Use dynamic input in an AutoCAD drawing

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Dynamic input is such a useful tool in AUTOCAD that

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often gets overlooked as not being a useful tool.

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The reason for this is that when turned on dynamic input

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changes most command line input to show up on the AUTOCAD cursor

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instead of on the AUTOCAD command line.

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For those who don't like this aspect of dynamic input,

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keep in mind that all values during specific commands can be entered here,

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which means this can reduce mouse clicks required to select input fields.

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Now let's take a look at an example of using

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dynamic input while creating a backyard grass area layout.

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Typically,

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you may have information such as length and

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bearing or even angle information used by the designer

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to begin this process.

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I'm going to make sure that dynamic mode is turned on on the status bar

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that we also have object snap tracking turned on

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and I could leave running object snaps on.

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I'll go ahead and turn them off for this example.

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And I'm going to start the poly

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line command

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and instead of using running object snaps,

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I'm just going to do a control right click and choose nearest.

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And I'll get my first

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endpoint there and notice with dynamic turned on,

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I have access to my length or distance information

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and I can also see angular information.

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But since I'm using object snap tracking, that's how I'm able to snap

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to the 180 the 90

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angles. So for this first distance, all I'm gonna do is type in 18.5

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and press enter.

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Then for the next one I'm gonna go down at a 90

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I'm gonna type in eight for my distance

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and press enter.

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Then for the next section,

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I'll type in 25

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and press enter.

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Now,

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you may notice that I haven't been doing anything with the angular information.

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I'm gonna do that right now.

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The way this has to be input is extremely important.

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What I'm gonna do is type in my distance and instead of pressing enter,

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I need to press the tab key which now gives me access to the angular value.

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You'll notice that

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So after typing in the angular value, I'll now press enter

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and that leg of the poly line

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came in at 33 ft at

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an angle of 82 degrees.

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So next, what I'm gonna do

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is come up and using

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object snap tracking.

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I'm gonna turn on my running object snaps

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and I'm going to acquire this end point, drag my cursor down

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and

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acquire the endpoint

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then to close the poly line, I'll type in C and press enter

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and just like that, we have our backyard grass layout.