LibreCAD User Manual

LibreCAD v2.2.0 - User Manual

This is an interim release of the of the LibreCAD User Manual and is subject to change.

The manual is based on LibreCAD v2.2.0-rc1 with a few additions. If you are using another version of LibreCAD, your mileage may vary.

LibreCAD is a free Open Source Computer Aided Drafting (CAD) application licensed under GPLv2.

The latest information about LibreCAD can be found at librecad.org.

Off-line User Manual

The LibreCAD User Manual can be downloaded for off-line use. Install a local copy of manual from LibreCAD’s Read the Docs web site by:

• Click the “Read the Docs” label in the lower left of the browser window.
• In the “Downloads” section of the pop-up, click “HTML”. Save the zip file, “librecad-readthedocs-io-en-latest.zip”, to a local directory.
• When the download is finished, open the zip file and extract the contents to a local directory. The User Manual is in a directory named “librecad-latest”.
• Open “index.html” located in the “librecad-latest” directory in a browser.

LibreCAD v2.2.0 - User Manual

This is an interim release of the of the LibreCAD User Manual and is subject to change.

The manual is based on LibreCAD v2.2.0-rc1 with a few additions. If you are using another version of LibreCAD, your mileage may vary.

About

LibreCAD, the web site, wiki and the User Manual are all user supported and represents the efforts numerous volunteers committing countless hours of time to create, improve and support the application and documentation. Support is free directly from the large dedicated community of users, contributors and developers.

The Application

History

LibreCAD is a free Open Source 2D CAD application using the cross-platform framework Qt. That means it works with multiple operating systems; Windows, Apple and Linux.

The project started around 2010 as a fork of QCAD 2.0.5.0. It began as a project to build CAM capabilities into the community version of QCAD for use with a Mechmate CNC router. This gave rise to CADuntu. The project was known as CADuntu only for a couple of months before the community decided that the name was inappropriate. After some discussion within the community and research on existing names, CADuntu was renamed to LibreCAD.

Since QCAD CE was built around the outdated Qt3 library, it had to be ported to Qt4 before additional enhancements. Porting the rendering engine to Qt4 proved to be a large task, so initially LibreCAD, the 1.0.0 series, still depended on the Qt3 support library. Thanks to our master developer Rallaz, the Qt4 porting was completed during the development of 2.0.0 series and LibreCAD has become Qt3 free. The latest version of LibreCAD, the 2.2.0 series, requires the Qt5 framework.

Features

LibreCAD has the following features:

• reads DWG and DXF files
• writes DXF, SVG, PDF, and more…
• drawing entities include line, polyline, spline, circle, ellipse, text, dimension, blocks and hatches
• advanced snapping system
• custom toolbars and menus
• highly customizable user interface
• plugin system

As free software you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the see GNU General Public License version 2 (GPLv2) as published by the Free Software Foundation.

The User Manual

The user manual is a compilation from many sources. The manual includes detailed instructions on obtaining, installing and configuring LibreCAD in the Getting Started section. It contains the technical descriptions of the tools, functions, widgets, etc. in the Reference section and generic instructions on how to do a few things with LibreCAD in the User Guide section. There is also further information and links to additional resources in the appendices.

The manual is best viewed with a minimum screen width of about 1100 pixels to display the menu and content in a browser. Clicking the “LibreCAD” text or icon at the top of the menu will return to the User Manual’s home page. On smaller devices, such as a mobile device, a minimum screen width of 800 pixels is recommended to display to content. At screen resolutions of 800 pixels or less, the navigation menu is hidden. It can be made visible by clicking the “hamburger” icon. Clicking the “LibreCAD” text top of the window will return to the home page.

This manual uses screen captures of LibreCAD installed on Linux. While the images may appear slightly different on Windows or MacOS, the application layout and menu commands will be the same.

Conventions

• Internal and external links appear in blue.

• Clicking on the embedded images will display them full size. Click the browser’s “back button ” to return to the manual.

• Application menu paths are shown in bold and levels are separated with “->”, e.g. File -> New.

• Dialogue box titles are shown in bold with matching case.

• Dialogue box labels are enclosed in quotes, ” ”, with matching case.

• Tab titles are enclosed in quotes with matching case.

• Button labels are enclosed in quotes with matching case.

• Key combinations are shown with the keyboard labels enclosed in square brackets with a “+” between keys, e.g. [Ctrl]+[C].

• Text typed at the command line (OS commands, CAD commands or coordinates) is shown in a text box:

  li
  0,0
  0,50
  k
  

Contributors

There are many people who have contributed to the LibreCAD User Manual. Those contributions have come via LibreCAD’s forum, wiki and source code.

Some of those that have contributed, directly or indirectly, include:

Armin Stebich	Bob Woltz
Chris G	Clive Tubb
David Huff	dellus
Dli,	Fabrice
Ferdi	Gary S (Maintainer)
R. van Twisk	Ravas
Richard M Brown	Stano Sitar

Copyright

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, PO Box 1866, Mountain View, CA 94042, USA.

LibreCAD v2.2.0 - User Manual

This is an interim release of the of the LibreCAD User Manual and is subject to change.

The manual is based on LibreCAD v2.2.0-rc1 with a few additions. If you are using another version of LibreCAD, your mileage may vary.

Getting Started

LibreCAD is available for multiple operating systems and from a variety of sources. It can be used “straight out of the box” or can be customized to suit the user’s preferences and needs.

LibreCAD v2.2.0 - User Manual

This is an interim release of the of the LibreCAD User Manual and is subject to change.

The manual is based on LibreCAD v2.2.0-rc1 with a few additions. If you are using another version of LibreCAD, your mileage may vary.

Download and Install

LibreCAD is available as two variants; as a stable version (i.e. general release), or as a unstable (also referred to as “daily” or “nightly” depending on the repository) release. The stable version is recommended for most users. The unstable build represents the cutting edge of LibreCAD development and might contain bugs or new, incomplete features under development. Those new features may or may not be included in next general release version. LibreCAD can also be built from the source code so users can compile the most current code base for their OS / platform.

Windows

Links to the MS Windows installers can be found in the Resources section of the appendix. Download the desired version, stable or a “NightlyBuild” of the installer from the build directory and run the installer (exe file).

Mac OS/X

Links to the installers for OS/X 10.9 can be found in the Resources section. Download the desired version of the installer from the build directory and run the installer (dmg file).

For other versions of OS/X, please follow build instructions in the appendix.

Note

If you are an OS/X developer, please help us improve the DMG installers and MacPorts LibreCAD package.

Linux

LibreCAD is available in the software repository of many Linux distributions, however the versions in the repositories may not be the most recent release of LibreCAD. Some distributions may have community supported builds that may be more recent than what is available in the official software repository.

Packages are available for the following Linux distributions through their respective repositories:

• Debian (Stable and Unstable)
• Ubuntu (Stable and Daily PPAs)
• Arch Linux
• Fedora
• Gentoo
• OpenSUSE

Links to the repository can be found in the Resources.

Ubuntu

Official Ubuntu Repository

LibreCAD can be found in Ubuntu’s “Software Center” for Ubuntu 11.04 (Natty) and later. Search for “librecad” in the software manager and then download and install it for your system, or to install it from the command line type:

$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install librecad

Daily and Stable Builds in Ubuntu PPA

For those users who want a more current version of LibreCAD you can use the Stable or Daily Build PPAs, available for Ubuntu 10.10 (Maverick) and later.

For those that want to be more up to date than the distribution packages can install the stable build. First add the “stable” repository via the command line:

$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:librecad-dev/librecad-stable

And then update the software sources and install LibreCAD:

$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install librecad

For those that want to live on the bleeding edge and try out the newest features as they are made available from the GitHub repository, use a same method with the “daily” repository:

$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:librecad-dev/librecad-daily
$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install librecad

Debian

LibreCAD is available in the main repository of Debian 7.0 (Wheezy) and later. Use your favorite package manager (e.g. aptitude, synaptic, etc.) and search for “librecad” to install and configure it, or simply from the command line type:

$ sudo apt install librecad

Debian Unstable

If you are not running unstable (i.e. Sid), and still want to upgrade LibreCAD to a newer version unstable package, download the LibreCAD debs from “Debian unstable” (Resources), and manually install them in your system by “dpkg -i”:

$ sudo dpkg -i /path/to/librecad_1.0.0~rc3+nolibs-1_i386.deb
$ sudo dpkg -i /path/to/librecad-data_1.0.0~rc3+nolibs-1_i386.deb

Other

FreeBSD

LibreCAD is available from [ports], and can be installed as a binary package:

# pkg install librecad

Build from Source Code

For the most current up-to-date version of LibreCAD with the latest enhancements and fixes, it can be built for source. the instructions are in the Build from Source section of the appendix.

LibreCAD v2.2.0 - User Manual

This is an interim release of the of the LibreCAD User Manual and is subject to change.

The manual is based on LibreCAD v2.2.0-rc1 with a few additions. If you are using another version of LibreCAD, your mileage may vary.

Configuration

Initial Setup

LibreCAD’s “Welcome” dialog is shown the first time LibreCAD is launched after installation. The dialog prompts the user to select the Default Unit and the languages to be used for the GUI and for the commands:

LibreCAD then starts with its default configuration and is ready use. Additional configuration as required can be completed by changing the Application Preferences as shown below.

User Interface

The user interface consists of several major elements:

LibreCAD’s default applications window

• Menu: provides access to application functions (open, close, etc.) and drawing tools. Menus can be customized to suit user preferences. Refer to Application Menu in the Reference section.
• Toolbars: provides access to drawing tools and functions. Refer to Toolbars.
• Docks: provides access to drawing tools and functions. Refer to Docks.
• Status bar: displays information about current drawing operation. (See below.)
• Drawing window: displays the active drawing.

Status Bar

There are five sections in the status bar. Those sections displays information about current drawing operation and include coordinates, prompts for the next action, information about the selected entity or entities, and the grid status.

Section	Description
Coordinates	Displays the absolute coordinates (left) and the relative coordinates (right) of the cross-hair / cursor. Cartesian coordinates are shown on top and and polar coordinates are bottom. Refer to Coordinates in Fundamentals of the Reference section for more details on the type of coordinates.
Next Action	Displays a prompt for the next action required for the current command; e.g. ”Specify next point”, ”Specify center”, etc. Prompts to the left of the mouse icon represent left mouse button actions and the right represent right mouse button actions.
Selected	Display the total number and the combined lengths of one or more selected entities.
Current Layer	Displays the active layer. Refer to Layers in Fundamentals of the Reference section for more details.
Grid	Displays the minor and major grid spacing for the X and Y axes. Minor grid spacing is represented by dots, and the major by dotted lines.

Layout

LibreCAD’s layout and appearance is highly configurable:

• Menus: drop down from the menu bar or can be “torn off” and float anywhere on the display. Click the dashed line at the top of a menu to detach it.
• Toolbars: can be dragged and dropped to the top, bottom, left, right, or float anywhere on the display.
• Docks Widgets: (e.g. command line or layer list) can also be dragged and dropped to the top, bottom, left, right, or float within the drawing window. In addition they can be stacked in the same region of the application window where they will be “tabbed”. Optionally docks can be placed outside of the application window, such as when using multiple monitors. Drawing tools are also available as dock widgets, but are suited as floating “toolboxes”. Widgets can also be resized by dragging their edges.
• Style sheets: allow users to change the visual elements of the application’s window decorations; title bars, fonts, colors, etc. Refer to the Customizing in the Reference section for more details.

LibreCAD applications window - custom layout

Application Preferences

In addition to the layout, LibreCAD has many preferences that will change other aspects of the appearance or behavior of the application. The preferences can be configured by selecting Options -> Application Preferences. Different elements of the preferences can be set; Appearance, Paths and Defaults.

Appearance

There are three categories on the “Appearance” tab that allows the user to change the look and behavior of LibreCAD.

The Graphic View category has options for the snap indicator style and shape, scroll-bars and grid. Use the Snap Indicator Lines to select the style for orthogonal (Crosshair, Crosshair 2 or Spiderweb) or isometric (Isometric) projections. The Anti-alias setting, if supported by the hardware, when checked will reduce jagged edges of diagonal lines, circles, etc.

The Language categories allows the the user to select the language used in the GUI and command line. Supported languages can be found in the appendix.

Thirdly, the Graphic Colors section allow custom colors to be selected for the snap indicator, drawing background, grid, and other indicators (selections, highlighted items and Handles). Users can select predefined colors from the drop down menu or select their own from the color selector.

Path

The Path tab allows users to specify the directory paths to additional resources; language (“Translations”) and user created or installed Hatch Patterns, Fonts, Parts libraries and Templates and a “Variable file”. These paths do not override the defaults paths, but are appended so the default resources are still available.

It is recommended that user defined resource be placed in a user directory (e.g. home directory on Linux: ~/LibreCAD/Translations, etc.)

• Translations: Language files for the GUI and / or command languages.
• Hatch Patterns, Fonts, Parts Libraries: user created or obtained from other sources such as the Parts Library wiki
• Template: specify the full path and filename of a user-defined drawing template to load when launching the application or starting a new drawing
• Variable File: load a user-defined variable file when starting the application (see the Command Line guide for details on using commands / variables files.)

Defaults

The Defaults tab allows users to specify application-wide defaults.

Drawing Defaults

Unit: Defines the default unit of measure for all new drawings. The default can be overridden by setting the unit of measure in the Drawing preferences or template.

Program Defaults

• Auto backup: When checked, a backup will be created when closing the file. Backup files are saved to the same directory as the drawing file with a tilde (~) appended to the file name.
• Auto save time: The time in minutes to perform an automatic save of the open files. Auto files are saved to the same directory as the drawing file with a hash symbol (#) prefixed to the file name.
• Don’t use native OS file open dialog: When checked, LibreCAD’s file open dialog is displayed when opening files.
• Modify layer of selected entities, at layer activation: If checked, entities can be assigned to a layer by selecting the entities and then selecting the destination layer.

Clear Settings

LibreCAD’s configuration can be partially or entirely reset back to a defaults:

• Layout: Resets the application window layout to the default configuration.
• All: Resets the application to the default configuration. Window layout, color settings, custom menus and toolbars, etc. are all reset. The “Welcome” dialog will be displayed next time the application is launched.

Startup

When checked the following items will:

• Display loading screen: LibreCAD’s load screen (e.g. splash screen) is displayed when launching the application.
• Start in tab mode: the drawing window is tabbed (same as selecting Drawings -> Tab mode from the main menu).
• Start with main window maximized: LibreCAD will start with the application window full screen.
• Enable CAD dockwidgets: show drawing tools (Circle, Curve, etc.) in the widget menu (Widgets -> Dockwidgets)
• Enable CAD toolbars: show drawing tools (Circle, Curve, etc.) in the toolbar menu (Widgets -> Toolbars)

LibreCAD v2.2.0 - User Manual

This is an interim release of the of the LibreCAD User Manual and is subject to change.

The manual is based on LibreCAD v2.2.0-rc1 with a few additions. If you are using another version of LibreCAD, your mileage may vary.

Reference

The Reference section provides an explanation of LibreCAD’s user elements, commands, drawing tools and other features that are needed to create and print drawings. The reference manual provides a brief description of the command and what parameters are necessary.

LibreCAD v2.2.0 - User Manual

This is an interim release of the of the LibreCAD User Manual and is subject to change.

The manual is based on LibreCAD v2.2.0-rc1 with a few additions. If you are using another version of LibreCAD, your mileage may vary.

Fundamentals

To be able to use LibreCAD effectively, there are a few concepts that need to be understood. While a basic drawing or sketch can be created after the initial setup, as drawings become more complex further consideration to the elements of a complete drawing is important. This section offers an introduction to some concepts that are required to create a drawing, but by no means is it exhaustive. The rest of the Reference section provides a description of the tools used to configure, create and modify drawings. Further general examples and guidance is offered in the User Guide section.

LibreCAD supports two drawing perspectives; orthogonal and isometric projections. Orthogonal projection is the default perspective for creating two dimensional (2D) drawings. An isometric projection allows LibreCAD to represent a three-dimensional object in two dimensions, sometimes referred to as “2.5D”. Both projections use coordinates to locate drawing elements.

The Coordinate System

Understanding the coordinate systems and how coordinates work in LibreCAD is necessary to produce precise drawings. Points are used to describe an aspect of an entity (e.g. the end of a line, the center of a circle, etc.), and can be placed accurately using coordinates.

There are two coordinate systems used in LibreCAD to place a point in a drawing. A point can be placed by specifying:

• a horizontal distance and vertical distance from a reference point (Cartesian), or
• an angle and distance from a reference point (Polar).

All coordinates in a drawing are relative to the origin or absolute zero. It is where the X and Y axes cross each other and is represented by crossed red lines. The coordinates of this point are 0,0. Coordinates to the right and above the origin are positive. Coordinates to the left or below are negative. Every entity drawn can be located in relation to the origin.

LibreCAD also uses a Relative Zero point. It is the last point set having created an entity. It is represented within the drawing by a small red circle with a cross in it. The Relative Zero point is set temporarily to a new position in a drawing so that a subsequent coordinates of the next entity can be placed using relative coordinates.

Angles

Angles are also used in LibreCAD. While horizontal or vertical distances are measured in the specified unit, angles in LibreCAD are always measured in degrees, beginning from 0 degrees horizontally to the right of the origin, or at the 3 o’clock position. Angles entered as a positive value are measured in an anti-clockwise direction. Angles entered as a negative value are measure in a clockwise direction.

Types of Coordinates

Cartesian

The Cartesian coordinate system is commonly used in most CAD programs. Cartesian coordinates take the form X,Y where X is measured along the horizontal axis and Y on the vertical axis. Coordinates can also be shown as “positive” (+) or “negative” (-) values. A specific point in a drawing is located by exact distances from the X and Y axis - for example a point in a drawing could be “100,75”, as shown here.

Polar

The Polar coordinate system uses a distance and an angle to locate a point in a drawing. In LibreCAD the < symbol is used to designate an angle when using polar coordinates. Polar coordinates take the form 100<45, indicating a line 100 units long and with an angle of 45 degrees as shown.

Defining Coordinate Locations

In LibreCAD lines, points, arcs, polylines, circles, and many more entities can be placed in a drawing using either absolute or relative coordinate input.

Absolute

When using absolute coordinates, whether Cartesian or polar, points are entered in direct relation to the origin (0,0). To do this in LibreCAD enter in the desired point, e.g. “100,75” or “100<45” as shown in the two images above.

Relative

The next point can also be placed relative to the previously placed point. The last point placed when creating an entity becomes a temporary reference for the next point. The newly set temporary reference is the “Relative Zero point” and the next coordinates can be entered relative to that point. To define the next point relative to the Relative Zero point, either cartesian or polar, prefix the coordinates with the “@”. Points without the @ prefix are always interpreted as absolute coordinates.

For example, when using cartesian coordinates to set a point 75 units to the right and 65 units above of the previous point, use “@75,65”. In the example shown, the previous point was set at 25 units horizontally and 35 vertically (25,35) from the origin (0,0). The next point can be set @75,65 from the Relative Zero point at 25,35, resulting in a point at 100,100 absolute (100 units horizontally and 100 vertically from the origin).

Hint

Relative coordinates can also be entered using the “x..y” format. This format is equivalent to prefixing the coordinates with the “@” symbol, but allows for numeric keypad input when using the command line. As an example, entering coordinates as “75..65” is equivalent to “@75,65”.

Absolute & Relative Cartesian Coordinates

As an example when using a polar coordinates, to place a point 100mm and 45 degrees from the last point drawn at 25,35 (absolute cartesian coordinate) use “@100<45” (relative polar coordinate).

