Last Update: August, 2010

QCAD FAQ

1. How can I update to the latest QCAD release?
2. How can I copy a selection with a reference point in newer QCAD versions?
3. My printer prints only an empty sheet or some elements are missing in the printout, what is wrong?
4. How can I cut / copy / paste items between drawings?
5. How can I reset QCAD to its default configuration?
6. How can I load DWG files with QCAD?
7. Dimension labels appear to be displaced in a loaded drawing.
8. When updating the dimension properties of the current drawing, changing the 'dimension line gap' seems to have no effect on existing dimensions.
9. I cannot see the line pattern (style) of the entities I am drawing. The style seems to be 'continuous' even though it is not.
10. I can't see any hatches / large texts / bitmap images.
11. I can create dimensions but they show no label.
12. When printing a drawing with Solid fills, there are thin lines on the printout that shouldn't be there.
13. How do I move the dimension label (quote)?
14. I cannot access the manual in QCAD. It used to work in the demo version / a previous version.
15. How do I create a PDF file from a QCAD drawing?
16. How do I adjust the drawing scale (1:1, 1:10, ...)?
17. When I type a Foot / Inch measure (e.g. 5'-3 7/8") in the options toolbar or command line, QCAD doesn't seem to recognize it. How can I do that?
18. How do I select a solid fill?
19. My block / insert / entities within a block appear to be on more than one layer.
20. Is there any way to get QCAD to adopt the default KDE (Linux) color scheme?
21. What can I do with images (bitmaps) in QCAD?
22. How can I install QCAD Professional on Windows?
23. What are the system requirements for QCAD?
24. When launching QCAD on Windows, I can only see the startup splash screen and nothing happens.
25. On my Linux distribution, the fonts of the QCAD application interface (Menus, Dialogs, ...) are too large / too small / too ugly.
26. Will QCAD ever be a 3D CAD system?
27. What is the future of QCAD?
28. When I load drawings made with QCAD 1, they don't look like they should.
29. Application XYZ does not load my drawing created with QCAD.
30. QCAD runs extremely slow on my Windows installation.
31. What is a Site License and when do I need that?
32. Is QCAD Open Source Software?
33. What's the difference between the free QCAD Community Edition and QCAD Professional?
34. Do you offer educational licenses / educational site licenses?
35. How can I stay informed about new versions of QCAD?
36. I have accidentally switched QCAD to a language other than the one I prefer. How can I switch it back to English or any other language?

Ordering

1. How can I update to the latest QCAD release?

After your purchase of QCAD, you have received a download link via e-mail. You can use the same download link for updates. Your link will be kept up to date for one year, starting from the date of your purchase.
After one year you might want to purchase a new license to receive a new link to download the latest QCAD version for one year again. Note that there are no special update prices and you are free to update directly after your update period has expired or any time later.

Using QCAD

2. How can I copy a selection with a reference point in newer QCAD versions?

Unfortunately, many users did not understand the cut and copy functions with reference points.
Newer QCAD versions come with two versions of those tools, one with and one without reference point. The hotkeys are Ctrl-C, Ctrl-X (default, without reference point) and Ctrl-Shift-C, Ctrl-Shift-X (with reference point).

3. My printer prints only an empty sheet or some elements are missing in the printout, what is wrong?

Your drawing might contain very fine elements (line thickness 0.00mm or 0.05mm) that are too fine for your printer to print or are almost invisible to the human eye. Please increase the line thickness of those elements.

4. How can I cut / copy / paste items between drawings?

The cut / copy / paste commands require some more action than in other applications. You have to specify a reference point when copying / cutting entities and you have to place the entities when pasting them.
To copy something:
- Choose the menu 'Edit' - 'Copy' with the mouse
- Use the selection tools in the CAD toolbar at the left to select the entities you want to copy to the clipboard or simply click the entities you want to copy with the left mouse button. Entities that are red are selected and will be copied.
- Choose the right arrow in the CAD toolbar at the left to confirm the selection. This is the button at the bottom of the CAD toolbar. It shows a black arrow that points to the right.
- Now the CAD toolbar shows a selection of tools to specify the position of the reference point. For example you can choose the button 'Snap to endpoints' (left column, 2nd from the top).
- Click with the left mouse button somewhere near the endpoint (or other identifying point) you want to use as the reference point of your selection, Note that the reference point will be used later to position the entities when pasting them.

Note: The entities are now on the clipboard of QCAD You might want to click the right mouse button or press the Escape key twice to return to the main menu in the CAD toolbar.

To paste:
- Choose the menu 'Edit' - 'Paste'.
- Use the mouse to position the entities, Again you can use the snapping tools to specify an exact location or you can type a co-ordinate in the console.

