AutoCAD - Dynamic Input

By Martin Phelps

I often get asked the question, how do I turn off the information display in AutoCAD? This generally refers to the “Dynamic Input”, which is turned on by default, as shown in Figure 1.

It’s one of those commands you either like or don’t like. To be honest I tend to work with it turned off. However, if I have to draw a number of “Lines” at varying angles, which are not angles set via the “Polar Tracking” function, it is useful to have “Dynamic Input” turned on.

Using the “Dynamic Entry” function, it’s very quick and easy to type in a value for the “Line”  length, as Figure 2.

Press the “Tab” key, to “Lock” the length value (yellow Padlock displayed to the right of the value), and switch to enter the value for the angle, as per Figure 3.

Continually pressing the “Tab” key will keep switching between the “Line” length and angle, once both values are correct, pressing enter will confirm the values and move to the next “Line” in the sequence.

Using “Dynamic Input” with the “Distance” enquiry command, will display “Delta X”, “Delta Y”, “True Length” and “Angle in the XY plane”, as shown in Figure 4.

To toggle “Dynamic Input” on / off either press “F12” or left mouse click on the “Dynamic Input” icon in the “Status Bar” as shown in Figure 5.

If the “Dynamic Input” icon is not displayed, follow the link below to see the blog on how to add the “Icon” https://www.cadlinecommunity.co.uk/hc/en-us/articles/360001207617-AutoCAD-2019-Controlling-the-Display-of-Icons-in-the-Status-Bar.