EEE 113 – Engineering Graphics

Lab #2 -Geometric Constructions

Part 1: Basic Editing Commands

In this exercise basic AutoCAD editing commands such as trim, extend, copy and mirror will be
introduced.

1. Start with a new AutoCAD drawing. The units and exact scale of the drawing is not
important.

2. Using the left half of the drawing area, create

the objects shown. The actual scale of the
objects is not important.

Use the Line command icon in the Draw tool

bar to draw lines, and the Circle command icon
in the Draw tool bar to draw circles.

You can use the cursor with the SNAP and

GRID options on to locate positions of points.

3. In the Modify tool bar, select Copy Object

command icon.

4. The prompt “Select objects:” will appear in the command prompt area.

In selecting objects to copy, we are going to create a window around the objects to be
copied rather than selecting each object one by one.

Left-mouse-click at an empty spot below and to the left of the bottom object to indicate
the position of the lower-left corner of the window that will be created to enclose all the
objects to be copied.

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5. At the prompt “Specify opposite corner:” left-mouse-click at an empty spot above and to
the right of the top object so that all objects are inside the window created.

6. Right-mouse-click to finish selection of objects to be copied.

7. At the prompt “Specify base point or displacement:” left-mouse-click on any point in the
drawing. This point will be used as the reference point in copying.

8. At the prompt “Specify second point of displacement:” left-mouse-click on the desired

position of the reference point for the copy to be made.

9. Right-mouse-click to finish the Copy command.

You should now have two copies of the each object. The Trim, Extend and Mirror
commands will now be used to modify the second copy of the objects.

10. For the top object, the copy will be modified as shown.

Before Trim After Trim

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 a. In the Modify tool bar select the Trim command icon.

b. At the prompt “Select cutting edges” left-mouse-click the

horizontal line.

c. Right-mouse-click to finish selecting edges.

d. At the prompt “Select object to trim…” left-mouse-click on the part

of the vertical lines that will be trimmed (upper-half of the left
vertical line, lower-half of the middle line, and upper-half of the
right line.

e. Press [ENTER] to finish the Trim command.

11. For the second object, the copy will be modified as shown.

Before Extend After Extend

a. In the Modify tool bar select the Extend command icon.

b. At the prompt “Select boundary edges” left-mouse-click the two

vertical lines.

c. Right-mouse-click to finish selecting edges.

d. At the prompt “Select object to extend…” left-mouse-click the left

end of the horizontal line, and then the right end of the horizontal
line.

e. Press [ENTER] to finish the Extend command.

12. For the third object, the copy will be modified as shown. Use the Trim command with the
two horizontal lines as the cutting edges and the circles as objects to trim (make sure to
left-mouse-click the part of the circle that will be trimmed).

Before Trim After Trim

13. For the last object, the copy will be modified as shown.

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 Before Mirror After Mirror

a. In the Modify tool bar select the Mirror command icon.

b. At the prompt “Select objects:” create a window around the object

to be mirrored.

c. Press [ENTER] to finish selecting objects. At the prompt “Specify

first point of mirror line:” left-mouse-click on the right end of the
bottom horizontal line.

d. At the prompt “Specify second point of mirror line:” left-mouse-

click on the right end of the other horizontal line. Make sure that
the mirror line is vertical. (The ORTHO option might be useful.)

e. At the prompt “Delete source objects? [Yes/No]:” press ENTER

to select the default “No” answer.

14. Save the drawing as a:lab2-a.dwg.

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Part 2: Geometric Constructions

In this exercise, more AutoCAD construction and editing techniques will be used to create the
given figure. AutoCAD commands covered in this exercise include Object Snaps, Trim, Fillet,
Polyline, and Explode.

1. Start with a new AutoCAD drawing.

2. In the Select Template manager, left-mouse-click on the triangular button to the right of
the Open button, and select Open with no Template – Metric.

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 3. In the pull-down menus, select:
[Format] => [Units]

The Drawing Units dialog box

will appear. This allows the
drawing units settings to be
modified.

