How to divide objects in AutoCAD

Using DIVIDE and MEASURE commands of AutoCAD you can divide 2D drawing objects like Line, Polyline, Arc, Spline and Ellipse in equal parts without knowing their length.

These commands will not split the geometry instead at every division a point or a block will be added.

The commands can be used on open geometries like an arc and also on closed geometries like a circle.

DIVIDE command

In order to divide the geometry into a fixed number of divisions use DIVIDE command.

For our case, I will use a spline.

Select Divide tool from expanded Draw panel of Home tab, you can also use it's command DIVIDE.

Click on the spline and enter the number of segments in which you want to divide the spline, I will select 6 segments for our case.

Press enter to exit the command.

You will see no visible changes on the spline, to see the changes type DDPTYPE and press enter.

This will open point style window, select a visible point style from this window and click on OK.

You will now see points on the spline that divide the entire geometry into six equal segments.

MEASURE command

MEASURE command can be used in the situations where you want to divide the object into segments of known length.

For example, if we have an arc and we want the arc to divide in such a way that each segment is equal to 3.6 units then this command can be used.

However, there is a limitation with this command when you use this command on any geometry the length of the last segment may or may not be equal to the length assigned by you.

The last segment length depends entirely on the remaining length of the curve after performing the divisions as shown in the image below.

For example, if you use measure command to divide a line of length 9 units in a segment length of 2 units then the line will be divided into four equal parts of 2 unit length but the last segment will be 1 unit in length.

To use this command select MEASURE tool from expanded draw panel of Home tab, you can also use its command equivalent MEASURE.

Select the geometry and type the length of segment and press enter.

You will notice that a node will be added at each division points similar to DIVIDE command.

In the both the cases we used points at the point of division but you can also use blocks instead.

Let's explore how we can use blocks in place of points for dividing objects in AutoCAD.

Dividing using blocks

Let’s take an example of the image shown below.

Here we have an irregular shaped pond and we will add tree along its border at equal intervals.

I have already created a block with name Tree and I will use this block at each division point.

Type DIVIDE on the command line and press enter to start the command you can also select Divide command from expanded Draw panel of Home tab.

Command line will prompt you to select an object, select boundary of the pond. Now on command line, you will see this prompt.

Click on Block option from this command prompt or you can also type B and press enter to select Block option from the command line.

Now command line will prompt you to select the name of the block which you want to insert at division points, type Tree for this case and press enter.

The prompt will now ask you whether you want to align block with boundary object or not.

Select yes from this option if you want the object to change orientation according to the path.

Select no if you want to keep the orientation of block fixed at all points on the path.

Our current tree block is circular so selecting either of the options will have negligible effect hence I will select Yes from the prompt.

Finally, the command line will prompt you to enter the number of segments in which you want to divide the boundary, enter 12 in this case and press enter.

You will notice that 12 Tree blocks will be added to the boundary of the pond at equal spacing as shown in the image below.

Similarly, you can divide object with blocks in AutoCAD at an equal distance using MEASURE command.

But in the case of measure, you need to enter the length of the segment instead of the number of segments.

Summary

As you can see dividing objects has some practical uses in AutoCAD drawings.

If you haven't tried this command yet give it a shot and let me know if you have questions in the comments area down below.