Newbie considering buying professional, with questions

Do you have a question you want to ask an existing QCAD user about QCAD and what you can do with it? Do you want to know if a particular feature exists? This is the place to ask.

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simpsonrr
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Newbie considering buying professional, with questions

Post by simpsonrr » Sat Jan 16, 2021 9:14 pm

Hello, I am new and trying to figure out if I want to buy the single license professional version. I am having a bit of a hard time picking this up, I have the free version. I was a Cadvance user back in the 80-90's, and AutoCad LT user in the 2000's, but haven't used any cad much in the last 10 years even though I did subscribe to a free version of DraftSight a couple of years ago. My memory isn't great, but I seem to remember more AutoCad and get confused with this QCad commands.

First I some how lost the graphic tool bar on the left that shows the drawing and editing commands that I can't figure out how to get back. What tab would it be under, and what do they call it?

I found QCad on the internet and they said it was simple and anyone could use it without experience. I was a regular user for probably 10 years, and I'm going crazy with this. I will use this on a limited basis for my part time job (I'm semi retired) drawing simple mechanical parts and possibly P&ID's. I also would occasionally use it for my own use, doing simple house projects and mechanical parts as I'm a machinist hobbyist. Is this a good program to buy if you don't use it a lot? I don't want to spend tons of time trying to remember how to do things or find menu's or commands. When I first started using Cadvance, computers used Dos, so you had to type in commands. But the typing 2 letter shortcuts, is probably out of the question for me to remember now. I need the pictorial graphics to actually get work done, not spending all my time trying to figure out program. I only need 2D, and I like that I can buy this program (instead of lease it) for a reasonable price, so hopefully I can learn it and without getting tons of updates to screw me up more.

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andrew
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Re: Newbie considering buying professional, with questions

Post by andrew » Sat Jan 16, 2021 9:56 pm

simpsonrr wrote:
Sat Jan 16, 2021 9:14 pm
First I some how lost the graphic tool bar on the left that shows the drawing and editing commands that I can't figure out how to get back. What tab would it be under, and what do they call it?
View > Toolbars and Widgets > Toolbars > CAD Tools

I can only answer your technical questions. For the rest, you have to decide if it is worth for you to learn something new. I can confirm that QCAD is not an Autocad clone and you would have to learn to use its tools. Basic concepts are the same (layers, blocks, entities, etc.).

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Husky
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Re: Newbie considering buying professional, with questions

Post by Husky » Sat Jan 16, 2021 10:07 pm

simpsonrr wrote:
Sat Jan 16, 2021 9:14 pm
Is this a good program to buy if you don't use it a lot? I don't want to spend tons of time trying to remember how to do things or find menu's or commands.
Fact is: The more you use a program the more you get familiar to an acceptable workflow. This applies to every program - not only QCAD! But you will find those rules in every aspect of your life. If you e.g. cut a thread in a piece of metal on daily base - piece of cake, right? If you have to do it only every fife years or so .... huihui e_surprised

Ok, here a recommendation from me: The QCAD user interface is highly customizable. If you chose to show permanently all tool buttons then you can help yourself to remember things better. Let say you have to draw a vertical line: Look at all buttons, - you will see ALL line typs in the same area, now you have just to pick the vertical line and you are ready to rock. :wink:

It could look like this:

Husky-2021.01.16-03.png
Husky-2021.01.16-03.png (259.14 KiB) Viewed 16740 times
Work smart, not hard: QCad Pro
Win10/64, QcadPro, QcadCam version: Current.
If a thread is considered as "solved" please change the title of the first post to "[solved] Title..."

simpsonrr
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Re: Newbie considering buying professional, with questions

Post by simpsonrr » Sat Jan 16, 2021 11:21 pm

by andrew » Sat Jan 16, 2021 2:56 pm
I can only answer your technical questions. For the rest, you have to decide if it is worth for you to learn something new. I can confirm that QCAD is not an Autocad clone and you would have to learn to use its tools. Basic concepts are the same (layers, blocks, entities, etc.).
Thanks for the help with the tool bar. I went ahead and purchased the professional version. Hopefully I'll pick it up eventually. I'm sure I'll probably have questions later.

simpsonrr
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Re: Newbie considering buying professional, with questions

Post by simpsonrr » Sat Jan 16, 2021 11:40 pm

Husky wrote:
Sat Jan 16, 2021 10:07 pm

Fact is: The more you use a program the more you get familiar to an acceptable workflow. This applies to every program - not only QCAD! But you will find those rules in every aspect of your life. If you e.g. cut a thread in a piece of metal on daily base - piece of cake, right? If you have to do it only every fife years or so .... huihui e_surprised

I realize that, but I'm not in the work force where I will use it daily. I'm not sure how old you are, but at my age, I can't remember things easily from hours or a day ago, but I can remember many detailed things (like AutoCad) from along time ago. It's not easy to retrain old habits.


