Lite Cad User Help

LiteCADUser

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Table of contents Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 4 System requirements .............................................................................................................. 4 What's new ............................................................................................................................... 5 Installing LiteCAD ........................................................................................................................ 6 Windows .................................................................................................................................. 6 Apple Mac ................................................................................................................................ 6 Working with drawings ................................................................................................................ 8 Interface .................................................................................................................................... 8 File menu ............................................................................................................................ 8 Edit menu ............................................................................................................................ 9 View menu .......................................................................................................................... 9 Format menu .................................................................................................................... 10 Draw menu ....................................................................................................................... 13 Dimension ........................................................................................................................ 14 Tools menu ....................................................................................................................... 14 Viewing drawings ................................................................................................................. 15 Moving around .................................................................................................................. 15 Magnify and shrink drawings .......................................................................................... 15 Control visual elements ................................................................................................... 16 Regen ................................................................................................................................ 16 Layers ............................................................................................................................... 16 Placing simple entities ......................................................................................................... 17 Line .................................................................................................................................... 17 Ray .................................................................................................................................... 18 Construction line .............................................................................................................. 18 Arc ..................................................................................................................................... 18 Circle ................................................................................................................................. 19 Point .................................................................................................................................. 19 Text .................................................................................................................................... 20 Single line .................................................................................................................... 20 Multi line (paragraph) .................................................................................................. 21 Windows text ............................................................................................................... 22 Creating complex entities .................................................................................................... 22 Create Block .................................................................................................................... 22 Hatch ................................................................................................................................. 23 Insert Block ....................................................................................................................... 23 Spline ................................................................................................................................ 24 Ellipse ............................................................................................................................... 24 Polygon ............................................................................................................................. 25 Rectangle .......................................................................................................................... 25 Polyline .............................................................................................................................. 25 Multiline ............................................................................................................................. 26 Define attributes ............................................................................................................... 26 Handling raster images ........................................................................................................ 27 Image manager ................................................................................................................ 27 Working with coordinates .................................................................................................... 27 Entering coordinates ....................................................................................................... 27 Modifying entities - editing ................................................................................................... 30 Copy .................................................................................................................................. 30 Move .................................................................................................................................. 30

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Delete entities .................................................................................................................. 30 Offset ................................................................................................................................. 31 Scale ................................................................................................................................. 31 Rotate ................................................................................................................................ 32 Explode ............................................................................................................................. 32 Edit polyline ...................................................................................................................... 32 Selecting entities ............................................................................................................. 33 Properties ......................................................................................................................... 33 Dimensioning ........................................................................................................................ 34 Create dimension ............................................................................................................ 34 Linear ................................................................................................................................ 35 Edit dimension ................................................................................................................. 36 Dimension styles .............................................................................................................. 36 Angular .............................................................................................................................. 36 Leader ............................................................................................................................... 36 Printing ................................................................................................................................... 36 From Model Space .......................................................................................................... 36 From Layout ..................................................................................................................... 37 Print PDF .......................................................................................................................... 37 Tools ....................................................................................................................................... 38 Distance ............................................................................................................................ 38 Area ................................................................................................................................... 38 Options .............................................................................................................................. 38 Make raster view .............................................................................................................. 39 Drafting aids ..................................................................................................................... 39 Setting up a drawing ................................................................................................... 39 The orthogonal mode ................................................................................................. 40 Working with a grid ..................................................................................................... 40 Using entity snaps ....................................................................................................... 41 Commands ................................................................................................................................. 43 Draw ....................................................................................................................................... 43 Edit ......................................................................................................................................... 43 File .......................................................................................................................................... 43 View ....................................................................................................................................... 44 Format .................................................................................................................................... 44 Dimension ............................................................................................................................. 44 Modify ..................................................................................................................................... 44 Tools ....................................................................................................................................... 45 Working with libraries & external files ...................................................................................... 46

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Introduction LiteCAD The availability of low cost CAD software has radically changed the way professionals work. Most project managers now expect that CAD software will be used to create digital drawings describing design work. Managers and clients also assume that design work will be delivered in both printed and electronic format. So, in most professions, producing design work on paper drawings alone is no longer acceptable; you need CAD. This change in attitude has major implications for many of us. If you are working, or intend to work, in the Architecture, Engineering or Construction industry, you need to be able to produce CAD drawings if required. It goes without saying that you need to learn to do this efficiently, making the CAD software work hard for you, not the other way around.

CAD drawings are full size It is worth making the point that everything you draw with your CAD software must be drawn full size. This means that if any time you make an inquiry of any part of your drawing (using any of the inquiry commands in Tools - DISTANCE or AREA) the software 'spits back' values on the Command line (and in the a properties dialog box) which mean something to you as a designer. If objects you design fit when working in the CAD model, they will fit in real life. This concept of 'drawing full size', is a major change for many people and can be most disconcerting, if you have long been used to producing paper drawings by hand.

