LibreCAD Quick Start Guide/LibreCAD Screen

This guide assumes that you have already installed LibreCAD, you can download the last release here

NOTE: LibreCAD runs on GNU/Linux, Windows and Mac OS X operating systems, each of which has several versions, therefore some pictures might not not look exactly like what you see on your computer.

LibreCAD main window

When you start LibreCAD the main window appears on your screen, showing the GUI (the Graphical User Interface). Based on your preferred operating system the screen might look like one of the followings:

LibreCAD on GNU/Linux (GNOME 3)

LibreCAD on Windows

LibreCAD window is divided into seven areas:

• Main menu and tools;
• Main CAD tools;
• Model space;
• Command line;
• Status bar;
• Layer list;
• Block list.

The following picture highlights these areas:

Main menu

The main menu is at the very top of the window application. From the main menu you can reach every command, but there are faster way to make the same job: command line and toolbars.

Main tools: top toolbars

If you right-click on the icons of the toolbars a selection menu will appear: you can select which toolbars to show. If you click on the three small horizontal lines on the left of each toolbar, see picture, you can grab the related toolbar and move it on a new position of the screen.

File toolbar

• New: to create a new drawing
• Open: to open a saved drawing
• Save: to save current drawing
• Print: to print current drawing
• Print preview: to have a print preview

Edit toolbar

• Selection pointer: to activate the selection pointer (escape from the command)
• Undo: to undo last command
• Redo: to redo a command
• Cut: to cut a selection
• Copy: to copy a selection
• Paste: to paste a selection

View toolbar

• Grid: show the grid
• Draft: turn on/off draft mode (to hide all hatchs in your drawing, to prevent LibreCAD from slowing down)
• Redraw: to redraw the drawing taking into account the visualized area of your drawing
• Zoom in: to zoom in
• Zoom out: to zoom out
• Auto zoom: to fit your drawing into your screen
• Previous view: to come back to your previous view
• Window zoom: to zoom in to a selection
• Zoom panning: to pan your view

see: CAD_Concepts: Scale and Viewing

Corner toolbar

• Menu: show the menu of your drawing
• Minimize: minimize window of current drawing
• Restore down: to restore the windows of all open drawings into the screen
• Close: to close current drawing

Pen selection toolbar

• Line color: line color selection
• Line width: line width selection
• Line Type: line type selection

Snap selection toolbar

• Free snap: every point can be selected
• Grid snap: snap to grid
• Snap on Endpoints
• Snap on Entity
• Snap center
• Snap middle
• Snap distance
• Snap intersection
• Restrict Horizontal: only horizontal movement allowed
• Restrict Vertical: only vertical movement allowed
• Set relative zero position: set the relative zero point position
• Lock relative zero position: lock current zero point position

Tool option toolbar

This toolbar will appear when you select a tool from the "Main CAD Tools toolbar".

Main CAD tools

Main CAD tools are located on the left side of the sreen. Picture below show the "Main CAD tools toolbar", which contains nested toolbar indicated with light blue dotted lines (Lines, Arcs, Circles, ...).

Lines toolbar

Info icon / submenu

To be completed.

Arcs toolbar

To be completed.

Circles toolbar

To be completed.

Ellipses toolbar

To be completed.

Polylines toolbar

To be completed.

Dimensions toolbar

Info icon / submenu

To be completed.

Info toolbar

Info icon / submenu

To be completed.

Modify toolbar

To be completed.

Select toolbar

To be completed.

Other tools

• Draw splines
• Draw points
• Multiline text
• Create hatch
• Create block
• Insert Image