QCAD tips and preferences

I've started on some architectural drawings and have already come across some behaviour that I am going to come across more than once, so it is worth reminding myself how to do these things.

Blocks

The standard architectural blocks that can be downloaded from QCAD's site, have pre-defined layers within them.

This is useful to set the colours and line types for all of the similar items in one go and still be able to include the same item in different layers, without affecting how they display.

I use that, so that I can have layers that are only used to display or hide different areas of a drawing.

[QCAD 3.27.8]

It can often be convenient to re-use blocks but with different colours. By default, QCAD uses the colours and line types within the block. However, it supports assigning the layer colour to any line in a block drawn on layer 0.

To enable the use of assigning colours from the Layer, the Layer Compatibility option needs to be changed to "Layer 0 behaves differently" This is in the Application preferences, Layer, Compatibility settings.

I find this useful to avoid having to have duplicate copies of the same block.

[QCAD 3.28.1]

Exiting the Block Editor

I have not found a better way to exit the block editor than right clicking and selecting 'Return to Main Drawing'. from the pop-up menu.

I should probably look up the best method to do that or learn the keyboard commands.

[QCAD 3.27.8]

Architectural Dimensions

The default appears to be setup for engineering drawings.

I have changed my preferences to be larger text at 200 and a few other changes to my liking.

This worked for the smaller scale site plans but I had to use a much smaller scale when I was creating the floor plans.

I guess I'll be adjusting this for each drawing type.

[QCAD 3.27.8]

File Save-As

The default format used by QCAD is:

R27 [2013] DXF Drawing [Open Design] (*.dxf)

Having shared drawings with various consultants and engineers, I have found that they prefer .dwg files However, there is no consistency in the version. One could only open R21 2007 and another could only use R27 2013.

[QCAD 3.27.8]

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I'll update this page as I find other things that I need to remember.

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