how to create closed polygons?

Hello,

I recently switched from AutoCAD to LibreCAD and since I was quite a basic user, the transition was very smooth. I just have a few questions:

1. In AutoCAD when drawing a rectangle, the resulting rectangle is a closed polygon, however in LibreCAD it appears that the drawn rectangle is just a collection of 4 line segments. Is there a way to make sure that the resulting rectangle is closed? (I guess having a closed polygon is different from grouping all the line segments together)

2. In AutoCAD there is a feature, where if you select and object and then right-click and choose properties from the pop-up menu, you can edit the location of the vertices. I guess the equivalent in LibreCAD is chosing Modify->Edit Entry Geometry. However if I do that for a rectangle, it doesn't change the vertex of the rectangle, but just lengthens or shortens one of the line segments. I guess that goes back to my first question.

Thank you very much in advance!

On 2012-10-14 09:48, Jopeto [via LibreCAD] wrote:

 >
 > Hello,
 >

Hello Jopeto,

 >
 > I recently switched from AutoCAD to LibreCAD and since I was quite a
 > basic user, the transition was very smooth. I just have a few
 > questions:
 >
 > 1. In AutoCAD when drawing a rectangle, the resulting rectangle is a
 > closed polygon, however in LibreCAD it appears that the drawn
 > rectangle
 > is just a collection of 4 line segments. Is there a way to make sure
 > that the resulting rectangle is closed? (I guess having a closed
 > polygon
 > is different from grouping all the line segments together)
 >
 > 2. In AutoCAD there is a feature, where if you select and object and
 > then right-click and choose properties from the pop-up menu, you can
 > edit the location of the vertices. I guess the equivalent in LibreCAD
 > is
 > chosing Modify->Edit Entry Geometry. However if I do that for a
 > rectangle, it doesn't change the vertex of the rectangle, but just
 > lengthens or shortens one of the line segments. I guess that goes
 > back
 > to my first question.
 >

- As you may already noticed, LibreCAD do not support "Rectangle"
   entity, but just drawing rectangle using lines.
   This can be easily seen, when selecting "Draw" menu.
   i.e.: There is no "Draw"->"Rectangle",
   but just "Draw"->"Line"->"Rectangle".

- I see 2 alternatives to have something that behave more like
   a "Rectangle" entity:

        1) Draw a rectangle using a "Polyline" entity.

        2) Draw a rectangle using "Line" entity
           ("Draw"->"Line"->"Rectangle"); then
           create a "Block" using the 4 resulting lines.


Remark:
        - If you want "Rectangle" entity supported by LibreCAD,
          you can fill a feature request here:

http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=342582&atid=1433847


Hope it help,

Claude

Hello Claude,

Thanks a lot for your reply.

> 1) Draw a rectangle using a "Polyline" entity.

This is what I needed. After drawing a rectangle using polyline, I go to Modify->Edit Entry Geometry and click the selection box "Closed". This seems to give me a closed rectangle, which is what I need.

Thanks once again. Very helpful!

On 2012-10-17 00:35, Jopeto [via LibreCAD] wrote:

 >
 > Hello Claude,
 >

Hello Jopeto.


 >
 >  > 1) Draw a rectangle using a "Polyline" entity.
 >
 > This is what I needed. After drawing a rectangle using polyline,
 > I go to
 > Modify->Edit Entry Geometry and click the selection box "Closed".
 > This
 > seems to give me a closed rectangle, which is what I need.
 >

- You can avoid the "Modify"->"Properties" step by drawing
   the Polyline entity (rectangle) the following way:

        1) Select "Draw"->"Polyline"->"Polyline".

        2) Draw the rectangle by specifying the 4 points,
           then click on the "Close" button in the Polyline
           tools bar, located at top of the drawing window.


Claude