"Offset" in all directions, including endpoints?

[ltmullen]

I would like to be able to pick a polyline and have a line drawn around it that is made up of two offset lines (one on either side) connected by arcs at a given radius from the endpoints.

Obviously this can be done simply by drawing all of the individual components, but I was wondering whether there was a command for it to make things go faster.

[Alfred.NESWADBA]

Hi,

sounds like you are searching for a function known as "buffer" in GIS systems.

With plain AutoCAD there is no function OTB doing that, maybe there exists tools in www. And if you really look to GIS like buffers then you should also know the sysvar OFFSETGAPTYPE as this setting (to 1) results in arcs for the resulting offset objects-corners (>>>details<<<).

If you have Map 3D (or Civil 3D), yep, then it's built in to do that.

- alfred -

[Kent1Cooper]

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@ltmullen wrote:

I would like to be able to pick a polyline and have a line drawn around it that is made up of two offset lines (one on either side) connected by arcs at a given radius from the endpoints. ....

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It's not clear to me from the question whether OFFSETGAPTYPE = 1 will do what you want.  That will fillet the corners of a resulting offset Polyline, but only with the fillet radius being equal to the offset distance, not with "a given radius" if that means a radius specified by the User that might be different from the offset distance.  Nor will it fillet the corners on the inboard side of bends.  And since you say "(on either side)," if you are talking about an open Polyline, and you want the ends of two open Polylines, offset from that in both directions, to be connected with an arc segment wrapping around the end of the original Polyline, OFFSETGAPTYPE won't get that for you.  But maybe you mean "on either side" of merely each vertex, not of the Polyline as a whole.  An image or sample drawing would be helpful. 

[steve216586]

You could experiment with MLINE. There is the option to have an arc terminus at the end of the MLINE. You can set the distance for the offset to either side of the center line.

[Kent1Cooper]

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@Kent1Cooper wrote:

....  And since you say "(on either side)," if you are talking about an open Polyline, and you want the ends of two open Polylines, offset from that in both directions, to be connected with an arc segment wrapping around the end of the original Polyline, ....  An image or sample drawing would be helpful. 

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Like the image attached to the first message on this thread, perhaps?