With a market share in the computer-aided design and engineering segment of about 0.53%, according to a report by Enlyft, MicroStation might not have as many users as Autodesk’s AutoCAD or SolidWorks. Enlyft is a platform driven by artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to discover and understand companies worldwide.

This is why we have created this guide to help you learn Bentley MicroStation basics in 1 hour. We will explore its interface and orientation, supported file formats, drawing and editing tools, and more. 

Learn Bentley MicroStation Basics: Orientation 

As a construction or design professional, you must have worked with one or more CAD programs. And as you might appreciate, their functionality and user interface significantly differ from one another. 

As such, taking a few minutes to acclimatize yourself with an application’s interface is not lost on anyone. In fact, it greatly helps you improve your workflow later on. For this reason, this guide will first provide an overview of the interface. Incidentally, this is the foundational step as you learn Bentley MicroStation basics.

Interface

MicroStation User Interface (source)

Tabs and Ribbons

As with all other applications developed in the graphical user interface (GUI) era, MicroStation uses graphical icons tiered into tabs and housed in menus that you can toggle on or off. At first glance, the user interface is quite simple. It features tabs that include: File, Home, View, Annotate, Attach, Analyze, Curves, Constraints, Utilities, Drawing Aids, Content, Collaborate, and help. 

Under each of these tabs are tools grouped into ribbons. For instance, the home tab features the Attributes, Primary, Selection, Placements, Manipulate, Modify, and Groups ribbon groups. As an example, the Manipulate ribbon group contains tools such as Move, Copy, Rotate, and more.

Toolbars, Windows, and Panels

The interface also includes a customizable quick access toolbar that houses commonly used functions such as Save, Save View Settings, Redo, Undo, and more. It also has a search bar and a workflow menu. The workflow menu allows you to choose among different workflows, including Drawing, Task Navigation, and Learning Connect. Your selection determines the tabs that will be displayed on the user interface.

Below the tab section is the working area known as the view. The view includes the name of the drawing (not the file) as well as icons along the top view border. An independent window, movable to the left or right of the work area, displays different panels depending on your preferences. Notably, the window can be turned off altogether. 

By default, this window houses the Properties panel, which shows you the properties of a given part of a drawing when you select that specific part/selection. However, you can customize it to include additional panels such as Explorer, View Attributes, Change View Display Style, just to mention a few. 

MicroStation also has another toolbar as well as a status bar on the bottom section. The toolbar is segmented into several sections that change depending on the selected display mode. Even so, some of the sections remain unchanged, such as the display mode selector. The selector allows you to change the display mode (we’ll talk more about what the display mode does a bit later on).

In addition, the status bar shows the active function (on the extreme right end as well as on the subsequent section), with instructions on the next action you should perform. This bar also enables you to lock and unlock the display mode.

Themes

With Bentley MicroStation, you can choose between a dark-themed interface and a light-themed interface. To change these settings according to your preference, click the File tab. Next, select Settings > User settings > Preferences. This will display a popup window. Under the Look and feel section, check or uncheck the Apply Dark Themed UI box. Finally, click OK.

Popup Menu

On Bentley MicroStation, tapping the Space bar displays the popup menu. The menu has three rows, the first and third of which contain icons that individually open a secondary dialog that allows you to choose additional tools. The second row contains discrete tools such as Move, Element Selection, Copy, and more.

Popup Window on MicroStation (source)

Drawing Tools

A majority of the drawing tools on Bentley MicroStation are found within the Placement ribbon group on the Home tab. Instead of using the term ‘draw,’ the software uses ‘place.’ Thus, simply click the Place Line function to draw a line. Other tools include Place SmartLine, Arc Tools, Place Circle, Place Block, Ellipse Tools, and many more. 

You can use the instructions displayed on the status bar to guide you on how to proceed upon clicking one of the drawing tools. At the same time, each tool has a unique Tool Settings window that allows you to change the settings depending on what you are drawing. For instance, you can alter the drawing method, fill type, fill color, and border.

Customization

Bentley MicroStation allows you to customize various settings. Simply click File > Settings > Preferences. This will result in a popup window that lets you make the necessary changes. 

Preferences Window on MicroStation (source)

Units

If you or your organization use a particular unit for all your drawings, you can set the default units and save them as part of the Design File Settings. To do this, click File > Settings > File > Design File Settings > Working Units (on the resultant pop-up window). It is noteworthy that with Bentley MicroStation, you can choose either the master and subunits or just one of them. For example, if you use the imperial system, you can set the master unit as feet and the subunit as inches. 

Having covered some basic elements of the software, it’s now time to learn Bentley MicroStation in terms of its capabilities. 

Learn Bentley MicroStation Basics: Capabilities

Marketed as “The CAD leader for infrastructure design,” Bentley MicroStation supports 2D drafting, solid (3D) modeling, rendering, editing, visualization, annotation, documentation, assembly sequencing, collaboration, and file importation and exportation, to mention a few. Moreover, the software can produce 2D drawings from 3D models and generate property-driven reports. 

To help you learn Bentley Microstation, we will explore these capabilities, starting with visualization.

Visualization

Visualization, also known as simulation, refers to the production of photo-realistic 3D images and models, thereby visually representing a 2D design or concept in an easy-to-understand manner. It enables clients and project owners to view and understand what their project entails in a much more tangible way. While other CAD programs also support visualization, MicroStation has an in-built engine that takes the capabilities a notch higher.

MicroStation is powered by iTwin, a trademarked brand under Bentley Systems’ product offerings that enables users to create visual representations of live construction information in 2D, 3D, and 4D offline and in real-time. The platform puts together disparate data into a combined ecosystem that represents the current conditions for inspections and reporting. Additionally, it predicts future states and settings.

iTwin stores the visualized information in robust cloud infrastructure, meaning users can access them anywhere, anytime. It is noteworthy that the iTwin visualization engine not only facilitates immersive visualization but also generates AI and ML-driven insights. Together, these distinct capabilities support and improve decision-making during the design, construction, and operation stages of a project’s life cycle. 

Design Analysis

In tandem with design visualization, Bentley MicroStation also enables you to perform precise analysis. For instance, you can use the software to analyze the solar exposure for projects set to be constructed in a built urban environment. At the same time, you can quickly analyze the impact of shadows cast by surrounding buildings at any time of the day or year.

Solar Exposure Analysis on MicroStation (source)

Standards Checking Capabilities

Bentley MicroStation is also packed with standards-checking tools that automatically conduct checks when prompted. The reviews compare a drawing’s/model’s properties against properties defined by existing standards. These comparisons enable the software to identify anomalies and, in some cases, fix the problems.

Data-Handling Capabilities

In addition, MicroStation can handle both miniature-sized and large-scale data demands synonymous with infrastructure projects. As such, this CAD software can seamlessly generate efficient 2D drawings and 3D models regardless of the size of the survey data. Bentley MicroStation can import, process, and plot survey data.

Importantly, though, Bentley MicroStation does not just work with the survey or geospatial data. This is because it allows you to incorporate imagery into your design as well as photo-textured reality meshes produced from ordinary photographs. As such, you do not need to create everything from scratch. This capability helps you provide the exact and accurate context for your projects as well as communicate your design intent effectively.

The software even goes a step further by supporting different display modes. Some of the modes include illustration, monochrome, transparent, and smooth. By toggling the transparent mode, for example, you can view subsurface features, such as pipes, canals, and ducts that would otherwise be hidden in other display modes.

Interoperability

A design project might comprise different organizations and professionals with differing preferences with regards to their ideal CAD software. If yours is Bentley MicroStation, yet other players prefer other CAD programs, you need to worry. 

Bentley MicroStation supports interoperability. It seamlessly opens other proprietary file formats such as Autodesk’s .dwg, SketchUp’s .skp, 3Ds Max’s .3ds, Industrial Foundation Classes’ (IFC) eponymous format, common raster formats, shapefiles, openNURBS’ .3dm, and more. 

What’s more, Bentley Systems has licensed the real DWG libraries directly from Autodesk. As a result, Bentley MicroStation users can use and produce DWG files. The software even supports versions that go back to 1997.

The software’s interoperability works such that you can import designs stored in other file formats without loss of precise geometrical properties and important BIM and geospatial information. As such, MicroStation supports the lossless sharing of design data/information. Doing so saves time that would have otherwise been spent recreating existing data, which is known to result in errors.

Supported File Formats on MicroStation (source)

Automatic Saving

Unlike programs such as Microsoft Word, Excel, and AutoCAD, which require the user to save the changes for the programs to write the edits into the file, Bentley MicroStation does this automatically. It automatically writes the changes into the file without the user clicking the Save icon or the Ctrl+S shortcut combination.

Extra Resources

We have covered the basics, thus providing you with the necessary material to learn Bentley MicroStation. However, if you are looking to become a Bentley MicroStation expert, you can go a step further. 

Bentley Systems offers learning resources on the Bentley MicroStation and Bentley Education YouTube channels. As well, the company provides education/learning programs for users, educators, and students as listed below:

• Bentley Systems program for users
• Bentley Systems’ program for students and educators

At the same time, the software natively enables users to learn Bentley MicroStation thanks to the integrated content, known as the Bentley CONNECT Advisor installed with the MicroStation CONNECT Edition.

If your organization uses other CAD software instead of Bentley MicroStation, you can check out our other guides by clicking here.

Most CAD programs allow CAD drafters, designers, engineers, and architects to save their drawings in PDF format for sharing or printing. As such, the rest of the team members do not require an expensive CAD program to open the PDF file for viewing or printing. All they require is a reliable PDF program like Bluebeam Revu.

In this guide, we shall take a deeper dive into what Bluebeam Revu is and also outline some of the basic things about it to assist you to learn the basics in 1 hour.

What is Bluebeam Revu?

Figure 1. Bluebeam Revu Standard Edition (source)

In a nutshell, Bluebeam Revu is a software that allows users to markup, organize, and collaborate with PDF files. 

It is more than just a PDF viewer and that is why it is a common tool for those dealing with technical tools. It offers efficiency and also allows collaboration, which is essential for team players especially in areas like construction sites where there are too many people involved and all must adhere to the drawing to accomplish their tasks.

Bluebeam Revu Pricing

Bluebeam Revu offers five editions at different prices. These includes:

• Bluebeam® Revu® Standard: $349 per seat 
• Bluebeam® Revu® CAD: $499 per seat 
• Bluebeam® Revu® eXtreme: $599 per seat 
• Bluebeam® Revu® MAC: $199 per seat 
• Bluebeam® Revu® iPad: $9.99

Users can also choose to pay another one-time payment of $349 for annual maintenance of any of the purchased seats of Bluebeam Revu. This is optional and if a user cannot afford it, there is no harm; only that his/her software will not be up to date. The Annual maintenance package allows users to get premium phone and email support, free annual upgrade training, and free version upgrades.

It is good to note that Bluebeam Revu does not offer any free version but it offers a free 30-day trial of Revu eXtreme. 

Who Can Use the Bluebeam Revu?

Bluebeam Revu has become a vital tool in a wide range of industries including architecture, construction, engineering, energy, and manufacturing. It is not used for drawing but rather for viewing, organizing, and collaborating on the already drawn technical drawings.

Its functions and built-in tools provide users with a powerful sleek tool that gets work done quickly.

As a result, most Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) professionals have chosen Bluebeam Revu as their default PDF software.

What Can Bluebeam Revu Do?

The different editions of Bluebeam Revu have different features and functionalities and a person will have to choose wisely between the five editions.

Besides the Bluebeam® Revu® MAC and Bluebeam® Revu® iPad which are device-specific, the rest are editions with different functionalities. Bluebeam® Revu® MAC is designed for use on macOS gadgets while the Bluebeam® Revu® iPad is designed for use on iPads.

Bluebeam® Revu® Standard

It is an intuitive PDF solution that offers best-in-class PDF creation, editing, and markup technology fine-tuned for the AEC industry. 

It allows users to make paperless workflows by allowing them to digitally redline 2D and 3D PDFs with industry-standard measurements and annotations. 

It can also be used to:

• Automatically compare drawings. 
• Markup/create and even manipulate 3D PDF files from any U3D or IFC. 
• Create and batch PDFs. 
• Convert any Windows file to PDF.
• Upload files to the cloud.
• Sync PDFs locally.
• Collaborate on PDFs in real time with shared markups.

It is best for contractors and estimators who require to review PDF documents with a wider project team without having to make too many hard copies.

Bluebeam® Revu® CAD

This Revu edition includes all the features of Bluebeam® Revu® Standard plus additional plugins for 2D and 3D PDF file creation.

It allows users to create 2D PDF files directly from Autodesk Revit, SolidWorks, and Autodesk AutoCAD.

It also allows users to create 3D PDF files directly from Autodesk AutoCAD, Autodesk Revit, Navisworks® Manage, SketchUp® Pro, and Navisworks Simulate.

Bluebeam® Revu® eXtreme

This Revu edition includes all the features and functionalities of the Bluebeam® Revu® Standard and Bluebeam® Revu® CAD plus additional plugins that allow users to create PDFs from Autodesk AutoCAD, Autodesk Revit, SketchUp Pro, Navisworks Manage, Navisworks Simulate, and SolidWorks. 

It allows users to perform scripting, automatic form creation, batch linking, Batch splitting sheets, Batch signing and sealing, real-time data linking from measurement markups to excel, and also transform scanned images into text-searchable PDFs using Optical Character Recognition (OCR).

Learn Bluebeam Revu basics

To assist you to learn Bluebeam Revu basics as quickly as possible, we shall look at how to navigate in Bluebeam, File Access, Markups, Tool Chest, Keyboard Shortcuts, and Markups List.

Bluebeam Revu Navigation

Figure 2. Bluebeam Revu Navigation

The above screenshot shows how the Bluebeam interface looks like.

The command bar, toolbar, left panel, working area, right panel, navigation bar, and advanced markup list are all shown.

Navigating through the Bluebeam Revu interface is done by using the various panels and bars shown in the screenshot.

At the very top, there is the “Command Bar” that displays all the core functions like File, Edit, View, Document, Batch, Tools, Window, and Help.

• If you want to open a file (either a new or an existing file), you should use the File function. 
• If you want to edit a PDF file, you should use the Edit function. 
• If you just want to view something, you should use the View function. 
• If you want to document, you should use the Document function. 
• If you want to Batch, you should use the Batch function.

The “Tool Bar” contains the basic tools and you can toggle on/off the tools that you want to be displayed. It is also possible to reorganize the tools as you like.

At the bottom of the page, there is the “Markup List”, which shows/displays a record of all the markups or annotation done on a particular page. Besides just acting as notes, the Markup list gives you the power of Excel Spreadsheets since the data can be sorted, filtered, and even used in generating reports.

File Access

Figure 3. File Access in Bluebeam Revu

This is located almost at the top left corner and it helps you speed up your productivity by allowing you to quickly recall recently opened files and folders without the need for navigating to any directory.

Markups

Figure 4. Bluebeam Revu Markups

Bluebeam Revu provides a wide range of Markup tools ranging from clouds, text tools, and callouts, among others

To use any of the Markups, simply click on the “Tools” on the “Command Bar” at the top select Markup, and choose the Markup tool you want to use from the drop-down menu that appears.

Tool Chest

Figure 5. Opening Tool Chest from the Left Panel

This allows users to save selected Markups and any of their edited details so that it can be easier to reuse them especially when they are frequently required to be used.

Important Bluebeam Revu Keyboard Shortcuts

Switching between multiple files and using different tools can make your work quite tiring. However, Bluebeam Revu has some common keyboard shortcuts that you can use to make work easier.

Also, Revu 2019 allows users to create custom keyword shortcuts.

To find out what a shortcut for doing a certain thing is or to customize the shortcut, click on the “Revu” tab on the “Command Bar” at the top and select and click on “Keyboard shortcuts” from the dropdown menu.

Figure 6. Finding Out the Keyboard Shortcuts and Modifying them

Figure 7. Customizing Keyboard Shortcuts in Bluebeam Revu

Conclusion

The above guide should help you learn Bluebeam Revu basics in the shortest time possible after which you can build on the basics to accomplish other complex tasks like using the Bluebeam Studio, Bluebeam Studio Prime, search tool – Text & Visual Search, Compare Documents & Overlay Pages, and Navigating Multipage PDF Files, and creating Page Labels & Batch Hyperlinks.

The Bluebeam Revu is a simple to use PDF software for those in the AEC and its learning curve is quite gentle.

In this guide, we shall take a deeper dive into how to use BricsCAD to help you learn the basics in one hour.  

What Can BricsCAD be Used for?

In the beginning, BricsCAD had been designed to be an AutoCAD alternative. However, it has evolved to become a much more capable CAD program with many unique features. 

Besides being a great 2D drafting CAD program, BricsCAD fully integrates Parabuild, a detailing package for drawing parametric 3D steel structure models, to automate the process of drawing 3D structural steel models and automatically generate various outputs like CNC data and shop drawings.

Various BricsCAD editions are offering various functionalities. If you are a mechanical CAD drafter or engineer looking to make 2D drawings, you should use the BricsCAD shape, which is free, or the BricsCAD Lite which offers more functionalities compared to the BricsCAD shape. 

If you are a mechanical CAD drafter or engineer looking to create 3D models, you should go for the BircsCAD Pro or BricsCAD mechanical.

If you are a civil engineer, structural engineer, or architect, you should go for the BricsCAD BIM.

BricsCAD offers the following functionalities:

• Viewing and managing DWG CAD drawings
• 2D drafting
• 3D modeling
• Parametric modeling
• Annotation
• Printing and plotting
• Rendering

Key Elements of BricsCAD User Interface

To learn BricsCAD basics, you have to first understand the key elements of its user interface. 

In this guide, we shall use the user interface of the BricsCAD ultimate, which combines the functionalities of all the other BricsCAD editions.

Figure 1. BricsCAD Ultimate user interface elements

The above screenshot shows the user interface of BricsCAD Ultimate and the various sections of the interface have been numbered. Let us take a look at what each of these sections is used for.

Toolbar 

This shows the collections of buttons of the most used tools. BricsCAD Ultimate has several toolbars since the edition contains all the functionalities of all BricsCAD editions. 

The “Access 3D” is the toolbar that is selected by default.

Figure 2. The Access 3D Toolbar

To choose a different toolbar, you should right-click in the drawing area, then click on choose toolbars to select the toolbar and the related topics you want to use.

Figure 3. Process of choosing a different toolbar

Ribbon

This shows several tabs containing a series of panels containing organized tools

Figure 4. Tabs

Figure 5. Series of panels

By default, the home tab is selected and the create panel is open. To select any other tab, simply click on the tab to use the series of panels therein.

Customizing the Ribbon

You can customize your ribbon to add custom-made tabs with a label, title, and ID of your choice, edit or expand the existing tabs, create a new panel and also edit or expand the already existing panel. To do so, simply right-click, click on customize and click on “Ribbon Tab”.

It is important to note that the tabs and tools contained in the panels depend on the selected workspace. The workspaces are the ones that define the settings and preferences of the specific working environment.

Selecting a Workspace

BricsCAD has six workspaces which include drafting, drafting (toolbars), modeling, modeling (toolbars), mechanical, and BIM.

To select your preferred workspace, simply right-click, click on Workspaces, and select your workspace of choice. 

Figure 6. Choosing a workspace by right-clicking

Similarly, you can go to the status bar (labeled 9) and click on the current workspace (in our interface screenshot the current workspace is “BIM”), and select your preferred workspace from the dropdown list. 

Document Tabs

This shows the documents that you are working on and it allows you to easily switch between the documents, close a document or even add a document. 

Figure 7. Document tabs

To add a new document, simply click on the + sign at the end to the right. 

To close a document, click on the X.

The “Look From” Widget

Figure 8. The Look From Widget with no 3D model selected

This appears at the top right corner of the drawing area.

It is used to see how your 3D model would look like when looked at from different angles. 

It has seven small triangles and one rectangle along its circumference. 

The rectangle shows the side from which your selected 3D model is being viewed in the drawing area. (If there is no selected model, then there will be eight small triangles)

To view the 3D model from a different angle, simply click on a triangle on the angle you want to view from. It also displays the name of the view at the bottom of the widget. For example, “Top Back Left”.

User-defined Coordinate System (UCS) icon

Figure 9. The UCS icon

This shows the nature of the coordinate system that you are using. If you are doing 2D drafting, a two-dimensional coordinate system is shown and when you are doing 3D modeling a three-dimensional coordinate system is shown.

Model Tab

This shows your initial working area, called Model Space. This is where you create your 2D or 3D drawings. If you select to use the Model Tab, you view and work in the model space.

Layout Tab

Every drawing has at least one layout, which comprises one or more viewports. It is mainly used for ensuring that your drawing is ready for presentation or printing.

Every viewport shows a different part of the drawing at a different scale. 

If you click on the “Layout Tab’, you can add the entities required for producing a print copy of your drawing. These entities include title blocks, frames, and legends among others.

