Technological Institute of The Philippines 360 P. Casal ST., Quiapo, Manila

Technological Institute of the Philippines
360 P. Casal St., Quiapo, Manila
Assignment No. 2
Coordinate Systems Used in AutoCad
Submitted By:
Aballa, Jane Eilyza G.
ME31FA1
Dec. 12 2018
COORDINATE SYSTEMS IN
AUTOCAD
DECEMBER 8, 2017 by ROSS MCBEATH
Using coordinates to specify locations can be a challenge in AutoCAD. It helps to take our time
to understand the underlying concepts.
CARTESIAN COORDINATE SYSTEM

The word “Cartesian” comes from the philosopher Descartes, who came up with the idea. One
day Descartes was staring at a fly on the floor. It occurred to him that he could describe the fly’s
location floor by noting its distance from two of the walls.
It is composed of stubs sticking out in the x-direction, the y-direction, and, the z-direction. The
z-direction is hidden if you are working in 2D, but you can think of it as coming out of the page
(or monitor, I suppose). The place where the stubs intersect is called the origin.
If you imagine the x-stub extending out indefinitely, this is the x-axis. If you imagine the y-stub
extending out indefinitely, this is the y-axis. Any point along the floor can be given as (x, y),
where x is a distance along the x-axis, and y is a distance along the y-axis.
ABSOLUTE COORDINATE ENTRY
Absolute coordinate entry is the default. Absolute coordinate entry always counts from
the origin. When drawing lines, AutoCAD is ready to place the next vertex wherever you
tell it to go:
1. Type L on the command line and press enter

2. Type 4,6 on the command line and press enter
4. Press enter to finish the Line command
We just told AutoCAD we wanted a line starting at 4,6, and ending at 5,3. It made a segment between
those two points. The first point is 4 to the right and 6 up from the origin. The second point is 5 to the
right and 3 up from the origin. The line is the shortest distance between those two points.
RELATIVE COORDINATE ENTRY
For relative coordinates, AutoCAD does not count from 0,0. Instead, the reference point
is the previous point in the drawing. Let’s draw another line, and see what it looks like
compared to the old one:

3. Type @5,3 on the command line and press enter
4. Press enter to finish the line command
AutoCAD recognizes the @ symbol as instructions to count using relative coordinates.
Notice the difference. While both lines made thus far started at the same point, this time, for the
second vertex, AutoCAD counted 5 over and 3 up from the first vertex, and made the line
between those two locales.
POLAR COORDINATE SYSTEM

Polar coordinates are named for their “pole”; the reference point to start counting from, which is
similar in concept to the origin. Polar coordinates employ one radial distance and one angle (by
convention, the angle is measured counterclockwise from the x-axis). The angle signifies the
direction, and the distance is how far to go in that direction from the pole.
Polar coordinates in AutoCAD are given as R<Degrees, where:
 “R” is the radial distance
 “<” is the less than sign (but in this case represents the angle)
 “Degrees” is the value of the angle in degrees
Like Cartesian coordinates, polar coordinates are employed as a subcommand.
The analogue to ORTHO mode is POLAR tracking (F10). Polar tracking restricts cursor
movement to specified angles. The user can specify the acceptable angle increments by right-
clicking the icon
Relative coordinates also work with polar input.

Let’s delete the lines we drew and work via the command line again:

3. Type @5<60 on the command line and press enter
4. Press enter to finish the line command
The above line started at 4,6 (which is input in absolute Cartesian coordinates). Since the next
line had the @ symbol, that means the previous point (4,6), became the pole, or reference point
for the relative coordinates.
We input the polar coordinates as @5<60, which means the length of the line is 5 and the angle
counterclockwise from the x-axis is 60 degrees.
COORDINATE INPUT
The most direct way to enter points precisely is to type numbers with the keyboard.
AutoCAD uses these keyboard coordinate entry formats:
 Absolute Cartesian (X,Y) coordinates in the form X,Y (for example, 7,4)
 Relative X,Y coordinates in the form @X,Y (for example, @3,2):Defines a

new point that is X units horizontally and Y units vertically away from the current
point.
 Relative polar coordinates in the form @distance<angle (for example,

@6<45): Defines a new point that is the specified distance units away from the
current point at the specified angle from the origin.
References:
https://www.dummies.com/programming/autocad/what-you-should-know-about-autocad-
coordinate-systems/
http://www.thecadmasters.com/2017/12/08/coordinate-systems-autocad/

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What are the different coordinate systems discussed in the document?

What is the difference between absolute and relative coordinate entry?

Technological Institute of the Philippines

360 P. Casal St., Quiapo, Manila

CARTESIAN COORDINATE SYSTEM

ABSOLUTE COORDINATE ENTRY

1. Type L on the command line and press enter

1. Type L on the command line and press enter

POLAR COORDINATE SYSTEM

Polar coordinates in AutoCAD are given as R<Degrees, where:

 “R” is the radial distance

 “Degrees” is the value of the angle in degrees

Like Cartesian coordinates, polar coordinates are employed as a subcommand.

Relative coordinates also work with polar input.

1. Type L on the command line and press enter

 Relative X,Y coordinates in the form @X,Y (for example, @3,2):Defines a

 Relative polar coordinates in the form @distance<angle (for example,

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