How to Draw Clockwise Arcs and Fillet an Open Polyline to Itself

AutoCAD loves to draw arcs counter-clockwise — but what if you need clockwise? Autodesk Evangelist Lynn Allen shows you how to insist on a clockwise arc with the push of one button and how to fillet an open polyline to itself!

Video Transcript

Hello there, this is Lynn Allen. Welcome to another AutoCAD tip, courtesy of the fabulous Cadalyst magazine. As you can see, I'm coming to you from yet another hotel room. This time in Phoenix, Arizona, and it's about 110 degrees outside. So I'm happy to be inside. Yay, air conditioning.

Today I'm going to share two tips that I think you'll find valuable and be able to use. The first tip has to do with something so simple — just drawing an arc. I'm going to go into the Arc command, and I'm going to do the Center option because it's the best way to show this. Now as you know through the years, the Arc command loves to draw arcs that are counterclockwise. When you try to draw it clockwise, it's like "Oh no, it's not going to go like that." It always wants to draw it counterclockwise. Really cool feature that was put in a couple of releases ago is the ability to override that command.

By holding down the Ctrl key, AutoCAD will let you break that rule. Now I can draw an arc that is clockwise. It's something that if nobody tell you about, you're never going to know. Very, very simple. Let it go, and it goes back to counterclockwise. That's my first tip. Don't forget that when you are drawing an arc. Of course, over the years, people have managed to get around that. Now you don't have to.

The other feature, also put in a couple of releases ago, is the ability to fillet an open polyline to itself. Now in the past, if I tried to fillet an open polyline to itself, AutoCAD would once again be like, "Oh, no. It's not going to go like that." Bossy AutoCAD.

I'm going to show you what I'm talking about. Another thing that if nobody tells you about this feature, you are just going to continue to think that it's not available and can't do it. You can see this polyline, isn't it cute. I'm going to go into the Fillet command and very simply select the two endpoint there. It doesn't matter if they are polyarcs or straight polylines, I can now easily go in and fillet that open polyline to itself. Double awesome!

So there you learned two tips that I hope you'll be able to apply. Thank you so much for joining me. I'll see you back here in two more weeks. Peace out.