Absolute Cartesian & Relative Polar Coordinates

Units

LibreCAD supports several display formats for both linear and angular units, in both metric and imperial measures. A subset of the formats can be used when entering values on the command line as indicated in the table below.

Note

Internally, LibreCAD is measurement agnostic. That is, it is indifferent to the unit of measure. One unit of length will be one unit no matter what system measurement or unit of measure is used. Changing the “Units” setting in the Drawing Preferences will not convert a drawing to the new units of measure and retain the size of an object. For example, changing the unit of measure from metric to imperial, or vice versa, does not convert the drawing from one system of measurement to the other. Nor will changing the unit from meter to millimeter, or parsec to angstrom. It only changes the way the measurements a displayed on the status bar or as dimensions.

Length Format

Format	Unit Description	Maximum Precision	Example	Status Bar/ Dimension	Command Line Entry
Scientific	Significant x 10 n	0.00000000E+1	1.44311E+1	Yes	Yes
Decimal	Integer part separated from the fractional part of a number by a decimal	0.00000000	14.43112	Yes	Yes
Engineering	Feet and decimal inches	0’-0.00000000”	1’-2.43112”	Yes	No
Architectural	Feet and fractional inches	0’-0 1/128”	1’-2 7/16”	Yes	No
Fractional	Fractional inches	1/128”	14 7/16”	Yes	No
Architectural (metric)	Decimal metric units (mm, cm, etc…)	0.00000000	14.43112	Yes	Yes

Hint

Imperial measures, feet and inches for example, are not natively recognized by LibreCAD’s command line. In order to use imperial measures on the command line, the decimal equivalent of the measurement needs to be entered. However, the calculation can be performed using the command line calculator. For example:

1’ 2 7/16” can be entered as 1*12 + 2 + 7/16 (14.43112)

5yd 2’ 3 3/8” can be entered as 5*3*12 + 2*12 + 3 + 3/8 (207.375)

The calculation can also be done in-line when specifying a point, for example:

As a Cartesian coordinate: 1*12+2+7/16,10

As a polar coordinate: 1*12+2+7/16<45

Angle Format

Format	Description	Maximum Precision	Example	Status Bar/ Dimension	Command Line Entry
Decimal Degrees	Integer part separated from the fractional part of a number by a decimal	0.00000000	30.5 °	Yes	Yes
Deg/Min/Sec	Degrees [ ° ] / Minutes ( ‘, 1/60 of a degree) / Seconds ( ”, 1/60 of a minute)	0 ° 00’ 00.0000”	30 ° 32’ 0”	Yes	No
Gradians	1/100 of a right angle	0.00000000g	33.9g	Yes	No
Radians	The arc of a circle measured in lengths of the radius	0.00000000r	0.5r	Yes	No
Surveyor’s units	Cardinal directions measure in deg/min/sec from North and East	N30d32’E	N0d00’00.0000’’E	Yes	No

Entities

An entity is a geometric shape; a line, circle, arc, etc. A collection of entities is what forms a drawing. In addition to the basic information that describes the geometry of an entity, there are two more attributes that further define an entity:

• Pens describes the appearance of an entity, either on screen or in printed output with three additional properties:

  • Color
  • Width
  • Line Type

• Layers provide a means to organize drawing and manage the properties of multiple entities.

Note

Pen or Layers properties can have a specific meaning, but vary by industry or an organization’s standards and a complete description is beyond the scope of this manual.

Pen

As with many other aspects of drafting line color, thickness and type assigned to an entity, such as a line or circle are determined by drafting conventions or common practices. Within LibreCAD, the three attributes are grouped together as a “Pen”:

• Color - LibreCAD has 16 default colors, but supports the RGB color space (#000000 to #FFFFFF or 16,777,215 colors). The initial color for entities is black.
• Width - The default line width is 0.00mm. Line widths of up to 2.11mm are supported.
• Line Type - The default line type is “Continuous” (e.g. solid). Other line types included with LibreCAD are Dot, Dash, Divide, Center, and Border.

The pen attributes can be defined for a single entity (via the Properties tool) , by a group of selected entities (via the Attribute tool), or by layer.

Note

Just as with entities, “pens” can also be applied to layers. See Layer List Dock for details on setting a layer’s attributes.

Color

The color for an entity can be selected from the ”Color” selection drop-down menu. The drop-down menu allows the color to be selected ”By Layer”, ”By Block”, from the ”Custom” color selector, or chosen quickly from one of the 16 pre-defined colors:

Selecting ”By Layer” will assign the color that was defined for the layer (see above) to the entity. If the layer’s selected color is subsequently changed all entities on the layer will be assigned the layer’s color.

When editing a block, selecting ”By Block” will assign the color that was defined for the block to the added entity. If the block’s color is subsequently changed all entities in the block will be assigned the block’s color.

Selecting ”Custom” will allow a selection from a palette of 36 colors and shades of grey or from a user defined colors. User defined colors are created by clicking the Add button and then selecting the hue and value from the color selection tool. User defined colors can be modified by right-clicking on a user defined color and selecting a new hue and value. A maximum of eight user defined colors can be added.

Width

Available Line Widths (Attributes)

The LibreCAD default line thickness is 0.00 mm (hairline) and range up to 2.11 mm. The range include ISO standard width lines. Line widths vary by purpose; outline, hidden, section, etc., and by drawing size; larger drawings utilize thicker lines. In addition to the line widths, four additional options will show on the drop-down list:

• - Unchanged -: Leave the line width as previously selected.
• By Layer: Adopts the line width set in the layer’s attributes.
• By Block: Adopts the line width used when the block was created.
• Default: Returns the line width to the default (0.00 mm).

Refer to Common Line Widths in the appendix for examples of line thickness by purpose.

Line Type

LibreCAD includes several commonly used line types:

Line Type	Example	Purpose
Continuous		Object or visible, dimension, extension and construction lines.
Dot
Dash		Hidden lines and phantom lines (long dash).
Dash Dot
Divide		Marks location (cross) section of object.
Center		Marks center of circle, arc or any symmetrical object.
Border		Used for indicating property / boundary lines.

Other than ”Continuous”, the other non-continuous lines are available in default, ”tiny” (1/6x default), ”small” (1/2x) and ”large (2x)”. As with line thickness, different types of lines are used for different purposes. A complete list of line types are shown in the appendix.

Note

Intervals for non-continuous line types with white spaces remain constant when scaled. ”Tiny” should be used in most cases.

Layers

One of LibreCAD’s key features is the ability to use layers. Layers help organize drawings by allowing users to place and manage related entities. Traditional manual drafting used a similar approach. The layers were often drawn on separate transparent sheets of paper. These sheets were then overlaid one on top of another to produce final drawings.

Whether for engineering, architectural, construction, manufacturing or other types, layers were used to show different aspects on the drawing. Layers could be added to show centre lines or dimensions on an engineering or manufacturing drawings, or to show different building systems on architectural drawings such as exterior walls, partitions, electrical, HVAC, grid lines, etc. While one layer can contain multiple entities, every entity in a drawing can only be associated with single layer. Typically entities with common functions or attributes are put on the same layer. For example, all the walls in a floor plan drawing would be put on a layer named “Walls”.

Layers have an added advantage that all the pen attributes can be assigned to a layer. Every entity on that layer will adopt the attributes that have been assigned to that layer. However, the attributes assigned by the layer can be overridden for entities if necessary. In the above example a line thickness can applied to all entities on the “Walls” layer by changing the “Layer Settings” for that layer.

Important

Layer 0 is the default layer for new drawings and has special significance. It should not be used for general drawing purposes. Create at least one additional layer for a new drawing. Refer to Layer List Dock and Setting up a Drawing in the User Guide section for more details on using layers.

Generally layer “0” should only be used for blocks. See Using Blocks in the User Guide section for additional details.

Creating a Layer

Layers are usually created to hold entities with common attributes. Creating a layer is simple:

• Click the Add a layer icon .
• Specify a Layer Name.
• Optionally specify the Color, Width and Line Type for the layer.
• Click Ok.

Construction Layers

A construction layer is designed to hold geometry construction lines:

• A construction layer won’t appear on printout.
• All lines of a construction layer are infinite in length.

You can toggle between construction and normal mode three ways:

• When creating or modifying a layer, click the Construction Layer checkbox in the Layer Settings dialog.
• Right-click on a named layer in the Layer List and choose “Toggle Construction Layer”.
• Click the “Toggle construction lines” icon / in the Layer List.

For more details on hiding, locking and deleting layers, refer to Layer List Dock in the Dock Widgets Reference section.

Drawing and Editing Entities

Creating Entities

There are two methods for defining coordinates when drawing entities in LibreCAD. Users can use either use a mouse or other pointing devices, or the keyboard and enter coordinates.

Using a Mouse

Entities’ coordinates can also be located graphically using a mouse or other pointing device. Using a mouse is less precise, but may be acceptable for rough sketches or other freehand work. However, the accuracy of using a mouse can be enhanced through the use of snaps.

Note

When no drawing tool is active, the mouse pointer is displayed and the default action within the drawing window is select (See Selecting Entities below).

When a drawing tool is active, a small crosshair cursor is displayed. “Snap indicator lines” can also be configured in the Application Preferences to make the cursor more visible.

Hint

Pressing [Shift] while drawing 2 Points lines with the mouse will constrain the cursor to a multiple of 15|deg| intervals; 15, 30, 45|deg|, etc. Ensure the Snap on grid is off when using this feature.

Using the Keyboard

The keyboard can be used to select tools and enter coordinates using the command line. Tools can be selected by typing a command and then entering the coordinate values. The commands are shown in the Drawing Tools. Coordinates can be entered at the command line after selecting a drawing tool using the formats as shown previously; “100,75” (Cartesian) or “100<45” (polar), absolute or relative (prefixed with “@”).

LibreCAD offers an additional method for entering relative coordinates when using the numeric keypad; type two decimal points (”..”) in lieu of the comma between the X and Y values. For example, “10..20” is equivalent to typing “@10,20”. Refer to the User Guides for more details on using the command line.

Another alternative when using the keyboard for defining a relative orthogonal coordinate is to specify a distance and then a direction with an arrow key; up, down, left or right while holding the [Crlt] key. After placing the first point, the second, or subsequent, point can be placed by entering a numerical value for the distance and then press [Crtl]-[ Arrow ] for the direction. For example, after specifying the first point, type “100” and then [Ctrl]-[ ← ] to place a point to 180 ° from the reference point. This method works with line, circle, arc, etc. where a “next” point is required. The arrow keys are equivalent to the following angles:

Arrow Key	Angle
Right →	0 °
Up ↑	90 °
Left ←	180 °
Down ↓	270 °

Note

Text input may also be required for Tool Options where distance, angle, etc. are needed with some of the Drawing Tools.

Selecting Entities

Selecting entities allow them to be modified or deleted. Some operations can be applied to groups of selected entities and other can only be applied to one entity at a time. There are a variety of ways that entities can be selected:

• Using the mouse:

  • [Left Button] click on one or more entities to select or deselect.

  • Use the “Select Window” (selection box):

    • Click [Left Button] and drag the selection window left to right while moving down or up to select entities enclosed within the selection window’s boundary (blue selection box). Click the [Left Button] again to complete the selection.
    • Click [Left Button] and drag the selection window right to left while moving down or up to select entities enclosed within the window’s boundary and crossed by the selection boundary (green selection box). Click the [Left Button] again to complete the selection.
    • Hold the [Shift] key while while performing the above actions to deselect.

• From the command line:

  • Type “sa” at the command line to select all entities.
  • Deselect selected entities by pressing [Esc] or typing “tn” at the command line. Note that it might be might be necessary to press [Esc] twice if a command it active.

Also see the Select tools for additional methods to select and deselect entities.

Entity Handles

Selected entities display “handles”. Left-clicking on and dragging a handles allow the entities to be manipulated; lengthened, moved or enlarged depending on the type of entity:

• Entities that consist of a single segment, such as lines, arcs and polyline segments, have a start handle and an end handle. Either handle can be clicked on and dragged into a new position.

• Handles on circles or other entities that consist of multiple segments allow it to be manipulated in a variety of ways depending on the type of entity. For example:

  • A rectangle’s corner handle can be dragged to a new position creating other quadrilaterals.
  • A circle’s perimeter handle can be dragged to increase or decrease the diameter.
  • The end points on the edges of a polygon can be repositioned.
  • Dimension text can be moved, or dimension and extension lines can be repositioned by dragging a handle.

Ordering Entities

Entities are drawn on a 2D plane, but can overlay each other and have levels that are independent of layers. Entity can be raised, moved up, or lowered, moved down, with respect to other entities. Each layer can contain entities that are at different levels. Use the commands in Tools -> Modify -> Order to move entities up or down.

Action	Key	Result
move to top	[Home]	Moves the selected entity to the top most position.
move to bottom	[End]	Moves the selected entity to the bottom most position.
raise over entity	[Page Up]	Moves the selected entity up one relative position.
lower after entity	[Page Down]	Moves the selected entity down one relative position.

Isometric Drawings

Isometric X, Y ,Z Axes

LibreCAD can also be used to create drawings with an isometric perspective. Creating isometric drawings is similar to creating orthogonal drawings, but with an additional consideration towards combining multiple views in a single perspective. Instead of the two axes (X,Y) used with orthogonal drawings, isometric drawing are represented in a two dimensional drawing on three axes (X,Y,Z) with 120 ° between each axis.

See Drawing an Isometric View in Drawing and Editing section of the User Guide for details on configuring LibreCAD for isometric drafting.

LibreCAD v2.2.0 - User Manual

This is an interim release of the of the LibreCAD User Manual and is subject to change.

The manual is based on LibreCAD v2.2.0-rc1 with a few additions. If you are using another version of LibreCAD, your mileage may vary.

Main Menu

Most of LibreCAD’s commands are accessible through the menu bar. Drop-down menus provides access to file and print operations, application and drawing configurations, drawing and editing tools, and other functions.

The drop-down menus can be changed into a floating menu. Each drop-down menu has a dashed line at the top. Clicking and dragging the dashed line allows the menu to be “torn off” and moved to another location anywhere on-screen. Clicking the dot on the upper right corner of the floating menu closes it.

File

Menu Item	Icon	Short-cut	Description
New		[Ctrl]+[N]	Creates a new drawing file.
New from Template			Creates a new drawing file from a template. See Templates in User Guides for details.
Open		[Ctrl]+[O]	Open existing drawing file.
Save		[Ctrl]+[S]	Save current drawing file.
Save as		[Ctrl] [Shift]+[S]	Save current drawing file to a different location or with a new file name.
Import			Import a block, or bit mapped or vector images into the current drawing. Supported bit mapped formats include: bmp, cur, gif, ico, jpeg, pbm, pgm, png, ppm, xbm, and xpm. Vector images supported include svg, and svgz.
Export			Export the current drawing as a CAM, pdf or image file. Supported bitmapped formats include: cur, jpeg, pbm, pgm, png, ppm, bmp, ico, xbm, and xpm. Vector images supported include svg, and svgz. Use the ”CAM” export to save SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) suitable for MakerCAM, EleskCAM, LaserWeb, …
Print		[Ctrl]+[P]	Produce output of the current drawing. See Printing in the User Guides section.
Print Preview			View output on screen of the current drawing.
Close		[Ctrl]+[W]	Close the active drawing.
Quit		[Ctrl]+[Q]	Close the application.
Recent Files			Open existing drawing file from a list of previously opened drawing files.

Options

Menu Item	Icon	Short-cut	Description
Application Preferences			See Application Preferences in Getting Started for details.
Current Drawing Preferences		dp, drawpref	See Drawing Preferences for details.
Widget Options			See Widget Options for in Customizing details.
Device Options			Select input device: mouse, tablet, trackpad or touchscreen.
Reload Style Sheet		[Ctrl]+[T]	See Style Sheets in Customizing for details.

Edit

Menu Item	Icon	Short-cut / Command	Description
Selection Pointer		[Esc] / k, kill	Deselects all selected entities and/or cancels the current operation.
Undo		[Ctrl]+[Z] / u, undo, oo	Sequentially reverses the previous operations.
Redo		[Ctrl]+[Shift]+[Z] / r, redo, uu	Sequentially reverses the previously reversed operations.
Cut		[Ctrl]+[X]	Removes the selected entity (or entities) and places it in temporary memory, e.g. ”clipboard” for later recall. A reference point needs to be placed for subsequent paste operations.
Copy		[Ctrl]+[C]	Creates a copy of the selected entity (or entities) in temporary memory to be recalled. A reference point needs to be placed for subsequent paste operations.
Paste		[Ctrl]+[V]	Recalls the entity (or entities) from temporary memory and place it at a location defined by a reference point.
Delete Selected		[Del]	Removes the selected entity (or entities) from the current drawing.

View

Menu Item	Icon	Short-cut / Command	Description
Fullscreen		[F11]	Hides the application title bar and toggles LibreCAD to use the entire display.
Statusbar		[Ctrl]+[I]	Toggles the visibility of the status bar at the bottom of the application window.
Grid		[Ctrl]+[G]	Toggles the visibility of the grid.
Draft		[Ctrl]+[D]	Toggles to or from ‘’Draft Mode’’. Draft mode displays hatches as invisible, and only displays bounding boxes for images and text. Drawings will display faster, particularly on slow computers.
Redraw		[Ctrl]+[R] / zr, rg, regen, redraw	Refreshes the view of the current drawing.
Zoom In		[Ctrl]+[+]	Increase view of drawing by 25% increments.
Zoom Out		[Ctrl]+[-]	Decrease view of drawing by 20% increments.
Auto Zoom		za	Resize the view of the drawing to fill the drawing window.
Previous View		zv	Revert to the previous zoom level of the drawing.
Window Zoom		zw	Increase the view of the selected area to fill the drawing window.
Zoom Panning		zp	Move the view of the drawing in the window.

Plugins

Menu Item	Icon	Short-cut	Description
Align			Align selected entities to a reference by defining the final positions of 2 initial points.
Read ascii points			Read points from a text file. Each line of the file is a point defined by an ID, X coordinate, Y coordinate, Z coordinate and an optional code. Each field can be separated by a comma, a tab or a space. The decimal separator is the point (.). The points can be connected with a line, ID, or coordinate and code fields can be plotted as text.
Divide			Divide a line or a circle with n sections. A tick can be located at the limit of each section to show each limit. The size of this tick can be defined as a percentage of the segment length. The line or the circle can be broken at the limit of each section using Divide tool.
Gear plugin			Draw a gear by selecting the center of gear and defining parameters such as number of teeth, modulus, etc.
ESRI Shapefile			Import GIS geospatial vector data shapefile (i.e. maps). Warning: The import process will lock LibreCAD until it is complete and large files can be very time consuming.
List entities			List the selected entities along with their properties such as ID, layer, color, line type, line thickness, coordinates.
Read PIC file			Import Pic graphics language diagrams.
Plot plugin			Plot a mathematical function or a parametric function using the drawing coordinate system. The formula, start value, end value and step value are required. The plot can be lines, a polyline or a spline.
Same properties			Apply the properties of a reference entity to selected entities. The modified properties are layer, color, line type and line thickness.
Sample plugin			Draw a line by specifying the X and Y coordinates of end points.

Tools

See Drawing Tools for a description of the drawing tools.

