librecad/docs

This is LibreCAD's documentation repository for multiple version and format documents, supported by readthedocs.io

LibreCAD

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LibreCAD is a 2D CAD drawing tool based on the community edition of QCAD. LibreCAD uses the cross-platform framework Qt, which means it works with most operating systems.
The user interface is translated in over 30 languages. https://translate.librecad.org

LibreCAD is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 2 (GPLv2)
as published by the Free Software Foundation.
Please read the LICENSE file for additional information.

The master branch represents the latest pre-release code,
and now requires Qt 6.4.0 or newer.
The 2.2.1 branch requires Qt 5.15.0 or newer. The 2.2 branch requires Qt 5.2.1 or newer. The 2.1 branch will be the last to support Qt4.
The 2.0 branch will be the last to support the QCAD toolbar.

DXF Converter

LibreCAD can be used as dxf to a pdf, png or svg converter. For example, to convert a foo.dxf to foo.pdf, foo.png or foo.svg:

$ librecad dxf2pdf foo.dxf
$ librecad dxf2png foo.dxf
$ librecad dxf2svg foo.dxf

Releases and Milestones

• Releases and Prereleases
• Milestones

libdxfrw

libdxfrw is an associated project that allows LibreCAD to read DXF and DWG files.

Requests and Bug reports

• GitHub issues (preferred)
• SourceForge tickets (disabled)

Users Documentation

• Users Manual
• Wiki Main Page

Questions or Comments

• LibreCAD's Forum
• IRC: #librecad at libera.chat

Building

Requirements:

• Qt 6.4.0+ (MinGW version on Windows)
• Boost 1.55.0+

More information: Build from source

Contributing

Git and GitHub

Becoming a developer

There is a resources repository for people that want to indirectly
contribute to the project by supplying icons, stylesheets, documentation, templates...

Associated downloads: https://sourceforge.net/projects/librecad/files/Resources/

docs's Issues

Printing Guide Complicated by Scale Issue

Three of the 5 print sections are about scale:

• Put scale topics as subheadings under scale
• Border and Title Blocks complicate guide section and are out of place - move to a different part of User Manual or a tutorial
• Rationalise assume the drawing to be printed was drawn full-scale (1:1). It is a critical point so perhaps make first step under each scale subheading.

Printing

• Printing, Quick and Easy
• Scale
  • Printing to Scale
  • Printing to Scale with Dimensions
  • Printing to Scale with a Border and Title Block
• Tiled Printing

I'm happy to submit as PR if change accepted.

Add support for math operations in coordinate input

Add a comment/hint at https://librecad.readthedocs.io/en/latest/ref/fundamentals.html#defining-coordinate-locations.
Math operations (at least +, -, /, *) can be used to calculate coordinate input. This both for absolute and relative inputs.

Add a link/mention in command line chapter : https://librecad.readthedocs.io/en/latest/guides/cmdline.html#command-line-functions

Comment in command file

'#' will comment a line in command file

macOS Build Instructions

Refer to LibreCAD/LibreCAD#1133
Change:
"qt5-qtcreator-mac" to "qt5-qtcreator"
"qt5-mac" to "qt5"

Add MacPorts to the build instructions.

Description of ESC key behavior in "The Command Line" is wrong

I got notice of this issue by LibreCAD issue LibreCAD/LibreCAD#1373
In the manual the old 2.1.3 behavior is described.
For 2.2.0 the ESC behavior changed, all operations are fully canceled on first ESC press.
The behavior of right click was kept and is still like the described ESC behavior.
Right click goes back one step in chained actions like trimming or 2-point line drawing. ESC cancel these on first press.
Maybe this has to be described better on some other place, e.g. at Using a Mouse and Using the Keyboard in Fundamentals.

Source reference: https://github.com/LibreCAD/docs/blob/master/guides/cmdline.rst#command-line-functions

Maybe we should wait for a conclusion in the mentioned LibreCAD issue, if we keep current behavior or switch back to 2.1.3 style.
Anyhow, it seems that the right click behavior in active operations is not described at all yet.

