DRAWING POLYGONS

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DRAWING POLYGONS
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Drawing Polygons
So, what is a polygon? The dictionary definition
is a closed figure bounded by straight lines
or arcs more than 4 linespentagon (5), hexagon
(6), heptagon (7), octagon (8)
Drawing polygons manually can be a tedious task
at best. AutoCAD makes it simple if you push
the right buttons.
Look on the left-hand toolbar and find the
polygon button.

• CLICK on the polygon button

• AutoCAD asks for the number of sides of the
  polygon to be drawn.
• In this example, lets type in 7 (heptagon) and
  ENTER

• The next thing youre ask to do is either specify
  the center of the polygon youre drawing or to
  designate the location of an edge of the
  polygonthe second choice works great if youre
  locating the polygon next to something else in
  your drawing. For our example, just ENTER to
  accept Center.

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Drawing Polygons (contd)

• AutoCAD then needs to know whether you want your
  polygon inscribed (inside) or circumscribed
  (outside) a circle.

Inscribed the corners of your polygon will touch
or be tangent to the circle

• The distance between the corners of an odd sided
  polygon and the center-point of inscribing circle
  is equal to the radius of your circle
• Example the inscribing circle has a radius of
  14 units
• The dimension from any corner of the polygon to
  the center-point of the inscribing circle will be
  14.
• The distance between opposite corners in an
  equal sided polygon is equal to the diameter of
  your circle
• Example the inscribing circle has a radius of
  14 units
• The dimension from any corner of your polygon to
  the corner directly opposite from it will be 28
  units.

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Drawing Polygons (contd)

• Circumscribed the flats of your polygon will
  touch or be tangent to the circle
• The distance between the midpoints of the
  polygons flats and the center-point of your
  circumscribed circle is equal to the radius of
  your circle
• The corners of the polygon will be outside the
  circle

For our example, well just use INSCRIBE lt I gt
so, ENTER and well move on to Step 5 and finish
this up.

• Now AutoCAD wants to know the radius of the
  circle that your polygon is going to be drawn
  inside of.

For our example, well use a radius of 14. Type
in 14 in the command prompt line and ENTER . The
7-sided polygon will be drawn around the
center-point you designated and at the radius
(14) of the circle you specified.