INQUIRY COMMANDS IN AUTOCAD

Inquiry commands are tools that help to organise and check drawings.

Enquiry Tools

The enquiry tools are used to query information in a drawing. They can be found from the Ribbon Home tab > Utilities panel, Measure drop-down.

Measure

The Measure Distance tool displays the distance between two specified points in the drawing area.

From the Ribbon Home tab > Utilities panel, expand the Measure drop-down and click the Measure Distance tool.

Specify two points to measure between.

With Dynamic Input turned on, AutoCAD displays information, such as the distance between the two points in the x and y axis and the aligned distance and angle, both in the Drawing Area and on the command line.

See Module 02-Creating Basic Shapes for further details of Dynamic Input.

Press [Escape] to clear the information and exit the command or press [Enter] to measure again.

Radius

The measure radius tool displays the radius of a circle.

From the Ribbon Home tab > Utilities panel, expand the Measure drop-down and click the Measure Radius tool.

Select a circle. With Dynamic Input turned on, AutoCAD displays the radius on the circle. The radius and diameter are displayed on the command line.

 

Press [Escape] to clear the information and exit the command or press [Enter] to measure again.

Angle

The Measure Angle tool displays the angle of an arc, between two lines or within a circle.

From the Ribbon Home tab > Utilities panel, expand the Measure drop-down and click the Measure Angle tool.

Select two lines, an arc or a circle. With Dynamic Input turned on, AutoCAD displays the angle on screen.

 

Press [Escape] to clear the information and exit the command or press [Enter] to measure again.

Area

The measure area tool displays the area of a selected object or within specified points.

From the Ribbon Home tab > Utilities panel, expand the Measure drop-down and click the Measure Area tool.

You will be prompted:

Specify first corner point or [Object/Add area/Subtract area/eXit] <Object>:

Pick points on the screen to define the area to be measured or press “O” followed by [Enter] to invoke the Object option and select the object to be measured.

 

The area being measured is highlighted in green and displayed on the command line.

Press [Escape] to clear the information and exit the command or press [Enter] to measure again.