About LiteCAD LiteCAD is a product of Design Cad Pty Ltd, a software company based in Adelaide, South Australia.

LiteCAD commands and AutoCAD LiteCAD is largely command compatible with AutoCAD, industry standard CAD software. If you know how to use AutoCAD, you will feel right at home with LiteCAD. If not, help is available on LiteCAD's web site (http:// www.plus.designcad.com.au). There you will find many short on-screen movies to help you learn to use the software. Created with the Personal Edition of HelpNDoc: Easy EPub and documentation editor

System requirements System requirements - LiteCAD under Windows LiteCAD and the applications based on it, will run on most Windows computers. We have tested the software under various operating systems - Windows XP, Windows 2000, Windows 7 and Windows 8. A reasonable specification for a computer running LiteCAD would be one with an Intel i5 processor, 4 GIG of RAM and at least 250 GIG of storage space. LiteCAD will also run on computers using other chips, but has not been exhaustively tested.

Requirements - LiteCAD on Macintosh computers LiteCAD software was originally designed for Windows computers, but can run on Macintosh computers provided that the processor is Intel based and some form of Windows emulator runs concomitantly with LiteCAD. Most recent Mac computers (post 2006) are Intel based and a Mac computer with an i5 processor 4-8 MB of hard disk space should be adequate to run LiteCAD. There are a couple of extra items required to run LiteCAD successfully on a Mac: 1. You need to purchase a mouse with more than one button and a wheel to drive LiteCAD effectively on a Mac. The reason for this is that when using LiteCAD, different menus pop up when either the left or right mouse button is clicked and the mouse wheel is used to zoom in and out on the drawing. Trying to use LiteCAD with the traditional single button Mac mouse is very frustrating indeed. Apple now offer a range of mice and track pads with various buttons, but we find that Logitech mice with a central wheel and plugged into the USB port of our iMac work well.

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2. You also need to install a special piece of emulator software that allows Windows programs to run on (R) (R) the Mac. We are aware of a number of such programs and have tested Crossover and Parallels . These both seem to work satisfactorily. Crossover seems to be the favorite among Mac LiteCAD users, but we use Parallels on our iMac. We recommend adding extra RAM to help the Mac performance. One of these emulator tools needs to be installed before installing LiteCAD. We do not recommend booting into a Windows environment to run LiteCAD as you lose all the great features of the Mac. Note that you need a separate Windows license to run Parallels. Created with the Personal Edition of HelpNDoc: Easy to use tool to create HTML Help files and Help web sites

What's new What's new Recent changes made to LiteCAD are listed here:

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Installing LiteCAD Installing LiteCAD LiteCAD runs in both the Windows and Macintosh environments. The software is not 'memory hungry' and will run on modestly powered computers. We have tested it on various operating systems - Windows XP, Windows 2000, Windows 7 and Windows 8. A reasonable specification for a computer running LiteCAD would be an i5 processor, 4Gig of RAM and 150 Gig of storage space. The pages linked here provide specific information on installing LiteCAD in each environment. Created with the Personal Edition of HelpNDoc: Easily create Web Help sites

Windows LiteCAD Windows installation The download delivers a single installation file (which will have a file name similar to LiteCAD_Setup.exe). We suggest saving the file to your desk top. Check the file size by selecting the icon and right clicking. The file should be nearly 13 Megabytes in size; if it is less, there is a chance that the download is incomplete. To install the program, start Windows Explorer or the Your Computer tool, go to the desk top and locate the LiteCAD setup file and double click on it, accept our license agreement (which basically says that you will use the program on one computer only, and not give away copies of the program) and LiteCAD will be installed. Start the program by clicking on the desktop shortcut.

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Apple Mac LiteCAD on Macintosh computers LiteCAD software was originally designed for Windows computers, but can run happily on Macintosh computers provided that the processor is Intel based, and you run some form of Windows emulator. Most recent Mac computers (purchased post 2006) are Intel based and a free version of the emulator is available to test with (free) LiteCAD Lite before buying LiteCAD.

Extras There are a couple of extra items required to run LiteCAD successfully on a Mac: 1. In our view, to drive LiteCAD effectively on a Mac, you need to a mouse with more than one button. The reason for this is that when using LiteCAD, different menus pop up when either the left or right mouse button is clicked. In addition, the mouse wheel (or gesture on the Mac Magic Mouse) is used to zoom in and out on a drawing. Trying to use LiteCAD with the traditional single button Mac mouse is very frustrating indeed. Apple now offer a range of mice and track pads with various buttons. We have used the Mac Magic Mouse/ LiteCAD combination, but lean towards using an easily available LogiTech mouse that we plug into a USB port on our Mac. We have not had much success with our Apple Track Pad, but that may be because we have not experimented with the many ways to activate buttons and gestures. 2. You also need to install a special piece of software that allows Windows programs such as LiteCAD to run on the Mac. We are aware of a number of such programs - BootCamp [free with your Mac], Crossover - a Virtual Windows Emulator [free to try and costing around $USD40.00 for the standard version] Parallels Desktop [approx $90.00), Wine [free, but quite tricky to set up] and VMWare Fusion [about $50.00]), all seem to work satisfactorily with LiteCAD. Crossover seems to be the favorite among LiteCAD users on Mac, as it is possible to download a trial version of LiteCAD Lite and a trial version of

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Crossover and test things out, before purchasing either Crossover or LiteCAD. You also need a Windows license to make LiteCAD work with Boot Camp, Parallels Desktop and VM Fusion. If you don't have one, that adds extra expense. One of these tools needs to be installed before installing LiteCAD.