5. How can I reset QCAD to its default configuration?

Windows:
- Quit QCAD
- Delete the file
C:\Documents and Settings\username\
Application Data\RibbonSoft\QCAD.ini
(where 'username' is your login name)

On Italian systems, this file is located at:
C:\Documents and Settings\username\
Dati delle Applicazioni\RibbonSoft\QCAD.ini

On Spanish systems, this file is located at:
C:\Documents and Settings\username\
datos de programa\RibbonSoft\QCAD.ini

On Windows Vista, this file is located at:
C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\RibbonSoft\QCAD.ini

Unix / Linux / Mac OS X (Tiger):
- Quit QCAD
- Delete the file
~/.config/RibbonSoft/QCAD.ini
(where '~' is your home directory)
Mac OS X (Leopard and Snow Leopard):
- Quit QCAD
- Delete the file
~/Library/Preferences/QCAD.plist
(where '~' is your home directory)

6. How can I load DWG files with QCAD?

QCAD can only load and save DXF files. Since DWG and DXF both originated from the same manufacturer, there are very reliable converters out there that allow you to convert DWG files into DXF files and back without loss of data.
For Windows systems (and wine) there is a free utility called EveryDWG from the Open Design Alliance.
For Unix systems, there is also "dwg2dxf", which is part of the lx-viewer project. Lx-viewer itself can also be used for a conversion and is available for Windows systems.

7. Dimension labels appear to be displaced in a loaded drawing.

Type the command 'dimregen' into the command line prompt and press enter.
The problem occurs with drawings from older versions of QCAD.

8. When updating the dimension properties of the current drawing, changing the 'dimension line gap' seems to have no effect on existing dimensions.

This is intended behavior. The reason for this is that the user might have positioned the dimension labels manually. If all existing dimension label positions would be updated automatically, those modifications would be lost.
If you want to regenerate all dimension labels to their default position (centered and 'dimension line gap' units away from the dimension line) you can force that with the command 'dimregen'.

9. I cannot see the line pattern (style) of the entities I am drawing. The style seems to be 'continuous' even though it is not.

The line pattern of a pen is scaled with the width of the pen. If the width is very thin, the line pattern might not be visible on screen or on your printout. Increase the line width to make the pattern visible.
Note that in draft mode, the line patterns don't scale with the pen width in an effort to speed up the display of the drawing.

10. I can't see any hatches / large texts / bitmap images.

Most likely you're in draft mode where hatches, large texts and bitmaps are not visible. Please try switching to normal mode: Menu 'View' -> 'Draft Mode'.
If you're sure that you are not in draft mode and you still cannot see any texts, please check whether the fonts and patterns can be found by QCAD. If you don't get a font list in the text creation dialog this is not the case.
There are two ways to solve this: The first is to start QCAD from the directory where it has been installed. e.g.:
cd /usr/local/qcad
./qcad
This way QCAD can find its fonts in the subdirectory ./fonts.
The other way is to configure the font path in the options dialog. e.g.:
- Menu: Edit -> General Preferences
- Tab: Paths
- Fonts: /usr/local/qcad/fonts
For the hatch patterns, the subdirectory is called 'patterns'.

11. I can create dimensions but they show no label.

Most likely the labels are created but are too small or too large. Please change the dimension label settings in the current drawing settings as described in the User Manual.
If you are using Linux, Unix or Mac OS X:
Please make sure that you launch QCAD from its installation directory. That's the directory that contains the QCAD binary and the directories 'fonts', 'patterns', 'qm', .. Alternatively you can configure the path where QCAD searches for fonts in the application preferences as described in the User Manual.
If you are using Windows, you might have extracted the ZIP file without using folders. In that case you won't find any sub-folders in the QCAD installation directory. Please extract the downloaded ZIP file again and make sure that you activate the use of folders in the options of your unzip tool.

12. When printing a drawing with Solid fills, there are thin lines on the printout that shouldn't be there.

If that is a problem, you have to avoid solid fills that consist of multiple contours including such with islands. Another fix for that can't be expected anytime soon.

13. How do I move the dimension label (quote)?

- Create the dimension
- Select the dimension (click somewhere near it)
- A small blue spot appears at the center of the text label
- Move the mouse pointer very close to that blue spot
- Press the left mouse button
- Move the mouse to where you want the label to be and let go of the left mouse button

14. I cannot access the manual in QCAD. It used to work in the demo version / a previous version.

The help browser remembers the page that was displayed the last time it was used. If a new version of QCAD is installed, this location changes.
To view a valid page of the manual, simply click on a chapter in the 'Contents' tab of the sidebar at the left. If the sidebar is not visible, enable it with the menu 'View - Views - Sidebar'. Alternatively, you can click the 'Home' button in the toolbar to jump to the start page of the manual.

