Dimensioning an External Angle in AutoCAD 2015

by Martin Phelps

This is another one of those overlooked functions, which has been with AutoCAD for a number of releases. When dimensioning angles in AutoCAD it’s very easy just to select the two lines that make up the angle and place the angular dimension between them, as below.

The angular dimension line and text however can be located in one of four places in relation to the selected lines.

Sometimes an angular dimension is required to show the external angle. This can be accomplished in the following way.

Once the “Angular Dimension” command has been selected, instead of selecting the lines that make up the angle as the previous example, press “Enter” this will allow the selection of the“Vertex” were the two lines join (point 1).

Now select a point on each of the two lines that make up the angle, (points 2 and 3).

Finally select a point to define the location of the dimension line and the associated text (point 4) on the outside of the shape.