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ModelCraft help

3D modeling for design. Start at the top if you are new; jump to a walkthrough if you know what you need.

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

Getting started

  • What's new in 0.3

    Dimensions that resize the model, a view cube, panels you can move to a second monitor, and a new built-in DWG reader.

  • Get started with ModelCraft

    What ModelCraft is for, how to open it, and your first box from a rectangle to a saved model.

  • The ModelCraft screen

    A tour of the toolbar, the panels on each side, the 3D view and the status bar, by their on-screen names.

  • Open, save, import and export

    The ModelCraft file, what you can bring in and send out, where files go, and what changes offline and between browsers.

Walkthroughs

  • Orbit, pan and zoom

    Move around the model with a mouse, a trackpad, a touch screen or the keyboard, and jump to standard views.

  • The view cube

    Click a face, edge or corner of the cube in the corner of the view to look from there, drag it to orbit, turn the compass ring, step around a face-on view, and go home.

  • Draw faces with lines, rectangles and circles

    Make flat faces on the ground or on other faces, split them with lines, and draw circles and polygons with the number of sides you want.

  • Push and pull faces into solids

    Turn a face into a box, make a building taller or shorter, add a bay or a recess, and repeat a distance with a double-click.

  • Cut an opening through a wall

    Draw a window or door on a wall with thickness and push it through, so the wall gets a real hole.

  • Select things

    Click, double-click and triple-click, drag a window or a crossing box, add and remove with modifier keys, and delete.

  • Move, copy and make arrays

    Move things by clicking or by an exact distance, copy them with a modifier key, and make a row of evenly spaced copies.

  • Rotate and scale

    Turn things about a point by clicking or by typing degrees, and resize them evenly by a factor.

  • Groups and components

    Keep objects from sticking together, edit one copy to change them all, and use the Outliner and Components panels.

  • Measure and place guides

    Read lengths and areas, measure between two points with the tape, and lay out guide lines and points to draw against.

  • Dimension and resize what you drew

    Place dimensions between corners, then type a new length to resize the model. Retype an edge's length or a group's width, depth and height in Entity info.

  • Erase and clean up

    Erase edges, groups and guides with the eraser or the Delete key, heal split faces, and fix faces that face the wrong way.

  • Model on a site plan from a DWG or DXF

    Bring a CAD site or floor plan in as lines on the ground, answer the units question, and trace it into faces and masses.

  • Styles and sun shadows

    Show the model shaded, as hidden lines, as a wireframe or see-through, and study the shadows it casts at any date, time and place.

  • Save views as scenes

    Save a camera and style as a scene, update and rename it, and step or play through scenes to present a design.

  • Export a model for other programs

    Choose the right export for rendering, the web, 3D printing, BIM and BimCraft, and check what each one keeps.

Coming from other software

  • Coming from other modelers

    How push/pull modeling habits map to ModelCraft, key by key, and the differences that catch people out.

Reference

  • ModelCraft settings

    Pick the key style you know, make a trackpad orbit and pan without the camera buttons, and turn snapping and solid collisions on or off.

  • Keys and mouse actions

    Every keyboard shortcut, mouse action, trackpad gesture and touch gesture in ModelCraft, grouped by what they do.

  • Tool list

    Every ModelCraft tool with its key, what each click does, and what you can type into the value box while it works.

  • Inference and snapping

    What the colored markers mean, which snap wins, and how to lock a direction with the arrow keys or Shift.

  • Type exact sizes in the value box

    Every way to type lengths, sizes, points, offsets, angles, sides and copies, and how units and bare numbers are read.

  • File formats in detail

    Exactly what each format ModelCraft opens, imports and exports keeps, converts and leaves out.

Troubleshooting and limits

  • Troubleshooting

    Symptoms, causes and fixes, from a blank 3D view to imports at the wrong size, with the messages ModelCraft shows.

  • Not built yet

    What this build of ModelCraft does not do yet, and what to do instead today.

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