VIEW - You are going to use VIEW or some sub-function of this command more often than any other command. You may never crash, but you shouldn’t wait for the first one to teach you this valuable lesson.
In the event of a major file corruption, you would then have another copy from which to continue. You should always have aīackup of the drawing file with your most recent drawing information at all times. Second, at theĮnd of each drawing session, either copy your drawing to a CD disk or save anotherĬopy of it on your hard drive by giving it another name. If you saved 3 hours ago, you will probably lose your temper. If you saved 10 minutes ago, you will have lost only 10 minutes worth of When you crash, you will only lose what you did since your last SAVE. First, use the SAVE command several times during each drawing session. There are two things that you should do in order for a crash to be no more To continue, you will have to re-boot your computer, restart the CAD program and open your drawing file again. When a computer stops responding to your input, that’s a crash. CADĭrawings will tax any computer system’s resources to it’s limits and at some point will create a conflict and quit responding. You are going to crash! It’s not a question of if, but of when. SAVE - is the most important command of all. Be sure to practice each of these commands until you become comfortable with them.
If you cannot find the exact command name within your software, you will be able to perform the function under whatever command name your software uses. It is important to understand the explanations of the functions of these commands. You will find, however, that the function of the command is the same.
Your CAD software may use slightly different names for some of the commands (and terms) used in this manual because CAD programs differ from one another. These are the most basic commands of which you should become familiar. Don’t feel intimidated if some of this doesn’t make a lot of sense right now. CAD is a sophisticated drawing tool, and I am going to try to get you through the (slightly frustrating) learning curve as quickly and painlessly as possible. If you only become familiar with the following commands, you will easily learn as you proceed with your drawing. However, you do not have to become a CAD expert to begin a drawing. You should refer to your software documentation for specific use of these commands and make an attempt to understand how they work. If you can understand and use these commands, you will have no trouble with other commands that will be used less often. The commands that are listed below are not all those that your CAD software should be capable of but are the most important and frequently used commands in drawing and designing your aircraft. Set Point at Intersection of two lines (Shift-F4)Īs Paul says, when compared to programs like Rhino 3D, DC3 is pretty useless. What really speeds up DesignCAD is to learn the keyboard equivalents so you don't have to hunt these down from the menu every time you want to use it. There's also useful commands like tangent to a circle, tangent between two circles, arc, circle, etc. Seriously, these are about the only commands you would need to learn in order to make use of DC2 or DC3. Luckily, there's only a few commands you need to learn to be productive.Īnd, of course, my favorite for model airplane design: I still use DC3, but mostly as a 2D CAD program.