It is important to note that the layout tab uses the World Coordinate System. (WCS), which is shown by a W that appears at the coordinate system icon. 

Figure 10. WCS appears when in the layout mode

Command Bar

This area has two fields separated by a thin dark line. The upper section shows the previously typed commands and is, therefore, wider while the lower section is where you type the commands and command options (which once executed goes to the field above as previously typed commands).

Figure 11. The command bar

Status Bar

It is normally along the bottom edge of the application window and contains information about the settings being used for the current drawing. 

It has a total of 16 fields. You can see the list of these fields by clicking the arrow at the right end of the bar.

It is important to note that one of the fields is the workspaces which determine the tools displayed on the ribbon (before customizing the ribbon).

The Tool Panel

This is displayed on the right and left sides of the application window. 

Let us look at the functions of each of the displayed icons on the “Tool Panel”.

Figure 12. Various panels contained in the Tool Panel and their functions

Learn BricsCAD 2D Drafting Basics 

This is the first step in any CAD drawing. 

To draw 2D drawings using BricsCAD, you will need to set the toolbar to 2D constraints.

Figure 13. Choosing 2D constraints toolbar

Then change the “Workspace” to drafting or drafting (toolbar). 

Once everything is set, you can go ahead and select the tool to use in the “Draw” panel of the Home tab in the ribbon. You can also go ahead to add text, hatching, and dimensions using their corresponding tools from the ribbon.

When you select to use any of the drawing tools or input a drawing command, BricsCAD prompts you to enter the coordinate points in the “Command Bar”. You can choose to use the mouse (clicking on the drawing area and moving to the endpoint) or choose to type the insertion and endpoints.

It is easy to learn BricsCAD since it also displays a context-sensitive prompt menu showing additional command options for the type of entity you are drawing.

Learn BricsCAD 3D Modeling Basics

By default, the BricsCAD Ultimate toolbar is set to Access 3D, which is ideal for 3D modeling. You can also choose to use the 3D toolbar.

Once your toolbar is set to 3D, you should go ahead and select the modeling, modeling (toolbars), mechanical, or BIM workspace depending on the type of 3D modeling you intend to do.

The modeling and modeling (toolbars) workspaces are used for standard 3D models while the mechanical workspace is used for complex mechanical components and assemblies.

The BIM workspace on the other hand is used for Building Information Modeling.

Conclusion

This guide will help you learn BricsCAD basics in less than one hour. With the above information, you are good to start using BricsCAD and make simple 2D drawings as well as simple 3D models. 

To sharpen your BricsCAD skills, you should continue practicing with the application as you can see from the above guide, learning BircsCAD is not an uphill task. Besides offering all the functionalities that you may require in your CAD drafting or designing work, the application is very user-friendly. 

But before delving into how to use the software, let us first look at what it is and what it can do (or what it can be used to do).

What is AutoCAD Mechanical?

AutoCAD Mechanical is a software product of Autodesk Inc., which is an American software corporation that makes CAD software for engineering, architecting, manufacturing, construction, education, and entertainment and media industries. The AutoCAD Mechanical software is specifically made for mechanical engineers, manufactures, and designers.

What can AutoCAD Mechanical software do?

Mechanical engineers manufacture, and designers can use the AutoCAD Mechanical software for:

• 2D drafting, drawing, and annotation – this involves producing 2D drawings/drafts, generating dimensions, creating and editing single or multiline text, creating leaders with a variety of content, creating and editing centerlines and center marks, creating tables with data and symbols in rows and columns and applying formulas, linking the tables to a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, saving views by name, specifying layouts (drawing sheets), creating arrays (objects that are created in circular or rectangular patterns, or along a path), and applying parametric constraints.
• 3D modeling and visualization – this involves creating solid, surface, and meshed realistic 3D models, using 3D viewing and navigation tools to walk, swivel, fly and orbit around 3D models when showcasing designs, applying visual styles, creating section planes to display cross-sectional views, rendering, and generating 2D drawings of 3D models.
• Collaboration – this involves, importing, exporting, or attaching files as underlays in PDF, DWG, or DGN files.

Figure 1. A 2D projection drawing of a 3D model drawn using AutoCAD Mechanical (Source)

We shall look into each of these to assist you to learn AutoCAD Mechanical basics for performing any of the tasks.

Orientation

If you are a mechanical engineer, designer, or manufacturer and want to perform any of the above tasks using AutoCAD Mechanical but you are wondering how to start, this AutoCAD Mechanical: Learn the Basics in 1 Hour guide will take you through all the basics to help you learn AutoCAD Mechanical basics in the least time possible.

We shall start with learning about the various features, and tools that you shall encounter when you open AutoCAD Mechanical software.

When you click to open AutoCAD Mechanical, you should click ‘Start Drawing’ under ‘Get Started’ if you are using a more recent version like 2020 or ‘New’ under the Work section when using older versions like the 2013 version, which we shall use for this guide, to start working on a new project.

Figure 2. Figure 2. AutoCAD Mechanical 2020 start screen

Figure 3. AutoCAD Mechanical 2013 start screen

When it opens, the user interface looks like the one shown in the screenshot below:

Figure 4. AutoCAD Mechanical user interface explained

We shall look at what each of the features and tools that are shown in the above screenshot is used for.

1. Application menu Button – This offers tools for managing your AutoCAD Mechanical files. When clicked, a file pull-down menu appears. The pull-down menu contains buttons for actions such as ‘New’, ‘Open’, ‘Save’, ‘Save As’, ‘Export’, ‘Publish’, ‘Print’, ‘Drawing Utilities’, and ‘Exit’.

Figure 5. Pull-Down menu that appears after clicking on the Application Menu button

2. Title Bar – This is where the name of your current project/drawing is displayed denoting even the format of the file. If you look at the screenshot shown above, the name of the current project is saved as Drawing1.dwg showing it is a .dwg file.

3. Quick Access toolbar – This provides access to some of the buttons found by clicking on the application menu button. By default, this toolbar contains the buttons for opening new tabs, opening existing files, saving your work, save as an option, and the cloud option.

4. Info center – This displays various information like the search results button, sign-in button, Autodesk exchange apps button, stay connected button, and the help center button.

5. Ribbon – This contains sets of drawing and modeling tools that are grouped in various groups. These groups are put under various tabs including Home, Insert, Annotate, Layout, Parametric, View, Manage, Output, Plug-in, Online, and Express Tools. The Home tab contains groups of some of the most common tools grouped into Draw, Modify, Layers, Annotation, Block, Properties, Groups, Utilities, and Click board.

6. Drawing tabs (file tabs) – This shows the opened tabs each representing a different project. You can open as many tabs as you wish and they shall be displayed at the top adjustment to each other in the same way the start and file tabs are in the above ‘AutoCAD Mechanical user interface explained’ screenshot. 

7. Drawing area – This is where your current project will appear and it is where you perform your tasks like drawing, modeling, rendering, and so forth.

8. User Coordinate System icon (UCS icon) – This is an icon of AutoCAD’s Coordinate System that tells you the position of the various things including your cursor when drawing. It is very important, especially when working with complex 2D drawings and 3D models. 

9. Viewport Controls (In-Canvas controls) – This shows the current view (side and form) of the project you are working on. By default, the viewport controls are set as Top and 2D Wireframe.

Figure 6. Viewport Controls set to Top and 2D Wireframe by default

To view a different side and form of your drawing, just click on ‘Top’ and ‘2D Wireframe’ respectively, and a drop-down list where you can change the default side and form will appear. 

Figure 7. Different sides appearing after clicking on ‘Top’

Figure 8. Different forms appear after clicking on 2D Wireframe

10. View Cube – This is used for turning/rotating your drawing or model to view the different sides.

11. Navigation bar – This is used for navigation, panning, zooming, orbiting, and creating and viewing recorded cinematic motions.

12. Command Line – This shows the current action that you are undertaking. 

Figure 9. Command-line showing current action

In the above screenshot, we have selected to draw a circle and the command line displays ‘Circle Specify radius of a circle or [Diameter]:’. You can input the value of the circle’s diameter after the full colon and click enter to complete drawing the circle of the specified diameter.

When performing any task, be it to draw a line, a spline, or anything, the command line window will always display what you should do and what inputs you should input by stating the type of input in brackets just as [Diameter] was placed in the brackets.

13. Status bar – contains a range of menus including the workspace switching menu.

14. Workspace switching menu – This enables you to change certain aspects of the drawing area like Infer Constraints, Snap Mode, Orthogonal Mode,  Polar Tracking, Object Snap, 3D Object Snap, Object Snap Tracking, Allow/Disallow Dynamic UCS, Dynamic Input, Show/Hide Lineweight, Show/Hide Transparency, Quick Properties, Selection Cycling, and Annotation Monitor.

Making basic drawings using AutoCAD Mechanical

Selecting the units to use

Before starting any project, you should specify the units that you want to use. To do this you should type ‘Units’ (when you type anything it is typed in the command line window and the respective command is displayed. Click enter and select the units you want to use, the length type (e.g decimal, fractional, etc.), the length precision, the angle type, and the angle precision. 

Figure 10. Selecting units in AutoCAD Mechanical

For this guide, we shall use inches.

Drawing different shapes

Basic drawing start by drawing different shapes on the drawing area by either using the different tools found in the ‘Draw’ group of tools under the home tab in the ribbon or by typing the name of the shape you want to draw and press enter. 

For instance, if you want to draw a line you can click on the line tool or typing ‘line’ and clicking enter, and then positioning your cursor at the location you want to start drawing on the drawing area. 

If you want the line to be at a certain angle, type ’<’ after selecting the start point of your line and input the value of the angle you want and press enter. This will ensure that the line you shall draw by either moving your cursor or input length in the command line will be inclined at an angle of 30.

Once you complete using any of the drawing tools, you should click enter or ‘Esc to exit that tool to select another option

Modifying drawings

To modify any shape that you draw, you can use any of the tools in the ‘Modify’ group of tools under the Home tab in the ribbon. Alternatively, you can type the name of the ‘modify’ action you want to use and click enter and the command line shall direct you on what to do or input.

Some of the most commonly used ‘Modify’ tolls used include Move, Copy, Trim, Stretch, Mirror, and Scale.

For example, if you want to mode a shape or object, type ‘move’ and click enter or click on ‘move’ from the tools in the ‘Modify’ group of tools. As a beginner, follow the commands specified in the command line window.

Adding dimensions, texts, leader lines, and tables to your drawings

To add dimensions, texts, leader lines, and tables on your drawings, select what you want to add from the ‘Annotation’ group of tools under the Home tab in the ribbon and follow the commands specified in the command line window.

Taking measurements of various aspects on your drawings

To measure distances, angles, radius, area, or volume of your drawing in AutoCAD mechanical, simply click on ‘Measure’ in the ‘Utilities’ group of tools under the Home tab in the ribbon and select the type of measurement (e.g. distance) you want to take.

Then follow the commands shown on the command line window.

Saving your work in different CAD file formats

By default, the AutoCAD Mechanical saves files as .dwg files. Therefore, if you click on save you will be saving your drawing as a .dwg file.

To save your drawing in another format, simply click on the application menu button, scroll down to ‘Save As’  place your cursor on the arrow pointing to the right, and select other formats.

Figure 11. Saving drawing in different formats in AutoCAD Mechanical

Then proceed to input the name of your drawing and select the file format in which you want to save the drawing.

Figure 12. Selecting the file type to save your drawing

Saving your CAD drawing as a PDF

To save a PDF version of your CAD drawing using the AutoCAD Mechanical, simply click on the application menu button and scroll down to export and place your cursor on the arrow pointing to the right. Then select PDF and proceed to input the name of your PDF file and the location you want to save it.

LibreCAD history

LibreCAD was started as a project for incorporating CAM capabilities into the QCad so that it would be with the Mechmate CNC router.

QCad was initially built on Qt3 library which was becoming outdated and it had to be ported to a more advanced library, the Qt4, and its name was changed to CADuntu.

After a few months, the community decided that the name CADuntu was inappropriate and they changed it to LibreCAD. The CAD application has gone on to port to Qt5 which is even more advanced than the Qt4.

• Current stable release: LibreCAD v2.2.0-rc1
• License type: GPLv2
• Operating Systems: Windows, macOS, and Linux
• Developers: the LibreCAD community

LibreCAD uses and features

LibreCAD is used for producing orthogonal and isometric projections. The orthogonal projection is for creating 2D drawings while isometric projection allows users to represent their 3D models in 2D. Isometric projections are at times referred to as 2.5D drawings.

It is also a popular DWG and DXF file format viewer and users can also use it to save drawing in DXF, and SVG, among other formats.

One of its unique features/characteristics is that it has a very highly customizable interface that allows users to customize toolbars and menus.

Orientation

For you to easily learn LibreCAD, it is important to first understand what the various parts of its interface are used for.  Below is a screenshot showing the various parts of the LibreCAD interface.

Figure 1. LibreCAD v2.2.0-rc1 Interface (Source)

From the above screenshot, it is evident that there are six main parts of the LibreCAD interface namely Menu, Toolbars, Dock areas, Drawing Window, Command-Line, and Status Bar.

The menu provides access to the main application functions found in the various menus (File, Options, Edit, View, Plugins, Tools, Widgets, Drawings, and Help)

The toolbars provide access to the various drawing tools that you may require to perform the various drawing tasks.

Docks (also commonly referred to as Dock Widgets) provide access to the most preferred/used drawing tools and functions, which are docked there.

The status bar provides you (the user) with information about the current drawing operation. It has five sections:

• Coordinates – This is where the absolute coordinates and relative coordinates of the cursor are displayed as Cartesian and polar coordinates. The absolute coordinates are displayed on the left while the relative coordinates are displayed on the right.
• Next Action – Shows a prompt of the next action.
• Selected – show the number of entities selected and the total length selected
• Current Layer – Shows the current layer in use.
• Grid – Shows the major and minor grid spacing for the X and Y axes.

The drawing window is where the active drawing (the drawing that you are working on) is displayed.

Customizing LibreCAD Interface layout

LibreCAD layout and appearance are highly customizable and you can configure it to suit your taste by creating user-defined pop-up menus, customized Dock Widgets and Toolbars, and alternative visual effects of the interface window.

To create a user-defined pop-up menu, you simply click on Options -> Widgets -> Menu Creator. Once in the Menu creator, you should select the actions from the left side that you want to include in the customized menu (shown on the left). You should also input a name for the customized menu and once complete click on Create.

You can also modify or delete an existing menu by selecting it from the Name drop-down box.

Figure 2.Creating a customized menu

You should follow the same process (Options -> Widgets) to create a custom toolbar or Widget but choose Toolbar Creator and Widget Options instead of menu creator.

Starting to Draw using LibreCAD

To start using LibreCAD, open/start the application. You may want to check the version of LibreCAD you are using to be sure if it has all the recently updated features since it is a living CAD application that is constantly being updated by the LibreCAD community. 

To check the version of LibreCAD you are using, click on Help on the menu bar.

Once you are satisfied with the version you are using, you should go ahead and set your application preferences using Options -> Application Preferences -> Appearance. Here you can configure the background color to white or black or any other color that you wish to use.

Then go ahead and save the current document to ensure that your project is saved in a named document that you can easily access later. To save, go to File -> Save and input your preferred name.

Importing Freehand Sketches into LibreCAD

Most designers, architectures, and engineers start by drawing a freehand sketch of what they want to draw on a CAD application. 

LibreCAD provides an option of adding freehand drawn sketches; meaning you can draw your freehand sketch, scan it as an image, and insert it into LibreCAD for use in your drawing.

To do so you should:

• Draw a neat freehand sketch (if possible without texts).
• Scan the freehand sketch as an image.
• Click on File -> Import -> Insert Image. Or click on the ‘insert image’ tool icon on the toolbar on the left
• Select the file of your scanned freehand drawing.
• Position it where you want it to be (e.g. at the top of the drawing box).
• To view the image instead of the outline, you should view it in print preview or when the draft mode is turned off.

It is however important to note that LibreCAD only accepts bitmap images and you have to ensure that your scanned image is saved as a bitmap image before trying to import it to LibreCAD.

Drawing on LibreCAD

You can opt to use the toolbars or command line to perform drawing operations in LibreCAD. The command line is used when you want your drawing to be in a very precise position within the drawing window.

When using the toolbars, you may choose to create your custom toolbar containing the tools that you feel you need or you can use the toolbar on the left and the one at the bottom by default.

Figure 3. Snap tools toolbar

The toolbar on the left contains most of the tools you will require to draw while the toolbar at the bottom of the window contains snap tools.

Figure 4. Toolbar on the left

It is important to note that the icons shown on the toolbar on the left give a hint of what the tools under that icon are for. And for you to use any of the tools from the category under any tool icon, simply click on the down arrow below the specific icon and a drop-down menu containing all the available tools in that category shall appear.

For example, if you clicked at lines, you should see the following tools:

Figure 5. Line tools

It is also possible to access the tools by clicking on the Tool menu at the top of the window and then selecting the type of tools you want. In the case of line tools, you could click on Tools -> Line. If you want to see tools for drawing circles, Tools -> Circle, and so on.

You can now draw any 2D or 2.5D shape you want using LibreCAD by choosing any of the available tools depending on the drawing operation you intend to perform.

However, for you to produce professional drawings using LibreCAD, it is important to use layers.

Using Layers in LibreCAD

The ability to use layers is one of LibreCAD’s distinguishing features.

In a nutshell, layers help to organize drawings by ensuring that entities that have common attributes or functions are put on the same layer.

For example, an architect drawing a house would have a layer for walls named “Walls” in his/her floor plan drawing. He could decide to have several other layers for things like partitions, HVAC, electrical, grid lines, etc depending on what he/she wants to include on the drawing.

The advantage of using layers is that all pen attributes of the entities in a layer can be attributed to that specific layer and they can be overridden for the entities as a whole. For example, if the architecture has a layer named “Walls”, he/she can change the line thickness of all the walls by changing it in the “layer Settings”.

How to create a layer in LibreCAD

To create a layer, simply click on the blue plus (Add layer icon) in the layer list. Specify the layer name. Then specify the color, width, and line type of the layer and click OK.

Figure 6. Drawing showing different layers in LibreCAD

When creating layers, it is important to put all the construction details or attributes that you would not want to appear in the printout in a construction layer.

To create a construction layer, simply click on the box next to ‘Construction Layer’ when creating the layer. Below is a screenshot showing how a layer is created. 

Figure 7. Creating a layer in LibreCAD

To use any of the saved layers, click on it (you will notice it appears highlighted in grey). Then once you finish using it and want the entities to be drawn using another layer. You can go back to the normal drawing layer which is designated 0 in the  ‘Layer List’ or you can select another layer of your choosing.

Isometric drawing using LibreCAD

Isometric drawings allow you to represent 3D drawings in 2.5D drawings. To create an isometric drawing, you have to change the grid from a two-plane to a three-plane grid.

To do this:

• Click on edit on the top menu bar,
• Select current drawing preferences on the drop-down menu that appears,
• Select the grid tab on top in the pop-up box that appears,
• Click the isometric button in the grid options area that appears and click OK at the bottom of the area.

You should notice that there shall be more grid points since a third coordinate is added.

Figure 8. Isometric grid in LibreCAD

Conclusion

Besides being a completely free CAD software, it is also very simple to learn how to draw 2D and isometric drawings using LibreCAD. 

By using this guide, you should be able to learn LibreCAD in 1 Hour.

To help you start with using FreeCAD, Scan2CAD has compiled a comprehensive guide to help you learn FreeCAD basics in just 1 hour. After going through this guide, you should be able to perform most of the basic tasks in the various FreeCAD workbenches. In this guide, we shall mainly use FreeCAD 0.21.1 (although FreeCAD 0.18 shall also feature severally).

FreeCAD Download, Installation and Setup

How to Download FreeCAD

To download FreeCAD, follow the steps below:

1. Visit the organization’s website (FreeCAD.org)
2. Click on the Download tab to open the webpage containing the FreeCAD download files
3. Download the file by clicking on the download file that corresponds to your computer’s operating system (as mentioned, FreeCAD is available on Windows, macOS, and Linux)

The process of downloading FreeCAD is similar across the various operating systems. This is because the steps above download the FreeCAD installer or package, which is the file that contains the software. (However, Linux lets you download the software from the official repo.)

How to Install and Setup FreeCAD

While the process of downloading the software is similar for all operating systems, the installation process varies. This section will discuss how to install and set up FreeCAD on Windows, macOS, and Ubuntu Linux.

FreeCAD Installation and Setup on Windows

Once you have downloaded the FreeCAD installer for Windows, a .exe file, double-click on the file to launch the setup wizard. The wizard guides you through the installation of FreeCAD. The wizard lets you read through the license, choose the users for whom you want to install the software, choose the install location, and select the components you want to install alongside the software.

