How to extend all lines as a single entity?

When I sat my AutoCAD course many years ago, I was shown how to extend all lines as a single entity, for drawing things like mezzanine main beams with a centreline.

How do I draw both sides of an object with the centreline as a single unit? So when you extend it, everything extends …

I’m running AutoCAD 2018 (full package).

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Type EX, select the line to be attached, hit enter, then select all the line from left to right, hit enter

 

Regards

Answered on June 26, 2020.
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I think you might be referring to dynamic blocks. It’s a whole topic and I don’t think I’ll be able to do it justice with one answer, so you might be better off looking for some online video tutorials on that.

Alternatively, if you’ve drawn your beam outline as a rectangle or closed polyline and you’ve made sure that the endpoints of the centerline are on the midpoints of opposite edges of the beam, you can simply select both the outline and centerline and extend the said endpoints by clicking and extending them. Here’s a gif to help you visualize what I’m talking about.

RE: How to extend all lines as a single entity?

Answered on June 26, 2020.

Just to clarify, this works because the endpoint of the centerline and the midpoint of the rectangle polyline are in the same spot, so you’re essentially just moving two points at the same time. With that, you won’t be able to move both at the same time if, for example, the end of the line you want to move and the midpoint of the polyline isn’t at the same point.

on October 9, 2020.
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