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The Circle tool, found on the Draw toolbar, is an easy-to-use yet powerful tool. A circle is most often used to represent a hole in an object. The default method of creating a circle is to start with the center point. This is the first thing AutoCAD will ask you for when using the circle tool. Enter your center point coordinates or click somewhere in model space that you wish to create the circle. You have two options for determining how large your circle is. The first way is by entering the radius value into the command line. This is what AutoCAD asks for by default. If you are working with a diagram that gives you the diameter instead, and you don't want to spend the time calculating the radius, type in "d" into the command line, which tells AutoCAD you want to enter the diameter instead. You can now type in the diameter value into the command line, and the circle will be created. If you are creating multiple circles, you'll notice that AutoCAD saves the radius value for the last circle that was created. This can be helpful if you are creating two or three circles of the same size. The second method of determining the size of the circle is to click on some point in model space. As you drag the mouse around, you are essentially selecting the diameter by clicking somewhere in model space. This option is most helpful if you are using the circle as part of a drawing where lines connect to the circle, and you don't need to know the specific radius of the circle.
There are other methods of creating a circle, such as 2-point, 3-point, and tangent-tangent-radius. These options are available when you first click the circle command, but are less frequently used. You can explore them on your own if you wish. |
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