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AutoCAD Productivity

User Increment Angles for Polar (new in 2015)

by Michael Beall

From: AutoCAD Productivity Articles #138
Originally published: February 2015

Polar angle drop-downThe Polar tracking feature [F10] comes with several preset increments. But what if you want your own increment, like, 12? This is now available for the first time in AutoCAD 2015 where you can specify an increment value, and AutoCAD will snap to all instances of that increment!

How to Add Additional Polar Angles

  1. Click the drop-down arrow beside Polar Tracking, then click Tracking Settings.

  2. Check the box for Additional Angles, then click New and enter a new angle. Click OK to close the Drafting Settings dialog box.

  3. Click the dropdown arrow beside Polar Tracking, then click your new angle increments.

    New increments

See all the articles published in February 2015

Michael's Corner

Between 2003 and 2016, Michael Beall (and one or two guests) wrote almost 600 articles for CADTutor. The focus of these articles is AutoCAD productivity, and although some of them are now more than a few years old, most remain relevant to current versions of AutoCAD. The article above is just one example. Check out Michael's Corner for a full listing.

Tip of the Day

Using Imprint to sub-divide faces

Imprint in actionThe Imprint command (Modify ❯ Solid Editing ❯ Imprint Edges) gives the first impression of nothing more than adding graffiti to solids. Upon closer investigation, however, we find that it actually modifies the face on which it is placed, effectively sub-dividing it. Sub-divided faces can then be extruded using the Extrude faces command (Modify ❯ Solid Editing ❯ Extrude faces).

Procedure

  1. Create a box.
  2. Draw a line on one of the faces.
  3. Imprint that line on the solid.
  4. Use Extrude faces to extrude the sub-divided face.

To generate this modified part with Boolean operations would not be difficult but, as we all know, speed and accuracy are the name of the game. The procedure describe above can be auto-executed with the command macro:

^C^C_line;\\;_solidedit;b;i;\last;y;;;f;E;\;\\;;

The UI could benefit from some advanced programming, but if one pays attention to the Command Prompts, it's not so bad.

Note: This tip relates to versions of AutoCAD before 2007. Although the technique works with 2007 and above, the same operation can be achieved more easily using the Presspull tool.

Today's tip is by SEANT

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