Drawing Tools

Drawing Tools

All drawing commands work the same way at the top level:

1. Start the command — click a Draw ribbon button, or type its name and press Enter.
2. Answer each prompt by clicking in the drawing or typing a value.
3. Esc cancels. Most commands stay active for repeated use until you press Esc.

Everything you may type at a point prompt is listed in Coordinate Input. What the cursor snaps to is in Object Snaps. Ortho and the work-plane elevation are in Drafting Aids.

New geometry is created on the current layer (ribbon, top right) with the current colour, linetype, lineweight, and transparency from Properties → General, and at the current elevation shown as UCS: on the status bar.

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LINE (L)

Ribbon: Draw → Line Command: LINE, L

Draws one or more straight segments. Each segment is a separate object.

Workflow

Command: LINE
LINE — specify first point (click or type X,Y / X Y). ESC to cancel.
LINE: Next: click; X, Y; @dx,dy; [A]zimuth, [2P];

1. First point — click, or type X,Y.
2. Next point — click, type X,Y, or type @dx,dy relative to the previous point.
3. Repeat. Esc ends the command.

Bearing entry

This is the part that makes LINE useful for survey work. After the first point:

Input	Effect
A <bearing>	Locks the direction to that bearing. Example: A 45 or A 45d30m00s.
A alone	Enters bearing-lock mode; the next line you type is the bearing. Blank Enter cancels.
A <bearing> +90	Bearing plus a turn, in one line. -45 also works.
A (while locked)	Clears the lock.
2P or AP or ANGLEPICK	Pick two points to define the direction. Then Enter locks it, or type +90 / -45 to adjust before locking.
A number, with a bearing locked	Distance along the locked ray. A negative number runs backwards.
A number, with Ortho on and no lock	Distance along the horizontal or vertical toward the cursor.

Bearings are degrees clockwise from north and accept decimal degrees (132.5) or DMS (132d30m00s). While in 2P pick mode, Esc cancels only the pick, not the whole command.

Prompts you will see

Prompt line	Meaning
LINE: First point — click or X,Y	Waiting for the anchor
LINE: Type bearing ° CW from N (decimal/DMS) | blank Enter cancels	You typed A alone
LINE bearing pick: First direction point — click | 2P started	You typed 2P
LINE bearing pick: Enter locks | +90/-45 adjust+lock	Two direction points taken
LINE (bearing lock): distance ± along ray | click on line | X,Y | @dx,dy | A clears	Direction is locked

Example — a bearing-and-distance leg

LINE
0,0                     ← start at the origin
A 132d15m30s            ← lock the bearing S47°44'30"E, entered as 132°15'30" CW from north
248.55                  ← run 248.55 units along it
A 132d15m30s +90        ← turn 90° right
100                     ← run 100 units
Esc

Common problems

Problem	Cause	Fix
Typing a number does nothing useful	No bearing lock and Ortho is off, so a bare number has no direction	Lock a bearing with A, or turn on Ortho (F8)
The bearing came out backwards	Bearings are clockwise from north, not counter-clockwise from east	90 is due east, 180 due south
Segments will not join into one object	LINE makes separate segments by design	Use POLYLINE, or draw with LINE and then JOIN

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POLYLINE (PL)

Ribbon: Draw → Polyline Command: POLYLINE, PL

Like LINE, but the whole chain is one object.

Workflow

1. First point — click or type.
2. Next point — as many as you need. Accepts everything LINE accepts, bearing lock included.
3. Finish with one of:
   • CLOSE or CL — adds a closing segment back to the first point and ends the polyline.
   • END — ends the polyline open.
   • Esc — ends the command.

Prompts

POLYLINE: First point — click or X,Y | CLOSE closes | ESC cancel
POLYLINE: Next — click | X,Y | @dx,dy | A/2P | CLOSE / END | ESC
POLYLINE (bearing lock): distance ± | click on ray | X,Y | A clears | CLOSE / END

Notes

• A closed polyline is what HATCH needs a boundary for, and what the Geometric center object snap targets.
• Polylines can be offset and joined; see Modify Tools.

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RECT (RECTANG, RECTANGLE)

Ribbon: Draw → Rectangle Command: RECT

Two opposite corners. The result is stored as a closed polyline, so it hatches, offsets, and snaps like any other polyline.

