Drawing circles

The default method for drawing a circle is to specify a center point and a radius.

Other methods to draw circles can be found in the Circle submenu of the Draw menu and in the Circles toolbar.

The AI_CIRCTAN command draws circles tangent to three linear entities.

The Circle tool is available on:

  • The Draw menu.
  • The Draw toolbar.
  • The Draw ribbon panel.
  • The Draw tab of the No Selection Quad.

General procedure

  1. Launch the CIRCLE command.

    Prompts you:

    Select center of circle or [2 Point/3 Point/Tangent-Tangent-Radius/turn Arc into circle/Multiple circles]:

  2. Specify a point.

    Prompts you: Set Radius or [Diameter]:

  3. Do one of the following:

    • Press Enter to accept the current radius.
    • Type a new radius and press Enter.
    • Click to define the radius graphically.

Drawing a circle tangent to three entities

  1. Launch the AI_CIRCTAN command.

    Prompts you: Enter Tangent spec:

  2. Click a linear entity.

    Lines, arcs, circles, polyline segments, xlines and rays are accepted.

    Prompts you: Enter second Tangent spec:

  3. Click the second linear entity.

    Prompts you: Enter third Tangent spec:

  4. Click the third linear entity.

    A circle tangent to the three selected entities is created.

Editing a circle

  1. Select the circle.

    The properties of the circle display in the Properties panel.

  2. Type a new value in the Center, Radius, Diameter, Circumference or Area field, then press Enter.

  3. Press the Esc key to stop editing the circle.