Widgets

Menu Item	Icon	Short-cut	Description
Dock Areas			Toggles the visibility of the left, right, top, bottom and /or floating Dock Widgets.
Dock Widgets			See Dock Widgets for descriptions.
Toolbars			Toggles the visibility of the toolbars.
Menu Creator			Create custom menus. See Menu Creator in Getting Started for details.
Toolbar Creator			Create custom toolbars. See Toolbar Creator in Getting Started for details.

Drawings

Menu Item	Icon	Short-cut	Description
Tab mode			When selected, each open drawing is in its own tabbed drawing or preview window. Tabbed windows cannot be moved, resized or arranged with in the LibreCAD application window. The selected tab is the active window.
Window mode			When selected, each open drawing is in its own independent drawing or preview window that can be moved, resized or otherwise arranged (see below). ”Window mode” is the default mode.
Layout			Tab mode only. Allows the selection of the tab’s appearance (”Rounded” or ”Triangular”) and the location of the drawing windows tab (”North”, ”South”, ”East” or ”West” (top, bottom, right, or left respectively)).
Arrange			Window mode only. Drawing windows can be ”Maximize”, ”Cascade”, ”Tiled”, ”Tiled Vertically”, ”Tiled Horizontally”
Currently opened drawings			List the current open drawing(s). The item with the checked box is the active drawing.

Help

Menu Item	Icon	Short-cut	Description
Online			Displays links to online resources; Wiki, User’s Manual, Command, Style Sheets, Widgets, Forum and Release Information.
About			Displays with information about the current version of LibreCAD and web links: to the ‘’Contributors’’, License and ‘’The Code’’ repository.
License			Displays the license text (GNU General Public License version 2).

LibreCAD v2.2.0 - User Manual

This is an interim release of the of the LibreCAD User Manual and is subject to change.

The manual is based on LibreCAD v2.2.0-rc1 with a few additions. If you are using another version of LibreCAD, your mileage may vary.

Drawing Tools

The drawing tools are used to create and modify entities such as lines, circles, etc. in a drawing. Commands can be selected from the menu, toolbars or entered via the command line. Right-click anywhere in the drawing window to display a popup menu showing the history of tools used from the menus or the toolbars with the most recent tool being on top of the list. The command line input is not shown in the history.

Several drawing tools have options or require additional parameters that appear on the Tool Options toolbar. The Tool Options toolbars are shown in the table below. If using the command line, the same tool options are available via the toolbar or the command line.

Important

Ensure the Tool Options toolbar is enabled. From the menu select Widgets -> Toolbar -> and enable Tool Options. The Tool Options toolbar will not appear if they are not enabled.

Line

The Line tools are used to create individual straight entities - a line - or multi-sided entities of individual line segments (other than the Rectangle, which is a polyline - see below).

Tool	Icon	Command	Description
2 points		l, li, line	Draw a line between two assigned points. Tool Options:
Angle		la, lineangled	Draw a line from an assigned point defining the start, middle or end of the line and with an assigned length and angle. Tool Options:
Horizontal		hor, horizontal	Draw a horizontal line from an assigned point defining the start, middle or end of the line and with an assigned length. Tool Options:
Vertical		ver, vertical	Draw a vertical line from an assigned point defining the start, middle or end of the line and with an assigned length. Tool Options:
Rectangle		rec, rect, rectangle	Draw a rectangle by assigning the points of two diagonally opposite corners.
Parallel through point		pp, ptp	Draw a given number of lines parallel to a selected existing line through an assigned point. Tool Options:
Parallel		o, pa, offset, parallel	Draw a given number of lines parallel to a selected existing line with a given distance between lines. Tool Options:
Bisector		bi, bisect	Draw a given number of lines bisecting two existing non-parallel lines (e.g. at an angle to each other with or without a common point). Tool Options:
Tangent (P,C)		tanpc, tangentpc	Draw a line from an assigned point tangent to an existing circle.
Tangent (C,C)		tancc, tangentcc	Draw a line tangent to two existing circles.
Tangent Orthogonal		tanoc, tangentoc	Draw a line tangent to an existing circle and perpendicular to an existing line.
Orthogonal		ortho, perp	Draw a line of a given length perpendicular to an existing line placing the centre at an assigned point. Tool Options:
Relative Angle		lr, linerel	Draw a line with a given length and at a given angle relative to an existing line placing the centre of the line at an assigned point. Tool Options:
Polygon (Cen,Cor)		pcp, polycp, polygoncencor	Draw a polygon with a given number of sides assigning the centre point and point of one vertex. Tool Options:
Polygon (Cen,Tan)		polyct, polygoncentan	Draw a polygon with a given number of sides assigning the centre point and point of the centre of one side. Tool Options:
Polygon (Cor,Cor)		poly2, polygon2v	Draw a polygon with a given number of sides assigning the two points of one side. Tool Options:

Circle

The Circle tools are used to create closed curved entities with a single center point.

Tool	Icon	Command	Description
Centre, Point		ci, circle	Draw a circle with a given radius by assigning a centre point and a point on the circumference.
2 Points		c2, circle2	Draw a circle with a given diameter by assigning two opposite points on the circumference.
2 Points, Radius		c2r, c2pr, circle2pr	Draw a circle with two points on the circumference and with an assigned radius. Tool Options:
3 Points		c3, circle3	Draw a circle assigning three points on the circumference.
Centre, Radius		cc, ccr, circlecr	Draw a circle with a given radius centred at an assigned point on the circumference. Tool Options:
Tangential, 2 Circles, 1 Point		c2tp, circle2tan1p	Draw a circle tangential to two existing circles and assigning a centre point to establish the radius.
Tangential, 2 Points		ct2p, circle1tan2p	Draw a circle tangential to an existing circle and define the diameter and placement by assigning two points on the circumference.
Tangential, 2 Circles, Radius		c2tr, circle2tanr	Draw a circle tangential to two existing circles with a given radius. Tool Options:
Tangential, 3 Circles		ct3, tan3	Draw a circle tangential to three existing circles and/or lines.

Curve

The Curve tools are used to create opened curved entities with a single center point (simple arc) or two foci points (elliptical arc). The Curve category also includes the Spline tools - curves defined by two or more points - and the Freehand Line tool.

Ellipse

The Ellipse tools are used to create closed curved entities with a two focal points.

Tool	Icon	Command	Description
Ellipse (Axis)		ea, elax, ellipseaxis	Draw an ellipse by assigning a centre point, a point on the circumference of major access and a point on the circumference the minor access.
Ellipse Foci Point		ef, elf, ellipsefoci	Draw an ellipse by assigning two foci points and a point on the circumference.
Ellipse 4 Point		e4, el4p, ellipse4p	Draw an ellipse assigning four points on the circumference.
Ellipse Center and 3 Points		ec3p, elc3p, ellipsec3p, c3po	Draw an ellipse by assigning a centre point three points on the circumference.
Ellipse Inscribed		ei, ie	Draw a Ellipse constrained by four existing non-parallel line segments.

Polyline

The Polyline tools are used to create open or closed objects consisting of straight or curved connected segments. All segments that create the polyline are treated as a single entity. Closed polylines are created when the final segment is connected to the first segment of the polyline.

Tool	Icon	Command	Description
Polyline		pl, polyline	Draw an open or closed continuous line consisting of one or more straight line or arc segments defined by endpoints and / or radius or angle for arcs. Tool Options: Options include Line and for curved segments; Tangential, Tan Radius and Angle.
Add node		pladd, pladdnode	Add node to existing polyline. (Use “Snap on Entity” to place new node on segment.)
Append node		plapp, plappnode	Add one or more segments to an existing polyline by selecting polyline and adding new node endpoint.
Delete node		pldeln, pldelnode	Delete selected node of an existing polyline.
Delete between two nodes		pldelseg, pldelbtwn	Delete one or more nodes between selected nodes of an existing polyline.
Trim segments		pltr, pltrimseg	Extend two separate non-parallel segments of an existing polyline to intersect at a new node.
Create Equidistant Polylines		plpa, plo, plparallel	Draw a given number of polylines parallel to a selected existing polyline with a given distance between lines. Tool Options:
Create Polyline from Existing Segments		join, pljoin	Create polyline from two or more selected line or arc segments forming a continuous line.

Select

The Select tools are used to select or deselect one or more entities.

Note

When no drawing tool is active (mouse pointer is displayed), the default [Left Button] mouse action is to:

• Select/deselect one or more entities by clicking on them, or
• Select multiple entities with a window. See Select Window below.

See Selecting Entities in Fundamentals for more details on selecting and deselecting entities.

Tool	Icon	Command	Description
Deselect all		tn / [Ctrl]-[K] or [Esc]	Deselect all entities on visible layers.
Select All		sa / [Ctrl]-[A]	Select all entities on visible layers.
Select Entity			Select, or deselect, one or more entities.
(De-)Select Contour			Select or deselected entities connected by shared points.
Select Window			Select one or more entities enclosed by selection window (L to R), or crossed by selection window (R to L).
Deselect Window			Deselect one or more entities enclosed by selection window (L to R), or crossed by selection window (R to L).
Select Intersected Entities			Select one or more entities crossed by selection line.
Deselect Intersected Entities			Deselect one or more entities crossed by selection line.
(De-)Select Layer			Select or deselected all entities on the layer of the selected entity.
Invert Selection		is, si, invertselect	Select all un-selected entities will deselecting all selected entities.

Dimension

The Dimension tools are used to annotate a drawing by labelling the length, width, height, and/or angle of a line entity, the diameter of circle entity, or radius of arc entity. Refer to Annotating a Drawing in the User Guides for more details.

Tool	Icon	Command	Description
Aligned		da	Apply dimension lines and text aligned to an existing entity by selecting start and end points on a line segment and placement point for the text. Tool Options:
Linear		dr	Apply dimension lines and text at an defined angle to an entity by selecting start and end points on a line segment and placement point for the text. Tool Options:
Horizontal		dh	Apply dimension lines and text aligned to an entity by selecting start and end points on a line segment and placement point for the text. Tool Options:
Vertical		dv	Apply dimension lines and text aligned to an entity by selecting start and end points on a line segment and placement point for the text. Tool Options:
Radial		dimradial	Apply dimension lines and text a circle’s or arc’s radius by selecting entity and placement point for the text. Tool Options:
Diametric		dimdiameter	Apply dimension lines and text a circle’s or arc’s diameter by selecting entity and placement point for the text. Tool Options:
Angular		dimangular	Apply angular dimension by selecting two existing non-parallel line segments and placement point for the text. Tool Options:
Leader		ld	Draw a text leader by by selecting start (arrow location), intermediate and end points.

Modify

The Modify tools are used to change and alter one or more existing entities, individually or in groups.

Tool	Icon	Command	Description
Order			Order entities within a layer. Selected entities can be moved to top, bottom, raised (moved forward) over another entity or lowered (moved backwards) behind an entity.
Move / Copy		mv	Move a selected entity by defining a reference point and a relative target point. Optionally keep the original entity (Copy), create multiple copies and / or alter attributes and layer.
Rotate		ro	Rotate a selected entity around a rotation point, moving the entity from a reference point to a target point. Optionally keep the original entity, create multiple copies and / or alter attributes and layer.
Scale		sz	Increase or decrease the size of a selected entity from a reference point by a defined factor for both axis. Optionally keep the original entity, create multiple copies and / or alter attributes and layer.
Mirror		mi	create a mirror image of a selected entity around an axis defined by two points. Optionally keep the original entity and / or alter attributes and layer.
Move and Rotate			Move a selected entity by defining a reference point and a relative target point and rotating the entity at a given angle. Optionally keep the original entity, create multiple copies and / or alter attributes and layer.
Rotate Two			Rotate a selected entity around an absolute rotation point, while rotating the entity around a relative reference point to a target point. Optionally keep the original entity, create multiple copies and / or alter attributes and layer.
Revert direction		revert	Swap start and end points of one or more selected entities.
Trim		tm, trim	Cut or extend the length of a line entity to an intersecting entity (line, circle, etc.).
Trim Two		t2, tm2	Cut or extend the lengths of two non-parallel lines to the point of intersection.
Lengthen		le	Extend the length of a line entity to an intersecting line entity. Tool Options:
Offset		modoff	Copy a selected entity to a defined distance in the specified direction.
Bevel		ch, bevel	Create a sloping edge between two intersecting line segments with defined by a setback on each segment. Tool Options:
Fillet		fi, fillet	Create a rounded edge between two intersecting line segments with defined radius. Tool Options:
Divide		di, div, cut	Divide, or break, a line at the selected ‘’cutting’’ point.
Stretch		ss	Move a selected portion of a drawing by defining a reference point and a relative target point.
Properties		mp, prop	Modify the attributes of a single entity including layer, pen color / width / line type and the entity’s geometry (varies by type of entity).
Attributes		ma, attr	Modify the common attributes of one or more selected entities including layer, pen color / width / line type.
Explode Text into Letters			Separate a string of text into individual character entities.
Explode		xp	Separate one or more selected blocks or compound entities into individual entities.
Delete selected		[Del], er	Delete one or more selected entities.

Info

The Info tools are used to obtain information about selected entities.

Tool	Icon	Command	Description
Distance Point to Point		dpp, dist	Provides distance, cartesian and polar coordinates between two specified points.
Distance Entity to Point			Provides shortest distance selected entity and specified point.
Angle between two lines		ang, angle	Provides angle between two selected line segments, measured counter-clockwise.
Total length of selected entities			Provides total length of one or more selected entities (length of line segment, circle circumference, etc.).
Polygonal Area		ar, area	Provides area and circumference of polygon defined by three or more specified points.

Others

The tools in the Other category are individually described below.

Tool	Icon	Command	Description
MText		mtxt, mtext	Insert multi-line text into drawing at a specified base point. Optionally define font, text height, angle, width factor, alignment, angle, special symbols and character set. Tool Options:
Text		txt, text	Insert single-line text into drawing at a specified base point. Optionally define font, text height, alignment, angle, special symbols and character set. Tool Options:
Hatch		ha, hatch	Fill a closed entity (polygon, circle, polyline, etc) with a defined pattern or a solid fill. Optionally define scale and angle.
Points		po, point	Draw a point at the assigned coordinates.

LibreCAD v2.2.0 - User Manual

This is an interim release of the of the LibreCAD User Manual and is subject to change.

The manual is based on LibreCAD v2.2.0-rc1 with a few additions. If you are using another version of LibreCAD, your mileage may vary.

Snapping

Snaps provide the ability to pick precise locations when using a mouse. Various snap tools are available to allow the user to select different locations on entities or elsewhere in the drawing space when using the grid.

Menu Item	Icon	Command	Description
Exclusive Snap Mode			On: only one snap mode is allowed. Off: multiple snap modes are allowed The snap modes are remembered in each state.
Free Snap		os, sf	Allows for the crosshair to move freely while other snap modes are enabled.
Snap on Grid		sg	Snap to a grid intersection.
Snap on Endpoints		se	Snap to the endpoints of a line segment, the quadrants of a circle, a point, or the alignment point of a text or mtext object.
Snap on Entity		np, sn	Snap to the path of an entity.
Snap Center		sc	Snap to the center of a circle or ellipse. It will also snap to the foci of an ellipse.
Snap Middle		sm	Snap to the middle of a path. Enabling this mode displays a ‘’Middle points’’ input. If you change the value to 2 then you can snap to the trisection points of a line segment.
Snap Distance		sd	If you snap to the endpoint of a line segment then activate ‘’snap distance’’ and input 50, then it will snap to a point 50 units from the endpoint on the line segment. However, it will also snap to a point that is 50 units from the other endpoint.
Snap Intersection		si	Snap to the intersection of two entities. Note this does not currently work for polylines.
Restrict Horizontal		rh	Restricts the crosshairs to the x-axis (horizontal movement).
Restrict Vertical		rv	Restricts the crosshairs to the y-axis (vertical movement).
Restrict Orthogonal		rr	Restricts the crosshairs to the x or y-axis. (either horizontal or vertical movement).
Restrict Nothing		rn	Turns off restricted cursor movements.
Set relative zero position			Manually sets the Relative Zero Point at the selected coordinate.
Lock relative zero position			Locks the Relative Zero Point to the current coordinate.

LibreCAD v2.2.0 - User Manual

This is an interim release of the of the LibreCAD User Manual and is subject to change.

The manual is based on LibreCAD v2.2.0-rc1 with a few additions. If you are using another version of LibreCAD, your mileage may vary.

Toolbars

Toolbars provide an alternative to the menus for accessing application functions and drawing tools. See Application Menu or Drawing Tools for complete descriptions.

Toolbars can be moved any where on the display and left floating, or docked to any of the four sides of the drawing window, similar to Dock Widgets. Unlike Dock Widgets, icons on a Toolbar are a single row when floating or docked to the top or bottom of the drawing window and verticle when docked to either side. Toolbars cannot be resized.

Print Preview

Important

Print Preview requires the use of the Tool Options toolbar as there are no menu or command line equivalencies for the options. If the Print Preview toolbar does not appear, from the menu select Widgets -> Toolbar and enable Tool Options (place checkmark in checkbox).

The Print Preview Tool Options toolbar is used to set up the print output regardless of output format (pdf or paper). The toolbar is displayed after clicking the Print Preview icon or selecting File -> Print Preview from the menu. A combination of scale value, color status and drawing position relative to paper allows for customized print output. The steps are detailed in printing guide.

Option Item	Icon	Description
Scale		Displays the current scale of the drawing. The scale can also be changed to a predefined value selected from the drop-down list, or entered as a custom ratio.
”fixed”		Checking the ”fixed” checkbox locks the scale to value shown in the text-box.
Apply Print Scale to line width		When enabled, line width is scaled on reduced drawings (drawings reduced in size to fit a smaller page).
Toggle Black/White		Toggles the colors of all entities from color to black/white.
Center to page		Centers the drawing and paper to the Print Preview window.
Fit to page		Fits the drawing to the margins of the paper and centers page to the Print Preview window. (Not available when ”fixed” is selected.)
Multipages		Determines the number of pages needed to print the drawing based on the defined scale and the paper size selected in Drawing Preferences.

Block Operations

Important

There are two toolbars for block operations that require the use of a toolbar as there are no menu or command line equivalencies for the options. If the block toolbars do not appear, from the menu select Widgets -> Toolbar and enable Tool Options (place checkmark in checkbox).

There are two block insert operations with corresponding Tool Option toolbars. For further details on using blocks refer to Blocks in the User Guides.

From Block List

The Block Insert capability can be expanded through the Tool Option bar features before the block is inserted.

Option Item	Description
Angle	Defines the angle of rotation, if any. See Angles in LibreCAD.
Factor	Defines the scale factor, if any. It is the same scale factor as in Modify.
Array	Defines the numbers of columns and rows to create a pattern of selected block. Otherwise keep 1 for columns and rows.
Spacing	Defines the distance between each column of the array and the distance between each row. The distance is measured between 2 insertion points of 2 adjacent blocks.

From Block Library

Inserting a block from a library can be enhanced through the Tool Option bar features before the block is inserted.

Option Item	Description
Angle	Defines the angle of rotation, if any. See Angles in LibreCAD.
Factor	Defines the scale factor, if any. It is the same scale factor as in Modify.

