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New to Cad

Posted: Sun Mar 02, 2014 6:02 am
by mcostello
Hello, I am Mark Costello, in the glorious and cold and snowy State of Ohio. I have no experience in any Cad programs. I have a basic problem,(possibly one of many :roll: ). What I need to know now is how to change the dimensions along the edges of the drawing page. the part I am attempting to draw is only 5 inches long with several small details. How do I get the scale off of feet and inches to some decent spaces between the inch marks? How do I make a hole with threads in it ?

Re: New to Cad

Posted: Sun Mar 02, 2014 7:47 pm
by Husky
Hello mcostello - welcome in the forum!
mcostello wrote:How do I get the scale off of feet and inches to some decent spaces between the inch marks?
The scales of the rulers are corresponding to the chosen zoom factor. Just try to zoom in or out and watch the changing spaces between the inch marks.

Re: New to Cad

Posted: Sun Mar 02, 2014 8:33 pm
by Clive
mcostello wrote:. the part I am attempting to draw is only 5 inches long with several small details. How do I get the scale off of feet and inches to some decent spaces between the inch marks?it ?
The best alternative is not to use the rulers at all, if you set your unit size in the application preference dialog (setting for all new drawings) or in drawing preferences dialog (settings for 'current drawing only!) then for example every thing you draw in your drawing window (Model Space) will be determined in length/size to the unit size you set beforehand!

Make sense ?

Lets say you set your unit size to millimetres and you draw a line and enter in the length field 120, then your line will be 120 mm long, it's as simple as that. Same with every other drawing tool you use, draw a circle in our same drawing (units set to MM) - radius 30 will give a circle with radius 30mm. zooming in and out without the rulers will not affect the size of things (entities - lines,circles, arc etc.).
Of course you can enter fractional units in the size fields -01/16, will give you a line which is a 16th of an inch long!
mcostello wrote:How do I make a hole with threads in it ?
Please explain more, internal or external thread?

Re: New to Cad

Posted: Sun Mar 02, 2014 9:48 pm
by mcostello
Since You mentioned it, How about both kinds of threads? Was thinking internal, but the answer may help more than Me and save some one some time.

Re: New to Cad

Posted: Mon Mar 03, 2014 10:25 am
by Clive
Hi Mark

Any feedback on the ruler problem ?

Re: New to Cad

Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2014 5:29 am
by mcostello
I cannot seem to get the dialog box to open up to enter the length of the line.

Re: New to Cad

Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2014 9:54 am
by Husky
Hi Mark,
mcostello wrote:I cannot seem to get the dialog box to open up to enter the length of the line.
Not all lines supposed to present a dialog box for length etc. :wink:

May I ask you what your goal is to work with a CAD application? Just for fun to learn something new or do you have a specific project/plan which needs CAD drawings for success?

Maybe it is a good idea to look first for basic tutorials or books which will explain the basics of a CAD drawing.
If you just need some help with the procedure of the the single tools in QCAD check this out:
http://www.qcad.org/doc/qcad/latest/reference/en/

Or even better - my recommendation: The QCAD Book
It will guide you thru CAD AND QCAD in particular. A really good and easy understandable Book which will give you a perfect start into the CAD world.
Check it out:
http://www.ribbonsoft.com/shop/category ... ategory=77

Re: New to Cad

Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2014 6:12 pm
by mcostello
My use would be to make drawings faster than I could draw them with paper and pencil. I make a few small parts in my shop that now and then get revised. It would be easier to just change a dimension rather than draw up a new page. To buy a cheap CAD program would take that years profit as I am a very small hobby/repair shop. All the programs I have tried have been extremely hard for a person not born in the computer age to learn. I know Windows and that is all, so it's not much. :lol:. Thanks for the help.