Installing LiteCAD after Crossover has been downloaded 1. Download the Exe file and save to your desktop. 2. Launch CrossOver from your OS Applications menu. 3. Choose Install Windows Software. 4. Scroll down the Supported Applications list and choose Select Other Application [Under Community Supported Applications] 5. Select Choose Installer file, select the downloaded Exe file on your desktop. 6. Follow the On-screen prompts and install. Note that although LiteCAD may install and run, complete installation may take some time. Once you have LiteCAD working, if you use the File>Open sequence, you can 'play' with several landscape sample files. More designs are available for download from this web site. Links to sample files using feet and inches as the base unit are available from the USA drop down menu on this site.

Test LiteCAD Please test your installation. We have provided several sample drawings for you to experiment with. These are stored in the Jobs folder. Simply use File>Open. If these drawings load and display correctly, then your copy of LiteCAD is ready for work! Note that if you install LiteCAD under Crossover, the path to the Jobs folder is quite long viz. Users>YourName>Library>Application Support>Crossover>Bottles>LiteCAD>drive_c>LiteCAD>Jobs. Created with the Personal Edition of HelpNDoc: Free PDF documentation generator

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Working with drawings Working with drawings The links below explain the operation of LiteCAD in some detail.

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Interface LiteCAD interface The LiteCAD interface is clean and uncluttered. Created with the Personal Edition of HelpNDoc: Easy EBook and documentation generator

File menu File drop down menu This menu contains most of the features you would expect to find in this position in modern software. Options here allow starting a new design, printing a drawing, close a drawing, save a copy of a drawing, opening an existing drawing, accessing recent files etc.

New Selecting this option leads to a template folder. A range of templates are available for different size spaces and purposes; all are preloaded plant symbols and some containing design work.

Open Here you are taken to the folder previously used to find a drawing. The 'Recent' options and its icon on the standard toolbar shows a list of drawings recently worked on. These may come from different folders.

Insert This command as the name implies, inserts a LiteCAD drawing into the current drawing space. unlike the BLOCK or BLOCKS commands, there is no opportunity to scale or change the rotation angle of the entities being imported. Again, unlike a block, all entities are exploded on entry using this option.

Save Saves a copy of the drawing.

SaveAs Allows a drawing to be saved in lcd, dwg or dxf format. A text file option is also available. It has little value at present, but we will use it for future development. Note: When LiteCAD saves and closes a drawing, a backup copy of the file is saved with the extension .bak while the new drawing has the extension .lcd (LiteCAD native file format) or dwg (AutoCAD format). As an additional safeguard, every 15 minutes while you are drafting, LiteCAD saves a further copy of the drawing with the extension .lc$ or .dw$. Both the backup and AutoSave files need to be renamed (we suggest to a name such as Recovered.lcd) in order to be worked on.

Print Calls up the Print dialog box. Here you can select a printer (the size of paper on which to print), centre the print, preview the print etc. We recommend installing a PDF writer such as CutePDF (free) and printing to

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PDF wherever possible.

Exit Closes LiteCAD Created with the Personal Edition of HelpNDoc: Easily create CHM Help documents

Edit menu Edit drop down menu This menu contains links to commands that enable changes to be made to a drawing. Most operate in the usual Windows manner with standard shortcuts.

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View menu View drop down menu This menu contains links to commands that enable drawings to be viewed in different ways.

Zoom Extents This option will show the whole drawing displayed at its maximum size.

Zoom Limits it is possible (via the Tools drop down menu to constrain the drawing to a certain area - the drawing limits). This option will zoom the view to those limits

Zoom Window Draw a box and zoom to that area.

Zoom Previous Go back to the previously zoomed view.

Zoom Selected Pick an entity in the drawing and zoom in on it.

Regen Refreshes the screen. Sometimes needed if zoom extents does not show the whole drawing.

Pan Real time Pan

Properties Toggle the display of the Properties box on or off.

Command Line Toggle the display of the Command area box on or off.

Toolbars Customize the icons on the toolbars to your own liking. Created with the Personal Edition of HelpNDoc: Free iPhone documentation generator

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Format menu Format drop down menu This menu contains links to commands that enable changes in the way you work with a drawing - change text styles, dimension styles, linetypes, layers, deal with blocks etc.

