QCAD Bugtracker

Dimensioning - add option to split dimensions.

To have an option to split the extension lines if they run over other entities.

Dimensioning - add option to insert text in the middle of dimension.

To have an option to have text aligned in the middle of the dimension line, rather than above it.

Dimensioning - add option for horizontal text alignment.

Basically an option in drawing preferences to align text horizontally instead of vertically.

Support custom dimension text styles for imported DXF / DWG files.

This one is a really important one for me, as currently I am doing a lot of dimension and annotation drawings.
I would like to request an option to be added to the dimension settings for both drawing and application settings to be able to choose whether the dimension text is to the right or left side or over the top or underneath the dimension line.
This would help tremendously when a lot of dimensions are needed!

Regards

Clive

A ‘non -filled’ arrowhead would be good to have also.

It would be nice to have the option for a “Short” Extension Line.
This is often used in Architectural drawings.
Yes, I know that I can explode a dimension and change it to that what I’m asking for - but that is really a Sisyphus task and destructs the function of a dynamic Dimension in QCAD.

See also:
https://www.qcad.org/rsforum/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=5408

Leader Arrow size and the Architectural tick size are controlled by one and the same value.

It would be nice to get the possibility to adjust them independently from each other ...

Different dimensions font sizes in the same drawing.

Hi,

With the new block attribute feature available in QCAD 3.3, there’s little to be done in order to make QCAD a good environment for typesetting circuits and other diagrams. In particular, the only killer feature that lasts is support for connectors: orthogonal lines that connecting one endpoint to another creates a connection line; when the concerned entities are moved the connection line is re-arranged. I’d like to know whether commercial support for this feature is available.

Add a tool to detect overlapping segments or lines and arcs.
Similar like the “overkill” command in other CAD systems.

It would be so useful to have an option to be able to detect duplicates within a given selection.

It would be useful to have an additional option to only detect duplicates on user defined selection of drawing.
Please see topic:
http://www.qcad.org/rsforum/viewtopic.php?f=32&p=9145#p9145

Define grid origin

Add the option to use a fixed path for the save to, open and CAM export directories.

(G code files are usually saved in on directory that the Control Program opens them up from so this would save a ton of mouse clicking)

Property Editor - Geometry - Custom - Add Custom Property

It would be nice to have in “Application preferences” the possibility to predefine a couple Custom Property Names.
Right now I use the Custom Property function to add a DIN and the Material info to every Block. This project has a lot of DIN parts and I have to type again and again the names DIN ... Material ... DIN ... Material ... DIN ... Material ... DIN ... Material ... DIN ... Material ... you got my point

If I have predefined Names - I have just to fill out the value

This is how I would implement this:

This would be a modification tool. Parts are selected, a toolpath is generated, and a dialog pops up to allow putting the tool path into an existing layer, a new layer, or replace all drawings in an existing layer.

This is how the toolpath is generated:

We iterate through all elements and explode everything but text into line segments. Then we connect the line segments into chains wherever the line endpoints are less than some tolerance away from each other. The chains can be very chaotic, but at least we have separate entities for now.

For every chain, we need to find the largest complete loop. A good drawing would only contain non-overlapping loops, but we can’t expect that. Everything that is not on this loop can not be defined as a part or as a hole, so we will merely create a tool path segment that is equivalent to the line segment. Every segment that *IS* on a loop is either an outside edge (part outline), or an inside edge (hole outline), (or overlapping, in which case it is neither, and we have an operator problem).

In a perfect world, we need to find exactly which shape is inside which other shape, and then create alternating tool offsets from the outmost loop (part edge) to the second outmost (hole), to the next (part) etc. .

In a simplified world, we can used the bounding box of the loop instead. This works OK for rectangular shapes, but a circle next to an “L” shape could be seen as inside the L’s bounding box, hence inside the L, wrongly accused of being a hole, not a part.

Now all that is left to do is to create a new loop, offset by the tool radius. Oh, and since we have the connections from line segment to line segment in the correct order already, we can use the opportunity to order all cutting loops from inner to outer, or from small to large, and order non-loop edges by travel distance.

The new drawing in the new layer can now be exported without further hassle to create a nice laser cut file.

PS: of course, a user could create multiple layers for marking, cutting, enraging, etc. . Additional Layer attributes for cutting speed and laser power (and a few more) would be needed.

See discussion at:
http://www.qcad.org/rsforum/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=2614

Duplicate (copy, clone) a layer with or without entities on it. New name can be specified by user.

Hi,

often I’m in the situation that I have to create an additional Layer mostly based on the settings from an already existing Layer. Just a question of organization. This new Layer has then everything identical except the name and one(?) Attribute. This could be that only the color or the Line weight deviates.

