Michael’s Corner

Michael's Corner is a monthly publication written by Michael E. Beall, Autodesk Authorized Author and peripatetic AutoCAD trainer. Michael travels all over the USA, bringing his fantastic experience and great understanding of AutoCAD to his clients. Michael's Corner brings together many of the tips, tricks and methods developed during these training sessions for the benefit of all users.

Michael's Corner provides something for every AutoCAD user. Every month, a number of articles cover a wide range of topics, suitable for users at all levels, including "The Basics" for those just starting out. Essentially, the aim of Michael's Corner is to help all AutoCAD users work smarter and faster.

This month…

From the Vault

Originally published October 2004

Lengthen

The LENGTHEN [LEN] command has come in handy a number of times in my contract drawings, especially in those times when I need to maintain the vector of the line, but simply need to modify the length. I use it sometimes just to find the length of a line and it's quicker than using List or the Properties window if I have several objects to query.

Options: Launch the Lengthen command, choose a line, arc, or open pline to see the following:

Select an object or [DElta/Percent/Total/DYnamic]:
Current length: 6'-1 7/16"

DElta - If the length of the object selected requires "amending", use this feature and enter the desired additional length or enter a negative value by which to reduce the length. When prompted to select the object to change, pick on the end of the object nearest to where you want the addition (or subtraction) to be applied.

Tip: When using the DElta option, each time you click the object, the value is applied.

Percent - Enter a positive, non-zero value, then select the object.

Total - This one is great if you're working on an existing drawing and the "as-built" value is different than that shown in the drawing. Similar to the DElta feature, the adjustment to the object will take place on the nearest end of the object you select.

Total also has an Angle option in the Lengthen command in which you can enter the total desired angle of an arc, (an uneditable value in the Properties window).

DYnamic - It took me a minute to figure out what it was doing, but when you use this realtime feature, imagine a perpendicular line going from the crosshair to the end of the line being edited. And yes, you can snap to an object when using this option.

Tip: Although circles and closed plines are uneditable with Lengthen, their "current length" will still be displayed when selected.

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