Drawing Tools

Menu Item	Description and/or Menu Equivalent
Categories	Groups commonly used drawing tools; Tools -> Line / Circle / Curve / Ellipse / Polyline / Select / Dimension / Modify and Info. Clicking an icon will display the drawing tool in the category. See Drawing Tools for details on each tool. Toolbar:
Circles	Drawing tools for circles. See Tools -> Circle. Toolbar:
Creators	Access menu and toolbar creators to modify LibreCAD’s interface. Widgets -> Menu Creator / Toolbar Creator. Also see Customizing LibreCAD’s Interface. Toolbar:
Curves	Drawing tools for curves. See Tools -> Curve. Toolbar:
DefaultCustom	Custom toolbar example. Includes MText, Hatch, Insert Image, Create Block, and Points. Toolbar:
Dimension	Drawing tools for dimensioning. See Tools -> Dimension. Toolbar:
Dock Areas	Show or hide widgets. Widgets -> Dock Areas. See Dock Widget Areas. Toolbar:
Edit	Edit functions; select, Undo, Redo, Cut, Copy and Paste. Toolbar:
Ellipse	Drawing tools for ellipses. See Tools -> Ellipse. Toolbar:
File	File operations. Toolbar:
Info	Tools for determinig information about entities. See Tools -> Info. Toolbar:
Line	Drawing tools for lines. See Tools -> Line. Toolbar:
Modify	Drawing tools to modify entities. See Tools -> Modify. Toolbar:
Order	Reorder drawing entities. See Tools -> Modify -> Order. Toolbar:
Pen	Change entity color, width and / or line type. Pen attributes. Toolbar:
Polyline	Drawing tools for Polylines. See Tools -> Polyline. Toolbar:
Select	Select entities. See Tools -> Select. Toolbar:
Snap Selection	Toggle snap tools off/on. See Snapping. Toolbar:
Tool Options	Displays input boxes for the parameters required by the currently selected tool. See Tool Options below. This option should always be enabled. Toolbar: Varies by tool selected. See Drawing Tools.
View	Toggle grid and draft mode, force redraw, and select zoom. See View options. Toolbar:

Tool Options

A variety of LibreCAD’s drawing tools have options or require additional parameters that are shown on the Tool Options toolbar. Those toolbars are shown in the Drawing Tools reference.

LibreCAD v2.2.0 - User Manual

This is an interim release of the of the LibreCAD User Manual and is subject to change.

The manual is based on LibreCAD v2.2.0-rc1 with a few additions. If you are using another version of LibreCAD, your mileage may vary.

Dock Widgets

Dock widgets are small movable windows that serve two purposes: (1) quick access to the drawing tools, and (2) access to additional features not available from a menu including:

• Block List,
• Command Line,
• Layer List,
• Library Browser, and
• Pen Wizard.

Drawing tool dock example: Line

As an alternative to the Tools menu, the Dock widgets provide more convenient way to access the Drawing Tools:

• Circle,
• Curve,
• Dimension,
• Ellipse,
• Info,
• Line,
• Modify, and
• Polyline.

Dock Widget Areas

Dock widgets can be moved to different areas by “grabbing” (left clicking and dragging) the title bar of the widget and releasing it in a new location. A widget can be left floating inside or outside of the drawing window, or placed in one of the four dock areas (left, right, top or bottom). The Dock Areas toolbar allows widgets to be hidden or made visible depending on their location:

Tool	Icon	Description
Left		Shows / hide the dock widgets located on the left side of the drawing window.
Right		Shows / hide the dock widgets located on the right side of the drawing window.
Top		Shows / hide the dock widgets located on the top of the drawing window.
Bottom		Shows / hide the dock widgets located on the bottom of the drawing window.
Floating		Shows / hide the dock widgets floating within the drawing window or outside of the drawing window.

Widgets can be placed either on top of an existing widget in any of the dock areas creating a tab for each of the widgets. Widgets can also be place above or below an existing widget dividing the area into multiple sections.

In addition, dock widgets can be resized by clicking and dragging the edge of the widget’s box. A widget has a minimum width of five icons and can be no shorter than the default height.

Block List Dock

The Block List Dock provides the functions to manage blocks and a list of blocks that are active in the drawing. Block functions include:

Block List dock example - 3 blocks

Icon	Description
	”Show all blocks” - Makes all the blocks in the current drawing visible.
	”Hide all blocks” - Hides all blocks in the active drawing.
	”Create a block” - Creates a block from the selected items.
	”Add an empty block” - Creates an empty block that can then be edited is a separate window (see below).
	”Remove the active block” - Deletes the highlighted block.
	”Rename the active block” - Rename the highlighted block.
	”Edit the active block in a separate window” - Open a new drawing window to edit a new or existing block.
	”Save the active block to a file” - Saves the highlighted block to a file.
	”Insert the active block”. - Inserts the highlighted block in the current drawing at the specified reference point

The lower portion of the dock shows a list of blocks in the current drawing. The blocks in the above example are named “a3”, “d1”, and “d3”. More details on creating and using blocks can be found in the User Guides.

Command Line Dock

Command Line dock

The Command Line is for users that want to draw by using keyboard commands. Commands, such as “li” for a line, “cir” for a circle, etc, are entered at the command line along with the required parameters (e.g. start and end coordinates for a line). Using the command line can be faster and/or more precise than drawing using exclusively a mouse and toolbars. The available commands are listed with the Drawing Tools and Snapping tools. There are also commands available for Edit and View operations.

Command Line dock drop-down menu

The dock includes a drop-down menu that offers additional functions:

• Toggle Keycode Mode off or on.
• Load a Command file.
• Paste commands.

Further details on using the command line are in the User Guides. In addition to command input, the command line provides access to a built in calculator. The calculator can be invoked with the cal command. The available operators and functions can be found in the Appendix.

Note

LibreCAD is designed with emphasis on mouse input and at the moment some options can be only selected by using the mouse as there is no equivalent command.

Layer List Dock

Layer List dock example with 4 layers

The Layer List Dock provides a list of layers in the current drawing and the functions required to manage them. There are three sections in the dock:

• the list filter,
• the list operators and functions, and
• the layer operators and functions.

Note

Layer 0 is the default layer for new drawings and should not be used for general drawing purposes.

See Entities in the Fundamentals section for additional details on layers.

The list filter is the input box at the top of the dock. It provides the ability to filter a long list of layer names to help locate a layer. Enter the name or partial name of a layer in the input box to filter the layer or layers. Wildcards (“*” or “?”) can be used to filter the list to locate similar layer names (e.g. “*01” would show all names ending by “01”).

The icons on the top of the layer list allow operations to the entire list of layers. Those operations include:

Icon	Function	Description
	Show all layers	Makes all the layers in the current drawing visible.
	Hide all layers	Hides all layers in the current drawing.
	Unlock all layer	Unlock, or ”Defreeze”, all layers to allow changes to the entities in the layer. (*)
	Lock all layer	Lock, or ”Freeze”, all layers to prevent unintentional changes. (*)
	Add a layer	Add a new layer to the list. (Shortcut [Ctrl]+[L]) (*)
	Remove layer	Remove the highlighted layer from the list. (*)
	Modify layer attributes / rename	Modify the selected layer’s attributes and / or rename the layer. (*)

The lower portion of the dock shows a list of layers in the current drawing and are listed in alpha-numeric order. In the example above the layers are named “Layer01”, “Layer02”, and “Layer03”.

Icons to the left of each layer act on the layers individually. The layer operations are:

Icon	Description
/	Show / hide the selected layer. (*)
/	Lock / unlock the selected layer. (”Freeze” / ”Defreeze”) (*)
/	Print / don’t print the selected layer. (*)
/	Toggle construction lines. (*) A layer designated as a ”Construction Layer” is special layer used to create reference geometry to help align other drawing entities. Construction lines are intended as temporary guide lines and drawn to ”infinity”.
	Shows the layer’s assigned color (the default is Black).

Layer operations can also be accessed by right-clicking on an individual layer in the list. Right-clicking opens a popup menu that provides equivalent operations to the layer operations above marked with an asterisk (*).

The pop-up menu has the advantage that several of the operations can be applied to multiple layers. Those operations include:

• Toggle Layer Visibilty,
• Toggle Layer Lock,
• Toggle Layer Printing,
• Toggle Construction Layer, and
• Remove Layer.

Select multiple layers by using [Shift]-[Left-click] to select the top and bottom of a contiguous group of layers, or [Ctrl]-[Left-click] to select individual layers in a non-contiguous group. After making a selection, right-click on one of the selected layers and choose one of the operations noted above. Multiple layers can also be deleted using the “Remove layer” icon .

Clicking the Attribute icon allows users to change the pen attributes of all entities on the selected layer. Entities that have their own pen attribute set differently will override the layer’s attributes.

The attributes include:

Attribute	Description
Layer Name	The default layer name is “O”, but any alpha-numeric label can be used. New layers are created with the name of the highlighted layer with a sequence number appended. Layers are sorted in the list alpha- numerically.
Construction Layer	Toggle the construction lines off / on.
Default Pen:	Color: Select from default or custom colors. Width: Select from predefined line widths from 0.00 to 2.11 mm. Type: Select from predefined line types: Continuous, or Dot, Dash, Dash Dot, Divide, Center, or Border (normal, “tiny”, “small”, or “large”).

More details on creating and using layers can be found in the “Drawing Setup” section of the User Guides.

Library Browser Dock

Library Browser dock example

The Library Browser Dock shows blocks available from the defined libraries and allows users to insert blocks into the current drawing. To insert a block, select a block from one of the categories by clicking on it, e.g. “d1” and click the “Insert” button. Specify a reference point in the drawing window with a mouse click or by entering coordinates at the command prompt. Once inserted into the drawing, the block is shown in the Block List Dock.

LibreCAD includes several libraries and additional libraries can be specified by defining a path to user libraries in the Application Preferences, “Path” tab as shown in Getting Started.

Pen Wizard Dock

Pen Wizard dock example

The Pen Wizard allows users to create a palette of favorite colors for the drawing tools. Colors can be selected from the existing colors via the drop-down list or created as a custom colors via the button to the right of the drop-down list. Pressing the “Add to favorites” [ ] button to the left will add the color to the list of favorites below. Drag-and-drop the colors in the list to arrange them in the preferred order.

Once colors have been added to the list, set the active pen color by double-clicking a favorite color.

Right-clicking a favorite color allows users to:

• Select all objects of a specific color and clicking on “Select objects”
• Change the color of all selected objects by clicking on “Apply to selected”
• Delete a favorite color by clicking “Remove”

LibreCAD v2.2.0 - User Manual

This is an interim release of the of the LibreCAD User Manual and is subject to change.

The manual is based on LibreCAD v2.2.0-rc1 with a few additions. If you are using another version of LibreCAD, your mileage may vary.

Drawing Preferences

Drawing preferences have two purposes, they allow users to :

1. override the application defaults on a drawing by drawing basis.
2. define specifics for the drawing’s output, format and other drawing specific configuration.

The preferences can be configured by selecting Options -> Current Drawing Preferences. There are five tabs for managing the drawing preferences: Paper, Units, Grid, Dimensions and Splines.

Paper

The Paper tab is used to define the size, orientation and margins of the page used when generating output. The output can be as a physical printed page or an electronic form such as a PDF. Layout of the page with specified settings may be checked in Preview section. The paper format is also used when previewing a drawing (File -> Print Preview).

To be able to generate output, users must select a paper size and orientation. Paper sizes include ISO, ANSI and other sizes. Sizes of the select page are shown in the current unit of measurement. Custom sizes can also be select by choosing Custom from the drop-down box and specifying the paper width and height.

Orientation can be selected for any page size and is either Landscape (long edge horizontal) or Portrait (long edge vertical).

Margins determine the printable area of a page. Specified fields at the edges of the page are marked with gray color and always stay empty on the output.

If tiled printing is used to output the drawing, use Number of pages section to set a horizontal and a vertical number of pages. For more details about the tiled printing refer to the Printing Guide.

Units

The Units tab allows users to set the Main drawing unit to the preferred unit of measure and the format of linear and angular dimensions. The “Main Unit” setting overrides the default set during LibreCAD’s initial application configuration. The same units of measures are as noted in the appendix are available for the drawing’s preferences.

The “Format” and “Precision” settings for”Length” and “Angle” format the display of linear and angular units on the status bar. They do not affect the appearance of dimensions in the drawing. See Dimensions below for configuring dimensions’ format. Format and precision are described in Fundamentals in the Units section.

Grid

The grid provides an evenly spaced guides to assist with placing entities. When used with snaps place can be precise. The Grid tab has the following options:

• Show Grid: Toggles the grid markers between visible or not visible. The grid can also be toggled with [Ctrl]-g or by using the grid button of the view toolbar. This setting does not affect the use of “Snap to Grid”.
• Grid X and Y Spacing: Sets the minimum frequency of the grid markers. Values can be selected from the drop-down box. Other values can be typed directly into the text box. Auto sets the frequency of markers to a spacing suitable to the current zoom level.
• Orthogonal or Isometric Grid: Selects the grid to use. Orthogonal place the grid at right angles to the X and Y axis. Isometric places the grid at 120 ° intervals for guiding isometric drawings.
• Cross-hair: Toggles the orientation of the cross-hairs (right, left, or top) when used with Isometric Snap indicator lines (see Application Preferences).

Dimensions

The dimension preferences affect how dimensions appear on the drawings. Settings include:

• General scale:
• Text & position:
• Extension lines:
• Dimension lines, arrows & ticks:
• Format units: setting for linear and angular dimensions. These settings are independent of the preference defined in the Drawing Prefences. Format and precision are described in Fundamentals in the Units section.

Setting	Description
General Scale	Adjusts the sizes of the text and arrows by the factor provided.
Text size & position
Length factor	Adjusts the dimension value by the factor provided. The entity remains the length as drawn.
Text Style	Sets the font used for dimension text.
Text Height	Sets the text height, measured in the units defined on the Units tab.
Text alignment	Aligns the text parallel and offset to the dimension line or horizontal centered on the dimension line.
Dimension line gap	Sets the space between the dimension line and the dimension text.
Color	Set the color of the dimension lines and text.
Extension lines
Offset	Gap between entity and dimension extension line.
Enlarge	Length of extension line beyond dimension line.
Fixed length	Fixed length of extension line measured from the dimension line towards the dimensioned entity.
Color	Extension line color, independent of layer settings.
Width	Extension line width, independent of layer settings.
Dimension lines, arrows and ticks
Arrow size	Length of dimension (and leader) arrow.
Tick size	Length of dimension tick to from end of dimension line in each direction, e.g. a length of 1 will result in a total length of 2 units. (Anything greater than ‘’0’’ will result in a tick instead of a dimension arrow).
Color	Tick line color, independent of layer settings.
Width	Tick line width, independent of layer settings.
Format units
Linear units	(See Length Format under Units above.)
Linear precision	(See Length Format under Units above.)
Linear zeros	Remove leading, trailing, 0’ and / or 0’’ from linear dimensions.
Decimal separators	Set the decimal separator to a period [.], or comma [,].
Angular units	(See Length Format under Units above.)
Angular precision	(See Length Format under Units above.)
Angular zeros	Remove leading or trailing zeros from angular dimensions.

Splines

The single parameter Number of line segments per spline patch affects the ‘smoothness’ of a spline. The greater the value, the ‘smoother’ the spline will be drawn.

LibreCAD v2.2.0 - User Manual

This is an interim release of the of the LibreCAD User Manual and is subject to change.

The manual is based on LibreCAD v2.2.0-rc1 with a few additions. If you are using another version of LibreCAD, your mileage may vary.

Customizing LibreCAD’s Interface

In addition to be able to move and reorganize menus and toolbars, LibreCAD can be customized with user-defined pop-up menus, custom toolbars and alternative “window decoratons”.

Menu Creator

The Menu Creator is used to create, modify, or delete custom pop-up menus. The pop-up menu is actived by using the mouse assigments described below. Open the Menu Creator by selecting Options -> Widgets -> Menu Creator

To create a new menu:

1. Input a name for the menu into the Name drop-down box.
2. Select an action from the left-hand list and use the right arrow (or double-click on the action) to add it to the new menu (right-hand list).
3. Drag and drop the items on the right-hand list to arrange the actions in the menu.
4. Click the Create button.

To edit an existing menu:

1. Select the menu from the Name drop-down box.
2. Add additional items as described above.
3. To remove an item from the menu, select an action from the right-hand list and use the left arrow (or double-click on the action) to remove it from the menu.
4. Drag and drop the items on the right-hand list to arrange the actions.
5. Click the Update button.

To delete an existing menu:

1. Select the menu from the Name drop-down menu.
2. Click the Destroy button.

A custom pop-up menu needs to be assigned to a mouse button to make them accessible:

1. Click the Assign button
2. Enable one or more of the activators (“Double-Click”, “Right-Click”, “Ctrl-Right-Click”, and / or “Shift-Right-Click”) with a check in the check-box.
3. Click the Save button

Toolbar Creator

Custom toolbars can be created, modified and deleted using the Toolbar Creator. From the menubar, select Options ->Widgets -> Toolbar Creator.

To create a new toolbar:

1. Input a name into the Name drop-down box
2. Double-click on an action to add it
3. Drag and drop to arrange actions
4. Click the Create button

To modify an existing toolbar:

1. Select the toolbar from the Name drop-down box
2. Double-click to remove actions
3. Drag and drop to arrange actions
4. Click the Create button

To delete an existing toolbar:

1. Select the toolbar from the Name drop-down box
2. Click the Destroy button

Widget Options

“Widgets” in this context refer to appearance of LibreCAD’s border and title bar, icons and the statusbar. Select Options - > Widget Options from the menubar to change these options. The following options are available for:

• General: LibreCAD’s application window decorations (borders, buttons, etc.) and permits the use of custom style sheets (see below).
• Toolbar: change the Theme and size of the toolbars’ icons.
• Statusbar: change the height of the statusbar and the size of the font used.

To enable an option, place a check in the checkbox and specify the desired option.

Style Sheets

In “Widget Options” you can also choose a style; the style list is dependent on your operating system and the version of Qt used to build LibreCAD. For example on Windows 7 and using Qt 5 the list is: (“Windows”, “Fusion”). More information can be found at http://doc.qt.io/qt-5/stylesheet.html and http://blog.qt.io/blog/2012/10/30/cleaning-up-styles-in-qt5-and-adding-fusion/

Any style of a “Style Sheet” can be modified, but it is recommended that the “Fusion” style (Qt 5) be used as a base, because it is intended to be a cross platform style. After setting a style sheet you can edit it & save and then switch back to LibreCAD and use “Reload Style Sheet” (Ctrl+T).

Tips:

• Start with the example below to obtain and understanding of how style sheet affect the appearance of LibreCAD.
• Look at the examples for “Color” and “Gradient” in the list of property types.
• Check out the widget specific examples at: http://doc.qt.io/qt-5/stylesheet-examples.html

Example

A style sheet can be as simple as:

QMenu { font-size: 16px; }

Or as a more complex example, save the following text as alpha.qss or alpha.txt, and then load the file with Options -> Widget Options -> Style Sheet:

/* alpha.qss v.01 a modification of the Fusion style */

/* Layer List */
QTableView
{
    selection-background-color: #ccffcc;
    selection-color: Blue;
    font-size: 16px;
    font-family: "Arial";
}

QMenu
{
    padding: 4px;
    font-size: 16px;
}

QMenu::item
{
    padding: 2px 25px 2px 20px;
    border: 1px solid transparent; /* reserve space for selection border */
}

QMenu::item:selected
{
    border-color: darkblue;
    background: rgba(240, 255, 255, 150);
}

QMenu::icon:selected
{
    border-color: darkblue;
    background: rgba(255, 255, 255, 255);
}

QToolBar
{
    background-color: rgb(230, 230, 230);
    spacing: 3px;
    padding: 4px;
}

QToolButton
{
    background-color: #eeeeee;
    border-style: outset;
    border-width: 2px;
    border-radius: 2px;
    border-color: beige;
    font: 12px;
    padding: 2px;
}

QToolButton:checked
{
    border-color: grey;
    background-color: qlineargradient(x1: 0, y1: 0, x2: 0, y2: 1,
                                      stop: 0 #dadbde, stop: 1 #f6f7fa);
}

QToolButton:hover
{
    border-color: grey;
    background-color: qlineargradient(x1: 0, y1: 0, x2: 0, y2: 1,
                                      stop: 0 #dadbde, stop: 1 #f6f7fa);
}

QStatusBar { background-color: azure;}

QMenuBar { background-color: #fefefe; }

QTextEdit { background-color: honeydew; }

QToolTip { background-color: white; }

LibreCAD v2.2.0 - User Manual

This is an interim release of the of the LibreCAD User Manual and is subject to change.

