About Arcs, Circles and Ellipses

Use this tool to draw circles, arcs, ellipses and arcs of ellipse. All the methods for circular arcs can be used to draw full circles by clicking the switch that appears on the screen next to the first point of the arc, or by holding down the Alt key. 

The construction can be both graphical, via clicks on the drawing, or numerical via the keyboard input. 

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Topics in this Section

• Arcs and Circles
• Ellipses

Arcs and Circles

Use the Arcs, Circles and Ellipses tool to create circles and circular arcs. The tool includes methods to create arcs and circles by a number of conditions and points.

Each method provides an on-screen button to let you choose to create an arc or a circle.

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 Arc/Circle by Center and Radius

To draw an arc or circle click to set the center (or set it with by coordinates), then select the arc or circle option on the on screen floating button.

To draw an arc, set the radius by pressing the L key, set the start angle by pressing the A key and set the end angle by pressing A again. To draw an arc graphically, move the pointer and click again to set the start angle; with the next click you define the end angle of the arc. 

To draw a full circle, set the length of the radius by pressing the L key on the keyboard and the start angle / end angle by pressing the A key. Press Return to confirm.

Arc/Circle by Diameter

Click to set the first vertex of the diameter, move the pointer and click again to set the second vertex. You can define the diameter by pressing the L key, and the angle by pressing the A key. 

Arc/Circle by Start Point, End Point, Radius

Click to set the start point and end point of the arc and click to set the radius. The two points and the radius can also be defined via numeric input using the X, Y and Dx, Dy coordinates and L value. Hold the “alt” key to switch the direction of the arc.

Arc/Circle by Three Points 

Click to set the points that define the arc. The three points can also be defined via numeric input using the X, Y coordinates or L and A values.

Arc/Circle by Tangent

Click on the endpoint of a line or on the endpoint of an arc to set the first point of the arc drawn by the tangent to that object at that datum endpoint. 

Ellipses

Ellipse by Bounding Box

Set the start point, move and define the end point of the diagonal. The ellipse is inscribed in the rectangle defined by its diagonal. 

Ellipse by Center and Radii

Click to set the center of the ellipse, move and click to define its first radius; move again and click to set its second radius. The center can also be defined by using the X, Y coordinates and the radii can be defined by pressing the L key during their construction. 

Quarter of Ellipse

This method allows you to draw quarters of ellipse by clicking on its two vertices.