Ok, here a recommendation from me: The QCAD user interface is highly customizable. If you chose to show permanently all tool buttons then you can help yourself to remember things better. Let say you have to draw a vertical line: Look at all buttons, - you will see ALL line typs in the same area, now you have just to pick the vertical line and you are ready to rock. :wink:

As you may have seen on my post back to Andrew, I went ahead and bought the professional version. I'll see how it goes with the default setup. I plan to keep this version unless there's an update that is significant, and doesn't change a bunch of the existing stuff. Back when I was working full time, we had a guy that was updating our AutoCad LT every year, and it was annoying. I ended up refusing the upgrades after a couple of them messed with my productivity a lot. I'm sure I'll be having questions while I'm using QCad right now. Then after I don't use it for a few months, I probably be going over the same issues. It ?ucks getting old! :?


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petevick
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Re: Newbie considering buying professional, with questions

Post by petevick » Sun Jan 17, 2021 8:30 am

simpsonrr wrote:
Sat Jan 16, 2021 11:40 pm
As you may have seen on my post back to Andrew, I went ahead and bought the professional version. I'll see how it goes with the default setup. I plan to keep this version unless there's an update that is significant, and doesn't change a bunch of the existing stuff. Back when I was working full time, we had a guy that was updating our AutoCad LT every year, and it was annoying. I ended up refusing the upgrades after a couple of them messed with my productivity a lot. I'm sure I'll be having questions while I'm using QCad right now. Then after I don't use it for a few months, I probably be going over the same issues. It ?ucks getting old! :?
I'm also an 'old timer' ex autocad user, been using QCAD for a reasonably short time on and off (I'm retired) but I've always kept up with the updates, and none have ever messed up the way I have QCAD set up, they are mainly bug fixes or additional tools anyway :wink:
Pete Vickerstaff
Linux Mint 21.2 Cinnamon, Qcad Pro 3.29.4

brucelamarre
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Re: Newbie considering buying professional, with questions

Post by brucelamarre » Sun Apr 02, 2023 4:04 pm

MAC OS, QCAD Pro.
I'm having the same problem learning this program as I did with AutoCAD. I can't find a getting started tutorial. The ones I have found assume that the user already knows how to use the basic features of the program.
What I need is a tutorial on how to set up a new drawing, setting the units, drawing a line, zoom all, etc. The commands are simple enough but I need to know how to get started.

Thanks
Bruce

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J-J
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Re: Newbie considering buying professional, with questions

Post by J-J » Sun Apr 02, 2023 6:14 pm

brucelamarre wrote:
Sun Apr 02, 2023 4:04 pm

What I need is a tutorial on how to set up a new drawing, setting the units, drawing a line, zoom all, etc. The commands are simple enough but I need to know how to get started.
In your case, the book is a good way to get started: https://www.qcad.org/en/documentation/the-qcad-book
JJ Win7 pro-64

Jeffrey
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Re: Newbie considering buying professional, with questions

Post by Jeffrey » Thu Apr 06, 2023 8:07 pm

simpsonrr wrote:
Sat Jan 16, 2021 9:14 pm
I will use this on a limited basis for my part time job (I'm semi retired) drawing simple mechanical parts and possibly P&ID's. I also would occasionally use it for my own use, doing simple house projects and mechanical parts as I'm a machinist hobbyist. Is this a good program to buy if you don't use it a lot? I don't want to spend tons of time trying to remember how to do things or find menu's or commands.
I struggled with the decision to buy the pro version, because I thought the free version would have more than enough capability for my occasional needs. Although I've used QCAD every day since I bought it 3 weeks ago in general I have other things to do in my business, and months might go by without returning to it. But what I've discovered is that the free CE is so limited and crippled compared to the paid Pro that it is much easier to get a job done without knowing how the program works. There's so many feature add-ons that are only available in the Pro version, and there's many mysteries when using CE. So my two cents is "buy the Pro because you don't use it a lot!"
Jeffrey Alan Klute - Data Vision Services
202 W Third ST, Rayville, MO 64084
"Necessity and Desire are the Mother and Father of Invention"

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