FreeCAD Installation and Setup on macOS

To install FreeCAD on macOS, open the .dmg package with the DiskImageMounter program. Then, drag and drop the software’s icon from the .dmg package into your applications folder. Alternatively, you can use a package manager like HomeBrew. Homebrew is meant to simply the installation of software on macOS. However, you must first download and install HomeBrew, which unnecessarily lengthens the installation process.

FreeCAD Installation and Setup on Ubuntu Linux

FreeCAD makes available the new releases of its software via AppImage packages. However, unlike .exe and .dmg files, AppImage files do not install the software and subsequently add it to your program files/applications folder. Instead, you have to make the AppImage file executable by checking the Allow executing file as program box on the Properties window. Alternatively, you can use terminal commands to make the file executable. With this property now set, you can launch FreeCAD by double-clicking its AppImage file.

Ubuntu Linux Permission Window (source)

Do note that there are other ways to download and install FreeCAD on Ubuntu Linux. For instance, you can download and install FreeCAD from the official Ubuntu repositories via the terminal. With this approach, the operating system resolves all dependencies and installs the necessary files.

Setting Preferences

FreeCAD lets you set preferences for how you want the software to work. Essentially, this feature allows you to customize various settings on the software. FreeCAD then applies those changes permanently – unless you reset them – in what ensures that the software automatically loads your preferred settings every time you open FreeCAD. This way, you do not have to make the changes every time you open the software.

To set your preferred settings, you have to open the Preferences window shown below. You can achieve this by clicking the FreeCAD menu (next to the Apple menu) on the menu bar > selecting Preferences on macOS or the Edit button > Preferences on Ubuntu Linux or Windows.

Preferences Window in FreeCAD

The Preferences window has various sections/panes, each with its own button. These sections combine related settings, simplifying the process of setting preferences. They include:

• General: It includes several tabs – General, Document, Selection, Cache, Notification Area, and Report View. Under these subsections, you can set the size of the toolbar icon, unit system, and number format, choose your preferred theme (preference pack), set the document save compression level, frequency with which FreeCAD should save AutoRecovery files, and the maximum number of files to keep when resaving documents, just to mention a few.
• Display: This section enables you to set display-related preferences like colors, the appearance of the navigation cube, and such rendering options as toggling anti-aliasing on or off and choosing the rendering type (whether perspective or orthogonal rendering).
• Workbenches: It lets you choose the workbenches you want FreeCAD to automatically load when starting up.
• Python: This section includes settings for the Python macro and Python scripting. Python macros let you use Python to perform simple or complex actions in FreeCAD that are not available in the base FreeCAD system.
• Import-Export: The Import-Export section includes settings that affect how files are imported and exported.
• Addon Manager: It lets you install additional workbenches.
• Start: The start section enables you to choose the start page options, e.g., the font type and size, link color, page text color, background color, and more. You also get to choose the workbench you want FreeCAD to automatically switch to after loading.
• Part Design: This section lets you customize the part design options, such as the shape view and shape appearance
• Sketcher: This section lets you customize the sketcher options like the colors of constraint symbols, dimensional constraints, and grid auto-spacing, just to mention a few.

Working with FreeCAD

Orientation

After installing the FreeCAD software, you shall need to understand the FreeCAD interface before starting to draw or model. That way, you shall know where to get the specific tools for performing certain tasks or where to look for certain things as you draw/model.

At the start, the interface may seem complicated, but with the help of this guide, we hope you shall be able to grasp most of the basic features of the interface. With practice, the features shall stick and you shall find it easier with time.

If you are familiar with other CAD software, you shall realize that the main buttons of ‘File’, ‘Edit’, ‘View’, ‘Tools’, ‘Windows’, and ‘Help’ will be found where you expect them to be. The only new button is probably the ‘Macro’ button, which we shall look at later in this guide.

When you open FreeCAD, you will be presented with the FreeCAD start center that looks like the screenshot below. The start center is a welcome screen and it has three tabs namely document, help, and activity. 

FreeCAD 0.21.1 Start Center

Starting a New Project

There are several ways to create or start a new project on FreeCAD. These include:

1. Using the FreeCAD keyboard shortcut CTRL+N
2. Click the File button on the menu at the top of the window and select New
3. Click the Create New button on the start page, which opens a new file

Upon starting a new project, the FreeCAD interface changes to the one shown in the image below. We shall start by identifying the various features of this FreeCAD interface.

Main Features of FreeCAD 0.21.1

The most important features to take note of include:

1. The Standard Menu that contains the 8 buttons of ‘File’, ‘Edit’, ‘View’, ‘Tools’, ‘Macro’, ‘Sketch’, ‘Windows’, and ‘Help’
2. The Workbench Selector
3. The Toolbar
4. Combo View area that include the tree view under model and tasks view
5. Main View area
6. The Navigation Cube

You can also add certain features, such as the Report View and Python Console, to the main window. To do this click View > Panels, then toggle on the Report View or Python Console.

FreeCAD Workbenches

FreeCAD groups toolbar buttons, menus, and other interface controls that are specific for certain specialties into different sets called workbenches. If you want to do some architectural modeling, you should use the ‘Arch’ workbench while if you want to draw and model some mechanical parts you can use the ‘Part’ workbench.

FreeCAD 0.21.1 Workbenches

You can look at it as one workshop that has separate workbenches (tables) with specific tools for different specialists.

FreeCAD workbenches

In this guide, we shall start with the ‘Part’ and ‘Part Design’ workbenches which are the most commonly used for designing components.

Building a 3D Object in FreeCAD

To build a 3D object, you would need to use the Sketcher and Part Design Workbenches. 

We shall start by using the Sketcher workbench to draw a 2D part. For this guide, we shall draw a square. We shall set the size of the sides by defining the length constraints.

We shall then open the Part Design workbench and use the 2D sketch drawn using the Sketcher workbench.  The steps followed as below:

1. Go to the workbench selector and scroll down to the sketcher workbench and click on it
2. Choose the sketch orientation plane you want to use, either XY, XZ, or YZ. 
3. Choose if you want an inverted orientation, and an offset from the base plane.
4. For this guide, we shall use the default plane and options.
5. Click OK and start constructing your sketch.
6. In the toolbar, select the square tool. It is important to note that the combo view will switch to the task panel in the Combo view.
7. Move your cursor towards the origin of the sketch, when the coincident constraint  icon appears, click and move your cursor to draw your square. You can edit the dimensions of the sides of the square to the desired length in the task panel.
8. Press ESC on the keyboard to exit the selected square tool.
9. Press the ‘Close’ button, the   Leave sketch icon on the toolbar, or press the ESC key on your keyboard twice to exit the Sketch editing.
10. Then go to the workbench selector and select Part Design workbench.
11. Select the sketch in the tree view and press ‘PartDesign Body’.
12. Select XY-plane and press ‘OK’.
13. Highlight the sketch and press ‘Pad’ .
14. Set your desired length and direction in the task panel under the pad parameters. 
15. Click OK.

When completed, you should have a solid box similar to the one shown below:

Properties of the box visible in the property section

You can see the properties of the box in the properties section.

After following through this example, you must have come across a variety of tools in the Sketcher and Part Design workbenches. Most of these tools do not require an explanation as to what they are used for since they have shapes suggestive of their work and when highlighted will display their name and a brief description of what they do. You could try drawing any other part using other tools.

Parametric Modeling in FreeCAD

Parametric modeling is a design paradigm that uses relations between dimensions across and within parts to define the geometry of features that make up the parts. Being relational, this design paradigm somewhat simplifies the creation of large projects. This is because by manually altering one or more dimension values, the software automatically adjusts all the dimensions that have relations to those altered values. As a result, the software automatically modifies the geometry of the entire model.

FreeCAD Model Tree

FreeCAD supports parametric modeling in a number of ways. First, it features a tree view in the Model tab. Also known as the model tree, the tree view is, by and large, a history tree that shows all the sequences and steps involved in creating features. It also captures all the changes and relations made by the user and stores data associated with any modifications to the geometry.

To better illustrate the role of the tree view in parametric modeling, let us consider a model created in five steps. FreeCAD names these steps according to the tool used. For instance, if you have created a sketch, then that step will be named Sketch. If you use the Pad command, then that step will be named Pad. (You can rename the steps to better reflect what you are creating.)

Given that the steps are anchored parametric relationships, you can always go back to step 1 to modify the sketch, for example, even when you have reached step 5. And the changes you will make to the objects by going back to step 1 will automatically reflect in the model at all stages of the modeling process.

FreeCAD Spreadsheet Workbench

Secondly, FreeCAD has a Spreadsheet workbench. This workbench allows you to create and edit spreadsheets, populating the sheets with data such as the dimensions of the model. You can then use these data as parameters in the model. This means you do not have to define the dimensions while creating the model. Instead, you can populate the spreadsheet with the dimensions. Then, using the mathematical expression editor, you can create relationships between the model and the values in the spreadsheet.

Saving Files in FreeCAD

You can choose to assign a name for your newly created FreeCAD file by clicking File > Save As or hitting the CTRL+S keyboard shortcut. Next, type out a name, choose the folder you want the file to be saved, and, finally, click Save. By default, FreeCAD saves the files using the FCStd file format. 

Exporting Files in FreeCAD

To save the files using other supported file formats on FreeCAD – such as DXF, DWG, IDES, STEP, STL, SVG, VRML, and more – you have to use the Export command. Wondering how to export files in FreeCAD? The process is quite simple; it involves the following steps:

1. Select all the solids you want to export. You can achieve this by manually selecting the objects or using the CTRL+A keyboard shortcut
2. Click the File button and select Export or use the CTRL+E keyboard shortcut
3. Choose the file format to which you want to export your project
4. Click Save

Importing Files into FreeCAD

To import files into FreeCAD, follow the steps below:

1. Create a new FreeCAD project
2. Switch to the workbench that best represents the model you want to import
3. Click the File button and select Import or use the CTRL+I keyboard shortcut
4. In the file explorer window, navigate to the location of the file you want to import and double-click on that file to import it
   If you have imported mesh formats like STL/OBJ, which are dimensionless, scale the model after converting it to a solid. You can also scale the model in the application it was created with prior to exporting it. Scaling is essential because FreeCAD assumes that the units used in the model are millimeters.

Common Tools in Various FreeCAD Workbenches and Their Function

Sketcher workbench

Sketcher workbench commonly used tools

Part Design Workbench

Part Design workbench commonly used tools

You can also select create a new sketch in Part Design workbench to access all the tools from Sketcher workbench. The Part workbench contains tools that are similar to those in the Part Design workbench.

With practice, you will get acquainted with more advanced tools from the workbenches you frequently use.

Navigating in the 3D view

Once you build your 3D object, you will need to move it around or rotate it to work on specific features or sides/faces.

To do so, you will need to first understand the FreeCAD 3D view space, which is a Euclidean space, meaning it has an origin point and three axes namely X, Y, and Z.

Euclidean space axes

To navigate in the 3D view, you can choose to use the mouse, keyboard shortcuts, or the Navigation Cluster.

You can Pan, Rotate or Zoom and even select different objects or screens using the different FreeCAD navigation modes that are accessed from the Preferences screen or by right-clicking on the 3D view area.

FreeCAD navigation styles

The navigation styles in FreeCAD include OpenInventor, CAD, Revit, Blender, MayaGesture, Touchpad, Gesture, and OpenCascade.

Navigating using the Mouse

To use the mouse to navigate, right-click on the 3D view area and select the navigation style you want, and use the operations outlined in the screenshot below for the different navigations modes

Mouse navigation in FreeCAD (source)

Navigating using keyboard shortcuts

View the full list of FreeCAD keyboard shortcuts. 

Navigating using the Navigator Cluster

FreeCAD navigator cluster

This can be used to rotate the object around. When the mouse hovers about a certain point on the navigator cluster, it turns blue. If it is the side you want to see or use to rotate click it and hold and move in the direction you want to rotate or simply click if it a face you want to view.

Basic Troubleshooting

1. FreeCAD Freezes or Crashes during Operation

FreeCAD is known to freeze, with many a user reporting online the circumstances under which the software froze. The software can freeze for several reasons, including incorrect usage of the workbenches and tools, snap-related issues (on Ubuntu), graphics driver-related issues, OS-specific issues, and more. Given the varied nature of these reasons, there is a compilation of OS-specific issues on the FreeCAD forum, complete with workarounds. If you cannot fix the issue using the recommendations therein, consider posting your issue on the forum.

2. FreeCAD Cannot Open or Save CAD files

In cases where you encounter errors when writing files to network devices or your computer does not use the .FCStd file extension on saving (in Ubuntu), open the Parameter editor, navigate to BaseApp/Preferences/Dialog, and create a Boolean parameter called DontUseNativeDialog and set it to true.

If you are using ChromeOS, ensure you have turned off GPU acceleration. Failure to disable this option presents the following problem: FreeCAD will stop responding when it tries to create or open a file. FreeCAD may also fail to start or open files if it is running on hybrid systems (computers that use two distinct GPUs). In such a case, you may need to change the driver settings.

3. Objects Are not Visible in the 3D view

Whenever you create a new sketch for a part or body, FreeCAD automatically hides the object. A hidden object is displayed on the model tree as a grayed-out icon. To make it visible, click on the object you want to make visible and tap the space bar. This action toggles between visible and invisible. If the object, which can be a part that makes up a body, is still not visible when you hit the space bar, that could be due to the fact that the body is not visible. To solve this issue, click on the body and press the space bar.

4. Trouble Installing or Updating FreeCAD

If you are having trouble installing or updating FreeCAD, consider alternative installation methods. If on macOS, try using HomeBrew. If on Ubuntu Linux, use the sudo apt command.

Sometimes, on Windows, you may encounter system errors that prevent the installation of FreeCAD. If you encounter a system error such as “The code execution cannot proceed because MSVCP140_1.dll was not found,” for instance, reinstall the missing file to fix the problem.

5. Error Message When Trying to Perform a Task

If FreeCAD presents an error message, simply search online for its meaning. In the event that there are no writeups on the problem, post a question on the FreeCAD forum. This approach is the most feasible, given that you could encounter plenty of error messages.

Practice Exercises

YouTube is home to numerous practice exercises and tutorials for new – and seasoned – users of FreeCAD. Here are several models you can try out to familiarize yourself with the various tools and workbenches:

• Exhaust header and exhaust manifold
• FreeCAD assembly
• Pipe junction
• Shuttlecock
• Bevel gear
• Nut

You can also try out our list of the top 20 CAD 3D models.

Additional Resources and Tutorials

The official website links to a wiki page that contains numerous FreeCAD tutorials. These tutorials discuss how FreeCAD is used in various fields, including architecture and building information modeling (BIM), drafting and sketching, technical drawings, finite element model analysis, CNC and 3D printing, rendering, scripting, and robotics. They also discuss how to create models that are specific to these fields.

You can also check out various creators’ YouTube channels for videos that discuss how to use FreeCAD’s features and tools. One such channel is Joko EngineeringHelp, which has published a comprehensive video titled “Complete Beginners Guide to Part Design.” To access other videos, type “FreeCAD tutorial” on the YouTube search bar. Beyond the video tutorials, you can check out users’ posts on the FreeCAD forum

Conclusion

FreeCAD may seem hard to learn especially due to the many workbenches. But on the contrary, it is one of the CAD software that has a favorable learning curve. With this guide, you can learn FreeCAD basics in just an hour.

Getting to understand how to effectively navigate and use CAD software applications with a plethora of features and tools such as CATIA is quite difficult. To make the learning curve easier, Scan2CAD creates comprehensive guides that would help acquaint you with the basics of CAD software applications in just one hour. 

In this article, we would be looking at CATIA’s capabilities, features, and tools available. We will also talk about its graphical user interface (GUI) and the basics of modeling. 

CATIA’S CAPABILITIES 

To understand a software application, the first thing you must know is what the software can do, that is, its capabilities. These capabilities can be classified under Mechanical Engineering, Systems Engineering, Electrical Systems, Fluid Systems, and Design. 

Mechanical Engineering 

The design of parts of assemblies has been made so easy by CATIA as it provides tools for the formation of 3-dimensional elements, 2D drawings, and sheet metal.

Systems 

CATIA’s engineering solution gives a detailed open development platform that covers various disciplines. Disciplines like simulation, modeling, verification, and business process support. 

Electrical Systems 

The software’s V5 version offers electrical schematic definitions, requirement capture, and also interactive 3D routing of wire harness and industrial cables. With this capability, there is no longer the use of physical prototypes as designs are done in the context of full production, therefore reducing the cost of production. 

Fluid Systems 

The manufacture and design of routed systems like piping, tubing, and HVAC have been made easier with CATIA V5. The software offers a platform for specification-driven design tools that make them up to industry standards. 

Design

With the ICEM surfacing technologies embedded in CATIA, the design toolset offers solutions for designing various shapes, styling, visualization, and for surfacing workflow.

Before You Get Started

As we now know what Catia can do, we would need to get familiar with some things before going to the Graphical User Interface. CATIA has 5 main file formats; CATPart used for the design of parts with the .CATPart extension; CATProduct, used in assembly design with the .CATProduct extension; CATDrawing with the .CATDrawing extension; cgr (for faceted representation) with the .cgr extension; and 3dxml (lightened representation) with the .3dxml file extension.

Launchscreen 

After launching CATIA, you first come in contact with the launchscreen. The launchscreen is relatively straightforward compared to other CAD software. 

At the top left corner of the screen is the menu bar. The menu bar contains the start menu, which is used for selecting applications such as part design, product structure, assembly design, and others; the file menu, used for the creating, opening, saving, and printing of files; the view menu, for displaying workbench specific toolbars and list of commands which would be mentioned later in the article. You can also find the windows menu used in changing to your desired windows; the help menu is very useful in understanding CATIA. It provides a ‘getting started’ guide with different informations on workbenches, products, and solutions. 

CATIA’s Launchscreen

Getting Started

CATIA offers several applications/workbenches such as part design, assembly design, drafting, sketcher, wide frame and surface, and others. The interfaces of these applications are somewhat similar to each other. For the tutorial, we are going to be using the party design application. The part design application is used in the creation of precise 3D models of machine parts. 

Now we are going to open a new part document. To do this, we go to the menu bar and click on the file menu. You then see different options like new, open, close; click on new. This opens a dialogue box showing different document types (drawing, part, product, assembly). Select the part document type and click OK to confirm your selection. After this is done you should enter the part name that you want to be displayed, in this case, part 1. Enter OK again to confirm the part creation. Another way of creating a new document is by going to the start menu. Select the mechanical design then click on the part design to create the part document. As these have been done, the next thing to do is to set the units. To set the units, click on the view menu and select options. After that, click on general. Then parameters and measurements. Your units can be set there. 

Units dialogue box

Part Creation Window

The part creation window is somewhat similar to that of the launchscreen. At the top of the window the name of the part that you imputed. Directly below the part name are drop-down menus. The drop-down menus contain all the application controls that would help you in performing tasks such as modifying options, file manipulation, changing windows, editing, getting help, and so on. 

Below this menu bar is the specification tree. Also called the history tree, it helps you neatly organize and record every part you create using the parent-child relationship. It eases future modification of parts. 

The mid-section of the screen is the drawing area. This area occupies about 60% of the part creation window and is where the main modeling is done.  Below the drawing area are some shortcuts to various tools such as save, new file, view tools and others. You will also find a tooltip bar that displays messages whenever the cursor is above a tool. 

At the right hand of the screen are various toolbars. These workbenches are given in accordance with the current application chosen. At the top right is an icon of the application opened (part). 

Then there is the sketcher toolbar, used for the creation and constraining of 2-dimensional geometries. This toolbar has sub-tools under, they are: profile toolbar, used in the creation of geometries like rectangles, circles, lines, splines, and others; the constraint toolbar, used when constraining your with dimensional or geometrical constraints such as distance, length, angles, tendency coincidence, parallelism, and perpendicularity; operation toolbar, used in modifying the profiles created with commands such as trim, mirror, and other commands; sketch tools toolbar, used when you want to work in different modes like shape to point and construction geometry.

The pad toolbar. This is used for adding material in the third direction asides that of the sketch. The creation can be done by extruding an open or closed profile. Specified data can also be added to modify the pad. 

Below that is the pocket toolbar. The pocket toolbar somewhat has an opposite function to that of the pad. It is used in removing the material of an already created part. 

The shaft toolbar is for making shaft-like parts like an Axel or a drive shaft. In the creation, an axis around which the sketch will revolve is needed. 

After that is the rib toolbar. This toolbar adds material alongside a guide curve already created by you. Used in the making of parts such as springs and pipes. 

Then there is an advanced extrusion toolbar having sub toolbars, stiffener, and solid combine. 

It should be noted that these toolbars can be selected and edited from the view menu in the menu bar at the top of the screen. 

