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 2009

Adding a Vertex to a Polyline

Heaven forbid you should ever need to add a vertex to an existing polyline; what a pig! To their credit, however, I think I saw somewhere that Autodesk is gathering input on how to make this process a bit more intuitive, because at this time… it ain't.

In this exercise, the polyline was created with four points, numbered in the order they were specified. The goal is to add a vertex between points 2 and 3.

Instructions to Insert a Vertex

1. Launch the PEDIT command. [Alias = PE, Ribbon = Home tabModifyEdit Polyline]

2. After selecting the polyline, you will see the following option string:

   Enter an option [Open/Join/Width/Edit vertex/Fit/Spline/Decurve/Ltype gen/Reverse/Undo]:

3. Enter E for the Edit vertex option and you will see an "X" at what AutoCAD sees was the starting point of that polyline when it was initially created. (Shown as No. 1 in the figure) You now have the following option string:

   [Next/Previous/Break/Insert/Move/ Regen/Straighten/Tangent/Width/eXit] <N>:

   Note: When adding a vertex to an existing polyline, you want the "X" to be on the vertex before where you want to place the new one.

4. In this circumstance, I'll press Enter to accept the default of Next, which will place the "X" at point No. 2.

5. With the "X" at point No. 2, I now want the Insert option… and here's where it gets graphically interesting. You now have the prompt:

   Specify location for new vertex:

6. The little rubberbanding line coming from the vertex is, admittedly, confusing. But all you need to do is just click anywhere to place the new vertex. Honest.

7. At this point, you can cancel or eXit the command, then use grips to reposition the new vertex.

Adding a Vertex Video Tutorial

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