Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
After you create a polyline, you can adjust its segments by grip-editing any of the vertex
points. (The little squares on the vertices in Figure 8-3 are called
grips;
see Chapter 10
for details on grip editing.) For more complicated polyline-editing tasks, you can use the
PEDIT command to edit the polyline, or you can convert the polyline to a collection of
line and arc segments by using the EXPLODE command — although you lose any width
defined for each segment when you explode a polyline. For more information on these
two commands, look them up in the index of the online help.
Drawing polylines composed of straight segments is pretty much like drawing with the
LINE command, as demonstrated in the following procedure. The PLINE command has
lots of options, so watch the prompts! If Dynamic Input is on, use the down-arrow key to
see the options listed at the crosshairs, or right-click to display the PLINE right-click
menu, or simply read the command line.
To draw a polyline composed of straight segments, follow these steps:
1. Set an appropriate layer current and set other object properties that you want
applied to the line segments that you'll draw.
2. Click the Polyline button on the Ribbon's Draw panel or type
PL
and
press Enter.
AutoCAD starts the PLINE command and prompts you to specify a start point.
3. Specify the starting point by clicking a point or typing coordinates.
AutoCAD displays the current polyline segment line width at the command line and
prompts you to specify the other endpoint of the first polyline segment:
Current line-width is 0.0000
Specify next point or [Arc/Halfwidth/Length/Undo/Width]:
4. If the current line width isn't zero, change it to zero by typing
W
to select the
Width option, and then entering
0
as the starting and ending widths, as shown in
the following command-line sequence:
Specify next point or [Arc/Halfwidth/Length/Undo/Width]:
W
Specify starting width <0.0000>:
0
Specify ending width <0.0000>:
0
Specify next point or [Arc/Halfwidth/Length/Undo/Width]:
Despite what you may think, a zero-width polyline segment isn't the
AutoCAD equivalent of drawing with invisible ink.
Zero width
means “display this
segment using the normal, single-pixel width on the screen.”
5. Specify additional points by clicking or typing.