Part creation window 

Drawing and modeling 

Now that you are acquainted with CATIA’s interface and how to open a new document, let’s go to the drawing proper. Modeling of any part on the software must start with a sketch, no matter how complex the part may be. For the sake of this tutorial, we are going to model a pipe. To begin, you click on the sketcher toolbar. Then you choose the plane at the drawing area on which you want the sketch to be. As soon as you select your plane, the different sketcher toolbars are displayed. Click on the profile toolbar and select the circle. You then click on the center point of the plane and drag out to form the circle then click again. After that, click on the constraint toolbar. A constraint dialogue box appears. Set a diameter 80mm then click OK to confirm the selection. When this has been done, exit the workbench and go ahead to click the pad toolbar. Set your depth (90mm) in the pad definition dialogue box that appears on the screen. Since it’s a pipe we are modeling, we would need to have a smaller circle for the hollow. Go back to sketch and follow the same process for creating the circle but with a smaller diameter of 60mm. With this done, click on the pocket command and set the depth which should be the same as the pad depth. 

Recommended resources 

Being a highly advanced software with numerous packages and capabilities, CATIA is mostly used by professionals. You have now been acquainted with the basics of the software which is a solid foundation to becoming a professional user. To further your learning and mastering of CATIA, we have provided you the following links.

Tutorials Engineer YouTube channel 

CATIA V5 basics

Ignitecast

Solid professor CATIA tutorial 

Onshape’s SaaS model makes it different from traditional CAD software. This can make navigating the software a problem, even for experienced CAD users. For this reason, we at Scan2CAD have created this compact guide that would intimate you about Onshape’s capabilities, basic concepts, how to navigate the software’s GUI, designing and many more, in as little as one hour.

Onshape capabilities

The first things to learn about software are its capabilities and features. The main features of Onshape can be broadly classified into the following. CAD, Data management, Collaboration tools, Security and Audit controls, Analytics and Reporting, and Integration and Partners.

Using the CAD features, you can model complex parts, create well-structured assemblies, and produce highly detailed working drawings. You can also import and export data of various formats. In addition to these, the CAD features include standard content libraries.

Data management is very important in design as it can save a lot of design time. The Data management features of Onshape are so comprehensive that you don’t need a separate PDM (Product Data Management) software. These features enable you to handle release management, version control, advanced flow works, bill of materials, branching and merging and product data with ease.

Collaboration is a core aspect of Onshape and this is evident in its Collaboration tools. These tools allow several stakeholders in a project to collaborate with the lead designer in real-time. You can grant real-time access to design files to customers, design teams, business associates, and vendors. You can also share your finished designs with stakeholders or the general public for viewing, commenting, or editing. 

Security and audit control. With Onshape, every step of your design process is saved and logged. Whether it is an edit, a modification, or an alteration, the activity is tracked and recorded for review or reversal. Onshape does not store data as files, but as virtual documents in databases (cloud-hosted databases); therefore greater monitoring and control are guaranteed.

Onshape recognizes its limitations in certain aspects of design. This way, the software allows you to make up for these limitations using Integration and Partners. Using partner apps from the Onshape App Store, you can increase the functionality of Onshape to include simulation, CAM, and many other features.

Before You Get Started (Basic Concepts)

In Onshape, all data is stored in the cloud and so the software does not make use of files. Thus, Onshape has no native file format. All design data is stored in Documents. A Document is not a CAD file, rather it’s a project-level container that can contain any type of information related to one or more projects, such as assemblies, subassemblies, parts, drawings, imported parts and any other project-related data such as PDFs, images, and videos. When you open a document, all related data are arranged as tabs within the document window. If for example, you have a project to design a bicycle, you don’t need to open separate files for parts, assemblies, drawings, etc. All you need to do is open a document and utilize the different tabs to switch between interfaces.

Documents keep all your data together in one place to make projects easier for you to manage. There’s also what is known as Folders. A folder can contain more than one document. It helps to keep individual documents organized and clutter-free.

While Onshape has no native file format, the software allows you to import and export files in various industry-standard file formats. Since Onshape is cloud-based, you need to sign in on a compatible browser to start using the software.

The launch screen

The first page you see after signing in to Onshape is the Documents Page. Whatever page you are in Onshape, just click the Onshape logo (1) in the top left corner to return to the Documents page at any time. The Documents Page is where you view and manage all your Documents.  These include both documents created by you and documents shared with you by other users. Note that for documents not created by you, access may be limited by permissions as set by the creator. The Document Page layout is customizable and would remain in the last setup until it is changed.

In the middle portion (2) of the screen is displayed the Document list. This area can be collapsed or expanded if you wish. Folders can be used as one method of managing Documents. Any other Documents that are not in a Folder are displayed at the bottom, with the most recently modified appearing at the top. The Document list includes all the Documents you have access to. If you want to filter this list to show only Documents created by you, shared with you or recently opened you can use the filters explained below.

Down the left-hand side of the page, under the create icon, are your Document filters (3) with which you can limit and group the number of documents displayed at a time.

• When the “My Onshape” filter is active, every Document and Folder that you have access to (whether created by you or shared with you) is listed and divided into three sections.
• The “Recently Opened” filter makes it easy to find and open a recent Document so you carry on where you left off.
• “Created by me” lists only documents that you created yourself.
• “Shared with me” displays only documents that were created by others and shared with you.
• “Public” lists all documents that have been shared publicly by other Onshape users.
• “Trash” displays your deleted documents.

Other filters such as “Teams”, “Labels”,  “Google Drive”, and “Dropbox” would be available if/when you: are part of a team, create labels, integrate Google Drive, and Integrate DropBox respectively. In addition to the filters, there are also Sort buttons (4) that allow you to arrange the displayed documents by name, date modified, and modifier.

Each Document listing shows you a thumbnail image, the Document name, and last opened Workspace, any labels that have been added, when the Document was last modified and by whom, and the Document owner. To interact with a document, click on the document to highlight it. Once highlighted, you can share, trash, or label a document using the appropriate buttons at the top right corner (5)

Clicking a Document will also display more information in the Details panel (7) (also known as the Details flyout, as it can be toggled on or off, and can be resized) on the right, including a description and a detailed list of who the Document has been shared with and their access permissions. The Details panel also contains the Share details icon and the Versions and history icon (8).

If you right-click on a Document a menu appears allowing you to open, rename, copy, move, transfer ownership, copy workspace, or trash that Document. You can also select multiple Documents at the same time by holding down either the Control key on Windows or the Command key on Mac or the Shift key to select many at once. The right-click context menu now only allows you to set labels, move the Documents to a folder or send them to Trash

To open a Document, left-click the Document name or double-click the thumbnail image or anywhere within the highlighted area. 

You can change the way Documents are displayed in the Documents page, switching between list view and grid view using the appropriate icons (6) in the top right corner. Each tile displays the same information but in a larger format to make it easier to browse your Documents. 

At the top of the Document page is the Document search bar (9). This feature makes it very easy to find things in Onshape. To search,  type in a partial name and press enter. Search will find Documents, Parts, Assemblies, and Drawings or any file that matches the name you typed in. To streamline the search, click on the small arrow in the search bar to drop down the search menu. Here you can further limit your search by type, name, description, etc.

Note that if a filter is activated, only documents, parts, assemblies, or any other files that fall under the filter category will be displayed in the search results. For example, if you only want to search Documents that were created by you, click the filter first before entering a search term.

In the top left corner is the Create button with 4 options (10). One to create a new Document, one to upload either a 3D model from another CAD system or any of the other file types we saw earlier, one to create a new Folder and one to create a new Label.

Finally, in the top right corner, there are buttons in the title bar to access the Onshape App Store (for complementary applications such as rendering, simulation, and CAM), and the Onshape Learning Center (11). A bell icon that indicates notifications can be found on the title bar. There is also the help menu and then your profile picture and account preferences menu. These last two options may look different depending upon which level of Onshape subscription you have.

Getting started

Completing your profile and setting your default units and mouse controls is an important first step.

To set your preferences, click your name in the top right corner of the screen and select Manage Account. Here you can set your name, forum name, and nickname which is your name as it will appear in the top right corner. If you share a document or are working on the same document as someone else at the same time, then this is how your name will be seen by them. The Bio section displays more information about yourself in the forum and is optional. If you make a change and press Update profile, then those changes take effect immediately.

You can also add an image of yourself by clicking the change button under the avatar at the top of the page. Using a picture is very useful if you are collaborating on a Document with several other users at the same time.

Under the preferences menu down the left-hand side, you can set your default units and view manipulation preferences.

The unit settings here apply to new documents only, any existing documents or documents that have been shared with you will not be affected by these settings. You can also select the number of decimal places you want to see when creating sketches, features, parts, and assemblies.

The view manipulation settings alter the way you interact with a 3D model in Onshape. In Onshape, you rotate a model using the 3rd mouse button, pan a model using the middle mouse button, and zoom in by scrolling the mouse wheel up and zoom out by scrolling it down.

If you’re a seasoned user of a traditional CAD system, you can change these settings by selecting the CAD system you would like to mimic and all the mouse controls will be set to these preferences every time you use Onshape. Press save view manipulation settings when done.

All these settings apply to your account, so every time you log in to Onshape, from any device, these settings will remain until you decide to change them.

The Creation Graphical User Interfaces

To begin working in Onshape, create a Document or open an existing one. For this guide, we’ll be opening an existing document. The first interface you come across after opening a document is the Part Studio.

One of the fundamental differences between Onshape and other CAD systems is the Part Studio. It’s called a Part Studio because you can create more than one part at a time and add robust relationships between them. When there are more than part in a Part Studio, it’s called a subassembly and all the parts are fixed relative to each other. To add motion, you need to create an actual assembly.

When you open a new Part Studio, it will contain just an origin and three orthogonal planes (12)  labeled top, front, and right. In a finished design, you will see more features below these that are the building blocks or the recipe that was used to create each part. Each feature is built in order and listed in the Feature List (13).

The origin and the planes should be used to help you add design intent to your parts. The origin can be used to locate the center of an important feature, like a bore, and the planes can be used to infer symmetry.

These features can be hidden at any time by clicking the eye icon (14) in the feature list. To hide or show all planes at once, use the keyboard shortcut, P.

Above the Feature list is the Feature toolbar (15). This shows you the available commands and is context-sensitive, so in a Part Studio it will show you feature creation tools, and in a sketch, assembly, or drawing, it will show you tools applicable to the task at hand. The wider your screen, the more tools will be shown at once. If your browser window is narrower the tools will be collapsed into groups with pull-down menus.

In the center of course is the large graphics area (16). This is where all your design work is done.

The View Cube (17) in the top right corner of the graphics area can be used to help you understand your current orientation and help you manipulate your model. First, you can see the orientation of the XYZ coordinate system, which is useful when taking measurements from your model. If you click on one of the named faces of the cube, your view will be oriented with the selected face normal to the screen. Clicking around the outside of a face selects the face behind it, so it’s a quick and easy way to rotate your model 180 degrees. Clicking one of the corners of the cube will take you to an isometric view, clicking the small arrows at the top, bottom, left, and right will rotate your model in those directions, and the two curved arrows rotate your model normal to the screen.

Below the View Cube is the View Tools icon (18). Here you can rotate your model to an isometric, dimetric or trimetric view, save a named view, zoom your model to fit the screen or zoom in, turn Perspective view on or off, and choose from a selection of shading modes.

The Part Studio is where you create parts, create assemblies, produce 2D working drawings, create folders to organize your tabs, and import files such as images and videos or 3D files from other CAD systems. The interfaces to do all these are different. To access these interfaces, all you need to do is add tabs, also known as elements, by clicking on the + icon (19) in the bottom left corner of the studio. This way, you can easily switch between interfaces using the tabs (20)  at the bottom of the screen. The Part Studio is itself a tab; the first that is encountered when a document is opened.

Learn Further

Now that you have mastered the basics of Onshape as well as how to navigate the software, your foundation is strong. Continue your journey to Onshape mastery via any of the following learning platforms.

• Onshape learning center
• Lynda
• Plural sight

Due to its many capabilities and high functionality, first-time users often find Creo difficult to navigate, regardless of previous experience with other CAD software. There is so much to learn about what Creo’s features are and how to use them, that learning to use the software can be quite daunting. To make your learning process much easier, we at Scan2CAD have created this compact, comprehensive, and intuitive article that will familiarize you with all the basics of Creo in as little as one hour. This article covers the software’s capabilities, tools, features, and graphical user interface (GUI). It also covers certain procedures and concepts, as well as the basics of modeling in Creo.

Creo capabilities

The first thing you need to learn about a software program is what the software can do. You need to be able to answer the question, “what can Creo do?”. So what are Creo’s features, capabilities, features, and tools? Creo’s features can be classified into modeling and design, simulation and analysis, CAM, product data management, performance advisor, and technical illustrations.

Modeling and design

Creo’s modeling and design features allow you to create detailed 3D prototypes in a virtual environment. You can do this using one of two approaches, direct modeling in which you can pull and push directly on geometry, and parametric modeling in which all components are related and a change in one will result in a change in all. Creo‘s capabilities under 3D design are as follows.

• 2D Drawing
• Model-Based Definition
• Design Exploration
• Sheet Metal Design
• Mechanism Design
• Structural Framework & Weld Design
• Fastener Design
• Human Factors Design
• Routed Systems Design
• Smart Connected Design
• Concept Design
• Plastic Part Design
• Industrial Design
• Reverse Engineering
• Multi-CAD
• Rendering & 3D Animation
• Assembly Management & Performance

Simulation and analysis

With Creo, you can carry out several advanced analysis on your model in real-life conditions using the following analysis.

• Structural Analysis
• Thermal Analysis
• Motion Analysis
• Mold Fill Analysis
• Fatigue Analysis
• Creepage & Clearance Analysis

Using these tools, you can save 30-50% of your design time as you can skip physical tests.

CAM

Creo bridges the gap between 3D CAD and manufacturing, especially for 3D printing. Now you can design for 3D printing without errors, validate and optimize your design, and carry out a print check, all in one environment. This greatly reduces time, effort, and errors. You can also print directly from the Creo environment. All you need to do is send your design directly to a compatible printer. In addition to 3D printing capabilities, Creo is especially useful in designing parts for CNC manufacturing. With this software’s NC and tooling capabilities, you can achieve the highest level of precision and quality in as little time as possible. Creo’s CAM features can be classified as follows. 

• Additive Manufacturing
• Tool & Die Design
• Production Machining

Product data management 

On average, engineers and designers lose a whopping 25% of their product development time to data management. This time is spent updating systems, sharing data, searching for files, and recreating data. With Creo’s cloud-based PDM capabilities, you can easily manage, share, and review data.

Technical illustrations

These features allow you to produce highly detailed 3D technical illustrations, 2D drawings, and animations that correctly project product configurations. The core features of technical illustrations are 3D animation, isometric viewing, CAD file conversions, part lists, 2D detailing and annotation, and CAD data reuse.

Before you get started

Now that we know what Creo can do, and before we explore its graphical user interface (GUI), there are some things about Creo that we need to familiarise ourselves with. Various file types can be created in Creo and each of these files have different GUIs, and also different subtypes. These files are as follows.

Sketch files are 2D sketches of a model. The features in this file’s window allow you to create detailed 2D drafts using various tools such as line, arc, circle, polygon, paint, and dimension. The sketch window is a 2D drafting interface.

Part files with .prt file extension are individual 3D models. A part file is a single component which may be standalone, such as a cup, or part of an assembly, such as a piston. Subtypes of the part file in Creo are solid, sheet metal, and bulk.

Assembly files, on the other hand, are 3D models of assemblies of various individual parts. The piston given as an example above is an individual part but comes together with other individual parts such as connecting rods and shafts to form an assembly of a motor engine. Assembly files have the .asm file extension.

The .drw drawing files are 2D drawings of modeled parts in Creo. Drawing files are drafting documents that contain annotations, detailed dimensions, part lists, title blocks, and various views of a model such as isometric and orthographic. There are several templates for drawing files available in Creo.

Launch screen user interface

When you launch Creo, you first come across the launch screen. The launch screen is relatively simple compared to most CAD software. There are three major portions of the launch screen. The menu bar, the PTC browser, and the navigation panel.

At the topmost area of the screen is located the menu bar. The menu of the launch screen contains some useful commands such as New, to start a new project; Open, to open an existing session; Open last session, to open the session you were last working on; Select working directory, to choose file destination; Appearance settings, for editing both system settings and model display settings; and other useful commands. In addition to these, there is the familiar File button which drops down various commands, and the quick access toolbar, both attached to the menu bar.

Launch screen menu bar

To the left of the screen is the navigator which contains the Model tree, Favorite folder, and the Folder browser.

Launch screen navigation panel

In the middle of the launch screen, taking up the largest area is the PTC browser. The browser launches automatically whenever you launch Creo. However, you can hide or show the browser to reveal space, using the browser icon at the bottom left corner of the launch screen.

PTC Creo browser

Getting started

As we stated earlier, the different file types in Creo have different Interfaces. This means that the window for creating a part is different from the window for creating an assembly or a drawing. For the majority of design projects, the creation of parts is usually the first step. Because of this, and also because we are dealing with the basics, we will only be focusing on the part creation GUI.

To create a part from scratch, click on the New icon on the menu bar, the quick access toolbar, or in the drop-down of the file button. This opens a dialogue box displaying the file types in Creo. Select Part and choose the subtype. Next, input the design name, which is the name the part file will bear, and common name, which is like a model description. At the bottom of the dialogue box is a checkbox to use the default template for the file type you have selected. We recommend that you uncheck this box before clicking OK so that you can modify the template to suit your preferences.

Dialog box containing part file types

After unchecking the box, click OK to be directed to another dialogue box from which you can select from several templates. A template has to do with which standard (ANSI, ISO, etc) and unit of measurement you will work with. In this dialogue box, you can input your name as the designer of the project. This time, we recommend that you check the Copy associated drawings checkbox, as this will ensure that your selected template for the part is reflected in its associated drawings. Next, click OK to be redirected to the main Part drawing interface/window.

Part creation window

Similar to the launch screen, the part creation window is roughly divided into three distinct sections, the Feature ribbon, the navigation panel, and the drawing area.

The navigation panel just like in the launch screen is located to the left of the window. It contains three tabs, the model tree, the folder browser, and the favorite folder.

Located just above the Feature ribbon is the quick access toolbar. It contains some commonly used commands like new, open, save, redo, and undo. The quick access toolbar also contains your most frequently used tools.

The feature ribbon contains all the tools and features you need to model, analyze, view, interact with, and edit your model. It is located at the top of the screen, just below the quick access toolbar. The tools and features in the feature ribbon are neatly organized into panels, with the panels themselves organized into tabs. Each tab is dedicated to a particular procedure in your part creation process. The tabs in the Feature ribbon are model, analysis, annotate, render, tools, view, flexible modeling, and applications.

The Model tab contains the bulk of the modeling tools. Using the tools in this tab, you can sketch, extrude, apply shapes, add features, place patterns, edit, change planes, modify surfaces, and more. The tools are organized into the following panels; operations, get data, datum, shapes, engineering, edit, surfaces and model intent.

The next tab is the Analysis tab. This tab contains tools that allow you to perform various measurements and perform various types of simulation and analysis of your model. The panels in this tab are manage, custom, model report, measure, inspect geometry, and design study.

The Annotate tab comes next. This tab is for creating 3D annotations, especially if you use model-based definitions. The tools in the annotate tab are organized into panels as follows; combination states, association planes, manage annotations, annotation features, datum, and annotations.

Following the annotate tab is the render tab. The tools in this tab enable you to create high-quality photo-realistic images of your model. This allows you to view the real-life appearance of your model while it is still in the design stage. The panels in this tab include appearance, perspective render. and setup.

In line with its name, the Tools tab contains numerous tools and commands for various purposes such as find, publish geometry, and model planner. The tools in this tab are organized into three panels; investigate, model interior, and utilities.

The View tab has a variety of tools needed to modify the visibility and appearance of both your model and the modeling window. You can zoom, pan, change appearance, and preview. The panels in the view tab are visibility, orientation, model display, show, and window.

Next is the Flexible modeling tab which allows you to incorporate direct modeling techniques into Creo.

Finally, we have the Applications tab. This tab allows you to switch to other different modules such as PTC math CAD for doing engineering mathematics.

Back to the part creation window. The centrally located drawing area makes up about 60% of the part creation window. This is where you carry out the actual modeling. The drawing area is the canvas on which you draw, model, simulate, detail, interact with your model, and on which your project is displayed. You can zoom in/out the drawing area almost infinitely.

At the bottom of the Drawing area is the status bar where you can show or hide the navigation plane and Creo browser. You can also find Action history where all your actions in a particular project are recorded.

Basics of modeling in Creo

Having familiarized ourselves with the part interface, we can now proceed to the actual modeling. In Creo, any part no matter how complex begins with a sketch. To begin modeling, click on Sketch in the Model tab. Next, select a plane in the drawing area. After you’ve selected a plane, the Sketch button will expand into a tab of its own, revealing several sketching tools like circle, line, arc, and rectangle. Click on any of this and then click on any point on the drawing area. Drag your mouse to determine the size of the shape you selected. Repeat these steps, selecting and adding different shapes until you form the base shape of your model. Click on OK to finish sketching and to reactivate the model tab where you can extrude the shape by any desired length. From here you can add holed, fillet, add patterns, sketch on the model surface, curve, sweep, and many more.

