Michael’s Corner

Michael's Corner is a monthly publication written by Michael E. Beall, Autodesk Authorized Author and peripatetic AutoCAD trainer. Michael travels all over the USA, bringing his fantastic experience and great understanding of AutoCAD to his clients. Michael's Corner brings together many of the tips, tricks and methods developed during these training sessions for the benefit of all users.

Michael's Corner provides something for every AutoCAD user. Every month, a number of articles cover a wide range of topics, suitable for users at all levels, including "The Basics" for those just starting out. Essentially, the aim of Michael's Corner is to help all AutoCAD users work smarter and faster.

This month…

From the Vault

Originally published December 2004

Edge Option for the Extend and Trim Commands

The Extend and Trim commands are siblings in that when one command is active, you can toggle to the other command by holding down Shift. Similarly, they also share the same settings of Project and Edge. By default, the Edge mode is set to <No Extend>, when in fact, the Extend mode may be more useful.

For example, in the illustration, if the short diagonal line was selected as the "Boundary Edge" in an effort to extend the horizontal lines, by default, you would receive the response of "Object does not intersect an edge". So try this:

Instructions to set the Edge option to Extend

To close an open polyline after the Pline command has been completed, use Pedit, select the open polyline, then enter C for the Close option.

1. Launch the Extend command, then select the desired "Boundary edge(s)" and press [Enter].
2. Type E for the Edge mode.

Enter an implied edge extension mode [Extend/No extend] <No extend>:

3. Type E for the for the Extend option.
4. Now pick the objects to Extend.

Tip: When prompted to select the objects to extend, type F for the Fence option. Now pick the points that will create a "crossing line" (the Fence) to go across the objects to be selected.

And as I mentioned, the same Edge setting of Extend is applicable in the Trim command as seen in the final illustration. For those of you into the whole Sysvar thing, the variable that holds this setting is Edgemode. A value of <1> means it is set to Extend (the extending of the selected Boundary or Cutting edge). If the value is <0>, it’s set to No Extend or effectively turned off.

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