PDF has many pages with crappy layout

PDF - https://readthedocs.org/projects/librecad/downloads/pdf/latest/

• Table of Contents has only 1 entry;
• Objects (tables, images) exceed the bounds of pages;
• Images placed on top of tables;
• and much more issues.

Missing command line activation with F1

To be added in https://librecad.readthedocs.io/en/latest/guides/cmdline.html#command-line-functions

Select & Handle Use

Add section for selecting and using handles to Ref/Fundamentals. (Assign to GSS)

Missing history for commands with right click

To be added at https://librecad.readthedocs.io/en/latest/guides/cmdline.html#command-line-functions

How to submit docs in other languages

I want to submit a simplified Chinese version of the docs, where can I contribute my docs

Format consistency check

To be done on the complete RtD doc according to GitHub wiki.

Text Tools Table fix

Table below Text tool images does not appear on Dimn & Text guide (Assign to GSStnb)

Creating a Block, layer 0 recommendation

In section Creating a Block see Important notice at section end.
There is a bold recommendation to only and exclusively use layer 0 for blocks.

I think this is not true, it can absolutely make sense to use different layers than 0, e.g. when the block contains decoration or references which are optional for printing.

I recognized this in a forum post, where I added some steps to explain and clarify block functionality.
See https://forum.librecad.org/Insert-blocks-in-layer-problem-tp5720266p5721905.html

trim command with circle

https://forum.librecad.org/Circle-Trim-problem-tp5719088p5719090.html

Dellus; - my sincere thanks for your effective solution. I feel that a "warning" wrt Circle trim operations should be in the Manual as such would have saved considerable time & frustration!
Thanks again, John

On Wed, 17 Jun 2020, at 01:13, dellus [via LibreCAD] wrote:

Working on a circle with the trim command can be confusing, and not working in the way we wish. At certain constellations it might work, at others it doesn't. A circle has a running direction, from 0 degrees (left quadrant) counterclockwise.
It's generally easier to cut it up with Divide at the desired points and delete the unwanted part.
Or draw the arc from the onset with Curve - Center, Point, Angles.

The term 'Freeze' is incorrectly applied to mean 'Lock'

This is with regards to the Dock Widgets document (links below).

GitHub Link
LibreCAD Docs Link

The term Freeze occurs only four times in the document (can be accessed via Ctrl+F).

At all four occurrences, its use is incorrect. Either that, or the software code is.
As @lordofbikes mentioned in LibreCAD Issue #1434, the term Freeze
means the visibility of a layer, which is how it is interpreted in the software code.
However, the docs relate that term with layer Lock. This is misleading.

Thank you very much. 😃

Image Presentation

More consistent image sizes would improve appearance. Some sizes are fixed in code but even there they should be consistent sizes.

Preferable to adopt regular sizes, say 300x250px. Using existing 291px wide images with 250px length as an example:

Print Scale - Manual Values

Update printing UG for manual (overriding) print scale from dropdown.

Appendix calculator

Regarding pull request #104 I propose some more changes for https://github.com/LibreCAD/docs/blob/master/appx/calculator.rst

The core of #104 is absolutely correct. It is not obvious to the end user how to use the trigonometric functions. My suggestion is to use the term cos(a) instead of cos(x) to clarify that there is an angle expected.
Outside the table we should explain that a, an angle, can be a pure number, which must be in radians then. Or a number with an appended d which represents degrees then.
Means sin(1.57079632679) and sin(90d) are the same. As for the end user degree is more comfortable I assume that this is the common use case. Of course sin(90*pi/180) is still possible too, but doesn't make much sense with knowledge of affix d.

The affix d makes the reminder of Pi inside the table obsolete I think.
Also Pi is a constant already defined in the calculator, so I suggest a second table with predefined constants. From muparser docs I checked the existence of _pi and _e (Euler's number).
pi without underscore works too, I can't say yet if this is a LibreCAD added constant or also provided by muparser. Fact is that both work, pi and _pi.

