Developing Drawing Strategies: Part 1 - AutoCAD 2011 and AutoCAD LT 2011: No Experience Required - page 135

When you used the RECTANGLE command to draw the swinging doors,
you had to use relative Cartesian coordinates because relative polar
coordinates would have required you to know the diagonal distance
across the plan of the door and the angle of that distance as well.
Rotating the Door
This rotation will be through an arc of 90° in the clockwise direction, making it a
rotation of -90°. By default, counterclockwise rotations are positive, while clock-
wise rotations are negative. You'll use the ROTATE command to rotate the door.
1. Continue using 04A-FPLAY4.dwg , or open it if it's not already open.
2. Click the Rotate button on the Home tab ➢ Modify panel or enter
RO ↵ . You'll see a prompt to select objects. Click the door and press ↵ .
You're prompted for a base point —a point around which the door
will be rotated. To keep the door placed correctly, pick the hinge
point for the base point. The hinge point for this opening is the right
endpoint of the bottom jamb line.
3. Enter END ↵ to activate the Endpoint osnap.
4. Move the cursor near the lower-right corner of the door. When the
marker is displayed at that corner, click to locate the base point.
5. Check the status bar to be sure the Ortho Mode button isn't pressed.
If it is, click it to turn off Ortho (it will change to a gray background).
When the Ortho Mode button is on (with a light blue background),
the cursor is forced to move in a vertical or horizontal direction. This
is useful at times, but in this instance such a restriction would keep
you from being able to see the door rotate.
6. Move the cursor away from the hinge point, and see how the door
rotates as the cursor moves (see the left image in Figure 4.47).
If the door swings properly, you're reassured that you correctly
selected the base point. The prompt in the command window reads
Specify rotation angle or [Copy/Reference]<0.00>: , asking
you to enter an angle.
7. Enter -90 ↵ . The door is rotated 90° to an open position (see the right
image in Figure 4.47).