QCAD Bugtracker

Hi Andrew,

Still working on creating HPGL.PLT toolpaths for the HP7580 pen plotter. QCAD has some trouble creating toolpaths. Too often it shuts itself down, or the PC gets stalled.

Recreating the same error however is possible

Blocks: moving complex blocks with drag and drop should show bounding box as preview

Wouldn’t it be nice, if selecting a block in model view would somehow highlight (just like clicking a block in the list does) the selected block in the “Block List” window?

(Feature request sounds a little harsh, enhancement proposal would seem more apt.)

I would appreciate an option for the library Browser that gives me the possibility to decide by my self to use the current (same name) layer in my drawing or overwrite it with the existing layers in the library item.

Imagine the possibility’s of this feature ....

It would be nice to have the possibility to select multiple blocks with Shift and/or CTRL + mouse like the Layer List to use a delete etc command on all selected blocks at once.

I have created a drawing, where the CENTERS of the most outer lines have a distance of 3.06mm in both X and Y.
The line weight of these outer lines is 0.6mm, so the whole image is 3.06mm + 2* 0.6mm/2 = 3.12mm wide and long (center to center plus half of the line weight on every side).
Additionally in the export there is a frame around the image, making it 3.12 + 2*frame.
The export function however calculates 3.06mm when setting the resolution to 1000Pix/cm, so it does not include the line weights and the outer frame.

Es wäre Arbeitserleichternd wenn ich bei den Optionen für Bemaßungen (Prefix/Postfix) eigene Präferenzen speichern könnte so das diese in allen Zeichnungen von mir verfügbar wären.
Zudem wäre es wünschenswert dieses nicht nur bei den Prefix sondern auch bei den Postfix Angaben nutzen zu können was dann alle(?) Manipulationen erschlagen würde.

Siehe auch:
http://www.ribbonsoft.com/rsforum/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=1966

I would like static information of the drawing (like scale, creation-date, modified-date, revision etc) to be available as automatic labels to be placed in the drawing (with selectable style, font etc)

This would greatly simplify the creatin of title sections in the drawing and making sure it is consistent with the actual drawing and not requiring manual “synchronization”.

You can apply the command to Lines, PolyLine segments, Arcs, Circles, and Rings:

For linear entities parallel to an axis of the coordinate system, aligned Dimensions (parallel Dimensions) are created. For linear entities not parallel to an axis of the coordinate system, either aligned Dimensions (measuring the absolute distance between two points) or horizontal or vertical Dimensions (measuring the horizontal or vertical distance between two points) depending on where you move the pointer are created.

For curved entities, you can create radial, diameter, linear, angular, and arc length Dimensions.

To dimension entities:

Click Dimension > Auto (or type AutoDimension).
In the graphics area, select an entity to dimension.
Click to place the dimension line.
To use another dimension type for Circles or Arcs, specify an option:
Diameter. Creates a diameter Dimension.
Radial. Creates a radial Dimension for an Arc or Circle.
Linear. Creates a linear Dimension of the diameter of a Circle or an aligned, horizontal, or vertical Dimension between the end points of an Arc.
Angular. Dimensions the angle between the end points of an Arc.
Arc length. Dimensions an Arc length.
Note: The chosen option is the default the next time you use the AutoDimension command.

When you move the pointer during a linear dimensioning, you can:
Lock. Determines the current dimension type (aligned, horizontal, or vertical) regardless where you move the pointer.
Unlock. Unlocks the type of linear dimension used.
Press Enter.

***
In short, when you use this tool you click on an entity and it will know what dimension you’re looking for. For Circles, you can specify in the command window R or D for Radius or Diameter.
This would be extremely useful on large drawings where a lot of dimensioning is to be done. One tool and start clicking on entities for dimensioning.

I tried to assign double click on middle-mouse button to zoomauto command, but it seems it’s not possible currently.

Would love to see this feature.

Ziehe ich mit der Maus eine normale Auswahlbox kann ich Elemente markieren.
Möchte ich einzelne Bereiche wieder herausnehmen muss ich alle Elemente einzeln anklicken (mit gedrückter Shift Taste).
Ich kann zwar dies komfortabler gestalten mit der Select → (De -) Select Contour Funktion welche aber erst über das Menue aufgerufen werden muss.