If that does not help, you might have to delete the configuration of the help application:
Windows: Delete the folder "C:\Documents and Settings \user \.assistant" (where 'user' is your login name). To do that, you might have to change the folder's view options.
Mac OS X: Delete the file "com.Qt Assistant.plist" in "/System /Library /Preferences" or "/Library /Preferences". The exact location of this file seems to depend on your specific installation of OS X.
Linux: Delete the directory "~/.assistant".

15. How do I create a PDF file from a QCAD drawing?

Note: Starting from QCAD version 2.1.1, you can create PDFs on all platforms using the menu 'File' - 'PDF Export'.

For QCAD 2.0 and QCAD 2.1.0:

If you work on Linux, simply print to a file (e.g. drawing.ps). This PS file can be easily converted to EPS or PDF on a console:
ps2epsi drawing.ps
ps2pdf drawing.ps

On Windows you can use PDFCreator, a printer driver that creates a PDF.

If you are using Mac OS X, you can use the "Save as PDF" option in the printer dialog to create a PDF file.

16. How do I adjust the drawing scale (1:1, 1:10, ...)?

Switch to the print preview as described in the User Manual - Printing.

17. When I type a Foot / Inch measure (e.g. 5'-3 7/8") in the options toolbar or command line, QCAD doesn't seem to recognize it. How can I do that?

Please use only 'normal' mathematical expressions as you would in a calculator. E.g.: 5*12+3+7/8.

18. How do I select a solid fill?

Click on it somewhere far away from any other entities. You might have to zoom in a bit to achieve this. This behavior is intended since otherwise it would be impossible to select a line that is inside a solid fill because the solid fill would always be the one that is closest to the mouse cursor.

19. My block / insert / entities within a block appear to be on more than one layer.

Note that each entity inside a block is on a layer. Each insert (instance of a block) itself is also on a layer.

Tree structure of an example drawing with an insert:
- Insert of a block on Layer '2'
  - Some block entities on Layer '1'
  - Some block entities on Layer '2'

Turning off layer '2' will make the whole insert invisible and with it also the entities inside the insert that are on layer '1'.
Turning off layer '1' will make some entities within the insert on layer '2' invisible.

20. Is there any way to get QCAD to adopt the default KDE (Linux) color scheme?

You can adjust the default scheme for Qt applications with 'qtconfig', a utility that is probably already installed on your system or otherwise comes with Qt.

21. What can I do with images (bitmaps) in QCAD?

QCAD is not an image manipulation program. Usually the reason for importing bitmaps into a CAD application is to trace the image contours with lines, arcs or polylines to vectorize the bitmap.
If you intend to edit the bitmap itself, you should use an image manipulation application instead (e.g. Photoshop, Gimp or Paint Shop Pro).
In QCAD, images can be transformed like any other entities - you can move them, scale them, rotate, mirror, ... However, you cannot edit the image data itself, adjust the colors or anything like that.

Installation

22. How can I install QCAD Professional on Windows?

1. Download the file qcad_2_x_x_x_prof_win32.exe or insert the CD ROM you have purchased
2. Open Windows Explorer and double click on that file either at the place where you have downloaded it or on the CD ROM
3. A small dialog pops up and asks you for a folder ("Unzip to folder:")
4. Type "c:" (without the ") in the text field below "Unzip to folder:"
5. Click the "Unzip" button
6. After a while the installation will be finished and another dialog appears ("... files unzipped successfully"). Click "OK".
7. Click "Close"
8. QCAD is now installed in "C:\qcad_2_x_x_x_prof_win32"
9. To launch QCAD, find the folder "C:\qcad_2_x_x_x_prof_win32" with Windows Explorer and look for the file "qcad.exe" in that folder. Launch that file by double clicking on it

23. What are the system requirements for QCAD?

Disk space: about 40MB
Operating System: Any operating system listed on the downloads page.
The CPU and RAM requirements depend very much on the complexity of your drawings. For simple drawings the recommended system requirements for your operating system will do.

24. When launching QCAD on Windows, I can only see the startup splash screen and nothing happens.

This might be caused by switching the language to Spanish on some Windows installations. Please switch the language back to English and restart QCAD. To reset the language to English, please delete the file "qcadrc" or "qcaddemorc" in the directory "C:\Documents and Settings\All users\Application Data" or "C:\Documents and settings\all users\datos de programa", depending on your installation.
Note that the file "qcadrc" or "qcaddemorc" might be hidden by default. To make the file visible, change the following setting in Explorer: "Panel de control/opciones de carpeta/ver/archivos y carpetas ocultos".

25. On my Linux distribution, the fonts of the QCAD application interface (Menus, Dialogs, ...) are too large / too small / too ugly.

You can adjust the GUI settings for all Qt applications with the utility 'qtconfig'. This utility comes with Qt and is not part of a QCAD installation.

