QCad User Reference Manual

10. Basic Editing Commands

This chapter lists the basic edit commands of QCad. These commands are not CAD specific and often also available in other applications. For CAD specific editing commands, please refer to chapter "Modification".

10.1. Undo

Toolbar:

Menu:

Edit - Undo

Hotkey:

oo, Ctrl-Z

Command:

undo, u

Description:

The Undo command takes back the last drawing or modification command that was executed. QCad can take back more than one command. For example if you have just created a line and a circle which you want to take back, launch the undo command twice.
Undo cannot undo all actions. Some operations on files, layers and blocks cannot be undone.

10.2. Redo

Toolbar:

Menu:

Edit - Redo

Hotkey:

uu, Ctrl-Shift-Z

Command:

redo, r

Description:

The redo command is the counterpart of the undo command. It restores changes that were previously undone.

10.3. Copy

Toolbar:

Menu:

Edit - Copy

Hotkey:

Ctrl-C

Command:

copy, cp

Description:

You might know the copy / paste mechanism from other applications. QCad offers a similar set of tools to copy entities from one drawing to another. Objects that are copied are stored on the QCad internal clipboard. This clipboard can only be accessed from QCad itself. You cannot paste graphical objects copied in other applications into QCad nor can you paste QCad entities into other applications.

Procedure:

After starting the copy tool, the CAD toolbar shows the selection tools. Use them to select the entities you want to copy to the clipboard.
Click the right arrow button in the CAD toolbar to continue.
Set the reference point with the mouse or enter a coordinate in the command line. The reference point will be used to position the entities when pasting them into a drawing again.

10.4. Cut

Toolbar:

Menu:

Edit - Cut

Hotkey:

Ctrl-X

Command:

cut, ct

Description:

The cut command essentially works like the copy command described above. The only difference is that the selected entities will be removed from the current drawing after being copied to the clipboard.

10.5. Paste

Toolbar:

Menu:

Edit - Paste

Hotkey:

Ctrl-V

Command:

paste, ps

Description:

The paste command inserts the entities previously copied to the clipboard. Paste is especially useful to transfer entities from one drawing to another.
All layers needed by the clipboard contents are pasted into the layerlist. Existing layers with the same name don't get overwritten. Sometimes this might lead to unexpected results. If an entity gets its attributes from the layer, it might be red in the original drawing and appear green in the drawing where you paste it. That is the case if a layer exists in both drawings with different attributes.
Inserts (references to blocks) that are on the clipboard will be pasted together with the blocks they refer to. Blocks in the current drawing don't get overwritten. This might lead to totally unexpected results in some cases. Make sure that different blocks never have the same name in drawings for which you use the copy / paste tools.

Procedure:

Activate the paste function.
Set the target point of for the pasted entities with the mouse or enter a coordinate in the command line. The target point corresponds to the reference point that was chosen when copying or cutting the entities.