The Trim command is a great feature of Autocad and utilizing it will greatly improve your work speed and efficiency. We show you how in our Autocad 2d courses.
For instance, to create the object shown here first use the Rectangle tool (shortcut: REC > Enter) to make a rectangle of a certain width and height. We then add a couple of circles, but first we need to establish the centre point. We can do this using our Line tool (shortcut: L > Enter) and click on the two midpoints of the horizontal sides of the rectangle. The midpoints should show up with OSNAP (Object Snap) on – if they don’t right-click on the Osnap button on the bottom Status bar and choose Settings. Tick Midpoint and any other useful elements, and hit OK.
So we now have our centre line. Choose the Circle, Radius command (shortcut: C > Enter), and choose the midpoint of this new vertical line. Drag your cursor outwards and punch in the radius value, or D for Diameter then the length of the diameter. Hit Enter to repeat the circle drawing command and make a smaller circle within. Alternatively, you could have chosen the Offset (shortcut: O >  Enter) command.
Now we are ready to trim off the excess lines. Choose the Trim tool, or type in TR > Enter in the Command line. You now have various options – the most straight-forward is to hit Enter for the default of Select All, then simply click on the lines you don’t want. You can click on these individually or click and drag across them. Towards the end of the process you’ll be left with a line or two left over. The Trim command works on lines that are crossing each other. Lines left over means that those lines are not crossing but are perpendicular to other lines. In which case, hit Escape to exit the Trim command, and simply select and delete those extra lines.
The result is the object pictured above. If you zoom into any of the joins you’ll see that there are no gaps whatsoever. This is particularly useful when sending Autocad drawings to a laser or plasma cutter or router. The laser will follow the lines with no interruptions.
More information on all features of the program can be found at the AutoDesk website. And see many examples of our clients’ work on our Facebook page.
Other related Autocad 2d Blog Posts:

• Autocad 2d basics
• Autocad 2d introduction
• Autocad 2d drawing
• Autocad 2d workspace
• Autocad 2d isometric