So wie ich einzelne Elemente mit der Maus auswählen und mit der Shift-Maus Funktion deselektieren kann wäre es schön wenn die Shift Taste auch bei Auswahlbereichen direkt zum deselektieren eingesetzt werden könnte.

I see the following problem:
When I open a particular DXF file in the Professional Trial version 3.27.9.0 on macOS, “^I” in text fields is expanded to whitespace.
When I open the same DXF file in the Community Edition 3.27.9.0 on NetBSD/x86_64 (installed from pkgsrc), “^I” in text fields is visible as “^I”.

Hello! This is perhaps the most useful and valuable of the suggestion ideas I’ve had for QCAD so far!

I think it would be extremely useful if there was an option within the QCAD preferences for making it so that the hotkeys currently bound to each tool button in the UI (if existent) are always displayed such that they are overlaid on top of each of the buttons. There are two main approaches I can think of for doing that (both intended to avoid disturbing the existing layout of the UI):

1. Display the current hotkey binding associated by drawing it (probably in a distinct color) on one of the edges or corners of each of the buttons (such as the bottom middle side, the lower left corner, or the lower right corner). Even at a small font size I think this would be very effective and useful.
2. Instead of making the overlaid hotkey display in a small font at a side or corner of each button, you could have the hotkey text be in a large font and overlaid on top of the entire button, using things such as transparency and a distinctive (never used in the other parts of the UI) color to ensure that the button icons is still readable. A broader width of the font stroke may also help if transparency is used, so that the underlying icon lines remain more readable.

Both approaches have pros and cons. I personally lean towards the former, but Husky and CVH seemed to take issue with the readability of small fonts and so I later suggested the later option too.

They seemed opposed to both (at least during the forum discussion). However, I think this UI feature could be one of the best workflow speed improvements for the average user (many/most of whom probably don’t have time to memorize the hotkeys or just don’t end up doing so) of QCAD!

The gains in efficiency and pleasantness could be enormous potentially, even despite it QCAD already being among the most pleasant and well-designed programs I’ve ever used!

It is far faster to be able to instantly read a hotkey from the UI than to have to wait for a tooltip or to look the keystrokes up in the documentation.

Memorization is the fastest of course, but as someone who finds themselves constantly spread thin over many different programs (often half a dozen or more) for long spans of time I often find it difficult to remember all of the hotkeys for each program I use. Having such hotkeys always visible is useful for users who are spread thin, as many people increasingly in the world of software.

CVH suggested that I make custom icons myself, but doing so seems far worse than simply having QCAD automatically read and then print out the corresponding hotkeys over every tool in a programmatic and properly automated way.

I seriously think this would be one of the most awesome improvement you could ever add to QCAD!

Indeed, there is no missing feature I want more than this one!

Few programs do this but the few cases I’ve seen it the feature was extremely useful for speed without having to take weeks/months/years to fully memorize hotkeys only then forget them later. This idea eliminates that problem!

It would be glorious from a usability and accessibility standpoint! Please implement it!

Hopefully Qt’s GUI system is flexible enough to draw overlaid text over the buttons like this without to much hassle. That is the main potential impediment as I see it.

Anyway though, here is the associated forum discussion where I mentioned this idea. It was the same thread as the one where I also suggested adding a way to control tooltip delays.

Hey, this is the first of my feature suggestion submissions that isn’t tied to a corresponding suggestion thread on the QCAD forum.

Should I always create corresponding feature suggestion threads or is it ok (or better?) to just post ideas here?

Anyway though, here’s the idea:

I noticed that it is relatively easy to use things like the QCAD Split Entities and/or Paste Along Entity tool(s) to create an even set of divisions along a curve or line.

There’s also the Misc → Draw → Counter available too, for automated counting.

These together are useful for creating a “scale ruler” to be printed on a schematic for ease of reference or for use in cases where someone forgets to bring along a physical measuring device or when someone else is using that measuring device.

For example, one could print a to-scale 1 foot long ruler (or whatever other scale is relevant, e.g. 1 inch for small objects or just as a nice scale reference/legend/key) on the schematic page for convenience.

However, it would be nice if there was a convenient tool added to the Dimensions tool category that automated this entire process and was able to create arbitrary ruler-like numbered reference scales along lines (and even better if it also worked on arcs, though less important).

Even better would be if this “auto tick” or “auto ruler” tool supported multiple levels of tick scaling (e.g. 2 or 3) such as what one sees on actual rulers.

