How to Join Entities in BricsCAD

Quick answer: JOIN connects lines, lightweight polylines, 2D and 3D polylines, circular arcs, elliptical arcs, splines, and helixes at their common endpoints. The resulting entity type depends on the input types and their coplanarity.

What Happens When Joining Collinear Lines

Joining collinear lines keeps the farthest endpoints exactly where they are; BricsCAD draws a new single line connecting those two points.

General Procedure

1. Launch JOIN. You’re prompted to select a source entity, or multiple entities to join at once.
2. Select the entities, then right-click to stop selecting.
3. BricsCAD reports the result, for example: “37 entities joined into 10 polylines, 4 entities discarded from the operation,” partial success is reported clearly when some entities can’t be joined.

Joining Two Arcs

Worth knowing before you start: coplanar arcs that share a midpoint and radius (meaning they lie on the same circle) join counter-clockwise, so the result actually depends on which arc you select first.

1. Launch JOIN. You’re prompted to select a source entity.
2. Select the first arc. You’re prompted to select entities to join.
3. Select the second arc; the count in the set displays.
4. You’re prompted again to select entities.
5. Right-click; BricsCAD reports “2 arcs joined into 1 arc.”

Frequently Asked Questions

Does it matter which arc I select first when joining two arcs? Yes, if they share the same circle (same midpoint and radius), the join happens counter-clockwise, so selecting one arc first versus the other produces a genuinely different result.

What happens to entities JOIN can’t successfully combine? They’re discarded from the operation, and BricsCAD’s summary message reports exactly how many were joined versus discarded.

Does joining two collinear lines keep their original endpoints? Only the farthest ones; BricsCAD draws a new single line connecting those two outer points.

What determines the resulting entity type after a join? The types of the entities being joined, and whether they’re coplanar.