centering a doorway within building

i am part way through a C&G cad course and am struggling breaking away from drawing in a traditional pencil and paper style by using layout lines to position and centre things. the exercise i am working on is a basic building front with a doorway centrally positioned, this is all drawn using plines. you can hopefully see where i have put layout lines to position the roof apex and the doorway but i am sure there is an easier way of drawing it? Help!

The dimensions i have are 60 wide between the inner walls, 20 from the floor to the roof base fillet and 19 from the roof base fillet to the apex, the outer walls are just offset 1.5 from the inner. the doorway is 12*12*12.

ex11.dwg

Well, here is how I would do it....

I will make a couple of assumptions.

1) the building is already drawn.

2) The door is going to have an inside dimension of 6 feet.

So I would start by evoking the pline command, and then I would use the temp tracking command and pick the peak of the roof, then down to the floor, then over 3 feet to one side. End the temp tracking command then and start drawing to door from that corner. It may seem like a lot of steps but I have always felt that the use of temporary lines leads to forgetting to delete those lines and you end up with extra stuff in your drawing.

It is also worth mentioning that CAD has a command M2P (mid 2 points) command that is worth looking in to.

If you want to use temp lines, and many people do, try putting them on their own layer and disable plotting that layer in Layer Properties. Make them a stand out color like red for instance.

Well, here is how I would do it....

I will make a couple of assumptions.

1) the building is already drawn.

2) The door is going to have an inside dimension of 6 feet.

 

So I would start by evoking the pline command, and then I would use the temp tracking command and pick the peak of the roof, then down to the floor, then over 3 feet to one side. End the temp tracking command then and start drawing to door from that corner. It may seem like a lot of steps but I have always felt that the use of temporary lines leads to forgetting to delete those lines and you end up with extra stuff in your drawing.

 

It is also worth mentioning that CAD has a command M2P (mid 2 points) command that is worth looking in to.

What do I input to use the M2P command? Am I correct to think that I can use it to center a door in a wall?

Is there a quick way to dimension to the center of a door?

M2P or MTP works too, are not commands by themselves.

They are command modifiers, which can be used at the commandline

when you are in the middle of another command, like MOVE or COPY,

whenever you are asked for a point (in any command) you can use it.

Architectural has specific tools for locating objects in the right click shortcut menu, are you really on LT?

Your ability to use MTP to center something will depend on where the basepoint is in that entity.

It is a very useful temporary OSNAP, meaning that it cannot be left on, like midpoint or endpoint,

you need to call it at the commandline or in the SHIFT or CTRL Osnap menus.

M2P or MTP works too, are not commands by themselves.

They are command modifiers, which can be used at the commandline

when you are in the middle of another command, like MOVE or COPY,

whenever you are asked for a point (in any command) you can use it.

Architectural has specific tools for locating objects in the right click shortcut menu, are you really on LT?

Your ability to use MTP to center something will depend on where the basepoint is in that entity.

It is a very useful temporary OSNAP, meaning that it cannot be left on, like midpoint or endpoint,

you need to call it at the commandline or in the SHIFT or CTRL Osnap menus.

I'm on AutoCad 2011 Educational Edition. (Kudos to AutoDesk for giving us unemployed professionals free software to keep our skills up to date. ) When I signed up, I had thought that the free educational software was the LT version.

Are you saying that if I place the door's insertion point at the center, I will be able to dimension to the center of the door? Is it possible for me to edit the dynamic door block to change the insertion point? If I want to place the insertion point at the center of the door, how do I keep the insertion point in the center of the door when I change the width of the door in my drawing?

I only see a swing door block in the tool palette. Do you know where I can get a dynamic block for a sliding door and a bifold door?

Thanks for the MTP tip. Unfortunately, I'm not on the AutoCad Architecture software. It sounds like I should give it a try.

I agree, that is a fantastic program from Autodesk.

Full version of Autocad vanilla also has MTP snap available.

Start any command, and when prompted at the commandline to specify a point

enter MTP (or M2P), and follow the prompts.

I wouldn't suggest trying to change the basepoint on a Dynamic block, unless you know how to do it.

My concern being that the Dynamicism may suffer. I am sure it can be done, but I've not done it

myself, so can't tell you how best to do it. If you want to try, make a copy of it and try in the Block Editor.

Hit CTRL + 3 to summon up your Tool Palettes, and right click on the border of the palette, to select

which palettes you want displayed. They are not nearly as comprehensive as those in the Architectural version,

but you will find a few things there which might interest you.

If you door is say a block left handed door with insert point on 1 edge then the easiest way to insert the door for "any angle" line would be

UCS Ob this sets you drawing plane to the wall

Insert doorblock have Osnaps Mid turned on, door appears offset from centre a 1/2 door width

Move pick doorblock F8 make sure ortho is on drag door in correct direction enter 1/2 door width

UCS W

All done

If your house etc is square then dont worry about UCS step