Recommended resources

Creo is a highly functional 3D modeling software with thousands of features and tools. This article has covered the basics, providing you with an excellent foundation for Creo mastery. To learn more about Creo and become a Creo professional, visit the following sites.

• PTC university
• PTC support
• Udemy Pro Engineer Creo Fundamental 3D design course

Being a software with highly advanced functionality, Inventor has a plethora of tools and features. This may well turn out to be a problem for new users trying to understand and navigate through the software. To help you solve this problem, Scan2CAD has created this compact and comprehensive article that will familiarize you with the basics of Inventor in just one hour. We will be looking at the software’s capabilities, features, tools, and user interface. We will also be looking at the basics of sketching and modeling on Inventor.

What are the capabilities of Inventor

Before you begin to learn how to use any software, you must know what it can do. The capabilities of Inventor can be classified as follows; modeling, simulation, visualization, and collaboration. With Inventor, you can create 3D models of either standalone objects such as a cup, or components of an object. You can also create an assembly of the components created. For example, after designing individual components such as a piston, a crankshaft, and some valves, Inventor allows you to assemble these parts into a modular motor engine, with each of the components still retaining their individual properties. In addition to these, you can also create working drawings (drafting documents) of your finished designs. These drawings may contain orthographic projections, isometric views, part lists, and a title block. Furthermore, you can create a presentation document of your finished model. This presentation is used exclusively for creating exploded views of the model.

Using Inventor simulation features, you can run various analysis such as stress and motion, on your model. This feature is essential when you are designing for manufacturing.

To enable you to visualize your model as realistically as possible, the visualization features of Inventor allow you to explode, animate, and render your model. Rendering makes your design take on as realistic an appearance as possible.

Finally, you can easily share your finished designs with others for review and comment.

Before you get started

Before we take a look at the interface of Inventor, let us familiarize ourselves with some basic concepts in Inventor. Inventor has four primary file types and one secondary file type. The primary types are Part file (individual components) with the .ipt file extension; Assembly file (assembled components) with the .iam file extension; Drawing file (drafting document) with the .idw or .dwg file extension; and Presentation file with the .ipn file extension. The differences between these file types were stated earlier.  Although these file types are different, they are usually related. In Inventor, all file types that are associated with a model are stored together in a single project folder and as a single .ipn project file.

The file types of Autodesk Inventor

User interface

When you launch Inventor, you are first introduced to the launch screen. The launch screen is a somewhat familiar Autodesk software interface. It is roughly divided into three, with a menu bar located at the topmost part of the screen. On the right side of the screen is the project area. Under the heading, Project, you’ll find a list of all existing projects on your computer. Clicking on an existing project activates all the file types that are a part of that project. Note that a file cannot exist outside of a project. Therefore, if you want to open an existing file, say a part file, you need first to activate the project in which it is contained.

The Project area of the launch screen

On the left side of the launch screen is the New area. This area contains thumbnail links of the four primary file types. Clicking on any of them would open the corresponding interface for you to begin modeling. Recall that any file type you open would automatically be stored under the currently activated project. To open a new file under a new project, you have first to create the new project. We will explore how to do this later on in the article.

The ‘New’ area of the launch screen

At the bottom of the launch screen is the Recent documents area. This is where all recent files, whether part or assembly, can be accessed. You can filter this area to show only the recent documents of the active project.

The ‘Recent Documents’ area of the launch screen

The menu bar is located at the topmost area of the screen. It contains several useful links to tutorials, Autodesk news, Autodesk Vault, Inventor learning path, and Autodesk A360. You can also open a new or existing project from the menu bar.

The Menu Bar

Getting started

The different file types in Inventor have different interfaces. This means that the graphical user interface (GUI) for creating an assembly is different from the GUI for creating a presentation. A part is typically the first thing you need to create before you can create an assembly, a drawing, and a presentation in that order. Therefore, since we are dealing with the basics, we will be exploring only the part creation interface.

As discussed earlier, you can only create a part as part of a project. For this tutorial, we will be opening a new project. To do this, click Projects in the menu bar and select New at the bottom of the dialogue box that opens.

This will lead you through a few simple processes in which you can name and select the location of your project. We will name our project, Scan2CAD. Once you finish creating it, the project becomes active in the project area of the launch screen.

Any file type we create now will be part of the Scan2CAD project. We can now proceed to create a part. Inventor supports many drawing standards including ANSI, ISO, BSI, JIS, GB, GOST, and DIN. The software also supports both the metric and imperial systems of measurement.

There are two ways to open the part GUI, and both ways require you to select your preferred standard and system of measurement. The first way is to click on the corresponding  icon in the new area. However, this automatically opens a part file in the default standard. To change the default standard, click on the small settings icon in the new area and select your preferred standard before proceeding to click on the part icon.

The settings icon for creating a new part

Configuring the ‘New Part’ template

Another way to open a new part file is to click on the open icon on the menu bar. This opens a dialogue box that displays all the file types in all the available standards. You can then select the file type and standard you prefer. This leads us to the part GUI. Note that these processes are the same for any file type you wish to open. 

Main graphical user interface

As discussed earlier there are four different GUIs for the four primary file types, but we will be focusing on the part creation GUI.

Part creation GUI

The screen is roughly divided into three. The ribbon, the project browser, and the drawing area. The ribbon itself is divided into two, the menu bar and the quick access toolbar. The quick access toolbar contains some commonly used commands and tools such as redo, undo, open, save, etc. It is located just above the menu bar. You can easily add new file types to the open project.

The menu bar contains all the features, tools, and settings required to model, visualize, simulate, and edit a part. Similar tools are neatly organized into panels. The panels themselves are organized into tabs of different headings.

The first tab is the Sketch tab. The design of a model on Inventor typically beings with a sketch. The tools under this tab allow you to create sketches using four fundamental shapes; line, circle, arc, and polygon. The Sketch tab also contains tools to modify your sketch, add patterns, add dimensional or geometric constraints, and import images and .dwg file into Inventor.

The next tab is the 3D Model tab. The tools in this tab are dedicated to turning your sketch into a solid 3D model. You can extrude, revolve, sweep, loft, add patterns, create a free-form, and insert holes. You can also emboss, fillet, changer, thicken, and cut threads. This tab contains the bulk of Inventor’s modeling features.

The 3D Model tab

The View tab comes next. The tools in this tab not only apply to your model but also to the entire GUI. You can change the look of your design from wireframe to realistic or shaded. You can also create textures and orthographic views. For the GUI, you can clear the screen, change the arrangement of the user interface, and switch windows. Finally, the navigation tools required to zoom, pan, and orbit a model can be found under the View tab.

The View tab

After the View tab comes the Tools tab. This tab is similar to the Options tab in various other software. This tab allows you to apply and edit numerous application and document settings. It also allows you to adjust the material and appearance of your model. For example, you use wood or metal. Inventor has hundreds of applicable materials.

The Tools tab

Other tabs and their features are as follows

• Get started tab – Contains the same tools that are in the menu bar of the launch screen.
• Analysis tab – For carrying out thorough analysis and simulation of your model.
• Environment tab – To create molds, arrange your model for 3D printing, convert your model to sheet metal, exchange data with AutoCAD, and analyze the eco-impact of your design. This tab also contains a link to Inventor studio where you can render and animate.

The second portion of the screen is known as the Project browser. It is located on the left side of the screen and contains the history of the model you are creating. For example, you create a model by sketching a square, extruding the square into a cube, placing a hole in the cube, and threading the hole. TheseThis steps would be displayed on the project browser as the following headings; origin, extrusion, hole, and thread. To edit any step, simply click on it in the project browser and you will be able to modify it. For example, if you wish to increase the length of the extrusion of the cube, you do not need to undo the thread or the hole. You can simply click on the extrusion step in the browser and edit the values. All following features will immediately adjust to the new settings. This is a very convenient and intelligent feature of Inventor.

The project browser

Centrally located on the GUI is the drawing area. The drawing area is the canvas on which you will carry out your drawing, modeling, detailing, visualization, and simulation. It displays your model as it is. The drawing area is like an application window within an application, and like most application windows, it has the close, minimize, and resize buttons. Therefore you can resize the drawing area, minimize it, or close it without closing Inventor.

The drawing area

If you are working on more than one file at once, they are docked as tabs at the bottom of the drawing area. Note that it is possible to part, assembly, drawing, and presentation files for the same all at once. You can easily switch between their GUIs by clicking on the corresponding tab at the bottom of the drawing. Since they belong to the same project, any change made in a part is reflected in the assembly and also the drawing.

Drawing and modeling

Now that we have familiarized ourselves with the Inventor interface let’s get to the modeling proper. Any model, no matter how complex, begins with a sketch. To begin a design in Inventor, click on Start 2D Sketch. You’ll be directed to select between three planes, YZ, XY, and XZ. Next, select any of the sketch shapes and proceed to click on the drawing area. Move the mouse to determine the length of the line or circle and click again. Go back and forth between the create panel and drawing area until you produce a shape. Click on finish sketch to activate the 3D modeling features with which you can extrude, add holes, fillet, and many more.

Available planes in Inventor

Recommended resources

Being such an advanced software package, Inventor has many features to be learned and is mostly used by professionals. This article has covered the basics that will serve as a rock-solid foundation for your journey to Inventor mastery. The following links contain more extensive tutorials that will help you become an Inventor professional.

• Autodesk knowledge network
• Autodesk design academy
• Lynda

User interface

First things first, let’s talk about the user interface.

Launch screen

When you launch the application, you first come in contact with the launch screen. The launch screen is roughly divided into two. The top half contains the Project area where you can open a previous project you’ve been working on, create a brand new project, or access commonly used templates such as construction, architectural, structural, and mechanical templates. The top half also contains thumbnail links to your four most recent projects so that you can easily access them. The lower half of the launch screen contains the Families area where you can open existing or create new Revit families. This area also contains thumbnails of some commonly used families.

The Revit launch screen. (Source)

You may be wondering what the difference between Revit projects and families is. The difference is that while Project is used to design a whole building or structure with several components and a general environment, Families contain single objects used as ready templates to be imported into a Revit project. For example, a Revit architecture family may contain furniture, walls, windows, and doors; a structure family may contain beams, roofs, and pillars; and a lighting family may contain bulbs, fans, and sockets. Revit families may be created within Revit or downloaded from the internet.

On the right-hand side of the launch screen is the resource panel where you get news, updates, and information from Autodesk, creators of Revit. The resource panel is basically a series of hyperlinks to resources online.
The topmost area of the launch screen contains a series of tabs and instruction located in a menu bar. Keep in mind that the launch screen menu bar is just a condensed form of the software’s main menu bar which you get to see once you begin a project.

In the left corner of the menu bar is a menu button. As with other Autodesk software packages, this button is denoted by the first letter of the application in question; in this case, an R which stands for Revit. Clicking on the R icon will open a standard set of file commands such as open, new, save, save as, import, and options. The options button opens up a lot of important general settings which we recommend you go through the first time you launch your application

Main drawing interface

To access the main drawing interface, you need to start a project by either clicking on New in the Projects area of the launch screen or by clicking on the R menu Icon and selecting New. You will be asked to choose a template. For this tutorial, we will use the architecture template. The main drawing interface is somewhat similar to those of other CAD applications. You have a set of instructions and a menu bar at the top of the screen, a properties’ palette on the left, a project browser on the right, and a large drawing area in the center.

Menu bar

The menu bar which was condensed and had limited access in the launch screen is now expanded and accessible. It contains most of the tools and features for drawing, modeling, simulating, sharing, and collaborating, which make Revit, Revit. These tools and features are neatly organized into a series of tabs on the menu bar. Each tab contains different panels which in turn contain individual tools.

The Revit menu bar. (Source.)

The first tab on the menu bar is the Architecture tab. It is used to create, model, and analyze the solid parts of a building or structure such as walls, roofs, ceilings, stairs, and rooms. The tools under the Architecture tab are arranged into seven panels; build, circulation, model, room and area, opening, datum, and work plan.

The next tab, the Structure tab, is dedicated to everything structures and structural engineering. These include beams, walls, Slabs, foundations, columns, and reinforcements. Tools under the structure tab are grouped into 7 panels; structure, foundation, reinforcement, model, opening, datum, and workplace. You may have noticed that similar to Architecture, the first three panels under Structure are dedicated to drawing proper, while the rest is used to edit and model the drawing with high precision. Coming after the Structure tab is the Systems tab which is divided into several panels; HVAC (Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning), fabrication, P&ID (Piping and Instrumentation Diagram), collaboration, mechanical, plumbing, electrical, model, and workplace. The Systems tab contains all the MEP engineering tools you require in your building such as ducts, pipes, and plumbing and electrical fittings.

The Insert tab allows you to import, link, or load other CAD files and projects of various file formats, regardless of the CAD software package.

A huge portion of your work process in Revit is annotating and detailing your 3D model with 2D details and annotations. All the tools you require to do this is contained in the Annotate tab under the following panels; Dimension, detail, text, tag, color fill, and symbol. Using the Annotate tab, you can dimension your drawing, add certain symbols, attach texts, detail parts, and create tags.

The Analyze tab which comes next allows you to carry out various in-depth analysis on the 3D model you’ve created. This is where you can carry out structural analysis, heating and cooling estimations, and energy analysis. The Massing and site tab allows you to create a context topography for your building to sit on. You can create the surface area, add trees and parking space, show mass zones and shades, place masses, and manage surfaces.

The Collaborate tab. (Source)

Through a process known as work sharing, a suite of tools under the Collaborate tab allows you to interact with other users of Revit. The collaboration tools of Revit are one of its most important features as they allow to you open other users’ projects, merge projects, and work together on the same project.

Next is the View tab. The view tab is basically a visualization tab which allows you to create different views of your model, from 3D views and sections, to plan views, hidden lines, elevation, and visibility. The tab is divided into graphics, create, sheet composition, and windows. After the View tab is the Manage tab. This tab contains day to day settings in your project such as materials and project location. The tab is divided into settings, design options, manage projects, project location, phasing selection, inquiry, and macros. The Add-in tab is a feature of the full version of Revit which allows you to expand its functionality by adding plugins that enhance your workflow process.

Finally, we have the Modify tab. This tab contains a suite of tools that allow you to modify the elements of the project that you have created. You can copy, move, solutions, and expand items using a variety of tools. These tools are categorized into properties, modify, view, measure, and create.

Quick access toolbar

The quick access toolbar is a narrow band of commands and tools positioned just above or below the menu bar.

The Revit Quick Access Toolbar. (Source)

It contains commonly used commands such as open, redo, undo, and save. It also contains some of your most used tools. The quick access toolbar can be customized or reordered to your preference by adding or removing tools. To add a tool, right click on the tool and select Add to toolbar. You can rearrange the contents of the quick access toolbar by clicking on the customize icon at the right end of the bar.

Properties palette

The properties palette located on the left side of the screen is used to display the parameters and their associated properties of all the elements that you create in Revit. The palette is typically scanty when you begin a project but as you add more and more elements, their properties are displayed. Keep in mind that these properties can be edited to suit your preference. To view the properties of an element in your project simply click on it and its properties will be displayed. the properties palette can be closed to increase the drawing area using the small x located at the right-hand corner of its title bar. it can be opened by typing PP on your keyboard.

Project browser

To the right of the screen is the project Browser which is used to navigate through all the different views contained within your project. Like the properties palette, the project browser may be closed by clicking on the little x on the right of the browser’s title bar. To reopen it, right click on the drawing area and select project browser.

Drawing area

The drawing area is the central area of the application screen where you’ll be carrying out most of your drawing, modeling, and detailing. You can think of it as a drawing board where you can draw whatever you wish. The drawing area takes the highest percentage of screen space. It is like an application window within an application. At the top right corner of the drawing area, there are the three icons that you can find in any almost every application window; close, minimize, and resize. This means that you can close the drawing area without closing Revit, open multiple drawing areas, minimize a drawing area, and resize it by shifting the borders.

Before you start drawing

Before you begin your project in Revit there are certain steps that you need to take to ensure that your workflow suits you perfectly. One of the first steps is to check the default settings. As we stated earlier in this guide, most of these settings can be found in Options under the menu button. Here, you can set up the frequency of the save reminder, modify the graphics, toggle on or off the different interfaces of the software, and select file location.

Next, check the settings in the Manage tab of the menu bar. Here you can select different materials for your project, choose different design options, and change units.

Drawing and editing

Now that we’ve completely familiarized ourselves with the interface of Revit, let’s get to drawing proper. To make it easier for you to draw a component, Revit allows you to select the particular components you wish to draw before starting the drawing. For example, you want to draw a simple house. The first component is the floor. To draw a floor, click on Floor under the Build panel of the Architecture tab. This opens up an array of geometry including line, arch, ellipse, circle, and polygon. Click on any of these shapes displayed under the modify tab to activate it. Next, click on the drawing area and move your mouse to apply this shape in your preferred orientation. Repeat these steps until the floor is complete.

The procedure is basically the same for walls, fittings, roofs, and any other component or building you want to create. The below tutorial is a great visual introduction to modeling in Revit.

Recommended resources

Revit is such a wide software and the things covered in this guide are just the basics. To learn more about Revit, you may use any of the following resources.

• Autodesk’s Design Academy
• Autodesk’s tour of the Revit interface.
• BIMScape’s complete beginner’s guide.
• Balkan Architect’s Youtube Channel.

ArchiCAD has a comprehensive design suite offering both 2D and 3D drafting, visualization, and other key BIM functions that are essential for designers, architects, and planners. Because it does have a wide range of applications integrated into it, even a user with extensive knowledge of other CAD programs may find ArchiCAD quite overwhelming to use at first.

This is why Scan2CAD has come up with this simple and concise guide to learning the basics of ArchiCAD in as little as an hour. In the following guide, we will go over the ArchiCAD interface, some keyboard shortcuts, tips for 2D and 3d navigation, instructions for drawing and editing elements, and other essential reminders as you familiarize yourself with ArchiCAD.

Table of Contents

• Before getting started
• The interface
  • The Menu Bar
  • The Standard Toolbar
  • The Tab Bar
  • The Toolbox
  • The Bottom Toolbar
• Keyboard shortcuts
• Before you start drawing
• Drawing and editing
• Recommended resources

Before getting started

What truly makes ArchiCAD unique is its integration of Building Information Modeling or BIM. This video demonstrates clearly how ArchiCAD makes use of BIM and how it saves time and effort in doing so:

The interface

Now that we have an understanding of what ArchiCAD is, let’s jump into the interface.

The ArchiCAD interface sections. (Source)

When first opening ArchiCAD you will be welcomed with a familiar CAD software interface featuring modular toolbars surrounding the central drawing area (which ArhiCAD call the Graphic Screen).

Next we will delve into each section of the interface.

The Menu Bar

The Menu Bar at the very top of the interface contains the primary session options. This bar lists the commands available within ArchiCAD, such as:

• File operations
• Viewing functions
• Editing functions
• Designs commands and tools
• Documentation tools and commands
• Menu for regulating basic settings or work environment
• Teamwork menu for collaborative projects
• Window menu for setting toolbar and palette visibility

The Standard Toolbar

The Standard Toolbar contains shortcuts for commonly used commands such as  Undo/Redo, Find & Select, Enable Guide Lines and more.

Bear in mind you can extensively customize the toolbar using the Toolbar Customization Dialog. So if part of the interface isn’t feeling right for you are able to change it at any point.

The Tab Bar

Sitting above the graphic screen is where you will find the Tab Bar which shows the views that you currently have open. These tabs may be clicked similar to how you click Tabs in web browsers.

You’ll notice that each tab has an icon which represents the type of design within that view.

The Toolbox

The Toolbox may be found to the left and is divided into four parts. This Toolbox has the tools you will need for designing the 2D drawings and 3D models. These four parts are:

• Selection Tools
• Design Tools
• Documentation Tools
• More

On the right side of the interface you should see the Pop-Up Navigator which shows the aspects of the project. The Pop-Up Navigator lets you jump from one story to another, or to different 3D views, sections, elevations, or project details.

The Bottom Toolbar

The Bottom Toolbar features the useful tools for navigating the view and for changing the drawing scale and zoom factor. We’ll touch more on navigation later in this post.

Keyboard shortcuts

Unlike AutoCAD, ArchiCAD does not offer a command interface. Therefore you may wish to familiarise yourself with ArchiCAD’s keyboard shortcuts to make your drawing and editing work more productive.

Here’s a selection of some of the most common ArchiCAD keyboard shortcuts.