Layers This tool enables users to create new layers, control the colour, linetype, line thickness of layers. If you want to change the stacking order of entities on a layer see the Tools menu.

Linetypes A linetype defines a line's characteristics. A line can consist of combinations of dashes, dots, spaces and symbols. New entities are added to a drawing using the current linetype. When you create a new drawing it already has linetypes named "ByLayer", "ByBlock", and, "Continuous". The LINETYPE command shows the dialog box below. LiteCAD allows the use of AutoCAD .lin files. These can be loaded using the 'add from file' option in this dialog box.

Line weight Lineweights add width to your objects, both on screen and on paper. Using lineweights, you can create heavy and thin lines and vary object thicknesses in details. Just as heavy and thin lead weights are used in manual drafting, lineweights can be used to graphically represent different objects and types of information. The figure below shows a thicker line being applied to the walls and thinner line thicknesses to other entities.

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You should not use lineweights, however, to represent the exact width of an object. For example, if you want to draw an object with a real-world width of 1.5 millimeters, you should not use a lineweight; instead, use a polyline with a width of 1.5 millimeters to represent the object accurately. Lineweights are displayed differently in model space than in a paper space layout. In model space, lineweights are displayed in relation to pixels. In a paper space layout, lineweights display in the exact plotting width. Lineweights should be used for the graphic representation of different objects and types of information, and are, therefore, displayed in model space in proportional pixel values. You can recognize that an object has a thick or thin lineweight in model space but the lineweight does not represent an object's real-world width. A lineweight value of 0 is displayed as one pixel in model space and print at the thinnest lineweight available on the specified printer. All other lineweights are displayed using a pixel width in proportion to its real-world unit value. Lineweight display in model space does not change with the zoom factor. For example, a lineweight value that is represented by a width of four pixels is always displayed using four pixels regardless of how far you zoom into your drawing. You can set the display scale of lineweights if you want the lineweights on objects to appear thicker or thinner at model space. Changing the display scale does not affect the lineweight plotting value. However, a drawing's redraw time increases with lineweights that are represented by more than one pixel.

Colours All colors used in LiteCAD are stored in a table called the "Color palette". Each color of the palette is an RGB value. The palette can be loaded and saved to/from disk file. The Color value of a LiteCAD object is an index value of the palette. An entity uses an index value ranging from 1 to 255 or the color is specified "ByLayer" or "ByBlock". "ByLayer" means the color assigned to a Layer will dictate the color of an entity found on that particular

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layer. "ByBlock" means the color assigned to a Block will dictate the color of an entity added to a Block Insertion entity. If the entity is not a part of block but has the "ByBlock" color assigned to it, the white color (7) will be used to draw the entity. Custom colors can also be added via the Options tool.

Text Styles A wide range of text styles can be created. We favour the use of hand written styles. a number of these are pre-loaded in templates.

Point styles A point is a single entity with a fixed coordinate position.This command enables users to change the appearance of the point style marker.

Dimension Styles Dimensions can be taken automatically from the model. This option allows users to set up personalized dimension styles, modifying such things as arrow heard type, text style, offsets from model etc.

Multiline Styles It is possible to draw complex commands after a style has been set up. A multiline style might be used to draw a double brick wall.

Images Calls the Image manager where images can be attached to or detached from the drawing.

Layouts This option is used to set up layouts - views of the design or parts of the design on drawing sheets.

Units LiteCAD drawings are full size. This option allows you to set up your usual drawing units for scaling insertion of objects (mm or decimal feet being the most common), rotation angle, desired precision etc.

Limits Adjust the area available for drawing.

Block

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Used to make a block (collection of entities grouped together). Identify a base point and provide a description.

Blocks Review (browse) blocks associated with a drawing. Search for blocks outside the current drawing and insert into the current space if required. Created with the Personal Edition of HelpNDoc: Free PDF documentation generator

Draw menu Draw drop down menu This menu contains links to all the commands that enable the placement of entities into a drawing.

Line command A line consists of two joined points - a start and end point.

Ray and Construction Line Used for set out work. A ray starts at one point and radiates to infinity. A construction line radiates out in opposite directions from a point.e

Polyline Creates an entity with a number of line segments. The vertices of the polyline can be altered and various curve fitting options applied.

Polygon Regular polygon with varying number of sides.

Spline Complex editable curve.

Multiline Draw compound entities such as walls.

Rectangle Nominate one corner and an opposite corner.

Arc An arc is part of a circle. LiteCAD offers many alternative ways to draw and arc.

Circle The default method to draw a circle is to nominate a center point and then a radius. Other options are possible.

Ellipse Nominate the long axis and short axis to draw an ellipse.

Point A single coordinate position in a drawing. The marker to indicate a point can be changed.

Text Single line, multi line and Windows text can be placed in a LiteCAD drawing.

Hatch

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Closed areas can be hatched with a variety of different hatch patters.

Raster Image Insert pixel (raster) images such as photographs and scanned material into drawings.

