extension lines come close to arrows, they may be broken for clarity.

Polar Tracking

Polar Tracking allows you to restrict lines being drawn to an exact horizontal or vertical direction. Polar Tracking is turned on or off by clicking on the Polar button located in the Status Bar across the bottom of the screen, or by pressing the F10 function key.

Settings for Polar Tracking are accessed by right clicking on the Polar button in the Status Bar and then selecting Settings from the shortcut menu. In the Drafting settings dialog box, select the Polar Tracking tab to view the settings. You can also select Tools / Options/ Drafting Settings from the Menu Bar to access the Drafting Settings dialog box

Changing Polar Tracking settings or turning the function on and off can be done without interrupting an active line creation or modifying command, such as Move. Use the methods explained above to access the Polar Tracking settings.

While Polar Tracking is on, a dashed line will be projected from the last point chosen on the drawing editor screen when an increment angle or additional angle is reached. A heads-up display will also appear near the drawing cursor stating the distance the cursor is positioned from the last point chosen, and its angle relative to zero degrees. 

Using Polar Tracking while drafting allows you to specify the distance to the next point when drawing a line, or using a command such a  move. In earlier versions of AutoCAD, drawing a line a specific distance at an specific angle required a syntax that was often difficult to remember and cumbersome to type. With Polar Tracking you can specify the distance using the current drawing units by typing the distance at the command line. If your hand is steady enough, you can follow the Polar Tracking heads-up display while dragging the drawing cursor to the next point and then select the point when the correct distance is reached. Used in conjunction with the Snap and Grid settings, Polar Tracking becomes an even more powerful drawing tool.

Polar Tracking Settings

• Increment angle
  This setting causes Polar Tracking to snap to every increment of the angle you have entered. You can enter your own angle or select a predetermined angle from the drop down list. The increment angle is available while rotating around a point in a clockwise or counterclockwise direction.
   

• Additional angles
  Additional angles can be entered by pressing the New button, and then entering an angle. Press the New button again to continue entering additional angles. You can enter as many angles as you like. Additional angles cause Polar Tracking to snap only to the angles specified, in a counterclockwise direction.
   

• Object Snap Tracking Settings
  
  These setting allow you to control Object Snap Tracking function.

Track orthogonally only
Restricts Object Snap Tracking to orthogonal directions such as 0, 90, and 180 degrees.

Track using all polar angle settings
Restricts Object Snap Tracking to the angles specified in the Polar Tracking tab.

• Polar Angle measurement
  
  These settings allow you to determine the zero angle that Polar Tracking uses for incremental angles.

Absolute
Uses the current AutoCAD setting for zero degrees.

Relative to last segment
Uses the last object that was drawn as the zero angle.