Placing an object at a certain distance from another object

[vasiqshair]

My AutoCAD skills are basic so here I am asking some very basic questions. Please see attached picture for reference. I have a rectangle and two circles inside the rectangle. I need to place one circle at a certain distance from the top left corner of the rectangle and the other circle at a certain distance from the lower left corner of the rectangle. Please advise.

[imadHabash · Accepted solution]

Hi and Welcome to AutoCAD Forum,

i suggest to use MOVE command with proper Osnap , depending from where you want to achieve your distance regarding the Circles  and Rectangle. knowing from where will guide you to know which osnap mode is required and then directly enter the distance that you wish to move to .  see attached screencast and see Center , Quardant , Endpoint and Midpoint ...etc how control your issue . 

[GrantsPirate]

set ENP and CENter OSNAPS on, set OTRACK on, use move command, ... watch video

[Kent1Cooper]

"A certain distance from..." isn't really enough information -- there are a mathematically infinite number of such locations, so a direction is also needed.  The combination of Polar Tracking [with the desired direction among its set angles] and Object Snap Tracking and appropriate Osnap mode settings is probably the way to go, whether you want the Circles inside the rectangle as I assumed, or outside as in suggestions in this thread.  The process could also be automated into a routine, if enough parameters are always the same, allowing mere selection of the rectangle and the Circles, with the rest calculated by the routine.

[vasiqshair]

And what if you had to move the circle in an x.y direction?

[GrantsPirate]

You can use the From modifier in the Osnaps.  Personally I would probably just offset the object(s) to define the new location and then erase.  If what you are offsetting is a pline, and the X = Y then offset once and you have your location, erase after moving.

The screencast shows a Shift+2, that is actually Shift+RMB.  They spelled MOVE wrong as well, part of the processing they do after it is released to them to publish.