The manual is based on LibreCAD v2.2.0-rc1 with a few additions. If you are using another version of LibreCAD, your mileage may vary.

User Guides

The User Guide brings together many other parts of the user manual and will show how to use a variety tools to create and modify drawings. The user guides provides examples of tasks performed with LibreCAD. The tasks are generic in the sense that they can be applied to any drawing. The examples provided in the guides build on the previous examples and when complete will provide a finished drawing that uses many of LibreCAD’s features. Be sure to read through the Reference section, particularly the Fundamentals, the Drawing Tools and the Snapping sections to obtain an understanding of the basic operation of LibreCAD and its various tools.

The example drawings in the User Guides use LibreCAD’s default configuration with the exception of the drawing window’s background color. It has been changed to light grey (#e6e6e6) in Options -> Application Preferences -> Appearances tab, “Background” color under “Graphic Colors”. The Exercises provide the opportunity to use the examples to create the sample drawing used in the User Guide.

LibreCAD v2.2.0 - User Manual

This is an interim release of the of the LibreCAD User Manual and is subject to change.

The manual is based on LibreCAD v2.2.0-rc1 with a few additions. If you are using another version of LibreCAD, your mileage may vary.

Setting up a Drawing

As with other software; word processors, spreadsheets, etc, there are many ways a user can to setup or configure preferences for a new document. With LibreCAD, that document is a drawing. Some of the preferences for a drawing will be governed by drafting conventions, some will be determined by organizational requirements, and others might just be personal preferences. The drawing’s configuration is largely determined by the Drawing Preferences.

Under normal circumstances, after the initial installation and configuration of LibreCAD, little if any additional configuration needs to done before creating a drawing. However, there are a many drawing parameters that can be changed to suit the user’s requirements and the drawing’s final appearance. The majority of these settings can be left as the defaults as LibreCAD’s defaults reflect normal drafting conventions and practices, such as the “Text Height” of 2.5 mm / .10” / 3/32”, etc. However, these and many other preferences and drawing elements, such as fonts, layer, line thickness and type, pen colors, etc. can be set to suit users’ requirements.

Some of the key considerations for setting up the drawing include:

• Drawing units
• Page size
• Scale and dimensioning format
• Layers and “pens”

Drawing Unit

During the initial setup, the default unit of measure was set (defaulting to millimeter). The unit of measure should be set to the unit most frequently used as it is used for all new drawings and doesn’t need to be changed. If necessary, the default unit of measure can be changed in the Application Preferences or overridden for a single drawing in the Drawing Preferences.

Scale and Dimensioning

Setting the scale of a drawing is the easy part, drawings should be created full-scale (1:1)! The zooming abilities of LibreCAD will make the whole drawing fit in the drawing window or magnify sections to view fine detail. On the other hand, when producing output the drawing will need to be adjusted in size to fit the page size. Generally, output is a printed page, but it can also be a pdf, or exported to another image format.

As an example, for an annotated drawing of a floor plan to appear correctly when the drawing is reduced in size, or scaled down, to print on an “A4” page (210 x 297 mm), the dimension text would need to be proportional to the floor plan itself prior to being reduced to fit the page. Trying to determine the dimension text size for scaling such a large object would be tedious at best, but a feature of LibreCAD makes it simple. The “General Scale” is used to adjust the dimension text, arrows and related parameters to the sizes suitable for the required page size. Both the page size, and the dimensioning parameters - including the “General Scale” - are configured in the Drawing Preferences.

There are two tabs in Drawing Preferences, “Paper” and “Dimensions”, that require attention for a new drawing. Specifically the items that need to be addressed are:

1. On the “Paper” tab: Selecting a paper size and orientation will determine the print scale used for final output. The print scale is used to determine the “General Scale”.
2. On the “Dimensions” tab: Setting the “General Scale” will adjust the dimension text and related parameters to suit the page size.

The paper format, orientation, and margins to be used is an important to consideration when setting the drawing preferences. The page size is entirely up to the user to determine based on what is available (depending on the printer or printing service that is being used). While it can be done at anytime, establishing the page size sooner than later will help determine the “General Scale”.

Tip - Determining Scale

If multiple options are available for the paper size, setting the paper size after drawing the object but prior to dimensioning the drawing will help determine the print scale, the “General scale”, and subsequently the appropriate line spacing for dimensions. See Dimensioning for additional information.

While any scale can be used when printing a drawing there are commonly used scales for different types of drawings. Refer to Scales in the appendix for some examples.

Be sure to allow room on the drawing for dimension lines and text when determining the print scale. More details on printing a drawing are found in the Printing Guide.

Layers

Using layers to organize drawings and assign pen attributes to the entities on the layer is an important concept. Refer to Layers in Fundamentals and the Layer List Dock under Dock Widgets in the Reference section for additional details on using layers.

In LibreCAD, layers are managed using the Layer List Dock. Use the Layer List Dock to add and remove, show and hide and modify the layer’s attributes. Creating a layer is simple:

1. Click the Add a layer icon .
2. Specify a Layer Name.
3. Optionally specify the Pen Color, Width and Line Type for the layer.
4. Click Ok.

The first layer added defaults to the layer name “noname”, but the name can be replace with any alpha-numeric text. Additional layers add will adopt the name of the currently selected layer and append a sequential number, but can also be renamed.

Tip - Using Layers

Layer 0 is a special layer and should not be used for general drawing purposes. Create at least one additional layer for the drawing. See Creating a Block in Using the Block List for additional details.

Prefix the layer name with a sequential number when naming the layer to help sort the layers in the dock list. Layers are listed in alpha-numeric order, e.g. 1a, 1b, 2a, 2b, etc.

Use “Construction Layer” to create reference geometry to help align other drawing entities.

Layers that have been completed can be locked. Locking layers prevents accidental changes and can improve the performance when working with very large complex drawings.

Hiding layers while drawing reduces the visual complexity and makes it easier to focus on the current drawing efforts.

Templates

Having to set the unit, page size, layers, etc. each time a new drawing is created can be avoided by using templates. Templates are prototype drawings that provide a method to save a drawing’s configuration so it does not need to be defined each time a new drawing is started. A template’s configuration can include the settings defined in the Drawing Preferences, such as the page size, unit of measure, and the dimensioning format. Templates can also include layers and other drawing elements such as a border and / or a title block. These settings and drawing elements are inherited by a new drawings created from the template.

When LibreCAD is launched it creates a new drawing using a default template. The default template is also used when a new drawing is created within LibreCAD by selecting File -> New or clicking the New icon . The new document is initially called “unnamed document 1”. Any addition new drawings created while LibreCAD is still open will be number sequentially; “unnamed document 1”, “unnamed document 2”, and so on. New drawings inherit the template drawing contents, but do not take the template’s name as a file name. Users are prompted for a file name when saving the drawing.

User-defined templates can be created to suit various purposes such as different page sizes or orientation, unit of measure, etc. User-defined templates can be used by selecting File -> New From Template or clicking the New from Template icon and then selecting the desired template file. See “Creating Templates” below.

Creating Templates

Templates are created starting with a new drawing, setting the desired Drawing Preferences, and adding any required drawing elements (e.g. layers, borders, etc). To create a template, starting with a blank drawing:

1. Set the the drawing preferences by selecting Edit from the menu bar and then Current Drawing Preferences.

   1. On the “Paper” tab set the paper size, orientation and margins as desired.
   2. Select the “Units” tab and set the “Main Drawing Unit”. (Note the “Length” and “Angle” settings configure the status bar format and not the dimensioning format that appear on the drawing.)
   3. Click the “Dimensions” tab and adjust the values.
   4. Check the remaining tab, “Grid” and “Splines” and adjust those settings if necessary.
   5. Click “OK” when done.

2. Add any layers as needed. See Layers for details on using layers and setting the attributes.

3. Add any other drawing elements (borders, title boxes, etc) as required.

4. Save the template as a “dxf”, e.g. “myTemplate.dxf”, to any location with read / write permissions.

LibreCAD supports the use of multiple templates. A user that plans on creating similar drawings may require only a default template created to suit their needs. Users that create several different types of drawings may desire multiple templates. For example, templates can be created for each paper size available and / or for each paper orientation.

Default Template

LibreCAD includes a default template, “empty.dxf”, that is installed with the application and found in the resources directory. It is used initially as the default template for all new drawings. A user-defined template can be used instead of the default by specifying the new template in the Application Preferences. From the Options menu select Application Preferences and click on the “Paths” tab. Enter the path and filename of the template to be used as the default. The specified template is used instead of the default LibreCAD template when the application is launched and for new drawings.

LibreCAD v2.2.0 - User Manual

This is an interim release of the of the LibreCAD User Manual and is subject to change.

The manual is based on LibreCAD v2.2.0-rc1 with a few additions. If you are using another version of LibreCAD, your mileage may vary.

Creating and Editing Entities

Drawing geometric shapes, or entities is familiar to many people that have used drawing and paint programs. As with many programs, there are a multitude of ways to generate the desired results. LibreCAD is the same - there are many ways to obtain the same results in a completed drawing - far too many to be able document an example for each one in a User Guide. For users it is important know what tools are available and how to apply them.

This section of the User Guide brings together many other parts of the LibreCAD manual and will show how to use a variety tools to create and modify drawings. Be sure to read through the Reference section, particularly the Fundamentals, the Drawing Tools and the Snapping sections to obtain an understanding of the basic operation of LibreCAD and its various tools. It is also helpful to understand the different View tools and commands.

Note

The examples below use both the the command line and the mouse for input. In cases where the command line is used and additional input is required because of a Tool Option (see Drawing Tools) see the note below the command text. Where the mouse is the primary form of input, the instructions are provided in a numbered list.

Creating Entities

Creating new geometric entities all use similar methods. Generally, creating an entity requires placement of a minimum of two points (Well, unless the entity being drawn is a point), or a single point and an additional parameter such as length or radius. In some case the same result can be obtained using several different methods. For example, drawing a vertical line can be done via keyboard entry using the command line to select a tool and then define two points with the absolute or relative Cartesian coordinates:

Using absolute Cartesian coordinates:

li
10,10
10,110
k

The first set of coordinates place the starting point of the line at 10 units horizontally and 10 units vertically from the origin (0,0). The second set places the end point of the line at 10 units horizontally and 110 units vertically from the origin (0,0), resulting in a vertical line 100 units long.

Or, using relative Cartesian coordinates:

li
10,10
@0,100
k

The “@” designates relative coordinates. The @0,100 relative Cartesian coordinates places the next point 0 units horizontally (X axis) and 100 units vertically (Y axis) from the point previously placed at 10,10.

It can also be done with relative polar coordinates:

li
10,10
@100<90
k

The “<” designates a polar coordinate. The @100<90 polar coordinate places the next point 100 units 90 degrees from the X axis of the point previously placed at 10,10.

The same line can also be drawn using just the mouse:

1. Enabled Snap on Grid .
2. Select the 2 Points line tool .
3. Click at 10,10 (use the Status Bar to locate the absolute coordinates)
4. Click at 10,110
5. Press [Esc] or right-click twice to exit the command.

Other tools can also be used achieve the same result:

ver
10,10

Note

Ensure the Length is set to “100” and the Snap Point: is “Start” in the “Tool Options” text box.

All the above examples create a line of the same length with the same start and end points. These examples help illustrate the multiple ways to achieve the same result. The use of a particular tool may be determined by the next operation that allows the drawing to be quickly extended. A good understanding of the available tools allows the user to select the appropriate tool for the current operation.

While the above example always start at 10,10, the initial point can be placed anywhere:

li
10,110
10,10
k

Drawings are generally created with multiple lines segments with the end of one segment being the start of another. Lines can be drawn with multiple connected segments by using the end of the current segment as the starting point and defining the end point of the next segment. Further, additional points can be defined using any of the methods previously shown:

li
10,110
10,10
@125,0
@50<90
k

Example #1

Using the mouse, or another pointing device, along with the snapping tools provide an alternative to using the command line for creating drawings. As with the command line, there are multiple line tools that can be used to produce the same result. For example, adding the to the the previous example, a horizontal line can be added using various methods:

1. Click the 2 Points line tool icon .
2. Enable the Snap on Endpoints and click close to the end of the line at absolute coordinate 10,110.
3. Drag the mouse to the right and, with the Snap on Grid enabled, place a point at absolute coordinate 85,110. Clicking the mouse should result in a horizontal line ending at precisely at 85,110.
4. Press [Esc] or right-click to exit the command.

Hint

It may be necessary to “Zoom In” to ensure the grid is at the correct resolution to be able to accurately place a line’s start or end point.

A combination of the 2 Points line tool the Restrict Horizontal tool can also be use as an alternative to Snap on Grid .

Alternatively, a horizontal line can be added:

1. Click the Horizontal line tool icon . On the “Tool Options” tool bar specify a length of 75 units and the “Snap Point” at the “Start”.
2. With the Snap on Endpoints enabled click close to the end of the line at absolute coordinate 10,110. Clicking the mouse should result in a horizontal line ending at 85,110.
3. Press [Esc] or right-click to exit the command.

Example #2

Being that the end points of the existing lines have been established, the outline can be completed quickly with the addition of a line:

1. Click the 2 Points line tool icon .
2. Enable the Snap on Endpoints and click close to the end of the line at absolute coordinate 85,110.
3. Drag the mouse to the right and down and place a point close to 135,60. Clicking the mouse should result in a line angled down and to the right, closing the object’s outline.
4. Press [Esc] or right-click twice to exit the command.

Whichever of the above methods is used, the result should be similar to:

Example #3

Another option is to draw the line at the desired angle:

1. Click the Angle line tool icon . On the “Tool Options” tool bar specify an Angle of “135”, a Length of “80” units and the Snap Point at the “Start”.
2. With the Snap on Endpoints enabled, click close to the end of the line at absolute coordinate 135,60. Clicking the mouse should result in a line angled up and to the left.
3. Press [Esc] to exit the command.

This option will result in a image similar to what is shown above, but with the diagonal line being a bit too long. The line can be trimmed to suit (see “Modifying Entities” below):

Example #3a

Alternate Approach

Alternate Approach

All of the above examples create the object by drawing individual lines. A completely different approach is to start with a rectangle:

rec
10,10
@125,100
k

And then modify it with the “Bevel” tool (see below).

Circles can be added in a similar fashion. It can be drawn with the “Center, Point” tool by specifying the coordinates for the centre of the circle and of a point on the circumference:

ci
50,70
@0,20
k

A circle of a given size can also be drawn with a known radius:

1. Click the Circle, Radius tool icon . On the “Tool Options” tool bar specify a Radius of “40”.
2. With the Snap on Grid enabled, place the centre of the circle at absolute coordinate 50,70.
3. Press [Esc] or right-click to exit the command.

The drawing should now appear as:

Example #4

Modifying Entities

There are a variety of tools that can be used to edit and modify existing entities. The tools are found in the Tools -> Modify menu or as a drawing tool dock widget. These tools allow entities, depending on the type, to be moved, rotated, scaled, mirrored, lengths increased or decreased, divided (i.e. split), etc. A complete list and descriptions of the tools can be found in the Drawing Tools - Modify reference section.

Alternate Approach

Alternate Approach - with the circle

Continuing with the alternate example - starting with a rectangle - the shape can be modified as required with the Bevel (or “chamfer”) tool. Its operation is similar to the fillet tool:

1. Click the Bevel tool icon . Ensure with “Trim” is checked, and “Length 1” and “Length 2” is set at “50” in the “Tool Options”.
2. As prompted on the Status Bar, select the first entity (the top horizontal line of the rectangle), and then
3. the second entity (the right vertical line of the rectangle).
4. Press [Esc] or right-click to exit the command.

A rounded corner can be added to the drawing’s the lower left corner with the Fillet tool:

1. Click the Fillet tool icon . Ensure with “Trim” is checked and “Radius” is set at “10” in the “Tool Options”.
2. As prompted in the “Command Line” dock, and on the Status Bar, select the first entity (the bottom horizontal line of the rectangle), and then
3. Select the second entity (the left vertical line of the rectangle).
4. Press [Esc] or right-click to exit the command.

The drawing should appear as:

Example #5

Example 3a above left a diagonal line that is too long. The length can be easily trimmed:

1. Click the “Trim” icon
2. Click the top horizontal line. This line is the “limiting entity” that determines where the second line is going to be trimmed to.
3. Click the line to be trimmed, the “entity to trim” anywhere along the line that is to be kept (below the top horizontal line).
4. Press [Esc] or right-click to exit the command.

Important

These examples do not provide an example of every tool available in LibreCAD, but is intended to show the basic operation of some of the drawing and modifications tools. Most of the other drawing and modifying tools work in a similar manner. Being familiar with the Drawing and Modify tools in the Reference section will help determine what tool can be used in a particular situation.

These examples also illustrate that there are multiple ways to achieve the same result using a variety of methods. There is no one best method. The particular method used may depend on the state of the drawing and how existing entities can be used to build on, or perhaps it is a simple matter of using a preferred drawing / modifying tool.

Changing Attributes and Properties

As shown in the Entities section in Fundamentals, an entity consists of “Pens” (color, width, line type) and “Layers”. These attributes can be changed using one of two Modify tools:

• Attributes: allows the “Pen” or “Layers” to be modified for one or more entities.
• Properties: allows the “Pen”, “Layers” or geometry of a single entity to be modified.

Both tools operate in a similar fashion and for similar purposes, but there are a couple of key differences. The Attributes tool allows a change to the attributes to be applied to one or more selected entities while the Properties tool can only be used for a single entity. In addition, the Properties tool allows the geometry to be edited. The geometry of an entity will vary be the type of entity. For example a line’s geometry consist of the X and Y coordinates of the endpoints, while a circles geometry consists of the X/Y coordinates of the centre of the circle and its radius.

Layers and Pens

Change an entity’s layer is similar with both the Attributes and Properties tools.

Using the Attributes to change an entity’s layer:

1. Select the entity (or entities) to be moved to a different layer.
2. From the menu select Tools -> Modify -> Attributes, or click the Attributes icon .
3. In the Attributes dialog, select the desired layer from the drop-down Layer selection box.
4. Click Ok.

Hint

Entities can also be moved from one layer to another by selecting one or more entities and then selecting the new destination layer in the Layer List dock. To use this method the Modify layer of selected entities, at layer activation option on the Application Preferences Defaults tab must be enabled.

In a similar manner the color, width and/or line type can be changed:

1. Select the entity (or entities) to be moved to a different layer.
2. From the menu select Tools -> Modify -> Attributes, or click the Attributes icon .
3. In the Attributes dialog, select the desired pen attribute from the drop-down Color, Width and/or Line type selection box.
4. Click Ok.

The Properties tool operates in a similar manner, but the tool need to be selected before selecting an entity:

1. From the menu select Tools -> Modify -> Properties, or click the Properties icon .
2. Select the entity.
3. In the Properties dialog, select the desired layer or pen attribute from the appropriate selection box.
4. Click Ok.

