A different way to create an ellipse or oval

The ELLIPSE command is the usual way to create an ellipse — or oval — but there’s a different way that may be more intuitive for you.

Here are the steps:

1. Draw a rectangle.
2. Select the rectangle.
3. Start the PEDIT command (polyline edit).
4. Choose the Spline option.

Now, select the oval. This is what you see:

Do you see how the handles are still on the corners of the rectangle? And if you open the Properties panel, you’ll see that AutoCAD still considers it a 2D polyline, not an ellipse.

Just to experiment, take the same rectangle and use the Fit option of the PEDIT command (instead of the Spline option). Whoa! You get a circle! But select it, and you’ll see that the handles are still on the corners of the rectangle and AutoCAD still thinks of it as a polyline, not as a circle.

Have you ever used these PEDIT options? In which situation?

Want more productivity tips like this? You can draw and edit faster and easier with this easy to follow top 25 productivity tips every AutoCAD user should know.

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Ellen Finkelstein

Ellen Finkelstein is the author of the best-selling AutoCAD & AutoCAD LT Bible, which started with R14. Ellen has written extensively on AutoCAD, including articles for Autodesk’s website and features for AutoCAD’s Help system. Ellen’s first book was AutoCAD For Dummies Quick Reference.

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