Before you start drawing

It is fairly easy to navigate the floor plan within ArchiCAD. For 2D drawings, take note of the icons at the bottom toolbar, which include:

• Previous Zoom
• Next Zoom
• Increase Zoom
• Fit in Window
• Zoom factor

You may press the mouse scroll button to Pan around the floor plan in real-time, or double-click the scroll button to activate the Fit in Window command. The cursor position will the act as the projection’s center point.

Exploring some of the navigation options in ArchiCAD (Source)

Meanwhile, for navigating 3D models, you may switch to 3D view, then double-click on Generic Axonometry within the Project Map of the Pop-Up Navigator. The Orbit button from the Bottom Toolbar may also be used for real-time zoom, pan, and other options.

To zoom, you may use the Bottom Toolbar or just scroll the middle button. To pan across the image, just click and hold down the middle button of your mouse.

Drawing and editing

Drawing and editing needn’t be a daunting task with ArchiCAD. You will just need to be familiar with the Toolbox and Toolbars and how to create objects or edit existing elements in your 2D or 3d drawing. With that in mind we strongly recommend this introduction video which introduces the basics.

Recommended resources

So now that you’ve got to grips with the fundamentals of ArchiCAD where can you go to further develop your skills? Here’s our best pick of the bunch:

• The official Graphisoft education portal has a free online course for ArchiCAD beginners who want to really explore the program and its functionalities. The course even has sample files for practice use. No registration is required.
• An excellent community for ArchiCAD users to check out is The Global ArchiCAD Community. It has been around since the 1990’s and has users from all over the world.
• The list wouldn’t be complete without a series of free video tutorials. We recommend Eric Bobrow’s ArhiCAD video tutorials – well worth a watch for new ArchiCAD users.

To make things nice and simple for you, Scan2CAD has put together an essential guide to learning SketchUp basics in 1 hour. We’ll look at everything from SketchUp’s interface to its drawing and editing tools to additional resources and much more!

And don’t forget the keyboard shortcuts for SketchUp which can help you navigate the interface and features more fluidly.

SketchUp basics: orientation

Image source: SketchUp Help

Whilst it might be incredibly tempting to just throw yourself into SketchUp straight away, you should first try to make sure you’ve gotten to grips with the basics. You can’t expect to become an expert in a software package if you’ve not got the basics sorted. After all, you won’t get far with creating a model if you don’t know where to find a specific tool or command! Fortunately, we’ve done most of the legwork for you—we’re going to take you through an overview of SketchUp’s interface. It should take you around 10-15 minutes to complete.

When you first open SketchUp, you’ll be met with the Welcome to SketchUp dialog box. There are three tabs: Learn, License and Template. Before you start, you should make sure you pick a template. This template will define aspects like unit of measurement and model background. As such, the template you choose will depend entirely on the type of model you’re creating. Take your time and select the option that’s best suited to your model. If you’re in a hurry to get started, you can opt for ‘Simple Template – Meters’. If you select ‘Always show on startup’, you can change the template whenever you open up SketchUp.

Once you’re happy, click ‘Start using SketchUp’ and you’ll be almost ready to start modeling!

Menus

SketchUp, like many other software packages, comes with plenty of menus and toolbars for you to sink your teeth into. For starters, you’ll undoubtedly recognize the menu bar at the top of the page, with standard Windows controls like File, Edit, View etc. Just below this menu is the Getting Started toolbar. This contains all the essential tools you’ll need at your disposal to start creating 3D models in SketchUp. We’ll discuss SketchUp’s menus and toolbars in more detail below. 

Drawing area & axes

One of the first things you’ll notice about SketchUp is the axes in the drawing area. These axes are red (X axis), blue (Z axis) and green (Y axis)—the point at which they intersect is the center of the drawing area. This enables users to get a sense of direction in their 3D workspace. You’ll also notice a 3D model of a person, further solidifying your sense of direction. The default angle setting on SketchUp is ‘ISO’ which enables you to view your drawings from above the right-front corner. If you’re drawing from this default angle, then you’re essentially drawing your project on the floor. If you need to change it, you can opt for a different view: top, bottom, front, back, left, right etc.

Before you get started on drawing, however, we’d advise you take a few minutes to get accustomed to SketchUp’s movement controls. 

To pan, simply select the pan icon  or press H on your keyboard. Then, it’s as simple as clicking and dragging your mouse to move your view. If you want to orbit, you can also select the icon  or press O on your keyboard. Then, click and drag to rotate the view. You can also zoom into your drawing by using the middle mouse button scroll. It’s important that you keep moving around your model every now and again—it will ensure you’re keeping everything centered.

Before you start drawing

Looking to create accurate models? The key to accuracy is using correct measurements. Fortunately, it couldn’t be any easier to sort out measurements with SketchUp. You can usually find the measurements box in the bottom right corner. This box will display dimensions as you draw. You can choose to work in any unit of your preference, and even use the box to manipulate selected entities, e.g., creating a line of a certain length. Can’t find your measurements box? Don’t worry—click the maximize button at the top. Alternatively, it will reappear once you’ve finished with the taskbar.

On the right-hand side of your screen, you’ll find the Default Tray. This contains a tray of panels that includes Entity Info, Materials, Components, Styles, Layers and so on. If you head to the basic ribbon toolbar at the top and click on Windows > Default Tray, you can customize the tray to suit your needs. One of the most useful tools found in this tray, however, is undoubtedly the Instructor.

Image source: SketchUp Help

As the name suggests, the Instructor teaches you how to use SketchUp. More specifically, it teaches you how to use the tools on offer. When you select a tool in SketchUp, you can turn on the Instructor—or click on the question mark icon in the status bar—to figure out how the tool works. Once you’ve done so, the Instructor will offer you:

• A basic description of what the tool can do
• An animation showing the tool in action
• A step-by-step process on how to use it
• Modifier keys that can be used in conjunction with the tool
• A link to further resources in the Help Center

If you’re not interested in it, you can close by clicking the Close button—head to Window > Default Tray if you’d like to find it again.

Tool palettes

Image source: SketchUp Help

If it’s your first time using SketchUp, you’ll find the default Getting Started toolbar at the top of your screen. This toolbar will contain all of the basic tools you need to get started on your first model in SketchUp. If you’re looking for more capability, you can opt to display additional toolbars by heading to View > Toolbars. Once you’ve done so, a dialog box will appear, showing all of the toolbars you have at your disposal. Examples include:

• Advanced Camera Tools
• Construction
• Getting Started
• Large Tool Set
• Layers
• Standard
• Warehouse

If you’ve got the time, it’s certainly worth playing about with each toolbar and customizing your workspace to suit your modeling needs and preferences. To start with, however, you might want to opt for the Large Tool Set—it’s great for when you need an all-purpose toolbar.

Remember, if you don’t recognize an icon or you’re not entirely sure what it does, use the Instructor feature to get to grips with it. You should also keep an eye on the important status bar at the bottom of the screen. It allows you to undo, redo, select help, change language and look at feedback/status.

Drawing and editing

Once you’ve got all of the basics sorted out, you can finally move onto the more fun aspect of SketchUp—the drawing! It’s safe to say that it will take you a few days or more to actually get to grips with every tool and capability at your disposal. If you’ve used software like DraftSight or AutoCAD, however, you’ll already be familiar with most of the drawing tools available. Let’s take a look at the some basic drawing concepts (feel free to skip if you’re already comfortable!).

Drawing a line…

Select the Line icon  from your toolbar or press the L key. Your cursor will then automatically change to a pencil. All you’ve got to do is click to set the starting point of your line. Clicked on the wrong place? Just hit the ESC key and you’ll be able to start over. If you look at the Measurements box, you’ll notice that it displays your line length. You can specify precise lengths by simply typing a value here and pressing Enter. Once you’re happy with the length, click again to set the end point.

Drawing a rectangle…

Select the Rectangle icon  or simply press the R key. Your cursor will then change to a pencil with a rectangle. Click to select the first corner point of your rectangle, using the drawing axes as a point of reference, and move your cursor diagonally until you reach your desired size. If you’d like to draw your rectangle with accurate dimensions, use the handy Measurements box—you can set the length and width here. Once you’re happy, click again to set the second corner point of your rectangle.

Drawing a circle…

Find the Circle icon on your toolbar  or press the C key. Your cursor will change to a pencil with a circle and your Measurements box will automatically show you the default number of sides—you can change the number at any time by typing a new value. Simply click to select the center point of your circle. If you’d like to align the plane of your circle with an axis, just use the arrow key that corresponds with your desired alignment, e.g., up for the blue axis. Then, move your cursor out to define the circle radius, clicking once you’re happy.

It’s not all drawing tools at SketchUp, though. You can also take advantage of modification tools such as…

• Push/Pull: drags a face in 3D space so that it either expands or disappears.
• Follow Me: creates an entity along a specific path
• Offset: creates an entity that’s offset a specific distance from another entity
• Outer Shell: leaves the outer faces of overlapping solids

Of course, we’re just scraping the surface here. SketchUp has a huge selection of tools on offer. With them, users can create just about anything in 2D and 3D. We’d certainly recommend you spend at least an afternoon or so trying out all the drawing and editing tools you can get your hands on!

You might find it especially useful to check out SketchUp’s resources:

• Introducing Drawing Basics and Concepts
• Drawing Lines, Shapes, and 3D Objects
• Creating a 3D Model

SketchUp’s 3D Warehouse

Image source: SketchUp Help

We wouldn’t be able to finish a guide to SketchUp basics without mentioning the incredibly handy 3D Warehouse. If you’re not familiar with SketchUp’s 3D Warehouse, it’s a source for finding models ranging from furniture to buildings to construction materials. What’s more, many manufacturers and suppliers have shared their own products in a 3D format for SketchUp. If you’re modeling a building, for example, you could download Bosch appliances, Marvin windows or even Sherwin-Williams paint colors.

Meanwhile, you can upload your own models to 3D Warehouse. It doesn’t matter if you’re a beginner, professional or hobbyist, you can share all of your models for others to download. You can even receive feedback from those who have downloaded your models. 3D Warehouse is also a great way to get to know other users and network. It’s also a great way to improve your own skills—if you’re curious about how someone went about creating a model, for example, you can ask the creator directly.

To get started with 3D Warehouse, simply head to File > 3D Warehouse > Get Models. A window will pop up, connecting you to the main page. Then, it’s as simple as browsing through what’s on offer. If you already know what you’re on the lookout for, type a keyword into the Search 3D Warehouse text box, e.g. chair. Once you’ve found what you’re looking for, simply click to download it and use it to your heart’s content!

To get more information, head on over to SketchUp’s resource page for Getting Started with 3D Warehouse.

Extra resources

And there you have it. We’ve finished covering the main basics of SketchUp. If you’re feeling a bit overwhelmed by what we’ve covered, remember that we’ve plowed through quite a lot. Don’t worry if you feel like you need a bit longer to get to grips with everything. That’s to be expected, after all! Whilst we’d definitely recommend testing out everything SketchUp has to offer, we’d also advise you look towards additional tuition.

The best way to get to grips with software, is to first look at whether there are any official resources or blogs. SketchUp is keen on helping its users become pros, which is why they’ve got videos, books and a thriving community to answer all of your questions:

• Getting Started Videos
• SketchUp Community
• SketchUp Books
• Skill Builder
• SketchUp Blog

More of a hands-on learner? YouTube is a great resource for finding tutorials for software. SketchUp is an incredibly popular 2D/3D modeler, so you won’t struggle with finding a tutorial for whatever area you’re struggling in. Examples include:

• SketchUp
• The SketchUp Essentials
• MasterSketchUp
• Designer Hacks

Looking to master the basics of other software packages? Check out our other guides:

• AutoCAD basics
• SolidWorks basics
• Vectorworks basics
• DraftSight basics

Needless to say, a program that’s lasted this long and has such a massive customer base across multiple industries must have a lot to offer in terms of its capabilities and applications. It is, in fact, one of the top 10 best 3D CAD software on the market today. However, if you’ve never used it before, you might struggle getting to grips with the SolidWorks basics—even if you’re accustomed to other CAD software. To make things easier for you, Scan2CAD has put together an essential guide to learning SolidWorks basics in 1 hour. We’ll cover what to expect from the interface, its drawing and editing tools, extra resources and much more. 

About SolidWorks

History of SolidWorks

SolidWorks history traces back to December 1993 when founder Jon Hirschtick assembled a team of developers to create 3D CAD software. At that time, Jon had made $1 million from his participation as a player and instructor on the MIT Blackjack Team.

The software development process took about two years, with the team Jon had assembled releasing SolidWorks in 1995 on Windows OS. This program breathed life into the CAD industry by adding 3D modeling capabilities in a market where AutoCAD had already created a name for itself by facilitating 2D drafting. SolidWorks’ introduction shook the foundations of CAD, changing how engineers and designers turned their ideas into visual but virtual creations.

SolidWorks continued making an impression on scores of people. It even sparked the interest of Dassault Systèmes, a company best known for CATIA. In 1997, Dassault Systèmes acquired SolidWorks in a transaction valued at about $310 million. At that time, SolidWorks already had offices worldwide, distributed its products in 43 nations, and had over 3,000 customers. Presently, SolidWorks is developed and sold by Dassault Systèmes SolidWorks Corporation, a subsidiary of Dassault Systèmes.

What is SolidWorks Used For?

SolidWorks is a leading 3D CAD and Computer-Aided Engineering (CAE) design software. In addition to enabling 2D drawing and 3D modeling, SolidWorks facilitates access to the 3DExperience® cloud platform, allowing users to use powerful cloud-based tools that cover the entire product development lifecycle. These include data management, advanced simulation, collaboration, manufacturing, and production. (SolidWorks offers products for each of these segments.) This article shall, however, focus on SolidWorks 3D CAD software.

SolidWorks 3D CAD is desktop software for design and engineering currently available only on Windows computers. It offers an extensive suite of 2D design, 3D modeling, and product development tools that enable you to conceptualize, create, validate, communicate, manage, and convert your ideas into designs. It achieves this through the following tools:

• 2D drawing and 3D modeling tools that support the creation of accurate 2D designs as well as complex parts and assemblies
• Cost estimation tools and manufacturability checks that enable you to design for manufacturing and cost
• Standardized data management tools
• Integrated motion and stress analysis tools

SolidWorks Basics

How to Download SolidWorks

There are two main approaches you can use to download SolidWorks:

Approach 1: Buy SolidWorks

SolidWorks offers several ways using which you can buy the product. These different options differ based on the use case you have in mind. For instance, if you want to use it for commercial purposes, you can elect to ‘Get a demo’ or ‘Get a quote,’ while in if you are in Academia, SolidWorks requires you to ‘Contact Sales.’ Regardless of the approach you choose, you have to provide the SolidWorks team with some details, including your email address.

How to Buy SolidWorks (source)

To request a quote, follow the procedure below:

1. Click on the call-to-action button based on your intended use case
2. Key in your (professional) email address and hit ‘Next.’
3. Select your ‘Level of Interest’ from the drop-down menu
   The options include: Browsing/General Interest, Beginning Investigation, Evaluating Products, and Ready to Purchase. In addition, you can toggle a switch to agree to receive marketing communication. (You can click on submit agreeing to this option.)
4. Click on ‘Submit’
5. You will receive further communication from SolidWorks representatives on how to proceed

Do note, however, that this process can be slow as you must await feedback from SolidWorks’ representatives before you can download the software.

Approach 2: Download

To use this second approach, you must have a SolidWorks account and be logged in. To download the software, follow the steps below:

1. Search ‘Download SolidWorks’ on the search engine’s search bar and click on the ‘Download | Support’ result. Alternatively, simply click this link
2. Log in with your SolidWorks ID
3. Select the SolidWorks version from the ‘Select Version’ drop-down menu
   Here, you can choose SolidWorks 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, or 2023 versions. In some cases, however, the download links may not be available. Instead, the website will display this statement: ‘Login or full access to the latest SolidWorks release and updates.’ If that is the case, contact your local reseller or SolidWorks support/representative.
4. Click on the link titled ‘SolidWorks Products’
   The various options displayed herein will all be based on the version you will have selected in step 3 above
5. Accept the license agreement by clicking on ‘Accept License & Continue.’
6. Hit the ‘Download’ button, which downloads the setup application

How to Install SolidWorks

To install SolidWorks 3D CAD desktop software, ensure your computer is connected to the internet. Next, follow this procedure:

1. Open the downloaded setup application, which automatically unzips about 150 files. Next, click on ‘OK.’
2. Select the ‘Install on this computer’ option on the SolidWorks Installation Manager and hit ‘Next.’
   
   

   Installation Options on SolidWorks Installation Manager

3. Enter your serial number for each of the SolidWorks products you want to use
   As this article focuses on SolidWorks 3D CAD, ensure you have checked the ‘SolidWorks’ box under the ‘3D Design’ section. If you do not have a serial number, you can simply click on ‘Next’ to begin your 30-day free trial, known as a grace period. Clicking ‘Next’ connects to SolidWorks servers and updates the downloader.
   
   

   SolidWorks Installation Manager

4. Accept the terms of SolidWorks and hit ‘Download and Install.’
   Once the SolidWorks Installation Manager downloads the software, it will ask you whether you want to ‘Pause installation’ or ‘Install Now.’
5. Click on ‘Install Now’ to begin the installation
6. Hit ‘Finish’ to complete the installation
   You can choose to join SolidWorks’ customer experience improvement program by checking the appropriate circle.

As you can see from the procedures and discussions above, SolidWorks’ website does not contain a direct download link. Instead, you must go through its representatives or resellers to download the software. Of course, you can get access to the application via unauthorized channels. But we recommend against this practice as it can expose you to malware and ransomware.

SolidWorks Free Trial

You can trial the application by accessing it online via Amazon Appstream 2.0. (The online product’s interface is similar to the desktop software’s.) Do note, however, that this trial is timed – SolidWorks gives you about two hours per session. You can, however, extend the free trial by another two hours should the need arise. To begin your free trial, follow the procedure below:

1. Create an account with My SolidWorks free trial page and log in to your account
2. Click on the ‘Try SolidWorks’ tab
3. Agree to the terms and conditions stipulated on the page and click launch

How to Set Up SolidWorks

Once the SolidWorks Installation Manager has completed the installation, you can open the SolidWorks 3D CAD software by double-clicking its icon on your desktop. Upon initialization, you will observe that the software will open the Product Activation window that prompts you to activate it ‘now’ or ‘later.’ If you do not have a serial number, you can choose the second option (later) and hit ‘Finish.’ This section will contain information on the days left in your grace period.

SolidWorks 2022 Product Activation Window (source)

Nonetheless, if you have the serial number, you can simply choose that option, follow the prompts on the resulting window, and hit ‘Finish.’ The software will again display the license agreement. Finally, hit ‘Accept’ to proceed. This opens the SolidWorks welcome page shown in the image below.

Welcome to SolidWorks 2022 Window

If you want to create a new ‘Part,’ ‘Assembly,’ or ‘Drawing,’ click on the respective icons. Clicking one of these options will open the ‘Units and Dimension Standards’ window that, as the name suggests, prompts you to choose the default units and dimension standards. (You can also change these parameters later, as detailed below.) Finally, click on ‘OK.’

If you selected ‘Drawing,’ SolidWorks will require you to set the sheet size.

Sheet Format/Size Window on SolidWorks

Orientation

As you would with any other new program, you need to give yourself time to look over the SolidWorks interface. This will give you the chance to figure out where certain tools are located and how you can activate commands. You could just throw yourself into the deep end with SolidWorks, but if you’ve not got the time to wing it, we recommend just giving yourself 10 to 15 minutes to look everything over. 

SolidWorks Online User Interface

User Interface

As we have highlighted above, the user interface is the same regardless of whether you are using the online product (during the free trial) or the desktop software. That said, the interface changes based on what you are creating: a part, assembly, or drawing. The changes are, however, not significant. They mainly relate to the tabs, ribbons, and menus. For instance, if you are creating a part (as in the interface screenshot above), the interface will have the following tabs: Features, Sketch, Surfaces, Direct Editing, Evaluate, and SolidWorks Add-Ins. If you are working on an assembly, you will be provided with the following tabs: Assembly, Layout, Sketch, Markup, Evaluate, SolidWorks Add-Ins, and MBD (Model-Based Definition).

Assembly Tabs on SolidWorks

Lastly, if you are creating a 2D drawing, the tabs will include: Drawing, Annotation, Sketch, MarkUp, Evaluate, Solidworks Add-Ins, and Sheet Format. Moreover, in the event you are creating a 2D drawing from a part or assembly, the tabs will include: View Layout, Annotation, Sketch, Solidworks Add-Ins, Sheet Format, and SolidWorks Inspection.

Drawing Tabs on SolidWorks

Image source: SolidWorks

Menus

To start things off, you’ll be able to find the standard menu bar directly at the top of the screen. This will be familiar to almost all users—it’s just like the menu you’d find on any Windows program. Here you’ll find options like File, Open, Save, Print, Undo and so on. Just below this bar is the CommandManager section. This gives users access to Part, Assembly, Drawing and Editing tools. If you look closely, you’ll see it broken down further into sub-sections including Features, Sketches, Sheet Metal, Evaluate, DimXpert and Office Products.

