How to Draw Donuts in BricsCAD

Quick answer: A donut is a solid, filled circle or ring, created as a closed, 2-segment wide polyline. The default method is to specify its inside diameter, outside diameter, then its centre. Set the inside diameter to zero, and you get a solid filled circle instead of a ring.

Finding the Donut Tool

The Draw menu and the Draw ribbon panel, the same limited pair of access points as Trace, no dedicated toolbar button or Quad entry.

Drawing Donuts: General Procedure

1. Launch DONUT. You’re prompted for the inside diameter, defaulting to the current value, or to choose 2 Point, 3 Point, or Tangent Tangent Radius instead.
2. Either right-click to accept the current inside diameter, type a new value and press Enter, or click two points to define it graphically. You’re prompted for the outside diameter.
3. Either right-click to accept the current outside diameter, type a new value, or click two points graphically. You’re prompted for the donut’s centre.
4. Specify a point. The donut is created, and you’re prompted for another centre point immediately, letting you place more donuts with the same diameters right away.
5. Either keep placing more donuts, or right-click to stop.

Session Defaults and Fill Mode

DONUTID and DONUTOD store the current inside and outside diameter, but neither is saved between sessions. The first time you run DONUT in a new BricsCAD session, they reset to DONUTID = 0.5 and DONUTOD = 1, the same kind of session-reset behaviour as POLYSIDES for polygons.

With FILLMODE off, donuts display and print as outlines only, the same behaviour that applies to other filled entities like traces and wide polylines.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I draw a solid filled circle instead of a ring? Set the inside diameter to 0, which produces a filled circle rather than a ring shape.

Can I place several donuts with the same dimensions without restarting the command? Yes, after creating one, you’re immediately prompted for another centre point, so you can keep placing more with the same diameters right away.

Why does my donut’s default diameter reset every time I restart BricsCAD? DONUTID and DONUTOD aren’t saved between sessions. Every new session starts back at 0.5 and 1 respectively, the first time you run DONUT.

Where do I find the Donut tool if it’s not on the Draw toolbar? The Draw menu or the Draw ribbon panel, those are the only two places it’s available.