The direction of a standard-bevel line may be right-to-left, and the direction of a reverse-bevel line may be left-to-right. If some individual lines are being cut with reverse bevels, that generally means the direction of those lines is reversed, as indicated by a small arrow seen at one point in the entity. That is, at one or more intersections, the nodes at the ends of the lines are not "welded" together. When a shape will not cut at all, that generally means the shape is not closed. The method that suits you, not necessarily the one presented here.I'm not familiar with Deltacad, but I have seen similar symptoms with files created in Corel Draw. Note a great image, still room for improvement.Īs with most modern GUI apps, there are several ways ofĪchieving the same thing (e.g. I suggest you set the margin to about 10% of the image size. So the exported image will include everything plus a margin. The drawing extents are determined by what you have drawn on the work area. In my example I've set Resolution: 5 but please experiment with this setting. In the Image Export Options dialog, the Bitmap Resolution is quite important, as it influences drawing detail and file size. To create an image file, like the one I've pasted below, simply select menu File > Export. No idea what this is for, but it extends all horizontal & vertical lines to infinity. I suggest you keep each printer icon enabled, because when disabled it produces a HelpLayer. The layer name and drawing colour used can be set by highlighting the layer and selecting the small icon at the top right of the Layer List. The padlock indicates which layers are locked, so in the illustration all layers are protected from accidental changes, except the Components layer which can be edited. For example when cutting the tracks on the stripboard I just enable the 2 layers: Cut Board & CutTrack. Hidding layers via the eye icon is useful to minimise clutter. There are 6 visible layers denoted by the eye icon alongside each layer in the list. If I'm not going to use dimensioning when I start a new drawing, I usually begin by zooming in until I have a fairly dense grid. The grid is shown by faint dots and lines on the work area. Snap on Grid is controlled from the Snap menu. This is a common "undo" key sequence for many different applications.Īgain, this also works on other applications, such as web browsers.Īlways use "Snap on Grid" until/unless you really know what you are doing. Use to undo last edit (and previous edits if you again & again). Again, you dismiss the line tool by hitting twice when you have drawn the line you need. When you draw a line, the drawing tool remains active so you can add an additional connecting line. So if you are not sure where you are, hit twice. Pressing the key a couple of times will de-select any drawing object and get you back to an arrow mouse pointer. Tinkered, and never read a CAD user manual. This also means I can add detail to the sketch as the plan unfolds.įor block diagrams this is a pretty quick method, although I guess this will probably be replaced by free-hand sketches on a tablet+stylus at some point in the near future.įor more complicated circuit diagrams, and for physical component layouts, a 2D CAD application such as LibreCAD (formally QCAD) is generally more appropriate.Īlthough I first used 2D CAD back in the mid 1980s, I've only ever I know its only a sketch, but I just can't resist "colouring-in" the shapes So now I generally do a simple sketch on my laptop, often using the drawing application in LibreOffice. While this can be scribbled on a scrap of paper, its frustrating when, possibly weeks later, I can't lay my hands on it, and have to start again. I normally begin the planning process of a new home project with some kind of a sketch.
Open source applications such as LibreOffice Draw and LibreCAD can be valuable tools when working on DIY projects. While I'm not sure about the official exchange rate, it certainly helps to use both sketches and formal drawings to help understand concepts, and also to plan & execute projects.