Table of Contents
Introduction
In this QCAD tutorial, we take a first glimpse at its application window and learn the basics about using QCAD tools.
The QCAD Application Window
After starting QCAD, the QCAD application window presents itself with the main drawing area at the center, surrounded by various toolbars and widgets.
The toolbar at the left (with two columns) is used to access the construction tools of QCAD. This toolbar is called the "CAD toolbar". Behind the buttons with a small arrow, is a whole category of tools.
Clicking one of these buttons, reveals the various tools in that category.
For example, clicking the line button shows all the construction tools for lines:
A click on the right mouse button takes you back to the main selection of tools.
Starting and Using Construction Tools
Now, let's take a look at how tools can be started and used, for example to draw lines. Whenever you want to do something in QCAD, you start one of the many tools available. For example, to draw a line from one point to another, start the tool Line from 2 Points.
You can do this through the menu at the top, or using the CAD toolbar at the left. As seen before, clicking the line symbol in the CAD toolbar at the left reveals the line drawing tools of QCAD:
Then click the button to draw lines from two points:
Now that the tool to draw lines is active, you can see its icon in the options toolbar at the top:
In addition, you can see that there are now various options available for this tool. This means that this tool accepts additional input from you. For example, QCAD needs to know what type of line you want
to draw:
- a line segment from point to point
- an infinite line, sometimes called "construction line"
- or a ray, from a point to infinity.
Other tools might require a distance value (for example to draw parallel lines) or a radius (for a circle or arc).
To draw a line now, simply click the start point, then the end point in the drawing area.
QCAD would now let you continue to draw more lines, attached to the line we've just drawn.
Since we do not want to continue, we click the right mouse button.
We are still in the line tool and could now set the start point of a new line.
Since we do not want to draw any further lines, we click the right mouse button again.
We have now terminated the line drawing tool and returned to the idle state of QCAD where no tool is active.
Alternatively, you can also press the Escape key or click the mouse arrow button at the top left to terminate a tool.
Summary
This is how most interactive tools in QCAD work:
- First, the tool is started.
- Then it usually requires some input through the options toolbar at the top or a dialog, as well as reference points in the drawing.
- Finally, the tool is terminated by clicking the right mouse button once, or multiple times for some tools.