Example:

Existing Layer

Layer name: Lot 47 area existing

Attributes

Color: Red

Lineweight: 0.35

Linetype: Dashed

New Layer

Layer name: Lot 47 area proposal

Attributes

Color: Blue

Lineweight: 0.35

Linetype: Dashed

Unfortunately if done manually it happens in an blink of an eye that the human imperfection (me!) makes a mistake and (e.g.) a “Center (.5x)” finds it way into the Linetype Field instead of a “Center (.2x)” ....

The workaround for a few User is to use in cases like this the Property Editor / General Property and customize single Attributes. In my opinion the first step to lose the control over your own drawing ...

A “Copy Layer” / Copy Layer Attributes” function would speed up this task and eliminate to a minimum the “human imperfection” factor.

I could imagine that a right click (like copy block) on the Layer triggers the “Add Layer” function and the dialog is already prefigured with the Settings of the Source Layer ...... ready for editing.
The new Layer itself is “empty” like any other new Layer.

Select lines, arcs, ... and convert them to points along the lines, arcs, ... with a fixed distance.

See also forum at:
http://www.ribbonsoft.com/rsforum/viewtopic.php?t=1834

When dimensioning my drawings I always want the dimensions to be on the dimensions layer.
When adding text I want the text to be on the text layer.
When drawing an infinite line it is always a construction line, therefore I want it to be on the construction line layer.
When drawing a line segment it almost always is on my outline layer.

So I propose a new option to bind certain actions to certain layers.
Whenever those actions are selected the layer should automatically be switched.

I can imagine this being implemented in the General→Tool Settings menu, where the short cuts are defined.

Customer wishes that stacked text used as subscript is rendered differently (i.e. increased text size, lower position for subscript).
This may also apply to superscripts.

See also:
http://www.qcad.org/rsforum/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=2180

A line with linestyle = dots and line weight = 0.00 appears in model space overly spaced, all other lineweights behave as expected.
Suspect other linestyles to behave in a similar fashion.

See attached drawing.

Suggested fix: use the same scaling for lineweight 0.00 as for lineweight 0.05.

In the comnmand line, I can sucessfully enter for example the radius of a circle to draw (Space 100 Enter) but the command line does not accept a value for the distance when drawing parallel lines (l p space 100 enter → error).

command line arguments: allow class name after -exec

It would be extremely helpful, if marked objects could be moved/rotated/scaled in a single step with two reference points as source and two reference poitns as destination. With a tool like this, “should match”-drawings could be merged easily.

Not sure how difficult this would be to implement but just wondered if it is possible to have an option in QCAD to change the opacity of a colour ?

related to topic: http://www.qcad.org/rsforum/viewtopic.php?f=83&p=15715&sid=45f0f0679e8257f3cf98f91e4f0c4577#p15715

To have a ‘clean up ' tool to:

- eradicate duplicate lines
- eradicate stray points
- remove empty layers
- remove unused blocks

Perhaps with an initial dialog which allows the user to choose what they want to clean up.

Changeable color of the selection bar in the layer list.
Now the color of the bar is darkblue and the underlaid icons are black and are not readable.

An option in the drawing preferences to change the line thicknesses for arch ticks would be a huge plus, at the moment I am having to insert ‘arch tick’ blocks for this.

Hi,

in QCAD3 RC2 points were printed as crosses, in QCAD3 RC4 they are printed as (very little) points. I think this isn’t a bug but a feature.

It would be nice if one could change this behaviour / select the symbol of points.

Best regards - Stefan

This is a double post of http://www.ribbonsoft.com/rsforum/viewtopic.php?p=5870#5870 as suggested there.

Change a quote value modify the drawing + link quotes with entities

In other words, makes quotes editable AND linked to entities.

• Today in the properties, the value is read only. Being able to edit the value would modify the linked entity properties to fit the new quote.

• Changing a property would change the linked quotes accordingly. Today, if I change a circle diameter which is quoted, the quote remain where it was and is no more relevant.

Would it be possible to arrange the Menu, CAD-Toolbar, Toolbar, Menu, Tool Matrix with customized keywords, like “simple”, advanced” and “expert” to show only a minimum for user there are begin with CAD, advanced for CAD-User, and expert for construction.

Blocks: moving complex blocks with drag and drop should show bounding box as preview

Wouldn’t it be nice, if selecting a block in model view would somehow highlight (just like clicking a block in the list does) the selected block in the “Block List” window?

(Feature request sounds a little harsh, enhancement proposal would seem more apt.)

I would appreciate an option for the library Browser that gives me the possibility to decide by my self to use the current (same name) layer in my drawing or overwrite it with the existing layers in the library item.

Imagine the possibility’s of this feature ....