4. In the Drawing Units

dialog box, set the Length
Type to Decimal, the
Precision to one decimal
place, and the Units to
Millimeters.

5. Pick OK to exit the dialog

box.

6. In the pull-down menus, select:

[Format] => [Drawing Limits]

7. In the command prompt area, enter the coordinates of the lower left corner.
Specify lower left corner or [ON/OFF] <0.0,0.0>: 0,0 [ENTER]

8. In the command prompt area, enter the coordinates of (200,160) for the upper right corner.
Specify upper right corner <12.0,9.0>: 200,160 [ENTER]

9. Create a circle with center at coordinates (50,50), and of radius 25.

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10. In the Zoom tool bar, select Zoom All to display the entire drawing limits.

11. Right-click any of the displayed toolbars to display the Tool bar popup menu. Activate
the Object Snap tool bar by selecting Object Snap.

12. Select the Line command icon in the Draw toolbar.

13. At the prompt for the starting point, “Specify the first point:”, select Snap to Center in the
Object Snap tool bar.

14. Left-click the circle to indicate that the starting point of the line is the center of this circle.

15. At the prompt for the starting point, “Specify next point [or Undo]:”, enter the relative
polar coordinates of the end point of the line by typing @100<30 [ENTER].

16. Create the circle of radius 11 centered at the upper end of the construction line.

Next, the Offset command will be used to copy the construction line twice at a distance of
11 mm on both sides on the line.

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 17. In the Modify tool bar, select the Offset command.

18. Enter an offset distance of 11 and press [ENTER].

19. Left-mouse-click on the line to select the object to offset.

20. Left-mouse-click on any location below the line to make a

copy of the line.

21. Repeat to make a copy of the line above the construction line.

22. Trim and erase lines so that the drawing is as shown:

Next, all the objects will be combined into a single compound object using the Polyline
command. A polyline is a two dimensional collection of line and arc segments.

23. In the pull-down menus, select:

[Modify] => [Object] => [Polyline]

24. At the prompt “Select polyline:” select any of the objects on the drawing.

25. At the prompt “Object selected is not a polyline. Do you want to turn it into one? <Y>:”
press [ENTER] to accept the Yes default response.

26. At the prompt “Enter an option [Close/Join/Width/Edit vertex/Fit/Spline/Decurve/

Ltypegen/Undo]:” type j (for join).

27. At the prompt “Select objects:” select all the other objects to join the polyline, and then
press [ENTER] to finish the command.

All the entities in the drawing are now joined together as a single polyline.

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28. In the Modify tool bar, select the Offset command.

29. Enter an offset distance of 5 and press [ENTER].

30. Click anywhere on the object to select the object to offset.

31. Click anywhere outside the polyline to specify the side to offset.
The drawing should now look like the following:

Next, we are going to use the Explode command to break an object into its components.

32. Select the Explode command icon in the Modify toolbar.

33. Pick the outer polyline when prompted to select objects.

34. Right-mouse-click inside the graphics window to end the command.

The objects in the outer shape are now separate entities.

35. Select the Fillet command icon in the Modify toolbar.

36. At the prompt “Select first object or

[Polylin/Radius/Trim/mUltiple]:” right-mouse-click inside the
graphics window to activate the option menu and select the Radius
option.

37. Enter 5 as the fillet radius and press [ENTER].

38. Left-mouse-click on the bottom straight line and the outer lower circle to select objects to
fillet, and press [ENTER] to finish the Fillet command

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 39. Fillet the other side of the object (intersection of the top line and the outer circle).

40. Using the Polygon command icon in the Draw menu, create the pentagon with the same
center as the big circular arcs, and inscribed in a circle of radius 20.

41. (Optional) Add dimensions and labels to the drawing. Save the drawing as a:lab2-b.dwg.

Assignment:

On your own, create the following drawing. Save it as a:lab2-c.dwg.

Note: The figure has two pairs of

parallel lines tangent to circular arcs.

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