Autodesk AUTOSKETCH 8, User Manual

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Entities
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Entities
Each item you add to a drawing is called an entity. Entities are the building
blocks of a drawing. Other programs may refer to entities as objects, items,
or elements. AutoSketch creates the following entity types:
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Arc —An arc is a portion of a circle. You can use an arc to show the direc-
tion a door swings, a rounded wall, and so on. For more information, see
the chapter titled “Arcs & Circles,” which begins on page 155.
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Circle —A circle is a curved line with every point equally distant from the
center. You can use a circle to represent a hole, a round object, and so on.
For more information, see the chapter titled “Arcs & Circles,” which
begins on page 155.
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Curve —A curve is a polyline that is rendered onscreen and on printed
output in a special way. AutoSketch supports two curve types: fitted
curves and spline curves. Fitted curves pass directly through each control
point. Spline curves pass through the first and last control points and are
drawn toward intermediate ones. A closed curve can contain pattern fill.
Use curves to create free-form shapes such as curved sidewalks and car
fenders. For more information, see the chapter titled “Polylines, Polygons,
& Curves,” which begins on page 137.
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Detail view — An entity that displays a portion of a previously saved view.
For more information, see “Viewing Drawing Details” on page 95.
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Dimension —A dimension is a predefined collection of lines, arcs, markers,
and text used to display a measurement in the drawing. The text label is
updated automatically when you stretch or reshape the dimension. For
more information, see the chapter titled “Creating Dimensions,” which
begins on page 225.
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Ellipse
—A
closed symmetrical curve that resembles a flattened circle.
Mathematically, the path of a point that moves so the sum of the dis-
tances from it to a pair of fixed points remains constant. For more infor-
mation, see “Drawing Ellipses” on page 163.
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Fill —A hidden line polygon that conforms to the shape of a bounded area
and displays either a solid color, a hatch, or bitmap fill. For more informa-
tion, see the chapter titled “Pen & Pattern Properties,” which begins on
page 197.
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Group
—
A compound entity consisting of individual symbols and entities
which AutoSketch treats as a single entity. For more information, see “Cre-
ating Groups” on page 319.
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Line —A line is an entity that connects two points. You can use a line to
represent any straight object such as a water pipe, a wall edge, an electrical
connection, or a street. For more information, see the chapter titled
“Lines,” which begins on page 129.