The CadCraft screen

The screen has seven parts. From top to bottom: the app bar, the toolbar, the drawing area with a panel on each side, the tabs under the drawing, the command line and the status bar.

The app bar

The thin bar at the very top belongs to the site, not to the drawing. It shows the CadCraft mark, the app name, which version you are running, a link to the app's page, a Help button (or F1F1), a Save for offline button, a Full screen button and two theme buttons, Paper and Model.

The Settings button (gear) holds CadCraft's own settings and the ones every app shares: see CadCraft settings.

Save for offline keeps a copy of CadCraft, including its DWG reader, in this browser so it opens with no connection. Its label shows the state: "Saving N of M", "Offline ready", "Could not save" or "Offline not available". See Working offline.

The Full screen button, or ⌃⇧FCtrl+Shift+F (the Control key on every computer, Mac included), cycles through three screen modes: normal, full screen, and full screen with the bars hidden. With the bars hidden, move the pointer to the top edge of the screen to bring them back.

Under the app bar is the toolbar. Every button runs a command, exactly as if you had typed it, so the command line asks the same questions either way. Hover a button to see its command alias. The groups are:

Group	Buttons
File	New, Open, Save, Save as, Plot
Draw	Line, Polyline, Circle, Arc, Rectangle, Polygon, Ellipse, Text, Point
Modify	Move, Copy, Rotate, Scale, Mirror, Offset, Trim, Extend, Fillet, Explode, Erase
Annotate	Linear, Aligned, Angle, Radius, Diameter, Continue, Baseline (all dimensions)
Parametric	Auto, Constrain, Dimension, Parameters, and More with each constraint (see Constrain a drawing)
Blocks	Make, Insert, Library
Sheets	New sheet, Viewport
Edit	Undo, Redo, Copy (to the clipboard), Paste, and More: a menu with Cut, Copy, Paste, Paste in place, Duplicate and move, Delete, Select all and Select none, each with its key
View	Extents, Window, Measure

Copy in the Modify group is the COPY command (base point, then where each copy goes); Copy in the Edit group puts objects on the clipboard for Paste. See Copy, paste and duplicate. The button of the command that is running stays highlighted until the command ends. Tooltips name the Windows shortcuts ("Ctrl+O"); on a Mac, ⌘OCtrl+O works too.

The left panel

The panel on the left has three sections.

Layers. Every layer in the drawing, with a filled dot on the current one. Click a name to make that layer current. Each row has a color swatch (click it to choose a color) and four buttons: on/off (eye), freeze (snowflake), lock (padlock) and plot (printer). New layer opens a box to add one. See Organize a drawing with layers.
Blocks. The blocks defined in the drawing, how many times each is used, and an Insert button for each. See Make and insert blocks.
Drawing. Facts about the open file: name (with "(changed)" when there are unsaved edits), format, size, units, number of objects, layers, blocks and sheets. After you open a file, an "About this file" box lists anything CadCraft could not show or had to convert.

The drawing area

The middle of the screen is the drawing. The pointer is a crosshair. When CadCraft wants a point, a small marker and a label ("Endpoint", "Midpoint") show where an object snap will land. When it wants objects, the crosshair has a pick box and objects under it light up.

When the drawing is empty, a "Start drawing" card shows a few first commands. It goes away as soon as you run a command or open a file. You can drop a DWG or DXF file anywhere on this area to open it.

The tabs under the drawing

Below the drawing are the tabs: Model first, then 3D, then one tab per sheet (layout), then a + button.

Model is the drawing itself, at full size, in drawing units.
3D shows the drawing lying on the ground and the solids made from it. While it shows, the toolbar has a 3D group in place of the drawing groups. See Model in 3D.
Each sheet tab is a sheet of paper with a title block and viewports onto the model. What you draw there is in paper units (millimeters or inches).
+ makes a new sheet with a border, a title block and one viewport. It is the same as the LAYOUT command.
Double-click a sheet tab to rename it. With a tab focused, ←← and →→ move between tabs.

Each tab keeps its own zoom and pan. See Set up a sheet.

The right panel: Properties

The panel on the right changes with what is selected.

Nothing selected, on the Model tab: the heading reads Current settings. Here you set the Layer, Colour and Text height for new objects, the drawing Units, and the sizes for new dimensions (Text height, Arrow size, Decimals, Overall scale).
Nothing selected, on a sheet: the heading reads "Sheet:" and the sheet name. You can rename the sheet, change its Paper and Orientation, Plot this sheet or Delete this sheet. The settings for new objects follow below.
One object selected: its type as the heading (Line, Circle, Text, Dimension, Viewport …), then its layer, color and geometry. Type a new value and press ReturnEnter to change it.
Several objects selected: how many, and their common Layer and Colour. Changing either changes them all. "Varies" means they differ.

See Edit with grips and Properties.

Below it, the Parameters panel opens when you choose Parameters or type PARAMETERS: every parameter and dimensional constraint in one table. See Use parameters and equations.

The command line

At the bottom is the command line: the history of what you did, and under it the prompt.

The prompt label reads Command: when nothing is running. While a command runs, it shows the question, its options in square brackets and the default in angle brackets, for example Specify radius of circle [Diameter] <500>:.
As you type a command name, a hint to the right suggests matching commands. Press TabTab to accept the first one. "No such command" means nothing matches.
↑↑ and ↓↓ bring back lines you typed before.
The history keeps the last 400 lines. Messages from commands, measurements from DIST and LIST, and save and plot reports appear here.

The status bar

The very bottom row is the status bar.

Coordinates on the left: the X and Y of the crosshair. While a command has a base point, it also shows the distance and angle from it, for example Δ 1200 < 90°.
Messages in the middle, such as "Ortho on" or "Current layer: Walls". They fade after a few seconds.
Grid, Ortho and Snap on the right. Each is a toggle; a pressed button is on. The small arrow next to Snap opens Object snaps, where you tick which snaps are active. See Snap to points on objects.

The Plot to PDF dialog

Plot (or ⌘PCtrl+P) opens the Plot to PDF dialog, with the settings on the left and a live preview on the right. See Plot to PDF.

The help

F1F1 or the Help button opens this help as a side panel; the drawing stays usable beside it. It works with no connection. F1F1 again, or EscEsc inside the panel, closes it. See Using this help.