When accuracy is important, you can create with precision.

Learn how to draft with precisely using this guide.

Drafting Precisely

Type Exact Lengths to control the length of an edge or the distance of a move.

Type an exact length at any time:

• When creating new geometry, to control edge length
• When moving geometry, to control the move distance
• When extruding geometry, to control the extrusion distance

Control Edge Length for New Geometry

To draw a rectangle of exact dimensions:

• Select the rectangle drawing tool
• click the starting point and type the width (y) dimension e.g. 100
• click where you want the 100 ft (m) line to finish
• type the length dimension e.g. 50
• click to complete rectangle

Use the same approach for lines, and the sides of a polygon.

Base Point Move and Rotate

Base point move

Select the geometry you want to move

Select Base point move from More Tools > Move

Specify direction and distance of move

This is done by drawing an arrow. Click once to place the start of the arrow, and a second time to place the end. To do this accurately

• Hold s and hover near corners on the map to snap the mouse exactly to them before clicking
• You can do this for the start and end clicks to move perfectly parallel to a side
• After clicking once, type the number (eg "40") to specify the exact length of the arrow.

Base Point Rotate

Select the geometry you want to rotate.

Select Base point move from More Tools > Move

Specify starting Node (base point)

Use S hotkey to snap to a corner or midpoint.

Draw in any direction to specify where the rotation angle will calculate from.

Rotate the object.

The object rotates around that basepoint, rather than around the centroid of the object.

<aside> 💡 Use more Command Line functions for advanced commands

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Shortcuts

Snap

Hold down S on the keyboard to snap to map features or geometry you have added to your project.

Ortho

Hold down Shift on the keyboard to snap to orthographic angles and move orthographically.

Copy from Map

To quickly create elements, such as lines parallel to existing roads, right click on a map feature, then click “Create”

<aside> 💡 More Hotkeys here!

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<aside> 💡 Learn more in Use Map features to Create Geometry and Query Information

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Grids