ECW JPEG 2000 Use for GIS applications - fast loading aerial mapping files.

Insert block from current drawing Browse blocks already loaded in a drawing.

Insert block from library Leave the drawing environment and browse to folders holding other blocks (such as details).

Boundary Creates an entity that is easily hatched.

Bezier Draws a flexible line that is easily manipulated with sub curves. Created with the Personal Edition of HelpNDoc: Create iPhone web-based documentation

Dimension Dimensions Dimensions show the measurements of objects, the distances or angles between objects, or the distance of a feature from an origin you specify. LiteCAD provides three basic types of dimensioning: linear, radial, and angular. Dimensions can be horizontal, vertical, aligned, rotated, ordinate. You can dimension objects, such as lines, arcs, circles, and polyline segments, or you can dimension between point locations. LiteCAD places dimensions on the current layer. Every dimension assumes the current dimension style, which controls characteristics such as arrowhead style, text location, units format, etc. With dimension styles, you can make subtle modifications to a base dimension style for different types of dimensions.

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Tools menu Tools drop down menu Here are grouped a rather disparate set of commands:

o A command to measure distance o Set the grid, polar tracking and object snap performance o A tool to convert any Windows font to a LiteCAD (Vec) equivalent o Access the Options dialog box o Turn a LiteCAD drawing into a raster image (BMP)

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Viewing drawings Viewing drawings Once a reasonable number of elements have been placed into a drawing, it becomes necessary to learn to efficiently move the drawing (called PANning) and to obtain closer view of some parts of the drawing (this is called ZOOMing in). Zooming (and panning) a drawing are techniques that you do need to master quite early on in your CAD learning in order to work effectively with CAD. All of these operations can be carried out with the aid of a mouse, however, all options are replicated on the View drop down menu. Created with the Personal Edition of HelpNDoc: Free Web Help generator

Moving around Moving around inside the drawing editor The mouse wheel can be used to Zoom in and out Position the mouse pointer (or cross hairs) over an area of interest. Roll the wheel of the mouse away from you to zoom in and away from you to zoom out. Double click the wheel of the mouse to see the complete drawing (zoom extents). Horizontal and vertical scroll bars will automatically appear when zoomed in.

Using the mouse to pan a drawing Position the mouse over an area of interest. Press and hold the mouse wheel while dragging to move the drawing - it's rather like moving a paper drawing sheet across the desk. Created with the Personal Edition of HelpNDoc: Create HTML Help, DOC, PDF and print manuals from 1 single source

Magnify and shrink drawings Magnify and shrink a view The ZOOM command is use to control the magnification of any part of a drawing. Zoom can be carried out (started) by typing the command (word) ZOOM in the command area and pressing the key. Either lowercase or uppercase may be used. Type ZOOM (or Z) and press . The following message will appear in the Command area. All/Center/Dynamic/Extents/Left/Previous/(X)>: The Command line options are: [All/Center/Dynamic/Extents/Left/Previous/(X)>] To choose the Window option - i.e. type W and press . After typing W, you will then be asked to nominate the corner of that part of the drawing that you wish to magnify. To Zoom into an area, indicate the bottom left hand corner of the zoom window by moving the cursor (moving cross-hairs) to that position. Now set the top right hand corner to totally enclose any part of the drawing. You will see a box 'rubber banding' from the bottom left as you do this. When you set the right hand side of the window with the pick button, the drawing will automatically be magnified. The area previously inside the

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zoom box now occupies the whole screen. Created with the Personal Edition of HelpNDoc: Free CHM Help documentation generator

Control visual elements Controlling the visibility of an element Layers can be used to control entity visibility. Once an entity has been placed on its own layer, the layer visibility can be turned on or off. If needs be, the layer can be locked so that there can be no inadvertent movement of entities on it. The colour of entities can be assigned BYLAYER. Created with the Personal Edition of HelpNDoc: Free help authoring environment

Regen Redrawing and regenerating a drawing As you work on a drawing, visual elements may remain after the completion of a command. You can remove these elements by refreshing, or redrawing, the display.

To redraw (refresh) the current window display Do one of the following:

·

Choose View > Regenerate

·

Type regen and then press Enter. The phrase "regenerating the model" will show in the command area.

Information about drawing entities is stored in a database as floating point values, ensuring a high level of precision. Sometimes a drawing must be recalculated, or regenerated, from the floating-point database to convert those values to the appropriate screen coordinates. This occurs automatically. Created with the Personal Edition of HelpNDoc: Full featured EBook editor

Layers Layers A layer is a logical grouping of data, assembled as though they were laid out on transparent acetate overlays.

To manage layers Do one of the following: 1. Choose Layers .. from the Format drop down menu. 2. Type LAYER in the command line and then press Enter.

Select current layer Click on the black down indicator in the group showing the light bulb icon and select the required layer name. The light bulb turns a layer on or off, the lock icon locks a layer preventing editing, the printer icon controls whether or not entities on a layer print or not and the small block indicates the current colour of the layer.

