Offseting Tips

[Anonymous]

can someone drum up a simple offest command...you would think there would be one....for example if a create a joined polyline and fillet the edges....why can't I do a simple copy offset.....just curious

[Anonymous]

There is also the new pet palette icon for offsetting concentric arcs. I've just been working on some parking and sidewalks and it comes in very handy.

[Anonymous]

Have a look at the previous lively discussion on this hot topic (last entry: 11th Feb) There were 43 replies and 2681 views! (Sorry I don't know how to insert a link.)

It's the 5 steps that get me. Personally I always use Autocad for site layouts. If you set up your road centre lines as polylines, a single click gets you all the kerb lines, and one more click all the footpaths.

[James Murray]

TomWaltz wrote:
The technique is a little sideways, but REALLY powerful once you get the hang of combining offset and magic wand.

For example:

• Soffit/overhangs around a building
  Footings/foundations offset from each side of foundation walls
  Bulkheads around a room perimeter

Excellent tip.

But I am sometimes annoyed by the fact that offset w/ magic wand picks up all the connected elements. I would like control over this behavior; the ability to magic-wand a line by itself. Maybe the offset-all functionality could depend on the originals being grouped.

This behavior of offset means I've never really developed the habit; I usually drag a copy instead. (Starting AC in the pre-offset days is part of it.) For polygons, copy then resize. For arcs, copy and resize w/ the palette button, often manually editing the radius in the R field.

Also, you can't use offset to cut a hole in a selected polygon.