Geometry (Properties)

The Properties tool also allows the geometry of an entity to be changed. The geometry is the information used to describe the entity. The geometry available depends on the type of entity, for example:

Some entities, such as a polyline, have limited properties available that can be changed. Other entities, such as Text, have many properties that can be changes (including the text itself).

Also, the properties of a specific entity type, e.g. line, does not vary even if the specific tool used to create the entity varies. A line drawn with the 2 Point line tool will have the same properties as a line drawn with Angle tool.

Entity Type	Drawing Tool	Properties
Line	2 points, Angle, Horizontal, etc	Start and end point X/Y coordinates
Circle	”Centre, Point”, 2 Points, etc	Center point X/Y coordinates, radius
Curve	”Center, Point, Angles”, 3 Points, etc	Center point X/Y coordinates, radius, start/end angle
Ellipse	Ellipse (Axis), Ellipse Foci Point, etc	Center point X/Y coordinates, major/minor axis, rotation, start/end angle
Polyline	Polyline, Rectangle	Open or closed
Text	Text	Text, font, text height/angle/width factor, alignment, special characters
MText	MText	Text, font, text height/angle/line spacing, alignment, special characters
Dimension	Aligned, Linear, etc	Label, special symbol
Blocks	Block List, Library Browser	Insertion point X/Y coordinates, scale X/Y, rotation angle, array rows / columns and spacing

Drawing Views

LibreCAD supports two drawing views to represent three-dimensional objects:

• Orthogonal: Uses multiple two-dimensional views.
• Isometric: Represents a three-dimensional view in two dimensions.

Orthogonal View

Doohickey - Orthogonal View with Construction Lines (blue)

Orthogonal drawings use multiple views to provide a complete description of an object. Each view of an orthogonal drawing is parallel to the axes. Normally a front (the most complex view), top and right view are added to the drawing. Additional views; back, left and bottom can be added if necessary.

Orthogonal drafting beyond the scope of the LibreCAD User Manual, but additional resources and examples are available in LibreCAD’s wiki or elsewhere on the web.

Isometric View

Doohickey - Isometric View

Isometric drawings represent an object on three axes in a two-dimensional drawing. Isometric drawings uses the same tools for creating, modifying and changing attributes as an orthogonal drawings, but on a grid configuration specific for an isometric perspective. Set the grid to suit an isometric perspective on the Grid tab of Drawing Preferences. Selecting “Isometric Grid” displays the grid on three axes (X,Y,Z) allowing 3 dimensional drawings to be drawn in a 2D view.

In addition to setting the grid for isometric drawings, the “Snap indicator lines” on the Appearance tab of Application Preferences can be set to “Isometric” to assist in with locating entities on the grid. The “Isometric” crosshairs can be configured to Left, Top or Right to further aid in locating points on the grid.

Isometric drafting does require some techniques unique to isometric projection and is beyond the scope of the LibreCAD User Manual, but additional resources and examples are available in LibreCAD’s wiki or elsewhere on the web.

LibreCAD v2.2.0 - User Manual

This is an interim release of the of the LibreCAD User Manual and is subject to change.

The manual is based on LibreCAD v2.2.0-rc1 with a few additions. If you are using another version of LibreCAD, your mileage may vary.

The Command Line

LibreCAD’s command line offers users an alternative to using the mouse to select tools and draw. Using the keyboard to select tools and enter coordinates can provide greater speed and accuracy when creating drawings. The command line provides other useful features not available using the mouse:

• Multi-command input
• A calculator

The command line is displayed in its own dock widget and consists of three components

• Command prompt.

• Command output window.

• Button that displays a drop-down menu that includes:

  • Toggle Keycode Mode off or on.
  • Load a Command file.
  • Paste commands.

Command Line Functions

The commands available to use are shown in the Drawing Tools reference. The command line is activated by in a variety of ways:

1. Start typing any command, e.g. li, rect, etc. and then [Enter] or the [Space bar].
2. Press the [Space bar], type any command and then [Enter] or the [Space bar].
3. Press [Ctrl + M], any command and then [Enter] or the [Space bar].
4. Press [Shift], any command and then [Enter] or the [Space bar].
5. Press [F1], any command and then [Enter] or the [Space bar].
6. With the Keycode Mode on, type a two letter command, e.g. li, ci. Pressing [Enter] is not required.

When the command line is activated the prompt above the input text-box, initially showing “Command:” in black text, turns blue. After typing a command, the prompt will indicate the next input required, such as coordinates or the next action available. Pressing [Esc] will cancel the current action and pressing it a second time will cancel the operation. For example, when using the 2 Points line tool the first prompt shows “Specify first point” and the second “Specify next point”. After drawing at least two segments of a line the next prompt reads “Specify next point or [close/undo]”. LibreCAD is expecting another set of coordinates to be entered, or the shape (with a minimum of two segments) can be closed or the last actions can be reversed. “Close” or “undo” can be entered on the command line or by clicking on buttons on the Tool Options toolbar. For example, to draw a square using the 2 Points line tool from the command line:

Command:
li
Specify first point
0,0
Specify next point
@10,0
Specify next point or [close/undo]
@0,10
Specify next point or [close/undo]
@-10,0
close

Tip - Using the Command Line

• In addition to the comma separated coordinates, relative coordinates can also be entered using the numeric keypad using the format X..Y, i.e. typing 10..20 is equivalent to @10,20. Using the two decimals is faster than typing the comma.
• The Keycode Mode permits the use of two letter commands and eliminates the need to press [Enter] after typing the command.
• Pressing the [Space-bar] is an alternative to pressing [Enter] after each command.
• Pressing [c] or [u] followed by [Enter] can be used instead of typing “close” or “undo”.
• Tab completion can be used on the command line when entering commands. Enter a partial command such as “cir” followed by [Tab] will complete the command to “circle”. If text entered is not unique to a single command the command output will show all the possible commands starting with the text provided. For example, typing [c] and pressing [Tab] will list “circle”, “circle2”, “circle3”, “circlecr” and “cut” in the command output.

The available commands are shown in the Tools reference. Many of the commands have multiple forms. For example the 2 Points line tools can be selected on the command line by typing “l”, “li” or “line”. Many tools display the Tool Options toolbar when selected. Some tools will also provide command line prompts in addition to the Tool Options. For example the “Parallel” line tools displays:

• a command prompt: Specify Distance <10> or select entity or [through]
• a Tool Options toolbar:

Either can be used can be used to enter new values. The current value on the command line is displayed in angle brackets as shown above. To change the value from the command line, type the value and press [Enter].

The command output window displays the command history, error messages, and other output (see Calculator below). The text in the output window can be copied simply by highlighting it. The text is automatically copied to the clipboard and can be pasted into another document. The output window can be cleared of all text by typing “clear” in the command line.

Multi-Command Input

Command input can be combined and entered on a single line by separating the commands and other input with semicolons. Entering li;0,0;10..0;0..10;-10..0;c;k on the command line will draw a 10 x 10 square. A list of commands, separated by a newline (return), can be copied and pasted using Paste multiple commands from the command line button (lower right corner of the Command Line Dock).

Command input can also be loaded from text files. Entering the commands and other input into a text file separating each with a newline. For example, create a text file and enter the following commands:

# Draw a 10 x 10 square
li
0,0
@10,0
@0,10
@-10,0
c
k

Save the file as “multiCmd.txt”. In LibreCAD select “Load Command File” from the the drop-down menu by clicking the command line button. Locate the file and click the Open button. The above commands will draw a 10 x 10 square. Comments can be inserted into the file by starting a comment line with a ‘#’, as shown above.

Multi-command input can be assigned to a variable and variables can also contain other variables (they are read recursively):

a=ci;0,0;10
b=ci;10,0;10
c=\a;\b;kill
\c

Enter each line of the text above on the command line. When \c is entered, two overlapping circles with a radius of 10 units are drawn. The “" character is an escape character that allows the command line to interpret the variable name as an action. In the above example \c expands to “ci;0,0;10;ci;10,0;10;kill”.

A “variable file” can be set to load at startup via Application Preferences -> Paths -> Variable File. Save the first three line of the above example to a text file and configure the path to the text file. Restart LibreCAD and when \c is entered at the command line the two circles are drawn.

Command Aliases

As previously noted many of the commands in LibreCAD have multiple forms. The long untranslated form is the native command and the short forms are aliases to the long form. For example, “l” and “li” are aliases to “line”. The aliases are defined in the librecad.alias configuration file. The format of the configuration file is <alias>[Tab]<command-untranslated>. The default aliases for the 2 Points line appears as:

...
l   line
li  line
...

Aliases can be added or modified to suit users’ preferences. The file is found in the following locations:

• Linux: $HOME/.local/share/LibreCAD/LibreCAD/librecad.alias
• Windows: C:\Users\ {UserName}\AppData\Local\LibreCAD\librecad.alias
• macOS: $HOME/Library/Application Support/LibreCAD/librecad.alias

Important

Only change the alias and not the long untranslated form.

Calculator

LibreCAD includes a built-in calculator that uses the command line interface. Typing “cal” on the command line toggles the calculator mode on and off. With the calculator mode on, math expressions typed on the command line will display the results in the output window, e.g. typing 1+1 displays 1+1 = 2 in the output window. Some other examples are:

sqrt(3^2 + 4^2) = 5

sin(pi/6) = 0.5

6^5 = 7776

If the cal mode is off entering a math expression will result in an error message such as Unknown command: 1+1.

A complete list of operators and functions can be found in the appendix.

Note

The constant pi is defined in LibreCAD as 3.14159265359. Trigonometric functions use radians (radians = degrees*pi/180).

LibreCAD v2.2.0 - User Manual

This is an interim release of the of the LibreCAD User Manual and is subject to change.

The manual is based on LibreCAD v2.2.0-rc1 with a few additions. If you are using another version of LibreCAD, your mileage may vary.

Blocks

Blocks are reusable drawings of commonly used objects such as bolts, furniture, electronic components, title blocks, etc. Inserted blocks, also called instances or inserts, are composed of geometric shapes (lines, arcs, etc.), but can also include text and dimensions. Blocks can be created in the current drawing, inserted from the block library, or imported from a separate drawing file, Once inserted blocks can be used repeatedly within the drawing.

Example of the Doohickey drawing with blocks, including the page border from the Library Browser (“sheets -> A4H”) and a block imported from a drawing file (isometric view).

Working with Blocks

There are two dock widgets for managing blocks. The Block List dock for managing blocks within the current drawing and the Library Browser dock that displays a collection of blocks in the library. Both widgets allow users to insert blocks into the current drawing, but there are a couple of important differences:

• Blocks inserted from the Block List:

  • A block can be placed at a different locations, scale, and/or rotation angle, and also be placed in an array.
  • Blocks inserted from the same block in the Block List is called an instance. If a block is inserted from the same block multiple times all instances of the block are linked. Changes to one instance of the block will be reflected in all instances of that block.

• Blocks inserted from the Library Browser:

  • Each block can be placed at a different location, rotation angle and/or scale.
  • Blocks inserted multiple times will create a new instance of the block in the Block List each time it is inserted. After the initial insertion, the blocks will numbered sequentially (e.g. BlockName, BlockName-0, BlockName-1, …) The inserted blocks will be independent of each other.

Blocks can also be imported from a separate file and will appear in the Block List. Drawing files imported multiple times will create a new instances in the Block List and be numbered sequentially as with blocks inserted from the Library Browser.

Using the Block List

Creating a Block

Blocks can be created in the current drawing for use within the drawing. There are two ways to create a block:

• From an existing object:

  1. Ensure the all entities for the object to be made into a block are on layer “0”.
  2. Select all the entities that make up the object.
  3. Click on the Create Block icon .
  4. Specify the reference point for the block. The reference point is used to locate the object when it is inserted into the drawing.
  5. Provide a unique name for the new block and click OK. The new block will appear in the Block List.
  6. The original object can be deleted from layer “0”. The new block remains available in the Block List.

• From an empty block:

  1. Click on the Add an empty block icon . Provide a unique name for the new block and click OK. The new empty block will appear in the Block List.
  2. Select the new block in the Block List and click the Edit the active block in a separate window icon .
  3. Ensure layer “0” is selected and draw the object. The drawing’s origin (0, 0) will become the reference point for the block.
  4. Close the new block’s drawing window and the new block will be saved.

Important

Layer “0” has a special significance. It is the default layer for new drawings. More importantly in the context of blocks, it is equivalent to “no layer”, similar in the way that color “By Block” is equal to “no specified color” or line type “By Block” is equal to “no specified line type”. Generally layer “0” should only be used when creating blocks and should be the only layer in a drawing for a block.

Pay particular attention to the Attributes when creating blocks. In addition to the specific attributes, pen attributes (Color, Width, Line Type) also include “By Layer” and “By Block”.

• Blocks with specific attributes (e.g. color set to blue, width set to 0.18 mm, etc) will retain those attributes when inserted into a drawing. The block needs to be edited to change any of the attributes.
• Blocks with the attributes set to “By Layer” will adopt the attributes of the layer they are inserted in to. The block’s attributes will change if the layer’s attributes are changed.
• Blocks with the attributes set to “By Block” will initially adopt the attributes assigned to the layer. The attributes can be changed with the Attribute tool.

Inserting Blocks

Blocks can be inserted from the Block List or from the Library Browser (see below). When inserting a block from the Block List, the Block List Tool Options toolbar is displayed:

• Block can be rotated by the specified Angle and scaled by the Factor.
• A pattern of blocks can be created by specifying the number of columns and rows in the Array and Spacing between the columns and rows.

To insert a single block:

1. Select a layer for the inserted blocks.
2. Select a block in the Block List.
3. Click on the Insert the active block icon .
4. Set the rotation angle in the Angle field and the scale factor in the Factor field as required. (See Angles in Fundamentals and “Scale” in Modify tools for more information.) Note: Leave the Array values as “1” and Spacing values remain as “1.0”.
5. Place the block at the desired location within the drawing.
6. Adjust the rotation angle and scale as needed and place additional copies of the block, or press [Esc] to exit the command.

Transformations (rotation, scale) and an array can be combined in a single block insertion. The the scale and spacing is applied to the individual blocks within the array, however the rotation angle is applied to the entire array.

To insert an array of blocks:

1. Select a layer for the inserted blocks.
2. Select a block in the Block List.
3. Click on the Insert the active block icon .
4. Set the rotation angle and scale factor as needed.
5. Set the numbers of columns and rows in Array to create the required pattern.
6. Set the column spacing. This is the distance between the insertion point of two blocks in adjacent columns.
7. Set the row spacing. This is the distance between the insertion point of two blocks in adjacent rows.
8. Place the block at the desired location within the drawing. The insertion point of the array is the insertion point of the lower-left item in the array (at 0 degrees rotation).
9. Adjust the options as needed and place additional copies of the block, or press [Esc] to exit the command.

Note

When the Angle, Scale, Array size and Spacing are all applied to an array of blocks, the array is created as follows:

• the scale, number of columns / rows and spacing is applied to the blocks in the array, and then
• the entire array is rotated around the lower left corner of the array.
• The blocks are rotated as the array is rotated and the spacing remains as defined even if the block entities are scaled.

Using an array will treat all blocks in the array as a single block instance. Selecting one entity of the array will select the all blocks in the array. To keep instances separate, insert multiple instances from the block list or create additional copies with the “Move / Copy” tool or normal edit commands (cut, copy, paste).

Editing a Block

1. Select a block in the Block List and click the Edit the active block in a separate window icon .
2. Edit the block as necessary.
3. Close the block’s drawing window and the block will be saved and all instances of the block will be updated in the current drawing.

Saving Blocks

Blocks can be saved to a separate file and used in other drawings or added to a user-defined library. To save the block:

1. Select a block in the Block List.
2. Click the Save the active block to a file icon .
3. Select a file location, specify a file name and click Save.

Recommendation

When saving blocks to be added to the library it is recommended that the block’s entities be placed on layer “0” and layer “0” is the only layer in the drawing. Any additional layers in the block’s drawing will be added to the new drawing when the block is inserted. The additional layers may have unintended consequences.

Using the Library Browser

LibreCAD includes several categories of blocks in its own library; algorithm, elektro, plan/air_water, plan/architect, etc. A user-defined library can also be configured in LibreCAD.

Inserting Blocks

Recommendation

When using blocks from the library, insert a single insert from the Library Browser and then insert subsequent instances from the Block List. Inserting the block from the Block List retains the link between instances of the same block insert. If a block is edited from the Block List, all instances of the block will show the changes.

Only insert multiple inserts of a block from the Library Browser if they are to be independent.

To use blocks from the Block Library, select the block from the tree view and insert it in the drawing. Blocks inserted from the library can be rotated and scaled through the Library Browser Tool Option toolbar:

The rotation angle and the scale factor behave as they do for a block inserted from the Block List.

To insert a block:

1. Select a layer for the inserted blocks.
2. Select a block in the Library Browser.
3. Click on the Insert button.
4. Set the rotation angle and scale as needed.
5. Place the block at the desired location within the drawing.
6. Adjust the options as needed and place additional copies of the block or press [Esc] to exit the command.

Adding a User-defined Library

Additional parts and libraries can be added for blocks created by users, libraries downloaded from the LibreCAD wiki (https://wiki.librecad.org/index.php?title=Part_Libraries) or from other internet resources. LibreCAD can be configured to show user-defined blocks in the library browser in addition to the blocks included with LibreCAD.

The easiest method of installation, which does not require or Linux Root privileges or Windows Administrator access, is to create a new directory such as “Parts_Library” in the home directory or “Documents” folder. The path to this directory would be something similar to “/home/{Username}/Parts_Library/” or “C:\Users\ {Username}\Documents\Parts_Library\ “. Blocks and libraries can then be placed under the parent “Parts_Library” directory. The sub-directories will create categories that will appear in the tree view of the Library Browser.

Important

Do not place blocks directly in the parent directory of the parts library. Blocks must be placed in sub-directories to the parent libraries directory to appear in the Library Browser.

To include the new blocks in the Library Browser tree view, edit LibreCAD’s Application Preferences to add the path to the directory or folder with the user-defined blocks. From the menus, select Options -> Application Preferences and select the Paths tab. Type the full path to the part library, e.g. /home/{Username}/PartsLibrary/ or C:\Users\ {Username}\Documents\PartsLibrary\ , into the text-box labelled “Part Libraries” and click “OK”. Click the Rebuild button on the Library Browser dock and the new libraries will appear in the tree view.

Importing Blocks

Blocks can also be inserted from as a file from other sources. With an open drawing:

1. Select File -> Import -> Block.
2. Locate and select the block drawing file and click “Open”.
3. Set the rotation angle and scale as needed.
4. Place the block at the desired location within the drawing.
5. Adjust the options as needed and place additional copies of the block or press [Esc] to exit the command.

As with inserting a block from the Library Browser, importing a block multiple times will create a new instance of the block in the Block List each time it is imported, each with a sequentially numbered block name after the initial block insert. When using blocks from external files the same layer criteria applies (i.e. layer “0”, …)

“Exploding” Blocks

Once a block has been inserted into a drawing, it is treated a single entity and can only manipulated (moved, scaled, etc.) as a single entity. Select any one entity within the block selects the entire block. However, blocks can be disassembled, or exploded, and once exploded the individual entities making up the block can be edited. To explode a block:

1. Select a block.
2. Click on the Explode icon .

Note

Once a block has been exploded it is no longer a block and cannot be treated as a single entity. If it is necessary to recreate the block, refer to Creating a Block above.

