If you type CAL on the command line, at the Expression prompt you can type a formula and AutoCAD will return the answer.

For example, an expression could be as simple as:

1+1

…one plus one, or…

5*2

…five times two, or…

5*(100-40)

…one hundred minus forty, times five.

The possibilities are endless. It is important to understand the syntax of CAL expressions.

There is also quite a list of standard numeric functions in AutoCAD.

All of this can be found in your AutoCAD help file. Just do a search for CAL.

There are a lot of reasons why the CAL command is so useful, but my favorite feature of CAL is it the ability to run it transparently by typing ‘CAL while I am in the middle of a command. For example if I run the CIRCLE command, when it prompts me for the radius I could type ‘CAL and enter an expression, such as 1+1, and it would create a circle with a radius of 2 units.

I will post some more specific calculation examples in the near future.