careysub wrote:Neither the QCad 3 "Reference Manual", nor the official book, provide a concise reference of all the commands as far as I can see. I haven't found any with a bit of Googling either. Where can I find such a thing?
Even better would be an actual usage guide written for the command line.
I know that the Reference Manual lists commands for each separate function, but it would be nice to have them in a single reference list.
I hear what you are saying here, I guess most CAD users nowadays tend to use the mouse (or similar) most of the time and CAD software has for the most part delivered more and more newer versions with the 'click and go' concept as the main priority to keep most customers happy! QCAD like most other CAD programs does offer the shortcut command on a 'tool by tool basis' as you say by using the reference manual and of course when you hover the mouse over a potential tool to use the shortcut commands will show up. I come from a background of only using the command line for drafting but I guess over time even I have adopted a blend between using the command line and using the mouse (or in my case a trackball often also).
But I do agree with you a concise reference list of the command line shortcut keys would indeed be very useful to have and I'm sure will be provided in time, thank you for raising this concern,please use the bug-tracker (also used for logging feature requests) so that this doesn't get lost in space somewhere.
http://www.ribbonsoft.com/bugtracker/
careysub wrote:Further, these function-by-function command lists make it appear that you cannot in fact create drawing using the command line alone.
Consider (picked more or less at random) "Rectangle". The documentation says
Specify the first corner of the rectangle.
Move the mouse to the second corner and click to specify the second corner of the rectangle. Alternatively you can enter the coordinate of the second corner in the command prompt. E.g. to create a rectangle with width 50 and height 25, enter the relative coordinate of the second corner as follows:
@50,2
How do you specify the first corner of the rectangle from the command line? I know what the coordinate is, using the mouse to do it is imprecise. I just want to enter the rectangle dimensions and location and be done with it. Is this possible?
Thanks
Yes you can create an entire drawing by only using the command line, which is why I agree that we need a list of commands.
To draw your rectangle;
1. If not already in the command line, first tap the space bar this will put you in.
2. Enter RE.
3.Follow the prompts in the status bar -'First corner' - enter your coordinate e.g. 50,50 (absolute coordinate, relative from origin 0,0 or you could enter a relative coordinate position, relative to the last coordinate point used -e.g @50,50). Press enter to execute the command.
4. Second corner - enter the coordinate position e.g 100,100 or a relative coordinate like @200,200. Press enter to execute the command.