Features Users may choose to put certain types of entities on certain layers. Layers can be turned off and on, so that their respective data can be viewed in or out of context with adjacent layers. Note that all new graphic

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objects are added to the current layer. When a new drawing is created, it will already have one layer named "0" [layer zero].

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Placing simple entities Using simple entities Complex CAD drawings are made up from simple entities like lines, arcs and circles. Created with the Personal Edition of HelpNDoc: Full featured EBook editor

Line Line command A line consists of two points: a start point and an endpoint. A series of lines can be connected, but each line segment is considered a separate line entity.

To draw a line

1. Do one of the following: ·

Choose Draw > Line from the Draw drop down menu.

·

On a toolbar, click the Line tool.

·

Type line and then press Enter.

·

Type L and press Enter

2. Specify the start point. 3. Specify the endpoint. 4. Hit enter or right click to finish. Coordinate entry You can input coordinates in the command line with the same way as in AutoCAD: To use a coordinate to specify a point, enter an X value and a Y value separated by a comma (X,Y). To specify a relative coordinate, precede the coordinate with an @ symbol. For example, the coordinate @3,4 specifies a point 3 units along the X axis and 4 units along the Y axis from the last point specified. To enter a polar coordinate, enter a distance and an angle separated by an angle bracket ( Multiline Text.

·

Type mtext and then press Enter.

2. Select the first corner of the text area. 3. In the MText prompt box, select the properties you want to change, or proceed directly to step 4. You can select these properties in steps 7 and 8.

4. Select the second corner of the text area. 5. In the Multiline Text dialog box, click the Text tab. 6. In the window, type the text you want. To create paragraphs, simply press Enter and continue typing.

7. Make any selections or changes you want to the following: ·

Font, text height, bold, italic, underline, and color.

·

Indents on the ruler. Move the upper left arrow to define the first line indent, move the lower left arrow to define the paragraph indent, and move the right arrow to define the right indent.

·

Tabs on the ruler. Click the ruler to create tabs, move any tab marker to modify its location, and drag any tab off the ruler to delete it.

Your selections affect highlighted text, or if no text is highlighted, new text when you type it.

8. Click the Properties tab, and make selections or changes you want to the text Style, Justification, Width, and Rotation.

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Windows text Windows text Windows text uses the same method as single line text; the only difference is that Windows fonts are supported instead of CAD fonts. You need to make sure that an appropriate windows font has been selected in the Format options. When you create text, you end each line of text by pressing Enter. Each line of text is created as a separate entity that you can modify.

To create Windows text

1. Do one of the following: ·

Choose Draw > Windows Text.

·

Type WTEXT or WT and then press Enter.

2. Specify the insertion point for the first character. 3. Specify the height of the text. 4. Specify the text rotation angle. 5. Type the text, and then press Enter at the end of each new line. 6. To complete the command, press Enter again. Created with the Personal Edition of HelpNDoc: Full featured multi-format Help generator

Creating complex entities Complex entities are made by grouping simple entities. This may be done by the program or by the user (as a block). Created with the Personal Edition of HelpNDoc: Create HTML Help, DOC, PDF and print manuals from 1 single source

Create Block Blocks LiteCAD is designed to enable the production of accurate Computer Aided Design (CAD) landscape plans quickly. To that end, we have provided a library of previously drawn plant symbols to assist you, but you can make your own. These symbols whether they be ours or yours can be placed (stamped) into the drawing space as often as required. Blocks are made with the BLOCK command.

To create a block

1. Do one of the following: ·

Choose Draw > Create Block from the Draw drop down menu.

·

On a toolbar, click the Create Block tool.

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·

Type BLOCK or B in the command line and then press Enter.

Note: Each block symbol can consist of elements on different layers. This enables the production of several plans from the one drawing, just by a mouse click, turning layers on and off as needed. Reusable symbols are of great value when it comes to details that normally accompany landscape drawings.

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Hatch Hatch Hatch allows inserting hatch patterns such as brick, paving or decking inside closed drawing forms such as circles, squares, rectangles, triangles or more complex (and closed) shapes using spline or polylines. Tip - For this command to work you must have a closed element to work with. Try starting with a simple circle or rectangle to understand how the command works.

To apply a hatch pattern

1. Do one of the following: ·

Choose Draw > Create Hatch from the Draw drop down menu.

·

On a toolbar, click the Create Hatch tool.

·

Type HATCH or HA in the command line and then press Enter.

