Ellipse

Click the Home | Draw | Area | Ellipse command to create an ellipse or circle in the plot document.

Ellipse Properties

Ellipses contain two types of properties: line properties and fill properties. You can change these properties in the Property Manager.

To draw an ellipse:

Click the Home | Draw | Area | Ellipse command.
Press and hold the left mouse button at one corner of the bounding box of the ellipse.
Drag the cursor to the opposite corner of the ellipse. The size of the ellipse’s bounding box appears in the status bar as it is drawn.
Release the left mouse button when the ellipse is the preferred size and shape.
Press the ESC key, click the Ellipse command, or click another command to exit drawing mode.

To draw a circle, hold down the CTRL key while dragging the mouse to draw a circle rather than an ellipse.

Draw an ellipse out from the center rather than corner to corner by holding down the SHIFT key while dragging the mouse.
Draw a circle out from the center rather than end to end by holding down the SHIFT and CTRL keys while dragging the mouse.
Line and fill properties are set through the Property Manager.
Line and fill default properties are set in the File | Options dialog.
The plot window auto-scrolls to keep the cursor in the plot window when drawing an ellipse.
Drawing mode is persistent for each individual plot document. You can switch to other documents or applications, and ellipse drawing mode will still be enabled when you return to the plot document. Other plot documents may have a different draw tool or the select tool enabled.