Tutorials CadCraft help Reference
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.
Written for CadCraft 0.3. The same help is inside the app: press F1.
Drawing units
You draw at full size, in drawing units. What one unit stands for is the drawing's Units setting:
- Press EscEsc so nothing is selected, on the Model tab.
- In Current settings, choose Units: Unitless, Millimetres, Centimetres, Metres, Inches or Feet.
Changing the units resizes nothing. It changes how scales are read on sheets and in plots, and which scales are offered. A drawing opened from a DWG or DXF keeps the units stored in the file; the Drawing section of the left panel shows them.
A Unitless drawing is treated as being in the paper's unit: millimeters on ISO paper, inches on US paper.
Paper sizes
Sheets and model plots use these sizes, in either orientation:
| Paper | Size | Unit on the sheet |
|---|---|---|
| ISO A4 | 297 × 210 mm | millimeters |
| ISO A3 | 420 × 297 mm | millimeters |
| ISO A2 | 594 × 420 mm | millimeters |
| ISO A1 | 841 × 594 mm | millimeters |
| ISO A0 | 1189 × 841 mm | millimeters |
| Letter | 11 × 8.5 in | inches |
| Legal | 14 × 8.5 in | inches |
| Tabloid / ANSI B | 17 × 11 in | inches |
| ANSI C | 22 × 17 in | inches |
| ANSI D | 34 × 22 in | inches |
| ARCH C | 24 × 18 in | inches |
| ARCH D | 36 × 24 in | inches |
| ARCH E | 48 × 36 in | inches |
New sheets start on ISO A3 for metric and unitless drawings, and on Tabloid for drawings in inches or feet. Model plots start on ISO A4 or Letter the same way, then remember your last choice. Sheets from opened files keep their own size, shown as "Custom" when it is not one of these.
Scales
A scale 1:n means one unit on paper shows n of the same unit in the model, so 1:100 shows 1 m of building as 10 mm of paper. CadCraft works this out from the drawing units and the paper's unit.
Metric scales, offered for every drawing: 10:1, 5:1, 2:1, 1:1, 1:2, 1:5, 1:10, 1:20, 1:25, 1:50, 1:100, 1:200, 1:250, 1:500, 1:1000, 1:1250, 1:2000, 1:2500, 1:5000, 1:10000.
Architectural scales, offered when the units are inches or feet: 3" = 1'-0", 1-1/2" = 1'-0", 1" = 1'-0", 3/4" = 1'-0", 1/2" = 1'-0", 3/8" = 1'-0", 1/4" = 1'-0", 3/16" = 1'-0", 1/8" = 1'-0", 3/32" = 1'-0", 1/16" = 1'-0".
Engineering scales, offered when the units are inches or feet: 1" = 10', 1" = 20', 1" = 30', 1" = 40', 1" = 50', 1" = 100'.
When a viewport is aimed with Show the whole model or Pick a window on the model…, CadCraft picks the largest standard scale that fits. Fit the whole model sets an exact scale instead, which reads as a plain ratio.
Sizes on paper and in the model
Text and dimension sizes are in the units of the space you draw in.
| You want on paper | Drawn on a sheet | Drawn in the model at 1:50 (mm drawing) | Drawn in the model at 1/4" = 1'-0" (inch drawing) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2.5 mm text | 2.5 | 125 | — |
| 3/32" text | 0.09375 | — | 4.5 |
For dimensions, keep the sizes as paper sizes and set the overall scale (DIMSCALE) to the plot scale: 50 for 1:50, 48 for 1/4" = 1'-0". See Set dimension sizes.
Line weights
Every plot uses one pen width for all lines: 0.13, 0.18, 0.25, 0.35, 0.50 or 0.70 mm, chosen in the Plot to PDF dialog (0.25 mm to start with). Line weights per layer or per object are not built yet.