LibreCAD v2.2.0 - User Manual

This is an interim release of the of the LibreCAD User Manual and is subject to change.

The manual is based on LibreCAD v2.2.0-rc1 with a few additions. If you are using another version of LibreCAD, your mileage may vary.

Annotating a Drawing

A drawing in and of itself provides an image of what the object might look like, but it doesn’t provide a complete description of the object. Knowing the size of the object is also very important. The size of the drawn object is shown with measurements, dimensioning, and other textual information to describe the drawn object. Together, dimensions and text is called annotating a drawing.

Dimensioning an object on a drawing provides the information necessary to be able to interpret the object and ultimately create it, whether it be a building or a doohickey. Other textual information in the form of notes, symbols, call-outs, etc. provide further details for the object drawn.

Dimensioning

Dimensions are used to define length, width, height, and/or angle of a line entity, the diameter of circle entity, or radius of arc entity. A drawing’s dimensions must be:

• Accurate
• Legible
• Complete

Types of Dimensions

LibreCAD supports the following types of dimensions:

Type	Description
Aligned	Places the dimension parallel to a line between the two endpoints of the dimension.
Linear	Dimension between two points from any angle of interest. The default is 0 (horizontal) and is changed via Tool Options toolbar.
Horizontal	Horizontal Dimension between two points.
Vertical	Vertical Dimension between two points.
Radial	Radius of an arc.
Diametric	Diameter of a circle.
Angular	Angle between two lines or linear parts of objects.
Leader	Not a dimension per se, but used for notes in drawings.

Complete descriptions of the dimensioning tools and related options are found in Drawing Tools of the Reference section.

Dimensioning Appearance

A dimension consists of several parts:

The appearance of the dimensions are configured in the Dimensions tab in the Drawing Preferences. As with many other aspects of a drawing’s setup, there are some generally accepted values for dimensioning:

Dimension Component	mm	Decimal Inch	Fractional Inch
Dimension text height	2.5	.100	3/32
Dimension line gap	1.5	.0625	1/16
Extension line - Offset	1.5	.0625	1/16
Extension line - Enlarge	3	.125	1/8
Arrow size	3	.125	1/8

Note - Adjusting Dimensions for Printing

The size of each dimension component: “Text Height”, “Arrow size”, etc. should be set to the desired “real world” size in the configuration. That is to say if the desired text height is 2.5 mm when printed, the “Text Height” should remain set as 2.5 mm. If the drawing is printed full scale (1:1) the dimension text will appear correctly. However if the drawing is scaled up or down the “General Scale” needs to be adjusted accordingly. The “General Scale” is set to the inverse of the printing scale. For example, if the printed scale is determined to be 1:4, the “General Scale” should be set to 4 (4:1).

The minimum spacing between dimension lines needs to be scaled with the drawing. For example, if the drawing is 1:10, the spacing will need to be adjusted to 60 mm between dimension lines and 100 mm from the entity.

Additional information can be found in the Drawing Setup and Printing guides.

Tip - Rules for Dimensioning

A few rules will help to ensure dimensions are accurate, legible and complete:

• There should be only one way to interpret any one dimension.
• Dimension and extension lines should not cross.
• Extension lines and entity lines should not overlap.
• Provide space between dimensions to ensure legibility.
• The view that best shows an entity is the view that should be dimensioned.
• Each entity on the drawing should be dimensioned and dimensioned only once.
• There should be no need to calculate or scale a dimension of an entity.
• A dimension should be referenced to a logical origin point.
• When there are multiple lines of dimensions, the longer dimensions are to be placed outside of shorter ones.
• Except for large circles and arcs, all dimensions should be placed outside the part and spaced 10mm / 3/8” from the entity.
• Dimension circles with diameters and arcs with radiuses.
• Center lines or center marks should be used on all circles and arcs.
• Extended a circle’s or arc’s center lines and use as extensions line when possible.
• Multiple lines of dimensions are spaced uniformly with a minimum of 6mm / 1/4” between dimension lines (see note above).
• Use arrow heads or slash marks at the end of the dimension lines.

To improve legiblity, make corrections, or make adjustments after scaling a drawing, dimension labels, dimension lines and extension lines can be repositioned using Entity Handles.

Dimensioning drawings is beyond the scope of the LibreCAD User Manual, but additional resources and examples are available in LibreCAD’s wiki or elsewhere on the web.

Dimensioning Example

Leaders

While leaders do not dimension an entity, they are closely related to dimensioning as they are important for annotating and adding clarity to entities. Leaders provide the ability to place pointers to identify a specific area of interest when adding a note and linking it to a particulate object. Leaders take their settings from the dimension settings in Drawing Preferences.

Text

Adding text to a drawing provides addition information; build notes, drawing title and related details, and so forth. Text can be added using either of the two types of text tools:

“Text”:

“MText” (multi-line):

Both tools proved several options for the appearance and placement of text, however a couple are unique to the single-line Text tool as shown below:

Option	Description	Text	MText
Font Settings:
Font	Select font for text	X	X
Height	Set font height	X	X
Angle	Places text at specified angle	X	X
Oblique	Inactive	X	X
Width factor		X	X
Default line spacing	Use default line spacing for specified font	X	X
Line spacing		X	X
Alignment:
	Place text aligned to handle: top, left/center/right middle, left/center/right baseline, left/center/right bottom, left/center/right	X X X X	X X X
Fit	Places text between specified points while maintaining set height	X	X
Aligned	Places text between specified points while maintaining width to height ratio (scales text)	X	X
Middle	Places text with equidistant above and below, left and right of text as defined by text box	X	X
Insert symbol	Insert predefined symbol (Diameter, Degree, Plus / Minus, At, Hash, Dollar, Copyright, Registered, Paragraph, Pi, Pound, Yen, Times, Division)	X	X
Insert Unicode:
Page	Select Unicode page to select character from	X	X
Char	Select character to insert into text	X	X
Insert button	Click button to insert Unicode character into text input field	X	X
Icons:
Clear text	Clear text field	X	X
Load Text From File	Select text file and insert contents into field	X	X
Save Text To File	Save text in text field to file	X	X
Edit	Cut / Copy / Paste	X	X

LibreCAD v2.2.0 - User Manual

This is an interim release of the of the LibreCAD User Manual and is subject to change.

The manual is based on LibreCAD v2.2.0-rc1 with a few additions. If you are using another version of LibreCAD, your mileage may vary.

Completing and Printing

Completed drawings are normally printed to scale and include a border and title block. However, drawings without a border can be useful for drafts, sketches, exporting to CNC software or a bitmapped image, and so on. In addition to supporting a large variety of paper sizes; ISO, ANSI, Arch (Architectural), custom, etc., LibreCAD also has the ability to print drawings across several pages using tiled printing, allowing a drawing to be printed on smaller paper and assembled into a large format print.

Completing a drawing and making it ready for printing includes a few steps:

• Finalizing the page size and drawing scale,
• adjusting the dimensions and spacing, and
• adding page border and title block as required.

Tip - Using Border and Title Blocks

Adding a border provides a finished look and title blocks include important information for the drawing. Title blocks vary widely in content and layout, but can include:

• Drawing name
• Project name
• Scale
• Drawing perspective
• Date
• Revision
• Page number
• Paper size
• Name of organization
• Name of draftsperson, approvers, etc
• Others as required

Print Preview Window

LibreCAD’s Print Preview displays the drawing on a virtual page and allows adjustments to the layout prior to committing the drawing to paper. To switch to the print preview window, click the Print Preview icon or select File -> Print Preview:

LibreCAD’s Print Preview window displaying the Doohickey drawing

Opening the print preview window also displays the Print Preview Tool Options toolbar:

More details for Print Preview Tool Options can be found in the Reference / Toolbars / Tool Options section.

The print preview window shows the virtual page as a white rectangle with a black border and a drop shadow. The black border represents the paper format and orientation as it is configured on the “Paper” tab of the Drawing Preferences. If margins are specified on the “Paper” tab, they are shown as a dark grey border.

Printing

While a drawing can be printed directly by clicking the Print icon or selecting File -> Print, the recommended approach is to print drawings from the Print Preview window:

Starting with the drawing open in the drawing window:

1. Switch to print preview window by clicking the Print Preview icon .
2. Open the Drawing Preferences (Options -> Current Drawing Preferences) and check the paper layout (“Format”, “Orientation” and “Margins”) for the current drawing: e.g. A4, Landscape, Top, Bottom Left and Right Margins each at 10. Adjust the layout if necessary and click OK.
3. Click the Fit to Page icon on the toolbar. This will ensure the drawing is scaled to fit the current paper format and centered on the page.
4. Click the Print icon or select File -> Print.
5. Select the printer on the Print dialogue and confirm the properties by clicking the Properties icon. Adjust the properties if necessary and then click the Print button.

Tiled Printing

Tiled printing provides the ability to print a scaled drawing that is larger than a printer’s available paper format. Tiled printing is useful where a drawing needs to be printed at a fixed scale that would otherwise require a large format printer. The drawing is printed across several pages that can be assembled into a large single document.

Tile printing uses “Format” and “Orientation” found on the “Paper” tab of the Drawing Preferences. It lays out the pages horizontally and vertically in a grid pattern to form a single large format page to accomodate a scaled drawing. For example, a portrait A4 page with 2 pages horizontally and 1 vertically would result in a page 420 x 297 mm, or a landscape A4 in a 2 x 2 pattern would be a page of 594 x 420 mm. Note that both examples use a margin of 0. If margins are defined, the assembled document is reduced by the margin widths on the common edges of the paper where they are assembled.

To print a tiled document, starting with the drawing open in the drawing window:

1. Switch to print preview window by clicking the Print Preview icon .

2. Click the Fit to Page icon on the toolbar. This will ensure the drawing displayed correctly in the print preview. Note that “fixed” needs to be unchecked.

3. Open the Drawing Preferences (Options -> Current Drawing Preferences) and check the paper layout (“Format”, “Orientation” and “Margins”) for the current drawing: e.g. A4, Landscape, Top, Bottom Left and Right Margins each at 10. Adjust the values if necessary and click OK. (The “Number of Pages” will be calculated below.)

4. Adjust the scale as desired. Change the print scale by:

   1. Selecting a predefined scale ratio from the drop-down, or type the required scale ratio in the text-box and press [Enter].
   2. Lock the print scale by placing a checkmark in the “fixed” checkbox.

5. Click the Calculate number of pages… icon on the toolbar. The print preview will show a grid of pages with the drawing placed in the center. The Number of pages on the “Paper” tab will be updated to reflect the number of pages shown in the print preview.

6. Adjust the position of the drawing image on the page by repositioning the paper by dragging it as needed (the drawing stays centered on the screen). Click and hold anywhere in the drawing space and drag the paper to the desired position. Pressing [Shift] allows only horizontal movements of paper and pressing [Ctrl] allows only vertical movements.

7. If necessary, adjust the dimensions “General Scale” and dimension line placement. Refer to Adjusting Dimensions for Printing in Dimensioning and Text for details.

8. Click the Print icon or select File -> Print.

9. Select the printer on the Print dialogue and confirm the properties by clicking the Properties icon. Adjust the properties if necessary and then click the Print button.

In case when a page has the margins (margins > 0) the print preview takes on a special look in that the margins between a neighboring pages aren’t shown. It makes possible to represent the printable areas of all pages as one whole area and to show an undivided drawing. Or, in other words, the print preview looks like the assembled drawing.

Tip - Setting the Margins

Set the margins to the printer’s minimum margins when using tiled printing to maximize the assemble print size.

Next example shows the print preview (left) and the output of tiled printing with the margins (right):

The sequence of the output is from bottom left page to top right page. In the picture above the order of the output is marked by numbers.

Completing and Printing a Drawing

A finished drawing will include a border / title block and be scaled to suit the paper format and orientation. See Scale and Dimensioning in the Drawing Setup for more details on determining the suitable scale for a drawing.

Important

These steps assume a drawing that is drawn to full-scale (1:1).

Starting with the drawing open in the drawing window:

1. Switch to print preview window by clicking the Print Preview icon .

2. Click the Fit to Page icon on the toolbar. This will ensure the drawing displayed correctly in the print preview. Note that “fixed” needs to be unchecked.

3. Open the Drawing Preferences (Options -> Current Drawing Preferences) and check the paper layout (“Format”, “Orientation” and “Margins”) for the current drawing: e.g. A4, Landscape, Top, Bottom Left and Right Margins each at 10. Adjust the layout if necessary and click OK.

4. Click the Fit to Page icon on the toolbar. This will ensure the drawing is scaled to fit the current paper format and centered on the page. Note the scale in the text-box of the print preview toolbar.

5. Adjust the scale using a smaller ratio than the “Fit to Page” scale. For example use “1:2” if “1:1.18” is the calculated scale. Change the print scale by:

   1. Selecting a predefined scale ratio from the drop-down, or type the required scale ratio in the text-box and press [Enter].
   2. Lock the print scale by placing a checkmark in the “fixed” checkbox.

6. Adjust the position of the drawing image on the page by:

   1. Clicking the Center to Page icon , or
   2. repositioning the paper by dragging it as needed (the drawing stays centered on the screen). Click and hold anywhere in the drawing space and drag the paper to the desired position. Pressing [Shift] allows only horizontal movements of paper and pressing [Ctrl] allows only vertical movements.

7. Close the print preview window by clicking the Print Preview icon .

8. If necessary, adjust the dimensions “General Scale” and dimension line placement. Refer to Adjusting Dimensions for Printing in Dimensioning and Text for details.

9. If using a border / title page block, insert the block from the Library Browser:

   1. Insert a block from sheets that matches the paper format and orientation, e.g. “A4H” for a landscape A4 page.
   2. Set the blocks scale “Factor” suit the scale determined above, e.g. “2” for a drawing scale of 1:2. See Inserting Blocks in Using the Library Browser for details.
   3. “Explode” the border block and add/modify text using the “Properties” tool. Refer to the Modify tools.

10. Switch to the print preview window and check the completed drawing. If necessary, click “Zoom All” and then “Fit to Page” to align the drawing to the paper.

11. Click the Print icon or select File -> Print.

12. Select the printer on the Print dialogue and confirm the properties by clicking the Properties icon. Adjust the properties if necessary and then click the Print button.

LibreCAD v2.2.0 - User Manual

This is an interim release of the of the LibreCAD User Manual and is subject to change.

The manual is based on LibreCAD v2.2.0-rc1 with a few additions. If you are using another version of LibreCAD, your mileage may vary.

Appendices

Online Resources

LibreCAD main website: https://librecad.org/

Download Installation Packages

Operating System	URL
MS Windows: - GitHub - SourceForge	https://GitHub.com/LibreCAD/LibreCAD/releases https://sourceforge.net/projects/librecad/files/Windows/
OSX: - GitHub - SourceForge	https://GitHub.com/LibreCAD/LibreCAD/releases https://sourceforge.net/projects/librecad/files/OSX/
Linux Distributions: - Debian (Stable) - Debian (UnStable) - Ubuntu (Stable) - Ubuntu (Daily) - Arch Linux - Fedora - Gentoo - OpenSUSE	https://packages.debian.org/stable/graphics/librecad https://packages.debian.org/unstable/graphics/librecad https://launchpad.net/~librecad-dev/+archive/ubuntu/librecad-stable https://launchpad.net/~librecad-dev/+archive/ubuntu/librecad-daily https://www.archlinux.org/packages/community/x86_64/librecad/ https://apps.fedoraproject.org/packages/librecad https://packages.gentoo.org/packages/media-gfx/librecad https://software.opensuse.org/package/librecad

Note

GitHub hosts the installation packages for the most recent release of LibreCAD for MS Windows, v2.2.0 RC. SourceForge hosts the most recent release for OSX and the “NightlyBuilds” for MS Windows. The installation packages in “NightlyBuilds” for MS Windows represent the cutting-edge version of LibreCAD that includes bug fixes and possibly new features.

Getting Help

There are many other resources for getting help with LibreCAD:

• LibreCAD forum: http://forum.librecad.org/

• LibreCAD Wiki: https://dokuwiki.librecad.org/

  • FAQ: https://dokuwiki.librecad.org/doku.php/usage:faq
  • Tutorials: https://dokuwiki.librecad.org/doku.php/usage:tutorials
  • Part Libraries: https://wiki.librecad.org/index.php/Part_Libraries

Reporting Bugs

You can help with the improving LibreCAD. Please report any bugs at LibreCAD’s GitHub Issues page: https://GitHub.com/LibreCAD/LibreCAD/issues

Line Attributes

Common Line Widths

The following table provides suggested line widths for ISO A4/A3/A2 or ANSI A/B/C paper sizes:

Line Weights	Pen Size (mm)	Purpose	Recommended
Extra Thin	0.00, 0.05, 0.09	Hidden lines Hatching Reference line	0.00 mm
Thin	0.13, 0.15, 0.18, 0.20, 0.25	Outlines Center lines Dimension lines Leader and extension Phantom lines Grid lines Text	0.18 mm
Medium	0.30, 0.35, 0.40, 0.50	Hidden lines Text normal (0.30 mm) Text - sub-headings (0.50 mm) Visible object outlines	0.35 mm
Thick	0.70	Cutting lines Match lines Section lines Text - titles/major headings Viewing planes	0.70 mm
Extra Thick	1.00	Title sheet border

Note: Pen sizes shown in bold are ISO standard sizes.

Line Types

Image can be printed 1:1 using scale shown at bottom.

Hatches

Unless shown otherwise, hatch patterns are shown at 1:1 scale (1x)

Fonts

Font Name	Font Filename	Font Type	Technical (*)	Sample
amiri-regular	amiri-regular.lff	Serif
azomix_i	azomix_i.lff	Sans Serif	X
azomix	azomix.lff	Sans Serif	X
cursive	cursive.lff	Sans Serif	X
cyrillic_ii	cyrillic_ii.lff	Sans Serif	X
gothgbt	gothgbt.lff	Blackletter / Gothic
gothgrt	gothgrt.lff	Blackletter / Gothic
gothitt	gothitt.lff	Blackletter / Gothic
greekc	greekc.lff	Greek Lettering
greekcs	greekcs.lff	Greek Lettering
greek_ol	greek_ol.lff	Greek Lettering
greekp	greekp.lff	Greek Lettering	X
greeks	greeks.lff	Greek Lettering	X
iso3098_i	iso3098.lff	Sans Serif	X
iso3098	iso3098_i.lff	Sans Serif	X
iso	iso.lff	Sans Serif	X
italicc	italicc.lff	Serif
italiccs	italiccs.lff	Serif
italict	italict.lff	Serif
kochigothic	kochigothic.lff	Sans Serif
kochimincho	kochimincho.lff	Serif
kst32b	kst32b.lff	Sans Serif	X
lc_opengost-ar	lc_opengost-ar.lff	Sans Serif	X
lc_opengost-br	lc_opengost-br.lff	Sans Serif	X
OpenGostTypeA-Regular	OpenGostTypeA-Regular.lff	Sans Serif	X
OpenGostTypeB-Regular	OpenGostTypeB-Regular.lff	Sans Serif	X
romanc	romanc.lff	Serif
romancs	romancs.lff	Serif
romand	romand.lff	Sans Serif
romanp	romanp.lff	Serif
romansi	romansi.lff	Sans Serif	X
romans	romans.lff	Sans Serif	X
romant	romant.lff	Serif
scriptc	scriptc.lff	Formal Script
scripts	scripts.lff	Formal Script
simplex	simplex.lff	Sans Serif	X
standard	standard.lff	Sans Serif	X
syastro	syastro.lff	Symbol
symap	symap.lff	Symbol
symath	symath.lff	Symbol
symbol	symbol.lff	Symbol
symbol_misc1	symbol_misc1.lff	Symbol
symbol_misc2	symbol_misc2.lff	Symbol
symeteo	symeteo.lff	Symbol
symusic	symusic.lff	Symbol
unicode	unicode.lff	Sans Serif	X

*: These fonts are composed of single lines and are suitable for technical drawings.

