How do I set up QCAD for architectural drawing?

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LouiseSJPP
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How do I set up QCAD for architectural drawing?

Post by LouiseSJPP » Sat Dec 30, 2017 1:09 pm

Can anyone advise on setting up for architectural drawing?

I want to draw in full size, units of metres. I want to annotate and dimension at a suitable size on screen and print on A4 paper. At present with units set to metres, dimensions and text are building sized, not very useful.

I also would like to use viewports for the different elevations, but not sure how to begin. I'll be drawing in 1st angle, maybe with isometric views if QCAD supports it.

Can anyone advise or point me to advice which would be relevant to QCAD?

Many thanks,

Louise

Windows 10, QCAD Version: 3.19.2.0 (3.19.2)

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Husky
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Re: How do I set up QCAD for architectural drawing?

Post by Husky » Sat Dec 30, 2017 6:37 pm

Those settings are done in the "Drawing Preferences". It's pretty self explaining just check it out below Menu / Edit / Drawing preferences.

Husky-2017.12.30-01.png
Husky-2017.12.30-01.png (84.99 KiB) Viewed 5761 times
Explore every sup menu and set it to your goal. If you have specific question just ask. :wink:
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LouiseSJPP
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Re: How do I set up QCAD for architectural drawing?

Post by LouiseSJPP » Sun Dec 31, 2017 11:27 am

Capture.PNG
Capture.PNG (19.63 KiB) Viewed 5754 times
Here, I can set the text height for dimensions, currently 2.5 units.
Capture2.PNG
Capture2.PNG (4.86 KiB) Viewed 5754 times
Here, I can set the units for, presumably, model space and paper space, although the terminology is not consistent.

So, as I have model space units set to 1 metre and paper space to 1mm, my dimension text height will be 2.5m in the model space and 2.5mm on paper. This is way too big in the former and too small in the latter.

Is there any way of setting the model space and paper space up independently of each other, or with a less crude choice of simply metres or millimeters?

Windows 10, QCAD Version: 3.19.2.0 (3.19.2)

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Husky
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Re: How do I set up QCAD for architectural drawing?

Post by Husky » Sun Dec 31, 2017 6:41 pm

LouiseSJPP wrote:Is there any way of setting the model space and paper space up independently of each other, or with a less crude choice of simply metres or millimeters?
No, and honestly I have right now no clue why you like to do so. Please enlighten me?
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LouiseSJPP
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Re: How do I set up QCAD for architectural drawing?

Post by LouiseSJPP » Mon Jan 01, 2018 10:46 am

Husky wrote:
LouiseSJPP wrote:Is there any way of setting the model space and paper space up independently of each other, or with a less crude choice of simply metres or millimeters?
No, and honestly I have right now no clue why you like to do so. Please enlighten me?
In model space I want to annotate the design and show key dimensions, for the purposes of discussing design details. I suppose I could annotate in paper space instead, but the process is of ongoing development of design, and paper space isn't actually relevant yet.

Happily, I've found out how to sort it out, Dimension has a scale factor and Text can go below a text height of 1, so between them I can annotate neatly.

But I still have no idea how to get to a paper view when I want to. The manual doesn't seem to do any overviews, it provides only the detail on each command.

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Husky
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Re: How do I set up QCAD for architectural drawing?

Post by Husky » Mon Jan 01, 2018 10:00 pm

LouiseSJPP wrote:Happily, I've found out how to sort it out, Dimension has a scale factor and Text can go below a text height of 1, so between them I can annotate neatly.
There is never a wrongdoing but always a more or less complicated ways to accomplish a task. Make sure that you are on the right track from the beginning on because it sucks if you figure it wasn't the best decision and you have to change everything in 6 month or so ...
LouiseSJPP wrote:But I still have no idea how to get to a paper view when I want to. The manual doesn't seem to do any overviews, it provides only the detail on each command.
In QCAD Paper_Space is mostly used for print purposes. It is created/listed in the Block List and activated by left double click. I would assume that 99% of the Paper_Space content is based of a Viewport which is basically a "Window" to your Model_Space drawing. This "Window" can be used with all kinds of scale to show/print bigger things smaller or smaller things bigger.
Common practice is to draw everything 1:1 in Model_Space and take and scale a Viewport for the Paper_Space.

Your QCAD installation has an example folder below C:\Program Files\qcad-3.19.2-pro-win64\examples. Look for a flange.dxf to see an example of how Paper_Space could be used.
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LouiseSJPP
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Re: How do I set up QCAD for architectural drawing?

Post by LouiseSJPP » Tue Jan 02, 2018 7:33 pm

Thank you, Husky, I'll follow that through.

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