At least I would remove the muparser link. The muparser version in LibreCAD is not regularly synced and updated, so the references on the muparser page are ahead of LibreCAD and may cause irritations.
Also the muparser sites are mainly dedicated to library implementer and end users may be lost about all the information concerning muparser usage on code level.

Incorrect Links

https://librecad.readthedocs.io/en/latest/guides/blocks.html
Where it says "See Angles in LibreCAD" it goes to: https://librecad.readthedocs.io/en/latest/ref/fundamentals.html#fundamentals when it should but it reallyshould go to:
https://librecad.readthedocs.io/en/latest/ref/fundamentals.html#polar
or even
https://librecad.readthedocs.io/en/latest/ref/toolbars.html#from-block-list
Another thing I should ask is if the first two asterisks in the Layer List Dock section of https://librecad.readthedocs.io/en/latest/ref/widgets.html are doing what they are supposed to, as they go to
https://librecad.readthedocs.io/en/latest/ref/widgets.html#id3 (for the first asterisk and id5 for the second) and the rest aren't connected to a link.
P.S. This is pasted from my GCI task, not the other way around 😄

Moving/positioning object intuitively and precisely

Moving/positioning objects is fundamental and unintuitive for users experienced with other drawing apps. It would be worth explaining in https://librecad.readthedocs.io/en/latest/guides/dwg-edit.html#modifying-entities.

See https://forum.librecad.org/Moving-positioning-object-intuitively-and-precisely-td5721279.html

Annotating and Dimensioning Circles and Arcs

Review unique issues with annotating and dimensioning circles and arcs in the Annotation Guide:

1. Consistent center lines/marks
2. Label radius/diameter internal/external at angle

Examples:

1. Multiple circles through the same centre-point - see https://heikell.fi/downloads/LibCAD_220rc1.pdf Exercise 5 p73
2. https://forum.librecad.org/file/n5718399/Bracket_dell.pdf - Side View: hole diameter, top arc diameter; End View: inner and outer radius

Some tables are too large for the page setup

See example below :

Could we enlarge this page setup to avoid this big slider or least reduce it ?
Note that the table in the PDF is formatted OK.

Boost Instructions

The building from source instruction on lines 121 and 122 should include double quotes ("C:/...")

the double quotes are required.

Details on Windows builds

Add a comment in Resources page explaining that last build is available at Sourceforge and current release is available at Github.
When it is done, create a Wiki link to User Manual.

Printing scale and size of dimension

Explain in user guide how to:
1/ scale the border (cartouche ?) to fit the scale 1 drawing.
2/ scale the dimension letter size so that they appear at the right size on the print output.
3/ Mention texts and mtext will have to be manually scaled.

Missing shortcut for layer edit

To be added at https://librecad.readthedocs.io/en/latest/ref/widgets.html#layer-list-dock
CTRL+L only for active layer.

Dimension property: text is also supported

Although it may not be a good practice, LibreCAD supports dimension editing to add text in place of dimenion. For example, if one needs to show the actual stroke of a lever then instead of showing "100 mm" one can show "Lever stroke: 100 mm" in the dimension text.

Additional information could be located and cross-linked at :
https://librecad.readthedocs.io/en/latest/guides/dwg-edit.html#changing-attributes-and-properties
https://librecad.readthedocs.io/en/latest/guides/annotate.html#dimensioning-appearance

Missing shortcuts for Zoom in and Zoom out

To be added at https://librecad.readthedocs.io/en/latest/ref/menu.html#view
CTRL++ and CTRL+-

First Page Unavailable from TOC

First page unavailable from TOC. Consider combining with About .

Tool Options tool bar Updates

Add section for Other toolbars (Print, Blocks) [GSStnb]

Reference links

Is this book already listed in references list?

https://twitter.com/eima_katalogoa/status/1151027522823475200

Bi dimentsiotako marrazketa ordenagailu bidez (LibreCAD) [Interneteko baliabidea]: http://eimakatalogoa.eus/vufind/Record/47972