For example, an imperial ruler for a foot (I’m in the US currently) will typically having increasingly smaller tick marks added at halfway points between each of the numbered points along the ruler’s scale, which makes using it quickly much easier. For example, it’ll have a half-length tick for half an inch and then a quarter-length tick for each quarter of an inch within an inch (with the inch’s ticks being full length).

It seems like it could be relatively easy to implement that kind of nested tick marking system, which would make it super convenient and pleasant for the user of QCAD to create usable to-scale ruler-like objects wherever they desire them with hardly any effort!

I think this idea would also fit extremely well with existing tools in the Dimensions category and would be useful for many/most QCAD users!

It’s yet another good QCAD feature that could attract more people to buy upgraded copies of QCAD in the future I think!

I hope you implement it. Small conveniences still make a big difference.

Anyway, thanks a bunch again for creating this awesome program!

That’s all the suggestions I have for today.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend and upcoming week, etc!

Additional Export function for export/import into 3D Programs like Sketchup etc. (file types like .dae, .3ds, .ddf, .skp).

See also:
http://www.ribbonsoft.com/rsforum/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=2176

Windows 7-64
3.0.7
When adding or removing additional viewports,an extra unnecessary window of the viewport is created.

Hi.

I’m working currently a lot with files coming from rhino. Qcad can open them properly any also most operations on them work as usual - except the selection methods.

box select from upper left to lower right works as usual.
double click to select all connected entities is broken. (only one entity is selected).
box select from lower right to upper left does not select entities touching the selection box. (nothing is selected)

on mac os nothing is selectable with single click.
on linux single click sometimes fails (nothing is selected after clicking on a line).

thanks for looking into this :)

Martin

See OpenDesign news:
“ODA consolidates support for .dgn and .dwg file formats in Teigha”

Support transformations by transformation matrix for block references.

See also:
https://www.qcad.org/rsforum/posting.php?mode=reply&f=33&t=6333

When drawing or moving objects holding down CTRL should activate ortho snapping as long as CTRL is pressed.

If ortho mode has been active before holding down CTRL should deactivate it (for the time it is beeing pressed).

Add a more versatile way of doing a search and replace for text. Regular expressions maybe?

Would it be possible to have the choice of either dashed or solid lines for the large cross hairs?

Hi Andrew,

Hopefully you might be able to squeeze this one around your busy schedule.

Would it be possible to add in the property editor an option to change a dimension arrow to a point / filled dot and maybe also a tick?

I see you are working on some viewport stuff, I am very much looking forward to testing some of this out ;).

Many thanks

Clive

Similarly as for my previous suggestion submission, I also had a related idea for making it easier to work with complex numbers when using QCAD by adding normalized unit circle coordinates as another option in the Angular Dimensions display units options dropdown.

Here’s the corresponding forum thread I started.

Hi Andrew,

Creating G-code for cnc-laser, the laser-tool can not be correctly set at all.

Attached a laser tool proposal

It would be nice if QCAD spit some kind of warning message when trying to render a layer with a name that doesn’t exist (and perhaps render nothing), rather than silently rendering an empty image. :D

See https://qcad.org/rsforum/viewtopic.php?f=33&t=6453

Add drop object along a path with automatic trim.

1. The object can be a selection before or after selecting the tool, an entity or a block.

1. The path can be another entity from a start point to an end point.

1. Dropping can be made on one side or the other (like in other tools depending on the side of the cursor), with a choice of miroring the object or not.

1. The number of drops or the distance between can be selected.

1. The distance can be between a control point of the object or its sysmetry axis or border.

1. The dropping direction can be selected too.

1. The droping depth can be constrained : all control points have passed the path, or one of them. Alternatively, replace control points by an entity belonging to the object.

Exemple of use case : equidistant drills in a curved rail. The dropping depth constraint enables for example to ensure a drill has a minimal depth when not orthogonal to a plan.

Hello, I recently bought QCAD Pro and this is my first Bugtracker report!

First, I want to say a big thank you for creating and maintaining such a wonderful software package!

I’ve never encountered a system for expressing constraints in 2D (or even 3D) that feels as natural, intuitive, and expressive as QCAD feels!

I am very grateful to have randomly found it somehow. I wish all user interfaces were designed this way and especially that vector art programs adopted similar constraint-based tools.

