{"id":5476,"date":"2016-10-11T06:00:38","date_gmt":"2016-10-11T13:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.autodesk.com/blogs\/autocad\/?p=5476"},"modified":"2020-04-07T14:53:18","modified_gmt":"2020-04-07T21:53:18","slug":"real-life-autocad-drawing-tips-2-tuesday-tips-with-dieter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.autodesk.com/blogs\/autocad\/real-life-autocad-drawing-tips-2-tuesday-tips-with-dieter\/","title":{"rendered":"Close the Gate \u2014 Real-Life AutoCAD Drawing Tips, Part 2: Tuesday Tips with Dieter"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wow, was I ever delighted by the responses I received from last week\u2019s gate design challenge<\/a>! The first correct answer came from Emre Cengizoglu, a MSc civil engineer from Turkey. Emre, who works for a company doing steel projects, started with a reference circle with the radius of the diagonal length, created a 1-1\/2\u201d brace with that diagonal, and then used the Align command to place it. Working independently, Brian Lottis with Mazzetti, Inc. out of Portland, and Paul Stilwell, Senior Surveyor and CAD Supervisor with Survey Systems Ltd, out of the United Kingdom, each used the method I had in mind.<\/p>\n

\"AutoCAD<\/a><\/p>\n

First, they each constructed a large circle centered on one corner at P1 and a point on the radius at P2. Next, they drew a line at an arbitrary angle from P3 to P4 on the circle (you can use the near object snap to avoid having to trim or extend the line). They then offset the line by 1-1\/2\u201d and trimmed it back to the circle. From there, they used the Rotate command\u2019s Reference option to rotate the diagonal brace into place. The reference points they specified are on a diagonal at P5 and P6, and the final point of rotation was at P7. After trimming the lines, Paul and Brian were done. The precise length of each diagonal edge of the brace was 53.36588038 inches.<\/p>\n

Your real-life AutoCAD drawing tips (and lessons learned) for the gate-design challenge<\/h2>\n