QCAD Cheat Sheet

 · 1 min read
 · shakiestnerd
Table of contents

What do you need when learning QCAD? Definitely, a cheat sheet of keyboard shortcuts. One thing that makes QCAD different from other applications is it uses two letter abbreviations for commands in addition to using traditional shortcuts like CTRL+C and CTRL+V.

Learning some of the two letter codes gives a big productivity boost in CAD, especially learning the most common drawing and modification commands. They can help you get into a flow of building out your drawing.

With that in mind, I've published my QCAD Cheat Sheet. If you use QCAD, it's worth checking out. If you have any comments or suggestions on improving the cheat sheet, please leave them on the cheatography page.

The biggest hurdle that I've experienced so far is when the applications focus gets changed so that the two letter commands aren't being accepted for input. It confuses me as to where the application focus really is.

The things I try in that situation are:

  • Clicking the mouse pointer icon in the top-left toolbar.
  • Typing the reset idle command: QQ
  • Hitting the escape key multiple times.
  • Using CTRL+Space to set the focus to the "Command:" line.

But, I still haven't hit on the best workflow in that situation.

Learning Tips

  • Draw real things. Draw your house or apartment plan. If you own a house and have a land survey, duplicate it.
  • Draw things to scale.
  • Practice drawing the front, side and plan view of an object.
  • Make blocks of objects you may use in future drawings. Things like furniture, bathroom fixtures, windows, doors and so on can by useful in future drawings.
  • Work with text. Put labels on your drawings.
  • Put dimensions on your drawings.
  • If you are a maker, draft your projects. Drawing a simple shelf forces your to think about your designs.
  • Draw your own special title blocks.
  • Add attributes to your blocks and fill them in.
  • Print stuff out. It can be a real challenge to get a drawing printed to scale. Even if you only have a letter sized printer, it is worth printing the results of your efforts. Is the text and dimensions readable.