From the hatch pop-up select the hatch pattern from the pattern field. If you're not sure what you want then use the drop down to pick one and you'll see it in the preview screen. While the Pattern field is blue you can use the up and down arrows on your keyboard of the center role wheel of your mouse to scroll through what you want. When you've found the appropriate pattern and before confirming you may need to alter the scale. You may need to experiment with this as it depends on how you've done your drawing. The larger the scale values the bigger the hatch pattern. You can also change the hatch angle; this is useful for paving or brickwork. Once the hatch values are set you then need to select the object in which you wish to insert the pattern. If you are inserting into a closed entity made of a single perimeter such as a circle, ellipse, rectangle or closed polyline then use the Pick Points. The cursor will appear with a hatch pattern. You now select inside perimeter of the element you wish to fill and it will turn pink. Perform a single right mouse click and select OK If you have a drawing that has a closed space made up from separate touching sections (e.g. a square made of 4 separate lines with all corners touching.) you need to select Pick Entities. The cursor will appear with a hatch pattern. You now select all the individual sides of the shape you wish to fill. Perform a single right mouse click and select OK. Tip - If when using Pick Entities and the hatching does not appear, you may have a gap in the perimeter. To check zoom in and verify that each entity of the shape touches or is linked and the shape is completely closed. For complex shapes using the polylines can help. To close gaps try the Explode command – See Modify/Explode Created with the Personal Edition of HelpNDoc: Free CHM Help documentation generator

Insert Block Insert Block

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A block in a LiteCAD drawing is simply an 'object' made up of primitive elements such as lines, arcs, points, text etc. These elements are grouped together using the BLOCK command and given a name and some descriptive information.

To insert a block

1. Do one of the following: ·

Choose Draw > Insert Block from the Draw drop down menu.

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Choose Insert>Block>Block Manager

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On a toolbar, click the insert block tool.

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Type BLOCK or BL in the command line and then press Enter.

Use the LiteCAD library Blocks can also be inserted using Insert>Block>Library sequence. Created with the Personal Edition of HelpNDoc: Free EBook and documentation generator

Spline Spline A Spline is a smooth curve defined by a set of points. You can use splines to create sculptured shapes such as the cross section of a turbine blade or an airplane wing.

Draw a spline

1. Do one of the following: ·

Choose Draw > Spline from the Draw drop down menu.

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Ona toolbar, click the Create Spline tool.

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Type SPLINE or SP in the command line and then press Enter.

Select the ‘Spline' command and in area 1 select a start point in the top left of the area, then several other points. Click the right mouse button to terminate the command. The prompt says ‘Select starting tangent point'. Click the left mouse button and nominate the tangent for the start of the Spline or the right mouse button to specify a point. The prompt is now ‘Enter tangent for ending point'. Click the right mouse button again. A spline curve is drawn, passing through the points selected. Click the image below to play a YouTube movie showing one method of drawing splines. Created with the Personal Edition of HelpNDoc: Free PDF documentation generator

Ellipse Ellipse An ellipse has two axes which need to be set in order to place the entity.

To draw an ellipse

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1. Do one of the following: ·

Choose Draw > Ellipse from the Draw drop down menu.

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On a toolbar, click the Create Ellipse tool. 9eight icon from the left)

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Type ELLIPSE or EL in the command line and then press Enter.

Nominate the start point for the long axis, the end point for that axis, then the end point for the other axis of the ellipse. Created with the Personal Edition of HelpNDoc: Free CHM Help documentation generator

Polygon Polygon Polygons are single entries constructed by LiteCAD using a polyline.

To draw a polygon

1. Do one of the following: ·

Choose Draw > Polygon from the Draw drop down menu.

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On a toolbar, click the Polygon tool. (Sixth icon from the left)

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Type POLYGON or POL in the command line and then press Enter.

A dialog box will appear asking for the number of sides and the manner in which the polygon will be drawn (inside or circumscribed by a circle).

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Rectangle Rectangle Rectangle is a single entries constructed by LiteCAD using a polyline.

To draw a rectangle 1. Do one of the following: 2. Choose Draw > Rectangle from the Draw drop down menu. 3. On a toolbar, click the Rectangle tool. 4. Type RECTANGLE or RE in the command line and then press Enter. Specify the location of the first corner and then the location of the opposite corner of the rectangle. Several coordinate entry systems can be used to locate corners. Created with the Personal Edition of HelpNDoc: Free EPub and documentation generator

Polyline Polyline

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A polyline is a connected sequence of line or arc segments created as a single object. Use polylines if you want to edit all segments at once (although you can also edit them singly). You can apply various fit types to polylines and close the polyline to form a polygon.

To draw a polyline 1. Do one of the following: 2. Choose Draw > Polyline from the Draw drop down menu. 3. On a toolbar, click the Polyline tool. 4. Type POLYLINE or PL in the command line and then press Enter. Use the left button of the mouse to locate vertices on the polyline. Closed polylines can be filled with solid color. LiteCAD treats such objects as polygons and the user can select them by clicking inside of their boundary(s). Created with the Personal Edition of HelpNDoc: Easily create EPub books

Multiline Multiline A multiline is an entity similar to a polyline but in the form of parallel lines, defined in the Multiline style.

To draw a multiline 1. Do one of the following: 2. Choose Draw > Multiline from the Draw drop down menu. 3. On a toolbar, click the Multiline tool. 4. Type MLINE or ML in the command line and then press Enter. The multiline will be drawn with the current multiline style.

