Hello Carcasonne7,
You want to know how to draw a single line to a desired length and scale. You also want to know how to draw a rectangle line by line.
First, let’s talk about scale. Your drawing is usually smaller than the object it depicts. In AS, as in manual drafting, you set the precise fractional relationship between the drawing and the actual real world object size. Then if you print the drawing at the size you have set it in AS you will be able to accurately scale distances on the print using an architect’s or engineer’s scale. Scale is discussed on Page 8 of the Getting Started hard copy manual which comes with the CD. It’s also discussed in the on board Help database in a topic called Setting the Drawing Scale.
When you open AS, you will see a dialog box called New. When you are prompted, chose Set Scale Manually. In the Type of Scale window, click Any Scale. Click the down arrow on the next window down and see a scrollable list of all available scales. Select one of these, or type your own in the Page and Actual windows below. Then click Page to open the Page Setup window. Here you can specify the size and orientation of your drawing.
When you complete this setup wizard, you will be looking at your blank drawing, ready to go. The Select Direct and Snap Off buttons are pushed. Rulers should be visible at the top and left margins. At the upper left, where the rulers intersect, a symbol will appear, either a tiny globe or a piece of paper. The globe means the rulers are showing real world measurements; the paper means scale measurements. For now, click on it to toggle it to real world.
Here is how to draw a single line. Let’s make it a horizontal line. Select Line Single on the All in One toolbar. Left click and release somewhere near the left side of the drawing sheet. Drag the cursor toward the right. A straight line will follow it. While dragging, type H or X. The line will pop to horizontal and the cursor will become a red dot. Left click anywhere to end the line. The line will be pink, indicating that it is still selected. One of the toolbars above is the Edit toolbar. It has some data windows. Hover over them and find the one called Line Length. Type in the length of your line, in real world units. For example, if the line depicts something twelve feet long, enter either 12’ or 144”. Push the enter key. The line becomes the desired length. Right click to end, then left click to deselect.
Here’s what we have done from AS’s perspective. We push Line Single. AS prompts “enter startpoint”. We left click to enter a startpoint. AS prompts “enter endpoint”. We begin dragging to form a line, and while so doing we constrain the drawing operation using a lock modifier which tells AS to draw the line only horizontally. We left click, thereby entering the endpoint. Since we are using a single line drawing command, AS is done. The act of specifying the distance is really an edit of the line. It can be done at any time on any previously drawn selectable line.
Now let’s draw a single line a different way. The Select Direct and Snap Off buttons are pushed. Select Line Single on the All in One toolbar. Left click and release somewhere near the left side of the drawing sheet. Type R. See the Enter 2D Coordinate box. Push the XY button on the left side of the second row of buttons. In the X window, type 12’. Tab to the Y window. The tab is important. In the Y window, type zero. Push Enter. The line will appear on the drawing. Push Close in the Enter 2D Coordinates box. The box will vanish. Right click to end, then left click to deselect.
In this second way of drawing a single line, rather than locking the line to horizontal and post-editing it to the desired length, we used X and Y values to tell AS the location of the endpoint. You may already know that AS regards north as toward the top of the sheet, and it regards plus X as easterly, and plus Y as northerly. Also, AS regards east as the zero reference for angular directions, and angles increase in a counterclockwise direction. The Enter 2D Coordinates box also permits entering the line endpoint by polar coordinates, that is, by a distance and an angle.
Now let’s draw a rectangle, line by line. Harvey sent me the same notes he sent you. His first exercise covered drawing a 2” x 3” box. First he showed how to do a line by using Line Single and post-editing its length. Then he went on to describe the method to continue drawing in this manner to form the rectangle. I eventually discovered that it wasn’t working because two of the operations in Step No. 5 of his instruction are reversed. This was a key step for me to solve because it gave me a way to re-occupy a previously drawn line and continue drawing from it. You can read about this in the thread called Why Can’t I Draft With AutoSketch 9.
To draw the rectangle, first draw a line of a desired length using either method above. We’ll consider this the top line of the rectangle. After ending that operation, press Line Single and End Snap. Hover over the right-hand end of the line and see the red square End Snap Auto Indicator. AS prompts “enter startpoint”. Left click on the red square. Type V or Y to constrain the line to vertical. Type S to turn off snaps. A vertical line will spring from the end of the first line to the cursor. The cursor will be a red dot. AS will prompt “enter endpoint”. At this point, you can either left click to end the line and post-edit the length as above, or type R and specify the length of the line in the Enter 2D Coordinate box. Of course, if you use the 2D coordinate box, it’s not necessary to first constrain the line direction by typing V.
Try this also: Press Line Multiple, Snap Off, click a starting point, type R, and you can draw the entire rectangle from the Enter 2D Coordinate box without closing the box between lines. Then of course there is the rectangle tool, which you learn nothing by using, and is for candy-asses.
I hope this helps. Your question has been clear from the outset.
Shuuterspeed6