2.- FIRST STEPS USING CAD

The computer has become an indispensable tool in any office.  The technical office has not been an exception. Those documents that were previously stored in large files, are now ordered in databases improving the methods of querying them and reducing the space necessary for their storage and consultation. The basis of this transformation has been the development of the program called AUTOCAD that not only allows the design of parts, but also the circuits and installations. The CAD has made it possible to facilitate the complicated calculations that must be carried out to improve the industrial designs. In addition the CAD allows its application in the next stage of manufacturing CAM. Providing a program that will allow to control the production of the different pieces. The automation of production through computer control and numerical control has made it possible to reduce production costs.

QCAD is the version of AUTOCAD for free software. Although not so developed, it allows to perform almost the same tasks as the AUTOCAD. It's a good program to start industrial design.

The drawing of parts is based on the application on the screen of the following types of coordinates

1.-Cartesian: Horizontal and vertical distances (horizontal, vertical)

2.0-Polar: Straight Distance and angle (distance < angle)

In turn with the symbol @ the absolute coordinates become relative.

To learn how to manage the program fluently it is advisable to know some of the tools and peculiarities of the same

1.-Entities and attributes

An entity is any graphic element that can be created and managed. Dots, liens, arcs, circles, ellipses, text, padding, etc..

2.-Layers

The layer concept has already been discussed in other image-processing programs. The QCAD uses this concept to structure the drawings. For example, in a layer the visible edges, in another the not visible edges, in another the dimensions, etc

3.-Blocks

A block is a grouping of several basic entities, in order to repeat it. Each block is assigned a name.

4.-Basic Drawing Tools

They are at the top of the toolbar and accessed through the Draw menu.

5.-Helps to drawing

When you select an option from the drawing tools, the contents of the toolbar change again, displaying certain aids to trace the initially selected entity. It can also be accessed from the Force menu.

6.-Editing tools

Accessed from editing tools or from the EDIT button on the CAD toolbar, or from the Edit menu.

But to understand it better we will build a piece.