I have created a drawing, where the CENTERS of the most outer lines have a distance of 3.06mm in both X and Y.
The line weight of these outer lines is 0.6mm, so the whole image is 3.06mm + 2* 0.6mm/2 = 3.12mm wide and long (center to center plus half of the line weight on every side).
Additionally in the export there is a frame around the image, making it 3.12 + 2*frame.
The export function however calculates 3.06mm when setting the resolution to 1000Pix/cm, so it does not include the line weights and the outer frame.

Clipping bitmaps to only show a part of the image.

See:
http://www.qcad.org/rsforum/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=3263

Es wäre Arbeitserleichternd wenn ich bei den Optionen für Bemaßungen (Prefix/Postfix) eigene Präferenzen speichern könnte so das diese in allen Zeichnungen von mir verfügbar wären.
Zudem wäre es wünschenswert dieses nicht nur bei den Prefix sondern auch bei den Postfix Angaben nutzen zu können was dann alle(?) Manipulationen erschlagen würde.

Siehe auch:
http://www.ribbonsoft.com/rsforum/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=1966

Automatically set the draw order one lower than the lowest draw order of a border entity when creating a hatch. This should be a user preference, since not everyone might want that behavior.

it would be ideal to be able to have the option to autohide the side panel to increase the visible drawing space when working on a small screen.

You can apply the command to Lines, PolyLine segments, Arcs, Circles, and Rings:

For linear entities parallel to an axis of the coordinate system, aligned Dimensions (parallel Dimensions) are created. For linear entities not parallel to an axis of the coordinate system, either aligned Dimensions (measuring the absolute distance between two points) or horizontal or vertical Dimensions (measuring the horizontal or vertical distance between two points) depending on where you move the pointer are created.

For curved entities, you can create radial, diameter, linear, angular, and arc length Dimensions.

To dimension entities:

Click Dimension > Auto (or type AutoDimension).
In the graphics area, select an entity to dimension.
Click to place the dimension line.
To use another dimension type for Circles or Arcs, specify an option:
Diameter. Creates a diameter Dimension.
Radial. Creates a radial Dimension for an Arc or Circle.
Linear. Creates a linear Dimension of the diameter of a Circle or an aligned, horizontal, or vertical Dimension between the end points of an Arc.
Angular. Dimensions the angle between the end points of an Arc.
Arc length. Dimensions an Arc length.
Note: The chosen option is the default the next time you use the AutoDimension command.

When you move the pointer during a linear dimensioning, you can:
Lock. Determines the current dimension type (aligned, horizontal, or vertical) regardless where you move the pointer.
Unlock. Unlocks the type of linear dimension used.
Press Enter.

***
In short, when you use this tool you click on an entity and it will know what dimension you’re looking for. For Circles, you can specify in the command window R or D for Radius or Diameter.
This would be extremely useful on large drawings where a lot of dimensioning is to be done. One tool and start clicking on entities for dimensioning.

Ziehe ich mit der Maus eine normale Auswahlbox kann ich Elemente markieren.
Möchte ich einzelne Bereiche wieder herausnehmen muss ich alle Elemente einzeln anklicken (mit gedrückter Shift Taste).
Ich kann zwar dies komfortabler gestalten mit der Select → (De -) Select Contour Funktion welche aber erst über das Menue aufgerufen werden muss.

So wie ich einzelne Elemente mit der Maus auswählen und mit der Shift-Maus Funktion deselektieren kann wäre es schön wenn die Shift Taste auch bei Auswahlbereichen direkt zum deselektieren eingesetzt werden könnte.

Arrange points on a plan according to an arithmetical, geometrical, logarithmic, customizable variation of distances

Use case:

• Start tool
• Choose one entity of the contour
• If contour is closed, area of closed contour is calculated an printed in the command line history
• Configuration parameters: segment length for arc interpolation

Support arc length dimenions (undocumented DXF entity ‘ARC_DIMENSION’).
Create arc length dimensions with parallel extension lines for angle < 90, orthogonal extension lines otherwise.
Display arc symbol beside or on top of label text.

Large files/large entities perform bad in QCad. There are many dxf files that are created with thousand of lines that perform reasonable in other cad’s/cam’s that qcad cannot match.

One very useful tool, that could be added would help to improve qcad performance and at the same time enlarge the dxf quality (by replacing thousand of files by arcs), would be a tool called “arc fit” where, when possible and under a determined possible error margin (user selectable) creates arcs replacing the existing lines.
This would improve the file work in QCad also improves CAM software that would work after QCad, that I think is important for many users.

For example, if it is needed to use qcad to generate toolpaths for letters, after exploding letters, the output is almost impossible to work due to the number of lines that are created. Having arcs instead of lines would greatly improve qcad use.