By Martin Phelps
Controlling the “Offset” distance can be accomplished in several ways. Once the command has been activated…..
1. By picking two points
Pick a point anywhere in the drawing area. When the cross hairs are moved, an orange dashed line is displayed, pick a second point, the distance between the two picked points will “Offset” distance, as shown in Figure 1.
Select an object to “Offset”. Moving the cross hairs either side of the selected object will determine the direction of the “Offset”.
“Object Snaps” can also be used to define the distance between two points to set the “Offset distance.
When the “Offset” command is used for a second time, the distance between the two previously picked points is shown as a numerical value at the command line. To use this distance a second time, simply press enter to confirm the value.
2. Using “Through”.
Often overlooked, “Through” is the default option as shown in Figure 2.
Press enter to accept, select the object to “Offset”. As the crosshairs are moved away from the selected object the “Offset” image is displayed, left click to confirm the position of the “Offset” in the drawing. Snapping to another object in the drawing can also define the distance.
3. Using a specific value.
By far the most common method is to type a value in the command line. Again, when the command is used for a second time the previous used value becomes the default and is displayed in the command line between “Less Than” (<) and “Greater Than” (>) symbols, as shown in Figure 3.