AutoCAD Tutorial to Find Coordinates

October 28th, 2009

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The following AutoCAD Tutorial post, have a title ‘AutoCAD Tutorial to Find Coordinates’. We hope this ‘AutoCAD Tutorial to Find Coordinates’ post below will very useful and helpful for all AutoCAD users. Enjoy it and start learning right now!

Some coordinates are easy to find. For example, to find the endpoint of a line, you just use the Endpoint object snap. But others are more elusive. For example, recently almost all of AutoCAD users asked us, “I would like to ask if there is a simple way to select a center of a rectangle”. Our answer was: If you press Shift and right-click, you’ll get the OSNAP menu. Choose Mid Between 2 Points and choose two diagonal corners. Finding coordinates is a very common task, so here are some other tips for specifying hard-to-find coordinates.

Polar coordinates
To find a point at a specific angle, use polar coordinates, in the format distance<15.

Apparent Intersection OSNAP
The Apparent Intersection object snap finds an intersection that would be created if you extended two objects until they met. It’s very simple to use. You start a command, such as the LINE command, specify the OSNAP (you can type app), specify a first point, such as an Endpoint, then hover over the second point. You’ll see an X at the apparent intersection. Just click to lock in the coordinate. Watch the video from ellenfinkelstein.com below:

Extension OSNAP
The Extension object snap extends lines and arcs in the same direction, past their endpoints. Look for the Extension tooltip; at the same time you’ll see a temporary extension path. Watch the video from ellenfinkelstein.com below:

Object snap tracking
Object snap tracking lets you specify a point based on object snaps of existing objects. When you’re looking for the intersection of two existing endpoints, it works similarly to the Apparent Intersection OSNAP. But it has more uses that that. For example:

Your want the endpoint of a line you’re drawing to be vertical to the endpoint of an existing line.
You want to center a circle inside a rectangle
You want to start a line where two existing lines would intersect if they extended (you can do this with the Apparent Intersection object snap, too)

You can use object snap tracking with polar snapping, so the angles don’t have to be orthogonal.

Follow these steps:

Turn on at least one running object snap. To do so, right-click the Object Snap (OSNAP) button on the status bar and choose an object snap, or choose Settings first (depending on your version).
Click the Object Snap Tracking button on the status bar (which is different from the Object Snap button). to turn on this feature.
Start a drawing command that requires you to specify a point.
Hover the cursor over an object snap, to acquire that point. You see a small plus sign at the object snap point.
If necessary, acquire a second point.
Move the cursor toward the coordinate you want to locate until you see one or two temporary, dotted alignment paths. You’ll also see one or two tooltips and an X.
Click to specify the point. Then continue the command you started.

Here, I started the CIRCLE command and acquired the midpoints of the two sides of the rectangle to find its center. This specifies the center of the circle at the center of the rectangle.

Object snap tracking - AutoCAD Tutorial to Find Coordinates