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Define attributes Attributes An attribute is a label or tag that attaches data to a block. Examples of data that might be contained in an attribute are part numbers, prices, comments, and owners' names. The tag is equivalent to a column name in a database table. Attribute information extracted from a drawing can be used in a spreadsheet or database to produce a parts list or a bill of materials. You can associate more than one attribute with a block, provided that each attribute has a different tag. Whenever you insert a block that has a variable attribute, LiteCAD assign default value for the attributes. Later users can change the attribute value with the "Edit Block Attribute" dialog or "Properties" window. Attributes also can be "invisible". An invisible attribute is not displayed or plotted; however, the attribute information is stored in the drawing file and can be written to an extraction file for use in a database program. To create an attribute, you first create an attribute definition, which describes the characteristics of the attribute. The characteristics include the tag (which is a name that identifies the attribute), the prompt displayed when you insert the block, value information, text formatting, location, and any optional modes

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(Invisible, Constant, and Preset). After creating the attribute definition, you select it as one of the objects when you define the block. Then, after you insert the block, you can edit the attributes values with the "Edit Block Attribute" dialog or "Properties" window. To use several attributes together, define them and then include them in the same block. For example, you can define attributes tagged "Parts," "Materials," and "Thickness," and then include them in a block called PARTS_DATA.

To draw define an attribute 1. Type ATTDEF in the command area and follow the prompts. Created with the Personal Edition of HelpNDoc: Free EBook and documentation generator

Handling raster images Raster images Images made up from individual pixels (from a digital camera) can be inserted into a drawing.

To insert an image 1. Do one of the following: 2. Choose Raster from the Insert drop down menu. Browse to the location of your image. 3. On a toolbar, click the insert raster tool. 4. Type IMAGEATTACH in the command line and then press Enter. Created with the Personal Edition of HelpNDoc: Free HTML Help documentation generator

Image manager Image Manager This tool enables the manipulation of images once they have been loaded. Created with the Personal Edition of HelpNDoc: Free CHM Help documentation generator

Working with coordinates A variety of precision tools are available to help you produce quick, accurate drawings without performing tedious calculations. Although all your work is based on a coordinate system, you can establish settings that cause you to snap to locations on the screen, to specified locations on objects, or to points relative to other locations or objects. Created with the Personal Edition of HelpNDoc: Create iPhone web-based documentation

Entering coordinates Enter coordinate values In LiteCAD, when a command prompts you for a point, you can use the pointing device (your mouse) to specify a point by clicking, or you can enter a coordinate value on the command line. You can enter coordinates as either Cartesian or polar coordinates. A Cartesian coordinate system has three axes, X, Y, and Z. When you enter coordinate values, you indicate a point's distance (in units) and its direction (+ or -) along the X, Y, and Z axes relative to the coordinate system's point of origin where all coordinate values are zero (0,0,0). Negative values on the X plane are left of the point of origin, and positive values on the X plane are to the right of the point of origin. Negative values on

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the Y plane are below the point of origin and positive values on the Y plane are above it. Visualize the Nadir viewpoint and positive values for the Z plane indicate an elevation while negative values in the Z plane indicate a depression, or a point beyond the point of origin. Polar coordinates use a distance and a fixed angle to locate a point. With both Cartesian and polar coordinates, you can enter absolute coordinates based on the point of origin (0,0,0), or relative coordinates based on the last point specified.

Entering Cartesian Coordinates To use a coordinate to specify a point, enter an X value and a Y value separated by a comma (X,Y). If using the 3rd dimension, add a value for the Z plane as well... ergo the coordinate set will appear as: (X,Y,Z). The X value is the positive or negative distance, in units, along the horizontal axis. The Y value is the positive or negative distance, in units, along the vertical axis. The Z value is the positive or negative distance, in units, along the elevation-depth axis. The remaining portion of this topic deals only with two dimensions, but the Z coordinate is applicable as desired. Absolute coordinate values are based on the origin (0,0), where the X and Y axes intersect. Use an absolute coordinate when you know the precise X and Y values of the point coordinate. For example, the coordinate 3,4 specifies a point 3 units along the X axis and 4 units along the Y axis from the origin. Relative coordinate values are based on the last point entered. Use a relative coordinate when you know the position of a point in relation to the previous point. To specify a relative coordinate, precede the coordinate with an @ symbol. For example, the coordinate @3,4 specifies a point 3 units along the X axis and 4 units along the Y axis from the last point specified. The following example draws a line beginning at a point with an X value of -2, a Y value of 1, and an endpoint at 3,4. Pressing ENTER at the To Point prompt ends the command.

The following example draws a line whose endpoint is 5 units in the X direction and 0 units in the Y direction from the start point at the absolute coordinate -2,1. Pressing ENTER at the next To Point prompt ends the command.

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Entering Polar Coordinates To enter a polar coordinate, enter a distance and an angle separated by an angle bracket (