Anyway though, here’s the actual feature suggestion:

I noticed that QCAD is missing one especially convenient and naturally occuring angular unit: cycles (a.k.a. turns or revolutions).

I personally find cycles to be my favorite unit overall and to be the most intuitive to work with (when not needing to use physical protractors). I actually mostly work digitally and most of my uses for QCAD will be digital. QCAD is the only software I’ve found that really expresses 2D constraints the way I want to be able to work and lay things out.

Rather than redundantly belabor the many reasons why I think cycles should added to the available displayed angle units in the Preferences → Dimension Settings → Angular Dimensions dropdown list, I will simply link to the rather large discussion I’ve already had with Husky and CVH arguing my case about why I want it added and why many other users could benefit from it.

Here’s the link to the relevant forum discussion.

Add configuarable format options in application preferences for saving blocks to library to either dxf or dwg.

“em” just always goes back to the main drawing. But for nested blocks, when jumping from edit mode of one block to the next nested block, it would be helpful to have some “ep” to go back to the previous block.

This was discussed at the forums...

Please see:

https://www.qcad.org/rsforum/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=4956

It would be useful if a file of keyboard shortcuts to commands could be loaded.

Then a set of shortcuts identical/based on the Autocad keyboard shortcuts can be loaded, making it much easier for Autocad users to migrate to your product.

There does seem to be some future functionality planned here, with the shortcut ‘scheme’ selector in Program Preferences, but for the moment ‘Qcad’ is the only option available.

This strategy is used to great effect by Draftsight (but who trusts a big company like Dassault/Solidworks...)

Hallo Andrew,

testing the drill toolpath I used single point markers.

In 3D simulation the tool drills the toolpath AND uses the drill as a mill.

Cam Export and generated G-code is not effected.

Default Path for “Create Library item from selection” / “Save us” is C:\Programme\QCAD pro 3.1.6 ...
... regardless of the settings in the “Application Preferences / Library Browser / for Library Sources.
And QCAD doesn’t remember the last path choice ....

If I have to save 50 Library Items I have to navigate 50 times thru my system to find - the same place.

It would be nice if QCAD would point in first place to the Library Source or, at least, remember the last used path ...

Hi,

since 3.19.2 the Stretch tool looks for any selection and follows the specification “Only stretch selected entities if there is a selection”.

That is a nice feature but it leads many times to confusing because I have to deselect a selection just because I need to use the stretch tool on something else on the fly. The same if I “forgot” a selection outside of my zoom which is still important for me. The stretch tool just won’t work without any message why not. My routine now is that I terminate every selection just before I use the stretch tool just not to be surprised by “why isn’t it working”?

It would be nice to have in the Stretch option bar a checkbox to turn the “only selection feature” on or off. QCAD should remember that setting.

Open QCAD and the application preferences. In the section “General: tool settings " you can resize the columns: Menu, Shortcuts etc.
The problem is that it is not intuitive. The first divider is not selectable and the second moves the first, only backwards.

I have set the grid/snap value to X=.0625 Y=.0625 on all 4 viewports.
When zooming in and out the grid/snap scale changes from .0625 to 3.90625. at this point the grid/snap points differ,
This causes a variation in the grid/snap reference points lending to drawing errors.

example
When I use the grid settings defaults .01, when zooming in and out, the grid/snap scaling doesn’t seem to have this issue.
Other values do, See below.

set value first zoom second zoom next zoom

	point		point		point ...	

0.01 0.1 1.0 10.0 ...
0.02 0.04 0.4 4.0 ...
0.04 0.16 1.6 16.0 ...
0.05 0.25 2.5 25.0 ...
0.0625 0.390625 3.90625 39.0625 ...
0.0254 0.64516 6.4516 64.516 ...

Why is there a squaring of the original set value? Which then becomes a new zoomed grid/snap value?

QCAD Professional
Version: 3.26.4.0 (3.26.4)
Internet: QCAD.org
Build Date: Jun 3 2021
Revision: 0bb4334
Qt Version: 5.13.2
Architecture: i386
Compiler: Unknown

Andrew,

When switched to French I detected a typo in the drop down box for Lineweight.

Weight 2.11mm is listed as 1.58mm {2.11m?}
https://github.com/qcad/qcad/blob/master/ts/qcadcore_fr.ts#L1228-L1229
Also see attached image file.

