- [Instructor] We're staying in our
GroundFloorPlan.DWG file.
And as you can see, I've zoomed to the extent
of the drawing again, so that we've got an overall view
of what we're doing for this next particular video.
In this video, we're going to take a look
at polylines and how they work
and how we can use polyline edit
to convert objects to polylines.
We're also going to to take a look at splines.
Now, splines are basically irregular curves in AutoCAD,
and you can use different types
of splines for different environments.
We're going to create a simple spline divider
in the floor plan.
Now let's have a look at polylines first.
We're going to zoom in on these tables that we've created
in this reception sort of meeting area in the floor plan.
So get the crosshair sort of about there,
roll up on the wheel and zoom in,
and we're just going to pan a little bit
so we can see our three tables that we've got in place.
Now you'll remember that the rectangular table
was created using the rectangle command.
So if I hover over that rectangle
I'll get a little tool tip there
and it tells me it's a polyline, not a rectangle.
Well, basically the rectangle command, what it does
is it allows you to create a rectangular shape
using a polyline, using two opposing diagonal points.
So our rectangle is a closed polyline.
So if I wanted to draw another rectangle, like so,
I could click there, click there, drag and click again
and you can see it's forming a polyline like so.
Now I don't actually need that one.
So I'm just going to select it, right click and erase it.
But what we're going to do is we're going to look
at ways where we can convert existing objects
to a polyline as well.
So creating a polyline is easy.
I can create a polyline using the polyline command.
So there's the polyline command there.
And what I could do is click on polyline,
come into the drawing area,
click here and just do the drag thing
like I did before with the polar tracking.
And I can go up like so, let's go up there,
do the 2000 like we did before for the same table below
with the rectangle and the other table.
So there's 3500 again.
And as I come down again, I'll just use that endpoints.
Now click there, and finish.
That is now a polyline.
So I've drawn that in the same way as I would,
four regular lines, but it's a closed polyline instead.
So it's just a different way of drawing.
The benefit is that is one object,
whereas over here, we've got arc, line, line, arc,
four objects.
And if you keep drawing just lines and geometry,
you'll find that your file sizes increase.
If you can convert as much geometry
to polylines as possible,
you're basically converting a group
of four objects here, lines and arcs,
in essence to one object, a closed polyline,
similar to that one.
Now this polyline here, I don't need anymore.
So I'm just going to select it, right click and erase like so,
but what I am going to do,
I'm going to convert these lines
and these two arcs into a polyline.
So let's do that.
Now the quickest way to get to polyline edit
is two keys on the keyboard, P,E.
And you'll notice on the suggestion menu there,
you've got P, E, P edit.
That is polyline edit.
So just type PE and press enter,
and you'll be prompted to select a polyline.
Now polylines can have arc segments.
So you'll notice there's an arc there.
There's an arc there.
So what I can do is I can convert those two arcs
and two lines into a polyline.
So let's do that, let's select one of the arcs, like so,
it'll say, do I want to turn it into one?
Yes, I do.
So I press enter to accept the Y for yes.
Then the polyline edit menu comes up.
I'm going to select join,
and I'm going to select arc, line, arc, line, like so,
and then all I've got to do is press enter.
Takes me back to the polyline edit menu,
press enter again to finish.
When I hover over this now,
it's all one object and it's a closed polyline.
That's how quick and easy it is to convert
existing geometry to polylines.
What happens though,
if I wanted to draw a polyline with those arc segments?
Very quick and easy to do.
I'll just replicate that over here.
So I go up to the polyline command,
come into the drawing area and click there,
drag horizontally to the right.
I'll do my 3,500 again and enter.
And then it's a right click and you select arc.
I'm going to use my polar tracking
and come vertically downwards and type in 2000.
Enter, and then it's a right click and select line.
'Cause we want to draw another line.
So I'm going to come across here, like so.
There's the polar tracking kicking in.
3,500 again, enter.
And then it's a right click and arc again.
And then up to here to the end point snap,
left click, enter to finish.
And then what you'll find is
it's trying to draw another segment.
So just press enter one more time
and that'll close out the polyline command.
There's my polyline with the arc segments,
which looks just like that one.
But all I've done there is obviously
created this one using the polyline command.
And this one was converted from existing geometry
to a polyline.
This one here we don't need.
So I'm just going to right click,
and erase it after selecting it.
So that's using your polylines obviously
and polyline edit.
What we need to think about now is splines.
So let's just zoom out slightly and pan across a little bit.
You'll notice over here we have a green wall.
Get in close to that corner and you can just see
there's a little corner sticking out from the grid line.
We want to snap to that corner
in a moment when we create our spline.
Now, what we're going to do is we're going to cheat
when we create this spline.
I'm going to draw it on the furniture layer
and then use this tool here,
match properties, to match it to our wall layer here,
our wall internal layer.
Very quick and easy to do.
Now, splines are over here on the draw panel,
but you need to click on the little fly out menu
and click on the little pin there just to pin it open.
And there's splines there.
You've got two types of splines.
You can draw a spline with fit points,
where it fits between the points,
or you can draw a spline with control vertices,
where you place the control vertices,
and AutoCAD places the spline between the control vertices.
Sort of a line of best fit kind of idea.
We're going to use the easy one, spline fit, like so.
So I've clicked on it there.
And what you want to make sure that you do is you
snap to that particular endpoint snap, just there,
left click.
You might want to zoom out now, roll back on the wheel
a few notches, so that you can see
the chairs and tables and things.
And then I'm going to come up,
click down, click up, click down, click,
and then one last up click and then enter.
There's our spline.
Now what it's done there is it's basically fit that spline
to those points that we've clicked using a methodology
called non uniform rational B-spline.
And what that's doing is it's calculating that curve
between the points using what they call logarithmic tables.
If you remember those from mathematics at school or college.
Now we need to make sure that that little partition
is on the same layer as our internal walls.
So we just got to match properties,
in the properties panel there,
we select this line here, left click on it
using the pick box, and with the paint brush,
just click on your spline.
There we go.
Enter to finish.
Now your spline, if you hover over it,
is on the right wall internal layer.
You can see that there.
And all that is is I suppose, in some respects,
a little curvy artistic separation wall.
If I unpin the draw panel,
that can go back into the ribbon,
and double click on the wheel to zoom extent,
you can see now that this little refractory area here,
where you've got the chairs and the sofas,
is kind of away from the staircase.
You've got to go around the little bendy wall
to get to the staircase to go upstairs.
And it just kind of separates out the sort of
working space where there's churn and people
away from what they call
the vertical penetration of the stairwell.
It's just a little addition there
that's a little bit artistic, a little bit abstract.
But it's also a really good example of the spline command.