kingneptune117 Posted June 21, 2012 Posted June 21, 2012 Hey all, i'm a huge noob here. I used to work with inventor in a class and now i am kind of used to that and autocad 2012 is confusing me a bit. so, lets say i draw a circle of an arbitrary radius/diameter. I mark the center of the circle using the dimcenter command. I draw a small rectangle around this center mark (this rectangle fits inside of the original circle.) I want to make each side of the rectange equally distant from this center point. Since I roughly drew the rectangle around the center point, all sides are not equally distant. How can I do this? In inventor, I would dimension each side out (dimension from the center point to each side of the rectangle), and double click the dimension and edit the numbers. I would make all the numbers on each side two for example, therefor each side of the rectangle would be two units distance from the center point. I guess autocad isnt that simple, huh? Quote
BIGAL Posted June 21, 2012 Posted June 21, 2012 There is a mathmatical formula for a square inside a circle you can use constraints and have any size circle and square will adjust. Just thinking the square diagonal equals the radius remember pythagoras theorem thats your answer. R^2=sqrt(a^2+b^2) Quote
kingneptune117 Posted June 21, 2012 Author Posted June 21, 2012 ok, come on. theres gotta be a simpler way to do such a simple task inside of such a powerful software. Quote
Tyke Posted June 21, 2012 Posted June 21, 2012 Try drawing your circle and setting osnaps so you also have centre included. Then draw a polygon with four sides, pick the centre of your circle as the center of the polygon, select inside and either enter the length of each side or pick a corner point. Quote
Stefan BMR Posted June 21, 2012 Posted June 21, 2012 - Draw a circle - Draw a rectangle, first point on center of circle, second at half width and height of final rectangle - scale rectangle by 2, using right-upper corner as base point Quote
Dadgad Posted June 21, 2012 Posted June 21, 2012 Try drawing your circle and setting osnaps so you also have centre included. Then draw a polygon with four sides, pick the centre of your circle as the center of the polygon, select inside and either enter the length of each side or pick a corner point. Thanks Tyke, I didn't want to have to explain that! Is the rectangle you are describing actually a square? When you say it fits, do you mean it is not larger than, as in fits inside? Or fits EXACTLY, like BIGAL is describing? Do it the other way around. Command: CIRCLE Specify center point for circle or [3P/2P/Ttr (tan tan radius)]: Specify radius of circle or [Diameter] : Command: POLYGON Enter number of sides : Specify center of polygon or [Edge]: Enter an option [inscribed in circle/Circumscribed about circle] : Specify radius of circle: 100 If you truly want the circle to be of a random radius then you can just move your mouse to define the radius instead of entering it numerically. The commands listed above recreate Tyke's suggestion. You could alternatively, as you are using 2012, define it parametrically, if you were so inclined. Quote
nestly Posted June 21, 2012 Posted June 21, 2012 Unless I'm missing something.... 1 random Circle + 1 random Rectangle + OSnap Tracking = perfectly centered Rectangle. Quote
nestly Posted June 21, 2012 Posted June 21, 2012 I looked at Camtasia8 but I believe it's still technically a "pre-release"..... I'll upgrade after it's been thoroughly tested. Quote
JD Mather Posted June 21, 2012 Posted June 21, 2012 Check the Parametric tab in AutoCAD. You can use geometry constraints and parametric dimensions like Inventor. Quote
RobDraw Posted June 21, 2012 Posted June 21, 2012 Wow, let's see how complicated we can make this. Nestly's solution is the one I would use or instead of object tracking, you could use M2P snap to get the base point. Quote
CyberAngel Posted June 21, 2012 Posted June 21, 2012 Another possibility is to create a block containing a square, each side 1 unit long, and put its insertion point at the center of the square. Insert the block at the center of the circle. Scale to match the circle's radius. QED. Quote
SLW210 Posted June 21, 2012 Posted June 21, 2012 Wow, let's see how complicated we can make this. Nestly's solution is the one I would use or instead of object tracking, you could use M2P snap to get the base point. +1 .................................. Quote
samchums26 Posted June 21, 2012 Posted June 21, 2012 Thanks Tyke, I didn't want to have to explain that! Is the rectangle you are describing actually a square? When you say it fits, do you mean it is not larger than, as in fits inside? Or fits EXACTLY, like BIGAL is describing? Do it the other way around. Command: CIRCLE Specify center point for circle or [3P/2P/Ttr (tan tan radius)]: Specify radius of circle or [Diameter] : Command: POLYGON Enter number of sides : Specify center of polygon or [Edge]: Enter an option [inscribed in circle/Circumscribed about circle] : Specify radius of circle:100 - should be 50 If you truly want the circle to be of a random radius then you can just move your mouse to define the radius instead of entering it numerically. The commands listed above recreate Tyke's suggestion. You could alternatively, as you are using 2012, define it parametrically, if you were so inclined. daggad's and tyke's way is much easier. Quote
JD Mather Posted June 21, 2012 Posted June 21, 2012 (edited) Or you could download FREE Inventor Fusion which has a CenterPoint Rectangle tool. http://labs.autodesk.com Edited June 21, 2012 by JD Mather Quote
RobDraw Posted June 21, 2012 Posted June 21, 2012 Woot! Finally an inventor tip that is totally appropriate for the AutoCAD forum. Quote
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