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Creating an Ellipse

  • 1.  Creating an Ellipse

    Posted 11-02-2020 01:31

    How do you create an ellipse in TBC? You can import an ellipse from an anutocad file and manipulate with TBC, even recognises it as a CAD ellipse however you cant create one from scratch. The functionality is there so my guess is the command is possibly called something other than ellipse?



  • 2.  Re: Creating an Ellipse

    Posted 11-02-2020 12:58

    There is no command to do draw an ellipse - however my guess is that an imported Ellipse object has properties and that an ellipse can be incorporated in a block - so you could create an Ellipse in a VCL file and then drag and drop it into the project and then edit its properties to move / scale / rotate it or you could create a block and then Place / scale / rotate it.

     

    I have checked and there is no create ellipse command.

     

    Out of interest, what is the use case for drawing an ellipse - is it pipes in cross sections or profiles or similar or something else entirely? Let me know. This is likely a relatively small / easy command to write as a "Stocking Filler" for the developers when they get a spare couple of hours with nothing better to do.

     

    Typically - I cannot find a DWG with an Ellipse object in it (at least the first 8 files I have checked did not have an Ellipse - so if you have an Ellipse in a CAD file or if someone has Civil 3D / AutoCAD - could you draw me an Ellipse and export it as a DWG file and send it over for me to play with (alan.sharp@rockpilesolutions.com)

     

    Thanks

     

    Alan 



  • 3.  Re: Creating an Ellipse

    Posted 11-02-2020 14:32

    Shaune

    I found one - here is a block that you can use - it is defined with a Radius in X and Y of 0.5m (Ellipse (Metric)) and 0.5' (Ellipse (US Foot)) so you can scale in X and Y and Rotate it based on the Major and Minor Axes lengths that you need

     

    If you import the DWG into your Project Template, the Block Reference will be added to the list of Blocks. You can then delete the physical Block and save your updated Project Template. The Block is defined at 0,0 so it is easy to locate and delete. 

     

    Alan

    Attachment(s)



  • 4.  Re: Creating an Ellipse

    Posted 11-13-2020 23:42

    Hi Alan,

     

    Thanks for the reply and help, was using it to show pipes entering a pit on an angle, hence the elliptical circle. Spoke to work colleague about this as he had similar need for an ellipse because he was creating a setout for an aussie rules football field. Also tried scaling a circle but you cant scale one with different scales in the X and Y axis.