I've just got Autocad 2008 and I'm bewildered by the mountain of support material none of which seems to tell me how to do the most basic thing in the world - draw two lines of a predetermined length at a predetermined angle to each other.  Or draw two lines and then adjust them to make the lengths and angle required. I want one line 28.74 metres long and the other 36.96 metres long with an included angle of 91degrees 47minutes. I'm completely and totally flabbergasted that how to do this is not front and centre of all introductions and help screens and whatever.  I've tried about six different drawing progs before going back to Autocad and NONE of them put this before me. Now I'm back at traditional Autocad and still don't know how to do it. will someone please get me going by telling me, blow by blow, how to do this?  regards, ab  :)

Hi
Firstly you need to convert the angle into a decimal format
91 deg 47 min  = 91.78 deg in cad (47/60*100) and rotate the required length to this angle, you can set the angle format to show deg/min/sec
in the properties box
 
hope this helps
 
chris
 
 
 

 Well thanks for trying but I'm still really no closer. :) Step by step in the natural world I would take a ruler, draw a line, take a protractor, mark a point, take the ruler, draw a line through point and origin of the first line. What's the step by step in the computer world? (And, if anyone has the time/interest/knowledge, why doesn't it mimic the natural world and why isn' t it the first thing in the tutorials - instead of not being there at all?) (And... I used to be a computer programmer.. I couldn't create an AutoCad, of course, but if I was creating a drafting prog the above 'mimicry' is the first thing I'd programme) regards, ab  :)

It is quite an easy task and you definitely need no ruler or calculator.
 
Make sure you have the DYN mode and OSNAP on (status line buttons).
 
Pick the LINE command and pick the first point of the first line. Move your mouse cursor to the right - horizontally - and (without picking anything) enter 28.74 on your keyboard. Press Enter. The first line is done.
 
Now start again the LINE command and pick the start point of the first line (the osnap will snad to the exact point - orange box). Now enter:
36.96<91°47'
The dynamic input (rubberband dimensions) will assist you. That's all.

 Thank you very much for that. It was a definite help. But then I tried to continue with the rest of the figure (which is a four sided polygon - actually a house block) and tried to put in the bottom line which should be 9.62m making an angle of 73degrees 22 minutes with the bottom of the second line.  Or the end of the second line if you like. And I found the system drew a line which I would guess was at an angle of 73d 22' to the first line, which was horizontal across the screen.  I have learned that Autocad by default has its compass beginning at zero in the horizontal (east-west? across the screen? pointing right?)  direction and I have learned to set 'clockwise' for angles. Is there some way round this or do I have to do all the tedious calculations to change every angle into an angle from the Autocad default direction? If so I'd be better off with a protractor wouldn't I?  But here's hoping..... :) ab

Without going into details - if some construction sounds too complicated to perform at an angle, you can draw it at a default (zero) angle and then rotate the geometry using the ROTATE command (possibly using its Reference option to get angle differences).

  A four sided figure is too complicated?  The help screens, tutorials and whatever that I've found all over the web are replete with instructions (if one needed them) on how to draw polygons, rectangles, squares, etc., etc....  But without specifying lengths and angles. Now how reasonable is that? How representative of real world requirements?  A house block. Four sides. Four angles. Surely that's a child's play initial exercise for introduction to a drawing program?  So how to do it?  There is a straightforward way? Or one must use your 'default (zero) angle......' method, which sounds terribly cumbersome.  I was under the impression that AutoCad was a world leader and that people are busy continually drawing the most complicated engineering drawings with it... Surely they don't get a hundred lines drawn on a drawing on then have to 'rotate the geometry'  to draw a portion of the item that has an angled side?  :)abrogard2009-09-18 00:31:43

Traversing polygon in this way is used usually for surveying. The surveying versions of AutoCAD (Civil 3D) of course support this method.
 
In the plain AutoCAD version you would need to use a LISP utility to help you make such polygons easier.
 
You can e.g. use the following tool TRAVER.LSP (load it with APPLOAD and start TRAVER after you draw the first LINE segment):
uploads/20090918_081352_traver.lsp

 Thanks for that. I've played with it a bit and I think I should be able to draw my outline with it. Looks like I just need to be able to magnify the joining points when I pick them to be sure the connection is right on the end of the line.I'd have to magnify and reduce, magnify and reduce, because the produced line would be off the screen  and zooming the whole plot would make choosing the connection point too inaccurate.I guess I'll be able to find how to do that.So that's the problem I brought to the forum solved or at least worked around.  Thanks again. But I didn't really need to do a surveying traverse as such.  I'm just trying to produce an accurate drawing of the block. What about a man trying to draw a hinge he's designing.  One of those long hinges we used to see often on gates.  Maybe 200mm long and tapering towards the end.  From maybe a width of 70mm down to 20mm. Well, he'd know the angle he wanted on the sides of the hinge, wouldn't he? And he'd want the angles to be same, top side and bottom side. Well surely Autocad just handles that kind of drawing with great ease? With its normal tools and abilities?  regards, ab   :)23 Feb 2010Here is a totally excellent feature of this forum that you don't find many other places: one can edit one's posts years later.I see no one has come forward to answer my last question about, e.g., the hinge. Because Autocad doesn't make it easy?I used the Traver function and was able to finish the drawing. But even with it I found it all to be an enormous hassle. It is difficult for me to understand how progs like Sketchup can be written, and Envisioneer and so on and so on..  and with a background of Autocad and yet we still can't straightforwardly and simply do what I'm asking about. I feel I must have missed something, somewhere. Like no one is telling me because the answer's right beneath my nose or something.....abrogard2010-02-23 04:44:48