Guest Post by Michael E. Beall the “CAD Trainer Guy” of the ‘http://www.cadtrainerguy.com/

I was training some folks at Cummins Engine Plant in Indiana, and one of the guys brought in a surveyor’s plan for his property asking how to enter the distance and bearing values from the site plan into AutoCAD.

The key to the exercise is knowing what AutoCAD requires when you type in the distance and bearing values. Surveyor’s Units are entered using the following format:

N 0d00’00” E

MEMO: Although setting the drawing units to Surveyor’s is not required to draw with distance and bearing values, you will find the options in the Format menu >Units.

The following exercise incorporates the DYN feature, just so you can understand how the dynamic entry feature works.

How to Draw with Surveyor’s Units

1. Begin a new drawing, then turn on Dynamic Input (DYN button) on the Status bar.

2. Launch the Line command, then specify the first point.

3. For the next point, enter the following value: @50.71'<N80d04'30"E

Breaking it down …

@ After specifying the start point, @ says the following values are to go from where you’re at.

Distance Enter the distance for that section of the property line (or road or culvert center line, etc.)

This says the angle or bearing value is to follow …

Bearing Enter the bearing values in the proper format for Surveyor’s Units shown in the example, above.

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