Learning Basic Commands to Get Started - AutoCAD 2011 and AutoCAD LT 2011: No Experience Required - page 55

Because Dynamic Input was turned on, the minus sign was implied
based on the location of your cursor. In other words, AutoCAD drew
the line in the direction your cursor was located.
8. Enter C ↵ to close the box and end the LINE command. Your box once
again resembles the box shown in Figure 2.16 earlier.
You can see from these exercises that you can use multiple methods to draw
a simple shape. Showing so many methods may seem a little redundant at this
point; however, as the shapes you draw become more complex and the amount
of available information about the shapes varies from segment to segment, you'll
likely begin choosing one method or another based on the information available
to you. As you start drawing the floor plan of the cabin in Chapters 3 and 4, you'll
get more practice applying these methods to more realistic scenarios, and you'll
probably begin establishing the methods that work best for you.
Some additional tools make the process of drawing simple, orthogonal lines
like these much easier. I'll introduce these tools in the following three chapters.
using the Offset Command
The next task is to create the lines that represent the inside walls of the box.
Because they're all equidistant from the lines you've already drawn, the OFFSET
command is the appropriate command to use. You'll offset the existing lines 0.5
units to the inside.
The OFFSET command involves three steps:
1. Setting the offset distance ( Specify offset distance ).
2. Selecting the object to offset ( Select object to offset ).
3. Indicating the offset direction ( Specify point on side to offset ).
Here's how it works:
1. Be sure the prompt line in the command window reads Command: . If it
doesn't, press the Esc key until it does. Then launch the OFFSET com-
mand by choosing the Home tab ➢ Modify panel ➢ Offset tool. The
prompt changes to Specify offset distance or [Through/Erase/
Layer] <Through>: . This is a confusing prompt, but it will become clear
soon. For now, let's specify an offset distance through the keyboard.