Chapter 8. Creating Polylines and Splines

In the previous chapter, you learned about lines and arcs and how to use them to draw straight line segments and circular arcs. Lines and arcs are separate entities, even if they are connected end to end. A box drawn with the LINE command, for example, is really four separate line segments whose endpoints are shared with other line segments. Polylines, however, are multi-segmented objects; they can be composed of multiple straight or curved segments. No matter how many segments a polyline is composed of, it acts as a single multi-segmented line.

In most AutoCAD drawings, you use traditional elements, such as lines, arcs, polylines, and circles. Sometimes, however, you may want to draw smooth or irregular curves. AutoCAD provides the spline object for drawing free-form irregular curves. Splines are useful when you need to draw map contours, roads, walkways, or other smooth, flowing objects.

This chapter covers the following topics on polylines and splines:

• Polylines versus lines

• Creating polylines

• Polyline types

• Editing polylines

• Creating true splines

• Controlling splines with SPLINEDIT