Features

26. Will QCAD ever be a 3D CAD system?

QCAD was designed as a 2d CAD application. The third dimension is not just another feature of a 2d CAD system. It's an altogether different application. There are currently many users out there who use 2d CAD systems and this is not likely to change since for many applications 3d doesn't bring any advantages at all. If you're looking for 3d this is not the right place to look.

27. What is the future of QCAD?

I've seen many CAD programs which started off as easy to use tools and then became more and more complex and finally were no longer appropriate for simple tasks. QCAD won't go that route. It aims to be the CAD for beginners, students, teachers and professionals who are not trained draftsmen but still need a CAD application at hand.

Compatibility

28. When I load drawings made with QCAD 1, they don't look like they should.

Please make sure that you use the compatibility filter to import drawings from QCAD 1. You can select this filter in the file open dialog. Please refer also to the QCAD manual: Migration from QCAD 1.

29. Application XYZ does not load my drawing created with QCAD.

Please make sure that you don't use any slashes (/) in your block names. Files saved in QCAD in the DXF 2000 format should then load fine in AutoCAD 200x. If that is not the case and you are using the latest QCAD version, please file a bug report. If your drawing contains text entities and you require AutoCAD compatibility, please use the font 'Standard' only.
If you are using an AutoCAD version older than AutoCAD 2000, please save the file in QCAD under a new name in the DXF R12 format (File -> Save As -> File type: Drawing Exchange DXF R12).
The best compatibility with other products can be achieved by exploding all entities twice and saving the drawing under a new name in the DXF R12 format. After this procedure, the file will only contain basic entities (lines, arcs, circles, points) that can be understood by most applications. Note that after exploding all entities, information about texts, hatches, dimensions, ... will be lost. Therefore it is crucial that you save the DXF R12 file under a different name, e.g. "mydrawing_r12.dxf".

Performance

30. QCAD runs extremely slow on my Windows installation.

This is most likely a problem of the graphics driver you are using. Some default graphics card drivers that come with Windows cause the screen refresh in QCAD to be extremely slow. Please install the driver from your graphics card manufacturer instead (e.g. NVidia, ATI, ..).

License

31. What is a Site License and when do I need that?

If you are an individual who likes to purchase QCAD, you don't need to worry about this. Simply purchase a single user license.
A site license is a type of software license used by companies, universities and other organizations with 10 to 20 QCAD users. A QCAD site license allows an organization to install QCAD on up to 20 computers.
Note that the software itself is identical. If you represent an organization and there are more than 10 people on your site (campus) who use QCAD, you will need at least one site license. If less than 10 people use the software, it is more cost effective to purchase individual single user licenses.

32. Is QCAD Open Source Software?

There are two different licenses for QCAD: QCAD Professional is proprietary software. The QCAD Community edition for Unix systems (X11) and Mac OS X is released under the GNU GPL license.

33. What's the difference between the free QCAD Community Edition and QCAD Professional?

There is no scripting support and little polyline support in the Community Edition. The Community Edition is significantly older than QCAD Professional and therefore contains less features. The QCAD Community Edition is not available for Windows.

34. Do you offer educational licenses / educational site licenses?

Please contact us for that.

Misc

35. How can I stay informed about new versions of QCAD?

The easiest way is to sign up in the Forum and monitor the Announcements forum.

36. I have accidentally switched QCAD to a language other than the one I prefer. How can I switch it back to English or any other language?

The easiest way to switch QCAD back to English is through the preferences dialog of QCAD.
Mac users: Since "Preferences" is likely not called Preferences in the language that was accidentally set up, Mac OS X does not show the menu in its normal place and grays out the normal "Preferences" menu. However, the menu is still there, but it is not called "Preferences" but instead translated to the foreign language that was accidentally set up.

Please proceed as follows to find the translated "Preferences" menu and switch the QCAD application back to English:

1. Launch QCAD
2. - Have a look at the menu bar at the top of your screen:
   Mac users: The first menu at the left is the Apple menu, indicated by a small Apple symbol.
   - Mac users: The next menu is called "QCAD Professional" in all languages. Click this menu with your mouse to open it. If the "Preferences" menu entry is shown and NOT gray, click it to show the Preferences dialog and go to 3. If the "Preferences" menu is grayed out, continue:
   - The first / next menu is the "File" menu, translated in the current language.
   - The next menu is the "Edit" menu, also translated into the current language. It could for example be called "Bijwerken" (Dutch) or "Bearbeiten" (German) or something else in another language. This is the menu you have to click with your mouse to open it.
   - The second last menu entry of this menu is the menu entry that shows the Preferences dialog of QCAD. Click this menu entry to show the preferences dialog of QCAD.
3. The preferences dialog is shown. In the top left corner of the preferences dialog, a drop down box is shown which indicates the current language of the QCAD application. Click the drop down box to change the language to English.
4. Click the "OK" button of the preferences dialog. This is the left button at the very bottom of the dialog.