ASCII character set render in each font:

Converting Fonts

LibreCAD includes a utility, “ttf2lff”, to convert “TrueType” fonts to LibreCAD font file/format (*.lff). ttf2lff is located in th same directory as the LibreCAD executable and the location varies by operating system. For Microsoft Windows, ttf2lff is located in C:\Program Files\LibreCAD".

1. Open a console/terminal to access the command line.

2. At the command prompt type the following command and press [Enter]:

   PathTottf2lff\ttf2lff PathTo\\TrueTypeFontName.ttf LibreCADFontName.lff
   

3. Copy or move the new font to the LibreCAD fonts folder. Refer to Application Preferences in Configure section of Getting Started.

Common Drawing Scales

Architect’s Scale (SI)

Drawing Scale	Common Use
1:1	Mockups / Samples / Small details
1:2	Construction details
1:5	Construction details
1:10	Construction details / Wall sections
1:20	Building sections
1:50	Building sections / Floor plans / Elevations
1:100	Floor plans / Elevations
1:200	Floor plans / Elevations / Site plans
1:500	Site plans
1:1000	Area plans

Architect’s Scale (Imperial)

Drawing Scale	Ratio	Common Use
Full scale	1:1	Mockups / Samples / Small details
3″=1′-0″	1:4	Small details
1 1⁄2″=1′-0″	1:8	Small details
1″=1′-0″	1:12	Small details / Construction details
​“3⁄4″=1′-0″”	1:16	Construction details / Wall sections
​“1⁄2″=1′-0″”	1:24	Building sections
3⁄8″=1′-0″	1:32	Wall sections / Building sections
1⁄4″=1′-0″	1:48	Building sections / Floor plans / Elevations
​“3⁄16″=1′-0″”	1:64	Floor plans / Elevations
​“1⁄8″=1′-0″”	1:96	Floor plans / Elevations / Site plans
​“3⁄32″=1′0″”	1:128
​“1⁄16″=1′-0″”	1:192	Site plan

Engineer’s scale (Imperial)

Drawing Scale	Ratio	Common Use
1″=10′-0″	1:120	Details
1″=20′-0″	1:240	Details / Working plans
1″=30′-0″	1:360	Working plans
1″=40′-0″	1:480	Working plans
1″=50′-0″	1:600	Working plans
1″=60′-0″	1:720	Working plans
1″=100′-0″	1:1200	Area plans

Languages

LibreCAD supprts these languages to varying degrees:

Albanian	German	Portuguese (Brazil)
Arabic	Greek, Modern (1453-)	Romanian
Basque	Hindi	Russian
Catalan; Valencian	Hungarian	Slovak
Chinese (China, Simplified)	Indonesian	Slovenian
Chinese (Taiwan, Traditional)	Italian	Spanish (Argentina)
Czech	Japanese	Spanish (Mexican)
Danish	Korean	Spanish; Castilian
Dutch; Flemish	Latvian	Swedish
English (Australia)	Macedonian	Tamil
Estonian	Norwegian	Turkish
Finnish	Panjabi; Punjabi	Ukraine
French	Polish
Galician	Portuguese

Note

For more information about translations, to see the current status or to contribute, refer to https://translate.librecad.org/projects/librecad/

Systems of Measurement

LibreCAD supports a large number of measurement systems/units:

Unit	Abbr.	System	Equivalences	Uses (*)
Inch	in	Imperial	3 barleycorns	Widely used in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom.
Foot	ft	Imperial	Size 46 (EU) shoe size	Still widely used in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom.
Mile	mi	Imperial	0.2756 of a Dutch mile	Used way too often in other than a ‘’international mile’’.
Millimeter	mm	SI	More than 25 in an in	Vanilli’s favorite
Centimeter	cm	SI
Meter	m	SI	nm
Kilometer	km	SI		Sigh, SI units are not funny…
Microinch	µin	Imperial
Mil	mil	Imperial	1/100 of an inch	Replaced with ‘’thou’’ (but not ‘’you’’).
Yard	yd	imperial	3 foots	Measure ale!
Angstrom	å		≈ one ten-billionth of a meter	Zoom to a parsec - I dare you.
Nanometer	nm	SI	1 E−9 m	the UoM formerly known as the ‘’millimicrometre’’ and ‘’mµ’’.
Micron	µm	SI		Really is a ‘’micrometer’’, but not to be confused with a ‘’micrometer screw gauge’’.
Decimeter	dm	SI	0.1 meter
Decameter	dam	SI	10 meters	‘’dam’’, don’t be juvenile.
Hectometer	hm	SI	100 meters	Should be funny, but why?
Gigameter	Gm	SI	1,000,000,000 meters	That’s one beeellion meters.
Astro	au, ua or AU	astronomical unit		also a ‘’a South Korean boy band’’.
Lightyear	ly	astronomical unit	63241 au	First name ‘’Buzz’’.
Parsecs	pc	astronomical unit	≈ 206264.806247096 astronomical units	er, big. What else can one say? Made popular by James T.

*: Obtained from Wikipedia and Wiktionary and wildly interpreted by the author of this page.

Calculator Operators and Functions

Typing “cal” at the command line will toggle the calculator mode on and off.

Name	Function / Operation	Usage
+	addition	x+y
-	subtraction	x-y
*	multiplication	x*y
/	division	x/y
^	raise x to the power of y	x^y
sin	sine function	sin(x)
cos	cosine function	cos(x)
tan	tangens function	tan(x)
asin	arcus sine function	asin(x)
acos	arcus cosine function	acos(x)
atan	arcus tangens function	atan(x)
sinh	hyperbolic sine function	sinh(x)
cosh	hyperbolic cosine	cosh(x)
tanh	hyperbolic tangens function	tanh(x)
asinh	hyperbolic arcus sine function	asinh(x)
acosh	hyperbolic arcus tangens function	acosh(x)
atanh	hyperbolic arcur tangens function	atanh(x)
log2	logarithm to the base 2	log2(x)
log10	logarithm to the base 10	log10(x)
log	logarithm to base e (2.71828…)	log(x)
ln	logarithm to base e (2.71828…)	ln(x)
exp	e raised to the power of x	exp(x)
sqrt	square root of a value	sqrt(x)
sign	sign function -1 if x<0; 1 if x>0	sign(x)
rint	round to nearest integer	rint(x)
abs	absolute value	abs(x)
min	min of all arguments	min(x, y, …n)
max	max of all arguments	max(x, y, …n)
sum	sum of all arguments	sum(x, y, …n)
avg	mean value of all arguments	avg(x, y, …n)

Reference: http://beltoforion.de/article.php?a=muparser

Building from Source

Building from the source code allows users to run the cutting-edge version of LibreCAD that includes bug fixes and possibly new features. LibreCAD can be compiled to run on multiple operating systems; Linux, Microsoft Windows, and macOS. The process differs depending on the OS.

Important

The instructions are as complete as possible to provide the necessary steps to allow any user to build LibreCAD from the source code, however some understanding of the operating system and installation of the required tools and dependencies is required. The instructions are intended for users that want to try the cutting-edge version of LibreCAD and are not intended to replace the instructions for building packages or contributing to the LibreCAD project.

If you are a developer and want to contribute to LibreCAD see the Contributing section in the Appendices.

The tools and dependencies required to build LibreCAD are:

• C++ compiler and related utilities
• Qt development framework
• Boost C++ source library
• muParser math expression parser library
• git distributed version control system (optional)

Download the Source Code

The source code is hosted on GitHub and is common to all three operating systems. It can be download as a “zip” archive or cloned using “git”. These instructions use the download option.

Go to the LibreCAD GitHub page to download the source code. On the <> Code tab, click on the “Clone or Download” button and then click “Download ZIP”. Save the zip file; LibreCAD-master.zip.

Cloning is suggested if users want to build LibreCAD more frequently as the source code is updated. More information about GitHub, git tools, and creating a local source code repository can be found on LibreCAD’s Developer’s wiki.

Building on Linux

Note

These instructions are for building LibreCAD on Debian and other derivatives. Further instructions for building LibreCAD on other Linux distributions (openSUSE, Red Hat, FreeBSD) and generic Unix can be found in LibreCAD’s GitHub Developer’s wiki in the Build from source section.

Install Tools and Dependencies

Install the required tools and libraries (compiler, Qt, boost, muparser, etc.):

$ sudo apt install g++ gcc make qtbase5-dev libqt5svg5-dev qttools5-dev\
 qtchooser qttools5-dev-tools libboost-dev libmuparser-dev librsvg2-bin\
 libfreetype6-dev libicu-dev pkg-config

You also have to either install the qt5-default package; apt install qt5-default, or use qtchooser prior to running qmake; qtchooser -qt5.

Build LibreCAD

Create a development directory for the source code and related libraries; e.g ~/dev/. Extract the contents of the source code zip file, LibreCAD-master.zip, to the development directory. When complete, a complete copy of the source code will found in the ~/dev/LibreCAD-master directory. Compiled LibreCAD with the following commands:

$ cd ~/dev/LibreCAD-master/
$ qmake -r
$ make -j4

If the build is successful an executable is created, ~/dev/LibreCAD-master/unix/librecad, and LibreCAD can be launched by typing:

$ ./unix/librecad &

Building on Windows

Building LibreCAD on Windows is a little more involved and requires a few additional steps. Please read these instructions carefully.

Note

Detailed instructions for building LibreCAD on Windows, including instructions for building LibreCAD in Visual Studio 2013 and newer, can be found on the GitHub Developers wiki (https://github.com/LibreCAD/LibreCAD/wiki) in the Build from source section.

Install Tools and Dependencies

Qt Framework

The Windows version of Qt includes both the required framework library and the compiler. Download the open source version of the Qt Online Installer from Qt download <https://www.qt.io/download>. Launch the installer accepting the defaults. Install Qt to the default path prompted by the installer, e.g. C:\Qt. On the Select Components page expand the tree view under the most recent version of Qt, e.g. Qt 5.12.3, and select the latest version of the MinGW compiler; MinGW 7.3.0 (32-bit or 64 bit as required). No other components are needed.

Boost

Download the current release of the boost library “zip” file from Boost downloads <https://www.boost.org/users/download/>. Click on the link to download the current Windows library, e.g. boost_1_70_0.zip and save the file.

muParser

muParser is not required to build LibreCAD on Windows as the library is now included with the LibreCAD source code.

Build LibreCAD in Qt Creator

Create a development folder for the source code and related libraries, e.g C:\dev\. Extract the contents of the source code zip file, “LibreCAD-master.zip”. When complete, a copy of the source code will found in the C:\dev\LibreCAD-master folder.

Extract the boost library the files to the development folder. Note the folder name the boost library was extracted to, e.g. C:\dev\boost_1_70_0\.

After extracting the LibreCAD source code, open the custom.pro file in .\LibreCAD-master\librecad\src under the development folder and add the following two lines (note the forward slashes in the path.):

BOOST_DIR = C:/dev/boost_1_70_0/
BOOST_LIBDIR = C:/dev/boost_1_70_0/

After completing the required edit, launch Qt Creator (Start -> All Programs -> Qt -> Qt Creator) and open the librecad.pro project file from the LibreCAD source folder (File -> Open File or Project and go to C:\dev\LibreCAD-master\). The project should open to Configure Project. Ensure a “kit”, e.g. Desktop Qt 5.12.3 MinGW 32-bit is checked and click the Configure Project button. It will take a few moments for the project to open and parse.

Click the Project icon on the left side of the Qt Creator window. Disable the “Shadow build” option in the Debug, Profile and Release build configurations. Each build configuration can be selected from the drop down below Build Settings. Save the project (File -> Save All).

With the configuration complete, run the build process in Qt Creator by clicking the Build icon on the lower left side. If the build is successful an executable is created: .\LibreCAD-master\windows\librecad.exe.

Important

Several Dynamic-link libraries (DLL) are required to run LibreCAD. The DLLs are found in the C:\Qt\5.12.3\mingw73_32\bin folder (or mingw73_64) and need to be copied to the same directory as the executable (or included in the path). The DLLs are:

• libgcc_s_dw2-1.dll
• libstdc++-6.dll
• libwinpthread-1.dll
• Qt5Core.dll
• Qt5Gui.dll
• Qt5PrintSupport.dll
• Qt5Svg.dll
• Qt5Widgets.dll

Once the DLLs have been copied to the executable folder, LibreCAD can be launched by Clicking Start -> Run and typing:

> C:\dev\LibreCAD-master\windows\librecad.exe

Building on macOS

There are a few options for compiling LibreCAD for the macOS. This method uses the LLVM Compiler Infrastructure and the Homebrew Package Manager. Refer to the Github Developer’s wiki for additional methods.

Install Tools and Dependencies

From the command prompt, download and install Homebrew with:

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install.sh)"

Further details are available on the Homebrew website.

Install the latest versions of boost and qt5 with Homebrew:

brew install boost qt5

Build LibreCAD

Create a development directory for the source code and related libraries; e.g ~/dev/. Extract the contents of the source code zip file, LibreCAD-master.zip, to the development directory. When complete, a complete copy of the source code will found in the ~/dev/LibreCAD-master directory. Change to the source code directory with:

cd ~/dev/LibreCAD-master/

Next build LibreCAD by running qmake. Note that during the installation step above, brew install qt5, the binaries have not been linked to /usr/local. In order to use qmake, use the full path:

/usr/local/Cellar/qt5/5.7.0/bin/qmake librecad.pro -r -spec macx-clang

To compile the application, at the prompt run:

make -j4

If the previous steps were successful, an application named LibreCAD.app will be in the build directory. Run it at the command prompt by typing either:

open LibreCAD.app, or
LibreCAD.app/Contents/MacOS/LibreCAD

Note

The macOS build section been revised, but not tested. Please provide any feedback on the build process on the LibreCAD forum: http://forum.librecad.org/Help-wanted-to-build-on-MacOS-td5717273.html

Contributing

Code

If you are a developer, outstanding in C++, or a beginner we can use all the help. With a bit of determination, the IRC channel, Zulip chat and the Libre-CAD-dev mailing list, we can help you get started and making progress. The source code is hosted on GitHub (https://github.com/LibreCAD/LibreCAD). A good starting point for developers is the LibreCAD Developer’s wiki on GitHub (https://github.com/LibreCAD/LibreCAD/wiki/Git-and-GitHub).

The Online Resource section provides links to further information on downloading and building LibreCAD.

Documentation

Developers are usually bad in making documentation, so if you like writing documentation your involvement in developing the User Manual would be greatly appreciated.

The documentation is hosted by Read the Docs. The most recent version of LibreCAD’s User Manual can be found at https://librecad.readthedocs.io/. As with the source code, the documentation source is hosted GitHub (https://github.com/LibreCAD/docs). The documentation is created using a markup language called reStructuredText (Refer to http://docutils.sourceforge.net/rst.html). For those interested in contributing to the documentation, refer to LibreCAD Documentation wiki on github (https://github.com/LibreCAD/docs/wiki).

Translation

Help localize LibreCAD, we currently support over 30 languages. Our translation server is at https://translate.librecad.org/. You can contribute to a language already started or or request the creation of a translation for a new language in the forum in the LibreCAD-translate section.

License

LibreCAD and the GPLv2

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

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

The GPLv2 can also be found in the licenses folder as gpl-2.0.txt.

• <https://github.com/LibreCAD/LibreCAD/tree/master/licenses>
• <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/gpl-2.0.txt>

History

QCAD community edition version 2.0.5.0 was released under the GPLv2. > Copyright (C) 2001-2003 RibbonSoft. All rights reserved.

• <http://www.ribbonsoft.com>

LibreCAD is a fork of QCAD community edition version 2.0.5.0; therefore, any modifications of or additions to the program are also released under the GPLv2.

The project’s first commit on Github was Aug 16, 2010.

• <http://librecad.org/>
• <https://github.com/LibreCAD/LibreCAD>

Rights holders of the code

Some of the following may be composites of multiple copyright notices.

Copyright (C):

• 1999, 2001, 2007 Frank Warmerdam
• 2001-2003 RibbonSoft. All rights reserved.
• 2004-2014 Ingo Berg
• 2010, 2011, 2012, 2015 R. van Twisk (librecad@rvt.dds.nl)
• 2011-2015 Dongxu Li (dongxuli2011@gmail.com)
• 2011-2015 José F. Soriano (rallazz@gmail.com)
• 2014 cgrzemba (cgrzemba@opencsw.org)
• 2014 Pavel Krejcir (pavel@pamsoft.cz)
• 2014-2015 Christian Luginbühl (dinkel@pimprecords.com)
• 2015 A. Stebich (librecad@mail.lordofbikes.de)
• 2015-2016 ravas (github.com/r-a-v-a-s)

Rights holders of the fonts

Copyright (C):

• 2002 Yoshimune Kobayashi (cfg47520@syd.odn.ne.jp)
• 2004 by Saka.N (Saka.N.06@b3.mnx.ne.jp)
• 2010-2013 Khaled Hosny (khaledhosny@eglug.org)
• 2011, 2012 Rallaz (rallazz@gmail.com)
• 2014 stranger573 (stranger573@mail.ru)
• 2015 AZO (typesylph@gmail.com)

Rights holders of the art

Copyright (C):

• 2011 Diego Alejandro Torres M. “Daltom Designer” (http://daltom.2082studio.com)
• 2011 Pablo Ramrez Alem (www.librecad.com.ar)

Honorable mention

These are known contributors whose copyright notice could not be found.

• Claude Sylvain | <csylvain@electro-technica.com>
• Scott Howard | <showard@debian.org>
• Lisandro Damián Nicanor Pérez Meyer | <perezmeyer@gmail.com>

A list of contributors to the LibreCAD repository can be found at: <https://github.com/LibreCAD/LibreCAD/graphs/contributors>

Licenses of bundled content

The LibreCAD source code is released as a whole under the GPLv2. The following refers to the licenses used by these resources, when they were released independently from LibreCAD.

The SVG icons in librecad/res/icons were all released under the CC0 license.

• <https://github.com/LibreCAD/Resources>
• <https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/>

libdxfrw was released under GPLv2 “or any later version”.

• <https://sourceforge.net/projects/libdxfrw/>

muParser was released under the MIT license.

• <http://beltoforion.de/article.php?a=muparser&hl=en&p=licence>

Shapelib was released under a “MIT Style” license or LGPLv2.

• <https://github.com/LibreCAD/LibreCAD/tree/master/plugins/importshp/shapelib>

The AZOmix fonts were released under the KST32B version 2.0 license.

• <https://github.com/LibreCAD/LibreCAD/blob/master/licenses/KST32B_v2.txt>
• <http://domisan.sakura.ne.jp/article/cadfont/cadfont.html>

The Amiri font was released under the Open Font License.

• <http://www.amirifont.org/>
• <https://github.com/khaledhosny/amiri-font/blob/0.108/OFL.txt>

The Hershey Fonts were originally created by Dr. A. V. Hershey while working at the U. S. National Bureau of Standards. The format of the Font data in this distribution was originally created by:

James Hurt Cognition, Inc. 900 Technology Park Drive Billerica, MA 01821