AutoCAD Tutorial 17: Polygon and SCALE Command in AutoCAD

Here are 2 new Basic AutoCAD commands well to master.

POLYGON is not a command that is being used often but it can come in handy at times, this command can help draw a star in AutoCAD. There is a technique that requires you to make use of this command to draw a star in AutoCAD.

The SCALE command Enlarges or reduces the object’s size, keeping their proportions the same after scaling.

POLYGON

The polygon command allows creating polygons in AutoCAD

To create a polygon, you need to specify the number of sides of your polygon when you are creating it, the center of the polygon and whether the polygon will be inscribed or circumscribed to a circle which you will specify the radius.

To create a polygon

1. Write POLYGON and Press Enter
2. Enter the number of sides and Press Enter
3. Specify the center of the polygon
4. Enter an option: I (for inscribed) and C (for Circumscribed). It is set to <I> by default. Simply pressing Enter in this step will activate I
5. Specify the radius of the circle

Pay attention to the command window while following the above procedure, you can notice in step 3, that there is an option that will allow you specify the length of a side of the Polygon instead of Center of Circle and Radius. Since all sides of a polygon have the same length, you might want to use this feature to create a polygon, and this second option will be the one to use.

As I was saying earlier, polygons can help you create a star in AutoCAD. Joining corners and trimming could help create a totally different set of objects

SCALE IN AutoCAD

The SCALE command is often used to increase or decrease the size of an object, and it is mostly used when an object is inserted into your project and need to fit the scale of the current project.

To use the SCALE command in AutoCAD

1. Type SCALE and press Enter
2. Select objects and press Enter
3. Specify base point
4. Specify the scale factor and press Enter

The scale factor can be 2 if you wish to double the size of the selected object or can be 0.5 if you wish to reduce the size by two. (These are just examples of scale factors)

Practice Exercises

• AutoCAD Tutorial | Great series to help you master AutoCAD 2D
• AutoCAD exercise 00
• AutoCAD exercises
• AutoCAD exercise 01