I am lazy. So lazy in fact that I use Multilines (command: MLINE) to draw pipes in 2D. In my field (Civil Engineering) I draw pipes a lot. We have a standard pipe schedule that shows the inside diameter, wall thickness, and outside diameter of common concrete and ductile iron pipe sizes. This is a great reference, but when it comes time to draw the pipes in 2D, I have to draw the centerline of the pipe, offset 1/2 the outside diameter of the pipe on each side, and then delete the centerline. This is way too much work! So I decided to setup Multiline styles for every pipe in our schedule and save them in our standard drawing template.

Multiline Styles
To manage Multiline styles, type MLSTYLE at the command prompt.

When you click the “New…” button to create a new style or click the “Modify…” button to edit an existing style, you will see this dialog box:

In the section called “Elements” you can add/delete offset lines. To account for the wall-thickness of a 12″ concrete pipe I made each offset value to be 0.685 feet. I added half of the inside diamater of the pipe to the wall thickness of the pipe to get this value. Half of the inside diameter is 0.5 feet and the wall thickness is 0.185 feet.

To create a Multiline, type MLINE in the command line. You will get this prompt:

Specify start point or [Justification/Scale/STyle]:

J for Justification
A picture says it all:

S for Scale
I typically don’t use this unless I need an exaggeration.

ST for Style
Type the style name exactly as you created it. I created a standard for all my styles. For example a 12″ concrete pipe’s style would be named 12-CONC. An 18″ ductile iron pipe’s style would be named 18-DIP.

Multilines Edit Tools
You can do some neat things with your Multilines with the MLEDIT command (or simply double-click on a Multiline to get this box).

In my world these tools save a lot of time.