The CommandManager updates based on the tools you want to access. For example, if you click on the Sketches tab, the sketch toolbar then appears. Want to make it more individualized? Just right-click a tab and select Customize CommandManager, select a category to see the tool buttons you can add or right-click the new tab to rename it.

On the left-hand side of your window, you’ll see a box which contains the FeatureManager Design Tree. This box gives you an overview of how your part, assembly or drawing is constructed. Using it, you can select items in your model by name or even filter the design tree. And that’s not all—you could use it to identify and change the order in which your features are created. Other uses include viewing parent/child relations by right-clicking a feature and selecting Parent/Child. At the bottom of the window, you’ll see the status bar. As the name suggests, it gives you live information on aspects like mouse movements, sketch status and coordinates information.

Commands

If you’re an AutoCAD user, you’re probably wondering why you can’t see a command line at the very bottom of the window. Don’t worry—SolidWorks has commands, they’re just activated with a search bar. Look at the top ribbon on the right-hand side and you’ll see a search function for SolidWorks Help. Click the drop down arrow next to it and select Commands to activate the command search. Once you’ve done so, you can then start typing in the commands you’re after. Want to know where a command’s located? Just click the glasses icon to the right of the command.

Before You Start Drawing

Before you get stuck into the real fun of this guide—drawing and editing—you might want to make a few changes to your user interface just to make things a bit easier and more accessible for you. Seeing as you’ll probably be spending a large chunk of your time staring at your SolidWorks window—if you want to be a pro, anyway—you might want to make some changes to the default background settings. To change the background brightness—and make it easier on your eyes—simply click Options > System Options > Colors. You can then pick from options including Light (default), Medium Light, Medium or Dark. You can even choose colors for the text in your FeatureManager Design Tree by selecting FeatureManager Design Tree Text under Color Scheme settings.

Image source: SolidWorks

As we like to remind readers in all of our basics guides, it’s always a good idea to check your unit system. If you like to use a specific unit or dimension for all of your drawings, you can set a standard for default templates. The dialog box typically pops up when your first open a document template. There you can choose from the following unit options:

• IPS: inch, pound, second
• MMGS: millimeter, gram, second
• CGS: centimeter, gram, second
• MKS: meter, kilogram, second

You can also choose your dimension standards from ANSI, ISO, DIN, JIS, BSI, GOST and GB. If you’d rather stick to the default settings but change the units or dimensions for individual drawings, it couldn’t be simpler. To change the unit system, just head to Tools > Options > Document Properties > Units. To change the dimension standards, select Detailing instead.

Interested in Customizing Your Tools and Workspace? 

One of the main things that differentiates beginners and experts in SolidWorks is customization ability. With SolidWorks, there’s plenty of situations in which you can take advantage and customize. If you’re interested, simply head to top tips and tricks for SolidWorks newbies. There you’ll find tips on customizing mouse gestures, toolbars and menus. We’ve even included tips for using multiple display and the Copy Settings Wizard.

Drawing, Editing, and Saving

Once you’ve got the ‘difficult’ parts out of the way, you can finally take a stab at the actual drawing and editing capabilities in SolidWorks. Arguably this is the easiest—and most fun—part of this whole guide. There’s a huge assortment of tools on offer with SolidWorks.

Drawing and Editing Tools

If you’ve worked with other CAD software like AutoCAD or DraftSight, you’ll be familiar with the geometric shapes on offer. Moving beyond common shapes like lines, circles and rectangles, other sketching entities include:

• Centerpoint arc: creates arcs from a center point, start point and end point.
• Corner rectangle: creates a rectangle using opposite corners as a guide
• Straight slot: creates a straight slot using three mouse clicks, which define the starting point, length of the slot, and the width
• Midpoint line: creates a line symmetrical from the midpoint of the line.
• Conic: sketches conic curves driven by endpoints and a Rho value.
• Polygons: creates equilateral polygons with any number of sides between 3 and 40.

Of course, it’s not all about the drawing tools—you also need to take advantage of the extensive modification tools on offer. Examples include:

• Trim: trims down objects to a selected cutting edge.
• Fillet: changes sharp edges into round edges.
• Mirror: creates a mirror image of your object.
• Chamfer: creates an angled corner between two lines.
• Offset: offsets the sketch entities a specific distance

We’re just scraping the surface here—SolidWorks has a massive range of tools that enable users to create almost everything imaginable. So take the time to try it all out. It doesn’t matter if you just take an afternoon to click through all the icons or an entire week. The more familiar you are with the drawing and editing tools, the better off you’ll be in the long run.

As a beginner, you may not have the prowess to create 3D models right off the bat. But that is not to say that you cannot practice; after all, practice makes perfect. To help you in that journey, we compiled an article listing 13 sites where you can access free SolidWorks models. The main benefit of these sites is that you do not have to spend a cent on any of the models, meaning you can download and work on an infinite number of them.

SolidWorks Keyboard Shortcuts

Furthermore, SolidWorks also enables you to speed up your flow by using its default keyboard shortcuts. In fact, you can customize the shortcuts to better improve the user experience. To do this, simply click Tools > Customize and select the Keyboard tab. Generally, however, using SolidWorks becomes a breeze once you get used to the default shortcuts.

SolidWorks features the following universal shortcuts (summarized in the table below):

The software also has some in-house shortcuts, summarized in the table below:

You can check out our article on SolidWorks keyboard shortcuts for a more comprehensive list.

Saving Files

To save an assembly, part, or drawing, click File > Save As. On the Save As window, enter the file name. SolidWorks uses a different file extension for each of these options:

• A part is saved as .prt or .sldprt
• An assembly is saved as .asm or .sldasm
• A drawing is saved as .drw or slddrw

Extra Resources

Well, there you have it—we’ve covered the basics of SolidWorks. Want to impress your friends with your SolidWorks skills? Looking to become a SolidWorks expert? You can only really get so far with our basics guide by yourself. While it is worthwhile testing everything out by yourself, you will eventually need to invest some time—and possibly money—in additional tuition. Why? As we’ve said, SolidWorks has a huge number of capabilities and advanced features. So, if you’re fully committed to learning, you’ll have to put in some effort. Worry not—we’ve compiled a few top resources to get you started.

SolidWorks Alternatives

If you are undecided on whether SolidWorks is the best choice for your design work, you could benefit from resources that compare the capabilities of various 3D CAD software with SolidWorks. We have, for one, discussed the top 5 affordable SolidWorks alternatives. Moreover, our team has compared SolidWorks vs. a number of these CAD applications, including:

• Autodek Inventor
• CATIA
• Onshape
• AutoCAD
• Creo
• Fusion360

More of an AutoCAD user? Check out how to learn AutoCAD basics in 1 hour or tips and tricks for AutoCAD newbies. To stay updated on all things CAD-related, keep an eye on Scan2CAD’s blog. 

If you’re new to the software, however, you may need a few pointers to fully get to grips with the Vectorworks basics. Fortunately, Scan2CAD has put together this guide to learning Vectorworks basics in one hour. We’ll cover how to use the software’s interface, information on the all-important tool palettes and much more!

About Vectorworks

Vectorworks Basics

How to Download Vectorworks

As Vectorworks products are available for both macOS and Windows OS, it is important to ensure that you download the correct installer. That said, there are two approaches you can use to download Vectorworks.

Approach 1: Free Trial Download from Search

To download Vectorworks free trial, follow this procedure:

1. Type ‘Vectorworks free trial’ on your preferred search engine
   
   

   Vectorworks Trial Version Request Form (Form 2)

   
   The search engine will display a result from Vectorworks.net titled ‘Free 30-day, BIM & CAD software trial request.’ Click on this result.
2. Fill and submit form 1
   This form will require you to select the category that best describes your work or organization. You will also have to select a country from a drop-down menu on the website.
3. Depending on the country you select, Vectorworks will also require you to choose your preferred language. Click ‘Continue’ upon selecting your language.
4. Fill and submit form 2
   This form (shown below) requires you to populate various fields with your first and last name, company name, city, email address, telephone number, and industry. You also have to agree to Vectorworks’ privacy policy. Click ‘Submit.’
5. Vectorworks will send an email containing your free-trial serial number along with a download link for both macOS and Windows.
6. Select your preferred installer based on the OS you are using.

Approach 2: Download from Vectorworks Customer Portal

To download Vectorworks from the customer portal, follow this procedure:

1. Create an account with Vectorworks or log in to your account via this link
2. Under the Vectorworks 2023 section on the dashboard, click “Download Now.”
   
   

   Vectorworks Download from the Customer Portal

3. On the new page, select the Vectorworks product you want to download from a selection that contains Vectorworks, Viewer, Vision, and Select Protection Server. You also have to choose your platform (operating system). Finally, click ‘Download.’
   
   

   Vectorworks Visual Download Procedure

How to Install Vectorworks

To install Vectorworks, follow this procedure:

1. If you are using Windows OS, extract the installation files from the downloaded ZIP file using an extractor and open the resultant folder. If you are a macOS user, the downloaded files will be located in a .dmg file, macOS’s equivalent of disc files.
2. Click the Vectorworks Installer file/icon, which automatically extracts and installs the installation module
   
   

   Vectorworks Installation Module

3. Enter your serial number (it could be a free trial serial number, a subscription-based serial number, or a perpetual license serial number) and hit ‘Next.’
4. Agree to Vectorworks License Agreement and hit ‘Next.’
5. Review the ‘Read Me’ information to familiarize yourself with the system requirements for running Vectorworks. Then, click on ‘Next’
6. Choose a location for your installation as well as whether or not you would like to help Vectorworks to improve your experience by collecting usage data. Finally, click on ‘Install.’
7. Click on ‘Finish’ to complete the installation process.
8. If you downloaded Vectorworks using Approach 2 above, you will be prompted to choose the category that best describes you or your organization.
9. Activate Vectorworks.

The procedures described above result in the installation of Vectorworks Design Suite 2023.

How to Set Up Vectorworks

Setting up Vectorworks is a straightforward process. As a beginner, you may not have used the application before. You may not even have access to Vectorworks documents. So, to create a new document, click ‘New,’ whereupon a ‘Create Document’ window will open. Here, you can either opt to create a new black document or use one of the many templates available on Vectorworks. That said, if you already have a Vectorworks file (.vwx file), you can open it by clicking ‘Open.’

Create Document Window on Vectorworks

Orientation

It’s always a good idea to familiarize yourself with the basic interface of your chosen CAD package before you move onto features and drawings. While CAD software packages have fundamental differences, they tend to share overriding similarities—particularly in regards to the interface. Fortunately, this means you might not need long to get to grips with the Vectorworks interface if you’ve used CAD software before. Take at least 10 minutes to ensure you know where everything’s located and how basic features work.

When Vectorworks first opens, you’ll be faced with a standard drawing area and a variety of tool palettes. Interestingly, the color of your drawing area changes depending on your chosen view. To start, it will have an off-white background to indicate you’re in a top plan view. If you switch to a 3D view it will change to green, whilst a perspective projection will give you a green gradient to represent the ground and a blue gradient to represent the sky.

Vectorworks 2023 Interface

As with most CAD software, you’ll find white rulers on the left hand side of the drawing area—giving you an X and Y reference. At the bottom, you’ll find the message bar which will give you general help tips. As for the menu bar at the top, it should be very familiar for all users, containing common menus like File, Edit, View and Modify. You will, of course, find specialized menus depending on your chosen Vectorworks product, e.g., Architect, Landmark or Spotlight. A noteworthy difference between Vectorworks and other CAD packages is the lack of a command line, which we will discuss further below.

Before You Start Drawing 

Quick Preferences Menu

So, you’ve gotten to grips with the interface—but hold your horses, you’re not ready for your first drawing yet. We always recommend checking the default settings for any CAD package. More specifically, you should check you’re using the right unit system. You don’t want to be using the wrong angle or length of units in your drawing. It’s simple enough to select or change your current measurement system. Head to File > Document Settings > Unit and the Units dialog box will pop up. Then specify the units display parameters and click OK. Additionally, you can create a custom unit system by selecting Custom from the length, area or volume units list. 

You might also want to play around with your preferences. One of the main benefits of Vectorworks is its huge variety of customization capabilities. With this being a Vectorworks basics guide, however, we’re going to look specifically at Quick Preferences. This menu controls the buttons displayed on your toolbar. The following preferences are already enabled by default on the menu: Data Bar and Edit Group Options, Default 3D Render Mode, Default 3D Projection and Zoom Line Thickness. 

If you want to add more buttons to your toolbar, just click on the relevant item and a check mark will appear. You can add preferences like Show Grid, Use Layer Colors and Show Rulers. If you have too many tools in your toolbar, it will be resized and ellipses will show on the right. Take the time to individualize your interface and it will pay off in the end. 

Vectorworks Palettes 

By this point, we’re sure you’re desperate to get started on your first drawing. Before you can do so, however, you need to familiarize yourself with Vectorworks’ palettes.  

To start, you have the Basic palette. As the name suggests, this palette contains commonly used tools which will be vital in any drawing you do. Example tools include the selection tool, rectangle, circle and polyline. Below the basic palette is the Tool Sets palette containing multiple sets of tools grouped according to functionality and similarity. The 3D modeling tool set, for example, contains tools that can be used to create or modify 3D models. How extensive each tool set is depends on which software package you have. Vectorworks Architect, for example, will have a larger tool set for Site Planning. 

Basic Palette on Vectorworks

The Object Info palette is located on the right hand side of the drawing window. Cited as one of the most important palettes available in Vectorworks, this palette is vital in giving you essential information about your drawing objects. There are three tabs: shape, data and render. The Shape tab gives you general information about a selected object and allows you to edit parameters. With the Data tab, you can name the selected object and edit and record information you might have. The Render tab enables you to apply aspects like sketch effects to objects. 

Object Info Palette on Vectorworks

The Resource Browser, as the name suggests, gives users a way to look for resources within their files. With it, you can view, edit and apply resources. You can even navigate to resource libraries within the Vectorworks software, e.g., line types. Additional palettes include attributes, snapping and much more—as you can imagine, it might take you longer than one hour to familiarize yourself with everything available!

Drawing and Editing

The best part about trying out new CAD software is testing the waters with drawing and editing tools. If the large variety of tool palettes didn’t give it away, Vectorworks has quite the selection of tools available. You’ll no doubt be familiar with geometric shapes like rectangle, circle and polyline. You’ll also be able to take advantage of modification tools like rotate, mirror and trim. If you don’t recognize a tool, try it out in a practice drawing. 

If you’re a regular user of software like AutoCAD or DraftSight, you’ll probably be used to commands and shortcuts. While Vectorworks doesn’t have a command line, it does come with keyboard shortcuts for almost all of its tools. All you have to do is hover over the top of a tool for a tool tip to appear—giving you general information about the tool and the keyboard shortcut it’s been assigned. For example, the shortcut for the rectangle is the number 4. You can see this in action in the video below. 

Want a complete list of all the shortcuts and hotkeys? Take a look at this handy Vectorworks list. You might find it useful to print it out so you can practice until you know them off by heart. Using shortcuts can really speed up your drawing process, taking you from a Vectorworks amateur to a Vectorworks pro. 

Extra Resources

Hopefully, we’ve covered the majority of Vectorworks basics that you should get to grips with before moving onto the more advanced capabilities offered by the software. Regardless of whether you found this guide to be easy or not, it’s not as simple to master the entirety of Vectorworks. Why? There’s a lot going on and it will take you a lot of time and effort—not to put you off! With that in mind, we’ve put together a few top resources that should help you along the way. 

What better way to learn from Vectorworks than from the company that developed the software? Vectorworks provides users with a wide variety of resources to help them with their learning process. Here are a few top picks below—featuring beginner guides, tutorial videos and software update news. 

• Vectorworks YouTube
• Vectorworks University
• Planet Vectorworks
• Getting Started Guides
• OzCAD

Another way to get acquainted with Vectorworks is by surrounding yourself with relevant blogs and tutorial providers. By doing so, you can keep updated with the latest news and software features. It’s also a great way to follow tutorials from people who are more than experienced with the software. 

• CAD Digest
• LinkedIn Learning
• Cadalyst
• ArchonCAD

Want to know how to learn other CAD software in one hour? Check out AutoCAD or DraftSight Basics. 

To help you along your DraftSight journey, Scan2CAD has put together a guide to learning DraftSight basics in 1 hour. In this article, we’ll cover the DraftSight interface, its draw and modify tools, the coordinates system, and much more. We’ve even included top resources for you to take advantage of.

DraftSight basics: orientation

While it might be tempting to just get stuck into DraftSight straight away, you have to first get to grips with the actual interface. After all, you won’t be able to go far if you can’t locate certain tools or don’t know how to type in commands. We’ll take you through a quick overview of the DraftSight interface, which will probably take you around 10-15 minutes to complete. 

If you’ve used software like AutoCAD before—particularly the 2000 to 2007 editions—you’ll find the DraftSight interface to be relatively familiar. This is pretty beneficial, as it means you don’t have to spend days trying to get to grips with a new CAD software. You can find the basic ribbon toolbar at the top of the screen, containing standard pull-down menus, toolbars and palettes. If you’re not overly familiar with other CAD software, you don’t have to worry. All you have to do is do a bit of extra exploring to get a better idea of what DraftSight has to offer you. 

You can find the ever-familiar command line at the bottom of the interface. There, you can execute commands and actions by typing in a key phrase or letter—type LINE to activate the line tool for example. You can customize command aliases (keyboard shortcuts) by right-clicking and heading to Drafting Options > User Preferences > Aliases. We have discussed this further in top tips and tricks for DraftSight newbies. 

Image source: computeraideddesignguide.com

Before you start drawing

Now you know what to expect with the DraftSight interface, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you’re ready for your first drawing. Before you start drawing, you have to make a few preparations. Firstly, you’ll want to check that you’re using the right unit system. With DraftSight, you can change the base angle, length and angle of units in your drawing. It’s also possible to alter the drawing scale you’re using, which can be very important. Type Units into the command line > Drawing Settings > Unit System. 

Image source: DraftSight Blog

Additionally, you might want to change the background color to best suit your preferences. For example, many people prefer to draw on a plain white background. Simply head to Tools > Options > Drafting Styles > Display > Color. You might also find it useful to have the grid onscreen as a reference for when you’re drawing. This isn’t visible when you print out your drawing, so don’t worry. 

The next step is to group your toolbars and palettes into the same place to ensure everything’s exactly where you want it to be when you finally start your first drawing. Right-click on an empty space in the toolbar, click Tool Matrix. A blank box will appear; you can then click and drag tool palettes into it. This makes it easier to find tools and reduces the time it takes you to draw. You could essentially have your draw, modify and dimensions palettes in this one tool matrix. 

Coordinates system

Much like AutoCAD, DraftSight makes use of two different coordinate systems: the Cartesian coordinate system and the Polar coordinate system. 

The Cartesian coordinate system works by defining points by their position on the X and Y axes. The Polar coordinate system is probably something you’ll be less familiar with—particularly if you’ve never used CAD software before. It works by defining points by the distance from the origin and the angle from a line that starts in the origin. The angle increases as it moves counterclockwise around the origin point.

Coordinate systems are further broken down into absolute and relative coordinates: 

• Absolute coordinates: input points are specified using standard Cartesian coordinates. Absolute Cartesian command: x,y [Enter]; Absolute Polar command: length<angle [Enter]. 
• Relative coordinates: once you’ve inputted your first coordinate, the next one can be entered by specifying it as relative from your first coordinate. Relative Cartesian command: @x,y [Enter]; Relative Polar command: @distance<angle [Enter].

It might take you a while to get used to these systems—particularly if you’ve never used CAD software before. That being said, it’s all about practice—try out as much as you can, and you’ll be an expert in no time at all. 

Drawing and editing

Now, we’ll move onto the actual drawing and editing side to DraftSight. As with most CAD software, DraftSight comes with a wide range of geometric shapes that can be used in 2D drawings. Examples include: 

• Line: creates straight line segments
• Polygon: creates equilateral closed PolyLine
• Spline: quadratic or cubic Spline curve
• Make Block: defines a Block from selected entities
• Hatch: fills specified boundary with a pattern

DraftSight also comes with a wide range of modification tools that allow you to make changes to elements within your drawing. Examples include: 

• Mirror: copies entities onto opposite side of a mirror line
• Rotate: rotates entities through an angle around a base point
• Scale: enlarges/reduces entities while keeping proportions the same
• Chamfer: connects two Lines with a beveled corner
• Split: erases part of an entity between two Points you select

You can find further examples of what DraftSight has to offer in Dassault’s official Getting Started guide. 