May I ask why only ISO types have a comma instead of a point in French.
The use of a comma is uncommon in the Property Editor even when that is the native decimal separator.
I also detect an extra space between the value and ‘mm’ and that only for the ISO types.

This only occurs in:
https://github.com/qcad/qcad/blob/master/ts/qcadcore_fr.ts https://github.com/qcad/qcad/blob/master/ts/qcadcore_pl.ts https://github.com/qcad/qcad/blob/master/ts/qcadcore_pt.ts

Probably not OS or QCAD version related.

Regards,
CVH

See also:
https://www.qcad.org/rsforum/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=4729

Status Bar menu remains unchecked even it is toggled on or off

Save layer state (visibility) with each added view object (optional?).

Hi,
this is a usability feature request:

If you want to move an object relatively to any point (e.g. by entering @x;y in commandline) it does’nt make sense to enter a starting reference point. Of course this is possible by clicking to any location on the screen. But it’s difficult to change between mouse and keyboard so often.

It should be possible to enter a “don’t care” or “any” reference point by pressing a keyboard shortcut (e.g. enter like in AutoCAD).

Thx

Unrelated to OS, nor version

Reported Jun 23, 2020 in: https://qcad.org/rsforum/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=7372

Status Dec 24, 2020: https://qcad.org/rsforum/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=7372#p30955 Documentation is updated.
The Classes still refer to an ‘angleTolerance’.

Regards,
CVH

Include RPolyline.getLeftRightOutline() method in class_r_polyline.html

In use since 11 Sept 2020

CVH

My system: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5 CPU 650 @ 3.20GHz and 8 GB of RAM and NVIDIA GT218 (GeForce 210)

For a normal drawing displaying it in all detail is a good thing and the performance of my quad-core system is more than adequate.

But I discovered (or rather experienced) that when putting a large collection of individual drawings of gears onto one big sheet (960 mm x 600 mm - preparation for laser cutting), the performance was so bad that I had to wait several seconds (>10 sec) for each step in the process of arranging all the parts on the layer.

Request: It would be a big help and performance booster if you could disable the detailed view of each part/layer and only draw a rectangle to visualize the outline of the part.

Please take this in consideration. Attached you find an example of how that could look like. (Actually when pasting a drawing from the clipboard you already do that.)

Would it be possible to add a feature which turns selected text into solid fill hatched polylines?

That would make it possible to migrate the drawing from one computer system to another without having to worry whether the used font is installed on both systems, like when sending a drawing to a manufacturer for laser engraving.

Right now I can do it by hand, letter by letter, and that is a rather labour-intensive task.

Eine oft Hilfreiche Zeit/Klick sparende Erweiterung wäre eine “Total” Option bei dem “Lengthen” Tool.

Aktuell ist es mit dieser Funktion möglich ein Element zu verlängern oder zu verkürzen um den Amount X. Der Referenzpunkt (von welchem Ende) kann bestimmt werden.

Die Erweiterung die ich mir wünschen würde wäre auch ein “Total” um ein Element auf eine bestimmte Länge zu bringen ohne einen Taschenrechner benutzen zu müssen. Referenz (welches Ende oder Mitte) sollte (muss) dafür wählbar sein.

Die Funktion “Property editor” stellt bereits über die Geometry Eigenschaften die Möglichkeit zur Verfügung einen “Total” Wert zu manipulieren. Leider bin ich aber hierbei nicht in der Lage zu bestimmen welcher Element Referenzpunkt dafür benutzt werden soll. Könnte ich die Referenz wählen (welches Ende oder Mitte) wäre auch dies dann durchaus akzeptabel

To re-introduce Tile and Cascade window options like as before in QCAD 2.2.2.

Hi Andrew

In QcadCAM when using the new Themes or User Created Themes the Layer and Block Tabs Appear to be reversed in East and West Positions.
I have discussed this with forum user PeteVick and he cannot reproduce this behavior in Qcad Pro... he suggested submitting this bug report.
I didn’t notice this until he pointed it out and don’t expect it to be high on your list of things to do..

Best Regards
John Hyslop
PS We are both using Linux Mint 20.1 (64bit) which is based on Ubuntu

Case:
Drawing with text, zoom in and out with one of the common methods, text will disappear in certain zoom level

Same drawing zoomed in and out in 3.20.0.0 doesn’t show this effect - works just fine.