Making Row and Column Copies

Making Row and Column Copies
Now, you’ll draw the other three burners of the gas range by creating a rectangular array from the
burner you just drew. You’ll first zoom back a bit to get a view of a larger area. Then, you’ll proceed
with the Array command.
Follow these steps to zoom back:
1. Choose View  Zoom  Scale, or type Z↵ S↵.
2. Enter .5x↵. Your drawing will look like Figure 6.3.
TIP If you’re not too fussy about the amount you want to zoom out, you can choose View  Zoom 
Out to quickly reduce your view, or you can click the Zoom Realtime tool on the Standard toolbar.
Entering .5x for the Zoom Scale factor tells AutoCAD you want a view that reduces the width
of the current view to fill half the display area, enabling you to see more of the work area. If you
specify a scale value greater than 1 (5, for example), you’ll magnify your current view. If you leave
off the x, your new view will be in relation to the drawing limits rather than the current view.



Next, you’ll finish the range top. You’ll get a chance to use the Rectangular Array option to create
three additional burners:
1. Click the Array tool on the Modify toolbar again, or type AR↵ to open the Array dialog box.
2. Click the Select Objects button to temporarily close the Array dialog box.
3. Select the entire burner, including the lines and the circle, and then press ↵ to confirm
your selection.
4. In the Array dialog box, click the Rectangular Array radio button.
5. Change both the Rows and Columns text boxes to 2.
6. Change the Row Offset text box value to 1´-2˝ (35.5 for metric users) and the Column Offset
text box value to 1´-4˝ (40.6 for metric users).



7. Click OK. Your screen will look like Figure 6.4.



AutoCAD usually draws a rectangular array from bottom to top and from left to right. You can
reverse the direction of the array by giving negative values for the distance between columns and rows.
TIP At times, you may want to create a rectangular array at an angle. To accomplish this, enter the
desired angle in the Angle Of Array text box in the Array dialog box. You can also select the angle
graphically by clicking the Pick Angle Of Array button just to the right of the Angle Of Array text box.
If you need to graphically indicate an array cell, you can do so by using options in the Offset Distance
And Direction group of the Array dialog box (see the bottom image in Figure 6.5). An array
cell is a rectangle defining the distance between rows and columns (see the top image in Figure 6.5).
You may want to use this option when objects are available to use as references from which to
determine column and row distances. For example, you might draw a crosshatch pattern, as on a
calendar, within which you want to array an object. You use the intersections of the hatch lines as
references to define the array cell, which is one square in the hatch pattern.
In the Offset Distance And Direction group, the Pick Both Offsets button lets you indicate the
row and column distance by placing an array cell graphically in the drawing, as shown in the bottom
image in Figure 6.5. You can also indicate a row or column distance graphically by using the
Pick Row Offset or Pick Column Offset button to the right of the Pick Both Offsets button.