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.

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This month…

From the Vault

Originally published November 2006

The DISTANCE Command

There is more to the Distance command than meets the eye. Literally. If you have adjusted the height of your Command line bar to be less than three lines high, you aren't getting the full report when you use the command.

If you expand the height of the Command line bar (or hit F2 for the AutoCAD Text Window), you will see there is quite a bit of information that is returned from the two points you pick.

For reference purposes, I set the UCS onto the front corner of this part, then used the Distance command with Endpoint snap and picked point A, then point B. The X-Axis is red, the Y-Axis is green and the Z-Axis is blue.

Here's what you get from those two picks

Distance = 0.233 Physical distance between point A & B.
Angle in XY Plane = 90 Emphasis on "in". Looking down on the XY plane, the angle of an imaginary line from point A to point B; calculated counterclockwise from 0 (the X-Axis).
Angle from XY Plane = 45 Emphasis on "from". Put a pencil on the table (the XY plane), tilt one end up and the pencil is identifying and angle "from" the XY plane.
Delta X = 0.000 Not a sorority; "Delta" means "change in". Since every point in AutoCAD has an X,Y,Z coordinate, a Delta X value means there was no change in the value of the X-coordinate for points A and B.
Delta Y = 0.165 The difference between the Y-coordinates for those two points was 0.165.
Delta Z = 0.165 Ditto for the Z-coordinates.

For 2D drawings, use the Distance command one time to find the size of a room by picking points between the diagonal corners…

Distance = 16′5-7/16″, Angle in XY Plane = 50.34,
Angle from XY Plane = 0.00, Delta X = 10'6″,
Delta Y = 12′8″, Delta Z = 0′0″

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