Drawing couldn’t be easier in DraftSight. Even if you’re not familiar with CAD software, the icons are so self-explanatory that it won’t take you long to get to grips with them. It is essentially a case of clicking on each icon to get a better idea of what each entails. It should take you the rest of your hour to explore all of DraftSight’s draw and modify tools. If you don’t think that’s the best method of learning for you, check out the YouTube tutorial below for a more visual approach. 

Extra resources

If you want to truly master DraftSight, then you’ll want to prepare yourself for a lot of serious work. You can’t just expect to pick up on everything by yourself. You’re going to have to do some background reading and extra learning whenever you get spare time. To speed up the process, we’ve compiled a list of extra resources for you take advantage of. 

A great way to get better acquainted with software is to read up on relevant blogs and guides. Here, you can find anything from DraftSight lessons to the latest news and software updates. Here are a few of our top picks below: 

• DraftSight Blog
• Getting Started
• Tutorial 45

For a more hands-on approach, take a look at some YouTube channels and other video resources. You can follow tutorials and lessons with an experienced DraftSight user from the comfort of your own home: 

• DraftSight for Beginners
• Lynda
• DraftSight YouTube
• EagleRock Products

Don’t know much about the company behind DraftSight? Check out Dassault Systèmes – Everything You Need To Know. 

AutoCAD is a leading CAD program, with hundreds of industries using it every day. If you’ve ever tried it out before, you’ll know that the software can seem very advanced if you don’t know what you’re doing. There are so many tools and AutoCAD basic commands to get to grips with—not to mention the actual interface. 

The journey toward becoming more adept at AutoCAD begins with learning the basics, and if you’re also looking to gain a few tips, tricks, and shortcuts for AutoCAD, you’ve definitely come to the right place! 

AutoCAD Basics and Orientation: Setting Up and User Interface

Downloading and Installing AutoCAD

As a beginner, you may not have even installed the software. So, we begin our AutoCAD training article with a breakdown of how you can download and install AutoCAD.

1. First, head on over to Autodesk’s website, where you are guaranteed to download genuine software free from any malware. Under the products section, you will see AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT as the first two entries. The former offers a gateway to the software’s specialized tools, while the latter is a more cost-effective version for drawing, drafting, and documentation. Choose your preferred option based on how much your annual budget. If you are a student or educator, you will be glad to learn that Autodesk offers free versions of the software under its website’s education If you wish to buy the software, go to step 2. If you are looking to trial AutoCAD, skip to step 3.
2. Click Add to cart, which prompts you to sign in to your Autodesk account. If you don’t have an account, create one by clicking the appropriate button. Complete the checkout. You can also purchase the software from an authorized reseller or convert your 14-day free trial to a subscription.
3. Alternatively, you can simply download AutoCAD free trial. All you have to do is fill in a form in which you inform Autodesk of the objective of the trial, your field, role, and job level. You also have to provide company or institution information.
4. Download and install AutoCAD. You can elect to configure the installer before downloading or using the simple download option.
5. Once the installation is complete, close the installer or launch the software.

AutoCAD User Interface

The layout of AutoCAD’s user interface has largely remained unchanged over the years. But you will notice that with AutoCAD 2015, Autodesk introduced a dark theme wherein the ribbon had a grey color. The company again changed this layout by introducing an even darker theme as part of AutoCAD 2020. This change featured a dark blue background for the ribbon. Generally, though, and regardless of the version, AutoCAD’s user interface, on full-screen mode, sports various sections. The image below offers a pictorial guide, complete with a key.

AutoCAD User Interface

Key:

1. Application button
2. File tab
3. Ribbon tab
4. Quick access toolbar
5. Ribbon panel
6. ViewCube
7. Navigation bar
8. Status bar
9. Command-line bar
10. Model and layout tabs

Here’s more on this.

1. Application Button 

This is the button at the top-left corner of the AutoCAD window. It features the AutoCAD logo with an arrow. Clicking this button opens a menu that allows you to manipulate the drawing or program. For instance, the menu lets you create a new drawing, open an existing one, save the current drawing, export, import, print, and publish, among other options. 

2. Quick Access Toolbar

This toolbar displays the most frequently used commands by default. Examples include Print, Save, Save As, Undo, and Redo. You can also customize it to include additional commands.

3. Ribbon

The ribbon is further segmented into two sections: the ribbon tab and panel. The ribbon tab displays the umbrella name of a given group of commands, with the ribbon panel featuring a more nuanced grouping of these commands to ease navigation. For instance, the Home tab, AutoCAD’s default tab, has grouped commands into Draw, Modify, Annotate,Layers, Block, Properties, Group, Utilities, Clipboard, and View.

Other tabs include Insert, Annotate, Parametric, View, Manage, Output, Add-ins, Collaborate, Express Tools, and Featured App. And while these are the main tabs, AutoCAD displays other contextual tabs when you choose certain commands. Each of these grouped icons is found in what is referred to as the ribbon panel.  

You can launch a dialog box for each group by clicking an arrow button in the lower-right corner of each ribbon panel. You can also expand the panel by hitting the downward-facing icon beside each panel’s name, where applicable.

4. Workspace

This section is a blank space with grid lines and a User Coordinate System (UCS), where you can create 2D drawings or 3D models. The workspace is also known as a drawing window or model space. AutoCAD allows you to have many workspaces open. You can navigate from one workspace to another by clicking the specific drawing’s file tab, which will bear its name.

5. Command-Line Bar

This bar allows you to write any supported command on AutoCAD. See below for a breakdown of some of AutoCAD’s useful commands. More on these commands below.

6. Model and Layout Tabs

Found at the bottom-left section of the AutoCAD window, the model and layout tabs allow you to toggle between various layouts. Clicking the model tab will prompt AutoCAD to display your drawing against the workspace background. This is the tab used when drawing as it contains the grid lines. The layout tab displays the drawing against a white background simulating how it would appear once printed.

Importantly, you can set AutoCAD in such a way that it does not display these tabs. To do this, click the Application button and on the dropdown menu, click Options, and under the Display tab, go to the Layout elements and uncheck the Display Layout and Model tabs.

7. Status Bar

The status bar provides you with access to drawing tools using which you can alter the drawing environment. Some of these tools include OSNAP, AUTOSNAP, ORTHOMODE, ISODRAFT, Scale, and more.

8. Navigation Bar

By default, the navigation bar is found on the right side of the workspace. It contains tools such as pan, orbit/rotate, zoom, ViewCube, SteeringWheel, ShowMotion, and 3Dconnection.

AutoCAD Navigation Bar

 

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AutoCAD Tutorial: Using AutoCAD

With the basics of AutoCAD’s user interface out of the way, let’s discuss the various tools you can use to begin drawing on AutoCAD. Everything you need to begin drawing is housed on the Home tab. But before we detail how to use the various tools, it is important to set up a workspace.

Setting up a AutoCAD Workspace

Upon launching AutoCAD, you will encounter a screen like the one shown below (if you are using AutoCAD 2022 or later). You can elect to open a DWG file that contains a drawing; that’s the purpose of the Open button. Alternatively, you can create a new file by clicking the New button. Doing so will open a new workspace where you can commence the drawing bit.

AutoCAD 2023 Interface and Start Page (source)

If you are working with AutoCAD 2021 or earlier, you will encounter the screen shown below. Simply click the Start Drawing button. You can elect to click the dropdown button, which allows you to select a template that you can use.

AutoCAD 2021 Interface and Start Page (source)

Drawing on AutoCAD

Before you start drawing on AutoCAD, it is important to set the units. To do this in the simplest way possible, place your cursor on the Command-Line Bar, click it, and type “Units.”.

Now onto the actual drawing! AutoCAD comes with a wide variety of basic geometric shapes that you can use in your 2D sketches (we’ll cover 3D shapes in a later section). These objects range from lines to circles and hatched areas. Needless to say, you can’t really complain about the selection. You can use these objects by clicking on their icons, locating them in the toolbar, or by typing their command into the Command window. We’ve included a short list of basic objects below—bear in mind that there are countless more that you should check out after working your way through this guide. 

It is worth noting that you must tap “Enter” or “Return” or “Esc” to complete a command. For instance, if you clicked the Line command and subsequently drew your line, you must tap “Enter” to let AutoCAD know that you are done using this command. Otherwise, the software will assume that you are still using the command.

1. Lines 

Command/Shortcut: LINE / L 
Location: Draw > Line

The Line command draws a straight line from one point to another. When you pick the start point of the line, you need to specify the endpoint of the line segment on screen. You can either continue to specify additional line segments or end the line there. If you want to undo a previous line, enter U at the prompt. To end the command, you can press Enter or ESC, or enter C to close a series of line segments.

You can choose to pick the position of your lines by using your mouse to click on the screen. If you want to be more precise, you can use coordinates instead. When you type LINE or L into the command window and press Enter, you’ll be prompted to specify a point location by using coordinates. 

Drawing a Line on AutoCAD

2. Circle 

Command/Shortcut: CIRCLE / C
Location: Draw > Circle > Centre, Radius

The Circle command draws a circle based on a radius and center point. The default command requires you to specify a center point and a radius—usually on screen. If you enter CIRCLE or C into the Command window, you’ll be prompted to pick an option where you can specify the center point or click a highlighted command option.

Drawing Circle on AutoCAD

3. Polyline 

Command/Shortcut: PLINE / PL
Location: Draw > Polyline

A polyline is a connected sequence of line or arc segments created as a single object. You can use this command to create open or closed polylines. These polylines can have a constant width or different starting and ending widths. Once you’ve specified the first point of the polyline, you can use the Width option to specify the width of all the subsequently created segments.

Drawing a Polyline on AutoCAD

4. Rectangle 

Command/Shortcut: RECTANGLE / REC
Location: Draw > Rectangle

The Rectangle command is used to draw a rectangle with sides that are vertical and horizontal. You can specify the position and size of the rectangle by choosing two diagonal corners. Essentially, a rectangle is a closed polyline that is automatically drawn for you by AutoCAD.

Drawing a Rectangle on AutoCAD

5. Hatch 

Command/Shortcut: HATCH / H
Location: Draw > Hatch

A hatch is an object that covers an area with a pattern of lines, dots, shapes, solid fill color, or gradient fill. When you start this command, the ribbon will display the ‘hatch creation’ tab where you can pick from a variety of hatch patterns. After you’ve chosen your pattern and the scale, you just need to click inside an area that’s enclosed by objects. After you’ve created the hatch, you can adjust the area or delete any surrounding objects to create partial hatches.

Hatch tool on AutoCAD

If you like to learn things using a more visual training approach, you should try out some YouTube videos. There are many channels that cover AutoCAD basics and newbie tutorials—the one below covers AutoCAD’s interface and a few AutoCAD basic commands. 

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Modifying Drawings using AutoCAD Tools

Once you’ve gotten to grips with AutoCAD’s drawing tools, the next logical step is modification tools. This particular category covers everything from a simple erase command to explode and fillet. If a geometric object isn’t to your liking, you can use these modification tools to create something else entirely. 

Yet again, AutoCAD has a wide selection of tools on offer. There are simple tools that you’ll undoubtedly be familiar with, including ‘move‘, ‘copy‘, ‘rotate‘ and ‘erase‘. These tools of course, are rather self-explanatory—you’ll recognize them from a variety of other software. You can use these tools by clicking on their icon, locating them by going to ‘Home‘ > ‘Modify‘, or by executing their command. 

To give you a better look at the range of modification tools on offer, we’ve made a table of the top 10 modification tools. This table also includes icons, command shortcuts and a description of what they do. 

COMMAND	ICON	SHORTCUT	ACTION
Trim		TRIM / TR	Trims object to a selected cutting edge
Extend		EXTEND / EX	Extends object to selected boundary edge
Offset		OFFSET / O	Offsets an object by a set distance
Explode		EXPLODE / X	Breaks object into its component objects
Fillet		FILLET / F	Converts sharp edges into round edges
Stretch		STRETCH / S	Stretches a selected object
Mirror		MIRROR / MI	Creates mirror image of selected object
Array		ARRAY / AR	Creates a repeating pattern
Chamfer		CHAMFER / CH	Creates angled corner between two lines
Dimstyle		DIMSTYLE / D	Creates and modifies dimension styles

That said, there’s more you can do with AutoCAD beyond these basic steps for newbies. To learn more about using layers, notes and labels, and precision tools such as OSNAP and DIST, we refer you to Autodesk’s Hitchhiker’s Guide to AutoCAD Basics. Now, we’re only going to map out the key sections to Autodesk’s guide – essentially laying out where you should start and how you can progress from there. For more a step-by-step process, check the guide. 

3D Modeling with AutoCAD

By this point, you’ve probably almost used up your hour—time certainly flies with AutoCAD! To finish off, we’re going to briefly delve into the exciting world of 3D modeling. We won’t be going beyond the absolute basics here, as 3D modeling is pretty complex. 

Firstly, you should be aware that AutoCAD is predominantly used for generating 2D sketches. While it is possible to create 3D objects, AutoCAD is built around a flat, sketch-based workflow. If you’re looking for software that specializes in 3D modeling, you might want to check out software like SolidWorks instead. If you’re already a SolidWorks user, you might be interested in our top tips and tricks for SolidWorks newbies. Alternatively, you could try out free 3D CAD modelers in our list of top CAD freeware.

As with the 2D drawing tools we covered earlier, AutoCAD also comes with a range of predefined 3D objects that you can make use of. These 3D objects range from cylinders to spheres to wedges (to name but a few)! Of course, as with the 2D objects, you might find that you’ll want to modify them in some way—this is where commands come in handy once more. If you don’t like a particular predefined shape, you can use a command to modify it. To get a better idea of AutoCAD’s capabilities, check out the top commands for 3D modeling:

1. Extrude 

Command/Shortcut: EXTRUDE / EXT
Location: Draw > Modeling > Extrude

This command lets you obtain a 3D object by extruding a 2D face along a line or path. You could create a cylinder, for example, by selecting a 2D circle and extruding it along a path. 

2. Revolve 

Command/Shortcut: REVOLVE / REV
Location: Draw > Modeling > Revolve

The revolve command creates a 3D solid by revolving a 2D object around an axis. 

3. Sweep 

Command/Shortcut: SWEEP
Location: Draw > Modeling > Sweep

Unlike the extrude command, the sweep command allows you to extrude 2D objects without the 2D face being orthogonal to the beginning of your path. 

4. Union 

Command/Shortcut: UNION / UNI
Location: Draw > Modeling > Sweep

This simple command lets you combine two objects to make one complete object. This is great for combining predefined 3D objects.

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AutoCAD Basics

How the Mouse Works with AutoCAD

Your computer mouse can be used for much more than just pointing in AutoCAD. It can be used to select objects, specify locations, pan, zoom and view the shortcut menu. You can also use the scroll wheel to zoom in and out. Alternatively, you can hold the wheel down and move the mouse to pan a view. If you click the wheel twice, you can zoom to the extent of your model. 

Image source: Autodesk

 

AutoCAD Commands 101

The next step for AutoCAD newbies is AutoCAD basic commands. Using the command line, you can type in a command or command shortcut to enact a process. This can help you speed up your entire drafting process. Instead of spending ten minutes using AutoCAD icons and your computer mouse, you can just type in a quick command and hit enter. Of course, these commands sometimes trigger queries from AutoCAD, e.g. asking you to specify a coordinate. Once you get the hang of these commands, you can produce drawings in half the time it would have previously taken you.

There are hundreds of AutoCAD commands, which can seem a little bit daunting. Some commands have hotkey shortcuts, and others don’t. Others are one-key shortcuts while others aren’t. But you don’t have to worry about getting a little bit lost – it’s all a learning curve anyway. You can see our essential list of AutoCAD commands where we’ve also created a handy downloadable PDF cheat sheet.

Precision in AutoCAD

When it comes to AutoCAD, everything requires ultimate precision. You’ll start to notice this when you begin using AutoCAD’s drawing tools, some of which will ask you to specify start points and end points. In some cases, you’ll be able to specify points with just the click of your mouse. In other cases, however, you’ll need to specify points by using coordinates. This is vital when you need extreme precision—for example, architects require everything to be extremely accurate in their floor plans and blueprints. 

There are three main coordinate systems that you’ll come across when drawing in AutoCAD: 

• Absolute coordinates: all input points are specified using standard Cartesian coordinates. Command: x,y [Enter].
• Relative coordinates: after you’ve entered your first point, your next point can be entered by specifying the next coordinate relative from your first point. Command: @x,y [Enter].
• Polar coordinates: are used when you need to draw the next point at a specific angle and distance. Command: @distance<angle [Enter].

AutoCAD also has a User Coordinate System (UCS), which is a moveable Cartesian coordinate system that establishes the XY work plane, horizontal and vertical directions, and other geometric references.  Of course, this is a very simplified overview of AutoCAD’s coordinate systems. As with many other AutoCAD tools, we recommend opening a blank drawing to test everything out. While it might seem difficult at first, you’ll soon get to grips with it. 

AutoCAD Viewports

If you’re modeling in 3D, you should be taking advantage of the viewport feature. As we all know, 3D CAD models can be extremely complex—you have to be aware of every angle and view. With that in mind, the viewport command allows you to split your drawing area into different windows to project multiple views of your model. You just need to type ‘Viewports‘ into the command window, and a dialog box will pop up. You will be given options on how to display your model, e.g. into three sections showing top, front and right-side. This is great if you need to observe your model from different aspects. If you make any modifications to one window, it will affect the other windows simultaneously. 

Image source: CAD-Notes

AutoCAD Crash Course 

While our tutorial for novices broadly covers various aspects of the AutoCAD software, there’s still more to learn. And what better way to do so than to follow it right from Autodesk’s Hitchhiker’s Guide to AutoCAD Basics? With the foundation provided above, the guide will be a walk in the park; you must have some grasp of how the software works to understand the training material that is part of the guide.

Now, we’re only going to map out the key sections to Autodesk’s guide—essentially laying out where you should start and how you can progress from there. For more a step-by-step process, check the guide. 

As shown above, Autodesk advises new users to follow these steps:

1. Basics 
2. Viewing 
3. Geometry 
4. Precision
5. Layers 
6. Properties 
7. Modifying 
8. Blocks 
9. Layouts 
10. Notes & Labels 
11. Dimensions 
12. Printing 

The steps above will take you through a detailed AutoCAD crash course. 

Basic Terminology in AutoCAD

AutoCAD has a wide selection of tools and capabilities, and with this comes a variety of terms that you might not be familiar with. To help you along your AutoCAD journey, we’ve put together a small list of basic AutoCAD terminology. Don’t worry, you’ll be using these terms like a pro before you even know it! If you come across an unfamiliar term, you can check out the full AutoCAD glossary of terms.  

• Absolute coordinates: a method of inputting points based on the origin.
• Acad.dwt: default template that loads when you start a new drawing.
• Block: a pre-drawn image that you can insert into your drawing.
• Extent: the outer boundaries of the objects you’ve drawn.
• Grid: this can be used as a guide for drawings—you can toggle on/off with F7.
• Linetype: objects are all drawn with a linetype, e.g. solid or dashed.
• Object: any item in the AutoCAD database, otherwise known as an entity.
• Origin: this is the (0,0) point of your coordinate system.
• Ortho Mode: a mode that only permits you to draw perpendicular lines—you can toggle on/off with F8.
• Onsnap (Object Snap): the method of ‘snapping’ to precise points on an object.
• Pan: to move around your drawing by dragging the drawing area.
• Polar coordinates: a method of inputting points based on distance and angle.
• Relative coordinates: a method of inputting points based on a start point.
• Ribbon: the ribbon runs across the top of the drawing space and contains panels.
• Snap: a drawing mode that lets you snap your cursor to precise points on a grid pattern.
• User Coordinate System (UCS): a Cartesian coordinate system that establishes the XY work plane, horizontal and vertical directions.
• Viewport: a window that lets you view your drawing—you can have multiple viewports to see different areas of a drawing.

Extra Resources

Conclusion

After reaching the end of this AutoCAD basics guide, you’ve probably come to the frightening conclusion that learning how to use AutoCAD will be a lengthy and challenging process. If that is the case, you’re not entirely wrong. Beginners can find AutoCAD extremely difficult to start with—from its interface, to its wide variety of tools and even its dimension systems. This is without even mentioning the hundreds of command shortcuts and hotkeys that you might have to memorize. Despite the many demanding steps you have to take to master AutoCAD, however, it’s important not to give up. Take it a step at a time—if you’ve found this guide to AutoCAD basics a bit difficult, bear in mind that we’ve covered a lot in one hour. 

You should take the time to fully explore AutoCAD. Don’t be afraid to take risks and test out everything the software has to offer. You can only become an expert in something if you’ve taken the time to figure out how everything works. There are plenty of resources out there beyond the ones we’ve mentioned—from blogs to YouTube tutorials and official guides. If you put in the effort, it will pay off and you might even become an AutoCAD expert!

Don’t know much about the company behind AutoCAD? Take a look at Autodesk – Everything You Need To Know.