Setting the Polar Tracking Angle

Setting the Polar Tracking Angle
You’ve seen how Polar Tracking lets you draw exact vertical and horizontal lines. You can also set
Polar Tracking to draw lines at other angles, such as 30° or 45°. To change the angle Polar Tracking
uses, you use the Polar Tracking tab in the Drafting Settings dialog box.



Right-click the Polar button in the status bar, and then choose Settings from the shortcut menu
to open the Drafting Settings dialog box. Or, you can choose Tools  Drafting Settings from the
menu bar and then click the Polar Tracking tab.
Ortho Mode
In addition to using Polar Tracking mode, you can further restrain the cursor to a vertical or horizontal
direction by using Ortho mode. To use Ortho mode, hold down the Shift key while drawing. You can also
press F8 or click Ortho in the status bar to keep Ortho mode on while you draw. When you move the cursor
around while drawing objects, the rubber-banding line moves only vertically or horizontally. With Ortho
mode turned on, Polar Tracking is automatically turned off.
To change the Polar Tracking angle, enter an angle in the Increment Angle text box, or select a
predefined angle from the drop-down list. You can do this while drawing a series of line segments,
for example, so that you can set angles on the fly.
Numerous other settings are available in the Polar Tracking tab. Here is a listing of their functions
for your reference:
Additional Angles This setting lets you enter a specific angle for Polar Tracking. For example,
if you want Polar Tracking to snap to 12˝, click the New button next to the Additional Angles list
box, and enter 12. The value you enter appears in the list box, and when the Additional Angles
check box is selected, Polar Tracking snaps to 12˝. To delete a value from the list box, highlight
it, and click the Delete button.
The Additional Angles option differs from the Increment Angle setting in that the Increment
Angle setting causes Polar Tracking to snap to every increment of its setting, whereas Additional
Angles snaps only to the angle specified. You can enter as many angles as you want in
the Additional Angles list box.
Object Snap Tracking Settings These settings let you control whether Object Snap Tracking
uses strictly orthogonal directions (0°, 90°, 180°, and 270°) or the angles set in the Polar Angle
Settings group in this dialog box. (See the “Aligning Objects by Using Object Snap Tracking”
section later in this chapter.)
Polar Angle Measurement These radio buttons let you determine the zero angle on which
Polar Tracking bases its incremental angles. The Absolute option uses the current AutoCAD
setting for the 0° angle. The Relative To Last Segment option uses the last drawn object as the 0°
angle. For example, if you draw a line at a 10° angle and the Relative To Last Segment option
is selected with the Increment Angle set to 90°, Polar Tracking snaps to 10, 100°, 190°, and 280°,
relative to the actual 0° direction.