# CYLINDER in AutoCAD

> How AutoCAD's CYLINDER (CYL) draws a 3D solid cylinder, prompt by prompt: base, radius, height, 3P, 2P, Ttr, Elliptical and Axis endpoint. Try it free online.

CYLINDER draws a 3D solid cylinder: give the centre of its base, then the radius, then the height. The base lies on the UCS's XY plane, at the centre's Z, and the height rises along its Z; a negative one goes down, and a point gives it by how far it is from the base, as at [`BOX`](https://mellowcad.com/docs/commands/box.md). The radius and the height are offered as defaults that Enter takes, shared with the other primitives and [`EXTRUDE`](https://mellowcad.com/docs/commands/extrude.md). The cylinder lies on the current layer, and Undo takes it back in one step.

The cylinder keeps its sizes: [`LIST`](https://mellowcad.com/docs/commands/list.md) shows its position, normal, radius and height, and the Properties palette lets you type the radius and the height. Its grips move it, set its height and, at each quarter of the base, its radius. It is a 3D solid for [`UNION`](https://mellowcad.com/docs/commands/union.md), [`SUBTRACT`](https://mellowcad.com/docs/commands/subtract.md) and the rest of MellowCAD's 3D, which is solids only and still partial.

- **Command:** `CYLINDER`
- **Aliases:** `CYL`
- **Panel:** [Draw](https://mellowcad.com/docs/commands.md#draw)
- **Try it:** [Open the editor](/draw), type `CYL` and 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.

A cylinder of radius 20 and height 40, from the centre of its base, seen from the south-east in the Hidden visual style.

```text
Command: CYLINDER
Specify center point of base or [3P/2P/Ttr/Elliptical]: 0,0
Specify base radius or [Diameter]: 20
Specify height or [2Point/Axis endpoint]: 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. Three points on the UCS's XY plane still make the cylinder rise along Z.

### `2P`

At the base's centre: asks for the two ends of the base's diameter; the second is read in the first's plane.

### `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, nearest the points picked, at their height.

### `Elliptical` (`E`)

At the base's centre: the base is an ellipse. Give both ends of its first axis, then the end of the second; or choose `Center` and give its centre, the first axis' half length, then the end of the second axis.

### `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 axis' other end. The cylinder runs from the base's centre to that point in any direction, its base square to the axis.

## What it does not do yet

[`EXPLODE`](https://mellowcad.com/docs/commands/explode.md) of a cylinder, which AutoCAD turns into its two ends and a surface: MellowCAD has no surfaces, so it says it could not explode it. Move, Rotate, Scale and Mirror from a hot grip, and a height dragged past the base. The dotted dimensions AutoCAD draws while you give the radius, the ellipse's points and the axis. Typing a round cylinder into an elliptical one in the Properties palette. The silhouettes AutoCAD's `DISPSILH` draws. In plan, where the top circle hides the base's, the Nearest snap finds the base's circle, where AutoCAD finds the top's. The visual styles [`VSCURRENT`](https://mellowcad.com/docs/commands/vscurrent.md) lacks beyond 2D Wireframe, Hidden and Conceptual.

[What it does and still lacks, in detail (in English)](https://github.com/ovelilla/mellowcad/blob/main/docs/coverage/draw.md#cylinder--cyl--es-cilindro--cil--pt-br-cilindro--cil)

## Questions

### What is the shortcut for CYLINDER in AutoCAD?

`CYL`. Type it and press Enter or Space, then give the centre of the base, the radius and the height: `0,0`, `20` and `40` draw the session's cylinder.

### How do I draw a horizontal cylinder?

Choose `Axis` at the height and give the other end of the axis: from a base at `0,0,0`, the point `60,0,0` lays the cylinder along X.

### How do I make a hollow cylinder or a pipe?

Draw two cylinders from the same centre, the inner one narrower, then run [`SUBTRACT`](https://mellowcad.com/docs/commands/subtract.md): pick the outer one, Enter, the inner one, Enter.

### Why does my cylinder look like a circle?

You are looking at it from above, in plan. Turn the view: a corner of the ViewCube, `-VIEW` and `SEIso`, or [`3DORBIT`](https://mellowcad.com/docs/commands/3dorbit.md).

## Practise it

- [AutoCAD 3D exercise: a bearing block](https://mellowcad.com/docs/exercises/bearing-block.md)

## Related commands

- [CONE in AutoCAD](https://mellowcad.com/docs/commands/cone.md)
- [BOX in AutoCAD](https://mellowcad.com/docs/commands/box.md)
- [SUBTRACT in AutoCAD](https://mellowcad.com/docs/commands/subtract.md)
- [EXTRUDE in AutoCAD](https://mellowcad.com/docs/commands/extrude.md)