CADCraft tutorials

Almost everything in CADCraft starts at the command line. Type a command name (or its alias) and press Enter. CADCraft then prompts you for points, distances or options; keywords in the prompt can be typed directly.

1. 1
   Type LINE and press Enter to start the line command.
2. 2
   Press Enter, Space or right-click to finish. Press it again to repeat the last command.
3. 3
   Use AutoComplete and the command history to find commands quickly.

CADCraft understands the same coordinate notation as AutoCAD, so you can place points exactly.

• x,y: absolute coordinates, for example 0,0
• @dx,dy: relative to the last point, for example @10,0
• @distance<angle: polar, for example @5<90
• #x,y: force absolute coordinates while dynamic input is on. Tip: with dynamic input on, the second point you type is relative, so use #x,y for absolute points.
• Direct distance entry: point the cursor in a direction and type a distance

Combine commands and coordinates to draw. The c option closes a shape back to its start point.

A closed triangle in one line:

>line 0,0 @10,0 @0,5 c

A circle centred at 5,2 with radius 1:

>circle 5,2 1

Also available: PLINE, ARC, RECTANG, POLYGON, ELLIPSE, SPLINE, POINT, XLINE, RAY, DONUT, TEXT and MTEXT.

Turn on drafting aids to hit exact points without typing coordinates.

• Object snaps lock the cursor to endpoints, midpoints, centres and intersections.
• Polar tracking and ortho constrain the cursor to set angles.
• Grid snap moves the cursor in fixed steps.

The modify commands work like AutoCAD: start the command, select objects, press Enter, then answer the prompts.

Offset a selected object by 0.25 units:

>offset 0.25

• Use TRIM and EXTEND to clean up corners, FILLET and CHAMFER to round or bevel them.
• Click an object to show its grips. Click a grip, then press Space to cycle Stretch, Move, Rotate, Scale and Mirror.

Also available: MOVE, COPY, ROTATE, SCALE, MIRROR, STRETCH, BREAK, JOIN, EXPLODE, ARRAY and OVERKILL.

Organise and annotate your drawing.

• Put different kinds of geometry on separate layers to control colour and visibility.
• Use the DIM commands for associative linear, aligned, angular and radial dimensions; MLEADER and TABLE for notes.
• HATCH fills a closed area when you pick a point inside it. Islands are detected automatically.
• BLOCK turns geometry into a reusable symbol; INSERT places it. Blocks support attributes and nesting.

Switch to a paper-space layout to arrange floating viewports at an exact scale, set up the page, and PLOT to PDF.

CADCraft opens DWG (R13-2018) and DXF (R12-2018) files and saves DXF and DWG in R2000 format. Export PDF, SVG and PNG for sharing. To see the whole drawing at any time:

>zoom e

Entities that CADCraft does not support yet are not kept when you save. Always keep a copy of important original files.

cadcraft-cli runs CADCraft without a window. Script a drawing, save it and render it in one command:

>cadcraft-cli run --sample --script 'CIRCLE 22,3 1\n' --save out.dxf --export out.png

Inspect or convert existing files:

>cadcraft-cli info drawing.dxf
>cadcraft-cli convert drawing.dxf drawing.svg
>cadcraft-cli convert drawing.dwg detail.png --window 0,0,20000,15000

Let an AI agent drive CADCraft through MCP, either headless or connected to the running app (start the app with --control 7979):

>cadcraft-cli mcp
>cadcraft-cli mcp --connect 127.0.0.1:7979