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CadCraft help

2D drafting & documentation. Start at the top if you are new; jump to a walkthrough if you know what you need.

Written for CadCraft 0.3. The same help is inside the app: press F1. Open CadCraft

Getting started

  • What's new in 0.3

    A 3D tab for simple solids made from the drawing, a view cube, movable panels for a second monitor, and a faster built-in DWG reader.

  • Getting started with CadCraft

    What the CadCraft drafting app does, where it runs, and your first drawing from a blank screen to a saved file.

  • The CadCraft screen

    A tour of every bar, panel and tab in the drafting app, by the name it has on screen.

  • Files: what opens, what saves

    The formats CadCraft opens, saves and exports, what is kept or converted, and where the files go.

Walkthroughs

  • Draw with coordinates

    Draw an exact floor outline by typing absolute, relative and polar coordinates, and by direct distance entry.

  • Snap to points on objects

    Use object snaps, Ortho and the grid to pick exact endpoints, midpoints, centers and intersections with the mouse.

  • Select objects

    Pick objects one by one, with a window or a crossing, before or during a command, and take objects back out of a selection.

  • Move, copy, rotate, scale and mirror

    Lay out furniture in a room with the basic modify commands, using base points, typed distances and undo.

  • Copy, paste and duplicate

    Copy objects to CadCraft's clipboard, paste them where you click or in place, duplicate with the pointer, and bring work across from another drawing or tab.

  • Offset, trim, extend and fillet walls

    Turn single lines into double walls with Offset, clean the corners with Fillet, and cut and lengthen lines with Trim and Extend.

  • Edit with grips and Properties

    Stretch, move and resize objects by their grips, and type exact lengths, radii, angles and coordinates in the Properties panel.

  • Organize a drawing with layers

    Create layers for walls, doors and notes, set colors, make a layer current, and turn layers off, freeze, lock or keep them from plotting.

  • Add text and labels

    Place room labels and notes with the Text command, choose height, rotation and justification, and edit text afterwards.

  • Dimension a plan

    Add linear, aligned, angular, radius and diameter dimensions, chain them with Continue and Baseline, and override the text.

  • Set dimension sizes, decimals and scale

    Choose text height, arrow size, decimals and overall scale for new dimensions, change existing ones, and understand how dimension styles work in CadCraft.

  • Make and insert blocks

    Turn a drawn door into a block, place it again at other positions, scales and angles, and tidy up unused blocks.

  • Block attributes

    See and change the values a block reference carries, such as an item number or a maker, and keep them when you save a copy.

  • Insert from a file or the library

    Bring a block, or a whole drawing, in from another DWG or DXF, and place items from LibraryCraft, a file or another library, with their credits and updates.

  • Set up a sheet with a title block and viewports

    Make a sheet (layout) with a border and title block, set the viewport scale, add a second viewport for a detail, and fill in the title block.

  • Constrain a drawing

    Keep lines horizontal, ends together and sizes fixed with geometric and dimensional constraints, and let the drawing follow when you change a size.

  • Use parameters and equations

    Name sizes, drive them with expressions like width / 2, and type a number on a driven size to change what drives it.

  • Move sketches to and from other part modelers

    Write a macro that rebuilds your drawing as one constrained sketch in a part modeler, and open a sketch exported from one.

  • Model in 3D

    See the drawing in 3D on the 3D tab and make simple solids from it: extrude closed shapes, push and pull faces, boxes, cylinders and wedges, then move, copy, rotate and erase them.

  • Plot to PDF

    Make a PDF of a sheet at full size, or of the model at a scale or fitted to the paper, and print it from the browser.

  • Open a DWG, edit it and save a copy

    Open a drawing someone sent you, check what came in, make a change, and send back a copy as DWG or DXF.

Coming from other software

Reference

  • CadCraft settings

    The settings that belong to the drafting app: cursor size, where a pasted copy hangs from the cursor, what a click does to the selection, and the corner indicator.

  • Keyboard and mouse

    Every key, mouse action and command-line key in the CadCraft drafting app, as the code handles them.

  • Command reference

    Every command in the CadCraft drafting app, with its aliases, the questions it asks, its options and defaults.

  • Coordinate and distance entry

    Every way to type a point, a distance, an angle or a number at the CadCraft command line, with examples.

  • Units, paper sizes and scales

    What drawing units mean in CadCraft, the paper sizes for sheets and plots, every standard scale, and how text and dimension sizes relate to the plot scale.

  • Mouse, trackpad and touch

    How to zoom, pan, right-click and pick in CadCraft with a wheel mouse, a Mac or PC trackpad, or a touch screen, and what differs between browsers.

Troubleshooting and limits

  • Troubleshooting

    Messages CadCraft shows and problems you may meet, each with the cause and the fix.

  • Not built yet

    What this build of the CadCraft drafting app does not do yet, and what to do instead today.

All tutorials