Using Osnap Tracking to Place Objects

Using Osnap Tracking to Place Objects
You’ll draw lines in the majority of your work, so it’s important to know how to manipulate
lines to your best advantage. In this section, you’ll look at some of the more common ways to
use and edit these fundamental drawing objects. The following exercises show you the process
of drawing lines, rather than just how individual commands work. While you’re building
walls and adding doors, you’ll get a chance to become more familiar with Polar Tracking and
Osnap Tracking.
Roughing In the Line Work
The bathroom you inserted in the preceding section has only one side of its interior walls drawn.
(Walls are usually shown by double lines.) In this next exercise, you’ll draw the other side. Rather
than trying to draw the wall perfectly the first time, you’ll sketch in the line work and then clean it
up in the next section, in a way similar to manual drafting.
Use these steps to rough in the wall lines:
1. Zoom in to the bathroom so that the entire bathroom and part of the area around it are displayed,
as in Figure 6.10.


TIP You may notice that some of the arcs in your bathroom drawing aren’t smooth. Don’t be alarmed;
this is how AutoCAD displays arcs and circles in enlarged views. The arcs will be smooth when they’re
plotted. If you want to see them now as they’re stored in the file, you can regenerate the drawing by
typing Regen↵ at the Command prompt. Chapter 7 discusses regeneration in more detail.
2. Select Wall from the Layer drop-down list in the Layers toolbar to make Wall the current layer.
3. Make sure that the Otrack and Osnap buttons on the status bar are pressed, indicating that
Osnap Tracking and Object Snap are turned on.



4. Choose Draw  Line, or type L↵.
5. At the Specify first point: prompt, move your cursor over the lower-right corner of the
bathroom so that the Endpoint osnap marker appears, but don’t click it. As you move the cursor
downward, the tracking vector appears. (If the tracking vector doesn’t appear at first, move your
cursor over the corner again until it does appear.)


TIP Remember that a little cross appears at the osnap location, telling you that Osnap Tracking
has “locked on” to that location.
6. With the tracking vector visible, point the cursor directly downward from the corner, and
then type 5↵. Metric users should type 13↵. A line starts 5˝ (or 13 cm) below the lower-right
corner of the bathroom.
7. Continue the line horizontally to the left, to slightly cross the left wall of the apartment unit,
as illustrated in the top image in Figure 6.11. Press↵.


8. Draw another line upward from the endpoint of the top door jamb to meet the top wall of the
unit (see the second image in Figure 6.11). Use the Perpendicular osnap to pick the top wall of
the unit. This causes the line to end precisely on the wall line in perpendicular position, as in the
bottom image in Figure 6.11.
TIP You can also use the Perpendicular osnap override to draw a line perpendicular to a nonorthogonal
line—one at a 45 angle, for instance.
9. Draw a line connecting the two door jambs. Then, assign that line to the Ceiling layer.
(See the first panel in Figure 6.12.)
10. Draw a line 6˝ downward from the endpoint of the door jamb nearest the corner. (See the
first panel in Figure 6.12.)



In the previous exercise, Osnap Tracking mode enabled you to specify a starting point of a line
at an exact distance from the corner of the bathroom. In step 6, you used the Direct Distance method
for specifying distance and direction.
TIP If you prefer, you can choose From on the Osnap shortcut menu, and then open the shortcut
menu again and select Endpoint. Select the corner and enter a polar coordinate such as @5<-90
to accomplish the same task as this exercise.