Reference
CONE in AutoCAD
How AutoCAD's CONE draws a 3D solid cone or a frustum, prompt by prompt: base, radius, height, Top radius, Elliptical and Axis endpoint. Try it free online.
CONE draws a 3D solid cone: give the centre of its base, then the radius, then the height, and it narrows to a point. It asks what CYLINDER asks, with Top at the height for a cone cut short. The base lies on the UCS's XY plane, at the centre's Z, and the height rises along its Z; a negative one points it down, and a point gives it by how far it is from the base. The radius and the height are offered as defaults that Enter takes, shared with the other primitives. The cone lies on the current layer, and Undo takes it back in one step.
LIST shows its position, normal, base radius, top radius and height, and the Properties palette lets you type them. Its grips move it, set its height, its base radius at each quarter of the base, and its top radius. The apex snaps as an endpoint. It is a 3D solid for UNION, SUBTRACT and the rest of MellowCAD's 3D, which is solids only and still partial.
- Command:
CONE - Panel: Draw
- Try it: Open the editor, type
CONEand press Enter.
At the command line
The engine draws it and writes its history as you would type it: the prompts in AutoCAD 2027's order, with the same option letters.
- Command: CONE
- Specify center point of base or [3P/2P/Ttr/Elliptical]: 0,0
- Specify base radius or [Diameter]: 20
- Specify height or [2Point/Axis endpoint/Top radius]: 40
- Command: -VIEW
- Enter an option [Orthographic]: SEI
- Command: ZOOM
- Specify corner of window, enter a scale factor (nX or nXP), or [All/Extents/Previous/Scale/Window/Object]: 0.8x
Options
3P
At the base's centre: asks for three points, and the base is the circle through them, in their plane.
2P
At the base's centre: asks for the two ends of the base's diameter.
Ttr (T)
At the base's centre: pick two lines, circles or arcs, under the Tangent snap, and give a radius: the base touches both.
Elliptical (E)
At the base's centre: the base is an ellipse, given by both ends of its first axis and the end of the second, or with Center from its centre. A top radius shrinks the same ellipse.
Diameter (D)
At the radius: asks for the diameter instead, offering twice the last radius.
2Point (2P)
At the height: asks for two points, and the height is the distance between them.
Axis endpoint (A)
At the height: asks for the apex. The cone runs from the base's centre to that point in any direction, its base square to the axis.
Top radius (T)
At the height: asks for the top radius, then the height again. The cone ends in a circle instead of a point, a frustum; a top as wide as the base makes a cylinder's sides, a wider one a cone widening up. It offers the last cone's top radius, 0 at first.
What it does not do yet
EXPLODE of a cone, which AutoCAD turns into its base and a surface: MellowCAD has no surfaces, so it says it could not explode it. Typing a round cone into an elliptical one in the Properties palette. With ISOLINES at 0, the dot AutoCAD draws at the apex. And CYLINDER's: the hot grip's Move, Rotate, Scale and Mirror, the dotted dimensions while you give the radius, and the visual styles VSCURRENT lacks.
What it does and still lacks, in detail (in English)
Questions
How do I draw a cone in AutoCAD?
Run CONE, give the centre of the base, the radius and the height: 0,0, 20 and 40 draw the session's cone. Turn the view to see it, with a corner of the ViewCube or -VIEW and SEIso.
How do I draw a truncated cone?
At the height, choose Top, type the top radius, then the height. The cone ends in a circle of that radius.
How do I draw an upside-down cone?
Type a negative height: the cone points down from its base. Or choose Axis and give the apex wherever it goes.
Can the base of a cone be an ellipse?
Yes: choose Elliptical at the base's centre and give its axes. A top radius makes the top the same ellipse, smaller.