RECT — pick the first corner (or type X,Y):

1. First corner — click or type X,Y.
2. Opposite corner — click, type X,Y, or type @dx,dy for an exact size.

If the two corners give a zero width or zero height, the log says RECT — corners give a zero-width or zero-height rectangle; pick again. and you pick again.

Example — a 200 × 150 rectangle from a known corner:

RECT
1000,2000
@200,150

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CIRCLE (C)

Ribbon: Draw → Circle Command: CIRCLE, C

Two construction methods.

Centre and radius (default)

1. Centre — click or type X,Y.
2. Radius — click a point on the rim, type the radius, or type D <value> / D<value> for a diameter.

CIRCLE: Click or type center | Type 3P for three-point circle | ESC cancel
CIRCLE: Click edge for radius | Type radius | D <value> or D<value> for diameter | ESC cancel

Three-point (3P)

Type 3P before picking the centre, then pick three points on the circle:

CIRCLE (3P): Point 1 of 3 — click or X,Y | ESC cancel
CIRCLE (3P): Point 2 of 3 — click or X,Y | ESC cancel
CIRCLE (3P): Point 3 of 3 — click or X,Y | ESC cancel

Tip — with 3P, snap each pick. The circle is committed at the snapped point, not where the cursor happened to be, so a rim snap gives you exactly the circle through those three points.

Options

Option	Where	Effect
D <value>	At the radius prompt	Treats the value as a diameter
3P	At the centre prompt	Switches to three-point construction

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ARC

Ribbon: Draw → Arc Command: ARC

Three-point arc only: start, a point on the arc, then the end.

ARC: Start point | ESC cancel
ARC: Point on arc | ESC cancel
ARC: End point | ESC cancel

There are no start/centre/angle variants. To build an arc from a centre and radius, draw a circle and trim it, or place the middle point with snaps.

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ELLIPSE (EL)

Ribbon: Draw → Ellipse Command: ELLIPSE, EL

1. Centre — click or type.
2. Major-axis endpoint — click or type. This sets both the major radius and the rotation.
3. Ratio — type the minor/major ratio in the range (0, 1] on the command line. Enter alone uses 0.5.

ELLIPSE: Center | ESC cancel
ELLIPSE: Major axis end | ESC cancel
ELLIPSE: Ratio (0-1] on command line | Enter = 0.5 | ESC cancel

A ratio of 1 gives a circle-shaped ellipse. Ellipses can be offset.

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HATCH (H, BHATCH)

Ribbon: Draw → Hatch Command: HATCH, H, BHATCH

Fills a closed area.

HATCH — pick an internal point inside a closed area (Esc to cancel).

Pick a point inside the area you want filled. GoSurvey traces the boundary from the surrounding geometry and creates a filled region.

The Hatch ribbon section

While HATCH is running, a contextual Hatch section appears on the ribbon carrying the creation defaults:

Control	What it sets
Pattern	The hatch pattern, chosen from thumbnails. 83 patterns from the bundled acadiso.pat library — SOLID, the ANSI31–ANSI38 family, AR-* architectural patterns, EARTH, GRAVEL, NET, and the rest
Colour	The fill colour
Transparency	0–100%
Layer	Layer for the new hatch
Angle	Pattern rotation in degrees
Scale	Pattern spacing multiplier

Editing hatches after the fact

Select one or more hatches and the same ribbon section returns, titled Hatch (selected). Now the controls edit the selected objects live, and each change is a single undo step (Undo: Edit hatch).

Common problems

Problem	Cause	Fix
Nothing fills	The area is not actually closed — a gap between segments	Zoom in and check the corners; JOIN the chain or redraw with POLYLINE / RECT
The pattern looks solid or invisible	The pattern scale is far too small or too large for the drawing	Adjust Scale in the Hatch ribbon section

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PDFATTACH (PA)

Not geometry, but it lives on the Draw ribbon: attaches a PDF page as a snappable raster underlay. See PDF Underlays.

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What is not here

GoSurvey has no SPLINE, POINT (as a drawing command — use CREATEPOINTS for survey points), BLOCK/INSERT, XLINE, RAY, DONUT, SOLID, REVCLOUD, WIPEOUT, or TABLE command, and no MIRROR (the ribbon button exists but is disabled). See Known Limitations.